Megalopolitan Life

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play, and its Arizona Theater Company production was a high point of this past season. Most memorably, this longish two-act about a trio of siblings, two of whom are living in their family home after caring for their deceased parents, was Isabell Monk O’Connor’s wild performance. She whipped up a gleeful storm as a voodoo-enthused housekeeper, but her quieter moments — when she walked quickly through a scene, waggling a hat pin, or when she watched Charles Janasz’s marvelous, nearly eight-minute-long tirade about the death of humankind — are moments we’re still chuckling over.

There’s more to Phoenix photography than sun-soaked scenes of cacti and mountains. Take the historic warehouse district, for example. Situated in an area bounded by Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue and Jackson and Grant streets, this downtown district acts as a playground for photographers aiming for that oh-so-in industrial look. Vintage signage, exposed brick backdrops, and the occasional street art makes for some memorable engagement shots, art portfolios, and gritty film stills. This callback to the city’s commercial past combined with its raw urban presence makes for a winning juxtaposition of alt-charm. While the district is slowly seeing a revival thanks to businesses like Icehouse, The Duce, Bentley Projects, R+R, and Moses, much of the landscape remains retired and surpassingly accessible for the agile photographer and his crew.

Ah, to live the city life through the lens of @downindowntown, a.k.a. Keith G. Mulvin. The downtown Phoenix enthusiast spends his days working for the International Rescue Committee, which often means interacting with people and friends all over town. And whether he’s on foot or on his bike, Mulvin has a good eye for the still-lifes that make Phoenix, well, Phoenix. He’s captured a range of downtown’s unique architecture (both existing and in the process of being demolished), stunning sunsets, quirky street art, and details we may pass everyday but are happily surprised to see again in a neat, framed square.

What Arizona Republic photographer Mark Henle can do with an Instagram account shouldn’t be legal. We know we can’t make our photos look like that no matter how many filters we try. But Henle is nice enough to share, and we are inspired and awed on a daily basis by the humor and talent in a simple image of a pool toy or a silly shot of a dog. We love seeing our world through his eyes.

@markhenle

Millions of stunning pictures have been taken by photographers attempting to capture the essence of the flowering desert. But none has done so at the level of Petra Fromme, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at ASU who led an international team of scientists to take the first snapshots of photosynthesis in action. That’s right; the pictures show the plants’ cells splitting water into protons, electrons, and oxygen. The photos aren’t the prettiest Arizona has ever produced, but Fromme’s work could lead to the development of an artificial leaf, which scientists think may be one solution to energy shortages. We’re impressed.

While we’re complaining about triple-digit temperatures and rummaging through our closets to find anything comfortable to wear, Burton Barr Central Library preps for its coolest event of the year. At the stroke of noon every June 21, the library opens its doors to the public for a unique natural light show. When the library was designed by Will Bruder, the architect included a Great Reading Room with a 32-foot suspended ceiling and several 6-inch-by-300-foot skylights on the east and west walls that work together to create a dazzling spectacle every Summer Solstice. Call it a good excuse to ditch the office or an impressive lunch date, we’ll be marking our calendars for a cultural escape from the heat.

Women and their stories are not being adequately represented in American theater — not here in the Valley, nor on Broadway, nor points between. Two women working in local theater took note of these daunting demographics and, late last year, took action. Thespians Brenda Jean Foley and Tracy Liz Miller launched the Bridge Initiative to address the issue of gender disparity in Arizona theater. In January, the newly founded organization was awarded a $6,000 Arts Tank seed funding grant by the Arizona Arts Commission, and took that money to actress and businesswoman Lizz Reeves Fidler. The trio landed at Mesa Encore Theatre, a small East Valley house that provided additional fiscal sponsorship, a place to perform, and access to the company’s nonprofit status. After meeting their matching-money goal via a crowd-sourcing campaign, they went on to create a series of quarterly networking events, offer master classes in playwriting, and created an awards program that will mount a production of its first-place play. Brava!

www.facebook.com/bridgeinit

As with so many local arts events, we found ourselves attending the holiday performance of the Phoenix Metropolitan Men’s Chorus simply to see a friend’s brother perform. By intermission, we were texting friends to say, “You’ve got to go online and buy tickets to the next performance!”

We were completely blown away. Not only does this group work toward its mission of promoting acceptance and understanding of the LGBT community in Phoenix, it puts on a hell of a show. The vocal quality was stellar, the props kitschy in all the right ways, and the crowd was as engaged as we were.

The chorus performs throughout the year, and we know for sure that we’ll never miss its Christmas show.

www.phoenixmenschorus.org

Young playwright Eric Dufault’s angst-drenched story is presented by a quartet of characters who demonstrate what happens when pain and longing spin out of control. What makes it different, then? It’s nudged along by a talking bird who, as played by Austin Kiehle, was some kind of revelation. He proved an unusually wide range by playing a maniacal rooster, determined to murder the sun — apparently his true enemy — and everything under it. Furious and pumped up on a combo of steroids and Chicken McNuggets, he was a captivating capon, strutting jerkily, twitching and crowing violent diatribes, and making what might have been a production-sinking camp performance into something worth seeing.

Calling poor, hapless audience members up out of the crowd and humiliating them is too easy, a particularly low form of humor, gratuitous and frankly dreary, since the poor slobs hauled up on stage invariably have no talent for acting. On the other hand, there was recently the one-two punch of Ron May starring in Richard Bean’s smart tribute to commedia dell’arte, One Man, Two Guvnors at Phoenix Theatre. This update of Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters slotted in an inordinate amount of chumming with the audience which — thanks to Pasha Yamotahari’s slick direction and May’s princely performance — turned out to be a ton of fun. May was called upon to tart up the also-ran responses shouted from the darkened house, and wowed audiences as ringmaster to a dazzling supporting cast that included stalwarts David Barker, Lucas Coatney, and Joseph Kremer.

When iTheatre Collaborative postponed its production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark last year, it was because casting of the title role wasn’t going well. Vera Stark is, like so many actresses who start out hungry and wind up legendary, alone on her own stage. Unlike a lot of leading-lady parts, she’s also tough to play. She works alongside other actors only because she needs someone to talk to, but none — in her estimation, and in ours — are her equals. Vera is a fictional character, drawn from life by playwright Lynn Nottage. Nicole Belit, the woman who played her in the iTheatre production, was very real. Eyes pooling with tears, nostrils flaring, and with posture that suggests she’d swallowed a yardstick, Belit was dazzling. Her second act performance provided wider range and the opportunity to play drunkenness, anger, and an aged actress’s scenery-chewing. But it’s the Vera of Act One who stayed with us: wildly romantic, full of energy and singleness of purpose as she aspired to a grander existence.

Downtown Phoenix’s warehouse district is well on its way to an urban revival, thanks to forward-thinking art galleries, ad agencies, and developers who don’t shy away from the shadier parts of town. Among this parade of industrial pioneers is our new favorite place for private events, The Croft. Inside this seemingly unsuspecting building, longtime event planners and venue owners Mark and Angela Karp of Angelic Grove have taken their staging skills to the next level by creating an event space that does cozy as well as it does corporate. Exposed brick walls, concrete floors, suspended chandeliers, and wrought iron gates from a retired bank building are just a few of the fixtures that give this rehabbed building the romantic touch. With an outdoor patio, ceremony room, reception hall, and their own private office space, The Croft is taking events both big and small and making them the talk of the town.

We attended a Desert Stages Theater production of Neil Simon’s Biloxi Blues hoping to see pleasant performances and maybe grab a few laughs. Who knew a powerhouse performance by a principal player — a performance so thrilling that it completely overshadowed the production itself and its other leads — lay in wait? The stunning performance by Todd Michael Isaac, who turned the secondary role of Epstein into a sensation, was more than a little memorable. It began small, with a handful of casually delivered wisecracks that built into a bravura of confrontation and emotion. He hadn’t been seen on stage since an equally superb portrayal in the same company’s production of The Pillowman a few years ago, but this performance — tense, stylish, slightly unhinged — was worth the wait.

We see very little from local playwrights, a rare breed whose work is usually relegated to workshop productions before being tucked away forever. Richard Warren is one among a very few exceptions. This year, a staged reading of Warren’s Revocable Trust received a lot of attention. His adaptation of theater legend Dale Wasserman’s memoirs, Burning in the Night: A Hobo’s Song, was performed in two local playhouses. And at Theater Works in Peoria, Warren’s Shifting Gears — a full rewrite of Pollywogs, a two-act Warren wrote back in 1999 — trod the boards in the black box McMillin Theater. The improved and retitled version received a pair of workshop productions at Phoenix Theatre, followed by a full production at Sedona’s Canyon Moon Theater before Theater Works’ executive director Daniel Schay, who directed the recent production, signed the play. The result was a small, talky story that ponL.dered a recent world in transition, circa 1961, and received generous reviews from every corner.

Carley Conder just might be the Valley’s most recognizable dancer. It’s an honor she’s earned by working year-round on a slew of movement projects. Not only does the Tempe-based contemporary dancer and choreographer helm her own company, CONDER/dance, she also teaches dance at ASU and Scottsdale Community College, routinely performs original pieces at venues including ARTELPHX, and puts together the annual Breaking Ground festival, which features debut dance and film works from around the world. Our feet are tired just thinking about all the running around. But leave it to Conder to keep on moving.

When Natasha Duran-Lynch debuted her fashion line Hues of Ego at Phoenix Fashion Week 2014, it was met with all-out excitement. Perhaps more surprising: The enthusiasm was warranted. Though she looked like a frontrunner in the competition, she didn’t end up winning the emerging designer of the year title. The Scottsdale-based designer made a memorable showing in white, black, and pink with dramatic, airy headpieces, sculpted gowns, and chic coats. She will return to Phoenix Fashion Week’s emerging designer competition in 2015, and we have a feeling her second go-round will include a showstopper or two.

www.huesofego.com

Remember when the tornado sent Dorothy flying over the rainbow, transporting her from a world of black and white to one of quirky technicolor? That’s exactly how we felt when we first laid eyes on the highly saturated and subtly sinister work of Scott Wolf. The lowbrow artist, who has been raising eyebrows all over Phoenix, appearing in galleries such as MonOrchid, R. Pela Contemporary, and Willo North, has found a talent in flipping the wholesome family on its head while playfully flipping the bird to mainstream marketing. The Mesa-based painter and digital manipulator blends perversion with pop culture, creating a twisted take on Americana with the help of violence and sexuality. Between children with chainsaws and bunnies birthing Easter eggs in the Virgin Mary’s Arms, Wolf’s work is so wrong it’s right.

www.colororgy.com

For her masters of fine arts thesis show, ASU student Samantha Lyn Aasen presented one of the most exciting exhibitions of the year. Titled “Sparkle Baby,” the mixed-media show featured photography and installations that assaulted the pretty pink princess cult of femininity that’s marketed at young girls and women, who are expected to love glittery nonsense while also embodying perfection and oozing sex. Particularly amusing was her skewering of the vajazzling trend (you know, the one in which women glue rhinestones to their waxed vaginas). She crafted a display wall of options, including ones that spelled out “party girl,” “brat,” and “do me” in sad, shiny plastic.

www.samanthalyn.com

Ask Olivia Gardens how she got her name and she’ll put it simply, “I love Olive Garden.” Wigs, falsies, and heavy eye makeup aside, this drag queen keeps it real — and busy. The former Miss Phoenix USofA, Miss Phoenix Gay Pride, and Miss Gay Phoenix America has hosted a slew of weekly events — her current one being Garden Variety Revue, Wednesdays at Kobalt. She may not be as buxom as some of the other broads on stage — in fact, she has a toned body that many of us might kill for — but Miss Gardens knows how to keep her shows entertaining. A pleasantry here and a penis joke there, she’s nuanced in playing it naughty and nice.

www.facebook.com/olivia.gardens

It’s one thing to have an interesting story. It’s a whole other thing to know how to tell it. Kim Porter has perfected the art of putting others in her shoes. The Tempe-based writer and actor has won three L.A. Weekly Theater Awards, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards, and one of New Times‘ very own Big Brain Awards for her work at downtown’s Space 55 Theatre. When she’s not working behind the scenes on larger scale projects — a book, a play, perhaps the next New York Times bestselling memoir — Porter has been found sharing stories about her past at events like The Most of Lit Lounge and Scottsdale Public Art’s Water Logged. Though her stories are always a surprise, there’s one outcome that can always be expected: A show featuring Kim Porter is primed to sell out.

www.kimporter.net

Believe it or not, it’s possible to be a Republican politician in this state without peddling conspiracy theories, pandering to the extreme right wing, and promoting oppressive legislation. Republican Representative Jeff Dial is proof of this, and he’s a Republican whom even Democrats can love. While many of his colleagues are trying to turn back the clock, Dial’s agenda is largely forward-looking, trying to keep Arizona ahead of the curve, especially when it comes to technology. When the extreme wing of his party attempts to pass legislation that benefits special interests more than the people, Dial’s one of the small number of Republican lawmakers who actually will say “no.”

We enjoy a good kitten YouTube video from time to time, but nothing beats watching an adorable one in person. Especially when it’s a striped baby tiger, and still at that age when it probably won’t maul us to death. Fingers crossed, the Phoenix Zoo will become home later this year to a Sumatran tiger cub. The zoo has housed Jai, a full-grown male tiger for a while, but his bachelor days are over; earlier this year, Suriya, a stunning female tiger from Oklahoma came to town. The zoo is hoping they mate because Sumatran tigers are a critically endangered species — there are fewer than 400 living in the wild. And though we’re all about preventing unnecessary extinction, we’re also pretty stoked for what we’re picturing to be a modern-day Simba-Nala love affair (only with real tigers, not cartoon lions).

When Lisa Sette Gallery in midtown Phoenix culled works for its “30 Years” exhibition in March, a C-print showing Matthew Moore’s transformation of a piece of land into the likeness of a housing tract was among them. The Phoenix artist also is a fourth-generation farmer, and he reacted to news that his grandfather had sold family land in Surprise to a developer by replicating plans for its development using the land itself as his canvas and crops as his media, creating 253 houses with sorghum and making roads seeded in wheat. He’s also used a hoe to make 8-foot-wide lines depicting the enlarged floorplan of single-family house using a 20-acre barley field as his canvas. His 2012 And the Land Grew Quiet, a 5,000-square-foot installation at the Phoenix Art Museum explored American cycles in agriculture and economics, and his 2014 talk for TEDxManhattan considered the ways art can change the way people eat. By merging art with farming, Moore fuels conversations about what Americans value, and ways this should be reflected in policy and practice.

www.matthewmooreartist.com

Once locals thought of canals simply as a means to transport water to and fro, but Scottsdale Public Art has built a solid case in recent years for the role of canals in engaging diverse members of the community in a host of issues and experiences. Most recently, it has presented Canal Convergence 2015, a four-day event held along the banks of the Arizona Canal at the Scottsdale Waterfront. The free event drew people of all ages who enjoyed installations of public art, dance performance, live bands, readings by local storytellers, art vendors, and assorted food and drink. Folks from Scottsdale and beyond hit the canal area, where local artists “Mimi” Shirley Jardine engaged them in collecting small bits of litter for reuse in artwork, and Erin V. Sotak donned her tricycle to engage them in thinking about responsible water use. Saskia Jorda’s bird-themed installation raised awareness of the ways human use of resources impacts wildlife. Two art installations were placed atop the water. By using the canal and its surrounds, Scottsdale Public Art is facilitating important dialogue while giving people fun interactive experiences — showing the creativity it takes to keep digital devotees engaged in up close and personal arts and culture.

www.scottsdalepublicart.org

In the 1970s, big-name artist James Turrell made an enviable land purchase — an extinct 400,000-year-old volcanic crater about 40 miles outside Flagstaff. His vision: a naked-eye observatory and a long-lasting tribute to the desert. For decades, Turrell has wowed audiences around the world with massive installations using light and physical space. What is known about Turrell’s art project/world-wonder-in-progress is the stuff of legend in the art world — mostly because very few have been invited to see it. In the Roden Crater, Turrell’s apparently been building tunnels and a massive atrium that will act as both an observatory of the desert sky and as a space that captures natural light “linking visitors with the celestial movements of planets, stars, and distant galaxies.” Far out.

www.rodencrater.com

We spotted these feathered friends from afar just as spring was turning to summer — but there was no outdoor trekking required. Local artists Koryn Woodward Wasson and Jamie Chandler created a 10-part series of portal birds, multimedia collaborative artworks for the exhibition “Fireweather: The Dark Forest of Crystal Burn,” which also included an installation by Roy Wasson Valle. The show took place in Tucson, but this flock of birds, a stunning combination of vibrant watercolors by Wasson and geometric embroidery work by Chandler, had us swooning over social media and wishing we could fly south. Each piece depicts a pair of mirrored birds: one from the Sonoran Desert and one from the fictional realm of Crystal Burn. We’re still holding out hope that the art will migrate up to the Valley so we can get a closer look at those tail feathers.

www.squareup.com/market/fireweatherstudio

Whether you call them haboobs or just good ol’ dust storms, when that giant wall of dust is headed your way, you’re going to take notice. You either can take cover or, if you’re bold, take out your camera. And if you want to take it to the next level with those haboob photos, we recommend taking a drive and staking out a spot on East Valle Vista Road. Turn north onto North Arcadia Drive off of Camelback Road at the base of Camelback Mountain, and take that seven-tenths of a mile to the second cutback. From there, you’ll be able to see almost the entirety of the Valley (south of Camelback Mountain, of course). Pick your spot, set up your tripod, and watch those storms cover the city.

Looking for something fun and educational to do with your kids without melting in the summer heat? Try the Great Arizona Puppet Theater. This year-round venue offers multiple shows every weekday for a killer price: $7 for kids and $10 for adults. The theater has a whole genre of shows dedicated to teaching about life in the Arizona desert, and kids can learn about saguaros, water conservation, the giant condor, and other endangered species. It also makes a great field trip for elementary school classes, and their puppeteers will come to your home for a birthday party. Everything about this place screams fun and creativity: the puppets, stage, and props are superbly crafted, and the building itself is gorgeous with domed ceilings, exposed wooden beams, and a courtyard. Need we say more?

Sometimes you have to leave a place to truly love it — and when you’re gone for long enough, you may even start to miss it. Luckily, whether it’s been a weekend or a few years, reminders of the desert are everywhere, and for a quick fix for the homesickness bug, all you’ll need is Instagram — @desert_oasis, to be specific. While the Instagrammer stays relatively anonymous, his public profile provides a beautiful window into the desert. The photographer shoots only with his iPhone, promising to “let nature do the talking” while on kayak runs on Tempe Town Lake, walks through the Desert Botanical Garden, or hikes through Havasupai (often with his dog, @ladypahl). The composition is always perfect, the colors stunning, and the view purely home.

Farmland once sold to the federal government, which built the Phoenix Indian School (attended by 900 students in its heyday), since has been transformed into a thriving urban center of activity boasting indoor and outdoor performances spaces, dog parks, historical displays, open green areas, and covered ramadas. Three of the original buildings have been preserved, and the site also includes an American Indian Veterans Memorial. Now operated by the city of Phoenix, the park is used by multiple generations who enjoy walking, fishing, playing volleyball, and more. Paintings on 8-foot wooden panels done by local artists through a project spearheaded by Hugo Medina are installed facing the street along wrought-iron fencing around a portion of the park’s perimeter. Like community gardens at the park, they’re part of ongoing efforts by PHX Renews to activate a portion of the park that was previously a vacant lot. It’s a fun place to hang out, a community gathering place that draws diverse visitors, and a testament to what’s possible when people, organizations, and government collaborate for the mutual good.

In the category of “advice that should only be taken while stoned” comes a gem found in the depths of Internet forums: Feed your plants with bong water. From cacti and succulents to aloe and bathtub weed, a few pot enthusiasts have taken to the web to spread their knowledge, questions, and findings. A sample: “My friend was telling me how his buddy uses bong water for his indoor house plants and it makes them grow crazy,” “Like would the plants that you water with it be like smaller and lazier?” “I was sure this wasn’t true until I saw another thread on here. It said that pouring bong water on ur plant is good for it. I dont know what to think anymore because both sides of the argument have good reasons for doing each one.” A few quick calls to local dispensaries and nurseries (who all wished to remain unnamed), yielded stifled laughs — and an overwhelming “no.” Just pour it out, dude. Or give it a try. Only one way to find out for sure.

Bougainvillea doesn’t grow on the moon, but that didn’t stop Phoenix artist Mary Shindell from imagining how the surface and texture of each relates to the other. The Sonoran Desert has defined her as an artist and an individual, according to Shindell’s own artist statement. Shindell’s work explores similarities between images of Earth captured from far away and images of desert plants taken at close range. Desert topography most people typically find dull became decidedly cool during Shindell’s January 2015 “Inflection Point” exhibition at Five15 Arts on Roosevelt Row, which included a graphite and ink drawing merging the topography of the moon and the Estrella Mountains just southwest of metro Phoenix. Shindell’s take on desert topography lends new perspective on the landscape of our lives.

www.maryshindell.com

Chances are you already know the work of Mike Olbinski and just don’t realize it. If you’ve seen a breathtaking photo of a giant wall of dust about to overtake Phoenix amid the perfect lighting at dusk, or a haboob rolling into the city mirrored by pink clouds at sunset, you’ve seen Olbinski’s creations. While most photos of our giant dust storms are interesting, this native photographer’s shots are simply works of art. And his repertoire isn’t limited to haboobs — any interesting weather formation captures his eye, and Olbinski in turn captures it at the perfect moment. When he isn’t running around Arizona and nearby states chasing storms, Olbinski fills his time photographing portraits and weddings, which actually may not be too different from photographing storms.

www.mikeolbinski.com/storms

Talking about something other than politics in the household of Linda and John Kavanagh must be next to impossible. Having moved to Arizona in 1993 from the East Coast, the popular couple from Fountain Hills — now married for about 40 years — had a little experience in government before rising to respectable offices in their new home state. He’s a former Lafayette, New Jersey, town councilman, and she was on Lafayette’s planning board and the board of directors of their children’s private school. John Kavanagh, a retired Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police detective with more than 20 years on the force, was first elected to the State Legislature’s Eighth District in 2007 as a Representative. He’s a hardcore conservative whose antics occasionally annoy even other Republicans, including igniting a national firestorm in 2013 with a proposed law that would have made it a crime for a transgender person to use a bathroom not designated for the sex listed on the person’s birth certificate. He was elected to the State Senate’s District 23 in November. Linda Kavanagh, who bills herself as pro-business and a tireless public servant on a plethora of civic organizations, is now serving her second two-year term as mayor. They’re putting their synergy together to shape Arizona’s future — for better or worse.

If your kind of adventure is somewhere off the beaten path (and out of social media range), then once you’ve packed your compass and flare kit, look no further than the resources in Central Library’s Arizona Room. The gold mine of culture is packed with hidden treasures of Arizona’s past and is home to a number of maps so rare that the library staff won’t let anyone with a pen through the door (pencils only, please). In the collection: 7.5-minute topographic maps, aerial surveys of Phoenix dating back to 1968, a historic Sanborn map, and countless books on all kinds of surveys of the Arizona desert. And if you finish planning with time to spare, don’t miss the giant map of Phoenix on the wall on the library’s second floor, which offers a rare and historic look at the city we too often view through the lens of a smartphone.

It would be easy to lose a few hours inside Arizona State University’s Natural History Collections. The collection is home to one of the largest acquisitions of plants and animals from the Sonoran Desert and the world. There are taxidermy turtles, deer, and owls. In one room, there’s a wall of rattlesnakes and lizards coiled up in jars. In another, there are 2,600 drawers filled with nearly a million insects, each one carefully preserved, mounted, and classified.

For decades, the collection was hidden away in the basement at ASU, where even researchers had a difficult time accessing it. But in October, officials moved all the fossils, plants, birds, fish, reptiles, mammals, and insects to its own building in Tempe with the goal of making it more available to the public. The front half is much like a museum, with skeletons and skins on display. In the back, visitors can observe scientists at work. Call ahead to plan a visit.

Phoenix photographer Andrew Pielage put the Arizona desert on the map — and the billboard, and the magazine ad, and so on — earlier this year when his gorgeous photo was chosen by Apple as part of an iPhone 6 ad campaign. (Pielage signed a deal with Apple that prevents us from showing you the photo here.) New Times is lucky enough to call Pielage one of our own — beautiful desert photography graced this year’s Best of Phoenix marketing campaign. We’re glad the world’s gotten a chance to take note of him, too.

Just a few miles from the Old Town Scottsdale gallery scene, you’ll find a different kind of artistic destination. For more than seven decades, Cattle Track Arts Compound has been attracting both artists and appreciators of the arts to its Old West complex, hidden amid the desert landscape. Since engineer George Ellis built the original structure with recycled materials in 1937, Cattle Track has acted as workplace and sometimes home of some of the most creative artists in our state’s history, including Philip Curtis, who helped to found the Phoenix Art Museum. Today, Cattle Track offers frequent events ranging from art shows to live performances and houses a blacksmith, Cattle Track Press, painters, photographers, and a number of other creatives.

Where else can you combine live music, hot chocolate, twinkly lights, and the most gorgeous desert plants in the world? Lucky for us, the Desert Botanical Garden is located smack in the center of the Valley, and the long-honored garden tradition of holiday luminaria is still going strong. The season just isn’t complete for us without tickets to this event, featuring carolers, bell players, and other local musical acts. It may not snow in these parts, but it begins to look a lot like Christmas when we throw on a light jacket and head off into the night to the Desert Botanical Garden.

We loved artist Rebecca Green’s mural The Storybook so much that we gave it a Best of Phoenix award in 2013. Green, not so much. She left town shortly after working on the mural and was never satisfied with it. So earlier this year, she returned to Grand Avenue to paint an entirely new mural, a sweet, colorful, cactus-filled scene she called The Painted Desert.

And we loved that mural all the more, particularly since we were already hard at work planning this year’s Best of Phoenix theme, The Painted Desert. Great minds and all that, right?

We miss Green, who’s hopscotched from Phoenix to Denver to Nashville, but those of us sticking around town are happy to play alongside her painted desert.

You can’t, as it turns out. But “It’s so hot, you can fry an egg on the sidewalk!” long has been a standard summertime exclamation around these parts. Meant as a creative alternative to the plain old “Boy, it’s hot!” this story’s nearly as old as the ones Aesop used to peddle — and about as factual, too. According to Bill Nye the Science Guy, the lowest temperature at which one can cook an egg is 130 degrees Fahrenheit — and only if you want to grill that bird ovum for nearly a half-hour.

Further, concrete is a lousy conductor of heat: It’s light-colored in order to reflect rather than absorb heat. Cracking the egg into a frying pan and placing that on the macadam doesn’t work, either — we tried it. Still, groaning about cooking breakfast on the pavement is a colorful tale that refuses — like summer itself, it often seems — to leave us.

It should be a requirement for anyone who lives in the Valley to go to Taliesin West and get the crash course on Frank Lloyd Wright and his particular brand of architecture. Wright set up the Scottsdale school in the ’30s, and it remains an architecture school to this day. There are a variety of tours available every day, and you’ll learn Wright’s philosophies of design, as well as what made him tick. Armed with your new-found Wright knowledge, you’ll have a better appreciation for the buildings in Phoenix (and elsewhere) that were designed by Wright or his students. The tours offered at Taliesin West are worth it for visitors and residents alike.

More than 250,000 people attend the Renaissance Festival from February to March each year, and it’s a rather distinct-looking crowd. Checking out the mix of Arizona suburbanites and carny-like employees — musicians, comedians, falconers, kings, queens, what have you — is half the reason we force our family to endure the dust, winter heat, and un-glamour of the RenFest. Here, we tend to see polo shirts, nice shorts, $110 sandals, and more tattoos than an average inmate — young people in weather-appropriate (read: minimal) clothing, since Arizona State University’s an hour away.

Yet not all attendees are posers, students, or slightly upscale commoners. There are some rough-hewn types with jackboots and ear gauges the size of doughnuts — they’re usually wearing a bizarre accessory like a wicked top hat, leather vest, scabbard ensemble, or something else that would get their ass kicked on the light rail west of Priest Road. Families of all types — cute kids, cute MILFs, plus the occasional 4-year-old being screamed at by their trashy mom. Of course, we wouldn’t fail to mention the cute princesses with the velvet dresses and extreme push-up bras that show off just a tiny blush of areola. Winter is coming — which means turkey legs, the many other shapely legs and thighs, mead-swilling faux royalty, plus the nerds, seductresses, and warriors of the scenic RenFest.

Readers Choice: Sky Harbor Airport

When the Haynes Copper Company started digging a mine in a suburb about a mile north of Jerome around the turn of the 20th century, it hoped to find copper. Instead, the firm struck gold. Now, over 100 years later, we get to benefit with the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town. Step through the gold mine museum’s doors, and you’ll simultaneously take a step back to the early 1900s. Check out the old mining equipment, witness a demonstration on a sawmill from that era, and walk around the old mine shaft. Be sure to stop in the blacksmith’s shop as well. And, of course, don’t forget to pay Jerome a visit, too, as you head back to the Valley.

Encanto-Palmcroft is one of Phoenix’s priciest historic neighborhoods. Fortunately for those who like to fawn over early-20th-century tudors and colonial callbacks, a walk through this European-style setup of abodes is not only open to the public, but also is absolutely free. Dating back to 1927, this (technically) West Phoenix pocket of 330 homes is situated along circular drives, winding roads, and the 222-acre Encanto Park. For newcomers and nonresidents, this maze-like area is easy to get lost in, but you’ll hear little complaint from pedestrians who like to take in the suburban scenery. Here, well-manicured lawns and rose gardens highlight all styles of residence, from pueblo to ranch revival. Whether it’s a home tour, a film crew, or simply a nearby neighborhood dog walker, residents are sure to find their fair share of window shoppers in Palmcroft-Encanto.

www.encantopalmcroft.org

One of the main forces that drove Stateside Presents’ head honcho, Charlie Levy, to create Viva PHX in 2014 was the fact that he simply doesn’t like traditional music festivals very much. Who can blame him? Giant crowds of people in exposed, enormous fields, listening to bands amplified from 500 feet away? Yuck. So Levy created Viva PHX, a festival based on the urban model of South by Southwest. (Disclosure: New Times is a sponsor.)

Instead of one or two giant stages, Viva PHX takes over dozens of stages throughout downtown Phoenix. For one magical night, giant crowds of music lovers fill spaces of downtown usually devoid of people, even on a Saturday night. This year, Jimmy Eat World singer Jim Adkins’ solo set was just a few steps away from kickass rock band Thee Oh Sees, who played just blocks away from Valley locals Gospel Claws. No event better showcases the potential of Phoenix as a music city. If Viva PHX proves anything, it’s that we’re more like Austin than we thought.

www.vivaphx.com

Readers Choice: McDowell Mountain Music Festival

Forget the Oscars and Sundance. What local filmmakers and cinephiles really get excited about is the annual Phoenix Film Festival. Bringing in nationally known titles, directors, and heartthrobs — er, talent — is obviously cool and exciting, but it’s the spotlight this festival shines on the Valley’s own talent that makes us swoon. Plus, PFF is all about allowing audience members to interact with filmmakers, scheduling in-theater Q&A sessions right after the screenings. So go for it and ask the director of the quirky indie rom-com you just watched what exactly that little blue car was supposed to mean. We’re sure the filmmakers involved with PFF would be happy to explain.

602-955-6444

www.phoenixfilmfestival.com

Readers Choice: Phoenix Film Festival

The concept still seems unreal: Drinking a glass of beer or a cocktail while watching a tasty flick on the big screen was something only Europeans could do for most of our lives. Americans were stuck with soda, candy, and popcorn until someone came up with the simple idea to offer quality seats, quality food, and — of course — quality booze. Several luxury theaters have been open in the Valley for a few years now, but we keep returning to the AMC Dine-In Theatres Esplanade 14 for that upscale moviegoing comfort. Tucked in the Esplanade development’s citified compact strip mall with a parking garage, it’s a far more peaceful experience to see a movie there than, say, Arizona Mills Mall. The recliners alone make the higher ticket price worth it. If the movie’s boring, watch out — it’s easy to fall into a deep sleep as you lay nearly prone, legs stretched out just like at home. Good or bad movie, we love using the call button between the seats at least a couple of times during the flick to summon our next drink. We can get used to this.

Readers choice: AMC Esplanade 14

The weird thing about Pollack Tempe Cinemas is that it’s better than most theaters — so why is it “discount?” The answer, of course, is in its last-chance movie selection. If you just have to see it on the big screen but missed it, then realize it’s playing at Pollack, that’s serendipity. Three bucks for the flick ($2 on Tuesdays), plus a visit to a museum-like theater that shows how it cares about film and the people who watch it. What’s not to love about a place with a cabinet full of life-size presidents? Other mannequins, standees, and various Hollywood-related items that owner Michael Pollack’s collected over the years decorate shelves above the lobby. It’s got a hometown feel and several old-school video games to go along with its 1980s prices. The comfy seats and good sound system make for a two-thumbs-up experience — depending on the movie, of course. But then, if it sucks, you didn’t waste much cash. If possible, we’ll wait till it gets to Pollack.

Seventy-seven years after it first opened, the former College Theatre continues to kick cinematic ass. Valley Art’s consistently interesting roster of foreign films, independent movies, and arty flicks appeals to ASU jocks and cineasts alike. Despite its hipness quotient and a 15-year-old $1 million renovation that modernized the old-fashioned theater, it still retains its vintage charm. The only single-screen theater in the Valley, the venue is one of dozens in the Harkins chain, which spans five states and includes more than 400 screens, and it’s the one where the whole chain began. Owner and CEO Dan Harkins is wise enough to let his programmers slot rare fare at Valley Art, which in recent years has shown us Kuchar Brothers festivals and animation extravaganzas, as well as small movies getting notice in New York or L.A. that other commercial houses won’t risk showing. Valley Art is a beautiful thing.

Nestled between Arizona State University’s downtown campus and a handful of municipal and commercial buildings, Civic Space Park is the most important piece of green land downtown. What the park lacks in a name (it’d be like calling Camelback Mountain “Central Phoenix Big Red Mud”) it makes up for in art. Her Secret Is Patience is Janet Echelman’s outlandish sculpture, and no piece of public art in Phoenix prompts as much discussion. Everything from the price ($2.5 million plus maintenance costs) to the execution raised questions since the piece’s completion in 2009. But short of the weather, there’s nothing Phoenicians strolling the streets of downtown love to debate more than their impressions of the gorgeous netting and multi-hued curves of Her Secret Is Patience.

As part of the multi-city initiative INFLUX’s 2015 cycle of projects and commissioned by the city of Tempe, Kristin Bauer (no, not the True Blood actress) installed a lovely reason to look skyward at Mill Avenue and Fifth Street, on a brick building that houses Terralever and Comerica Bank. LOOK UP AND SEE ME, the piece demands in red all-caps. The perforated vinyl piece wraps a corner, and on its other side is a dreamy black-and-white portrait of actress and model Audrey Munson in a 1918 silent film. Bauer’s work often pushes its viewers to question how text and imagery interact, and this piece begs for multiple passes.

Isaac and Gabriel Fortoul like to keep things moving. Originally from New Jersey, the brothers have bounced between New York and Phoenix for the past decade, building their art careers through their nomadic gallery, 40Owls. When the pair returned to the Valley in the winter of 2014, they found an empty spot on Central Avenue and promptly filled it with works that blend modern primitivism with cubism — before shutting down again. Blending strong artistic points of view with commercial elements, 40Owls was short but sweet, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Fortouls pop up in downtown Phoenix again.

When Arizona State University’s art school relocated its Step Gallery to one of Michael Levine’s rehabbed warehouses, we had a sneaking suspicion that we were going to love it. Not only is the raw, industrial space great for displaying artwork, it’s also home to studio spaces for the art school’s grad students. Seeing completed exhibitions from up-and-coming artists in the same building as their fellow students’ in-progress pieces is kind of an art-nerd fantasy. And it’s one we get to live out every First Friday.

Lisa Sette and her eponymous gallery are nothing short of institutions in Phoenix’s art world. Over 30 years, the gallery has earned a reputation both locally and nationally as a serious exhibition space that features seriously talented artists. Housed in a partially subterranean Al Beadle building in Central Phoenix, Lisa Sette Gallery’s current artist roster reads a bit like a who’s who of Arizona’s most notable contemporary artists, including Carrie Marill and James Turrell. For art collectors and appreciators alike, Lisa Sette Gallery is in a class all its own.

Readers Choice: Modified Arts

Whether you’ve already made the gallery rounds, need to stop mid-First Friday runaround, or want to pregame the monthly downtown Phoenix art walk, Welcome Diner’s patio is the place to be. There’s a more than fair chance you’ll bump into creative types from the Grand Avenue and Roosevelt Row circuits while lounging at one of the communal tables, typically rousing with conversations about pop culture, local news, and the latest exhibitions. Add to the din cheap beer, good cocktails, and hearty Southern-style food and you’ve got the perfect recipe for an arts district-adjacent late-night hang.

Readers Choice: Roosevelt Row

Usually when we hear the words “arts festival,” we think of ceramic tissue boxes and metal wine racks — and not in a good way. But Grand Avenue has stamped its own brand of quirky onto the concept of an arts festival and come up with a much better way for you to spend a Saturday afternoon. Past festivals on Phoenix’s infamous diagonal drag have included sculpture shows hanging from trees, a recycled fashion show, neighborhood tours, open artist studios, and, yes, plenty of art for sale. We can’t wait to see what’s on the agenda this year.

www.facebook.com/grandavenuearts0x000Aandpreservation

Readers Choice: Tempe Arts Festival

Homebuyers with a hankering for downtown living are looking to lay down roots in the Coronado neighborhood. With roughly 5,000 homes within boundaries loosely extending from Seventh to 16th streets and Thomas to McDowell roads, this midtown subdivision is easily one of the largest historic neighborhoods in Phoenix. With so much space and so many styles to choose from — pueblo, ranch, bungalow, the list goes on — residents have a better chance of buying within their budget. While home designs may differ, most dwellings in this downtown suburb are small in stature, offering an average of two to three bedrooms. Petite as that may seem to some, it’s perfect for the family that’s just getting started. While Coronado has definitely become more kid-friendly over the years thanks to home tours, art fairs, and gentrification, it stills remains a prime spot for serious artists, making Coronado creative cohabitation at its finest.

www.greatercoronado.com

West Phoenix is on the way up. As the light rail makes its way, slowly but surely, up 19th Avenue and to the West Valley, the little neighborhoods along the route are looking more and more adorable. Washington Park, in particular, is home to a slew of mid-century slump block ranches (some with weeping mortar still intact) that with a little care and elbow grease could be the making of the next “it” neighborhood. Home to a stellar dog park, lively activity center, and a totally renovated Phoenix Tennis Center, it seems primed to be just that.

Bethany Home Road to Glendale Avenue and 19th Avenue to 25th Avenue

Driving through Windsor Square feels a bit like traveling through a time machine on the fritz. The uptown Phoenix neighborhood is one of the city’s oldest suburbs, and it’s home to an array of architectural styles. Along its curving streets you’ll find homes ranging from 1920s Craftsman-style bungalows to 1950s ranches. That’s because construction of the homes stopped and started surrounding the Great Depression and World War II. It makes for a lovely history lesson, and in addition to being picturesque, the ‘hood is close to a cluster of Upward Projects restaurants, as well as the Medlock Plaza shopping strip, home to indie shopping standbys Frances and Stinkweeds.

Central Avenue to Seventh Street and Camelback Road to Oregon Avenue

www.windsorsquarephoenix.org

They say home is where the heart is. Well, if that’s the case, Phoenix’s heart is full of midcentury love. Midcentury architecture is everywhere around this town, and Phoenix gets to boast it was the home of Ralph Haver, one of the coolest Midcentury Modern residential architects ever. You know, not like we’re biased or anything. There’s so much Midcentury Modern everything around the Valley, it’d be nearly impossible to see it all. But our favorite way to get a good sample is the Modern Phoenix Home Tour. As part of Modern Phoenix Week, the tour allows participants full access into several neighborhoods and dozens of modern homes. During the sold-out 11th installation of the event, modern enthusiasts explored neighborhoods in South Scottsdale, including Town and Country, HyView, and Sherwood Heights. And with the self-led model, you can ogle all the slanted roofs and cinder block buildings at your own pace.

480-874-4654

www.modernphoenix.net

Readers Choice: Roosevelt Historic Home Tour

The David and Gladys Wright House is the recently rescued and controversial “round house” designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright toward the end of his life, in 1952, for his son David and daughter-in-law Gladys. The couple lived in the home until their deaths — David at 102 in 1997; Gladys in 2008 at age 104. It was one of Wright’s last designs, completed when he was 84. Surrounded by McMansions, the 2,500-square-foot concrete house features a spiral design and a curved entry ramp, as well as other traditional Wrightian design elements such as built-in seating, Cherokee red floors, and low ceilings.

Recently saved from demolition by a group that plans to restore the home, adding a subterranean education center, a cafe, a bookstore, and a Wright archive on the land, the facility will host public events and school field trips, as well as house Wright researchers and scholars-in-residence — sort of a mini-Taliesin. In the meantime, Sarah Levi, Frank Lloyd Wright’s great-great granddaughter, lives in the house as its first scholar in residence and gives tours of the home, pointing out its architectural anomalies, its structural strengths, and the swimming pool where actress Anne Baxter taught her to swim.

The experience of using the bathrooms at Liberty Market starts before you even set foot in the communal washroom. First, you have to walk by the giant window into the market’s kitchen. If you don’t get distracted by watching the cooks and chefs preparing customers’ food, you’ll wend your way down a hall and into the restrooms. Now, you have a choice to make. There are five private stalls, and each has been custom-designed by one of the founding partners of Liberty Market. Everything from the floor tile to the music playing inside was specifically designed for that one stall. Exit your chosen stall, and spruce yourself up a bit in the wall-size mirror that will greet you. We’re not saying you should make your way out to Gilbert just to see this bathroom; we’re just saying you wouldn’t be disappointed if you did.

It’s the line reporters had itched to write from the time the Phoenix Open was renamed. “There was a waste management problem at the Waste Management Phoenix Open,” belted out a lede in the Arizona Republic. Ick. Apparently, a porta-potty leaked raw sewage in puddles near the “Fry’s Fan Zone” at Arizona’s signature annual golf event, one of the largest in the country. It smelled, people walked through it, and it took hours to clean up. Not exactly a hole-in-one from a public relations standpoint or a fun time for event-goers. But a great lede.

May 2015 will go down at the wettest month on record in the United States, and the second-wettest for Arizona, with well over an inch of rainfall recorded. Here in Phoenix, we just called it heaven — a month filled with wind, rain, and unseasonably cool temperatures. By the end of May, temperatures in the Valley were well over 100 degrees, but given that summer typically starts in March around here, we were okay with that.

THEMIS, or, as its creators at Arizona State University call it, the Thermal Emission Imaging System, made its 60,000th trip around Mars this year. The infrared camera, which has been hitchhiking aboard NASA’s Mars Odyssey since 2001, has taken nearly 400,000 images of the Red Planet. In the process, it has saved a landing rover from dashing to pieces in a field of giant boulders by finding it a safe place to set down, and it has helped scientists discover old lakes and gullies carved by melting snow, among other things. You can see what THEMIS sees in real time on ASU’s website. Watching the cratered landscape roll by is surreal.

201 East Orange Mall, Tempe

480-965-1790

www.themis.asu.edu

When Tania Katan left her museum gig to go to work for a tech firm in North Scottsdale, there was a lot of head-scratching among members of the arts community. What was the writer/playwright/funny girl/creative dynamo going to do at a tech firm? Turns out, a whole lot. Within her first year, Katan had launched a simple but incredibly effective campaign called “It Was Never a Dress,” turning the ubiquitous ladies room icon on her ear, explaining that her dress is really a cape and encouraging girls to consider a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Demand for stickers and T-shirts was immediate, and social media gobbled up the whole thing, millions of times over. We can’t wait to see what Katan has up her sleeve, er, cape next.

www.itwasneveradress.com

Greg Patterson’s Espresso Pundit is a must-read blog for Valley junkies of politics and news. Patterson’s political spin and undying obsession with the Arizona Republic‘s left-leaning writers are more than outweighed by his sharp insight and biting criticism, from a reader’s perspective. Officially titled “Arizona’s Own Espresso Pundit” and subtitled “Ruminations of an Over-Caffeinated Political Junkie” (perhaps to set himself apart from the right-wing Mormon contingent), Patterson started the blog in its current format in 2006 and has sparked legislative hearings (related to the 9/11 memorial on the Arizona Capitol grounds). You don’t have to agree with him — we often don’t. But Patterson’s not predictable, he’s snarky, and he breaks news. A former lawmaker and current member of the Arizona Board of Regents, Patterson taps into his base of extensive connections to offer fresh information and angles on various stories in the news. Ever the critic of perceived liberal bias in the media, he might label a suspected hit piece without substance as a “Mr. Smith Showers Nude” story, for instance. Fun stuff like that keeps bringing us back, especially around election time.

www.espressopundit.com

Every time we cover a protest, there’s Leonard Clark. Every time we attend a debate at the Legislature, there’s Leonard Clark. Every time we troll the Internet, there’s Leonard Clark, posting articles, commenting on long threads, or starting a Facebook group to spread the word about something. Clark is more than a full-time activist fighting the good fight for every lefty and progressive cause under the sun. He’s a dedicated citizen and a master of using the democratic system (and social media) to make a point. Not everyone takes the time to attend boring legislative committee meetings and speak out against bills, and many of our right-wing elected reps know him by name. “Good to see you, Leonard,” they chide. But their dismissal doesn’t faze him, in fact, it motivates him. This man feeds off of justice and doing what’s right. Living in a state that overwhelmingly disagrees with almost everything you stand for is tough, so to Clark we say, “Kudos, man! Keep up the good work!”

While most of the statues on the local TV news broadcasts continue to age, there’s a new guy on Channel 3 we like: Brandon Lee. We had an idea that Lee was different from the rest of the squares who have his job, and that was confirmed when we first got a look at Lee in short sleeves — the guy is seriously tatted up. (If he could start doing news broadcasts in short-sleeved shirts, it would be a game-changer.) Outside of his looks, Lee does his job well, which is the most important part. As the job of TV newscaster has become a job of reading a teleprompter like a robot, it’s refreshing to see someone who’s a bit different.

Just about every government agency has a public information officer, but most don’t do a very good job at actually informing the public. The Arizona Department of Transportation has raised the bar in this category. Before you leave the house, check the ADOT Twitter page (@ArizonaDOT), which constantly has the latest information on the condition of Arizona’s highways. They also deliver the information well — the ADOT team has great jokes about its findings on the state’s highways, and it personally responds to everyone’s specific questions about their trips. Part of the PIO’s job also is answering reporters’ questions, and we have nothing but positive reviews (so far) about our interactions with this team. Attention, every other government agency: This is how it’s done.

www.azdot.gov

How many 20-somethings can boast that they took down a Republican state attorney general? That’s pretty much what former Republican fundraiser and ex-AG staffer Sarah Beattie did when she came forward during the 2014 GOP primary and revealed what many had already surmised: that Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne was using the AG’s Office as his unofficial campaign headquarters. Beattie had more than her word. She had a trove of documents showing that Horne’s staff was working on state time to get their man re-elected, a giant no-no. Horne already was mired in controversy over his 2010 campaign shenanigans, a vehicular hit-and-run, and an extramarital affair with an assistant AG. Beattie’s revelation effectively tied an anvil to the AG’s political neck, thus ending his career. Beattie suffered for her act of conscience, as Horne and his minions viciously smeared her in retaliation. She lost friends and clients and has turned her back on politics. In our book, though, she deserves a medal for helping to boot a corrupt pol from office. We ain’t got no medal, but hopefully this Best Of will do.

It’s not every day that the police solve a decades-old double-homicide cold case, especially one that struck fear in the hearts of white, middle-class families throughout the Valley. But in January, Brian Patrick Miller, the 42-year-old man suspected of committing the “Canal Murders” in 1992 and 1993 was taken into custody and charged with murder. DNA evidence linked him to the brutal deaths of Angela Brosso, 22, and Melanie Bernas, 17, both of whom had disappeared while on bike rides and then turned up dead in Phoenix canals days later. Before his arrest, Miller was known around the Valley as “the Zombie Hunter” because he would ride around in a vintage police car painted with fake blood while wearing a trench coat and a gas mask and toting a bizarre-looking gun. The police had looked at him as a suspect in the mid-’90s, but the forensic science of the day wasn’t strong enough to link him to the murders. He’s set to go to trial later this year, and police have said they aren’t ruling out a connection to other cold case murders.

There are dozens of nonprofits around the county doing amazing work every day for the homeless, but one really stands out for going above and beyond this year. When residents took to the streets protesting the county’s practice of allowing a hot, crowded, and dirty parking lot to substitute for a shortage of shelter space, the LDRC stepped up to the challenge and found a solution. Not only did staff immediately begin coordinating with officials from the city, county, state, and private sector to secure funding for a massive rapid re-housing program, but they scrambled together resources, volunteers, and trained new employees in order to turn the center into a dignified overnight emergency shelter. Now, every evening, hundreds of men and women who previously slept out on the street can spend the night in an air-conditioned, clean, and safe space that’s staffed by employees trained in crisis prevention or case management. The LDRC believes that a shelter should be about engaging clients and helping connect them to services, not just providing a roof to sleep under. And we think they’re doing a great job in proving this approach works.

Dubbed “the secret police bill,” Senate Bill 1445 — which prevented law enforcement from releasing the name of an officer involved in a violent incident for 60 days — was one of the most hotly contested bills on the floor this legislative session. People came out in droves to speak against the proposal, and it garnered the attention of the ACLU, the NAACP, and the Black Lives Matter campaign. (The bill did have a few vocal supporters, including the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association.) As it slowly made its way through the Senate and then through House, and then to Governor Doug Ducey’s desk, we began to really worry it would become a law. Ducey gave little indication about whether he supported the proposal, and on the day he was slated to consider it, a large crowd gathered outside his building, ready to celebrate or protest. Jubilation is probably the best word to describe what happened when word came down that SB 1445 got a big, fat veto. And in a year when other ridiculous bills (cough, cough, ban on banning plastic bags) somehow became law, this one victory deserves to be celebrated.

We love a good protest, especially when it’s led by tenacious underdogs and gives us an excuse to spend time in the Tonto National Forest. The Occupy Oak Flat movement is both of these things, not to mention an all-around badass campaign — hats off to you, occupiers! They’ve camped out in an area of Oak Flat Campgrounds for months as part of their protest against a sneaky, last-minute land-exchange deal passed by Congress. The deal gave the mining company Resolution Copper the thousands of acres of Oak Flat — a well-known rock-climbing and recreation hub, and a culturally and spiritually significant spot for Native American tribes throughout the Southwest — so the company could access the huge deposit of copper ore sitting a mile below ground. When word of the deal came out, a small group of San Carlos Apache set up their protest, and vowed not to leave until it was repealed. The movement grew quickly, and people came from all over the world to show support. Months later, it’s still going strong.

It’s funny how supposedly small-gub’mint Republicans, such as our new Governor Doug Ducey, actually will seek an expansion of state power when it’s in their interests. Such was the case with Ducey’s recent attempt to channel his inner Vladimir Putin and establish a mini-KGB in the form of a state Inspector General’s Office. All state departments would have to comply with the new IG, who would have subpoena powers, according to the proposed legislation. And whistleblowin’ on the IG would be outlawed.

Putatively, the reason for the new office, a pseudo-Attorney General’s Office answerable only to Ducey, was to root out government corruption. But Ducey’s sneaky 11th-hour use of a strike-everything amendment to pass the law during the last legislative session tipped his hand. Ducey even tried an end-run around Attorney General and fellow Republican Mark Brnovich, neglecting to tell the AG of the effort. Fortunately, the Legislature adjourned before this turkey could get passed. But you can bet Ducey’s camp will give it another go in 2016.

Lefties love the idea of the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Act, while wingnuts love the reality of free cash to espouse their loony, far-right ideas and, often, get elected to office in the process. This welfare for Arizona pols removes the need for politicians to seek money from those who have it and who are unlikely to hand it over to some wackadoodle. Take our state’s current superintendent of public instruction, Diane Douglas. This crazy cat lady would still be a wall-eyed instructor at Glendale’s Stained Glass Shop if she hadn’t scored $97,620 of free Clean Elections money in the 2014 GOP primary and $146,430 in the general election. That’s just under a quarter of a million bucks total, if you’re keeping score at home. Yes, Douglas was heavily outspent by Democrat David Garcia in the general election, but there is no way she would have been able to raise the cash necessary for a statewide campaign on her own. Without Clean Election dough, Douglas would not have prevailed. She thus becomes the best and latest argument against this failed experiment in socialism that local libs hold so dear.

We’d like to think that someday Arizona will declare February 26 “Llamas on the Loose Day.” Because who, after all, can forget the afternoon earlier this year when two of these giant furry creatures escaped from their Sun City home and tore through the streets of the West Valley, overturning cars and starting trash-can fires and riots? Okay, so maybe the llamas didn’t terrorize the quiet streets of Sun City, but given the viral attention they received, you’d be forgiven for thinking they had. Within minutes of their escape, the two became a global Internet sensation. People across the country stopped whatever they were doing and watched the live-stream feed with bated breath. They inspired hashtags, GIFs, even a Buzzfeed quiz. Sheriff Joe’s men put up a good fight, but they were no match for the llamas, who managed to run across busy streets uninjured for an hour. When the smaller of the two was finally lassoed, the larger one darted away. She evaded capture for another 15 minutes before finally succumbing, sadly ending what arguably was the most exciting event of the year. Follow them on Twitter: @SunCityLlamas.

Unapologetically lefty, Blog for Arizona proudly wears its Democratic donkey on its banner, sings the praises of Obamacare, and incessantly is critical of Arizona’s Republican overlords. In other words, for this redder-than-red GOP state, Blog for Arizona is an outlier. That doesn’t make its team of progressive opinionators any less fierce. In fact, they regularly draw blood, whether it’s erstwhile Democratic Congressional candidate Bob Lord’s exposing former Republican schools’ superintendent John Huppenthal as anonymous blog commenter “Falcon 9,” or “Democratic Diva” Donna Gratehouse skewering the Rs over their attempts to restrict abortion rights for women. Like Gratehouse, some of these scribblers have their own blogs, but together they form a left-wing Wu Tang Clan, fighting a guerrilla war against a better-funded and far more populous enemy. They dream of a day when Arizona goes blue, or perhaps purple, though a lighter shade of pink may be the best they ever can hope for.

www.blogforarizona.com

Local Republican blogger Barbara Espinosa is a colossal pain in the Arizona GOP’s butt, a role she enjoys immensely. Whether she’s openly supporting Democrat Fred DuVal in the 2014 general election against fellow Republican and Governor Doug Ducey, or lambasting the state GOP’s miserly approach to funding education, she drives Sand Land GOPers bonkers with her blog, American Freedom by Barbara. Indeed, Espinosa’s ideological heresy so unhinged former Maricopa County Republican Committee Chair A.J. LaFaro that he sought to strip her of her voting rights as a precinct committeeperson. (He ended up having her and some other rebel Rs censured, instead.) A month later, LaFaro ran for GOP State Party chair, and lost big-time. Guess he didn’t figure on karma — or on Espinosa, who became his deadly enemy and helped dig his political grave. A Texan by birth, a lady, and a longtime GOP activist and donor, Espinosa blogs lightning bolts daily. Mess with her at your peril.

www.americanfreedombybarbara.com

The dedicated staff at KJZZ makes it easy to mostly leave the FM radio dial alone while driving in the Valley. The home of NPR programing, BBC World Service Newshour, and PRI’s The World, the station also features programs grown right here. Whether tackling big concerns like Arizona’s use of the death penalty and Governor Doug Ducey’s education policies or lighter topics like Arizona pop culture history and audio tours of Phoenix’s Central Avenue, shows like Here and Now and The Show inform and entertain.

480-834-5627
www.kjzz.org

Finding the right balance of news, music, humor, pop culture, and personality is a challenge for any morning radio show, but Lady La and her sidekicks get as close as possible for the local radio waves. There may be more established radio shows out there, but La and her crew put forth energy and realness on their show rather than constantly rely on cheap jokes and shots at celebrities. No morning host represents the Valley as well as Lady La does, and she doesn’t shy away from putting herself out there at local gatherings, including parties, First Fridays, culinary tastings, and charity events.

602-260-1015

www.live1015phoenix.cbslocal.com/tag/the-lady-la-show/

In the wake of Serial, podcasts — a platform that allows in-depth conversations, longform storytelling, and no-holds-barred comedy — are all the rage. Jason Allen, Anthony Sandoval, and Tim Rutherford are the hosts of The Naked Yak, a Phoenix-based culture podcast that finds the three seeking out “artists, comedians, and musicians to help them take back the desert night.” Featuring interviews with local musicians like Danny Torgersen of indie prog band Captain Squeegee and rapper Mouse Powell and comedians like John Higbee, Ali Masa, and Matt Micheletti, the conversations are freewheeling and often hilariously candid, full of regional flair and references, and the trio’s relaxed style brings out the best in their guests.

www.thenakedyak.com

In the past two years, Bite Magazine has gone from digital to print and back again. Though you no longer can pick up a copy of this locally produced food- and beverage-focused magazine, you certainly still can ogle the impeccable photography and find great food and drink content in digital form. From trend pieces about the local coffee scene to barbecue-based infographics that will make your mouth water, Bite gives a completely fresh look at the Valley’s food scene. Publishers Michelle Jacoby and Mark Lipczynski have excellent eyes for design, giving this publication a fun, modern sensibility that’s as entertaining to simply look at as it is to read. Some of our favorite pieces have included an eight-page spread about perfect food pairings featuring macro-size photos of locally made food products (can we get posters, please?) and a photo essay showcasing the beauty of Arizona’s desert landscapes.

www.readbite.com

The Devoured Culinary Classic has been the hottest food event in the Valley for some time, but the organizers aren’t sitting back on their laurels and enjoying the ride. This year, they expanded the festivities to include four events over several weeks. In addition to the two-day Devoured Culinary Classic on Saturday and Sunday, the celebration of local food and drink included the Devoured Bartending Competition and Palette to Palate, an evening that brought together local artists and their culinary counterparts. The weekend tasting events are still the centerpiece of the shebang with tickets selling out months in advance, and once you’ve attended it’s easy to see why. Many of the top local chefs and restaurants pull out all the stops for the Devoured Culinary Classic, splurging on ingredients such as oysters and foie gras and even serving their fare in photo-worthy style — think, miniature milk bottles and faux wooden plates. Every year, we eat so much we think we’ll burst, but as soon as we leave, we start counting down to next year’s gluttony.

www.devouredphoenix.com

Readers Choice: Scottsdale Culinary Festival

Cocktail pilgrimages. They’re a real thing. Booze enthusiasts have been known to squeeze them into two-day business trips or sneak away from family vacations to pay homage at whatever can’t-miss bar they might be within reasonable distance of. This insatiable need to experience the hottest cocktail offerings from around the country is what makes Top Bars of America so appealing. For this annual event, part of Arizona Cocktail Week, some of the best bars in the country and world come to Phoenix to pour drinks. This year, we got to sample cocktails from bars including the Dead Rabbit and Death and Co. from New York City and Herbs and Rye in Las Vegas. It’s not exactly the same as visiting the destination, but it does cost significantly less.

www.arizonacocktailweek.com

For people who are really into beer, the problem with beer festivals is that the offerings are usually a bit pedestrian. Sure, an event can boast a selection of 500 different ales, but if it’s all stuff you can buy at Safeway, what’s the point? Real, Wild and Woody is a beer geek’s beer fest — every single beer poured by the 65-plus invited breweries is either cask-fermented (real), sour (wild), or aged in barrels that once held bourbon, tequila, or some other tasty spirit (woody), and many are so rare they’re only available at the event. Admission ain’t cheap — $57 for 20 tasting tickets — but it’s a small price to pay for any beer connoisseur looking to spend four hours ticking rarities, meeting brewers, and throwing around terms like “horse-blanket aroma” and “creamy mouthfeel” with people who actually understand what the hell you’re talking about.

Readers Choice: Tour de Fat

Georganne Bryant has the best taste in town, and she’s kind enough to share it with the patrons of her boutique, Frances. She commandeers the parking lot at Medlock Plaza, where Frances is located, for Crafeteria on the first Friday in December. For us, it marks the beginning of the holiday season in Phoenix. With live music, food trucks, and the best craft purveyors in town, you’re sure to make a dent in your shopping — and run into just about everyone you know.