A few years ago, you might hear the name Herbal Risings Cannabis College and picture students in beanies and tie-dye T-shirts fighting over the last bag of Doritos. A class called “Budtending 101” might get a few wisecracks. How quickly things change: When Chad Olshavsky moved to Arizona with his…
A glorious mix of visual and performance art infused September’s First Friday, with a cumbia dance night at Phoenix Art Museum, House of Cirque stilt-walkers activating the Shadow Play space in the heart of Roosevelt Row, and music by Native American high school students at Heard Museum. The entertainment combined with…
From the architecture inherent in a skilled fashion designer’s white shirts to the symbolism of cultural theft infusing a dozen animal zodiac heads, the fall line-up of art exhibitions in metro Phoenix has some intriguing fare. See artist-made inflatables in Chandler, videos channeling science fiction in Scottsdale, and photographs cherished…
US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix has hosted plenty of big battles during its 23-year lifespan – and were not only referring to all the showdowns by the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Rattlers with their respective opponents. Over the decades, the venue (which will soon be rebranded as Talking Stick…
Cumbia Dance Night Our Southwest city is no stranger to celebrations of salsa and flamenco dancing, and now Cumbia, hailing from Colombia’s costal region alongside the Caribbean Sea, is making a name for itself. DJs Nico and M.Rocka, the duo behind local group Clandestino, bring La Diabla from Tijuana and DJ…
The upcoming Steve Jobs documentary from Alex Gibney (Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine) is worth seeing even if you’re tired of Apple fanboys — if only for the curious parallels between Apple worshippers and the members of the Church of Scientology, the subject of Gibney’s other recent doc…
Never fear if you sometimes feel torn during First Friday between making the art rounds and going to see a performance. Several First Friday venues are mixing it up on September 4, delivering not only intriguing art but cool dance and music offerings, too. There’s an awful lot going on,…
Director Alex Gibney’s choice to follow this spring’s Scientology slam Going Clear with the fascinating portrait Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine might seem like an about-face. The first documentary clinically eviscerated a religion that everyone loves to loathe. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, however, is adulated to an incredible…
A comedy too listless to bother crafting jokes or comic incidents, a character study centered on a sweet-natured prick it’s hard to believe could actually exist tumbleweeding into a job at a lube shop, 7 Chinese Brothers is a go-nowhere shrug of a movie, the kind of indie that might…
Men Slog By Stephanie Zacharek A sense of humor will take you far in life, even along a daunting stretch of the Appalachian Trail. In his hugely popular 1998 book A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson chronicled his attempt to hike the full length of the trail, from Georgia…
The first famous tennis player was King Louis X of France. Nicknamed Louis the Quarreler for his domestic politics, meaning he was likely a real pain to the ref, King Louis is renowned for two facts in athletic lore: He invented the indoor tennis court, and, after a hard, hot…
There’s steady, scary thrill in the final third of Meru, the latest attempt to conquer the climb-and-tweak-the-nose-of-God mountaineering documentary, a genre that has yet to reach its apex. The terrible beauty of the Shark’s Fin point of northern India’s Mount Meru is enough to make this worth seeking out on…
More than 300 people are expected to descend on metro Phoenix during early November for the 25th International Sculpture Conference, which includes an assortment of workshops, gallery visits, panels, and studio visits. The conference is held November 4 to 7 and centered on a “New Frontiers in Sculpture” theme. It…
Scientist turned mutant. Pregnant teen athlete. Drone operator. A whole slew of clueless but well-meaning missionaries. The cast of characters looks pretty appealing for this fall’s crop of theater offerings — which also include Sigmund Freud, Salvador Dali, and Joan of Arc. Shows by local and touring companies are taking…
Starfighters Arcade in Mesa has found a new place to land. The popular vintage video game haven, which boasts more than 100 classic and retro arcade favorites, recently moved into a newer and bigger location earlier this month that offers even more room for local joystick junkies to get their game on. Co-owners Steve…
Congratulations, you’ve almost made it through the summer. It may not feel like it at the moment, considering that temperatures are still up in the triple digits, but we’re only a couple of weeks away from the promised land of cooler climes. If nothing else, that’s cause enough for celebration,…
Anwar Newton still remembers the feeling he had his first time on stage: embarrassment. “I wrote down some stuff beforehand, but you realize very quickly that what you think is funny is actually really dumb and boring,” he says. “I don’t even remember what I said. My brain just locked…
Aerial Silks Class When it comes to extracurricular activity, we figure that if Real Housewives in multiple cities can do it, the general public can, too. Which is just as good an excuse as any to try out Scorpius Dance Theatre’s aerial silks class. The company’s master of aerial arts,…
Though one of the most tumultuous weeks in stock market history may have worked itself out by the end of last week, the panic stretched across the country as people feared the worst for their finances. We can’t exactly give you stock market advice, but we can provide you with…
You can’t win if you don’t play. It’s true for the lottery, and it’s true for landing places to show your art work. Metro Phoenix artists have several opportunities to up the odds of more people seeing their work in the form of seven recently issued calls for artists. One…
I like men. So much so, that I’ve thrown myself into the lion’s den, the horse’s mouth, and the cat’s meow of Internet dating. Or in this case, what I lovingly refer to as shallow people-shopping in TinderLand. Let the record state, I am a terrible dater. I’m honest, direct,…
Narcos, Netflix’s new drug-war docudrama, is nearly as ambitious as its central character, Pablo Escobar. Over the course of 10 dense, sprawling episodes, the series tells the 20-year history of the narcotrafficker’s rise and fall in relation to Colombia’s blood-soaked history and the U.S.’s escalating drug war, from Richard Nixon…
