The Miss Gay Arizona America 2016 pageant on Sunday, June 26, will mark a big night for Nevaeh McKenzie. The local drag performer and reigning Miss Gay Arizona will oversee 10 contestants at this preliminary competition, the winner of which will go on to compete in Miss Gay America 2016…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 75. Matthew Watkins. For…
An inevitability as harsh as an Arizona winter, TV show cancellations are upon us. Like the leaves changing or avoiding the flu shot, finding out your favorite show won’t get another season is another annual tribulation. But we have hope, everybody, in the form of sweet, clickable lists such as…
John Muir once wrote, “The mountains are calling and I must go…” It’s a partial line taken from a letter to his sister Sarah Muir Galloway in which he discussed the intense research he undertook as a naturalist in hopes of contributing to the realm of science. And while it would…
Has Paul Rudd become Hollywood’s idea of the face of economic insecurity? There his handsome mug was, in Ant-Man, beneath a Baskin-Robbins ball cap, his character making do behind an ice-cream counter while Marvel made bank in promotional tie-ins. And now, in The Fundamentals of Caring, Rob Burnett’s alternately winning/cloying…
Let me tell you all the good things about Nicolas Winding Refn’s high-art, lowbrow horror film The Neon Demon before I tell you what I will not tolerate. After Drive, Refn seems obsessed with his idea of Los Angeles, one where there’s always a full moon, no traffic and everyone…
Woodrow Wilson described D.W. Griffith’s notorious Civil War epic Birth of a Nation as “writing history with lightning.” Gary Ross’ Free State of Jones, which covers roughly the same period as Griffith’s film, is more like writing history with index cards. Diligent and informative but also fragmented and inert, it…
Steve Allen didn’t know what to make of Frank Zappa. The clean-cut young musician was promising to “play the bicycle” on the set of The Steve Allen Show in 1963, spinning the wheels and tapping on the spokes. The result, with the help of a tuneless orchestra behind him and…
People made a stink about the walkouts during the Sundance premiere of music-video-and-advertising geniuses the Daniels’ first feature film, Swiss Army Man. It stars Daniel Radcliffe (Manny) as a farting, rotting corpse with superpowers and Paul Dano (Hank) as a sad-sack suicidal stalker trying to get home through a forest…
A wiener dog is the perfect mascot for Todd Solondz’s films. Dachshunds are ridiculous, funny without trying, but that zero-dignity waddle belies a much fiercer purpose: to hunt and kill small prey. Solondz’s body of work, stretching from coming-of-age cringefest Welcome to the Dollhouse to his newest, Wiener-Dog, has the…
Here’s an experiment. Tonight, after midnight, haul yourself out of bed and into the street and, for a minute or two, scream bloody murder. What would happen? Would neighbors call the cops? Would patriots dash out locked and loaded? Would anyone even hear you over their earbuds and white-noise machines?…
Xavier Woods is hardcore gamer, comic book junkie, a die-hard anime aficionado, and even a Brony. But don’t you dare label him as just another geek, since he’s more than just that. And we aren’t just referring to his current stint as a WWE superstar. Woods is also an athlete…
New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from Monday, June 20, through Thursday, June 23. For more events, see our curated calendar. Lisa Hanawalt Though it sounds like the grossest challenge ever, Hot Dog Taste Test is the second illustrated collection from cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt: a…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 76. Kym Ventola. Say…
Take note if you’re making visual or performance art in metro Phoenix: Several local venues are looking for artists who’d like to show their works. We found 15 such opportunities for Valley artists to get a head start with finding creative places to show off. “Of Land, Sea & Sky”…
This sadistic pulp-revisionist Western starts so well that you might feel something like loss as it ends: The Duel could have been something. The opening is all evocative mud and blood as a pair of knife-fighters, their left arms tied together, stab in a downpour. Cut to two decades later,…
Thousands of people flocked to Los Angeles this week for the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, a.k.a. E3. And while the event is only closed to industry pros and press members, the public spectacle surrounding the presentations and announcements captures the attention of the gaming public across the world. As new…
The most surprising thing about the new buddy action-comedy Central Intelligence is the sight of Kevin Hart playing straight man to another actor’s antics. In previous comedies, Hart has been the pint-sized, fast-talking dynamo at the center of the action. Even in movies where he’s the guy in over his…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 77. Shaliyah Ben. It’s…
The man behind Phoenix studio Razor Edge Games knows its video games have to stand out. Surrounded by potential competitors, CEO Mike Weiser is confident the company’s PC game Epocylipse: the AfterFall will turn some heads. “I think there’s a big hole in the gaming market right now,” he says…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 78. Dwayne Hartford. When…
The same way art lovers see soup cans and think Andy Warhol, Phoenicians see oozing, cartoonish, funhouse-inspired murals and think Luster Kaboom. That’s the name used by Phoenix-born artist David Quan, who has several murals here in his hometown – including an untitled piece he says locals dubbed “Nerd Monster.”…
