Melissa Etheridge Your Little Secret (Island) What’s almost better than a box of sugar cereal with a prize at the bottom? Melissa Etheridge’s new disc, with cute and clever liner notes that double as an interactive puzzle! Anyone who buys Your Little Secret might as well take full and immediate…
Water Whirl I was concerned about the recent article about groups objecting to the water use andthe city’s efforts at the new Sumitomo plant(“Sumitomo Wrestling,” Dave Plank, December 7). First, the information was highly exaggerated and wrong. The groups contend that the plant will “devour 2.4 million gallons per day…
I suppose you would have to be on foot, or very bored, or have a sense of observation verging on desperate to notice it. It is another hunk of American refuse–a great, big, ugly, dead thing sitting there at 12th Street and McDowell, as relevant and as fascinating as a…
Despite his bankruptcy troubles, Governor J. Fife Symington III still has friends he can rely on. Friends who owe him their jobs, for example, such as the people at the Arizona Department of Real Estate. When Symington applied to renew his real estate broker’s license last month, his application should…
A special review by the Arizona auditor general raises questions about how the Attorney General’s Office spends millions of dollars each year in representing state agencies. In the review, ordered by the Legislature, auditors criticized the Attorney General’s Office for failing to standardize agreements with state agencies it represents, and…
First Interstate Bank cut Governor J.Fife Symington III two generous deals on more than $3 million in overdue loans, despite having evidence that Symington had submitted false financial statements to the bank, court documents reveal. First Interstate officials slashed the amount of interest and principal owed by the governor when…
Last March, Eve Edwards took advantage of what she sensed was a grand opportunity. She knew her ex-boyfriend, Jerry Ingalls, was immersed in a legal battle with his ex-wife–a top Dial Corporation executive named Joan Potter. Edwards also knew Ingalls had been talking about suing Dial for allegedly conspiring with…
When Olivia Birchett donated a prime piece of Mill Avenue real estate to the City of Tempe back in 1979, nobody seemed to mind that the philanthropic widow’s generous gift carried a few strings. The property was to be developed for use as a public park in perpetuity, a proviso…
New Mandarin Delight Chinese Bistro, 5380 North Seventh Street, Phoenix, 274-5204. Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Dinner, 5to 10 p.m., seven days a week; Sunday brunch, 11:30a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Like most grown-ups who’ve managed to survive their youthful follies, I look back on my…
thursday december 7 ZooLights: Phoenix Zoo, 455 North Galvin Parkway, in Papago Park, is garbed in its usual Technicolor dreamcoat of lights–600,000 strong–during this glorious annual event. The after-hours fun continues from 6 to 9 nightly (except Christmas Eve), through January 27. New this year: “The Enchanted Forest,” including the…
’tis the season Arizona Snow Day: In conjunction with Tempe’s Fantasy of Lights (see Events listing), the city hosts this free event from 11a.m. to 5p.m. Saturday at Hayden Square, Fourth Street and Mill. Highlights include a freak fall of 12tons of snow, a visit from Santa, arts and crafts,…
In Wild Bill, wildness has taken its toll on Bill. As played by Jeff Bridges in this shifting fever-dream from director Walter Hill, Bill, though not yet 40, is a grumpy old man–mean, dim, unimaginative, indignant over his legend. He’s a short-fused galoot, and a more-or-less heartless killer. Yet he…
All That Jazz, 333 East Jefferson, Phoenix, 256-1437. Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Friday, 11a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner, Tuesday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5p.m. to 1 a.m. “The man that hath no music in himself,” wrote the poet, “is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils…
Great Outdoors: This is my favorite time of year. I’m buoyed by pre-holiday cheer, the end of Thanksgiving leftovers and perfect weather for dining alfresco. There are problems, however, with eating outdoors in the Valley. It seems like almost every place with patio chairs, umbrellas and heaters overlooks either a…
Black Theatre Troupe is taking people to church with Mama, I Want to Sing, the first production of its silver-anniversary season. With a program that reads more like a Sunday bulletin than a playbill, this production got a hearty “amen” from the opening-night audience: The powerful musical brought the full…
With Ruby Christmas, Planet Earth Multi-Cultural Theatre gives us another fine production. No frills, and not a false step in the dance: These people make theatre look as easy and natural as sliding into old jeans. Playwright Sarah Dreher transports us to a conjoint Christmas and 40th-wedding-anniversary celebration at the…
Programmed by Mac and Strong, KUKQ is the place to find music devoid of commercial influences Somebody hold a wake, because “alternative” is dead–gone the way of all labels that catch fire and fry in marketing hell. Ten years ago, the battle lines were clear: There was commercial radio and…
In case you missed all six hours of The Beatles Anthology and its accompanying hoopla (what are you, living in a Turkish prison?), just accept this premise: The Beatles are still the yardstick by which all pop music is measured. Whenever some shlub of a group scores a breakthrough hit,…
So I’m cruising down Apache Boulevard on November 29, taking the virgin listen to my bootleg of the Jim Rose Circus’ sold-out performance at Electric Ballroom two nights prior. I’m thinking to myself, “Maybe tape-recording a freak show isn’t the brightest brain flash I’ve ever had. What am I gonna…
Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Virgin) There he is: Billy Corgan. The Baby Huey of modern rock. The Pillsbury Dough Boy with chops. The pudgy-faced 800-pound gorilla who can sit anywhere he damn well wants. Corgan and his band, Smashing Pumpkins, are currently squatting atop the heap…
Pet Peeve Was there a purpose to Amy Silverman’s article about the evils of PetsMart finding homes for unwanted animals (“Who Pooped on the Scoop?” November 30)? I could not tell what point, if any, the writer was trying to make. Conflicting phrases such as “possibly unsanitary conditions (kennels are…
If you’ve walked down the ever-expanding boulevard of bland that is Mill Avenue in Tempe, you’ve probably seen them. They stand out in sharp contrast to the tourists, retirees and well-groomed, jolly ASU students; they don’t blend in with the giggling packs of teens or white-coated security forces. Their look…
