Should you be unfamiliar with iconic author Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether,” apologies, here comes a spoiler alert and incidentally, an obscure 1980s pop reference: The lunatics have taken over the asylum. Don’t worry; The System is still a worthwhile read, spoiler…
Most Arizona sports fans probably checked out on Major League Baseball a while ago. With a bizarre two-game stint Down Under that put the D-Backs on the books at 0-2 before the regular season had even begun, the team seemed doomed from the get-go. A tumultuous, injury-plagued season ensued. But…
Surprisingly, not every progressive scientific endeavor strives toward a romanticized marriage of man and machine, though some most definitely do. While it’s the Ray Kurzweils of the world who tend to snatch up scientific headlines by theorizing a hybridized trans-humanist view of the future that fascinates some and terrifies most,…
Before becoming the fountainhead of post-grunge outfit White Zombie — the musical equivalent to a horror B-movie — Rob Zombie was an assistant on the set of the cryptically quirky TV show Pee Wee’s Playhouse. (We always knew there was something up with that show.) Thanks to America’s generally appalling…
Most of us who are raising young children in 2014 are grappling with a lot of challenging questions. How do we raise our children in the age of social media? What will become of all the perilous and seemingly ubiquitous bloodshed that’s ever before us? What will our tenuous planet…
When the Arizona Diamondbacks and Padres kick off a three-game series at Chase Field, 401 East Jefferson Street, on Friday, September 12, the games will essentially be meaningless. But if you’re looking for something to do on a Friday night, don’t fret, there’s a silver lining. Sorta. While any hope…
In a funny sort of way, the word “Brazilian” sounds more like an unfathomably large number than an ethnicity. Well here in the Valley, a very fathomable number — 365 days — equals a Brazilian. For the last four years, the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, 7380 East 2nd…
The words “endless” and “summer” probably conjure up an idea that most Phoenicians aren’t too hot on. Given our unique climate conditions, summer is the last season we’d lend to the whimsies of youth eternal. Hop just one state to the west, however, and The Endless Summer starts to sound…
Perhaps the coffee is particularly potent, or maybe it’s all those late night Moons Over My Hammys, but when a group of science fiction junkies start holding monthly meetings at Denny’s some amazing things can happen. Which might not be all that surprising considering the circumstances. The Central Arizona Speculative…
What do you get when you cross soap opera melodramatics with unbelievable muscles? World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. of course. Throw in some choreographed violence, scantily clad women and a rabid fan base, and you’ve got yourself a WWE Smackdown. There are still loads of people who tune in for the…
It’d be pretty easy for sports fans to slouch into the doldrums of summer right about now. No NFL, no NBA, no NHL, and — as the Diamondbacks bleed out the remainder of a disappointing season — not much MLB either. Well, before spiraling into a sports fandom identity crisis,…
Shot in the dark here: Hula dancing is trickier than it looks. Not buying it? Consider the last time you took a stab at that deviously complex Hula hoop. If you’re like most modestly proportioned humans, it probably made a wobbly mess outta you. Sure, the comparison isn’t apples to…
Bookworm without a clue? Let the experts at Scottsdale bookstore Poisoned Pen, 4014 North Goldwater Boulevard, Suite 101, pick your poison for you. With several book clubs — each dedicated to a different genre — there’s plenty of flavors for even the most voracious novel nerd to choose from. At…
The Canadian comedy sketch show Kids In The Hall had one major flaw — it was too good, too ahead of its time. Consequently, the show never really emerged from the shadows of the mainstream, remaining instead an underground hit until its premature demise in 1995. Still, its founders David…
Crazy as it sounds, there’s a lot of animals and creepy crawlers that are actually indigenous to the very desert that, well, most of us aren’t indigenous to. And wisely, we’ve followed the lead of all the clever desert dwellers who have thrived here for, like, millions of years, by…
There’s a reason why average Americans can’t name more than a few French bands or musicians, past or present. It’s because French music has always been pretty classy. Perhaps that’s an unpatriotic dig, but really, lassis hardly something most folks west of the Atlantic look for when surveying their listening…
Just recently, the Valley welcomed its first Topgolf location. If you aren’t familiar, Topgolf is like an international goofy golf franchise geared towards grown-ups — sorta. But aside from getting the word “flogpot” when you flip the name, Topgolf is hardly goofy. In fact, the company is deadly serious about…
In a world run amok with GIFs and hashtags aimed squarely at your funny bone, it’s easy to forget that people used to get their chuckles from the newspaper. Before it somehow became okay to post drivel from questionable sources all over our Facebook pages, we used to simply cut…
Jack White has a record label, Third Man Records. As one would expect, his roster comprises primarily bands and solo musicians. So when Mr. White signs a comedian, it probably means that the esteemed rocker is a huge fan. And, if you’ve seen the way White dresses, you know he…
Ever since Apple introduced all of us to Siri, the once lucrative business of clairvoyance has been reeling. Not really. But for most of us it’s not much of a stretch. After all, why would we pay a psychic to tell us the meaning of love and life when our…
The Arizona Diamondbacks are having a tough year. Mark Trumbo, the team’s best offseason acquisition, was leading the National League in homers before going on the disabled list early in the season. Patrick Corbin, one of the few bright spots amongst a lackluster pitching squad, underwent ‘Tommy John’ surgery in…
Nearly a century ago, Irish author James Joyce penned what would become a classic of modernist literature in Ulysses. So much so that an unofficial holiday would be spawned in honor of the novel’s endearing protagonist, Leopold Bloom. Bloom, who is sort of a refitted Odysseyus (the protagonist from Homer’s…
