This Jem is less a movie than an open-source brand launch: If you’re young and down or bullied or disconnected from the life around you, you could always slap on some glitter and film yourself singing as the cartoon-rock queen Jem. Aubrey Pee ples, playing the singer, even gets a…
WWE superstar Dolph Ziggler is a man of many talents. Besides being one of the more gifted professional wrestlers currently on the WWE’s roster (and a two-time world heavyweight champion to boot), the 35-year-old is also a stand-up comedian and actor. The common trait with all of these pursuits is,…
Halloween is quickly approaching, and there are plenty of ways to celebrate. We rounded up a few of the free ones, so you can spend your money on your costume instead of on tickets. Immediately following Halloween is Día de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday that celebrates the memories of…
Day of Our Lives Book-Signing Watch out for fan apoplexy at the Days of Our Lives: 50 Years book-signing event at Changing Hands Tempe. It’s not just a soap opera; it’s a fiercely beloved soap opera that’s been on since 1965. The lovely commemorative book ($34.99) gets you and a…
Halloween drives me berserk with ennui. And, please, spare me the enraged e-mails about my Grinchiness. I got it: I’m obstreperous. But I’m not one of those people who hates holidays in general. I celebrate all the big ones: Christmas and Chanukah and Easter all get thorough goings over in…
Listen, if you or your kids are tired of getting rusty pennies and Bashas’ apples while trick-or-treating close to home, then spend Halloween night this year hitting up Phoenix’s ritzy neighborhoods for the really good stuff. Um, we left out Paradise Valley locales, because we don’t want your children blocked…
Let’s face it: The zombie trend is probably never, ever going to die. In fact, it’s continuing to spread. The Walking Dead expanded into a second show, zombie costuming still sells like mad at stores, and Hollywood has numerous zombie flicks on the horizon (including Resident Evil: The Final Chapter,…
Ray Lewis wrote a book. Yes, that Ray Lewis wrote a book. You know, the one known for being among the most inspirational and feared football players to ever throw on the pads. And he’ll be at Changing Hands in Phoenix on Sunday, October 25, to shake hands and sign…
There’s a 50-foot strip of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Nogales in Sonora, Mexico that bears little resemblance to the rest of the nearly 2,000 mile barrier separating the two countries. Rather than resembling the rusty bars that conjure images of prison cells, it looks like a clear blue sky…
After three decades of witnessing theater extravaganzas like The Book of Mormon, which launched ASU Gammage’s new season this week, I can sometimes find my attention wandering from the spotlight. In the case of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s irreverent book musical, I was more interested in the adulation with…
When Drake premièred his video for “Hotline Bling” through Apple Music on October 19, a lot of things happened. The Internet exploded with memes of his questionable dance moves. The fashion-conscious debated whether chunky knit turtlenecks are poised to make a comeback. And the art world reacted, too. Because the video features…
Ghostfest When you’re awake at 4 a.m., you’re better off having fun than lying there contemplating mortality. And so there’s Ghostfest, an annual tradition at The Torch Theatre, 4721 North Central Avenue. (Full disclosure: New Times contributor Jose Gonzalez runs Torch.) The performance marathon runs for 32 straight hours starting…
When dancer and choreographer Liliana Gomez learned the Heard Museum would be presenting an exhibition of photographs belonging to iconic artist Frida Kahlo, she knew she had to be involved somehow. Gomez first learned of Kahlo from her parents, who moved from Mexico to the U.S. when she was just…
Critics lampoon him as a fast/furious lug nut, a hunk of well-oiled meat who doesn’t so much act as ka-thunk his face and body through its limited gears. To hell with them. Vin Diesel may not run smoothly, but he runs with purpose and conviction, and any line of dialogue…
In his 2014 book Difficult Men, journalist Brett Martin identifies bad-boy antiheroes as the defining feature of our current “Golden Age” of television. Tony Soprano, Don Draper, and The Wire’s Omar Little dazzle with their multifaceted complexity: How deep the furrow in Tony’s troubled brow! How pensive the trail of…
Quick! Name the movie where Bill Murray plays a proudly shabby dude who acts like a prick for an hour and then, for reasons of narrative convention rather than character-based truth, shambles toward either heroism or some vague be-nicer enlightenment. Maybe a tougher challenge would be to name the Bill…
Aaron Sorkin opens up a new desktop icon with Steve Jobs, a briskly busy, talkative companion piece to the Newsroom and Moneyball writer’s Mark Zuckerberg-centric The Social Network. Adapting Walter Isaacson’s biography of the Apple innovator — and covering much of the same ground as Alex Gibney’s documentary Steve Jobs:…
The most effective scene in James Vanderbilt’s brisk, outraged Truth is one that will be familiar to anyone who has ever sat in a room where editors and reporters are breaking down an investigative story. The reporters — here, 60 Minutes researchers played by Dennis Quaid, Elisabeth Moss, and Topher…
Lenny Abrahamson’s shattering drama Room borrows its fictional plot from the tabloids and strips it of sensationalism. Seven years ago, a man (Sean Bridgers) snatched 17-year-old Joy (Brie Larson) and stashed her in his backyard shed. Two years later, she bore their son. The door stayed locked. Now 5, Jack…
David M. Roche has been appointed director and chief executive officer of Heard Museum, the arts organization announced in a Wednesday, October 21, news release. Roche will begin his directorship at the Native American arts museum on January 1, 2016. His predecessor, James Pepper Henry, stepped down from the position…
Every once in a while, local government spits out something amazing – like a map of all the bike routes in the Valley of the Sun. The Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) has all kinds of resources for prospective riders, most of them detailed on their Facebook page. You can…
SPECIAL EVENTS Alwun House 1204 E. Roosevelt St. www.alwunhouse.org Thrills and chills await at Alwun House’s annual Monsters Ball, which will be occupied by creepy creatures and nightcrawlers aplenty. Performers on tap for this year’s event include Romantasy Cabaret, Opendance, Lady Purple, and others. Hors d’oeuvres, dancing, and other freaky…
