Frances Announces Crafeteria 2014 Lineup

Make your list. Check it twice. And then head to Frances’ ninth annual Crafeteria. Each holiday season, the Central Phoenix boutique hosts a shopping fair featuring wares from local crafters and makers at Medlock Plaza. This year’s perfect opportunity to don a scarf and pick up presents falls on Friday,…

3 Free Events in Metro Phoenix This Week

They say money changes everything, but being broke brings on its fair share of events. From museum readings to pop-up yoga and mingling with movers and shakers, there’s plenty of opportunities to paint the town red while staying in the black. Here are our top three picks for free events…

Choreographer Jessica Lang Finds Inspiration in Arizona Landscape

New York choreographer Jessica Lang, artistic director for Jessica Lang Dance founded in 2011, has been spending time on Arizona stages of late. Recently the company performed in Tucson and in Wickenburg, and they’ll perform this month at Mesa Arts Center, with a touring program that includes five dance works…

Hunger Games Movie Marathons Hit Metro Phoenix This Week

All right, all you Tributes and Panemaniacs, we know you’re freaking out right now. You have a right to be. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I is coming to theaters Friday, November 21, and it is a big deal. But in all this excitement, don’t forget to make plans…

Amada Cruz Named Phoenix Art Museum Director

Amada Cruz will be Phoenix Art Museum’s new director, the museum’s board of trustees announced in a press release on Monday, November 17. Cruz will take on the role on February 1, 2015, replacing longtime director James Ballinger, who announced in April 2014 his intention to retire after nearly 40…

5 Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Week

“Cultural Savant: The Art and Collections of Joe Willie Smith” Some might call him a scavenger, others a “picker.” The Valley prefers to think of Joe Willie Smith is an artist — albeit an unconventional one. The local talent has participated in Art Detour and events throughout downtown Phoenix, and…

10 Best Jewelers in Metro Phoenix

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but far be it from us to turn down the rest of the precious stone posse. From engagement rings to gauges and watches to one-of-a-kind pendants, the Valley of the Sun has its fair share of razzle dazzle. Whether you’re shopping for someone…

5 Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Weekend

“Fortoul Brothers Solo Exhibition” Between appearances in magazines around the globe, art auctions abroad, and exhibitions across the country, including the upcoming Art Basel in Miami, Gabriel and Isaac Fortoul are finding themselves more and more in the cultural spotlight. Hard to believe that it was only 2002 when these…

The 10 Worst Things to Do on a Road Trip

“Let’s take a road trip!” It always sounds like a good idea when you say it, but a couple hours into the drive, you inevitably end up hating at least one of the people you’re in the car with. The truth is, whether it’s 10 minutes in the car or…

Dumb and Dumber To Is Missing the Original’s Magic Idiocy

In the mid 1990s, self-appointed cultural gatekeepers used to wield Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s Dumb and Dumber as proof of the deterioration of film artistry. Those people hadn’t, of course, actually bothered to see the movie, and thus had no sense of its peculiar, sweet-spirited, un-toilet-trained brilliance. Times have changed,…

Mockingjay Is Sharp on Propaganda but Soft on Celebrity

Over the first two Hunger Games films, we’ve watched coal miner’s daughter Katniss Everdeen become the pawn, then the pest, of the Capitol, whose President Snow (Donald Sutherland) has enslaved the adults of the 12 poorer Districts and annually commanded that they together sacrifice 24 of their children to likely…

How Reality TV Went From Launchpad to Dumpster

Minor spoilers for the second episode of The Comeback’s sophomore season. It’s no mystery why The Comeback, which returned for its second season this past Sunday after a nine-year hiatus, never became a big hit for HBO. Other mockumentaries like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family have thrived,…

American Horror Story

Controversy, conspiracy, and corruption are colliding at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art — and not just because of its current exhibition, “Covert Operations: Investigating the Known Unknowns.” Arizona State University’s Banned Plays Reading Series has teamed up with the Scottsdale art venue to perform a one-night-only public reading of The…

Falling Hard

Don’t know if you know this, but autumn is about more than just adding pumpkin spice to anything you can touch, smell, taste, or look at. Thankfully, people haven’t discovered how to listen to that overused flavor yet. If you’re surprised by this, sorry. If you’re not, then chances are…