Midnite Movie Mamacita presents the 1973 “steamy Scandinavian schoolgirl sex-a-thon” starring Christina Lindberg, a.k.a. “the sultry, baby-faced beauty of Swedish erotica” and/or the “Swedish jailbait Jezebel.” Fri., May 1, 9 p.m.; Sat., May 2, 5 & 9 p.m., 2009…
We know what you’re thinking. Napalm Death, the founders of grindcore, circa 1982, is still around? What can they offer the metal world following nearly three decades of sonic brutality that has included numerous changes in sound and personnel? Well, listen to the group’s newest, Time Waits for No Slaves,…
God bless the souls of Don Cenobio Sauza and José María Guadalupe Cuervo. Why? Because they’re the crafty cats who first imported the spirituous concoction known as Tequila to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1870s. Thus, they gave our country one of its favorite mind-erasers. So be sure to…
Following closely behind a film that perfects a concept isn’t easy. Try to imagine a moviemaker sinking a big boat in the wake of Titanic, or racing Trans-Ams right after Smokey and the Bandit. That’s what X-Men Origins: Wolverine faces in its final minutes, during that quintessential comic movie moment…
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have transformed some of the saggiest, most clichéd genres with smarts, non-screechy politics, superb acting, and visual beauty. Though, on paper, its premise could have easily elicited groans, Half Nelson — their 2006 feature debut (that Fleck directed and the two co-wrote) about a white…
Okay, seriously: I’m too old and too uncool and, frankly, too white to have enjoyed Black Theatre Troupe’s Revenge of a King. Herb Newsome’s freaked-out retelling of Hamlet was, in a word, annoying. Yo. The only thing I dislike more than Shakespeare is contemporized Shakespeare, and the only thing I…
Two weeks after jowly Matthew Perry transformed into pretty Zac Efron to relive his adolescence in 17 Again, Warner Bros. releases Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, another backward and backward-looking child-is-father-to-the-man rom-com, with Matthew McConaughey, who, 18 years Efron’s senior and slightly butcher, has just a few more years of prettiness…
Let’s start getting fired up for First Friday, shall we?First on the docket is a show that caught my eye for two reasons:1. It’s an exhibition of prints2. It’s an exhibition of prints by chicks named Kathryn or Catherine or KatherineYep, this show is right up my alley. I love…
“We’re not here for a premiere, we’re not here for the stars, we’re here to make history thanks to you!” A roar of applause echoed through the parking lot at Tempe Marketplace as Dan Harkins, owner of Harkins Theaters, thanked a crowd for bringing the world premiere of X-Men Origins:…
I do this every month: the week before a First Friday, I plan to pimp the ever living out of it on this blog and I never do.That’s because, inevitably, things like this come along…The Paper Studio is closing its doors and is trying to sell all of its fabulous…
If you’re reading this blog, I’m assuming you’re the kind of person who likes to look at pretty things.And there are a lot of pretty things in this town you can look at today and tomorrow (lucky you!).The fourth annual Phoenix Contemporary Design Fair started today at 10 a.m. and…
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes” would be a cool little fable even if it were only about exposing pretension and exploding the myths of class and taste. But it’s also about a ruler who’s so obsessed with style and glamor that his empire’s real needs are unattended to.Eric…
God bless the souls of Don Cenobio Sauza and José María Guadalupe Cuervo. Why? Because they’re the crafty cats who first imported the spirituous concoction known as Tequila to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1870s. Thus, they gave our country one of its favorite mind-erasers. So be sure to…
The Soloist opens with newspapers thudding onto lawns, a quaint sight that makes the movie practically a period piece, even though the events that inspired it took place within the past four years. An old-fashioned tale for a new-fangled world, the movie turns on a series of columns begun in…
You gotta love Britney Spears and her “ventilation issues.” If she’s not flashing her hairless pudenda at grateful paparazzi while spilling out of Paris Hilton’s sports car, she’s taking an unscheduled 30-minute breather in the middle of a recent concert in Canada because of lingering cigarette smoke. Don’t you see?…
If you’re into the genre of mashups, no doubt you’ve heard of the dope DJ duo of Adrian and the Mysterious D (a.k.a. A Plus D). Over the past six years, the punky San Francisco couple have pimped the art form of smashing together songs, either through their own masterful…
One of the things I love best about Bright Eyes (yes, I unapologetically love Bright Eyes) is the way the band mingles so many rootsy sounds in songs that end up sounding contemporary. It’s for that reason, and not just Matthew Reveles’ vulnerable, emotive vocals, that I compare the Tempe…
Maybe it’s because I don’t listen to a lot of it in my off hours, but I’m constantly surprised by the depth and quality of the Phoenix metal scene. I’ve yet to have a bad local metal record come across my desk, and this week didn’t change that. Hemoptysis isn’t…
Okkervil River’s new release, The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar), was created with an eye to fun and frivolity (per notes from songwriting frontman Will Sheff). Lucky us! ‘Cause the lyrics — featuring suicidal poets and porn stars, burned-out man-children and their shut-down lovers — could really harsh one’s mellow otherwise. Musically,…
The lead singers for Live, Everclear, and Caroline’s Spine perform to raise funds for Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Phoenix in conjunction with the annual culinary blowout called Taste 2009. Matthew Moon opens. (Newquist of C-Spine is pictured.) Sun., April 26, noon, 2009…
Generally speaking, we frown on guided hikes. The Sonoran Desert is not the Louvre, and true hikers hardly need to have someone spell out its (fairly obvious) magnificence. The extraordinary exception is the Elephant Mountain Fortress Hike. The relatively difficult seven-miler takes participants into the park’s achingly beautiful backcountry for…
We have some pretty sick fantasies, but none ever centered on staring at the night sky through a telescope. Undaunted general-punishment gluttons can rendezvous at the secluded Estrella Mountain Regional Park for this 3.7-mile jaunt up the Toothaker Trail that ends at arguably the best place in the Valley to…
