Marla Wing begins talking before we actually meet. She comes huffing up the stairs at Nixon’s Lounge, trailing scraps of paper and shiny pamphlets that sneak out from the pile of mangled folders she’s got clutched to her chest. We settle into an upstairs booth, and, surrounded by the bar’s…
Like Clint Eastwood, Robert De Niro is one of those guys who can make just about any material inherently enjoyable. Also like Clint, he will sometimes make you wish he’d pick roles that are a little more challenging. His recent record of relatively disposable films speaks for itself: Tough-yet-sensitive cop…
To misappropriate a choice comment from TV journalist turned music-biz impresario Tony Wilson, I’ll just say, “Ian Curtis.” If you know what I mean, great; if you don’t, it doesn’t matter, but you should probably read more. That is, one need not be a fan of the late Ian Curtis,…
Even though he’s reached the rung of success where he could call all the shots, Jay Mohr still gives the people what they want. What the people want, of course, is Christopher Walken. “He has to come out,” the comedian says of his most illustrious impersonation, sure to hit the…
It’s hard to fathom that it’s been a year since that clear blue morning on the East Coast when everything changed. It’s also hard to forget, given that every media outlet in America is trying to outdo the competition with so-called commemorations. In these weird times, we’re fortunate to have…
I hesitate to expect too much from any theater season, but the upcoming calendar of plays and musicals certainly looks more interesting than the last several have. This season, old Will is hotter than ever, and there are more musical tributes than you can shake a baton at. If there…
When Robin Williams was America’s favorite funnyman in films like Mrs. Doubtfire, it always felt a little strange admitting that the guy seemed kinda creepy. When he “got serious” in irritating tear-jerkers like Hook and What Dreams May Come, it was certainly in vogue to proclaim him annoying, but few…
If you’re looking for a horror film to revitalize the genre, keep looking. If you’re looking for a horror movie with believable characters . . . yes, you’re gonna have to keep looking. But if sudden loud noises, relentless strobe lights, digital hallucinations and mutilated corpses make you jump, and…
The Valley’s newest movie theater is coming out swinging. It’s cocked and loaded. Starting the weekend off with a bang. Last week, Chandler’s Madstone Theaters celebrated its grand opening with three days of free screenings. This weekend, that spirit of generosity and, ahem, sharing continues. On Friday, the theater hosts…
Matt Smith is praying. The waiter at DJ’s, an Old Town Scottsdale bar that serves darn good burgers and even better kamikazes, has just dropped off Smith’s chicken sandwich, and now — like every good Catholic boy — he’s bowing his head and clasping his hands and muttering quietly to…
Two weeks along, the theater season is already shaping up to be the finest in years. Three of our smaller companies have weighed in with real contenders: The Last Wallace & Ladmo Show has filled Theater Works’ stage with more Equity actors than it hosted all last year. And Is…
The Valley is teeming with unsung comedic talent, like the huckster satirists who staked “Vote Mormon” signs next to Matt Salmon’s gubernatorial street corner ads and “Vote Gay” next to Janet Napolitano’s. All these anonymous jolly-makers and piss-takers oughta be lining up to compete in the Funniest Person in the…
Michael Crow has arrived. The former executive vice provost and science policy expert from Columbia University is now Arizona State University’s new president. Crow doesn’t mind discussing his successes in stuffing Columbia’s coffers (the college consistently ranked first or second among all U.S. universities in income from patent and license…
Things you will learn from a forthcoming oral history of Saturday Night Live: Dan Aykroyd slept with, among others, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman and writer Rosie Shuster, the latter of whom was, at the time, married to the show’s producer and creator, Lorne Michaels. To this day, Chevy Chase regrets…
Color me surprised. An upstart theater company has kicked off the new season with a real long shot: an out-of-the-box smash delivered by a stageful of amateurs and first-timers. Is What It Is Theater’s production of Studs Terkel’s Working shouldn’t work at all. This company had never produced a musical,…
Andrew Niccol keeps making the same movie over and over again, dressing it in slightly different clothes: the sleek charcoal Hugo Boss grays of Gattaca, the crisp Crayola hues of The Truman Show and, now, the silk-and-satin Hollywood resplendency of Simone. Niccol, writer and director, is obsessed with a single…
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Citizen-soldiers eager to renew hostilities in the American culture wars can shoot a couple of spitballs at each other this week over Little Secrets, a teen-anxiety movie that leaves no doubt where it stands on “family values” and moral absolutes: It approves. The shock troops of the Cinema Without Limits…
What Latin phenomenon combines sex appeal with cultural tradition, gets parties grooving, and makes your thighs burn? No, not Ricky Martin. It’s the salsa, and it’s spicing up Sunday nights in Tempe — and proving that the Valley’s club scene isn’t as segregated as is commonly thought. Hundreds of young…
Moviegoers wanting to see the latest summer blockbuster will have no trouble finding a giant local multiplex offering dozens of Hollywood hits — they’re liberally scattered across the Valley. But for those who seek out independent, foreign and classic films — cinema that doesn’t have to be obscure — options…
Deborah Hopkins, curator of exhibitions at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, likes art that “gets out of the frame and jumps off the pedestal” — an apt way to describe the works in “Thin Skin” (known to many of us as “the bubble show”), on view at the museum…
I nearly drive my car straight into Portland’s, the downtown bar and restaurant where I’ve arranged to meet local craftsman Jim Bell. My near crash is caused by the scary tangle of life-size mannequins hanging out of an oddball vehicle (Bell tells me later it’s a three-quarter-ton 1952 Dodge M-27…
