By Lilia Menconi For more sterile poses, check the slideshow. Not that we don’t love the youth of Phoenix, but it sometimes gets a little much on a busy First Friday, when you accidentally rub up against a greasy teenager as you’re trying to get through a gallery. Not the…
By Lilia Menconi If you grew up in the West, you’re probably pretty hungry for space. With our ranch-style homes, big back yards and seemingly endless desert, we’re sensitive to the way our walls block us from that which we crave. Such is the focus of a discussion, curated by…
The third runway show of Phoenix Fashion Week 2008 took place Friday night in a loft-like space in the unfinished condos at Hayden Ferry Lakeside. The bulk of the evening’s participating designers presented T-shirts — seriously, four lines of T-shirts in a row, which made me itch to run off…
By Jonathan McNamara Another week has drawn to a close. Don’t worry, we’re not pulling a 32 post blog tour de force like last Saturday’s Edgefest coverage. Nah, we’re taking it easy. Here’s where we’ll be chillin’ this weekend. Friday, October 3: First Friday Saturday, October 4: SMoCA Fall Opening…
By Lilia Menconi A sample of recent works by Colin Chillag as seen on the show’s flier. First Fridays can set my brain on fire. I always show up in a rush because my third coat of mascara took too long or I got stuck in game traffic or I…
The sun was setting like a luscious new shade of rosy lipstick as hundreds of beautiful people streamed into the Royal Palms Resort Wednesday night. And that was a sneak preview of an evening of all things pink, in honor of the kickoff event of the fourth annual Phoenix Fashion…
It’s difficult to enter “Lowriders and Tattoos” at Mesa Contemporary Arts without preconceptions. Let’s be honest: Both cultural phenomena carry a negative stigma, even in a country where Hispanic culture is blossoming and, according to exhibit curator Patty Haberman, nearly half the population is inked. My fondness for body modification…
The most recent example of bleak chic, Fernando Meirelles’ mostly harrowing adaptation of José Saramago’s international bestseller Blindness mixes the high-velocity pace and stylishness of the Brazilian director’s breakout City of God with the Portuguese author’s thinly metaphysical horror thriller. Unflinching at best and treacly at worst, the film unveils…
“Course he’s willing to die. You think we do this kinda work ’cause we scared to die?” So speaks Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) about his sidekick Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), as the two stare down a posse of bad guys in Appaloosa, New Mexico, circa 1882. Cole and Hitch, who…
This summer, the drummer from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts threw a drumstick at my face. To be fair, that’s what drummers do — even fill-in, faux-Blackhearts from Joan Jett’s new live band (at a county fair near you). After defensively swiping the stick out of the air, inches from…
I spoke recently to a college journalism class on the subject of critical thinking. “You mean,” a student asked after I was done blabbing about synthesis and evaluation, “that you can find beauty in anything based on what its intention was?” “Yes,” I said, and launched into a description of…
Recognized for producing of some of the greatest records of the punk era (Elvis Costello, The Damned, the Pretenders), it’s his own records where Nick Lowe left the most indelible mark. Witness Yep-Roc’s recent 30-year anniversary edition of Pure Pop for Now People. In 1978, dressing up like the Riddler…
Artists Michele Bledsoe, Richard Bledsoe, El Moises, Annie Lopez, Jeff Falk, and Steve Gompf salute Dia de los Muertos. Fri., Oct. 3, 6:30-10 p.m., 2008…
The new downtown venue features a fine-art gallery that will play host to works by local artists, a light bulb/specialty-lighting store, and a lighting-design enterprise. Fri., Oct. 3, 2008…
Somewhere or other, it’s written that to everything there is a season. But there are people who just can’t accept this — people who enjoy listening to Bing Crosby sing “Silver Bells” in February, people who crave pumpkin pie in June. If you’re a baseball fan of this ilk, here…
Time to do some laundry. Groan, right? Rocky Yazzie of Phoenix experimental rockers Skinwalkers and Morgan Halas of The Lucky Sperms will gladly oblige anyone who thinks doing laundry is a drag. The twosome has assembled a motley crew of musicians, poets, and entertainers for The Laundromat Show on Sunday,…
Pop quiz: Which iconic image best represents Phoenix — Camelback Mountain or a strip mall? If you said No. 2, you’re a winner. Rather than dissing the popular building style, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art invited architects to submit proposals for transforming ugly-ass strips into exotic gathering spaces of the…
You got knocked out on the curb the other night. As the sky tilted from starboard to port above you, your mouth filled with blood. You reveled in the sensation, feeling the thrill uncoil in your stomach. Consider Bloodfest 2008 the culmination of your growing sanguine fetish. With the rave’s…
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Muay Thai. Grappling and triangle-choking. Is there anything that mixed martial arts doesn’t incorporate? (So far, metal-chair skull-cracking, though the way things are going, that could very well happen one day. For now, the WWE has dibs on that move.) It’s no wonder the sport is blowing up…
You use the words “decanting” and “aerating” without reservation. You keep a stack of Wine Enthusiast magazines by the toilet. Sadly, your younger family members refer to you as “Drunkle.” Check out the grand opening of what may well become your new favorite place, District: American Kitchen and Wine Bar…
When we dig through the sea of records at thrift stores around town, there are some sure bets as to what we’ll find: a kids’-choir Christmas album, a Herb Alpert record, and some 78s, a medium that was ditched and dissed once LPs and 45s blew up. The Shack Shake…
A girl needs a sofa. A guy wants to gripe about his bitchy boss. Another fellow wants to rent an apartment with a stranger who likes teacup poodles and sleeps during the day. Will these people meet? If so, will they fall in love? Or will they just end up…
