The ghost of Bob Crane led me to Bobby-Q, though the star of the '60s sitcom Hogan's Heroes didn't stick around to help me eat my ribs. I should explain that Crane's brutal, 1978 homicide in a Scottsdale apartment complex has always been a subject of fascination for me, long...
You feel the chill in the air, that spooky tingle at the base of your spine, the growing sense of dread in the pit of your stomach. You know it's coming, and your ass had better be prepared. We're not talking about yet another numbskull Adam Sandler flick, pal. Nope,...
When I migrated here from New York, I hadn't counted on how near impossible it would be to put a band together and keep it focused during the hot summer months. Even the lamest justifications for missing rehearsals, from the persistent "Uhh, I spaced it, man" to the truly wretched...
For this food critic, there's nothing quite as satisfying as gnawing on a hunk of butt while perusing the Scottsdale-based Serbian Times and occasionally wondering how many pierogi a grown man can ingest before he explodes. The butt in question? Smoked pork butt, silly! From Stanley's Home Made Sausage Co...
The Groden family lives out in the middle of the New Mexico desert, far from main roads. They grow, harvest and/or kill all their own food, own their own home, and make what little money they need from crafts. They've got no phone or indoor plumbing, and they haven't paid...
Want to know what's spicing up the night on Cinco de Mayo? Put away the blender and the salt and head to one of the more than 100 celebrations and activities taking place all over the Valley. We have everything from parties south of the border to kid-friendly fiestas. But...
SAT 2/26 It seems that KTAR personality Gayle Bass really knows how to shake it. And by "it," we mean a martini -- which also, it just so happens, serves as her moneymaker, when Bass and more than a dozen other local luminaries serve as wanna-be mixologists during the Celebrity...
God, I could go for a pint of Stella Artois, or "wife-beater," as it's sometimes referred to in merry ol' England. I'm in a black-and-white box of an eatery, surrounded by photos of Cornish tin miners, reading a biography of Hermann Goering. Halfway through my midday meal, it hits me...
2/11-3/11 Get your drink on, get your freak on, and get your strap-on, because the 22nd annual Exotic Art Show is back again. "People who like to dress crazy and sexy can come here, and nobody gives them a problem," says Baron Dixon, one of 60-plus artists exhibiting work in...
Here's a band that's a cluster of contradictions. It's called Bowling for Soup, but the members are admittedly terrible bowlers and not big fans of soup. It's a punk band, but it was nominated for the "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group" Grammy in 2003. It's made up...
Kyle Kaenel doesn't walk through barns at Turf Paradise so much as swagger John Wayne style, as if someone has kicked him in the butt so hard that he can't sit down. He's 17 and lighting it up in his first year as a jockey, 2,000 miles from home and...
The ker-plunk and whoosh is most pronounced right around the intersection of Tempe's Fifth Street and Mill Avenue, or, as I like to call it, the corner of Hooters and Gordon Biersch. No doubt you've heard it before: the sound of your soul being flushed into the rancid sewer of...
On the whole, 2004 has been a good year for this portly penman, as enjoyable dining experiences have easily outweighed poor ones. Indeed, what stays with me, in the form of fat cells as well as recollections, are the great meals I've had on my various eating expeditions throughout the...
It's difficult to survey the hip-hop of 2004, more bloated and self-referential than ever, and not imagine the mythical AOR wasteland of the mid-'70s. Like rock before it, hip-hop has easily won a cultural acceptance once unthinkable, and our reward is a parade of Jadakisses and G-Unit solo projects, preaching...
McDuffy's Wide World of EntertainmentTo borrow a line from John Belushi in Animal House, now that Arizona has gotten off its keister and extended the drinking cutoff until 2 a.m., we advise you to start drinking heavily. And there’s no better place to start drinking heavily than at McDuffy’s Wide World of Entertainment in Peoria, which has 21 different […]
McDuffy's Wide World of EntertainmentTo borrow a line from John Belushi in Animal House, now that Arizona has gotten off its keister and extended the drinking cutoff until 2 a.m., we advise you to start drinking heavily. And there’s no better place to start drinking heavily than at McDuffy’s Wide World of Entertainment in Peoria, which has 21 different […]
Sat 11/13 Looking back on the long and storied history of automobile culture, it's safe to say no single decade mastered the art of the bold stroke more aptly than the 1950s. It was a time when real men were judged by the size of the flames on their side...
I recently read online that the ugliest man in Hollywood, and a piss-poor actor to boot, Billy Bob Thornton, badmouthed the immortal Bard, calling Shakespeare "bullshit," and thereby confirming my opinion of Monsieur Sling Blade as one dumb redneck. I take comfort in the fact that BBT's fame is short-lived,...
Terror. It's a sensation we know all too well, especially during Halloween. Whether it's getting caught by the po-pos smashing a few dozen pumpkins or waking up on November 1 next to a paramour with a case of coyote ugly worth chawin' your arm off, we've felt the chill of...
Events and Happenings Wednesday, October 27: A Favored Affar; Catering & Bistro 4016 East Main Street Monster meal deal, with a choice of sandwich, soda and chips for $3.99 (treat included). Deal valid Wednesday, October 27, through Friday, October 29, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, October 30,...
THU 23 Talk about pulling some strings. Organizers rounded up some rocking raffle prizes for this Thursday's "DIY Benefit Show" for the American Diabetes Association. The biggest booty: a Gibson Les Paul, courtesy of Guitar Center of Scottsdale, and a Fender acoustic guitar starter pack -- a guitar, strap, gig...
