Fri 6/11 If genetic soda jerks made a milk shake of Allen Ginsberg’s, Baxter Black’s and George Carlin’s DNA, they’d get JL Reed — beatnik, cowboy, social critic — who appears from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday, June 11, at the Trunk Space, a First Friday stop on Grand Avenue’s…
It’s probably true that behind every great man stands a great woman. And if you’re Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, that woman is most likely wearing a rhinestone tiara. And clutching a stopwatch. And laughing a whole lot. Because Phoenix First Lady Christa Severns finds humor in pretty much everything –…
I got a bead on the overall quality of art shown this past First Friday in downtown Phoenix when I ended up rating a trip through the funky, skanky Hermanos Drive-In Food Market on Grand Avenue the real high point of the evening. So maybe I’m being just a bit…
Those seeking a spiritual counterpart to the yin of Lynne Ramsay’s masterfully moody Morvern Callar will find their yang in David Mackenzie’s exquisitely sorrowful Young Adam. Art-house aficionados may recall that in Ramsay’s recent film, a young male writer commits suicide, leaving his simple girlfriend to absorb his very being…
I’ve just seen a film that is either a brilliant parody of scholarly documentaries or else final proof that I am the stupidest person on Earth. Obviously, I prefer to believe the former — that What the #$*! Do We Know: A Quantum Fable is a genius of a mockumentary…
Beware the exclamation point. When found at the end of a title, it almost inevitably signals a level of self-hype rarely justified by the content of whatever it hopes to name. In the case of the movie Saved! — an amusing, if facile, comedy about a good Christian girl gone…
So let’s get this straight: You’re a much-loved comedian who just did a low-budget, multi-award-winning film with an acclaimed up-and-coming director. In recent years, thanks in part to your work with the younger, edgier filmmaking set, you’re starting to be taken seriously as an actor. You even managed to score…
“I’m having a fucking nervous breakdown!” Ask author Laurie Notaro how she’s doing, and you may get an answer like that. We did. It’s the kind of reply everyone wants to spit out at some point, but rarely does. That sort of no-holds-barred attitude is what’s made Notaro’s last two…
Rich Moss is probably stretching the truth even thinner than one of his opponents’ hamstrings when he calls cage fighting “a gentle sport.” After all, in his nine Rage in the Cage bouts, the number-two-ranked middleweight champ has either knocked out or beaten his opponents into submission using his patented…
Sat 6/12 An old Sesame Street ditty (“One of these things is not like the others . . .”) will prove useful this Saturday, June 12, when Hamburger Mary’s hosts the AIDS Walk Arizona Launch party at 5111 North Seventh Street. The myriad events at the fund raiser include Chelle’s…
6/11-6/20 With titles such as Death and Taxes, The Trouble With Death and A Prison in the Heart in its repertoire, Phoenix-based Sharkey Productions could win a prize for the most depressing act in town. But since the independent theater company prides itself on producing original plays with a touch…
JUNE Around the World in 80 Days STARRING: Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cécile De France, Jim Broadbent DIRECTOR: Frank Coraci WRITERS: David Goldstein, David Benullo, Michael Weiss . . . and Jules Verne PREMISE: Chan and Coogan take to the skies in the umpteenth remake of this classic novel. OUTLOOK:…
Used to be that when the triple digits rolled around, everyone raced indoors and stayed there ’til Halloween. Then, sometime in the mid-’80s, as legend has it, a Scottsdale dishwasher hosing down some scarcely used outdoor furniture on a blistering June afternoon noted that the spray from his nozzle had…
Summer is almost here, and theater companies are winding down their seasons, mostly with fluffy nonsense meant to lure us out of our air-conditioned caves. As ever, Nearly Naked Theatre is giving the finger to the notion that it’s too hot to think; thus, its production of Gilgamesh, an ancient…
Thu 3 Poor Char’s already has the blues, and the Bad News just keeps on a-comin’. The Bad News Blues Band maintains its weekly gig at “The House That Blues Built” on Thursday, June 3. The Tucson band claims to be “internationally acclaimed,” and recent developments indicate that it just…
Feeling creative, but need a jump start? We crawled the local bars, quizzing (okay, sometimes harassing) the help and compiling a list of cool summer drinks. Bartenders at several favorite Valley spots were kind enough to share signature (sometimes secret) recipes — so you can whip up everything from a…
Last month, the Arizona Legislature killed a bill that would have required convicted drunken drivers to attach a fluorescent sticker to their auto license plates. Republican Senator Slade Mead, who introduced the bill, isn’t discouraged — he plans to reintroduce the bill, because he swears that only shame will keep…
As much of the civilized world now knows, the latest Harry Potter director is Alfonso Cuarón, best known for the explicit teen sexual awakening movie Y Tu Mamá También. As such, it may come as little surprise that his Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban begins with the teenage…
Steve Uren is too cool to knit — or so you’d think. His thick, russet glasses offset short, spiky hair, and his tee shirt, which boasts a menacing skull with crossing swords, doesn’t exactly scream craftwork. Even his gritty last name (pronounced the way you think it is) fits his…
Don’t abandon the links just because they’re hot. Night Clubbing Not long ago, an anonymous genius came up with the inspired idea of inserting a chemical glow stick into a golf ball, and in that moment night golf was born. In addition to cooler temperatures, night golf offers a more…
From rappelling to resort pooling to ice blocking, here’s a guide to finding the key ingredient for summer survival: water. Slip Sliding Away: Ice blocking is a cheap thrill. All you need is a few friends, a towel, an ice block (available at most Circle Ks) and a hilly park…
Face it — just about everyone has a little unwanted hair. Particularly in warm weather, which keeps the hair-removal business buzzing in the Valley, year-round. Some of the more intriguing hair-removal specialists in town bared all to share their techniques — and a few tales from around the wax pot…
