For those urbanites looking for a more subdued kind of music mix, Joe DiPadova will be manning the booth tonight at Hanny’s, painting the classy CenPho watering hole with a downtempo selection of global soul and Afrobeat until midnight. Wednesdays, 7 p.m., 2009…
Shhh! Can you keep a secret? Good, because we wanna drop dime on the laidback, under-the-radar-style affairs that are going down at speakeasy-like Merc Bar every Sunday evening. The night is cooler than owning the entire Miles Davis catalog on vinyl, with DJ Joe DiPadova and a wide range of…
The Valley will be indie-less (cinema-wise) come Monday morning, but before that happens, Chandler Cinemas owner Matthew Yenkala and pals will end the most unlikely mating of a truly independent showcase and the Chandler suburbs with a big bang on Sunday afternoon. Plans (which range from firm to tentative) include…
In the early 20th century, Marcel Duchamp stirred up controversy in the art world by displaying what he termed “readymade” art — everyday objects, like the urinal in his famous Fountain, displayed under the auspices of fine art. While some critics denounced the idea as artistic laziness, proponents argued that…
Fifteen minutes after seeing The Proposal, I’d forgotten I’d seen The Proposal. Well, that’s not entirely true: By then, it had simply merged in my memory with a thousand other films just like it — those in which phony lovers bound together by dubious circumstances become honest-to-kissin’ couples in just…
In the new romantic road-movie dramedy Away We Go, SNL alum Maya Rudolph and The Office’s John Krasinski play an unexpectedly expectant couple roaming North America (Phoenix, Madison, Montreal, more) with the intent to nest, popping in on eccentric friends and relations (Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney, more) and…
I get strange things in the mail. This is probably because publicists are notoriously lazy and often insane, which might be why one of them recently sent me a DVD box set of the first season of Family Affair, a situation comedy that aired on NBC in the 1960s. The…
For every person who claims that Tempe’s Gammage Auditorium is a marvel of acoustic excellence, you can probably find one who’s been subjected to plays that sound like talking mud. Apparently, it has to do with where you’re sitting and what kind of performance it is — whether it’s instrumental…
Yet another independent subculture hub bites the dust: This Sunday, June 21, Chandler Cinemas will have its final curtain call. Owner Matthew Yenkala says the popular art house cinema and regular host of The Rocky Horror Picture Show lost its space to another business that was willing to pay substantially…
I get the feeling I’ve been pushing some early morning events on you lately and I apologize for that, I really do. But it’s summer and unless you want to go outside in devil weather, you have the choice of late evenings or early mornings for your outings (although this…
While reading this blog, please keep these catchphrases in mind:”Fake it ’til you make it.””Imitation is the highest form of flattery.””Originality is overrated.””Your living room could use some decorating.”Okay, I added that last one. I’m just trying to show that something like Phoenix Art Museum’s Archival Print Collection can work…
By the end of the summer, a lot of parents will probably be thinking, “The last thing my kid needs is more creativity and self-esteem.” But you know that’s just the vacation desperation kicking in; really, we all need to be dragged away from our glowing screens, and Childsplay’s little summer revival of last season’s…
Yes, our state’s art budgets are in trouble – big time. But don’t panic yet. Keep cool, keep calm and keep your head because we need you out there, soldier!There’s still time to help and you can make a difference in just a few minutes without having to reach for…
The pale, delicately boned wraith known as Peter Murphy gained his seat as an anointed dark king in the 1970s and ’80s as frontman of the legendary Bauhaus. Channeling the glam theatrics of David Bowie by way of the morgue, Murphy was drama incarnate, a Count Vlad lookalike who sometimes…
It’s apparently “hip” to recycle, reclaim, and reuse these days, but when you think about it, the act of doing so is a little, well, ordinary. If anything, it shouldn’t be used as a bragging tool to up your indie cred. On the other hand, the creative types showing works…
Here’s the d with Dub Show Tour 09: There’ll be hot models, both vehicular and human. There’ll be celeb appearances and signings. There’ll be live music, big-name variety. Specifics? Well, that’s asking a lot of the tight-lipped crew from urban-celebrity-auto pub Dub Magazine, who prefer to play their cards close…
Just in case you’re wondering, the third annual AZ Salsa Festival is not about the stuff you eat. It’s a celebration of Latin dance featuring hot DJ sets and electrifying performances by international superstars. To quell the potential confusion, the patient, good-natured event organizers at www.AZSalsa.net provided the following answers…
Pete Rose is an asshole. Ask anyone who’s ever met the dude. But the fact that Charlie Hustle – Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader and a 17-time All-Star – isn’t in the Hall of Fame is the work of more-insidious buttholes. Yeah, Rose bet on games, including his own…
Ever hear of The Scorpions? Well, duh, of course you have. However, there’s a good chance you wouldn’t know diddly-squat about the German neo-classical metal band if not for guitarist Uli Jon Roth, who, from 1973 to 1977, led the group to Japanese super-fame and major-label notoriety before embarking on…
Get Primed for the June 24 release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with a second look at Michael Bay’s original 2007 big-metal-things-fall-down-and-go-boom epic. The flick’s shown on a 30-by-50-foot HD/LED outdoor screen. Fri., June 12, 8 p.m., 2009…
Virtually everything that musician/producer Dave Sitek touches – including albums by his own band, TV on the Radio – turns to gold, and the Sitek-helmed Dance Mother from Brooklyn avant-synthpoppers Telepathe is no exception. The previous material that emerged from the duo of Melissa Livaudais and Busy Ganges was compelling,…
Hard to believe, but there was a time when an artist from New York meant about as much to the art world as a creative type from Phoenix means to it today. Burn. Seriously, though, before the world wars, if you weren’t a painter in Paris, you really had no…
