If this year is indeed the Icehouse’s swan song (see the Jackalope Ranch blog “Icehouse Slated to Close at 2011’s End”), January’s activities will make you want to fight for its survival. Along with Joe Jankovsky’s photography exhibit, there’s a group show featuring the work of ASU art students, which…
We’re not sure which part of American Idol is worse: the washed-up celebrity judges or the slew of ignorant pop tarts who couldn’t name one album released prior to the 1990s, but are expected to bring a fresh perspective to a classic Top 40 hit. (Seriously, if we hear one…
How big deal is the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction to Scottsdale? Important enough that Scottsdale Mayor W.J. “Jim” Lane named the week of January 17 through 23 “Barrett-Jackson Week” in honor of the company’s 40th annual event. This year’s auction figures to live up to the honor. The shindig will…
You know Jack Jones from his mega-hits — pleasant pop million-sellers like “Wives and Lovers” and “Lollipops and Roses” — songs that (along with more sophisticated hits like “Call Me Irresponsible” and “The Impossible Dream”) put him on the musical map. But it’s likely you haven’t heard him sing “Julie”…
The writer and monologist Spalding Gray thought of himself, he said, as a collage artist. “I can’t make anything up . . . I’m cutting and pasting memories of my life. And I say, I have to live a life in order to tell a life. I would prefer to…
Muhammad Ali had a way with words even in his days as Cassius Clay. So it makes perfect sense that the BlackPoet Ventures’ Float Like a Butterfly: A Spoken Word Tribute to Muhammad Ali acts as a poetic tribute to the king of the ring. Butterfly traces Ali’s life from…
It takes a lot of courage for a single guy to approach a pretty lady in public. Even a polite rejection of the advance can spook a dude from coming on to anyone for a few weeks. Brutal? Sure. But that’s nothing compared to Turandot. She’s a princess in ancient…
Twenty-two days into 2011. So, uh, how are those resolutions coming along, eh? Hmmm? Why so quiet? Hey, it’s cool. You still have time to change your life for the better. Hit the New Year’s Resolution Tins Workshop where Bookman’s music director (and crafty diva) Megan will show participants how…
Every time Tempe artist and Bike Saviours co-founder Allison Karow has a new project or exhibition, we know that we’re in for a treat. That’s why we art-stalk her website (www.megaspora.us) for the sneak peeks. That’s also why we know that her latest “The Shape of the Universe” exhibit. Currently…
Twenty years from now, we hope that the works in the Molten Brothers’ “DECK” shows are featured in an anthology exhibit like “Full Deck: A Short History of Skateboard Art.” Organized by Bedford Gallery, located at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California, the traveling show features…
The cinematic gem, Maniac, was protested by feminists and reviled by critics as “sick” and “deserves to be rated X.” Even Gene Siskel walked out after thirty minutes, saying the film “could not redeem itself” after the amount of violence he watched. Earning instant notoriety as one of the most…
While watching the Ballad of an Unsung Hero, we’re struck by how social activist Pedro Gonzalez (no relation to this writer, by the way) would probably rip into the unholy Arpaio-Brewer-Pearce triumvirate if he hadn’t passed on at 99 years old in 1995. The 1984 documentary uses interviews with Gonzalez…
A longstanding Japanese metaphor describes human beings as ukigusa: duckweed floating down the river of life, buoyed and propelled through no effort of their own, swirled, pulled, and deflected by currents beyond their ken or control. It’s an allegory that might apply to any of us, but it captures particularly…
p>Shakespeare called art a mirror; 300 years later, Brecht replied that it was a hammer. Perhaps, though, truth is just as effectively framed in an embroiderer’s hoop or scried in a peyote stitch. After all, deft hands and an inspired mind can transform even the meanest material into something meaningful…
On November 20, the Charlotte Bobcats beat the Phoenix Suns 123-105. Watching that game, it was easy to predict that the Suns would be a different franchise (which they now are) by the time the two teams squared off again. What turned out to be a shocker was the change…
We’re going to extremes with this year’s Resolution Guide. Find out about the “year of eating dangerously” that put our Fry Girl columnist in the hospital. Think you could write 50,000 words in one month? Web editor Jonathan McNamara took a stab at it last November. Your exercise regimen has…
Pianist Andrew Campbell will be accompanied by musicians from the Herberger Institute and Phoenix Symphony as they present the works of Rachmaninoff, Schumann, Bernstein, and Debussy. Fri., Jan. 21, 7:30 p.m., 2011…
The compositions of Debussy, Canteloube, Salzedo, Piazzolla and Francaix will be performed at the Icehouse amidst the works of ASU art students. Sat., Jan. 22, 8 p.m.; Sun., Jan. 23, 8 p.m., 2011…
Local bead nuts (yes, they exist) consider themselves lucky. Of all the beaders in the world (we’re serious, people love beading), the ones in the Valley get to enjoy the world-renowned Bead Museum with beads dating back to 100,000 BCE. And Wednesday will make these funny folks even more ecstatic…
Every time Tempe artist and Bike Saviours co-founder Allison Karow has a new project or exhibition, we know that we’re in for a treat. That’s why we art-stalk her website (www.megaspora.us) for the sneak peeks. That’s also why we know that her latest “The Shape of the Universe” exhibit. Currently…
Every time Tempe artist and Bike Saviours co-founder Allison Karow has a new project or exhibition, we know that we’re in for a treat. That’s why we art-stalk her website (www.megaspora.us) for the sneak peeks. That’s also why we know that her latest “The Shape of the Universe” exhibit. Currently…
Shakespeare called art a mirror; 300 years later, Brecht replied that it was a hammer. Perhaps, though, truth is just as effectively framed in an embroiderer’s hoop or scried in a peyote stitch. After all, deft hands and an inspired mind can transform even the meanest material into something meaningful…
