There are punk rock bands, and then there are PUNK ROCK bands. Out of New York City comes Endangered Feces. Now, I gotta admit, I’ve known their singer, Jay Levitz, for quite some time. In fact, when I first met him, he was the roadie for one of my favorite…
THU 10 If the organizers of the fourth annual Arizona Black Film Showcase achieve their mission statement — “to become the premier, national media arts event dedicated to supporting black film professionals” — Phoenix could hatch a Spike Lee for the 21st century. On Thursday, February 10, three local indie…
SAT 2/12 She can flex her rippled six-pack one pop at a time. She wrote a book titled The Gut Book! Learn How to Lose Weight and Flaunt a Waist Like Mine!. But Nakarát (née Jennifer Gerhardt) isn’t a fitness instructor. She’s a teacher and performer of “Raks Sharqi” (“Dance…
One should expect little from the man who has directed an Olsen Twins movie (It Takes Two, the one with Steve Guttenberg, no less), Matthew Perry’s first Friends-to-film entry (Fools Rush In, its title an apparent nod to audiences who went to see it), and Sweet Home Alabama, one of…
It finally happened. After nearly a decade of trying — of awakening at the crack of dawn, crouching in my chilly, parked car for hours on end, and enduring the steely glares of a crush of bitter book collectors — last February I was first in line at the Volunteer…
SAT 2/12 The tough chicks of Arizona Roller Derby aren’t your typical suckers for Valentine’s Day. In fact, give a Roller girl a rose, and she might just crush your heart. No, really, she might just rip the pulsing muscle out of your chest and blade right over it –…
SAT 2/12 With plenty of cold nights left until the spring thaw, keep yourself warm at Fetish Revolution 5 on Saturday, February 12, at the Paper Heart, 750 Grand Avenue. Owners Jen and Scott Sanders will probably leave the heater off during the steamy soiree, with enough glimpses of the…
“It’s just not the same,” says Jersey Mike, as I ride with him toward Scottsdale in his ’96 Thunderbird, which used to be a ’96 Lincoln Mark VIII until he trashed it after a fight with his girlfriend. “It’s lost its elite edge.” “Huh?” I ask my pal from Exit…
Your inner child need never go hungry again. Thanks to local entrepreneur David Roth, who with pal Rick Bacher launched the Tempe-based cereal bar known as Cereality, the fourth grader in you can feast right out in public on Frankenberry sopped with chocolate milk; can mix Sugar Smacks with Fruity…
There was a time when Disney knew its place. That time has long since passed. Once content to deliver clever cartoons and the occasional film comedy starring Kurt Russell, Disney has begun reading its own press clippings and, puffed up about being “The Happiest Place on Earth!”, wants to rub…
The small Appalachian community of Whitwell, Tennessee, boasts two traffic lights and a population of 1,600, nearly all of them white and Christian. Lying just 100 miles from Pulaski, where the Ku Klux Klan was founded, this now-defunct coal-mining town would seem an unlikely place to find a memorial to…
For those viewers hailing from the lucrative under-6 demographic, Pooh’s Heffalump Movie will prove to be a suitably sweet addition to the Winnie-the-Pooh cinematic canon. The youngest of them certainly won’t recognize the story’s central message — accept others, especially purple elephant-looking creatures with dreadlocks, for who they are –…
Bad Education, the new film by the flamboyant Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, opens on a man sitting at a table, poring over the tabloids for stories of interest. When he finds something he likes, he reads it to his lover: Isn’t this an arresting image? Could we generate drama from…
Believe it or not, there was a time when prepubescent boys didn’t have the luxury of rifling through Dad’s stash of Playboys for a little stimulation. Enter the pinup girl: She was glamorous, she was provocative, and evidently, she was titillating enough to rock the world of many a man…
2/11-3/11 Get your drink on, get your freak on, and get your strap-on, because the 22nd annual Exotic Art Show is back again. “People who like to dress crazy and sexy can come here, and nobody gives them a problem,” says Baron Dixon, one of 60-plus artists exhibiting work in…
Before I get into Halo 2, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, there’s a little matter of The New York Dolls’ new CD, The Return of the New York Dolls: Live From Royal Festival Hall, 2004, on Attack Records. That little matter is: WHAT THE FUCK? Okay, so that Morrissey…
“Brian Alfred: The Future Is Now!” at the Phoenix Art Museum: New York-based artist Brian Alfred ponders corporate culture and rampant industrialization in his latest exhibition. Although Alfred’s retro-futuristic paintings and collages emphasize society’s fascination with the digital age and subsequent sensory overload, his collection of work is surprisingly sensory-friendly…
THU 3 Before 1978, it took more than faith and loyalty to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to become a priest in the Mormon church. Namely, it depended on gender and the color of one’s skin. While males continue to be the gender of choice for LDS leadership, the “revelation”…
When the Valley’s own Jonathan Kaye returns to the FBR Open this week to defend his title against Vijay Singh, he might be swinging with BlueBalls. And it’s entirely possible that, when local favorites Phil Mickelson and Mark Calcavecchia grab their shafts this week, there’ll be a naked lady there…
Lawrence McLaughlin, 48, painter, sculptor, part-time resident of France, and relentlessly cheerful former Minnesotan, has plenty to be happy about. His paintings and concrete monumental sculptures (his “babies”) are featured in galleries and private collections the world over, but are created in his “compound,” a vast hunk of rambling desert…
The Reverend Doctor Lady Bishop, “America’s Premier Voodoo Priestess,” wears both a crucifix and a Star of David around her neck. “Voodoo is like gumbo,” she says. “In gumbo, you have a little bit of everything.” Indeed. Bishop, a.k.a. JoAnn Jennings, uses every clairvoyant trick in the book, from tarot…
SUN 2/6 You gotta be from the ‘hood, according to Steve Weiss, to understand Arizona’s — statehood, that is: February 12, 1912, the day the Grand Canyon State joined the Union. “Growing up in Arizona,” says the 48-year-old Valley native, “you knew when statehood was celebrated. You learned about the…
