Man Down Children should be seen and not heard: I have a hard time believing that something like this can go on in America ("Lost Hope," Amy Silverman, August 22)! This is disgraceful. Paul Hewitson's daughter should be put in jail, but not before she pays him all the money...
It's been three weeks since the artist currently known as Prince helped to christen the Dodge Theatre with a show that left the sellout crowd, well, enraptured. The three-hour performance by Prince and his band -- which included inimitable alto saxophonist Maceo Parker of peak James Brown fame -- was...
Driving up the Seventh Street exit ramp from I-10 West, there is a sign with a white arrow, pointing you south. It reads: "Cultural/Sports Facilities." While the words may seem at odds with each other, the curators of the downtown Phoenix arts community want to show you otherwise. In the...
Lucy didn't pay $1,200 and fly across the country just to watch naked strangers in cowboy hats probe their anuses. A widow and business owner from the Deep South, Lucy says that, since her husband's death, she has been fascinated with spirituality and is intent on exploring a variety of...
In a culture so besieged by the conflict between art and commerce, it's perhaps natural that the use of pop idioms is disparaged by the critical elite, anxious to protect their canon from dilution. Charlie Hunter has dodged such dismissive darts aimed at his eclectic jazz treatments, which have spanned...
Wandering through a Riverside, California, thrift store with her sister, Amy Knox stopped to shuffle through a bowl of assorted photographs from years gone by. As she looked at the faded images of nameless people, of forgotten lives captured in an instant, something nearby caught her eye.An open, antique book...
You're in the check-out line at the supermarket. There are two TV Guides with Michael Jackson on the cover; which Michael do you buy? The nappy-haired 13-year-old from Gary, Indiana, who launched his solo career 30 years ago with "Got to Be There" or the 43-year-old from Neverland Valley who...
When you were a kid, and you went to see a magic show, which kind of viewer were you: The one who got utterly swept away and believed that those doves appeared from nowhere, or the one who sat with furrowed brow, trying to figure out how the trick was...
Given rock's smutty half-century, it's a wonder that The Mammoth Book of Sex, Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll (Carroll and Graf), edited by Jim Driver, is only 600 pages long. Fortunately, the British collection passes on the well-known shock fodder by stateside writers and shovels up a pile of lesser-known...
Quick, name your favorite indoor arena. How about a midsize theater you'd frequent weekly regardless of what bands were on the bill? Now name the best stadium or sports complex to see a concert. Having trouble? That's because concert ticket prices are too high to venture out even monthly and...
Scott McCaughey just might be the busiest man in rock 'n' roll. Since 1994, McCaughey's "day job" has been playing guitar, bass and keyboards, both live and in the studio, as a hired member of R.E.M. The year before, McCaughey had started a music collective he dubbed the Minus 5...
The arsonist remembers the day it began. He was mountain biking when he first considered burning down somebody's house. He had no prior experience with arson, he says. "Hell no," he exclaims, somewhat offended at the very idea. "I had never committed a crime, period." And why would he? He...
This book . . . she's so hea-veeeeee! Numerous sittings with this coffee-table tome have resulted in either my arms becoming numb, my chest getting pins and needles or my lap falling asleep. Sure, I'm getting old -- we all are. And no one's getting older than the surviving Beatles...
The frantic call came at 5:36 a.m. on September 24, 1999. "Hurry, hurry! My wife is bruised everywhere! I don't know what's going on!" Brian Eftenoff shouted into the phone. A 911 operator listened as he pleaded with Judi, his 30-year-old wife and mother of their two young children. "Baby,...
On a crowded bus in Buenos Aires, a gaggle of teenage girls huddle in the back, giggling and gossiping as teenage girls everywhere do. Their exuberant youth was too much for a cynic in his early 20s, who stood clutching a pole in the aisle. He couldn't resist baiting the...
When Tucson musician Rainer Ptacek died at the age of 46 on November 12, 1997, he left behind more than a wife and kids and an international community of grieving friends and fans. Rainer -- stricken by an abrupt seizure one February morning in 1996 while riding his bicycle to...
Summer comes with the cultural expectation that the farther you travel, the better the art gets. Mexico City, New York, Europe and Asia prove that equation. But cultural tourism in Phoenix's west side remains a mystifying exception.That's partly why "Three Generations of Great Masters of Mexican Painting," at ASU West,...
The early evening has left the McDonald's lobby somewhat vacant. A few patrons are finishing their meals while others are working on a post-meal ice cream cone. A customer comes into the restaurant and approaches Admir Lejlic, the first assistant manager. The customer is complaining about the lack of attention...
Gumbo loves slamming pud jazz wanna-bes and goo-heavy R&B warblers. But my insensitive editor stubbornly refuses to allot me an extra page for diatribes on, say, how stupid it is to categorize Sade as jazz. Gumbo has, however, been granted an additional 17 syllables, used below to convey a haiku...
In the wee hours of June 17, 1972, G. Gordon Liddy slipped into his bedroom and undressed quietly in the dark, hoping not to wake his wife, Frances. "Is that you?" Frances asked, as Liddy would recall years later in his autobiography, Will. "Yes." ". . . Anything wrong?" "There...
Cheri Jarvis raced to the emergency room, afraid. "When I arrived at the hospital, I did not even recognize my son. He was covered in blood and his head was swollen and his nose was everywhere on his face. He had so much blood caked on his teeth and mouth...
Cyber Nemeses Sheriff Joke Arpaio has a new arch enemy -- a Web site, www.arpaio.com. Its raison d'etre? Ridicule of the Crime Avenger. A home page introduction informs surfers: "This site is dedicated to the men and women of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office whom [sic] have been victimized by...
