Denver Life

The Book of Mormon may seem gut-bustingly revolutionary, but creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are building on a tradition of god-mocking that is as old as belief itself, Josiah Hesse reveals in his pop-history of religious satire. From Chaucer and Voltaire to Kevin Smith and Bill Maher, comedians have…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Colorado Convention Center, where Walmart is holding a closed-door Holiday Fair to prepare its employees for the big, big season ahead. The event has drawn close to 5,000 people to town to preview new merchandise in time (read: months early)…

The City of Aurora is conducting a survey through August 31, asking people what should be done with the Aurora Century 16, the theater where twelve people died when a gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises; the results will be shared with Cinemark, owner…

The Swedish invasion, which began with Ikea and the H&M on the 16th Street Mall, continues with with today’s opening of a new H&M. A crowd of almost 200 people lined up outside the new H&M store in FlatIron Crossing, with the first arriving at 4:30 a.m. Why? Simple: to…

Colorado is full of creative people — and some of them even earn a living being creative! In “Five coveted Colorado music-industry jobs” on our Backbeat blog, Samantha Alviani profiled a quintet of people doing everything from repairing guitars to marketing musicians…

Thank God! After all the anticipation, we were worried that The Book of Mormon — written by hometown boys Matt Stone and Trey Parker — wouldn’t live up to the hype, and we’d be disappointed by their Broadway show on this first stop on its road tour. But Mormon is…

For much of my childhood, I led a double life. Okay, that’s a super-dramatic way of saying that from age seven to age seventeen, I went between two households: one in Brighton and one in Denver. This wasn’t because my parents were divorced (not yet), but because my best friend,…

Metro started classes yesterday, with a big new name — Metropolitan State University of Denver — as well as new buildings (including a hotel filled with art by Metro students, faculty and alumnae) and new programs. But the recent death of musician/composer Marvin Hamlisch brought a blast from the past…

Cruiser bikes have been all over Denver this summer, and so have critics of Josiah Hesse’s “Cruiser bikes suck: They attract Philistines and ruin cycling for the rest of us.” But as it turns out, those commenters were just getting rolling. Even as the USA Pro Challenge starts today, showing…

To call the work of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki fairy tales would be simplistic; his films (and to some extent those made by others in his fold) pit the forces of nature and the manmade world against one another in fantastical and sometimes strange and confounding ways. But despite the…

Blockbuster has joined forces with Dish, and with that move Colorado gains a new corporate headquarters: This week Governor John Hickenlooper cut the blue ribbon to Blockbuster’s shining new offices in Douglas County. In her piece reporting on the Blockbuster ceremony, Natalie Gonzales linked to an earlier post by Jef…

How’s your unearthly moan? What about your awkward, broken shuffle? Do you feel comfortable working while covered in blood (okay, fake blood)? Elitch Gardens is looking for a few good zombies — along with a handful of werewolves, ghosts, devils and other evil dead things, too. See also: – Elitch’s…

The Old South Pearl Street retail empire of 5 Green Boxes has long had Westword’s vote for best window displays, and now the shop — actually two stores on the same block — is upping the ante to ensure that we never change our minds. See also: – Best Window…

Open for Design , a new exhibit at the Denver Art Museum, has given power to the people. A community challenge asked citizens to create visual models showing how they would improve their neighborhoods, and the result was an abundance of design ideas — some serious, many whimsical and all…

Although comedian Kelsie Huff’s new production at the Boulder Fringe Festival is titled This Show Might Be Terrible, her past hits suggest it will be anything but. Known for her Boulder Fringe Official Encore Award-winning shows Bruiser and Huffs, Huff is also a successful stand-up comedian who heads the kates,…

For the better part of the past decade, Minneapolis-based performer Melissa Birch has focused on collaborations, but the veteran artist, singer and innovative cabaret entertainer is hardly a neophyte when it comes to solo performance. That’s how she started her career, and at this year’s Boulder International Fringe Festival, Birch…

We all want to raise our kids right, and sometimes that means we hope they’ll embrace our beloved traditions, like reading box scores and the Sunday comics, and eating Froot Loops while waiting for the Saturday-morning cartoons to come on. And like hunting through a bin of vinyl records. Twist…

Wow, the furry’s still flying over our post on the “Twenty most expressionless furry costumes at Rocky Mountain Fur Con.” And clearly, while it might be difficult to change the expression of those furry costumes, the people wearing them have no problem expressing themselves…

This past week has been full of activity — everything from fashion shows to music festivals and the Denver County Fair — and a fun mix of styles has filled the streets, too. We spotted this week’s style-setter not once but twice, both times being his carefree self. Read on…

This past weekend my Hole cover band, Jennifer’s Body, played the Denver County Fair. Until this show, we weren’t an actual band at all — we formed earlier this year for a two-song set to honor the opening of Hole drummer Patty Schemel’s documentary, Hit So Hard, and had never…

People get lazy in the summertime, but it’s time to wake up: The fall theater season is only weeks away, and Denver Center Theatre Company tickets are now on sale. The focus may be on The Book of Mormon, which opens today in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, but when…