Free Tunes!

Boulder Creek Events, the Niwot Business Association and Bank of the West bring you Rhythm on the Rails from June 11-Sept. 10, with shows every Thursday at 6 pm at Whistle Stop Park in Niwot (located at Murray Street and Second Avenue just off the Diagonal Highway). The concert series includes performers such as the Rebecca Folsom Band, Danny Shafer & The Unknown Americans, the Strolling Scones and the Erica Brown Band. 303-449-3137.

Enjoy popular numbers at Twenty Ninth Street LIVE, a free concert hosted every Saturday at the Twenty Ninth Street shopping district from June 20-Aug. 8. The mall’s main drag becomes pedestrian-only as live music plays from 6-10pm. You’re surrounded by great eateries, plus a beer garden.

For the 12th summer, the 1300 block of downtown Pearl Street is the grooviest place in town every Wednesday evening from June 10-Aug. 12. Funkiphino kicks off the free concert series Bands on the Bricks, which showcases 10 bands playing dance delights from the Beatles to ’80s to Motown. Savor the sunset to music that lasts from 7-9pm. 303-449-3774.

Round out your dancing schedule at Millennium Harvest House’s Friday Afternoon Club Rockin the Gardens. The family-friendly event fills the lavish gardens every Friday through Aug. 28, from 5:30-9:30 p.m. In addition to free music in many genres—such as contemporary country band Raising Cain, bluegrass group Blue Canyon Boys, and ’50s “doo wop” Rolling Tones—you can enjoy mechanical-bull rides, magic shows and face painting. Even your dog is welcome at the garden’s new Yappy Hour. The hotel is located at 1345 28th St. 303 443-3850.

Pictured: The Indulgers perform at Twenty Ninth Street LIVE on July 11. Gorgeous celtic rock not to be missed!

Find more summer music events on the GetBoulder.com website.

Review: 3rd Law Dance/Theater’s “Till We Wake”

Quick — reread T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1917) and run over to the Dairy Center for the Arts for 3rd Law Dance/Theater’s “Till We Wake,” a new work co-produced with the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. While the complex, evening-length dance, spoken-word and audiovisual piece is not easy to understand, it’s a feast for the ears, the eyes and the mind. CSF Producing Artistic Director Philip C. Sneed speaks the entire poem as Eliot wrote it, but in a “deconstructed ... improvisational and free manner.” At one point, for example, he utters the passage “... I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be ... “ four times in a row with four different intonations. Choreographic highlights include a duet danced on tabletops, clocklike movements that underscore the poem’s many references to time, and repeated appearances of the coffee cups and spoons with which Prufrock has “measured out [his] existence.” A large screen at the back of the stage speeds us through a century of sobering historical milestones, from Queen Victoria’s funeral cortege and the Russian Revolution to the stock market crash of 1929 and the presidency of George W. Bush. Early 20th-century costumes are by CSF Costume Designer Clare Henkel. 3rd Law’s artistic directors are Katie Elliott (who also takes a prominent role as a dancer in this work) and Jim LaVita.

8pm at the Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St., May 8 & 9. For tickets, come to the box office one hour before curtain time, call 303-444-7328, or visit thedairy.org.
—Mary Jarrett

Create Inside The Box

The new art exhibit at CU's University Memorial Center Art Gallery invites visitors to think outside the box by creating INSIDE the box...the Big White Box.

"Painting the Big White Box," a community art project, asks visitors to contribute to this living exhibit by bringing in their artwork to hang, or making art directly on the walls. The exhibit so far is filled with everything from photographs to pottery to sculptures–and there's room for more!

Visit the gallery to enjoy the constantly-changing display or to contribute your own art (some supplies are provided). The exhibit runs through May 1 at UMC Art Gallery, Room 225, University Memorial Center, University of Colorado campus, 10:30am-5:30pm Monday-Friday. Event details. The opening reception is April 9 from 4:30-6:30pm. (Photo by Marty Caivano)

Hidden Treasures

There are many places around Boulder County to find hidden treasures and uncommon art. Logan's Cafe at 3980 Broadway St. in North Boulder comes to mind. You're always sure to find something interesting, quirky or simply beautiful adorning the walls.

Saxy's Cafe at 2018 10th St. in downtown Boulder also offers everything from stark black and white photography to retro '60s hippie art. It's a comfortable, eclectic hang, where fun art complements the wood-and-marble, chandelier-and-rough-hewn-brick decor.

One little known treasure is the gallery at Boulder Shambhala Center, 1345 Spruce St. in downtown Boulder. BSC features paintings, photographs and mixed-media art usually created by members of the Shambhala meditation community. This Friday, April 10, BSC opens a new exhibit of photographs of India taken by local Boulder artist Julia King. The twenty-something, world-traveled King has an eye for the quirky and creative, and her photos are sure to capture the imagination. Art opening and reception is from 6-8pm.

Know of other great out-of-way places to see uncommon art? Comment below!

Visit our website for a complete listing of shows and exhibits at Boulder County Galleries and Boulder County Museums through May 31.

Vox Feminista's "Money" is a bargain of a show

Vox Feminista, Colorado’s premier radical theater troupe, addresses such timely topics as ecological capitalism, poverty and feminism, prison labor, Pentagon spending, corporate greenwashing, lobbying, health care, banking and how we count in their spring production MONEY opening tonight at the Nomad.

Through poetry, drama, comedy, video, and song, Vox examines the tragedy of the market and the counter forces we’ll need in order to heal.

"As the impossible bubble economy bursts like fireworks all around us, Vox Feminista ponders the subject of MONEY - money and meaning, the meaning of money. How do we measure well-being in a state of imperial decline and denial? How do we redefine “national security” and “terrorism”? What should we do with a system that teaches us to destroy our only habitat? Can we awaken humanity’s sleeping heart? Because, now we know: what’s for sale in America is our welfare. Homo Economicus staggers forward. Hopefully, we’ll find the will to use this crisis as an opportunity to enlarge a harvest of real democracy and learn to share."

SHOW DATES:
Fri. Mar. 27 & Sat. Mar. 28 - Nomad Theatre, 1410 Quince, Boulder
Sat. Apr. 4, 11 & 18 - Mercury Café, 2199 California, Denver
Fri. Apr.24, - Jamestown Town Hall
Fri. May 1 - the b.side lounge, 2017 13th St., Boulder (21 and over)
Sat. May 2 - Mercury Café, Denver
Fri. May 8 & Sat. May 9 - Nomad Theatre, Boulder
Sat. May 16 - Avo's, 605 S. Mason, Ft. Collins

All shows 8 PM
Admission at the door
$12-$30 sliding scale

CONTINUE THE DIALOGUE. COMMENT BELOW!

For other events happening in Boulder County this weekend, visit our Online Events Calendar.

Misa Tariro: Mass of Hope bridges cultures

March 22, 3pm
Bethany Lutheran Church, 4500 E. Hampden Ave., Englewood
Tickets: 303-987-7845 or 303-987-7876 or www.coloradochorale.org

A compelling new work of power and beauty, commissioned by the Boulder Chorale, Randall McIntosh’s Misa Tariro (Mass of Hope) combines texts of the traditional Latin mass with sacred Shona poetry. In a performancs dedicated to the plight of those living with AIDS in Africa, Kutandara Marimba will combine with voices of the Colorado Chorale to present Misa Tariro this Sunday, March 22. A variety of selections from the Chorale and Kutandara Marimba are also on the program.

Background

Work on the Misa Tariro began in 2001, shortly after contemporary Colorado composer and Kutandara music director Randall (“Randy”) Seaton McIntosh returned from Zimbabwe. While there Randy attended ceremonies and witnessed how villages use music to create community.

After experiencing an all-night ceremony, Randy wanted to capture the flow of energy and responsive spirit of this type of music and worship in a major composition of appropriate depth and scope. He saw parallels between the Shona ceremonies and the spiritual journey of a Mass.

But beyond the wonderful musical form, beyond the energetic zeal of the instruments and his hopes to widen the horizons of musical capabilities for musicians, singers, and audiences alike, Randy stresses that the ultimate inspiration for this work lies in the impressive resiliency of the Zimbabwean peoples in the face of their unbelievable hardships:

"My friends and colleagues in Zimbabwe live a much different life than I do: today, everyone in Zimbabwe is suffering. Life expectancy for is 37. Inflation is horrendous. AIDS has taken over 40 percent of the population. There is no gas. There is no food. Towns the size of Boulder have orphanages with thousands of children in residence. Every year I receive news from friends that not one or two, but several members of the family have passed away. Yet they go on. The joy of my composition is the artistic expression of the joy of the Zimbabwean—and human---spirit. This continues to live and love, give thanks, make music and dance and somehow persevere. That is why I have named it Misa Tariro: Mass of Hope."

--Randy McIntosh

Other music performances this weekend include Boulder Philharmonic, "Awakening the Imagination" Macky Auditorium on March 21 at 7:30pm; and Boulder Philharmonic String Quartet family concert, at Boulder Public Library on March 22 at 4pm.

For a complete list of Boulder Events, visit our website: www.getboulder.com