Sure, it’s all good fun now. But who knows what unearthly peril Phoenix Art Museum may have put our community in? With the “Splendors of Ancient Egypt” show opening on Sunday, October 4, and continuing through March 28, 1999, PAM would seem, at first glance, to be offering us a…
Shylock, the malevolent old Jewish usurer of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, has been subjected, over the centuries, to a wide variety of interpretations. Growing out of the tradition of English anti-Semitism that produced such stereotypically wicked portraits as Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, the old Belmont moneylender has…
thursday october 1 He used to open for Michael Bolton, but don’t hold that against George Lopez. The comic, veteran of many appearances on Carson’s and Arsenio’s stages, performs at 8 p.m. Thursday, October 1; 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, October 2; 8 and 10 p.m. Saturday, October 3; and…
thursday september 24 How often can you mention the Dalai Lama and the Beastie Boys in the same sentence? The lads take a break from fighting for their right to party in order to help out in the fight for the rights of the Lama’s ‘hood in Free Tibet, a…
“I love to go to the zoo,” asserts Wendy Liebman, by phone from her home in L.A. Her least favorite creatures, though, are “the things with the really tiny heads–don’t tell me, don’t tell me. . . .” At last the species in question dawns on her: “the kids.” This…
thursday september 17 Those of us who feel inadequate should take heart to learn that even the Grand Canyon wasn’t always so honkin’ grand. Historian Stephen J. Pyne is scheduled to talk about his new book How the Canyon Became Grand: A Short History, which combines “environmental, social intellectual, political…
Anybody who doubts the phallocentric theory of history need only hear the tale of the Athenian General Alcibiades (circa 450-404 B.C.)–as it is told, at least, by Alan J.M. Haffa, Ph.D., Director of Classical Studies at Phoenix College. Whitewashed as a character in Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens, Alcibiades was, in…
A leg brace, a debilitating disease, sexual frustration, and Jackie Kennedy hair–breathes there a movie actress anywhere who could resist such fare? They’re as seductive as Richard III’s hump to the stage actor. Joanna Going straps it on–the leg brace, not the hump–and has a ball as the delicate heroine…
The title Post Coitum derives, presumably, from the ancient Latin aphorism “post coitum omne animal triste”–every creature is sad after sex. The creature with which this French film concerns itself is Diane, a married, 40ish book editor played by Brigitte RoYan, who also co-wrote and directed. This attractive woman’s midlife…
The Galapagos tortoise lumbers along slowly in its outdoor enclosure at the Phoenix Zoo, plodding in the general direction of its less flamboyantly active companion. As I approach the concrete wall for a look, the enormous reptile pauses, and with stately deliberateness cranks its head around to peer at me…
thursday september 10 Short-story writer Ruben Mendoza, author of Loteria & Other Stories, reads from and signs his work at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 10, at the Tempe Square location of Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 South McClintock in Tempe. Admission is free. 730-0205. Glendale Public Library hosts “Hypnotic Nights and…
The opening credits of Simon Birch assert that it was “suggested” by John Irving’s popular 1989 novel A Prayer for Owen Meany. Actually, it’s a thin but relatively faithful adaptation of the first few chapters of Irving’s comic ramble through the nature of religious faith, predestination, and heroism. Screenwriter Mark…
The heroine of The Governess is a young Jewish woman–a “Jewess,” in the parlance of 1840s London, in which the first scenes of the film are set. I thought that this drama, the feature debut of the young writer-director Sandra Goldbacher, might explore a chapter in Britain’s long, abysmal, and…
Most trials don’t have the sort of high theatrics that TV and movie courtroom dramas do. Even the criminal trial of O.J. Simpson, for all its bizarre spectacle, was never rocked by any testimony from the defendant. But attorney Daniel M. Petrocelli is coming to the Valley to talk about…
thursday september 3 The art show of heretofore unseen works titled “The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss” is, for those of us who adore the late doctor’s mad and wise poetic and artistic vision, far more seductive than Andrew Wyeth’s Helga stuff. Wilde-Meyer hosts the show, which includes “secret images…
In the bluish-green depths of the ocean, we see the deck of a sunken ship. Out of the murk, two pinpoints of light approach–humans, lured to this wreck by irresistible curiosity. It’s the beginning of a James Cameron movie, but it’s not that James Cameron movie. It’s the first shot…
Shane, the teenage hero of Mark Christopher’s 54, wears the petulant expression of a Raphaelite cherub, and he comes complete with a halo of curly blond hair. He’s played by a pretty newcomer with the exotic name of Ryan Phillippe, but there’s nothing exotic about the voice that comes out…
Here’s how you know you’ve made it: You’re on a long-distance call to Vegas, talking with a gorgeous blonde that you’ve seen on late-night cable TV, and it’s not costing you $2.99 a minute. In fact, she called you. Of course, on this occasion, the blonde in question isn’t talking…
thursday august 27 The soul sisters of the ’70s trio LaBelle–Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash and Patti LaBelle–looked like they’d just beamed down from the planet Mongo in the “Lady Marmalade” days, but weren’t they great days? Twenty-odd years later, the solo LaBelle (real name: Patricia Holt) still has the pipes–an…
“That is known as the lowest point in my life, because I basically was a human barbell,” says Next Stop Wonderland star Hope Davis of her role in the 1995 remake of Kiss of Death, in which she played Nicolas Cage’s girlfriend. “Big, big hair and really cheesy clothes,” she…
Various artists There’s Something About Mary (Capitol Records) The Farrelly brothers are carving out a unique niche for themselves. These are the guys who are making rude, crude, socially unacceptable and screamingly funny movies. The kind of movies that make you laugh really hard at the same time you are…
Bertha has passed on. The air conditioner known by that name, which, for 45 years, has cooled the building that now houses the Arizona Museum for Youth, has gone to Ventilation Valhalla. The installation of a new AC unit has necessitated the shutting down of the museum since late March,…
