This time of year, everyone is looking to re-invent themselves. Whether 2015 was a rough year for you, or even if it wasn’t all that bad, we all look to the new year for a chance to be better than we were before. If you need a little inspiration, look…
The audience was sparse one late October evening at Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. A curtain opened to reveal dancer Lenna DeMarco seated center stage atop a simple, pine-colored chair. With her short, silver-streaked hair tucked behind her ears, the 67-year-old dance faculty emeritus with Glendale Community College wore…
Chicago has the Willis Tower and Navy Pier. Seattle has the Pike Place Market and Space Needle. And NYC has too many of ‘em to count. Every major metropolitan area across America and around the world has a host memorable landmarks that are well known to its citizens and visitors, be…
Too often deemed esoteric or frivolous by those who don’t run in literary circles, the literary journal has never really been the medium for the masses. Frankly, they’ve always been kind of a fringe thing. But Four Chambers 03, released in November 2015, affirms the literary magazine’s relevance and utility by…
1. Let’s get this one out of the way early: The hottest temperature ever recorded in Phoenix was 122 degrees on June 26, 1990. 2. The opening scene to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was filmed downtown. 3. Only about 40 percent of the people who live in Phoenix were born in Arizona. 4…
Here’s a true story about a St. Louis murder that changed America. In 1837, a black freeman named Francis McIntosh stepped off a Mississippi riverboat and blundered into two white cops chasing a drunk sailor who’d called them names. They ordered McIntosh to stop the perp; when he refused, they…
Between scoping out the best holiday lights displays throughout the Valley, wrapping up last-minute shopping, and balancing out your cookie consumption with hiking, here are 11 things to add to your to-do list that’ll be totally worth it. Hannibal Buress It’s been a big year for Hannibal Buress, the stand-up comic…
A neighborhood in Gilbert has won a national contest for its computer-animated Christmas light show. The Comstock neighborhood was featured on the December 14 episode of ABC’s The Great Christmas Light Fight, a show that pits American neighborhoods against one another to compete for the most impressive holiday light display. In last…
Google “cats and guitars.” Go ahead, we’ll wait. A glamour shot of a mixed breed praising an electric. A Siamese strumming a six-string. A kitten peeking out from inside a guitar. These are but a handful of an ever-ascending number (at last look, we’re talking more than 4 million) of…
The metro Phoenix gallery scene saw some significant changes in 2015. Several galleries closed, some new ones opened, and a few moved to new locations. Here’s a look back at the most noteworthy changes. Openings Art|Object Jeff Zischke – an artist familiar to most locals for his public art created…
That’s right, it’s already time to start figuring out what you’re going to do for New Year’s Eve (and where you’ll be hungover New Year’s Day). It’s time for your lamest friend to ask you if you want matching sparkly “2016” glasses for the big night, even though they’re the…
In most of his eight films and especially since The Fighter (2010), choreographer of chaos and screwball scion David O. Russell has assembled boisterous, buoyant casts. His manic ensemble players, like those in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, carom off one another, their high-pitched energy keeping the movies bustling…
Here’s a challenge. Gather some friends, pour some drinks, and announce to everyone the premise of Daddy’s Home, the new family comedy about dads competing to be pater superior. It won’t take long: Will Ferrell is a doting schlemiel of a stepdad to suburban moppets whose biological father, played by…
Concussion isn’t much of a movie, but it’s a fascinating bellwether for where the National Football League currently stands on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease associated with many of its former players. As it happens, the human brain isn’t supposed to whip against the skull like a…
Fueled by impotent, blustery outrage, Adam McKay’s The Big Short, about the grotesque banking and investing practices that led to the 2008 financial collapse, is about as fun and enlightening as a cranked-up portfolio manager’s rue-filled comedown after an energy-shot bender. Based on Michael Lewis’ 2010 bestselling book of the…
Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin’s sweet nectarine of a jazz standard “Easy Living” figures, in a glancing yet potent way, in Todd Haynes’ Carol, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1952 novel The Price of Salt. Even though the lyrics speak of contentment — “Living for you is easy living/It’s easy to…
Here’s to Quentin Tarantino’s cussed perversity. The Hateful Eight, his intimate, suspenseful western splatter-horror comedy, has been shot at great expense in the long-gone 70 mm format, but the movie itself is set almost entirely in cramped interiors. He’s hired Ennio Morricone to score the thing, but don’t expect rousing…
Hannibal Buress had a very busy 2015 — and the comedian isn’t planning on slowing down anytime soon. He’s been on numerous episodes of Broad City, of course, where he plays the laidback Lincoln Rice (a.k.a. the on-again/off-again paramour of main character Ilana Glazer), and starred in his own Comedy…
Hey Phoenix, thanks for all the love you’ve been giving Bar Flies! New Times’ new(ish) live reading event at Valley Bar has been selling out for months now. So resolve to get your tickets (just $5!) early for the January 7 Bar Flies. Katie Johnson is curating, and the theme…
It was a banner year in metro Phoenix for exhibitions featuring works created or collected by some of the world’s most famous artists. Phoenix Art Museum presented exhibitions featuring works by Leonardo da Vinci, Andy Warhol, and Ai Weiwei. And the Heard Museum presented photographs from Frida Kahlo’s personal collection…
Christmas Eve is nearly upon us, and so is the influx of visiting family and friends who need to be entertained. Instead of sitting around the fire in awkward silence, why not check out some of the best activities Phoenix has to offer this holiday. They are also suitable for…
It’s the end of the year, and that means looking back at our favorite cultural moments, celebrity relationships, theatrical productions, and art exhibitions. But it’s also time to reflect on the best sex scenes from our favorite TV shows of 2015 — from the cerebral final season of Mad Men to…
