If it ain’t broke, don’t tinker with it

Roger Ebert’s CWA legacy lives on

Starting in 1975, Roger Ebert began a rather novel idea for a film series, which he called “Cinema Interruptus.” Screen the film on day one, and on days two through five, screen the film again, but allow any audience member to stop the film (by yelling “Stop!”) and begin a discussion.

Read more

Fiber problems

As Boulder explores condemning Xcel’s SmartGrid, questions remain about the $20 million fiber-optic system

Coughing up something nasty

Mike Doughty’s memoir explores his troubled past with his old band, drugs

When singer-songwriter-guitarist Mike Doughty left Soul Coughing, the band he formed through sweat, drugs and willpower, the group was at the peak of its popularity.

Read more

From banal to extraordinary

Brakhage Symposium showcases filmmakers who experiment with how we see our everyday lives

Stan Brakhage may have died in 2003, but his legacy lives on in the town in which he made his home. To this day, the spirit of the experimental filmmaking legend lives on in many ways — and in Boulder, there is no shortage of places to go and see films and speakers whose work fits in the same vein as Brakhage’s experimental spirit.

Read more

Talking Dead

Phil Lesh talks about learning new things in your 70s and shares his views on piracy

Terrapin Crossroads, of course, is Lesh’s new venue/restaurant, a joint project he opened with his wife, Jill. It’s a small performance space coupled with a dining room, and it’s the cul mination of decades of dreaming and planning, as well as a nifty little retirement plan for the septuagenarian bassist.

Read more

Biff 2012 | Out-guruing the gurus

All you need is a beard, dark skin, an Indian accent and some imagination

The son of Indian immigrants, Vikram Gandhi’s relationship with faith is fairly typical for someone with his upbringing. His parents raised him in Hindu traditions, but the religious rituals he became immersed in served more as a reminder of his familial history than a strict religious doctrine.

Read more

In the heart of Cirque du Soleil

Boulder Weekly dives into the company’s Montreal headquarters and gets a behind-the-scenes look at how it all happens

Put the name of Quebec billionaire Guy Laliberté, the mercurial founder of Cirque du Soleil, into YouTube, and the first result isn’t circus-related but a six-and-a-half-minute clip from a high-stakes game of Texas Hold ’em.

Read more

Reverend Friendly, street poet, dies at 76

Laverne Lobdell, the heavily bearded, silver-tongued street poet known as Reverend Friendly, who haunted Boulder’s open mics for decades, died on Jan. 7. He was 76.

Read more

Inside the heads of circus performers

Cirque du Soleil's resident 'performance psychologist' explains what makes circus artists tick

A typical Cirque du Soleil show is a long way from the “Greatest Show on Earth” of the early 1900s. Gone is the ringmaster entreating you to step right up and see a fabulous variety show, and animals and sideshows are nowhere to be seen. The Big Top, that is, the tent where it all goes down, is no longer a requirement either.

Read more

A tale of two predators

Former Denver Post reporter Amy Herdy reflects on her relationship with serial rapist Brent Brents

In 1989, a jury found Brent Brents, then 18, guilty of raping two children. He spent the next 15 years in jail, and when he got out in July 2004, he went on a terrifying rampage, raping and assaulting dozens of men, women and children until his capture in February 2005.

Read more