Thanks to sponsor Comedy Central, comedian Jim Breuer is hitting the road to perform his uncontrollably funny standup at clubs across the country. But maybe “The Lighten Up Tour,” which comes to the Tempe Improv this weekend, should really be called the “Lightin’ Up Tour” — either the ultra-talented Breuer…
Every year, from the Indy Racing League to NASCAR, the racing world’s big players make their way to the sizzling one-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway. But an event showcasing the biggest ones of all — literally — will be there this weekend for the first time. The Truxpo Monster…
Hundreds of bodies glisten in the hot sun of a hazy Philadelphia summer day. Lanky young men in baggy shorts and backward baseball caps wind their way through a dense crowd, pausing to glance at teenage girls in tight tank tops and shorts. Young families crowd side-by-side with raucous twentysomethings…
Moviegoers wanting to see the latest summer blockbuster will have no trouble finding a giant local multiplex offering dozens of Hollywood hits — they’re liberally scattered across the Valley. But for those who seek out independent, foreign and classic films — cinema that doesn’t have to be obscure — options…
Ever since she opened reZurrection Gallery with her husband Damian in December 2000, Darci Johnson has been hosting monthly openings for the artists who exhibit their work there. To keep things unpredictable, she alternates the media in the shows, bringing in sculptures one month, paintings the next, and then perhaps…
Although it’s been several millennia since we abandoned the fig leaf as a form of dress, humankind hasn’t been able to shake its spirit from the ever-evolving cycle of fashion. Phoenix Art Museum’s new major exhibition “Garden of Eden” poses the question “Why do we wear clothes?”, then demonstrates the…
Yoga, an ancient practice that’s one of the hottest exercise trends of the past decade, has become popular in part because you need no special equipment (except, perhaps, the ubiquitous blue mat), and you can do it anytime, anywhere. But in an art museum? Bending over into downward-facing dog might…
Adolescence is plagued with awkward, sometimes terrifying, rites of passage. For author Lizzie Simon, the crucial turning point of her youth occurred during her final year of high school, which she spent studying and living with family friends in Paris. At a time when she was high on life —…
Give us your tired, your broke, your starving artists yearning to create freely, the wretched refuse of your corporate culture. We’ll show them filmmaker Michael Dean’s new documentary, D.I.Y. or DIE: How to Survive As an Independent Artist, for inspiration. Two dozen underground icons and unknowns are given equal time…
Celebrating life in the “Land of the Free” takes on a new meaning with all of the freebie (and almost-free) Independence Day events going on around the Valley. Just don’t forget that in the “Home of the Brave,” you can keep all 10 of your fingers and leave the blow-away…
If you’re searching for vitality in the scorched downtown streets of Phoenix, look no further than the LIFE Festival, a celebration of “Liberty, Independence and Freedom of Expression” at the Icehouse on Thursday, July 4. While the venue is in a prime location to watch the fireworks display overhead, there’s…
Long before The Strokes, The White Stripes or The Hives — bands currently being hyped as the new triumvirate of torchbearers for the rock ‘n’ roll legacy — were a glimmer in anyone’s eye, vocalist Sky Sunlight Saxon was cranking out fuzz-blasted freak-beat psychedelia with his influential band The Seeds…
College students face an age-old dilemma when starting their careers: You can’t get hired without experience, but you can’t get experience without a job. Well, not unless you’re a student in the Department of Theatre at ASU’s Herberger College. More than 60 undergraduate students (and some alumni, too) have taken…
There’s more than meets the eye in the thought-provoking artworks included in one of Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s current exhibitions, “Quartet,” a collection of works by four Arizona-based artists. Although their styles differ, these artists share an intimate role in the subtle revelation of nature’s mysteries. Kate Breakey’s four…
A bustling parking lot at sunset glows from hundreds of cars painted in rich, metallic hues. Beyond the dull, growling rumble of engines, one can hear the swaggering Hammond organ of Booker T. & the MGs’ “Green Onions,” punctuated by the screeching roar of a car peeling out down the…
No longer content to rest on its laurels as “The West’s Most Western Town,” Scottsdale has found new cachet as an oasis of up-and-coming restaurants. Sure, the charms of cowboy culture still get plenty of support, but lately it’s as a culinary frontier that the city is really making a…
The future is here — at the Phoenix Art Museum, that is. “New Nomads,” the latest exhibition in the Fashion Design Gallery, is not the usual collection of significant clothing from the past but rather a projection of what will be significant, an inspiring, cutting-edge display that illustrates how technology…
In most parts of the country, the fifth of May is a barely understood holiday spent downing cervezas and donning sombreros, like some sort of south-of-the-border St. Patrick’s Day. But fortunately for Phoenicians, a strong Hispanic heritage brings soul to Cinco de Mayo, providing substance and an atmosphere fit for…
An evil clown. An eccentric French painter. A philandering husband. A fledgling drag queen. Man of a thousand faces, John Leguizamo has played an impressive variety of characters in his career. But in his current project, the one-man show Sexaholix . . . A Love Story, he performs some of…
Glass is an unforgiving medium. Whether it’s a sculpture or a functional object in daily life, glass is fundamentally cold, hard and brittle. To work with glass requires deft, meticulous attention to temperature and timing. And it’s so fragile that to merely say it “cracks” when damaged doesn’t have the…
Ten-plus years of filmmaking has been a great experience for Chris LaMont. His knowledge was useful in film festival-making last year, when he discovered that he could organize the fledgling Phoenix Film Festival in the same way he makes movies. Working out of a small space provided by the City…
It’s no secret that the Valley is a prime stomping ground for motorcycle lovers. Just listen to the roar of open drag pipes echoing down the streets of your neighborhood, especially on a beautiful Saturday evening. Get used to that sound. Learn to love it, even. Because Arizona Bike Week,…
