Carl Hayden High School running back Roy Moody faces his teammates in the Falcons' silent dressing room. It's moments before the team's football game against the Moon Valley Rockets on a cool Friday night in west Phoenix. "No one cares about us, baby," Moody starts, his strong voice bouncing off...
Think you understand this TV market, vidkids? It's a place where Matlock reigns supreme, right? A metroplex full of folks who still honor the memory of the late, great Lawrence Welk, and who sometimes become overwhelmed by the fast pace of Pets on Parade. Think so? Well, think about this:...
Last March, Eve Edwards took advantage of what she sensed was a grand opportunity. She knew her ex-boyfriend, Jerry Ingalls, was immersed in a legal battle with his ex-wife--a top Dial Corporation executive named Joan Potter. Edwards also knew Ingalls had been talking about suing Dial for allegedly conspiring with...
When Olivia Birchett donated a prime piece of Mill Avenue real estate to the City of Tempe back in 1979, nobody seemed to mind that the philanthropic widow's generous gift carried a few strings. The property was to be developed for use as a public park in perpetuity, a proviso...
thursday december 7 ZooLights: Phoenix Zoo, 455 North Galvin Parkway, in Papago Park, is garbed in its usual Technicolor dreamcoat of lights--600,000 strong--during this glorious annual event. The after-hours fun continues from 6 to 9 nightly (except Christmas Eve), through January 27. New this year: "The Enchanted Forest," including the...
'tis the season Arizona Snow Day: In conjunction with Tempe's Fantasy of Lights (see Events listing), the city hosts this free event from 11a.m. to 5p.m. Saturday at Hayden Square, Fourth Street and Mill. Highlights include a freak fall of 12tons of snow, a visit from Santa, arts and crafts,...
Great Outdoors: This is my favorite time of year. I'm buoyed by pre-holiday cheer, the end of Thanksgiving leftovers and perfect weather for dining alfresco. There are problems, however, with eating outdoors in the Valley. It seems like almost every place with patio chairs, umbrellas and heaters overlooks either a...
If you've walked down the ever-expanding boulevard of bland that is Mill Avenue in Tempe, you've probably seen them. They stand out in sharp contrast to the tourists, retirees and well-groomed, jolly ASU students; they don't blend in with the giggling packs of teens or white-coated security forces. Their look...
Pssst! Wanna buy some dirty pictures? About 1,400 of em? Actually, dirty pictures were the last things on the minds of George Hall and Bob Martinique as they browsed through a Prescott antique store one weekend last October. But upon learning that the two men were photography buffs interested in...
The Red River Opry bills itself as having the "most talented cast this side of Branson, Missouri." The reference is to the famous Ozarks resort town that pioneered family-owned-and-operated country-music theatres, and it's a loose comparison, at best. In earlier decades, 30-odd theatres across the country showcased the country talents...
Park Central, Phoenix's original mall now suffering from declining-tenant flu, recently has added two new stores. What's unusual about these two businesses, located just a few storefronts apart on the mall's north leg, is their, um, orientation. Unaffiliated in any way besides thematically, both stores deal in "adult" products--condoms, flavored...
By Arizona's geologic standards, the Salt River gorge in Tempe isn't much. In fact, few people even notice it is there. Flanked by the red-rock outcrops at Papago Park to the north and the twin buttes embracing Sun Devil Stadium to the south, the shallow gorge marks the narrowest point...
It's said that Sam Coppersmith surprised even himself the night he snatched Arizona's First Congressional District from an incumbent Republican who seemed much better suited to the conservative East Valley district. It was called the upset of 1992, a race so close that Coppersmith, a pro-choice Democrat making his first...
On a moonless, June night, a purple light bobs and hovers along the barbed-wire fence marking the northern boundary of the Gila River Indian Reservation on the far side of South Mountain Park. Joe Bigelow is hunting for scorpions, scanning his ultraviolet lamp across the desert gravel until a scorpion...
Postmodern paradise for yuppies and college kids, or the Valley's version of Hell's Kitchen? This is a question the residents and fashionable patrons of Tempe's spiffy Old Town were asking themselves after the area was hit by a scary blitz of teen hooliganism that left several Mill Avenue fun-seekers bruised...
Wendy Sheedy wanted a baby, not in that achingly desperate way of some childless women, but it was never far from her mind. Her friends all had children. She had a solid marriage, a successful business, a nice house in Paradise Valley. She was 31 years old and the time...
"One stray grain of rice on that slick stage floor, and bang!--you're on your ass," frets Bruce Miles. The producer of the Mill Avenue Theatre's impending live rendition of The Rocky Horror Show, speaking during a recent photo session, confesses he doesn't know what to expect of the audience when...
On the first Saturday in December, the hip-hop capital of Phoenix--if there is such a thing--turned out to be a hall on a side street near Seventh Avenue and Camelback called Rockin' Freddy's. Inside, a deejay spun funk and rap until Shatonya Davis took the stage for a performance that...
When the Piersons formed two years ago, its members had two major things in common: a distaste for the live music in Tempe bars and the inability to play their instruments. And the Piersons had a goal, too. To play a single night--any night--onstage at Long Wong's, the dark and...
Hillya Mooney's voice on the telephone, so chipper, so sweetly cadenced, gave no hint of the story she would finally tell. "You wrote about me in your column," said Hillya, pausing to allow words of acknowledgment to float back to her on the line. But I could not place her...
It's showtime, and the crowd is restless. Already on their feet, the fans wait impatiently for the band to begin, shifting and murmuring in the tightly packed aisles. The keyboard player belatedly steps to the microphone, squinting through the glare of the stage lights. "Are you ready to move?" he...
Writing this is not going to be easy. On the way down to the New Times command center this past, glorious Super Bowl Sunday, I drove through the drive-through at Omega Burger. Bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, soda; an American meal. Now here's the ugly part: As I made my way...
