Don’t go to the Tempe Improv this weekend expecting old Saturday Night Live bits from comedian Tracy Morgan. And if you’re offended by anything in Morgan’s standup act, don’t you dare go home and diss him on the ‘Net. “I think those people are cowards that get home and get…
Luther “Luke” Campbell’s Web site bio claims that Campbell was the “riveting leader” of 2 Live Crew, the raunchy hip-hop trio that garnered national headlines for its sexually explicit 1989 album As Nasty As They Wanna Be. But Fresh Kid Ice (né Chris Wong Won) claims on his Web site…
8/12-8/27What’s black, white and red all over? A penguin in a blender? A zebra with diaper rash? No, it’s a world-première drama presented by Is What It Is Productions at the Studio One Performing Arts Center, 4520 East Thomas. Black, White and Read All Over is a story that relates…
SAT 8/13When rollerblades exploded into suburbia, they got caught up in the whirlwind of extreme sports, baggy pants, and unintelligible lingo of kids pulling “serious air” off “gnarly half-pipes.” Meanwhile, the general camaraderie and anachronistic charm that went with them were left in the dust. Until, that is, some marketers…
8/13-9/2For five years, Darci Johnson’s reZurrection Gallery has lent a touch of funk and spunk to the downtown Tempe scene. Now, like a phoenix bird in reverse, reZurrection’s doors are closing because of rising rent prices in the area. Johnson plans to take her furnishings and accessories online (at www.rezurrection.com),…
THU 8/11When we tried to call Wammo, co-founder of the wacky, acoustic alterna-swing/blues band Asylum Street Spankers, all we got was the sound of sirens and Wammo screaming, “Oh my God, oh my God, look out!” followed by a beep. We’re glad Wammo’s got a sick sense of humor; otherwise,…
Plenty of things piss me off. Bad grammar. Ugly architecture. Friends who let their dog hump my leg. Weather. People. But the item at the very top of the list of Things That Make Me Want to Kill Myself With an Ax is a simple phrase, one that everyone in…
THU 11 Since Arizona seems to get more transplants than strippers get implants, why not reward out-of-staters for coming to our broiling desert metropolis with some cold, cheap drinks? Every Thursday, Daisy Dukes, 222 East University Drive in Tempe, plays host to “Transplant” — a drinking game that epitomizes random…
Once upon a time, creating an animated film meant drawing and painting each frame individually. Animation was a painstaking, time-consuming process. A few seconds of Bugs Bunny waggling a carrot required hundreds of drawings; a single feature-length film could take years to complete. Then along came computers and animation programs…
There’s no art show more egalitarian than a mail art show. Just make a drawing or painting or collage or mixed-media piece that can be mailed, and you’re in the exhibition. There’s no curator, no jury process, no commercial concerns, no snobbery. There are also no standards, which means there’s…
Late last month, U.S. Immigration Judge John W. Richardson was expected to announce deportation dates for the Wilson Four, the former Wilson Charter High School clique detained in upstate New York while on a 2002 field trip with other classmates. Smarty-pants students Oscar Corona, Jaime Damian, Yuliana Huicochea and Luis…
And so, once more, the googolplex emits the stink of the network rerun, this week offering yet another worthless big-screen take on small-screen detritus. As Hollywood wonders — cries, actually, over spilt spoiled milk — why audiences are staying away from theaters, offering theories ranging from the absence of such…
The contentedly independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has brought his restless energy to a series of surreal road movies that move nicely along on the strength of rare characters, quirky humor, and a willing embrace of chance adventure. These quest stories for hipsters have transported Jarmusch’s fiercely loyal audience from New…
So how about those suburbs, eh? Boy, they sure do suck. All full of bored teens, inattentive parents, alcoholic housewives, middle-aged guys who suddenly realize they’ve been wasting their lives, and lots of mind-numbing psychoactive drugs. Also, people who live there are conformist! Why, someone really oughta make a movie…
Toward the end of Saraband, the uneven new film from legendary director Ingmar Bergman, a character sits down with his daughter, a taut girl who is obviously undergoing emotional distress. “I have the feeling that some sort of discussion is coming on,” he says. Indeed it is — as it…
Even if all you know about lowrider culture is limited to that Burger King drive-through commercial featuring a pair of young white employees pogo-ing to pass off a bag of burgers to a hydraulics-pumping Chevy, and that song by War from 1975, Johnny Lozoya wants you. “A lot of Anglos…
For the three ladies at the helm of local image and styling consulting company Sophistikatz, the grand opening of the Sophistikatz Boutique on Friday, August 5, isn’t just a new notch in the Phoenix fashion scene: It’s a family affair. Business manager Muizzah “Mo” Carman, marketing director Iman Whitmore and…
WED 8/10As an artist who’s been kicking around the Phoenix art scene for more than 20 years, Stephen Michael Barnes has had his fill of noisy Art Detours. “I’ve been to art exhibitions where there’s a lot of wine and cheese and crowds, but you really can’t see the art,”…
TUE 8/9Sammy Hagar’s career spans 30 years, including 10 years with Van Halen. “The Red Rocker’s” biggest solo hit, “I Can’t Drive 55,” was released in 1984, which begs the question: When is he going to update the lyrics to reflect current speed limits? “I changed the song,” Hagar tells…
SAT 8/6If cheering on 60 bowling teams raising money for animal welfare charities sounds like a tame way to spend a day, you haven’t been to the Pets911 Bowl-A-Rama, staging its third annual event Saturday, August 6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the AMF Shea Village Lanes, 10870…
8/5-8/7 Science-fiction conventions attract the city’s geeks and freaks faster than you can say “dungeon master.” The largest gaming convention in Arizona, HexaCon 15, runs the gaming gamut from old-school Dungeons & Dragons adventures to Pokémon and Harry Potter. For a mere $25, wage head-to-head cyber wars, purchase a used…
THU 4 Swedish music exports never go out of style, whether we’re talking old-school staples like ABBA, or new-school buzz bands like the Jessica Fletchers. Another up-and-coming Swedish outfit, Blindside, will play the Abandon Video Benefit Show at the Clubhouse Music Venue, 1320 East Broadway Road in Tempe, on Thursday,…
