For all its amazing qualities, one of the great failings of the human race is its consistent inability to balance its needs with those of nature. The result of mankind’s rape-and-pillage attitude toward the environment can be seen in the ecological struggles of an ever-growing number of areas worldwide, struggles…

Few machines represent the American love affair with the automobile more ably than the Corvette. Sleek and sexy, this amazing creation has been the official automobile of adventurous youth, the midlife crisis, and everyone in between who appreciates its ability to satisfy the need for speed. It takes a mighty…

Sun 8/24 This weekend is World Wrestling Entertainment’s latest installment of the SummerSlam pay-per-view event. One of WWE’s biggest annual mega-bouts, it features wrestlers from both RAW and SmackDown!. But for around the price of a pay-per-view purchase, you can roll on down to America West Arena and experience it…

Fri 8/15 Sometimes we humans become so fixated on what’s happening in our own area code that we forget about all the cool destinations that make up the cosmos above us. And while astronomy can be a solitary endeavor, it can be all the more rewarding when pursued with a…

8/7-9/13 ASU’s Art Museum is popping an attitude. Anchored by Andy Warhol’s famous “lipstick-and-peroxide” screenprint of Mao Tse-tung, a sharp-witted exhibition honoring American Pop Art also features Robert Rauschenberg’s flattened cardboard-box birds and Robert Indiana’s snarky screenprints (in After Mississippi, words encircling a state map read: “Just As in the…

Sat 8/9 If ever there was a group of athletes putting it all on the line for the love of the game, it would be the ladies of the Women’s Professional Football League. Even though money, fame and glory on the gridiron seem reserved for the testosterone set, these mothers,…

Fri 8/1 Novelist and playwright Hannah More said, “Going to the opera, like getting drunk, is a sin that carries its own punishment with it.” Given our gluttonous desire for discipline (and daiquiris!), we really can’t wait for this weekend, when Paradise Valley Community College’s Opera Workshop wraps up its…

8/1-8/2 Freestyle motocross is flying higher than ever. Arguably the most outrageous of the extreme sports, fierce competition revolves around elite dirt-bike riders who take turns navigating a circuit of steep ramps, launching high into the air and performing bold stunts off each slope. Those off-the-hook tricks will draw thousands…

Tue 7/29 “It’s a grudge match,” asserts boxer Leslie Sonnenklar. “She’s going down in 48 seconds flat.” Sonnenklar is being facetious in predicting the outcome of her first non-kickboxing bout, but when she goes up against Chrystal Proctor on Tuesday, July 29, she won’t be in the ring to read…

Within the acting world there is a great dichotomy, one that dictates that the finest actors often are found working within the medium most likely to keep their talents a secret: the theater. While suspect talents are consistently propped up by Hollywood’s media machine, the heavy lifting is left to…

ONGOING More than 40 years after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright remains a true giant in the world of architecture. Evidence of his genius abounds, and nowhere more so than at the winter home, studio and architectural campus he created at the foot of the McDowell Mountains: Taliesin West. Experience…

For all the reverence shown to horses in American culture, precious few of us stop to consider what happens to them once they slip past their prime. Suffice it to say that the answer isn’t always pretty. Keenly aware that older horses that are no longer wanted or needed, but…

6/28-7/12 It’s one way to get a jump on the competition. The title character of FrogWoman, a new production by Theater in My Basement/SW Annex, “has her whole body changed in order to become famous,” explains director Ilana Lydia. “She has her skin dyed green and her legs extended and…

Sat 6/28 Ever dreamed of getting up close and personal with a Laker Girl? Or perhaps soothing that freaky mascot obsession in the company of such high-flying characters as the NBA’s Hugo the Hornet and Turbo the Rocket — all the while basking in the glow of sports celebrities past…

6/276/29 From Orson Welles to Steven Spielberg, the fraternity of successful filmmakers is a select one indeed. And while it’s safe to assume that the many intricacies required to bring an idea to the big screen are most likely cultivated over the course of a lifetime, a weekend crash course…

Sat 6/14 Whether your dad is an astronaut or an actuary, he’s a cowboy at heart. This Saturday, June 14, treat him to an evening in the Old West at the Arizona Gunfighters Father’s Day Show at Rockin’ R Ranch, 6136 East Baseline in Mesa. Dinner starts at 6 p.m.,…

Sat 6/14 If June in the Valley doesn’t feel like optimum walking weather to you, you’re either (a) perfectly sane or (b) simply hanging out with the wrong people. For the sake of argument, let’s say it’s the latter — and rejoice in the fact that if your urge to…

The life of a standup comedian is a study in simultaneous courage and masochism. Endless strings of one-nighters at clubs with names like The Funny Bone, Chuckles, and Haha’s; audiences expecting laughs on demand; and the occasional heckler make for a profession that easily excludes the faint of heart. In…

In the midst of a hyperpatriotic era in which the dual crimes of independent thinking and dissent are often labeled as un-American, the award for “best irony and social commentary in a name” goes to the good folks who hung the moniker on Phoenix’s own Thought Crime Gallery. Not afraid…

Ongoing Mankind’s relationship with the world’s great mountains has always been a competitive one, the insatiable need to conquer leading many a thrill seeker to risk life itself on terrifying trails such as the legendary Mount Everest. Of course, Phoenix rush hour traffic makes it difficult to reach Nepal before…

5/165/17 Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Elvis Presley has been swimming in it since his death in 1977. From his hip-swiveling ’50s maverick, shown on TV only from the waist up, to his jumpsuit-wearing dinner show crooner of the Vegas years, Elvis provided poseurs with multiple personas…

Sat 5/10 With a little imagination, the seemingly divergent can become surprisingly complementary. Combine the highlights of a football game with a night at the symphony, for instance, and you’ve got an interesting outing: Sipping wine from 32-ounce plastic cups and waving giant foam oboes, audience members stomp in unison…