Mai Dinero’s Absolut Thirsty Thursdays

DJ Mai Dinero spins Hip-Hop & R&B every Thursday and second Friday from 9pm-2am at Broadways. 

It's feel good music for your soul, all night long, with free Absolut shots starting at 8pm.

Mai Dinero’s Absolut Thirsty Thursdays

DJ Mai Dinero spins Hip-Hop & R&B every Thursday and second Friday from 9pm-2am at Broadways. 

It's feel good music for your soul, all night long, with free Absolut shots starting at 8pm.

Experience the Beautiful Butterflies at Chatfield

Butterfly Pavilion and Denver Botanic Gardens present a unique seasonal habitat experience called Butterflies at Chatfield. This showcase of at native Colorado butterflies at Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield includes the monarch, painted lady, passion butterfly, queen, pipevine swallowtail, viceroy and red admiral. Species vary on any given day and new chrysalides arrive each week, emerging in front of the public in a custom chrysalis chamber. The 1,500 square foot structure features a garden with more than 50 indigenous Colorado plant species that serve as a habitat for the butterflies. The seasonal exhibit is on view May 29 – late September 2015 and is open daily from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

9th Annual Stray Cat Strut Takes Place June 11, Auction Items Needed

Planning for the 9th Annual “Stray Cat Strut” event is underway. Join Divine Feline and emcee/auctioneer/former Denver Bronco Reggie Rivers on Thursday, June 11 from 6pm-9pm at the Holiday Inn Denver East Stapleton for live music, amazing auction items, scrumptious vegan hors d’oeuvres and desserts, signature cat-themed cocktails, and more! All proceeds support Divine Feline’s mission.

Cat-themed cocktails include “The Cheshire Cat”, a refreshing blend of peach schnapps, spiced rum, and orange juice. What cocktail will be added this year? The Alley Cat? The Hello Kitty?

Devine Feline is currently accepting donations of gift certificates or new items for the silent auction. For more information about how to donate or sponsor, contact Marianne at marianne@thefelinefix.org.

Chris Parente Is A Queerbot

By Drew Wilson

Chris Parente is about that life

Emmy-award winning Chris Parente has been a fixture of Denver's entertainment and gay scenes for years. Now he's combining the two with his latest project, the Queerbots. The Queerbots are an LGBT improv comedy troupe who have been doing monthly shows at Hamburger Mary's for the past year and their next one is coming up on Saturday, March 14.

Drew: You’ve been out and openly gay for a long time but now it sounds like you’re doubling down on gay with the Queerbots.

Chris: Doubling down on gay? Sounds like a new casino game in Vegas. I want to double down on the gay!

I’d be at that table.

Let it ride! You haven’t been to a Queerbot show yet, have you?

No, but it sounds like my kind of show. How did Queerbots come about?

Well, Queerbots started about a year ago. I studied improv many years ago with Second City in Chicago under a guy named Martin Demott who has since passed away. He was a brilliant teacher who was also gay ...

Does that mean sometimes he was under you?

How do you think I got in the school? It was eye opening. Improv is probably my greatest passion. I love it. I love the freedom. I love the mindset of creating something out of nothing. But I’ve found that gays and lesbians aren’t very well represented in the improv world. Especially the women. It’s kind of a guy’s thing. I wanted to start a troupe that could explore the gay experience – what it means to be in the LGBTQ community - and do it through improv and have all the players be either gay, lesbian or transgendered. So I got together with probably the best improviser in Colorado, Sarah Kirwin, and we got together and started figuring out how we could make it happen. And that was the birth of the troupe.

Sarah Kirwin is better at improv comedy than you

We started doing shows last September and have been doing them monthly ever since. We have four lesbians and two gay guys in the troupe right now and our keyboardist is a gay Asian. That’s right, a gay Asian. Even the gaysians are represented!

Ooh, the elusive Colorado gaysian!

That’s right. That’s like Bigfoot or a UFO; a gaysian keyboard player. We struck gold! And I really wanted the troupe to have more women than men because I think women are doubly underrepresented in improv. Even in the gay community the lesbian perspective isn’t always out there as much as it needs to be. So it’s really cool to have that mix in the troupe.

One of the things I like about the troupe is we’re not trying to hit people over the head with the gay experience. It’s more like life filtered through someone who happens to be gay. The last four shows we’ve done the audiences have been largely straight audiences, which I love because it’s a real chance to really have some understanding through laughter. It’s hard to hate somebody when you’re laughing. We have a lot of fun doing sends ups of all the clichés and dismantling the stereotypes by exploring them.

The human experience ain’t that different whether you’re gay or straight or lesbian. At the end of the day we’re all faced with the same struggles and ups and downs and that can be explored through comedy, I think, more easily than any other venue.

The Dalai Lama

How would you say improv influences your human experience?

Oh, it’s about to get deep in here. I’m gonna go Dalai Lama on you. The whole essence of improv is actually the complete opposite of what we’re taught in American and western civilization. At the heart of improv it’s all about cooperation, not competition, and that’s why I think it’s important for kids to explore improv. You’re not there to compete. You’re there to work with them and it only works when you cooperate. It only works when you support the others. And that’s our number one motivation; to support the others and make them look as good as possible. And that’s when the magic happens.

One of the precepts of improv is “yes and” which means whatever someone offers you you agree with it and build on it. We’re kind of wired to argue and disagree but in improv it’s all about “yes and-ing.” Whatever anybody says to you - if someone says you’re the biggest leprechaun I’ve ever seen - all of a sudden you are a big leprechaun and away you go. It’s the whole nature of improv. And when it’s hitting on all cylinders, it may sound stupid but, at times it’s almost spiritual because something is created in that moment and it’s a really beautiful thing.

Chris Parente is on his way to take your man

And improv must help with your day job. Keeping the mind agile and the words tripping off the tongue.

It would help anybody with their day jobs. On top of all those other elements of thinking differently and cooperatively and building and supporting on top of all that it also really forces you to … you can’t anticipate. You have to totally and completely live in the moment and be in the now. That’s the only way it works. Improv is literally an art form that is created moment to moment. It forces you to let go and just be in the moment.

And there really is no wrong choice because no matter what you say, you’re going to be supported by the other players up there. So you don’t have to worry about saying something wrong or stupid of making a fool of yourself. There are no mistakes in improv. You find a way to embrace it, to justify it, and just go with it. It’s a really cool thing.

What's a typical Queerbots show like?
The show is based entirely on audience suggestions so it’s a different show every time. It’s created on the spot. You never know where it’s going to go which adds to the electricity of the night. It’s an entirely spontaneous night of theater.

In each of the last several shows we’ve done a completely improvised gay marriage. We call up two people from the audience who don’t know each other and who, in fact, aren’t gay. We get the stories of their lives and recreate each of their childhoods onstage. How they meet and fall in love and we marry them right there on stage in front of everybody and God.

Legally? Is that the joke?

Yes, considering that they aren’t gay. Sorry, it’s legally binding. You’re gay now!

Yay, lesbians!

Argh, my greatest fear come true!

We’re converting you all! We also do a completely improvised musical. This is where the gaysian comes in, we get suggestions from the audience and make up a musical on the spot.

We also do all sorts of fun games with the audience to mix things up. Basically, we have an outline for the show and then whatever happens happens. So the March show is a tribute to St. Peppermint Patty, Patron Saint of Lesbians. So you will be seeing Marcy and Peppermint Patty and the Little Red-Haired Girl we’ll be exploring leprechauns and pots of gold and all that. 

We also incorporate audio and video. In my job with the station I’m able to go out and interview a lot of actors and so I usually ask them one or two questions about the gay experience. We play their responses on the monitors and use that to inspire scene work. For March we talk to a couple of Irish actors, Liam Neeson and Colin Farrell.

Nice. Tell them Drew says “hi!”

Yeah. Especially Colin Farrell, baby! That’s my kind of Irishman.

Liam Neeson and Colin Farrell can both get it

How can we be good improv audience members?

Great question! The audience does need to be warmed up a bit because improv gets people out of their comfort zones. Unless they’re really drunk, which you may or may not be on St. Patrick’s Day. A lot of us are taught to be quiet and polite. We don’t want to be put on the spot. But in improv it’s all about feeling free to shout out whatever’s on your mind. There’s no such thing as a bad idea. And as the night goes on people become more and more comfortable. It doesn’t have to be brilliant. It doesn’t even have to be funny. It’s our job to find the humor in it. So the key is to relax, let go, and not be inhibited. To feel free and join in and shout out whatever’s on your mind. 

What’s next for the Queerbots?

We’ve been doing monthly shows at Hamburger Mary’s and so far they’ve all sold out so we’re gonna continue that through May, I believe, and then take a summer hiatus to work on some other projects and our hope is to pick it up again in September. 

???

In a nutshell the shows are just a lot of fun. It’s a very fun, lighthearted look at being gay and lesbian in today’s world and we welcome straight, gay, lesbian, transgender, trisexual, androgynous, everybody is welcome. Bears, cubs, otters, you name it!

Things they haven’t even come up with yet!

Totally! We’ll take koalas. We’ll take platypuses.

I feel like a koala would be really cute.

You know what? I agree. What would that look like?

Maybe cuter than a cub? Shorter?

We may need to talk more about this later.

Tickets Still Available for Denver's Got Talent

A benefit for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, Denver’s Got Talent will take place on February with acts from local non-profits and groups performing for a chance to win $1000 for their organization.

Tickets are only $20 and include the show, dinner, and free admission to Tracks afterward. It's the best deal in Denver and it benefits the Matthew Shepard Foundation. I defy you to find a better way to spend a Saturday night.

Sign Up Now for Play Mile High's LGBT Kickball & Flip Cup Fridays!

Get active and meet new people this spring with LGBT Kickball (and Flip Cup) with Play Mile High. Join them for their Friday night Kickball and Flip Cup league!

Click here to find out more or sign up as a team, small group or free agent. Use the code 'MHGG' to save $10 when you register.

Play Mile High LGBT Kickball & Flip Cup Fridays!

Get active and meet new people this spring with LGBT Kickball (and Flip Cup) with Play Mile High. Join them for their Friday night Kickball and Flip Cup league!

Click here to find out more or sign up as a team, small group or free agent. Use the code 'MHGG' to save $10 when you register.

Question: What's Just 2 Weeks Away? Answer: OutBoard 2015

By Ryan Miller and The OutBoard Crew

We're getting closer! Just two more weeks until our 20th annual event, OutBoard 2015.

And, just to get you primed for OutBoard 2015, we've got a question for you? Which run on the mountain was named after a Madonna song? If you knew the answer you could have won a Never Summer Snowboard at last year's OutBoard Scavenger Hunt.

Didn't know the answer or weren't there? *gasp* Not to worry, you'll have your chance this year on Saturday, February 21st at this year's OutBoard 2015 Scavenger Hunt.

We have a great week of boarding and skiing planned as well as new venues for some of our 19+ events. We've even thought of some new hiding places for the popular OutBoard Scavenger Hunt on Saturday morning. Better study up so that you can find the magic egg with the Never Summer Snowboard inside!

 
If you haven't booked your trip yet, it's not too late. You still have until February 14th to pre-register at www.OutBoard2015.com and take advantage of all of our discounted rates.

And a bit of good news, we were able to find a few more 1 bedroom units at Trailhead and The Steamboat Grand. But don't wait, even with these new 1 Bedroom condos, there's only 6 total condos still available for you to pick from.

See you in Steamboat, where the powder and hot tubs are waiting!

Play Mile High LGBT Skeeball League Kicks Off at Barker Lounge

Yup, you read that right, Skeeball! It’s the silly and frivolous carnival game you enjoyed as a kid. Now you can enjoy it even more with a drink in your hand and tomfoolery in your heart at the Barker Lounge.

The Play Mile High LGBT Denver Skeeball League was created to give people a chance to try something new, while meeting new people and having a great time doing it! Different formats keep the game fresh and fun each week and the top teams of the season will qualify for the Denver City Championships.

Player perks include super rad Denver Skeeball League T-shirts in your team color, food and drink specials during your league night each week, an End-of-Season FREE Beer Party for all league players and inclusion in Play Mile High special activities and events.

Register now through January 13. League play begins January 21, 2015.

Tomfoolery Abounds With the Play Mile High LGBT Skeeball League at Barker Lounge

By Drew Wilson

Great news if your New Year's resolution was to have more fun in 2015; Play Mile High is offering a LGBT Skeeball League in January at Barker Lounge. Yup, skeeball! The silly but addictive carnival game you loved as a kid is back and better than ever thanks to the magic of teams and cocktails! I spoke with Elliot Jeffords, director of Play Mile High, to find out more about the company, the league, and socializing in the Mile High City. 

Elliot Jeffords

Drew: Being director of something called Play Mile High sounds like the worlds funnest job, Elliot. How did you get involved with the company?

Elliot: I went to college in Washington, D.C. and I was doing a summer internship and got connected with Giovanni (Marcantoni, Founder & CEO) who was starting the Baltimore Bocce League. He wanted to expand to D.C. and that grew and we added skeeball in the winter in Baltimore and from there it just took off to different cities and we added more and more sports and activities.

Denver must be an excellent market for you guys. We’re always being voted Most Active City this and Most Social City that.

Yeah, it takes a while to build brand awareness but we had a really big initial boom and now we’re looking to expand on that. We’re not just a sports league. We like to think of ourselves as a lifestyle brand. You may play basketball or volleyball at the beginning of the week and then maybe a silly dodgeball or skeeball type league in the second half of the week and then we have social events a couple of times a month; pub crawls or ski trips or anything like that. We’re working really hard to make 2015 a huge growth year for us.

Who is the Play Mile High demographic? How do I know if it’s right for me?

Our leagues are for everyone, whether you played college sports or never touched a ball in your life. Every market we go into we start with skeeball and bocce, things anybody can do. You just have to be able to move your arms and have fun! Everything we do is built around the social aspect and fun. Like, our kickball leagues are kickball and flip cup. So the teams play kickball and then go back to the bar and play flip cup. Everything we do has a social or bar element. 

Social is good.

That’s the thing, in Denver there’s a lot of  great activities but there’s not necessarily  that super social element, that go-play-something-meet-people-have-a-lot-of-fun-on-a Thursday-night-with-your-friends-or-your-office type of thing. Play Mile High is the full social and active experience. The types of activities we do really help people meet and socialize, it’s a total icebreaker. How are you gonna play skeeball and not talk to the people next to you? 

Skeeball is not something the average person realizes is missing from their lives but everybody I've mentioned it to has a huge response to the idea. So are we talking, like, the kind of skeeball they have at Chuck E. Cheese's or Dave & Buster's?

That's exactly what it is. We’ll have two skeeball machines and we’ve developed all different types of games. Each week you play a different team and it’s fun and social and super fast paced. It's become wildly popular in Baltimore. Last year we had just under 2000 people in Baltimore playing skeeball.

As a matter of fact, our problem is that our vendor in Baltimore ran out of skeeball machines. We have so many bars wanting to do it with us  but we just don’t have the capacity to do any more.

And it's being held at Barker Lounge, a very fun place. How did you get hooked up with them?
I was looking for a bar to partner with for LGBT events and met with them. It was a great fit and I think the space is a good intimate space for a league. Everybody I talk to says it’s a fun place to go and drink and hang out so it should be a great fit. 

So the LGBT skeeball league is obviously gay-friendly, but what about the other leagues?

Oh, absolutely. No matter who you are, you are welcome in any of the leagues. The only reason we designate LGBT leagues is, I went to high school in Boulder and I had a bunch of friends from high school who live in Denver now and they’ve told me that that they love socializing but that there’s nothing like what we’re doing for the LGBT community. The feedback we got was that the community wanted designated leagues and so we are developing that identity for the league. Obviously, they can and do play in other leagues with everybody else but if they want something LGBT specific, we have that too.

Here, then Gone! Denver’s Collaboration Fest is the “Snapchat” of Brewing

More than 40 historic craft beers will be available on March 21, 2015 – and March 21 ONLY – when the Colorado Brewers Guild (CBG) and Imbibe Events host the second annual Collaboration Fest. 

“The concept of Collaboration Fest is simple: two or more independent, award-winning breweries will collaborate together to create one beer, which will only be available at one place for one day,” said Imbibe co-founder Casey Berry.

The inaugural Collaboration Fest in 2014 created some historic pairings including a beer produced by all-female brewers and a memorable collaboration between Colorado’s Ska Brewing and Nynashamns Angbryggeri out of Sweden. Creating buzz already this year is a pairing from Denver’s TRVE Brewing Company and Orange County’s The Bruery that is a German-style wit, fermented with two kinds of wild yeast currently being aged with Lactobacillus in Chardonnay barrels.

Fitting the “champion” status of these beers, the 2015 Collaboration Fest will be held in the home of the Denver Broncos – Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

“The brewing industry is pretty tight, and a lot of brewers know each other either from previous jobs or by reputation, so they relish the chance to work together on these one-time creations,” said Steve Kurowski, director of marketing for the Colorado Brewers Guild. While more than 40 breweries from around Colorado are participating, several are collaborating with breweries outside the state, and some even outside the country.  A few of these participants include: Stone Brewing and Mission Brewing Company (San Diego), Freetail Brewing Co. (San Antonio), DC Brau (Washington D.C.), Cigar City Brewing (Tampa), and Beavertown Brewery (London), among others.

“From Laurel & Hardy to Lennon & McCarthy, unusual collaborations have produced some memorable results, which is why VISIT DENVER is collaborating in this event,” said Richard Scharf, president & CEO of VISIT DENVER. “Beer is in Denver’s DNA, and we want to help support an event that will draw brewers, beer enthusiasts and visitors from around the nation to The Mile High City. This is an opportunity to taste one-of-a-kind, short-term creations that will be here for four hours, and then gone, in sort of the ‘Snapchat’ of the brewing industry,” Scharf said.

rePOPulated: Contemporary Perspectives on Pop Art

Mass media, culture and production, as seen through the lens of Pop Art is the focus of the Arvada Center’s first exhibition series of 2015. Fun, bold and rebellious, the Pop movement was a major departure from the prior artistic endeavors of the mid-twentieth century. 

Curator Collin Parson had this to say about the series, “Looking at the list of participating artists I realized that this exhibition highlights a diverse cross-section of American culture. I think visitors will enjoy the range of work represented.” 

The exhibition opens with a free public reception on January 22 from 6-9 p.m. and runs through March 29, 2015.

Shout Out: Play Mile High LGBT Skeeball League Kicks Off in January at Barker Lounge

Yup, you read that right, Skeeball! It’s the silly and frivolous carnival game you enjoyed as a kid. Now you can enjoy it even more with a drink in your hand and tomfoolery in your heart at the Barker Lounge.

The Play Mile High LGBT Denver Skeeball League was created to give people a chance to try something new, while meeting new people and having a great time doing it! Different formats keep the game fresh and fun each week and the top teams of the season will qualify for the Denver City Championships.

Player perks include super rad Denver Skeeball League T-shirts in your team color, food and drink specials during your league night each week, an End-of-Season FREE Beer Party for all league players and inclusion in Play Mile High special activities and events.

Register now through January 13. League play begins January 21, 2015.

See 'Moulin Scrooge' This Friday at The Bug!

The Catamounts and Band of Toughs serves up the ludicrous and saucy musical Moulin Scrooge premiering this Friday at The Bug Theatre.  

A mash-up of Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge and A Christmas Carol written by Peter Gwinn of the Colbert Report, Moulin Scrooge is totally outrageous and hilarious enough to cheer up even the Bah Humbugest of holiday grumps.

Travel: Gay Men's Puerto Vallerta Writing Retreat Planned for 2015

Whether you’re a beginning writer working on your first novel, a seasoned poet polishing your collection, or just finally getting that short story out that you’ve been feeling you need to write, the GBQ (Gay, Bisexual, Questioning) Men's Writing Retreat will give you the time, space, and inspiration to get on it. Read this Huff Post article about why you need a writing retreat.

The facilitator, Scott Gibson, holds Masters degrees in Writing and Poetics and Education. He has studied with Voice and Sound coach Paul Oertel, gaining knowledge of how to uncover the voice from within. He has utilized his skills as a teacher of writing with students of all ages to “get the creative juices flowing” with honesty, pride, and passion. Scott edited Blood & Tears: Poems for Matthew Shepard in 1999 and has recently publish a long poem entitled Sticked, Stoned & Bottled and his first novel Seeking MO.
 
The group will stay at a private villa in the Zona Romantica area of Puerto Vallarta Mexico, directly “above” some of the best restaurants, bars, and beaches in the city. The villa is beautiful, with large bedrooms, a pool, rooftop deck, and a great staff that will keep you relaxed and focused on your writing. 

The best writing results come on retreats that leave plenty of time for relaxing so there will hold “workshopping” sessions in the morning and then you will be released to write for the remainder of the day. Gibson will also offer optional evening mini-lessons and meditation instruction.

Things to do in Denver When You're Gay: Downtown Denver Announces Winter in the City Events

Experience the magic of Downtown Denver through Winter in the City. When making your plans this holiday season, don't miss these signature holiday events and activities. 

See 'em all after the jump.

Mark Your Calendars for Denver Arts Week

Denver Arts Week takes place November 7-15 and celebrates the Mile High City's vibrant arts and culture scene, from visual arts, theater, music, and film, to museums, dance, opera comedy, history and heritage!

Things To Do In Denver When You're Gay: Free Winter Activities

From the Downtown Denver's Grand Illumination to the 9NEWS Parade of Lights, Denver shines all winter long. Click here to see Denver's best free activities and attractions. 
 

Stripped Down Stand Up With Mona Lott Tonight!

Mona Lott (pictured left) does drag queen bingo differently. Her Stripped-Down Stand-Up show pits strippers against comedians and the audience wins either way. If the comedian gets a laugh, the stripper strips, but if the comedian bombs, the comedian must take something off. Sounds like my kind of show!

Check out the Halloween edition of the show tonight at the Denver Improv. There will be a Sexiest Costume Contest so wear your most revealing costume and you could win a fabulous prize.