Some say baseball is a dying sport. Too much strategery, say its pinheaded critics, too few highlights à la the NFL and NBA. You wouldn’t know it by standing at the intersection of Van Buren and Galvin on one of those glorious March days when the Oakland A’s are hosting…
Phoenix has a paradoxical appeal to it, much like the street hag on Van Buren with the endearing underbite. And although the city’s layout and architecture may seem alienating to the unfamiliar visitor, its intrigue often builds over time to acquire a weird, outlandish charm. It’s an insider’s view, perhaps,…
The high-flying, rim-rocking b-ballers take the court for two days of rip-roaring action. Sat., Jan. 10, 2 p.m.; Sun., Jan. 11, 2 p.m., 2009…
The orchestra’s principal clarinetist discusses and performs various African-American spirituals in conjunction with MLK Day. Mon., Jan. 12, 7-8 p.m., 2009…
As founding members of Procrastination Nation, we were just fine with the notion of leaving our unfinished artsy-craftsy projects unfinished — until we read the tag line for Modified’s January Art Night event: “Felipe will bring the soy milk & cookies.” Okay, well, now that you mention it, that little…
Tour the chilly waters of Lake Pleasant in your kayak during this guided hike. Sat., Jan. 10, 6-8 p.m., 2009…
Adam Jacobson is a big man. His goal is just as big – to subvert the sourpuss patrol that controls modern rock ‘n’ roll and pump a little fun back into its veins with Steppchild, the viscerally enjoyable Tempe band for which he plays bass and sings. “It’s like the…
Although Phoenix isn’t exactly known as the biggest blues ‘bergs in the nation, a great deal of talent is present in our town. And a couple of the names on the rise are Mikel Lander and Meredith Moore. The guitarist and songstress pair won the annual Arizona Blues Showdown and…
Before embarking on a national tour with Valley darlings Dear and The Headlights — one that ends with a swanky SxSW showcase — Phoenix’s own Miniature Tigers will hone their craft at Modified Arts. A spot at SxSW seems like the natural progression for the band, fresh off their performance…
We ain’t gonna lie. Whenever we tune into each year’s edition of Comedy Central’s series of annual televised roasts, it’s usually just to see comedian Jeffrey Ross. Whether it was in 2006 when he blasted William Shatner or Flavor Flav in 2007, the Jersey-born insult comic typically gets in the…
The fervor over the light rail’s early closing time continues to get bigger. As we’ve previously written about here and here, a growing number of Valley urbanites are pissed off over the fact the light rail system stops at midnight instead of running until 2 a.m. and providing the drinking…
“Crochet Coral and Anemone Garden” with sea slug by Marianne Midelburg. Photos by Alyssa Gorelick.Some blogs are easier than others.This one has to do with math so forgive me if I botch some of the ideas here. Trust me, I’m trying.Scottsdale Public Art Program is teaming up with the Institute…
Oy, the schmaltz: Jake Ehrenreich embraces his heritage in A Jew Grows in Brooklyn. Photo by Carol Rosegg. Full disclosure, and probably the weirdest one Curtains will ever have to make: In the middle of this (mostly) one-man show, during which: a. Creator-performer Jake Ehrenreich shows slides of, among other things, his…
If you’re reading this, I assume you keep up with the local arts scene, right?Either that, or you’re my boyfriend, my best friend or my mother and you’re fulfilling your obligation (thanks guys).If you belong to the first group, it’s time to think real hard…who do you know in the…
Valley child actress Sammi Hanratty lives in Scottsdale — when she can.Busy as a bee — but not a Mean Bee (we’ll get to that in a moment) — Hanratty travels frequently to Los Angeles for her work in the CBS show The Unit or The Suite Life of Zack…
Doesn’t this new Phoenix library card make you want to launch into a great piece of imaginative fiction?City residents can trade in their old cards for this cool, new one for free until the end of February. (It’ll cost you two bucks after that).The image designed by Kiyomi King, a local…
“matches do more than light cigarettes” oil 30″x40″ (dedicated to Faye M. Larkin) by Suzanne FalkSuzanne Falk is no stranger to the pages of our beloved New Times. Maybe you remember her from this…or this (btw – this photo of her sucks! She’s way pretty in real life).But it’s really…
No writer ever gazed deeper or more despairingly into the prison of middle-class American conformity than Richard Yates, which may explain why none of his books sold more than 12,000 copies in his lifetime and why it’s taken more than 40 years for one of them to reach the big…
As usual, I saw a hell of a lot of plays this past year. But I suspect 2008 is the year I’ll remember not so much for what took place on stage (although it’s hard to forget a production as flawless as Childsplay’s A Tale of Two Cities, or one…
Is it a sign of the apocalypse? Something in the water? Or is it just the way the wind is blowing? Whatever the case, when our often-contentious quintet of film critics (Scott Foundas, J. Hoberman, Jim Ridley, Ella Taylor, and Robert Wilonsky) put their heads together about the best movies…
As far as Jeffrey Katzenberg is concerned, there have been but two “revolutions” in the movie business: the mass introduction of sound with 1927’s The Jazz Singer (itself, a process 30 years in the making) and, a year later, the debut of The Viking, the first feature presented in Technicolor…
Michael Jacobs, a filmmaker based in San Francisco, is the director of a movie called Audience of One. It’s a documentary about a Pentecostal minister who says he’s gotten the divine green light to make a mega-budget, religious, science-fiction epic. If you attended one of 20-odd regional film festivals in…
