Acting Up

All righty, then, let’s see if we’ve got this straight.There’s this guy named Antipholus (of Ephesus) who has a twin brother named Antipholus (of Syracuse). The Syracuse-based Antipholus doesn’t know about the Ephesus-based Antipholus, and vice versa. Now Antipholus (of Ephesus) has a manservant by the name of Dromio who…

Friday Night Fight Club

Initiated in 1989 within basements and backyards as private grudge matches, University Fight Night has evolved in the past six years into Arizona’s most attended amateur boxing event. “Revenge,” the forthcoming rumble at Celebrity Theatre, is yet another rivalry between students of University of Arizona and Arizona State University. UFN…

Shearer Delight

There is no good place to begin with Harry Shearer, because he doesn’t sit still long enough to allow one the chance to focus. He is a blur, forever in motion–on his way to the radio station, on his way from the movie studio, on his way to the publisher’s…

Shoot the Moon

Somewhere, in deepest New South Wales, Australia, there exists a humble sheep paddock. (In this particular case, the paddock is nearly devoid of sheep — barring the odd sound effect — but never mind that.) The setting is rural, it’s pastoral, it’s quaint as all heck — and it also…

Custody Battle

Joe Simon doesn’t read comic books anymore, and not because he’s an 87-year-old man with far better ways to spend his time. The former and, perhaps, future comics writer and illustrator simply doesn’t get them anymore; he doesn’t know who they’re for, what they’re about, why most of them even…

Enrico Savvy

Luigi Pirandello’s Enrico IV is enjoying a revival. There’s a production running now at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, translated by Richard Nelson and directed by the company’s artistic director, and an independent film company is shooting an adaptation of the story for the BBC. I wonder if either is…

Down Under Par

So which is correct — “more leathery” or “leatherier”? What the heck, let’s try them both: Paul Hogan, who was leathery in “Crocodile” Dundee, and leatherier in “Crocodile” Dundee II, is more leathery still in the dreary Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles.Leathery or not, the Australian, now around 60, looks…

Hale and Hardy

There’s a majesty to Michael Winterbottom’s new film, a majesty and a terrible, icy chill. There’s also a fair bit of invention, as the director of the wrenching Jude — based on Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure — has shifted the locus of that author’s fierce, beloved English west country…

Ass-Backwards

Justice may be blind, but vengeance, it turns out, has a very short memory. So it goes in Memento, the much-anticipated “puzzle” movie from Christopher Nolan (Following), which — as is already fairly well known — plays out its plot more or less in reverse. Pitting the protagonist (and us)…

Vincent to Go

Vincent Guerithault on Camelback, a wonderful restaurant, abuts a gas station on one side and a 7-Eleven on the other. Its parking lot is narrow, and the street that fronts it is noisy. Because the food inside is so good, its proprietor, Vincent Guerithault, could safely ignore his surroundings. Instead,…

Bloom Town

The next few weeks mark your last chance this year to enjoy an event that has been going on in the Valley since before the first humans wandered out of the frozen north to escape the encroaching ice age. (Talk about your snowbirds!) Desert Wildflower Season, those few glorious months…

Gross Encounters

If you don’t like Tom Green, there’s no point in going anywhere near Freddy Got Fingered, as it won’t win you over. If you don’t know much about Tom Green but are curious, you might be well advised to watch videotapes of his show first, and be aware that inasmuch…

That’s All She Wrote

“Keep a diary and one day it’ll keep you,” said Mae West, and while the sentiment rings true, it does little to explain the mystery of why Helen Fielding’s sliver of literary history managed to keep anyone. Fluffy, shrill and approximately as deep as Cosmo magazine, the book somehow hit…

Kitten Caboodle

Josie and the Pussycats is not a comedy, and it’s even possible the movie’s not a work of fiction, despite being “based on” Dan DeCarlo’s 38-year-old Archie Publishing comic book. It’s tempting to brand the film as documentary, this year’s Scared Straight. There’s very little that’s funny about a movie…

Voice Verses

A cappella music can be the most joyful noise a human can make. Tossing all musical instruments aside, a group can still be the most amazing band you’ve ever heard. Most often thought of in terms of ’50s-era doo-wop, straight vocal music is actually a limitless and timeless form with…

Mr. Edna

Did you know that Australia had titled nobility? Neither did I.”Neither did they,” says Dame Edna, by phone from Chicago. “It’s a very egalitarian society. But the ‘Dame’ title is something conferred by the Queen on remarkable women.” Dame Edna notes the company she keeps — the likes of Judith…

The Man Who

Paul McGuinness has never thought of himself as a teacher of life lessons, so it comes as a bit of a surprise for him to hear it relayed that Kelly Curtis considers him an adviser–hell, a mentor. It comes as even more of a shock to discover that Curtis recalls…

Ink Piece

Walk around on Mill Avenue, or any other disaffected-youth-magnet sort of locale, and you’re bound to see a proliferation of bad tattoos. It’s symptomatic of a generation of 20- to 30-year-olds who years ago grew an affection for tattoos as a mark of rebellion and not artistry; scratchwork is omnipresent…

Simple Comfort

It’s difficult to make a convincing case for the comforts of things you can’t touch. Yet there’s clearly a physical ease about the fashions and furnishings in Phoenix Art Museum’s exhibition “Sophisticated Moderns: Claire McCardell and Edward Wormley.”Both were masters of the kinds of material subtleties that are often better…

The Ex Files

“It’s hard for men to date me,” admits Tori King. “I just can’t let go and trust someone. Which, in turn, is hard on me, because I have a huge libido.”King also has a huge success — with The More Men Weigh, the one-woman show that depicts the breakup of…

Lady Sings the Blahs

Rose Robinson is tired. She’s tired of white men calling all the shots; tired of dreaming about one day being a famous singer, like Billie Holiday; and sick of working in seedy nightclubs. She sings in Sam’s Jazz Club on weekends, and at any other sleazy bar with a bandstand…