If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at [email protected].
EVENTS
A Weekend Carne Asada Outdoor Barbecue — presented by CaffèSole. 6-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28 and 29, Caffè Sole, 637 S. Broadway, Boulder. Reservations required (limited to 50 people): caffesole.com/reservations. Tickets are $20.
Stay safe while enjoying delicious food with live music at Caffè Sole’s carne asada outdoor barbecue, Aug. 28 and 29. Dinner — prepared by Chef Leonard Muñoz-Corona — will be served traditional family style per table, with a choice between a mixed grilled meat platter (arrachera steak, pollo adobado, chorizo) or a vegetarian grilled platter (marinated portobello mushrooms, nopales, red bell peppers). Sides, substitutions, dessert (crème brûlée, chocoflan, fruit galettes) and beverages are not included in the $20 dinner ticket. Music for Friday evening’s feast will be provided by Victor Mestas, Bill Kopper and Raoul Rossiter. Saturday night features the music of Bill McCrossen, Eric Gunnison and Raoul Rossiter. Reservations are required at caffesole.com/reservations.
Queens of Song — presented by BDT. 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Aug. 28 and 29, BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, bdtstage.com. Tickets are $35.
Bring a blanket or some camping chairs and enjoy two of Denver’s most powerful divas performing an outdoor concert at BDT Stage. Sheryl Renee and Anna High, accompanied by pianist Eric Weinstein, will bring their incredible vocal prowess to BDT’s outdoor stage for two exclusive shows. And of course, since it’s BDT Stage, dinner is included with the price of the show. Appetizers, upgraded entrees and a cookie will be served with the “picnic” meal. Limited to 112 patrons per show, parties larger than four will be assigned multiple plots. Plots will be assigned based upon who purchased first. Earlier buyers will get closer plots.
Opera in the Park — presented by Boulder Opera Company. 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 29, Boulder Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd., Boulder, boulderoperacompany.com Admission is free, but registration is required.
Join Boulder Opera Company for a night of opera’s greatest tunes and stories under the stars, featuring Boulder’s very own rising stars singing hits by Rossini, Englebert Humperdinck and more — true fun for the whole family. The concert will feature local singers such as Phoenix Gayles, Ekaterina Kotcherguina, Daniela Guzman, Jennifer Burks, Kelly Riordan, Armando Contreras, Dianela Acosta, Oliver Poveda and Santiago Gutierrez. This event has a capped attendance with mandatory registration. All parties must maintain a minimum of 6 feet of distance at all times and wear a face covering. Those feeling unwell and those vulnerable to COVID are asked to stay home.
300 Days — presented by Backporch Series. 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, Dairy Arts Center Parking Lot, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, thedairy.org. Tickets are $20.
The Dairy has a safe way for you to enjoy live music during the pandemic: the Backporch Series. With The Dairy’s loading dock as a stage, and its shaded parking lot providing a safely distanced and masked audience area, you can enjoy a real live concert. On Aug. 30 catch 300 Days, a bluegrass band with a catalog of fiery original tunes. The powerful vocals and acrobatic fiddle playing of Melissa McGinley, finely honed songwriting by mandolinist and guitarist Nick Dunbar, and tight rhythms of jazz-trained Dave “Pump” Solzberg on upright bass have been electrifying audiences across Colorado. Concessions including beer and wine will be available for purchase (credit card only).
COVID Story Gathering. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2. Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway, Boulder, museumofboulder.org.
Share your COVID-era story with one of the Museum of Boulder curators. Stop by the Museum between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Sept. 2 to have your story video recorded and to share photographs and artifacts from your life over the past few months. Stories about experiences with or caused by the coronavirus are welcome, but curators would love to hear about what has been most important for you, or what has had the greatest impact on your life “since March.” (If you are unable to visit the museum and would like to share your story, you can fill out a survey online, accessible at museumofboulder.org.)
HOMEVIEWING: Women Make Film
Running 14 hours and featuring the work of 183 directors, 700 clips and seven narrators, Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema might be writer/director Mark Cousins’ most ambitious project to date.
“Many films about cinema feature only male directors, so this one is a repost,” Cousins said in a press release. “It is a film school, where all the teachers are female.”
“There are the great [female] writers, producers, actors, of course, too — but there is much ignorance and blindness about women directing film,” Cousins continues. “Our film will boldly challenge this blindness.”
When Women Make Film made its Colorado premiere at 2019’s Telluride Film Festival, Cousins introduced the documentary by holding up a stack of photos, each one a picture of a director featured in Women Make Film: Kinuyo Tanaka, a Japanese actress who worked with the great filmmakers of Japan before stepping behind the camera herself; Binka Zhelyazkova, a Cold War-era Bulgarian filmmaker whose 1961 We Were Young masterpiece sold over 2 million tickets in Bulgaria, but was forgotten elsewhere; Ukrainian Kira Muratova; French Sarah Maldoror; Belgian Agnès Varda.
“Some of those people you’ve heard of, and a lot of them, I’m guessing you haven’t heard of, even the movie lovers,” Cousins said. “The reason for this film is to change that.”
And change it will, thanks to TCM: Every Tuesday from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1, the channel will dedicate its prime time lineup to Women Make Film, one episode per week, 14 in all.
Women Make Film is not a chronological history, but a road trip through cinema’s forgotten past. The destination is the source of cinema’s Nile with Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Adjoa Andoh, Sharmila Tagore, Kerry Fox, Thandie Newton and Debra Winger as traveling companions through 40 themes of cinema discourse. What’s more, many of these themes focus on cinematic technique, proving that the female gaze is not limited to what we see but how we see it.
Each episode of Women Make Film will be introduced by hosts Alicia Malone and Jacqueline Stewart, who will also present a handful of movies in conjunction with that week’s episode. Some of these films are featured in the documentary; some are not, but fit each evening’s theme. If Women Make Film is a 14-week film course, then TCM stacks the syllabus with extra credit.
Week one (Sept. 1) focuses on Openings and Tone and include two not to miss: Olivia, a French melodrama set in a girl’s boarding house so delightfully rococo you’ll want to bathe in Chantilly after seeing it, and Je tu il elle, a spare and seductive tale from Chantal Akerman, one of cinema’s true talents. Both movies present a lesbian lens of desire, but their execution and aesthetics couldn’t be more disparate.
TCM will also screen 1932’s Merrily We Go to Hell from Dorothy Arzner (the first woman admitted into the Directors Guild of America), the Mozambique-set Sleepwalking Land from Teresa Prata, Lina Wertmüller’s searing 1975 holocaust drama, Seven Beauties (for which she became the first woman nominated for a directing Academy Award), the Weimar-set Mädchen in Uniform from Leontine Sagan, and Lucrecia Martel’s debut about the rich going to pot, La Ciénaga.
Fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be one hell of a ride. Check womenmakefilm.tcm.com for information and schedules.
ART
Bricolage Gallery, Art Parts Creative Reuse Center, 2860 Bluff St., Boulder, artpartsboulder.org:
Judith Bergquist and Gigia Kolouch: ‘Flora and Fauna.’ Aug. 28-Oct. 3.
Judith Bergquist is a former theatre artisan and landscape architect who creates exquisite dimensional paper art that is expressive, meticulously detailed and vividly hued. Gigia Kolough uses solar dyes, fabric and plants to create breathtaking encaustic art that highlights the natural world. This exhibit at Bricolage Gallery offers up the sizable talents of these two unique female artists whose work will heighten your perceptions of nature.
Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St., Boulder, bmoca.org:
John Torreano: ‘The Big Picture — Painting from the Universe.’ Sept. 3-Jan. 17.
John Torreano’s abstract paintings and drawings are accentuated by plastic gems, wooden balls, paint and plywood in an effort to capture the cosmos. With the universe as muse, Torreano has created works that pull the viewer into the mysteries and wonders of the cosmos, aided by images from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Nyeema Morgan: ‘THE STEM. THE FLOWER. THE ROOT. THE SEED.’ Sept. 3-Jan. 17.
In her solo-exhibition THE STEM. THE FLOWER. THE ROOT. THE SEED., Chicago-based artist Nyeema Morgan poetically reflects on 21st-century dichotomies of gender and power: objectivity and subjectivity, agency and powerlessness, offense and defense. Through sculpture, drawing and other media, Morgan traces femininity as a complex process of categorization and identification — constantly affected by sexual, cultural and political pressures.
Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway, Boulder, museumofboulder.org:
Angie Eng: ‘Right on!’ Sept. 1-Nov. 3, creativecatalyzers.org.
In Right on, artist Angie Eng responds to the current social crisis on systemic racism with a series of painted plaques with dates and QR codes. Each of the 15 plaques, to be displayed on the exterior of the Museum of Boulder, Sept. 1 through early November, are painted different skin-toned colors. Each date corresponds to a civil rights case or event in American history from the 1860s to 2020. When the viewer scans the QR code with a smart phone, an internet page reveals a one-sentence description of the historical event or court case with a link to the source for more details. The form is an homage to the conceptual artist On Kawara’s ‘Today’ series. The plaques are on sale as part of a fundraiser for the cultural non-profit Creative Catalyzers, with 25% of proceeds going to the ACLU. For more information: creativecatalyzers.org/cultural-projects/right-on/fundraiser.
MUSIC NEWS
Dog House Music Studios has become Boulder County’s one-stop shop for livestreaming
by Caitlin Rockett
Liz and Kenny Vasko keep taking leaps of faith and landing firmly on their feet.
The first jump was when the couple — a former urban planner and accountant, respectively — bought Dog House Music Studios in spring 2019, saving it from demolition. The second jump came immediately after when they retrofitted the studio with modern engineering, production and videography services.
When the pandemic shut Colorado down in mid-March, the upgrades meant Dog House was already prepared to pivot to the livestreaming model that has become the lifeline of live music in our socially distant world.
“The day we got the stay-at-home order was the first day that we even tried to do a livestream with Dog House,” Kenny Vasko says. Front Range EDM artist Dirt Monkey had asked if the Lafayette studio and recording space could help him stage a livestream since all his tour gigs had been canceled.
Liz and Kenny and their sound engineer, John Remington, were happy to oblige.
“Five thousand people tuned in,” Vasko says. “That was a great proof of concept for us. We spent the next six weeks formulating, if we had to turn this into a business, what are we missing? What do we need to make this a better experience than people who are doing this in their basement or garages can have? For us, it came down to feeling like some sort of VIP experience, with real stage lighting, a real backline, having your own monitor mix in front of you, and engineers making sure the stream is optimized for phones or Airpods as opposed to huge PA speakers. Creating that VIP experience for the fans and creating that elevated experience for the artist is something that we’ve been able to pride ourselves in.”
These days, Dog House is a one-stop shop for livestreaming shows, logging more than 70 hours of live streaming since May 15 with around 30 different artists, from death metal bands to School of Rock students.
With COVID here to stay and the return of concerts as we knew them still too far away to see, Vasko hopes to continue to connect musicians with their audience.
“Our real claim to fame is plug and play,” he says. “We want [musicians] to be able to come into the studio, do sound check, and we’ll take care of the audio, camera, lighting — all you have to do is play.”
For fans looking to support local music, there’s Underdogs, a $5-a-month subscription plan where patrons can access all of the videos that Dog House has streamed live since the beginning of the pandemic, and any future streams. Donations help keep Dog House “kicking,” as Vasko puts it.
“In our complex we have 80 artists and residents, and they are the lifeblood of the underground music scene,” he says. “There aren’t too many rehearsal studios out there in the Denver metro area … where bands can be as loud as they want because we have a full backline. It’s very important that these spaces stay alive for the music scene because eventually your neighbors are gonna call the cops and you’ll need a place to play.”
HEAVY ROTATION
Three new tracks for your ears.
by Caitlin Rockett
“Dark Horse,” L.A. Witch
For their second album, Play With Fire, L.A. Witch preach a gospel of anti-apathy across nine tracks, asking us (and themselves) to give a damn when it’s hard (“I Wanna Lose”), listen to the kids (“Gen Z”) and remember our self-worth (“Sexorexia”). “Dark Horse” is a high point on the album, delivering what you might expect from a band called L.A. Witch: an acid trip in the desert, lead singer Sade Sanchez’s vocals draped in black velvet. The song channels the energy of 1960s Los Angeles, where anything is possible, and some of it is downright debauched.
“Desert Storm,” AMAARA
“When the sun set over the desert / Was it me that you tried to forget?” Kaelen Ohm wonders in “Desert Storm,” her question familiar to anyone who’s dared to love… and then lost. “It was something that I thought I could fight / But no words could have changed your mind / Another river stone for the fire / Another woman who just wanted your time.” The sole mind behind AMAARA weathered a divorce that informed the songs on her sophomore solo album, Heartspeak. An ambient drone builds a foundation for Ohm’s gossamer vocals, slow chords from a piano punctuating the realizations she’s come to in the days since her spouse left: “I guess it felt right,” she says, resigned. “Lie after lie after life / Was it really that hard / To say goodbye?” But Ohm isn’t stuck: She gently shifts the song into a higher gear, picking up enough BPMs to dance through the tears. “And you gave it all away,” she chants, and you can tell she knows she’s better off.
“Water Me Down,” Vagabon (Pamcy remix)
As the one-woman project Vagabon, Laeticia Tamko’s rich voice and relatable lyrics have been a favorite of indie music tastemakers since her debut album, Infinite Worlds. No wonder Fillipino producer Pamsy (Pamela Fernandez) decided to remix “Water Me Down” from Vagabon’s eponymously titled sophomore album. Already a catchy bop in its original form, Fernandez beefs up the track’s reserved four-on-the-floor beat and adds a dash of tropical warmth. “You know me better than that / You know I hate it like that / It really waters me down,” Tamko sings of a frustrating relationship. While Tamko finds comfort in expressing her needs in the original track, Fernandez’s touch strengthens Tamko’s resolve, helping her deliver the ultimate kiss-off.
