Not all music interviews aspire to get at the pith of an artist or band’s identity, or to say anything all that insightful about them. No, sometimes interviews exist just as a means to give an artist a chance to voice a bit of his or her personality and, if…
Our assignment, which we chose to accept, was to sling ink about Copper Star Coffee’s Poetry Series setup on the third Wednesday of every month. We hoped the tattooed stud pouring our mud would spill the beans about the upcoming assonance-shaking and alliteration-popping, but — hell’s bells! — it’s the…
MTV has a lot to answer for. Killing the radio star to forcefeed us hair bands in the Eighties. Re-imagining punk and grunge to be all those lousy bands that filled two entire CDs of Buzz Cuts in the Nineties. Inventing the reality show and in reality gutting music from…
Just about anything has a license to be extreme in the world of Japanese comics, especially when martial artists shoot fireballs from their hands and fifty-foot-tall robots are commonplace. Death Note is no exception. The comic is a dark tale about a Japanese high school student (and it is always…
The odes to self-love in pop culture are legion, ranging from Cyndi Lauper’s pouty-voiced paean “She Bop” to the Divinyls’ slinky “I Touch Myself.” NYC poet Jon Sands’ “Being Human Being” starts with self-inflicted lust, but swiftly traces its way to playfully affirming his love for humanity’s, well, humanness. The…
Imagine realizing a lifelong dream by opening your own indie business. Not only does it pay the bills, but it thrives for nearly a decade, becoming a much-needed alternative to the big-box stores. Life is good. Love is good. Then, just like that, it’s gone. This pissing-in-your-Cheerios-nightmare occurred to Steve…
We hate to buy into and prolong stereotypes, but . . . whatever, dude. We’re gonna do it anyway, bra, and talk dude-speak. How else can we gab about the sick Nissan Half-Pipe Jam with dudethority? The two-day extreme sport rush will feature multiple world-class BMX, skate, and inline vert…
A boutique forms a partnership with an artist and what happens? Your friends say that shirt looks like you fell asleep at Basquiat’s house. Is that a dis? We’re going to assume it’s not, being that if this were the case, one shirt could probably sell at auction and fund…
Talking to New Times about Cousins of the Wize’s impending CD-release show, lead MC Michael “Magnum Pie” Bradford has a laid back steadiness in his voice that never wavers. That’s saying something, considering all the band has been through the past eleven years. “First off, it humbles you,” Bradford says…
One of our favorite movie quotes – courtesy of the late-Chris Farley in Black Sheep, goes like this: “A corn-fed harvest mouse, a hooker, a nun, a Flemish peasant woman, whips, chains, whistles yo-yos, a circus midget.” Every time we think about it, we laugh (haha!) and then, for whatever…
Bikes, costumes, and a parade. What more could one ask for? How about beer, circus acts, and live music? Heck, yes. Tour de Fat has all of this covered, and Tempe has been chosen as one of the eleven cities to which the Tour will spread its cycling gospel. Fat’s…
What’s bilingual and is surrounded by four plays, one musical, mariachi performances, art exhibits, a book signing with local glitter queen Kathy Cano-Murillo, and can be enjoyed while eating enchiladas? How about the Cultural Coalition’s La Calaca Cabaret, which will present a celebration of music, dance, poetry, and theater to…
AZ ain’t Connecticut, so our lifestyle gurus are the anti-Martha. Namely, Patrick Murillo and Kathy Cano-Murillo, the latter of whom, Crafty Chica, has already been zazzing us up with her newspaper column, cruises, events, and new line of supplies. “La Casa Murillo: A Life-Size Shadow Box,” currently showing at the…
In our opinion, parades don’t come around often enough. But when they do, there’s that entire cleanup of crap such as ticker tape and horseapples. So what to do if you want all of the fun and bluster, but none of the mess? If you’re Chicago composer Mark Messing, you…
Scoot closer, honey, and turn those lights down so we can tell you something. Legend has it that the government experimented with D-13 serum to turn dead soldiers into fighting machines, but instead they became man-eating zombies. The D-13, stored near Mesa Riverview, leaked into a local graveyard, and those…
Know anyone who’s a pathological optimist, the kind who always sees the glass half full? Maybe you envy them. Or maybe, like us, you secretly hope they’ll “accidentally” fall down a flight of stairs. In writer/director Mike Leigh’s latest film HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, Poppy is a sunny optimist whose positive-thinking ways falter…
Way back in 1884, a small band of heat-addled Phoenicians put their hardscrabble noggins together and thunk up the Arizona Territorial Fair, which was essentially a reason to bust out of their stifling shotgun shacks after a season on the brink of madness. The diversions they installed at the old…
Dunno if y’all heard the news, but the economy’s kinda in the toilet. Majorly. So much so that what little money you have for leisure activities has to be stretched tighter than the spandex hugging the naughty bits of the Cardinals cheerleading squad. Hence, you’re probably in the market for…
Owning a computer doesn’t equal mastery of the writing craft. That’s why pulp purists like us are constantly teeth-clenching when reading stuff online. However, contributors to the online-only Superstition Review aren’t a bunch of LiveJournal and Blogspot hacks. You see, the fiction, nonfiction, and poetry scribes who have been featured…
Want to become relevant in an oversaturated and distressing sports market? Win. Some. Freaking. Games. Already. You can say what you want about the decision makers in the Phoenix Coyotes front office, but the team’s struggle to be recognized and revered will eternally be an obstacle until the hockey club…
Since the opening of University of Phoenix Stadium and the hiring of head coach Ken Whisenhunt, the Arizona Cardinals have made significant strides toward painting this anti-Bidwill town red. The Birds have developed a nice little home-field advantage, and it’s rare anymore to see the UofP blitzed with foreign colors…
Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin were glorified hoods, or at the least gambled (and gamboled) with floozies and wiseguys, so if you’re looking for a PBS-style documentary about what really happened during the Rat Pack’s famously tawdry run of concerts at the Mob-owned Sands in Golden Age…
