When it comes to expectations of foreign exchange students, flicks like Summer School and American Pie set us up for disappointment. In actuality, teenage boys who use high-powered binoculars to spy on the hot, sexy, half-naked exchange student next door often wind up with an eyeful of skinny band geek…
Backyard chicken wrangling is suddenly very cool. Tattooed, cruiser-pedaling hipsters, NoPho lacrosse moms, and even teenagers (the sure sign that a trend’s become legit) are doing it. Spotted recently in uptown Phoenix: a hand-painted sign reading, “Fresh eggs from my happy backyard chickens!” Could backyard pig ranching be the next…
Greatly expanded from a four-page, single-situation story by Raymond Carver, Dan Rush’s first feature Everything Must Go is an ambitious if enervated vehicle for Will Ferrell — playing it straight as Nick Halsey, a middle-class drunk fired from his job and locked out of his suburban home by an irate,…
Another nice old building was coming down. That’s what I thought when I noticed that the Park Lee Apartments were fenced off late last year. I started driving up 15th Avenue more often, certain that opportunities to admire the stately brick colonial-style buildings were limited; that any day now, I’d…
There is no food in my refrigerator. Fruits are relegated to the cupboard; cheeses and deli meats turned away entirely. There’s a lone gallon of milk and a sad, half-empty bottle of ketchup on the door shelf, but that’s it. It’s not that I don’t eat; I just feel that…
Although I played with the idea of reading this summer, I just don’t think it’s going to work out. I know it’s what all my friends are doing; right about now, I bet every one of them is scanning the new-release tables at brightly lit bookstores, measuring up one brightly…
A few years ago, a friend of mine who was a personal trainer told me, “If you want to eat ice cream, than eat ice cream — just don’t have it all the time, and when you do, get only the best.” Sound advice, especially for those of us past…
So begins the summer movie season, when we willingly pay to see movies we know will be bad. But between the raunchy comedies (A Good Old Fashioned Orgy) and silly sequels (Spy Kids 4, Final Destination 5) — some of which we’ll love! — are some intriguing flicks well worth…
It’s heating up and I’m starting to freak out. I’m waking up in the middle of the night sweating, watching as the fan blades above my bed spin angrily, like the fan blades in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original one). I am still, feeling my body temperature…
There is nothing quite as lasting and personal as a first name. It is considered dreamily in the months before birth and remains on a tombstone long after departure. It is one of the first gifts you receive. If you have been given a problematic name there are only two…
More than 50 cherry rides, lowrider bikes, and mini-trucks during the Intimidations Car and Bike Show as part of the annual Guadalupe Days Fiesta on Sunday, June 6. In addition to showing off their handiwork, drivers will use their vehicle’s hyped-up hydraulics to cause their lowriders to bounce during car-hop…
As any skateboarder that’s been on the business end of a face plant can tell you, the laws of gravity are serious business. But the fear of coming crashing back to earth probably isn’t going to keep any adrenaline junkies from utilizing the ramps and rails of the newly opened…
Punk rock is largely considered to be a big city phenomenon, born out of such urban wastelands as New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit. So when a band like the fearsome Oklahoma foursome The Boom Bang rise from the utter hickdom of the Sooner State, it’s a bit unexpected. Tackling…
Long before computers and video games occupied our collectively short attention span, the world’s unfettered fascination shone upon the Rubik’s Cube. Though it has been more than 35 years since its debut, the complex square-shaped assortment of colored cubes causes just as much consternation these days as it did back…
Comedian Kevin Farley may have spent most of his career living in the rather large shadow cast by his late brother Chris, but he’s finally managed to emerge from the shade. Fourteen years after his big bro’s death, the younger Farley has a fairly healthy movie career going and is…
The music of the Gin Blossoms has always been sugary. Even at their darkest – for example, the suicide jam “Follow You Down” from their sophomore album Congratulations, I’m Sorry — the legendary local band has always managed to hide mournful lyrics under a thick layer of jangle-pop sweetness. You…
With the Phoenix Suns left out of the NBA post-season, the pros might as well keep themselves busy. Steve Nash is enjoying lap dances from Nicki Minaj, while power forward Gani Lawal is doing something that hopefully involves a little less booty-shaking: Judging the Humble Beginning Poetry Contest at Doc’s…
With all of the signs, news reports, billboards and Facebook status updates on the impending rapture, Phoenix locals were shocked and dismayed to discover that no one vanished on May 21. Just kidding – we were only playing along with right-wing nut Howard Camping’s kooky prophecies so that we could…
Three-headed dogs, mermaids, and unicorns are the stuff of legends. Still, a host of these imaginary beasts managed to find their way into a recent exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. That show inspired local artist Sarah Hurwitz to create “Meat Market,” an art exhibit…
Cancer and nukes: Both strike with little warning and kill indiscriminately. More significantly, both pervert natural processes to horrifying and destructive ends, raising questions that keep us up at night — or drive us to create art. Local artist Lisa Marie Sipe’s aunt played in the long shadow of a…
The last time you participated in a book club, you ended up frantically searching the Interwebs an hour before it met for the Cliffs Notes version of David McCullough’s 700-page snoozer, John Adams. Never again. The folks at Practical Art in Phoenix believe that the literary snob who suggested McCullough’s…
Food Network star Guy Fieri’s spiky hair and loud personality have always taken center stage over his grub, so it’s fitting that the celebrity chef’s summer tour is modeled after a rock concert. Thankfully, he won’t be singing any of the tunes that make up the show’s soundtrack. The one-of-kind…
