Some years ago, Denver artist (and Westword MasterMind, class of 2007) Katie Taft instigated and curated the Self Made salon series at Mario’s Double Daughters Salotto, wherein artists gave informal talks and networking and discussion ensued over food and drink. Financial realities and life then got in the way, and…
The 2011 March Powwow and all the festivities therein taught me something I suspect is tremendously important. If you are wearing feathers, mirrors, bells, and dancing like you are a force of nature — if you are even in close proximity to people doing these things — it is near…
In the grand tradition of pugilists like Rocky Balboa and, to a lesser extent, Rudy Ruettiger, I have a demanding workout routine: Every morning, I get up, eat four steaks, drink a dozen raw eggs directly from the blender, oil myself up and stare at my imposing delts in the…
Somewhere between the literary obsessiveness and the heroin-haze that, together, consumed his life, William S. Burroughs developed a technique called cut-up writing, which uses fragments of preexisting works and rearranges them to create something new. The results, generally, are dizzying and nonsensical, but wonderfully so: because they are unintelligible, they…
No, it’s not your imagination. The Art District on Santa Fe Drive does look different. That’s because about 200 new high-efficiency LED lights have been installed in all the street lamps along Santa Fe, between Sixth and Tenth avenues. Oh, and they’re blue. Not golden, and — for goodness sakes!…
Hey, do you know Ernie? No? Well, you should, since the guy wants to draw your face off. Seriously: Ernie, apparently a local guy, has a brand new operation titled — you guessed it — “Draw Your Face Off.” The premise? Give Ernie a picture of your face, as well…
Formed as a way to promote the work of local musicians and artists of all medias, the small but mighty Birdseed Collective is looking for you — and your artwork. The group is putting out a call to any artists are interested in submitting to it’s 100 on 100, a…
It wasn’t First Friday or even Second Saturday, for that matter, but last Friday night was still art-heavy with receptions as the Month of Photography progresses. A lot of people, I found out, were over at Belmar, ringing in Feminine Influence, a woman-centric show curated by Katie Taft at Flash…
To the officers of the Durango Police Department: A couple of months ago, as you are no doubt aware, your department quietly changed its policy to allow a form of facial hair that has never in modern history been widely sported by members of the law enforcement community: the goatee…
During the Month of Photography, there are many fine shows around town focusing — excuse the pun — on the medium. But one stands out, if only in its aim to resurrect the reputation of a forgotten photo star who was once at the top of the heap in Colorado…
Like graffiti, most adverts sloppily plastered to the screens of the technospere fall under the heading of worthless cultural detritus, but also like graffiti, some pop up out of nowhere and shock us with their inventiveness and brilliance. They cause us to take pause and reflect on our own humanness…
Someone is setting ‘hipster traps” in New York, as photographed by this Reddit user. The awesomely cartoonish bear trap surrounds a pack of American Spirits, a can of PBR and sunglasses. Please warn your jobless young friends to avoid these traps…
In every competition-based TV series, there eventually comes a point where each contestant is more or less qualified to win. After a while, everyone left in the running is good at what they do; they all dance with the same self-effacing vigor or sing at comparable degrees of awful or,…
Celebrating Chuck Norris’s birthday is kind of like celebrating the birthday of time itself: impossible. Nevertheless, several news outlets have reported that the noted martial arts expert and godlike figure of Spartan manliness turns 71 today. Because anything having to do with Chuck Norris is by definition dangerous (the word…
Phone sex is a dying, uh, breed, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a lucrative business. While many folks have turned to the slightly more anonymous internet to rock their socks off, plenty of people still desire a bit more of a human touch. We decided it was due…
It’s been ten years since University of Denver professor Lawrence Golan filed his copyright suit in Colorado District Court, seeking the revocation of copyrights retroactively placed on works previously in the public domain, and now, after a lot of batting around and dual ruling reversals from both the Court of…
Charlie Sheen has a lot going on right now; giving interviews to anyone with a camera and microphone, getting fired, battling for custody of his kids, going bat-shit crazy and winning, duh. But he’s not too busy to capitalize on his social media prowess. Sheen recently set the Guinness World…
For anyone who missed the opening salvo of Denver’s Month of Photography on First Friday, there’s yet time (a lot of time, actually) to check out the more than one hundred venues dedicated this month to showcasing one of the more underappreciated fine arts, and tonight brings yet another excellent…
Our world is full of advertising. Everywhere we look, it’s buy this; feel like that. That’s a given. We’ve come to expect it — maybe even enjoy it sometimes as a subtle reminder that we’re not alone. “Other people want excellent bleaching power from their laundry detergent too? Gosh, I…
March has been declared the Month of Photography in Denver, with many of the city’s different galleries and other art venues mounting shows of photos or other photo-based works. One unusual offering is the duet at Walker Fine Art (300 West 11th Avenue, #A, 303-355-8955, www.walkerfineart.com) titled Triggered Momentum, which…
When it comes to the fine arts, the artists themselves are rightly the main subjects of scholarly and critical interest. But collectors, so important but often overlooked, can actually make art history if they have enough money behind their acquisitions. What’s brought this to mind is a recent experience I…
The exquisite corps is an oddity generally only seen in literature. If you are an exceptionally obsessive lit nerd and/or have taken eighth grade English, you’ve probably encountered it somewhere: someone begins a story with a sentence and other people finish it, sentence by sentence, without seeing any part of…
