Planet Earth Multi-Cultural Theatre is an alternative theatre that features experimental work. Experimental work implies that the outcome of the procedure is unknown. Any true experiment poses the possibility of failure. It is therefore no crime that Planet Earth’s current offering, Liberating Mama, is a disaster. Laraine Herring has written…
When Gary Metzler decided to unload his 1966 Plymouth Valiant last year, the artist didn’t even bother to place a classified ad. It’s probably just as well. Within the constraints of a few lines of newspaper type, how do you even begin to describe a souped-up station wagon that simultaneously…
It was a band’s dream: to play a small town in the middle of nowhere and give hundreds of local kids music they never get to hear live. Phoenix industrial-metal rock groups N-17 and Ultrapure thought they had that fantasy all lined up in Kingman for New Year’s Eve. On…
Ruth Brown joined LA Fitness Sports Club last spring expecting to regularly exercise in the pleasant surroundings of the spacious and well-equipped fitness center. Instead, Brown has spent the past six months deadlocked in a dispute with the health club stemming from foul-ups with electronic withdrawals the club takes from…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Maricopa County’s massive budget deficit precipitated a series of illegal bond sales in 1993, several county officials say. While the officials refused to comment on the record, one county supervisor confirmed last Monday that an SEC investigation is under way. The…
As Ty Cobb in Ron Shelton’s new biopic, Tommy Lee Jones gets to wave a pistol and vomit blood. What kind of an actor would he be if he could resist that? He doesn’t blow the chance–he’s remarkable as the man who, most commentators agree, was both the greatest baseball…
Most of the interview subjects in Jonathan Blank’s documentary Sex, Drugs and Democracy don’t look much like libertines. We see a prostitute here, a hippie or a Rastafarian there, and a couple of artsy types, but most of the Dutch folks Blank shows us extolling the merits of the Netherlands’…
Bamboo Garden, 9201 North 29th Avenue, Phoenix, 944-2388. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; closed Sunday. A lawyer’s task is to make sure justice prevails. But the quest for justice becomes a lot more satisfying after the client agrees…
Fish The tasty, nonthreatening seafood fare at China Legend reminded me of the time I watched a graduate-school pal of mine at Berkeley prepare a Chinese fish dinner. A lanky, Midwestern blonde, Ann had spent years in China, and now was pursuing a Ph.D. in Chinese literature. She had also…
Up on a shelf in the living room of Dave Cook’s small Tempe apartment, next to a large, plastic crow wearing a felt beret, there are two Pringles cartons, each held together with packing tape. Why does this man have two Pringles cartons held together with packing tape on his…
He goes by the name of Mr. Manson. He’s the lead singer of Marilyn Manson, a Florida-based shock-rock act. Mr. Manson has tattoos, piercings, a startling pair of eyes and discolored, misshapen teeth. His songs are rhythmic rants against anything even approaching societal norms. He’ll sometimes perform those songs wearing…
It takes a whole lot of water to wash four years’ worth of pigeon dung off the faade of the Arizona State Capitol, but the government grounds crew is ready to meet the challenge. They’re up in the air on a mechanical platform, shooting a mighty torrent of water onto…
A friend of mine once made the mistake of performing a scene from a Neil Simon play in an acting class. “Stop!” the teacher cried, clutching his head. His objection was not to the acting (although hindsight says it was probably bad). Rather, the teacher complained, Simon’s plays lacked character…
The teenager doesn’t understand why the prosecution of her best friend’s alleged rapist failed so miserably. “It drove me crazy,” says Sharon Singer. “I wanted to jump up in court and tell the jury, ‘That guy forced her to have sex. She’s just a kid. You’ve got to believe her!’…
Increasingly common in bookstores over the last few years have been literary anthologies of “erotica–by women for women.” Erotique is probably the first such collection done for the movies. Like Boys Life, which opened last week in the Valley, it’s an omnibus of three half-hour shorts by as many directors…
The title that Charles Schulz originally wanted to use for his comic strip was not Peanuts, but Li’l Folks. Perhaps Schulz, who once said that children were “caricatures of adults,” was thinking along the same lines as Louisa May Alcott when she gave her most beloved novel the name Little…
Jazelle’s Restaurant, 3422 West Glendale Avenue, Phoenix, 841-4776. Hours: Lunch, Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.; Dinner, Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. The first week of January is like a seven-day morning after. Pants are tight, wallets are thin, holiday hopes are behind us. And by…
Dough Boy: If I were presumptuous enough to make a small addition to the Lord’s Prayer, it would be this: “Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily…
He looks almost stately now. In current photographs, his image gives off the intensity of a hellfire backwoods preacher. The slightly graying hair is combed back and still riding pompadoured and high atop the face of crags and fissures and the eyes that look like they’ve done a lot of…
Believe in him (1961): An intense, convincing young Cash makes his film debut as a singin’, slayin’ salesman in the less-than-killer film Five Minutes to Live. It is rereleased in 1966 (with an added rape scene) for the ever-discerning drive-in crowd, retitled Door to Door Maniac. Accidentally on purpose (1965):…
Consider the words of Gary Finneran. Start with one of the better songs on the debut CD by Finneran’s band, Ex-Idols. “I’m insane,” Finneran screams. “And I might not hear you say/`Please don’t kill me/Please don’t kill me anymore.'” The song is titled “I Love You.” Here’s Finneran again, this…
When we last checked on Dean Mark Brewer, he was sitting in Maricopa County Jail on $314,000 bail, charged with 132 counts of theft in the looting of $8.17 million from the now-closed Charter Title Agency. But Brewer didn’t gain access to the world of high finance by being a…
