By Joseph Golfen The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art opened its slick glass doors to the public for a special engagement on Friday, May 16. SMoCA’s Summer Reception introduced two of the museum’s upcoming summer shows while displaying pieces from the permanent collection. “This is sort of our offerings for…
By Jonathan McNamara That’s right. Wiener dogs. Racing. The Wienerschnitzel Wiener National race will raise money for Arizona Adopt a Greyhound, an organization that finds homes for retired race dogs. So if you’d relish the chance to see a team of dogs run 100 feet into the arms of their…
“Things never happen the same way twice.” Thus boometh Aslan the lion (Liam Neeson), alias the Son of God, popping his computer-generated shaggy head briefly into The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian to pep-talk a bunch of discouraged Brits into fighting the good fight again. As in life, so in…
If you read reviews the way I do, you’ve already started by checking out the score, and now you’re back here to see what the hell my problem is. Peace, brother. Grand Theft Auto IV is a fine game, with tons of content and all the great moments you’ve come…
Nine years ago, a guy named Brian Boner moved to Phoenix as a fresh college grad with an art degree from Minnesota State University. Boner stopped by gallery after gallery in Phoenix and Scottsdale, trying to make a connection. Inexperienced and shy, Boner didn’t have a résumé or portfolio —…
I lost my virtue in a shopping mall. Sort of. It was actually in my boss’s office at the Mexican restaurant where I had my first-ever job, in what’s known as Metro Parkway, the shopping complex surrounding Metrocenter Mall at I-17 and Peoria. This was in the late 1970s, when…
Unlike corn or that long-overdue Scott Baio retrospective on The Biography Channel, the world is not running low on Metallica cover bands. After performing a quick Internet search, we found some with predictable names (Holland-based The Unforgiven, the online-only Sad But True), other generic outfits (The Greedy Bastards are German,…
Your sixth birthday fiesta might have been the shiznit way back in the day – especially with pony rides, clowns, and a moon jump – but we guaran-damn-tee it absolutely pales in comparison to the fly festivities being planned for the Blunt Club’s Six-Year Anniversary Party on Thursday, May 15…
While there’s been much talk about the changing Phoenix area, Tempe is the part of town perhaps the most under siege. Long-timers remember the days when Mill Avenue was a cool place to be – when mom-and-pop businesses and live-music venues lined the street. Now . . . not so…
Charlie Hill’s career hasn’t been Earth-shattering. Oh, the standup comic’s had his moments: stray gigs on Letterman and Leno, one-offs on The Richard Pryor Show, Moesha, Roseanne, The Bionic Woman. Mostly, though, this son of the Iroquois Nation has spent his professional life in the middling gray area that separates…
Many contend that retired athletes ride the sports-memorabilia gravy train for the payola. We say they’re bored. Let’s take former NFL star William “The Refrigerator” Perry, since he’s handy. The Fridge was never the smartest appliance in the showroom, but an above-average talent propelled him to the phat land of…
As you know – because you’re a New Times reader and we’re New Times – we’re not the sort to glad-hand politicians. If we were clinging to the lip of a crevasse and forced to pick a pol to save our life, we’d just let go. If choosing death wasn’t…
When one door slams shut, another usually opens. Take Tempe’s Aztec Self Storage; its 120 doors closed and then reopened as the more artistic-sounding 1700Curry. The business at 1700 East Curry Road is still a place to store your high school memories, but on Saturday, May 17, the four acres…
Take a look at your little apartment and see how much junk you own. You’ve still got every single paperback book from your high school reading list, that drawer of mismatched socks that’s been collecting dust mites for two years, and a second grade-era DuckTales backpack. Looks like it’s time…
There are three types of people in this world: those with tattoos, those without, and those who need a little persuading. If you’re on the fence, check out the Super Bowl of epidermal modification, the Arizona Skin Art Expo, which features more than 100 of the top tattoo maestros from…
Ah, the mystique of the Ladmo Bag. Not only did it contain a dizzying mix of candy and knickknacks, it was also bestowed upon kiddies from the sainted hands of the Wallace & Ladmo characters. Bear Cole, a.k.a. Bear the Astronot, thinks music should be a similar fountain of treats…
Gilligan’s Island made Sherwood Schwartz’s other major contribution to society, The Brady Bunch, look like Shakespeare. It was foul. Worse, it was nonsensical. What the hell were a movie star, a brilliant professor, and a millionaire (and his wife!) doing on a mangy scow like the Minnow, anyhow? Mary Ann,…
It’s an age-old story: Boy is committed to insane asylum; boy meets schizophrenic girl in insane asylum; boy and girl perform interpretive dance moves and fall in love. David and Lisa is a story that, sans the dance moves, has been told in many formats, first as a well-regarded novel,…
The mother of the late ASU Sun Devil, Arizona Cardinal, and Army Ranger Pat Tillman introduces her memoir, Boots on the Ground by Dusk, in which she outlines her search for truth about how her son was killed in Afghanistan. Fri., May 16, 7 p.m., 2008…
It’s no big shocker that fans in these parts have more passion for basketball than any other pro sport. Okay, then, so explain why a pro-basketball squad that’s actually won something is virtually ignored while the other, can’t-quite-win-the-big-one team attracts rabid, out-of-their-minds followers? If you’re into watching the unveiling of…
You know that old adage “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone”? Well, in the case of Phoenix and its creative types who run off for other happening places, it’s true. In the case of Camilla Taylor – a work-her-ass-off textile artist, printmaker, and curator – it’s triply…
It’s no small source of stupid pride for me that there are a million cool anagrams for my name, everything from Mr. Iodine Scene to I Sneer Demonic to No Dicier Semen. Any one of these would make a natty album title. But apparently, it’s equally no small source of…
