4/25-4/27 One of the more interesting aspects of this particular planet’s people is the way we compartmentalize ourselves into identifiable groups. Nations are formed; flags are waved; and beliefs, customs and practices become identifiable over time as part of individual cultures. The word “culture” also can mean the enlightenment and…
4/184/20 Happily ever after happens in Ballet Arizona’s season finale, Tales in Motion, which revisits Sleeping Beauty and the Prodigal Son. You remember: Princess Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle, and the castle sleeps for 100 years. Meanwhile, the Prodigal Son debauches himself in the moral equivalent of freshman…
4/194/20 We’ve all had our encounters with the bunny hop. It might have been at a college fraternity party, a wedding, or in the privacy of our own living rooms. Ahem. This time, do it for the right reasons. Kierland Commons, an upscale Scottsdale shopping center, hosts its inaugural Bunny…
Fri 4/18 When he heard Neil Diamond sing “Play Me,” Randy Cordeiro took him literally. The front man of Super Diamond — a trippy tribute band touted as “the alternative Neil Diamond experience” — has been rocking up Neil’s beautiful noise for more than a decade. This weekend, the fake…
Sat 4/19 The folks at the ASU Art Museum are so short-sighted… this weekend, at least, when they present their seventh annual Short Film and Video Festival. The longest of the evening’s entries clocks in at a mere nine minutes; the shortest is gone in 60 seconds.Celebrating auteurs of various…
4/115/3 In 1998, a 21-year-old gay college student was beaten and left to die in the hills outside Laramie, Wyoming. The hate crime made headlines throughout the nation; the community, population 27,000, became synonymous with intolerance.In the year and a half following Matthew Shepard’s death, stage writer Moisés Kaufman and…
4/114/27 Children’s theater will disregard the social injustices of post-Napoleonic France no longer. Greasepaint Youtheatre’s all-student cast is tackling one of musical theater’s most beloved – and most sophisticated – sagas. Adapted for school-age actors, Les Misérables, School Edition retains the original production’s plot and songs, including “Castle on a…
Fri 4/11 The pursuit of peace has inspired thoughts poetic — “We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels; we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds” (Anton Chekhov) and pragmatic: “I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace…
Fri 4/11 At first glance, the worlds of rock ‘n’ roll and golf couldn’t be more disparate. One represents rebellion; the other remains the domain of gentlemanly comportment. On certain occasions, however, a dash of leather with your polyester, and a three-wood with your six-string, can be just what the…
Sat 4/12 In 1987, escalating war forced an estimated 17,000 Sudanese boys to flee their villages, many after seeing their parents killed. Only one-third survived a 1,000-mile, three-nation journey to a Kenyan refugee camp. In the last several years, nearly 4,000 of these “Lost Boys” have been resettled in the…
Sat 4/5 At times like this, we all have, at least briefly, the instinct to turn away from the news. Perhaps this would be a good week to get reacquainted with your favorite book while discovering the Arizona Book Festival, set for Saturday, April 5. This is actually the Sixth…
4/3-4/6 The macabre tale of Tosca – strewn with love, murder, jealousy and evil, exacting revenge from beyond the grave — has left audiences weeping for two centuries.Allan Glassman, the tenor playing Mario Cavaradossi in Arizona Opera’s production, has played the role many times but jumped at the chance to…
4/4-5/31 Every picture tells a story, and Valley music lovers are about to get an earful. Phoenix is the single Southwestern stop on the North American tour of “Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era,” an exhibition showcasing 51 candid shots of the decade’s most prominent personalities. Including images of…
Mon 4/7 So your little kid looks, acts, talks and pitches like a mini-me of Randy Johnson – we’re sorry about everything but the pitching, really… what’s a parent to do? Chances are you’d be well-served by taking the tyke (or tyke-ette) to the Major League Baseball National Pepsi Pitch,…
The Second Annual Phoenix Am Skateboard Contest rolls into Desert West Skateboard Plaza this weekend, and unschooled spectators may want to travel with an interpreter — the proceedings involve more jargon than the most technically advanced operations at Honeywell. The 26,000-square-foot skating facility is ready for action: Its pyramid, volcano,…
As break-dancing worms its way back onto the pop cultural landscape, the ASU theater department is getting into the groove. The Valley’s most dynamic young performers slam-poets, actors, poppers and lockers are joining forces in the vine, debuting at ASU’s Lyceum Theatre on Friday, March 14. ASU playwriting grad student…
To assume that puppetry is only for children underestimates the art form. Not only does puppetry hold a sock’s best chance for a career in entertainment outside of a decidedly unglamorous gig with the Red Hot Chili Peppers it’s gaining recognition as a theatrical form enjoyed by adults. In fact,…
Has Homer Simpson abandoned his post in Sector 7G for life on the stage? Has the crayon been permanently dislodged from Homer’s brain, rendering him intellectually inspired, a man more artsy than fartsy? So it seems. America’s favorite nuclear family man is taking on Shakespeare in MacHomer: “The Simpsons” Do…
Feeling sheepish? This could be your year. According to the Chinese zodiac, this is the year of the sheep. And it’s coming in like a lion, as Chinese Week 2003, continuing through Sunday, February 9, ushers the Chinese New Year into the Valley. A series of cultural, social and educational…
With its fourth album set for a March 4 release, Cursive is sitting in the driver’s seat of the monster truck, fueled by Saddle Creek Records, that is Omaha’s not-so-underground rock scene and the post-hard-core-indie rockers have a bristly case of road rage. Emo? More like screamo. In “Art Is…
Brando and the Black Rebels. Pink Lady Stephanie Zinone and her “Cool Rider.” Pee-wee Herman and his big, brave adventure. The bike kicks up such romantic images of speed, adventure and freedom . . . is it any wonder the public is stoked for spokes? Thanks to an ever-revving enthusiasm…
If Rainville were a place, rather than Colorado’s best alt-country band as voted by readers of the Denver Post it would be warm and familiar, the kind of place where even feeling bad feels good. The four-piece band hauls its “gritty rural rock mixed with swampy blues, old-school country and…
