10 Books Every Arizonan Should Read

Inspired by Business Insider’s map of the most famous book from every state, we put together our own list of 10 books every Arizonan should read, or at least have on the nightstand. We can get number one out of the way right up front — it’s Barbara Kingsolver’s The…

Top 5 Things to Do in Metro Phoenix This Weekend

From post-Halloween to-dos and sporting events to quirky conventions and artsy endeavors, here’s how to spend this weekend in and around Phoenix. Arizona Zombie Prom @ Fear Farm Who doesn’t remember their first prom? That magical night of dead flower corsages, zombies, and chipping in to rent a hearse with…

ASU Partier Goes Naked for Halloween (NSFW)

Well it appears that in the battle of sexiest state colleges, ASU is not going down without a fight. While other college girls spent their Halloween parading around as sexy nurses, sexy superheroes, and, yes, even sexy food, one highly tweeted Sun Devil is getting the Internet celebrity treatment for…

CALA PHX! Fest Brings Encores of Latino Theater Downtown This Weekend

The biennial Celebración Artística de las Américas (CALA Festival) first celebrated the contributions of Latino heritage to our vibrant life in these Americas in the fall of 2011. A kind of rolling, virtual festival in spirit, it presented and helped sponsor plays, musical and dance events, art exhibits, food, food,…

Vintage Phoenix Collection: Steve Davis’ Mexican Folk Art

Steve Davis opens a tattered old book and flips through the pages covered with photos and descriptions of Mexican folk art. He lands on the right image and points to a standing figure of a woman, dressed in white and carrying a blue umbrella, in the artistic style of the…

Phoenix Flea Coming to Heritage Square November 29 and 30

Arizona native Ashlee Molina has always had a thing for antiquing. Her mom would take her hunting and to auctions when Molina was a kid. After moving around the country for about a decade for academic and professional ventures, Molina returned to Phoenix about a year ago. And what struck…

Turkey Tale Free Birds Never Quite Flies

Attention, children! Thanksgiving will soon be upon us, and unless the cook in your household provides a vegetarian option, that means turkey — a bird that has been raised to be axed, packaged, and raced to your grocer’s freezer, ultimately to wing its way onto your family’s table. There it…

A Steady Rain Is a Classic Morals Tale from Phoenix Actors Theatre

Actors Theatre returned last week from a self-imposed sabbatical with a reminder of why we might have missed them if they’d gone altogether. Keith Huff’s stagey police drama, A Steady Rain, is the sort of tightly wound, finely crafted morals tale that this troupe has long done so well. Rain,…

The Four Types of Spoilers and How Reviewers Should Handle Them

Recently, Anne Washburn’s astonishing Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, wrapped up a sold-out run at Playwrights Horizons in New York. I saw the show’s world première in June 2012 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, where I write about theater. It was one of the most imaginative and unpredictable…

Last Vegas Is a Reverse Mentos Commercial Starring Old Guys

It’s a dumbfounding irony that the fiction of the “entitled, selfish millennial” was invented by Baby Boomers. The generation that created Saturday Night Live and National Lampoon grew up to be weirdly deaf to irony and probably won’t even get what a damning metaphor Last Vegas accidentally turns out to…

Ender’s Game: Imagination Fail

It’s almost a relief that Ender’s Game turned out to be a glum bore onscreen, a far-future cadets-in-space military drama whose pretensions to moral inquiry boil down to the guilt a kid may feel after stepping on an anthill. If the film had turned out grand, like the best of…

Monsters Inc.

Daniel Davis knows a thing or two about monsters. Davis illustrates them on the regular for his arts, prints, and goods company Steam Crow, which he runs with his wife Dawna. The duo’s designs of spooky-cute creatures have garnered quite the ravenous following. It’s such a success, in fact, that…

Adult Content

With Halloween falling on a Thursday this year, the real entertainment might end up being at the office Friday morning. As many of us know, the costume may be easily doffed, but the shame takes longer to scrub off. So if you’re one of those who has reached the pinnacle…

Dead Can Dance

Who doesn’t remember their first prom? That magical night of dead flower corsages, zombies, and chipping in to rent a hearse with your undead date. The 5th Annual AZ Zombie Prom is returning to the West Valley the day after Halloween, giving you one more chance to put on your…

Sunny Side

This could be a long year for the Phoenix Suns. Tabbed as the least watchable team in the NBA, the Suns have no dominant players and questionable depth, which is generally a recipe for an early vacation and a high draft-pick. In spite of this, the Suns looked solid in…