Far too many dead folks recently: The god of American natural guitar, John Fahey, bought the farm less than 48 hours after undergoing a sextuple bypass operation; Eddy Shaver, guitar-picking son of Billy Joe Shaver and co-founder of Shaver, died of a heroin overdose; and James Carr of "Dark End...
"You're right! I quit!"Until this moment -- this shrill outburst that comes out of nowhere and startles both interviewer and subject -- Marisa Tomei had been speaking in hushed tones, like someone making funeral arrangements. Every so often, she would punctuate her sentences with giggles -- some nervous, some delirious...
"This is some damn fine coffee you got here in Twin Peaks. And some damn good cherry pie. But I have to tell you something, sheriff: Last night, I had a dream in which a dancing midget talked backward, thus leading me to believe that our killer is a man...
Margo Channing came to dinner . . . Baby Jane stayed for breakfast!" That tantalizing teaser only sounds like a terrifying advertising come-on for one of Bette Davis' horror movies from the '60s. In reality, it's a line of dialogue from Me and Jezebel, a reality-based play about the legendary...
When the lights finally came up in the Washington, D.C., movie theater, Leonard Nimoy sat still, silent and a bit shaken. He could scarcely believe what he had seen -- and what he had not seen. The movie was beautiful, but beneath the surface sheen, there was no heart, no...
What we have here is a failure to communicate. We have other problems as well -- mistaken identities, innuendo masquerading as gospel, an abusive cop, unwarranted detention, dead and disabled witnesses, a trumped-up charge, justice run amok. It all swirls kinetically amid a vortex of racial tension. The protagonists are...
November may mean Thanksgiving to most of you, but in the film biz it means a rush of "serious" films trying to gouge an impression into the short memories of Oscar voters. This shouldn't be a bad thing, but since the relationship between "Oscar" and "actual interesting filmmaking" is nearly...
In assessing the merits of Quills, the lusty new feature by director Philip Kaufman (Henry & June), it's tempting to seek correlative characters from popular movies to illustrate just how radical this business is not. In Kaufman's film -- affectionately constructed upon a screenplay by Doug Wright, who adapts his...
When retired safecracker Andrew Forkes first did lock-down time, bathtub gin was the libation of choice. By his 18th birthday in 1925, he had five years of reform school under his belt, the consequence of a childhood in Ohio spent burglarizing and running away from home. "Never thought I'd make...
The problem isn't what to say about Ireland's remarkable Chieftains, it's where to begin. And, as Paddy Moloney might say, when in doubt, one simply begins at the beginning. In 1963, piper Moloney, late of the traditionalist folk group Ceoltóiri Cualann, recruited a band of fellow musicians in order to...
Despite the recent collapse of several small theaters, new playhouses are springing up like Christmas tree lots. Would that these companies were offering something other than a handful of interesting performances in shows no discerning playgoer will want to see.Hidden away in a tiny, unmarked storefront, D and D and...
The wonder of Solas, the latest in a growing list of remarkable Spanish films that have recently made their way to the U.S. (Butterfly and Goya in Bordeaux are also well worth seeing), is a courtly old gentleman referred to simply as "Neighbor." Played to absolute perfection by Carlos Álvarez-Novoa,...
After kicking off with a cheerily conventional, highly entertaining Barber of Seville, Arizona Opera kicks its season into high gear with a superb, much less conventional staging of Carmen. Maybe because of its lurid tabloid plot, Bizet's masterpiece, regarded as scandalous when it premièred just months before the composer's death...
Fascinating and engrossing on every conceivable level, this beautifully constructed feature-length documentary opens with the mournful sound of a train, and images of toys and books sitting untouched in what was once a child's bedroom. As the credit sequence ends, an elderly woman addresses an unseen interviewer, recalling the day...
Fair warning: Enough time has passed that it's okay to discuss the ending of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable. Those who've not yet seen the film and intend to might want to keep on moving. Or perhaps not: To reveal the ending, all 180 or so seconds of it, is...
For the better part of two decades, Felicia Fahr was the Valley's Queen of Queens, a flame-tressed temptress who ruled the local female impersonator circuit with stiletto heels, sequins, lethal talons and, as more than a few colleagues can attest, a tongue to match. Arriving in Phoenix from Los Angeles...
Every major recording artist has his "moment." It's that fleeting instant when the planets align in such a way that even an eccentric cult figure can bask in the pop-culture sunshine; when the fickle masses temporarily decide that you're the essence of hipness.Elvis Costello had it with Armed Forces, and...
Ridgely Fitzsimmons Nita's Hideaway 1816 East Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe 480-966-7715What makes a superlative bartender? Good conversation? Nah, anything that delays putting a drink in your gullet is about as welcome as a speed bump. But in dealing with teeming masses of demanding patrons and egotistical musicians, it does help to have a seasoned grasp of the English language and a penchant for caustic rejoinders. […]
Ridgely Fitzsimmons Nita's HideawayWhat makes a superlative bartender? Good conversation? Nah, anything that delays putting a drink in your gullet is about as welcome as a speed bump. But in dealing with teeming masses of demanding patrons and egotistical musicians, it does help to have a seasoned grasp of the English language and a penchant for caustic rejoinders. […]
In a classic 1955 I Love Lucy episode, Lucy Ricardo tries to figure out how to maximize her star-gazing mileage while vacationing in Hollywood. "Tracking them down one by one takes so much time," complains the country's biggest autograph hound after her sidekick Ethel Mertz suggests driving up and down...
A month ago, R.J. Cutler thought he found a home for his child, one that would coddle and nurture his baby until it was ready to stand on its own two legs without wobbling or falling. A month ago, it all seemed so simple to the Oscar-nominated producer-director, who was...
To put it mildly, it is uncomfortable and embarrassing to have one's cynical ass whipped by a huge, hulking Hallmark card, and this is exactly the sensation one takes away from Mimi Leder's Pay It Forward. Not that the near-total emotional submission isn't preceded by a knock-down, drag-out battle for...
