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Something Wilde

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, subtitled A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, is surprisingly full of not just witty bons mots (“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train”) but also awful groaners that are all the funnier because...
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Saving Mr. Banks Mansplains, Disney-Style

How stubborn was Walt Disney? He spent 26 years wheedling Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers to sell him the film rights to her book — call it determination or bullying. Travers thought he was a hack who would louse up her story with cartoon penguins. Walt thought she was a...
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Stephanie Zacharek’s Top 10 Films of 2013

Here's where I write about how hard it is to draw up a 10-best list at the end of the year. Except it isn't: I think of drawing up a list as an honor and a necessity, a way of putting 12 months of moviegoing into some sort of perspective...
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Best Latin American Restaurant

Tumi Fine Peruvian CuisineLike any good Peruvian chef worth his sea salt, Oscar Graham makes very good ceviche. And at this tiny no-frills spot in Chandler, his ceviche de pescado — a mound of chopped tilapia in a sharp and spicy juice of lime and Peruvian chile peppers topped with slivers of red onion and served with a […]
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10 Things to Watch While Waiting for Downton Abbey‘s Return

Downton Abbey withdrawal? We feel you. While this show's U.K. fans have already enjoyed season five across the pond, we American Anglophiles await its January 5 return to PBS Masterpiece Theater. In between practicing our British accents and convincing ourselves that Matthew Crawley is simply taking a post-crash nap, we've...
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Michel Gondry on Noam Chomsky and a Brainy New Doc

Michel Gondry likes video stores. He is, after all, the director of the ultimate VHS sonnet, Be Kind Rewind, in which Jack Black and Mos Def re-create classics like Ghostbusters from plastic bags and tinsel. (Sad about the death of Blockbuster? Give it a watch.) One night, Gondry was browsing...
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Fruitvale Station Makes a Man of a Martyr

In the early hours of New Year's Day 2009, on a platform of Oakland's Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit Station, a young man named Oscar Grant III was shot in the back by a BART transit officer. The officer later claimed that he meant to reach for his Taser and...
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Vintage Phoenix Artifact: WPA Murals at Downtown Phoenix Post Office

Often mistaken for two of the many murals commissioned in the ’30s by the WPA, the artworks at the downtown Phoenix post office (522 North Central Avenue) were in fact funded by the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and Sculpture. Each of the murals was completed in 1938, two years after the PO first opened. […]
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Prisoners‘ Men Suffer Ambitiously

If five Oscar nominees lose two young girls in the woods, will their wailing make a sound? That's the key question of Prisoners, Denis Villeneuve's prestigious puffery about a father (Hugh Jackman) and a cop (Jake Gyllenhaal) trying to catch a kidnapper. Prisoners is a dog-whistle for Academy voters keyed...
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13 Best Ethnic Restaurants in Metro Phoenix

Looking for something a little different to eat? Well, Chow Bella is here to help. We spent the past year scouring the Valley to find the best ethnic restaurants. Here's a list worth saving for when you're looking for some great ethnic cuisine, no matter where you are in metro...
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Nebraska Is a Grand Slog Through Real America

In 1997, 87-year-old Richard Lusk flew from California to Florida to claim an $11 million prize he believed he'd won in a sweepstakes. The day after he returned home empty-handed, he had a stroke. Four months later, he bought a second plane ticket to Florida and stubbornly knocked on their...
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Thor Returns, Diminished

Among the Avengers, Thor should reign supreme. Sure, Captain America is the de facto leader, but even he — like the others — is just a jacked-up human. Thor is a god. Or if not quite a god, as he demurs, he's the next best thing: a flying titan with...
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Brand Manager

Russell Brand's listed tourmates (Jesus Christ, Che Guevara, Gandhi, Malcolm X, and, um, Hitler) also serve as a killer dead-or-alive dinner party dream team. There'll be plenty of food for thought when the English funnyman brings his Messiah Complex world tour to Phoenix Saturday, September 7.The multi-hyphenate comic has had...
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How to Host a Baby Shower That Isn’t the Worst

Raise your hand if you enjoy going to baby showers. How about hosting them? Being the guest of honor? We're guessing based on the proliferation of online posts calling for showers to be banned and proclaiming all-out hatred for them, plus the opinion of every woman we know, that the...