Fri 4/11 The pursuit of peace has inspired thoughts poetic -- "We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels; we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds" (Anton Chekhov) and pragmatic: "I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace...
Sat 5/3 Hide your heaps -- Bigfoot's a-thundering this way. Be there! Be there! Be there! -- on Saturday, May 3, at 7 p.m. as Gravedigger, Bounty Hunter, Maximum Destruction, Scarlet Bandit, Monster Mutt and more roar into town for the Coors Monster Truck and Jet Car Jam at Firebird...
Thursday, May 1 Film Forward, a new film series at Madstone Theaters, offers the freshest batch of independent films to hit the Valley since the Phoenix Film Festival. Featuring two debut movies every two weeks starting Thursday, May 1, the series offers the only chance to see these films locally...
"Freedom is just chaos, with better lighting." Even if one agrees with writer Alan Dean Foster's assertion, there's hardly cause for complaint. Liberty, bedlam, and the ever-flattering rocket's red glare -- sounds like a party to us. This Friday, July 4, a score of civic celebrations light up the Valley...
With a star-studded roster including George Clinton, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, India.Arie, Kansas, Naughty by Nature, Billy Bob Thornton, and the Village People, it's either a benefit concert or a Sweeps Week episode of The Simpsons. This weekend, it's the former, as Off the Hook Productions sponsors a concert benefiting...
Roger Clyne says if there's no music scene in Phoenix today, it may be partially his fault. Clyne led the sensationally quirky Refreshments in the mid-'90s at the zenith of what some locals refer to as the "Mill Avenue conspiracy," when talented jangle-pop musicians ruled the bars of Tempe. "Everybody...
Dwarfed behind the computer monitor at station 37, 12-year-old Mitchell Swift barks out commands to his fellow Counter-Strike players like a Gulf War II commander trash-talking his troops. "No camping, bitch!" he yells at the screen to the character represented by his older brother Josh's friend Jesse, who's sitting just...
My favorite nickname for breasts is "begonias." My least favorite is "pimples." Rounding out my top 10 are "umlauts," "sweater puffs," "kettle drums," "ottomans," "waldos," "earmuffs," "eggplants," "angelfood," "Mrs. Doubtfires," "thingamajigs," "squirt guns," "milk shakes," "mushmelons," "schooners," "jiggly bits," "floats" and, although it has lost some luster with overuse, "hooters."...
Thursday, March 27 Seductive silver-screen siren Mae West is the obsession at the heart of Dirty Blonde, the latest production from Arizona Theatre Company, which begins previews with an 8 p.m. show on Thursday, March 27. Snippets of the Hollywood bombshell's career are interspersed with the tale of a budding...
No, I haven't seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The premise rankles my sensibilities way too much (really, a chick is dried up and desperate because she isn't married by 30?). Even though the public at large seems to love it, I have to keep in mind that this is...
Colorado's reigning kings of Americana are amping up the sound that prompted Denver Post readers to vote them the state's "best alt-country band." According to Rainville front man John Common, the group is "heading into an indie-rock-inspired kind of gritty rock 'n' roll territory." Common promises a preview of the...
6/7-8/31 Angus MacGyver himself couldn't have curated a craftier exhibition. Opening Saturday, June 7, at the ASU Art Museum, "Gadgets and Gizmos" showcases works that employ technology -- whether extensive or elementary -- providing techies young and old with an inside look at what makes things tick. The museum's fourth...
Springing from the page to the stage, Seussical the Musical has more star power than a beach full of Sneetches stamped by Sylvester McMonkey McBean's tattooing machine. "Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches/Had bellies with stars./The Plain-Belly Sneetches/Had none upon thars," wrote Dr. Seuss in his story about the hypercritical creatures' quest...
5/16-6/22 Stuck in a society more concerned with the workings of popular culture than with works of fine art, a trio of local artists has struck a shrewd artistic balance. Offering a modern take on the Pop Art movement that painted the 1950s and '60s with colorful, consumerist images, "Popped...
Thursday, February 20Arizona Dance Arts Alliance brings several of the Valley's top modern dance companies to Scottsdale Center for the Arts on Thursday, February 20, to launch the 9th Annual Arizona Contemporary Dance Festival. Performances by A Ludwig Dance Theatre, Center Dance Ensemble, Desert Dance Theatre, Instinct Dancecorps and Scorpius...
Pokafase knows he's in for a geographic challenge in the coming months -- and relishes it. "I blew from Phoenix/Only shit harder than that/Is leaving the club without getting martyred and back," rhymes the local rapper on "Gangsta Alone," a vintage West Coast G-Funk track from Mastermind, his major-label debut...
Thursday, May 15 There were few things more ominous and terrifying than the atomic bomb in the 1950s, but somehow the devastating new technology inspired a renaissance of dynamic, biomorphic art and design in that decade -- just stroll through Phoenix Art Museum's current exhibition, "Vital Forms: American Innovation in...
Light. As far as modifiers go, it's far from our favorite: light Miracle Whip, light rock and -- heaven help us -- light beer. But as a plural noun, light can be rather nice, especially around holiday time. In fact, the season's lights displays set our hearts glowing with the...
Thursday, April 3 We don't think rock 'n' roll ever died in the first place, but for the past two years, there's been nonstop buzz about its revival. Whether you believe the hype, you only need to believe in the beat and it's alive and well with the next generation...
Debris was just the gold that Matt Smith was looking for a month or so ago. A Tempe sculptor, he's always scavenging for inspiration in rubbish. But pawing through a mound of construction refuse across the tracks from Macayo's Depot Cantina in downtown Tempe, he found a mother lode that...
"Phoenix, MEXICO!"² Lupillo Rivera's shout is swallowed up by a deafening roar from the tightly packed audience in front of him. The singer grins at what he sees. Men in cowboy hats and women wearing tight jeans and halter tops fill Club 602, a large nightspot in west Phoenix and...
Bite Me takes St. Patrick's Day very, very seriously. She's got some Irish in her lineage and whenever she has the chance to be, ya know, a traditional gal, she jumps on it. Bite Me prepped for her trek to Rosie McCaffrey's by cookin' up some corned beef delights to...
