It’s all about variety this month as Third Friday April gives folks a chance to explore delicate wood burnings of moths inspired by ASU’s entomology collection, acrylic paintings on watercolor paper inspired by tattoos mirroring traditional Japanese artwork, and an immersive world of plant-laden I.V. bags inspired by losing a…
A small house created with terracotta and porcelain sits crumbling in a courtyard at Shemer Art Center. It’s the work of Jonah Amadeus Skurky-Thomas, one of five ASU master’s of fine arts students featured in an exhibition titled “New Art Arizona.” They’re all recipients of this year’s scholarship awards presented…
If you’ve ever read the summaries of trashy romance novels on Amazon, then you know how tough it can be to write something both sexually provocative and not entirely silly. Sexting isn’t any different. It requires a balance of relatively blatant sexuality and cleverly crafted dialogue. The problem is that…
Building an entire city would be pretty rad. The one million people who bought the latest city-building video game, Cities: Skylines, in the past month probably agree. If only constructing a perfect metropolis in real life were as simple as a few mouse clicks. Of course, that’s not the case…
No show wears its love for language and land more proudly than FX’s Justified, which ended its six-year run on April 14. Based on a novella by Elmore Leonard and starring squinty-eyed sex symbol Timothy Olyphant, the hillbilly noir never received the critical adulation or the audience one might expect…
The trolling is coming from inside the house! Mere emojis can’t capture the plugged-in joys of the first hour or so of haunted-Internet teen flick Unfriended, which knives with dexterous wit The Way We Live Now. Here’s a clutch of horny high school dopes hanging out on Skype, getting doxed…
On Thursday, April 16, Tempe will be filled with people running, sliding, and glowing during April’s Tempe Adventure Run. Join the fun as participants go at their own pace from checkpoint to checkpoint, collecting raffle tickets to win up to $3,000 in prizes. The run lasts an hour, and check-in…
Night Vale is a small desert town not unlike one that you’d find within miles of the California-Arizona border — with a few exceptions. Those include its mysterious hooded figures who congregate around a forbidden dog park; its Sheriff who may or may not exist; and the Glow Cloud, the…
You think you have a handle on where playwrights get their ideas, and then you learn that Buyer & Cellar author Jonathan Tolins drew inspiration from an interior-design book by Barbra Streisand, and you just throw your hands in the air. Apparently, a barn-size basement at Streisand’s home contains her…
Ex Machina is an egghead thriller with a scary selling point: Unlike Liam Neeson shooting up half of Boston, this actually could be taking place right now. It’s a smart film about the shrinking divide between man and robot. It’s also a hoot, an anti-comedy where all of the jokes…
It’s nearly impossible to convince the average American citizen, especially if he’s a straight man, that haute couture has a reason to exist. The phrase isn’t just a catch-all for “really expensive clothes,” as it’s commonly misunderstood, but a specific term for clothes made entirely by hand, for a specific…
Is it possible to be accidentally definitive? James D. Cooper’s thorough and revealing doc Lambert & Stamp is billed as the story of the managers who whipped the Who into being the Who. But once it’s sketched out, the characters and ambitions of Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, putative New…
Did you know that there’s a new family-audience feature film that implies God nuked Japan because one plucky American moppet dared to dream? That’s no exaggeration. In the summer of 1945, the kid stands on a California dock, points his fingers magician-style out at the Pacific horizon, and screams a…
No one likes the idea of growing older, and anyone who claims as much is lying, either to you or to herself. The anxiety of aging actors is particularly acute, not necessarily because they feel the passage of time intensely, but because, having the privilege of watching their faces change…
If nothingness is somethingness and every little thing matters just as much as it doesn’t and all of this intrigues you, scares you, and also might not make any sense, then make your way to Cecily Culver’s multimedia exhibition “Other Observations.” The ASU masters of fine arts candidate presents works…
Selves will be introspected, genders will be questioned, and some lines will probably be drawn, crossed, and erased during Frontal Lobe Community Space and Gallery’s latest show, “Equal Parts”. Local artists and curators Amanda Adkins and Ashley Macias called 22 artists to focus on the differences between genders and their…
If you love a good whodunit and are bored because it would be silly to re-re-watch Sherlock, perhaps the Phoenix Art Museum’s the place to go. Its Lyon Gallery exhibition “Mysteries from Europe” collects unsigned paintings and drawings whose origins aren’t entirely clear.Take a look from 10 a.m. to 5…
In an age when most of our music consumption comes via a tailor-made, streaming feed, it’s dangerously easy to forget about the joy of the hunt; the scouring, the discovering, the nod of approval from the all-knowing record store clerk, and the joyful anticipation of putting the needle to the…
The Arizona Rattlers’ attempt at winning a fourth straight Arena Bowl is not off to an auspicious start. First the Rattlers lost All-Arena League offensive lineman Michael Huey (he was signed by the San Diego Chargers). As if to prove his importance, the Rattlers offense proceeded to stall out in…
Last summer, storyteller and comedian Dan Hull entertained and enlightened Phoenix with his tales of being a Buddhist monk. Yep, this middle-aged Valley resident, known for hosting storytelling events in downtown Phoenix including Yarnball at Lawn Gnome and Storyline at Space 55, is also an ordained Buddhist monk. And he’s…
Let’s be honest, most of us can’t tell our malbecs from our merlots. Which is why we leave our wine pairings to the experts, like certified second level sommelier and executive chef Rich Hinojosa. This fall, Hinojosa will be hosting a series of special four-course dinners paired with wines that…
The stand-up comedy you see on TV is watered-down — network executives and stodgy suits from standards and practices chop out bits of the act to ensure no one is offended and everything is safe. Live at the Crescent Ballroom is the real thing: unfiltered, unpasteurized stand-up from some very…
