WED 5/25Face facts, game junkies, everyone’s gotten tired of your bragging. Whether it’s disgruntled friends — weary from getting “pwned” at Unreal Tournament — or your ex, who left after your declaration that a high kill ratio in Battlefield: 1942 translated into bedroom prowess, it’s “game over” for your personal…

SAT 5/21And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce a one-night-only event filled with murder, mayhem, and all that jazz! A soiree celebrating the red-hot moving picture Chicago hits the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the Pumphouse II, 4132 East McDowell, a secluded night crawl…

THU 5/12″Clothing, just like your being, has a constant energy flowing around you,” says fashion designer Kenyata Baraka, a.k.a. “Queen Be.” Her imaginative designs fall into the urban clothing style, and each handcrafted piece strives to harness a “continuous energy of peace, power and love that will leave you totally…

SAT 5/7 To some, a “nighttime art run” consists of a mobile graffiti spree with the intent of tagging the maximum number of block walls before dawn. But don’t expect many aerosol paint-toting runners at the Night Run for the Arts, since the event is not about turf boundaries, but…

5/5-5/6 Laurie Notaro is ecstatic that so many women want to be certified “idiots.” But give her a break, already. “People are totally mad at me,” says the author of The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, who makes appearances in Tempe and Phoenix, respectively, on Thursday, May 5, and Friday, May…

FRI 4/29 Analyzing Georgie “El Torito” Garcia Jr.’s boxing style can be as perplexing as a politician’s talking points on tax reform — though with more sudden and painful consequences. The heavyweight Garcia, who brings a 5-0 professional record (with four KOs, including three in the first round) to “Fight…

SUN 4/24 We’ve gotta admit that when it comes to our participation in Valley Metro’s annual Bike to BOB event, the season’s the reason. That is, if it’s shaping up to be a banner year for the hometown Diamondbacks, we don’t mind pedaling down Central Avenue for a win at…

WED 4/20 A bong-toting “Happy Hitler” is probably the last thing those celebrating “4-20” will expect when stumbling into the Paper Heart, 750 Grand Avenue, desperate for munchies. The reflexive response to such a warped spectacle is, of course, to get on your cell and curse out your dealer for…

SAT 4/16 The spirit of Pat Tillman marches on — and runs and walks — on Saturday, April 16, when the inaugural “Pat’s Run” makes its way through the streets of Tempe, starting at 8 a.m. Already, nearly 3,000 participants from almost three dozen states across the country have registered…

SAT 4/9 While most consider rolling off the couch to manually change TV channels a severe hardship, a unique subculture that thrives on brutally pushing their bodies to the verge of collapse visits Tempe this weekend. They’ll compete hoping to break the tape — or simply finish — in Arizona’s…

SAT 4/9 Wanna be in gay porn pronto, Tonto? Better show ’em your “Oh!” face on Saturday, April 9, at the Bunkhouse, 4428 North Seventh Avenue, where Will Clark, a gay porn “star” — none of the men at the Bunkhouse during a recent happy hour would admit to knowing…

TUE 4/5 To all the wanna-bes who love sushi and Bruce Lee, but whose best kung fu moves are limited to wax on and wax off, Tokyo Tuesdays are for you. Leave the coveted Enter the Dragon box set at home and karate-chop your way to Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant,…

SAT 3/26 If your heart goes fluttery at the scent of dusty blue chalk, and beats to the cracking sound of a cue ball barreling through a triangle of solids and stripes, then you need to see how it’s done “Sledgehammer” and “Assassin”-style at the Women’s Pro Shootout, Saturday, March…

SAT 3/26 Little girls love their fairy tales of Prince Charmings, glass slippers and magic wands. But Erin Smith wasn’t a typical little girl. When her elementary school teachers wanted her to read “Cinderella,” she read the “twisted” version from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes instead. Now 17, the senior at…

FRI 3/18 “The Moog,” as it’s known among musical types, is the indispensable electronic synthesizer that has pioneered both mainstream and independent music movements over the past 40 years. It also happens to be one of the most criminally mispronounced names in the history of popular culture (correct pronunciation rhymes…

3/14-3/20 We may be saucy spectators at the FBR Open, but LPGA golfer and Phoenix resident Carin Koch says she’s never had any hecklers here. If she did, she says she would “probably tell them to go away or stop it.” Well, that beats a golf club to the head…

FRI 2/25 So many people still shudder at the “F” word: Feminism, that is. The Guerrilla Girls don’t understand that — after all, they’ve been trying to reinvent the word since 1985, adopting the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms, donning gorilla masks, and using “facts, humor and fake…

2/11-3/11 Get your drink on, get your freak on, and get your strap-on, because the 22nd annual Exotic Art Show is back again. “People who like to dress crazy and sexy can come here, and nobody gives them a problem,” says Baron Dixon, one of 60-plus artists exhibiting work in…

It’s the subtle intrusions that agitate Lara Taubman, the many seemingly small but unrelenting violations the MonOrchid Gallery curator tries to ignore from day to day. Strangers rifling through her luggage at the airport. Video cameras documenting her every move in public spaces. Armed security guards suspiciously observing her shopping…

FRI 1/28 So when, exactly, is local filmmaker Zachary Yoshioka going to get the fuck out of the Valley? Don’t get us wrong: The local film scene needs plenty of young talent if it hopes to amount to anything. But with 15 films and a few music videos under his…

SAT 1/22 Despite all the funky new hangouts, art galleries and bistros, it seems downtown Phoenix is still — quite literally — a ghost town after dark. According to some, you can thank the venerable San Carlos Hotel, at 202 North Central, for being the apparent source of this spirit…

The November election once again showed Arizona to be a “red” state, but our conservative political bent doesn’t equate to always playing by the rules. For proof, look no further than Scottsdale, where this weekend a beer festival will celebrate Arizona’s best brews that just happen to be banned in…