For more than two months, I’ve been feeling like the wealthiest person in Phoenix, and it has nothing to do with money. On August 1, the deadline for creative types participating in “Wonderland: Art from New Times Best of Phoenix 2009” to submit their art, the original artworks arrived at…
Directed by Spike Jonze from a 400-word children’s picture book published in 1963, Where the Wild Things Are may be the toughest adaptation since Tim Burton fashioned Mars Attacks! from a series of bubblegum cards. Tougher, actually: Burton was working with ephemeral, anonymous trash; Jonze is elaborating on a classic…
The Kite Runner has finally received the adaptation it deserves. Its Arizona Theater Company production, now flying high at the Herberger, trumps the inferior 2007 film version of Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel, thanks to a faithful translation by playwright Matthew Spangler and graceful direction by ATC’s artist director David Ira…
Now, I know I just mentioned Lisa Sipe in a blog last week but this time it’s different, I swear.The encaustic (melted wax) artist is having her final solo show at Eye Lounge, opening this Friday, October 16th. She’s at the end of her three year term at the artist-run…
“You’re going to the Arizona Fetish Ball? Isn’t that kinda lame?” We can’t count the number of times we’ve heard that question in regards to Horns and Halos’ annual S&M soiree. And to be honest, sometimes it was lame. Inevitably, there was a parade of hotties (and some notties) in teensy thongs and boob-tape Xs. Mild-mannered accountants would…
Attention all crafters: put down your hot glue gun, knitting needles or bedazzler and pay close attention.It’s finally happened…your favorite documentary is coming to DVD! “Handmade Nation: The Rise of D.I.Y., Art, Craft and Design” is a 65 minute documentary by artist/crafter/musician/filmmaker, Faythe Levine, about the nationwide rise in popularity…
Laura Durant Rusty Ferracane plays Cioffi in Curtains. If this is your first visit to this particular blog feature, I should probably point out that it’s always called “Curtains” — we thought it was a cool name for a theater review column — but this week the play I saw is also called…
Where: Doomtown at Rawhide, the I-10 at Wild Horse Pass.Overview: Halloween is a great time for the Valley’s various tourist traps to cash in, and Rawhide fits that bill. This old timey town of weathered wood facades that’s home to a steak house, saloon and regular gunfight dramas is one…
Wow. 2010. Do you think we’re going to stop saying “two-thousand-ten” and start streamlining with “twenty-ten” like they do in movies that take place in the future?Well, regardless, here in two-thousand-nine, we gave a Best of Phoenix award to SeeSaw Designs. We called them the best letterpressers in town and…
Sequels can be tricky to pull off. For every Terminator 2 and The Dark Knight, there are twice as many shitheaps like Caddyshack II and The Two Jakes. This axiom also extends to music, which is cluttered beyond measure with ill-advised follow-ups: For example, Woodstock ’99 never should have existed…
The Arizona Paranormal Investigators discuss some of the homie hauntings they’ve investigated over the years in Tombstone, Bisbee, Jerome, Prescott, and Superior. They’ll also be wielding photos, video, and Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) recordings. Thu., Oct. 8, 7 p.m., 2009…
For a place with an overall IQ of about 32 – to judge by all the shotgun-toting boobs sporting Sheriff Joe bumper stickers – Phoenix has an ace literary scene. Many of those same redneck yahoos who try to run you off the road every morning run amok in the…
Stephenie Meyer may get most of the headlines these days, but Arizona’s other world-famed author of atmospheric romantic fiction is getting some new due of her own with the release of her latest Outlander novel, An Echo in the Bone. Sat., Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m., 2009…
Since the Diamondbacks are the only summer game in town, there’s no fallback plan if the season goes awry. That’s the tough thing about being a baseball fan in Phoenix. Thankfully, when the MLB-sponsored Arizona Fall League Baseball – comprised of promising minor-league players — opens its season on Tuesday,…
Those who scoff at the sun as they pedal across Valley streets are invited to raise goblets of ale to the cooling of pavement when the annual Tour De Fat returns to Tempe. The New Belgium Brewing Company-sponsored fest brings music by the Dylan-esque singer Sean Hayes and merry-mob leaders…
Why would anyone pay the better part of a ten spot to view the steaming heap of cinema known as The Room, the nauseating story of a love triangle turned tragic that’s filled with nonsensical plot development and grade-school acting talents? Maybe because Tommy Wiseau – the movie’s writer, director,…
Philly’s The Wonder Years could’ve easily renamed their band “Rodney Dangerfields and the No Respect Five” anytime over the past few years, since the gleeful pop-punk quintet has been on the receiving end of dissings aplenty. Its 2007 disc Get Stoked on It! was called “abysmal” by several Internet music…
The most petrified we’ve ever been was on the stroke of midnight one bitter Christmas Eve, reading the final delicious syllables of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary. King kept his ghoulish, cheesy masterwork locked in a trunk for years, believing it was too macabre for publication. The parting line is an…
All Hallows Eve is almost upon us, and we’re jonesing for one more perfect panic before settling into our boyfriend’s candy bag. With 12 years to get it right, it’s hard to beat the hair-raising institution known as Arizona’s Original Scream Park. The 10-acre lot features four bloodcurdling attractions: Alice’s…
Singer/songwriter, comedian, and Tony Award-nominated actor Stephen Lynch makes it feel so right to laugh at the so very sick and wrong. Just listen to 3 Balloons, his fourth album (released in March 2009), which is just as funny, disgusting, and inappropriate as his first three efforts. Don’t believe us?…
Apparently, the Pilgrims did more than wear buckle shoes and funny hats and forge friendships with Native Americans. Who were they, exactly, and how pure were they? In her new book, The Wordy Shipmates, author Sarah Vowell, funny-voiced contributor to National Public Radio’s This American Life and author of Take…
The former U.S. Secretary of State under Bill Clinton (and the country’s first female Sec of State) signs her new book, Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box. Mon., Oct. 12, 4 p.m., 2009…
