Neighborhoods: Historic Downtown Louisville

Zipping through the bulk of modern Louisville, with all its bedroom-community developments (it took first place in Money Magazine’s Best Place to Live: Top 100 in 2009), you’d think that most of the Boulder County berg’s Italian coal-mining heritage has all but disappeared. But once you find yourself in the…

Stupid ad of the week: HBO’s awesome parents

Few advertisements manage to be as enjoyable, or more enjoyable than, the show they interrupt. HBO’s new spot for the awesome comedy Eastbound and Down on DVD makes it look easy, with a ridiculous ad that is packed with all the humor and humanity you’d expect from a short film…

Over the weekend: Art and anarchy mix at Yellow Feather

While most of the other stops on the First Friday Art Walk on Santa Fe were showing more commercial, high-end art to the wealthy snow-bros in town from Aspen for the weekend, bohemian coffeehouse Yellow Feather was showcasing the music and art of artists geared a little more toward the…

Cableland: An amateur photo tour

In 1998, cable television Entrepreneur Bill Daniels bequeathed his behemoth mansion on Shangri-La Drive (across from the Target in Glendale) to the city of Denver, to be used as the official residence for the Mayor. Though no Mayor has ever actually lived in this mauve monstrosity since its donation, Mayor…

Last Night: Cableland Cultural Jam with Mayor Vidal

Since taking office last month, there has been some talk about Mayor Guillermo Vidal officially running for the position when his term ends in July. Though this is apparently hearsay and Vidal has no immediate plans to run, last night’s inaugural Cableland Cultural Jam had us wishing he was. Hardly…

Keeping the Beat: Musician David Amram remembers Neal Cassady

Octogenarian musician/musicologist David Amram’s ties to the Beats hold strong, especially in San Francisco, where jazz and poetry intersected, and in some ways, he’s one of the last grand old men of the cause. It’s no small thing, then, to consider that Amram will be among the presenters, along with…

Studio Shots: Matt Doubek and Sam Mobley

Matt Doubek and Sam Mobley work in unique, yet aligned styles: In addition to painting and silkscreening, both do graphic design work; Matt also builds and installs custom wood architectural details for homes, and Sam creates forward-thinking one-of-a-kind furniture. Put them together — something that happens at least once a…

Five confrontational performers: From MoMA to basic cable

Red Bastard comes to Boulder this weekend for some of the character’s final shows before creator Eric Davis heads to Cirque du Soleil. A huge part of the Red Bastard show is engaging the audience in sometimes uncomfortable ways. Interacting with the audience in ways that range from challenging to…

A Brit as Superman? It could be a little karmic retribution

Superman, the ideal representation of truth, justice and the American way, is now being portrayed by Henry Cavill, a Brit. While I don’t think it’s xenophobic to have a problem with that, I do think that if it’s a punishment, it’s one we deserve. An American icon, Superman was created…

How to get my job: High-rise window cleaner

We’ve always been fascinated with risky jobs, but there are few in the world more insane to anyone with a fear of heights than a high-rise window washer. There is no amount of money you could pay us to rappel off of a giant glass building. Thankfully for people who…

On view: Native arts go up close and personal at the Denver Art Museum

Last Sunday, the Denver Art Museum’s American Indian Art Galleries suddenly got a whole lot more personal: That’s when DAM native arts curator Nancy Blomberg unveiled a whole new way of looking at Indian art to the public, by celebrating the individual talents of heretofore unrecognized artists and craftsmen. The…

Stupid ad of the week: Axe’s fallen angels

Few companies blatantly exploit sex appeal for financial gain as much as AXE male scent products. Sure, almost every advertisement in history has employed some degree of sexual innuendo, but AXE forgets all about the innuendo part and goes straight for the junk. Exhibit A: Their stupid ad in which…

Photos: The Scorned Lovers Valentine’s Day card workshop

Valentine’s Day is a fantastic holiday — if you’re in a relationship, it’s going well and/or you happen to love Hallmark and all the treacly, glitter-themed merchandise it produces this time of year. Those of us who are not included in this margin, on the other hand, generally regard the…

Bring your own interpretations to Ironton for Soft Descriptions

The current show at Ironton Studios and Gallery (3636 Chestnut Place, www.irontonstudios.com) is Soft Descriptions, which is filled with installations, most of which are text-based. Emerging Denver artist Marc Willhite doesn’t explicitly explain what he means when he uses specific words in specific pieces, but he does want the viewer…

Kim Kardashian: A nudity timeline

By now, the facepalm-inducing silliness of Kim Kardashian’s tearful protest on Sunday’s episode of Kourtney and Kim Take New York at being shown in the nude in the October issue of W magazine has been extensively remarked upon. For one thing, she posed nude for the magazine, so it’s hard…

Denver’s Next Improv Star starts a cootie epidemic, blows up a Scottish child

Improv is based on inclusiveness; competition implies exclusivity. It’s pretty safe to assume, then, that the two can’t mix, isn’t it? It is not. Bovine Metropolis successfully combines the uncombinable in Denver’s Next Improv Star, a competition that aims to find the city’s funniest improviser via the tried-and-true performance-then-expulsion technique…