ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Michael Stanwood, who's been making music around town for as long as we can remember, got the idea for the Buzz Band after he went on a world tour to share American music with other cultures. Stanwood ended up more enthralled with their music, and especially with the underlying physical and emotional impact of the music--something he calls the "buzz." Upon returning to the States with a menagerie of unusual instruments, he formed the Buzz Band, an informal ensemble dedicated to searching out that global, spiritual hum. Indeed, the mysterious drone of the didjeridoos, mouth harps and other twangy contraptions does put a primeval kind of spell on an audience. As Stanwood says, "People go out glowing but don't understand why."

Best Proof That Classical Music Doesn't Have to Be Boring
Marin Alsop
It's no secret that the late Leonard Bernstein was an early mentor of Marin Alsop's, or that the great one's progressive ideas have rubbed off on the talented Colorado Symphony Orchestra conductor. One of the nicest things Alsop does for us--perhaps on cue from Bernstein, whose Young People's Concerts are remembered by even the most boneheaded classical-music haters--is the way she takes time out, during a concert, to explain or add color to a composition. Even Beethoven would lend an ear.

Best Classical Music Series
St. John's Episcopal Cathedral
1313 Clarkson St.

Musical director Donald Pearson shapes his multifaceted Capitol Hill series at St. John's with integrity, being careful to uphold a sense of tradition while remaining open and adventurous at the same time. His programs blend sounds appropriate for a cathedral setting, from startling organ music that fills every corner and rises to the rafters to choral performances by renowned visiting groups like the Tallis Scholars. And even if the shows do sometimes go on a little too long, there's usually a postconcert punch-and-cookies reception to look forward to, where you can mingle with the musicians. Go. Maybe you'll learn something.

Best Concert
Pavement, with the Apples
September 23, 1994
Ogden Theatre

Anyone who goes to see Pavement live risks a better-than-even-money chance of coming away disappointed--the band has a reputation for being either very, very on or very, very off. So it was a thrill to see the reigning kings of slack rock on one of the former nights. Stephen Malkmus and his brethren justified every bit of hype and then some, delivering numbers that mingled shaggy spontaneity with the kind of authority that results from months on the road. As an added bonus, Denver's Apples demonstrated why they're the city's best pop group. A show that was perfect to the core.

Readers' choice: The Eagles

Best Club DJ
Julian Bradley
Julian Bradley has plenty on his platter. Along with Jim Stout, he's part of Nebula 9, a strong dance-music act threatening to go national. He was one of the primary forces behind the formation of the local rave scene and is involved in attempts to revitalize it this summer. And for the past three years, Stout's been the man in the spotlight Wednesdays at Boulder's Marquee Club. His regular "Club Sunshine" feature has become known among aficionados for its terrific music; he's almost always the first to bring you hot new sounds--and to reject popular beats that don't come up to snuff. He will make you sweat.

Readers' choice: John Chamie

Best Music Convention
Gavin AAA Summit
KBCO-FM/97.3 is seen as the creator of the Adult Album Alternative format that proliferates across the country--so it only makes sense that Boulder has become the place where AAA radio types get together each year. This year's convention, sponsored in August by Gavin, an influential San Francisco trade magazine, was mostly a members-only affair, but there were benefits for the average Joe--namely a series of shows at the Fox Theatre featuring Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Freedy Johnston and other artists whose careers have been boosted by the KBCOs of the world.

Best Music Festival
Cellular One LoDo Music Festival
In its second year, the LoDo festival, held in late July outside Denver's Union Station, came into its own. The price was right, the food was plentiful and the music was wonderfully universal--from Booker T. and the MGs and Marcia Ball to WAR and the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. It's a great way to enjoy summer in the city.

Best Summer Concert Series
ListenUptown concerts
Denver Performing Arts Complex

Promoter Jim Sprinkle's noble music series at the Denver Botanic Gardens had the makings of a winner--specifically, diverse guests presented in intimate outdoor surroundings. But after neighbors made a fuss about the noise, the series nearly perished. The good news is that we still can sample Sprinkle's exemplary global fare in the urban midst of the downtown Plex, where groups can make as much noise as they like in the facility's open-air common--and ListenUp helps them do it. Bluesman Otis Rush, Latin-jazz master Tito Puente, Senegalese singer Vieux Diop, Haiti's Boukman Eksperyans and crowd favorites Bela Fleck & the Flecktones are just a few of the artists scheduled to perform this summer.

Best Out-of-Town Gig
Mark Junglen
A cab driver who co-founded Colorado Springs' Big Ball Records, Mark Junglen is also a fan of military history and classical music. Five years ago, he combined those two interests in "Stalingrad--A Rock Concerto," a short composition he penned for four-piece rock band and symphony orchestra. Upon its completion, Junglen approached symphonies in the hopes that one of them would play the piece--but he never guessed he'd be joining the AUTONO, a Springs band also on Big Ball, for a debut performance in Volgograd, Russia, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II. Junglen and company went heavily in debt to make this dream come true, but it was worth every cent.

Best Return From the Dead (Band)
The Freddi-Henchi Band
A popular Denver group in the Seventies, the Freddi-Henchi Band fell apart amid an avalanche of personal problems--especially singer Marvin "Henchi" Graves's drug problem, which eventually led him to spend several years in stir. It was a shock, then, when Henchi, vocalist Freddi Gowdy and a batch of like-minded musicians (many of whom had participated in at least one incarnation of the band) reunited at Herman's Hideaway last April. They sounded so good that fans demanded they keep the reunion alive a little longer. Never say never.

Best Return From the Dead (Individual)
Tom Mick
Talk about your crummy parties. Mick, a member of the Boulder performance-art punk band Bunny Genghis, was at a January 1994 party when a drifter stabbed him after he accidentally stepped on the man's foot. The attack all but killed Mick, whose heart stopped twice on the operating table. Fortunately, he was revived, and within several days his survival was guaranteed. He returned to the stage with Bunny Genghis in July of last year, with a new outlook on life and one bitchin' scar on his chest.

Best Local-Music Comic Book
Slaughter and the Damned
Ted Thacker

The account of Tom Mick's saga, synopsized above, became a surreal encounter with fate in the hands of cartoonist Ted Thacker, whose escapades with the bands Baldo Rex and Veronica have established him as a dangerous and memorable wit. According to Thacker, who illustrates his theory with wonderfully gruesome drawings, Mick was stabbed because the ghost of a chicken he and bandmate Dave Moore strangled to death laid a curse on his eternal soul; he survived because of his indomitable nature and the Fox television network, whose shows gave him a reason to live. A work of art that needs to be read to be believed.

Best Bob Dylan Overdose
Rolling Tomes Inc.
P.O. Box 1943, Grand Junction 81502

The times, they may be a-changin'--but for some people, Bob Dylan still rules. How does it feel? Ask Rolling Tomes Inc., the Glenwood Springs-based publisher that produces two publications devoted to all things Dylan: a glossy magazine called On the Tracks and the monthly newsletter Series of Dreams. A one-year subscription to both runs you only $39.95.

Best Host
Baggs Patrick
Always genial and ever tactful, cabbie-by-day Baggs Patrick deserves a large part of the credit for making Cricket on the Hill's open stage the place to be on Sunday nights. Whether exchanging inside jokes with longtime scenesters or eliciting a warm welcome for knock-kneed novices, Patrick always lets the performers shine. Likewise, his idiosyncratic delivery of such tunes as "Potato Love Song" and "Please Don't Take My Penis When You Go" keeps the party moving while bands shuffle their stuff on and off stage between sets. An enthusiastic entertainer whose work has been featured on Dr. Demento's radio show, Patrick performs a similar function at the Mercury Cafe on Wednesday nights.

Best Local Rock Video Show
Teletunes
The granddaddy of all area music programs shows no signs of age, and there's a good reason why: Its programmers have a knack for choosing the best clips available and then mixing them with profiles, interviews and various local offerings that you can't see anywhere else. KBDI-TV/Channel 12, the home of Teletunes, has lately begun airing new and old episodes from the series with greater frequency than ever before, and we're not complaining. Who needs MTV?

Best Urban-Music Video Show
Da Hook Up
Kenny Hamblin Jr. has made it his mission to keep Denver hip--a tall order for the son of "Black Avenger" radio talk-show host Ken Sr. The younger Hamblin's acid-jazz nights at City Spirit have become a tradition--and now, with Da Hook Up, he's back on television, too. Saturdays at 12:30 p.m. and 3 a.m. on KUBD-TV/Channel 59, Hamblin (that's DJ K-NEE to all you merry pranksters out there in party land) and compatriot DJ Style N. Fashion meld soul, dancehall, hip-hop and a funkitude of the latest R&B videos with unerring taste and a sense for what you'll want to be listening to tomorrow. Personally, we like to tune in to the late late show in order to preserve that true clubby feeling.

Best Radio Station Success Story
KXPK-FM/96.5 (The Peak)
You can argue with the Peak's music--an Eighties-oriented take on alternative music--but you can't argue with its impact on the local radio market. Since its inception last year, ratings have skyrocketed; the Peak is now consistently among the top five most-listened-to stations in the area. The rapid rise has caused a scramble among rock competitors to maintain their listenerships--and that has resulted in a much-needed shakeup at outlets that had been growing ever more fat and complacent. And change is good.

Best Defunct Radio Station
KBKS-AM/1490
Last year, when Delaware-based Visual Radio Productions purchased KBKS, a sleepy Boulder station that had been around since 1947, no one expected the company to do anything all that interesting with it. But it did, instituting an intriguing modern-rock format featuring liberal doses of music by local artists. The bold experiment didn't work from a financial standpoint, in part because of the outlet's presence on the AM dial. But until mid-April, when KBKS went dark, it was a welcome bastion from cookie-cutter radio. It may live again, but even if it doesn't, it was great while it lasted.

Best Radio Show
E-Town
Nick Forster's invention shows every sign of becoming a perennial--the kind of program that just keeps going and going and going. E-Town's combination of environmental messages and performances by a wide array of artists from the folk, country, pop and rock fields has grown more assured with time, providing a mix of information and tunefulness that goes down easy. This is one town you'll want to visit again.

Best Local Label
W.A.R.?
It's got an awkward handle (the acronym stands for What Are Records?), but everything else about W.A.R.? is solid and professional. The company, formed to market the Samples after that Boulder group bailed out of a noxious contract with Arista, has succeeded where so many other indie imprints have failed. It made the Samples a commercial force to be reckoned with, branched out into promotions (an arm of W.A.R.? handles publicity for the annual nationwide H.O.R.D.E. tour), and is now looking to break other artists, including recent signees the Radiators. The impending departure of the Samples will be a blow, but if any business can survive such a desertion, it's this one.

Best Art in a Music Video
"Half Tranquil"
The [Untitled]

Misunderstood geniuses? Maybe. Underappreciated auteurs? Probably. In the video for "Half Tranquil," the [Untitled]--Trevor Dutton, Bret Ellerton, Michael Doherty, Mike Young and Robb Kunz--become part of a creative montage of colorful and confusing images. Dutton, who majored in art at CU-Boulder, made this project during a semester studying video production. He learned his lessons well, doctoring the footage to complement the band's experimental music and coming up with one daring video that stands out on the screen.

Best Public Art at DIA
"America, Why I Love Her"
Gary Sweeney

Artist/airline baggage handler Gary Sweeney's wall-sized piece combining images of his own childhood vacations with America's offbeat roadside attractions is the rare example of an art commission that's not only the darling of critics, but is well-liked by the public, too. It's really struck a chord--people are so enthralled by Sweeney's whimsical map that they attempt to cart off pieces of the work to parts unknown. But the word is out. Art is supposed to touch people, not the other way around.

Readers' choice: "Kinetic Light Air Curtain," by William Maxwell and Antonette Rosato

Best New Public Art
"Arch of Cosmos and Damian"
Carl Reed

In a grove of evergreen trees at 8th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, set back from the street on the lawn of the University of Colorado's new School of Pharmacy building, Carl Reed's piece sits like a postmodern ruin. The limestone, bronze and concrete installation, twelve feet tall at its highest point, is not only visually impressive, but it also has a pedigree: Reed is one of the best sculptors in Colorado. Stuff of this caliber gives our troubled public-funded art programs a good name. Or at least a better one.

Readers' choice: Denver Public Library

Best Interstate Art
"Neighborhood Epic"
Martha Keating and Daniel Luna

Keating and Luna's large mosaic murals, incrementally telling the history of north Denver's Highland area, adorn the huge concrete retaining wall that separates the neighborhood from I-25 and the Central Platte Valley. Highland residents turned it into a true neighborhood epic, painting hundreds of tiles to frame the seven murals, which depict everything from dinosaurs to roller coasters. Though they're hidden away where the average motorist will miss them, they're a great urban hike or bike destination.

Best Mural
"Learning From the Past, Focused on the Future"
Andy Mendoza, Linda Clement and helpers

Andy Mendoza has done it again. Fresh off last year's collaborative mural effort at the Denver Civic Theatre, he's got another one in the works. And just like last year's project, area schoolchildren and residents are helping: The mural at 1111 Osage Street--due for completion in early August and focusing on the neighborhood's past, present and future--will slowly become a reality as the result of teamwork. Kids teach kids, old folks input a sense of history, and artists give and take--everyone finds a source of pride. Some of the work has even been done by local graffiti artist Jack Avila, giving credence to his street style as a legitimate artform. Mendoza may have gotten the wheels turning on this project, but he's far too humble to take all the credit--everyone who wields a paintbrush on the project gets to sign it at the end.

Best Agrarian Art
"Coming Home"
Susan Grant Raymond

This sculpture, which depicts a farmer, his son, a Belgian draft horse and its colt at work in an open field, has distinguished the intersection of South Santa Fe Drive and Prince Street in Littleton for the past decade. Created by Raymond, a Littleton native now living in Boulder, the piece was meant to celebrate the agricultural heritage of Littleton. Today it also stands as a welcome exception to the generally blighted landscape to the north. It's a beautification project that really is beautiful.

Best Public Art
Dedicated to Frank Zappa
"To Market, To Market"
Carolyn Braaksma

When the developers of Broadway Marketplace, at the junction of Alameda and Broadway, decided they needed some art to dignify the 42 acres of asphalt, they called on Denver artist Carolyn Braaksma, along with three others. The seven panels that resulted from Braaksma's commission, collectively titled "To Market, To Market," recall the public marketplaces of turn-of-the-century cities--as well as the 1967 Frank Zappa song "Call Any Vegetable." Right beside pictures of produce and lines from nursery rhymes appears this stanza: "Call any vegetable/and the chances are good/ that the vegetable will respond." We certainly respond to Braaksma's piece--does that count?

Best Bumper Art
The Stallion
Sean Guerrero

The Broncos-inspired stallion that rears up on the roof of Denver Bumper and Chrome Plating at 8th Avenue and Wyandot Street looks pretty sharp. And he should. He's made entirely of melded and welded bumpers. The 1970s creation of fender-bender Sean Guerrero, whose apparent oeuvre is bumper art, the shiny pony does much to brighten up an area inhabited predominantly by dreary warehouses.

Best Art on an Electrician's Van
No Shorts Electric
The wiseacre at Westminster's No Shorts Electric illustrates his trade with a high-voltage double entendre: a classical nude, in classical repose, right there on the side of his work vehicle. Wearing a fig leaf, no less. Shocking!

Best Billboard Art
Denver Public Schools Student Art Project
Three Denver Public School students took top honors in a billboard contest sponsored by, among others, 3M Media. Challenged by the theme "Celebrate Cultures," second-grader Elsa Sackett of Barrett Elementary School chose to depict human figures of different ethnic groups, while Jason Pugh of Cole Middle School spelled out the words in rainbow colors and Michael Abeyta of Montbello High School designed a splashy montage of balloons and world flags. The winners received more than token recognition--3M reproduced each of the three designs on 14- by 48-foot billboards. They'll be on display (Sackett at 40 N. Federal, Pugh at 2484 S. Broadway, Abeyta at 8415 E. Colfax) through the end of the year.

Best Art Gallery Comeback
Brigitte Schluger
265 Detroit St.

The "Roman slave girl" of the ill-fated Aspen trip is back, with a new showcase in a glitzy new neighborhood. She's got folk art, local art, art with a sense of fun; expensive stuff, moderate stuff, and a few inexpensive trinkets, too. Schluger may not know how to choose skiing companions, but she does know art.

Best Craft Gallery
The Art of Craft
1736 Wazee St.

A relative newcomer to the city, the Art of Craft gallery clearly subscribes to the concept of quality over quantity. This is truly a gallery--displaying stunning and imaginative works like jewels, to utmost advantage. A few examples of the visionary work seen here: Dede LaRue's now-infamous blindfolded replica of Nicole Simpson's dog Kato, Michael Lambert's wild deco tea sets, frilly ceramic shoes by Irene Watts and hand-worked glass-bead jewelry by Lucy Bergamini.

Best Suddenly Improved Art Venue
DU School of Art and Art History Gallery
Shwayder Fine Art Building
2121 E. Asbury Ave.

For the longest time the somnolent DU gallery hosted about one good show a year--typically held to mark the death or retirement of a faculty member. But since Timothy Standring took over last year, the schedule has been crowded with exhibits showcasing many of the region's most influential artists, as well as frequent lectures and panels on trendy topics. Check it out, but watch out for weekends: The posted hours aren't always honored.

Best Hard-to-Find Gallery
Rule Modern and Contemporary
Design Center at the Ice House, 1801 Wynkoop St.

First you have to convince the guard in the parking lot that you have legitimate business at the Ice House. Then you need to check in at the front desk. Go up an elevator. Navigate a maze of hallways. And finally, hope the place is open. If you're lucky, you'll wind up inside the gallery, where you'll find a good selection of many of the best known names in Denver art.

Best Endangered Gallery Row
Wazee Street
Rumors are flying on Wazee Street: Big rent increases attributable to the LoDo sports-bar boom are fueling the fear that the galleries in the shadow of Coors Field may soon be little more than a memory. Talk of the Golden Triangle as the most likely new art spot may soon come to pass. But we hope the galleries that helped develop Denver's hottest neighborhood won't be run off just because it's flourishing.

Best Burgeoning Gallery Row
Navajo Street
First there was Pirate at 37th and Navajo--if not the oldest, then surely the best known of Denver's alternative spaces. Then came Edge, another well-known alternative space, which decamped from North Larimer to open across the street. Soon after, the Bug--an old theater a few doors away--was rededicated as a performance-art venue. And a little further down, the brand new Zip 37 co-op gallery premiered this spring. The result of this art boomlet in the Highland neighborhood? On any given weekend there are as many as nine events running at the same time--all on a single block.

Best Local Gallery Exhibit
Phil Bender
Pirate Gallery

Last fall Phil Bender had his umpteenth show at Pirate, the art co-op he's run for more than a decade. As usual, the exhibit was filled with Bender's rearranged objects, including his signature board games and something new--walls covered with hubcaps, which were fabulous. This coming fall, Bender, who has referred to himself as a famous artist for so long that it's actually starting to come true, will finally get a Close Range show at the Denver Art Museum. About time.

Readers' choice: Frank Howell, Gallery One/"Batter Up!," Metropolitan State Center for the Visual Arts (tie)

Best Gallery Art Openings
Artyard
1251 S. Pearl St.

There's no such thing as a bad opening. These art-world mainstays, which meld art with food and drink, range from the drink-and-drown nights of the alternative spaces to the polite cocktail parties of the top commercial galleries. But there's a unique element to Artyard's openings, especially in the summer, and it's not only because of the beautiful arrangements made by gallery director Peggy Mangold. There's just something about viewing first-rate art outside in the sculpture garden under the moon and stars, which need no arranging.

Readers' choice: CORE New Art Space

Best Artful Thinking
Sally Perisho
Metropolitan State Center for the Visual Arts

Director Sally Perisho knows how to meet the demands of her diverse clientele while still putting on some of the best shows in town. Sometimes it's a fun topic like last spring's baseball show; at other times, the mood is more serious, as with an upcoming show about AIDS. Over the last few years, Perisho has proven she's got what it takes to run a visual-arts center: vision.

Best Place to See Abstract Art by the Elderly
Inkfish Gallery
949 Broadway

During the twilight years, when the rest of us are shopping for RVs, artists are often getting a second wind. Inkfish features the work of seniors including Roland Detre, Karl Schrag and George Rickey. But even the gallery's youngest artists are on the mature side, typically in their thirties and forties. Apparently director Paul Hughes is looking for the kind of artistic accomplishment that only comes with practice, practice, practice.

Best Contemporary Art With a Four-Course Dinner
Mackey Gallery
2900 W. 25th Ave.

Getting artists and art lovers together for conversation, a drink and a bite to eat has a long history going back to the cafe societies of Paris, Rome and Vienna. In Denver, gallery owner Mary Mackey has done her best to live up to the age-old tradition by holding large dinner parties at her home and gallery in Denver's Highland district. These events, with an ever-changing guest list, have by now included hundreds of participants. The easiest way to get invited? Buy something from the gallery.

Best Art From Russia With Love
Sloane Gallery of Art
1612 17th St.

When Mina Litinsky, a Russian emigre, opened Sloane in 1981, there were no other galleries in LoDo. Litinsky hardly noticed, though, since in her former hometown of St. Petersburg, there were no galleries at all--and artists hardly ever got shows, anyway, since the government decided who got to be an artist. Many of today's internationally known Russian artists (none of whom emerged from that select, government-approved group) got some of their earliest exposure at Sloane. That took more than foresight on Litinsky's part: In the beginning, to simply mount a show, she first needed to arrange to have works smuggled out of the U.S.S.R. Things are different now--except, of course, for Litinsky's dedication to art.

Best Unexpected Gallery Show
Mizel Museum of Judaica
560 S. Monaco Pkwy.

Denverites are hardly strangers to the art of nearby New Mexico. But if we ordinarily think of Indian jewelry, Hispanic religious sculptures or Western landscape painting, freelance curator Jack Kunin wants us to think again. His wonderful and scholarly show titled "The New Mexico Art Colony: Jewish Artists and Patrons," held last winter, looked at the generally overlooked role Jewish artists and patrons played in New Mexico's art history. Kunin has made a specialty of exhibits that explore Jewish artists working in the American West, and this recent show was his third. Let's hope it's not his last.

Best Museum Exhibit (Temporary)
"Italian Design, 1960-1994"
Denver Art Museum

It was hard for curator Craig Miller to land too far off base, given the topic of this stylish exhibit; after all, the word "Italian" and the word "design" go together like pasta and red sauce. So it wasn't surprising to find the show filled with marvelous things. What was a surprise, however, was its instant popularity: The Italian furniture and decorative items displayed outdrew in attendance the contemporary art in the "Landscape as Metaphor" show by three to one.

Readers' choice: "American Impressionism and Realism: The Painting of Modern Life, 1885-1915," Denver Art Museum

Best Joint Museum Exhibit
"Visiones del Pueblo"
Museo de las Americas
Denver Art Museum

The more than 250 pieces in the touring show "Visiones del Pueblo" formed one of the most fanciful and fascinating exhibits in town, composed of whimsical miniature amusement parks, towering papier-mache parade figures, religious objects, toys and more, all culled from seventeen Latin American countries. Fun, beautiful and bursting with color, the show had enough variety to amuse and amaze people of all ages--so much, in fact, that the works had to be divvied up between the two museums. It was a great boost for the Museo, one of the city's hidden treasures, and a perfect match for the DAM, which already boasts fine pre-Columbian and Spanish Colonial collections.

end of part 2