Escargot and mimes aside, the United States could stand to take a cue from France. Here we boil twelve lovely days of Christmas down to one big blowout and a lame ditty about pipers piping and lords a-leaping. But overseas, the French do it right. The Fête des Rois —…
Everybody loves the underdog, and we can all relate to the misunderstood. It’s those very sentiments that might explain the longevity of Boulder’s cyclical MahlerFest, an annual symposium and concert series dreamed up by artistic director Robert Olson more than twenty years ago. The event — a tribute to that…
When John Harlin III first decided to tackle the Eiger (an Alpine mountain often translated as “the ogre”), he didn’t plan on his journey becoming the focus of the latest IMAX film to hit the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, The Alps. Harlin’s father, a mountaineering legend and pioneer…
What do you get when you combine High School Musical and Bring It On, minus the unhealthy levels of raging teenage hormones? The Rocky Mountain Theatre Association’s Festivention, an annual convention of theater groups from Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah. This year’s event, which begins today in Lakewood, will…
A “big beer” is not defined by the size of the mug or bottle, according to the experimental brewers and beer lovers behind the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival that kicks off tonight in Vail. The “big” is for the alcohol content — a minimum of 7 percent by…
Guys are jerks — and all too often, the jerkiest guys are the ones girls find irresistible. Every girl knows it, but what to do about it? For the heroine of Fool’s Gold, by up-and-coming Colorado manga artist Amy Reeder Hadley, the traditional “eat ice cream, have a good cry,…
I’m a fiction junkie, and I read anything I can get my hands on. That said, you’ll comprehend the gravity of the following statement: One of my all-time favorite stories is that of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the authority-bucking, prostitute-befriending, lovable felon who turns Nurse Ratched’s ward in the insane asylum…
“We’re embracing our un-Hollywoodness,” says Jonathan Goldman, director of FESTIVUS, a new film festival unspooling tonight. “A lot of festivals get their programming from other festivals. But the only thing that determines if someone is in or out of FESTIVUS is the quality of the films.” According to Goldman, FESTIVUS,…
“My goal this year is to get more men to come and see the films,” notes Colleen Cooke, organizer of LunaFest, a movie festival taking place tonight in Boulder. “A lot of them think all the films will be negative toward men, but they’re not.” Luna, which makes nutrition bars…
The Christmas before last, my significant other bought us a matching set of snowshoes, with visions of snowflakes and canteens filled with hot cocoa dancing in her head. A year later, we’ve resolved to actually use them. Lucky for us, Colorado is part of Winter Trails, a free national winter-sports…
It could have been jazz, ballet or hip-hop, but my all-American daughter is a Chinese dancer, in love with the rustling costumes, blingy props and mannered, graceful steps that form the foundation of the traditional genre. Generally a group effort, the form sports a classically based choreography all its own,…
Kent Thompson’s Denver Center Theatre Company will do things big in the new year: The DCTC hits the ground running this month with three commissioned world premieres in a row, in conjunction with the annual Colorado New Play Summit coming up in mid-February. It’s all part of Thompson’s quest to…
There’s no art more cutting-edge than the astonishing landslide of contemporary works coming from China. Fueled by the nation’s political segue out of the Cultural Revolution and into a contemporary climate of industrialization and free trade, China’s artists are documenting, protesting and commenting on rapid change in unique ways that…
Recently, my pal Danielle convinced me to take a class called Cardio Tease and Tone at Tease Studio (1111 South Pearl Street), which offers pole classes and Pussycat Dolls-style burlesque workshops. “It’s for toning all the parts you tease with,” Danielle explained. As a burlesque dancer, this appealed to me,…
When my friends from back east talk about Denver, they come up with some pretty diverse images that often include ski vacations, canceled flights, Red Rocks and microbrews. However, never in anyone’s buck-wildest imagination would they expect to see thirty Longhorn steer driven down fourteen blocks of 17th Street in…
Television has just gotten bigger. The 150″ plasma Panasonic was unveiled this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It’s approximately eight feet by eleven feet, which means that it’s pretty much your living room wall. And if you buy one, you’re contractually obligated to change your name…
Well, they’re back. And two, at least, are bushy. David Letterman and Conan O’Brien returned to the air Wednesday night, each sporting a strike-beard, which apparently is a thing. Why, exactly, I don’t know. On Conan, it actually worked—it lent him a sort of gravitas, sort of a young Obi-Wan…
Here’s the question: should, in fact, old acquaintance be forgot? Has the venerable New Year’s Rockin’ Eve run its course? This isn’t so much about Dick Clark, or whether he’s ready for the pasture. He’s not. He never will be. Despite a massive stroke in 2004, which caused him to…
A great brooding thundercloud of a movie, Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood arrives as if from nowhere on a gust of critical acclaim, lowering over a landscape of barren mesas and hot, scrubby hills. Anderson’s epic, no less than his career, is both fearfully grandiose and wonderfully eccentric…
The story of how The Kite Runner’s Homayoun Ershadi got into movies is a bit like those fanciful tales of stars and starlets discovered by casting agents while sitting at the soda counter in Schwab’s Pharmacy. Only, in Ershadi’s case, he was driving his Range Rover through the streets of…
The fiftieth anniversary year of On the Road, Jack Kerouac’s classic, is officially over — but Jack is back. From 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Tuesday, January 8, the Denver Public Library’s fabulous Fresh City Life program will host the inaugural session of Stories That Could Be True, a…
After all the subtle hints, secret wishes and midnight prayers, it finally happened: Your man proposed. It was so romantic. The dinner that night was delicious, the wine was heady and the ring was perfect. And now that you’ve gotten your heart’s desire, the hard part begins. You have to…
