CANNES, France — The competition for the Palme d’Or is ongoing as I write, yet the red carpet has been rolled up as you read. You will know, as I can’t, whether my comrade journalists agree that the second-week story of the 61st Cannes Film Festival is Steven Soderbergh’s two-part…
Somebody forgot to tell Nintendo that “strenuous indoor exercise” does not top anyone’s summer fun list. This, of course, does not explain why poor suckers everywhere are lining up for Wii Fit, an exhausting personal trainer disguised as a video game. Me? I’ll be kicking back with Mario Kart Wii…
I made some new friends the other day, and they live in Verrado. I’d always wanted to know someone who owned a home in this peculiar development — way the hell out in Buckeye, where each house is a replica of an old home — so I would have an…
If I were the sitter for the portrait Martha, I’d hate John Dawson. Martha is one of the most compelling paintings showing at the Mesa Contemporary Arts exhibition “Dawson: Thirty Years.” And she looks like hell. Dawson’s portraits have a no-mercy, take-no-prisoners attitude. But it’s within these harsh paintings that…
Now the games really count. The third-ranked Arizona State University baseball team will host a four-team regional beginning Friday. Other teams coming to Tempe are nationally-ranked Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and Stony Brook. For game matchups, visit www.thesundevils.com. Fri., May 30, 2 & 7 p.m.; Sat., May 31, 2 & 7 p.m.;…
If you haven’t kept up with Sammy Hagar since his rockin’ “I Can’t Drive 55” days, you might find yourself alternately shocked, horrified, and amused by Hagar’s recent plunge into country music. Then again, the public had more or less the same reaction in 1985 when Hagar was announced as…
When it comes to musical taste, the great swath of modern hipster culture often fractures into two camps: fans of the whimsical and fans of the seriously nerdy. The bands Annuals and 65daysofstatic should briefly unite the sects tonight, when they headline separate shows at Modified Arts. “[The bands are]…
Scottsdale fashion is high. Phoenix couture is low and funky and cool – an unlikely mix of street/eclectic, hobo/boho, and mid-century moderne. One of our favorite purveyors of the anti-runway aesthetic is Rachel Richards’ Bunky Boutique, which flaunts the work of indie and national labels such as Kidrobot, Angela Johnson,…
Pop quiz, hot shot: How many hot dogs do you think you could eat in 12 minutes? Four? Maybe five if you pushed it? You’re gonna have to wolf down a few dozen more than that if you wanna stand a chance during the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot…
If you’ve never heard of Ken Shamrock, the mixed martial arts master, ex-pro wrestler, and cage fighter, be prepared to take a shooto strike in the jugular, followed by a front kick in the package. Okay, kidding. But seriously, Shamrock is the shit (of course we’re going to say that…
If there’s one thing hipsters and Scottsdale socialites might agree on – aside from illicit drug use in public restrooms and celebrity gossip blogs – it’s DJ extraordinaire Steve Aoki. The hip kids dig Aoki’s American Apparel indiglo palette fused with an ’80s hip-hop style and remixes of current indie-music…
Academicians aren’t exactly known for their partying skills. For example, if you’re the parent of a nerd and you go out of town, here’s the worst-case scenario: Your house gets trashed, but instead of empty pizza boxes, there are algebra books left open all over the floor. The recycle bin’s…
Comedian Brian Posehn is the ultimate schlemiel done good. He’s carved out a nice niche by playing a bunch of nobodies in scores of contemporary TV shows and movies. There’s not the remotest chance you’ll remember him in any of these, but here’s a partial list of his credits: The…
Director Roger Corman once said, “In science fiction films, the monster should always be bigger than the leading lady.” Undying words of wisdom from the King of the Bs, who rolled out nearly seven movies a year between 1955 and 1971 and dandled the likes of Martin Scorsese, James Cameron,…
It’s tough to artistically capture a war-torn land or a place that’s experiencing upheaval without falling into a clichéd, depressing point of view about the affected country and its people. You won’t find such an empty portrayal in Nidaa Aboulhosn’s “Conatus. Every Day.” Aboulhosn grew up just outside Beirut, Lebanon,…
There’s naive art and there are naive subjects. Artist Terry Thompson mines the latter with his architecturally precise depictions of vintage roadside landmarks such as motels and diners. The paintings will cause twinges in those harboring memories of a simpler time, because his works are hyper-realistic representations of an America…
You have to hand it to the subjects of Giulio Sciorio’s “Faces of Ecstasy: Real People, Real Orgasms” exhibit, which has been claiming column inches all over the country for some little while now. The men and women, some depicted as couples, were all photographed fully clothed while having an…
Tijs Verwest, a.k.a. DJ Tiësto, a.k.a. DJ Magazine’s best record spinner in the world three years running from 2002 to 2004, basically invented the trance-music party that we’ve all either accidentally or purposely stumbled upon. His newest album, the Grammy-nominated Elements of Life, keeps things jamming with his signature sound…
If you’re like us, you loathe and despise the captive-audience price-gouging that goes on at sports arenas. Five or six bucks for a dog? Eight or nine for a brew? Hell, you’ll only shell out $5 for a sixer and another buck for the wiener at the neighborhood Circle K…
Who knew that Mr. Potato Head, the spud born of George Lerner’s childhood imagination that Hasbro marketed to the masses in the ’50s, was the forerunner of a bright DIY future? These days, interchangeable plastic features have given way to Kidrobot’s Munny, a blank canvas of a toy figure that…
Through the summer, the museum is offering rotating Yin Fridays and Yang Fridays. The mama’s-boy Yins feature organic-tea sipping, yogi/yogini visits, and similar wimpy stuff. We comparatively manly Yangs get to sample cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, groove to live jazz, and participate in what SMoCA calls “art chatter.” Buddha bless!…
If creating earworms was a crime (and God knows it should be), then both Chicago and their 70s hitmaker counterparts the Doobie Brothers would be multiple-time offenders. Admit it: Every time you’ve heard Michael McDonald sing “What a Fool Believes,” or Peter Cetera crooning out “You’re the Inspiration,” chances are…
