Major League Baseball prospects play winter-league ball for the six teams comprising this league: Mesa Solar Sox, Peoria Javelinas, Peoria Saguaros, Phoenix Desert Dogs, Scottsdale Scorpions, and Surprise Rafters. It’s a cheap, cheap, cheap way to scratch your baseball itch between the World Series and Cactus League. See the Web…
Check out the unusual gems housed in the library’s Alfred Knight Rare Book Collection. Registration is required. Wed., Nov. 12, 7-8:30 p.m., 2008…
The star of the MTV reality show Rob & Big makes a special appearance. Rashawn “Bam Bam” Davis will also be on hand, and DJ Chino will spin sounds. Sat., Nov. 8, 8 p.m.-2 a.m., 2008…
The Phoenix Suns honor their Chairman for his role in engineering USA Basketball’s gold-medal win last summer in Beijing. The ceremony will take place during a first-quarter break of the Suns-Memphis Grizzlies game. Mon., Nov. 10, 7 p.m., 2008…
Piano rock, schmiano rock. What Copeland produces is something much more than the recycled Ben Folds schmaltz typical of most ivories-oriented groups. Both Beneath Medicine Tree, the quartet’s 2003 debut, and In Motion, its 2005 breakthrough, were awash in lush, dreamy indie pop that eschewed irony for introspection. The guitar…
The Hollywood Sexy Horror Party is not falsely named, technically. It is Hollywood in a B-list way. It might be sexy in spots, as there are a couple of cute B-listers scheduled to attend. The horror part? Well, there’s the rub. The high-concept notion behind the event is that most…
We aren’t allowed to tell you about Dagger Deathrace II. In fact, organizers would probably prefer it if you weren’t reading this, particularly if you’re a po-po. Why? Because DDR is a crazy-ass underground urban bicycle race (a.k.a. an “alleycat”) that will take to the streets on Friday, October 31…
You were smart enough not to buy into certain fads of the ’80s. You skipped the at-home perms, and now you’re one of the few who isn’t suffering from female hair loss. You didn’t care about politics enough to don a “Ruck Fussia” bumper sticker. Nice choice, because now that…
There’s no separation of church and scare at the Final Destination III Haunted House. This guided walk-through depicts horrifying morality plays of sinning and eternal damnation, i.e. gay people worship Satan and abortions are a one-way ticket to Hades. These so-called “Hell Houses” are nationwide franchises preaching the literal translation…
The former Marshall University football coach (left) introduces a screening of the film in which he was portrayed by Matthew McConaughey (right). Lengyel was the coach who took over the Marshall football program after it was decimated in a 1970 airplane crash. Thu., Oct. 30, 6 p.m., 2008…
The locally produced indie-on-a-shoestring by former Scottsdale Community College buds Justin Koleszar and Ernie Quiroz is about a tangled web of relationships centered on a young dude named Jason who strikes out in New York and comes home to Phoenix to roost with his dad. Thu., Oct. 30, 7:30 &…
Ben Folds has never strayed far from his trademark geek-pop sensibilities. He’s honed the sound even further over the past few years, playing for crowds of adoring college kids. The excitement of the live shows seems to have made an impression on the Nashville-based singer/songwriter/pianist. His new record, Way to…
By Lilia Menconi By Goran Konjevod. With marriage, the one year anniversary may mark the time when things have slowed down a bit. Life has hit its routine, you don’t really go out that much anymore and maybe you just don’t crumple the sheets like you used to. It could…
By Martin CizmarIn the last month I’ve seen a lot of chainsaws. Quite possibly more than I’ve seen in the rest of my life combined. Why almost every haunted house in the Valley ends with a chainsaw-wielding dude chasing you out the back door is a mystery to me, but they do.
By Martin Cizmar
Ghoulfland
Country Club and The 60
Mesa
The good: Lots of startles throughout maze-like house, other fun activities at Golfland.
The bad: Fairly short, scenery is often a little cheesy.
The ugly: None.
By Lilia Menconi Everyone has felt the pressure to really bring it with personal style. You’ve got a big work event coming up and it’s necessary to make an impression. Easy enough. You hit the gym a little harder a month before and grab up some fashion magazines to help…
By Martin Cizmar
Shadowlands
Fiesta Mall, Alma School and The 60
Mesa
The good: Outdoor trail is full of great scenery and well-placed actors, some impressive scenery, novelty factor since it is much different than other area houses.
The bad: Not enough scares, overly complex and ultimately meaningless storyline, poor use of available live monsters.
The ugly: Too much yelling of directions.
By Lilia Menconi Anticipation of the Thesmophoria by Simon Casson. In this postmodern world, we just can’t seem to keep our grubby paws off of other people’s ideas. Having surrendered to the concept that there is no longer a purely original thought, we’ve embraced a creative zone of spring boarding…
By Martin Cizmar
Doomtown at Rawhide
Rawhide, The 10 at Wild Horse Pass
Chandler
The good: Great scene around the haunts themselves, awesome curtain maze, cool scenery in jungle room, good decoys paired with hidden scares throughout, great first scene in the asylum house.
The bad: Tons of wall thumping, annoying pissing skeleton, not enough actors
The ugly: Very, very short for $16.
I would never knowingly contradict a Best of Phoenix. Therefore, I am not prepared to say that Rawhide’s Doomtown is not The Best Halloween Scare in our fair metropolis. I will, however, say it’s not my favorite.
The protag of Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky is a modestly gaudy people’s heroine industriously repairing the social world, one frayed interaction at a time. After extended cameos in two previous Leigh films (as a resourceful pop tart in All or Nothing and the date-raped rich girl in Vera Drake), fine-boned Sally…
Pride and Glory doesn’t make any effort to disguise what it is: a barely-held-together string of vignettes lifted from every cop movie ever made (save, perhaps, Turner & Hooch). It serves up clichés bound together by a flimsy, bored-out-of-its-own-skull story about bad cops, black sheep, good sons, and a climactic…
One of the oft-repeated historical curiosities about the Maya is that they conceived the wheel yet never found a practical application for it. Mayan kids had wheeled toys and Mayan calendars were imagined as wheels . . . yet when it came to hauling something, your average Maya just heaped…
