Love and Death

Sometimes something so wonderful appears on the big screen that I want to leap up like a shameless non-professional and hug it. Such is the case early on in Sylvia, a superb drama based on the brief life of writer Sylvia Plath. While boating in Cambridge, England with her beau…

Divided Borders

Given the way the United Nations has been taking a beating in the American media over the past year or so, it may not be a bad thing that the new movie Beyond Borders is at heart a two-hour infomercial for Kofi Annan’s organization. As a call to action, the…

Too Much of a Gooding

That a new feel-good sports movie called Radio contrives to move us is just fine — that’s what feel-good sports movies are supposed to do. That its makers choose to move us in the style of a linebacker sacking a quarterback is not so good. After enduring this flagrant emotional…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

Thursday, October 23Familiar with the mood-enhancing, color-changing wall behind the bar at SIX? Now the sleek Scottsdale lounge takes the transformation several steps further, with a refreshing new addition to Scottsdale nightlife: Mint. Every Thursday, SIX’s cozy decor is radically altered with all-white draperies, cabanas and sheer curtains illuminated by…

Culture Hub

Something’s bubbling up from the performance arts underground — ¡Teatro Caliente!, an intercultural theater festival that makes its debut this weekend. It’s an idea that’s been brewing for a long time with Chris Danowski, artistic director of the event and alternative theater group Theater in My Basement. “Actually, it started…

Road Voyeur

Sat 10/25 For all of you Peeping and would-be Peeping Toms, The Roosevelt Historic District is offering the perfect way to peep without getting slapped with jail time. TourFest, a guided tour of more than 20 houses, lofts and businesses, allows a rare view into buildings that date back to…

Arm and Glamour

Sat 10/25 It’s the State Fair’s most gripping entertainment — hands-down. On Saturday, October 25, “the Super Bowl of Arm Wrestling” — i.e. Armwrestling USA’s United States Championships — pits competitors from across the country against feisty fairgoers wanting to elbow their way into the action. The culmination of a…

Math of Least Resistance

10/25-10/26 In a rather calculated move, Phoenix Theatre’s Cookie Company is setting math to music. The children’s theater troupe opens its season this weekend by Taking the Wrath Out of Math. The new play’s grade-school heroine learns — with a little singing and dancing along the way — that (ugh!)…

Flaunt It House

Sat 10/25 If your closet looks like the wardrobe vault from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, we recommend flaunting it at Halloween Bash 2. Hosted by the Greater Phoenix Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the bash is open to all — gay, straight, even Republican. “Halloween…

Monsters Ball

10/23-10/26 Darkness falls across the land/ The midnight hour is close at hand/ Creatures crawl in search of blood/ To terrorize yawl’s neighborhood . . . Michael Jackson — not just the king of pop, but also the king of freaky — isn’t the only one with the 411 on…

Liquid Assets

Imagine a placid lake reflecting a cloudless sky. Now take a deep breath as a boat sails into view, and hold your breath for a count of five — the exact time it takes for the 5,000 horsepower top fuel drag boat to scream down the liquid quarter mile. This…

Lock Up Your Daughters

Like a lot of tract homes in Sun City, Stanley Lescewicz’s house is littered with Hummel figurines and cute snow globes and framed photos of a dozen different grandkids. But Stanley — or Nasty Stanley, as he likes to be called — has something none of his oldster pals can…

Holmes Fried

If you lie down with dogs, you’ve got to expect to get up with fleas. And when you go to a movie about a coked-out former porn star who was implicated in the grisly murders of four lowlife drug-dealers — a case which remains “officially” unsolved to this day –…

All the Rage

Dave, a man who’s barely there, lulls his son to sleep with stories of a boy lost in the woods who escapes from wolves; it’s a thrilling bedtime story for the child, a tale that never loses its excitement with each repeated telling. Dave, played by Tim Robbins like some…

Saint Veronica

Veronica Guerin isn’t at all a bad movie, and some kind things will be said about it here. But cynical appraisal also has its place, so we’ll cover that aspect as well. Even before that, a significant disclaimer: Since this review is being written for several New Times publications, which…

Youth Ache

Eastern Youth’s music is so powerful that it doesn’t matter that the Tokyo band’s full-length American debut, What Can You See From Your Place, is sung entirely in Japanese. Language barriers haven’t stopped the likes of At the Drive-In, the Murder City Devils and No Knife from touring with the…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

Thursday, October 16 While the gallery scene in Scottsdale covers all the bases of contemporary art, Western subject matter still has a mighty stronghold in “The West’s Most Western Town.” See the latest creative take on cowboy art from supporters of this all-American genre when The Scottsdale Gallery Association presents…

A Pair of Aces

He may be a comedy legend, but Tim Conway knows that the humor business — and his place in it — aren’t to be taken seriously. Though he rode the fame wave on The Carol Burnett Show, not all of Conway’s projects have been successful. He recently spotted a cable…

Spurs of the Moment

10/17-11/16 The 38th Annual Cowboy Artists of America Sale kicks off its boots on Friday, October 17, at the Phoenix Art Museum. For a mere $200, you can rub elbows with some of the most notable art collectors in the state. But if $200 has you cringing, you can attend…

Milky Way

Sat 10/18 Hunched over your Cheerios in the morning, staring at the 2 percent milk, ever find yourself thinking, “I could build a boat out of this here milk carton . . .”? Us neither. But some brainiac in Seattle did, and the city now hosts an annual milk carton…

Breaking Point

Sat 10/18 You deserve a breakdance today. The ASU Hip Hop Coalition boogies into Burton Barr Library’s Teen Central this Saturday, October 18, for a hip-hop hoedown. From 2 to 4 p.m., DJ demos set the beat as breakdancers, graffiti artists and freestylers take to the floor, and participants ages…