Paul the Apostle

There’s only one actor from generations past who can still make my heart skip a beat: Paul Newman. I’ve mourned him quietly since he passed away on September 26, because I’ve yet to find another leading man who can bring such nuance and conflict to a character — and no…

Collage Education

Just about anything local artist Lauri Lynnxe Murphy does is a-ok with me. Whether it’s making art, promoting art or teaching it, she’s always in the driver’s seat, full of purpose and brimming with creativity. And now she’s offering a class so propelled by what drives her that I (and…

Fine China

Some of my favorite Chinese New Year memories revolve around China’s many fantastic culinary contributions to the world: Buddha’s Delight, moon cakes, dumplings and any number of other treats. But while Chinese food may be the most easily accessible link to this holiday, the country’s traditional dance, song and other…

Dream Weavers

There are thirteen member societies at the non-profit TACtile Textile Arts Center, each of them specializing in arts as old as the hills, yet somehow completely contemporary in a time when doing for yourself is back in style. They embroider, tat, knit, bead, weave and quilt; know their way around…

Not-So-Secret Lives of Animals

One of Colorado’s more remarkable citizens, Dr. Temple Grandin first distinguished herself in her chosen field of animal science and as an advocate of humane treatment of animals. She went on to further garner attention as a best-selling author and lecturer, unique in that she is also autistic and unafraid…

Heart Beat

Valentines go 3D – with an added Latin inspiration – when the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council hosts its annual fundraiser, Milagros del Corazon, a laid-back evening of classical guitar music, snacks, drinks and bidding scheduled this year for Friday, February 13. But the event’s lifeblood must circulate through your…

Fin Art

It’s a well-known fact that behind every great artist’s print, there’s usually a great printmaker to serve as master technician, problem-solver and perhaps as a muse, as well. We Coloradans have been lucky enough to count one of them, Bud Shark of Shark’s Ink studio in Lyons, as one our…

Get Your Kicks Here

When’s the last time you saw a musical that just stood right up and kicked its gams in your face and screamed, “Broadway!” to the rafters? When I saw Chicago last night at the Buell Theatre, I thought I’d died and gone to the Great White Way, clutching a top…

A new Robischon exhibit explores the edges of abstraction

For most of the past hundred years, the terms “abstraction” and “contemporary” were more or less synonymous when it came to fine art. In the last twenty years, however, conceptual realism and other non-abstract approaches have come to dominate the field. But despite the constant challenges abstraction has faced, it…

Now Showing

Damien Hirst. You’d have to be living under a rock — or have absolutely no interest in contemporary art — not to know that Damien Hirst is a superstar, and that everything he makes is worth millions of dollars apiece. The tight solo at MCA Denver (formerly known as the…

Give Gemma Wilcox a hand for 52 Pick-Up

Gemma Wilcox has developed a considerable following with her series of related, fantastical and original one-woman shows. These have played around the United States and Canada, as well as at the Boulder Fringe Festival, winning several awards along the way. So the theater was full for the opening of her…

Inkheart

Brendan “Kids’ Choice” Fraser returns to the multiplex daycare as “Mo” Folchart, antiquarian-book-repairman-cum-adventurer. In Inkheart’s opening chapter, he’s identified as a member of a race of “Silvertongues” — those who, when they read aloud, can suck people out of and into the texts they’re reciting from. Mo has abstained from…

Now Playing

Doubt. Set in 1964, when the second Vatican Council was convening, John Patrick Shanley’s play follows a priest who may have molested a twelve-year-old boy — who just happens to be the sole black kid in the predominantly Irish and Italian school where the priest teaches — and the nun…

Serious Series

Good grief — what a production! It took about 175 actors, writers, crew, support professionals and musicians to come up with this original television mini-series, which premieres on Rocky Mountain PBS/Channel 6 tonight. The thirty-minute ‘dramedy,’ called Good Grief, is about the lives of three Hispanic sisters who run a…

Mix It Up

Fulfill your yearning for the sounds of futures past tonight at Explicit Electronica, a showcase for Marcel Peelen’s Music From the Future project, an unapologetic celebration of the synthesizer in all its squelchy, sci-fi-sound-effect glory. “I kind of got the idea from commercials for shows where you’ll see warnings for…

Cosmos-Politan

City dwellers aren’t exactly known for their balanced, peaceful demeanors. After all, what is it to be “urban” if you can’t be tough, cynical and not particularly inward-looking? Save the hippie stuff for the country, homie. Who has time for self-discovery with bills, rent, traffic, bums, cops and general downtown…

Hotel Boulderado Tea and Tour

Colorado has its fair share of beautiful Victorian buildings, and today from 1 to 3:30 p.m., you can peruse one of the finest at the Hotel Boulderado 100th Birthday Tea and Tour. “It’s such a venerable grand dame of hotels,” says Bobbe Hultin, tour director for the Colorado Historical Society,…

Home Run

If the Colorado Rockies’ season opener is your only game of the year, or if you can only afford Rockpile tickets, or if you just go for the hot dogs — basically, if you don’t bleed purple-and-white (and dead presidents) — then the first annual Rockies Fest is a little…

Beer and Cheer

Don’t be misled. The Winter Brew Fest isn’t a sudsy get-together featuring winter releases from microbreweries; it’s a festival that takes place in the winter and features craft beers. “Winter brews are encouraged, but we’re not focused on that. We don’t want to limit our festival in that way,” says…

The Stuff of Stuff

Local burlesquer Michelle Baldwin has known a lot of driven people: One guy she knew had only five things in his house for a time; another couple of collectors were finally so freaked by how much stuff they had that they purged it all from their house. But her friend…

On the Dunny

What’s three inches tall, cute as hell and one of the hottest collectibles on the planet right now? If your answer includes the word Kidrobot, you already know all about the impossibly cool wonders of Dunnies. If not, tonight’s your chance to learn all about it at the Plastic Chapel…

Thou Art in Heaven

Hear me, O comics nerds and graphic-novel snobs: The Messiah cometh! And he’ll bring with him a large screen and a catalogue of comics lore the likes of which have never been unleashed in these hills before. As one of your ranks, believers, my heart poundeth at the very mention…