This year the kids just banged on Bill's door regardless of the fact that the trailer was dark as a cemetery. And the only exterior light on the tin home came from the silver and yellow strains of the half moon and the barren Dairy Queen sitting well-lit across the...
thursday october 22 Coming at a time of growing curiosity and concern about the nature of the Valley's own emerging urban sprawl, ASU's Western Humanities conference will present a spectrum of bright talk about the cultures of cities, "Cities on the Edge," which will view city culture through the varied...
Not all the participants in the Sgt. Pepper movie are unwilling to talk about the experience. Alice Cooper, about to embark on a tour, was gracious enough to answer our e-mail of infrequently asked questions (that's IFAQ in e-mailese) concerning his involvement in this historically bad film. New Times: How...
Giving Moods While Arizonans debate the idea of getting big money out of state political campaigns, four Arizonans have been giving big money to federal campaigns. The quartet made the new list of political fat cats put out by Mother Jones magazine--the MoJo 400. Altogether, the foursome accounted for $172,109...
"Shoeshine" Joe House, guitarist for Tempe funk-rockers Polliwog, looks like a cross between Medusa and a billy goat. He's got enough shocking red hair in all the right places to make the comparison stick. He says exactly one word--"vagina"--during a 90-minute interview, and even that doesn't come easy. Slumped against...
In 1978, RSO Records was the most successful record label on planet Earth. From Christmas of 1977 to May 20 the following year, the Robert Stigwood-owned label maintained a 21-week stranglehold on the top position of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. No other record label has ever managed to score...
In an age when program directors are less inclined to stick their necks out than a turtle, the creators of Radio Free Phoenix--Dwight Tindle and Danny Zelisko--have launched a radical Sunday-evening show (7 p.m. to midnight) that they hope will shake up mainstream radio or, at the very least, air...
The Joke's on John The first thing Senator John McCain did following the telling of a completely derogatory and vile "joke" at the expense of Chelsea Clinton was to write a letter of apology (Flashes, June 18). If he ever says that about either of my daughters, the first thing...
If matchbox 20 is the rock 'n' roll equivalent of McDonald's, then Todd Snider is the rock 'n' roll equivalent of El Fronterizo bar down at 14th Street on Van Buren in Phoenix. It's where the smell of stale cigarettes, unfulfilled dreams and a thousand midnights of being drunk all...
Thursday March 26 Arizona Opera concludes its 27th season with Tosca, Puccini's convoluted work of 1900, based on Sardou's play La Tosca, about intrigue and backstabbing and political fugitives in 17th-century Rome. The title character is a singer who, while trying to help her artist boyfriend Cavarodossi, is tricked repeatedly...
It's beautiful, it really is. The weather is fine, and so is the irony. It's Phoenix, a city whose explosion of uncontrolled development has been accompanied by an explosion of uncontrolled violence. All proceeds from today's carnival are being donated to children of deceased police officers, people who died in...
thursday march 12 "Spiritscapes": Cynthia Woody Gallery, 4151 North Marshall Way in Scottsdale, presents this display of the collage-style works of Benedictine monk turned artist Jerome Tupa. "If you've ever contemplated the lay of the land," remarks the artist, "this exhibit talks to the lay of the spirit, produced in...
It was a Friday night, and Glen Buxton was jumping up and down with excitement as he watched boxing on TV. The only indication that anything was wrong was a pain in his side, which he mentioned to his younger sister Janice Davison over the phone that night. He thought...
No Gold Stars Did it strike anyone else as funny that Barry Graham, Moe and Curly had to impersonate reporters to get into Joe Arpaio's fund raiser ("Joe, Jane & John," Barry Graham, October 30)? Come to think of it, that's what they do for a living. Such prose! "Arpaio...
You'd think the one place a person would be safe would be locked inside a prison cell. You'd be wrong. In 1996, a team of lawyers brought a class-action suit against the Arizona Department of Corrections on behalf of 274 inmates in protective segregation. DOC wanted to move those inmates...
It's safe to say that Pat Flannery, lead singer for the heavy-rock group St. Madness (formerly known as Crown of Thorns), has an enormous chip on his shoulder. "I'm angry, I like angry and I want to stay angry," grouses the lanky purveyor of doom and gloom who sings "I'm...
In 1982, Pete Townshend sat down for one of his many lengthy interviews with Rolling Stone magazine. The primary topic of conversation was Townshend's prolonged battle with the bottle, which had recently sent him to a clinic for treatment. Along the way, however, the Who's guitarist got on a rant...
Given our now fixed image of the press as ruthless invaders of privacy who hounded Princess Di into a premature grave, it hardly seems possible that once upon a time journalists and photographers actually worked in tandem to keep a celebrity's Satyricon private life out of their pages. And no...
Hit and Miss Barry Graham's straight-from-the-hip commentary on the Mary Rose Wilcox shooting ("Assailing," August 21) came close to a bull's eye. However, I think he misses center by attributing the random violence of "wackos" mainly to feelings of political powerlessness. Although these social dysfunctionaries do "reflect the society they...
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...
Every music scene is different, but there are some rules that apply wherever you go. Every metroplex worth its salt contains at least one surf band, rockabilly band and ska band. It might not be coincidental that fans of those three genres tend to be among the most hard-core music...
This morning my neighbor across the court accidentally killed her dog. Backed over its head with her Pontiac. My girlfriend used to feed the little brown thing dinner scraps from my kitchen door. I would tell her to quit it. But that was before. I am on the couch, drinking...
