New Times picks the best arts and culture events and things to do in metro Phoenix from December 4 to December 6. Heathers Heathers could have passed as a horror movie, but with a tender-yet-squicky love story and a trio of characters basically dressed as a traffic light, it wound up…
New Times picks the best arts and culture events and things to do from November 30 through December 3. ZooLights Your neighbor Carl and his Christmas display have nothing on ZooLights, the Phoenix Zoo’s annual showcase of flora and fauna dazzlingly constructed from millions of colorful bulbs. This year the zoo’s…
New Times picks the best in art, culture, comedy, and theater events in metro Phoenix from November 20 to 22. For more things to do, see our curated calendar of events. Emerging Artists II There’s not enough modern dance hereabouts. Meanwhile, performing arts grad students can’t just toil away at…
New Times picks the top weekend events in the Phoenix area from November 13 through 15. Disgraced The holiday season will soon descend upon valley stages with lighthearted, sugary fare. There’s nothing wrong with dessert but Disgraced is bringing heavy food for thought to the table. The 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning play…
Up in Smoke At great personal risk of donning a sort-of seasonal hipster guide, a lot of non-hipster guys are at present stashing their razors for Movember. And in honor of the charitably unshorn, FlimBar is hosting the November Film Series, which celebrates the silver screen’s most memorable cookie dusters…
Spillers Storytelling events have been all the rage the last few years. Unlike many of these happenings that feature writers presenting pieces based on their own real-life experiences, the quarterly event, Spillers: Short Fiction and Tall Drinks features six wordsmiths performing edgy, 10-minute, short fiction stories for the crowd. If…
Phoenix Ghost Tours Opening as part of the nationwide Orpheum Circuit of theaters in 1929, Phoenix’s Orpheum saw its fair share of vaudeville performers and touring Broadway productions pass through. It seems inevitable that in its storied history that eerie creaking, bumps in the night, and other imprints of the…
Day of Our Lives Book-Signing Watch out for fan apoplexy at the Days of Our Lives: 50 Years book-signing event at Changing Hands Tempe. It’s not just a soap opera; it’s a fiercely beloved soap opera that’s been on since 1965. The lovely commemorative book ($34.99) gets you and a…
“Engangled” The candles from Standard Wax don’t just smell good; they look good, too. Samantha Thompson and Andrew King’s creations are meant to be art — a decision certainly influenced by King’s outside work as a contemporary painter and pastel artist. A collection of his recent pieces, “Entangled,” debuts this…
Yakuza Apocalypse Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike’s latest movie Yakuza Apocalypse has been called “inspired lunacy.” This action thriller, packed with martial arts, supernatural beings, and lots of blood, should get you in the mood for Halloween, and it’s screening at FilmBar, 815 North Second Street, October 9 to 13. But…
Park(ing) Day For a city steeped in commuter culture and bursting with blacktops, a day dedicated to transforming parking spaces into public places may seem a pipe dream. Yet every year people gather in metered spaces not to pay to park, but rather to create a different version. Park(ing) Day…
Gallery Talk: Ehren Tool and Garth JohnsonEhren Tool found ceramics as a creative outlet after serving as a marine in Operation Desert Storm. The veteran handcrafts cups covered in imagery referencing the effects of military service on veterans and the impact of war on societies. Serving as both social commentary…
Cumbia Dance Night Our Southwest city is no stranger to celebrations of salsa and flamenco dancing, and now Cumbia, hailing from Colombia’s costal region alongside the Caribbean Sea, is making a name for itself. DJs Nico and M.Rocka, the duo behind local group Clandestino, bring La Diabla from Tijuana and DJ…
Etsy Craft Night Music, snacks, kaleidoscopes. . . it’s not your preschooler’s Monday morning lesson plan, it’s Etsy Craft Night at TechShop, 249 East Chicago Street in Chandler. Friday night, amateur and expert crafters alike are welcome to come build cool things out of paper. Sculptures, mosaics and the Everest…
“Border of Dreams” The image evokes triumph, frustration, and heartache with a black-and-white capture of a man, arms outstretched in a Christ-like way toward a barren background. Towering near him made of slanting barbed wire, the U.S.-Mexico border fence. The photographer behind the shot? Award-winning photojournalist Nick Oza. “Border of…
Your guide to the best things to do in Phoenix and Tempe from August 17 through 21. Felicia Day The Internet is a strange place, which probably means that you’ll fit right in. That’s how Felicia Day frames the world in her memoir You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)…
“Statement Piece” Pottery goes political at ASU Art Museum Brickyard, as curator Garth Johnson presents “Statement Piece,” an exhibition pairing works from Danish-born war objector Erik Gronborg and American veteran Ehren Tool, who served in Operation Desert Storm. Though from different backgrounds, the two have used functional ceramics in their…
“Bummer Summer” There are countless movies, songs, and poems about the romanticism of summer — the warm sun, the peaceful beach, the budding romance. But, honestly, sometimes the summer can suck. Artist and graphic designer Lauren Bailey has put her minimalistic spin on this darker side of summer in “Bummer…
C Is for Clown If you’re coulrophobic, you fear clowns, but if the clowns you fear are red-nosed, frizzy-haired, birthday-party and circusy types, you’ll be okay attending C Is for Clown from Pandanda Players, the troupe that practices Alphabet Shakespeare. For one thing, Pandanda has assured audiences that there will…
Kaori Takamura Local artist Kaori Takamura has something to say and she’s using attention-grabbing, colorful design to do it. Using textiles and fabric patterning mixed with embroidery and meticulous digital art, “express[es] women’s tangled and intricate everyday feelings,” she writes in her artist’s statement. An award-winning graphic designer and mixed…
“Hidden Histories in Latin American Art” When an artist is creating, he or she often includes unintentional content – images or themes that reveal information about the artist’s psyche or environment, or events and movements that will, over time, provide historical context. In the case of the works in Phoenix…
Blackesque Vixen Noir is a multihyphenate artist so multi that she’s based out of both San Francisco and Los Angeles. The singer, songwriter, recording artist, erotic performance artist, producer, and director is dropping a megaton bomb of black queer sensuality in downtown with Blackesque on Monday, June 8. The mix…
