THU 27 This ain’t no flashdance, bub. Sure, the lively choreography, attractive young dancers, and multimedia that Casey Blake incorporates as part of his the eyes of the i’s dance piece in New Danceworks II, the ASU Dance Department’s latest recital, might lead you to believe you’re sleazing it up…
“We didn’t play cowboys and Indians as kids,” explains my pal Sean, a hulking, six-foot-two-inch Navajo who weighs upward of 290 pounds. “Really?” I ask him, as we both stand together at the Mesa Pow Wow on a sunny Saturday afternoon — both extremely tired, and both hung over from…
When did we first encounter a feel-good film that united delinquent kids, a devoted (if professionally frustrated) teacher, and the transformative power of music? Was it Julie Andrews? Could it have been the spirited, softhearted Maria and her Austrian brood, trilling their way up the hills above the abbey? If…
FRI 1/28 So when, exactly, is local filmmaker Zachary Yoshioka going to get the fuck out of the Valley? Don’t get us wrong: The local film scene needs plenty of young talent if it hopes to amount to anything. But with 15 films and a few music videos under his…
SAT 1/29 Sometimes, the best way to reconnect with that estranged boyfriend or girlfriend is to pretend like you don’t know them. You know, arrive at the bar separately, talk like you’ve never met before, and then go home for the “make-up lovin’.” Cone Gallery, 1324 Grand Avenue, takes this…
Actors Theatre has struck pay dirt with Nickel and Dimed, playwright Joan Holden’s comic adaptation of Barbara Ehrenreich’s nonfiction best seller Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, in which noted author and activist Ehrenreich went undercover as a minimum-wage earner to write about how the working poor…
In her first stab at narrative drama, writer-director Shainee Gabel has managed to assemble a superstar cast and a seasoned technical team. She spent five years on the project, adapting an unpublished novel written by the father of a friend, working with a clarity of vision and an admirable goal:…
Some people think they’re a new art form; others see them as adolescent time-killers. Whatever they are, video games don’t make good models for feature films (mostly because their interactive essence is lost), and their clumsy transfer to the big screen continues to invite all kinds of speculation — not…
Rennie Harris doesn’t mind if you use a superlative or two to describe the funkdafied hip-hop and b-boy style his Puremovement dance company will bust out at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts this weekend. After all, he’s heard them all before: dazzling, dynamic, inspiring, compelling . . . the…
What you see isn’t necessarily what you get in “Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life,” opening at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday, January 29. Rather than reflecting human experience and emotion in a concrete sense, the way paintings or sculptures do, the show is more like a…
1/31-2/6 In years past, the FBR (formerly Phoenix) Open was best known for bringing a much-needed dose of fun to the often staid and stuffy world of professional golf. And while the frat-party mentality that once ruled the 16th hole may have mellowed (a bit), there is little doubt that…
THU 1/27 Where have all the heroes gone? Sure, today’s pop culture heroes deserve some props. (Just how many bullets has 50 Cent taken and survived?) But for hard-core heroism, we must hark back to the 1800s, and people such as Harriet Tubman, who braved the severest of penalties –…
It’s the third week of January. By now, if you’re like everyone else we know, you’ve broken your New Year’s resolution — popped that Vicodin, lost your gym membership card, hit the drive-through at Jack in the Box. We know a guy who resolved not to make any resolutions –…
“Brian Alfred: The Future Is Now!” at the Phoenix Art Museum: New York-based artist Brian Alfred ponders corporate culture and rampant industrialization in his latest exhibition. Although Alfred’s retro-futuristic paintings and collages emphasize society’s fascination with the digital age and subsequent sensory overload, his collection of work is surprisingly sensory-friendly…
THU 20 Hail to the king, baby. Despite the lion’s share of controversy that has dogged Simba and company ever since they hit the silver screen more than a decade ago — including charges of gender stereotype reinforcement, plagiarism, and the sexual orientation of Scar — we’re going to adopt…
“Do you really think these girls are gonna kick your ass?” asks The Baron, as we make our way toward The Rogue in Scottsdale, already three hours late for the Renegade Roller Girls’ costume party. “I think they might,” I tell my friend, whose real name is Brian, but who…
It’s been three weeks since your New Year’s resolutions should have kicked in, and you’re still working your way through that box of peppermint bark in the freezer. You’ve decided that the minute you run out of eggnog, you’ll really get going on eating right. And why waste a good…
Jules Demetrius, 35, agitprop maestro, poet-sledgehammer on the mic, is well-known to those in the know, whether it be from his live art and madcap MC-ships at the Priceless Inn’s Blunt Club, or from his incendiary imagery of doped-up housewives, starving children, pedophile priests, and pissed-off Iraqis. A member of…
You have to hand it to Sean Penn. Okay, you don’t absolutely have to, and if you’re a Red Stater through and through, you certainly won’t want to, but give him some credit. After being pilloried in the press for visiting Iraq under Saddam Hussein’s reign, torn apart by housecats…
SAT 1/22 Face facts, football fanatics — true gridiron glory isn’t found in some climate-controlled arena, but rather amidst the grass and mud of an outdoor field. So instead of watching the Arizona Rattlers fumble away yet another championship this spring, check out the Copperstate Football League, which kicks off…
Assault on Precinct 13, the sluggish remake of John Carpenter’s grungy 1976 movie of the same name, begins with a bang to which it never lives up. In a smoky den of all manner of iniquity, Ethan Hawke’s trying to close a drug deal. With his girl splayed out on…
“24 hours. 350 miles. His girlfriend’s kids. What could possibly go wrong?” In the case of Are We There Yet?, here’s the short answer: a flaccid screenplay, bratty kids stripped of depth and personality, a single joke replayed in every scene, unearned attempts at sentiment, and a bizarrely whitened backdrop,…
