Subject: Benjamin Leatherman

• Attack of the Mutant Piñatas

  April 3, 2008

• Last Minute Monday: Cinco De Mayo

  May 5, 2008

• Podcast: Digital Summer

  May 9, 2008

• This Weekend's Top Picks: Minibosses, The Dark Knight

  July 18, 2008

• This Weekend: Lucha Libre, Splash Bash, CopperCon and AZ Bully Expo

  August 29, 2008

• Night Out: Grand Avenue, Roosevelt Row and The Ruby Room

  September 6, 2008

• What's Selling: Revolver Records

  September 9, 2008

• Concert Calendar for This Weekend

  September 12, 2008

• Point/Counterpoint: Beck and MGMT at Dodge Theatre on Monday, September 22

  September 23, 2008

• Edgefest Coverage Closer: Must-See Multimedia

  September 28, 2008

• Edgefest: Local Band Video Sampler

  September 28, 2008

• Summer Guide 2008

  June 5, 2008

• Veggie Boy Goes To Mexico

  By Benjamin Leatherman A spectacular view of the crystal blue Caribbean Sea from Tulum on the Yucatan Peninsula (photo by Jenna Leatherman). Despite having an ultra-hectic schedule these days, I was fortunate enough to be able to slip off to Cancun with friends and family a few weeks ago for a nice little vacay. Since my sojourn was during the resort town's fall off-season, the hotels and beaches were free of the usual douchebags who flock there during Spring Break and the summertime. As su

  November 25, 2008

• Fresh Mint, Flaming Kabob, The Firehouse, and Others Offer Vegetarian Dining Options On Christmas Day

  Spend Christmas Day feasting on the golden chicken and other vegetarian Asian delights at Fresh Mint in Scottsdale. Christmas Day dining options can be quite slim, considering the fact most restaurateurs and food workers would rather toast the yuletide with their nearest and dearest than sling hash to the hungry masses. For vegetarians and vegans, however, the choices are even slimmer. Green's gonna be closed, as will Fate, Carly's, and all seven Pita Jungle locations. All hope is not los

  December 22, 2008

• Night Train: Dorsey/Apache Boulevard (Stop #24)

  Where: The Lucky Devil (1212 E. Apache Blvd., Tempe, 480-446-7468, one block West of the station. Drink: The "Shot Ski" for $5 and up, depending on your booze of choice. Scene: Dunno if you've heard the news, but college kids have been known to tie one on from time to time (shocking, we know). As a result, it's no surprise that the joint's around ASU find interesting ways to get their patrons drunk. Hence, the Lucky Devil's "Shot Ski," which consists of three separate shots in a row on a larg

  December 4, 2008

• Night Train: University Drive/Rural (Stop #23)

  Where: Sushi 101 (920 E. University Dr., No. 101, Tempe, 480-317-0101). Approximately 500 feet northeast of the station or five minutes walking time. Drink: Hot sake. $6.50 for a large carafe, $3.50 for a small. Scene: Sake is known as Japan's major contribution to the drinking world, and the folks at Sushi 101 serve up of the Nipponese rice wine both hot and cold (we prefer the latter). While you can down a few carafes in this sushi joint's dining room (which is replete with such Asian-insp

  December 5, 2008

• Night Train: 38th Street/Washington (Stop #17)

  Where: American Park 'n Swap at Phoenix Greyhound Park (3801 E. Washington St., 602-273-1250). Drink: 16-ounce cups of beer for $3 each plus a $2 admission per person. Scene: The American Swap Meet is like Wal-Mart, thrift store, and Mexican supermercado all rolled into one gigantic outdoor yard sale. Four times a week (Wednesdays, 4-10 p.m.; Friday, 6 a.m.-2 p.m.; and Saturday and Sunday, 6 a.m.-4 p.m.) denizens from across the Valley gather in the massive parking lot of Phoenix Greyhound

  December 11, 2008

• Q-Tip, Of Montreal, Rise Against, And Lil Rob Are Just Some Of What's Selling At Zia Records In Phoenix

  By Benjamin Leatherman Since the global retail industry has decided in it's great wisdom that the day after Halloween is the official starting point for the annual Christmas season, we feel it's our duty to inform the public of the following: You've only got 43 shopping days left to track down gifts for your loved ones (so you better get a move on). If you're hoping to get your nearest and dearest one of them hot new albums available for sale (but are so out of touch that you've no idea who'

  November 12, 2008

• Who's Performing At Tonight's First Friday: Andrew Jackson Jihad, FutureKind, Furious Styles Crew, and More

  <form mt:asset-id="11450" class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;" contenteditable="false"><img alt="ofk18.jpg" src="http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/ofk18.jpg" class="mt-image-none" style="" width="400" height="266" /></form><br><br><i>FutureKind is scheduled to perform at The Lost Leaf.</i><br /><br />It's probably gonna be a chilly one tonight, so be sure to bring a jacket or hoodie when you're out traipsing

  December 5, 2008

• Dirty Devil Becomes College Dropouts, And Friends Gets Its Cherry Back

  The Dirty Devil has become a dropout, literally. The sinful-sounding ASU watering, located at 560 South College Avenue in Tempe (within stumbling distance to Sun Devil Stadium), transformed into the jock-oriented College Dropouts this past weekend. While the Dirty Devil's jet-black color scheme and weekly hip-hop dance night went away with the name change, the joint will continue to feature dirt-cheap beer night every Tuesday (where patrons can get penny domestic drafts after ponying up the $

  December 22, 2008

• TheDirty.com, Combichrist, Religious Rockers and More Over the Weekend

  Jonathan McNamaraTheDirty.com's West Valley InvasionParty crasher Benjamin Leatherman spent Friday, January 24, boozing it up with The Dirty's Nik Richie at Hurricane Bay in the West Valley before saying hello to Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie at Jilly's in Chandler...slide show Top 10 Musicians Turned to Religion In this week's music feature, Martin Cizmar analyzes former Puff Daddy protégé Mase and his move from spitting rhymes to rapping for God. We couldn't help but wonder what other music

  January 26, 2009

• Summer Guide: Get Toasted

  June 4, 2009

• Flier of the Week: Danse Macabre

  There's not a ton of live music in town this weekend -- especially compared to next weekend's musical bonanza of Country Thunder/Tempe Music Fest/Springsteen/Bonnie Prince Billy/Calexico/Leonard Cohen -- so this week's flier is for a dance night. Not just any Dance night though, as Benjamin Leatherman wrote in this week's paper, Danse Macabre, at The Ruby Room, should be pretty special, with crazy assortment of tracks. The flier ain't bad either.

  March 26, 2009

• Food Porn at the Grand Opening of Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill

  Benjamin Leatherman As Toby Keith says, "Freedom don't come free." That may be true, but the food and drinks were definitely on the house at last night's grand opening hootenanny for the country music superstar's self-titled chain restaurant Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in Mesa on Wednesday, June 3. More than a hundred strong packed into the ginormous eatery and drinkery (which gleams its moniker from his hit song of the same name) for the invite-only affair. Attendees (and even a few l

  June 4, 2009

• Art Detour 2006

  The comprehensive lowdown on the scene, the anti-scene, listings, and a handy map

  March 23, 2006

• Monsters' Ball

  Fright to the finish

  October 6, 2005

• Monster's Brawl

  Turning Japanese in Tempe

  August 25, 2005

• Return of the Kink

  Sinners shine at Paper Heart

  February 10, 2005

• No Small Feet

  February 3, 2005

• Good Ol' B-Boys Network

  January 6, 2005

• Y2K-O

  January 6, 2005

• Music Man

  November 18, 2004

• Knight Riders

  Los Olivos Park hosts the other ren fair

  November 18, 2004

• Street Brawl

  Dragsters wage war at "Battleground AZ"

  November 11, 2004

• Dude, There's My Car

  November 11, 2004

• Ball Busters

  Leg it out for a kickball league

  October 7, 2004

• Tongue and Groove

  September 16, 2004

• Dog Beat Dog

  September 2, 2004

• Pak'ed House

  August 12, 2004

• Off the Cuffs

  "Good Cop/Bad Cop" busts up the Improv

  July 15, 2004

• Shots in the Dark

  July 8, 2004

• Slick Willy

  July 1, 2004

• "POW" Wows

  July 1, 2004

• DJs Make Their Debut at Merc Bar

  Benjamin LeathermanJoe DiPadova and sax player Shea Marshall jam out at the Merc Bar on Sunday. Click here for more photos from our slideshow. The stylish and suave Merc Bar has always seemed to be a cut above all the other gin joints and laidback lounges that abound in Phoenix. How come? There's a clandestine, speakeasy feel to the place, as it's secreted behind an unmarked door deep in the heart of the Esplanade. The Merc also has a killer pedigree, as it spun off the renowned NYC bar, as we

  June 16, 2009

• Late Night Light Rail Starts This Weekend

  Benjamin LeathermanDon't miss your stop, broham. At last, the train we've wanted to ride is finally pulling up to the station, so to speak. METRO light rail is becoming a post-midnight express as of tomorrow with service offered until last call on weekend evenings. The trains will run approximately every 20 minutes until 2 a.m. when the last ride of the night departs either the westbound or eastbound termini, ultimately arriving at the opposite end of the line an hour later. Which means y

  July 2, 2009

• A-Trak and the 10,000 lb. Hamburger Tour Blows 'Em Away at Club Red

  Benjamin LeathermanA-Trak gets pulses pumping on Monday night at Club Red. Perspiration was the cologne of choice at last night's A-Trak show at Tempe's Club Red, as the sweltering 100-degree-plus temps inside the nightspot caused many a scenester to baste in their own sweat. Then again, it might've also been the white-hot beats that the A-List turntablist and remix king was blasting out from the 15,000-megawatt sound system. Despite the fact it was a weekday evening, the gig had a fearsome t

  July 14, 2009

• Scottsdale's Pussycat Lounge, Crown Room Closing (Temporarily) For Renovation

  Benjamin LeathermanClub promoter Brian Durkee clowns around at Pussycat Lounge on Saturday night. We're deep into the dog days of summer, the college kids are all away on vacay, and nightlife-related business has slowed to a trickle. Sounds like the perfect time for local club owners to shut down for a few weeks and update their digs with a fresh new look, which is exactly what's happening at a few joints in Old Town Scottsdale.

  July 20, 2009

• Behind the Bar: Tyler King at Jugheads

  Benjamin LeathermanTyler King does his drink-mixing thing at Jegheads in east Phoenix.​Tyler King is one tough-looking hombre. Sporting a tee shirt for notorious New Jersey hardcore band Shattered Realm and innumerable tattoos covering his burly frame from head to toe, the 38-year-old bartender at Jugheads looks like someone you'd wouldn't wanna challenge to a fight. Instead, try challenging him to whisk you up a mixed drink sometime from scratch and the badass barman (who's got a pretty g

  October 8, 2009

• Recipe: Dirty Phoenix Bomber from Jugheads

  Benjamin LeathermanJugheads bartender Tyler King.Since first getting into the bartending trade during his teenage years, Tyler King has dealt drinkage to punks and drunks in both New York City and Phoenix. Back during his Gotham days, he was behind the bar at the landmark CBGBs on Manhattan's Lower East Side, while these days he's punching the time clock at Jugheads in east Phoenix.So is there any difference in serving suds in either town? Not much, King says."It's pretty much the same thing in

  October 9, 2009

• Shizzfest 2 is Currently Rocking the Shizz Outta Grand Avenue

  Benjamin LeathermanMalaki gets loud at the Trunk Space during Shizzfest.​It's been something of a packed Saturday, what with Tour de Fat, the Tiki Throwdown, Oktoberfest, and various and sundry other weekend events happening around the Valley. If you've still got some energy and cash left, jump in your ride and head for Grand Avenue in downtown Phoenix, where the Shizzfest will be rocking the Trunk Space and the adjacent Sweets & Beats for another couple hours. Benjamin LeathermanMike Mon

  October 10, 2009