If Bob Ross were alive today, he'd be painting happy little trees all over the place in ecstatic fervor for all the arts and culture happenings in Phoenix. To help you see the forest for the trees, here's a recap of the top arts and culture stories of the week. We Tested the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo "Watch 'n' Sniff" Cards; Here's What We Smelled
Ready or not, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo once again invaded the pop culture consciousness last week when the second season of the infamous reality program debuted on TLC. And if you're one of the millions of viewers who plucked one of those "Watch 'n' Sniff" cards from the pages of People or Us Weekly, which are part of the summertime show's Smell-O-Vision-like stunt, it was an experience for all your senses.
-Benjamin Leatherman
WWE Superstar Curtis Axel on Restoring The Intercontinental Championship Belt's Prestige
Like in many tight-knit clans, Curtis Axel decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather by going into the family business. In this case, however, the family business happens to involve kicking much ass inside a wrestling ring.
The 33-year-old WWE superstar, who's real name is Joe Hennig, is the progeny of professional wrestling royalty. Both his pops (the late Curt "Mr. Perfect" Hennig) and grandpa (Larry "The Axe" Hennig) are widely considered to be legends in the business. It's certainly given Axel some big boots to fill, a fact that we discussed with him during a recent phone interview promoting WWE Raw's upcoming appearance at US Airways Center next month. Check out the full interview with Curtis Axel.
-Benjamin Leatherman
Richard Lewis Will Be the Gandhi of Comics
Oy vey.
Interviewing comedian Richard Lewis is like being inside one of his monologues. The only difference is that rather than a one-sided conversation operating on a stream of consciousness level, there are breaks where questions are inserted -- though those are only brief bumps in Lewis' full-throttle comedic autobahn. Comedy is Lewis' life, and his life quite literally is his comedy.
Check out our complete interview with Richard Lewis.
-Glenn BurnSilver
Author and NPR Contributor Doug Fine on the Economic Future of Marijuana
Doug Fine wrote the book on marijuana.
The book Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution delves into a cannabis-based economic plan and its leaders, "ganjapreneurs." It chronicles the journey of a single flower from farm to patient in Mendocino County, California. Just north of the San Francisco Bay Area, the county has developed a system to legalize, regulate, and tax the growth of ganja. The zip-tie program, where plants wore yellow zip-ties bearing a permit number allowing them to be grown without legal repercussion, was formally shut down after pressure from the federal government at the end of the 2011 farming season. Here's the full interview with Doug Fine.
-Janessa Hilliard
50 Shades of Grey: Seven Actors We Don't Want to See Play Christian in the Movie
There's been plenty of speculation about who will be cast as the tall, dark, and handsome Christian Grey in the eventual (an official release date hasn't been announced) movie. There are fake trailers featuring would-be leading men and women floating around the Internet, which have prompted some stars to publicly state that they would definitely not be in the movie. In the words of Emma Watson on Twitter: "Who here actually thinks I would do 50 Shades of Grey as a movie? Like really. For real. In real life."
Well, fine with us, because as any 50 Shades fan knows, the casting of the movie could make or break it. And after all this waiting, it'd better be good. It's pretty much impossible to read all three books without developing strong feelings about Mr. Mercurial and that means we can't just have any old actor tramping around the set.
--Lauren Saria
