Fashion designer Oscar de la Renta has died at 82. The Dominican-American designer was known for his evening wear, worn by First Ladies and leading ladies alike. He recently made headlines for designing Amal Clooney’s wedding dress. De la Renta studied under Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. He started…
Phoenix Design Week filled the downtown area with folks looking to beautify the city last weekend. The event featured workshops, seminars, and more, and we couldn’t help but join in for a letterpress workshop at Hazel & Violet. Being newbies ourselves, we had a lot to learn at the small,…
Dayna and Cole Reed’s plans to leave Arizona because of non-progressive LGBTQ laws were unchanged by the state’s legalization of same-sex marriage on Friday, October 17. The Reeds own Roosevelt Row boutique and gallery, greenHAUS, and plan to close it in early February 2015 because they are moving to Portland,…
Halloweekend is going to be jam-packed with great spooky events here in Phoenix. From haunted houses to slasher screenings, there’s plenty to fill up your schedule, but true horror enthusiasts need look no further than this year’s FearCON. Billed as Arizona’s largest independent horror event, you can expect scary movie…
You have exactly 11 days to come up with a Halloween costume. While we’ve dealt you a lifeline with our roundup of 2014’s hottest costumes, we can appreciate that you’re waiting for inspiration to strike — or paralyzed by fear of choosing between being an emoji or banding together with…
“Seriously, it’s all about making friends.” That’s one of the last lines in Phoenix photographer Hannah Minkner’s “about” section on her website Weekends Are for Lovers, or WAFL. But after spending even half an hour with Minkner, whose background is in design work, it is clear that this is not…
With the news that Paul Feig is going to reboot Ghostbusters with an all-female cast, we wonder on this week’s Voice Film Club podcast what it would be like if they re-did another ’80s classic: Young Guns. We then move onto the latest Brad Pitt World War II movie, Fury,…
When he graduated from the University of Oregon with a journalism degree in 1986, Chuck Palahniuk probably didn’t think he would go on to be a bestselling author and one of the most popular novelists for a generation that isn’t exactly known for its love of books. And when Palahniuk,…
Wanda Sykes Love or hate her, Wanda Sykes doesn’t give a, well, you know. Her philosophy of “I’ma Be Me” has been brought on by a life of adversity and adjustment. The comic has tackled everything from race to gender, divorce to cancer, and homosexuality to parenthood, all while bringing…
It’s time to put those buns back on your saddles and get riding again, Phoenix. Well, if you need more inspiration than that, Phoenix Spokes People are throwing a “big bike party,” according to organizer Libby Coyner, and the cycling is only half of the fun. Hello Vélo will be…
It hit him on a Friday night and was delivered by Jimmy Fallon. Josh Higgins watched as the Late Night host began writing his famous thank you notes on air. “Thank you, Barack Obama…” Fallon said as the image with the word “Forward,” white against a blue background with that…
Sometimes, we don’t text what we really mean. That’s totally understandable, but there are some texts that pretty much never mean what they say, and have pretty strong connotations or impacts on your relationships with the opposite sex. If you’ve dated in the age of texting, then odds are you’ve…
The “Chaos Theory” exhibition at Legend City Studios opened on First Friday to big crowds and social media praise. But during its 15-year history, the event has gone from funky to formulaic. About half of the 19 artists invited to show works in 2000 still participate and only nine of…
Before there was a Birdman, there was a Batman — several, in fact, though the best was played by Michael Keaton in the two Tim Burton films in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Since then, Christian Bale’s somber strutting and muttering, as seen in Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, has…
Should we trust artists to tell the story of artists? On the plus side, who understands them better? If there’s a secret language of imagination and creativity, then the members of this sprawling tribe must be the ones who speak it best. On the other hand, could there be anything…
Among its many attributes, Justin Simien’s exuberant debut feature, Dear White People, proves that we’re not yet living in a “post-racial America”: Forget for a moment that there are so many vexing problems entwining race, class, and economics that we haven’t been able to put a Band-Aid on, let alone…
The tragedy of Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children is that it was released the year it was made. A snapshot of today’s cultural disconnection, in which Facebook, texting, World of Warcraft, and streaming smut lure people away from dinner with their families, the film’s so current that its observations…
Jazz isn’t dead. Miraculously, there’s always a small but steady stream of young people who continue to fall in love with this most dazzling and elusive American genre, spending hours, days, and months running ribbons of scales and memorizing Charlie Parker solos in the hopes that some of the alto…
Love or hate her, Wanda Sykes doesn’t give a — well, you know. Her philosophy of “I’ma Be Me” has been brought on by a life of adversity and adjustment. The comic has tackled everything from race to gender, divorce to cancer, and homosexuality to parenthood, all the while bringing…
It’s noon on a Friday and I’m sitting in my living room. Laptop is on my lap, my phone is plugged in, and Garage Band is open as I begin to type the project’s title: Kevin Barnes. I’m not ready. It feels like my blood has been put through a…
Sometimes it feels like the LGBTQ community has hijacked the rainbow and that the rest of us can’t rock a vintage Care Bears T-shirt without raising a few eyebrows. But you know what? Our LGBTQ friends have had a hard enough path; they deserve a few rainbows. And with the…
For those of us who visualize words when we hear them, have argued at least once about whether Helvetica is a timeless classic or so past its prime, and get nightmares about the abuse of kerning, Christmas does not come in December. It comes in late October and goes by…
