Arts & Culture

Most people wore tank tops to show off their ink underneath and some ladies forgot to put on a shirt at all over their bras. No one seemed top mind.

Who needs the safety of your own home when you can wander around an expo full of needles?

This weekend it’s all about the art.

“Enrique Montenegro: American Modernist” at Eric Firestone Gallery: This exhibition of work by the late Enrique Montenegro, an accomplished American painter, reveals Montenegro’s insatiable interest in people. In these paintings, he studies how we see — or don’t see — ourselves by focusing on the human figure. The works depict…

As a kid, I spent countless hours thumbing through a dog-eared copy of The Guinness Book of World Records, determined to find just the right stupid human trick to vault me into freak-show history. Turns out I didn’t need to waste all those years stretching my neck with metal rings;…

I stumbled across her about two years ago, when a detour on I-17 dumped me onto the slatternly mess that is Washington Street at Black Canyon Highway. Stuck in traffic slowed to a crawl, I was distracted by her bosomy façade and the wide, corset-like turret she wore wrapped around…

It has to be said: the AZ music scene suffers from a severe lack of spookiness. Perhaps it’s the overabundance of sunshine or scarcity of graveyards, but in the greater Phoenix metro area, it’s hard to get rocked in that “this music could very well be sucking the blood from…

It’s fitting that Muppet Show creator Jim Henson based his Dr. Teeth character on pianist Dr. John, who has served as unofficial mascot-ambassador for the city of New Orleans and its indigenous musical forms for a good fifty years now, arguably filling the shoes of none other than Louis Armstrong…

You opportunists should get ready for the most shameful steal of your life. Our constipated housing market is prairie-dogging the dump of the decade, and you should be at the ready, pooper-scooper and shady real estate agent at hand. Once you get your cheapskate paws on the new pad, try…

We heart Arizona Bike Week – one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the state, currently frequenting the Phoenix area – but we eco-friendly, transportation-challenged types prefer our bikes non-motorized and of the pedal variety. That’s why we’ll take extra precaution not to be run down by a burly chopper…

Not since the mid-’90s street tournament at Arizona Center has a b-ball happening tickled our jones for pavement hoopin’. Radio station 101.5 Jamz presents Gus Macker’s Who’s Got Game? 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament at Tempe Marketplace. The shindig will feature slam-dunk and free-throw contests as well as blacktop balling. April 5-6,…

One of the biggest complaints we hear in this town? “Phoenix has no culture.” Hey, crybaby. Ever been to Guadalupe, the Native American/Hispanic enclave nestled between Phoenix and Tempe? If not, get your behind to the off-the-hook ’hood on Saturday, April 5, for Guadalupe Days. The event, centered on the…

We found an awesome quote on the Interweb recently that stated, “The world is divided into two kinds of people: those who have tattoos, and those who are afraid of people with tattoos.” If you’re the latter, it’d be wise to avoid Mesa Centennial Hall as the Arizona Tattoo Expo…

Here’s something you’ve never stopped to ask yourself: Why are the words “hog” and “motorcycle” often used interchangeably? You think it’s because revving choppers sound like snorting swine, don’t you? As poetic as that would be, it’s not so, as you’ll find out after visiting the Harley-Davidson Traveling Museum, a…

One thing was always certain on The Cosby Show: When Theo Huxtable (played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner) escaped the influence of his pal Cockroach, he was actually a pretty smart guy. In real life, Warner is a pretty deep dude who performs a one-man music/spoken-word routine. Warner gigs on the rooftop…

Don’t worry. Just because this piece you are reading will soon plug the lecture appearance of Eric Schlosser, author of the bestselling fast-food exposé Fast Food Nation, it doesn’t mean that we are going to slam Fat America. Instead, we are going to slam Fat Planet Earth. Okay, maybe the…

Human beings continue to find new and insane ways to challenge each other. Think stunning feats of endurance like Mount Everest and hot-dog-eating contests. Twenty-four hours straight of open-mic poetry is of a similar epic nature, a fact not lost on David Tabor, who will hold down the fort at…

Michael Lundgren takes a nice pic. His silver-gel landscapes offer unadorned depictions of our lovely, denuded desert. Odds are, you’ll like ’em. So God forbid the works should be allowed to speak for themselves. No, their meanings must be spelled out, tediously, in terms you have no hope of understanding…