Mat Outta Hell

Sat 1/17 So much for all that ginkgo biloba, meditation and PBS. Our gray matter is about to take a hit. This Saturday, January 17, The Paper Heart presents “HAZ MAT 2004: Hazardous Material for Your Mind” — and the head games are so huge that the Heart has to…

Quick Read

ONGOING If the words “read me a story” send you into a panic, take the Tempe Youth Library up on its offer to read to your brood, free of charge. The Book Baby Program (12 to 24 months) meets at 9:20 a.m., and 2- and 3-year-olds meet at 10:20 a.m.,…

Lads and Lassos

1/16-1/18 If you’re not a steer in Scottsdale this weekend, we’d bet a bucking bronco you’re a queer. But that’s the point of the 19th annual RoadRunner Regional Rodeo, which rolls into Rawhide Wild West Town from Friday, January 16, through Sunday, January 18. Sponsored by the International Gay Rodeo…

Gun in the Sun

1/17-1/18 Peaceniks and doves be advised: Steer clear of Papago Park this weekend. For all others who love heavy machinery and artillery, and who long for the days before Bono and Britney turned camouflage into a fashion statement, the 13th annual Papago Military Vehicle Show on Saturday, January 17, and…

American Expression

1/8-1/11 Few festivals celebrate a culture’s past and present simultaneously. Yet this is exactly the point of the American Express Invitational Native American Arts Festival, as guests see both modern Native American art and the traditions that influenced it. The festival is preceded by a free lecture and demonstration series,…

This Week’s Day-byDay Picks

Thursday, January 8 Commemorate the new year by cultivating a new understanding. On Thursday, January 8, BodhiHeart, a local nonprofit Buddhist organization, screens Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion, a documentary of the events that have shaken Tibet since China’s “Peaceful Liberation” of the country in 1949. Ten years in…

Everyone Knows It’s Lindy

1/7-2/1 SWING! in the New Year at Phoenix Theatre, where the high-flying musical revue shimmies onto the stage this Wednesday, January 7. Paying tribute to the kings of swing — Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Louis Prima — the show mines music from pre-war Harlem, Latin swing, Lindy…

Grand Trunk

Fri 1/2 Opening a gallery is like training an elephant: no easy task. But this didn’t sway performance artist JRC and his partner Stephanie Carrico, who felt that downtown needed a space that encompassed all art forms. So the former Paper Heart employees decided to open up The Trunk Space,…

Wild Kingdom

1/1-1/4 Who knew that the world outside could be so perilous? The creepy and crawly take center stage in “Danger or Deception? We Dare You!” at the Phoenix Zoo. Children of all ages are invited to take a chance — and an up close and personal gander at some of…

Turf War

No title at stake. No David-versus-Goliath match-up. No villainous group of gridiron ghouls like the Miami Hurricanes. Still, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium on Friday, January 2, has something the other Bowl Championship Series games don’t: the Ohio State Buckeyes, the defending national champs of college football…

Visual Aid

On Wednesday, January 7, the Herberger Theater Center pays tribute to the burgeoning and much ballyhooed downtown arts scene with “Celebrating Visual Arts in Downtown Phoenix.” If you’re not a denizen of the frantic First Friday art walk scene, this exhibition should be a fitting introduction to the artists and…

Underdog-Eat-Dog

Fri 12/26 Granted, it’s a far cry from being college football’s most attractive postseason invitation, but this year’s Insight Bowl has a great personality — really. The match-up pits the Golden Bears of California-Berkeley, who handed first-ranked Southern Cal its only loss of the season, against Virginia Tech’s Hokies, who…

Get Your Blocks Off

Wed 12/31 Ding! The biggest showdown this week isn’t Ohio State against Kansas State, but Tempe versus Scottsdale in the battle of the New Year’s block parties. The Tempe Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Block Party is the incumbent, named one of the top 10 places to ring in the New Year…

This Week’s Day-byDay Picks

Thursday, December 25 In the hunt for a holiday miracle? Look no further than Chandler’s Madstone Theaters, which salutes Santa on his big day by screening Miracle on 34th Street. Starring Edmund Gwenn as Kriss Kringle, a Macy’s Santa Claus who claims to be the man himself, the 1947 St…

The Bucking Stops Here

12/19-12/20 This weekend marks your last chance to take home the bull-riding jackpot at Mr. Lucky’s. Winners earn the age-old claim, “I busted my butt to buy you that.” Buck up and ride this Friday, December 19, and Saturday, December 20, and see how cowgirls cheer — God bless ’em…

The Best of Times, The First of Times

12-19/-12/21 The Ninth Annual “Christmas at First” Dickens Festival closes the book on another holiday season this weekend, after festivalgoers devour the last of 30,000 holiday cookies, 20,000 cups of cider and 15,000 bags of popcorn. (More? They ask for more?)Though the indigence of Dickens’ world may not be represented,…

Hill Factor

Sun 12/21 Several of the religious holidays celebrated worldwide during December are linked to the first day of winter and shortest day of the year, better known as the winter solstice. Jazz music, being a religion of its own — and Windham Hill Records the temple at which many aficionados…

Robbing the Dreidel

12/18-12/21 So the seasonal blues aren’t confined to the Whos — and Christmas isn’t the only holiday to suffer a Grinch. A grisly gang of goblins snuffs out the Festival of Lights in Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, a stage musical based on the award-winning children’s book by Eric Kimmel…

Pretty Fly for a Rabbi

Sun 12/21 It’s a highly unorthodox matchup. A team of local rabbis takes the field — and takes on the world — at this weekend’s Rabbis vs. the World Softball Challenge.”The Challenge pits the Orthodox Rabbis of the community — including members of the Phoenix Community Kollel, Young Israel of…

C Worthy

Sat 12/13 Contemporary dance is taking an abstract leap forward in Phoenix, with the presentation of Dancing in C by Crossing 32nd Street, the musical ensemble-in-residence at Paradise Valley Community College and Scorpius Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company. The collection of pieces combines ethnic and improvised music with choreographed…

Meet My Shorts

Sat 12/13 Short attention span? Meet your match this Saturday, December 13, when the Phoenix Indieclub rolls its first short film festival. The local branch of the international independent filmmakers club is set to screen selections from seven Arizona filmmakers; fare ranges from war drama to documentary to claymation. Hatched…

White Matter

Sat 12/13 Five inches of snow piled up in the mid-Atlantic last week, treating residents to winter’s requisite charms: sleet, freezing rain, perilous roadways and frumpy overclothes. Why should they have all the fun? Desert dwellers have suffered sunny skies long enough. The snow-deprived can catch a drift this Saturday,…