The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie’s notorious whodunit, is the longest continually running play in the history of the world — which makes director Pat Payne’s job a tall order. However, he’s up to the challenge. “I was once told by a mentor: ‘Pick a good script and cast good people, and…
People go to horror movies to enjoy the mayhem on screen without ever experiencing any real danger. That makes Lamberto Bava’s splatter classic Demons, which features a group of horror devotees whose trip to the movies becomes an all-too-real fight for survival, the perfect cautionary tale. “It’s a fun little…
Pump and Dump rule number one: No stinkin’ kids. “We talk a lot about children, but they are not welcome,” says comedian Shayna Ferm of the monthly mom-comedy night out at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret. “We drink. We swear. We are pretty inappropriate.” And that’s all any mommy desperate for a…
Michael Paglia visited the William Havu Gallery and the MSU Center for Visual Art for this week’s review, taking in two shows focusing on contemporary art. The show at Havu, titled Modern Vistas, features work from Colorado artists Sushe Felix and her husband, Tracy Felix. It also features sculptures from…
Womenswear never takes a day off — because stylish, modern women are always on the go. This week we spotted a graphic look sported by budding cosmetologist Chloe Jarisch. With her multi-colored hair and Andy Warhol-printed bag, it’s clear that Chloe understands color theory well. Continue reading to learn her…
Femcees: Lyrics Decoded, at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art Thursday, January 23, will bring artists and academics together to talk about two things: women and hip-hop. Expounding on the museum’s current exhibition, Craft Tech / Coded Media: Women, Art and Technology, and specifically, Kelly Monico’s multimedia installation, “Bitches n’…
The Sundance InstituteEvery Sundance there’s a crowd-pleaser, and most years it’s got one degree of separation from the Little Miss Sunshine crew. But the most delightful flick of the 2014 fest is an unconventional documentary with no plot, no dialogue, and nothing but party. Living Stars, a fleet 63-minute film…
Just as American graffiti art comprises a variety of styles, techniques and intent, so does its Middle-Eastern counterpart — but that’s just scraping the surface of these art forms. Their differences begin with what’s most basic to the medium: alphabets and hand-strokes as unlike as East and West. And while…
Pamela Smart, the sexpot schoolteacher who seduced three teenage boys to shoot her husband, has been imprisoned without parole since 1991. Her official release year is sometime in 9999, assuming that human civilization is still alive. Yet the captive in Jeremiah Zagar’s Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart isn’t her…
I’ve kept my mouth shut on the topic of professional sports for most of my time as a writer. I don’t even talk about how much I despise the majority of the culture that comes with it on Facebook (I save those complaints for Twitter). But I know I can’t…
© Courtesy of Sundance InstituteSixty years ago, Fred Flintstone hawked Winston cigarettes. Today, he pitches cereal. And both can kill. Stephanie Soechtig’s rabble-rousing documentary Fed Up argues that it’s time to attack Big Sugar just like we successfully demonized Big Tobacco. Narrated by Katie Couric, Fed Up is the first…
© Beth Dubber, Courtesy of Sundance InstituteKristen Stewart in Camp X-Ray.Kristen Stewart spent five Twilight films getting rescued by werewolves and vampires. Consider Camp X-Ray her rebuttal to a half-decade of playing damsels in distress. As Guantanamo guard Private Cole, Stewart is punched, bloodied, and spat on — and that’s…
#19: Nathan Abels Painter Nathan Abels, who moved here from Indiana in 2007, is best known for his ethereally subtle landscapes, which somehow commit to canvas the faintest changes in atmosphere and nanoseconds of time. It’s difficult work that he makes look easy and natural. Part of Robischon Gallery’s stable…
While beloved Colfax watering hole, the Park House tavern has been a well-regarded live music venue since opening their doors back in 2012, their foray into hosting comedy performances has been a more recent development. Beginning with Bobby Crane’s whimsically named “Jolly Trolley” open mic, the amiable Park House staff has welcomed Denver’s unwashed comics into the fold to utter deplorable things into their high-class sound-system week after week, quickly emerging as an essential part of a local comedian’s tuesday night itinerary. This friday, however, the Park House is doubling down on comedy, by mounting a new showcase featuring some of the funniest comics in town.
On Thursday, January 30, Westword’s second annual Whiteout will fill the McNichols Building with fashion, live music, specialty vendors and classic cocktails. We’ve been profiling many of the designers who will be featured in the runway show; producer and creative director Jenny Baker-Strasburg recently took a break from putting the…
Fashion is a creative field, in which people can take materials from the strangest of places and re-purpose them as wearable pieces of art. Someone who we caught rocking innovative menswear is Marques Pryor, a cashier at a Hyatt hotel , who was wearing a circuit board turned lapel pin…
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. When you buy glasswork from artist Sally Van Der Kamp, who works…
Joel Swanson: Left to Right, Top to Bottom and Critical Focus: Ian Fisher opened at MCA Denver Friday night, as part of curator Nora Burnett Abrams’s ongoing focus on local artists. While Fisher’s paintings of billowing clouds and skyscapes take over MCA’s Whole Room, Swanson has filled the David &…
Cyndi Lauper was totally right: Money does change everything. But it wouldn’t change how much fun you can have in Denver this week, because there are several worthy events that are absolutely free. You can play bingo, watch Big Trouble in Little China, or attend a panel discussion on women…
In the dark about the history of movies? Get a clue from critic Howie Movshovitz, who’ll be teaching Film 102, a four-class series that starts tonight at the Sie FilmCenter. Film 102 will look at the four major elements of cinema: color, genre, sound and melodrama. The first session, on…
American Mustang, which had its local premiere in November at the Denver International Film Festival, is galloping back into town for an extended run that starts today and continues through January 24 at UA Denver West Village Stadium 12, 14225 West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, just in time for the…
Chay Yew is a hot director who was in the news a year or two ago when he took over Chicago’s acclaimed Victory Gardens Theatre and made several controversial changes. The strife at the time, according to the New York Times, “recalls family melodramas like August Osage County or even…
