Photos: Zombies roam Estes Park and Stanley Film Fest

The 2014 Stanley Film Fest brought movies, fans and scares to the iconic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park this weekend. The horror wasn’t confined to the Stanley, though; zombies paraded through town, startling unsuspecting tourists. Our photographer Brandon Marshall was there to capture all the undead action. See also: Photos:…

Naomi Haverland on the strange things that inspire her

You can find art all over town — not just on gallery walls. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the local artists who serve up their work in coffeehouses and other non-gallery businesses around town. Welcome to Naomi Haverland’s delightfully quirky world, where the art and the…

3 things to do for free in Denver this week, April 28-May 1

May Day means spring is finally fully under way. The art scene is greening up, too, with a Beltane performance and fashion trunk show, a party celebrating the Bike Pit, and a May Day art show this week. Share information on more free happenings in the comments section below, and…

Dee Williams on living small — really small

After being diagnosed with congestive heart failure, Dee Williams decided she needed a big change. And she accomplished it by going small. Williams built her own 84-square-foot house, where she resides in Olympia, Washington. She’ll be at the Tattered Cover LoDo tonight to read from and discuss her new book…

Photos: Back to the ’80s at Totally Tennyson

The Berkeley neighborhood went back to the ’80s this weekend when Totally Tennyson took over the Tennyson Street strip from 35th to 46th avenues for a street crawl and party that ended with live music and a high-stakes costume contest at the Oriental Theater. Photographer Marissa Shevins brought back these…

BLOrk brings laptops, more to bear on The Call of Cthulu

If you’re scoring a modern silent film about ancient eldritch horrors, you’re going to need to do something a little different. An organ isn’t going to get it done; a piano is right out. Even a full orchestra, for all its dynamic range and variety of timbre, isn’t going to…

Brian Colonna on Buntport Theater’s role in Captured in Film

After thirteen years with Buntport Theater, actor Brian Colonna knows his fellow collaborators and they know him. They write together. They perform together. They even share directorial responsibilities. As a result, they have built one of the funniest theater troupes in Colorado. But sometimes, they know each other so well…

James Walsh on the Romero Troupe and Unbound, the doc premiering tomorrow

James Walsh found that the old methods of teaching were not working, so he threw out his textbooks, shredded his exams and turned his 200-person lecture hall into a space for radical, theatrical collaboration exploring people’s histories: stories of labor, immigration and gay rights. Soon he was interested in bringing…

Art Makers Denver will create an urban art retreat in town

The first annual Art Makers Denver will present three days of interactive artist workshops at the McNichols Building September 14 through 16 — and registration is already under way. “It’s designed for anyone who has a desire to create,” explains Helen Rice, who owns Willow – An Artisan’s Market in…

Five games that changed my life — from Halo to Sorry!

Games have been good to me. I’ve been playing games, in one form or another, since before I started school. Board games, card games, video games, you name it, I love them all. In the grand scheme of pop-cultural pursuits, I consider games to be the equal of any other…

Another 100 Colorado Creatives: Lisa Ramfjord Elstun

#87: Lisa Ramfjord Elstun Denver designer Lisa Ramfjord Elstun has it all going for her: A master seamstress with an eye for personalized, classic tailored designs, she also rocks an entrepreneurial business acumen that’s the epitome of professionalism. A 2014 Westword MasterMind in the fashion category, Elstun’s at work this…

Stanley Film Fest programming director’s picks for the fest

Tonight at the world-famous Stanley Hotel, the Stanley Film Festival will kick off its second year with Alexandre O. Philippe’s look at zombie culture, Doc of the Dead. [Disclosure: I appear in Doc of the Dead.] Sunday, the fest closes with the horror comedy What We Do in the Shadows,…

The Queer Warriors fight for video-game redemption at Boystown

“Sometimes we itch all over. We think it’s because of the gas leak,” says Timmy Moen, a lanky 27-year-old with bloodshot eyes glued to League of Legends, a multiplayer video game. When he turns on the heat, flames shoot from the vent, he complains to his 24-year-old roommate and best…

The Railway Man tracks the aftermath of war

Has it ever occurred to contemporary commercial filmmakers that maybe audiences could take a movie’s word for it that a character has been tortured? That perhaps implication and skilled acting could communicate the idea with sufficient power, and that we might all be spared the screaming and limb-breaking and slow-motion…

The absorbing Galapagos Affair plays like a true-crime tale

At first, before the murders, the story might sound like some nihilistic last-century tropical sitcom. In 1929, German physician Friedrich Ritter, brain aflame with the promise of the superman, convinced his lover, Dore Strauch, to abandon Berlin in favor of a life of solitude, labor, and the triumphing of their…

Spamalot is on a holy quest for laughs at the Aurora Fox

Spamalot is a terrific musical, a hilarious romp through English myth and history — and a fine Aurora Fox production underlines its strengths. The fabled King Arthur sets forth accompanied by his faithful squire, Patsy, who serves as an overworked and underappreciated beast of burden. After a while, God himself…

Chuck Forsman goes solo at the DAM and Robischon

Although it gets plenty of attention for blockbusters like Modern Masters, the Denver Art Museum always has a raft of smaller shows on display as well. Right now there are nearly twenty, including Re Branded: Polish Posters for American Westerns; All That Glistens: A Century of Japanese Lacquer; and Fracture:…