The concept behind the business book The Power of Unpopular came from, of all things, a debate over Oprah versus Ellen between the book’s author, Erika Napoletano, and a publisher. “I’m more of an Ellen girl,” Napoletano says. “She’s witty, she’s super-smart and she’s fun. And she was like, ‘I…
The local art scene has been obsessed with the counterculture lately as our longstanding fascination with beatniks has been joined by a nascent interest in hippies and now punks. Several punk-themed shows are going on, including an impressive twofer at the reinvigorated Colorado Photographic Arts Center. The first part, Punk…
Last year’s Cat Care Society fundraiser, Tails of the Painted Cats, was so popular, says society director Suellen Scott, that they’re bringing it back. After all, it’s hard to hate the cheerful fiberglass felines that are the focal point, especially after they’ve been decorated by an imaginative circle of cat-loving…
When the sun goes down, nocturnal Denverites emerge and turn up their style swagger. Take a look at this week’s trendsetters and rule-breakers — caught in their natural environs of East 13th Avenue…
Metropolitan State College of Denver is hosting a dedication ceremony this afternoon that will showcase its newest monument: a 12-foot-high, 8-foot-deep, 10-foot-wide,1.5 ton water sculpture designed by artist Rik Sargent, and dedicated to Metro’s One World, One Water Center for Urban Water and Education. With Sargent’s support, the OWOW Center…
Cinco de Mayo may not be a huge holiday in Mexico (contrary to popular belief, May 5 is not Independence Day in that country), but it’s definitely a major party here in Denver. Here are five Cinco de Mayo celebrations guaranteed to turn your weekend into a major fiesta…
Things have changed quite a bit on the strip of 13th Avenue between Washington and Pearl streets over the last few decades. (Even mainstay Kelly’s Superette closed up shop last week.) But even with all the ebb and flow of gentrification, Fashionation has maintained its black-painted storefront at 613 East…
Looking for a new Facebook profile picture? Brooke Howell can help. Her company, *LoL* Caricature Company, celebrates its grand re-opening on the 16th Street Mall this weekend and for just $12, you can get a digital caricature (drawn on an iPad), e-mailed to you to use on social media sites,…
“We made a very tough decision today,” reported Arapahoe Basin CEO Alan Henceroth in a dispatch sent out on yesterday. “Arapahoe Basin will close for the season Sunday, May 6. With the light snowfall, big wind events, and warm temperatures, Mother Nature made life for Colorado skiers very difficult this…
In 1992, drummer Patty Schemel joined the now-legendary Hole, a band that was just positioning itself for mainstream success. Less than two years later, bassist Kristen Pfaff had died of an accidental overdose and lead singer Kurt Cobain had committed suicide — and Hole had released its platinum-selling Live Through…
Update, May 9: Thanks for playing this round! (Check our ongoing contest of Guess Where I’m Biking.) To see if you won, check your-email!The Denver bicycle trail system connects a lot of landmarks with safe and accessible means for cyclists to travel. Slightly off the path, this week’s installment has…
The trees talk to Denver artist Corrina Espinosa, whose work often starts with a piece of wood; a carver with a deep soul, she’s made art out of stumps and branches, and whole trees shaded her Metro State College of Denver senior thesis exhibition, Hybrid Zoetic. The finished pieces sometimes…
Dan Landes loves sci-fi. And he’ll prove it on Friday, when he hosts May the Fourth Be With You — a sci-fi extravaganza complete with costume contest, live music and movies — at his restaurant, City, O’ City. Landes wouldn’t reveal what costume he’ll be wearing, but in anticipation of…
In case you haven’t noticed, Denver’s proposed urban camping ban is shining a pretty heavy spotlight on the city’s homeless community right now. Westword has covered the issue and the debate at great length — we even spent a night on the 16th Street Mall — and last weekend, we…
Science fiction isn’t for everyone. But those who get it really get it. “Comics and sci-fi are the new archetypes of our culture; we relate to Star Wars and Stan Lee’s characters, and we’ve created new mythologies through them,” says Dan Landes, restaurateur and self-confessed sci-fi geek. And this Friday,…
It’s pretend summer in Colorado! You know, that time of year (read: every single month) when it gets up to 80-plus degrees for a few days, long enough to make you forget that it’s probably going to still snow-out your cousin’s wedding in June? Last week, when we experienced one…
After racking up awards — Nebula and Hugo honors for Best Novel — for his debut novel The Windup Girl in 2009, Paulo Bacigalupi followed up with Ship Breaker, set in an equally dismal, dystopian future, and won another round of awards, including a National Book Award nomination and a…
When Tejano director Robert Rodriguez’s El Mariachi came out in the early ’90s, we’d never seen anything quite like it, though the idea of an edgy, comic Western certainly had precursors, including the piquant Cat Ballou. But El Mariachi, famously — and remarkably — made on a $7,000 budget, is…
Not enough history for you in History Colorado? Did you want more context in the exhibit devoted to the Sand Creek Massacre? That was one of the complaints in the New York Times piece on the new facility — which echoed some of Michael Paglia’s criticisms of History Colorado. There…
The American West as a topic first appeared on the stage of international consciousness in the late nineteenth century, when painters and photographers stumbled on the Rockies, the Sierras, the deserts, the forests, the canyons, the herds of buffalo and elk, the indigenous people and the new settlers. Their images…
The Drowsy Chaperone. The role of the Man in the Chair is the spine for The Drowsy Chaperone, and the primary reason that this lighthearted, inconsequential and very silly show is so much fun to watch: Without him, it would just float off into the ether. But with him, we’re…
As she prepares for a dinner party and fields rude dismissals from her two spoiled sons, journalist Anne (Juliette Binoche) thinks back on her probing interviews for a just-filed French Elle profile of two student-prostitutes who cater to a rich “bored husband” clientele. That entering this line of work was…
