When Chris Normandin steps in the ring Saturday night at Dodge Theatre, the gloves are coming off — figuratively, of course. The SuperCop Boxing Exhibition might be a charity event, but once the bell sounds the first bout, Normandin, a 28-year-old Phoenix police officer who works out of the Squaw…
4/3-4/4 The Valley’s first public skatepark needs some love — and not from the loyal skateboarders who’ve grinded the edges off the steel coping for seven years. Desert West Skateboard Plaza needs some TLC from the City of Phoenix, says one of the park’s founders, Laura Martin, who — through…
Fri 4/2 First Friday visitors will schlep about longer than usual this week, thanks to the debut of the Gold Spot Transitional Bar & Gallery, where the spirit of “carpe diem” holds court. Fancy an oil-on-canvas by one of the seven or eight featured artists? Buy it while you’re there…
Thursday, March 25 Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and Kate Bornstein is from somewhere else entirely — Fargo. The author and performance artist, who “identifies herself as neither a man nor a woman,” was born male and raised as a boy. After undergoing gender reassignment surgery, Bornstein…
Internet, Schminternet. Bonnie the Matchmaker says the best way to meet your one true love is by exploiting her peculiar talent for tying people’s knots. Miss Wills, who disdains online dating services (her Web site, bonniethematchmaker.com, doesn’t provide hookups), is responsible for hundreds of marriages — so who are you…
It’s been a little while — several months, at least — since I’ve seen a play performed as gracefully as Black Theatre Troupe’s production of The Sty of the Blind Pig. The four actors assembled to bring this dramedy to life are the only real reason to consider seeing Phillip…
The Ladykillers is the second film in as many years made by Joel and Ethan Coen to fill space between pet projects that seem to run off leash; it’s their time-killer, if you will. But even their recent paychecks reflect the brothers’ restlessness: Their movies have grown more manic and…
3/26-3/28 The Fifth Dimension said it best in its 1967 hit “Up, Up and Away”: “The world is a better place” . . . from a beautiful hot air balloon. Nearly 40 years later, that magnificently cheesy tune (resist humming the melody within striking distance of anyone with a bat)…
Sat 3/27 The water levels of the Verde River, which snakes through the town of Camp Verde, about an hour and a half north of downtown Phoenix, fluctuate like the psyche of a bipolar schizophrenic. Yet the Verde River Canoe Challenge has steadily built a loyal base of participants from…
Jersey Girl, the sixth film by writer-director Kevin Smith, is the least Kevin Smith-y film he’s ever made, which will be welcome news to those exhausted by Smith’s everlasting obsession with his dick, fart jokes and stack of comic books; and bad news to those enamored of Smith’s everlasting obsession…
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At one of Arizona Bike Week’s vendor booths, sandwiched between tables hawking everything from Screamin’ Eagle performance parts to leather-fringed halters, Beverly Allgood will pass out fliers for Vintages, a planned northeast Scottsdale resort community designed for the new breed of biker — or what she calls the “upscale motorcycle…
3/26-3/28 One night of agave-fueled tequila or two days of refreshing suds? Hell, why choose just one when you can satisfy your thirsty liver with both? A true champion of the people would head to the Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, on Friday, March 26, for the second…
3/26–4/11 There’s nothing a contemptuous incumbent politician fears more than a huddled mass eager to learn from Brutus’ mistakes after seeing a modern interpretation of Julius Caesar. Whether it’s timely election-year fodder, or merely a lesson in how not to execute a coup d’état, the Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Julius…
The ads running in Phoenix’s local media couldn’t be more straightforward, and seemingly guileless. Beneath a photo of one of the art world’s most popular icons, Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen, is the title of the exhibition now on display until May 30 at the Phoenix Art Museum, “Degas in Bronze.”…
Love it or hate it, Arizona is home for most of us because wherever we came from wasn’t as (take your pick) warm, cheap or brimming with opportunity. But this state is more than a concrete Shangri-la of swimming pools, tract housing and upstart businesses. “Archaeology, zoology, geology, biology, botany…
SAT 3/20The kids at the New Foundation in Scottsdale have a lot on their minds: substance abuse, depression, and a roof that could crumble in the middle of a session. While its therapists and counselors work on the emotional problems, the foundation hopes its third annual “Lark in the Park”…
FRI 3/19Ah, spring — when the poppies bloom and the pheromones swirl at downtown’s Alwun House. The 21st annual Exotic Art Show sends the kids to bed early one last night, this Friday, March 19, when the Exotic Dance Ball closes out the monthlong art show. The adults-only party might…
Oh dear. Angelina Jolie’s made another bad film. Is it too soon to give up on her yet? There’s no denying that Angelina’s sexy as hell. The tattoos, the knife collection, the exhibitionist streak, the bisexual vibe she gives off . . . totally hot, no question. Given her work…
Thursday, March 18Our enthusiasm for cultural outings is directly proportional to the amount of free food involved. We become the most passionate of patrons this Thursday, March 18, when the Scottsdale Gallery Association partners with the Scottsdale Culinary Festival to put a tasteful twist on the city’s weekly ArtWalk. While…
3/18-3/27″Friendship, not technology, is the only thing capable of showing us the enormity of the world,” Steven Dietz says of his play Lonely Planet. In this cleverly written, almost absurdist work, friends Jody and Carl (a map store owner and a pathological liar with a penchant for collecting chairs) face…
While the war against gay marriage wails in the background, a traveling exhibition titled “Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945” has settled in at Burton Barr Central Library. It’s the first in a series of exhibitions from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about the non-Jewish groups persecuted by the Nazis…
