Another holiday, another season of A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, and Miracle on 34th Street. It’s enough to make a Valley theatergoer yearn for a more stimulating spin on Yuletide entertainment, cocktails included.Enter THAT’S What Christmas Means, the eighth annual presentation of iTheatre’s Holiday Cabaret at their nightclub, the newly…
Time was when Grandma could be counted on to have iron-grey hair, always wrenched into a bun, and would only ever be found either tatting lace in a bentwood rocker or pulling something delicious from the oven. These days, Grandma is more likely to look like Valerie Bertinelli or (horrors!)…
We have a sneaking suspicion that Charlene Yi is trying to take over the world . . . slowly and adorably. In addition to acting turns in fare like Knocked Up and Paper Heart, she’s an all-star in the Los Angeles comedy scene. Yi is musically minded, juggling solo work…
John Waters is a gentleman, and so it’s unlikely that he will throw a Christmas tree at anyone who fails to gift him with a pair of cha-cha heels when he comes to Scottsdale. But the legendary filmmaker (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray) is certain to at least mention that infamous scene…
Like David Bowie and Bing Crosby, The Magic Christmas Tree and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, two movies making up the upcoming double feature this Saturday at Madcap Theaters, prove that sometimes holiday pairings can sometimes be, well, peculiar. Creepy, made on the cheap, and hilariously awful, 1964’s The Magic…
Everlast is coming to town on December 9th. He is playing Toby Keith’s I “heart” This Bar & Grill. First of all, these two sentences put together… pretty hilarious. The fact that Toby Keith has a bar and grill is funny, and calling it “I ‘Heart’ This Bar & Grill,”…
As most people get all warm and fuzzy during the holiday season, others flip their shit. There are just so many times when the stress of shopping for stupid gifts and coordinating stupid family schedules is just too much to handle. That’s when banging your head and screaming it off…
Children of the ‘80s can’t shake their fond memories of the Main Street Electric Light Parade at Disneyland. Well, good news to all you postponed adolescents: you can get your tons-of-teeny-lights-on-a-street fix at the Fantasy of Lights Boat Parade. Sure, the night may lack the vocoder, but the parade on…
Smell that? It might be the scent of your roommate’s fifth bong rip today. However, it could also be the Smoker’s Club tour bus nearing the Arizona state line. As if you didn’t already know that rap music and pot go together like alcohol and Taco Bell, Curren$y has made…
Funny how things work out. When a violent dustup with a choirgirl in Arkansas ended Joseph Williams Perkins’ budding career as a guitarist, it started him down his path as a pianist. Better known as “Pinetop” Perkins, Joseph holds the distinction of being one of the oldest Delta blues performers…
Rob Schneider is the epitome of a guilty pleasure. Whether he’s shouting, “You can do it!” in The Waterboy (or playing a similar character in pretty much any Adam Sandler movie), tapping one-legged ladies in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo or flaunting his orange hair in the 1993 classic, Surf Ninjas,…
France, Italy and California have one thing in common: wine. Connoisseurs from those parts depend on their sophisticated palates to determine the region, grape and other refined details.Plus, they like to booze it.Here in the southwest, we don’t hide behind snobbery to get our drink on. And when it comes…
The Portland Trailblazers make bad decisions. Twenty-six years ago, the Blazers made the infamous decision to draft Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. Three years ago, the Blazers doubled down on that mistake by passing on Kevin Durant in favor of Greg Oden, who so far has been Bowie-esque.It should come…
Leave it to Kanye West to make amazing professional dancers mere scenery for his artistic efforts. CONDER/dance does right by the dance world and brings dancers front and center with their fourth annual dance and film festival called Breaking Ground 2010.Formed in 2003, CONDER/dance is the brainchild of Arizona native…
Mikko Koivu is the most iconic player in an American sports league that you’ve never heard of. The feisty Finn has been the cornerstone of the Minnesota Wild for just about the entirety of the franchise’s 10 year history. Last season, Koivu took his game to the next level by…
Traditional holiday songs and Christmastime favorites will be presented by the orchestra, which will be accompanied by Desert Valley Christian Ringers and the Chandler-Gilbert Community College Singers. Sat., Dec. 11, 2:30 p.m., 2010…
The Temper Trap bridges the gap between radio-ready and indie-approved. The Aussie quartet crafts immaculate pop songs with epic guitars and stadium-size sound, but frontman Dougie Mandagi’s soaring falsetto nixes any unseemly U2 comparisons. The lovely petit four of a song, “Sweet Disposition,” was featured prominently in last summer’s aggressive…
Normally the backstories about how rock bands got their start are pretty similar to one another. You know the drill: The members were outcasts in school, rebelled against their parents in some way, and wound up in a forceful, angsty band. That’s not really how things worked for the members…
If making pimp remixes of pop artists were a martial art, Richard Vission would easily be a ninth-degree black belt. The Grammy-nominated house music maestro has unleashed his magic on some of best and the brightest in the biz, including Lady Gaga (“Bad Romance”), Black Eyed Peas (“Meet Me Halfway”),…
The Strokes’ influence sings in bands like Kings of Leon and Phoenix, but the most homogenized take on NYC’s brat kings has to belong to Utah’s Neon Trees, whose debut Habits bears criminal similarities to 2006’s First Impressions of Earth. It could be innocent, as four years seems a likely…
“My comedy is not aggressive,” states comedian Brian Regan. “I don’t really go after anybody. I make fun of myself, make fun of the world in a lighthearted way. That’s why I think if the audience hears a curveball, like women aren’t good at math, they’re like, ‘What? This isn’t…
The acapella Englishmen of this world-renowned vocal sextet will present a special holiday concert at the Mesa Arts Center. Thu., Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m., 2010…
