The Kingdom is the first film from Peter Berg since the actor-turned-director’s Friday Night Lights, which spawned an acclaimed, if struggling, franchise for NBC. There will be no small-screen spin-off of The Kingdom — there are too many corpses lying around to populate a sequel, much less a series. Besides,…
Fifteen minutes after the curtain went up on Actors Theatre’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, two audience members ran for the exits. Ten minutes later, five others got up to go. A little while later, four more left — one of them nearly breaking my foot as she tromped out of…
Diet! The Musical: Like nose hair or the flu, it’s back to trouble us again. This mean-spirited, barely entertaining horror show of a “musical” stops just short of Elephant Annie jokes in an attempt to titillate an audience opposed to avoirdupois. Tunes include “Am I Fat?,” “Twenty Points a Day,”…
In terms of the yawning chasm between what was promised and what has been delivered, Lair earns the distinction of being the biggest letdown ever for PlayStation 3. Worse, it’s also one of those games where massive prerelease hype merely ended up underscoring its flaws, transmogrifying a game that would’ve…
Knocked Up (Universal) Apparently, as Judd Apatow was making Knocked Up, he was also prepping for its DVD release, as most of the bonuses here were shot during breaks on location. And they’re no small treats, either — finally, here’s a “collector’s edition” worthy of the moniker. Chief among the…
So here’s this Arab actor talking to me in Hebrew about his role as a Saudi soldier in Peter Berg’s The Kingdom — which ought to be enough cultural confusion to throw anyone, let alone someone just cruising onto the radar of an industry not known for casting Middle Eastern…
Ray Karam is trademarked. At least, his title is. As tastemaster for Cold Stone Creamery, this guy takes his frozen treats seriously. Cold Stone is headquartered in Scottsdale, with more than 1,400 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan. That’s a lot of ice cream…
In the concierge business, you’re only as good as your Rolodex — and Judy Kabler’s the best. As the pleaser in charge for the Valley Ho, Kabler is charged with keeping well-to-do scenesters snug as bugs in rugs — or, rather, snug in their mod-with-a-nod-to-vintage rooms at the ’50s-era hotel…
Divine Essence is never at a loss for words. The poet and spoken-word artist has been performing around the Valley for more than five years, and hosting open mic nights since 2002, when she started a regular spoken-word shindig at Livingston’s soul food restaurant in Scottsdale. When Livingston’s closed, Divine…
Sloane McFarland is not usually a man of so few words (he passed on several of our scintillating fill-in-the blanks), but he’s certainly a guy of many actions. Whether he’s making art or developing buildings, McFarland comes at it from the heart, and our city’s the better for knowing him…
She plays with rickrack. He plays with clay. And they make a living. Don’t you hate them? Then you must not know Cyndi Coon and Jeremy Briddell, the artists who make up Laboratory 5. It sounds so mysterious, but Lab 5 (www.lab5shop.com and www.laboratory5.com) is really just the showplace for…
When Tony Carrillo started his comic strip, F Minus, as an undergrad at Arizona State University, he was just looking for a way to make some extra cash. As a fine arts student, he certainly never thought he’d wind up cracking jokes for a living. But within a year of…
Eric Byrnes, 31, ain’t gonna have to worry about being poor anytime soon. The lively and spirited left fielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks just signed a three-year, $30 million contract extension with the team, meaning D-Backs fans can look forward to his antics both on and off the baseball diamond…
As a principal with Ballet Arizona, Michelle Mahowald has performed solo in Swan Lake and Coppelia, and originated a role in director Ib Andersen’s Play. But for our ticket money, the sweetest role in ballet is the one she performed last year, as the Sugar Plum Fairy in Andersen’s take…
Sam Pewitt doesn’t look anything like White Goodman (Ben Stiller’s character in the 2004 movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) but he cares about the sport with the same intensity. A Scottsdale businessman by day, Pewitt spends his nights and weekends playing a game most people haven’t thought about since…
If you get a chance to see Axé Capoeira Arizona perform, take it. Because there’s no way to do this group — or its art form — justice with words. Capoeira is described as a Brazilian-Afro art form, incorporating movement, music, and culture. See? Hard to get a visual. Another…
Impeccable taste comes naturally to David Sheflin. As owner of Vintage Fashion Inc., he’s built an elite clientele eager to snatch up his high-end designer finds — anything from pristine Pucci to vintage Von Furstenburg to the most desirable Gucci bag from 25 years ago. On the side, he’s curated…
From Magnolia Bakery in New York City to Sprinkles in Beverly Hills (and, soon, Scottsdale), gourmet cupcakes are the nation’s sweetest dessert fad. But until earlier this year, the Valley hadn’t caught on to the trend. So when sisters Stephanie and Lindsay Esparza, originally from Orange County, decided to open…
All over town, overgrown kids are whispering at the water cooler, “Hey, have you been to Red Hot Robot?” The central Phoenix shop offers specialty limited-edition toys usually found only in bigger cities and online. The toys became popular in Japan (where else?) and made their way stateside, with many…
Javier Gomez and Sixto Melendez met years ago as college students in Miami, where they shared a desk at a DVD distributor’s warehouse. Now they can finish each other’s sentences, which is helpful when you’re in the business of making movies together. And what movies they make. Their short film…
April Bojorquez is one of those rare Phoenicians who was born here and decided to stay. Good thing. She’s a veritable encyclopedia of interesting information, especially on the city’s ancient history — she used to work at the Pueblo Grande Museum. By day, Bojorquez is the educational events coordinator for…
If you are brown in this town, you’ve gotta meet Gerardo Higginson if you want to get any type of business done. People call him the Latino mayor of Phoenix but, in fact, he works for that other mayor guy, Phil Gordon, as an executive assistant and liaison to several…
