In a stretch, it could be argued that Czechoslovakia was the homeland of the motion picture. It was in 1818 that a Bohemian scientist named Johannes Evagelitsa Purkinje first described “Persistence of Vision” in his writings. This phenomenon–the tendency of the human retina to briefly retain an image it has…
After an exhaustive search, I was selected to sit in for Howard Seftel during his well-earned vacation on the basis of two criteria. First, I was willing to do it. Second, and this was the clincher, I eat on a daily basis. But since a large portion of my diet…
Thursday January 21 Quoth the wise bard Ogden Nash: “Tiny tots of either sex/Adore Tyrannosaurus Rex/Indeed, all little ones adore/Any savage carnivore/Of which, O Rex, though rightly boastest/Thou art not only first, but mostest.” If this is true, it’s a cinch that the kiddies will like T-REX: Back to the…
It’s often been accused of being a sexist play, and by modern standards it unquestionably is. But by Elizabethan standards, The Taming of the Shrew is a model of liberal-mindedness on sexual relations. If you doubt this, check out some of the sources for Shakespeare’s early romantic comedy–cheery little ballads…
“Better that than he should do heroin.” This is what a friend of mine said when I showed her that Kevin Bacon had recorded a CD with his brother. I had never heard, nor have I since, any suggestion that Bacon has ever done heroin, nor that he regarded making…
Somewhere under the glossy imbecility of Varsity Blues lurks an idea that could make a great American movie: a coming-of-age story in a setting where no one else has come of age, a place where the hero must find his way to maturity without a mentor. The setting, in this…
thursday january 14 Tara Lipinski, Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton, Ilia Kulik, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Steven Cousins and other big shots of the cold-feet-and-huge-endorsement-residuals set are scheduled to tie on the blades for Discover Stars on Ice at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 14, at America West Arena, 201 East Jefferson. Tickets range…
Two students go to a carnival, where they run afoul of a sinister mesmerist and his somnambulistic slave, who commits murders at his master’s command. One of the students is killed, and the other’s girlfriend is abducted. But this is only the beginning of the plot convolutions in Robert Wiene’s…
thursday january 7 “Abstracted Water,” a show of startling photographs of shrouded human figures in natural settings by Ann Simmons-Myers, opens with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, January 7, at Vanier Fine Art, and continues through Wednesday, January 27. Also displayed are western landscapes–emphasizing river and stream…
No less conservative a publication than Reader’s Digest long ago proclaimed laughter the best medicine, but according to Patch Adams, the medical establishment is nowhere near that perception. The movie, freely based on the true-life tale of Dr. Hunter “Patch” Adams, is set up as the story of a saintly…
thursday december 31 There’s a local angle on the massive metal show featuring Black Sabbath, with Pantera, Megadeth, and Soulfly in support: That last band’s founder, Max Cavalera, formerly of Brazil’s political-thrash outfit Sepultura, is now a Valley resident. For more info on the Brobdingnagian head-bang-fest, slated for Thursday, December…
Did you know that here in Arizona we are, by order of the governor herself, smack in the middle of statewide tribute to composer Frederic Chopin? Yes, a proclamation signed by Jane Dee Hull on October 22 declares November 1, 1998, through February 28, 1999, “A Tribute to Chopin Season.”…
Were the Kennedys complicitous in the death of Marilyn Monroe? Did the government cover up an alien crash-landing at Roswell, New Mexico? Were the Clintons involved in the death of Vince Foster? Was Christopher Marlowe, or perhaps Sir Francis Bacon, the actual author of the plays attributed to William Shakespeare?…
In 1933, producer Merian C. Cooper, director Ernest B. Schoedsack and pioneering animator Willis O’Brien created one of this century’s most indelible and powerful archetypes: King Kong. Then they did a peculiar thing: As if appalled at what they had wrought–but also delighted at the money it made them–they spent…
Thursday December 24 Since Christmas Eve is generally a day of ease and relaxation, when we do all those little things that we’ve been meaning to get around to the rest of the year, why not stop by the Burton Barr Central Library Thursday, December 24, both to catch up…
The quiet crusade against cutting down live Christmas trees has reached the point when it can be declared a full-fledged social movement–Saturday Night Live has done a sketch about it. On a recent episode, ultra-PC Lilith Fair troubadour “Cinder Calhoun” (Ana Gasteyer) sang a song called “Christmas Chainsaw Massacre.” Even…
Geniuses often come across unimpressively in the movies. Amadeus presented Mozart as a giggling fop. Both Kirk Douglas and Tim Roth gave us Van Gogh as a pathetic head case. I.Q.’s Albert Einstein was a cupid-playing old duffer. Ken Russell’s freaky depictions of Liszt and Mahler speak for themselves. When…
thursday december 17 Who is that masked man? Say that line in this area, and there’s a good chance that you’re asking about Zarco Guerrero, local mask-maker and performance artist. Guerrero takes the plum role of the Devil in La Pastorela, a “teatro”-style Christmas pageant presented by El Teatro de…
In his best book, All the Trouble in the World, P.J. O’Rourke describes traveling up an Amazon tributary in Peru with a boatload of eco-tourists, the lot of them trying to attract the attention of a pod of estuarine dolphins by singing to them. Rather grudgingly, O’Rourke admits: “. …
thursday december 10 Following film appearances in Speed 2: Cruise Control and the upcoming My Favorite Martian, and TV appearances everywhere from Letterman to The Jon Stewart Show, Canadian funnyman Jeremy Hotz takes the stage at 8 p.m. Thursday, December 10; 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, December 11; the same…
First of all, if you’re among the benighted who’ve never seen Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 shocker Psycho, stop reading at the end of this paragraph. A movie review, even one as incisive and elegant as this, is no way to be introduced to Hitchcock’s horror masterpiece. Your assignment is to rush…
To describe the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting as a big building full of old fire trucks is accurate enough, but nowhere near complete. It may sound like a tourist trap or a collector’s vanity showplace, and probably for this reason, if Valleyites are aware of the facility’s existence…
