At first glance, the group assembled at the pizza joint in a Mesa strip mall seems as docile and diverse as a citizenship class. Clustered in groups of twos and threes at bright blue Formica tables, they glance around the room conversing quietly in Albanian, Spanish, Vietnamese and English. From...
There must be an international siren song calling from the building next to the Circle K at 16th Street and Campbell. This unassuming little box lures in ethnic restaurants one after the other -- most recently it was home to a spectacularly flawed Russian eatery, followed by a short-lived Chinese...
Machine-gun nests manned by teenage Indians in Mexico's army confront the eco-tourist intent on whale watching in today's Baja. The soldiers are there to search you and your sports utility vehicle for drugs. In Canada, interdiction dogs sniff for, of all things, pirated abalone. You may yearn for what Henry...
Raul Monreal was only trying to inspire his students when they turned the tables on him. In the spring of 1994, the soft-spoken Monreal was instructing a teacher-certification course at Paradise Valley Community College. For Monreal, a 53-year-old native of Nogales, Mexico, who grew up dirt poor and fatherless along...
I think I know why American cuisine is often so boring. We've never been overthrown by a hostile nation. With such a homogenous pool of settlers, Americans have never been forced to incorporate exotic cultures into their cooking. And so, our national heritage has been allowed to wallow in the...
Most musicians like to shroud themselves in mystery. Cast themselves as enigmas, riddles never meant to be solved. It's an accepted part of the marketing process these days. That somehow a bit of carefully calculated inscrutability will enhance the lure of the product. For journalists, deconstructing those fiercely guarded walls,...
The headlines scream that the Diamondbacks aren't making money. Attendance is down, and the baseball team is struggling. All eyes are on Jerry Colangelo to fix things.I've got a suggestion: Rather than pump more cash into hotshot player salaries, give the fans something palatable to munch on while cheering for...
Lurking somewhere in the dusty bins of your neighborhood record store -- just after Sade but well before Scritti Politti -- is a "new" album by the Sand Rubies called Cuacha -- except that it's really not a new album at all. It is, however, a renamed, repackaged and expanded...
It was the best of years; it was the Durst of years. Of the latter, well, Jim Dandy once had his moment in the sun, too, and the critics were right all along: Black Oak Arkansas sucked, the stoned morons who were into the band eventually grew up (or died...
Let's say, for the purposes of this article, that's it's 3:30 in the morning. Only, it's really 4:30 because the clock in your car is an hour slow. Time is of little consequence anyway. What do minutes matter when you're sick with doubt and doubled over by the weight of...
Clinton Pattea, president of the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, tells with reverence the legendary story of Wassaja, the greatest of the tribe. Wassaja was a young boy, no more than 7, when he survived a bloody battle near the Superstition Mountains between his own tribe and the Pima Indians. Captured...
Tonight is a homecoming. It's been three and a half years since Dead Hot Workshop's classic lineup has played together, more than that since it's taken the stage at Long Wong's, the last remaining vestige of a scene it helped create. For a decade it was the most respected group...
Vic Kramer, who turned 79 this week, sits in the living room of his home and recalls his earliest memory. He was being held in someone's arms, he says, and he was looking at a light fixture. "It was one of these," he says, pointing to an antique sconce on...
Lately it seems like there's a Chinese restaurant on every street corner in the Valley. Even a recent National Restaurant Association study concludes that Chinese cuisine is so prevalent "it's no longer considered ethnic."Every neighborhood seems to have its own favorite Chinese gathering spot, pleasing its regulars with sweet-and-sour this...
We'll dispense with the baseball shtick and just remind you that the band's name cheekily refers to mediocrity below and barely up to the call of duty à la underachieving '70s slugger Mario Mendoza. We'll attempt to ditch the ready-made Yo La Tengo comparisons -- although the sweetly seesawing guy-gal...
Twenty-year-old aspiring guitar maker Allen Pegues recalls his high school days. "I was all about buyin' me some beer," he says. "That's what I did." Pegues lives near downtown in a neighborhood peopled by crack dealers, whores and kids wielding oversize bikes with bare-rimmed wheels who noisily run over empty...
For Frank Baranowski, the trouble started when he was 8 years old. Until then, Baranowski, the 57-year-old host of KTAR's weekend paranormal showcase "Mysteries Around Us," was just another blue-collar Polish kid growing up in the hayseed town of Michigan City, Indiana. But Baranowski says at the age of 8...
A word of warning, my fellow Arizonans: The Legislature adjourned last month, which means it's high season for fund raising. The next time a candidate comes begging for your hard-earned cash, don't just ask what he or she plans to do, if elected. Ask what he or she plans to...
"Any time you introduce a large body of water into an art museum, it's a little hair-raising," Heather Lineberry, senior curator at ASU Art Museum, confides with a nervous laugh. Lineberry is making uneasy reference to an expansive, 19-by-22-foot reflecting pool brimming with several inches of water, which was recently...
The driver at the Burbank International Airport opens the rear door to his cab and I hop in. He slides into the front seat, puts it into gear and pulls out. Moving toward the airport exit, I tell him the name of my hotel. We turn north and roll toward...
For the record, the members of Death Takes a Holiday don't worship the devil, though you might be confused if you've only caught one of the group's frenetic live performances. Onstage, the band rocks with a ferocity that would make Lucifer beam and bang his head. The band pumps out...
Joe's Real Barbecue, Arizona Barbecue Cafe & Market, 301 North Gilbert Road, Gilbert, 480-503-3805. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Barbecue is a boy thing, my companion wants me to know. After all, it involves great...
