If you thought the billionaire played by Steve Carell in Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher was eerie, please allow me to introduce you to the real John du Pont. A dangerous concoction of lonely and paranoid, du Pont was blessed with money and mobility and cursed with the kind of childhood that…
On the surface, there has been a lot of forward movement on television for black women. We’re now able to see an incredible breadth of black female characters, including Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) on Empire, Rosalee (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) on Underground and Dr. Rainbow Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross) on Black-ish…
It’s been two weeks (or a little over eleven hours and fourteen days as “Nothing Compares 2 U” lovingly time stamps) since we lost our sweet Prince, and many of us have worn out our DVDs and VHS copies of Purple Rain. That film, though based on Prince’s life, was written…
Guests danced the night away in a galaxy far, far away — right here in Denver — for Point Gallery’s May the Fourth Art War! salute to all things Star Wars. The evening included photo ops galore for costumed galactic characters and creatures, along with Star Wars art on the…
Every good thing has a dark side. That’s especially true of Star Wars lore, which served as a special May the Fourth theme for Milk Bar’s weekly Alt Goth Night, with DJ Slave1 and guest spinners DJs Tower and Bloodline adding some galactic tunes to the mix. All photos by…
Doug Benson, comedy’s stoner laureate, defies the facile stereotype that weed makes you slothful and unmotivated. Despite being a habitual wake and baker, Benson currently runs two live podcasts, spends a healthy percentage of every year working the road, has starred in three documentaries and released an album and live…
May 6 is a pretty wild day, since it’s National Beverage Day as well as International No Diet Day. It’s also the day that kicks off the weekend, and there will be plenty of events to help you celebrate both beverages and no diets, as well as outdoor markets and live…
More than any other Denver co-op, Spark Gallery has held onto its members, some for decades. So it’s no surprise to find the two main rooms occupied by a pair of artists who are longtime members and veterans of the alternative scene: In the west gallery, there’s Sue Simon’s Anxiety, and…
Denver’s a pretty great film town, but that doesn’t mean that all of cinema’s many niches and genres are equally well represented. You can always catch a blockbuster film at any neighborhood multiplex, and plenty of arthouse, indie and repertory fare is available around town. But the weird stuff is…
New queen on the scene Jessica L’Whor gathered together every lady on Westword correspondent Keith Garcia’s January list of the Thirteen Freshest Faces of Denver Drag last Saturday at Charlie’s for a vision of the future of Denver drag. Photographer Ken Hamblin III documented the grand coming out with these images…
“Are you the woman in the photo sitting in the chair? I keep seeing these posters everywhere…” This Tweet from April 29 is buried in Ru Johnson’s Twitter feed by now, but it’s something the Denver writer and creative consultant has been hearing a lot in recent weeks. The now “buzzworthy”…
If Opera Colorado’s world premiere production of composer Lori Laitman’s adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, which debuts May 7 at the Ellie, is a hit with staying power, it may one day be thought of in the repertoire simply as “Laitman’s Scarlet Letter.” But opera is a team sport…
I like robots. That’s probably no surprise, if you’ve read this column once or twice. I like art, too. That might be a surprise, I suppose. But even if you were a little surprised at that, I bet your surprise would quickly evaporate when I told you the art I…
Shows in town right now include work by artists who haven’t exhibited here in some time — and they’re a welcome sight. That Was Then, This Is Now, conjoined solos at Goodwin Fine Art, pairs paintings by Mark Villarreal and Andy Berg; though both have lived in Colorado for decades…
This week on Denver stages, you can find everything from tongue-in-cheek local color to a play about origami in which love and life fold up into the plot. Or don your best chapeau to help ensure that women playwrights continue to be heard in the Mile High City. Here’s the…
In the back of his store, at the trestle tables set up for visiting artists, Wayne Winsett considers what it takes to make it for 32 years in the comics business. “It consumes you,” says the owner of Boulder’s Time Warp Comics & Cards. “You have to be wholly devoted…
As spring begins in earnest and Denverites bask in the long-awaited sunshine, our city’s parks and a variety of outdoor activities tend to outshine cultural pursuits. While little can compare to the allure of the natural beauty blooming us, the comedy calendar this May is pollinated with a series of…
Stephen Graham Jones is hungry. It’s early afternoon on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. Jones, in black boots and a black ponytail, sits in his cramped but cozy office, digging into a bag of fast-food burgers. The office has the rich, dusty smell of a used bookstore, which…
#81: Louise Martorano When original RedLine director P.J. D’Amico stepped down, veteran deputy Louise Martorano was there to take the reins, assuring that the art center’s mission of supporting artists while engaging all sectors of the community would continue to evolve and grow. Mission accomplished: All systems are go as…
I have never been good at naming things. I usually tend towards a one-word solution; my former shop, Pod, and gallery, Capsule, were prime examples of this propensity. It takes me hours to name a work of art, googling and reading etymology of words as I overthink. When it came…
Theater in the area has really come to life lately, introducing new plays and writers, posing interesting ideas and offering glimpses into worlds I’ve never really known. Harvey Fierstein’s Casa Valentina, receiving its regional premiere at Edge Theater, brings us into an enclosed and semi-secret world: a 1962 Catskills retreat…
Breastfeeding, stretch marks, stitches – gulp – down there: “People are very freaked out about mothers’ bodies,” says Michelle Baldwin, aka Vivienne VaVoom, the mother of burlesque in Denver. At 8 p.m. Sunday, May 8, Baldwin will host the Hot Mamas! Mother’s Day Burlesque peepshow at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, where…
