People collect the oddest things: photographs of WWII bombings of Papua New Guinea, salt shakers, monk figurines. Despite the time, effort and money involved in acquiring such collections, however, they’re usually doomed to mantelpieces and basement shelves, never to be seen by anyone but an eccentric grandmother or a nosy…

Growing up, I spent at least twenty Decembers covered with pine needles and sticky with sap, working my family’s Christmas-tree lot in Scottsdale, Arizona. Even today, the lot is a much loved, and missed, part of my childhood, one that’s inextricably linked to my concept of Christmas. I try not…

SAT, 12/11 Next to Santa’s workshop, could any place on earth be more magical to a kid at Christmas time than the Hammond’s Candies factory? Located right here in Denver since Carl T. Hammond Sr. set up shop in 1920, Hammond’s is especially known (and nationally, at that) for its…

The folks who started the Denver Gay and Lesbian Community Band rechristened it the Mile High Freedom Band shortly after its debut in 1984, figuring the new name better captured the essence of what the band was all about: supporting open-minded diversity and raising community awareness through music. And now,…

SAT, 12/4 Neal Conan may know radio, but he can’t keep a beat. The Talk of the Nation host was once a peppy percussionist who was asked to permanently retire his drumsticks by his high school bandleader, ultimately diverting Conan to a distinguished career in broadcast journalism. Luckily for us,…

SUN, 12/5 For someone like Richard Nelson, who grew up in the small northeast-plains town of Peetz, Colorado, East High must have seemed a far cry from the schoolhouses of his youth. His first shock came when he walked into the mammoth school as the new English teacher in 1964…

FRI, 11/26 This year, I’m going to put myself in the holiday spirit. No more procrastinating. I’m going to get out and enjoy all that the metro area has to offer. That always sounds good in theory, but this year I’m serious. I’m channeling Hannibal, and I have a plan…

FRI, 11/26 I tend to be a surreptitious shopper, sliding quietly through stores like a sylph on a mission, waiting for an item to communicate with me telepathically: “Here I am. Just what you need.” What I don’t need is help, and I don’t want it, either. Beware, shoptenders. Just…

SAT, 11/20 Harmony: A Colorado Chorale has something sing about. When the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriages this past spring, Harmony artistic director William Loper wanted to applaud the wedding bells he heard ringing on the horizon. The result is Hand in Hand, Heart to…

SAT, 11/20 Round up the literature posse! The Tattered Cover Book Store will add new turf to its bookish Bonanza when it burns the “TC” brand in Highlands Ranch. Plans are for the 21,764 square feet of suburban space to translate into bibliophile bliss, with the same look and feel…

THURS, 11/11 Three young composers, just out of music school and trying to make it in New York during the mid-’80s, took to meeting over breakfast every morning to discuss artistic life and, perhaps most of all, to complain. There was plenty for Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe and David Lang…

The gift-giving season draws nigh, so sound the battle cry and dig in: Shop early and shop often! After all, frenzy can be fun, especially when you know where to shop. And this is one hot weekend to do it. For starters, the seventh annual Gifts for Yule, an eclectic…

Down in Durango, a southwestern Colorado town we Front Range sophisticates don’t usually associate with cutting-edge culture, Fort Lewis College theater professor Kathryn Moller has the pioneer spirit. Her fully staged theatrical work Skins, adapted from a collection of sculpture and poetry by artist Elizabeth Ingraham, is proof of that…

SAT, 11/6 Photographer Robert Doisneau, who likened his art to a fisherman’s catch, loved Paris more than anyone possibly could, and he rarely left its confines to shoot his pictures. The tiny, split-second tableaux of splendid life are so perfectly indicative of time and place that they still transport us…

SAT, 11/6 Yoga is all about how you breathe, says Kirtan chant leader Dave Stringer: “If you have no awareness of breath, you’re just exercising. If you’re using your breath, you’re practicing yoga.” And while Kirtan doesn’t involve the thoughtful stretching of limbs or the fine art of tying oneself…

SAT, 11/6 When the Denver School of the Arts opened its new facility in 2003, administrators decided that what they had was too impressive to keep to themselves. They also recognized that the state-of-the-art campus offered a unique opportunity to connect with the community. “We realized that the DSA could…

FRI, 10/29 To truly appreciate Red Priest, you really must transport yourself to Baroque times — when Handel and Bach were society’s rock stars, creating bold and riveting music that wowed the courtly crowds. The iconoclastic British early-music company, once declared “the Cirque du Soleil of baroque performance ensembles” on…

SAT, 10/30 The Billy Nayer Show, a New York City-based band, has created bizarre story-driven rock for more than a decade. But forget trying to describe its unfolding saga or style. Instead, think of a creepy alien spaceship landing tonight in Boulder at the International Order of Odd Fellows Hall,…

T. Jefferson Carey — playwright, actor, artist, set designer, landscape laborer — might be the most unassuming Renaissance man you’ll ever meet. But really, he’s just a regular guy with a good shtick. More to the point, he’s a grown-up boy with a whole lifetime of surreal and scary dreams…

>My first time with Bob Dylan was a million years ago in my brother Mark’s room. There, Mark kept a bare-tubed amp and stereo that he cherished fiercely, and he’d sometimes allow me to come in for listening sessions — indoctrinations, really — that covered the gamut of what was…

FRI, 10/22 Alternative activities such as ultra-running, ultimate Frisbee and high-endurance yoga have always found an enthusiastic home in Boulder. But extreme filmmaking? Fast forward to the Shoot Out 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival. No, it’s not a scheme to market a new lifestyle drink — although participants in the fast-and-furious…

THURS, 10/14 When John Patrick Shanley’s play Dirty Story debuted in New York in 2003, the playwright chose to forgo the standard playbill biography. Rather than mention Shanley’s Oscar for the Moonstruck screenplay or numerous other accolades, the profile read, “John resides on Earth, in America, a country where the…