Romantic Overgrowth, an interesting and unusual solo at Plus Gallery, showcases work done over the past few years by Melissa Furness, who teaches at the University of Colorado Denver. The show could be seen as a single installation, as Furness orchestrates the same elements throughout: paintings (both her own and…
Last produced four years ago, Jugged Rabbit Stew is one of Buntport’s best shows, a startling and peculiar mix of comedy, sadness, magic, craziness and erudition that only this troupe could produce. And this revival brings back Evan Weissman, a longtime member who left — sort of — a while…
The Lyons begins with a fairly familiar premise: a deathbed vigil featuring the protracted dying of a Jewish patriarch, Ben, and the shallow chatter of Rita, his wife. This cancer-ridden father isn’t wise or long-suffering, however. He’s a mean-spirited monster of blind ego with perhaps one single redeeming feature: He…
The fairy-tale fear of a powerful man stealing children is the infuriating heart of Kids for Cash, a compelling and well-reported documentary look at how Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, teenagers wound up serving bona fide cell time for crimes like slapping a classmate, buying a scooter that turned out to have…
Action heroes with nothing to lose are the best kind, perhaps the only kind worth watching. In the opening seconds of Jaume Collet-Serra’s Non-Stop, Liam Neeson’s federal air marshal, Bill Marks, slumps in his parked vehicle, sloshing a few glugs of whiskey into a paper cup and stirring it up…
In 1998, Douglas Adams published a sweet, funny essay called “Riding the Rays,” about an excursion to Hayman Island to try a kind of underwater jet-ski device called a Sub Bug because it afforded an opportunity to swim with manta rays. And manta rays are cool. He wrote of his…
“Sex films sell, and other stuff doesn’t . . . or at least not nearly as well,” says film preservationist Joe Rubin. Rubin, 24 years old, is one of the creators working Skinaflix, a VOD-style streaming video service he calls “the Netflix of porn.” At Vinegar Syndrome, a separate DVD/Blu-Ray–centric…
“In a time when women are breaking the glass ceiling, we need to really ascend to true equality,” says Nancy Hart, explaining the impetus for the founding of the Venus Goes Down collective. Recently, the group was looking for a way to embrace the integration of the masculine and the…
Denver is home to more than 3,000 refugees from Burma, a fact local nonprofit Project Worthmore shines a light on every single day. The organization was started in 2011 by Frank and Carolyn Anello in response to the underserved population’s lack of basic necessities upon arriving in Colorado. Providing food,…
A Charlie Chaplin triple feature, a creepy film about a circus man with no arms, and a conversation with the head of the Moving Image Section of the Library of Congress are only a few highlights of this year’s Denver Silent Film Festival. The series kicks off with a celebration…
Don’t let the name fool you: Animeland Wasabi isn’t just about Japan’s finest pop-culture export. “Anime is the base component,” explains Gregory Richardson of the convention, which opens at noon today. “The staples of the anime con are here, from the maid cafe to our video room.” But there’s much…
How a gamelan orchestra — a traditional Indonesian ensemble of metallophones, drums, gongs and flute — even ended up forming 25 years ago in Colorado is just part of the story of Gamelan Tunas Mekar, which remarkably hit its silver anniversary last fall. Ensemble member Dane Terry, who’s been there…
Always wanted to walk the red carpet and be brave enough to get a critique from the fashion police? Now’s your chance. For its first-ever fundraiser, Off-Center @ the Jones is throwing the Gayest Oscar Party Ever tonight at Hamburger Mary’s, complete with a “rainbow carpet” entrance and commentary from…
Throughout his extensive career, theoretical physicist and New York Times best-selling author Michio Kaku has brought physics into the mainstream. From his TV specials to his bestsellers — Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future — Kaku explains string field theory (which he helped develop) and other advances…
Hollywood movies often depict Jewish culture, but they haven’t been as thorough with regard to the religion itself, says Kathryn Bernheimer, programmer for the Boulder Jewish Film Festival and author of The 50 Greatest Jewish Movies: A Critic’s Ranking of the Very Best. There are few Orthodox Jewish directors and…
Jessica McWhirt first encountered Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues not in a theater production or on HBO, but in a mainstream bookstore. “I first saw the book on a shelf in Barnes & Noble when I was in high school, and at the time, I couldn’t even say the word…
Even a person who works in a contemporary-art museum — someone like Sarah Kate Baie, director of programming at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver — needs help interpreting art sometimes. “I spend every day around this stuff,” says Baie, “and sometimes I walk into a new museum to see…
Melissa Harris-Perry, a leader in women studies, will be the distinguished speaker at an event hosted by the Institute for Women’s Studies and Services and the Rachel B. Noel Committee at Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Physical Education Event Center from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. tomorrow. The appearance was…
One of the biggest perks of living in Colorado is the state’s reputed 300 days of sunshine. Know what doesn’t love that? Your eyes. So Coden Eyewear, a startup company from locals Ben Martch, Gavin Beldt and Gian Lasher, is pushing a new line of sunglasses designed for the Colorado…
There’s something about the state flag that really brings out the creative side of Coloradans. In fact, it would be easy to assume that the C in the center of that design stands for Creative. And as a very last-second addition to Artopia, Westword’s annual celebration of everything from fine…
It was sad — Jay Leno’s 22 years hosting The Tonight Show ended with all the excitement of a guy farting at the mall. We all talked about his joke stealing and his talk-show stealing and how he’d played to the middle, threw away his talent. We were happy to…
LUPEC, aka Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, tend to get tipsy together, though often in the name of charity. On Saturday night, the girls (and their dashing dates) dressed to the nines, tattoos and all, in vintage prom wear, corsages and big smiles for the Sweetheart Prom,…
