Tue 11/2 For politically active artists (redundant, we know), the presidential election is a bit like the Super Bowl, sans the beer commercials. Perfect time to gather like minds around the tube with some snacks, sodas and, in this case, a night full of satire. While election-watching parties on Tuesday,…
Go ask Alice: Chris Birkett is the closest thing to Jack Skellington the Valley will ever see. Don’t worry, the 29-year-old mobile DJ and wedding entertainer isn’t kidnapping Sandy Claws any time soon, but he is possessed by the same sort of macabre childlike madness for Halloween that the Pumpkin…
Ditch your donkey-show and dollar-a-day hooker dreams. Tijuana is a real town with more to love than its proximity. So says Culture Clash, a national Chicano-Latino performance troupe. Clash is breaking down cultural barriers and busting gringo balls with its original play Bordertown, the opening of the Actors Theatre’s 20th…
Ever since we were preteens, we’ve wanted to be James Bond and cruise the globe in search of SPECTRE and the honeys. We had every film memorized, right down to 007’s witty rejoinders as he dispatched whichever supervillain he was facing at a given moment (even if the double entendres…
Sat 10/16 Does Todd McFarlane ever sleep? In between overseeing day-to-day operations at three different companies, raising three kids, developing movie and television projects, and occasionally drawing pages for his signature title Spawn, the Valley resident and comic book mogul has been putting the finishing touches on McFarlane Toys Showroom…
When your name is Dr. Chud, which stands for “Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Drummer,” and your horror-punk-themed solo project is touring during the scariest time of the year, you’d expect a stage show filled with grisly gore, rotting corpses and ghastly deeds. So what does the good doctor mention first when…
Sun 10/17 While men fantasize about the seductive third-date strip tease, women dread the nuances that come with the nerve-racking experience. What music do I play? Where does one find an industry-standard strip pole? Can granny panties ever look sexy? Who will hold my boobs up while I dance? How…
Thu 10/7 Naysayers might’ve dismissed kickball as an elementary sport meant for sports washouts like yourself. But it was your only shot at playground immortality back in the day. Remember how your awesome 6-4-3 double play helped turn the tide in the epic Shirts vs. Skins war? You never worried…
10/7-10/31 By now, we’ve been inundated by so much rigmarole surrounding “Decision 2004,” we’re more likely to pull a trigger come November than a voting-booth lever. Since we’re facing (at least) another month of political Bushwhacking, we’ll Kerry on to “Word on the Street: Politics Unusual,” a collective exhibition by…
Nothing fully arousing your artistic interests? Come find a little, uh, release at the Blue Ball on Saturday, September 25, at the Alwun House, 1204 East Roosevelt. Self-proclaimed “Master of Hoopla” David Salcido has extended an open invitation to embrace the eccentric and indulge in excess. The Blue bill combines…
Sun 9/26 So much for not speaking ill of the dead. Whenever celebrities head to the great beyond, vicious rumors tend to fly (see Hudson, Rock). To wit: Gadabouts have speculated for years on the sexual orientation of Rudolph Valentino and his second wife Natacha Rambova, alleging their “lavender marriage”…
9/24-9/26 Austin Powers can switch himself off, because when it comes to spy send-ups, there was none better than Get Smart. Maxwell Smart (a.k.a. Agent 86) never needed pinkie-biting evil doctors or midget clones to get the big laughs, and we’ll bet you yearned for your very own shoe phone…
Sun 9/26 For the athletes competing in the fifth annual Firebird Triathlon, this Sunday, September 26, the waters of Firebird Lake may present a formidable obstacle. After all, whole flotillas of speedboats have raced through its waters over the years, possibly leaving gallons of petroleum (not to mention whatever bodily…
9/17-9/22 Democrats might have halcyon memories of JFK and Camelot, but we’re betting you cigar aficionados think ol’ Jack can just cram it. When the 35th president put that trade embargo on Cuba back in ’61, he kept you from the love of your leaf. Just ask Richard “Mick” Connors,…
Wed 9/22 Gene Simmons ain’t got nothing on Count Smokula. While both showmen are face-painted night crawlers with ungodly long tongues, the Smokula’s more of a vaudevillian-style villain and musical comedian, who’ll fire off one-liners in machine-gun fashion when he bites into The Trunk Space, 1506 Grand Avenue, on Wednesday,…
Say you’re some hotshot Hollywood producer who wants to churn out the next big, edgy drug flick. You’ve already gone the logical route and cast Johnny Depp, but the script to your nascent narco movie feels pretty white-bread and smacks more of Go than Blow. Whaddaya do? If you’re across…
Sat 9/11 Avast ye landlubbers, just a week in advance of “International Talk Like a Pirate Day,” those bilge-sucking sons-of-biscuit-eaters at the Paper Heart, 750 Grand Avenue, will be busting out like Blackbeard at “Mermaids and Martinis” on Saturday, September 11. This “undersea fantasy fund raiser” for iTheatre Collaborative is…
9/4-9/5 Danny Ochoa has a secret identity he wants to keep on the down low. As a judge for Lowrider Magazine, the 37-year-old isn’t worried about any potential diss he may have dealt at any of the 16 events he visits every year, but he’s been on the receiving end…
8/27-8/28 It’s dawned on us — while pondering this weekend’s Vans Triple Crown of Freestyle Motocross at America West Arena –that there is much in this world of considerable irrelevance, pardon the contradiction in terms. Case in point: tires on a dirt bike at AWA, 201 East Jefferson, on Friday,…
Fri 8/27 Adult puppetry is all the rage these days, but the folks at Skeleton Puppetry Theatre don’t think the genre’s sexual innuendo or macabre humor would have any appeal outside the nightspots of downtown Phoenix. “This stuff is more for late-night crowds,” says puppeteer Nathan Greene. “It’s definitely after-dark…
Sat 8/28 Silver-tongued politicos love speaking in glittering generalities, spewing their easily digestible catch phrases like, “I’m reporting for duty,” or, “Moving America forward.” Local activist Jeff Falk has another catch phrase, one that communicates the message behind the “Farewell Party for George W,” on Saturday, August 28, at the…
Hell hath no fury like a wanna-be filmmaker scorned. After being left in financial ruin by a Nashville investment banker nearly 18 years ago, Dan Wilkins dreamed up a multitude of elaborate revenge fantasies to get even with the man who did him wrong, many of which would’ve landed him…
