Bumper stickers seen on the highways of Arizona, adorning rusted-out pickup trucks, primer-gray vans, and yellow, dented Pintos: "Keep honking, I'm reloading."
"How am I driving? Dial 1-800-Eat-Shit."
"Don't tailgate me or I'll flick a booger on your windshield."
When the best you can expect from a commute dispute is a snotball in the eye, maybe it's better to scratch that road-trip itch inside a museum.
"Arizona Road Trips" -- a four-part multimedia exhibition at the Luhrs Gallery inside ASU's Hayden Library -- relives the olden days of Arizona's highways through photographs, stories, videos, even pop-up books. The collection includes photographs by Frank P. Hoy, chronicling scenes from 1979 to 1995; video documentaries about Route 66; and books by Arizona authors. Superior-Miami Highway, Route 60, featuring text by ASU archivist Chris Marín, recounts a family road trip from Globe to Phoenix on Route 60 in the summer of 1951. "To a youngster sitting in the back seat of a '49 Chevy, the Superior highway brought frightening images of the car falling off the road and down the canyon below," says Marín.
The whole shebang is free, but step on the gas -- the exhibition closes July 30. Call 480-965-4925 or see www.asu.edu/lib/news/azroad.htm. --Niki D' Andrea
Witty Politi
Political rants, gripes and slams showcased at the Trunk Space
Fri 7/23
Armed with sharp tongues and razor wit, "Poetically Incorrect" performers invade the Trunk Space, 1506 Grand Avenue, at 8 p.m. Friday, July 23, with enough linguistic ammo to shock and awe. Jeff Buck, one of the performers taking center stage with spoken word, rant and/or slam poetry pieces, says the content is mature, and those with delicate dispositions -- or offended by the occasional f-bomb -- might be uncomfortable. The theme is political, but the tone is humorous. "We don't want people marchin' around with their fists in the air," Buck says. $5 admission. See www.thetrunkspace.com. -- C. Murphy Hebert
Summer Reruns
Short films go long on potential
Thu 7/22
In watching 200 short films in two years, Steve Weiss has seen some disappointing cinema as part of "No Festival Required," a monthly screening of films by local and national directors. But there are some masterpieces that are neither long enough nor seen enough. "There are shows we've watched that were so good that we didn't want to show them just once," says Weiss, who'll present "Selections From the Collection, Part II," on Thursday, July 22, at Phoenix Art Museum's Whiteman Hall, 1625 North Central, at 7 p.m. Seven films fill out the bill, including L.A. director Rayce Denton's Flight of the Bumblebee, a 35-minute short (the longest in the show) about an ogre of a man turned loan enforcer who receives an "unwanted 'payment' to help him recognize the gift of literature and love." Admission for all seven films -- for mature audiences only -- is $6. See www.candidlandscapes.com/nofes. --Joe Watson
