Breastfeeding, stretch marks, stitches – gulp – down there: “People are very freaked out about mothers’ bodies,” says Michelle Baldwin, aka Vivienne VaVoom, the mother of burlesque in Denver. At 8 p.m. Sunday, May 8, Baldwin will host the Hot Mamas! Mother’s Day Burlesque peepshow at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox, where…
Imagination and a lot of fancy folding, fitting and old-fashioned cut-and-paste make the annual Art Directors Club of Denver’s Paper Fashion Show a true art experience, and this year’s event, which raised funds for Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, was nothing less than fabulous. Here’s a peek down the runway from…
“Not to see Elitch’s is not to see Denver.” This slogan, coined a century ago, was true: For decades, Elitch Gardens was Denver’s family entertainment center, a bright, noisy oasis where kids from toddlers to teens could have fun all day, in safety. In 1890, Mary and John Elitch created the…
Caution, gratuitous motor bike-porn lies ahead! Threepence is revving up motorcycle culture in the Mile High City. Owners Alex Krill and Wesley Case are Denver natives who’ve been running Threepence for nearly five years. They started the business in a private shop that was closed to the public, and in February finally…
To call Colorado Springs artist Sean O’Meallie’s work playful is an understatement — his brightly colored wooden sculptures are toys wittily transformed into fine art and dimensional cartoons. O’Meallie’s affinity for toys led to an early career as a toy inventor in New York; now he’s a full-time artist, channeling…
Call it coincidence or kismet, but sometimes life gives you what you need. Sometimes what you need is a job repossessing cars to break you out of your teenaged ennui, and sometimes what you need is a mysterious Chevy Malibu with a trunk full of god knows what. More likely,…
At the start of the year, we named the thirteen freshest faces of drag in Denver, choosing from the latest lineup of drag stars giving their all on Denver’s stages. Now that list will come to life with a special show starring all thirteen queens at Charlie’s on Saturday night…
If you peak into Peak Thrift in northwest’s Denver Chaffee Park neighborhood, you may be rewarded with a cool, unexpected find: a hip vest, some DIY crafting tools, Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl. But what’s perhaps coolest about this store is its social mission. All proceeds support Peak Thrift’s parent…
Blue Ruby, a boutique located at 1428 Larimer Street, has carried the Swedish-based fashion brand Odd Molly for eight years, and now Odd Molly has an official shop within the shop. “I look for different stuff that is not being sold in other places,” explains Blue Ruby owner Julie Watson. “I hunt for smaller…
“An ornate and decorated building on the outside says the people who walk by matter, that the public space matters, right?” That’s what history professor Bryant Simon said during “Going for Broke: Atlantic City Falls On Hard Times,” a conversation broadcast on Fresh Air a few months ago. Though the piece revolved…
#83: Roseanna Frechette Roseanna Frechette dons more hats than she has fingers to count them on: Writer, poet, publisher, dancer, creative youth programs director and yoga instructor are just a few of the titles she wears with aplomb. Then there are her efforts on behalf of bohemian Denver — as…
The return of everyone’s favorite gritty, blood-soaked fantasy series is imminent, and boy, am I eager to see where things are going on Game of Thrones. This season is particularly intriguing for pre-TV fans of the series, because it’s the first season that covers chronology past what’s found in the…
Westword’s Best of Denver celebrates everything to love in the Mile High City, from old venues to new, hair to food, and art both private and public. There’s so much going on in Denver’s art scene, we had trouble narrowing down the new public art contenders — created between the 2015…
Denver overdosed on muscles, facial hair and fortitude last Saturday at the city’s inaugural Man Challenge, where super-dudes went head-to-head in tests of strength, agility, cunning and quick thinking. Photographer Miles Chrisinger caught all the action at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. Now see men at work in the full Man Challenge…
#85: Corrina Espinosa “I came up from a hard-knock North Denver life, but I’ve never had a shortage on dreams or haikus!” That’s the long and the short of how artist Corrina Espinosa, an expansive lover of life, introduces herself. Now working toward fulfilling those dreams as an MFA candidate…
Not all superheroes wear capes. Leotards, spandex and tech-powered armor are also not necessary. No, in one of the very best superhero movies ever made, the hero wore what’s colloquially known as a “wife beater” and drove a big rig, and even though you’ve probably seen it, you might not…
Over breakfast the other morning, my friend Keith Garcia and I were discussing the recent announcement that The Wrangler, a popular Denver gay bar, would be moving to 3090 Downing Street. The conversation was less about the real estate transaction and more about the language used to define Denver’s neighborhoods;…
#86: Jaime Carrejo Fine artist, mentor to students at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design and former RedLine resident Jaime Carrejo grew up in the borderlands of El Paso, a region — and state of mind — that he still explores explores conceptually in interdisciplinary work that’s been exhibited…
Kneeling on the floor of his Steamboat Springs shop, Atlas Tattoo Studio, artist/owner Milo Alfring wades through pages of slightly crumpled, brightly colored drawings. The images, usually residing in an unassuming black filing cabinet, now spread almost halfway across the floor. “I don’t usually get to look at these,” Alfring…
While spring may be the season for vibrant colors and floral prints, classic menswear is always in style. We spotted Charlez Sain, who works security for the Colorado National Bank building, downtown on 17th Street. “I like to dress up four days a week,” says Sain, who is originally from…
Anyone can put stuff on walls, but curator Curtis Tucker has elevated this lowbrow reference to art into a series of pop-up shows called Stuff On Walls. Tucker, who grew up in the Denver suburbs, “came to the city with family almost every weekend to see some kind of visual…
The Broadway/Baker neighborhood has become trendy, but it hasn’t lost its eclectic charm. The storefronts lining what used to be known as Denver’s “Miracle Mile” are full of miraculous finds, whether it’s a toy from the past, magic tricks, boutique clothing, craft supplies or a display of “perverted” coloring books…
