Times certainly change. TV dinners might now be largely the domain of gap-toothed hillbillies living in trailers down by the river, but when they were introduced by C.A. Swanson & Sons back in 1953, they were Space Age all the way, mimicking the airline-food packaging of William L. Maxson’s ’40s-vintage…

There’s a lingering myth about Tempe’s Mill Avenue – based largely on a few anomalous years in the ’90s — that the Ave is some sort of creative bastion. It certainly should be. Situated within bottle-slinging distance of one of America’s largest public institutions, it’s a beacon for attractive young…

Despite winning the third of three (and breaking a seven-game losing streak) on August 23 in The Swamp, the D-Backs pretty much got mugged by the Astros in H-Town. Less than a week later, the Snakes host the Rocket Men in another three-game set, this time on the D-Backs’ home…

Pete Rose is an asshole. Ask anyone who’s ever met the dude. But the fact that Charlie Hustle – Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader and a 17-time All-Star – isn’t in the Hall of Fame is the work of more-insidious buttholes. Yeah, Rose bet on games, including his own…

Here’s the d with Dub Show Tour 09: There’ll be hot models, both vehicular and human. There’ll be celeb appearances and signings. There’ll be live music, big-name variety. Specifics? Well, that’s asking a lot of the tight-lipped crew from urban-celebrity-auto pub Dub Magazine, who prefer to play their cards close…

As much as we love Cave Creek, the northeast Valley burg wouldn’t be the obvious first choice if we were in the market for, say, a mid-century-modern accent for the living room or an atomic-age dinette set for the kitchen. Correction: It would be now, thanks to the town’s new…

The modern wave of cinematic superheroes – Marvel’s, especially – have lost a great deal in translation from page to screen, but a couple have fallen through Hollywood’s high-concept cracks to become iconic. The most surprising is last year’s Iron Man, in which that mercurial bust of an actor Robert…

To a degree, Raul Malo summed up his own career with “What a Crying Shame,” from The Mavericks’ excellent ’94 disc of the same name. With that tune, the star-crossed Floridian also created a standard. Though The Mavs would craft many more – including stunning rethinkings of Hank Williams’ “Hey…

The organizers of the Arizona Top Bar Chef Competition sniff at the term “flairtender.” The winner of this regional battle of the barkeeps will earn a slot in October’s national finals and the much-worthier designation of the state’s top “mixologist.” Call ’em what you will, but the contestants will have…

Author/blogger Heather Lauer takes her porcine madness on the road in this get-together for fans of the “Best Meat Ever.” Admission nets you a copy of Lauer’s new book (Bacon: A Love Story — A Salty Survey of Everybody’s Favorite Meat), bacon-centric appetizers, and two beverage tickets. Bacon is the…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…

When the powers that be thunk up this celebration of the great outdoors and stuck it in June, we think the Back-Easters were thinking more along the lines of soft, woodsy footpaths and shadowy glens. But those who inhabit our little slice of scorched earth know that we have some…