Renowned dancer and choreographer Anderson is the artistic director of Ballet Arizona. His recent Topia was a site-specific performance piece at the Desert Botanical Garden. If you like sameness, this is a good place, because things don’t change that much. If you like intense things, this is also good, because…
A landscape architect at ASU, Fish Ewan teaches seminars on walking in the desert. I have forgiven my husband, Joe Ewan, for lying about the summer heat when he talked me into moving out here from the lovely, foggy Bay Area. He said people get used to the heat after…
Multimedia artist Yazzie’s newest work is a series of films about indigenous people. I’ve been in the Valley full time since about 1996. I grew up in northern Arizona in Black Mesa, LeChee, and Page. I spent some time in the Marine Corps and lived in some other cities: Portland,…
One of our best-known artists, Mell depicts the desert in his paintings, prints, and sculpture. It’s an old story, but when I was still working as an art director in New York, a friend of mine was teaching on the Hopi reservation out here. He said, “Come out and do…
Appleby grew up in Buckeye, and she and her siblings used to surf the canals. I was born in the desert, in Buckeye, 83 years ago in May. I’m the sixth of 10 children. We were born right at our house in Buckeye, and this was back when it was…
Landscape designer Martino emphasizes unfamiliar plants, calling his creations “garden architecture.” I’m that rare thing: a Phoenix native. I was born here in 1946 to immigrant parents. My mother was from Canada and my father from Italy. I was raised in Phoenix and left home in the eighth grade to…
Weber is a visual artist who casts succulents in metal, then paints them with enamel. It’s hard for me to believe I’ve been here for 18 years. My family and I moved to Arizona from Damascus, a small rural town in Maryland, when I was 12. When I heard we…
Arizona’s first poet laureate, Ríos has published 10 acclaimed books of poetry. I’ve lived in the desert in its different incarnations, from high to low desert, all my life. And though my addresses have been cities, I have often lived a good distance outside of them. In Nogales, I was…
Downtown Phoenix is waking from a long snooze. Chain restaurants and name-brand boutiques and that most irrefutable proof that a neighborhood has arrived, the cell phone store, have taken over what planners like to call our “urban core.” Arizona State University, once Tempe’s concern, has cast a long shadow on…
For four years, I’ve owned a “garage bike,” a blue Schwinn mountain bike nicknamed “Bluey.” Since 2012, Bluey has leaned against a cement wall, collecting dust and cobwebs. Each time I noticed Bluey, my heart sank. Poor little guy, I’d think. One day, I’ll fix you up nice. Like a…
Last week, Facebook genie Mark Zuckerberg announced that the social media site is working on a “dislike” button – that is, an icon that expresses remorse and polite disagreement. We’re pretty sure there is no way this could possibly go wrong. Feeling inspired by this impending cyclone of hatred — er, empathy…
Park(ing) Day For a city steeped in commuter culture and bursting with blacktops, a day dedicated to transforming parking spaces into public places may seem a pipe dream. Yet every year people gather in metered spaces not to pay to park, but rather to create a different version. Park(ing) Day…
Sounds like there are some really, really, ridiculously good-looking Sun Devils out there. As if Mill Avenue and ASU college parties needed anymore advertising, Arizona State University once again is home to the hottest student body in the country, according to a study in college dating trends from a mobile…
A few years ago, you might hear the name Herbal Risings Cannabis College and picture students in beanies and tie-dye T-shirts fighting over the last bag of Doritos. A class called “Budtending 101” might get a few wisecracks. How quickly things change: When Chad Olshavsky moved to Arizona with his…
US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix has hosted plenty of big battles during its 23-year lifespan – and were not only referring to all the showdowns by the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Rattlers with their respective opponents. Over the decades, the venue (which will soon be rebranded as Talking Stick…
Starfighters Arcade in Mesa has found a new place to land. The popular vintage video game haven, which boasts more than 100 classic and retro arcade favorites, recently moved into a newer and bigger location earlier this month that offers even more room for local joystick junkies to get their game on. Co-owners Steve…
I like men. So much so, that I’ve thrown myself into the lion’s den, the horse’s mouth, and the cat’s meow of Internet dating. Or in this case, what I lovingly refer to as shallow people-shopping in TinderLand. Let the record state, I am a terrible dater. I’m honest, direct,…
It seems as though a lot of big cities across America offer a major convention these days devoted to video games, past and present. Seattle, for instance, has hosted the renowned Penny Arcade Expo since 2004, which has since spun off into separate events in Boston and San Antonio. Meanwhile,…
It’s back to school for the Valley’s student set, but that doesn’t mean they’re the only ones nerding out. We’ve found an array things to do that will thrill your inner dork throughout September. And they aren’t just for pocket-protector wearing stereotypical poindexters. Instead, they cover pop culture, comic books,…
If you live anywhere for long enough, you realize a fact of life: every place can be broken down into a handful of archetypes of people. Those archetypes tend to date people similar to them, which leads to only so many different “types” of couples. Phoenix is no different. So…
Julie Teeney spent the better part of two decades in the corporate world, bouncing from public relations and marketing to communications for large companies like Honeywell and Wyndham Hotels. She was happy, she says, and she was good at her job, but when she moved back to the Valley from…
Teetering in high heels and dressed in trendy jumpsuits on a warm summer night, the Valley’s fashion set hit Hotel Palomar for a capsule collection runway presentation and trunk show marketplace from Phoenix Fashion Week’s 2015 emerging designers. Dubbed Shop the Garment District, the event spanned a few ballrooms on…
