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Taylor Swift Will Incite A Willy Wonka Scavenger Hunt in Phoenix This Weekend

When people and brands recreate the Willy Wonka Golden Ticket promotion they don't always seem aware that Willy Wonka is kind of a sociopath. Regardless: Taylor Swift is recreating the Golden Ticket promotion, and it's coming to Phoenix. If you can connect a series of clues on Diet Coke's Twitter ac ... More >>

Songs Remain The Same

Simulate Your Own Mosh Pit in This Scientific Study

Music has been revered as one of the highest art forms for centuries. And in modern pop music, its most recognizable tool has been the guitar. I find the guitar fascinating. In fact, I could spend hours poring over photos of guitars and learning all about the intricate construction process that goes ... More >>

The Last Barfighter Is A Beer-Dispensing "Beercade"

Behold The Last Barfighter beercade, a digital arena in which two beer lovers do battle for the only prize that really matters: Beer. The beercade arose from North Carolina based, Big Boss Brewing Company desire to make beer tastings a little more engaging and interesting. See Also: --Adorable Wal ... More >>

Once Upon a Time: The Re-Emergence of Storytelling

Maynard James Keenan: Rochambeau Myself

I love a good comedy. Browsing through mental notes of quotable material, apropos for tedious moments brought on by the petty, the narrow minded, and the desperate, keeps me questionably sane. See also: Maynard James Keenan: These Are The "End of Days" See also: Maynard James Keenan: Up on the Sun ... More >>

Ask a Mexican on the Gabacho Ego and Columbus Day

Top Phoenix Music Stories of the Week

The news waits for no one -- at least that's what we read somewhere -- so it's perfectly understandable that you, the reader, might have missed out on a musical tidbit, breaking news about your favorite venue, or one of our rants. So enjoy this digest-style sampling of some of our biggest stories f ... More >>

Dottie's True Blue Cafe: A Popular San Francisco Breakfast Joint Comes to Scottsdale

What's a Dottie's True Blue Cafe? Google it and chances are you'll see the San Francisco eatery pop up as one of the best breakfast spots in the city. For nearly 20 years, the classic diner from chef-owner Kurt Abney has been hailed as much for its fresh-baked pastries and jalapeño corn bread as dr ... More >>

Are Yelp Extortionists Giving Restaurants the Shakedown?

Generally, here at Chow Bella we tend to report on restaurant owners behaving badly. Whether that be Amy's Baking Company's Yelp tirade or Tina's Ethiopian Cafe's comment section meltdown. We still have a team of our best people decoding some of those pseudo-sexual insults. But today we're consideri ... More >>

Five Ways Not to Buy Wine

Vine Geek Brian Reeder co-owns AZ Wine Merchants in Scottsdale. Wine is subjective. Every wine is different. It all depends on your taste. Price doesn't equal quality. It's all the same anyway. Just drink what you like. Blah. Blah. Blah. We've all heard the nomenclatures. The bullshit lines that e ... More >>

Ask a Mexican on Illegal Immigration

Miniature Tigers Paint a Sensual Scene with Mia Pharaoh

O'Brother's Johnny Dang on the Band's Sound, Thrice, and "Cleanse Me"

Atlanta's O'Brother may seem like a real life version of The Soggy Bottom Boys from O Brother, Where Art Thou? (just Google the band's name), but name and hometown are the only things the band and film have in common. O'Brother uses three intricate guitars to play a combination of sludge, progressiv ... More >>

Art

Joe Arpaio Sics Feds on Alleged "Cop-Killer" Website Owner Who "Threatened to Kill" Sheriff

​Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced today that the FBI's Portland, Oregon office raided a house belonging to the person they believe was running a website that glorified killing cops and "threatened to kill" the sheriff.The suspect, 35-year-old Clifton Dawayne Brooks, wasn't arrested, bu ... More >>

Valentine Sketching, The Museum of Broken Relationships, and an Animated Google Doodle

Welcome to the Morning Buzz, a catch-up on interesting happenings around the city and country and a quick guide to what (and who) to keep your eyes on. We'll be here, first thing every weekday, to get you going. Here's what's buzzing this morning: 1. Anti-Art School's V-Day Sketch If you're lookin ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Takes on "Cop-Killer" Website; Plans to Serve Search Warrant at Google's California Headquarters

​Detectives from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office are heading to Santa Clara, California this afternoon, where they plan to serve a search warrant at Google headquarters to try and determine who's responsible for death threats made against Sheriff Joe Arpaio on a website that glorifies killing ... More >>

Jose Olmos Breaks Into Apartment Office to Steal Drill and Look at Porn

Jose Jesse Olmos​Here's what we know: 38-year-old Jose Jesse Olmos broke into an office at the Mesa apartment complex where he lives, stole a power drill, and looked at porn on a computer in the office -- as captured on the office's surveillance camera.What we -- and, more importantly, people who ... More >>

Intelligent Design

Five Locally Found Gifts for a Book Worm

The holidays are the perfect time to hunker down with a good book. Here are a few gift ideas for the reader or book lover in your life: 
​1. Assorted Lined Notebooks Keep track of the books you want to read, or jot down overheard conversations at your favorite coffee-shop. It's up to y ... More >>

New Food Truck Alert: Don Ruggiero and Lacey Higginson of Duck Duck Pig

​The business: Duck Duck Pig What they're packin': Gourmet takes on classic sandwiches all featuring either duck or pork. This means everything from a pork belly BLT to a pineapple jerk pulled pork with coleslaw. The story: Ruggiero and Higginson are both fans of duck and pork and after chec ... More >>

Five Weird Collabortions That Rival Jack White and ICP Song

When the news broke last Wednesday that modern rock 'n' roll icon Jack White was pairing with the sticky, Faygo-coated Insane Clown Posse (ICP) for a "Mozart cover" called "Lech Mich Im Arsch," a simultaneous "wutttt?" was uttered by music fans across the globe. Surely Jack White is the type of dud ... More >>

Mergence Keeps It Weird with Communes, Nomads, and Robots

Ethnic Studies Smear: Wingnuts Slime Corky Gonzales, Civil Rights Hero

A nativist nutcase sticks Corky Gonzales quotes into the cheap blender of her brain and makes mush of it allIt's always amazing to me the way ignorance spreads like a vicious rash through the Internet. One idiot spouts some bull that the confirms the prejudices of the far right, it makes it onto You ... More >>

Country Funk (1970)

​ Welcome to Obscuro, a feature where Up on the Sun dives deep into the world of vinyl oddities: private press jobs, major label cast-offs, and general thrift shop clutter that's thus far escaped anyone's attention. These LPs have been hiding out, collecting dust, until we come along, investigate, ... More >>

Sneed Leed: A Room Full of Haters

Sneed Leed - A Room Full of Haters​Artist: Sneed LeedTitle: A Room Full of HatersBasics: Is there room for more haters? I don't like to start things off like that, but I couldn't help myself -- especially given the title of the damn album. A title, I might add, that was not included on the CD itse ... More >>

The Black Swans' Jerry DeCicca Talks Touring, Larry Jon Wilson, and Vermont

The Black Swans Jerry DeCicca with some black swans​ When preparing for an interview with a band I Google the hell out of them beforehand. In the case of Columbus, Ohio band The Black Swans, this task was a little more difficult than normal thanks to the movie Black Swan. In fact, when trying t ... More >>

Far East Movement - Like A G6

​Song: Far East Movement, "Like A G6"Context: Someone told me Far East Movement killed it when opening for Mike Posner last week. This is their big single, currently in the top 25 on Billboard and iTunes. A Google search reveals that "a G6" is either something totally obscure or a Pontiac. Let's h ... More >>

One in Brazilian

Human connections inspire international art show

One in Brazilian

Human connections inspire international art show

One in Brazilian

Human connections inspire international art show

The Most Worthlessly Obscure Bands on The Soundstrike's Arizona Boycott List

​Well, Thursday is finally upon us -- however, what could have been an entirely shitty day was made less so by the wonderful foresight of U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton and her injunctions on SB 1070. Gov. Brewer's evil army of mercenaries will have to wait until a decision is made on the ... More >>

Neo-Nazi J.T. Ready Handled with Kid Gloves by ABC 15, and Arizona Militia Declares May 5 "Cinco de Ammo"

DayPortPlayer.newPlayer({articleID:"28679",bannerAdObjectID:"35",videoAdObjectID:"34",videoAdConDefID:"11",playerInstanceID:"24FAD9E0-DC70-2532-414F-7E6F051C4C2F",domain:"knxv.web.entriq.net",rootCategory:"",categoryID:"3",accPos:"CCTVI.NEWS.PHOENIX",accSite:"KNXV"});Phoenix's ABC 15 did a little re ... More >>

Arizona Mountaineering Club's Old Website Goes XXX; Porn Site Takes Over Lapsed Domain Name

  Image: www.amcaz.org (the non-porn Web site) ​ After the Arizona Mountaineering Club launched its Web site on a new domain name last year, www.amcaz.org, club officials figured it would be okay to let the old domain expire. Robert England, the club's president, says he remember ... More >>

Ingrid Michaelson

iTunes Update: Sales May be Down, but Revenue is up

On Monday I wrote about a report from Billboard on the initial effects of iTunes increased prices. That report showed that the increased prices hurt a song's chart positions on iTunes top 100 singles charts compared to those songs that did not see a price increase. Well Billboard has a new report o ... More >>

Door-to-Door Soliciting Rules Proposed by Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio

It's kind of creepy: There's a sudden knock at the door. You check to see who it is -- and it turns out to be someone trying to save your soul. Or maybe they just want to sell you something. Either way, you wonder if they would have tried the door and maybe burglarized the place, had you not answ ... More >>

Michelle Branch Headlining "Chicks with Picks" Fest in Tempe

Though she sometimes strives for demure in promo shots, Michelle Branch ain't no Tori Amos -- at least I've never seen Tori look like this -- making her an interesting choice for an all-woman music festival. But it's Branch who's slated to headline the Chicks with Picks Music Festival in Tempe later ... More >>

Top Ten Americana Albums of 2008

By Noah W. Bailey Picking the best folk and Americana records of the year isn't nearly as hard as discarding those great records that just didn't feel right stuck in the category. Releases by Calexico and DeVotchKa felt far too worldly to pigeonhole as folk or country, for instance, while Blitzen ... More >>

Arty Girl: Steampunk by ASU Sculpture at First Studio

So it's a First Friday tonight and I'm sure your schedule is packed with this, a little of that and probably some of this...But please allow me to suggest one more. The ASU Sculpture students, faculty and some extraneous local artists have come together for an evening of Steampunk.Okay, I know Steam ... More >>

Arizona Republic Still Won't Name St. Johns Murder Suspect's Family

His dad -- the one he's accused of killing -- was named Vincent Romero. His mother's name has been reported nationwide as Eryn Thomas or Eryn Bloomfield. The Arizona Republic won't name either of the boy's parents to avoid identifying the 8-year-old murder suspect from St. Johns. Though it's nice to ... More >>

Hot Links: MSNBC tricked by Internet hoax; Gilbert Spanish-haters want name of school changed; Fence slows migrants at border; Suns squabble with Rockets

Jesse Ventura Rallies 9/11 Nutbars, Republic Clueless as to Where.

Buffalo Rick's sinister scribblings against U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn O. Silver.

Fu Manchu: Back on tour and headed for Mesa

The Real Rip-Off Report

Ed Magedson calls himself an advocate. His enemies call him an extortionist

Rock Docs Are Go!

As CDs wither, the low-budget rockumentary is born again

Ditch That Rut

Quit whining and keep your promises

Home Grown

The Sciannas, Gene Michael Best, Until August, J.D. Simo, & Thaahum