Subject: Julie Peterson

• Last Minute Monday: Human & Animal Grossology

  May 25, 2008

• This Weekend: Vintage Video Games, Phoenix ConGames and Oh Yeah...Father's Day

  June 12, 2008

• Play PHX

  March 5, 2009

• Curtains: A New Brain at Soul Invictus

  By Julie Peterson Let's lay some cards on the table, here: I'm not crazy about traditional, mid-century, Rodgers-and-Hammerstein-style musical theater. I'm also not crazy about more recent spectaculars like Andrew Lloyd Webber's. It's not that I think less of those genres; it's just that musical theater has so many challenging components that when even one of the pistons isn't firing, it's so much worse than any other kind of bad art that I've developed a perpetual pre-emptive cringe when I

  November 25, 2008

• Curtains: Southwest Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale at Mesa Arts Center

  By Julie Peterson Mary Riley and Richard Baird in The Winter's Tale. Photo by Laura Durant, graphic enhancements by Southwest Shakespeare Co. Watching a play by William Shakespeare can be like watching a biopic (or, for that matter, like trying to get on an O.J. Simpson jury) -- you already know what happened, and you can't unknow it. Even if you attempt my strategy, which was to choose a play I'd never read or seen, most companies helpfully spoil you with a synopsis in the playbill.

  December 3, 2008

• Curtains: Miracle on 34th Street at Theater Works

     Kelly Leeth and Fred Bornhoeft are adorable in Miracle on 34th Street. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and he was heard mildly cursing into his body mic during a quick backstage costume change last Saturday night in Peoria. But he shouldn't feel bad. Seriously, actor Fred Bornhoeft is such an awesomely wonderful Kris Kringle that his little audio faux pas (in which the sound crew collaborated by not killing the microphone when he exited) was soon forgotten. And that was

  December 12, 2008

• Curtains: Nearly Naked's Times Square Angel at the Little Theatre at Phoenix Theatre

  Damon Dering (standing, center) plays Irish O'Flanagan in Times Square Angel in its Arizona premiere, presented by Nearly Naked Theatre. Photo by Nancy Lynn Miller. This week, Curtains flees gratefully back into the arms of the counterculture, but not far enough to avoid seeing another Christmas show. Charles Busch's campy melodramedy Times Square Angel is described by some as a retelling of It's a Wonderful Life, but except for the main angel character, Albert, it's more like A Christmas

  December 17, 2008

• Curtains: A Christmas Carol at Arizona Broadway Theatre in Peoria

    We laughed, we cried, we fashion policed: Edward Prostak (Scrooge) and David Errigo Jr. (Christmas Past). Photo by Scott Samplin © 2008 I've brushed off my black trousers and Ugly Christmas Sweater one last time to review a production at a Broadway-style dinner theater (yes, that's an oxymoron): the 1994 version of A Christmas Carol with songs by Lynn Ahrens and Alan Menken of Ragtime, Seussical, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast fame. Blah blah blah, you may be thinking, but it's pret

  December 23, 2008

• Curtains: Blithe Spirit at Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre

  It's okay, ladies, it's almost over: Jenny Mulcahy and Rebecca Ruegg are featured in Blithe Spirit. Photo by Heather Butcher. I can't say exactly why, in the 13 years they've been around, I'd never been to a show at Scottsdale Desert Stages until the other day. But enough about me. Desert Stages is a mainstream community theater that's busier than a one-armed paper-hanger. Since they moved into their own space a few years back, they've put on three four-show series each season: big

  December 30, 2008

• Romanesco: Exotic Veggie in Season at Farmers' Markets

  Julie Peterson The wily romanesco, lurking in the McClendon's Select stall at Town and Country farmers' market.The curious little kid in us really comes out when we see a funky new fruit or vegetable. (It makes fixing dinner a bit more interesting, too.) One of the loveliest oddities available right now is romanesco, a mysterious relative of cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage. Did you know that all those veggies can be bred with each other? (Math geeks, check out that link for all the gl

  February 13, 2009

• Radishes Aplenty, and a Heads-Up About Monthly Farmers' Markets

  Julie Peterson The alluring and tasty Easter Egg radish assortment is sown, harvested, and enjoyed as a mixture of red, purple, pink, and white varieties, each with its own flavor (pictured, a bunch from Crooked Sky Farms). Unless you prepare a lot of fish tacos (or old-school relish trays like the one served at Durant's), it's a good bet the humble, easy-to-grow radish doesn't regularly make it onto your shopping list. This is a crying shame, especially in our neck of the woods, where sp

  February 27, 2009

• Still Lots o' Veggies -- and Crafts! -- at Friday's Mesa Farmers' Market and Others

  Julie Peterson Bunneh sez "nom nom nom": Genuine baby carrots from Love Grows FarmsSpring weather hereabouts is famously capricious, and no one knows that better than produce growers and their fans. Right now, we're sitting smack in the season of dependable year-round crops like tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, and citrus. Some farmers have other items at the moment, and some don't, and it changes day by day. Every field -- even each side of the same field -- is a unique microclimate that mig

  April 2, 2009

• Trolley Jolly Christmas

  December 11, 2008

• American Dream

  Play humanizes the plight of undocumented residents

  April 17, 2008

• Bible Humpers

  Christian science moniker

  November 24, 2005

• Undieworld

  Passionate fashion at PAM

  November 17, 2005

• Heart and Soles

  Savion Glover brings on da funk

  November 3, 2005

• See Fido Fetch

  Big dog flight at Encanto

  November 3, 2005

• Toe Jam

  Pounding the skins at Kokopelli

  October 27, 2005

• The Write Stuff

  Everybody still loves Raymond

  October 20, 2005

• Function Over Form

  J. DeSanti gets the LED out

  October 20, 2005

• Kota Many Colors

  Way beyond Broadway

  October 6, 2005

• Trash Talk

  Artist Widmer wastes not

  October 6, 2005

• Hit Parade

  How slow can they go?

  September 15, 2005

• Give Peace a Trance

  Good vibrations in Tucson

  September 15, 2005

• Big Cheese

  Neil Hamburger gets toasted

  September 8, 2005

• Cutting-Edge Cup o' Joe

  Tea and mocha at SMoCA, anyone?

  September 1, 2005

• Abject Art

  Gidget Gein meets Mr. Spock

  September 1, 2005

• India Summer

  Mamata does Mesa

  August 25, 2005

• Jeepers Creepers

  Learning to crawl in Chandler

  August 25, 2005

• The Two Joshes

  Standup and be counted

  August 18, 2005

• deZurrection

  Tempe gallery bows out

  August 11, 2005

• Bands of Brothers

  The family that plays together . . .

  July 28, 2005

• Ma Bell

  Bob Log III births bizarre blues

  July 21, 2005

• Sense of Rumor

  IHYWYP makes history -- or not

  July 7, 2005

• Reigning Cats and Dawgs

  A stylus assault at Old Brickhouse

  June 30, 2005

• Bible Beats

  God goes glam in Phoenix

  June 23, 2005

• Amor Latin Feel

  See stars from south of the border

  June 9, 2005

• Dope Flows

  MCs battle for the Benjamins

  June 9, 2005

• Raging Machine

  Digital deconstructionists

  June 2, 2005

• Public Display

  It was only a Kiss, how did it end up like this?

  May 12, 2005

• Night Moves

  Run or walk for the sake of art

  May 5, 2005

• Deth Becomes Them

  "HardKore Fest" kills 'em all at Chasers

  April 28, 2005

• Cover Story

  Bisbee band (re)makes an album

  April 21, 2005

• Poll Position

  It's the Trunk Space on Election Night

  October 28, 2004

• Play With Your Food

  Not your ordinary thespians

  May 22, 2003

• Heirloom Tomato Central: A Visit to Seacat Gardens; plus, Lewis CSA Opens

  Julie PetersonIt's the attack of the wonderful healthy tomatoes at Seacat Gardens.A jungle, an ocean, a wild maze of huge, sprawling plants bearing thousands of colorful, fragrant fruit. That's how it feels just a few steps into the tomato beds in Seacat Gardens' leased acre on the edge of Blue Sky Farms in Litchfield Park. "I just started here last fall," says organic specialty produce grower Carl Seacat, who seems cheerfully taken aback by what his backyard veggie garden has developed into. "

  May 1, 2009

• Early Peaches at Roadrunner Park Farmers' Market

  Julie PetersonOne Windmill Farms' Queen Creek peaches are the belles of the ball.Each of the Valley's farmers' markets has its own distinctive atmosphere. That's fun to suss out, but we're all about the produce, too. The Roadrunner Park Farmers' Market, just off the 51 on Cactus Road, is Phoenix's oldest -- it'll celebrate its 20th birthday in October -- and both the setting and the vendor lineup have a mature, settled feel, like a portable weekly neighborhood where everybody's known each other

  May 8, 2009

• McClendon's Squash Blossoms at Farmers' Markets

  Julie PetersonBefore the squash comes the blossom.Some flowers make a cute and colorful edible garnish. Some, like roses and hibiscus, impart magical flavor through their essences. But the large and meaty squash blossom is practically an entree on its own and has enriched its local cuisines for centuries. The taste is much like young tender squash, but the texture is really something else. Like mature summer squash, blossoms can be mixed into a soup or stew or stuffed with other ingredients. Th

  May 12, 2009

• 10 Things Under $10 This Weekend: Top Secret Parties, Hanny's Anniversary, Black Fag, and More

  Man-candy mixmaster Jared Alan will be holding court tonight at Sanctum.​Officially, the re-launch for Jared Alan's notorious fauxShow Night at its new home isn't taking place until next Friday. Unofficially, however, the hunky hipster DJ is kicking things off a whole week early with an under-the-radar members-only grand opening affair later tonight at Sanctum. It's sure to be quite the fashionable fete, drawing in a select crowd of beautiful types to the gothy Melrose District dance denS

  November 6, 2009