Arts & Culture

The flick by New York’s Home Team Productions centers on the wanderings of post-mod, homeless-by-choice oddball Poppa Neutrino. Sat., Oct. 4, 7 & 8:30 p.m., 2008…

The fifth annual 70-mile bike ride travels through Scottsdale, Cave Creek, Carefree, and Fountain Hills. Proceeds benefit the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy. The Tour Expo on DC Ranch’s Market Street features cycling fashion, a beer garden, a wine bar, and live music. Sun., Oct. 5, 7:30 a.m., 2008…

The acclaimed poet reads from works included in her collections Finding Peaches in the Desert, One Legged Dancer, Scattered Risks, Without the Comfort of Stars, and her new Crazy Love. William Pitt Root also reads. Thu., Oct. 2, 7:30 p.m., 2008…

Ever been to one of those upscale art exhibits where you look at a Pollock-style splatter painting and think to yourself, “I coulda done that in, like, five minutes?”, but you’re too afraid to say it lest the throng of wine-sipping art snobs blacklists you forever? Artist Randy Slack offers…

In a nutshell, here’s the problem with pop culture: Marilyn Monroe created the template. Madonna was a knockoff, but a scam artist with enough personal charisma and talent to make the theft seem in some ways like an homage. Britney Spears is what’s left after all the inbreeding: a hollow…

This free outdoor series kicks off with a screening of the immortal Bogie/Bacall vehicle. Shown on the Center Lawn. Fri., Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m., 2008…

Having a doctorate in arcane British lit might not seem like the fastest track to fortune, but canny author Philippa Gregory snapped on something few others grasped: those feisty Tudors (her specialty) were as jam-packed with sex appeal and drama queens as any 10 Disney Channel shows. Gregory’s 2002 novel…

Back in the day, we haunted a moviehouse that changed its marquee every single day. And not only flicks, but entire bills of fare. One day, there’d be a Peter Sellers triple-bill, the next a pairing of 2001 and Barbarella. Today’s movie-biz mechanics have made such an approach wildly unfeasible,…

Watching other people work is always fun. Watching them make it work is even better. Vicarious sweat takes on a glam sheen at the fourth annual Phoenix Fashion Week. Your ticket for each evening’s runway show ($30 general seating, $60 reserved) also gets you in to that day’s seminars, trade…

Doncha love how Anglo-Americans embrace their foreignness during drinking holidays? Every other day of the year, folks curse soccer and the Euro way, but they ride the heck out of that 0.00001-percent Irish/English/Dutch/whatever blood that pumps through their hollow veins when stuff like St. Patrick’s Day rolls around. Don’t be…

For the past few weeks, Valley schoolchildren have taken perhaps the first field trip in history to feature the phrase, “I am an accused terrorist spy and I am a patriotic American.” We would expect no less from the Icehouse, Phoenix’s favorite venue for the out-there of the art world…

Local photorealist painter Suzanne Falk will teach participants all you need to know to become a beginning oil painter, from creating a color grid to special effects. Saturdays, 1-4 p.m. Starts: Oct. 4. Continues through Nov. 22, 2008…

Twenty-three years ago, our then-girlfriend Robin tried to rent us an apartment, but the spritzhead manager quoted company rules: “We don’t rent one-bedrooms to same-sex roommates.” Pissed, we kicked over the flowerpot outside the door. That was Phoenix then, but now, with the seventh annual Rainbows Festival, can you almost…

It’s either fortuitous psychic planning or just plain dumb luck that The Green Lady Killers released an EP that opens with a song called “Psycho Ellen” in the same week Ellen DeGeneres cuckooed up the airwaves weeping about a troublesome doggy she couldn’t handle with some kind of Michael Vick…

Shown in conjunction with the exhibit “Edward Weston: Mexico,” the documentary tells the bigger-than-life tale of Tina Modotti, the photographer and lover of Weston. Phoenix College’s Dr. Cecilia Rosales introduces the film and hosts a post-screening discussion. Sun., Oct. 5, 1 p.m., 2008…

Learn beginning watercolor techniques from way-talented painter Suzanne Falk, who will teach participants translucent color and traditional techniques with a contemporary flair. Wednesdays, 6:15-8:45 p.m. Starts: Oct. 8. Continues through Nov. 12, 2008…

We can’t blame Valley sports fans for throwing a conniption fit these days, considering that the D-Backs screwed the pooch, the Mercury dipped far south, and the Sun Devil football team seems to be stumbling. Now your Phoenix Suns are officially back in business, with the 2008-09 preseason commencing tonight…

Bizarre-o New Orleans solo musician Robert Rolston, a.k.a. Quintron, is known for pumping out “swamp tech” dance tunes via custom-made instruments, such as a Hammond organ/Fender Rhodes synth combo and a Drum Buddy. For his current tour, Quintron has doubled the size of his act by including his wife, Panacea…

Henry Rollins says he is down on bended knee, begging you — to vote. It may be hard to imagine Rollins — muscle-bound, sweaty, tattooed — begging, with his furrowed-brow intensity, for anything. But he’s known for being a man of a thousand media, showing he’ll get his point across…

This season, the Arizona Cardinals have decided to try something rather new: win occasionally. We’d like nothing better than for the Buffalo Bills to learn that firsthand. Despite a strong start, the Bills seem ripe for a good beatdown in their cross-conference game on Sunday, October 5, against the strong-at-home…

Check out the new look Suns at this free, open-to-the-public practice. Fans can also kick it with the Gorilla, the Suns Dancers, and Verve Sol Patrol. Sun., Oct. 5, 7 p.m., 2008…