Hard Knocks

Those people who live in small towns, they’re not like you and me. So naive, so innocent. And adorably quirky. Why, they’ve got so many lovable quirks you just wanna run up and hug ’em. Or, if you’re a filmmaker, perhaps you can make a movie about these simple folk…

Flick Pick

This year’s renewal of Boulder’s popular Chautauqua Silent Film Series starts off with a showing of The Patsy (1928), King Vidor’s enduring comedy starring Marie Dressler and Marion Davies as a constantly feuding mother and daughter. Not to be confused with the Jerry Lewis talkie of the same name, this…

Beam Me Up

Ever hear of something called the Sundance Film Festival, a little gathering that Bob Redford started up in the hills of Utah a few decades ago? It caught on, and now everyone who can afford a fringed buckskin jacket and a private jet heads to Sundance in hopes of hightailing…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

Thursday, May 27 While thousands flee the city this weekend, the International Wine Guild continues its ongoing series of classes designed to inform casual wine lovers. What will be uncorked this session? A wide variety of flavorful topics, including “Wines of the Pacific Northwest” (tonight) and “USA Food and Wines…

Beers and Cheers at A-Basin

Aah, Memorial Day. A day of somber reflection, of backyard picnics and barbecues. A day for quietly contemplating the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, and a day for beer. Lots of beer. Lots and lots of beer. So while Mom is in the kitchen making red, white…

The Eagle Soars

MON, 5/31 The Shona people of Zimbabwe call the bateleur eagle (a rare native raptor that in Shona religious lore serves as a messenger of the gods) “Chapungu.” It’s no mistake that the name also applies to the contemporary stone art of the nation, a relatively recent cultural endeavor that’s…

Rev It Up

MON, 5/31 If you’re feeling the need for speed this Memorial Day, get to Bandimere Speedway for the annual Pepsi All-American High School Drags. The showdown is open to high school students between the ages of sixteen and nineteen with a valid driver’s license and a release form signed by…

Living Color

When invited by the City of Broomfield to put on an art exhibit in the building shared by its library and public auditorium, members of the Women’s Caucus for Art made certain the theme fit the environment. As an enhancement for the Mamie Doud Eisenhower Public Library’s summer reading program,…

Paragon Premiere

SAT, 5/29 The universal struggle that women face in trying to balance a career, family and friendship is highlighted in Saints and Hysterics, a new work by local playwright Tracy Shaffer Witherspoon and performed by the Paragon Theatre Company. The play opens tonight with a world-premiere presentation at Denver’s Phoenix…

Trivial Pursuits

There’s so much to do in Colorado during the summer, it’s almost paralyzing. There are the always-popular but always-sold-out concerts at the Denver Botanic Gardens, the KBCO World Class Rockfest, the Shakespeare Festival, the Taste of Colorado, the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival, the Grand Prix, the ever-expanding number of farmers’…

Party Patrol

While summer days are great for lounging, it’s the hot summer nights that will truly make memories. And nothing heats things up faster than a tacky theme party. Here are four summer evenings that are sure to live on in infamy — and make you the social director for summers…

Risk Patrol

I’m here at the Off Track Betting room at the sprawling Red and Jerry’s complex on Oxford and Santa Fe for one reason: to learn how to gamble. Or more accurately, to learn how to play the horses. Gambling in its simplest state is no more challenging than sleep. Want…

The Sun Never Sweats

As the sultry musk of summer gets ready to coat our bodies like a clammy dishrag, here are a couple of homemade mix tapes to keep you cool in the midst of all that global warming, sticky sex and melted ice cream. The first tape is made up of some…

Must Haves

Crystal Sharp, owner, SheShe boutique KissMe mascara “It acts like a waterproof mascara, but it comes off with warm water. It’s fabulous. You can swim in it; you can tan in it and not worry about it running all over your face.” Gabriel Conroy, designer Large-scale bone, coral or turquoise…

Summer Drinkin’, Had Me a Blast

As comedian Steven Wright once said, “24 hours in a day…24 beers in a case…coincidence?” I think not. There are thirteen weeks of summer left — and thirteen perfect drinks to get you through them. Coincidence? I think not. Here’s to a liquid tour of Denver! Mojito Cuzco Kick off…

We All Scream for Gelato!

Forget ice cream. Discriminating dessert connoisseurs know that gelato is the real hero of summer. “When I got here seven years ago, it was almost impossible to find gelato,” says Simone Parisi, owner of Parisi, a north Denver Italian restaurant and deli that recently added a gelato counter. “It’s definitely…

Patio Daddy-O

Every summer when I was younger, my friends and I basically moved out of our parents’ houses and into the surrounding wilderness, resorting to a primitive caste system whereby whoever had the coolest stuff dictated what we did. We spent days re-creating World War II with cap guns, fortifications in…

Star Crossed

Gemini: May 21 to June 20 Brain power. Thanks to Mercury, you can reshape relationships and save some money with a little thinking. Those super-charged synapses can also help you heal old emotional wounds. In July, someone close needs your financial advice. Give. Just don’t sacrifice time you had set…

Hard Work

Well, I’ve decided to make it official and issue a formal statement on the matter: I hate juried shows. They’re the slums among group shows, and it’s hard to believe they’re still being done. I don’t even know why I still go to see them. The problems with juried shows…

Artbeat

There’s an extremely unusual show at Capsule (554 Santa Fe Drive, 303-623-3460) called Justin Beard: Second Hand Smoke. The handsome exhibit represents a very strong early showing for a young emerging artist who’s just out of art school. Capsule director Lauri Lynnxe Murphy describes Beard’s installation as being “very cool…

Now Showing

Abstractions on Paper. The current show at the city’s coziest little art shop, the Emil Nelson Gallery, is a fascinating group endeavor put together by director Hugo Anderson. The exhibit combines historic and contemporary works in the form of watercolors, prints, drawings and photos by more than two dozen artists…

Mugging the Mayor

Rattlebrain Theater Company consists of a group of highly talented and appealing actors with loads of stage presence. Director Dave Shirley, who also writes much of the material, keeps things buzzing along and utilizes music and video clips to great effect. In It’s Hickenlooper’s World, the troupe’s target is Denver…