The history of pop is actually the story of great rivalries, real or imagined: Elvis vs. Jerry Lee, the Beatles vs. the Stones, mods vs. rockers, Bowie vs. Ferry, Nirvana vs. Pearl Jam. And, by the way, whose side were you on during the fabled Tiffany-Debbie Gibson wars of 1987?...
thursday september 4 Proposals: The world-premiere tour of Neil Simon's latest work for the stage plays the Orpheum Theatre following an L.A. run and in advance of productions in New Haven, Connecticut; Washington, D.C.; and, this November, on Broadway. Terrific actor Ron Rifkin tops a cast that also includes Suzanne...
Caffe Boa, 5063 East Elliot, Ahwatukee, 893-3331. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Why do people confuse money with class? Ted Kennedy and Fife Symington, for instance, are both dripping with wealth, acknowledged or not. But...
thursday august 14 Fine 'tooning: Todd McFarlane; Our Lady Peace: Ahwatukee-based comic-book impresario McFarlane, whom New Times profiled in the July 31 piece "The Devil and Todd McFarlane," plugs multimedia spin-offs from his bleak but best-selling mag, Spawn, from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, August 14, at the Tower Records...
thursday august 21 "Token City": The virtual subway station Big Apple-born digital artist Muriel Magenta assembled out of whole cybercloth for this installation is likely the closest the Valley will come to mass transit for a significant span of years. Curated by John Spiak and developed at Arizona State University's...
thursday july 24 "Canyonland Visions" and "Crossing the Frontier": The former installation, organized by Fort Worth, Texas' Amon Carter Museum, features 117 paintings and photos of the Colorado Plateau region dating from the mid-19th century to the late 20th, including 46 recently rediscovered and never-before-displayed watercolors by Prussia-born adventurer/naturalist Heinrich...
Your leaders want you to trust them so badly you can almost feel their collective hands reaching out to you in gestures of beckoning. Either that or they're fumbling clumsily in your pocket for your wallet. That's because they are asking you to go to the polls on September 9...
thursday july 10 "Lilith Fair" featuring Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Paula Cole, and Suzanne Vega: Among the stampede of summer package tours is this caravan of topflight female singers/songwriters, ranging widely in style from the ethereal angst of Canada's McLachlan to the East Coast country of Carpenter to...
thursday june 26 OZZfest '97 featuring Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Pantera, Type O Negative, Fear Factory, Machine Head, and Powerman 5000: Longtime followers of the metal godfather will get a blast from the past as Ozzy reunites for the first time in years with Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi...
Bzzzt. Pop. Check. Check. So how's everybody doing out there? I said . . . how's everybody doing out there!? All right! Are you ready for the second annual New Times Music Awards Showcase!? Coooool. Before we get started, I'd like to take a second and thank our sponsors. Especially...
thursday july 3 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus: The 127th-anniversary edition of the Greatest Show on Earth features ringmaster Eric Michael; Zusha, Queen of the Nile, billed as the world's only performing hippopotamus; master clown David Larible; second-generation animal trainer Mark Oliver Gebel; the debut of the Golden...
Road Bloc I think the public better unite to defeat the toll roads before we are stuck with them ("Carr Wrecks," Howard Stansfield, April 10). I have yet to hear anything but praise from the Arizona Department of Transportation about the concept; has anyone from ADOT contacted you, the taxpaying...
thursday june 12 Love! Valour! Compassion! Benefit Screening: The recently released film version of playwright Terrence McNally's dish-heavy dramedy about a summer of love and affection among a group of gay friends was directed by Joe Mantello, who helmed the original, Tony-winning off-Broadway production (and who, incidentally, received his own...
The message from the president was not memorable, an obligatory platitude on the occasion of the judge's retirement, a well-deserved thanks for 36 years of service to his country, but it brought tears to the old man's eyes. "I have a tendency to cry on certain occasions," the judge said...
thursday may 29 Stomp: The wildly popular, London-born, New York-based percussive/movement troupe gives new meaning to the term "found art." The Doc Martens-wearing crew brings the metaphorical kitchen sink and literally boots it around the stage at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 West Adams, along with a bunch of other unlikely...
Losing His Religion Dressed down in orange corduroys, a stocking cap and ratty blue flannel, Michael Stipe looked less like a pop superstar than a Mill Avenue urchin during the R.E.M. singer's appearance at a packed book signing at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on January 29. The tome in...
thursday april 24 Hamlet, the Ballet: Center Dance Ensemble's Frances Smith Cohen conceived and choreographed this production, which incorporates jazz, modern and ballet styles by the dance troupe, live acting by the Courtyard Players, and an original rock score. Performances are scheduled on Thursday, April 24; Friday, April 25; and...
thursday may 8 Spearhead: The militant hip-hop/funk group, led by vocalist and former b-ball player Michael Franti (a real tower of baritone power at six-foot-six), offered up a near-great album in 1994 with its debut, Home. The band's latest, Chocolate Supa Highway, is a tribute, of sorts, to Bob Marley,...
thursday april 10 The Descendents: This relic of punk's original wave had an inordinate impact on today's punk-pop scene. Basically the band All (the Descendents' descendant) augmented by original vocalist Milo Aukerman, the revivified act returned to doing what it does best--and did first--on its latest release, Everything Sucks: speed-saw...
Joe's Crab Shack, 1604 East Southern, Tempe, 730-0303. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Someone once said that the special genius of the capitalist system is that no one invented it. What does that mean? It...
thursday april 17 Arizona Science Center: Check out the grand new facility at 600 East Washington--a construction that soars on wings of concrete--in its first full week of business. The programs "Arizona Skies," "PlanetQuest" and "Sun, Earth, Stars" are featured in the center's planetarium through Friday, May 30. The Oscar-nominated...
thursday march 27 "It's Only Rock and Roll: Rock and Roll Currents in Contemporary Art": David Rubin, Phoenix Art Museum's curator of 20th-century art, organized this exhibit, billed as an exploration of "rock as a social force in [contemporary] art" and including pieces by Annie Leibovitz, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe,...
