Watch a handful of superhero movies, or read the comics they’re based on, and you realize that all superheroes have an origin story. Geeks are no different. We all have our own origin stories. This is mine. See also: We are geeks; we are stoners…
Last year we saw lots of exciting fashion on Denver’s streets, sported by both residents of this city and visitors with a strong sense of style. Out of all the women we spotted in 2013, we’ve narrowed down our favorite looks to these ten, featuring everything from orange hair to…
#23: Jerry Vigil Colorado’s robust Chicano arts community is well-known for both preserving and repackaging cultural traditions in modern contexts. It’s a part of our regional history, after all — a history that runs 500 years deep, from a time long before the Mile High City was even a speck…
It occurred to me after watching Bettie Page Reveals All — opening this Friday, January 10, at the Sie FilmCenter — that Bettie Page isn’t well known to the masses, certainly not the way I know her. I grew up with more-liberal-than-thou, hippie parents, so art involving nudity has always…
#24: Meghan Throckmorton Collar Meghan Throckmorton Collar likes to think small, and that’s in no way a putdown: A creative crafter, designer and owner of the Rakun boutique on Santa Fe Drive, she’s both the product of and a mover in her own immediate little world of local trade –…
Front Range Women in the Visual Arts was born in 1974 as a response to severe inequalities in the art world: There was not a single female art faculty member at the University of Colorado. Now celebrating its fortieth anniversary, the arts group is the subject of the retrospective The…
The start of a new year means new styles emerging on the streets. Last week we spotted a well-put together look from Wisconsin native Samuel Schuler, who was visiting Denver. Read here to learn where he shops, who inspires his style, and his favorite accessory. See also:Menswear Mondays: Entrepreneur Davon…
On January 30, the second annual Westword Whiteout will kick off Denver’s 2014 fashion season at the McNichols Building. The evening — which raises funds for the American Transplant Association — will include live music, specialty vendors, classic cocktails and some of the city’s top designers in a signature runway…
Local designer and all-around fashion industry guru Lisa Ramfjord Elstun says a one-stop design and production shop had long been the missing link in Denver’s couture scene. So it was only a matter of time before the Fashion Design Center Denver came to be. “The creation of the FDC was…
Ryan Willard has been working non-stop since he started tattooing ten years ago. He’s is the owner of Marion Street Tattoo (where yours truly got a tattoo a few months ago), which will be celebrating its fourth anniversary in April. Willard plans to spend the year traveling and tattooing across…
Any Denverite whose New Year’s resolution was to laugh more has both admirably modest ambitions and a bounty of entertainment options this January. If you didn’t resolve to laugh more, do it retroactively because achievable goals build confidence. With exciting developments from Denver’s two favorite local comedy troupes and visits from luminaries such as Aziz Ansari, Doug Stanhope, and Kumail Najiani –all of whom released hilarious standup specials last year– January has comedy events to suit any and every taste.
You hear a lot of stereotypes about geeks. We get pigeonholed as pasty, overweight, socially awkward virgins pretty often. It’s not uncommon for us to be labeled bookish, fashion-challenged, or even just as losers. What you don’t often hear us stereotyped as is stoners. Well, that’s bullshit. I’ve known a…
#25: Kalina Ross Kalina Ross has a big heart and a knack for making things happen, which might explain why the events she plans always come iced with a frosting of love and community. A former player for Urban Cipher, a group that supports entrepreneurial activities and events for local…
Paint the town read! Show and Tell is off for New Year’s Day — and you should be, too. Get out and enjoy this city’s vibrant cultural scene (or at least find a spot with bottomless Bloody Marys). We’ll be back early tomorrow morning. Happy new year…
It’s hard to write a list of New Year’s resolutions that apply to the real world while I’m physically sitting in the altered reality known as vacation. I mean, really. I’m supposed to figure out everything I want to improve in my life — a life that entails e-mails, deadlines,…
In less than a month, on January 30, Westword Whiteout will kick off Denver’s 2014 fashion season at the McNichols Building with an evening filled with live music, specialty vendors, classic cocktails and a signature runway event. We’ve been profiling some of the creative people who are contributing to Whiteout;…
I’ve been at Westword for a long time, and during that two-decade stretch, my job description has changed and morphed. But in the present, I’m enjoying a renaissance of pure, unabashed fandom. This professional pastime reached a pinnacle for me in 2013 as I curated the 100 Colorado Creatives blog…
The clock is ticking on 2013. In less than a week, we’ll be closing the door on yet another trip around the sun, and embracing the greatest of all arbitrary calendar events, the new year. That means it’s time for that greatest of arbitrary life events: resolutions! No new year…
Kathleen Hanna is not a name that may be well known to the mainstream masses — but as feminist, musician, activist, zine-maker and cofounder of the riot grrrl movement, she’s been a key figure in underground culture for decades. Regularly misrepresented — and often not acknowledged at all — in…
In honor of tonight’s event, Westword revisited the filmography of John Cusack and hand-picked his most definitively Cusackian roles. These movies are each thoroughly entertaining on their own merits, but together they illuminate the precise nature of Cusack’s appeal. Old-school Cusack fans may notice the conspicuous absence of his broader 80s comedies. Unlike the man himself, Cusack movies like Better Off Dead have aged very poorly. 1985’s The Sure Thing is a film that, like promise rings and the music of Rush, is strictly intended to entertain virgins. True fans can hardly begrudge this list however, as it covers every shade of Cusack, and includes a legitimate masterpiece, two beloved cult classics, a half-forgotten potboiler that deserves a critical reappraisal, and a movie that features what is arguably the best boyfriend of cinema history in its ranks.
Guys, 2013 ruled! I don’t know about you, but I fell in love, went tanning, went to Starbucks a lot, visited a porn palace in San Francisco with my family, continued my quest for landmark status of Casa Bonita and entertained the idea of writing about how Dunkin’ Donuts is…
As a cosmetologist and make-up artist for more than a decade, Amanda Hume says she’s fielded questions from customers about what, exactly, the products she was using were made of. When she represented large cosmetic companies, a quick glance at the ingredient — including many chemicals she could not identify…
