When it comes to left-wing politics here in Ari-bama, liberals can either resign themselves to being doormats for their Republican counterparts or grow a set of dukes and learn to use ’em. Sadly, many local Dems see the wisdom of the welcome mat, including assistant state House minority leader Kyrsten…
Boys high school ballers from across the country play in this elite prep basketball tourney. Mon., July 27, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; Tue., July 28, 9 a.m.-10 p.m., 2009…
There’s a reason 10 million people worldwide attend Cirque du Soleil shows each year, and a reason the original run of Cirque du Soleil’s Saltimbanco lasted 14 years. The show began in 1992 as a touring big top that traveled to five continents. Recently, the Montreal-based acrobat/circus/theater troupe retooled the…
For a fairly crummy movie, 2004’s Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story did what most high-brow fare can’t hope to: It changed the world – or at least the social prospects of a lot of people with wide waistbands and high heart-attack risks who crawled out of the woodwork to hobnob…
In the chilling/moving 2005 Grey’s Anatomy episode Into You Like a Train, two people are impaled by a metal pole after one of Grey’s typically gnarly accidents. Ironically, the pole is keeping them alive and coherent. Removing it will kill them. While medical soaps are typically a slim step above…
This indie effort from director Fernando Eimbcke is the long-awaited follow-up to his acclaimed 2004 effort Duck Season (which won the Grand Jury prize at the AFI Film Fest). In both Spanish and English, it tells Eimbcke’s autobiographical tale of a young Mexican teen who’s left to fend for himself…
Kurt Shineman’s new work mates the world of genetics and stem-cell research with old-fashioned family drama to create that rarest of contemporary beasts: the topical theatrical. Fri., July 24, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., July 25, 3 & 7:30 p.m.; Sun., July 26, 2 p.m., 2009…
The Goodyear-based artist signs Conspicuous by His Absence, a “memoir of life in Sausalito, California, from 1960 to 1965” that captures the before/after duality of sociopolitical upheaval in the Bay Area during that increasingly activist period. Sun., July 26, 2 p.m., 2009…
It’s a road movie, but it isn’t your typical road movie. In fact, it makes Easy Rider look like a spin around the block. Directed by Arturo Perez Torres, Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary traces the trek of two determined immigrants across Latin America and the North American continent, all in…
You should know by now that there are more chickens in the world than any other type of bird. They may not be smart or beautiful or willing to learn tricks, but they sure are popular. And for good reason. The feathered ground scrabblers eat pests, lay eggs, and can…
It used to be that knowing who Jade Esteban Estrada was was like wearing a ball gown to the grocery store – it meant you were gay. But ever since NBC News dubbed him “America’s Prince of Pride” (presumably, the network meant “Gay Pride”), Estrada’s star has been on the…
While stoners of the early 1990s were listening to Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and all of that other grunge stuff, there was another weed-smoking subset that was all about the stoner-rap-ish groups Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Cypress Hill. While the Cleveland-based Thugs employed slower-paced summer soundtracks with an almost doom-metal sensibility,…
Let’s face it. The Arizona Diamondbacks have little to play for the rest of the season, so deciding whether to make the expensive haul to Chase Field rests heavily on who the D-Backs are playing. The Padres again? We’re cocooning with our Costco peanuts and beer. The world-champion Philadelphia Phillies,…
This match-up against the no-name Pirates (Adam LaRoche? Andy LaRoche? Garrett Jones? Andrew McCutchen? Brandon Moss? Who?) is appealing pretty much because the Snakes and the Scalawags seem fairly evenly matched — as in, they both kinda stink. The Bucs hold a slight edge in slugging, the D-Backs in pitching…
If only we all had such varied interests – and not only had ’em, but publicly excelled at ’em. There’s Josh Blue the artist, whose bold, evocative paintings and sculptures are featured on his Web site and have been displayed at the likes of Denver’s Access Gallery. There’s Josh Blue…
The Link’s first exhibit, located in the downstairs level of [merz]project, features the broad-brush-stroke paintings of Arizona-based artist Harold Schifman. July 25-Aug. 15, 2009…
Castanets auteur Ray Raposa resides in a sparse, windblown expanse where his creeping country-folk echoes through the cavernous emptiness, shimmering for a moment on the way up like hot summer road haze. His songs creak under the weight of portentous pauses, before pushing forward, bumper dragging, his voice shuddering like…
The Motor City is the site of the three-day Detroit Electronic Music Festival. Meanwhile, Miami holds the ginormous Ultra Music Festival during the annual Winter Music Conference. And jolly old England hosts a half-dozen turntablist throwdowns, including the Global Gathering and Creamfields. Could The Big Event at Firebird Lake, 20000…
The environmental artist’s interactive, satirical exhibit takes us into the buzzing world of bees, who are increasingly threatened by human folly. She creates “unforgettable scenes in outlandish costumes,” she says, to comment on the “wasteful decadence of our contemporary lifestyle.” Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: July 18. Continues through Aug. 6, 2009…
On the surface, (500) Days of Summer really is no different from, oh, The Proposal, in which Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock spun box-office gold from romantic comedy’s refrigerator fuzz. Former music-video maker Marc Webb’s feature debut is as conventional as any made-for-cable rom-com, down to its soft-indie-rock soundtrack on…
In the lushly produced but dispiriting new comedy The Ugly Truth, Katherine Heigl stars as Abby Richter, a successful but hopelessly uptight TV producer who is also perpetually single. Ever efficient, Abby does background checks on the men she meets, and takes along on the first date a 10-point checklist…
Terry Helland, director of Desert Stages Theatre’s Jekyll and Hyde, took the stage just before curtain. “This show is the most difficult I’ve ever worked on,” he announced cheerfully. “But I think I got a handle on it.” That didn’t seem likely, somehow. Directors typically produce crap and think it’s…
