Craig Willbanks wants you to know that John McCain--former prisoner of war, current senator, White House aspirant--is a traitor, a liar and a wimp. Willbanks and McCain have never met. The senator probably has never heard of this hunched-over, soft-spoken fellow who served two tours of duty in Vietnam as...
It's early morning at the "Jungle in the Desert," the Combat Railfans' annual New Year's bash, which unfolds along the track southwest of Phoenix. Bacardi Carty, a founder of the fanatical Phoenix-based group, opens a beer for breakfast, the start of a routine day in camp for a Combat Railfan...
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...
Last week, state treasurer Tony West got caught in the Web when the dailies reported he was pimping his corporation commission campaign on his state-sponsored treasurer's office Internet site. The offending statement--"Treasurer West is running for election to the Corporation Commission this year. Click here to visit his campaign web...
Something about Seinfeld unifies people. Just about everybody you meet can carry on a conversation about a favorite episode or two. Sending out your own holiday greetings may remind you of Elaine's X-rated Christmas cards; losing your car in a parking garage may bring to mind that episode. The weirdness...
Shift change, San Ramon Industrial Park. Nogales, Sonora. Tuesday, 4:59 p.m. She wants out, the short, pretty girl in the short, pretty sundress. Out of this factory, out of this city, out of this grind her life has become. Right now, though, just out of this factory will do. Forty...
Jade Palace, 9160 East Shea, Scottsdale, 391-0607. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Ethnic-food fans generally fall into two broad categories. There are the squeamish folks for whom a little authenticity goes a long way. On those rare occasions when they seek an...
The old man who sold paintings of cats in Balboa Park entered San Diego's Mercy Hospital on March 9, 1993. He was dying of congestive heart failure, the result of a heart attack that he'd suffered weeks earlier. Although he was only 61, his years in the park had prematurely...
Defense Motions Zapped Governor J. Fife Symington III's hope of creating a circuslike atmosphere at his criminal trial has been dealt a blow by a series of pretrial rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Roger B. Strand. Strand rejected requests by Symington's defense team to take jurors on a whirlwind...
Not just an artist, mind you, but "The Artist." That's what the 9,000 tickets said. You have to admit, no matter how deep you're into his (His?) music, that's just a little pretentious. "Everybody always asks me what your name is now," said The Artist Who Performed at America West...
Once I escaped the teeming mass of Melrose Place fans in the low bleacher seats and climbed high enough to feel the breeze on my nipples, I got into U2's POPMart phantasmagoria at Sun Devil Stadium, May 9, a lot more than I thought I would. Turning all the spotlights...
The new collection Songs of Janis Joplin: Blues Down Deep is merely the latest in a series of outrages foisted upon a gullible public by the House of Blues, a nightclub chain and music label that seems to think we were all born yesterday; but for sheer chutzpah, it may...
Grrls and boyz, we have a winner. Well, 13 winners. One each for the 12 genre-specific categories in the second annual New Times Music Awards Showcase, plus Yoko Love, write-in victor for "Most Likely to Make It Big." I compliment our readers on their taste, but I think they might...
Fair's fair. A few pages ago, I dissed Rolling Stone for breaking out the Jimi Hendrix comparisons in a recent review of the new Chemical Brothers (no, really). But on the flip side, I have to commend the pop-music mag of record for recognizing home-grown Valley hip-hop DJ Z-Trip in...
Although it took several weeks for news to jump the pond, Sweet front man Brian Connolly died of liver failure last month in Slough, England. Here's why you should care: For better or worse, Connolly was the godfather of glam--the first rock star to put glitter on his face, wear...
Once again, the Valley music scene took it on the chin from the showcase selection committee of the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference. No point in going off about it at length, 'cause it's the same tired story, year after year. There's one new twist for '97--this time...
The Driskill hotel in downtown Austin, Texas, was built in 1884, and, according to the American Registry of Haunted Places, it's infested with ghosts. I stayed at the Driskill for five nights last week during the 11th Annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference, and while I didn't see...
On a one to 10, with half points, here's how the gala debut of Utopia--the first real attempt to translate underground dance culture into a legal, nightclub setting in the Valley--scored in the following critical areas: Music: 9.0 Resident DJ R.C. Lair started spinning around 10 and, intelligently, cast a...
Q: What did the snail say on the turtle's back? A: "Wheeeeeee!" If you were at Hollywood Alley last Saturday night (January 18), you probably heard Les Payne Project guitarist James Karnes tell that one. I was, and I did. And I'm glad for it, because I also heard Karnes...
Al Amir, 8989 East Via Linda, Scottsdale, 661-1137. Hours: Lunch and Dinner, Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; closed Sunday. The Middle East is a bubbling caldron of conflict. The region always seems on the verge of...
Curious, this half-page ad for upcoming shows at the downtown Manhattan venue Irving Plaza that ran in the club section of last week's Village Voice. Curious not only because it advertises a super-rare live show by underground heroes S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death)--headlining a bill that also includes Biohazard and Unsane...
Henry Rollins Electric Ballroom November 16, 1996 Damn. I wanted to rip into Henry Rollins so bad I could taste a bloody scrap of his black Gap tee shirt on my tongue. Power Book ad-posing, 7-Eleven coffee-chugging, "Baretta" guy in better days, stunt-double-looking, Charles Bukowski rip-off bad haiku writing, underground...
