On the Inside at 60 South
Is it bigger than a breadbox? Does it spin like a top? Will it roll over and play dead? Can it knock your socks off?
Charades is so yesterday, and today is so last week, but see-ing as Lipgloss only goes down once in a blue moon, peo-ple may never ever get sick of it.
After being accosted near Soulflower by the Family Zirkus Zidezhow, I finally located the venue I had been searching for all evening: 60 South.
Named for its physical address on Broadway, 60 South seems to be one of those venues like 1015 Folsom in San Fransisco that changes its name
nearly as often as most people change their underwear. From what I gather, its most common incarnation is a lesbian bar called the Zu ... but July 23 hosted the second installment of a monthly event known affectionately as Lipgloss.
I first became aware of Lipgloss when someone slipped me a blue and yellow handbill at the Snake Pit's Shag Wednesday (Lipgloss's only known
Denver relative). Coincidence? I think not. Two days later, I received a message from my edi-tor about the event. The rest is history.
Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to receive two complimentary passes to an advance screening of Hedwig And The Angry Inch and a
Lipgloss sampler featuring tracks from Terranova, Ladytron, Grandaddy, Hood, Kent, Curtis Mayfield, The Make-up, The English Beat, The Jam,
Phil Krauth, The Flashing Lights, Subcircus, and The London Suede all for the extremely reasonable door cover of $3. Tim Cook, one of three
DJs responsible for filling 60 South with soundwaves for the occasion, greeted me from his current door bitch position and welcomed my
journalistic tendencies into the ultra-modern world of Lipgloss.
Once inside the bar, Tyler Jacobson, Cook, and Michael Trundle treated my eardrums to an eclectic mix of danceable
rock music including cuts from Garbage, Cornershop, The Smiths, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, The Pretenders, and The Psychadelic Furs.
Visual and manual stimuli provid-ed to accessorize the auditory ones included pool, darts, Japanimation, foosball, music television, and a pop art and photography exhibit by Jack Jenson, Danica Bowmar, Sean Wetstine, and Jessica Reed.
So if you find yourself somehow unfulfilled by the overabun-dance of vocal/ guitar-deprived dance music, mark your calen-dar now for the thirdinstallment (August 27). And try a little Lipgloss on for size.
For more information on Lipgloss, go to www.hybridmagazine.com/lipgloss/
--orange peel moses
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Fashion Clip
The dog days of summer have fallen upon us, and seem to drag along like thick sticky syrup. People all around town are
complaining about an invisible cloud of monotony hanging over our city, and are desperate for some sort of change. In the double-edged world
of retail there seems to always be transition in the air.
Serina Gray (and mom Terry) have, despite construction delays, finally opened the doors to their new store on Colfax: Serina Gray Designs
Boutique. The beautifully adorned store is located next to the Hip Hop Shop (which lives in the former location of the Denver branch of
Housed).
The Bridge, on 10th and Broadway, has closed and locked its doors for the last time. After a year of providing men in Denver with custom
tailored suits, fine sportswear, unique shoes and accessories, Corey Kemp, the store's owner is moving on to other opportunities.
Sugar-- the dyn-o-mite diva shop that seemed to disappear over night-- is moving right across the street on South Broadway into the space once occupied by Eight Ounce Fred Gallery. The walls in the new space are already donning a fresh coat of spunky pink and green paint, and the
opening date is tentatively scheduled for August 1.
How long will it be until the sweltering days which we currently wear like a sweater are forgotten, when our feet are frozen solid to the asphalt, and we are frantically pleading for a summer day? It is difficult to determine in which season the grass is actually greener.
--Kity Ironton
Local Arts
Lorey Hobbs is my kind of gal, refreshingly candid and unspoiled. I wanted to talk about her controversial latest work, which refers
not so subtly to sexuality and femininity. These paintings, steeped in luminous crimson and earthy green, were initially inspired by a wayward
root system. Lorey was awed by the profound resemblance between the plant's reproductive system and that of animals and people. "I wanted to
point out what life is all about. We are so busy that we forget ... where we come from, and that we go back to that same place. All of us, animals and plants." She's aware that this work does not appeal to
everyone, but, then again, she doesn't expect it to. "There is value just in making art, in your decisions as an artist."
. . . Have I had my head in the
sand? Seems there's a new type of gallery springing up-- one where artists rent space to show their work. Michael Burnett's Space Gallery, at
20th and Larimer, is run this way, with invited artists paying a fee to hold a show (to help cover costs for things like invitations and libations). On
any sold work, they pay a commission to Burnett lower than is typical. It's an interesting ideaÑ though, honestly, it disturbed me initially. But Burnett hand picks the artists who show in his gallery and the last opening I attended was jam-packed, so something must be clicking. It'll be interesting to see how this approach pans out.
. . . In the same neighborhood: Hyland Mather is relocating his Andenken Gallery to 21st and Market. He's moving into a wonderful huge old
building emblazoned with one word: "JUICE." The ballpark neighborhood is getting artsy, with CORE, Space, several furni-ture, framing, and
photo shops. And everytime I visit, something new and intriguing is going in. I tried a few times to get the scoop on Andenken's move, without
success. Hyland, if you read this, we're all curious. Andenken had been sharing space with GOOG on Santa Fe, another corridor which happily
has host-ed a spurt of art and design activity in the last couple of years.
--Kimberly Graham
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