There’s something alluring about blood, violence and sex — especially when you combine all three together in one show. That’s the formula which makes HBO’s True Blood series so successful. Based on Charlaine Harris’ ongoing Sookie Stackhouse novels, the show follows mind-reading protagonist Sookie in her misadventures in a world…
The Ringling Bros. pitched their Big Top at US Airways Center this week, but the famed circus isn’t the only spectacle in town this weekend. If you’re not blushing at the bratwurst on stage in Nearly Naked’s Eating Raoul or juggling balls at the annual Firecracker Softball Tournament, here are…
It’s a pretty good tradeoff to be shut inside for a brief time during the summer, only to emerge from our air-conditioned cocoons in September ready to throw our perfect fall/winter/spring weather in everyone’s faces. So let’s embrace our summer limitations rather than trying to prove we’re so badass that a little (or…
Mystery writers are a strange breed. Agatha Christie had imaginary friends well into adulthood, Stephen King killed off his alter-ego Richard Bachman with “cancer of the pseudonym,” and Patricia Cornwell reportedly had an unhealthy obsession with unmasking the identity of Jack the Ripper. Learn what makes modern-day mystery authors tick…
Before independent short films caught on with cinephiles and hipsters, ten-minute flicks used to be relegated to crappy homegrown film festivals served up in basements and school cafeterias, or to the ten-minute preview slot before a “real” film. Local film buff Steve Weiss paved the way for a better appreciation…
Barrio Cafe has been in the news a lot lately, what with the upcoming airport branch and Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza’s new Scottsdale restaurant ventures in the works. But she’s not the only Barrio chef to be getting around.Esparza’s right-hand man, Chef Julio Mata, will demonstrate food preparation techniques as…
When it was time for dissection in high school science class, local artist Lindsey Bessanson was fearless. “I was the one who pretty much did everyone else’s homework,” she says. Bessanson eventually found a practical use for her willingness to get up close and personal with dead bugs, first casting…
With Independence Day right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about your contribution to the inevitable holiday picnic slash barbecue. A Jell-O mold? The classic Cool Whip flag cake with strawberry stripes and a blueberry field?With seedless personal watermelons overflowing in supermarket produce bins lately, we decided to…
If you moved to Phoenix from a totally different climate, you’re bound to have a disturbing night out when you’re decked in high heels or a new pair of kicks, and a giant roach scurries across the sidewalk and onto — or at least, eerily close to — your foot…
If you were hoping to get your sweet on at the Cupcake Crawl or looking forward to rocking out with Canadian band Dayglo Abortions, you’re out of luck. Tickets for the cupcake and liquor event are already sold out, and the Abortions have been aborted, er, deported back to Canada…
Back in May, Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport announced their selection of HMS Host’s locally-focused proposal for a new cache of restaurants inside Terminal 4 as the first of two restaurant “master concessionaire” contracts to be awarded for the terminal’s new food program. After passing through several committees, the contract received…
Fast-casual restaurants always say how much they appreciate their customers, without whom they wouldn’t survive, blah, blah. But today, Jimmy John’s is putting its money where your mouth is.As part of Customer Appreciation Day, the sub shop chain is offering their signature “freaky fast, freaky fresh” sandwiches for just a…
Humans have never been a squeamish race. The ancient Romans literally threw outsiders to the lions, and public hangings were even a popular form of entertainment in medieval times. In modern times, we fill our blood-and-guts quota with cage fights, horror flicks, and crime shows like CSI and Bones. Local…
The star of Footloose is in town this week for a little toe-tapping seminar at Dance Studio 111 in Phoenix. No, not Kevin Bacon — he’s busy riding the wave of box office success from his turn as supervillain Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class. We’re talking about Kenny Wormald,…
With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, everyone is focusing on what meats to round up for the inevitable Sunday cookout. Because even though it’s Dad’s special day, he inexplicably prefers to stay home and chuck some ground chuck onto the faithful backyard barbecue grill rather than living it up…
Phoenix-area artist Jon Haddock has never been afraid to venture off the path of normalcy. Best known for his vintage mouse porn drawings and Isometric Screenshots of such major crimes as the Kennedy assassination and the Columbine shootings, the ASU graduate turned art professor is currently wearing his geekiness like a badge of…
Despite the fact that summer temps have finally arrived, there’s no shortage of (mostly indoor) activities to keep you occupied this weekend. The Phoenix Fridas are offering a sneak peek inside the famed artist’s boudoir along with a ton of Frida-themed art at Vision Gallery in Chandler, and the cardboard-covered…
Last fall, artist Diana Campanella and several others who were familiar with Phoenix’s Town & Country Shopping Center had a pretty smart usage idea for the former Jutenhoops spot (at 303 E. Ocotillo Road in Phoenix), which had remained empty for nearly a decade: set up a temporary gallery. They…
Erik “the Red” Denmark isn’t one to back down from a challenge — any challenge. A former golfer on Seattle’s amateur circuit, Denmark turned his attention towards a less conventional sport in 2005 when he downed a boatload of chicken in a San Francisco wing-eating competition. “I really was just…
A good play will keep you entertained long enough to put aside your troubles for an hour or two. A bad play, on the other hand, will leave you squirming in an uncomfortable, rickety, squeaky theater chair for what feels like a lifetime. That’s why we’re thankful for Theatre Artists…
Some Phoenicians are backwards-thinking when it comes to shit like birther bills and illegal immigration, but at least our kids can talk about their sexual orientation in school. Same-sex marriage may not be legal here, but there’s plenty more for the gay (or should we say, Takei?), lesbian, bisexual and…
Traditionally, haiku are peaceful poems about nature – in other words, a total snooze fest. But at the Pink Slip Haiku Deathmatch, locals will spit sweet 17-syllable poems on topics ranging from the crappy desert weather to Internet porn. “These poems came to us through Japanese books and art. But,…
