BEST REASON TO GET UP AT 4 A.M. ON A SATURDAY 2006 | VNSA Book Sale at the Arizona State Fair and Exposition | People & Places | Phoenix
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BEST REASON TO GET UP AT 4 A.M. ON A SATURDAY

VNSA Book Sale at the Arizona State Fair and Exposition

Picture a bunch of shivering folks willingly waiting in line during the middle of the night, exchanging friendly banter and warm coffee. Now, strip away the consumer-obsessed IKEA feel and the Cabela's "real American" quality and you've got the bookworm diehards awaiting the Volunteer Nonprofit Service Association (VNSA) book sale, held annually during the second weekend of February. The largest book sale west of the Mississippi features a 50,000-square-foot nerd oasis filled with more than 600,000 books, including $2 hardcovers and $1 paperbacks, as well as videos, CDs, audio tapes, records, maps, and puzzles. The warehouse is broken up into sections ranging from classics and cookbooks to history/war/politics and foreign language reads. The rare and unusual section where we've found a first printing of Tolstoy's War and Peace for $10, an out-of-print history of ASU from 1960, and bizarre literature such as 1920s white supremacy propaganda is definitely our favorite. Shopping carts are provided, but they go fast (usually in about 10 minutes), so it's a good idea to bring your own bags. If you don't want to brave the Saturday chaos, come back on Sunday, when most books are half-price. There is a fairground-parking fee, but admission to the sale is free, with proceeds benefiting local nonprofit human service agencies.

BEST SOUL MUSIC LOUNGE NIGHT

Karlie Hustle's Groove Candy Night at The Door

We know that Bob Marley preached a world filled with one love through spiritually uniting music, but sometimes other soul music pioneers like Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and D'Angelo are seriously slept on. That's why Karlie Hustle, a mover-and-shaker in the soul and hip-hop scenes, created the Groove Candy Night weekly lounge night. The Power 98.3 DJ represents dusty grooves while keeping microphone yammering to a minimum. The backbone of the series is most definitely the DJs, including resident emcee DJ M2, who spins classics mixed with neo-soul, reggae, and hip-hop, from The Roots and Common to Erykah Badu and Goapele. Wrap your fingers around a cocktail, feel the love, and unwind to some groove therapy each Wednesday night.

BEST WAY TO SPEND FIRST SUNDAY

No Festival Required

The granddaddy of microcinema, No Festival Required, has brought underground films sans the censorship of distribution, festival rules, or economics to Modified Arts during each first Sunday evening for the past three years, and counting. The films run the artsy gamut of comedy, drama, documentary, and experimental works, whether it's during February's annual Arizona Statehood Show that showcases local filmmakers, the sublime Lunafest featuring all women directors, or the scathing rap short film of the U.S. administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina in "George Bush Don't Like Black People." The motion picture series is also featured during select Sunday afternoons at the Phoenix Art Museum. You won't have to navigate the commercial megaplex to enjoy a No Fes flick.

BEST BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

www.litchicks.com

What happens when a human resources manager, a fitness director and an accountant read a lot? Lit chicks! Kim Novotny, the HR gal, gathered a couple of friends together a while back and created a Web site devoted to reviewing good books. Novotny lives in Anthem, but she and the other literate chicks dream of someday traveling to Chicago to tell Oprah all about their site! Whether that happens or not, we're just happy to read their smart, succinct, honest reviews with Top 10 lists including authors we, too, love, like John Irving, David Sedaris, and Harper Lee. We see they've got Martha Beck on there, too. A wise move, considering she, too, is from the Valley and writes for O Magazine. Maybe we'll see the lit chicks on TV yet.

BEST LOUNGE-STYLE JAZZ NIGHT

Sundays at Bobby C's Lounge and Grille

This swank soul food eatery and cocktail bar, with its African-themed paintings, sexy lighting, and heavy alcoholic pours, sets the ideal atmosphere for local musicians to jam out groove-oriented standards and originals in the cozy and crowded lounge. The music is geared toward straight-ahead aficionados and provides a great introduction to jazz newcomers. Players known to sit in include the infectious organist "Papa" John DeFrancesco (father of esteemed Hammond B-3 organist Joey), the fireballing percussionist Dowell Davis, and funky bass guitarist Mike Howard. If the high-energy sonic chops whet your appetite, sink your teeth into the catfish dinner entree, a honking fillet served with your choice of two sides such as collard greens, candied yams, and dirty rice. The restaurant also features a Sunday jazz brunch from noon to 2:30 p.m. and more beats until 4 p.m. before the free lounge jam burns down the house from 7 to 11 p.m.

BEST EXPERIMENTAL-FUSION JAZZ NIGHT

Thursdays at Orange Table

Jamie Peachey
Stroll near the Scottsdale Center for the Arts on a Thursday night and you'll hear an ambient blitzkrieg of up-tempo and accessible sounds. Then let your ears be the guide and continue past the official performing arts center to the funky Orange Table cafe, nestled in a hard-to-find-if-you-blink cranny, where Trio Oro jams out modern and original compositions embodying elements of free jazz and breakbeats. Since March 2005, Rob Moore's fiery snare and cymbal wallops, Jacob Koller's brooding keyboard comps, and Andy Jones' moody bass riffs have been attracting eager listeners. Sometimes the band plays inside. Other times they post up just outside the cozy outdoor patio, perfect to soak up the atmospheric sounds while sipping on a $2 Red Stripe or Fat Tire, grubbing on sandwiches and sweets, or grabbing a late-night caffeine fix. Feel the fusion.

BEST PLACE TO MINGLE WITH PUBLISHED AUTHORS

ASU Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference

Each year, established writers and hopeful scribes descend on the ASU campus for several days of intensive writing instruction, readings, panel discussions, and book signings. Participants can rub elbows with published authors during a variety of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry classes, ranging from screenwriting and political poetry to gender-identity fiction and travel writing. During the evening break, authors and conference participants journey down to the Mill Avenue bars to yuk it up about the writing life over cocktails, culminating in evening readings and book signings in Old Main's Carson Ballroom. In the past, featured authors have included novelist Joyce Carol Oates, essayist A.S. Byatt, poet Tim Seibles, and This American Life contributor Sarah Vowell. There's a hefty $300 registration fee, but enough tutelage and inspiration for at least a couple of chapters of that book you're writing. Write on!

BEST LIT GROUP FOR HIPSTERS

PAGE 23 at Changing Hands Bookstore

According to a recent National Endowment for the Arts Reading at Risk study, most people between the ages of 16 and 35 think books are blas. PAGE 23 isn't going to let you fold up literature quite yet. Through guerrilla marketing and word-of-mouth promotions, a group of Changing Hands employees hopes to inspire a new generation of readers by seeking out and recommending new fiction (Icelander by Dustin Long), edgy nonfiction (Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir by Lisa Crystal Carver), and graphic novels (Black Hole by Charles Burns) that pass under the Sunday book page radar, each distinguishable by an in-store brown bookmark. The group also programs unique community gatherings, including "Lit Noise." The unveiling event featured readings from the snarky Jack Pendarvis and experimental neo-magical realist Salvador Plascencia, the latter who read from his debut The People of Paper while wearing a beekeeper's suit. The stacks were moved and hyperactive acoustic rockers Andrew Jackson Jihad performed spastic mood music during the book signings, while the adjacent Mac's Broiler & Tap offered reverse happy hour specials for those who wanted a little booze with their books. What is it they always used to tell us in school? Reading is FUN-damental.

BEST MUSIC ON A SCHOOL NIGHT

Big Fish Sports Pub

The saying goes that it's better to be a big fish in a little pond. In this case, that's true. Big Fish isn't the most popular hangout in Tempe, but while the larger bars are sparse during the week, this "little pub that could" packs 'em in. Skip Skoolnik, Foundation, and Pickster One rock the Boom Bam Room on Monday nights when there's nothing to do anywhere else in town. Other regular events include a gaming night and Tuesday night open mic with verbose, vitriolic and sometimes verbally abusive host Nick R. He's one evolutionary step above Cro-Magnon man or Simon Cowell which is why we can't seem to get enough of his piss 'n' vinegar attitude. Mad props to this little fish for drawing the Valley's phattest talent, and possibly the meanest host, out of the woodwork.

BEST CLASSIC PHOTO BOOTH

Trunk Space

JRC and Stephanie Carrico, co-owners of the Trunk Space, know they have a hot product when folks are making special trips to the exhibition space to score material for their MySpace profiles. The photo booth, converted from color to beautiful black-and-white, is one of a kind in the area, and pics snapped at the booth have been showing up on Internet blogs as well as Web sites for out-of-town bands swinging through the art gallery/performance venue. For just $3, the all-analog picture-slinging device cranks out a vintage black-and-white strip of four keepsakes, using old-school photo chemicals to develop posing mugs. In April, the Space christened the booth with a party where snapshots of colorful characters were included in the Trunk Space Yearbook, a do-it-yourself art archive that the art space owners plan to keep creating each year. Appointments are accepted or just swing by during gallery hours and say "cheese."

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