Project Runway All Stars already jumps the shark? Oh yes.

It’s only episode three of Project Runway All Stars, and already they’re jumping the shark by having the client for this week’s challenge be a fictional character. Not just a fictional character, but a fictional animal character. A fictional Muppet character. That’s right, the designers are making cocktail dresses for…

The Book of Mormon tickets on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday

You could pretty much hear the yelps of joy all the way out here when The Book of Mormon opened in New York last year. The New York Times declared this musical — by our very own South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Robert Lopez of…

Gear: Boulder’s ZEAL Optics gets all 21st century with new iON Goggles

This week I’ve been inundated with press releases from various companies headed to Denver to show off their wares at the SnowSports Industries America Snow Show, January 26-31, at the Colorado Convention Center. One actually caught my eye: The new iON Goggles from Boulder-based ZEAL Optics features an embedded camera…

Terminal Kings: final countdown to completion

The art installation at City Hall is coming to a close this weekend, and it will end with a display of some serious talent. Following Tuesday night’s free Sub.Mission dubstep show with Denver residents RumbleJunkie, Despise, Dodger and Coult-45, in its final days Terminal Kings will show just what these…

String of Pearls puts women in the spotlight

Although the Avenue Theater has moved around and changed hands now and then, it’s still been a fixture on 17th Avenue for 25 long, good years. To kick off its 25th anniversary season, the Avenue will jump into 2012 with its fifth annual Womens’ Performance Series, a showcase for the…

TEDx Mile High recreates the eighteenth century salon tonight

Every TEDx event is many things, and all of them are happening at once. A cross between a theater and a lecture hall, the discussion series follows a creative combination of performance and insight, becoming a circus for the mind. And tonight, local chapter TEDx Mile High will reinvision an…

TEDx Marks The Spot

One half theater and one half academic lecture: If that formula sounds simple, it’s not. TEDx Mile High Salon celebrates Colorado’s artists and innovators by placing them in front of live audiences to share their stories. The goal of the conference series is to inspire action through what its non-profit…

Enter the Dragon

Why do Americans like dragon dances so much? “China is so far away in so many ways,” posits Denver Art Museum spokeswoman Tara Moberly. “We are more familiar with European customs, but China is still foreign and exotic.” The museum will celebrate Chinese New Year today with the Colorado Asian…

Rock Around the Clocktower

Burlesque meets classic rock in the best way possible when the Vinyl Vixens Burlesque Tribute to the Heroines of Rock ‘n Roll opens late tonight for a two-night run at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret. And it won’t be any old run-of-the-mill burlesque you’ve seen before. Conceived by local burlesquer Honey Touche…

Turning Japanese

Bulgarian-born and Colorado-based puppet artist Margarita Blush says it was the rediscovery of a childhood book of Japanese folk tales that set her on the trail of creating The Crane Wife, her new puppet-theater work, now showing at the Boulder Public Library. As a result of her find, says Blush,…

Taking Shape

Last year, Denver-based dance troupe the Silhouettes raised the artistry of America’s Got Talent, earning standing ovations, praise from judges and runner-up status for the season. Audiences and viewers were wowed by the troupe’s signature choreography: Behind a screen, bodies in shadow moved through precise yet fluid poses, creating shapes…

Short and Sweet

Buntport Theater teaming up with Stories on Stage? Not new. Buntport reading flash fiction for Stories on Stage? New. And bound to be outta here almost as fast as it happens. The creative crew from Buntport will focus on stories that are all over in three minutes when the two…

Wrestle Mania

Some wrestling matches are fought for national acclaim, some are fought for titles. At this evening’s Primos Hardcore & Wrestling Fight Club 2 throwdown, one final match will settle a feud between two of the company’s biggest stars, Trajan Ender and Lonnie Valdez, as they battle it out to see…

Lady Of The White

Feeling floozy and boozy this weekend? Break out your ruffled finery and head for the Winter Carnival at Winter Park, where everyone’s celebrating the 36th anniversary of the Mary Jane side of the ski resort, as well as the — ahem — colorful history of the “well-known madam and local…

Taking Stock

“It’s called the Coors Western Art Exhibit, but I really look at it as contemporary realism of this region,” confides Rose Fredrick, the curator who’s been creating the show for the past fifteen of its nineteen years. “We’re pushing the boundaries more and more every year, getting closer to abstraction…

Snow Daze

“We’re rolling out the white carpet this week,” says Visit Denver spokesman Justin Bresler about Mile High Snowfest, which coincides with the Snowsports Industries America SIA Snow Show at the Convention Center. Although the convention, which runs today through January 28, isn’t open to the public, there are several related…

Beyond the Snowman

Starting today, teams from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, Latvia and Estonia will be competing with groups from the good old U-S-of-A in the International Snow Sculpture Championships, held every year in Breckenridge. “At the heart of it, it’s pretty exciting to watch the transformation and…

This Is the Modern World

Smartphones changed the way we take and look at pictures almost overnight: The photographs they give us are in-the-moment, often grainy or unfocused, and given up completely to fancy, almost part of a genre all its own. It’s also evolved to the point that images in the smartphone spirit don’t…