We’ve been boning up on Calculus for Dummies in an effort to figure out how Coach & Willie’s is gonna cram in all of those Arizona Diamondbacks fans for its D-Backs Fan Appreciation Night bash. Then we remembered that Chase Field’s been half-empty all season — half-full if you work…

Cardiac Recovery. Cute. As some of you know, Paper Heart suffered a fiscal-angina incident late last year, and it’s celebrating its ongoing rehabilitation with a big bash featuring “donated” performances by many of its closest pals. The free multimedia event will showcase performance art, short films, comedy, poetry, burlesque, and…

Picasso? Pottery? Who knew? Yep, in addition to his paintings and sculptures, the King of Cubism liked to make dinner plates. His kiln of choice was France’s Madoura workshop, where he created 600-plus objets de clay from 1947 to ´71. Sixty-five are included in the “Picasso: 25 Years of Edition…

Okay, enough with the piddly-squat San Jose States and San Diego States. It’s time for some major-league fur to fly when the ASU Sun Devils open what looks to be a tough Pac-10 schedule with a game against the Oregon State Beavers. Pardon our pottymouth, but those East Coast “experts”…

Sports-radio behemoth KTAR defines its raison d’être thusly: “Suns, D-Backs, Cards, ASU. It’s . . . all . . . here.” That’s a pretty tenuous “all” without the Phoenix Coyotes. Sure, they stink, but it’s a major-league franchise coached by Hockey-Puck Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, Chrissakes. If anybody cares…

Writing is hard. For some people. Like us. So we take a dim view of those who casually toss off book after best-selling book as larks between more, well, important things. Arizona’s Diana Gabaldon is like that, and so is Britain’s Zöe Sharp. This doesn’t stop us liking their books,…

Even those who weren’t yet born in 1968 know Hendrix, The Who, Floyd, the Beatles, Cream (pictured). But try to name five “modern” acts that have even approached that sort of immortality. Nirvana? Nirvana? Nirvana? Um . . . uh . . . Filmmaker Tony Palmer takes us back to…

We often feel like grabbing one of those raggedy-ass alt/indie musicians by the scruff and screaming, “It’s about the songs, dood!” One alt/indie musician who knows wassup is Brooklyn’s Anders Parker. The Son Volt pal and former leader of Varnaline writes tunes that ring true in their deceptively quiet, unvarnished…

Since you don’t have time to flit around the globe, the folks at Diverse-Fi Music have been good enough to bring the world to you for the last 365-odd days. Diverse-Fi’s Afro:Baile One-Year Anniversary Party features seriously funked-up live and spun music, and also marks the official Los Amigos Invisibles…

Anti-immigration crackpots might want to give Barrios Unidos Park this weekend unless they wanna be mobbed by an estimated crowd of 125,000 at the eighth annual Food City Fiestas Patrias. Tons of Mexican Independence Day fun is planned. Sept. 14-16…

The so-called Flight of the Earls of 1607 is an incredibly complex and riveting tale that we wish we had room to tell. In a nutshell, a couple of royal bigwigs left Ireland with their noble toadies in tow in an effort to rouse Spanish support for an overthrow of…

Know those water closets on wheels that Europeans call cars? Not big fans. But give us a good ol’ American Dwarf Car and we’re ready to rumble. Desert Dwarfs, stocks, bombers, and Southwest Modlites will crank around the track during the ASCA “Challenge Cup” Sprints event. Sat., Sept. 15, 7:30…

Best Sunday brunch in the Valley? It’s hard to beat the Phoenician, but it’s also – gulp – hard to face the music, as it were, when that little check with the big number arrives. The tab at Johnny’s Uptown Jazz Brunch is considerably more, um, digestible, plus you get…

You don’t have to be a dim bulb to dig American Idiot Karoake, just well-lit. And how convenient! The home of this weekly croak-off offers $2.50-call specials, so 10 bucks’ll have you slurring “The Greatest Love of All” like Whitney on a binge. Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m., 2007…

There are no gimmes on the ASU Sun Devils’ ´07 schedule, but the closest they’re gonna get are the San Diego State Aztecs of the Mountain West Conference. Even so, the Devils can’t look past what should be a seriously overmatched SDSU squad, since they open Pac-10 play next week…

This might be the year. No, really. A few balls might bounce their way for a change. A bunch of top-tier quarterbacks might be indicted on dog-fighting charges. A plague of injuries might smite their opponents. It might snow. The world might end. If the Apocalypse does go down, you…

The music of guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela is only world in the sense that Rod & Gab have traipsed all over the globe. The music’s not mariachi, either, though many try to plug it into that pigeonhole. No, R&G call themselves an acoustic-metal band. Both were Mexico City headbangers…

You’ve probably noticed the apical roof of the new Tempe Center for the Arts from the Loop 202, but were too busy not getting killed in Tempe-corridor traffic to wonder what the hell it is. Find out during the Tempe Center for the Arts Grand Opening celebration. You’ll need to…

It’s telling that a major-market symphony like ours kicks off its season with a pops program featuring zero classical music. It’s not that we dislike Gershwin, the featured composer at Phoenix Symphony’s 60th Anniversary Opening Night. We’re just saying. Vocalist Dennis Rowland joins the symphony to interpret Gershwin’s songbook. Sat.,…

We were wincing through a disc by a newish singer/songwriter recently, and decided that a singer/songwriter has only two real job requirements: 1) sing; 2) write songs. This songbird had the warbling part down, and ´nuff said. Now consider Johnny Cash, singer/songwriter nonpareil. The Man in Black sang like a…

Some things are so absurd, they’re stupid. Others are so stupid, they’re painful. Then there’s the stuff that’s so idiotic, it’s sublime. Cowboy Troy’s “Miss Hick Chick Phoenix” Pageant is not in the third category. Here’s what you need to know about Cowboy Troy: He’s a six-foot-five black cowboy who…

The bill for the House of Tricks 20th Anniversary Celebration is $150. Per person. Don’t blanch. Sell your blood, or a kidney if you have to, but show Tricks some love at its big 2-0 blowout, ´cause the charming institution is still serving up culinary delights long after most eateries…