When you’re an actor best known for playing one of the biggest buffoon bullies in screen history — a dimwitted tyrant with a penchant for messing up popular sayings and landing headfirst in manure — you basically have two choices: one, succumb to the typecasting and spend the rest of…
Jada Pinkett Smith is quite the hyphenate. In addition to being the wife of rapper/movie star extraordinaire Will Smith, the mother of their three children, an investor in a cosmetics company (Carol’s Daughter), and a talented film actress in her own right (Collateral, The Matrix Reloaded), the 34-year-old superstar is…
Hands down (and hands down her pants, from the sound of it), the funniest bit from the summer’s raunch smorgasbord The Aristocrats was hearing Sarah Silverman tell the infamously profane family-act joke at the center of Paul Provenza’s documentary. Where Robin Williams, Drew Carey, George Carlin, and a hundred other…
Close to a decade ago, at a comic book convention in Los Angeles, animator Peter Chung was asked by a fan if he’d ever consider allowing a live-action movie to be made based on his avant-garde MTV series Aeon Flux. Chung said he had no interest in such a thing,…
If you’re a fan of C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books, all you need to know is this: Disney has done right by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It’s impossible to imagine it done much better, in fact. If you’re not a fan, perhaps you’re among…
Warner Bros. put $50 million into Syriana and allowed writer-director Stephen Gaghan as much time and travel as necessary to research and write his story. They’d be well advised to pony up a few extra bucks to provide filmgoers with a flow chart that connects the myriad, scattered dots that…
Known for his beat-juggling skills with his ’90s New York DJ crew the X-Men (who would later become the X-ecutioners, so as not to get sued), Rob Swift blew minds back then by incorporating rival West Coast crew the Invisibl Skratch Piklz’s manic, extraterrestrial scratching with East Coast beat juggle…
In the past 10 years, Cave In has made itself a household name among hardcore, indie and metal fans. The Boston band became the king of split records by sharing discs with the likes of Piebald and Scissorfight. Following tours with Converge, the band was slapped with the “metal” label,…
Gorgeous bluegrass shaded with a blend of contemporary pop and rock influences, the San Diego trio Nickel Creek’s supple, earthy tones blow gracefully across genre-bending arrangements. Their new album, Why Should the Fire Die?, transcends categorization, and while it doesn’t fully break with their Americana pedigree and the style of…
The travel bug bit Stereo Typed hard on the Phoenix hip-hop trio’s debut full-length. As the album title suggests, these guys get around — but they’re more globe trekkers with a message than bling-seeking jet-setters, delivering political criticism (with minimalist bass grooves on “Energy Raw Power”), social consciousness (weaving words…
If hip-hop’s all about the handle, the hooks, and the homies, then local wordsmith Chilee Powdah’s got the full package. His name (complete with a double “e” for easy rhymes) has thug appeal, and his album Code of Loyalty boasts a combination of thumping club beats, catchy choruses, genre-pimpin’ from…
Catherine Ann Irwin and Janet Beveridge Bean have been at this Freakwater thing since about 1988, which is pretty impressive when you stop to realize that Gram Parsons died after recording a total of two LPs with Emmylou Harris; George Jones and Tammy Wynette were together for only about six…
Back in the spring, when I first heard Fine China’s new album, The Jaws of Life, I fixated on the idea of hidden Phoenix treasures. The album’s great from the first listen — moody, Brit-styled pop, but by a band based here. The album’s easily one of the best local…
For a leading indie-rock miserablist, Jamie Stewart possesses one of the heartiest, most boisterous laughs you’re ever likely to hear. The 33-year-old Xiu Xiu (pronounced shoe-shoe) front man typically converses quietly, in a polite, thoughtful, self-effacing, and a bit pensive manner, and then — when you least expect it –…
I’ve been thinking about the word “nigga” a lot lately. Seems it’s popping out of everybody’s mouth these days, whether it’s high school wiggers or commercial rappers. The way I understand it, there’s two ways to see it: It’s either taking the power out of a derogatory term, much like…
Attention, fight fans: The Bird would like to direct your attention to Scottsdale, where anxious strippers are gearing up for a battle that may prove epic. In this corner, the City of Scottsdale, armed with the best legal advice money can buy and a burning desire to save its citizens…
As the December 3 Colorado City Unified School District board of governors meeting draws to a close, Alvin Barlow, Arizona’s longest tenured public school superintendent, instinctively opens his pocket calendar to set the date for the next meeting. Barlow flips through the calendar for a few seconds and fumbles with…
Pretty, blond, and poised, Jamie doesn’t look like a meth addict. But she’s been using for four years, since she was 19. She smoked some this morning. She smokes some every day. She has to. “I need it every morning to get started, and then on my lunch hour,” she…
If you’re super bored, or really desperate, you can make crystal meth from Tylenol Cold/Severe Congestion cool-burst caplets. You need denatured ethanol, or acetone, or anhydrous ammonia. You need iodine crystals and red phosphorous. And then you need 16,560 Tylenol caplets — a purchase that alone will set you back…
Cinderella Man (Universal) Back in the Great Depression, boxing matches only cost a nickel, and the ring was uphill both ways. That’s the central message of this well-made if sappy bio of 1930s boxer Jim Braddock. Ron Howard’s direction and a stellar cast save the film from its one-dimensional characters…
In less than a decade, first-person shooters like Doom and Halo have grown from a niche genre to a cottage industry. Whether it’s our love for their immersiveness, competition, or just old-fashioned bloodlust, the popularity of FPS games shows no sign of waning. They’ve become so much of a draw,…
Most Americans don’t think much about China. The nation that’s home to 20 percent of the people on the planet is a murky place that hovers behind low price tags and bird flu. Few of us think of China as a producer of first-rate contemporary art that gazes out at…
