Duncan Phillips was one of those quintessentially 19th-century white men of privilege who used his position to realize his own ambitious dream. Lucky for the rest of us, he was also a philanthropist with an unerring eye for art. His dream: “an American Prado,” where visitors could see the finest…
Homer Simpson would be horrified. The ever-vigilant City of Mesa has targeted Winchell’s Donut House franchisee Edward Salib for daring to put pictures of doughnuts in his windows. The giant glossies of glazed rounds that once stared out from Salib’s shop at Country Club and Main are no more, thanks…
The Producers is more than theater. It is, like a handful of other shows, an event. Mel Brooks’ record-breaking Tony-winner is one of those programs attended by people who never set foot inside a theater unless it’s to witness a road company of a show that’s received so much press…
Once upon a time, in the town of Darkness Falls . . . “Wait,” you’re probably saying to yourself, “Darkness Falls is the name of the town?” Yes, it is. And it’s haunted by an evil tooth fairy. Are you sure you want to know more? Okay, good. Because once…
Compiled in the cold light of day, the sum of Chuck Barris’ contributions to American culture are the Top 40 ditty “Palisades Park,” which he wrote in 1962, and his discovery, a few years later, that many people are willing to make complete fools of themselves in front of a…
“I’ve been sitting here making props all day,” says actor Christopher Haines, “which is what you end up doing when you start a theater company with no money and no staff.” It’s what you do, too, when your union won’t let you hire any help. Haines is a professional actor…
Perhaps the most fascinating detail about Wayne Rainey’s collection of photographs on display at Bentley Gallery is not that he traveled through five African nations to gather the images (including “volatile” Zimbabwe and “some really intense country” in malaria-infected regions of Mozambique), or even that he took pains to use…
If Charlie Arntzen has his way, your next flu shot will be administered in the form of a tasty banana frappe. Arntzen is the ASU biologist recently singled out by Time magazine for his work in creating edible vaccines. He hopes they’ll save the lives of millions of kids threatened…
I don’t find married couples particularly amusing, but I do enjoy watching Bob Sorenson and Debby Rosenthal perform. Good thing, too, because these two local institutions are the only reason to sit through I Do! I Do!, the passé paean to matrimony with which Phoenix Theatre is currently torturing unsuspecting…
It all begins with the word. “I believe I may have a first sentence,” murmurs Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman yes, really) to her husband, Leonard (Stephen Dillane), commencing labor on her fourth novel, Mrs. Dalloway. The year is 1921, but skillfully intercut segments illustrate that the book’s heady emotional content…
These are the dog days of January, the poor, put-upon month used by studios as a dumping ground for product considered too lethally toxic for release during those real moviegoing months December, say, when audiences are buzzed on two weeks of vacation and award-contenders do their Oscar striptease and reveal…
Paul Morse (Jason Lee) has this terrible problem. He’s all set to marry the take-charge, raven-haired beauty Karen (Selma Blair, thanklessly playing second fiddle as usual), but late in the game finds himself also falling for her free-spirited blond cousin Becky (Julia Stiles). Gee, what’s a guy to do? It’s…
Let’s start this movie year off right. Let’s talk about women. In film, that is. Oftentimes, women in film act a lot like men in film. (Behold, an almost complete history of men in film, condensed into six words: talking smack and/or cracking skulls.) Of late, however, it has come…
Face it: We’re hooked to the grid like nursing calves to their mothers. We order dinner from black metal speakers and get our music from a box it’s a bumping, thumping soundtrack to a head-banging existence. So if you need to relax, just unplug an afternoon at the symphony is…
In the Valley, a car lover’s paradise, it’s easy to become jaded — impressive automobiles are everywhere you look. After all, we’re almost used to seeing Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and we’ve even spotted such rarities as a futuristic Smart car stopped at a light on McDowell, and a McLaren F1…
I can’t help thinking about empire lately, as in the end of. Only that’s not Nero fiddling. It sounds more like the Charlie Daniels Band. In July, I went to see “The Surrealist Revolution” at the Pompidou Center in Paris, and I thought about how Surrealism often has been written…
Spike Lee’s adaptation of David Benioff’s 2001 novel The 25th Hour hews closely to the original tale, which the author has adapted in screenplay form: Montgomery Brogan, a working-class white boy who dreamed of being a New York City firefighter ’til he fell into a soft pile of easy money…
Those who seek a polar opposite to Michael Caine’s kind-but-firm patriarch Dr. Wilbur Larch in The Cider House Rules will find it in Jim Broadbent’s horrid, one-eyed headmaster, Wackford Squeers, in the new adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby. Author John Irving cribbed extensively from Charles Dickens to create his delightful (and…
“Cops die daily and they die bad,” barks manic police Lieutenant Henry Oak (Ray Liotta) to undercover narcotics officer Nick Tellis (Jason Patric), revealing both his hardened ‘tude and a little confusion when it comes to adverbs. Welcome to Narc, Paramount Pictures’ bid for a gritty, post-Training Day dirty-cop thriller,…
It’s been a rough couple of years for Marky Ramone. First, the former Ramones drummer lost his bandmate (and our favorite punk rock front man) Joey Ramone to cancer. Then, just three short weeks after the legendary band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his dear…
Brando and the Black Rebels. Pink Lady Stephanie Zinone and her “Cool Rider.” Pee-wee Herman and his big, brave adventure. The bike kicks up such romantic images of speed, adventure and freedom . . . is it any wonder the public is stoked for spokes? Thanks to an ever-revving enthusiasm…
The heck with the New Year what you need, according to Cynthia Peden, is a new moon. Her start-up business, Moon Money, will bring you heaps of dough and other goodies, if only you believe. Cynthia made me promise I wouldn’t reveal Moon Money’s mystical secret, but she swears that…
