Charles Ballas is the kind of record nerd a lot of people wish they were but could never be. He’s probably heard most things you’d throw his way, but he’s too good-natured and smart to be a jerk about it. While attending the University of Colorado in Boulder, he was…
Despite boasting a higher-than-average number of museums, parks, bands, venues, theater companies and designers, as well as the nation’s fifth-highest concentration of artists, Denver is still depicted by the mainstream media as a flyover city filled with rednecks and burnouts, equally ready to take a knee or a toke. Blame…
Photographer Lisa Law is the real deal, a hippie from the Sixties who’s still flying the freak flag down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she now resides. Back in the day, Law was on the front lines at Woodstock, where she shot images behind the scenes while also serving…
Elena Stonaker seems to come from a long line of secret fairies and sprites. Or maybe it just appears that way from her symbol-specked, organic drawings and soft sculptures. The latter — hand-embroidered dolls and creatures decorated with seed beads, sequins and something else (dream dust?) — will be the…
If you’re one of those punk-rock aficionados with a bedroom full of obscure vinyl and a heart that beats to the rhythm of “White Minority,” then you’ll feel right at home at Growler Records’ Mid-Winter Punk Film Festival. Featuring an impressive collection of underground punk films, the festival runs on…
In January, the Denver branch of the national TED think tank staged its first-ever salon (and second-ever event). The evening’s three hours of discussions and performances featured seven area personalities sharing their Ideas Worth Spreading — with a couple even marking return performances with progress updates. The low-key evening, styled…
Hollywood’s biggest night is coming up on Sunday, and in honor of that most hallowed of cinematic traditions, we’ve compiled a list of the five best places to watch the Oscars in style…
With over fifty films screening, the Colorado Environmental Film Festival is seeking to inspire audiences into action. The fest runs Thursday through Saturday in Golden at the American Mountaineering Center with flicks about environmental issues from organic farming to energy conservation. “I hope that people will walk away from this…
The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company is presenting Shipwrecked! An Entertainment. The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (as Told by Himself) through February 25 at the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company. Juliet Wittman caught the production last weekend; here’s her review: We’re all fascinated by talented fakers. I once foolishly allowed…
Agnes Sanchez knew she wanted to be a glassblower from the first time she saw a demonstration. “I kept telling my pops that this was it,” she says. “I talked about it all the time. He was finally like, ‘Stop talking about it and do it.'” Now she has an…
The greatest adventures are always more about the journey than the destination, but that truism can be easy to forget when you can’t wait to get that heavy pack off your back. If the actual hiking isn’t the most enjoyable part of your backpacking trips, then you just might be…
Filmmaker Shukree Hassan Tilghman not only questions why we relegate Black History Month to the bleakest part of the winter, he maintains that black history is a part of American history that doesn’t need to be recognized by its own month. To promote his argument, Hassan set off across the…
When we didn’t find many Shit People in Denver Say videos, we created our own. But then Erin Streets, a 25-year-old Denver designer, weighed in with her own Shit Girls in Denver Say , which Nick Lucchesi says is very funny. Not so Shannen:…
Denver’s share of the country’s slam-poetry scene is already a large one, with two nationally competitive teams and a role as the reigning national champion city. But from March 7 to 10, its role will grow even bigger as Denver hosts its first national slam competition, the five-year-old Women of…
Artist Heather Doyle-Maier is stripping a common ritual to its most basic components. In two current shows in the Navajo Arts District, she explores the meaning of getting dressed and undressed. Doyle-Maier is featured in Lovesick at Zip 37, and she has an installation in the back room of Edge,…
Every picture tells a story, Rod Stewart once said. And he might have been paraphrasing an ancient Chinese proverb, but that’s not the point. The point is, every person who views a work of art will undoubtedly experience something different. And while that experience is linked to the power and…
After spending a long and frustrating day last week trying to figure out what year it was and what country I was living in because my government decided it was cool to discuss a little issue regarding birth control but magically barred the only person with a uterus from being…
Artists, it’s always a good idea to sign your work — and in this day and age, when you can include a website on the piece, all the better. Case in point: a square-foot piece of art we found on a busy Denver street this past weekend. It was only…
The latest local version of the Shit Girls Say viral video trend is “Shit Girls in Denver Say,” starring Erin Streets, a 25-year-old fashion designer and stylist who utters cliches and catch phrases for a good three minutes. It’s funny. Watch the video below and read Street’s reaction to its…
Fat Tuesday is the traditional day when folks are allowed to indulge — before Ash Wednesday shuts all the enjoyment down and Lent begins. Fortunately, you don’t have to be Catholic to get into the spirit of Mardi Gras’s last hurrah, and while Colorado is far from the French Quarter,…
We sent Noah van Sciver, author of our weekly Four Questions comic, to Artopia on Saturday night and asked him to come up with a graphic (literally) impression of that orgy of arts, music, performance, fashion…and drinking. And as it turns out, he paid particular attention to Danielle Ate the…
This year’s juried annual at Ice Cube Gallery, Icebreaker3, includes works selected by Denver Art Museum curator Gwen Chanzit, who also designed the installation. Though Chanzit took an inclusive approach, she laid out the show coherently by grouping together works with stylistic affinities. Owing, no doubt, to Chanzit’s position, a…
