It’s Arizona’s high standards that are screwing us. At least that’s what Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is saying about Arizona’s abysmal ranking in a national education study released last month. In Morgan Quitno’s annual Education State Rankings report, Arizona ranked 48th, just above Nevada and New Mexico. But…
Stray Cat Theatre has made a name for itself by mounting dicey material and testing untried plays by unknown authors, nearly always triumphantly. And so I wasn’t at all surprised to leave [sic], Stray Cat’s latest offering, completely charmed and still chuckling as I drove away. [sic] (the title is…
Myriad filmmakers have attempted in vain to film Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ comic book Watchmen since its initial publication in 1986, in which costumed superheroes have been outlawed and are being summarily exiled and executed by an unknown baddie. At the moment, Darren Aronofsky (Pi) is set to direct…
Writer-director Charles Shyer’s Alfie is less a remake of the 1966 film that made Michael Caine a star than it is a retooling that softens the horrific blows struck by the original; it’s sweeter, too, cotton candy spun from decades-old arsenic. The original, written by Bill Naughton (who also penned…
How does Mike Leigh do it? The years pass; film fashions come and go; Hollywood churns its commercial pap. Careers sparkle; others fizz; whom the gods would destroy, they first make famous. Meanwhile, over in England, Leigh makes his films, tracking the intricacies of the lower-class family with the patience…
Those familiar with the films of David Gordon Green (George Washington, All the Real Girls) likely have one big question about his latest feature, Undertow: Is there more of a story this time? The answer is . . . sort of. Green, who favors meditative, meandering portraits, and is often…
When was the last time you saw Paul Giamatti? And when the film ended, did you realize how much you would miss him? It was just last year that Giamatti played the hilariously beleaguered Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, a role that he occupied with slumped, head-hanging perfection. Yet as…
So, the first edition of your latest fanzine, Bad-Ass Things About Phoenix, has been put to bed, and you’ll be picking up all 300 freshly photocopied issues from Kinko’s in an hour or two. Now all you need to do is get your baby in front of some eyeballs, fast…
11/5-11/30 Skateboarding has always been an art form (after all, if your mom could pull off a 540 board varial or a 900-degree spin, then Tony Hawk would be just another SoCal skate rat with a mess of medical bills). Then there are actual artists, like Tucson’s Sam Esmoer, who’ve…
Terror. It’s a sensation we know all too well, especially during Halloween. Whether it’s getting caught by the po-pos smashing a few dozen pumpkins or waking up on November 1 next to a paramour with a case of coyote ugly worth chawin’ your arm off, we’ve felt the chill of…
Luis Carlos Bernal: “Barrios” at ASU Northlight Gallery: Though Luis Carlos Bernal died in 1993, his images are a timeless legacy. The exhibition of 82 photos, predominantly comprising color images, is a profound documentation of barrio life in the Southwest through the 1970s and 1980s, as well as a deeply…
Go ask Alice: Chris Birkett is the closest thing to Jack Skellington the Valley will ever see. Don’t worry, the 29-year-old mobile DJ and wedding entertainer isn’t kidnapping Sandy Claws any time soon, but he is possessed by the same sort of macabre childlike madness for Halloween that the Pumpkin…
If you aren’t familiar with Bishop T.D. Jakes, it could only mean you’re white or, like much of the entertainment industry and American media, generally clueless about the lives of this country’s tens of millions of evangelical Christians. To black Americans, Jakes is an icon — a preaching, teaching, entrepreneurial…
THU 28 To borrow and alter a rock cliché, if it’s live, you’re too old. At least, that’s been the mantra for those happy-go-ecstasy House kids for years, who now find themselves at the ass end of yet another all-electronic phase of progressive music. Enter New York’s Tortured Soul, who…
Tue 11/2 For politically active artists (redundant, we know), the presidential election is a bit like the Super Bowl, sans the beer commercials. Perfect time to gather like minds around the tube with some snacks, sodas and, in this case, a night full of satire. While election-watching parties on Tuesday,…
If you believe what you’ve read about Donald Harris, he’s little more than a loudmouth crackpot out for retribution –and maybe a little tail on the side. The Democratic candidate for Maricopa County Attorney has barreled through his campaign without an endorsement from his party, dodging accusations that he’s a…
Ray, director Taylor Hackford’s 15-years-in-the-making biography of Ray Charles, begins as you might hope: with 1959’s “What’d I Say (Part 1)” pulsing on the soundtrack, the organ’s low moans building toward that familiar, funky frenzy. It almost serves as an early climax, a bracing thrill served up before a word…
It takes mighty big stones to name your horror movie Saw, knowing full well that that’s popular fan-slang for Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a movie worshiped by gorehounds worldwide. When you take that name for your own, you had damn well better deliver a memorable, worthy contender to…
Even before the movie begins, as the New Line logo is still coalescing on a dark screen, a man speaks on the soundtrack. He’s talking about reincarnation and about what he would do if his wife, named Anna, were to die and return as a bird insisting it was indeed…
There is a phrase bandied about that other film industry — “gay for pay” — that means exactly what it says. The queer thing is, this switch-hitting work ethic obviously applies to the “straight” industry as well, since actors not infrequently launch their careers, or rev ’em up, by playing…
In October 1998, 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied to a fence post and left to die in the town of Laramie because of his sexual orientation. The incident, which made headlines the world over, hit Tucson-based filmmaker Beverly Seckinger especially close to home. A…
Wed 11/3 With the D-Backs in freefall, the Cardinals in the basement, and the Coyotes involved in a lockout nobody cares about, the smart money is on the new and improved Phoenix Suns to reclaim their status as the big dogs of the Valley’s sports landscape. Just months removed from…
