As a first-time novelist, it’s hard enough for Marc Acito to get even mild props from the literary establishment, much less any sexual play from adoring fans as a result of his newfound success. So don’t blame the guy for being open to a little bedtime storytelling when Acito and…
10/21-11/14 Bob “Daddy-O” Wade knows weird when he sees it — or makes it. The “King of Texas Kitsch,” as fans and art enthusiasts call him, has long turned the dull into dazzling and the useless into priceless. His Technicolor-terrific revisions of early 1900s Western photography will be on display…
THU 21 We love it when that little green light blinks “on,” and the camcorder’s rolling. Nothing like pretending we’re spending One Night in Paris to get us to perform. But dancing for the camera? We tend to shy away since the lens adds 10 pounds to our already wavy…
Sat 10/16 With Wall Street watching, there’d better be one hell of a good reason IBM and Microsoft are spending $2,500 each on a sinking ship, er, boat. And, of course, there is. On Saturday, October 16, the aforementioned join more than 30 Valley-based companies on the high seas of…
Sat 10/16 Does Todd McFarlane ever sleep? In between overseeing day-to-day operations at three different companies, raising three kids, developing movie and television projects, and occasionally drawing pages for his signature title Spawn, the Valley resident and comic book mogul has been putting the finishing touches on McFarlane Toys Showroom…
Things we think are truly frightening: The everlasting popularity of Menudo (the boy band from Puerto Rico, not the bowl of hangover relief from Filiberto’s). Tara Francis on News Channel 3 at 7 a.m., while we’re struggling to overcome said hangover. The power of cheese. Come to think of it,…
Linda King is digging past a mound of dirty clothes and clutter, into a corner of her bedroom, where the air is stagnant and stale, to find her inspiration. “This is my muse,” King declares, followed by a nervous giggle, as she lifts the clay bust she molded of Charles…
THU 14 Touring bands — those without the benefit of big-name promotion and record company expense accounts — barely earn enough to pay their bar tab, much less a roadie. Then there’s mamaSutra, a funky, no-nonsense blues/jazz band from southern California, playing at the Rhythm Room, 1019 East Indian School…
Sat 10/9 If all that vanilla’s drying out your taste buds, try a taste of the Icehouse’s Fetish Ball II on Saturday, October 9, which promises a salacious exhibition of fire dancers, whipping demos, fetish fashion shows, exotic dancers, and full-body suspension. Erotica wear is required, and vendors such as…
Prescott artist Paula Burr couldn’t help but to gawk at her own breasts. “Yeah, I stared at them for a long time,” the 26-year-old photographer admits. “I was just like, ‘Wow, those are my boobs.'” There they were, in a plaster cast mold, just waiting for some attention after Burr…
Thu 10/7 As long as U2 continues to churn out rock anthems, the guys in tribute band Elevation have a bright future ahead. So bright, in fact, that Elevation front man Dan Burrow — a.k.a. “Danno,” a.k.a. Bono onstage — has invested a few thousand dollars in Bulgari shades, à…
10/7-10/31 By now, we’ve been inundated by so much rigmarole surrounding “Decision 2004,” we’re more likely to pull a trigger come November than a voting-booth lever. Since we’re facing (at least) another month of political Bushwhacking, we’ll Kerry on to “Word on the Street: Politics Unusual,” a collective exhibition by…
THU 7 Got a gamer roommate who’s hijacked your TV? Don’t fret. Our advice: Feed his compulsion for escapism with a ticket to the Arizona State Fair, where your Mountain Dew-chugging, Cheetos-eating, entranced-by-the-incomparable-graphics-of-“Soul Calibur II” roomie will be in Xbox ecstasy as GameRiot, “the world’s largest traveling video games festival…
Tue 10/5 Over-hyped pretentious film festivals of the world, listen up: You Cannes all just go to hell and watch us Sundance on your graves. Make way for the upstart film fanatics of the Gadabout Film Festival, who visit the Trunk Space, 1506 Grand Avenue, on Tuesday, October 5, and…
College buds. Talented actors. Bright futures headed in the same direction, surely. Before long, Quincy Bernstine and Jennifer Morris might be referred to as “Quennifer,” provided their roles in the off-Broadway hit Matt and Ben, which comes to the Scottsdale Center for the Arts on Wednesday, October 6, serves as…
David Cross isn’t so enthusiastic about his choices in November’s presidential election. “[George W.] Bush is dishonest. He’s a liar. He’s duplicitous. He’s a fake, phony populist,” says Cross, 40-year-old co-star of Fox’s Arrested Development, and former star of HBO’s mid-1990s cult comedy Mr. Show With Bob and David. “At…
“NOTHING is over until WE decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? HELL, NO!” — John “Bluto” Blutarsky, National Lampoon’s Animal House, 1978 Bluto doesn’t live here anymore. And that goes for Otter, D-Day and Flounder, too. In fact, they aren’t even welcome in these…
9/10-9/24 There’s arguably nothing inherently funny about being a Latino immigrant struggling in America. So forgive us if a one-man show of monologues chronicling immigration hassles and low self-esteem under a post-September 11 backdrop doesn’t immediately lighten our mood. Unless that comedic romp happens to be the follow-up to the…
Sat 9/11 Avast ye landlubbers, just a week in advance of “International Talk Like a Pirate Day,” those bilge-sucking sons-of-biscuit-eaters at the Paper Heart, 750 Grand Avenue, will be busting out like Blackbeard at “Mermaids and Martinis” on Saturday, September 11. This “undersea fantasy fund raiser” for iTheatre Collaborative is…
Sat 9/11 The Arizona Caliente have much to prove on Saturday, September 11, when the Women’s Professional Football League team takes on its nemesis from last year’s Western Conference title game, the Long Beach Aftershock, in a match-up of division leaders at Washington High School, 2217 West Glendale Avenue in…
Rocky Horror, eat your heart out. Or just leave it to the cult followers and cutups behind Broadway Bound and Gagged’s shadowcast production of Cannibal! The Musical, set for Saturday, September 11, at Spectrum Mall. “If it’s up to my doing,” says Cannibal casting director Justin Reed, “it will be…
Thu 9/2 At first glance, we assumed that ASU’s Evelyn Smith Music Theatre, 40 East Gammage Parkway in Tempe, was hosting some sort of organic Asian buffet. Turns out that the rice bowls, chopsticks, pods, gourds and chiles on hand will whet our appetites for new music, not chicken teriyaki…
