In show business, it borders on an axiom that the actors who play the villains tend to be the nice guys in real life. If it’s true, then Len Lesser should be one of the sweetest guys you’d ever want to meet. Nasty, rotten human beings are this veteran character…
So the feet-dragging commitment phobe who’s been stringing you along for the past seven years finally broke down and popped the question over the holidays? Well, ladies, I personally think you can do better, and that you’re just feeling pressure to conform to a social norm and probably working out…
Even though they may spend hours in the place during any given week, David and Diana Mullins insist that they don’t mind having lunch at Chevys. They generally don’t get to eat there, after all. They are, rather, father-and-daughter members of that mysterious sect of people who approach you at…
Women from other countries were everywhere in the packed house — women from Congo, Sudan, Chad, Burkina Faso, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq. The circumstances that had brought them to the Valley, and to the audience of Essential Theatre’s Playback Theatre performance last weekend at PlayWright’s Theatre, were not pleasant.They were there…
There’s plenty of gallery action this weekend to kick off 2001. Lisa Sette Gallery continues its season with two shows — “the center of gravity,” which features works by Marie Navarre; and “Traces and Shadows,” with works by Maurizio Pellegrin. Both of these photography-based mixed-media artists are favorites at the…
So where’s the giant fetus?In 1968, we were promised a giant space-fetus floating above our heads this year. It’s not in evidence at this writing, nor is there any sign of the film that ends with the image — the seminal science-fiction movie of its decade and maybe of the…
His name is Stephen Greenhorn, and it’s appropriate to his current situation — he’s never been to Phoenix before, never been out West before at all. But at the moment, he’s getting the whole picture. We’ve just been seated for lunch at the Compass Restaurant, atop the downtown Hyatt. Greenhorn…
For the past few years, we’ve been told that Latino standup comedy was booming, and this would seem to be supported by the entertainment options this New Year’s Eve. Two venues are featuring major Latino comics as headliners.George Lopez, who has appeared everywhere from The Tonight Show to The Arsenio…
More than any other year I can remember, in 2000 I heard people comment on how particularly bad movies were. In retrospect, I think they were right. The normal preponderance of mediocrity in human affairs makes every year seem like a bad movie year, but then when you review the…
“My jail!”That’s how Yakov Shalomaef describes the place where he spends his weekdays, the workroom at the rear of his shoe-repair shop. It seems odd to hear an immigrant from Russia describe his circumstances thus, rather than with the usual immigrant’s litany of: “My God, there’s so much opportunity here,…
Yes, Virginia — and Arizona — there is a Santa Claus.I say this not because of my belief, deeply held though it is, that there’s a spirit of generosity and kindness and merriment and good cheer that resides in the hearts of all people. No, I say this because I’m…
It’s where Walter Huston found paradise at the end of The Treasure of Sierra Madre. It’s where the murdering lovers Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw rode into the sunset at the end of The Getaway. It’s where Thelma and Louise were headed when they ended up at the Grand Canyon…
A mixture along these lines, with a strong dash of Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas records, gives some idea of the flavor of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which performs this Sunday at the Web Theatre. The entertainingly over-the-top symphonic-rock ensemble, which has nothing whatsoever to do with Siberia or with railroads, is a project…
“See, there’s this pre-Columbian emperor who’s a spoiled brat, and he gets turned into a llama, and he meets this peasant, and the two of them become buddies and save this little village . . .”It takes nothing away from The Emperor’s New Groove, Disney’s delightful new animated feature, to…
Even with the lunchtime rush in full swing at Thai Rama, Roland James isn’t hard to spot. He’s the middle-aged guy sitting alone, with pamphlets spread out on the table in front of him. I sigh as I head toward the booth, bracing myself for a preachy midday meal.The surprise…
I’m the man of this house! . . . until you get home. What I say goes around here! . . . right out the window. This excerpt is characteristic of “The Man Song,” a much-requested radio hit by comic Sean Morey, who plays a two-night stand at the Tempe…
As Harvey Korman is dying in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater at the end of Blazing Saddles, he still has time to wonder aloud, of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., “How did he do such amazing stunts . . . with such little feet?”More to the point: How did he do them…
It doesn’t take much to get me to Tucson. Tell me there’s an opera or a play down there, or even a good used book store, and I’m heading south down Interstate 10, past the Casa Grande outlet stores and the roadkilled coyotes and the ostrich ranch. Certainly the chance…
Some artists like to play coy about the underlying themes in their work. You know the sort of thing — the interviewer asks, “Did you have any deeper meanings in mind in the scene of the big wheat silo with the twin haystacks at the base and the farmgirl straddling…
Lots of performance art in the Valley this weekend. Along with Karen Finley at autoMATIC (see story right), Saturday, December 2, will also see the 15th annual Bad X-Mas Pageant at Alwun House, 1204 East Roosevelt. The show, possibly the longest-running annual performance-art event in Phoenix, is a revue featuring…
The dust jackets of Diana Gabaldon’s novels inform us that she “holds a master’s degree in Marine Biology and a Ph.D. in ecology, none of which has anything whatever to do with her books.” True enough. Virile Scotsmen romancing spirited heroines, exhaustive historical detail and time-travel fantasy — that’s the…
In 102 Dalmatians, a new brood of puppies is born, one of which, Oddball, doesn’t develop spots. The resulting feelings of inadequacy are such that the poor thing runs away from home and hides in a cave, gets bitten by a bat and turns into a slavering mad dog. Cruella…
