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...
Mesa Public Library 64 East First Street, Mesa 480-644-2702So it doesn’t have five floors and special columns that light up during the summer solstice. We still like going to the Mesa Public Library. It’s got an impressive collection of material, yet it’s small enough to navigate. And it’s got chess sets in the youth area, a bulletin board offering jobs to teens and […]
Mesa Public LibrarySo it doesn’t have five floors and special columns that light up during the summer solstice. We still like going to the Mesa Public Library. It’s got an impressive collection of material, yet it’s small enough to navigate. And it’s got chess sets in the youth area, a bulletin board offering jobs to teens and […]
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...
On game day, Randy Johnson's face has more sharp angles than a Picasso painting. He's built like the Fahrvergnugen man, sticklike arms and legs attached to a big triangle of a chest. He walks to the mound with a bouncing, stiff-legged, redneck gait. He puts his glove to his face,...
A rusty sign reading "Cactus Garage" marks the only remnant of what was once Cactus, Arizona. Make that one of two remnants. Eighty-year-old desert rat Larry Jany is the oldest resident of Cactus, which sprang up as a stagecoach stop between Cave Creek and Phoenix. When Jany moved here 50...
"You know, the negative stuff we're not really talking about," says an MCA Records PR flack prior to connecting me with Tommy Lee. "We are primarily focusing on Methods of Mayhem; the shows, the new record, Tommy and what he's worked for this record and what he's been through as...
More than halfway through what he hoped would be a long career in the military, an Arizona Air National Guard member we'll call Joe is struggling to decide whether to take a mandatory shot he believes could endanger his health. The Pentagon says Joe and the other 2.4 million members...
Book Notes: A new restaurant guidebook should be hitting the stores any time now: 100 Best Restaurants in Arizona, 2000-2001, by Harry and Trudy Plate (Kelton Publishing, $9.95). The guide has appeared biennially since 1977. The current edition should make a decent stocking stuffer, if you're interested in an undemanding...
