We know, the beginning of the work week sucks. But if you take a quick look at the calendar, you'll see we're off to a pretty good week of art events, sports games, dance parties, and more. Here are our must-see events from now to the weekend...
Monday, October 8: 12th Annual Scottsdale International Film Festival @ Harkins Shea 14 Summertime is chock-full of blockbusters rocking the box office, but true film buffs get the jump on discovering thoughtful fare, innovative directors, and amazing actors once the fall film fest season arrives. Local cinephiles won't have to look far for cutting-edge flicks, as the 12th Annual Scottsdale International Film Festival starts at on Friday, October 5, at Harkins Shea 14.
With a roster of 38 films from all over the world, the movie marathon kicks off at 7:30 p.m. with the Australian drama Eye of the Storm, features Craft and the Sundance-approved The Sessions, and includes Satan's Angel: Queen of the Fire Tassels, a documentary about the life of one-time Valley resident Cecilia Angel Walker. Performing as burlesque dancer Satan's Angel, the Devil's Own in 1960s San Francisco, she enchants her way through the '70s and '80s before hitting hard times and reemerging in the early 2000s as a living link between burlesque revivalists (including some here in town) and their scantily clad predecessors. -- Jose Gonzalez
Tuesday, October 9: Arizona Theatre Company: Next to Normal @ Herberger Theater Center High school guidance counselors will ask you to "define normal" when you feel out of place among your peers. Growing up in suburbia, you're pretty sure being normal doesn't consist of a family dealing with mental illness, drug abuse, and suicides. But, you're pretty sure telling the counselor about all that will help her refine her definition. It's not uncommon for families to feel trapped under the weight of their own concoction of major successes and catastrophic failures, which might not fit the idyllic, Leave it to Beaver definition of "normal," but it's par for the course these days.
Next to Normal explores those themes in rock-musical style, while confronting themes like bipolar disorder and ethics in the field of psychology. They might not be "nice" topics to discuss, but the play managed to entertain countless audiences with its Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning ways during a two-year run on Broadway. Now the cast is taking it to suburban hubs across the country, landing at Herberger Theater. -- Christina Caldwell
Thursday, October 11: "Legacies of the Tribal Languages of Arizona: Gifts or Responsibilities" @ Heard Museum With ever-evolving slang, text message shorthand, and more Internet memes than we can handle, it's a wonder the English language survives. But for some Native Americans languages, preservation is a far more pressing issue as entire dialects face obsolescence.
Poet and University of Arizona linguistics professor Ofelia Zepeda, a member of the Tohono O'odham nation, will discuss efforts to document, protect, and promote literacy in Native tongues at the Heard Museum, 2301 North Central Avenue, on Thursday, October 11, at 7 p.m. Titled "Legacies of the Tribal Languages of Arizona: Gifts or Responsibilities," Zepeda's lecture will touch on her own work documenting the Tohono O'odham language, including its first pedagogical grammar compendium, and how Native languages change over time.
Zepeda will sign books of her poetry following her talk in the museum's Steele Auditorium. -- Glenn BurnSilver
Thursday, October 11: Fall Style Guide Workshop with Style Tutor @ Frances Vintage When in need of a fashionable pick-me-up we have a handful of go-to places, both brick-and-mortar and in the digital realm, that we trust to reinvigorate our love of clothes. There's Georgann Bryant's boutique Frances, for retail therapy. And then we have Kristy Roschke and Jennifer Woolsey's Style Tutor, for advice on how to incorporate trends into our wardrobes without dwindling our bank account balance.
So certainly it made for a happy surprise when we spotted that the ladies of Style Tutor would team up with Frances to host a Fall Style Workshop, as part of the shop's ongoing hands-on classes. Roschke and Woolsey will outline this season's trends and how to have fun with them while adhering to a budget.
Snacking and shopping begin at 6 p.m. and the workshop starts at 6:30 at 10 West Camelback Road. Participants will receive a discount of 20 percent on purchases made that evening. -- Becky Bartkowski
Friday, October 12: Scorpius Dance Theatre: Vampire Tale @ Phoenix Theatre Hating on vampires officially has become more annoying than the Twilight-loving teeny-boppers themselves. People make a point to subtly say, "I'm so not one of them," with a scoff at sparkly skin and a roll of the eyes at vampire vegetarianism. So much so that vampires have gotten a bad rap during the past few Halloweens. You just can't dress up as a vampire and not expect a fellow partygoer to ask if you're really, seriously on Team Edward.
Scorpius Dance Theatre does the sexy vamp act right in A Vampire Tale. They nix the unnecessary human-undead relations in favor of aerial stunts to please the most animalistic of senses ®C the eyes. The show explores the sexuality and terror that come with sucking blood, all while sprinkling comedy into the mix. However, the show proves that vampires are nothing to laugh about. -- Christina Caldwell
Check out more things to do today (and everyday) in our Calendar section ...