By Jonathan McNamara On April 29, Carrie Fisher kicked off the first of six performances of her one-woman tour de force Spy in the House of Me at Theater 4301. Spy,which is roughly taken from her other show Wishful Drinking, is heavy on audience interaction. It begins and ends with…
By Jonathan McNamara In the wake of the Suns’ loss there was one event this weekend that sports fans could totally rock out to. I’m talking about curling, the sport in which boulders are slid across ice (Get it? Rock out . . . boulder . . . never mind)…
Not long ago, I went to a play in East L.A., where I ran into a fantastic young Latina filmmaker named Almudena Carracedo (www.madeinla.com). She’s from Madrid. I told her how I visited the town of Najera in the La Rioja region of Spain a couple of years ago, to…
Watching Marilyn Monroe in Cinemascope, a critic once wrote, is “like being smothered in baked Alaska.” Reading that as a teenager raised some thrilling questions: Is that good or bad? What is “baked Alaska”? And then a realization: How singular it must be for a woman — or a filmmaker…
Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg wrote Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle with the novel idea: What if you made a John Hughes movie, but instead of writing garishly caricatured bit players with names like Long Duk Dong, you cast an Asian actor as the smart, handsome, upwardly mobile…
Could have sworn I’ve seen this episode of Baby Mama before — like sometime in January 2007, when it was originally titled “The Baby Show” and aired on the other prime-time series starring Tina Fey, 30 Rock. (Waitaminute — you say Baby Mama’s a movie and not a TV show?…
She’s what’s politely called a curmudgeon, but more commonly called a bitch. Ruth Steiner is a short-tempered, arrogant, bossy woman “of a certain age,” a celebrated writer of stories who’s been slumming as a literature professor for a little while. One of her students, Lisa, shows some promise, and Ruth…
Earnest, sad, and righteous, they are not. More inspired by M*A*S*H or Dr. Strangelove than The Deer Hunter or Coming Home, a new pack of political films that defy the clichés of the post-9/11 Iraq War cinema has arrived. Notwithstanding a few holdovers of moral outrage (Kimberly Peirce’s Stop-Loss, Nick…
Atlus’ Baroque imagines eternal life in gaming limbo. It isn’t pretty. First of all: God bless Atlus. As a publisher devoted to bringing obscure Japanese gaming gems to the West — basically, the much-needed heir apparent of Working Designs — Atlus is the only hope for gamers who crave oddball,…
The McDowell Mountain Music Festival doesn’t boast an orthodox rock-festival-type lineup, but then, most rock shows don’t give away their dough. The MMMF folks spread the wealth and, more impressive, they do it with style. It’s the exceedingly rare charity event that’s actually cool. Over the course of two days/nights…
Though twins Tegan and Sara Quinn grew up on punk, they’ve demonstrably honed their pop instincts and graduated from folk-tinged New Wave/pop-punk to something more sophisticated over the course of their four albums. Last year’s The Con consolidates the gains made on 2004’s critical breakthrough, So Jealous, with crafted, well-polished…
After more than thirty years of recording and touring, you’d think that these gentlemen would be jaded about making music, but listening to them perform, you realize that nothing could be further from the truth. The iconic group — often regarded by fans as “The Led Zeppelin of jazz” –…
NBA Western Conference Playoffs, Round One, Game Four: San Antonio Spurs at Phoenix Suns. It’s just a game, right? Then how come we’ve aged 10 years since Tim Duncan sank that three-point dagger in our collective chest on April 19? Man, we need a new hobby, which we plan to…
NBA Western Conference Playoffs, Round One, Game Three: San Antonio Spurs at Phoenix Suns. It’s just a game, right? Then how come we’ve aged 10 years since Tim Duncan sank that three-point dagger in our collective chest on April 19? Man, we need a new hobby, which we plan to…
The go-go dude helped to redevelop New York’s SoHo and Miami’s South Beach districts, and he’s also a renowned film producer, with credits ranging from Swimfan to In the Bedroom (starring Marisa Tomei and Sissy Spacek, pictured). He speaks about moving and shaking as a lifestyle choice in conjunction with…
The kickass author of The Brief History of the Dead returns to unveil his new story collection, The View From the Seventh Layer. Mon., April 28, 7 p.m., 2008…
Get up close and personal with NFL Draft Day action at this affair, which features player/cheerleader autograph opportunities and a Kids Zone. Admission is free, but a reserved-seating option is available by calling 602-379-0101. Sat., April 26, 11:45 a.m.-4 p.m., 2008…
Southwest Shakespeare Company goes for a Guinness world record by reading straight through for 24 hours a day for five days. Numerous local thespians and nationally known celebrities are scheduled to pitch in. Thu., April 24; Fri., April 25; Sat., April 26; Sun., April 27; Mon., April 28, 2008…
In her 2005 Queen of the Oddballs, author Hillary Carlip announced that a lifetime of trying on different personas (juggling instructor, actor, singing telegram) had convinced her that being herself was her most fulfilling role. Apparently, she’s changed her mind, at least temporarily. In Carlip’s new à la Cart: The…
If you’re an eBay Power Seller, you hit the Friends of the Phoenix Public Library Book Sale on opening day at stupid o’clock. If you’re just some schmoe-on-the-street who likes cheap shit, we recommend the half-price sale-within-a-sale. Sun., April 27, 12-5 p.m., 2008…
When we told someone we were gonna see Bend It Like Beckham at Phoenix Art Museum, the response was, “Why not just watch it at home with Netflix?” Good point, well-taken, but as with most movie experiences at PAM, it’s the value-adds we dig: free, big screen, with a crowd,…
The smiley face – refreshingly devoid of any Wal-Mart or emoticon association – figures prominently in “Where the Good Thoughts Grow,” an exhibition of new work by Ryan Bubnis. The Portland artist, whose stock is on the rise (it’s easy to see why in this show), uses the image to…
