by Amy Silverman I scream, you scream, we all scream… When we see live cockroaches. Particularly in an establishment that serves food. So imagine the dismay of Maricopa County restaurant inspectors, when on not one but two consecutive visits, they found cockroaches in a cabinet at the Haagen Dazs at…
by Amy Silverman The other day, I got upset with my mother because I found a can of diet Dr. Pepper in her fridge that had expired in 2005. “Look,” she said. “Your father and I grew up in the bomb shelter era — you know, back in the day…
by Amy Silverman Look, I know times are tough. Money’s tight. I’m happy to shop the clearance racks at Target, buy my kids’ shoes at Last Chance and fork over my Safeway card to save a few pennies, even though it means some creepy marketing types will know my family…
by Amy Silverman Ice, ice baby. Well, maybe not. I know ice is all any of us want, right about now, but beware. After my gross discovery last week, I decided to focus on ice and drinks (and the stuff that they come out of) as a theme this week…
It’s been nearly a year since New Times columnist Sarah Fenske reported on the brouhaha over the Men’s Grill at our own Phoenix Country Club. (Her recent update’s here. And here.) That other paper, the New York Times, has finally taken note of the controversy…
by Amy Silverman I’m going to be brutally honest here. If they’d given the AIMS test when I was in school, that’s where I’d be today — in school. And if Maricopa County’s restaurant inspectors came to my own kitchen, I’d fail that test, too. But I’m damn glad we’ve…
By Amy Silverman They’re not calling Moses Anshell the Arizona Republic’s Refugee Camp for nothing. He wasn’t nearly old enough for a buyout, but A1 editor (and for our money, an all-around kinda A1 guy) Chris Fiscus flew the Gannett coop recently, landing in the nest former Republic columnist and…
By Amy Silverman A lot of assholes have run for public office in Arizona — many have even won — but here’s a new one: a real Schmuck. No, really. Check out this guy’s campaign sign. The picture was taken, literally, from a moving car, with a camera phone, but…
By Amy Silverman A few years ago, I hosted a dinner party to celebrate the last episode of Seinfeld. That was easy. We had Kenny Rogers chicken, hi-cal frozen yogurt and black & white cookies. But when a friend put me in charge of movie snacks for her Sex and…
On October 19, the day after New Times’ owners were arrested, the county attorney very publicly fired special prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik. That same day, Bill French very quietly resigned from Wilenchik’s law firm. At 76, French is a man who could rest on his laurels. Instead, he shared them with…
When Dietrich Stephan says he wants to cure diseases and eliminate suffering before he dies, he’s not blowing sunshine. As director and senior investigator of the Neurogenomics Division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, his job is, quite simply (ha!), to find out why we inherit the propensity for diseases…
If you get a chance to see Axé Capoeira Arizona perform, take it. Because there’s no way to do this group — or its art form — justice with words. Capoeira is described as a Brazilian-Afro art form, incorporating movement, music, and culture. See? Hard to get a visual. Another…
As a principal with Ballet Arizona, Michelle Mahowald has performed solo in Swan Lake and Coppelia, and originated a role in director Ib Andersen’s Play. But for our ticket money, the sweetest role in ballet is the one she performed last year, as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Andersen’s take…
She plays with rickrack. He plays with clay. And they make a living. Don’t you hate them? Then you must not know Cyndi Coon and Jeremy Briddell, the artists who make up Laboratory 5. It sounds so mysterious, but Lab 5 (www.lab5shop.com and www.laboratory5.com) is really just the showplace for…
Sloane McFarland is not usually a man of so few words (he passed on several of our scintillating fill-in-the blanks), but he’s certainly a guy of many actions. Whether he’s making art or developing buildings, McFarland comes at it from the heart, and our city’s the better for knowing him…
In the concierge business, you’re only as good as your Rolodex — and Judy Kabler’s the best. As the pleaser in charge for the Valley Ho, Kabler is charged with keeping well-to-do scenesters snug as bugs in rugs — or, rather, snug in their mod-with-a-nod-to-vintage rooms at the ’50s-era hotel…
Ray Karam is trademarked. At least, his title is. As tastemaster for Cold Stone Creamery, this guy takes his frozen treats seriously. Cold Stone is headquartered in Scottsdale, with more than 1,400 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan. That’s a lot of ice cream…
The little boy was perched atop a plastic mountain, the highest point at the Princess Playground, the name my girls and I have for the indoor play area at Scottsdale Fashion Square. The small space was crowded that afternoon, but you couldn’t miss the boy. Even though my daughters Annabelle…
It’s not as easy as it used to be to kill yourself while in the custody of the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. Some kids still try. In April 2005, a boy incarcerated at Eagle Point School in Buckeye made a serious suicide attempt — serious enough to warrant a…
She once co-owned a shop in Glendale called Saints and Sinners, but now you can only find Nancy Nenad’s south-of-the-border treasures at the occasional local festival (like the Desert Botanical Garden’s Días de los Muertos celebration) or anytime on eBay (search under sellers for funkychickeneggranch). Nenad uses the proceeds from…
They say politics makes strange bedfellows, but public relations can result in a truly odd coupling — if Jason Rose has anything to do with it. The big-haired thirtysomething celebrates 10 years in business for himself (and a cadre of clients including billionaire accused arms dealer Pierre Falcone, Phoenix Coyotes…
Sue Chenoweth, 52, starts at one small place, and ends up with painfully intricate paintings that chase through the psyche and surprise even her. The lifelong Phoenician paints in a big, bright studio at Metropolitan Arts Institute (a.k.a. Metro Arts), a charter high school downtown, where she teaches art. Earlier…
