The refurbished Mission Revival building, one of three original structures remaining from the old Phoenix Indian School, will host musical performances and community events. The Phoenix Boys Choir and Phoenix Chorale will perform at this event to demonstrate the hall’s acoustics. Wed., Oct. 29, 6 p.m., 2008…
The “freakish forgotten festival” with an abandoned-circus theme features “eerie entertainment,” carnival acts, a costume contest, and a “disturbing” DJ. Sat., Oct. 25, 8 p.m., 2008…
Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, MayDay Pit Bull Rescue, and Maddie’s Project gang up to convince non-pit-bull owners that pit bulls have a bad rap. Bring the vicious beast — er, nice puppy. Sat., Oct. 25, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 2008…
By Lilia Menconi You’ll most likely come across a movie buff long before you run into an art freak. In our day and age, museums don’t have the pull that movie theaters (or home theaters and Netflix) do. Many would look at this as horribly tragic. I say it’s just…
By Martin Cizmar
Fear Farm
99th Avenue and McDowell
Glendale
The good: Great bargain at $18, fantastic scenery, realistic props, skilled and aggressive monsters, lots of startles and scares.
The bad: Location, no animatronics at all, too much chainsaw.
The ugly: None. This is a pretty great haunted house.
By Lilia Menconi I swear my pupils dilate every time I see a Fritz Scholder painting. Scholder, who is one-quarter Luseino, a California Mission tribe, has proven himself an important figure in the development of the Native American Art Movement. And, my God, the man knows how to rock a…
By Lilia Menconi I’m not going to bore you with the ga-jillionth summary of Frida Kahlo’s life. But, just in case you missed the movie with Selma Hayek, the autobiography, the children’s book, the plush toy, the poster and the endless websites made by teenage girls dedicated to this artist,…
They call it Arizona’s Original Scream Park, and though it’s hard to imagine that it is, indeed, the first haunted house in the state given that it’s only 11 years old, it definitely does have an old school feel.
Those who believe that Jonathan Demme went all soft with Philadelphia and never recovered may not be reassured by his latest movie, an ensemble tale of family pathology gussied up with vérité camera work, world music, and improvising actors both trained and not. You can find the worst and the…
W. may be less frenzied than the usual Oliver Stone sensory bombardment, but in revisiting the early ’00s by way of the late ’60s, this psycho-historical portrait of George W. Bush has all the queasy appeal of a strychnine-laced acid flashback. Hideous re-creations of the shock-and-awful recent past merge with…
It’s with a heavy heart we deliver the following news: Pac-Man Fever is a legitimate mental illness. Earlier this year, a study by the Philadelphia Research Center of Mental Illness found “an alarming rate of OCD” in kids who played ’80s video games like Q-Bert. You know Q-Bert, the orange…
To anyone who didn’t grow up here, the Coliseum probably looks like another of Phoenix’s outdated, oddly shaped architectural mishaps. A stack of giant Pringles chips surrounded by tattered outbuildings and acres of parking lot, perhaps. Or a saddle. A layer cake that’s fallen. Look at it with some detachment,…
Sitting in the back of the restaurant at New York’s über-chic Royalton Hotel in an orange polo shirt and khakis, Oliver Stone looks out of place among the bed-headed hipsters otherwise casing the joint (unless, perhaps, he’s instigating his own, retro-Yale fashion trend). Given that the perfectionist director, who has…
A young woman fights off her brutal husband; a gun goes off; a marble spins on the floor where a toddler sits unattended. From B-movie beginnings, The Secret Life of Bees, a family drama set in the civil rights-era South, chugs along pleasantly like a television special tailored for the…
“So . . . jumpsuits, eh?” Combined with a look of slight confusion, that’s the reaction I’ve gotten when I’ve told people I’m writing a review about jumpsuits. “All for One and One for All: The Jumpsuit” at the Phoenix Art Museum may sound like a fluff show, but, as…
The management of the movie house confiscated my cell phone at a screening of Sex Drive last week. “But I’m with the press,” I explained to the security guard who was frisking me. “I’m here to review this thing.” “Doesn’t matter,” he said as he passed a metal detector between…
The kickass class is chock-full of wit and wisdom concerning the lovely Maggie, as well as insider’s tips on how to make the so-called perfect one. The price includes appetizers and a private margarita/tequila sampling. Thu., Oct. 16, 6:30-8:30 p.m., 2008…
The playwright (The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa, Zoot Suit) reads from and signs his works in conjunction with the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing Series. Fri., Oct. 17, 7:30 p.m., 2008…
Rose, of Jim Rose Circus Sideshow fame, hosts this 14-city cavalcade of freaks backed by Dos Equis in support of the brewer’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World” ad campaign. Weirdos on display include fire jugglers and Japanese robotic dancers, in addition to more prosaic acts such as acrobats…
To all of you transplants who say Phoenix is culturally and socially bankrupt, we say shut your trap and open your eyes. Indie businesses have loyal followings, while big chains are having going-out-of-business sales. There’s a farmers’ market in nearly every community. And we’ve got family-friendly fairs by the bushel,…
As we speak, there are people all over the world preparing for a marathon – one that will require determination, wrist strength, and caffeine. Lots of caffeine. These brave folks will be tackling the 24 Hour Comics Day Challenge, meaning they will create a 24-page comic book in 24 hours…
Except for Leonardo da Vinci — who was clearly a mutant – artists aren’t known for their brains. Van Gogh had that little ear disaster, Rothko slit his wrists, and Warhol had an IQ lower than Koko the Gorilla. Painter Colin Chillag sees that stereotype as a license for total…
