Clybourne Park. Racism persists, but the ways in which we feel and express racism change with the times. Bruce Norris’s brilliant Clybourne Park was inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, at the end of which the Youngers, a struggling black family, are about to move into a…
I believe it was Chekhov who said that if you drive a wood chipper into the forest where dumb coeds are partying in the vicinity of suspicious hillbillies, that chipper must be used on human flesh. And so it is, though the intentions are decidedly reversed in Tucker & Dale…
One single scene captures the tricky tonal balance of Jonathan Levine’s cancer comedy 50/50. Adam, a straight-edge radio producer played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has just finished his first round of chemotherapy. It was tough, but the kindly gents IV’d next to him (Philip Baker Hall and Matt Frewer) made it…
As a musical, Ragtime inevitably lacks the complexity — as well as the violence and darkness — of E.L. Doctorow’s wonderful novel, but it still has a thousand times more intelligence, charm and integrity than the average musical. As written by Terrence McNally, with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics…
Situated in the far corner of the E.B. Rains Jr. Memorial Park lies the new Don Anema Memorial Skatepark. Commissioned to Team Pain Skateparks, a company known for its innovative and strategic skateparks, the park was designed in seven weeks, partly due to increased pressure to finish the new skatepark…
You can’t win ’em all, as Philly baseball manager Cornelius McGillicuddy once observed. And while I usually do in fact win ’em all, that aphorism proved true for even me yesterday, when I failed to win the Running of the Gays for a second time — a defeat made all…
Ever since the Rangeview Library District changed its name to “Anythink,” something peculiar’s been going on: The locals began to embrace their libraries like never before, and once you step inside Anythink Wright Farms, way up north on 120th Avenue in Thornton, you get an inkling of why. The building…
Ever since I pulled off an epic victory in the first Running of the Gays last year, they’ve been there: the sensible size-13 pumps I wore to exact that win, a little battered, one heel broken, smelling of vinegar and stale beer, perched atop my cabinet like a weird trophy…
The best way to determine the effectiveness of a workout is usually how you feel the day after — and judging by my sore triceps and hamstrings, the opening of 5280 Fitness was a success. A recent addition to the ever-growing Broadway strip, 5280 opened in the garage next to…
As counterintuitive as it might initially seem, if you own a Kindle or a device with the Kindle app (iOS, Android, PC, etc), you can now check out books from the Denver Public Library via its eMedia site. Yes, students, that includes CliffsNotes, if you’ve managed to seriously drop the…
While doing science last week, probably in an attempt to fit more tools into their army’s knives, the Swiss broke the Universe. They recorded Neutrinos, a shape-shifting subatomic particle known for sounding like an awesome breakfast cereal, moving faster than light. Now their hills are alive with the sound of…
Break out your best black and red gear: The Rocky Mountain Rollergirls’ 5280 Fight Club finished in second place at this weekend’s Bridgetown Brawl West Region Playoffs, advancing to the 2011 Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) Championships in November, where they’ll defend their 2010 title. RMRG destroyed the #7-seed…
What would make life better? A group that recycles those nasty beer-and-whatever-else-soaked couches from frat houses? A bike-rental service for the homeless? A smartphone app providing real-time updates of hiking trail conditions? Those are three of more than thirty ideas submitted to GOOD Maker Boulder, all vying for a $1,500…
Though I generally favor dynamic action over quiet contemplation, when I do ponder life’s more pressing philosophical questions, I basically make it my policy to punch the shit out of them with my mind-fist. And so, as the days grow shorter and the nights grow cooler, it once again comes…
The “final girl” — one of horror film’s best-known genre conventions — is the virginal and ostensibly pure heroine who either kills the monster, or at least lives to see the end of the movie. Some scholars, including Carol J. Clover (in her book, Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in…
Nintendo was in town yesterday showing off some short product demos for their holiday lineup. We had a chance to sneak into the Nintendo van (which was hidden away in an alley) and get our grimy paws all over Zelda, Mario and everything else they have on tap for the…
“Robert Adams was teaching English at Colorado College in the early 1960s when he met Myron Wood, who taught him the basics of photography,” Westword art critic Michael Paglia writes in a preview of the upcoming Adams show at the Denver Art Museum. “But instead of taking the traditional approach…
Artist Penney Bidwell knows the carnival life isn’t always a circus. She ought to — Bidwell comes from carny stock, and their memories and lore left her with a different view. And it’s not as though we haven’t all lived through a creepy-clown shiver or two in our collective lifetime,…
Denver-based snowboard manufacturer Never Summer Industries celebrates its 20th anniversary season this winter, and the party starts tonight at 7 p.m. at Summit Music Hall with the world premiere of the second full-length team video, Shred Em’ All, followed by a thrash-rock set and Metallica covers by It Should Have…
Don’t mess with Pam Grier. The Colorado-residing actress is known for her bad-ass roles in blaxploitation films like Foxy Brown and Coffy, which are both screening tonight as part of the Crest Film Series at Crossroads Theater. In advance of the screening, we took a look at the top five…
Though it’s seldom as conspicuous as, say, editing or lighting, scoring is a subtle integral component of any film’s stylistic mix; take last week’s excellent Drive, for example, which set itself apart from the typical action-movie morass at least in part with its use of quiet new-new-wave, as opposed to…
All-star teams from both of Colorado’s premier roller derby leagues — Rocky Mountain Rollergirls and the Denver Roller Dolls — are in Portland, Oregon, this weekend for the Bridgetown Brawl Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) West Region Playoffs at Memorial Coliseum, and all of the tournament’s bouts will be…
