Hell of a thing, getting Mike Nichols to adapt the yer-kiddin’-me story of Charlie Wilson, the congressman from Lufkin, Texas, who damn near single-handedly helped the Afghans kick out the Russians in the 1980s. Says right there on page 11 of the paperback edition of George Crile’s 2003 book Charlie…
If the term “butt-shake” isn’t part of your musical vernacular, you had better get hip ASAP and have a listen to Phoenix’s own Acapulco-Five-O. Inspired by ’50s and ’60s spy music, go-go, Latin exotica, and, of course, butt-shake, Acapulco-Five-O was designed to infect the masses with the rockin’ pneumonia and…
Andrew Jackson Jihad has received a grip of ink in our esteemed publication. From glowing praise (“Their music could almost be the perfect soundtrack to the black humor of a Kurt Vonnegut novel”) to backhanded compliments (“[co-frontman] Sean Bonnette is the poster boy for twentysomething angst”), the acoustic folk-punk duo…
Peeping and appreciating art at the gaggle of Roosevelt Row galleries doesn’t mean sporting beatnik berets or bongos, emo hoodies, ironic t-shirts, or the ever-present guyliner. Sometimes the work is just gorgeous, man. Especially if the show involves art of the wearable kind, like the beautiful bijoux of Ali Kauss,…
Name a Phoenix-based musical act that’s been nominated for five Grammys in the same year. Alice Cooper? False. CeCe Peniston? Uh, no. Jimmy Eat World? Gross, dude. Phoenix Bach Choir? Say what? Say yes to the following nominations for the choral group: • Best Classical Album • Best Choral Performance…
Name a Phoenix-based musical act that’s been nominated for five Grammys in the same year. Alice Cooper? False. CeCe Peniston? Uh, no. Jimmy Eat World? Gross, dude. Phoenix Bach Choir? Say what? Say yes to the following nominations for the choral group: • Best Classical Album • Best Choral Performance…
Name a Phoenix-based musical act that’s been nominated for five Grammys in the same year. Alice Cooper? False. CeCe Peniston? Uh, no. Jimmy Eat World? Gross, dude. Phoenix Bach Choir? Say what? Say yes to the following nominations for the choral group: • Best Classical Album • Best Choral Performance…
Name a Phoenix-based musical act that’s been nominated for five Grammys in the same year. Alice Cooper? False. CeCe Peniston? Uh, no. Jimmy Eat World? Gross, dude. Phoenix Bach Choir? Say what? Say yes to the following nominations for the choral group: • Best Classical Album • Best Choral Performance…
You may be a pock on the rash of post-post-adolescent artist folks squatting in the downtown area, but that doesn’t mean you gotta spend your Saturday nights as the scrubby alterna-type that you are. So go on, swank it up a bit, but this time, don’t outsource your glitzy evening…
Good old Michel Foucault would likely regard Jessica Calderwood’s enamel art as mere fodder for the repressive hypothesis, which attempts to give revolutionary importance to discourse on sexuality. Before we whip out footnotes and alphabetized bibliographies, we’re just going to point out, with sensitivity, that Foucault is, in fact, a…
Hey, you got your hiking in my karaoke! The two have more in common than you think. Both take some amount of courage and correct breathing techniques, not to mention appropriately stylish outfits. So break out those sassy stilettos you got at REI, ’cause someone over at Estrella Mountain Regional…
Are you a poet and you know it? Psh! Talk to the hand, because we know the cats in the Jazz Poets, backed by folky rockers Obadiah Parker, are the real deal. Fri., Dec. 21, 7:30 p.m., 2007…
We pansy-ass boutique shoppers are pretty ambivalent about the new Tempe Marketplace megashopolopolis, but we do dig the big-box nirvana’s Third Thursday at Tempe Marketplace series, which features big-name acts for zero dinero. This edition features California hardcore crew Unwritten Law and local power-popsters Good With Grenades. Thu., Dec. 20,…
To remain attractive, personal hygiene is important. However, if your cleanliness creeps toward godliness and spills over into the realm of sterilization, it’s just not sexy. Anyone who’s obsessed with germ contamination is probably a lousy lay, so if you want to be good in the sack, you’ve got to…
While our lame ass sits at home reading crime novels and waiting for the phone to ring, somewhere in this city of immolation Susana is carefully choosing a skin-tight outfit to rival any high school bleacher slut for her Travesty Show. She of the golden cowgirl hat, trembling lamé bikini…
Agoraphobes dread going outside. Dentophobics haven’t had a teeth cleaning in years, and sufferers of lachanophobia are deathly afraid of vegetables. As for us, we’re terrified of something so strange that the headshrinkers haven’t yet created a catchy term to describe it: hideous Christmastime sweaters. Crack wise if you must,…
Don’t you just love watching children cry when they didn’t get absolutely everything they wanted for Christmas? If there’s one kernel of knowledge worth taking away from this painfully gluttonous holiday season, it’s that you can’t please everyone. For some reason, the people behind the weekly Embargo Wednesday refuse to…
The tendency of art in the past century has been to kick the old to the curb, to break away from the traditional once any medium is labeled as such. Lately, certain contemporary artists have seen fit to drag various processes from the crowded depths of obsolescence and attach new…
If your gift list’s long and bank account short, we suggest a pit stop at Artist Alley. Local artists and artisans will be selling their handcrafted goods at prices ranging from $1 to $30 — and there’ll also be tamales and mini cakes. Yum. Sat., Dec. 8, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.;…
Unless you count “Fairytale of New York” by Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor — which we don’t, necessarily — what’s the last popular song that entered the collective Christmas consciousness? (Don’t say Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” Them’s fightin’ words.) And how about Hollywood? The dream factory specializes in pumping out…
Ben Franklin defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” which explains why he only flew his kite into lightning once. In pop music, you want that kind of insanity — plus repetition and reiteration on a theme, which, if done properly, can intensify…
If Christmas carols have taught us anything, it’s that Santa Claus is a fat, old, reclusive voyeur who’s constantly peeping into everyone’s private life from atop the Arctic. Not to slander the good name of jolly old Saint Nick, but consider the lyrics to that Yuletide standard “Santa Claus Is…
