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Cycle: 2011 Tour de Lights

Time to drop the shopping lists and saddle up for the second annual Tour de Lights.Last year's inaugural edition wound through neighborhoods in Arcadia, Tempe and Ahwatukee. This year, the Tour weaves its way to glowing displays in Gilbert, West Chandler and the brilliant holiday light mecca of Moon Valley.The...
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Five Must-See Shows This Weekend

Curious what's going on around town this weekend? Need some suggestions as to how to rock, dance, or krump in the Valley of the Sun? Don't fret: These are our Five Shows to See This Weekend. Friday, June 1: Frequency Fridays @ DWNTWN Fridays used to be one of the...
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In Review: Phoenix’s Hellos and Goodbyes of 2011

​As we bid farewell to the year and look ahead to 2012, Jackalope Ranch contributors will bring you some greatest hits from 2011. In a year, things come and go. In 2011, we said hi and bye to plenty of our favorite (and no so favorite) places. Here are just a...
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Five Calls for Phoenix Creatives

October is here, the weather is cooling down (for the time being), and it's time to get started on a few new projects. And don't think the opportunities are few -- here are five: 1. Do Your Part: A Community Painting Day with Jenny IgnaszewskiThis Sunday, October 16, from 10 a.m...
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10 Tempe Restaurants Offering Specials to ASU Gammage Patrons

Taking your honey to the theater and dinner is so chic and cosmopolitan -- and just got easier to do. ASU Gammage and Mill Avenue District got together to give your pocketbook a break with a "Dinner and A Show" package. This is the third year that Arizona theater patrons...
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Grease, Gas, and Speed: Why You Should Buy a Moped

Not all Phoenix fun comes with dim lighting and fancy cocktails. Sometimes, there's nothing better than endorphins, sunshine, and sweat. Lover of all things outdoors, The Outsider explores the more natural side of Phoenix. Let's be honest: peddling gets old. Sadly, the alternative (meaning anything with a motor) is expensive. Will there...
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Three Places to Get Breakfast in Downtown(ish) Tempe… If You Must

In an effort to make mom proud, Chow Bella's taking a good, hard look at the most important meal of the day in the form of Scrambled, a weekly review of local breakfast spots.We love downtown Tempe and its ever-flowing supply of booze. But in a town populated primarily of college students...
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Seven Businesses on Our Mill Avenue Wish List

In celebration of the opening of Betty Alatorre's gourmet Mexican popsicle shop, Paletas Betty, on Mill Avenue, our foodie friends at Chow Bella did some big dreaming.  And we totally agree; Tempe's main drag could definitely use all of the droolworthy stops suggested on Chow Bella's Mill Avenue Wishlist. But we...
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Top 10 Bread Bakeries in Greater Phoenix

Bread, often equivalent to the word "food," is an indispensable staple in many parts of the world. Throughout history -- in religion, magic, and custom -- this deceptively simple foodstuff has ensured a seat at our table of survival. Where to find some of the best of it in the...
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Eastside Records Pops Up in Tempe, But Don’t Expect It To Last

Somewhere in America, Jeff Miller's ears are burning. The towering vocalist of defunct Bay Area hardcore act Bad Posture, which used to hang with the likes of Dead Kennedys and Flipper during punk's early-'80s glory days, is getting dissed something fierce by local record store owner Michael Pawlicki. The 49-year-old...
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Four Valley Venues We’d Love to See Touched Up

​Here at Up On the Sun, we have a whole lot of faith in the local scene. So much so, we try to devote at least 50 percent of our daily blog space to it. We've been hyping Stateside's Crescent Ballroom for the past few months. We've even touted it as...
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Cycle: Go for a Nooner

All too often the hardest decisions of the work day come down how to spend the lunch hour. The same old sandwich or burger joint or is it a sushi kind of day? Salad? burrito? Break the trend by using the lunch hour for an easy, enjoyable spin while fall and...
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Seven Spots on Chow Bella’s Mill Avenue Wish List

We were delighted this week to see Paletas Betty open on Mill Avenue -- and it got us thinking. (Always dangerous.) If Betty Alatorre can bring a second location of her gourmet Mexican popsicle shop to Mill, what else could thrive there? Yeah, yeah, we know, Mill's a notorious sink hole...
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Cops: Security Guard Stole Cash From High School; Hid Evidence in Bible

Kimmie Dwayne Baker apparently is a religious man. Well, at the very least, he owns a Bible -- in which he allegedly stashed evidence from a burglary he'd committed at Tempe High School where he works.According to the Tempe Police Department, Baker was arrested yesterday for allegedly stealing more than...
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Best Tequila Selection

Canteen Modern Tequila BarCanteen most definitely deserves the “modern” in its name, with contemporary design and a luxe atmosphere. The bar is particularly notable, decorated by upward of 100 types of various blanco, reposado, and aejo tequilas on display (with a bit of mescal added for good measure). To sweeten the deal, Canteen offers a daily “Halfy Hour,” […]
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You Me and Apollo at The Rogue

Power Hour. It's a time-honored tradition that 20-year-old kids across the country look forward to with eagerness as they push the limits of blood-alcohol levels. In Tempe and Phoenix, most people target Mill Avenue as their destination for drunken debauchery, but when Tucson-based pianist/vocalist Steff Koeppen comes to town Saturday...
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Best Way to Compete While in Costume

Urban DareIf you happen to see a family of four dressed as video game characters or superheroes running down the sidewalks of Mill Avenue in Tempe, don’t panic. The Arizona heat hasn’t finally gotten to you. They likely are part of one of the off-kilter Urban Dare adventure races. Inspired by such reality TV competitions as […]
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Best Romantic Dinner

House of TricksNews flash: Most restaurants in the Valley are trapped in aesthetically challenged strip malls. Many of these restaurants are very, very good. Still, they are in strip malls, which, by definition, are soul-sucking paeans to crass consumerism and ugly land development. Not House of Tricks, an excellent bistro in the heart of Tempe. Situated in […]
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Best New-School Paletas

Paletas BettyWe won’t name names, but someone we know is really into Otter Pops. Yes, those rainbow-hued sugar-water packets from our youth. Ugh. Clearly, this gentleman has never wrapped his tongue around a platano paleta. That’s bananas Foster with homemade caramel and añejo rum to you, mister, and it freezes out all the ice pop competition. […]