We liked the Scottsdale club life so much last week that we thought we might hit up a new hot spot, the Cherry Lounge & Pit in Tempe, on Friday, January 26. Mill Avenue was lively and teeming with drunkards when we trekked our way to the popular drinking destination…
Plein-air painting was supersexy 150 years ago, when Monet and his indie impressionist bros trekked outdoors in search of the perfect natural lighting. Though these bad-boy artists were shunned for their bastardized practice during their careers, we now see their disciples – the retired, pony-tailed therapist wearing mandals and painting…
The Valley’s post-adolescent crusty punk rockers have been getting a lot of camera time lately, so Club Candids hit up one of Scottsdale’s most popular clubs, Myst, on Friday, January 19, and the only crust was found in the hair gel of the employed and freshly bathed Scottsdale socialites. DJ…
It’s been decades since bad-ass broads like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem enlightened our primeval patriarchy. Now women watch football and mow lawns while men talk about their feelings and sob. Though we ladies dare not complain about our man’s ability to watch The Way We Were and like it…
When we heard about the grand opening of Lady Luck Tattoo Gallery in Tempe, we packed our camera and hit the party for some freaky photo-ops. After all, tattoos and Tempe go together like drunk girls and frat parties; both are necessities for the college experience and may lead to…
Mayme Kratz, 48, is the type of person you just want to hug when you meet her. With a nest of curly auburn hair and a calming smile, she owns a natural beauty that ignites intuition and openness. Her serenity boldly invades her luminescent sculpture of embedded natural objects in…
After two holiday weekends in a row and the final shake-off of family obligations (phew!), we wanted nothing more than to return to normal life and normal drinking habits. This week, Club Candids skipped on anything super sizzling and flopped into homey Scottsdale punk bar TT Roadhouse on Saturday, January…
Blame it on the History Channel’s Hiroshima documentaries or the section in theology class on the Rapture. Apocalyptic visions are undeniably enthralling. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but contemplate how mass hysteria would look, feel and smell. So when I come across a show like “Gardening…
What is it with those bloody Brits? Of course the arrogant blokes would come up with a tradition like the weekly Quiz Night at George & Dragon, where they can massage their massive brain tissue, flare their nostrils, and proclaim, “Jolly good, old chap!” through a decaying grill when they…
After a few weeks of hanging with crowds of casual kids, Club Candids needed to spice it up with something slightly more sophisticated, like Club io’s Million Dollar Mingle on Saturday, December 23. The patrons were polished, stylish and mackin’ like mad. This VIP night may be a weekly gig,…
When we coughed up the seven bucks to get in the door at PHiX for the “Gothabilly Nitemare Before X-Mas!” show on Saturday, December 16, Grand Avenue was pretty damn quiet. Refusing to be discouraged, we entered the former motorcycle garage turned art and music venue to find an anorexic…
Who goes clubbing on a Sunday, anyway? Leave it to the techno kids — they love to party so much, Saturday nights just aren’t enough. On Sunday, December 10, the Phase 54 regulars popped in to celebrate the club’s 2 Year Anniversary Party with “Aural Fixation Night!” Tucked away among…
Naked people totally kick butt, especially when one needs to brush up on his or her life-drawing skills. But when the semester is over and your boyfriend won’t hold still long enough for you to get in any good practice, it might be time to visit ArtStageSound when the space…
James White, 57, longtime Arizona State University sculpture professor, creates humorous and whimsical works that incorporate his custom bent tubes of neon light. White’s sculpture often presents playful ideas that result from his daily interactions with his beloved students and sprightly preteen daughter. The Tempe studio is more like Dad’s…
Sometimes a night out in Scottsdale with all things shiny and plastic is just what we need. The hordes of twentysomething bronzed babes and stylish studs remind us that the singles scene is alive, thriving and definitely doable. On Saturday, December 2, e4 Nightclub and Lounge hooked up with Energy…
Remember when your first-grade teacher said that without the abundant rays of the sun, the Earth would die? Humans can’t get enough of the stuff, and nothing proves our sentimentality for shine like the work on display at “Molten: Glass and Neon Art” at Mesa Contemporary Arts. The four featured…
There’s nothing like a good ol’ drag show to scum up a wholesome holiday with the family. That was the idea at Amsterdam’s 4th Annual Thanksgiving Night Show last Thursday, November 23, when everyone sucked in their turkey-filled guts and squeezed into their clubbing clothes. The fabulously flamboyant show starred…
The Phoenix indie crowd has a new pit stop on their Friday-night boozing agenda. Glam (formerly Ky’s Place), at 32nd Street and Indian School Road, is a perfectly petite dance club stuck in a strip mall. The place goes nuts after midnight, when the pre-drinking is over and an ass-shaking…
If you’ve lived in the Southwest for any amount of time, chances are you’ve already seen your fair share of howling coyotes, dream catchers and geometric pottery patterns. I grew up here — enough said. Popular Native American art is the backdrop for much of life in the Valley, blended…
SMoCA Nights has become the quintessential fashionable event for Valley clubgoers who want to hang up their ho-bag clothes for the night and feel high-class. With fine art as the backdrop, social sophisticates showed off their stiletto pumps and designer dresses. The crowd at “Luna: Fall SMoCA Nights” on Thursday,…
Paris, Milan, New York. . . Scottsdale? Okay, so maybe we aren’t top billing for fashion hot spots, but with the ever-increasing flow of higher fashion retail possibilities pouring into the Valley, we may get there someday, dammit. And if you happened to be in Scottsdale on Friday, November 3,…
It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark; under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart. . . There was no getting away from Michael Jackson’s Thriller at Alwun House’s Monster’s Ball on Saturday, October 30. The devilish ditty did the trick when…
