Valley Life

Need a cow skull?Who doesn’t, right?If you’re in the market for cow skulls, Day of the Dead skeletons, hanging chili pepper bundles, and ceramic pots galore, Mercado Mexico is your jam…

$125. Around here, the name Robert Black is forever linked to fashion. For years, Black ran the best-known modeling agency in town. When he sold that business, he let his passion for fashion really fly — opening a vintage clothing and accessory store, Fashion by Robert Black, in Scottsdale last October…

Did you miss out on the last First Friday? Don’t be ashamed if you did, since January’s edition of the monthly art walk extravaganza fell on New Years Day, which meant a lot of folks stayed at home dealing with a hangover rather than perusing pulchritudinous paintings and photographs. As…

We’re done with resolutions to eat healthfully and quit our vices. This year we’re resolving to reconnect with our nerdolicious self — basically to let our geek flag fly. And it looks like we won’t be alone. 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the geek, with scores of filmmakers, software companies, sci-fi cons…

Pocket protectors. Highwater jeans pulled up to the neck. T-shirts with slogans like, “Ethernet (n), something used to catch the etherbunny” and “Got D20?”. Geeks aren’t exactly known for their fashion prowess, but that hasn’t stopped them from inspiring trends that would make any Mean Girl cringe.  Here are 5 geeky fashion trends of the 2000s — a…

When we picked up a flier for the “Midnight in a Winter Horrorland” fashion show at First Friday, we figured we’d go and possibly get a little last-minute holiday shopping in for those hard to buy for friends. We ended up treated to a short but sweet bit of eye candy that…

Jeezum crow, its gonna be cold this weekend. Really cold. Like in the 30s. So unless hypothermia is your bag baby, better throw on an extra sweater or down plenty of spirits when venturing out to tonight’s freezing First Friday at the various and sundry art hotspots in and around…

Before bar-hopping and gallivanting around Phoenix galleries at First Friday, be sure to mark the Downtown Civic Space Park on your map of destinations. Besides offering a golf-course-worthy patch of green, the park has a bevy of First Friday to-do’s. On the live entertainment side: Shoegaze rockers Former Friends of…

Cannibals, cops, bird flu: All three of these things have grabbed headlines before, but probably not simultaneously. That’s where comic book creator John Layman comes in. His runaway hit series Chew follows the adventures of Tony Chu, a detective turned FDA agent who lives in a world where chicken meat…

Last night, hundreds of teenage girls, moms with wistful romantic longings and a handful of dudes (most of whom were clearly dragged there by little sisters or girlfriends) gathered in Surprise for the Twifans.com and CullenBoysAnonymous “New Moon Rising Over Arizona” party and midnight premiere of the next film in the Twilight…

All manner of fantastical creatures, from fairies and elves to green men and mermaids turned out for the annual Phoenix Faerie Festival this past Saturday at Estrella Mountain Regional Park in Goodyear. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as some of the Valley’s other dress-up fantasy events, but those who were there seemed to enjoy the festivities.

Yes, Twerds, Twerps, Twilighters (or whatever moniker Twilight fans are going by these days), Dr. Carlisle Cullen paid a visit to the Arizona State Fair this past Sunday. Or rather, actor Peter Facinelli, who plays the leader of the Cullen clan in the movie series based on the popular YA…

“You’re going to the Arizona Fetish Ball? Isn’t that kinda lame?” We can’t count the number of times we’ve heard that question in regards to Horns and Halos’ annual S&M soiree. And to be honest, sometimes it was lame. Inevitably, there was a parade of hotties (and some notties) in teensy thongs and boob-tape Xs. Mild-mannered accountants would…

Adaupto “Tato” Caraveo is one of the coolest mofos we know. Not only is the 35-year-old one of the most charming cats we’ve ever met, he also gets to tend bar at the Lost Leaf (one of hippest drinkeries in the whole Valley) and can pluck the upright bass with…

For those of you who give the whole Twilight phenomenon the “talk to the hand” gesture, there are several types of Twilight fans: namely the Twilighters, which are the regular folks who love the books, and the Twerds — those crazy geeks who own every piece of Twilight movie merchandise…

You know how little boys make fun of girls for having dolls, and then go and play with “action figures” themselves? A similar thing happened with the now famous KidRobot Munny figure, a cute, bulbous little vinyl doll that comes totally naked. (Remove head from gutter. It’s blank so artists…

Since the release of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was announced, geeks everywhere have been gearing up for the movie with previews, Comic-Con spoilers and of course toys. Not to say that G.I. Joe is a nerd-only endeavor — every self-respecting American kid in the decades between 1960-1990 had at least one…

Every time Valentine’s Day rolls around, there’s one dissenter in the bunch. Maybe he’s bitter over being dumped for a jock. Maybe she’s done with love after a series of cheating asshole boyfriends. Or, maybe they just plain old don’t believe in love. Not familial love or that “I love you,…

Just when you thought we’d never stoop to dressing up for some geeky-weird costume event, we prove you wrong. This past Saturday evening, dozens of geeks (including yours truly!) in spandex, leather and all manner of scary custom superhero attire converged on Scottsdale Fashion Square Mall for the Improv AZ…

This weekend, we were torn between two potentially geeky boat-related events — the traveling Titanic exhibit and the Rotary River Rally’s Cardboard Boat Regatta. In the end, the Regatta won out because, barring some Anime convention or X-Men movie premiere, us geeks will naturally flock to the event which requires intelligence,…

Hey, did you know it’s National Poetry Month? Ok, it’s also National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, National Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Safe Digging Month (WTF??), but we didn’t figure those were appropriate topics for a geek blog. Why do we care? Though poetry may not be in the…

This geek blog all started with a trip to the movies to see A Haunting in Connecticut (which incidentally is a pretty decent paranormal flick, but “based on a true story” is really, really a stretch). I won’t bore you with all the details, but let’s just say that the…