It’s a question that’s sure to start a stage fight just for asking it. To many who love theater, the answer is yes. But even though the number of companies making theater here is in a free-fall, the actual number of productions being offered is growing.

The quartet of older folks chatted awkwardly in the lingering heat of an early evening in Boulder, silences looming large in the spaces between words. They seemed a bit bemused after seeing a performance at the First United Methodist Church — smiling, but with that far-off, crinkle-browed expression people sometimes get when they aren’t quite sure what they just saw.

It’s a long way from $4-a-head basement shows in Oakland, Calif., to a multi-trailer world stadium tour, especially for a trio of proudly idiotic punk kid-grownups. But three chords and a chorus can get you a headlining gig at one of the biggest venues in town if you know how to swing.

Falling in love with a band is a funny, intense thing. And I’m not talking about casual, iTunes-culture fandom. This is a much more serious relationship, the kind that involves the obsession over a band’s media, the dissection of album art, the devotion of traveling long distances to see the band play live.

I wrote here last week that the home-improvement cable TV show “Disaster House” is being shot in Englewood, and it’s wild. The idea is to create a man-made or natural disaster in the housethen show the audience how to fix it. They bring in an elephant to clog the toilet, the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls to crack up the drywall, the fire department to flood the house with 5 feet of water. It sounds like fun — as long as you don’t live next door. Two e-mails immediately came in from next-door neighbors who were not too happy.

It’s a question that’s sure to start a stage fight just for asking it: “Is there too much theater in Colorado?” To many who love theater, the answer is yes. But even though the number of companies making theater here is in a free-fall, the actual number of productions being offered is growing.

On the list of Broadway shows that need no introduction, “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Cats” would rate prominent placement.

This week has been a hard slog for several generations of Americans, namely the ones flanking the aging cohort known as baby boomers. As is their wont, the latter are again flogging their history, this time with the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival.

The New York Times listings are based on sales at
3,985 bookstores and wholesalers with 50,000 retail outlets
for the week ended Aug. 1.

The Denver area’s best-selling books, according to
information from the Tattered Cover Book Store,
Barnes & Noble in Greenwood Village, the Boulder Book Store
and Borders Books in Lone Tree.