EVENTS
Celebrating the dearly departed
Monday.Procession. Celebrate El Dia de los Muertos with the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council at a special procession for the holiday. Gather at the CHAC Gallery to meet up for the walk, and be sure to bring along a photo of a loved one who’s passed away. Early birds can get their faces painted too, in preparation for the procession. Aztec dancers will lead the procession through the Santa Fe Arts District, including a stop at the Museo de las Americas. Afterward, the gallery will host a storytelling session with refreshments on hand. 6:30 p.m. CHAC Gallery, 772 Sante Fe Drive; 303-571-0440. Free. Kathleen St. John
Not dead yet
Monday. El Dia fest. If there’s any party power left in your system after the weekend’s Halloween festivities, head to Tambien. The Cherry Creek cantina, at 250 Steele St., is hosting a celebration, complete with an altar, sugar skulls and lots of tasty food, for El Dia de los Muertos. Browse the auction of sugar skulls decorated by local artists, and be prepared to move to Latin hip- hop from DJ Nuñez. Info: 303-333-1763 or tambien- . Kathleen St. John
POP MUSIC
Chugging along
Tonight. Rock. Train is making something of a comeback, and the ’90s band’s re-emergence is surprising critics who previously thought Train a one-hit-wonder. The band just released “Save Me, San Francisco” earlier this week, but the CD’s catchy single, “Hey, Soul Sister,” has been railing on the radio for more than a month. Pat Monahan’s vocals clearly guide the song to hit status, and Train will play the Ogden Theatre tonight with Uncle Kracker opening. Tickets, $32.75, are available via or 303-830-8497. Ricardo Baca
Still big
Thursday. Rock. They’re a long way from their “Flood” heyday, but They Might Be Giants still know how to have a good time. The band’s made a living recently with its punchy and bright children’s songs, but the focus will be more from its adult catalog when the seminal indie-pop ensemble plays the Gothic Theater. Tickets, $25, are available via . And make sure to get there early, as the Guggenheim Grotto will open the show. Ricardo Baca
DANCE
New again
Today-Nov. 8. Dance. Broomfield-based company Ballet Nouveau Colorado continues its fall program with “Intersection,” a new collaborative work from artistic director Garrett Ammon and Michael J. Henry, executive director of Denver’s Lighthouse Writers Workshop. The two produced last year’s “Love,” and “Intersection” looks to be another intriguing work — and not just because it’s Ballet Nouveau’s first full-length ballet in two seasons. The piece combines multimedia projections and a distinct narrative with the full complement of BNC’s dancers. Today-Sunday, 470 S. Allison Parkway in Lakewood; Nov. 6-8, Performing Arts Complex at PCS, 1001 W. 84th Ave. in Federal Heights. Various times. $16-$42. 303-466-5685 or . John Wenzel
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Lang Lang back
Friday. Symphonic music. Classical music has precious few performers who have secured widespread recognition outside the field. Among the recent ones who have is Lang Lang, a pianist who knows a thing or two about exciting audiences. He will join music director Jeffrey Kahane and the Colorado Symphony for a special one- night program, featuring Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Note the unusual starting time of 8:30 p.m. to accommodate a prior gala dinner. $75-$155. 303-623-7876 or . Kyle MacMillan
Thrilling night
Today-Saturday. Holiday music. The title kind of says it all: “Night of the Living Brass.” The Denver Brass is “guaranteeing” goose bumps with its musical tribute to Halloween, a program featuring everything from Paul Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” to an arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The ensemble is presenting two evening concerts at 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday ($22-$43) and a one-hour matinee at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, followed by trick-or-treating ($20, $10 children 12 and younger). They will take place in the University of Denver’s Newman Center for the Performing Arts, 2344 E. Iliff Ave. 303-832-4676 or . Kyle MacMillan
Let’s be Frank
Today. Holiday music. Viennese-born composer HK Gruber’s wild and wacky “Frankenstein!!” has been performed hundreds of times worldwide. The collection of comedic songs makes use of an orchestra augmented with toy instruments, popping sacks and whirling hoses. The 1978 work will be showcased as part of “Fright Fantastique,” a Boulder Philharmonic program that will also include Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique.” The event is set for 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. $13-$70. 303-444-7328 or . Kyle MacMillan
A future star?
Wednesday-Thursday. Piano recital. It is not always the gold medalists of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition that go on to gain enduring fame. Will 2009 silver medalist Yeol Eum Son of South Korea be among the second- and third-place winners who build a substantial career? The 23-year- old pianist performs two recitals in the state this week. She will appear at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Colorado State University’s Griffin Concert Hall at the University Center for the Arts, 1600 Remington St., Fort Collins ($28, $14 students; 970-221-6735 or ) and 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway ($26; 303-987-7845 or culturalcenter). Kyle MacMillan
FAMILY FUN
Scary animals
Saturday-Sunday. Halloween party. See the creepier side of the Denver Zoo at “Boo at the Zoo.” The zoo is transformed into a trick-or-treater’s delight with more than 20 candy stations set up throughout. There also will be live entertainment, free photos and live animal demonstrations. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Denver Zoo, 2300 Steele St.; 303-376-4800. Boo at the Zoo activities are free with zoo admission: $12 for guests ages 12 to 64, $9 for seniors age 65 and older, $7 for kids ages 3 to 11. For more information, visit . Kathleen St. John
Monster bash
Sunday. More Halloween. If you need just one more day of Halloween fun this year, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts is your destination. Get one more use out of that costume and visit the Family Fun Forum, a special program of theater activities. Earn tokens for treats and prizes by participating in the event — walk a “tightrope of terror,” work on creating the weirdest witch cackle or test out the trapeze. Noon to 2 p.m. Newman Center for Theatre Education, 1101 13th St. Reservations are recommended, but not required. Call 303-446-4892 to save a spot. Free. Kathleen St. John
German artist’s white-on-white abstractions at Rule Gallery
Udo Nöger’s first exhibition in the United States took place in 1990 at the Payton-Rule Gallery, the fore- runner of today’s Rule Gallery at 227 Broadway.
The German-born artist, whose profile continues to rise internationally, has maintained a presence in Denver since, including a pair of high-profile shows at Rule and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver in 2005.
Nöger has returned to Rule with 14 recent examples of his signature white-on-white abstractions, which suggest a range of allusions, including the icy transparency of the frozen surface of a lake.
Using an inventive process involving at least three layers of cloth and canvas, he manages to create a sense of depth and quiet luminescence in these stunningly subtle works.
Also on view are a group of 12 more painterly acrylic works by Nöger’s wife, Katrin Möller. She, too, puts an emphasis on white but incorporates a few other colors as well, in these vaguely biomorphic abstractions.
Both exhibitions continue through Saturday. Free. 303-777-9473 or . Kyle MacMillan
Enviro film festival in Golden has beguiling, humorous sides
Over and over again, plastic water bottles make their determined way along conveyor belts. Consider it an industrial-design ballet. It’s also blue-capped evidence of a multibillion dollar market.
Even the makers of “Tapped,” an intelligent, critical documentary about the bottled-water industry, knew to send a photo. It’s an oddly beguiling image.
Directed by Stephanie Soechtig and Jason Lindsey, the opening-night film of the fourth Colorado Environmental Film Festival (Thursday-Saturday in Golden) begins its journey in Maine. Global concern Nestle, the bottler of Poland Spring, Arrowhead and a number of other brands, has quietly purchased groundwater rights. The locals are beginning to simmer.
The common good and a community’s interests often seem trumped by business concerns. When Raleigh, N.C., and Atlanta were in the midst of extreme droughts, citizens had to limit water use. Pepsi and Coca Cola kept pumping. (If the Denverites among you do a double-take during Durham city councilman Eugene A. Brown’s interview, it’s because he’s Denver council member Charlie Brown’s twin.)
Beside the basic question of who owns the rights to drinking water, “Tapped” addresses the impact of all that plastic on the environment. According to the International Bottled Water Association, Americans bought 29 billion bottles of water in 2007.
Sustainability is a theme throughout the festival, although not always in the ways audiences familiar with the burgeoning genre of enviro-docs might expect.
“That’s something we’re trying to avoid, becoming a heavy-handed, environmental doomsday festival,” says event co-chair Joe Brown. “We want audiences to see interesting things, beautiful things. We’re not a festival that’s just going to lecture at you.”
Aurelio Voltaire’s short “X-Mess Detritus” is a macabre meditation on gift-giving that could make Tim Burton proud.
Robert McFalls’ “Homegrown” is a portrait of Jules Dervaes and grown children Justin, Anais and Jordanne, who have created a homestead organic farm within vrooming distance of Interstate 210 in California. They are modern-day pioneers — stubborn, mildly eccentric, hardworking — micro-farming their little plot, not on a prairie, but near Pasadena’s teeming freeway.
A woman chasing down the common backyard snail is not a feat of speed. But Greg Young’s 12-minute “On the Trail With Miss Snail Pail” is intriguing just the same. “No, no, keep them alive,” snail-abatement specialist and artist Colleen Flanigan — a.k.a. Miss Snail Pail — tells a potential client over the phone. “Because I’m going to eat them.” The film has surreally lovely images of Flanigan’s “micro-livestock.”
Jeremy Seifert’s “Dive!” sounds like an oceanographic adventure. It’s not. (For that, see “Gimme a Hug,” a Dutch treat about shark behavior.) Instead, “Dive” documents the director and his friends’ Dumpster-diving food forages in Los Angeles. Among the markets tossing pounds of still-good food away: Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.
Chances are, Seifert and friends won’t convert viewers to a life of plundering plastic bags stuffed with produce just past its sell-by dates. But “Dive!” provides plenty of food for thought about how much we waste.
One could say that the growing festival serves a similar purpose: to entertain, engage and nudge audiences toward awareness.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com. Also on blogs.denverpostcom/madmoviegoer
“4th COLORADO ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL.”
Annual film happening. Thursday through Nov. 7 at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden, 710 10th St. Opening night film “Tapped,” 7 p.m. filmmakers will be in attendance $5 individual tickets; $60 all-inclusive pass; a number of ticket packages are available. For more information go to or call 303-273-9527.
