Arts & Culture

Thursday, October 23Familiar with the mood-enhancing, color-changing wall behind the bar at SIX? Now the sleek Scottsdale lounge takes the transformation several steps further, with a refreshing new addition to Scottsdale nightlife: Mint. Every Thursday, SIX’s cozy decor is radically altered with all-white draperies, cabanas and sheer curtains illuminated by…

Something’s bubbling up from the performance arts underground — ¡Teatro Caliente!, an intercultural theater festival that makes its debut this weekend. It’s an idea that’s been brewing for a long time with Chris Danowski, artistic director of the event and alternative theater group Theater in My Basement. “Actually, it started…

Sat 10/25 For all of you Peeping and would-be Peeping Toms, The Roosevelt Historic District is offering the perfect way to peep without getting slapped with jail time. TourFest, a guided tour of more than 20 houses, lofts and businesses, allows a rare view into buildings that date back to…

Sat 10/25 It’s the State Fair’s most gripping entertainment — hands-down. On Saturday, October 25, “the Super Bowl of Arm Wrestling” — i.e. Armwrestling USA’s United States Championships — pits competitors from across the country against feisty fairgoers wanting to elbow their way into the action. The culmination of a…

10/25-10/26 In a rather calculated move, Phoenix Theatre’s Cookie Company is setting math to music. The children’s theater troupe opens its season this weekend by Taking the Wrath Out of Math. The new play’s grade-school heroine learns — with a little singing and dancing along the way — that (ugh!)…

Sat 10/25 If your closet looks like the wardrobe vault from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, we recommend flaunting it at Halloween Bash 2. Hosted by the Greater Phoenix Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, the bash is open to all — gay, straight, even Republican. “Halloween…

10/23-10/26 Darkness falls across the land/ The midnight hour is close at hand/ Creatures crawl in search of blood/ To terrorize yawl’s neighborhood . . . Michael Jackson — not just the king of pop, but also the king of freaky — isn’t the only one with the 411 on…

Imagine a placid lake reflecting a cloudless sky. Now take a deep breath as a boat sails into view, and hold your breath for a count of five — the exact time it takes for the 5,000 horsepower top fuel drag boat to scream down the liquid quarter mile. This…

Like a lot of tract homes in Sun City, Stanley Lescewicz’s house is littered with Hummel figurines and cute snow globes and framed photos of a dozen different grandkids. But Stanley — or Nasty Stanley, as he likes to be called — has something none of his oldster pals can…

Eastern Youth’s music is so powerful that it doesn’t matter that the Tokyo band’s full-length American debut, What Can You See From Your Place, is sung entirely in Japanese. Language barriers haven’t stopped the likes of At the Drive-In, the Murder City Devils and No Knife from touring with the…

Thursday, October 16 While the gallery scene in Scottsdale covers all the bases of contemporary art, Western subject matter still has a mighty stronghold in “The West’s Most Western Town.” See the latest creative take on cowboy art from supporters of this all-American genre when The Scottsdale Gallery Association presents…

He may be a comedy legend, but Tim Conway knows that the humor business — and his place in it — aren’t to be taken seriously. Though he rode the fame wave on The Carol Burnett Show, not all of Conway’s projects have been successful. He recently spotted a cable…

10/17-11/16 The 38th Annual Cowboy Artists of America Sale kicks off its boots on Friday, October 17, at the Phoenix Art Museum. For a mere $200, you can rub elbows with some of the most notable art collectors in the state. But if $200 has you cringing, you can attend…

Sat 10/18 Hunched over your Cheerios in the morning, staring at the 2 percent milk, ever find yourself thinking, “I could build a boat out of this here milk carton . . .”? Us neither. But some brainiac in Seattle did, and the city now hosts an annual milk carton…