Rattlebrain Theater should have everything it needs to become a destination for the young and hip, a thronged local hot spot, the kind of place no in-the-know visitor to Denver would think of missing. It’s in a great location: the old D&F clock tower, slap-bang in the middle of the…
Robert De Niro always did love an acting challenge, but lately those challenges have been less along the lines of “Can I convincingly play a boxer?” and more like “Can I alone be good enough to make this formulaic mess worth watching?” Yes, it was impressive that he played a…
Transcribed verbatim from the DVD commentary track of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, here’s an informative sci-fi concept from director George Lucas: “…as we go through the movie, there’s all little funny moments like Jango bumping his head because in Star Wars one of the Stormtroopers bumps…
Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935) is rightly famous (and notorious) as the most powerful propaganda film ever made: a documentary account of the Nazis’ massive, staged-for-the-camera Nuremberg rallies of 1934. The film glorifies Adolf Hitler and propagates the myth of German “purity” so skillfully that to this day…
Push open the creaky picket-fenced gate at the Pearce-McAllister Cottage, walk up the garland-adorned porch steps and step through the front door into a bygone era. You can almost smell the cookies baking in the kitchen and see Dad in the parlor with his pipe and evening paper. Located in…
“When I was a little kid, surfing and practicing drums, it was like, ‘Man, I want to be on a tour bus,'” laughs Innocent Criminals drummer Dean Butterworth near the start of the new documentary Pleasure and Pain . “Now it’s like that’s all I do is live on a…
It seems like folks don’t make as much of a fuss as they used to over World AIDS Day, observed annually on December 1. It’s particularly true in the local art world, where “day without art” exhibits used to be more prominent. Is it just a phase provoked by the…
Say you already loved shopping at Miss Talulah’s, Robin Lohre’s funky-chic Ballpark neighborhood boutique. But then you grew up and had a kid. In a way, Lohre did the same when she opened her second shop, Talulah Jones, last summer at 1122 E. 17th Avenue, in Denver’s burgeoning Uptown district…
More than any other fine-art medium, photography presents itself in myriad guises. It plays a variety of roles, depending on the context. In fact, the vast majority of photographs are not works of art at all — not because they’re badly done (well, not only that), but because they were…
Rokko Aoyama lives in northern Colorado, but it’s her former homeland, Japan, that gives her conceptual sculptures and installations their decidedly foreign flavor. Many of Aoyama’s works in Visual Itch, now at Artyard Gallery (1251 South Pearl Street, 303-777-3219), include ovoid shapes inspired by Manju, a popular Japanese snack. The…
Nancy Cranbourne and Patti Dobrowolski, creators of the hysterically funny theater piece Two Woman Avoiding Involuntary Hospitalization, are a Boulder institution. Or perhaps I should say “treasure.” Their newest offering, Mrs. Schwartz and Dober: Show and Tell for Grownups, is the first act on a double bill at the Boulder…
Christ is sexy. There — got your attention. But honestly, think about it: nice guy, pretty hair, carpentry skills, puts loaves (and fishes) on the table. Plus all that doing miracles and rising from the dead and being the Son of God business. Heck, he’d be a prime catch for…
The smart sci-fi fan knows that, technically, Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris is not a remake of Andrei Tarkovsky’s film at all, but rather a newly filmed interpretation of a Polish novel penned by Stanislaw Lem. Nonetheless, the new film stands in a mighty big shadow. If someone attempted to make a…
John Ford’s beautifully crafted classic 1956 Western, The Searchers, opens Friday for a one-week run at Tamarac Square’s Madstone Theaters. This tale of a bitter Texan Civil War veteran named Ethan Edwards (ideally played by John Wayne) who undertakes a five-year search for a niece who’s been abducted by Indians…
I don’t cook. As a typical Gen X-er, my three meals a day consist of takeout, takeout and more takeout. So when I heard about Cook Street School of Fine Cooking’s class How to Boil Water, I knew it was for me. Cook Street offers a series of recreational cooking…
Full-frontal hairiness. Raw eggs hurtling through space. Showboating wiener dogs. While not exactly traditional rudiments of classic theater, all of the above can be found in a single occurrence of Freak Train, the Bug Theatre’s monthly drama/performance-art presentation. If you’re one of those people who eschew local theater as a…
If “Jingle Bells” gives you nightmares and the thought of mall traffic makes you break out in a cold sweat, we’ve got just the lecture for you: It’s called Stress Management for the Holidays, and it’s happening this Monday — plenty of time to get you calmed down before the…
‘Tis the season for galleries to push affordable art for the holidays, so Gilbert Barrera and Ivar Zeile of the Cordell Taylor Gallery, 2350 Lawrence Street, put their heads together in an effort to package the concept in brand-new wrapping paper. The result, an exhibit titled It¹s a Boy!, opens…
For the art scene in Colorado, the Denver Art Museum is the only big-league game around. It’s something akin to the Broncos, Rockies and Nuggets all rolled into one. When I first heard about the recently unveiled Retrospectacle, a salute to modern and contemporary art, I got a little nervous…
Zip 37 (3644 Navajo Street, 303-477-4525) is an artists’ co-op with an atmosphere that’s equal parts alternative space and tacky gift shop. Right now, there’s something special on display in the former: An Unwelcome Guest and Other New Paintings, an exhibit devoted to strangely compelling little pieces by emerging artist…
Two actors, a brother and sister, linger in the backstage area of a theater in a strange, unnamed country. There’s junky furniture, a round table with a painted rose at its center, a trunk covered with labels and a tall statue that could represent anything, godly or human, malevolent or…
I tried to watch English director Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on video once, but I gave up after thirty minutes or so. Maybe there’s something about the combination of wretched and unlikable protagonists, aimless activity, a snickering approach to violence and lots of splattered blood that’s…
