The annual culinary blowout features food samples by 50-plus area restaurants, cooking demos, specialty cocktails, the Southwest Festival of Beers, the “Challenge to the Chefs” featuring Sol y Sombra’s Aaron May, Elote Cafe’s Jeff Smedstad, Sushi Roku’s Tim Fields, and Pasta Bar’s Wade Moises, and live music on two stages…
Still in the closet pretending it’s 1952? Drop the H-bomb at the Gay Pride Parade and Festival during the Gin Blossoms set and your flaming ass will suddenly seem milquetoast. Trust us. Of course, you could also come out during the parade, when the unlikely grand marshal — Phoenix Mayor…
We heart Phoenix, but sometimes bouncing from one familiar haunt to the next can feel a bit too much like a routine for our comfort. So it’s serendipitous that a new spot named Bhakti Gardens is opening for business this weekend. Owner Cindy Reshan has been cultivating her labor of…
Thanks to First Friday, Phoenix is nationally known for its pretty sweet-ass art scene. Also thanks to First Friday, a bunch of other Maricopa County ’burbs and boroughs, like Chandler and Mesa, have tried to replicate downtown’s success and kind of haven’t done the greatest job. When the Sunnyslope Art…
The outside world must think of Arizonans as big, fat poseurs who are always looking to copy character instead of creating their own. And they may have a point. Ten years ago, Los Angeles real estate was busting its load all over mid-century-modern architects. What are we doing? Still freaking…
The New York-based experimental-theater troupe wraps up its three-year ASU residency with playwright Charles Mee’s work about America (“a nation forever unfinished”) from the Rockwellian ’50s to the Orwellian now. Sat., April 18, 7 p.m., 2009…
Were you an ASU football fan in 2008? We’re sorry. Not only did you endure a 5-7 overall record, but also a six-game tailspin and a bowl-killing embarrassment in Tucson. Before the iffy 2009 campaign opens September 5 against Idaho State, Sun Devil fans can participate in a win-win on…
The economy sucks. Your house is worth half what it was when you bought it. Your 401k has been bludgeoned to within an inch of its life. You need more laughs. Toward that end, Herberger Theater Center is hosting the Phoenix Improv Festival, a three-day event packed with shows, workshops,…
Everyone experiences things out of his or her comfort zones. For us, it’s taking a dump in public. For you, perhaps, it’s NASCAR. Maybe you don’t have anything against auto racing, per se, but the racetrack isn’t really your “scene.” But by thinking this way, you eliminate yourself from partaking…
We recommend the “Titanic: Treasures From the Deep” touring exhibit reluctantly, but nonetheless. Why? The “mobile museum” features goods recovered from the wreck site of the doomed ocean liner, which many would like to see designated a salvage-free memorial zone. The items you’ll see when “Treasures” visits Chandler Fashion Center…
Part three of the four-part film series chronicling Native art and music screens at the Heard. Mon., April 20, 1:30 p.m., 2009…
Some consider the Maricopa County Fair a hick stepchild to the (oh so worldly) Arizona State Fair, but that attitude implies there’s something wrong with hick stepchildren. The MCF may be a little slower than the State Fair, and a mite gamier ’cause of the County Fair’s greater emphasis on…
The first time we went to the Coach House, we were dragged there by a sexy riot grrl/art chick with a thing for dive bars and booze. It was December, and the place was dolled up, wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling, with its infamous seasonal display of recycled wrapping paper, tinsel, and…
The 1942 good-and-evil allegory by French director Marcel Carné (Children of Paradise) was filmed during the German occupation of France. Sun., April 19, 1 p.m., 2009…
Kole Calhoun and the highly rated Sun Devils continue their 50th-anniversary season with a triad against their ever-tough Pac-10 rival Stanford. Fri., April 17, 6:30 p.m.; Sat., April 18, 6:30 p.m.; Sun., April 19, 1 p.m., 2009…
Filmmakers are often perceived as supreme pricks, especially the ones who make short films in college. What kind of person casts an alarm clock as the main character or uses an alternating flushing/moaning input as the soundtrack? Maybe they wouldn’t submit us to such cruelty if only Daddy had taught…
Oh those crazy Brits. It seems like every three or four months, some new band from across the pond is being force-fed to us Yankees as the greatest band in the history of recorded music (or at least since The Beatles). For every Coldplay that actually shows some staying power,…
Needless to say, we won’t be hitting up Dan Deacon for Web design anytime soon. Just check out the musician’s ode-to-1991 homepage. We’re talking HTML your kid sister would scoff at. (Think we’re exaggerating? Try www.dandeacon.com.) However, Deacon makes up for his general lack of Internet know-how (and who really…
Eddie and Charlie Murphy. Brian and Dennis Regan. The UK’s Jonathan and Paul Ross. The Smothers Brothers. The Sklar Brothers. Given the evidence, it would seem that comedic talent runs in the family, and Tony Rock (younger sibling of Chris) is no exception. The face of both TV One’s The…
In act one, scene one of Jane Martin’s play Somebody/Nobody, an actress enters in an evening dress covered in blood. The story is set, perhaps needless to say, in Hollywood. Martin has drawn a cast of industry types who are either working in B movies or would like to be…
Sure, girls want to have fun, but with all the ennui and Weltschmerz and stuff nowadays, we’re more prone to be prone, or at best curled up in an idly spectating position. Get a little nudge from Girls Night: The Musical, an evening of fearless ordinary women belting out empowering…
James E. Garcia penned the play, based on oral histories of Latinos/Latinas who served in World War II and presented by New Carpa Theater. Thu., April 16, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., April 17, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., April 18, 7:30 p.m.; Sun., April 19, 2 p.m., 2009…
