Before he restored landmarks like the Molly Brown House, Ninth Street Historic Park and Four Mile House Historic Park, and designed some landmarks of his own, architect Ed White was a student at Columbia, where he met many of the people who would become famous figures of the Beat generation,…
I have bad tattoos. Okay, they aren’t all bad — only about 33 percent of them are, if I break it down by specific tattoo artist. Also, since I didn’t get my first tattoos (almost all came in pairs) until I was 24, they are strategically placed, meaning that, for…
In author Sapphire’s new novel, The Kid (a semi-sequel to Precious — the Hollywood adaptation of her ’96 novel, Push), we are treated to another relentless marathon of abuse, rape, failed dreams and unsettling conclusions. “Commercial media looks at things in terms of heroes and villains,” Sapphire told us in…
To the stroller-pushing mommies and patio-side drinkers who lined West 32nd Avenue on Sunday afternoon, it probably looked like just another Cruiser ride, as thirty folks on bikes trekked up the Highland hills in Sunday’s 100-degree heat. Yet this sweaty mass, organized by the Denver New Rail~Volutionaries, was on a…
You know that when the Lunar and Planetary Institute holds a conference in Boulder on the Comparative Climatology of Terrestrial Planets, the subject matter is bound to be a bit arcane for the rest of us…
Is Denver’s skate scene “boring as fucking shit”? That’s what one Californian suggested after noticing our photo of the very clean Denver skatepark, when “out here in California skate park walls are all covered with graffiti tagging from anything the rollers want to spray on there.” But one reader rolled…
Right now there are, by my count, a total of nineteen shows up in the Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building and across the street in the Gio Ponti tower. But even a professional show-goer like myself can hardly be expected to keep up, especially with all of the other attractions…
Clyfford Still. For the opening of the Clyfford Still Museum, founding director Dean Sobel has installed a career survey of the great artist. Clyfford Still: Inaugural Exhibition starts with the artist’s realist self-portrait and features his remarkable post-impressionist works from the 1920s. Next are Still’s works from the ’30s, with…
A sketchy trifle of French animation grabbing time in theaters thanks to its recent Oscar nomination, Felicioli and Gagnol’s barely-hour-long film A Cat in Paris seeks shelf space beside Sylvain Chomet’s deft and rapturous hand-drawn cartoons (The Triplets of Belleville, The Illusionist), and the required self-conscious Frenchiness is spot-on. But…
When Channing Tatum stood up and revealed his bare ass to the camera a minute or two into Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike — which the actor conceived of and produced based on his own experience as a teenage dancer in an all-male exotic revue — the audience in my screening…
Fans of Seth MacFarlane’s Fox mainstay Family Guy who wish he would run afoul of FCC regulations every week might be pleased with Ted, the story of a 35-year-old man and his foul-talking teddy bear. Plushies, too, might be turned on by the pot-smoking, whore-banging CGI toy ursus of the…
The setting is a functional living space, bare-bones but lovingly furnished with pots of gardenias. There’s a large bed in the center. We hear voices — some laughter, a woman complaining, a man soothing, explaining — and a couple emerges through a trap door. It’s a bit of a struggle…
Amidst the music and partying of Westword Music Showcase 2012, eight artists showed off their talents by painting Westword news boxes. Below are photos of the work of artists Steven Kuc of Soldier Ink Design, 2010 MasterMind and self-proclaimed Art Pimp Eric Matelski, Scott LeFavor, Yeyo Mondragon of Certified Customs,…
This morning Forge Motion Pictures and Carbondale-based filmmaker Skip Armstrong premiered The Shapeshifter online, the third installment in Armstrong’s five-part Of Souls + Water series profiling paddlers of every stripe and their relationships with the water that connects each of them…
The Colorado Symphony Orchestra was clearly looking for a high-profile name, and it got one: This morning the CSO announced the appointment of Andrew Litton as its Artistic Advisor, bringing the superstar in as something less than a full music director, but more than a guest in the ranks. Litton…
The 16th Street Mall was buzzing with music last week as artists of all shapes and sizes filled the air with their collective auditory gifts for Make Music Denver. This was the first time that Denver participated in World Music Day; it joined 450 other cities thanks to the efforts…
Colorado skateboarders in Colorado don’t need an official holiday to put wheels to pavement: after all, there are 159 skate parks statewide and eight more in development. But last Thursday’s international Go Skateboarding Day celebration still made for a good excuse. The first video from the local festivities is Royal…
In her 1996 novel Push, Sapphire ventured into the profoundly dark territory of a young black girl’s experience growing up in late-’80s Harlem. The book dealt with the difficult topics of incest, rape, AIDS, illiteracy, poverty and violence toward infants, yet none of this prevented the 2009 film adaptation, Precious…
Steamrolling toward the August nationals in Charlotte, North Carolina, the 2012 Slam Nuba slam poetry team (and 2011 national winner) is just back in town after snagging a first-place victory in the Southwest Shootout in Tulsa. The Slam Nuba crew will celebrate tonight, with help from guest poet Tongo Eisen-Martin…
In honor of Go Skateboarding Day, Britt Chester took his board out on the town last Friday for his weekly installment of Guess where? Which inspired one reader to suggest why the Denver skatepark looked so clean…
Starting today, June 24, you can enjoy live jazz while you learn to paint in City Park. Every Sunday through the summer, Colors & Bottles offer $35 classes from 5 to 8 p.m., which happen to coincide with the City Park jazz series. So bring a blanket, an easel and…
The erstwhile and beloved burlesque emcee queen Cora Vette (aka Reyna Von Vett) is finally doing what she’s threatened to do for a while now: opening up a store — and with her burlesque wife Eve Vette, no less! And burlesque and vintage clothing enthusiasts will be thrilled to know…
