9/5-9/30 The Patriot Act may have inspired concern about American society becoming an Orwellian nightmare, but Big Brother already lives — and he looks just like the late pro wrestler Andre the Giant. Leading the conspiracy, or rather, the art movement, is Shepard Fairey, whose subversive fame started with his…
9/5-9/30 How low can LoDo go? Lower than you’d expect from a cutting-edge gallery: 100 smackers. To celebrate its new name and nonprofit status, downtown’s Studio LoDo/Phoenix Center for Contemporary Art greets the fall arts season with “The $100 Show.” Launching with a 7 p.m. reception on First Friday, September…
Thursday, September 4 If you still haven’t had a chance to see Phoenix Art Museum’s exhibition “Sculpture in Silk: Costumes From Japan’s Noh Theater,” Thursday, September 4, is the perfect time. That’s when Janet Baker, the museum’s curator of Asian art, gives 30-minute ArtBreaks talks at noon and 7 p.m…
They emerge from the darkness like a scene out of Night of the Living Dead, boys in tee shirts and girls in skintight halter tops. You can see the girls from the far end of the parking lot, with their sparkly earrings and glitter-smeared skin already glistening in the hot…
Sat 8/30 When Jonathan Swift suggested in his famous work A Modest Proposal that the Irish eat their own young, he was being sarcastic. So when comic Ryan McKee began a local humor magazine in January and called it Modest Proposal, he knew he had picked a title that would…
After taking just a few small steps toward forming a community, now Valley fashion designers are trying to make the giant leap into commercial success with the Phoenix Infusion Fashion Series, starting Friday, August 29. Inspired by local runway shows held earlier this year, including a sold-out night at the…
Thursday, August 28 Phoenix has its very own live version of The Gong Show: Beat the Buzzer at the Paper Heart Gallery on Thursday, August 28, and the last Thursday of every month. Much like that late, great ’70s game show, there’s a lineup of performers trying to outdo each…
Thursday, August 21 Thursday, August 21 is the last trial round of competition in the Climbmax Bouldering Comps Hot House Classic before the championship, scheduled for September 16. With divisions geared to different age groups as well as all skill levels, it’s a chance for the whole family to rock…
Author Michael Waldock’s fascination with flight attendants began with a distinctly memorable experience. “The first time I came to the United States, I had to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco on a local airline called PSA. The flight attendants wore micro-minis and odd-shaped hats, and when I got…
8/22-9/21 It just might be the sleeper hit of the season. Starting this Friday, Desert Stages Theatre presents Once Upon a Mattress, Broadway’s take on Hans Christian Andersen’s Princess and the Pea. The musical comedy finds Dauntless the Drab desiring to be the prince formerly known as single, but his…
Thu 8/14 Got a weakness for good wine? Then flight for your right to party starting Thursday, August 14, when Furio hosts Flight Night, a new wine event featuring flights of three boutique wines and chic eats prepared by executive chef Jagger Griffin. A different local wine lover hosts the…
Thursday, August 14 Gravity Games, the national extreme sports competition, culminates two months from now in Cleveland, but excitement is already building with the FUEL and Skateboarder Magazine D-Tour, hitting the Valley on Thursday, August 14. Watch skateboarding demos by professionals such as Ray Molinar, Paul Otvos, Rob Gonzales and…
If you thought big hair went out with the ’80s, you haven’t been to Much Ado: A Summer Soiree, an annual fashion show devoted to crazy, creative coiffures by stylists from some of the Valley’s best salons. Proceeds benefit Body Positive, an HIV and AIDS research and resource center. Broadway…
Thursday, August 7 Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West and Paolo Soleri’s Cosanti spawned a legacy of world-class, cutting-edge architecture in the Valley, and “southwest NET: Architecture and Design,” at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, showcases the latest wave of Arizona design talent. It’s the first installment in the museum’s regional…
Sundays It’s been “trial by fire,” but so far Mad Props Variety Show, the latest addition to the Valley comedy scene, is a success, says organizer Ryan McKee. “There really wasn’t a place for comedians to go and perform for free,” explains McKee, who says some venues charge people to…
8/7, 8/9 Last year, with her debut book The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, Valley humorist Laurie Notaro hit the New York Times best-seller list right about the same time her long-running column for the Arizona Republic was unceremoniously canceled. Much of the book, and its just-released follow-up, Autobiography of a…
Sun 8/3 Praise the Lord and pass the Jack and dirty women — you’re guaranteed a hoe-down when the Reverend comes to town. The Reverend Horton Heat, Texas’ most debauched theologian and rockabilly evangelist, is hitting Tempe’s Marquee Theatre, 730 North Mill, on August 3 (on a Sunday nonetheless, so…
8/1-8/2 Freestyle motocross is flying higher than ever. Arguably the most outrageous of the extreme sports, fierce competition revolves around elite dirt-bike riders who take turns navigating a circuit of steep ramps, launching high into the air and performing bold stunts off each slope. Those off-the-hook tricks will draw thousands…
Tue 8/5 It’s an odd match-up at best, a pairing of two of the greatest control freaks in guitar history: B.B. King, who measures his solos with the precision of a diamond cutter, and Jeff Beck, who is as much a sound sculptor as he is a musician. King is…
Sat 7/26 The best little Horror house in Phoenix does double duty this weekend, pairing Hedwig & the Angry Inch with The Rocky Horror Picture Show for a gender-blending double feature. Broadway Bound & Gagged, the Valley’s longest-running Rocky Horror shadow cast, screens the films this Saturday, July 26, promising…
7/25-7/27 Can’t make South Dakota this year? Cheer up: Motorcycle rights organization A.B.A.T.E. (American Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education) presents Plan B — “Too Broke for Sturgis,” a weekend of motorcycle fun, Friday, July 25, through Sunday, July 27, at Mormon Lake. Motor up on your own, or ride with the…
The world of Noh theater, Japan’s 600-year-old performance tradition, is rarefied even to the Japanese themselves. And most Americans, who’ve never experienced the refined plays, may not have even heard of Noh — though they’ve likely seen its iconic masks, carved to portray the faces of young beauties, wizened old…
