When it comes to Cinco de Mayo celebrations, Phoenix knows what it’s doing. The holiday has particular resonance in the United States, where General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín and his army’s unlikely defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862 is heralded as an important moment in the…
Tell the average Valley resident that a few hundred barbarians are running wild down in Florence, and they might logically assume that there’s been a prison break. If you hear any reports this weekend of rowdy and raucous throng descending on the sleepy hamlet to the south, don’t fret. It’s…
The late Bill Hicks was misunderstood, even long after his premature death from pancreatic cancer. Case in point: In 1993, David Letterman chose not to air a controversial standup segment on The Late Show after caving into pressure from CBS executives unhappy Hicks’ jokes about religion and the handicapped. More…
No team in Major League Baseball is as consistent or reliable as the Chicago Cubs. For more than a century, the Cubbies have begun and ended every season without a title, which likely explains why Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome decided to sign with the Boys in Blue three years ago…
A word to the wise: Gnomish alt-comic Patton Oswalt might be diminutive in stature, but the 5-foot-7 jokester isn’t a pushover by any means. Although he portrayed geekazoid extraordinaire Spencer Olchin on TV’s The King of Queens for nine seasons, and his stand-up sessions overflow with nerdy references aplenty, Oswalt…
It’s not unusual to spot a long-haired hippie chick wearing a Boho gown and love beads in downtown Phoenix on a Saturday afternoon. See a throng of crazed map-wielding anachronists in flapper getups, ‘80s couture, and poodle skirts, however, and you might double-check your calendar to confirm it’s not Halloween…
You don’t have to mosey all the way down to the bayou to enjoy lobster’s little cousin; just bring your hearty appetite to the Great Cajun Crawfish Boil. The AZ Crawfish Company is warming up the boiling pots and shipping in loads of crustaceous critters to prepare fresh on site…
New York, Paris, and Los Angeles are world-famous for their fashion scenes. Mesa, on the other hand, isn’t exactly high on that list (hell, it’s not anywhere on that list) — but some of the students of Mesa Community College’s fashion program hope to change that. The budding Coco Chanels…
According to local legend, ghouls and ghosts are quite the regulars at the Hotel San Carlos. Whether it’s the specter of Leone Jensen (who leapt to her death in 1928) haunting the seventh floor or the spirits of schoolchildren randomly roaming the hallways, the vintage hotel is a hotbed of…
It’s a little known fact that Perfect Strangers actor Bronson Pinchot based the character of Balki Bartokomous on villagers he encountered while on a Greek vacation. That’s the sort of obscure Greek-related trivia that you’d only hear being discussed over gyros at this year’s A Taste of Greece Festival on…
Congratulations, Arizona State University. Thanks to the alcohol-fueled decadence and debauchery regularly practiced by the young charges under your care, Playboy has once again ranked you as one of the top 10 party schools in the goldarn U.S.A. This boozy bestowment arrives just in time for you to show off…
Directed by Allan Dietlein, this family-oriented farce involves a middle-aged couple discovering they’re about to become parents yet again. Making this situation all the more comical is their spoiled and entitled 24-year-old daughter, who shares their house and complicates their lives. Based on a story by Sumner Arthur Long, this…
The all-time attendance record breaker brings his comedic audience participation show back to Tempe Improv. April 29-May 1, 7:30 p.m., 2011…
Carrie Bradshaw may be a fictional character, but for many Sex and the City fans, she’s like a friend. For years, women have looked to her for fashion advice and dating tips. And for anyone who has ever dreamed of living it up in the Big Apple, Carrie is proof…
Like Mark Antony with the real deal, actors grappling with Shakespeare’s Cleopatra usually find they have their hands full. If the character were more likeable, an actress might play her as the prototypical femme fatale who (unlike a Snickers bar), “makes hungry where most she satisfies.” Instead, she’s narcissistic and…
McDowell Mountain Music Festival has quickly become one of the Valley’s most popular music festivals. This year’s installment looks to continue the tradition set up by years past, mixing jam bands with rising indie acts. Day one features blues-rocker JJ Grey and Mofro, Martin Sexton, Shawn Johnson and the Paper…
Most artists have to wait tables at some point in their careers in order to pay the bills. College students learn similar lessons through years of scrounging up couch-change for books and stretching restaurant leftovers to make an entire week’s worth of pitifully tiny meals. Art students get the worst…
Most artists have to wait tables at some point in their careers in order to pay the bills. College students learn similar lessons through years of scrounging up couch-change for books and stretching restaurant leftovers to make an entire week’s worth of pitifully tiny meals. Art students get the worst…
Playwright Rich Orloff’s devotion to the short and funny has scored him two Herberger Lunch Time Theater productions in a row this spring, beginning with the sketch revue Funny as a Crutch, presented through Thursday, May 12, by Improbable Theatre, whose niche is getting artists with disabilities onto the page…
The late Elizabeth Taylor once said of Tennessee Williams’ heroines, “They’re all on the brink of disaster.” Taylor earned an Oscar nod for her turn as Maggie in the film version of Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The timing of the famed actress’ recent passing is not lost…
The five characters in Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation are anything but dramatic. The set-up of her 2009 play isn’t very dramatic, either: a six-week acting class taught in the rec room of a community center in a small Vermont town. But the way Baker manages to mine gold from…
In his review of their 2008 self-titled album, Mike McGonigal of Pitchfork said of the Brooklyn band Crystal Stilts, “rock ‘n’ roll is theft.” He meant it as a compliment. The ‘Stilts do not reinvent the garage pop wheel, but they do play it exceedingly well. Fitting comfortably in the…
