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Janet Napolitano Pulls a Switcheroo on the Pro-Immigrant Crowd, Arpaio Scores a Latina Judge’s Recusal, plus Swastikas in Fountain Hills

287(G) BOOS You'd have to mine Davy Jones' locker to discover the true depth of our Democratic ex-governor's duplicity over the federal government's 287(g) program, the new rules for which were announced with great fanfare by Janet Napolitano's Department of Homeland Security two weeks ago. The press was informed that...
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Things Are Clearing Up at The Japanese Friendship Garden

If you've been to the Ro Ho En Japanese Friendship Garden lately you may have noticed how green it is. No, we're not talking about the vegetation. We're referring to the water in the koi pond. Japanese gardens, even those in Japan, are man-made spaces dependent on delicate water filtration...
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Thomas Files Motion With Court to Order County Leaders Into Mediation

We thought Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas was acting like his teeth had been pulled out in recent letters to the Board of Supervisors suggesting mediation on an intra-county lawsuit. Turns out he's not totally belly-up. After suggesting to county leaders that the best way to resolve their dispute was through...
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Phoenix Symphony Plays the Blues, Arizona Department of Corrections Honcho Charles Ryan Attends Marcia Powell’s Memorial Service, and a Democratic Loser Writes a Book on How to Win

BOCK'S BIG WIN Richard Bock's lounging in the proverbial catbird seat these days, in more ways than one. The über-popular Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives just aired an episode featuring Bock's 12-seat Italian eatery, Giuseppe's, at 28th Street and Indian School Road. Hosted by fun-lovin', spiky-haired personality Guy...
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Revenge of a King Is a Thuggish Hamlet

Okay, seriously: I'm too old and too uncool and, frankly, too white to have enjoyed Black Theatre Troupe's Revenge of a King. Herb Newsome's freaked-out retelling of Hamlet was, in a word, annoying. Yo. The only thing I dislike more than Shakespeare is contemporized Shakespeare, and the only thing I...
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Light-Rail Ridership on Decline; Daily Boardings Dropped in March

Average daily boardings of the Valley's light-rail system dropped in March -- a bad sign with the heat of summer and a substantial fare hike still weeks away.Stats just released by Metro Light Rail estimate that 972,962 riders boarded the system in March. That's an average daily boarding of 31,386...
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Mega Gross Out: Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck

Food poisoning isn't always the unfortunate result of eating at dives. The recent closure of England's famed Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck, run by cutting-edge chef Heston Blumenthal, shows that even the world's poshest dining destinations can have a really bad bout of bad luck. According to CNN, possibly 400 customers...
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Auto Theft Down in Phoenix and Tucson; Arizona DPS Takes Credit

The Arizona Department of Public Safety is taking credit for a decrease in auto thefts in Phoenix and Tucson, saying a smorgasbord of enforcement efforts made the difference. Referring to a report by the National Insurance Crime Bureau that show no Arizona city in the Top 10 auto theft hot spots...
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McDowell Mountain Music Festival: Drum Circles and Tequila Tents

This weekend marks a big occasion for fans of outdoor music festivals and jam-ish bands: the McDowell Mountain Music Festival. The lineup boasts The Flaming Lips, Matisyahu and Michael Franti -- a pretty solid lineup for such a festival (and I didn't even include Hot Tuna). Those artists all lend...
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Idol’s Top 12 Gets a Big, Fat Dose of Faaaaabulousness

Before we get to the nittty-gritty of last night's American Idol Group 2 results show, I just want to take a moment to brag and say that I called it. Yes, I know it wasn't that hard to predict who, out of Tuesday night's group, would get through to the...
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Mondegreen

If your first assumption was that Phoenix alt-rockers Mondegreen came up with their name as some sort of quasi-artsy way of saying "green world," you wouldn't be alone, but you'd be wrong. Despite its vaguely Frenglish vibe, the word "mondegreen" was actually coined by American writer Sylvia Wright in 1954...
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Curtains: David Barker’s Dodging Bullets at ASU Tempe

A theater experience always includes, at a minimum, you and a performer. Ideally, you both emerge transformed. It doesn't get much more perfectly bare-bones than Dodging Bullets, a one-man show by ASU prof and local theater artist David Barker. In 65 minutes on a nearly empty stage, this apparently average...
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Feedback from the Issue of Thursday, July 2, 2009

SO LONG, ROSE An artist whose work you can't pigeonhole: Sad, so sad. I've been a fan of Rose Johnson's work since the mid-'90s, when a friend told me about her. I've always been able to spot her stuff a mile away. I was excited when I was down in...
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Summer Guide: Shaking it Up with Valley Mixologists

When I was young, a drink was just a drink — and the cheaper it was, the better. In those days, the dude who made your drink was a bartender. If you were really desperate (and sometimes I was), you might opt for a frat boy with an empty garbage...
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Ghost to Falco

Eric Crespo was doing fine as the guitarist for Portland, Oregon band Alarmist when he decided to go his own way and start his own one-man band. The result of his brave ways is Ghost to Falco, a passion project that does Portland's booming music scene justice. Crespo's calm but...