Paramount, distributor of David O. Russell’s The Fighter, celebrated the helmer’s Best Director Oscar nomination by placing a “For Your Consideration” ad on the cover of Variety, touting him as “the comeback of the year.” It was an odd choice of phrasing, considering that The Fighter, Russell’s first feature to…
Thesis presentations are nerve-wracking enough without a bunch of rubberneckers showing up, but don’t let that stop you from going to see “Reflections,” a thesis exhibition by Arizona State University Master of Fine Art candidate Jason Ripper. The artist, who specializes in intermedia, slips from representational art to abstraction, at…
It may be a small island nation, but the Dominican Republic has given us so much, such as Oscar de la Renta, sugar cane, and half of baseball’s major league. Celebrate the 167th anniversary of the small country’s battle for independence at the 6th annual Dominican Festival at Club Trinity…
There’s nothing so fun, for some, than poking around in other people’s houses, checking out their décor, their art collection, and their sense of design. The Friends of Mexican Art know this, which is why they’re throwing open the doors to four Phoenix homes. The Casitas Encantadas Tour and Mexican…
A new-ish park on the west side is about to be christened with a whole ‘lotta soul. The Northwest Black History Committee (NBHC) is hosting its sixteenth annual Multicultural Music Festival and Black History Celebration at Gateway Park, a $4.6 million spot located at 10100 North El Mirage Road in…
For the third consecutive year, Tempe has decided to make official that activity which every college kid will be doing anyway on Saturday, February 26, which is bar hopping. Only, to make it sound less Fat Tuesday’s and more Casey Moore’s, it’s called “pub crawling.” Instead of featuring crappy DJs,…
Let’s reinterpret the classic David Allen Coe roundup song for Arizona: “It’s 80 degrees and I don’t give a fuck, got a cooler in my truck, and I’m off to the rodeo.” The 47th annual Lost Dutchman Days spotlights leather chapped men and women besting unbeatable beasts during the rodeo…
There are a lot of unfair stereotypes about sports followers, but no group gets a worse rap than NASCAR fans. It’s said that if the left-turn circuit stops in your town, you can expect a bunch of truck-driving, chaw-loving country folk to show up on Sunday for the race. This…
Forget the mystique surrounding October. February is the best month to be a baseball fan. Because by the time the fall classic rolls around, all but a handful of teams will have fallen by the wayside and you’ll be reduced to hoping that the Yankees don’t win another title. On…
Buxom delight Peaches Christ has made quite the name for herself in California film circles and beyond. And the bitch ain’t no porn star. No, Christ is a legend in the underground B-movie scene, having produced and acted in films for more than 10 years in addition to bringing quirky…
There are some shows at the Trunk Space where you leave the intimate venue scratching your head and wondering what the heck you just saw. Doctor Captain Demetri Falco’s Home Surgery Party and Fashion Extravaganza is going to be one of those shows – surprise, surprise. A hodgepodge of local…
What hip-hop artist would Jesus Christ be bumping the most in his What Would Jesus Drive mobile? Deep cat Josef Sorett may be able to hook you up with that knowledge during his lecture “Believe Me, This Pimp Game is Very Religious: A Religious History of Hip-Hop, From KRS-ONE to…
If you dig Japanese culture but can’t swing the ticket to Tokyo, then spare yourself the typhoons, earthquakes, and Godzilla attacks and drop by the 27th annual Matsuri Festival. Follow the thunder of taiko drums to the delicious yakisoba, grab a snow cone (with ice cream in the bottom), and…
We’ve had enough of supposedly macho guys sitting around comparing the size of their poles. We guarantee they can’t compare to the athletes throwing huge logs at the Arizona Scottish Highland Games and Celtic Gathering at Steele Indian School Park. Known as the caber toss, this sport was invented when…
Comedian Bill Maher has never held his tongue with regard to his thoughts on the world, politicians, corporations, and American life – and he’s not starting now. After tackling every form of media from radio to cinema, the political comic returns to his original form of broadcasting – stand-up comedy…
“So, it’s Taco Bell,” says rant-happy comedian Lewis Black on the fast food giant’s latest lawsuit. “It’s not like you eat it when you’re sober. At three in the morning, when you’ve got those ‘meat goggles’ on, that non-beef filler looks like a porterhouse steak.” Black, the stand-up comedian, author,…
When it came to fighting the power and abolishing slavery, Harriet Tubman was a total pimpstress. How else to explain that her productive life, which ended nearly 100 years ago, is still being immortalized today in productions such as Sister Moses: The Story of Harriet Tubman? Local company Desert Dance…
It’s true that haters are never going to stop hating. However, y’all should quit getting all up in the grill of the Phoenix Coyotes, because, following impressive wins against the Minnesota Wild and the defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks, the pooches are back in the playoff hunt. The Coyotes…
The fourth album from former rap-rock bloodletters Linkin Park is 2010’s best avant-rock nuclear-anxiety concept record: a postmodern, perfectly Pitchfork-ian opus that will never earn a single Pitchfork pixel. With nothing to lose, the multi-multi-multi-platinum angst kings sink their distortion pedals into a tender oblivion, embracing the pulseless Vocoder syrup…
You don’t need a PhD or thirty hits of acid to appreciate the sheer wonderment of the human body (although that would help). Thousands of scientific miracles occur from the time we open our eyes upon waking to our last conscious thought into dreamland. The Arizona Science Center is currently…
One can live for a very long time and never fully recover from the pleasure of having heard a big fuzzy puppet monster singing about internet porn. And not just because “The Internet is for Porn” is, like much of the rest of Avenue Q’s score, so dang catchy. But…
What do you call an outspoken, opinionated woman? Today you’d label her a power babe or a bitch, depending on her hotness factor. Too bad the sullen black uniforms of 17th century Massachusetts didn’t show a little more leg, because as seen in Arizona Curriculum Theatre’s production of Salem: 1692,…
