SAT 6/11 During opening day for the Mesa Miners, one of eight teams in the brand-spanking-new Golden Baseball League, 3,500 spectators turned prospectors waved makeshift pickaxes made out of foam fingers and aluminum cans to celebrate a historic win. It was mass hysteria! Pure bedlam! Okay, maybe the pickax thing…
6/10-6/12Michaleen Kringle describes the “Big Boys & Their Toys” Arizona Men’s Expo, which she’s co-organizing with founder Gary Glava, as “family-friendly.” Right. We know better. As if any self-respecting man’s man could peel his eyes and attention away from more than 200 exhibitions of SUVs, luxury cars, speedboats, motorcycles, sports…
More than 40 years ago, Buddy Stubbs won the Daytona 100 and finished his motorcycle racing career. And he’s still got a way with the ladies. On Thursday, June 9, Stubbs and his Arizona Harley-Davidson dealership in north Phoenix host the Buddy Stubbs Ladies’ Night, yet another indicator of women…
What do you call a guy who’s old enough to remember “when Andre the Giant was skinny,” but still puts on stage makeup and sings in a heavy-metal band? Prophet, of course. He’s the ringleader of local “carnimetal” band St. Madness. And he’s stoked because he and his bandmates –…
If you’re trying to navigate the gulf between the absolutist view inside Fortress Bush and the relativist politics of Western Europe, you need go no further than Brothers, a provocative new drama from Denmark. Superficially, it’s an intimate and rather self-contained film, but director Susanne Bier (Open Hearts, The One…
It’s always difficult to pan a movie that features good actors, important issues, and noble intentions. But In My Country, a romantic drama about two journalists covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in post-apartheid South Africa, leaves little choice. Clunky and obvious, it makes the mistake of asking drama…
Robert Rodriguez just keeps cranking ’em out. This hasn’t always been a good thing — Spy Kids 2 and 3 felt rushed in a way that the first one didn’t, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico looked cheap compared to its cinematic predecessor, Desperado. But the more Rodriguez keeps…
About a year ago, buzz started building among horror fans about a French slasher movie titled Haute Tension, about two girls who go to a country house and get terrorized by a maniac in workman’s coveralls. It had been well received in Europe, and horror geeks with Web sites here…
The consequences of marital discord in Mr. & Mrs. Smith go way beyond sleeping on the couch or maintaining icy silence at the breakfast table. Thanks to a cartoonish premise by British screenwriter Simon Kinberg — and the dictates of the summer-movie marketplace — the battling Smiths of the title…
Hey, tweakers — hurry up and finish reassembling your El Camino, stop grinding your teeth for a minute, put down the glass dick, and listen up. I’ve got good news: Your favorite non-inhalable muscle motivator is coming to town. On Friday, June 10, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland, a.k.a. breakbeat…
Everybody loves to see a good bitch-slapping, and the expanded DVD version of this Sundance Award-winning documentary on two friendly bands turned rivals gives you bitch-slapping in any number of directions. What was originally slated as a Brian Jonestown Massacre documentary grew to encompass the Dandy Warhols when BJM went…
Attention, (guys in) Tight Pants Brigade! Behold Bullet Train to Vegas — your new leader. The Los Angeles-based band’s We Put Scissors Where Our Mouths Are is a creative and spastic art damage record with intense guitar work dominating 11 tracks. The variation of sharp and clean styles (from hardcore…
Buzz bands from here, there and everywhere are nicking U.K. sounds, but too many of them are targeting the same period: the early ’80s post-punk days, when it was okay to wear any color as long as it was black, and young men were discovering how much fun they could…
Within the next month, expect American music ‘zines and your local hipsters to pile head-exploding praise on England’s Amusement Parks on Fire, which just released its self-titled debut stateside. It’s already happened in the U.K. — “Genius-in-a-bottle waiting to be unleashed,” ejaculated Drowned in Sound; “Sounds like the sun rising…
A grim romanticism has gripped British pop since the days of Morrissey, from Robert Smith’s mopey New Wave, through Thom Yorke’s existential angst, to Chris Martin’s haunted piano epics. The brainchild of Matt Hales, Aqualung is gripped by a similar tender pain, awash in luxurious piano-driven melodies that form a…
“Everybody thinks we’re assholes,” Sum 41 guitarist Dave Baksh says. “We’re Canadian; it’s impossible.” Phoning from one of the asshole capitals of Los Angeles, the Bel Age Hotel near Sunset Strip, Baksh and his band are taking a breather from an extended road trip with punk legends Unwritten Law. The…
“Hey, you got your Rancid in my Mars Volta!” “You got your No Doubt in my Postal Service!” “Now you’ve got your Sublime in my Radiohead!” No, I’m not talking about the latest mash-ups by Z-Trip or Danger Mouse. Rather, this was my internalized conversation with local independent alternative radio…
Ah, progress. It’s given us better medicine, faster computers, tastier snack cakes. But often as not, progress in Phoenix involves the obliteration of our already tenuous local history. And while we’ve grown used to city landmarks being torn down to make room for another Osco, we’ve learned to rely on…
Range War No-good crooks: I just got done reading Sarah Fenske’s excellent article on the old cowboy who beat the liar environmentalists (“The Rancher’s Revenge,” May 26). Bravo to that guy, and bravo to New Times for stepping out of its liberal mold and telling the truth for a change…
“Trench Coat” at Phoenix Art Museum: You thought the belt on your beloved trench coat was there to accentuate your hourglass figure. Turns out it’s a place to hang hand grenades and pistols. That’s just one of the tidbits you’ll learn at this exhibition tracing the coat from its origin…
The group exhibition “Fur, Feathers and Family: Our Relationship With Animals” at Arizona State University Art Museum is far better than its name. The show of animal-themed art is aimed at children, which explains the facile title. It’s the centerpiece of the museum’s sixth annual Family Fun Day (July 16,…
“Kreme,” sighs the Jettster via phone as we consult on our next nocturnal escapade. “I need a lap dance.” I’d only just gotten through to the J-unit at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday, following a series of phone calls trying to locate her sorry ass so we could sketch out…
