Pic Hits for the week

thursday december 28 Circus Flora: Led by Daniel Balding, formerly of France’s Cirque Medrano and Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, this low-tech, high-reward family circus was named after, and built around, an orphaned African elephant (who was herself named after a character in Jean deBrunhoff’s Babar books). This year’s…

Kid Pics for the week

’tis the season “First Night”: The free, family-style New Year’s Eve celebration is scheduled from noon Sunday to midnight at Arizona Center, 455 North Third Street. Phoenix’s “First Night” fest features performances by 80 music and arts groups, including Phoenix Bach Choir, Great Arizona Puppet Theater, Movement Source Dance Company,…

Ms. Houston, We Have a Problem

Waiting to Exhale has a phony gloss that makes it feel faintly retro. All those impeccably dressed actors ambling around Phoenix locations like Arizona Biltmore, declaiming their emotions in smooth ‘n’ silky tones–it’s rather like a two-hour commercial for Martini & Rossi. Based on a popular novel by Terry McMillan,…

Meeting 95 Projections

Time once again for the film reviewer’s grand annual act of arbitrary self-indulgence–as opposed to his petite weekly acts of arbitrary selfindulgence: the Top10 movies of the year. Every year, about this time, we bemoan what a dismal year it was for movies, and yet, every year, tallying up what…

Second Helpings

Weight Watch: During this pre-New Year’s week, masses of people will be making resolutions to go on a diet in 1996. Yes, it’s important not to be grossly overweight. But the mania for counting calories and fat grams is getting out of hand. Especially when we’re eating out. In response…

Holiday on Rice

The fantasy doesn’t end on December 25. A lot of the holiday spirit spills over into the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Despite the inevitable spats, most families have made it through the annual get-together without bloodshed. At this early date, the bills still haven’t come to spoil…

Sacred Wows

“Ideally, the purpose of the church is to become obsolete.” That’s a radical thought, especially coming from a seminarian, but it’s representative of the theme running through Mass Appeal, the current offering at St. George Actors Showcase. Originally produced on Broadway in 1981, author Bill C. Davis’ two-person comedy is…

Recordings

Goldie Timeless (ffrr) Timeless indeed, but also precisely of the moment, the 30-year-old mixed-race London deejay/graffiti artist named Goldie has accomplished something exceedingly rare with his debut album: Like Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and maybe a handful of other recordings, Timeless firmly plants itself for the…

Survey Says…

… And Who Could Forget About These Great Hits? (The Ten Best Albums of 1995) 1. P.J. Harvey To Bring You My Love (Island) Britain’s Gen-X version of Patti Smith gets gruff and bluesy on her latest set of psyche-aerobics. It’s not exactly easy listening–first-person songs about drowning one’s children…

Another Story About a Stripper

A lot of people swear they are going to do a lot of things when each new year rolls around. Promises of drastic life changes are ritually made and ritually broken: Money will be saved, bad habits will be curtailed, more attention will be paid, etc. Miss Candy Cantaloupes has…

Letters

Dial Tone Having been with a division of the Dial Corp for 45 years, I found New Times’ six-page writings cheap, nasty and unnecessary (“Dial’s Dirty Laundry,” Paul Rubin, December 14). Why doesn’t Rubin come down and write six pages about the glorious things the Dial Corp does for its…

Whats the Cost of Elk? Maybe $10,000.

Since late September, a media-shy collection of ranchers, legislators and sportsmen (that is, hunters) has met with Arizona Game and Fish commissioners and staffers in a basement room of the House of Representatives. The group has been discussing whether the state should pay ranchers to compensate for the forage that…

Mrs. Phelps’ Kids

In December 1990, New Times profiled Glenna Phelps’ fourth-grade class at Hamilton School in a story headlined “The Real War on Drugs.” Staff writer Paul Rubin interviewed many of Mrs. Phelps’ students at that time for the story. Five years later, Rubin tracked down Mrs. Phelps – who retired after…

The High Cost of Education Reform

The Republican revolution has a cure for the troubles of primary education in America, and it can be summarized in one word: competition. After more than a decade of dubious reform efforts, conservative Republicans are looking to change public schools from without, rather than from within. Their proposals have shiny…

Welfare That Doesn’t Work

This is a time for action. It’s a time to move beyond rhetoric and cosmetics. It’s a time to take bold steps to ensure that children get whatever help they need to grow physically, emotionally and mentally into healthy and happy adults. My vision is of an Arizona that leads…

When Revolution Meets Reality

When congressional Republicans explain their ambitious plan for reforming the federal government–the Contract With America–they often use state governments as examples of the change to come. In fact, the notion that many federal programs would be more effective if they were moved–or devolved–to the state level is inherent to the…

The Health-Care Mirage

Anthony, who doesn’t want his last name used for reasons that will soon become obvious, is not just a guy sitting at a bar in Flagstaff. Make some small talk, buy him a couple of beers, and the burly, mustachioed construction worker will tell you why. Anthony is a mother…

Money for Nothing

Fife Symington has long trumpeted himself as a conservative Western governor who also believes in preserving the environment. He has repeatedly claimed he supports efforts to protect the environment, so long as they do not needlessly burden the economy. Yet the public record provides scant evidence that Symington-style reform protects…

Quit Polluting Our Aquifers. Please. Pretty Please.

Ed Pond was more than a little insulted. No company should have the kind of constant, easy access to high-ranking environmental administrators that the American Smelting and Refining Company seemed to. Pond figured the company was trying to get him fired from his job at the Arizona Department of Environmental…

Kid Pics for the week

’tis the season “Holiday Happenings Around the World”: Phoenix Zoo, 455 North Galvin Parkway, in Papago Park, hosts the latest installment in its yearlong festival “The Celebration of the Natural World,” which continues through September. Kids learn about the seasonal celebrations of other cultures via events like the “Ho!Ho! Holiday…

Pic Hits for the week

thursday december 21 The Phantom of the Opera: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, based on the novel by Gaston LeRoux, stars Rick Hilsabeck as the title spook, aspiteful composer who haunts the catacombs beneath the Paris Opera House and loves young soprano Christine (Sarah Pfisterer). Broadway vet Harold Prince directed the…

Austen Pops

It’s been a good year in the movies for Jane Austen, and who deserves it more? A month ago, we had a good, workmanlike version of her final novel, Persuasion; and, by far the best Hollywood comedy of the year, Amy Heckerling’s Clueless is a free adaptation of Emma. Austen’s…