What’s the funniest damn thing you’ve ever seen on television? The commercials. Specifically, the ones that aren’t trying to be funny, but try instead to sell you a load of crap in three easy payments — the Ginsu knives, slicing-dicing machines and spotless cleaning solutions of the late-night surf. The…
Leigh Cabell says the reason she put off trying to be an artist for so long is that she, like other people, was intimidated by the challenge of making it. “It’s one of those things you want to do, but you’re not sure you’ll be good at,” she explains. So,…
Editor’s note: Westword cartoonist Noah Van Sciver paints the town like nobody else, as demonstrated in his recaps of visits to the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and out own Westword Artopia (Make sure you read Noah’s blog for more comics and wonderment, including his…
Does a beard make the man? It depends on who you ask. Historically, beards were used for warmth, intimidation of protection from enemies, but in modern times, women find beards only about two-thirds as attractive as a clean-shaven man. In Colorado, beards can be a seasonal look for the October-March…
In the annals of the Denver art world, the 2011-2012 season will go down as the year of Clyfford Still. The Clyfford Still Museum opened in November, and many museums and galleries presented shows highlighting the artist’s influence or abstraction in general in order to honor Still’s signature approach. But…
On Friday, the Denver Art Museum played host to Forever Darling 5 fashion show, in conjunction with its monthly Untitled series and the Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective exhibition. This edition of Forever Darling featured eight designers from Project Runway: Michael Costello, Becky Ross, Danielle Everine, Jason Troisi, Julie Tierney,…
The image above — a wonderful posed moment gone awry — caused quite a stir in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe last year: first, as part of tbellphotographic’s juried show, Is This How I Look?, where Ken Hamel gave it top honors, and again when I did the same…
The West Coast punks are pogoing into town this spring at MCA Denver, Gildar Gallery, the Colorado Photographic Arts Center and other locations, for a series of shows falling under the aegis of Search & Destroy. So-named for the San Francisco ‘zine or the ’70s), the ring of satellite shows…
Becoming sage, by Kasi Alexander, has everything a reader could want: sex, violence, mastering, slaving. And the emotional autobiographical novel also two things that can’t be safe-worded out of — cops and family drama. In it, Alexander, a local author, tells the story of a woman who leaves the vanilla…
There are big openings of shows at the Denver Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art that explore international and Californian phenomena — but don’t miss the exhibit opening tonight at Robischon Gallery that touts imagery from right in our own back yard…
“Hello. I’m Johnny Cash.” That was enough of an introduction for the country legend himself, but Cash’s legacy has surpassed that simplicity. In his nearly fifty-year career, Cash played himself in dozens of film and television spots, but his death in 2003 opened the gates for others to take up…
Warning: Spoilers within! In one of the final scenes of the Season 2 premiere of Game of Thrones, henchmen of boy-king Joffrey, the incestuous product of his mother and uncle, tear through King’s Landing, slaying the many bastard children of Robert, Joffrey’s official but now totally dead father. Because his…
Baseball season officially starts today (in Tokyo), and artist Kyle Banister couldn’t be more excited. He’ll be performing a live sidewalk chalk-art exhibition at the corner of Blake and 21st streets during the Rockies home opener on April 9, he’s the resident artist for Root Sports this season, and he’s…
The opera singers who regularly let their hair down at Opera on Tap, the up-close-and-personal monthly bar night at Bender’s Tavern, will further reveal their inner selves during tonight’s installment, the Musical Month of March. And though opera is inherently musical, this “musical” refers to what blossoms on Broadway rather…
Alien meets girl. Girl falls for alien. Government agents track alien as she and her intergalactic friends attempt to save their home planet through heartbreak. The plot for Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same might be a little out there — actually, galaxies out there — but its creators weren’t…
Game of Thrones Season 2 is coming. Game of Thrones, HBO’s latest popular series that’s been described as sort of The Sopranos meets Lord of the Rings, debuts its second season Sunday night, but Denver-area viewers can get a sneak peek of the new series tonight…
The sound of hammers was deafening at Clear Creek Academy of Jewelry and Metal Arts over the weekend, when students learned the ancient metal-forming techniques of chasing and repoussé. The workshop featured the guidance of master silversmith Valentin Yotkov, a Bulgarian-born expert in the craft who has trained members of…
A new MCA Denver satellite show, Richard Peterson and the Art of a Warrior Tribe, opened on Friday, March 23, at the Gildar Gallery, and will be up through April 20. Curated by the MCA’s Adam Lerner, it’s one cog in the machine called Search & Destroy, an exploration of…
The idea is “to turn the inside of Rhinoceropolis into a temporary fantasy village,” says Colin Ward of the art installation Fantasia 2012, which he’s organized along with Stephan Herrera. “We want to pack paradise into one night; like a magic spell and welcoming of the springtime.” That night will…
While I think I have taste, I’m just another plebe at the Yves Saint Laurent show, wandering through the DAM, slobbering and snorting smelling salts to keep from fainting at each new discovery. So when it came time to pick favorites, I asked someone with a more sophisticated eye –…
On a particularly frigid night in the winter of 2009, Weslie Coleman, Kate Pleuss and Ben Turk were sitting in their collective home and talking about how cold they were. Incredibly cold, they decided. So the three members of the revolutionary theater group Insurgent Theatre decided to plan an escape…
Chess comes with almost as many stereotypes (the nerd, the genius, the poorly adjusted savant) and cliches (the pawn, checkmate, knights and chivalry) as it does pieces. But director Rod Lansberry isn’t interested in any of them. Tomorrow, he and the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities will launch…
