Arts & Culture

The owner of Chicago’s Scylla and fourth-season winner of Bravo’s Top Chef makes a personal appearance. Wed., Dec. 17, 6:30-9:30 p.m., 2008…

Unless you count “Fairytale of New York” by Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor — which we don’t, necessarily — what’s the last popular song that entered the collective Christmas consciousness? (Don’t say Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” Them’s fightin’ words.) And how about Hollywood? The dream factory specializes in pumping out…

Perhaps the sagest songwriting advice ever bestowed to a newbie came not from a how-to book or a multi-platinum recording artist but from some anonymous grizzly guy I saw at an open mic night in Greenwich Village eons ago. After playing two great songs, he sat down to his coffee…

The top 85 JUCO football players from around nation are scheduled to compete in this inaugural all-star game. Celebrity guests scheduled to attend include former Arizona Cardinals Pro Bowler Seth Joyner, former Philadelphia Eagles WR Fred Barnett, and former Dallas Cowboys cornerback Larry Brown (the MVP of Super Bowl XXX)…

Robert X. Planet and Roxanne DeWinter adapt their annual Edgar Allan Poe Halloween shudderfest for the holidays. The spoken-word program includes readings of Poe tales such as The Raven, The Bells, and the Tell-Tale Heart. Sat., Dec. 13, 8 p.m., 2008…

The event includes live music, a fashion show, and crafts. Proceeds benefit the African American Hispanic Health Educational Resource Center and Harmony House. Sat., Dec. 13, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., 2008…

The local glitterati cast off from the shores of Tempe Town Lake at this sparkling annual affair, which features approximately 50 dolled-up watercraft trolling around the big pond. The parade starts at 7 p.m. Sat., Dec. 13, 4-9 p.m., 2008…

Many a high jinks-filled road trip has been prefaced with the old axiom that getting there is half the fun. That certainly rings true for the shepherds trekking to catch a glimpse of the newborn baby Jesus in Cultural Coalition’s La Pastorela AriSonora. In the classic Latino retelling of the…

Since the annual tradition of getting sloshed with people you can barely tolerate has been neutered by PC, lawsuit-fearing wimps, the Eastside Records Christmas Party goes balls out to save your soul. Remembering the real reason for the season, California’s Knights of the New Crusade, clad in medieval chainmail, drop…

Ever notice how all of the holiday classics are dominated by males? Scrooge. Charlie Brown. George Bailey. The Grinch. So we were thrilled when we heard that Nearly Naked Theatre’s Times Square Angel features a female lead character – until we found out the role is played by a dude…

It’s December, y’all. Time for holiday cheer, right? Yeah, sure. It’s really time to crank up the aggression to match the surly tone down at the mall checkout lines. But instead of knocking over some poor bloke with your shopping cart, here’s a way to release some aggro in a…

Think of Phoenix as a spreading pool of concrete founded upon a desert. The cement on which we build our lives has come to seem as natural to us as the environment that it’s obscured, and this seemingly uni-functional substance is the main concern of the “Concretion – the sixth…

“Retail” is a six-letter word. Don’t spell it. Don’t speak it. Heaven forbid, don’t pay it. That’s our motto, and the sentiment may be growing on you, too. Problem is, your car has carved a groove from your driveway to the local mall. You’re like a fancy lab rat in…

So here are some of your options for Friday, December 12: a political twist on the Nativity (American Pastorela). Spins by a world-class deejay (Mark de Clive-Lowe). A lo-fi/punk Christmas bash (East Side Records Christmas Party). A Bad Santa-style show for the attention-challenged (7 Minutes Under the Mistletoe). A winter…

There’s a heap of pressure in being likened to this generation’s Herbie Hancock, but New Zealand musician/producer Mark de Clive-Lowe seems up to the challenge. Remixing tracks for stars like Lauryn Hill and Jody Watley and performing with members of The Roots and Miles Davis’ band, Clive-Lowe has gained stardom…

The holiday season is here, and with it comes the one thing we dread most. No, not packed shopping malls, annoyingly chipper holiday songs, or umpteen-gazillion reruns of A Christmas Story. We’re talking about arts and crafts fairs. Think cinnamon-spiced potpourri sachets. Reindeer sweatshirts. Crocheted doily angels. Well, forget the…

Many a high jinks-filled road trip has been prefaced with the old axiom that getting there is half the fun. That certainly rings true for the shepherds trekking to catch a glimpse of the newborn baby Jesus in Cultural Coalition’s La Pastorela AriSonora. In the classic Latino retelling of the…

Democrats drink pinot. Republicans drink whiskey. Libertarians drink at bars. Even better, the grumblety-peg curmudgeons host their political conventions at watering holes – or at least our local cranks will at the Maricopa County Libertarian Party Convention today at Ticoz Resto-Bar. Action items on the alcohol-stained agenda include the election…

Attention all philosophers: Universal good does, indeed, exist in this world. We can now move on as a society, anchored by this one purity. What could the universal good be? It’s none other than the sweet, succulent tamale. Think about it: There’s nothing about a tamale that is remotely bad…

The famed photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner signs his new monograph, Images: Jack Dykinga’s Grand Canyon. Sat., Dec. 13, 12-3 p.m., 2008…

Slip on your worst and check out live sounds by What Laura Says, Colorstore, Matthew Reveles and Fancy Cloud, and Wizards of Time. Sun., Dec. 14, 7 p.m., 2008…

For the first time ever, the best team in a local men’s college basketball doubleheader that’s not named the Cactus Classic/Sleep America Tourney might be the Arizona State Sun Devils. Wow, really? Yes, on the real. In case you haven’t been paying attention, the nationally ranked Devils have been schooling…