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,…
Better Luck Tomorrow, about Asian-American high schoolers making good grades but up to no good, arrives with the furor (albeit minor — a rumpus, perhaps?) attendant a Sundance Film Fest fave. In this case, Internet movie-gossip hounds bark about changes made to the movie after MTV Films and Paramount Classics…
Bulletproof Monk may not be high art, but at least it has the distinction of being the first Hollywood production that gives an inkling of why Chow Yun-Fat became Hong Kong’s greatest leading man some 17 years ago, after his irresistible supporting performance in John Woo’s breakthrough, A Better Tomorrow…
When you see a glamorous movie star like Kate Beckinsale tying her hair back and wearing glasses, it’s sure-fire shorthand that she’s an uptight soul. But just in case you aren’t familiar with all the usual signals, writer-director Lisa Cholodenko gives a couple of even more obvious ones in her…
If you’ve been watching the “All War, All the Time” networks, your vision of a warrior probably includes a Marine in combat fatigues going door to door with an AK-47. But this weekend’s ASU Pow Wow 2003, held in conjunction with American Indian Culture Week, will celebrate another kind of…
Thursday, 17In celebration of the newest edition of Hayden’s Ferry Review, Arizona State University’s highly acclaimed literary magazine, contributing writers present a reading at Changing Hands Bookstore on Thursday, April 17. The new issue features a section of “flash fiction” (stories under 750 words), an interview with novelist T. Coraghessan…
Denise Hamilton had no idea that her calling was to be a novelist. After all, with 10 years’ experience as a Los Angeles Times reporter and several more as a freelance writer, she was already successful in the world of newspapers. Then she joined a writing group and found unexpected…
Fri 4/18 When he heard Neil Diamond sing “Play Me,” Randy Cordeiro took him literally. The front man of Super Diamond — a trippy tribute band touted as “the alternative Neil Diamond experience” — has been rocking up Neil’s beautiful noise for more than a decade. This weekend, the fake…
4/194/20 We’ve all had our encounters with the bunny hop. It might have been at a college fraternity party, a wedding, or in the privacy of our own living rooms. Ahem. This time, do it for the right reasons. Kierland Commons, an upscale Scottsdale shopping center, hosts its inaugural Bunny…
4/184/20 Happily ever after happens in Ballet Arizona’s season finale, Tales in Motion, which revisits Sleeping Beauty and the Prodigal Son. You remember: Princess Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle, and the castle sleeps for 100 years. Meanwhile, the Prodigal Son debauches himself in the moral equivalent of freshman…
Maybe all you want out of your pop music is a few minutes of escape, a radio-friendly respite from the heavy humdrum of your workaday existence. Maybe you likes to hang with 50 Cent, who survived a few gunshots (and doesn’t let you forget it) to party another day; or…
Amadeus is a smartly written, clever character piece that spins the life of Mozart into a demented bedtime story as told by the great composer’s rival, Antonio Salieri. And, as told by Phoenix Theatre, Amadeus is the longest, dreariest production I’ve witnessed all season. Blame it on sluggish direction, or…
Among Anger Management’s copious flaws is the fact that its premise doesn’t wash. Adam Sandler’s Dave Buznik, a designer of catalogues for overweight-cat clothing, isn’t really angry at all; he’s just a self-loathing, introverted mess whose insecurities date back to a crowded street party in Brooklyn circa 1978, when he…
In 1997’s The Apostle, Robert Duvall took on a subject near and dear to his heart: Southern Pentecostal preachers. No one would make the film for him, so he went ahead and directed it himself, garnering much acclaim from media both secular and religious for his warts-and-all portrayal of a…
If you still think of improv comedy as amateur night, let the Phoenix Improv Festival change your mind. This second annual two-day event brings the best of Valley improv together with the best of the nation’s offerings to convert all of you unbelievers. The festival was founded by Jay Melius…
Thursday, 10 Her debut CD may be called The Queen of Pain, but Colleen Duffy, the glamorous chanteuse known as Devil Doll, is nothing but pleasure for the eyes and the ears. She’s clearly mastered sultry swing and 1940s-style jazz vocals, but her album reveals modern sensibilities, with ska beats,…
A trip to the movies can be both an escape and an arrival, transporting us to different worlds and aligning us with the kinds of experiences that can enlighten and illuminate our everyday existence. There is one caveat, however; chances are it won’t be happening on mainstream Hollywood’s dime. Is…
Sat 4/12 In 1987, escalating war forced an estimated 17,000 Sudanese boys to flee their villages, many after seeing their parents killed. Only one-third survived a 1,000-mile, three-nation journey to a Kenyan refugee camp. In the last several years, nearly 4,000 of these “Lost Boys” have been resettled in the…
Fri 4/11 At first glance, the worlds of rock ‘n’ roll and golf couldn’t be more disparate. One represents rebellion; the other remains the domain of gentlemanly comportment. On certain occasions, however, a dash of leather with your polyester, and a three-wood with your six-string, can be just what the…
Fri 4/11 The pursuit of peace has inspired thoughts poetic — “We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels; we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds” (Anton Chekhov) and pragmatic: “I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace…
4/114/27 Children’s theater will disregard the social injustices of post-Napoleonic France no longer. Greasepaint Youtheatre’s all-student cast is tackling one of musical theater’s most beloved – and most sophisticated – sagas. Adapted for school-age actors, Les Misérables, School Edition retains the original production’s plot and songs, including “Castle on a…
4/115/3 In 1998, a 21-year-old gay college student was beaten and left to die in the hills outside Laramie, Wyoming. The hate crime made headlines throughout the nation; the community, population 27,000, became synonymous with intolerance.In the year and a half following Matthew Shepard’s death, stage writer Moisés Kaufman and…
