It's truly inspiring to see a group of people so (seemingly) obsessed with death living their lives more fully than your average couch potato. The ambition and dedication it takes to restore, recraft and maintain these classic deathmobiles is remarkable. Here are some scenes from Hearse Con 2008.
Once upon a time, cineastes had to look long and hard, and expend tremendous amounts of energy, in order to see obscure films. But thanks to the home video revolution and the rise of Internet shopping, intriguing flicks from moviedom's past are readily available -- even those that seem to have been lost forever. The Dragon Painter is one such offering: a 1919 release that studiously avoids the sort of Asian stereotypes that were endemic during that period of American moviemaking, and for long afterward.
When the Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar opened in the fall of 2006, founding director Adam Lerner declared his interest in searching the world for contemporary artists while simultaneously announcing his disinterest in trying to find any of them around here. And Lerner held to that outsiders-only approach for more than a year before he figured out that he needed to build an audience. It was obviously clear to him that a lot of people in the Denver area would be attracted to shows by artists from our own community as much or more than to the efforts of artists from elsewhere.
To begin with, Lerner tentatively placed locals in pseudo-exhibits in the unfortunately named Poop Deck. But the first Colorado artist to be given proper gallery space at the Lab -- and to thus actually break this geographic version of the color barrier -- was Phil Bender, (pictured), the Mile High City’s premier folk conceptualist.
Bender’s show, Last Place, which closed this past Sunday, was a crowded affair filled to the brim with his signature assemblages in which the artist collects together a group of similar things—ladders, rulers, belts, pictures, whatever—and then simply lines them up on the walls. It may sound ridiculously simple, but it often works, leading to creations that are powerful and fun to look at.
Though its run is over, the installation is still in place and will provide the backdrop for Bender Bender, billed as “a party” and “roast” of the artist. It gets under way tonight, Tuesday, May 6, at 7 p.m. at the Lab (404 South Upham Street, 303-934-1777, www.belmarlab.org) and is free with prior registration. — Michael Paglia
Lizz Winstead, the subject of the following Q&A, is headlining five shows over two nights at the Comedy Works (click here for details), but she’s hardly the average standup comic. She co-created The Daily Show, one of the most influential comedy programs of the past decade-plus, serving as the production’s head writer for two years – and while she left during the Craig Kilborn era, prior to the period when Jon Stewart pointed the anchor chair in an entirely new (and better) direction, her influence lingers. For one thing, she’s a former Stewart collaborator, having produced a talk show he hosted before he started the Daily grind. For another, she hired Stephen Colbert, now the host of his own night-live fave, The Colbert Report, not to mention often-riotous ranter Lewis Black, who remains a regular.
The conversation begins with Winstead talking about Shoot the Messenger, a once-a-week live production currently running in New York City, which satirizes morning television – a subject ripe for ridicule. Then, after touching on her standup plans, she shares insights about The Daily Show and Air America radio, another project that she helped launch, and one whose financial struggles strike her as resolutely unsurprising. Then, after confirming that she plans to bring Shoot the Messenger to Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention, she floats the possibility of coming to Denver when the Dems hit town, if a local theater would be willing to pick up the tab.
Will an impresario out there hear her plea?
It’ll come as no surprise to most moviegoers that actor Crispin Glover is a rather odd fellow. But he’s also an intriguing one, as is clear from the following Q&A, conducted to promote the three days he’ll spend in Denver hosting screenings of his 2005 directorial debut, appropriately named What Is It? (Click here for event details, and here to visit his website.)
Glover, who participated in the interview while driving back home from a film shoot, has a fondness for certain phrases, and returns to them over and over again. Note, for example, how many times he talks about personal projects that he’s “so very passionate” about. This fervor comes through plainly as he describes What Is It? and the ways that the film has changed since he screened an early version in Denver way back in 1997; a profile of Glover conducted at the time reveals more. From there, he discusses what he characterizes as the unexpectedly positive reviews the movie garnered from mainstream reviewers; the process that led to the making of a What Is It? sequel, 2007’s It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine.; the assist his filmmaking endeavors received from his villainous role in 2000’s Charlie’s Angels; his decision to finance his own movie ventures by acting in Hollywood fare, including projects whose pay is better than their artistic prospects; and the chances that he’ll someday be able to direct and distribute his own works fulltime.
Ready or not, here he comes:
Remember when you could watch free plays in Civic Center Park during the summer? That was awesome. All you needed for a great night out was a blanket, a cooler full of snacks and drinks and a few friends. In my opinion, nothing beats free outdoor theater. Which is why I was so sad when, after sixteen years, Theater in the Park lost its funding in 2006, ending the cultural extravaganza that so many people looked forward to every summer.
But what's gone is not lost forever.
When transcribing interviews, it’s often helpful to the reader to note when either the inquisitor or the person answering the questions laughs – but not in the case of this Q&A with John Oliver, a British-born correspondent for The Daily Show, who visits Denver for two nights worth of standup gigs; click here for more details. After all, laughter was so prevalent – especially on the part of your humble scribe – that noting each guffaw would be irritatingly redundant.
Oliver offers a brief sketch of his life in the U.K. entertainment firmament before talent scouts at The Daily Show plucked him from obscurity, for reasons he’s too paranoid to explore. Afterward, he shares memories of his first day on the job; divulges secrets about interviewing newsmakers – especially his preference for blindsiding them, as opposed to warning them about what’s coming; cites the U.S. senator who ended a taping early because he realized what an ass he’d just made of himself; debunks the notion that America’s youth is getting its news from Jon Stewart; details the agonies accompanied by the recently ended Writer’s Guild strike, which wound up getting him in a pickle with the immigration service; speaks with enthusiasm about covering August's Democratic National Convention in Denver; gives a brief preview of his performance in the forthcoming Mike Meyers movie, The Love Guru; and concedes that dishing about politics from club stages is a lot easier now that he’s a regular on Comedy Central.
Luckily, that’s pretty much the only regular thing about him.
In a bad interview, a hundred questions may not be enough to elicit interesting information from a subject. But in a good interview, a mere handful of prompts can produce fascinating results, as the following communique with director Amy Serrano demonstrates.
Serrano, who's making two Denver-area appearances on March 6 (see this item for details), wrote via e-mail that she only had time to answer a few brief inquiries about her new documentary, The Sugar Babies: The Plight of the Children of Agricultural Workers in the Sugar Industry of the Dominican Republic. Upon receiving the subsequent queries, however, she went into detail about the process of making the film, which examines the startling mistreatment of Haitians smuggled into the Dominican Republic to harvest sugar cane.
Her in-depth, impassioned comments are below:
Update: The Shoppe is now open for business. Get a look inside with this slide show by Molly Kreck.
In its December issue, Men's Health magazine named Denver the "Most Dangerously Drunk City" in America. It makes sense: Denverites can count on one shaking hand the social spaces that are sober and open late in this town.
Tran and Josh Wills (the married couple behind the Fabric Lab) hope The Shoppe, 3103 East Colfax Avenue, will change that. It's not that they have anything against bars and clubs; it's just that the Wills family is banking on the desire of designing Denverites to have a space where art and community are created daily -- and where the cupcakes are as abundant as the craft supplies.
The Shoppe offers a mix-and-match cereal bar and pastries, plus all the tools you need for making those buttons you want to distribute or that dress you've been designing in your head. From noon to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, the Shoppe hosts movie nights, cupcake-decorating classes, Project Runway viewing confabs, live music and more free, kids-of-all-ages-friendly DIY madness than you can shake your knitting needles at.
For information, call 303-322-3969 or visit The Shoppe's MySpace page.
Romantic restaurants on Valentine’s Day are overpriced, overcrowded and overbooked, or at least that’s what you can tell yourself when you realize you’ve forgotten to make a reservation. But eating is optional, people, like those mawkish diamond “journey” pendants and the single red rose, and there’s no reason why you can’t just round up your squeeze and have an alternative night on the town. Go on, prove your love.
For time-honored tradition, there’s always the sweet, blowsy Valentine's Day at the Mercury Café. It puts one in mind of an insular world governed by the spirit of Mae West, where Marilyn Megenity whips up her annual “love potions” in the kitchen (dinner tables are likely to be tight, but the Merc serves dinner from 5:30 to 11 p.m.), the Mercury Motley Players make love and fun on stage in Lovers, Split, Strangers and there’s always some sort of couples dancing going on, including this year’s slow dance lessons to blues music at 6 p.m. and a Hot and Spicy Valentine's Dance at 8 p.m. Best of all, the Merc is cheap, like Ms. West herself: Dinner is filling yet reasonable, dance lessons run $7 a person, dance admission is $5 and it’s $10 a seat in the theater. The Merc is at 2199 California Street; log on to www.mercurycafe.com or call 303-294-9281.
Chelsea Handler is a one-woman comic powerhouse. The last time I spoke to her, she talked about why babies suck, why flying can be fun, her latest work and how much she doesn't like Cleveland (don't worry, Denverites -- she says of our fair city: "I had the best time there. It’s small, it’s not backwards and it’s not too forward."). The fiesty comedian starred in all four seasons of Oxygen Network's Girls Behaving Badly, has her own show on E! (Chelsea Lately) and has written two books, My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands and Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea, due for release this year and containing such storied gems as the time she went on vacation with her father -- and everyone thought it was their honeymoon.
Each year before Keystone Chef Ned Archibald leaves to erect his chocolate village in the Keystone Lodge -- a masterwork created entirely from chocolate and, in the case of the ornaments on the six-foot-tall white-chocolate Christmas tree, hand-blown sugar -- his wife gives him a hug and tells him, "Just remember, you're going to make so many people happy."
It's important to remember that, because Archibald's chocolate village is not a simple enterprise, and frustrations can run high. The chocolate fountain, for example, needs almost-constant monitoring to check the viscosity and ensure the chocolate won't clog up the fountain pump.
The documentary Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, which begins its Denver run on December 14 at the Starz FilmCenter, has a fine subject -- the combustible, highly quotable shouter for the Clash, who died in 2002 -- and a sympathetic, visually audacious director -- Julien Temple, the onetime music-video auteur behind two Sex Pistols flicks, 1980's The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle and 2000's The Filth and the Fury. But while the film is modestly entertaining and never dull, it doesn't come close to approximating the power of the Clash salvos heard on the soundtrack as the result of a too slick, too glib visual and stylistic approach that frequently stops at the surface rather than digging beneath it.
Westword's resident funny man recently sat down at a computer to send questions via e-mail to Zach Galifianakis, who sat down at a computer to answer them. Though he may have stood. The following is the correspondence:
Westword (Adam Cayton-Holland): Hey, Zach, Adam Cayton-Holland here, writer for the free alt-weekly in Denver, the Westword. Also a stand-up comic. Four years experience. Thanks for asking. So here we go: Who are you favorite comics performing today?
Zach Galifianakis: Just me.
WW: How long is this tour? Do you enjoy touring? With the Comedians of Comedy tour you were obviously with a few buddies, how is it touring alone?
ZG: I have been touring on and off for about a year. I think I have done around 25-30 places. Touring alone is a bit lonely but I tend to make friends along the way with vagrants and low wage male prostitutes which is nice when all you want to do is have someone around to discuss the unrest of Pakistan.
On Sunday, the city hosted its first -- but with any luck, not last -- Kurt Vonnegut appreciation event, with assorted celebrities (or what passes for them in this town) reading two-minutes snippets of his work, fans doing the same, and then Mayor John Hickenlooper -- whose father went to college with Vonnegut (read about it in this week's Off Limits) -- announcing the winner of the Vonnegut Depreciation Essay contest.
Kevin McCarthy took it, with his "Porterhouse - Jive":
