Alice in Chains

Attention journalists: Y’all need to bow down to the late Alice Allison Dunnigan. Dunnigan (1906-1983) was a black female journalist during some of the most racist times this country has ever had the supreme displeasure of experiencing. So with that setting in mind, imagine what happened when Dunnigan, while writing…

Cool Out

Local book sale? Cool. Homegrown treasure markets? Rad. Book sale paired with treasure market? Super freaking cool and rad. For fifteen years, the Heard Museum has been all that and a bag of chips with its Heard Museum Guild Library Book Sale and Treasure Market. Featuring more than 30,000 tomes…

Does Arizona Have the Most Romantic Main Street? Submit a Photo.

A national group is ditching the greeting-card cheese of Valentine’s Day and is instead tying the “holiday” together with historical preservation. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is currently accepting entries for its “Most Romantic Main Street” photography contest. According to the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit, photographed sites can include “candle-lit…

Top 5 Things To Do This Weekend

Tease … A Scandalesque Evening of Intrigue and Delight @ The DuceThe Scandalesque burlesque troupe presents a night of sybaritic pleasures that will feature live dance, music, and specialty performances. The Mistress of Tease, Blissom Booble, hosts the shindig on Friday, January 21, that will also showcase a midnight brunch…

Phil G. Giriodi: A Conversation With The Photojournalist Turned Author

Scottsdale resident Phil G. Giriodi spent 48 years chronicling the best and the worst this crazy orb has to offer. From the eruption of Mount St. Helens’ to the mid-air plane crash of Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182, Giriodi has photographically been there, done that. One thing he hadn’t accomplished…

Decked Out

Twenty years from now, we hope that the works in the Molten Brothers’ “DECK” shows are featured in an anthology exhibit like “Full Deck: A Short History of Skateboard Art.” Organized by Bedford Gallery, located at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California, the traveling show features…

In the Icehouse

If this year is indeed the Icehouse’s swan song (see the Jackalope Ranch blog “Icehouse Slated to Close at 2011’s End”), January’s activities will make you want to fight for its survival. Along with Joe Jankovsky’s photography exhibit, there’s a group show featuring the work of ASU art students, which…

Electric Avenue

No more boring Tuesday nights . . . At Trunk Space the longest-running, locally-produced live talk show, Grand Avenue Live!, goes off with host Ernesto Moncada (aka Ernasty) and his shenanigans. Tue., Jan. 25, 8 p.m., 2011…

Jerome Grand Hotel To Reopen Following Judge’s Injunction

A Yavapai County Superior Court judge has allowed the Jerome Grand Hotel to reopen following what hotel co-owner Robert Altherr called an “illegal shutdown.” As was previously reported, the historic hotel’s certificate of occupancy was revoked by town officials on December 8 due to “unsafe” conditions. The move caused the…

The Photography of Timothy Archibald

Take a look at the image to the left about photo etiquette (in case it’s hard to read, go here for a larger likeness) and tell us, with a straight face, that you’ve never photographed a pet, bridges, puddles, or your car’s rear-view mirror. You have, haven’t you?! This image…

Tucson: There’s More to It Than Tragedy

For a long time (and possibly forever), Tucson is going to be synonymous with tragedy. That’s a shame. You see, our neighbor to the south is much more than a place where six people lost their lives and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured. Arizona’s second-largest city, which is the…

The West’s Only Irish Library To Land in Phoenix

The Irish Cultural Center of Phoenix has announced plans to expand its operations into a 11,000-square-foot Irish Cultural Center Library that will be the first of its kind in the Southwest. The spot at 1106 North Central Avenue will feature more than 6,000 books, a performance space, and a slick…

Phoenix’s Littlest Toy Show

Do you love Star Wars, Star Trek, and G.I. Joe action figures? What about Hot Wheels and Marvel Comics? Do you like unabated toy browsing in confined spaces rather than an overwhelming retail environment? Are you on the verge of having a conniption fit because everything you just read is,…

Huckleberry Finn for Hipsters (Literally)

Remember this passage from Mark Twain’s seminal book? “Hipsters would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any hipster in that country. Strange hipsters would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a…

Desert Dog Days

Unlike last season, the Phoenix Coyotes aren’t such hot you-know-what in 2010-11 thus far. But that’s better than the Toronto Maple Leafs, who haven’t been relevant for a decade-ish. Last time the Maple Leafs qualified for the National Hockey League playoffs was 2003-2004. (Sound familiar, Coyotes’ fans?) If the postseason…

Market Research

One of the biggest bummers about a relatively new city like Phoenix is the absence of established markets, à la New York City, Tokyo, Mexico City, and even places like Kumasi, Ghana. But what those on-cultural-steroids haunts may not have is a countrified, chill-out gathering featuring Native American, Latino, and…

King for a Day

For naysayers that think this place can’t sustain tradition, chew on this: the Dr. Martin Luther King Festival and March – which starts at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church and proceeds a couple of miles through central Phoenix before posting up for a celebration at Margaret T. Hance Park, 1134 North…

Get Jiggle Wit’ It

For a real taste of jazz in this town, à la NYC-style (the best style, btw), hit up the Lost Leaf and marinate your ears in the sounds of local quartet Jiggle. The band — fronted by founder/bassist Ted Sistrunk and including hot-shot drummer Shaun Lowecki and woodwind players Scott…

Phoenix Improv Festival 2011 Dates Announced

The 2011 edition of the Phoenix Improv Festival will take place on April 15 and April 16, festival officials announced last week. The indie fest, which will be entering its tenth year, is produced and run by Bill Binder, a stalwart in Phoenix’s improv community. PIF (the hip kids pronounce…

Rick Waymire, Owner of Waymire Studios (1946 – 2011)

Rick Waymire, co-owner of Glendale’s Waymire Studio for the Performing Arts, has died following a long-term illness. He was 64. His passing was announced by wife and studio co-owner Linda, who said, “Rick slipped away peacefully and my mind knows he’s in a better place. I’m trying to get my…