What’s fun to play with, interactive, educational and not made of junky plastic? The answer is simple: just about anything at Shop, Skip and a Jump, the tiny little nook of a gift shop tucked into the entryway at the Children’s Museum of Denver. It’s useful information this time of…
Remember the Ice Capades? I don’t. My parents wouldn’t take me. Ditto for the Disney classics. My knowledge as a child of Pinocchio and Mary Poppins was entirely secondhand. But now that I’m a parent, things are different: It would be unthinkable in this day and age to deny my…
Notes from a network executive’s forthcoming biography, pilfered from the desk of an editor at a major publishing house. This was hard to read, as it was scribbled in crayon on the back of a copy of Highlights taken from a pediatrician’s office. From page 412: “Last week, I met…
Though his studio was in Pennsylvania, internationally known modernist-sculptor and designer Harry Bertoia, who died in 1978, had a number of Colorado connections. For many years he served as a fellow of the Aspen Institute, and there are important pieces of his work in the permanent collections of the Denver…
As a part of the Leah Cohen Festival of Books and Authors at the Mizel Center (350 South Dahlia Street, 303-316-6360), the Singer Gallery is fitted out with Illustrations by Leonard Baskin, Michelle Barnes and Barry Moser. The show was organized by gallery director Simon Zalkind and is made up…
The Nomad Theatre’s Cinderella, directed by Deborah Curtis, is perfect for children. It’s slight, charming, tuneful and funny. There’s no uncertainty about the story or how it will end, so you can just settle in and enjoy the talented performers and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s songs. The evening opens with the…
Children of Eden is a very literal rendition of two Bible stories — those of the Garden of Eden and Noah’s flood. These narratives provide a good excuse for colorful props and costumes, a large cast and lots of ecstatic singing. Other than that, it’s hard to figure out a…
Each of the beautifully made vignettes that make up Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity glimpses a young woman caught at a crossroads, faced with an important decision and about to experience one of those rare dilations of vision that can change an entire life. Now, this is a common ploy in…
Maid in Manhattan, in which Jennifer Lopez goes from pauper to princess, comes not from a screenplay, but from a handful of self-help books and fairy tales and fashion magazines cut and pasted together in a glossy montage committed to celluloid. Characters, made from the highest-grade cardboard and resplendent in…
The Italian film director Luchino Visconti once said that the only thing that really counts on the screen is “an expression of the burden of being human.” Of all his work, Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960), which is showing in revival Friday through December 19 at the Starz FilmCenter,…
What’s sillier than a bunch of people trying to run on ice? How about a bunch of people chasing a ball with brooms while skittering over frozen water? That’s exactly what’s involved in the game of Broomball, and Denver Sports Monster, a company that organizes adult sports, is offering two…
Boulder photographer and emergency vet John McGee grew up with the same view of China as most baby boomers: The nation was a big, crowded, backward place where people were oppressed by scheming Maoists. But then he and his wife traveled to Fujian province, on the massive country’s southeast coast,…
Looking for a Western brand to mark your Christmas season? Then hoof it to the Buffalo Bill Museum’s annual Christmas With Cody celebration. “Buffalo Bill loved Christmastime, and he loved kids,” says Steve Friesen, director of the museum. “He would dress up as Santa Claus and give toys away. We’re…
They got mountains, we got mountains. They got Yeti, we got Sasquatch. They got exotic, we got…squat. Is there any better reason to shop at the Nepali Bazaar? Actually, yes: Because instead of copying “ethnic” looks in clothing and accessories like every store and catalogue in America, this shop, recently…
With a thirty-foot wizard floating through the chilly night sky and local marching bands playing peppy holiday tunes, downtown Denver will be aglow this weekend for the Xcel Energy Parade of Lights. “It’s a special night for kids of all ages, but it’s definitely magical for the younger ones to…
In television, ratings determine everything. That’s why the networks pull out all the stops in programming during sweeps weeks. There are only a few of them during the year, but you know when one comes around, because the entire Godfather series runs on Bravo, MTV airs a Jackass marathon, there’s…
Here’s some sad if not unexpected news: It will soon be time to bid adieu to the wonderful little Andenken Annex (1449 Wynkoop Street, 303-758-2290) in LoDo. Since June, the Annex has been ensconced in the first-floor space of the SteelBridge loft complex, which has a great, high-profile location. Now…
Rattlebrain Theater should have everything it needs to become a destination for the young and hip, a thronged local hot spot, the kind of place no in-the-know visitor to Denver would think of missing. It’s in a great location: the old D&F clock tower, slap-bang in the middle of the…
Robert De Niro always did love an acting challenge, but lately those challenges have been less along the lines of “Can I convincingly play a boxer?” and more like “Can I alone be good enough to make this formulaic mess worth watching?” Yes, it was impressive that he played a…
Transcribed verbatim from the DVD commentary track of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, here’s an informative sci-fi concept from director George Lucas: “…as we go through the movie, there’s all little funny moments like Jango bumping his head because in Star Wars one of the Stormtroopers bumps…
Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935) is rightly famous (and notorious) as the most powerful propaganda film ever made: a documentary account of the Nazis’ massive, staged-for-the-camera Nuremberg rallies of 1934. The film glorifies Adolf Hitler and propagates the myth of German “purity” so skillfully that to this day…
Push open the creaky picket-fenced gate at the Pearce-McAllister Cottage, walk up the garland-adorned porch steps and step through the front door into a bygone era. You can almost smell the cookies baking in the kitchen and see Dad in the parlor with his pipe and evening paper. Located in…
