Since she was conceived in the brain of mystery/modern paranormal novelist Charlaine Harris, Sookie Stackhouse has appeared in eleven Southern Vampire novels (the most recent, Dead Reckoning, has just been released) and has been the main character in HBO’s runaway hit True Blood, which caused none other than Snoop Dogg…
Balls — and the sports built around them — are key to understanding different cultures, argues Denver-based sportswriter Josh Chetwynd. And a trip to a London park to toss around a baseball with his son helped get the ball rolling on his new book, The Secret History of Balls. “We…
Free Comic Book Day is quite possibly the greatest day of the year for comic book aficionados. That’s partly because all you need do to score free books is hit up a participating retailer, but it’s also because the day shines a light on an often underappreciated storytelling medium. Started…
Back in the ’70s, Walt Disney made an educational cartoon about venereal disease called VD Attack Plan. In the flick, gonorrhea and syphilis “germs” are soldiers who want to invade your body — and that’s not the only fun fact you’ll learn at Blast From the Past Film Night, a…
Descending from the Spanish verb rodear, to “round up,” the noun “rodeo” encircles a lot of territory — and while the 22nd annual Poetry Rodeo probably won’t include any bull-riding or bucking broncos, it’s sure to rope in a diverse representation of Colorado’s poetry scene. “It’s a roundup of extraordinary…
There’s something unendingly compelling about New York City’s downtown No Wave scene, which was peopled by Lydia Lunch and James Chance and bands like the Contortions, DNA and the Bush Tetras: In terms of coolness, today’s hipsters can’t even reach the shoe-laces of that underground set and its smoldering intellectual…
The Kentucky Derby may well be the cufflink-sporting James Bond of horse races, but it’s still held in Kentucky, which means one thing: Gather the kinfolk and load up yonder jalopy, because it’s time to party like hillbillies. Preferably at the White Trash Derby Bash. “I’ve been doing it for…
“Three industries always do well in hard economic times: liquor, porn and chocolate,” says Colorado Chocolate Festival promoter Dana Cain, named Best Modern-Day P.T. Barnum in the Best of Denver 2011. “Whatever else has been going on with the recession, the chocolate business has been good! This is the Colorado…
He’s almost embarrassed to admit it, but for the first time in Ben Riggs’s career, he’s going to lead the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus in a rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” “It’s possible that in the first ten years of the gay men’s chorus movement, back in the ’80s, ‘Over…
A little over four years ago, Frank Bingham’s entire family was killed at the corner of 15th and Arapahoe streets downtown when he, his wife and two children were struck by a drunk driver while crossing the street. Only Bingham survived. At the time, Bingham was the director of the…
Facebook is starting to make me itch, what with its infestation of high heels and sneaker spam, not to mention the scantily clad women advertising scattered-ass to and fro across the home page. Rather than your favorite social media hangout, it’s turning into the easiest place to catch a digitally…
A couple of years back, University of Denver grads Mardana Mayginnes and Colin Michael Day set out from Denver and headed to Los Angeles to chase the dream of making it big in the film world — and now, they return to accomplish that goal with a film about that…
When George Lucas created Star Wars he had no idea it was going to become the phenomenon that it did. In fact, if it wasn’t for the dedicated merchandising work of Howard Roffman that caused the resurgence of popularity, we may not have ever seen revival of the brand. However,…
Transylvania is what we’d probably call a cute, little distraction game. It’s not difficult, and it’s odd enough to keep your interest for a few minutes. That’s probably not the greatest sales pitch in the world, but this is a game worth checking out. Plus, you can play through the…
Denver-based sportswriter and BBC Radio baseball broadcaster Josh Chetwynd has a new book in stores this week with a catchy title: The Secret History of Balls: The Stories Behind the Things We Love to Catch, Whack, Throw, Kick, Bounce and Bat. He’ll be reading from and signing copies of the…
It’s been not much more than a month since The Book of Mormon, the sweet and dirty musical send-up of Mormonism from South Park creators and Denver locals Trey Parker and Matt Stone, opened on Broadway to the adulation of everybody — and now its dominance is official: Yesterday, Book…
Christianity has Easter and Judaism has Passover — and there are dinners and ritual events widely available for both those celebrations. And for the pagan-centric religions, there’s Beltania, the annual camping/music/spiritual festival in the mountains near Florence, Colorado, which kicks off festivities tomorrow (you can still purchase tickets for the…
This weekend, America proved once again that no matter how far you run, no matter how well you hide, or possibly don’t really bother to run or hide at all, you can’t escape the badass eagle-sword of eventual justice! Osama bin laden is dead, and to celebrate — and also…
Last August, Denver International Airport unveiled its ambitious plans for a hotel, an RTD commuter rail station and an RTD bridge (pictured) over Peña Boulevard. All had been envisioned as a coherent, interconnected and singular group of structures by architectural superstar Santiago Calatrava (whom I wrote about on August 5,…
Galileo’s Garden. Husband-and-wife artists Tyler and Monica Aiello are the subjects of conjoined solos at Space Gallery. The exhibit, Galileo’s Garden, includes over three dozen pieces. Though working in entirely different mediums — Tyler in metal sculpture, Monica in mixed-media painting — they long ago forged a formal relationship by…
Five Course Love. This production consists of five musical scenes set in five different restaurants, each one a broad parody in which author Gregg Coffin spoofs stereotypes while shamelessly using and abusing them. There’s a barbecue place featuring country/Western music; an Italian restaurant where a mob wife is cheating —…
Something Borrowed is based on a 2005 work of chick literature by Emily Giffin. It was directed with extraordinary impersonality by Luke Greenfield (Rob Schneider’s The Animal) and produced by Hilary Swank, in collaboration, apparently, with the restaurant Shake Shack — one of the lifestyle brands prominently featured in this…
