Jason Isbell tonight at Twist and Shout

Be sure to twist and shout your way to, well, Twist and Shout Records, 2508 East Colfax Avenue, to see an in-store performance by ex-Drive By Trucker Jason Isbell. Isbell — possibly the most soulful white boy around — is a whiskey-drenched phenomenon of a musician who will play a…

Expose Yourself

Earlier this week, we talked about how Northern Exposure is airing on KBDI-Channel 12 Monday through Thursday nights at 7PM. But what’s the big deal? Why does this nearly twenty-year-old television series merit not one but two blogs? Ah, my friend, I’d give it ten, if I could. (One on…

Frock Out Denver Unveiled

Check out a slide show of Frock Out. For the past few months, twelve Denver fashion designers have been hard at work creating their own version of Project Runway, and now a piece by each of these talented tailors is on display at the Denver Public Library’s Central Branch for…

Best of Westword Winners: 1989

In 1989, Westword published its sixth Best of Denver issue, a celebration of the city that saluted everything from perennial favorites Pirate, El Chapultepec and John Elway to the Best New Screen (the just-renovated Esquire), the Best Place to Get on Track (Caboose Hobbies, where pint-sized star Gary Coleman had…

Screening Tonight at the Starz Denver Film Festival

You’ve got nothing to do tonight, right? Skip another night of must-see TV and head over to the best Denver cultural event of the year, the Denver Film Festival. We’ve compiled some reviews and profiles of filmmakers and suggest, if you can, that you check out one of the following…

Festival Dailies: The Memory Thief

The Memory Thief Director: Gil Kofman It’s going to take a long time to digest this film. For me, the entire experience was thrown off by the woman in front of offering information on her colonoscopy to no one in particular. Shortly after that, Songbird, the short film from director…

Film Festival Profiles: Iron Ladies of Liberia

Iron Ladies of Liberia Directors: Daniel Junge and Siatta Scott-Johnson When Denver-based documentary director Daniel Junge and producer Henry Ansbacher first contacted newly elected Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (who, among other degrees, received a masters in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1970), they were told their…

Random Thoughts On Five Songs While I Pretend To Work

“Light Your Windows” Quicksilver Messenger Service One of the most interesting run-ins with a drunk I ever had was in San Francisco. My fiancee’s father insisted that, while vacationing there a few years ago, we stop into a bar called The Saloon. Built during the Civil War, The Saloon is…

Sippin’ On Some Sizzurp

It started off as an e-mail thread conversation with some former coworkers about absinthe. We went back and forth for a while on the best way to get, prepare and truly enjoy the wormwood wonder before I reached way back into my toxic past to summon the best liquid buzzes…

The Iron Age

When Denver-based documentary director Daniel Junge and producer Henry Ansbacher first contacted newly elected Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (who earned a masters in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1970, among other degrees), they were told their documentary crew could have two weeks of access. Two weeks…

Q&A with Zach Galifianakis

Westword’s resident funny man recently sat down at a computer to send questions via e-mail to Zach Galifianakis, who sat down at a computer to answer them. Though he may have stood. The following is the correspondence: Westword (Adam Cayton-Holland): Hey, Zach, Adam Cayton-Holland here, writer for the free alt-weekly…

Film Festival Profile: Last Hat In Town

Last Hat in Town Director: Zachary Fink Remaining showtime: 12:30 p.m., Sunday, November 18 Told through the stories of three men with three unique and intimiate ties to the rugged business of oil and gas extraction in the Rocky Mountain West, director Zachary Fink’s documentary Last Hat in Town uses…

Northern Exposure Reruns A Cure For Writers Strike Blues

Great shows never die; they just move to cable. And, sometimes, to PBS. KBDI Channel 12 is into its second run of the full Northern Exposure series, which originally ran from 1990 to 1995 on CBS. After spending some time on cable’s A&E channel, in the “Daybreak” spot (where it…

This Day In Colorado Rockies History

It’s a strange day for Rockies fans. Our delegation to the House of Representatives in D.C., upon hearing that the Massachusetts delegation had introduced a resolution honoring the Boston Red Sox, decided they would draft their own touchy-feely, this-land-is-your-land-this-land-is-my-land, version of orange slices and group hugs after a little-league loss…

Howard Dean: Political Powerhouse Or Social Outcast?

We need help with a caption for this photo of Howard Dean at today’s media walk-through of the Pepsi Center in Denver for the upcoming Democratic National Convention. In the comments section below, post your suggestion for the most apt caption…

Film Festival Profile: Skills Like This

The world’s worst writer has had enough. Tormented by the knowledge that he will never make it as a playwright, he abandons his primary passion for a more lucrative trade at which he finds he has a natural talent: Robbing banks. And this spur-of-the-moment act of desperation changes his life…

Delegating Denver #17 of 56: Illinois

View larger image Illinois Total Number of Delegates: 185 Pledged: 153 Unpledged: 32 How to Recognize an Illinois Delegate: Since October 12, 2007, Illinois state law requires all children to observe a moment of silence at the start of every school day. This is not some wishy-washy compromise cooked up…

Film Festival Profile: Mountain Town

Mountain Town Director: Brendan Kiernan and Frank Pickell Cinematographer: Jasper Gray Show times: Monday, November 12, 6:15 p.m.; Wednesday, November 14, 8:30 p.m.; Sunday, November 18, 5:30 p.m. Pick path, pursue it to the exclusion of everything else, and the universe will conspire with you to make things happen. Even…

O Brother, Where for Art Coen?

A recent posting on the Starz Denver Film Festival website announced that a “mystery screening” has been added to the roster to play at the Esquire Theatre at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, November 13. What might be concealed inside this feature-length grab bag? Well, the blurb says the language is…

Denver Film Festival Dailies: End of the Line

OK, there are some weird signs that things in the world aren’t right. And a group of religious fanatics pointing to those signs. And a subway train. Plus, of course, a small group of “normal” people just trying to get home. Add these together, add some cheap blood and gore,…

Denver Film Festival Dailies: Oswald’s Ghost

The JFK assassination is probably the best-covered event in pre-9/11 American history and the documentary Oswald’s Ghost is director Robert Stone’s another take on it. As documentaries go, it’s fairly entertaining, but it lacks a strong message or narrative thrust. It builds a case that Oswald could have done it…