When landscape architect John Ludwig first opened his South Broadway garden shop Birdsall on a part-time basis in 1988, he envisioned it as Denver’s answer to Smith & Hawken, the upscale Mill Valley enterprise that broke in as a mail-order business before opening its first outlet in 1985. Just as…
When this column began at the beginning of 2000, readers and editors scoffed at its occasional subject matter, the comic book. Kids’ stuff, they growled, junk food for adults who still live in their parents’ basements. And maybe they were right back then. The industry was dying; the art form…
Denver Art Museum director Lewis Sharp is a genuine visionary. Over the fifteen years that he’s run the museum, he’s made so many brilliant decisions that it would be impossible to list them all here. Among his greatest accomplishments is surelythe flawless way he handled the hiring of an architect…
Heading south out of Denver on University Boulevard is quite an experience. It’s sort of like an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous — minus the famous part. There’s one swanky neighborhood after another, and they come together amorphously to form would-be towns such as Cherry Hills Village…
From the moment you enter the LIDA Project’s theater space, your attention is focused on the set: a large square of earth that dwarfs the seats surrounding it on all four sides. Clearly representing a city lot, it reminded me of the bomb sites found all over London when I…
Victor Hugo called grief “a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched,” and anyone who has ever found himself touching the sleeve of his father’s favorite jacket on the day after his funeral, or gazing at the toy-strewn floor in a dead child’s playroom, or surveying the carnage on…
The plot of The Importance of Being Earnest, for those unfortunates who’ve missed it these past 109 years, goes something like this: A dandified London wastrel by the name of Algernon (Algy) Moncrieff (portrayed in this adaptation by Rupert Everett) welcomes into his chambers his friend and ally, Ernest (Colin…
Backyard barbecuers and serious sauce professionals will go grill-to-grill at the sixth annual Denver Blues & Bones festival this weekend. The feast, moved from the Golden Triangle to the south lawn of Invesco Field at Mile High, will feature more than seventy entrants participating in two competitions: the Backyard BBQ…
At a time when air travel’s become risky business, vacation planning takes on a whole new dimension. The newly fearful can no longer blithely book flights to Timbuktu or even Grand Rapids without experiencing trepidation. The new, extended airport regime of long hours spent being frisked, profiled and interrogated is…
In the last thirty years, post-modernism, characterized by irony and self-consciousness, has made major inroads into the fine arts. For a while, the sensibility even managed to supplant modernism; more recently, street-level post-modernism has been expressed by the current retro craze in pop culture, especially in automotive design. But off…
The Andenken Gallery (2110 Market Street, 303-292-3281) is so enormous that the front room alone is as big as some entire galleries and can accommodate fifty paintings or half a dozen large sculptures. As a result, exhibits there — even big group shows — can sometimes look mighty thin. Imagine,…
As we streamed out of the theater at the end of Pierre, I overheard a fellow audience member trying to analyze what he’d seen. “Perhaps Shakespeare run amok,” he mused. It’s as good a description as any. Especially if you add Dickens run amok, the pastoral impulse run amok, Hogarth…well,…
Measured Ends takes us on a playful feminist romp through several Shakespeare plays. In the playwright’s All’s Well That Ends Well, the heroine, Helena, wins her reluctant husband, Bertram, by using an old folk-tale standby, the “bed trick.” Already married to Bertram — though the marriage remains unconsummated — Helena…
The bad news for Memento fans is that Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia is far less complex and challenging in form than the backwards-edited art-house hit that sparked as much disdain as devotion from moviegoers last year. The good news for Memento-haters is that Insomnia is far less complex and challenging in…
It’s very tempting to not just dismiss Enough, the latest bill-paying gig by Michael Apted (Enigma), starring Jennifer Lopez, but shred it altogether. Ms. Lopez hasn’t exactly added to her acting credibility with a string of showy, glamorous roles in such mediocre films as The Wedding Planner and Angel Eyes…
Colorado is a long way from the birthplace of Buddhism, but a part of the Buddha’s legacy will be here this week. A collection of 45 sacred relics believed to be taken from the remains of fifteen Buddhist saints — including the historical Siddhartha Gautama himself — will be exhibited…
James Reynolds, age 87, has led a full, rich and admirable life — and he’s still got more he’d like to accomplish. As he puts it, “I want to give future generations some insight into the way things were.” Rebels Remembered: Law, Not Justice, a documentary by Dick Alweis that…
It’s strange how complementary exhibits often run at the same time or in quick succession. A few years ago, for instance, during the course of one season, it seemed like everyone was showcasing art made from recycled materials. Another time, installation was the medium of choice. This season, we’ve seen…
Force, at Fresh Art (208 South Broadway, 720-570-2255), is an elegant little abstraction show that includes paintings by Harry Tulchin, John Clark and Bill Brazzell, along with sculptures by Alex Harrison. In some ways, the work of the three painters is related: All are engaged in late abstraction, and each…
Oh, what can ail thee, knight at arms,Alone and palely loitering The sedge is withered from the lake And no birds sing… I met a lady in the meads. Full beautiful–a faery’s child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, And her eyes were wild. — from “La Belle…
You’re not just going out for an evening’s amusement when you attend Dearly Departed at the Avenue Theater; you’re participating in a prolonged goodbye to a Denver institution. John Ashton, the impresario who kept things hopping at the Avenue through twelve successful years, is closing up shop. The owners of…
Three years have passed since Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace thrilled some and infuriated others, yet the schism in the Church of Lucas remains. Die-hard supporters still refuse to admit that Episode I has some truly awful acting and dialogue, as well as borderline-offensive caricatures; and dyed-in-the-wool detractors…
