In his new book, Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America, journalist Jonathan Rauch argues that same-sex marriage is a social policy issue, and not about insurance benefits or sex. Rauch, a former Phoenician, swears that legally wed gays will strengthen the…
What a shame that most stage fans will probably miss Hale Center Theatre’s Over the River and Through the Woods rather than drive the dozens of miles to this shiny new playhouse in (gasp!) far-off Gilbert. Joe DiPietro’s bittersweet, sometimes witty comedy is enlivened by a topnotch cast that reads…
Thursday, April 22 Make a date to see The Figgs. The guitar-rock trio leaves the garage to gig at the Clubhouse, 1320 East Broadway in Tempe, on Thursday, April 22. Despite 17 years of rocking, Pete Donnelly, Pete Hayes and Mike Gent remain among “America’s best-kept rock and roll secrets”…
He drips with dry humor, but Steven Wright claims that comic inspiration rolls in only occasionally. “Jokes come to me like rain,” the comedian says. “A lot of ’em will come, and then nothing will happen for a while. And then some, a little bit. And then nothing. And then…
The heck with paper routes. Seventeen-year-old Christian Alf is earning pocket money by fending off the nasty roof rats that have invaded his hometown. The Tempe teen not only launched his own roof rat-proofing business this past winter, but has also prevailed over the wicked bureaucrats who tried to shut…
This may sound an eensy bit hyperbolic, but dig: Mayor of the Sunset Strip is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll movie of all time. Of course, as with any advanced class, it’s good to bone up on the prerequisites. If you haven’t explored rock in film (and rockin’ film) from…
On its surface, José Padilha’s absorbing documentary Bus 174 shows us how a homeless 21-year-old named Sandro Rosa do Nascimento hijacked a city bus in Rio de Janeiro on July 12, 2000, how he took 11 passengers hostage at gunpoint and became the raving centerpiece of a five-hour urban drama…
Sun 4/25 Don’t laugh, baldy. Hair styling is an art form. Just ask Stephanie Blaze. The connoisseur of creative coiffures, and a stylist at Scottsdale’s Rumors Salon, is set to compete in this weekend’s Supreme Salon Tour at The Venue of Scottsdale. “Some of the hair styles [on display] take…
Fri 4/23 “I don’t want the audience to blink,” says Hodgie Jo, artistic director for Imation Dance Company, “not even once, throughout my show.” It’s a stiff mandate, but one he just might pull off. The debut performance of his modern jazz dance company, Footsteps, is an amalgam of Cirque…
Nestled onto Gregory Jaye’s magnificent set for Morning’s at Seven is a relatively quiet, old-fashioned play that shines like a bright beacon. Set in the joined yard of two massive bungalows, this is a comic, almost musical tale of forbidden love among the neurotic and the infirm. Its more-than-slightly fusty…
I am going to give 13 Going on 30 too much credit, though it’s hardly worth the effort; Lord knows the filmmakers didn’t put much into it. It’s a shame, as far as these things go, because what could have been an engaging, maybe even enlightening story about the unfairly…
If you were a college-aged East Berliner in October of 1989, chances are that your time was occupied by one of several things. Protesting comes to mind, as does hacking at long-reviled concrete. Perhaps you caroused, or lit fireworks, or sang with joy as you coursed through the newly open…
Why is a Tucson cop standing at Tom Miller’s door? “I . . . I don’t know,” says Miller, a veteran of the 1960s underground press known for agitating the powers that be (or were) via the printed word. Turns out, the Five-O is on the steps outside Miller’s domicile…
4/22-4/24 Don’t expect Jose Gonzalez to dismiss the unflattering perception of young improvisers like himself — that is, those melodramatic, overly extroverted speech and debate geeks whom Broadway will never acknowledge. “Oh, we’re all that and more!” proclaims Gonzalez, a 26-year-old member of local improv troupe Galapagos. “I sympathize with…
4/23-4/25 Mad hops and beer hops join forces when the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour serves up the Tempe Open from Friday, April 23, through Sunday, April 25, at Tempe Beach Park. Think the Town Lake is a sorry substitute for Manhattan Beach? Not so, according to two-time Olympian Holly…
“Landscapes in the Fireplace: The Paintings of Pedro Alvarez”: This exhibition is a bittersweet experience for those familiar with this well-loved young Cuban artist and his irony-laced work. A collection of Alvarez’s most recent paintings, ASU’s exhibition unwittingly stands as a final tribute to the irreverent spirit that infuses his…
Thursday, April 15 Funny thing about Kevin Pollak: His dramatic films (The Usual Suspects, A Few Good Men) have met with serious success. Yet — while he’s among the most successful standups on the circuit — his comedies (The Wedding Planner, Juwanna Mann) tend to be, well, laughable. Pollak gets…
At first glance, Ellen Wagener’s works look like photographs. Crisp lines of crops splay out in agricultural landscapes set below dreamy skies, looking like snapshots out the window of a car as you pass through the endless Midwestern prairies. But these are pastel drawings. Pastel — the grown-up version of…
Just a quick scan of the home-based studio of installation artist Heidi Hesse confirms that this native German has a serious thing for the Statue of Liberty, among other classic American icons. The 42-year-old artist, who grew up in the rural outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa, and a small…
Tenth-grade driver’s ed was never like this: professional pit crews, engines packing 600 ponies, and fevered orders to hit the gas. Sure, fashion takes a back seat — participants zip themselves into baggy blue jumpsuits — but, for speed freaks, The Richard Petty Driving Experience is a tailpipe dream come…
Todd Taylor, welcome to the wonderful world of good hygiene. “I’m used to hanging out with people that don’t shower and don’t shave,” says Taylor, author of the punk rock homage Born to Rock, and the featured reader at the DIY (“doing it yourself”) Punk Rock Reading Monday, April 19,…
4/17-4/18 “We have all the answers now in terms of technology, clean water, clean air, transportation, building, education [and] social issues,” argues SolFest organizer Belle Starr. “We have those answers, and it’s just a question of accessing them.” It’s also a matter of disseminating them to a sometimes environmentally heretical…
