Monumental Art

SAT 4/26 Lest you forget that outgoing Mayor Wellington Webb and his wife, Wilma, are prime movers behind the new Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, take a look at the mural inside the arched, interior lobby.When the three-story brick library at 2401 Welton Street celebrates its grand opening at ten…

What a Knockout!

SAT 4/26 Punching, kicking, knockouts and more! Today, top karate practitioners from near and far will gather in Denver for the annual Sabaki Challenge 2003: Extreme Knockdown Karate. “The action is going to be really intense,” says Ed Voranski, the event’s promoter. “There is a lot of technique and strategy…

Toe Heads

TUES 4/29 Savion Glover, move on over: You can’t be a phenom forever. It’s time to make way for the stars of Tap Kids, a touring show featuring a unique national cast of nine remarkable kids between the ages of ten and nineteen who earned their spots by dancing circles…

Skivvie Skinny

FRI 4/25 These days, billboards, magazines and even local newspapers are filled with pictures of curvy models in push-up bras and tiny panties, but a hundred years ago, “undies” were “unmentionables.” One Denver man is taking us back to our underwear roots (though not as far back as the loincloth,…

Springy Time

SAT 4/26 Three cheers for choreographer Deborah Reshotko’s Speaking of Dance: The local company has bravely squeaked through ten years on the planet — not a bad track record in a state that trails the nation in arts funding. But successes of this sort don’t come without a modicum of…

Sprouting Up

The morning of April 9 was absolutely flawless here in Denver, with the temperature hovering in the mid-sixties under a stunningly clear blue Colorado-brand sky. On that perfect day, several hundred people had gathered in the former parking lot at 13th Avenue and Acoma Street to witness a celebration of…

Artbeat

Further evidence of the widespread representational painting craze that is all the rage right now is The Price of Illusion, a duet that features works by Denver painter Wes Magyar and those of nationally known Arizona painter Beverly McIver. The exhibit is the main attraction at the enormous Judish Fine…

Women of Courage

It’s hard to know what there is left to say about the Holocaust. Or how one begins to evoke its horror on stage. The concentration camps have become iconic as the subject of countless memoirs, histories, artworks, films and television movies; they’re used to justify or condemn all kinds of…

No Victory

Victor/Victoria, which made its first appearance in 1982 as a movie starring Robert Preston and Julie Andrews, was daring in its day. Set in 1930s Paris, it’s a mixture of sophistication and nostalgia, a gentle, funny exploration of sex roles told in songs and skits and held together by a…

The Gulf Between

A few things learned from the memoirs of Marines who served in Gulf War I: They’re more terrified of being killed by friendly fire than enemy artillery; they’re bored brainless most of the time; they harbor fantasies of being shot, but never somewhere too painful or where it might inflict…

Dig It

The Harry Potter phenomenon — on the page, in the movies, at the bank — has aroused in publishers and studio heads alike a sudden new appreciation for our children’s needs. These people understand that no consumer is more motivated than the parent of a kid in the heat of…

Not a Gas

I’ll just admit this up front: My ideal concept of musical comedy involves Bryan Adams and Dave Matthews garroting each other on stage with their own damnable guitar strings. Nonetheless, even viewers with a more centrist appreciation of the genre may feel disappointed by this friendly new folk-music curiosity called…

Uncool as Ice

Can we please, for the love of God, declare a moratorium on the use of Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music” on the soundtrack of any and all movies? (While we’re at it, “We Want the Funk” can go, too.) At the very least, if the plot of the movie…

Flick Pick

I don’t know about you, but I love Billy Ray Valentine. Whenever Trading Places pops up on the boob tube, I tune in to watch the ebullient Eddie Murphy in one of his most uproarious performances and what could be his most deftly directed comedy. A penniless street hustler refurbished…

Tough Toque

Cooking School of the Rockies teacher Jason Aili is talking about the upcoming Battle of the Chefs contest between him and the Vesta Dipping Grill’s Matt Selby: “For me, it’s not as much a competition with him as with myself,” he explains. “If he’s better, I’ll try to pick his…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

Thursday, April 17 Most of us probably don’t know that the City of Englewood, an ordinary urban ‘burb, is leading up to a big centennial celebration next month. But its inhabitants know that the town is a unique mixed bag of high and low culture, and that’s exactly what you’ll…

Pan African Images

Ashara Ekundayo knows full well that there’s more to people of African descent than what’s on view at the typical multiplex. “If the only thing you see of yourself is what Hollywood wants to sell you,” says Ekundayo, who founded the Starz Denver Pan African Film Festival, “you don’t get…

Fantasy Rules

FRI 4/18 Harry Potter, meet Frodo Baggins. And while you two are getting chummy, make room for R2D2 and a Renaissance juggler. Oh, and did you remember to bring your swords, wands and battle-axes? Because at the first-ever Opus: A Fantasy Arts Festival, anything fantastic goes. “It’s an escape,” says…

Belly, Belly Good

Ladies, if your significant other has been pestering you to do a sexy little foreplay number for him, forget the stripper pole and tassels and try Belly Dancing With Dahlia instead. Contrary to popular belief, hip shaking is not a lost art.”You’ll just fall in love with the dance,” promises…

Egg Roll to Go

SAT 4/19 Granted, northwest Denver resident Timber Dick is running for city council, but put that aside: Dick and his extended Tillemann-Dick family are good sports to host the first Great Northwest White House Egg Roll on their own front lawn. What is an Easter-egg roll, anyway? “It’s this rather…

Deadly Diet

WED 4/23 Jennifer Hendricks, a 25-year-old Denver woman who lost her battle with anorexia in 1998, weighed only 45 pounds when she died. Slim to None: A Journey Through the Wasteland of Anorexia Treatment, is the story of her tragic suffering.”It took three weeks for my body to shut down,”…

Spiking Poetry

SAT 4/19 Naropa University graduate and poet Mary Kite says she doesn’t like things to be too easy, and that credo is made even clearer by the projects she willingly takes on: In addition to helping compile Naropa’s massive Audio Archive Project of recorded poetry performances, Kite is also at…