It’s been a long time, Rakim. Too long. The self-proclaimed microphone fiend will break his nearly decade-long sabbatical to release his latest album, The Seventh Seal, next month. Born William Michael Griffin Jr., the Long Island native joined the Nation of Gods and Earths at the age of 16. Shortly…

Conspire, the co-op espresso bar and boutique, has blossomed in its two years downtown. The DIY outpost has not only given a home to locally created art, clothes, and goods, but has also spawned a local currency named PHX Bux. The cooperative was formed when the C.O.L.A.B. crew – which…

The raw energy of the gypsy punk musical circus that is Gogol Bordello can’t be beat in a live context. However, if you missed the New York band’s show at the Marquee on October 20, you can dry your tears by catching Gogol Bordello Non-Stop. Helmed by filmmaker Margarita Jimeno,…

Traveling with friends can be murder. Agnes LeRoi and Hedvig Samuelson, two of Winnie Ruth Judd’s girlfriends, found that out the hard way. Judd, after offing them in Phoenix, stuffed the two into a steamer trunk and took them on a train ride to Los Angeles. Yikes. On Friday, October…

While we go about our day-to-day lives, some folks slink from bender to bender. Novelist Dan Fante used to be one of these people. But rather than tuck his past into the comfy confines of a closet, his skeletons dance via his literary alter ego, Bruno Dante. In Fante’s latest…

It’s been a long time coming for the Valley hip-hop scene. Over the past decade, the strategy of scattered soloists and isolated crews has given way to more collaborative efforts, banking on strength in numbers to stir up attention. On Thursday, September 24, The Council Productions, a four-man beat-making outfit,…

Despite the Valley’s car-town rep, we’d give up the gas-guzzling gridlock to go green in a heartbeat. And with temps finally receding, REI is ready to help us tackle urban biking with its “Intro to Bike Commuting” workshop. Before you go gung-ho into smashing asphalt via pure two-wheeled fury, the…

The New York Times recently profiled the Sonoran-style hot dog, a funky frankfurter sandwich birthed in the Mexican state just south of Arizona. This mouth-watering monstrosity – wrapped in bacon; festooned with pinto beans, cheese, chopped tomatoes, onions, and jalapeños; glazed with mayonnaise, mustard, and salsa; and floating upon a…

The allure of the Grand Canyon would definitely be lessened if it had ended up as just another private-property trophy of the rich. Filmmaking rock star Ken Burns knows this, and it shows in his new documentary. The master documentarian is famed for wrangling complicated histories into exquisitely rendered, compelling,…

Whenever we step on the light-rail platform at Central and Roosevelt and look east, we lament that the original Thought Crime isn’t across the street. The chaotic collective, artist residence, and gallery was headed up by downtown art-scene vet Michael 23. Luckily, M23 had established The Firehouse before Thought Crime’s…

An endless summer might be perfect for sun-bleached surfers dreaming of the perfect wave, but by now, you’ve watched your electric bill skyrocket and have cooked your hand repeatedly on your steering wheel. You are so ready for this season to move on. The Trunk Space is, too, so on…

To be honest, we sometimes cringe when one of our favorite musicians pipes up to speak his or her piece. It’s not that we believe the nonsense about entertainers not being fit to render a valid opinion, but that folks often swerve out of their lane to do so. A…

Sometimes the weekend is just too far away, even if we’re still recovering from the last one, and we need Monday to be our fun day. Thanks to enterprising young comics like Ashley Pirouznia and the Ashley’s What Are Ya, Def? Comedy Slam, we’ve got a fighting chance at surviving…

Now in her 50th year, Barbie, festooned in all kinds of lavish outfits, has had more special editions than Star Wars. In comparison, Munny is the hard-scrabble kid from the wrong side of the tracks, as bare as the day the eight-inch vinyl figure was created by toy juggernaut Kid…

The genius of Oreos Double Stuf cream sandwich cookies is that they give people more of what they want. Austin post-punkers When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth take nearly the same approach with double the vocals, double the guitars, and double the drums. George Dishner and Jesse Hodges ravage their vocal…

If you think of The Gin Blossoms as the primary legacy of Valley music, you’re invited to hop into the Delorean that is “The Grid: Music Edition” exhibition. The Trunk Space, hosts of this sweet show, posed this simple question to The Shizz online local music community: “What’s the oldest…

The pot partnership between Method Man and Redman was just meant to be. As a founding member of Wu-Tang Clan, Mr. Meth lived up to one of his many aliases, Johnny Blaze, torching verses as fiercely as he smoked trees. Meanwhile, Reggie Noble, better known as Redman, grew up spitting…

Greg Proops might have given you the wrong impression. You can’t size him up merely by the Whose Line Is It Anyway? episodes that first brought him into your home. You also have to consider his funny business alongside the likes of Drew Carey, Wayne Brady, and Ryan Stiles, as…

Now in her 50th year, Barbie, festooned in all kinds of lavish outfits, has had more special editions than Star Wars. In comparison, Munny is the hard-scrabble kid from the wrong side of the tracks, as bare as the day the eight-inch vinyl figure was created by toy juggernaut Kid…

Chicano, once a derisive word used against Mexico’s lower classes, was transformed by Mexican-American activists of the 1960s into their own term of endearment and assertion of ethnic pride. The art that followed made a similar journey, and on Wednesday, August 5, Rita Gonzalez – co-curator of the current Phoenix…

The last we saw the Arizona Cardinals was during Super Bowl XLIII. After a spotty season and a Cinderella-flavored playoff jaunt, the exciting but ultimately disappointing showdown had the Cards on top of the world for a precious couple of minutes in the fourth quarter. Then a tippy-toe end-zone grab…