“Jeez, Jett, try not to pull a Dale Earnhardt on our ass!” I croak as the PHX’s sultry, bi-lovin’ speed-demoness skids around a corner toward the alt-music nightspot Modified Arts near Seventh Street and Roosevelt. “Plus there’s po-po all around, and I’ve got an open bottle of Stoli in my…
Three years ago, Bill Tonnesen self-published a book announcing his plans to become one of the top modern artists in the world. The undisputed giants of the field were Richard Serra and James Turrell, he wrote. “Then I thought, there would be me.” At the time, Tonnesen wasn’t just little-known…
Mesa Republican Representative Russell Pearce, co-chairman of the powerful Arizona House Appropriations Committee, is launching a pitched assault on the First Amendment to the Constitution. Pearce, a member of the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church, put language in this year’s state budget bill to eliminate funding for campus publications in…
“No matter what happens here tonight, Kreme, we ain’t knockin’ boots,” declares my sometimes Sapphic, sometimes stick-happy sidekick, Jett, as we’re parking the Impala near Club Chameleon, the PHX’s premier palace of swing. “So don’t get any ideas!” “Hell, girl, you can keep ’em on,” I smirk as we head…
Barely Legal Amend the institution: Thank you for your insightful article regarding Father Dale Fushek (“Cross to Bare,” Robert Nelson, February 24). My guess is there are many more victims of Father Dale’s out there who may never come forward. When is the Diocese of Phoenix going to start helping…
Sometime soon, a marked man named Ike Diogu will make a momentous decision — whether to stick around Arizona State University for his senior season or set sail for the National Basketball Association. The Pac-10’s Player of the Year would be a probable first-round selection in the upcoming NBA draft…
There’s no fishing, swimming or boating on Arizona’s second largest lake, which has suddenly appeared in the desert about 80 miles southwest of Phoenix. It’s been 12 years since there was enough winter rainfall to swell the Gila River to the point that it creates the huge lake behind the…
It’s midnight at Sadisco’s monthly ball of glorious, gutter depravity, and the debauch is in full swing. Some industrial joint is screeching from the speakers, and the TVs are screening the grisly serial-killer pic Saw. There’s trash on the floor and bloodstains on the checkerboard pattern pasted all over Jugheads,…
Let Us Prey Two lives devastated: I just finished reading Robert Nelson’s article regarding Dale Fushek (“Cross to Bare,” February 24). Nelson did a wonderful job. I have to say that when I began reading and I saw my and Jim Partsch’s names, my heart started racing. I don’t know…
It’s probably been terribly tough getting ahold of your artist friends lately. Don’t worry, that monolithic mixed-media piece of theirs hasn’t toppled over and pinned them helplessly. Chances are, your pals’ve been furiously focused with putting final flourishes on their contributions to this year’s Art Detour. After all, they’ve gotta…
What began as a quiet gallery stroll is approaching full-blown street fair now that thousands of regulars clog Roosevelt Street on the first Friday of even the hottest Phoenix month. Walking a block can take strategy and patience, because the art isn’t just in the crowded galleries anymore. Recently, countless…
You don’t fool me for a minute. You’re admiring that Jeff Falk painting, maybe even whispering to your companion about Jeff’s confident use of tempura and his canny allusions to Marc Chagall, but I know what you’re really thinking. You’re thinking about the turkey and Brie sandwich at My Florist…
Trouble is, now I’ll never be able to collect that $21,000 that Hunter S. Thompson’s owed me for going on 20 years. Not that I ever had expected to see a bloody nickel of the money that the son of a bitch had avoided coughing up until he recently blew…
What’s up with all the freakin’ rain in this town? Sure, I’ll be singin’ another tune come August, but I didn’t move to the middle of the desert to live in Seattle south. Now I know why everyone in the Pacific Northwest does heroin. Damn, if I have to spend…
Much Ado About Joe We’re the ones who pay: John Dougherty’s article (“Recall Joe!” February 10) should form the foundation of a well-deserved recall movement, but I’d like to add two points: When he first ran for office, Joe Arpaio campaigned on the concept that his tough-on-crime policies would reduce…
Tents have gone up in flames before at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s infamous outdoor compound. And there’s no reason to think it won’t happen again at Tent City. With virtually unlimited access to cigarettes, booze and drugs, enraged inmates could torch the tents, just like they did on October 4, 1994,…
Monsignor Dale Fushek had long been the rock star of the Catholic Church in the United States. He founded America’s largest program for Catholic teenagers, Life Teen, at his parish in the East Valley in 1985. Today, about 100,000 high-school-age Catholics across the country attend his program each week. As…
Right now, Hank III, son of Hank Jr. and grandson of legendary country music badass Hank Williams Sr., resembles an XY version of that hirsute ghost in the horror flick The Ring. Long, dark brown hair hides his clean-shaven face as he works his fingers furiously over a red electric…
To the Extreme Brophy backlash: Jarrett Maupin’s efforts are certainly admirable. I, too, am a strong proponent of civil rights in this country, and believe the dialogue between the races needs to be reexamined to promote a better sense of diversity and understanding in our great country. Unfortunately, Jarrett Maupin…
Trudy Hill named her older daughter after Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch spinster who hid Jews from the Nazis and was sent to a concentration camp for her efforts. Ten Boom’s story, commemorated in a book beloved by Christians everywhere, is about trusting in God, taking on evil, and learning…
J. Fife Symington III, our former governor, plopped about his yacht in the Pacific Ocean last August. He explained to former colleagues that he was about to double-cross them. Nuzzled by the harbor breezes in Santa Barbara and far from Arizona’s maddening summer sun, Symington outlined how his consulting firm…
Last fall, I uncovered serious problems with the Maricopa County Department of Elections’ handling of a September primary recount that cast a cloud over the county’s ability to conduct fair and accurate elections. My concerns have now attracted the attention of the Maricopa County Republican Committee, which is demanding that…
