While some gallery owners head out of town this time of year, plenty are still here and ready to share the art love during August’s First Friday. We’ve found five shows featuring a fun assortment of artwork — including a couple that bring entertainment into the mix. Here are five must-see art shows…
“Bummer Summer” There are countless movies, songs, and poems about the romanticism of summer — the warm sun, the peaceful beach, the budding romance. But, honestly, sometimes the summer can suck. Artist and graphic designer Lauren Bailey has put her minimalistic spin on this darker side of summer in “Bummer…
My name is Josh, and I have a confession: I’ve never tried online dating. All right, that’s not entirely true. I’ve tried to set up an account before when a friend tells me about all the amazing people they’ve been meeting on Tinder/OkCupid/Farmers. (In truth, I don’t know anyone who…
Welcome to the summer of the breakup. No one is safe. Neither Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale nor Batfleck and Jennifer Garner. Not that eyebrow kid who quit One Direction and then quit being engaged to Perrie Edwards or Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton. Not even Miss Piggy and Kermit…
“This conversation is the best one I ever had,” David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) tells us as The End of the Tour wraps up, and the movie, a pleasantly talky chamber piece, gives us welcome bursts of it. That long chat, with a David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) abashed by the…
It’s heartbreaking that, in his last dramatic film, Robin Williams plays depressed and repressed, burdened by secrets, a man incapable of connecting. Williams invests himself in the role of a closeted Nashville bank manager married to a woman for whom he feels only sexless affection. Clearly, the actor was moved…
Sometime in the 1980s, Marlon Brando had his face digitized, presumably as a way of leaving just a bit more of himself after his departure from this planet. As we see it in Stevan Riley’s documentary Listen to Me Marlon, that speaking, moving hologram looks like a cross between George…
Jonathan Demme’s rock ‘n’ roll dramedy Ricki and the Flash exists in a wormhole where the last five decades of pop culture are a blur. There’s 66-year-old Meryl Streep, playing a broke singer who ditched her family to dominate the stage with the whiskey growl of Janis Joplin, the jangly…
Jason Segel didn’t tell his book club he’d been cast as novelist David Foster Wallace in James Ponsoldt’s biopic The End of the Tour. “I didn’t want to sound like Fancy Pants McGee,” admits Segel over lunch in Los Angeles. (Especially since the 6-foot-4-inch comedy actor is famous for dropping his…
The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was a boon to comedy, but the comedians who feasted then look gouty today: A small group of white, male millionaires — one of whom would later confess to having ultiple office affairs, perhaps to distract from sexual-harassment allegations — collectively decided to call Lewinsky, then a 22-year-old…
What happens in the studio shouldn’t always stay in the studio. Studio Visit Q+A is a weekly series that profiles artists in their studios. We ask them questions, they provide answers, and then we have a nice discussion about their work. This week: Tempe based artist and educator Jon Haddock…
The bicycle is one of the world’s great inventions: You can use it for transport, exercise, entertainment, and work. And thanks to the silver screen, the bicycle serves yet another purpose – as a character. Bicycles make frequent cameos in Hollywood pictures, saving the day, changing the hero’s life, or propelling…
It’s time for a curtain call, Phoenix. This week, nominees for the 2014-15 ariZoni Theatre Awards of Excellence were announced, recognizing troupes, actors, directors, writers, and costumers across the Valley. Each year the awards aim to recognize greatness in local theater performed by both adults and children, and nearly 100…
Looking for something to do during those painful weekdays before your paycheck arrives? It can be hard to find affordable, air-conditioned events that are also interesting, but they do exist. And we’re here to help you find them. Though movies, dance performances, and large-scale sporting events don’t often come cheap,…
It’s been a year of big changes for Roosevelt Row in downtown Phoenix. Baron Properties tore down a pair of buildings at Roosevelt and Third streets to make way for residential units. Local First Arizona founder Kimber Lanning saved a house slated for demolition by having it moved to the vacant…
August is an interesting month for the film industry. Most of the summer blockbusters have come and gone (although Fantastic Four is hoping to make some late noise on August 7), but it’s too early for studios to release anything they want remembered for awards season. It’s also a time…
Samantha Thompson’s home is full of recycling. We’re not talking about a compost pile or even separating the plastics from glass. We mean the repurposing, refurnishing, and reimagining kind of recycling. This is the spirit that launched Standard Wax, the candle company she and co-owner Andrew King started several years…
Bar Flies If you spend time in downtown Phoenix even just occasionally and haven’t heard of Bar Flies, we suggest you take a second to reevaluate your life choices and then pay attention. Bar Flies is New Times’ monthly reading series where you’ll hear stories about everything from a lesbian’s…
What Arizona needs right about now is a good novel. Nothing else will do. Not a change in governor, a fumigation of the Legislature, a redesign of North Scottsdale, or a tripling of the education budget. While all these would be welcome, they cannot approach the curative and transforming force…
For some, the word Utah conjures only images of Mormon temples and the Great Salt Lake. But there’s far more to see in our neighboring state to the north, as it’s also home to a cool assortment of arts and culture offerings. We’ve found seven worth checking out if you’re…
A cadre of well-known street artists recently descended on Phoenix to create a mural inspired by the quest for immigrant rights. It was created in partnership with both the Netroots Foundation, a Washington D.C. organization that uses online tools to promote participatory democracy, and filmmakers for Who is Dayani Cristal?…
You’re never too smart for a little extra education, and this month you can to catch many different lectures around the Valley that are sure to pique your interest. Women in STEM? Modern architecture? How about oppression-fighting women with swords? All that and more will be discussed and questioned by…
