I know a thing or two about riding mechanical bulls. Exactly two, in fact: the brutal dual blasts of pain in my testicles after I rode one a few years back at the state fair. I was instantly convinced that cowboys must wear protective cups to pull off this feat…
Cindy Iverson, 43, makes mixed-media collages and artist books, exquisitely crafted ruminations about anxiety, historical injustices and the secrets people keep. But first, Iverson makes her own paper. She collects everything from dead saguaros to old blue jeans, boils it, pulps it, and transforms it into paper, one sheet at…
There are two things Amy Milliron wants you to know: First of all, she did not expose herself while breast-feeding her baby in public recently. And secondly, the media have completely invented the part about public outcry against public nursing. According to Milliron, a 29-year-old Tempe mother who’s lately become…
For all but the most breathless pageant addicts, the Miss Arizona competition this past June was low on drama. Miss Arizona 2004, a busty blonde, handed off her crown to the new Miss Arizona 2005, a slightly less busty blonde. People clapped. Surely, someone’s mother cried. To see the fireworks,…
It’s a sticky Saturday morning in mid-August, and Tara Logsdon is fried. The sun beats down on Logsdon, 31, as she arranges her bizarre-looking paintings next to some artful teddy bears and handmade clothing on the outdoor stage at Holga’s, during the downtown Phoenix apartment complex’s monthly flea market. The…
Walking through “Emilio Pucci,” the fashion exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum, is like going back in time. The bikinis, gowns and mini-dresses covered in the Italian designer’s singular geometric patterns and acid-bright colors are relics of an age when it was okay to call a flight attendant a stewardess, when…
Thursday 1 Acme Roadhouse: College Night with DJ J. Alan (Top 40) Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with AKA (gothic, industrial) Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (dance) Barcelona: DJ Rob (dance) Draft House: DJ Dave outta NYC (hip-hop) e4: “Eve” Ladies’ Night in the Earth…
It takes some patient, ear-to-the-speaker listening before Jamie Lidell’s off-kilter, glitch-funk tendencies come to light on Multiply, but that sultry subtlety makes the album a repeat-play sleeper. Straight out of the box, Multiply bubbles with Stax/Volt soul, easy, husky and heartfelt, Lidell’s affable vocals colored a vibrant shade of Otis…
Pieced together by an all-star team of producers (RZA, Raekwon, Mark Ronson) and bolstered by guest vocalists like Missy Elliott, Macy Gray, and fellow Wu-Tang alumni Ghostface and Method Man, A Son Unique feels more like a posthumous tribute to the late Russell Jones than an actual ODB album. Even…
Beyond obvious nostalgia (and having the same first name), this pairing of classic rock veterans makes a certain amount of sense. Consider that both drink from the well of rich American musical styles: country, bluegrass, folk. Remember that both got undeservedly overshadowed by their higher-profile peers — Springsteen and Petty…
The Thrifty Ear shamelessly confesses he waited until every Who and Kinks B-side was exhausted before inspecting the impeccable Hollies’ album discography. Since he’s never met anyone with Hollies albums to borrow, he’s had to dig into his pockets on many occasions to pick up the slack for the rest…
All hail that doe-eyed siren known as Fiona Apple. Though she can be pretentious and sometimes seem unstable, these are faults we can forgive. No, we do not fatwa Apple, even though her last album title had twice as many words in it than a standard Ramones song. We like…
Fans are forever hassling Judy Rollings, director of the Herberger Theater Center’s Performance Outreach department as well as its Lunch Time Theater program, about when in the world she plans to return to the stage. She’s finally caved, with a one-woman show, Starring Judy From Chicago, that’s a witty recitation…
The most superlative pizza I’ve ever scarfed was from storefront pizzerias in Manhattan and Brooklyn, usually after stumbling out of some tavern. But even when I was sober as the dreaded parson, pizza was the grub that kept me going in Gotham. And nothing that I’ve tasted outside the Five…
If Phoenix band Motive has an actual motive, it’s having a good time, and that means booze, metal, sex, and — wait, did we say booze? Plus, these guys make some crushingly heavy music that’s a blend of Testament, Obituary, and Amon Amarth. To understand Motive’s sound in a single…
Ethic Cleansing Freedom of the oppressed: It’s unbelievable that the misconception is so prevalent that there’s an “oppressed and occupied” Palestine (“Der Füror,” Sarah Fenske, August 11). Your writer touched on the central point when she observed: “[The YWCA leadership] focused on the Palestinians’ mistreatment without a word about [Yasser]…
Thursday 25 Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness: DJ Suzy (hip-hop, dance) Anderson’s Fifth Estate: Area 51 with AKA (gothic, industrial) Axis/Radius: Ladies’ Night (dance) AZ 88: DJ P-Body (jazz fusion, funk) Barcelona: DJ Rob (dance) Draft House: DJ Dave outta NYC (hip-hop) e4: “Eve” in the Earth Room with DJ Tranzl8r (dance)…
Guitar heroes with taste always seem to live in the margins, and Duke Robillard is no exception. The founder of Roomful of Blues has a tuneful, supple way with rockabilly, jazz and soul-inflected blues that should appeal to anyone with an ear for lyrical leads and painterly chords and riffs…
Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s ethereal, Willie-esque timbre has never sounded so down-to-earth as it does on Come On Back. No doubt, a major explanation for this strong vocal presence lies with the fact that the album is a tribute to the favorite tunes of Gilmore’s recently deceased father — it’s probably…
SUN 8/28The Indian ballet troupe Mamata Shankar does not perform a subcontinental Swan Lake, nor does it include Native Americans en pointe. Rather, the group fuses classical Indian dance with modern dance steps, says Sarbari Chowdhury of the Bengali Cultural Association of Arizona, the organization sponsoring the troupe’s local performance…
SAT 8/27Quickly, we must flee! Ginormous mutated creatures are preparing to annihilate The Sets, 93 East Southern in Tempe, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 27. These death-bringers will include the demonic simian Hell Monkey and the soup-can-clad martial artist Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle. Surely, we are doomed! Oh, wait, it’s only…
8/26-8/27Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few years, you know full well the juggernaut that is extreme sports. But a rock probably won’t be enough to keep you in the dark for long, not with the sport of extreme rock crawling claiming its place as the…
