Cardinals and Cowboys Viewing Party
What does it take to get you to hop off the recliner to watch the game at a neighborhood hangout? Perhaps a zesty, bacon-laden Bloody Mary is an incentive.
At Desert Rose Pizza’s Cardinals and Cowboys Viewing Party, you can get that particular drink, with or without the crispy pig, or something completely different. The beer menu has everything from stouts to sours, and on the food side, it’s classic bar fare like pizza, wings, salads, and burgers. Join other fans to cheer on the Arizona Cardinals, or be edgy and root for the Texas team from 5 to 11 p.m. on Thursday, August 3, at 6729 North 57th Drive in Glendale. There’s no cover. Call 623-937-3004 or visit the Facebook event page. Amy Young
Ponder the poetics of culture as weapon when Lit Happy Hour tackles Nato Thompson’s book Culture as Weapon at SMoCA.
Derek Schultz
Art’s more than objects hanging on walls. And if you agree, you’ll fit right in at Lit Happy Hour, where the next discussion centers on Nato Thompson’s book Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everyday Life. It’s happening at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, 7374 East Second Street, on Thursday, August 3. Sara Cochran, director and chief curator for the museum, is the featured speaker for the 5:45 to 7 p.m. event.
It’s a chance to explore ideas at the heart of Thompson’s thinking, which are reflected in three core values hailed by the Creative Time nonprofit in New York City, where he serves as artistic director. They’re best known for commissioning adventurous and large-scale works of public art. They start with the premise that art matters, then recognize that artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and elevate public spaces as places for free and creative expression. Tickets are $7. Visit the SMoCA website. Lynn Trimble
Sunset SUP Yoga
Add water to your usual yoga routine. On Thursday, August 3, Scottsdale’s Saguaro Hotel offers Sunset SUP Yoga, a class where you move through poses while balancing on a stand-up paddleboard in the pool.
Starting at 6:30 p.m. at 4000 North Drinkwater Boulevard, you can test your balance during a class fit for all skill levels. That’s right, no experience is necessary, but you should bring a change of clothes just in case you fall in. Admission for the class is $45, and boards are provided. Visit the Facebook event page. Lindsay Roberts
The Whole Story: Part III
Since January, Phoenix has been energized by quarterly storytelling evenings that represent the black community, thanks to The Whole Story and Phoenix Art Museum. Fostering both solidarity and outreach, the performances are curated and coached (as is typical for live literature) and relate events of the tellers’ lives in engaging and entertaining ways.
In The Whole Story: Part III, on Friday, August 4, director Rachel Eseoghene Egboro (The Storyline) will draw from her experience, along with featured storytellers Sentari Minor, Floyd Galloway, Tina Brown, Dawn Marie Klecka, and Candice Tolliver. It’s a diverse set of worldviews, informed by the lives of teachers, activists, artists, consultants, journalists, and others.
The program is described as “PG-13” and begins at 7:30 p.m. at 1625 North Central Avenue. Tickets are $10. Call 602-257-1880 or visit the Phoenix Art Museum website. Julie Peterson
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Just as a black box theater is a small, modest space where things get experimental, your 20s can find you in a teensy apartment, trying out life skills, not always successfully. Playwright Melissa James Gibson, currently known for projects such as Netflix’s House of Cards, penned an Obie-winning script, [sic], about that very situation. Mesa Encore Theatre’s Black Box Series presents the play through Sunday, August 20.
Three young neighbors, struggling with career and personal stuff, make and break connections as they dwell behind their own walls yet within mere feet of one another. That’s kind of metaphorical.
Showtime on Friday, August 4, is 7:30 p.m. at 933 East Main Street. Tickets are $15. Visit the Mesa Encore Theatre website or call 480-834-9500. Julie Peterson
See Tuscon artist George Strasburger's works at Alwun House.
Courtesy of George Strasburger
Tucson artist George Strasburger paints men in vulnerable and exposed poses that contrast with our preconceived notions of masculinity in society. His exhibition “Figuratively Strasburger” uncovers a style resembling that of beat photographer Robert Frank in his classic book The Americans. Each stroke of the artist’s paintbrush strips away layers of virility to expose an isolation and tension you won’t find on the covers of Esquire and GQ.
See “Figuratively Strasburger” at 7 p.m. on Friday, August 4, at Alwun House, 1204 East Roosevelt Street. Admission is free. For more information, visit the Alwun House website. Jason Keil
’90s Party and Skee-Ball Tournament
The Phoenix Fray, a social sports-league group, is pulling together two things for one party: 1990s nostalgia and Skee-Ball.
Visit Bevvy, 4420 North Saddlebag Trail, #100, in Scottsdale, for the two-in-one ’90s Party and Skee-Bball Tournament. Arrive ready to dance the night away (and battle it out, arcade-style) starting at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 4.
Each six-person team gets two kegs at the start of the Skee-Ball throwdown — and the chance to win a cash prize. Registration for the competition is $10 per team at the Phoenix Fray website. Admission for the party is free. Lindsay Roberts
Mas Lucha
There’s no spectator sport more fun than Mexican wrestling. Time to grab a ticket and join the ringside fun.
Lucha Libre Arizona’s Mas Lucha includes multiple bouts, which means more masks, a parade of colorful tights, and endless entertainment. These lively competitions feature luchadores (wrestlers) who utilize an array of outlandish and sometimes pretty crazy moves in order to become victorious. Whether they’re tossing one another through the air or bouncing off the ropes of the ring, it’s a blast from start to finish.
The family-friendly acrobatic matches start at 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 5, at AWF Arena, 5658 North 51st Avenue in Glendale. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for kids. Premium seats are available for $13. Visit the Facebook event page. Amy Young
The Amazing Kolb Brothers of Grand Canyon
Hardly a visit to the Grand Canyon goes by without a mention or a glimpse of iconic photographs taken by the Kolb brothers.
From a photography studio on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, Ellsworth and Emery Kolb risked the elements to capture scenic snapshots of the stunning tourist spot in the early 1900s. Travel writer Roger Naylor tells the colorful duo’s story in his beautifully illustrated book The Amazing Kolb Brothers of Grand Canyon, a well-researched chronicle of how the siblings took chances time and time again to capture Arizona’s history.
Naylor shares his book at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 8, at Changing Hands, 300 West Camelback Road. Admission is free. Visit the Changing Hands website for more details. Jason Keil
Roast of Ron May
Stray Cat Theatre’s been a beloved institution since 2001. Founding artistic director Ron May is the company’s face, guts, and heart. Theater’s a collaborative art, you’d be nowhere without your teammates, blah blah blah, and May would be the first to point that out. But there’s just something about the guy.
So his close friends and colleagues will say terrible things about him during the Roast of Ron May, an evening of luau-themed dining and Stray Cat fundraising. Joe Kremer leads a panel including Cathy Dresbach, Brooke Unverferth, and Kerry Lengel. Auctions and a raffle-like game called Tops or Bottoms (perhaps not what you think) round out the festivities.
No-host cocktails and mingling begin at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 5, at the Radisson Hotel Phoenix Airport, 427 North 44th Street. Admission is $75, or $25 without dinner. Tickets and opportunities to be more generous are at the Stray Cat Theatre website or 480-227-1766. Julie Peterson
Read on for more of this week's best events — including the World Hip Hop Championship, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and Big Freedia.
World Hip Hop Dance Championship
Check out dancers taking hip-hop to the next level when the World Hip Hop Dance Championship hits the Valley.
American dancers will compete in preliminary adult and mega-crew divisions on Saturday, August 5, during the U.S.A. Hip Hop Championship at Arizona Grand Resort & Spa, 8000 South Arizona Grand Parkway.
A $25 ticket gets you into preliminary competitions for the adult division, which runs from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., and the mega-crew division, which runs from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m. Competitors include the Elektrolytes of Chandler. Visit the Hip Hop International website. Lynn Trimble
“Symbiosis: Urbanity and the Natural Landscape”
Danielle Wood recently took her ocean-inspired ceramic art on the road. For the artist’s latest exhibition, “Symbiosis: Urbanity and the Natural Landscape,” she’s displaying photographs blending natural and urban landscapes accompanied by a wave-like installation of her ceramic forms.
Some photographs show her sculptural pieces placed around the city, in sites ranging from a light rail stop to a graffiti wall. Others show them in outdoor settings free from human constructions. It’s Wood’s way of exploring the interface of organic and manmade landscapes. But it also pays homage to the community.
See the free exhibition from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 5, at Eye Lounge, 419 East Roosevelt. Visit the Eyelounge website. Lynn Trimble
Big Freedia
When music scholars write the history of bounce music, we’d bet Big Freedia will get her due as the artist who pushed the genre into the spotlight after years underground. That probably has something to do with Freedia’s numerous festival appearances or the popular Fuse reality program Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce. Beyoncé even sampled Freedia on the single “Formation.”
On Saturday, August 5, Freedia will bring her brand of bounce to the Valley to raise awareness about HIV in the black community.
Freedia is scheduled to perform at the Because We Care 2017 Music Series at 7:15 p.m. at The Parsons Center for Health and Wellness, 1101 North Central Avenue. Tickets are $25 and up. For more information, visit the Big Freedia website. Jason Keil
Memories of a previous 24-Hour Theatre Project suggest high jinks to come.
Courtesy of Phoenix Theatre
We’ve described Phoenix Theatre’s annual 24-Hour Theatre Project as “vicarious torture,” “manic,” “moving and hysterical,” and “always popular.” All 100 percent accurate and objective. Normally part of the springtime Caleb Reese Festival of New Plays and Musicals, the project revisits its historic midsummer time slot this year, providing something phenomenal to do in August.
It’s a snowball of creativity, starting with a band of clueless actors and playwrights and crashing into an evening of new 10-minute plays, memorized and fully staged. You’ll have no idea what you’re going to see, but it should comfort you to know that mere hours ago, the writers and cast were in the same boat. The results tend to include a lot of laughs and “hold my beer” moments.
Watch what happens at 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 6, at 100 East McDowell Road. Tickets are $10 at 602-254-2151 or at the Phoenix Theatre website. Julie Peterson
Cinema Twain
Acting hits its most magical peak when one person seamlessly transforms into another. It’s especially good when it’s kind of hard to fathom, like actor Val Kilmer completely becoming author Mark Twain. Let him tell you what that was like at this film screening.
Join Kilmer at the Cinema Twain event for a screening of his one-man show, Citizen Twain, where he stars as the legendary author. The show offers insight about Twain’s life, as well as his rigid, and often humorous, perspectives. Kilmer performed the play at different theaters around Los Angeles, often to sold-out crowds. He will introduce the 90-minute movie and conduct a question-and-answer with the audience following the screening. See Kilmer at his 19th-century best at 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 6, at Stand Up Live, 50 West Jefferson Street. Admission is $30 for guests 18 and older. There’s a two-drink minimum. Call 480-719-6100 or visit the Stand Up Live website. Amy Young
Star Wars Launch Party & Pinball Tournament
If you’re a pinball-playin’ Star Wars fanatic, you might think Tilt Studio’s Star Wars Launch Party & Pinball Tournament was created just for you. But actually, Tilt’s hosting the bash in honor of Stern Pinball launching its new Star Wars game. Attendees are encouraged to dress in their best Star Wars threads and enter a first-to-play contest. Getting to touch that machine before your friends could put you in an enviable position.
Form a group and compete in the Three-Strike Pinball Tournament for prizes and trophies. Geeky gamer fun happens from 1 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, August 6, at Tilt Studio in the Arizona Mills Mall, 5000 Arizona Mills Circle, #669, in Tempe. Admission is free, and food and drink specials are available. Call 480-648-1222 or visit the Facebook event page. Amy Young
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Tim Burton’s debut feature Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is a zany flick about a rebel loner on a journey to find his stolen bike. Along the way, he discovers a generation of misfit Americans, including a hobo, a felon who steals the tags off of mattresses, and Twisted Sister, who help him locate his prized possession. Stick out your thumb, fill your bowl with Mr. T cereal, and remember the Alamo in a movie so hilarious and surreal it makes On the Road look mainstream by comparison. Tell them Large Marge sent you.
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure screens at 7 p.m. on Monday, August 7, at Alamo Drafthouse Chandler, 4955 South Arizona Avenue. Tickets are $6.47. For more information, visit the Drafthouse website. Jason Keil
See the light with this work by Lily Montgomery and Krista Davis at ASU’s Harry Wood Gallery.
Lynn Trimble
Harry Wood Gallery is showing works by graduate art students in its “MFA Summer Show.”
Participating artists include Lily Montgomery and Krista Davis, whose work blends neon, sound, and video projection. Over a dozen additional artists are part of the show, including Anthony Mead, who works with wood and unconventional materials such as coffee beans and curry powder. The exhibition also includes ceramics, fiber art, painting, photography, drawing, and prints.
The free exhibition was juried by Sara Cochran, director and chief curator for Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. See it Tuesday, August 8, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. inside the ASU Art Building, 900 South Forest Mall in Tempe. It’s on view through Friday, August 11. Visit the ASU events website. Lynn Trimble
Phoenix Fire Kickball League
Wednesday nights looking a little empty? Consider Phoenix Fire Kickball, a league that welcomes the LGBTQ community, American Kickball enthusiasts, and those “who like beer more than rules.”
Join the Phoenix Fire Kickball League from 8 to 10 p.m. on Wednesday, August 9, at Coronado Park, 1717 North 12th Street. The first set starts at 8:10 p.m., and a pick-up game follows from 9:10 to 10. Friends and kickball newbies can drop in on the action for a $5 fee paid at cash.me/$phxfire.
For more information and after-party details, see the Phoenix Fire Kickball website. For details on the game, visit the Facebook event page. Lauren Cusimano
War on the Catwalk: The Queens From Season 9
Last season of RuPaul’s Drag Race just won’t let us go. The recent round of queens are sashaying to the Orpheum Theatre, 203 West Adams Street, for War on the Catwalk: The Queens From Season 9.
See winner Sasha Velour, finalists Trinity and Shea Couleé, and contestants Alexis, Aja, Farrah, and Nina Bo’Nina Brown Rodham Clinton perform starting at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, August 9.
Tickets are $20 and up through the Phoenix Ticketforce website. Packages include the $95 VIP ticket (which includes a main floor seat and a preshow meet-and-greet), and the $150 Super Fan ticket, complete with gold circle seats, an autographed tour poster, a customized laminate with lanyard, and spots in the priority line to meet the queens and take photos at 6 p.m. Doors open at 7 for this all-ages show. Call 602-262-6225 or see the Orpheum Theatre website. Lauren Cusimano
