How to get my job: Zoo photographer

There are many jobs in this world. Some are so bizarre, you probably don’t know they exist; others seem so great, you can’t believe people get paid to do them. To highlight some of these jobs, we’ve started a new series about people actually working in the field. This week,…

Gratuitous Randomness: Socially Awkward Penguin

Well, this is awkward. Earlier today, Joel Warner wrote a post about the stupidity of blogs about memes, and now here we are with a stupid blog about memes. But by gum, it’s Wednesday, and Wednesday is the day we bring you the best of our weird internetz world in…

A random sculpture appears, a mystery is solved

In the pale light of dawn yesterday, an odd thing appeared in front of the Westword office: a sculpture, roughly four feet tall, made of wire and duct tape. Crafted to resemble an open hand, the sculpture sported an array of colors and textures, along with a couple of painstakingly…

Dana Cain’s Art Collection: Susan Meyer and Riva Sweetrocket

Dana Cain is the lady with her thumb in a million pies: A local maestra of event-planning throws several well-attended collectors expos, art shows, parties, chocolate fests each year. Her latest – and biggest – project is next summer’s Denver County Fair. But Dana is also an avid art collector…

Artbeat: Kate Petley and “Wild” Bill Amundson glow at Plus Gallery

The season opener at Plus Gallery (2501 Larimer Street, 720-394-8484, www.plusgallery.com) is Kate Petley: One Big Dream, on view in the main space. It’s mostly made up of the Colorado-based artist’s cast-acrylic abstractions but includes other sorts of work as well. For a while, Petley was getting super-experimental, but with…

Tonight: Illiterate Gallery rubs elbows with the tony at Primebar

Alternative art will bloom tonight in unexpected places when the Denver Theatre District hosts Illiterate Gallery at Primebar, 1515 Arapahoe Street, for one of its periodic salons in downtown locations. “They approached us to hang artwork on the wall there for two hours,” says Adam Gildar of Illiterate. “We’ll have…

Bill Affair: Bill Amundson says bye, bye tonight at Plus Gallery

Artist, humorist, DJ and man-about-town Bill Amundson has been part of the Denver landscape for more than thirty years, and I’ve known him for most of that time. Far, far away in a another life, I managed the Ogden Theatre, which was then a prehistoric Landmark repertory cinema, and Bill…

Dana Cain’s Art Collection: Louis Recchia

Dana Cain is the lady with her thumb in a million pies: The local maestra of event-planning throws several well-attended collectors expos, art shows, parties and chocolate fests each year. Her latest – and biggest – project is next summer’s Denver County Fair. But Dana is also an avid art…

How to get my job: Karaoke host

There are many jobs in this world. Some are so bizarre you probably don’t know they exist; some you might have had no idea people actually make a living at. In an effort to highlight some of these jobs, we’ve started a new series detailing the origins of people actually…

Lens crafters: Two new exhibits bring photos into focus

The fall art season is just getting under way, with several major shows open or about to open, including a few blockbusters. So this will be my last chance for a while to highlight interesting solos that fall short of that designation. Right now there are three worthwhile ones, all…

Stupid ad of the week: McDonald’s spontaneous playground

Advertising agencies work tirelessly day and night to come up with new ways to tell us consumers the same thing over and over again: “Hey, buy our shit. Don’t you want to be happy?” Much of this cultural detritus goes unnoticed, but there are always those few ridiculous ads that…

How to get my job: Social media strategist

There are many jobs in this world. Some are so bizarre you probably don’t know they exist; some you might have had no idea people actually make a living at. In an effort to highlight some of these jobs, we’ve started a new series detailing the origins of people actually…

Artbeat: Memory Trips shines a light on the civil-rights era

Around the corner from the bustling Santa Fe Drive art district is a funky two-room operation called Dark Energy Art Space (860 West Eighth Avenue, 303-719-0021, www.darkenergyartspace.com). The brainchild of emerging sculptor Ryan Raudonis, Dark Energy is a co-op of sorts, with a handful of other artists involved. Among that…

Preview: Nick Bantock works magic at the Museum of Outdoor Arts

Nick Bantock is charming and soft-spoken, hardly and at the same time every bit the superstar that he’s become, all because of the unique little idea he had twenty years ago for a book that’s also a collagist’s romantic assemblage containing pull-out letters and postcards, all loaded neatly between two…

Get lit at a craft beer neon sign art show

Though it’s your fault alone, you can blame Louisville’s Zeon Corporation, if you want, for your drinking problem. They’re the ones who make those mesmerizing neon beer signs that draw you in to bars and watering holes like flowers draw honeybees. In fact, the company, which has been around since…

The Seven Best TV Shows Set in Colorado

Television shows tend to be set on the coasts — in California or New York, usually. Anywhere else, and the show is often about that place as much as the characters: Miami in Miami Vice, Cleveland in The Drew Carey Show, or Cicely, Alaska, in Northern Exposure. So it is…

Neighborhoods: Old South Pearl Street

I go back a long way with Old South Pearl Street, and while it’s no longer as sleepy as it once was (that, by the way, is a good thing), it still exudes a heady mixture of old and new Denver: Brick facades and Victorian houses, shady trees and kids…

Photos: Cosplay at Nan Desu Kan, 9/11/10

Nan Desu Kan — “the premier anime convention of the Rockies” (read Cory Casciato’s excellent write- up here) — was held over the weekend of September 10-12, 2010 in Denver. And by far, the most popular event of the weekend was the cosplay (short for “costume play”) contest. Photographer Kate…