It’s a Wonderful Life is “one of the classic Christmas stories,” notes Rod A. Lansberry, artistic producer at the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities. That’s why this year, the Arvada Center is wholeheartedly embracing the holiday spirit and producing a stage version of the tale of George Bailey…
When self-pity is easier than humor, laughter is suddenly invested with a courageous strength of character. That’s what makes VOX PHAMALIA: Tales From the Crips such an extraordinary event. Written by eight physically disabled writers, Tales takes an honest and darkly funny look at what it’s like living with a…
Many folks aren’t huge fans of illusions, manipulations and being tricked. But when it’s under the umbrella of the wondrous thing that is magic, we’re drawn like moths to a flame. Who doesn’t enjoy magic tricks? Whether it’s “got yer nose,” sawing a lady in half or reading minds, the…
Bust out the gold lamé hot pants and French maid outfits, because The Rocky Horror Picture Show Experience is alive and well in Denver at Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe Street. Come down and thrill to the ultra-campy cult favorite, indulge in its elaborate audience-participation rituals and dance the Time…
You might be thinking about hopping on the local-food bandwagon, but how do you launch such a daunting project as winter approaches? By attending the Cornucopia of Local, an indoor/outdoor farmer’s market with live music, presentations, displays and more, hosted by the Boulder County Farmers’ Market, Boulder Independent Business Alliance,…
Arguably my favorite aspect of the holiday season is that it’s also home-tour season. What could be more fun than strolling through someone else’s beautifully decorated home, soaking up the atmosphere of cheer and goodwill? And the granddaddy of Denver holiday home tours is back for the 32nd year running:…
Chris Armijo’s whimsical and often beautiful light fixtures take functionality to a whole new level: Fashioned from such everyday plastic items as paper clips and Wiffle balls, they represent the collaborative spirit of the Downtown Aurora Visual Arts gallery’s holiday show, Luz: a little bit of light in a big,…
History is never very tidy. Technically, we could have celebrated Denver’s 150th anniversary on September 24, the day in 1858 when William McGaa and other min-ers founded St. Charles on the northeast side of Cherry Creek. Or on November 1, when William Russell founded a competing settlement, Auraria, on the…
Small could just be another way of saying “affordable” where artworks are concerned, but in the case of WEE: A Small Works Photo Show, which opens today at FLASH, A Working With Artists space in Belmar, gallery spokeswoman Valerie Photogoddess thinks there’s more to it. “Small images are asking something…
36 Hours of Keystone, we hardly knew ye, brah. For four years, we had to ingest an arsenal of trucker speed and energy drinks in order to shred groomers at 4 a.m. and chillax with local brews and live music for a day and a half straight. It was brutal!…
Do you like to savor a good sauvignon? Does the mention of pinot perk you right up? Then the tenth annual Beaujolais & Beyond Festival is for you. Don’t speak French? No problem. All you need is one handy little phrase: Vin rouge/blanc, s’il vous plait (“Red/white wine, please”). The…
When it comes to tea, I’m undeniably spoiled. My father used to take frequent business trips to China, and he’d return laden with loose-leaf greens, blacks and oolongs that tingle the tongue. And now it’s possible to get high-quality Chinese tea right here in Denver: You’ll find it at Seven…
What goes around comes around, and as the contemporary success of neo-burlesquers, jug bands, Gypsy jazz and vaudevillian revivalists proves, old-timey is new-timey for a whole new generation of strongmen and tattooed ladies. So it’s the perfect time for a band like the Wiyos, a new York City-based acoustic string…
Nothing says vampire like blood, so celebrate the release of the sure-to-be megahit Twilight — a teen-angst melodrama about vampires in high school — by giving up some of your precious bodily fluid for a good cause. The Cinebarre Theater, 10001 Grant Street in Thornton, is sponsoring a blood drive…
The art tidal wave that’s hit Denver in the past few years hasn’t just led to a museum-building boom. It has also led to an explosion of galleries. I haven’t sat down to count all the commercial art venues in town, but I know it numbers more than a hundred…
Performance art, which has been around since the early twentieth century, is pointedly non-commercial because it’s so ephemeral. It literally comes and goes with little remaining but memories — and a few photos and props. It’s the opposite of object-based art and has as much or more to do with…
Adam Helms. This solo in the MCA’s Paper Works Gallery is the New York artist’s first museum show anywhere. In his works on paper and in a monumental sculpture that conjures up a shooting blind, Helms explores political themes, especially armed struggle. He takes images of different radical and extremist…
Fat Pig. Neil LaBute’s plays are nasty, but they usually contain subtext, irony and ambiguity. Fat Pig has none of these. It’s flat and thin, a straightforward, almost schematic story with a quivering pink core. Tom, a shallow careerist male of the kind we remember from In the Company of…
Three misfit high school students in Salem, Oregon, come together on the debate society. Solomon longs to be a professional reporter and wants to reveal the right-wing mayor’s pederast activities in the school newspaper; Howie, a transfer student anxious to create a gay-straight alliance, is frustrated by his inability to…
Those of us who adored Casino Royale, the 2006 reboot of the haggard, self-parodic James Bond franchise, had some trouble trying to decide where to place it among the series’ finest. Was it better than Goldfinger? Probably not, but close. The Spy Who Loved Me? Maybe so. From Russia With…
If you traveled the length of John Malkovich’s medulla oblongata, hung a sharp left at the desk where Beckett’s Krapp recorded his last tape and walked through the adjoining door of the interstellar hotel room at the end of 2001, you might end up somewhere in the vicinity of Charlie…
It’s that time again. The white stuff is building into a thick blanket over Denver’s backyard playground, and Westword is here to remind you how lucky you are to live in Colorado. In The Edge, area insiders offer advice on where to find the sickest powder stashes you never knew…
