Once upon a time, art openings and museum shows were the domain of high-falutin’ art-school types and their pretentious wanna-be fan boys and gals. But ever since pop-surrealist painters from the lowbrow-art movement began to have their way with the fine-arts establishment, museum shows have gotten a whole lot more…

Now that school is back in session, students everywhere are probably indulging their inner artist — much to the chagrin of their teachers, because it’s not notes the kids are taking. Heck, all those spankin’-new Pee Chee folders and Trapper Keepers are begging for drawings and cartoons. And why not?…

Way before MTV invited us to peep the pimped-out pads of celebs on Cribs, industrialist fat cats were creating their own mega-mansions swank enough to make these new-money domiciles seem dumpy by comparison. One of the most magnificent was Phoenix’s own Wrigley Mansion. Built for about $300,000 by chewing-gum kingpin…

Once relegated to the transportation mode of choice for the granola-munchin’ set, the bicycle is now the weapon of choice for those going green and givin’ the finger to Big Petroleum. Okay, well, maybe some things haven’t changed, but the bike has now gone high-falutin’ with the “Jarbas Lopes: Cicloviaérea”…

Just when you thought the only music coming out of Southern California was made by dolled-up teen-screen queens between stints at pricey Malibu rehab facilities, The BellRays arrive with their energetic mix of guitar-centric Motown garage punk. Lead singer Lisa Kekuala, who’s part Aretha, Kelis, and Patti Smith (think punk-rock…

What do Angelina Jolie, hair-metal bands, and frat boys have in common? A perverse love of video games? Warm. A secret stash of black nail polish? Getting warmer. A whole lotta love for tattoos? You got it, bro. Once the purview of Maori tribesmen, pirates, and sailors on leave, tattoos…

While you’ve been avoiding anything near Central Avenue and Camelback Road because of the maddening light-rail construction and your inability to drive like Batman, a slew of new shops have been opening under the radar. Unless you’re an inside-tip-havin’ hipster, that is. If you are, then you already know about…

Westcor’s interpretation of Extreme Makeover: Mall Edition at the venerable Biltmore Fashion Park gave Retail Laboratory owner Chris Bale three frigging weeks to renovate and relocate to their new home across from Victoria’s Secret. Uh, thanks for the warning, guys. But faster than you can say “we’re moving,” Bale created…

Marilyn Monroe cooed, “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” Audrey Hepburn donned sunglasses, pearls, and the perfect black dress for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Even Madonna’s “Material Girl” video was swathed in jeweled excess. While American pop culture gives a nod to jewelry as the essence of style and display of…

It seems like you can’t swing a Prada bag without walloping a drag queen these days — not that you’d ever intentionally hit a drag queen, cuz she’d scratch your eyes out. Suffice it to say that you probably don’t want to mess with Tucson’s self-proclaimed “first gender performance group,”…

Now that Becks has descended on L.A., we figure no one will be making movies there anymore. They’ll be too busy fawning over the soccer superduperstar’s every meticulously coifed move. So it’s a darn good thing that people occasionally shoot films in Phoenix. We need another cash-cow industry now that…

If you thought architects were a bunch of boring blueprint lovers, you’re probably not familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright’s dramatic life story. Fired for moonlighting on the job, Wright fled to Italy with a client’s wife. After returning to the States, his lover was killed after an ax-wielding servant torched…

It took Tim Gunn way too long to decide to re-up for Project Runway. Like, way too long. In the meantime, we’ve been relegated to syndication hell while watching re-runs of What Not to Wear. Lame. While we wait for the fall collections and more Project Runway, we’ll check out…

Pete Cecere must have one sick crib. Evidently, he designed his pumpkin-colored home in western Virginia so it could house his collection of more than 12,000 pieces of folk art — way impressive considering that the Louvre in Paris currently displays about 35,000 pieces. In 2005, Cecere generously donated 1,000…

Scottsdale is ground zero for $30,000 millionaires. Shiny shirts, spray-on man tans, fake Rolexes, and credit-card debt higher than their spiky, gelled hairdos. These late-night leisure zombies have also infected Tempe and Arcadia, and rumor has it that they’ll stop at nothing in pursuit of fake boobs, nose jobs, and…

For every suburban dwelling swathed in the ubiquitous builder-beige color palette, there’s a soccer mom and dad who hope to stamp their home with their own personal style. Problem is, this style seems to be shared by everyone in their ZIP code, which means McDesign for your McMansion. If blendin’…

Who wants to see John Travolta create drag travesty as Edna Turnblad in the upcoming big-screen remake of Hairspray? The original Edna, portrayed by the wickedly delicious Divine in the 1988 original, was, shall we say, truly divine. Irony draped in satire, Divine was born to wear Edna’s charmingly frumpy…

Renaissance artists painted them, Howard Stern worships them, spring breakers flash them, Scottsdale doctors pump them up, Jonathan Adler makes vases out of them, and every teenage boy longs for a pair of his own. Now Club Vibe has named its new Friday-night shindig after them. That’s right, bazoombas. The…