Arts & Culture

Don’t miss your last chance to walk through a flapping field of live butterflies at this magnificent annual event. Sept. 27-Nov. 2, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., 2008…

The annual Alwun House fundraiser features readings of Edgar Allan Poe’s writings by the Planet Poe Players, DJs, performance artists, dancing, cabaret and burlesque, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, a no-host bar, and more. Also enjoy the “Monster’s Menagerie” group exhibit, consisting of “evil, satirical, edgy, dangerous, otherworldly, and fantasy” works of…

New figurative nudes by Yvonne Palermo, whose style has been described as “London ’70s punk graffiti.” Tuesdays-Saturdays. Starts: Nov. 4. Continues through Nov. 29, 2008…

The intrigue in the Mexico vs. Ecuador match? Shut, dude, it’s all over the place, especially if you’ve watched the fútbol at all over the past several years. Even if you haven’t, you can relate to Ecuador’s recent success. It’s a team that has gone from doormat (think Arizona Cardinals,…

Harry and the Potters may have started the whole Wizard Rock/WRock mess, but it was L.A.’s Remus Lupins who penned the movement’s anthem, “Wizard Rock,” which pretty much sums things up in its opening lines: “I’m skipping Potions class/To teach you how/To rock and roll.” You, too, should skip class,…

Awesome. Phoenix is celebrating National Pupusa Day with a homegrown Festival of the Pupusas. What’s a pupusa, you ask? Now, now, don’t go all east Mesa conservative on us and start talking about deporting those stuffed handmade corn tortillas “cuz dem illegal Mexicans eat ’em.” For one thing, the pupusa…

Ah, the comfort of the nightlight – its thin, pale beams chasing away the monsters of the imagination in our sugar-fueled childhoods. Nowadays, our plug-in savior casts enough illumination to keep us from stubbing our toes in the shroud of darkness. More than a mere sentinel protecting us from dangers…

When’s the last time you saw a clown up close? Was it this morning in the bathroom mirror? That’s what Jeffrey “Bungles” Potts sees first thing in the a.m., reaching for the toothpaste and pulling up his BVDs, only he’s a professional and you’re nothing but a two-bit huckster who…

When it comes to hip-hop, it doesn’t get any more old-school than KRS-One. The 43-year-old MC is an icon and living legend who’s spent the past two decades educating many rhyme-spitting rappers on coming correct. He’s had particular influence on PHX artists, including a recent collaboration with Cut Throat Logic…

The number seven has always been mysteriously alluring. Across different mythologies, it’s been associated with perfection and divinity. Soul/funk songstress Erykah Badu named her and Andre 3000’s son Seven, noting that the integer is the highest single-digit prime number – beating George Costanza to the punch. The Coronado Neighborhood Association…

Still waiting to get your art-walking feet wet? This is your week. Not only is the weather pretty much perfect, but we’ve found an exhibition where you can say, “Geez, what’s that? I totally don’t get it,” and the artists will probably be thrilled. “Mysterious: simultaneously arousing wonder and inquisitiveness”…

Long Beach’s Crystal Antlers have mastered the art of thrash, that combustible buildup of noise and melody that so many others have tried to harness, only to fail in a miserable pool of fuzzy annoyance. Blending messy, raspy vocals with pummeling drums, writhing riffs and strident organs, the band produces…

“Actually, I know very little about astrology,” says Harvey Sid Fisher by phone from L.A. “But I thought, no one’s written a song for all the signs. I could become a billionaire.” With this incentive, Fisher set to work on a cycle of songs based on each sign of the…

Artists can’t resist molesting the world with their paint, ink, or charcoal. A blank surface doesn’t stand a chance. Think of Basquiat. His lady friend falls asleep for two seconds and the guy splats up her expensive party dress. Sure, she was pissed at the time, but little did she…

When it comes to hip-hop, it doesn’t get any more old-school than KRS-One. The 43-year-old MC is an icon and living legend who’s spent the past two decades educating many rhyme-spitting rappers on coming correct. He’s had particular influence on PHX artists, including a recent collaboration with Cut Throat Logic…

For those of you who are annoyed with the increasing ubiquity of speed cameras, we have a solution: Head down to the Checker O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 Weekend at Phoenix International Raceway – which will be hosting four races from the Great Redneck Institution on four consecutive days beginning tonight…

To you, “label whore” is a term of endearment. Your purse dogs are named Gucci, Versace, and Vuitton. We needed Sex and the City to educate us about Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik, but you learned to speak fluent Prada before you hit middle school. Well, dear fashionista, November is…

New parents who say they’d love their kid to grow up to be the next Picasso obviously weren’t paying attention during their high school years. Football players get hot-cheerleader girlfriends and college scholarships. Scrawny art geeks get their heads stuck in toilets. Some go Columbine on their peers; others, like…

“I’m still amazed by all the vileness and stupidity I’ve witnessed in my life,” former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic once told the Cortland Review. It was this vileness and stupidity — and the philosophy that “true art must be greater than the person who created it” – that inspired…

Here’s our idea of a pretty decent 24-hour period beginning on, say, a Saturday: sleep in, drink coffee, maybe walk around and stuff, watch college football on TV, go out or whatever at night, come home, sleep in. What sounds like heaven to us is hell to others, especially those…

Want the closest thing to a lucid dreaming experience? Then check out Nadia Hironaka’s “The Late Show” video installation, in which a gallery space and its viewers are as much part of the exhibition as the multi-channel video montages and surround-sound audio. Her work in this show attempts to dislocate…

Curiouser and curiouser. About now in most Arizona Cardinals campaigns, pre-Ken Whisenhunt, the Redbirds would’ve been folding like cheap tents, making off-season travel plans, and pondering the firing of yet another head coach. In this Alice in Wonderland world we’re now inhabiting, the Cards are right in the thick of…