The Cherry Creek Arts Festival, a signature summer event celebrating visual, culinary and performance arts, took place July 6 – 8 in Denver’s Cherry Creek North Shopping District. The free festival, which featured exhibits of 230 artists, gave patrons an opportunity to meet and talk with international visual artists, sample…
In Abattoir, the new novel by local horror authors Christopher Leppek and Emanuel Isler, an aging building gets renovated into trendy lofts, but its violent past remains hidden beneath the new surface. The duo’s second novel — following 2001’s Chaosicon — is, as Leppek puts it, a “haunted house on…
The Colorado Tomato Battle at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park Saturday was a mash-up of childhood frivolity and big-kid fun. Though the structure was more formal than the old Tomato Wars between Coloradans and Texans at Twin Lakes, the result was the same: utter chaos and tomato soup. See Also: -Slideshow:…
Art can be funny — sometimes inadvertently — but rarely do we see a show pointedly dedicated to funny art. But Art You Can Laugh At, curated by Eric Matelski and opening today at MacSpa, is an exhibit that revels in silliness: Its sole purpose is to make us guffaw…
Truth is definitely stranger than fiction — especially when it’s all gussied-up in a bridesmaid’s dress. In honor of Bridesmaids, the featured movie at Film on the Rocks tomorrow (the festivities will also include the premiere of the Nix Bros.-produced video for T.J. Miller’s Denver), we asked people to bring…
In early May, we ranked this park in the top tier of Denver’s best parks for bicycling. With the option of bike rental, bike-car rentals, and even boat rentals, this park offers a lot more than just some great cycling. If you can guess where I’m biking near this pond…
The record-breaking heat Colorado is experiencing are effecting everyone this season, but Mission Supports founder Arnie Swenson really sees it in his clients. As head of a non-profit that supports adults with intellectual and mental disabilities, Swenson knows the stress that many of these people are under without proper care…
In the wake of the wildfires burning through the West, as well as the ridiculously hot temperatures we’ve been experiencing, a day of escape and merriment is something that many Coloradans could use right now. At the Colorado Renaissance Festival, you can show off your best tavern-wench attire, leave your…
“An artist is an artist, no matter what form the canvas takes,” a pretentious man once said. It’s one of those statements that may sound pompous (and is), but is no less true. Over the past fifty years there are endless examples of musicians establishing successful careers on the stage,…
Some of us hate Bridesmaids, if only for the fact that it likely was one of the reasons Kristen Wiig decided to leave SNL. Oscar nominations will do that to an actor/writer. However! We found a pair of tickets to see the movie at Film on the Rocks on Tuesday…
First Friday means two things. One: you just paid rent and are probably broke. Two: lots and lots of art openings. Luckily, art openings are free and usually include free wine and snacks. In addition to art shows, there are dance parties, magazine launches and plenty of other things to…
Jose Antonio Mercado is a man with a big, big dream — to renovate the Historic Elitch Theatre, a dilapidated Denver landmark with a rich history, and refurbish both the building and its legacy. And Mercado, an actor, director and teacher made famous on the local level for his work…
While others were out celebrating the Fourth at picnics and barbecues, one lone protester held a silent vigil on the 16th Street Mall. See also: Reader: Summer 2004 was the best! Reader: Colorado is definitely the Suburu state! Reader: Welcome to Goose Poop Pond…
While there have been fires in the forests and fireworks in the sky, the streets are also on fire — with hot, hot fashion. Check out this week’s eclectic mix of frontwoman and skater styles. See Also: What’s in your bag? Anime and spray paint at PrideFest and Comic Con…
For Lisa Cook and Jason Hitchcock, it took just one awful experience to plant the seed for an artistic collaborative dream. “A few months ago, Jason was working for a really horrible, sexist magazine,” says Cook. Not long after the artist quit doing design work for the unnamed publication, he…
The Fourth of July means many things to different people, but to one protester we encountered yesterday on the 16th Street Mall, it was all about freedom of speech. Though she uttered not one word, her visual stance — and a blunt hand-written sign — said it all…
Looking at Jimmy Descant’s new rocket ship, “VR Green Gamma Daedalus,” is like looking at a mint-condition classic muscle car: The glimmer of the painted flake green body of the 1952 Kenmore canister vacuum cleaner, which makes up the body of the rocket, gleams in the chrome of the shined-up…
Before artist Christian Usera can paint, he has to get his mind straight — usually he goes into a meditative state before he starts. The end result combines a mixture of mediums (watercolor, tempera, spray paints, acrylic, to name a few) into an emotional, dreamy composition. He knows his creative…
In the new movie from Jay and Mark Duplass, The Do-Deca-Penathlon, two brothers unearth a decades-old challenge that, for unknown reasons, went unfinished. The fictional brothers quickly revert from semi-adults to flailing opponents as they laser-tag it out in a race for childhood glory. But the creative team of brothers…
Last year we reported that Denver author Gregory Hill, a library book-buyer and part-time musician, was a finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award; the winners, as determined by public voting, would get a Penguin Group publishing contract and a sweet $15,000 advance. Cut to the chase: Hill, one of…
Christian Ellis, a Marine, survived a tour of Iraq where he saw many of his comrades die. But life back in the States was tougher. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Ellis attempted suicide four times before he finally found something to live for: music. And now Ellis, who has moved…
From bubblegum-bi-curious novelty “I Kissed a Girl” on, Katy Perry has built a career on glorious brain-dead-with-a-wink odes to play-acting in a fantasy space of total acceptance and no consequences, sold to children with literal sugarcoating. Her hits are powerful stuff, coming from an artist who was raised by Pentecostal…
