Fresh City Life

Tuesday, February 14, 6:30-8 p.m.
Central Library, Level 7 Vida Ellison Gallery
Registration Required

Skip the roses and the surf-n-turf dinner, and celebrate the most meaningless holiday in the most meaningful way – with chocolate and murder. Fresh City Life is teaming up with the cool cats at Curious Theatre for a special night for lovers, singles and friends, so grab a buddy. Chocolate tasting with coffee begins at 6:30 p.m. Then we’ll have some fun reading a script from NBC’s Law and Order about love gone wrong. All in celebration of Curious Theatre’s new production of Becky Shaw, the dark comedy about a blind date that affects all the main characters. Registration is required. Register online or call 720-865-1206. Be sure and note on your online registration if you’d like to participate as a reader or as an audience member only.

Tuesdays, February 7 & 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Central Library, Level 4 Community Technology Center
Registration Required

Family recipes are a significant touchstone in any family and the passing down and sharing of recipes has community-building at its core. Chef Shellie Kark teaches this two-part workshop celebrating the thing that keeps us – our family recipes. Chef Shellie knows a thing or two about recipes. A classically trained chef, she is the founder of KitchenCue, an interactive DVD series on cooking techniques; and she’s been writing and testing recipes for Fresh City Life for five years. You’ll need to be a confident user of Microsoft Word for this workshop. The recipes from this class will be combined and spiral bound with great cover art, so students will have a record of each others' work and help to create our first ever recipe exchange. When you’ve completed this workshop, you’ll be ready to create your own collection of family recipes-as-history. Registration is required. Register online or call 720-865-1206.

Sultry Voice, Latin Strings: Suzanne Morales on Guitar
Saturday, February 11, 2-3 p.m.
Central Library, Level 1 Schlessman Hall

Suzanne Morales is a Denver-based musician and composer whose music has been picked up for TV shows, indie films and shorts. While she loves ballads and blues, her great musical passion is Latin music. Morales brings a sensuality to her singing and guitar playing that transports audiences to moonlit beaches and friendly cantinas.

Klezbros: Traditional Klezmer Music
Saturday, February 18, 2-3 p.m.
Central Library, Level 1 Schlessman Hall

Musicians Joseph Lukas and Eyal Revlon explore the Yiddish folk music that became an important form of expression for Jewish immigrants coming to the United States from 1880 through the 1920s. The sound of Klezmer music is meant to mimic human vocalizations from talking and laughing to mournful crying. It’s evocative of Old World celebrations and a treat to hear.

Global Sound: Jesse Manno
Saturday, February 25, 2-3 p.m.
Central Library, Level 1 Schlessman Hall

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Manno received his first commission in 1982 and has since created over eighty original scores for dance, theater, film and multimedia productions. His work has been supported by Meet The Composer, Inc. (a division of the NEA), KRMA Denver PBS TV, The National Guild of Organists, Montgomery Watson Inc., Bates Dance Festival, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, among others, and has been presented all across the USA, as well as in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. For this concert, Manno plays oud, saz and sings vocals in Greek, Turkish and Arabic.

Love may go wrong; lovers may come and go – but what happens on the silver screen is forever. In contrast to February’s indulgent nod at the eternally mushy, gushy side of love, check out four films that highlight Cupid’s dark side. As always, we’ll have a selection of related books and movies to check out, an excellent handout on each film and we’ll also have an anti-aphrodisiacal food tasting before each film – just to get you in the mood.

The Great Lie (1941)
Tuesday, February 7, 6-9 p.m.
Central Library, Level B2 Conference Center

Directed by Edmund Goulding. Starring Bette Davis, George Brent, Mary Astor.
Girl meets boy. Girl falls in love with boy. Boy goes out one night, gets blotto, marries another girl, breaking first girl’s heart. Boy then gets shot down during military service and is given up for dead. Girl 1 volunteers to help Girl 2 through pregnancy and coerces Girl 2 to allow her to raise the baby as her own. All’s well that ends well – until Boy suddenly returns from the battlefield. The Great Lie is one of Bette Davis’s best vehicles and yet it’s rarely seen on the big screen. Don’t miss this stylish slice of 1940s mores. 108 minutes. Unrated.

Humoresque (1946)
Tuesday, February 14, 6-9 p.m.
Central Library, Level B2 Conference Center

Directed by Jean Negulesco. Starring Joan Crawford, John Garfield.
During the filming of Humoresque, Joan Crawford won her first Academy Award for her performance in Mildred Pierce. Many film critics and aficionados claim that you can see the power of winning the Oscar in Crawford’s performance in Humoresque. She plays a boozy, neurotic socialite who falls for a musical prodigy from the wrong side of the tracks. Oh, and she’s married to someone else, too. No Hollywood ending here…but the last scene is iconic. 125 minutes. Unrated.

Don’t Bother To Knock (1952)
Tuesday, February 21, 6-9 p.m.
Central Library, Level B2 Conference Center

Directed by Roy Ward Baker. Starring Marilyn Monroe, Richard Widmark, Anne Bancroft.
Marilyn Monroe is often summed up with her measurements, her breathy voice and swivel hips. She always had more to offer, for those who could see past her more obvious attributes – and she works out all her actress muscles in this film from relatively early in her short career. Richard Widmark and Anne Bancroft play off each other beautifully, but the screen belongs to Marilyn as the hotel babysitter who’s losing touch with reality. 76 minutes. Unrated.

Gaslight (1944)
Tuesday, February 28, 6-9 p.m.
Central Library, Level B2 Conference Center

Directed by George Cukor. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Angela Lansbury.
See Ingrid Bergman at her most luminous in this tale of woman being driven mad by her husband’s duplicitous behavior and a secret “which he will do anything to protect, even if that means driving his wife insane.” – imdb.com. Angela Lansbury got her big break in this film playing the blowsy downstairs maid! 114 minutes. Unrated.

Like film? Try KnitFlix.

This arts exploration is designed to introduce participants to the fundamentals of visual and performing arts, while at the same time building a bridge between students and Denver’s vibrant arts community. ArtSkool students will build an appreciation for an art form with which they previously had little or no experience. ArtSkool includes collaborations with local museums, galleries, dance studios, theatres, and individual artists to create programming that gives participants the tools and confidence to enjoy the arts in Denver more fully.

The Vocabulary of Drawing
Thursday, February 16, 2-4 p.m.
Central Library, Level 1 Fresh City Lounge
Registration Required

A great refresher course for those who’ve done very little drawing since middle or high school, this workshop will focus on the fundamentals of drawing and sketching, along with the vocabulary of drawing. Learn helpful terms for when you are enjoying art as a viewer or a creator. Our ArtSkool instructor will also give you a foundation for more experiential study in drawing. Bring a sketchbook and we’ll set you up with a small set of good drawing pencils. $15 materials fee. Registration is required. Register online or call 720-865-1206.

HeartFelt: Beginning Felting Workshop
Wednesdays, February 1, 8, 15, 12 noon-2 p.m.
Central Library, Level 1 Fresh City Lounge
Registration Required

This is a perfect class for our teacher Janny Potter – not only is she a fantastic and adventurous knitter, she is a warm, kind-hearted and gentle teacher – so she makes learning new techniques a breeze. In this workshop, you’ll learn about turning knitted pieces into more sculptural items through the process of felting (causing the wool fibers to lock through heat, water and agitation). Felting is easy and has multiple crafting applications. $10 fee; all materials provided for this workshop. Registration is required. Register online or call 720-865-1206.

A relaxing get-together for knitters and other crafters, KnitFlix meets once a month in the Fresh City Lounge for an eclectic mix of classic and contemporary films. Guests may bring favorite beverages and nibbles, and have been known to comment on the film while it plays - KnitFlix is like going to a friend’s house to watch a film. Grab your knitting and let’s go to the movies!

A League of Their Own (1992)
Tuesday, February 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Central Library, Level 1 Fresh City Lounge

Directed by Penny Marshall. Starring Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks.
A wonderful comedy about the first female baseball league (that came into being because so many young men had gone off to war), A League of Their Own highlights the triumphs and disappointments for women making their way in the male-dominated world of 1940s sports. This is the film in which Doris (Rosie O’Donnell) famously asks Mae (Madonna), “You think there are men in this country who ain't seen your bosoms?” – a line that was an inside joke referring to the impending publication of Madonna’s book, Sex, in which everyone in the country was given the opportunity to take a peek at Madonna’s wares.

Like film? Try our Film Series.

Wednesday, February 29, 5-8 p.m.
MAD Beans & Wine Cafe
13th & Acoma (across the plaza from the Denver Art Museum Hamilton Annex)

Come solo or with friends to play word games like Scrabble, Boggle and Balderdash as well as a host of other fun games like Clue, Trivial Pursuit and others. You can even bring your own favorite game to play with other gamers. Enjoy wine, coffee and snacks from our host MAD Beans & Wine Cafe. It’s F-U-N on every last Wednesday of the month. One drink minimum please.

Sponsored by Westword.

Like social events? Try Freestyle Knitting.