Fifteen years ago (December 4, 1998) an unusual movie was released…and roundly rejected: director Gus Van Sant’s off-puttingly faithful remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Fresh off the critical and commercial success of Good Will Hunting, Van Sant could’ve tried for another feel-good hit or a high-profile for-hire gig. Instead, he…
The Denver Zine Library has come a long way since it began in a shed on Archer Street in 2003. Making its way through six different spaces and tons of readings and events, the library has accumulated a collection of over 15,000 zines, which are available to the public for…
The holidays can be overwhelming. Shopping for presents. Wrapping presents. Listening to your kids complain about the presents you bought them. It’s enough to make anyone say bah humbug. Which is why the organizers of Cabaret Otaku’s Holiday Lights plan to play around with and poke fun at tradition, rather…
There is something inherently un-masculine about the typical holiday craft fair, and Stu and Nicky Alden of the design studio Ink Lounge Creative wanted to do something about it. And Holiday Mancraft, a gathering of local artisans and vendors selling an array of gifts made for men, by men, was…
“I know nobody listens to my radio show and thinks, ‘You know what this needs? Some dancers,’” says This American Life host Ira Glass. “And nobody sits through a dance show and thinks, ‘This needs some guy talking and playing audio clips.’” But that is just what Glass has done…
The holiday season is often called “magical” — and one big catalyst behind that magic is the sense of nostalgia that tradition evokes. Khyentse James is adept at harnessing that sense of nostalgic wonder: Her film-school studies, combined with several years of creating movie-worthy scenes, have made all of her…
After sneaker enthusiast Gary Hughes purchased a pair of knock-off Nike Heineken Dunks thinking they were the real deal, he wanted to avoid being ripped off again. So he created a sneaker exchange in a bar ten years ago; now called Dunkxchange, the international traveling sneaker-culture festival comes to Denver…
You know Akira back and forth. You can quote the key lines from Ghost in the Shell in your sleep. Anime standards like Sailor Moon, Bubblegum Crisis and Dragon Ball Z are all old hat to you. Don’t worry, otaku, there’s still undiscovered territory out there for you. “If you…
Sixteen years ago, Jimi Bernath created an event to commemorate the death of John Lennon, who was shot and killed on December 8, 1980 — but the annual Beatles/John Lennon Memorial Sing-Along is a more of a celebration of life. “The Beatles are perennial,” says Bernath. “They’re as popular as…
Tucked away in the Park Hill neighborhood is Share Denver, a project from Becky Hensley of the Denver Craft Ninjas and the Colorado Bead Company’s Anne Davidson. The two craft-conscious women teamed up to open a studio space where work could be made and techniques taught by and for Denver’s…
When’s the last time you went to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science just to contemplate the dioramas or wander among the fossils and bones of Prehistoric Journey? Once you’ve been through one of the big super-shows — such as the current one, A Day in Pompeii — it…
Artist Viviane Le Courtois asked for a simple trade: cookies and tea in exchange for memories and objects from survivors of the 2013 Boulder floods. Like all of her work, Rescued Memories — which is part of The Flood Project: Rising Above & Rebuilding Boulder Through Art, opening tonight at…
Just because flash fiction is short doesn’t mean that it’s simple. “Some people think that because it’s small, it must be easier,” says Nancy Stohlman, who founded the monthly F-Bomb reading series, which specializes in fiction that falls under the four-minute mark. “Actually, it’s the opposite; it’s like painting the…
When Westword chatted with Boulder photographer James Balog many years ago, he was making waves with his bold, staged portraits of endangered species, photographs that seemed to expose their inner animal souls. By then, though, Balog had already started another chapter, photographing polar bears in their natural habitat with a…
Denver theater patriarch Henry Lowenstein — a painter and set designer in his own right, as well as a foundational pillar at the old Bonfils Theatre and the Denver Civic Theatre — came into his own creative panache and arts-supporting spirit by way of his Estonian mother, Maria. As an…
A trip across the plains over Thanksgiving reminded me how much I love Kent Haruf’s books — 1999’s Plainsong and its sequel, Eventide, at least. (Benediction, the third in the sort-of series about the fictional town of Holt, seems almost like a parody.) Haruf, who now lives in Salida, grew…
The snow is now falling on Denver’s streets, but things were more temperate last Friday when we spotted an interesting style at the Shoppe’s closing party. Freelancer Jessica Joy worked at the Shoppe, as well as Fabric Lab and Plastic Chapel, all before they had to close the doors for…
The Alamo Drafthouse has only been open for a short while, but has already become and indispensable resource for Denver-area cinephiles. Engaging with the local film and comedy scenes through events like Mile High Sci-Fi the Drafthouse supports the local creative community and provides a calendar filled with events suited to every type of film buff, from the snobbiest cineaste to the inexplicably carefree sort of person who loves singing along to musicals. Throughout December, the Alamo Drafthouse has a schedules slate of niche programming that will hold particular appeal for Westword writers by celebrating the news in cinema.
For close to twenty years, the LIDA Project, Brian Freeland’s experimental theater group, has been both a deliberately collaborative effort and the spawn of Freeland’s own unique vision, and the model has worked well for the company. Even when Freeland took a sabbatical in 2010, LIDA continued to take Freeland-style…
Reading is about more than following a narrative or learning facts; it can also be a profound shared experience that culminates in a better understanding of ourselves and each other. In that spirit, welcome to the Westword Book Club, a weekly feature celebrating the books that inspire Denver artists
With Cars, Cards and Carbines, author Travis Heermann is aiming to bring some fun back into the world of speculative fiction. The forthcoming anthology — aiming for a December 2014 release and currently seeking funding via Kickstarter — is primed to do just that with a series of action-packed stories…
We discuss weather in this state (and on this blog) a lot. If you’ve ever made small talk with a stranger here, then you know that weather is a hot topic, especially now that Mother Nature — or global warming, depending on what you call it — has decided to…
