The week after Christmas offers a welcome respite from Frosty and Rudolph and those other sing-along carols. For a real break from musical tradition, though, locals have the benefit of performer Ian Christiansen’s holiday cabaret. Part holiday jamboree, part post-celebration celebration, Wreck the Halls is the latest in Christiansen’s “Lil…
Merry Christmas and Happy Festivus to those who celebrate. While we’re sure you’re having a grand time celebrating, we want you to have plans outside of the traditional gift-opening and grievance-airing that will likely take place — though hopefully you’ll have one less grievance after reading through these five free…
In case you’re new to town and haven’t noticed yet, the Christmas season in Phoenix looks a little different than it does in, say, New York or Chicago.. Here are 10 Phoenix Christmas traditions that are sure signs Santa’s on his way: 10.) Everyone is buying and selling tamales by…
Lurid, muscular and unafraid to look at turn-of-the-century Manhattan’s rotting guts, The Knick has distinguished itself in the crowded antihero-drama landscape through its mosaic portrait of a city on the verge of implosion and epidemic – detailed with an extraordinary visual expressiveness (courtesy of Steven Soderbergh, who directs every episode)…
When Concussion hits big screens across the country on Christmas Day, it’s sure to spark discussion. The film is based on a true story and stars Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Nigerian-born forensic pathologist and former medical examiner who first discovered a deadly brain injury in professional football players. It…
There’s a new reason to head to Grand Avenue’s arts district. Unexpected Art Gallery, located at 734 West Polk Street, opened during the Grand Avenue Festival on November 14. Since then, it’s hosted the annual exhibition of the ASU Sculpture Club, a one-night show held during First Friday on December…
The internet can be a scary place for beauty buffs seeking a natural skincare regimen. From lemon juice astringents to aspirin masks, misguided advice runs rampant on the Wild West that is the web. Melissa Lenberg, owner of Citrine Natural Beauty Bar at Biltmore Fashion Park, wants to bring order…
This winter packs some major milestones for science fiction television and film. Star Wars will once again grace the silver screen with J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens on December 18. It is sure to redefine, once again, the use of lens flare. X-Files will also be returning to our homes on January 24, hopefully with the same…
A while back, a friend expressed concern that her son, a 10-year-old, was watching too much My Little Pony. “It’s sweet,” she said, “but not what I’d choose.” I asked what she would prefer that he watch. “Well, his dad started him on that new Star Wars cartoon.” That cartoon…
Life is hard for the extravagantly wealthy lounging about in one of the world’s most beautiful hotels. Paolo Sorrentino’s latest might seem easy to mock — here, after all, are Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, playing a composer and a film director, moping in a Swiss spa about old age…
Cynthia Nixon is such a terrific actress that she can steady even the wobbliest material. In writer-director Josh Mond’s modestly scaled family drama James White, she plays Gail, the mother of 20-something underachiever James (Christopher Abbott, of Girls), a guy who can never seem to lay hands on a clean…
What’s quietly revolutionary about Sisters is that it’s a dumb party movie like a million others. The hosts score booze, invite over dozens of friends and frenemies, and then watch in horror — and a touch of self-congratualtory awe — as their house gets trashed. With the sunrise comes lessons,…
The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper’s portrait of Jazz Age painters Gerda Wegener and her spouse, Einar, who butterflied into Lili Elbe via the first sexual-assignment surgery, is about gender and it isn’t. Like its subject, it’s fatally resolved to fit an ideal: the noble Oscar-bait biopic. If the script swapped…
George Lucas is the L. Ron Hubbard of Hollywood. Both men were sci-fi dreamers turned mega-millionaires who spun their pulp adventures into a religion. Tap the power within yourself, they urged. The faithful forked over their dollars. Then both Lucas and Hubbard mucked up their simple premise with add-ons like…
In a couple of weeks, it’ll be time for everyone to wallow in shame over all the things they should have done in 2015 but never did. For those already starting to fervently wish they’d spent more time supporting local arts and culture, December’s Third Friday is a chance to…
I very much wanted to love Heathers: The Musical, which you will find screaming its head off at the Tempe Performing Arts Center for the next couple of weeks. I’ve counted Daniel Waters’ 1988 film about murderous high schoolers among my all-time favorite movies since its release, and was looking…
If you sense some magical vibrations coming off of High Street this weekend, there’s a good reason for it. Piff the Magic Dragon (the world’s funniest performing magic dragon and America’s Got Talent finalist) will be showing off his hilarious brand of magic at the House of Comedy. The magic…
There is a revolution happening in Phoenix, and it started in the unlikeliest of places. For the past decade, analog film photography — the method that involves physically loading a roll of film into a camera and waiting to see the shots until the film is developed — has been…
Casandra Hernandez has been named ASU Art Museum’s curator of Celebración Artística de las Américas, or CALA, Initiatives, according to a Monday, December 13, announcement from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Hernandez had worked at the Commission as artists program coordinator since September 2014. One of her most notable…
Perhaps 2015 blew by. Or is it that the year flew by? To say that it sprinted, rushed, or flashed past feels more accurate. That’s because we’ve reached a point where, thanks to great and near constant programming at venues and institutions across the Valley, there’s almost too much to…
Meet Stephanie and Melissa Valenzuela, long-time Arizona residents and fashion enthusiasts, and, oh yeah, twins (the fraternal kind). The 24-year-old sisters — known to their YouTube followers by their collective name, The Fashion Citizen — upload videos three times a week in the form of thrift hauls, DIY tutorials, OOTWs (outfits of…
‘Tis the season for gifting. This week, our gift to you is a guide to free and fun events happening around the Valley. Rest assured, there’s something for everyone, including the storyteller, the writer, the artist, the fashion expert, and everyone in between. Digital Storytellers The folks at Chandler’s Gangplank…
