By Jonathan McNamara Sometimes you just need a shot. Maybe your parents are parents are coming to visit. Maybe you’re three weeks late on rent. Maybe your buddy just kicked your ass in some multi-player video game action and the only thing that will make it better is a short…
By Jonathan McNamara In addition to Benjamin Leatherman’s cover story on Digital Summer, New Times is proud to present not one, but two slide shows featuring the popular Valley band (if having 48,614 friends on myspace isn’t popularity, I’m not sure what is). Making the Cover: Digital Summer Ask New…
By Jonathan McNamara If the name Finn sounds familiar, be advised that Liam is the eldest son of Neil Finn, the singer/song-writing force behind Crowded House. Taking a few cues from his pops, Liam Finn pulls the song-writing thing off with a little bit of ingenuity and technological know-how. Finn…
In an unassuming corner of a Tempe strip mall lies every coffee drinker’s dream. The Cartel Coffee Lab and its coffee-obsessed owner, Jason Silberschlag, is turning out the best cup of Joe in the city and for less then you pay at Starbucks. Silberschlag’s attention to detail is evident the…
Jonathan McNamara Chances are that if you wanted to see Duran Duran tonight at Dodge Theater, you’ve already got a ticket for that seat closest to the stage so that if you squint hard enough it’ll be almost like hearing “Rio” for the first time back in 1982. Please allow…
By Jonathan McNamara If you’ve checked out Benjamin Leatherman’s Cindo De Mayo Guide you know that there are a lot of parties happening tonight. For maximum Cinco enjoyment, my pesos are on Clubhouse Music Venue in Tempe. Check in tonight to see the Voodoo Glow Skulls lay down some Latin…
By Jonathan McNamara How many spider men does it take to drive comic fans crazy? Turns out it’s just one, but even he couldn’t stand up to the combined powers of the Image Comics creators, who packed into Atomic Comics for Free Comic Book Day in Mesa this weekend. The…
By Jonathan McNamara Spider-Man signed autographs and posed for pictures, with his web shooters at the ready, for comic fans of all ages during Saturday’s Free Comic Book Day at Atomic Comics in Mesa. It’s not hard to imagine the web-spinner drawing a crowd, but he had his work cut…
By Joseph Golfen Art is all about trying new things. Artists at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art on Thursday stuck to that concept as they explored the relatively untapped potential of magnets. Local art groups such as Alpha Monster Art Collective, Spraygraphics and Consp!re turned out for the launch…
By Jonathan McNamara Let’s cut to the chase here. There are a lot of great things going on this weekend, but none of them are as important as seeing Mini Kiss as written about in our Cinco De Mayo Guide. I saw a video of this awesome foursome on Jimmy…
By Jonathan McNamara Sure the actual holiday is still four days off, but it’s never to soon for some Cinco de Mayo Celebration. Hard Rock Cafe is getting started tonight with performances from Latin hip-hop artists MC Magic and DJ Kane. For more on Cinco De Mayo events check out…
By Aja Viafora Bare chested and booty-short wearing students flocked to the first-ever Arizona State University Undie Run. About 1000 half-naked Sun Devils gathered at College and University Tuesday just after 11 p.m. There were live bands, wild hair and hats, Speedos, lingerie and plenty of Sun Devil pride. Watch…
By Jonathan McNamara During the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner, Jason Alexander of “Seinfeld” fame welcomed to the stage, not five feet from Shatner himself, “Roast Master General” Jeff Ross. After insulting a few of his colleagues in the stand-up world, Ross took aim at Shatner and fired mercilessly…
By Jonathan McNamara People were lined up out the door and around the block at the corner of Southern and McClintock Wednesday night, but they weren’t waiting to get into a rock gig. This lengthy queue was composed of hungry customers wanting to nosh on cheap ice cream courtesy of…
By Jonathan McNamara If you haven’t been round to see HoodRide Bodega tackle a sticky subject, tonight is your last chance. The exhibit, Sticker Phiends, features all types of adhesive art. Some pieces are actual stickers while others are adhesive material that has been drawn on. Catch a sneak peek…
By Jonathan McNamara On April 29, Carrie Fisher kicked off the first of six performances of her one-woman tour de force Spy in the House of Me at Theater 4301. Spy,which is roughly taken from her other show Wishful Drinking, is heavy on audience interaction. It begins and ends with…
By Jonathan McNamara No, it’s not Christmas. We do this every month. Check out a month’s worth of hard-hitting news, riveting restaurant reviews, rockin’ show previews and a slide show or two direct from the streets of Phoenix. This month in photos features our special report “Green Fatigue,” Guadalupe Mayor…
By Jonathan McNamara Boy did Commodore Perry poke a stick into a hornet’s next when he opened Japan to the West in 1854 or what? Nine years later (they didn’t have e-mail) Emperor Kohei issued an edict to “Expel the foreign barbarians” as a reaction against the westernization of Japan…
Hark! Tonight is an opportunity not to be missed! You and yours may yet see The Southwest Shakespeare Company finale of its most ambitious marathon reading of the collected works of Shakespeare, as begun last Thursday. Let not the magnitude of such a task frighten you. Nay! Venture forth to…
By Jonathan McNamara Halfway through “Comedy Draft” on Sunday, MC Bryan Ricci got up on the small stage in the cabaret lounge at Tempe Improv and said something I wasn’t expecting. The audience had already been assaulted by a few local comics including Steve “The Short Bus” Krause, who made…
By Jonathan McNamara In the wake of the Suns’ loss there was one event this weekend that sports fans could totally rock out to. I’m talking about curling, the sport in which boulders are slid across ice (Get it? Rock out . . . boulder . . . never mind)…
By Joseph Golfen One of the rinks at the Alltel Ice Den wasn’t full of the usual sounds of pee-wee hockey last weekend. There wasn’t the scrape of blades against ice, the smack of sticks cracking against the puck, or the thudding of players careening into each other. Instead, the…
