I never shopped at Tower Records, the global retail chain whose story is told in actor Colin Hanks’ new documentary, All Things Must Pass. My neighborhood record shop, a half-block from my childhood home, was a locally owned chain store called Hollywood Records. My late-’70s musical tastes were shaped by…
The Arcadia neighborhood is wringing its collective hands again, as usual about the evil plans of that guy who bought the round house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright at the intersection of Exeter Boulevard and Rubicon. For anyone fortunate enough to have missed this never-ending saga up till now, it…
I paused for a moment outside La Bella Pizzeria last Friday afternoon. Oh, no. I thought. I heard this was a kosher Italian restaurant. Yet nothing among the many signs posted outside this neat-as-a-pin strip mall diner indicated that one could eat here without busting Kashrut. Then I stepped inside…
The art of looking back will never leave us. Witness the Tempe History Museum’s new exhibit, a year-long tribute to the long-dead amusement park Legend City. The exhibition opened last Friday, and features pieces of some of the park’s best-remembered rides, old ticket stubs and flyers, even an employee uniform…
Lunatic conservative Christians have momentarily run out of things to stamp their feet and pout about, and so they’ve decided to become incensed about the fact that the new holiday-themed paper cups being offered by Starbucks don’t have snowflakes printed on them. Since 1997, the coffee Goliath has offered a…
Susan Fritzler’s kids gave her a $55 gift card earlier this year, redeemable at the recently shuttered Palms Theatre. “They fully expected I could use the gift card for dinner or for a show,” Fritzler says. But before she had a chance to enjoy a revival of Kismet, Fritzler heard…
Halloween drives me berserk with ennui. And, please, spare me the enraged e-mails about my Grinchiness. I got it: I’m obstreperous. But I’m not one of those people who hates holidays in general. I celebrate all the big ones: Christmas and Chanukah and Easter all get thorough goings over in…
After three decades of witnessing theater extravaganzas like The Book of Mormon, which launched ASU Gammage’s new season this week, I can sometimes find my attention wandering from the spotlight. In the case of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s irreverent book musical, I was more interested in the adulation with…
I have endured the popularity of the gastropub. I have smiled through clenched teeth at the new trend in slaws. I’ve remained silent while tacos have taken over nearly every menu; while food trucks continue to blot the horizon and chefs boast about their special “pan-fried” pork chops. (Precisely what…
Frank Higgins’ The Taste Test is a smartly written, talky play about power struggle and betrayal. Its snappy dialogue and brittle undertones require a strong cast and tight direction to sell finer points and to keep the story moving. Unfortunately, the Black Theatre Troupe production does not offer these amenities…
It’s easy to wax nostalgic about shuttered restaurants, particularly in our town, and especially lately. We’ve recently lost the pleasures of a patty melt at Mary Coyle Ice Cream, the down-home charms of Bill Johnson’s Big Apple, the steakhouse traditions of Pinnacle Peak Patio and Monti’s La Casa Vieja, arguably…
I hate crowdfunding. But I’m willing to have my opinion changed. Meantime, here’s a warning: It’s going to take a lot for me to stop thinking of crowdfunding as a pathetic plea for money from people who frankly ought to know better. People will have to stop begging, for one…
I have, on very rare occasions, left theater productions at intermission. When I’ve done so, it’s not only because the mess onstage has run me out of the room, but because I’ve also determined I have nothing greater to share about the production than a list of its inadequacies. That…
I was relieved to read that authorities have arrested a man they believe to be responsible for all those awful freeway shootings in Phoenix. Now if only we could track down and punish the desperado who’s cursed us with the man bun, justice would truly be served. Of course, apprehending…
Esther Agaba can’t seem to decide what to call her popular African restaurant on West Camelback Road. The former Fu-Fu Cuisine, barely three years old, was renamed Esther Cuisine not long ago, and has recently been rechristened Love Cuisine. The one thing that each version has had in common is…
Downtown Phoenix is waking from a long snooze. Chain restaurants and name-brand boutiques and that most irrefutable proof that a neighborhood has arrived, the cell phone store, have taken over what planners like to call our “urban core.” Arizona State University, once Tempe’s concern, has cast a long shadow on…
The owner of Crescent Ballroom and Valley Bar, Levy fills his businesses with his own love of the city. My job is to make spaces where artists can present their craft and others can enjoy that craft. I came from Louisiana in the late 1980s to attend ASU. Since then,…
Rancho Pinot Grill owner Robertson is among the first Arizona restaurateurs to grow the herbs used in her restaurant’s cooking. I consider myself a native, but “real” natives get all up in your business if you claim to be one and you weren’t actually born here. I was born in…
Arizona native Hashimoto brings sushi to the desert. I’m what you call a Sansei third-generation Japanese-American, born and raised in Arizona. My family started farming in Arizona in the early 1940s. My grandmother’s birth certificate says she was born nine miles north of Cave Creek Road a year before Arizona…
A chef whose focus is plant-based nutrition that tastes good, Ruiz teaches cooking classes at the Desert Botanical Garden. As a chef and educator, I work very closely with the desert. It’s my medicine, both physically and spiritually. I’m forever learning, and the desert has been one of my greatest…
Arizona’s first poet laureate, Ríos has published 10 acclaimed books of poetry. I’ve lived in the desert in its different incarnations, from high to low desert, all my life. And though my addresses have been cities, I have often lived a good distance outside of them. In Nogales, I was…
Weber is a visual artist who casts succulents in metal, then paints them with enamel. It’s hard for me to believe I’ve been here for 18 years. My family and I moved to Arizona from Damascus, a small rural town in Maryland, when I was 12. When I heard we…
