The Arizona Legislature has the rare opportunity this session to strike a powerful blow to the heart of the fundamentalist Mormon polygamist cult that has dominated life in the isolated communities north of the Grand Canyon for more than 70 years. Lawmakers are debating legislation that would allow the state…
It’s the witching hour at Sadisco, and the bisexual Brittany Murphy and I are watching a Victorian snuff-play done to throbbing industrial music that sounds like rusty steel grinding against broken glass. One by one, women dressed like Heather Graham’s whore buddies in From Hell are chased onto center stage…
READERS PEARCED OFF Founding Fathers would quake: I just read your article titled “Religious Wrong” (John Dougherty, March 17). I have to say that I have never been so offended by a piece of writing. It contains outright hatred for those who are trying to stand up for what they…
Looking at him, you’d never know. The cocaine, the heroin, the meth, the whiskey. The days on end with no sleep, just one big roll after another, from one bar to the next with the pager going off at all hours and the hours themselves without meaning — time flies…
I consider myself an environmentalist. And I’ve long been a strong supporter of Native American rights. But in recent days I have become outraged over the astounding hypocrisy of both groups in their opposition to a proposal that would allow for a relatively small expansion of the Arizona Snowbowl. The…
Earlier this month, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association commandeered the National Press Club for a “media briefing.” Reporters from publications like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal showed up en masse. The news of the day on March 11 was the filing of a mammoth lawsuit…
Some chicks just hate to see a man enjoying himself. And Jett, the PHX’s bisexual Rachel Bilson, is one of those. The other day, I’m lounging in my New Times office, feet up, halfway through a box of peanut-butter Girl Scout cookies, crumbs all over my shirt, when the bizzatch…
SEX AND THE CITY Perversion, plus a buffet!: My wife and I have wintered in the Valley for many years, and we often read New Times for the informative articles. But this past week, I was shocked and appalled to discover that you sent one of your writers to one…
It’s 11 a.m. on a Wednesday, and Christian Brower steps over the doggy gate into his office, adjusts the shutters on the window facing the front yard of his home on a quiet residential street in Gilbert, and gets to work. Sitting down in front of his computer, Brower pulls…
To get up and running with what the best vloggers and podcasters are putting out — without putting yourself out — it’s best to start by installing a pair of free programs that do all the work of searching and downloading for you. Start with a “podcatching” client, like iPodder…
What Would Jesus Write? Bunch of martyrs: I just wanted to say that Charles Pyeatte’s rant in last week’s Letters column (“The Passion of the Priest,” March 10) was more of the same tired-ass Christian/Catholic/law enforcement rhetoric that we have all heard a million times. Quit milking the Jesus thing,…
“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…
