In Tom Tiding’s world of Twisted Tidings, no greeting card is left unscathed or sarcastically reproduced. “Congratulations on your new baby!” One of Tiding’s cards reads. “At least now there’s one person in your family who’s not a complete asshole. With the help of a few greeting card inspirations, the…
Howl, director Rob Epstein’s biopic about Allen Ginsberg and the obscenity trial surrounding his titular poem, starts with a statement that every word in the film was actually spoken by the people portrayed, but that it’s unlike a documentary in any other way. It was an an apt opener for…
Most people who drive from Phoenix to California and back would look through their windshields and just see desert. Mayme Kratz saw art. Her installation, “Tumbleweed Bower,” consists of tons of tumbleweeds from the west side of Phoenix that she built into an interactive structure. The 15-foot-high cube is currently…
It used to be that if you wanted to observe small orange creatures in their natural habitat, you had to travel to the nightclubs of the Jersey Shore or to an eccentric candy maker’s chocolate factory. Now, you can get up close and personal with the original orange creatures right…
Artist Andres Serrano has mad respect for Pablo Picasso. Not only did the father of cubism influence the notorious photographer’s early works, one of Picasso’s more famous quotes (“Art is dangerous. Where it is chaste, it is not art.”) has seemingly been the hallmark of Serrano’s career. Because, believe us,…
The last artist to win both the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and the Canadian Juno Award for Album of the Year was Alanis Morissette, who won the twin North American honors for 1995’s Jagged Little Pill. This puts Montreal band Arcade Fire and their record The Suburbs…
The official web site of the Lenin Mausoleum is pretty trippy. “The spruces have grown up. There is no red banner under the Kremlin. But the Mausoleum still exists,” it proclaims. If you hurry, you can vote online to ensure the tomb’s continued existence. Or, you can do your part…
Playwright William Gibson’s evocative and legendary play, which explores the tumultuous relationship between Helen Keller and her Annie Sullivan, is performed by Desert Stages Theatre. Fridays-Sundays. Starts: March 25. Continues through May 15, 2011…
Artist David Kroll’s paintings explore the relationship between humanity and nature. In hyper-realistic, oil-on-linen paintings (often depicting birds, fish, or bunnies), he asks about our place in the world today, and about what man has left for smaller creatures as we continue to reshape the world to our liking. The…
It’s true that sex sells — but so does misery. Turn on the boob tube or pick up a daily newspaper, and you’ll be bombarded with images of destruction, from a hurricane’s aftermath to a shooting victim’s corpse. London-based artist Dena Schuckit is inspired, rather than horrified, by these photos…
French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy once said of his late friend and client Ann Bonfoey Taylor, “It was an honor to dress her. She was so chic and could wear anything, yet she was intransigent in her great style and never gravitated to something that did not look like…
Living green can be scary. We wonder if our chicken dinner is pumped with hormones. We’re paranoid that plastic water bottles emit invisible killer chemicals. And we agonize over the potentially cancerous dyes in our clothing. Well, rest assured that there is one place we can frequent without any of…
Remember when getting smacked in the face by speeding red rubber was a bad thing? Well, no more! The folks at Phoenix Dodgeball have sprouted a society of ball-flinging fanatics that would be more than happy to make you their target. Along with Kiwanis Park, they have organized Drop-In Dodgeball…
It was rarer than a combined sighting of Big Foot and the Loch Ness Monster: four Valley museum directors all in the same spot at the same exact time. The brain trust for Phoenix-area art institutions appeared at Phoenix Art Museum Tuesday night to discuss — what else — the future…
Jason Lauesen at Pattie’s has the hook up on the kind of green you need for Friday night debauchery. But this smooth substance is legal and liquid, so get your mind out of the gutter. Name: Liquid MarijuanaIngredients: Bacardi Limon, triple sec, sweet n sour, splash of midori.Flavor: midori subtly…
Misty Guerriero knows fashion — and her customers. “I thought about you when I bought these,” she tells a woman as she picks out a few outfits. “I got these in Israel.” Her store, Vintage by Misty is a new addition along Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix. It’s small, but…
At the Himalayas Salt Lamps & More store on Main Street in Mesa, the cliché phrase “worth its weight in salt” has a literal meaning.Himalayas proprietor Lily Neff, like many other people, believes that salt crystal rocks have healing properties, and if you have a Himalayan salt lamp in your…
Great news for all those looking to be mistaken for a blow-up sex doll from the back (or front), recycled sex toy hoodies are here. The plastic jackets that beg for some sort of sexual harassment are the creation of Dutch artist Sander Reijgers, and may be the only item…
Welcome to the greatest week to be a cycling fan. Forget the Tour de France. The week book-ended by the two greatest bike races in the world – the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix – brings more excitement, drama, trash talking and general heroism on two wheels than you will…
There aren’t too many non-fiction books about buildings that can be described as “awesome” and “haunting,” but Allan Wright Green’s Building the Pauson House: The Letters of Frank Lloyd Wright and Rose Pauson is both.The Rose Pauson House was located at 5859 N. 31st Street in Phoenix. It was designed…
In Tom Tiding’s world of Twisted Tidings, no greeting card is left unscathed or sarcastically reproduced. “Congratulations on your new baby!” One of Tiding’s cards reads. “At least now there’s one person in your family who’s not a complete asshole. With the help of a few greeting card inspirations, the…
A big-time deadline is coming up on April 15, and we’re not talking about the yearly rush to get your taxes off to the IRS. Nope, this is about Ignite Phoenix. Next Friday is the last day to submit your idea to the event’s organizers in hopes of sharing it with…
