In writing A Sudden Shot: The Phoenix Serial Shooter, Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist Kimball sat through weeks of testimony, gained the trust of cops, prosecutors, witnesses, survivors, and families, analyzed volumes of police reports, and penned a gripping tale of investigators working against the clock to capture and convict two…
Bill Maher stars in this equal-opportunity-offender documentary satire of organized religion from director Larry Charles (Borat). The oft-profane flick features Maher matching wits with Satanists, Franciscans, Mormons, Catholics, Creationists, Rabbis, Dutch Muslims, and U.S. Senators. Fri., Sept. 25, 6 p.m., 2009…
While their name doesn’t exactly roll off one’s tongue, the bizzaro choice of a band moniker doesn’t seem to be hurting !!! (CHK CHK CHK). The group, which originally formed to play an all-night party in Sacramento, has been called one of the most inventive dance-punk bands around. Their catchy…
This in-depth documentary portrait of the cultish Indian poet/activist John Trudell was directed by Heather Rae, who achieved some level of notoriety herself last year when her film Frozen River took the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Mon., Sept. 28, 1:30 p.m., 2009…
Attention, all children and hopelessly single women of the Phoenix area: We have just the thing for you. Your favorite event of the fall, the Mariposa Monarca Monarch Butterfly Exhibit, is here. For the fifth year in a row, the exhibit at Desert Botanical Garden boasts hundreds of beautiful monarch…
No one’s sick of talking about Kanye West, right? Because if the Killers are going to keep it up, why shouldn’t I? After Kanye stole the mic and the spotlight from Taylor Swift at the VMAs in a publicity stunt — the blatant scripting of which has been addressed in…
The best damned sports team in Phoenix continues its quest for its second WNBA title in three years against the East’s best, the Fever, led by Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas. Tue., Sept. 29, 6 p.m., 2009…
We’re looking at a giant robot as it pancakes cars with its tremendous feet, punches holes in skyscrapers, and squishes screaming pedestrians. So why do we think this mechanical beast is so dang adorable? Probably because it’s a Jon Borette robot. The Phoenix artist just loves making quirky, child-like line…
Since Perihelion Arts moved from Grand Avenue to Roosevelt Row, it seems like you guys and gals have forgotten all about the diagonal street on First Friday. Maybe that’s why the Grand Avenue Merchants Association decided to hold the Grand Avenue Festival on a non-First Friday – namely, Saturday, September…
Now that the “freegan” movement has caught on, Dumpster-diving for leftover food is trendy. Though we still can’t bring ourselves to chow down on a half-eaten pork chop or the contents of a dented-to-hell can of veggies (can you say botulism?), we love hunger-relief organization Food Not Bombs’ brilliant plan…
It’s been a long time coming for the Valley hip-hop scene. Over the past decade, the strategy of scattered soloists and isolated crews has given way to more collaborative efforts, banking on strength in numbers to stir up attention. On Thursday, September 24, The Council Productions, a four-man beat-making outfit,…
If you pick up this week’s Best of Phoenix issue (trust us, you won’t be disappointed), you’ll notice something different this year as you read raptly through our awards for anything and everything notable in the Valley. This year, we asked artists and other creative types we know to come…
When, in the early ’00s, I worked as a freelancer for a publication two floors below Vogue — this was pre-Devil Wears Prada — each sighting of Anna Wintour, no matter from how great a distance, was terrifying enough to immobilize me for a few seconds, leading to a sweaty…
Set in the bucolic suburbs of early-19th-century London, as fresh and dewy as a newly mowed lawn, Jane Campion’s Bright Star recounts the love affair between a tubercular young poet and the fashionable teenager next door. It’s more conventionally romantic than wildly Romantic — but no less touching for that…
One of my favorite artists in town (if not, my absolute favorite) is trying to fill a painting class.Trust me, if you have any fleeting interest in learning the craft, Suzanne Falk is the lady to take lesson from. Falk is a self-taught painter who makes her entire living from…
Every woman I know has described herself as “crazy” at least once. And that includes me. Totally.Why do we insist on saying this? I can only speak for myself here – but I think I do it so I have license to misbehave, make mistakes or change my mind on…
Talk about some big shoes to fill.Back in April 2009, Heard Museum Director, Frank Goodyear announced plans for retirement for the end of this year after a decade of service. The man is responsible for the expansion of programming and the addition of two locations (one that will unfortunately close…
No one really doubts that professional entertainers are as maddeningly human as the rest of us. Nevertheless, the nostalgic farces of contemporary playwright Ken Ludwig mine comic gold from pondering that mystery. Typically, two groups of characters bump both literally and figuratively into each other: talented, worn-out, disillusioned “stars” and…
Granted, ASU Football’s win over Idaho State on September 5 was impressive – the much-hyped defense only allowed the Bengals of the Big Sky Conference 37 yards of total offense – but the 50-3 victory was more like a scrimmage against a local high school powerhouse like Chandler Hamilton, considering…
You know what’s really lacking during the post-holiday rush? Face time. However, it makes sense why there’s a shortage of such things right now. Meeting your colleagues’ glances after that out-of-control office party can be, well, awkward. There shouldn’t be any uncomfortable human interactions at the Phoenix Art Museum, which…
Local photographer Angela Franks Wells isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. No, she’s not a hitwoman. And no, she isn’t snapping porn. Wells uses an old-school, and very messy, photogravure technique involving toxic chemicals that leave her hands stained black and smelling like copper pennies. The untidy process is…
Here’s a golf challenge: We triple dog dare you that you can’t land on the green in the dark. Sounds all Mission Impossible, right? Well, when the balls are fluorescent like they will be during the Night Flight Golf event at Palo Verde Golf Course, then it’s, like, mission possible…
