If all escape routes out of town seem to be closing for you right now, don’t worry — you can get away mentally without ever leaving the Valley. While the tourism industry booms in Phoenix in the winter and spring, many great resorts and hotels lure locals during the summer…
While many of you fantasize about a vacation in Maui or museum-hopping in Europe, I dream of remote locations with no humans around. You may wish for a posh resort with spa services, but I, a certified curmudgeon, long for vacations with lots of nothing. Antarctica is about as remote…
Sedona: Okay, so this hippie-dippy town is an obvious destination for any city dweller to head once Phoenix temperatures hit triple digits. Sometimes obvious is good. Known for its red rocks and preponderance of magical thinking, this gorgeous resort town about 120 miles north of Phoenix is a top-of-the-list getaway…
As an entertainment, Teatro Bravo’s production of The Motherfucker with the Hat moves snappily through 90 intermission-free minutes, punctuated with vulgar one-liners and asides that keep the audience amused and diverted from this question: We talk, but does anyone actually say anything? Stephen Adly Guirgis’ play is all about language…
One of the biggest selling points of 21 Jump Street, the 2012 TV-remake comedy, turned out to be its seemingly unscripted lunacy, the way it put Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in police-shorts outfits and let them riff on their characters’ mutual ineptitude. Sometimes you need a little flapdoodle, and…
Cancer, so costly in real life, can be thrown around pretty cheaply in fiction, which is why most cautious readers and moviegoers are wary of it as a plot element. Call it the Love Story syndrome. But the presence of mortal illness has always been a staple of romantic melodrama,…
One-stop-boutique Frances is filled with everything from jewelry to kitchen utensils to baby-friendly products, with a healthy dose of DIY fun in between. The next installment in its ongoing monthly workshop series features more cocktails than crafting. That’s right: mixology.Jax Gonzalez leads the class in booze basics. The head bartender…
UNION, the Biltmore’s hyper-local boutique haven, has seen its fair share of turnover during the past few months, giving rise to a new collective of temporary tenants: the pop-up shop. Casual eatery Short Leash Hot Dogs debuted Short Leash, Short Lease in March, slated to stay through the summer. Up…
Clapton, Hendrix, Page, Montgomery, Christian, Reinhardt. Don’t worry, most folks glazed over while reading the back half of that sentence. But, as jazz enthusiasts have lamented for years, guitarists Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, and Django Reinhardt — among others — are equally deserving of that prestigious “household name” status as…
Rarely does being good at drinking games pay dividends in the real world. Oh, you may occasionally get the chance to show off your mad beer pong skillz by throwing a balled-up piece of paper into a trash can, but what’s the reward — not needing to walk five feet…
Time to take your taste buds on a little road trip. The Flagstaff Food and Wine Fest is returning for another delicious day of drinks and dining. Guests of this gourmet event will enjoy wine tasting from thirty different domestic and international wineries plus craft brews and spirits. They can…
Kevin Smith is a talker. The rebel filmmaker’s built up a podcast empire, and two of his premier shows pop up in downtown Phoenix in their live incarnations on Saturday, June 7. The master of the View Askewniverse started the Jay & Silent Bob Get Old podcast as a laidback…
Considering the end she met, it might be in poor taste to make a doubleheader joke about Phoenix Art Museum’s screening of two vaguely biographical Marie Antoinette movies. So we won’t. Instead, let’s just say that no cinematic adaptation of the French queen has been particularly brainy.But, as any film…
While you’re toning your abs for bathing suit season it’s easy to forget to exercise another part of your body: your mind. Fortunately Sutra’s Midtown Mafia making room for mental strength training with Project Zen. This reoccurring meditation series aims to remove distraction and negativity while promoting peace and awareness…
Gear up in your best Sherlock cosplay and prepare to bask in the geeky glory of Phoenix’s premier nerd culture event: Phoenix Comicon. Each year, the event grows bigger and bigger with informative panels, nerdgasm-inducing meet-and-greets, and tons of local exhibitors selling everything from independently made comic books to the…
Maybe the culture you originally developed to preserve your identity and express your heritage is now exploited by your oppressors. Sucks. But at times, white artists shared the black experience partly because it was the only way to disseminate remarkable stories and art to a larger audience. Complicated.One such masterpiece…
It’s not every week that the Arizona Diamondbacks play a game that matters. The D-backs don’t have a stake in the pennant race, so all they have left to play for is the pride of not being the absolute worst team in the majors. In a sense, this means the…
It’s hard to imagine the end of the 20th century without globetrotting Brit Robin Leach to give us a window into the decadent tastes of the fabulously wealthy and cultural elite. Lunch Time Theater’s Secrets of the Rich and Famous gives us a glimpse of the well-to-do prior to the…
You may have believed that your time to party with major stars like Marilyn Monroe and Liz Taylor has passed — but you’d be wrong. The hand of Valley artist Larry Willis brings larger-than-life personages to the opening reception for his latest exhibition, “CINAMATIC,” on Friday, June 6.While depicting realistic…
It’s time for summer field trips or, if you somehow wound up at home with your offspring, enriching activities for their edutainment and your sanity. Theater’s a good bet — kids groove on how it’s different from a movie in cool ways, and it often inspires binge-reading of actual books.Roald…
Something about summertime and reading just gels. Maybe it’s the longer days or the beckoning hammocks. Either way, books and warm weather make a great pair.As if you needed another excuse to head to the library (you know they have free books there, right? Also air conditioning), artists Roy Wasson…
A little over a week from now, the airwaves will be filled with spectacular soccer highlights being beamed straight from Brazil as the World Cup kicks off down in Rio de Janeiro. But as impressive as we expect all of this footage of fútbol agility and talent will be, it…
