The White Stuff

My personal history of Colorado skiing stretches back almost fifty years, to the days when my parents would leave their children at home with a babysitter in suburban Chicago, in order to hop first on the Denver Zephyr, then the Yampa Valley Mail, changing their clothes in a railcar filled…

Ink Spills

There might be something familiar about the all-local cast and recognizable backdrops in Ink, a new independent feature by Denver filmmaker Jamin Winans of Double Edge Films, which premieres today at the Starz FilmCenter. But from that point on, the film diverges into a fantastical world: The key characters –…

Now Playing

Girls Only. The trouble with Girls Only, a two-woman evening of conversation, skits, singing, improvisation and audience participation, is that it’s so relentlessly nice. Creator-performers Barbara Gehring and Linda Klein have worked together for many years; at some point, they read their early diaries to each other and were transfixed…

High and Low at the Boulder Public Library

Throughout his career, director Akira Kurosawa regularly brought his distinctively Eastern vision to Western cinematic elements, with fascinating results. But whereas Kurosawa’s best-known films, including 1950’s Rashomon and 1961’s Yojimbo, tend to be set in a medieval Japan strode by samurai, 1963’s High and Low is a contemporary crime tale,…

Watchmen

The most eagerly anticipated (as well as the most beleaguered) movie of the year, Watchmen is neither desecratory disaster nor total triumph. In filming David Hayter and Alex Tse’s adaptation of the most ambitious superhero comic book ever written, director Zack Snyder has managed to address the cult while pandering…

Now Showing

Ary Stillman. Singer gallery director Simon Zalkind is a brilliant curator who has made the humble Mizel Arts & Culture Center an important destination for art lovers. Being a Jewish institution, the Singer often features shows devoted to the efforts of Jewish artists, and that’s the case with Ary Stillman:…

Spare Change

Good bowlers, bad bowlers and just plain ugly bowlers will gather tonight for the fifth annual Concerts for Kids Bowl-A-Thon, where anyone can win. In fact, in this tournament, even the team with the absolute worst gutter-ballers can take home the Gold Trophy of the Pink Pin if team members…

Matthew Dear

Matthew Dear is one of the most exciting things to happen to dance music in a long, long time. Under his own name, he’s released a series of pop-inflected electronic albums full of excellent songs and clever beats and is gaining a reputation as a top-notch live performer. Under aliases…

Blood, Guts and Snark

Vampires versus zombies ranks highly in the spectrum of inherently awesome ideas, and local author Mario Acevedo does a fine job with this can’t-miss premise in Jailbait Zombie, the latest Felix Gomez novel. It’s the fourth outing for Gomez, Acevedo’s vampire private-eye protagonist. Like Acevedo himself, Gomez is a combat…

Flick Pick

Throughout his career, director Akira Kurosawa regularly brought his distinctively Eastern vision to Western cinematic elements, with fascinating results. But whereas Kurosawa’s best-known films, including 1950’s Rashomon and 1961’s Yojimbo, tend to be set in a medieval Japan strode by samurai, 1963’s High and Low is a contemporary crime tale,…

Up in the Trees

Danyl Cook was first inspired to paint trees on a trip to Italy, but it’s the trees in the parks of Denver that move him emotionally and creatively. “I can’t stop looking at them,” says Cook, who volunteers with the Parks and People Partnership, part of Denver’s Parks and Recreation…

Rock the Cradle

The stars of the National Lacrosse League will convene in Denver this weekend for the NLL All-Star Game. This is the second time that the league, which has been around for more than twenty years, has hosted the game in Denver, home of the Colorado Mammoth. Last time, in 2004,…

Keeping It Reel

Some folks just have to go retro. That’s the MO for one local filmmaker, John Hartman of Reel Groovy Films, who, after two years of shooting, is ready to release his latest, Reel-Illusionary Zone. Only it’s not the HD-slick, digitally perfect darling you might expect from an emerging director. Instead,…

Illustrating Imagination

I am a hopeless artist. Sure, I can draw a stick figure — but that about covers the extent of my artistic ability. And when it comes to drawing something that no one in living memory has ever set eyes on, I’m completely at a loss. Clearly, I’m no James…

Life Story

You probably best know Dave Flomberg — our colleague and competitor at the late Rocky Mountain News, where he followed the nightlife beat — from his public face. But, to use his own term (and one borrowed from newspaper lingo), the “below the fold” Flomberg is a little more remote,…

Boy to Man

Scott Walker is one of the great unsung heroes of modern music. His career spans forty years, from his quasi-boy-band origins to his eventual emergence as an avant-garde icon. His long and storied career is thoroughly and entertainingly documented in Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, a biopic from director Stephen…

Art in Motion

The line between controlling and participating in the process of creating art is a fine one that artist Homare Ikeda has quietly mastered: His ability to go with the flow and let his abstracted images take him to new places daily is both extraordinary and inspirational to his students, whom…

Food for Thought

Everyone loves to eat, right? From salt-and-vinegar potato chips to milk chocolate, steaks to shrimp, crab legs to McNuggets — I’ll eat (and love) almost anything. Just thinking about the newest round of Taste Test at the Lab at Belmar (and the last ever at the Lakewood location)made me hungry…

A Keystone State

Need an excuse to get up to the mountains? Try Keystone’s first-ever Winter Culinary Festival, featuring tastings, classes and seminars beginning today and continuing through Sunday. Highlights include a martini tasting, an ice carving demonstration, a culinary-trends seminar and a chocolate class. The festival is headlined by the Grand Tasting…

Dead Fun

Every quaint little mountain town needs a festival. Nederland has one — but the town doesn’t celebrate mining heritage, flowers, fruit, beer or mushrooms. Instead, as the Northern Hemisphere begins to tilt back toward the sun, as the days lengthen and spring stirs in the air, Nederland throws its annual…

The Catwalking Dead

All things zombie need not be flesh-eating, blood-crusted horrors of the night. Well, okay, maybe all zombies do need some awful accoutrements in order to appear authentic — but that doesn’t mean zombies can’t be sexy. Need some proof? Then head to Bender’s Tavern, 314 East 13th Avenue, for tonight’s…