Swish Splash

What exactly is the Swishing Party that the Denver Library’s Fresh City Life and Dazzle are putting together this evening? “It’s a fashion swap meet,” explains the library’s Chris Loffelmacher. “Dazzle hosted our Knit for Our Troops kick-off party, and it just exploded with slightly snockered knitters. There’s been kind…

Blast from the Past

Have you ever gotten up-close and personal with a World War II-era B-25 bomber? “It’s an amazing piece of American history,” says bomber pilot Jim Terry. “The airplane is a time capsule; it’s exactly the way it was in 1942.” Terry’s airplane will be a guest of honor at tonight’s…

Three’s Company

Every year, I get excited for the Arvada Center’s summer art exhibits, which are typically complementary yet distinct shows with enough diversity to satisfy wide-ranging tastes. And this year is no exception: The seasonal selections include Jill Greenberg: Monkeys and Bears, Haze Diedrich: Devotion and “Scramble” Campbell: Music With a…

Go for the Gold!

The discovery of gold in Colorado inspired the Rush to the Rockies exactly 150 years ago. Although many fortune-hunters who set off on the arduous journey across the plains to Pikes Peak territory never arrived, and still more gave up on ever striking it rich and headed back home, those…

Kids Gone Wild

Every year, the Sheridan Opera House gives back to the Telluride community through the Wild West Fest, which starts June 8 and runs through June 14. “We work with different Boys & Girls Clubs throughout the United States, and within their own club, they choose the kids who have stood…

Vocal Locals

When the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver absorbed Belmar’s Laboratory of Art and Ideas, it added a few twists to the Lab’s uber-popular Mixed Taste: Tag Team Lectures on Unrelated Topics, which mashes together two talks on completely different subjects, in the process uncovering unsuspected links between them. MCA Denver…

Modern Living

They say style goes in cycles, but for fans of mid-century modern design, clean lines and make-a-statement colors will always be fashionable. “People don’t necessarily associate Historic Denver with mid-century modern,” says Historic Denver’s Heather Quiroga, “but in fact, mid-century modern is historic, and more and more mid-century developments are…

Film on the Mountain

Despite the plethora of film festivals open to the public in the metro area and beyond, there’s no festival quite like Telluride’s annual Mountainfilm extravaganza. “We’re about a lot more than mountaineering and climbing,” notes executive director Peter Kenworthy. “It started out in that world, and getting into the cultures…

Myth America

Sita Sings the Blues, an animated full-length feature, made its Denver debut at the Starz Denver International Film Festival last year, “and it was just one of the runaway hits,” remembers programming director Keith Garcia. “It’s just one of those movies that gets you; it’s highly original from beginning to…

Altared States

If you could put together the perfect boy band, what would the elements be? You’d need a leader (Matthew); a sweet, sensitive singer (Mark); and since no boy band would be complete without a little taste of gangster, an edgy dude (Luke). A little bit of Latin lover (Juan) should…

Lily Red, White and Blue

Lily Burana began her writing career as a columnist and editor for punk and alternative zines. She was also a stripper, starting off in punk-inspired Times Square peep shows and even taking a battle for strippers’ rights to the courts. In other words, she’s not the kind of woman most…

Win, Wink

Are you curious about the current burlesque renaissance and the women who are learning to take it off? If so, you won’t want to miss A Wink and a Smile, a documentary opening tonight at Starz FilmCenter in the Tivoli, complete with an appearance by Denver’s own burlesque queen (and…

Best Foot Forward

“We are focusing on design this entire year at DAVA,” explains Viviane Le Courtois, program manager for Downtown Aurora Visual Arts. That explains why the upcoming Fashion Forward show — a collaboration between DAVA youth and local fashion mavens such as Mona Lucero — is heavy on the elements of…

Dance the Day Away

It’s Mother’s Day, which means most children will be showing their love via a bouquet of flowers and a nice brunch somewhere — complete with clean faces, combed hair and tucked-in shirts. But why not go a step further and take Mom to the ballet afterward? The Boulder Ballet is…

U.S.A. Today

World travelers are always nattering on and on about how fabulous it is to immerse oneself in the culture of another country. And that’s true, but there’s so much culture within the confines of this country that it’s not necessary to get your passport stamped to have a cultural experience…

Old Meets New

As a graphic designer, Andrew Hoffman often finds himself “on the computer, doing really modern, visual graphic design.” So he describes his upcoming art show at the Shoppe, Oxymoron, as “kind of a reaction against myself, in a way. A digital designer doing classical oil paintings which also have contemporary…

Today’s Featured Event: Here’s how to play 52 Pick Up

The plot behind the innovative 52-scene play The production called 52 Pick Up is simple. A couple meets. They fall in love. Then, they fall out of love. And they break up. What makes the production so interesting is the order in which these things happen. There are 52 cards…

Today’s Featured Event: Lost Film Festival

VJ Scott Beibin’s Lost Film Festival is a law unto itself. Although it can be loosely compared to work by such artists as Negativland, Pee-wee Herman or the Marx Brothers, its anti-corporate vibe and array of topics addressed puts the Lost Film Festival firmly into its own category. That being…

Now Beer This

Maverick author Tom Robbins is known for his whimsical (yet well-researched) forays into little-known crevices of our planet — from peyote trips to Salome’s forbidden Dance of the Seven Veils to the unknown whereabouts of the model for Henri Matisse’s “Blue Nude.” Now, Robbins is boldly going where no psychedelic…

Word Roundup

SETH was at the very first Poetry Rodeo, which took place twenty years ago at the now-defunct Muddy’s Java Cafe. He got together with his poetry-performance partners at that event, “so for that reason, it’s dear to my heart,” he notes. That weekend-long poetry extravaganza is far in the past,…

Today’s Featured Event: Jon Ginoli signs Deflowered

Like oil and water, punk-rock and queer lifestyles just don’t seem to mix well, despite a shared penchant for edgy fashion and a fuck-the-system attitude. Which is what made Pansy Division — the very first out-and-proud-of-it queer punk-rock band — such an anomaly. The band was formed in San Francisco…