What becomes a legend most? Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom offers the biopic’s usual reply: legend itself. Bigger, louder, more expensive legend, brought to bear by the best talents and technologies of the day. The name of Nelson Mandela is already shorthand for the things Mandela director Justin Chadwick shows…
When Peter Guralnick released Last Train to Memphis, the first half of his superb two-volume biography of Elvis Presley, some people must have wondered, “Who needs two books to tell the story of Elvis?” They may as well have grumbled, “Two whole books about America?” Some lives, some careers, push…
When he was thirteen, Marilyn Manson — then just Christian schoolkid Brian Warner of Canton, Ohio — would hide out in the basement while his grandfather masturbated to bestiality porn. Then he’d go upstairs and cheer himself up reading Mad magazine. The self-dubbed God of Fuck is famous for his…
“Kurt was the only person who stuck up for me,” says musician Kathleen Hanna in The Punk Singer, a new documentary about her life and art. The Kurt in question is Kurt Cobain, a friend of the artist and an advocate for both feminism and Hanna’s work — which often…
For most of the year, These Things Matter podcast hosts Taylor Gonda and Kevin O’Brien stick to a tried-and-true script: They interview a guest on his or her obsession and crack wise in a studio, then package it up for online consumption by listeners who sometimes find themselves yelling at…
Some films are made to be watched, others need to be experienced — and then there are those movies that just need to be ridiculed and ripped apart. Close out the year with a gem from that last category, at Mile High Sci-Fi: White House Down. As Channing Tatum and…
You’ve seen one Nutcracker, you’ve seen them all? Not quite, says the Colorado Ballet’s Sanya Andersen-Vie, who promises that theirs is not only the most classic, crowd-pleasing rendition around, but it’s also one of the few in the area to feature a live orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s familiar and signature tunes…
Live music and film are strange bedfellows in the modern age, but it wasn’t always that way. In the silent era, a live accompaniment was standard practice for all films. Today, local musician and filmmaker Paul Buscarello will resurrect that long-gone experience with a performance of his new, original score…
Everyone wants to know what the future will bring — and every year, Isis Books and Gifts hosts a Psychic Fair before the start of the new year so that you can plan accordingly. “There’s so much that’s going to be changing and transforming in 2014,” notes owner Karen Harrison,…
There’s a reason that Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol has never gone out of print. “It was published in 1843, and it’s interesting how the issues in the play, even the point of view that Scrooge has, can feel so remarkably present-day,” says Bruce K. Sevy, who is directing the…
You want to rest up before New Year’s Eve, but you’re too full of anticipation to endure boredom. So what better way to fill that awkward gap than with a witty Christmas flick that you don’t have to feel guilty about? After a string of top-shelf comedy films, the Boulder…
Flappers and fellas will be putting on the glitz tonight to celebrate the Roaring Twenties at the Thin Man’s Great Gatsby Ball. Every year, the bar converts itself into a whole new world for one night, pumping in live music, ambient lighting and vibrant decor to fit a chosen theme…
Wrapped in silver cellophane and flooded with Mylar balloons, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art will take a step back in time to host NYE at the Factory: A Spectacle in Pop, Silver & Polaroid, an Andy Warhol-inspired New Year’s Eve party. The shindig is a spin on the legendary…
French food is all about rich flavors, explains City, O’ City’s new executive chef, Kurt Eichenberger. Since in traditional French cooking those flavors involve a lot of butter and meat, Eichenberger had to get creative to whip up intense tastes for the vegetarian restaurant’s special Paris-inspired New Year’s Eve. “To…
Before the harsh realities of 2014 slap you in the face, the Hotel Boulderado is offering a fantasy escape of classy flirtation and cock-sure danger at its New Year’s Eve James Bond Ball. “Bond is an enduring character who’s been so iconic through the decades, and the Hotel Boulderado has…
There’s a holiday for everyone, and in the African-American community, today marks Umoja. It’s the first of seven days of Kwanzaa, which kicks off with a nod to unity and, in Denver’s Five Points community, with the lighting of the first candle on the Grand Kinara — a giant, seven-pronged…
Think of the last thing you would ever dream of doing on a chill winter’s day, and that’s how you could, um, celebrate the new year. Intrepid adventure-seekers will welcome 2014 with a leap into frigid waters at today’s 31st annual Boulder Polar Plunge, a tradition that draws a surprisingly…
The annual Blossoms of Light and Trail of Lights at the Denver Botanic Gardens’ two locations have been holiday traditions for years, and with each turn, the displays have gotten bigger and better. And although both include hundreds of thousands of LED lights, each display still has a distinct feel…
Whether you’re a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences cramming before the Oscars or just a film buff who likes to go to the movies over the holidays, there’s no better way to nerd out than a trip to Aspen Film’s 22nd Academy Screenings festival…
Nothing gets folks into the holiday spirit more readily than holiday lights — there’s just something about the way the whole world turns into a sparkling wonderland just when the days are at their shortest and darkest. Plus, they’re mostly nondenominational (if you ignore that big to-do about the Denver…
Breaking bread in the kitchen is a major part of the human experience, wherever you live, but Museo de las Américas director Maruca Salazar thinks her own Mexican kitchen culture illustrates the importance of cooking in a particularly sensual way. So after much discussion within the Museo community, she put…
We’re taking a break, but it won’t be for long — after spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our families and friends, Westword’s Show and Tell team will be back on the job early Thursday, December 26 with a focus on the past and the future of Denver’s arts…
