10 Nerdy Things to Do in Metro Phoenix in December 2015

Winter is coming, and so are the barrage of nerdy commentary about that latest Game of Thrones tease. You’ll have to wait until April to find out what’s happening in the seven kingdoms, but we found some things that could keep your inner nerd satisfied at least until the end…

5 Things to Do Outside in Metro Phoenix During December 2015

December is a wonderful time to be outdoors in Phoenix. With the city getting increasingly busy, and the holidays speedily slinging the days past, escaping into the cool desert is a great way step back and enjoy this time of year — and our surroundings. Plus, it’s a chance to…

5 Free Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Week

Spend all your money on Black Friday shopping? That’s okay. It’s an expensive time of year, and we’re here to help you out as much as we can by providing the cheapest — actually, free-est — activities that will keep you out and about instead of sulking in broke sadness. …

5 Events and Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Week

New Times picks the best arts and culture events and things to do from November 30 through December 3. ZooLights Your neighbor Carl and his Christmas display have nothing on ZooLights, the Phoenix Zoo’s annual showcase of flora and fauna dazzlingly constructed from millions of colorful bulbs. This year the zoo’s…

10 Things Arizonans Hate About Snowbirds

With the temperatures around Phoenix dropping below a million degrees, the snowbirds from the north are making their annual migration to the Valley of the Sun.For those of us who live here year-round, that only means that life is going to be more of a hassle, thanks to the sudden…

9 Must-See Guests at Phoenix Comicon Fan Fest 2015

Booking special guests for a big geek convention often takes a lot of time, effort, patience, and persistence. Just ask Brandy Kuschel, who spends most of the year wrangling all manner of famed actors, artists, and geek icons for both Phoenix Comicon in the spring and its spinoff wintertime event,…

Top 10 Reasons to Love Phoenix

For whatever reason, it always seems like Phoenix is getting a bad rep — which shouldn’t be the case.We love Phoenix, and here are the top 10 reasons you should, too:…

Crime Drama Legend Pits Two Tom Hardys Against London

The big breakthrough in Legend, the latest well-crafted studio throwback from writer-director Brian Helgeland (Payback, A Knight’s Tale, 42)? At long last, here’s one movie with two often incomprehensible Tom Hardy characters, sometimes muttering their Cockney swears at each other inside the same scene. Hardy plays twins, real-life gangsters who…

Stallone Won’t Let Creed Escape Rocky‘s Shadow

The heads of the City Dionysia, the Grecian playwriting competition that pitted Aeschylus against Sophocles and can be considered the original Oscars, had a rule: no original characters. Instead, the best creative minds of a generation — or really, a millennium — exhausted themselves finding new spins on, say, Medea…

25 Gift Ideas for the Phoenix Art Lover

It’s easier to feel good about devoting time and money to shopping when you know your gift choices help support local artists and small businesses. So we went in search of 25 cool holiday gift options with a local arts-and-culture twist — including several made by local artists and artisans…

Bar Flies: Here’s the Lineup for the December 17 Reading at Valley Bar

New Times is back with the December installment of Bar Flies, our monthly reading series at Valley Bar. This time we’ll honor our long(ish) standing tradition of celebrating the holidays with the theme “Eating Christmas” — tales of the winter holidays, and food.  The lineup: Tricia Parker,  Robrt Pela, Amy Silverman, Amy…

Mary-Louise Parker’s Dear Mr. You Is Smart, Funny, and Unapologetic

Many of the better publishing deals today go to actors, which means a steady stream of ghostwritten books about the lives of newly rich people on a predictable trajectory: poverty, fame, substance abuse and a very public divorce followed by a splashy comeback and, inevitably, a book deal. Actress Mary-Louise…

5 Free Things to Do This Week in Metro Phoenix

There’s a lot to be thankful for when you live in Phoenix, but this week we’re most grateful for all the free stuff to do. The lineup includes performance art, bike rides, light parades, and more.  Last LAP Night of the Semester The Live Art Platform will host its final…