Wed 5/7 Anyone who missed the wonderful documentary Buena Vista Social Club, about the fantastic musicians and music of Cuba, has a chance to more than make up for the karmic deficit by attending what promises to be a brilliant performance by the Afro-Cuban All Stars at 8 p.m. Wednesday,…
Those of us who haven’t endured small-town life or anyone who believes that hate crimes aren’t high on the list of human failings will want to see The Laramie Project, an invigorating examination of hatred and backward thinking. And fans of first-rate theater won’t want to miss what Stray Cat…
In nature, living things prey upon each other all the time. Humanity, on the other hand, has a choice. It’s flouting this choice that turns on director Gaspar Noé. In his latest project, Irréversible, he basically swipes Christopher Nolan’s backward-narrative structure from Memento to tell a lurid tale of rape…
In Confidence, Edward Burns plays Jake Vig, a con artist whose body temperature runs a few degrees below normal. Even when things seem to go bad, when a would-be partner betrays him with a phone call or a seedy-greedy Dustin Hoffman lays maybe-gay and grubby paws all over him, Burns…
Imagine a large, dead Saint Bernard with its bones removed. Then visualize a hefty bellows inserted into it from behind, with a gorilla hopping up and down on it, causing the huge dog’s baglike corpse to twitch spasmodically, wheeze and croak. Voilà, this is today’s Nick Nolte. What’s amazing is…
Spending 33 years in Chinese prison and labor camps would fill any person’s heart with rage. Only the strongest spirit could survive such treatment. But Palden Gyatso not only survived, he continues on as a practicing Buddhist who wouldn’t wish harm on anyone. When he was finally released from prison…
Thursday, 24 You can’t help but be stunned by the incredible imagination of author Jasper Fforde, whose best-selling novel The Eyre Affair took readers on a fantastic journey with heroine Thursday Next, the “literary detective” who delves into the pages of the world’s great books to save the day. Now…
There’s a new king in town. This weekend, the city of Chandler, once a cotton-growing capital, hosts jazz royalty at the Chandler Jazz Festival. “We turn downtown Chandler into Bourbon Street,” says city spokesman Bart Salzman. From Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27, bands groove in five restaurants and…
4/25-4/27 One of the more interesting aspects of this particular planet’s people is the way we compartmentalize ourselves into identifiable groups. Nations are formed; flags are waved; and beliefs, customs and practices become identifiable over time as part of individual cultures. The word “culture” also can mean the enlightenment and…
4/25-4/27 Tempe’s finally found a perfect sport to host: AVP Pro Beach Volleyball hits the (imported) sand at Tempe Town Lake Friday, April 25, through Sunday, April 27. Young, tanned athletes who compete in swimwear, then go out and party at night, are so much more appropriate for Playboy’s “number-one…
4/26-4/27 The Arizona Science Center is making a big stink, and kids with a nose for fun will want to get more than a whiff. A two-day salute to the fifth sense, the center’s Sense of Smell Weekend engages little learners with hands-on activities. Visitors can make soap from unconventional…
Sat 4/26 “…My father had a foot in each country, where the mud on each boot caked the same, and the dirt sifted the same through each hand. And the earth had but one scent, and as far as he could see . . . the vista was unbroken.”So begins…
They were loud once, deafeningly so–and dumbingly so, if such a thing is possible. They wore skins of leather stuffed with cucumbers of foil, towered over dwarves who danced around a Stonehenge made of pebbles, sang about women who fit like flesh tuxedos and explored the majesty of rock and…
I attended high school with some terrifically horrible people. Imagine my dismay at discovering several of them on ASU’s main stage last week — and my delight in discovering how expertly they’ve been drawn by playwright Jeff Hatcher and brought superbly to life by a group of talented theater students…
Most of us who have them get smacked for playing with our dicks in public. But onetime show-biz agent Simon Morley has made an art of pulling his pudding in front of others. In Morley’s wildly popular touring show Puppetry of the Penis, he and pal David Friend twist their…
Waiting for a limo to pull up and an entourage to spill out, you can’t help wondering how many tickets New Times is going to have to buy to get everyone inside for the movie. Even at Centerpoint’s matinee rate, this could get ugly. But this isn’t L.A. Just because…
Fri 4/25 Looking for a wild time? You’d be hard-pressed to find a more primal party on Friday, April 25, than ZooBrew at the Phoenix Zoo. Now in its third year, the celebration lets Phoenicians make a toast to the animal kingdom while enjoying the zoo’s exotic environment (sure beats…
4/184/19 Americans identify strongly with athletes, gaining a sort of secondhand machismo that’s often lacking in our own workaday lives. It’s funny, then, that the athletes we prop up as modern-day gladiators often are eclipsed on the toughness scale by participants of lesser-known sports, including a select group of athletes…
Sat 4/19 The folks at the ASU Art Museum are so short-sighted… this weekend, at least, when they present their seventh annual Short Film and Video Festival. The longest of the evening’s entries clocks in at a mere nine minutes; the shortest is gone in 60 seconds.Celebrating auteurs of various…
A few things learned from the memoirs of Marines who served in Gulf War I: They’re more terrified of being killed by friendly fire than enemy artillery; they’re bored brainless most of the time; they harbor fantasies of being shot, but never somewhere too painful or where it might inflict…
How exactly to characterize Perihelion Arts? As a little shop of horrors, delights and complexities? That seems just about right. Not that this art gallery/bookstore and occasional music venue is teeny. The good-sized space with its pocked concrete floors and white-and-black interior adds heft to the oasis of art life…
Jim Geary is a man of letters. Tiny, embossed letters, printed on smooth wooden tiles. Geary is one of the world’s preeminent Scrabble players, a tournament competitor who’s racked up big scores with words you’ve never heard before. He’s so good that he’s featured among the all-time champs in Scrabylon,…
