Sure, it sounds easy enough – bag, sand, candle – but multiply by 8,000 and you’ve got Las Noches de las Luminarias at Desert Botanical Garden. The thought of lighting and extinguishing 8,000 candles for 16 nights would make anyone want to throw herself on the nearest cholla cactus. Not…
If manufacturing sick-ass mixes and phat sounds were a crime, then The Gaslamp Killer undoubtedly would have fried in the electric chair by now. The 25-year-old turntablist genius is a certifiable freak, whether he’s sporting kinky hairstyles or molesting the wheels of steel to spit out his filthy-sounding experimental flows…
The Mormon-heavy milquetoast milieu of Mesa is likely one of the last places you’d expect to become a hotbed of death metal and hard rock, but such is the case thanks to the soldiers of the Mosh Pit Army. The metalheads of this military-like clothing company/ concert promoter (which boasts…
Attending open mic nights at Valley bars is often akin to being an excited kid on Christmas morn: You’re hoping for something good, like an unsigned troubadour who croons beautifully, instead of something lousy, which in this case might be some no-talent freakazoid who should be singing only in the…
DJ Mark LaRue unleashes a serious setlist of ska-punk every week, including tons of East Bay stuff like Jawbreaker and Screeching Weasel, 2 Tone tracks from groups like The Specials and Madness, and anything else in their music collection. “We also get some local stuff into the mix: Parkway Wretch,…
Who knew that 35 years after people became excited about saving the planet that the subject would finally be taken seriously? Of course, we had to be bitch-slapped by the fact that there is no more snow on Mount Kilimanjaro and that polar bears are going the way of the…
The most significant American artist before Andy Warhol to take “the media” as his medium, Orson Welles lives on not only in posthumously restored director’s cuts of his movies but as a character in other people’s novels, plays, and movies — notably Richard Linklater’s deft, affectionate, and unexpectedly enjoyable Me…
Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Why? Because it’s thick with sludge. Moving briskly through a stranger-than-fiction, serpentine narrative that is still unfolding, Joe Berlinger’s remarkable documentary Crude recounts an infuriating litany of South American exploitation, back-room glad-handing, and bureaucratic dead ends that has, among other collateral…
There is something oddly familiar about Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a commitment-phobic business traveler with no use for meaningful human interaction. Could have sworn we’ve been here before. When was it? And where? Oh, yes, of course: Joel and Ethan Coen’s Intolerable Cruelty,…
Aside from Morgan Freeman, who makes a fabulous Nelson Mandela, there’s this to savor about Invictus, a rosy tale of racial reconciliation neatly wrapped in a triumphalist sports movie: The film is blessedly free of Obama parallels. Also, we could use a happy global moment, and Eastwood picks one out…
Lately, I’ve gained a tremendous appreciation for nature. I’ve been consistently hitting Phoenix hiking trails for almost four years now and I’m officially smitten with the cacti, desert flowers and dramatic rock formations this area has to offer. I love it so much, I even feel affection for dirt.My fellow…
It’s a particularly gloomy day today (and I’m not just talking about the weather) so I’m grateful for the chance to write about the Mutant Piñata Show. This project is always so much fun it’s hard not to feel a little cheered up.This is the third year Bragg’s Pie Factory…
Jeezum crow, its gonna be cold this weekend. Really cold. Like in the 30s. So unless hypothermia is your bag baby, better throw on an extra sweater or down plenty of spirits when venturing out to tonight’s freezing First Friday at the various and sundry art hotspots in and around…
Load your glue gun, sharpen your knitting needles and download Eye of the Tiger to your itunes…There are three craft fairs going head to head this weekend in this town and I want to see some blood.Just kidding. Actually, I’m pumped that everyone’s so jazzed about getting all hands-y and…
After just about a year of seeing a play a week for this column, I’m starting to catch some of the same fabulous performers over and over again, working in different companies for different directors, and realize why they get cast a lot. Choosing the cast for a play is…
Before bar-hopping and gallivanting around Phoenix galleries at First Friday, be sure to mark the Downtown Civic Space Park on your map of destinations. Besides offering a golf-course-worthy patch of green, the park has a bevy of First Friday to-do’s. On the live entertainment side: Shoegaze rockers Former Friends of…
In the greater Phoenix area, there is no shortage of poets ready to get their words off their chest. However, Jessica Standifird of the Rorschach Poets Collective noticed that downtown and the East Valley had the lion’s share of spoken-word events. So she did something about it. To remedy the…
Just when you thought it was safe to keep a secret, Frank Warren turns up with another of his PostSecret books. Warren, “the most trusted stranger in America,” has just published PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God, his fifth collection of arty postcards from around the world on which…
Novelist Zachary Lazar has a reporter’s heart. In Evening’s Empire, a Phoenix-centric account of the murder of his father, Lazar sets out to tell yet another of our town’s stories of corruption and killing — this one a tale close to Lazar’s heart, as it involves the murder of his…
There’s one for the Irish and the Chinese. Now, Phoenix Latinos are finally getting their own arts and cultural center, and there’s no better way to celebrate than with a party. The Arizona Latin@ Arts and Cultural Center has its grand opening with a gala that includes a ribbon-cutting ceremony…
We pretty much keep to ourselves here in the editorial department at New Times, huddled in our caves while creating the content of these beloved pages. But the marketing department just did something so cool that we’re a little embarrassed that we didn’t think of it first. (We’re supposed to…
For many, portly symbols of the holidays conjure up images of St. Nick and Frosty. Not for James Garcia, New Carpa Theater’s founder and playwright, who’s added Joe Arpaio to the list with American Pastorela: The Saga of Sheriff Joe. James Rivas plays Sheriff Joke in the topical seasonal tale…
