One of the biggest problems a dance troupe faces is financial support. When funding does come through, artistic content for the troupe’s season can be dictated by the sponsoring patrons, leaving little room for new and experimental work. But Michael Uthoff, former director of Ballet Arizona, has formed a new…
Culte du Feu’s latest offering is part performance art, part circus freak show, part magic show, and part rampant (yet responsible) pyromania. In other words, you can’t miss it. But Ars Arma Publica (Latin for “Art Arms the People”) isn’t just vaudeville on fire. It’s a statement, an offering a…
It’s time to break out the pompoms and work on your beer gut, because baseball is back. It is spring training. The time when it is not uncommon to run into a major league baseball player at Safeway. The Spike has been depressed ever since the Arizona Diamondbacks’ postseason was…
The Spike is in love. Batty, crazy, deeply in love. With speed. No, not the kind of speed that comes in a little white pill, but the kind that comes in a well-oiled, fine-tuned machine made for going as fast as possible in the fewest number of seconds. Yes, The…
Country ComfortThe Spike used to have squirrel pelts with a 12-gauge shotgun hole in the side tied with twine onto mesquite branches hung on the guest-room wall. Their little heads and tails used to give The Spike nightmares, almost as much as eating their tiny, deep-fried legs. Squirrels, incidentally, taste…
The controversy over the alleged doctoring of an image of Mars by an Arizona State University research center is exploding like a supernova. The backpedaling and finger-pointing among a once-unified group of researchers claiming the government conspired to cover evidence of life on the Red Planet is as interesting as…
The Greathouse family met Father Carl Carlozzi on the evening of April 24. It was the night their two toddler sons, Dylan and Steven, drowned in their unfenced swimming pool in Maryvale. Carlozzi, a gray-haired man with a calming demeanor and kind smile, gets called in to help survivors deal…
Ancient Egyptians worshiped the cat. Cats have never forgotten this. But most cat owners are okay with feline servitude. If you’re the type who selects friends based on your cat’s opinions, know well the “Smell of Hell,” or buy 50 pounds of litter at a time — time to pack…
Under the surface of Mars lies an ancient, nuclear-powered city left by Martian citizens. At least, that’s what a group of space researchers think. And they’re trying to prove it by invoking a little-known remnant of President Clinton’s last days called the “Data Quality Act” that went into force in…
Nothin’ but a Hound DogThe Spike was only 4 when the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll died on his toilet. But that didn’t stop the elementary school music teachers from making the class sing his songs in the spring chorale. The teacher said Elvis Presley was the King, so The…
On a weekend trip to Walgreens, The Spike noticed scads of tinsel decorations littering the aisles, and candy overflowing corpulent wire bins adorned with an obese man in a red suit. Oh, goody, goody, gumdrop, it’s Christmas. The week before Thanksgiving, and it’s already here: Holiday-Palooza, the old Yuletide, baby…
A thumb-size nuclear reactor, four Confederate soldiers throwing rocks, and a Trojan watermelon to impress the ladies. If any of this makes sense, you’ve probably seen a performance by Valley improv troupe The Barrow Gang. Scattershot, the latest offering from the troupe, is the launch of its “Not-So-World Tour.” Founding…
The Emerald MonstrocityThe first thing The Spike noticed upon sitting down at a corner table in the Emerald Lounge earlier this month was the woman in a tutu with crabs running down her legs. Next to her was a foam ass, dangling faux droppings at eye level. In its quest…
The Spike’s family holds a fierce belief that everything from holidays to horoscopes is the work of Satan, so The Spike had “Egg and Bunny Day” instead of Easter, and went to church carnivals instead of celebrating Halloween. When trick-or-treating, The Spike was escorted by its pistol-toting father because Satan…
Early in childhood, The Spike spoiled its frilly pink Easter dress by firing a double-barreled shotgun at a watermelon. The dress and The Spike landed in a large heap on the ground — torn, muddy and decidedly unhappy about the condition of the beloved pink organza. But The Spike was…
When computer geeks grow up, make millions, and have too much time on their hands, fully remote-controlled robots are born. And of course, when you spend thousands of dollars and eons of time building your own remote-controlled robot, the obvious question to ask next is, “Can my robot beat up…
Arizona has mud that even Shout can’t Shout out: 26 years ago, Shout laundry stain remover ran a promotion called “Shout It Out,” in which kids ran an obstacle course in pools of mud to prove Shout’s stain-removing superpower. After realizing they couldn’t get Arizona’s red mud out, even with…
People in New York and Los Angeles are used to getting the first look at a new play — they open almost daily. But here, where people are lucky to get the opportunity to see an art film before it comes out on DVD, it’s a pretty remarkable event. Phoenix…
Are you a lonely goatherd? Love brown paper packages tied up with string? Ever looked at a pair of chintz curtains and marveled at the dressmaking potential? If you’re one of the many who fell off the park bench while trying to practice your jeté, then this bastard love child…
What’s 40 feet tall, weighs 58,000 pounds, has a jaw-crushing force of 20,000 pounds and consumes dead, fossilized dinosaurs? Well, besides Stone Cold Steve Austin. Robosaurus, the electro-hydromechanical car-nivorous monster, will breathe fire, crush cars and make the world safe for democracy at Ford Motor Company’s Jets vs. Funny Cars…
Remember going to the drive-in? Double features playing into the wee hours of the morning through a tinny window speaker, the picture slightly obscured by the couple making out in an old Caddy in front of you . . . This is just like the drive-ins you remember — except…
When warehouse manager Patrick Kellum got married, he did so dressed as “Wild Bill” Hickok, with his wife Chris done up as Sally Jensen. When a friend “objected” to the marriage, they gunned him down during the ceremony. Such is life for a gunfighter. Since 1993, The Arizona Gunfighters, who…
