It's impossible to talk about The Ringer, a comedy about someone pretending to be retarded in order to rig the Special Olympics, without mentioning that episode of South Park in which Cartman does the same thing. The Ringer was already in production when that episode was made, and has taken...
SWWF RampageThere was nothing good on television the other night, so we started surfing through all 550 channels of dreck until the sight of some skinny teenagers smacking each other around with kendo sticks caught our eye. It looked like an episode of Viva La Bam, but it turns out we had just tuned to local […]
SAT 8/27Quickly, we must flee! Ginormous mutated creatures are preparing to annihilate The Sets, 93 East Southern in Tempe, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 27. These death-bringers will include the demonic simian Hell Monkey and the soup-can-clad martial artist Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle. Surely, we are doomed! Oh, wait, it's only...
THU 6/30"Chunks of Fried Funk" might sound like a bad school cafeteria lunch, but techno-haters and hip-hop junkies love the mystery meat packed into this sonic casserole of electrobreaks, hip-hop, "nu skool," funk and "ghetto stylez." The weekly DJ night at Ichiban Sushi Bar, 1435 East University Drive in Tempe,...
What do you call a guy who's old enough to remember "when Andre the Giant was skinny," but still puts on stage makeup and sings in a heavy-metal band? Prophet, of course. He's the ringleader of local "carnimetal" band St. Madness. And he's stoked because he and his bandmates --...
MON 6/20Vince McMahon has no shame. Throughout the existence of World Wrestling Entertainment (and its previous incarnations), the pompous promoter has created controversial characters to draw attention to his brand of sports entertainment. Among the many "heels" (or bad guys) Vinnie Mac has conjured over the years, none has been...
THU 19 Try as you may, you can't have a social life through osmosis, introvert. But you can celebrate plant life on Thursday, May 19, by visiting Objects Gallery at Biltmore Fashion Park, 24th Street and Camelback, where Craig Pearson and Potheads International host "Tropical." The event kicks off a...
SAT 3/26 If your heart goes fluttery at the scent of dusty blue chalk, and beats to the cracking sound of a cue ball barreling through a triangle of solids and stripes, then you need to see how it's done "Sledgehammer" and "Assassin"-style at the Women's Pro Shootout, Saturday, March...
FRI 3/18 "The Moog," as it's known among musical types, is the indispensable electronic synthesizer that has pioneered both mainstream and independent music movements over the past 40 years. It also happens to be one of the most criminally mispronounced names in the history of popular culture (correct pronunciation rhymes...
TUE 12/28 These Beavers are anything but sloppy. Sure, Oregon State started the 2004 season by posting a dismal 1-4 record (including getting walloped 49-7 by Cal-Berkeley in October), but head coach Mike Riley turned the team's fortunes around, and OSU won five of the next six and clinched a...
Impact Zone Wrestling at The SetsThe world of wrestling — um, we mean sports entertainment — is not unlike the realm of baseball, at least when it comes to tapping new blood. Each has its own version of the big time (World Wrestling Entertainment and Major League Baseball) and an underlying stratum of regional farm clubs serving as a training […]
Impact Zone Wrestling at The SetsThe world of wrestling — um, we mean sports entertainment — is not unlike the realm of baseball, at least when it comes to tapping new blood. Each has its own version of the big time (World Wrestling Entertainment and Major League Baseball) and an underlying stratum of regional farm clubs serving as a training […]
It's a fine Tuesday night in the Zona, and Saddam Hussein's chrome-dome, um, brother-in-law Sheik Samir Hussein is getting his ass beat down by a big-assed Catholic priest in a dog collar known as Father Punishment. The shirtless Sheik had come into the rasslin' ring at The Sets in Tempe,...
Tue 9/21 Rasslin' just ain't what it used to be. Ever since The Rock became the Scorpion King of Hollywood and Steve Austin got "stone cold" feet and quit the biz, most fans have tended to come dressed as chairs at World Wrestling Entertainment events across the country. Whenever Vince...
Troy Tinker sounds exasperated as he explains why the World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions Tour would be of interest to discerning hipsters. It's almost as if his horse sense was tingling, anticipating the question before it was asked. "I know where this is going," says Tinker, the emcee of the show...
Although most people in the moviegoing universe by now know the differences between an "Alien" and a "Predator," putting the two critters together in one movie really ought to necessitate more specific species names for each, since both are technically aliens and predators (they're from outer space and they hunt...
Nate Adams blasts the engine of his Yamaha YZ 250 motorbike to nearly 10,000 RPMs, assaulting spectators with a machine-gun-like staccato and fresh dirt, which explodes from underneath his tires. He launches himself into a death-defying back flip, wraps his legs around his arms above the handlebars in midair, and...
Sat 5/1 In a battle for Valley skateboard supremacy, who's shredding who this Saturday, May 1, when two of the state's newer skate parks -- in Chandler and Glendale -- host their first contests? If you're looking for humility, don't ask CJ Cowie of Industrial Skate & Boards, co-sponsor of...
Before Star Wars and Indiana Jones, audiences thrilled to an epic big-screen trilogy of a different sort: the tale of one righteous lawman and his big piece of wood. Based on the real-life exploits of Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, the first Walking Tall movie (1973) made lead actor Joe Don...
No title at stake. No David-versus-Goliath match-up. No villainous group of gridiron ghouls like the Miami Hurricanes. Still, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl at Sun Devil Stadium on Friday, January 2, has something the other Bowl Championship Series games don't: the Ohio State Buckeyes, the defending national champs of college football...
Back in January of 2003, New Line Cinema released Final Destination 2, a horror movie in which the antagonist was the unseen hand of death itself. All of the main characters knew their time was up, but they didn't know how, or when, so they existed in a constant state...
They call them "Chica Sexy" competitions, and that's exactly what they are -- sexy girl contests, held at Mexican nightclubs. For the best show in town, head to Paraiso, a cavernous club on the west side. Usually, at these contests, anything goes. Bras and panties barely stay on (flashing is...
