The recent wildfires in Colorado left several communities across the state grappling with profound losses, and Jacob Custer and his partner, Erin Sweeney, wanted to help. Enter Cease Fire, a local-centered music and art show happening today at the Oriental Theater. Although he wasn’t directly affected by the tragedy, Custer…
For her latest endeavor, Fallene Wells went big: She launched a $20,000 Kickstarter campaign to fund her Modern Nouveau line. Fans of Fallene’s work came through, the designer reached her goal, and on August 24, she will debut her fall mix-match collection at Walker Fine Art Gallery, in a solo,…
At this past weekend’s UMS music festival, my band was asked to lead the audience at 3 Kings Tavern in a moment of silence for the victims of the Aurora theater shootings. Into a microphone I usually use for inappropriate jokes and crowd prodding, I stumbled through the announcement, asking…
When it comes to art and bicycles, Ivar Zeile knows how to keep the wheels turning. The owner of Plus Gallery, Zeile — who was in charge of curating last year’s inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge bike art installation — is taking the project for another spin, as Colorado again…
Now in its fourth year, the Cinema Q Festival at the Denver FilmCenter showcases the many sides of GLBTQ film, with movies that capture everything from social-justice issues to stunningly accurate portrayals of everyday queer life. More than a dozen films, handpicked by programming director Keith Garcia, will be shown…
Austin, Texas weirdo Paul Soileau has done the drag thing: Within the confines of heels and pearls, the performer has seen plenty of success under the Rebecca Havemeyer moniker. But Soileau desired more for himself and the stage, and after scratching just below his own performance surface, he found Christeene…
If you take the idea of mainstream drag, douse it in raw sewage and draw lipstick on its teeth, you’ve got Christeene Vale. Just one of performer Paul Soileau’s many personas, Christeene is a queen on a mission — to sing, dance, spit and make her adoring fans as uncomfortable…
Reed Weimer has been integral to the Navajo Street Arts District since its unofficial birth in the early ’80s. He and his wife, Chandler Romeo, have worked side-by-side as both artists and landlords in this now-thriving art scene. Weimer — whose paintings and prints hang in the Denver Art Museum,…
Over the past decade, Denver has shown that it’s a city where independent entrepreneurs can thrive. And in this successful climate, the women behind Colorado-based company eMperfumes smelled opportunity. Tired of the retail grind, FolieM President Kristin Clift and friends Roxanne Maine, Avery-Lynn Osborne and Jessica Stone (a later addition)…
See Also: – Best of Denver 2012: Girls Rock Denver Showcase, Best Place To See Grrrls Rock Out – Recent reforms have Guitar Center playing a new tune – Five reason to volunteer for Girls Rock Denver Last week, Girls Rock Denver put on its annual summer camp and finale…
The Hopeless Pickles of Pizazz was the best band at Girls Rock Denver’s annual summer camp this year. But I would be lying if I didn’t immediately acknowledge my own bias: This band of eight- and nine-year-old girls was coached by me and fellow Westword contributor Robin Edwards. Seriously, though,…
Best known as ’70s punk pioneer and frontwoman of The Bags, Alice Bag — born Alicia Armendariz — had a hand in pushing women to the front of the musical movement. Though history memorializes bands like The Germs and Fear as the dominating acts of the East Los Angeles scene…
Twelve years ago, Stevyn Prothero inherited a hefty stack of nude photographs taken by beatnik photographer John B. Post. Originally though, Prothero — known by the moniker Iron Feather, a longtime online store and former-Denver book and zine retailer — was called upon to check out the contents of Post’s…
While punk’s ethos and aesthetic left a culture-shifting legacy, the women of this global music scene have often been left out of the historical picture. Punk pioneer, feminist and Chicana activist Alice Bag began telling her part of that story with the release of last year’s autobiography Violence Girl; she’ll…
Coco Chanel once said, “A woman who doesn’t wear perfume has no future.” I ensured my future when I married my perfume in 2008…literally. Since I had to spend a year jumping through the FBI’s hoops to have my last name legally changed to Davies, I decided to add a…
The record-breaking heat Colorado is experiencing are effecting everyone this season, but Mission Supports founder Arnie Swenson really sees it in his clients. As head of a non-profit that supports adults with intellectual and mental disabilities, Swenson knows the stress that many of these people are under without proper care…
For Lisa Cook and Jason Hitchcock, it took just one awful experience to plant the seed for an artistic collaborative dream. “A few months ago, Jason was working for a really horrible, sexist magazine,” says Cook. Not long after the artist quit doing design work for the unnamed publication, he…
In the new movie from Jay and Mark Duplass, The Do-Deca-Penathlon, two brothers unearth a decades-old challenge that, for unknown reasons, went unfinished. The fictional brothers quickly revert from semi-adults to flailing opponents as they laser-tag it out in a race for childhood glory. But the creative team of brothers…
Jenny Morgan: Kith and Kin, at Plus Gallery, will focus first and foremost on the painter’s work, but also on her longstanding relationship with Plus. Morgan happens to have been the very first intern at the then-fledgling space in 2003; since then, her relationship with gallery owner Ivar Zeile has…
In The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, the latest film by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, two adult siblings go head-to-head to determine the winner of a long-lost childhood competition. But this isn’t just the revival of an old rivalry: Fictional brethren Jeremy (played by Mark Kelly) and Mark (Steve Zissis) use the backdrop…
Are we the only country in the world that dresses up like the country’s own flag to celebrate independence? It seems strange that we would honor the U.S.A. by draping ourselves with trashy, mocking versions of our own global visual representation — but that’s what we do. And while I…
Although the Fourth of July will be short of official fireworks shows — and private use of fireworks has been completely banned in Colorado — there will be ample opportunities to celebrate the country’s birthday across the state over the next few days. Here are just some of the events…
