It’s time again for local PETA and Gamblers Anonymous hard-liners to start their sniping, ’cause the nags bust down the gates once more on Friday and Saturday, October 5 and 6, during Turf Paradise Opening Weekend. We’re certainly not pro-horse abuse, and we couldn’t care less about your gambling problem…
Texas-based artist Russ Havard is a “landscape painter,” a tired label that normally induces pretentious sneers, but his style is truly the cat’s pajamas, because dude captures depressed and rustic scenes using watercolor and gouache on ill-shaped wood panels. From 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, October 4, the work of…
Free marathon training. A 3.5-mile run/walk. Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter on hand (foot?) modeling peak-performance strategies. It ain’t nothin’ but a pavement-pounding party, y’all, during the SRP/P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon Training Kick-Off for January’s blowout run. Seasoned experts such as Shorter — winner of the 1972…
DJs Sol Martinez and Sonique des Fleurs want you to choose sides. Will it be the funky, down-low rumble of house or the hypnotic drone of electro? Unless you’re seriously trashed, or a neo-Nazi, or a Lawrence Welk fan, you’ve gotta go with house — I mean, come on –…
You’re a cat person or you’re not. Democrats/Republicans, pro-choicers/pro-lifers, there’s some give and take. Not with cats. If you’re anti-mouser, don’t go near Changing Hands Bookstore ’cause author/cartoonist Nicole Hollander is an uncompromising champion of the four-legged furballs. Best known for her syndicated cartoon Sylvia and best-seller 101 Reasons a…
To paraphrase Orwell, some toys are more equal than others. Sure, there’ll be Beanies, Barbies, and Belles up for grabs at the Phoenix Toy Show & Collectors Swap Meet, but this expo is more about way-cool shit like Todd McFarlane/Spawn, Gundam, and anime. Baby boomers can shed nostalgic tears over…
Longtime neighborhood-bar patrons can finally rejoice, because the new downtown gem known as the Ruby Room has expanded its calendar of pleasurable events to include local art, awesome DJs, and talented bands seven nights a week. The good people who brought you the Emerald Lounge have created dive-bar magic once…
During last year’s “Chaos Theory 7” exhibit, we observed two things: Man, that was some stinkin’ good art, and, man, those were some stinkin’ drunk fools. This year’s “Chaos Theory 8” arts blowout on Friday, October 5, at Legend City, 521 West Van Buren Street, will feature kickass work by…
A friend calls the stereotypical Native American art peddled in the Southwest and around the world — normally a large canvas with pastels, a noble Indian on horseback, vast mesas and sands colored by the sun — “blowing hair and feathers.” This played-out label leads to two questions. First, “Why…
Famed tax resister and naturalist Henry David Thoreau once said, “Blessed are they who never read a newspaper, for they shall see Nature, and, through her, God.” Oops. Too late for that. However, you can redeem yourself in His eyes by checking out Carrie Marill’s “Dirty Birdy” exhibit. Marill, a…
He’s dead, so the closest you’ll get to a Freddie Mercury concert these days is one of the several Freddie-tribute shows currently trekking the globe. The most popular of them, Queen: It’s a Kinda Magic, will bring with it your favorite Queen tunes faked up real nice by sound-alikes for…
Our Nana Giles was somewhat prickly, but a few frothy beers and she’d be pulling polka moves with her little dog Liebchen over her head. That’s the power of Oktoberfest: big steins, bigger bratwurst, and the biggest lederhosen. Mein Gott! On Friday, October 5, you and your Kuschelbär can test…
Redneck, white, and blue? AZ’s largest GLBT fest is not for you. Redneck freaks will no doubt be in a lather about all o’ “them gays” congregatin’ yonder in downtown Phoenix for this year’s free Rainbows Festival, but let’s hope more open-minded folks decide to drop by, ´cause it’s always…
Many people — mostly Californians who we wish would move back to California — bitch and moan that Phoenix is a stagnant pool of algae, artistically speaking. We can’t argue with that, so when something like the Scottsdale Film Festival comes along to stir up the scum, please quit your…
Why are Americans so obsessed with individuality? Perhaps because we have a dismal track record with groups. Think Heaven’s Gate. The Arizona Cardinals. OJ’s first jury. Printmaker and curator Camilla Taylor knows firsthand that coordinating a group isn’t easy, especially when they’re all artists. “It’s always torture to get people…
We’ll start out this Phoenix Coyotes piece with some promises. First, we won’t slam last year’s playoff-missing squad for its lack of fire. Next, we won’t declare that the gambling addictions — er, alleged addictions — of Rick Tocchet and Wayne Gretzky’s wifey, Janet Jones, were a contributing factor to…
Famous people from South Dakota: Tom Brokaw. Mamie Van-Doren. Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. The rock-head presidents at Mount Rushmore. Almost-famous people from South Dakota: Nick Thomas and The Spill Canvas. The band started life as Thomas’ alt-folk solo act, which fell somewhere between James Blunt and a Greenwich Village…
The current administration creates dissension among Americans by closing our borders, upholding archaic marriage laws, and warmongering. Is that funny? It’s an effing gold mine if you’re the brilliant Moz Jobrani, Ahmed Ahmed, and Aron Kader. These hyphen-American comedians call themselves the Axis of Evil, and they’ve clawed their way…
As You Like It (HBO) Babel: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition (Paramount Vantage) Broken (Weinstein) The Bronx Is Burning (ESPN) Building Bombs (New Video Group) Chalk (Arts Alliance America) Cinema 16: European Short Films (Warp) Cujo: 25th Anniversary Edition (Lionsgate) Davey and Goliath: The Lost Episodes (Starlight) Drawn Together: Season Two (Paramount)…
Given his name (not to mention his memorably lilting speaking voice), how could Oliver Wadsworth be anything but an actor? Here, The Lieutenant of Inishmore’s star explains his connection to crack dens, Matthew Wiener, and certain root vegetables. I knew I wanted to be in show business when I was…
To some, the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless, the 24-year-old Emory University graduate who starved to death in the Alaskan wilderness in the spring of 1992, will never be anything more than a case of a spoiled bourgeois brat with half-cocked survivalist fantasies (and possible suicidal tendencies) who ran away…
After Hair, Hairspray, and the mass marketing of tie-dye, can the ’60s be shrunk to fit any further? Yes, indeed, here comes Julie Taymor to run the revolutions of sex, class, and race through the PG-13 sieve. Not that one turns to musicals for deep thought, but John Waters at…
