Soul Man: Larry White

Larry White has one of the best autograph collections in the Valley and it covers the walls of his landmark restaurant, Lo-Lo’s Chicken & Waffles. Celebs such as rappers DMX and Too Short, Suns superstars Amaré Stoudemire and Shawn Marion, and actors like K-Ville star Anthony Anderson have all added…

Top Chef: Jack Strong

Talk about the best of both worlds. As chef de cuisine at Kai, the fine-dining establishment at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, Jack Strong’s got a primo perch on the culinary career ladder. After all, he benefits from working with two big names — consulting chef Janos…

Porn King: Jay Grdina

When it comes to women, Jay Grdina may be the luckiest man in the adult film industry. The director, producer, and performer (often under the screen name “Justin Sterling”) met porn star Jenna Jameson in the late ’90s, and the pair founded Club Jenna Inc., a multimedia adult entertainment juggernaut…

Burn, Baby: Angela Zydek

As the energy force behind the year-old gay bar Burn, Angela Zydek spends her days zipping around town in her white convertible Mercedes and her nights covered in body paint to promote the downtown Phoenix club, or serving bottles of champagne in Burn’s VIP cabanas. The perfect combo of party…

Mad Max: Max Cavalera

Max Cavalera is a heavy metal hero. As the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for influential thrash-metal band Sepultura, Cavalera’s deep-throated growls and philosophical/spiritual songwriting made a distinct mark on the metal world. Formed in 1984, Sepultura signed to Roadrunner Records and released four albums on the label (two certified gold)…

Party Monster: Brian Durkee

Brian Durkee is one of Phoenix’s premier party promoters, a swaggering sultan of style who hosts swanky club nights at some of the East Valley’s hottest nightspots, including Toxic Mondays at Zuma Grill in Tempe, and Foxy Bitch Thursdays at Dirty Pretty Rockbar and Twisted Tuesdays at Pink Taco, both…

Science Guy: Dietrich Stephan

When Dietrich Stephan says he wants to cure diseases and eliminate suffering before he dies, he’s not blowing sunshine. As director and senior investigator of the Neurogenomics Division of the Translational Genomics Research Institute, his job is, quite simply (ha!), to find out why we inherit the propensity for diseases…

Got Hummus: Sabeur Rouin

Sabeur Rouin, a.k.a. Dr. Hummus, is a fixture at Valley farmers markets. He’s nearly as well known for his wicked sense of humor and constant smile as he is for his hummus, dolmas, and addictive pita chips. In the interest of our well-being, he’s reworked some of his favorite family…

Water Sports

Doug Franz and former Cardinals fullback Ron Wolfley — the ever-squabbling, Click-and-Clack hosts of the fun-tastic Doug & Wolf morning-drive sports-talk show on KTAR-AM 620 — belly up to the swimmin’ hole at the Hotel Valley Ho for the live-on-air Doug & Wolf Poolside Party. We’d say bring your trunks,…

Good Moon on the Rise

The moon is sad, according to the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Orange, says Erykah Badu. Made of cheese, sings Rotary Connection. Kinda depressing, huh? Well, during Japan’s autumn Otsukimi celebration, the full moon signifies the end of summer and promotes positive vibes. On that note, the Japanese Friendship Garden/RoHoEn hosts…

Hickstock

Before you scoff at this year’s location for Edgefest 2007 — Schnepf Farms — let’s take you down memory lane, back to October 2006 . . . The scene: Tempe Town Lake. Concertgoers are dancing, relaxing, and (gasp!) drinking beer at a rock concert. The city’s Parks and Recreation department…

Raising the Bar

In a town whose definition of old is a two-year-old vomit-colored strip mall with a Starbucks that recently folded because the Albertson’s shopping plaza across the street just opened with a Starbucks, sustaining a bar that isn’t a chain ain’t easy. King’s Cocktails, Pete’s News Room, and Hamm’s are just…

Life After Morrissey

Say your favorite band breaks up. Ouch. But you know the main man will land on his feet with a new project and a fresh babe on his arm. What happens to the unwashed horde of players who can say they once played in a famous band but have since…

Go, Speed Racers

F1-ChampBoat neophytes probably want to know what the hell an F1-ChampBoat is before heading to the F1-ChampBoat Grand Prix of Phoenix. Well, the sexy contraptions look like a cross between a Stealth fighter and a Batman batwing, and they zip across the water at about 135 mph. Anything else you…

Oldies and Goodies

Just because the Record Swap Meet takes place at the Arizona America Italian Club doesn’t mean you’ll be crate-battling for stale Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra vinyls. More than 30 vendors, including Valley mainstay Rock Zone Records and the hip new Revolver Records, will be on hand selling their vinyl…

The Shlong Show

What do you get when you cross Foghorn Leghorn with Milton Berle and a Gibson guitar? You get Big Cock, The Hardest Band in the Land, which promises all the microphone-jacking, air-humping, and torn underwear you could shake a baby’s arm holding an apple at. It figures the mortally sinful…

Nature Calls

Out late partying at one of Scottsdale’s 85251 clubs? No big. Just don’t go to sleep. Grab a Starbucks pint and head for the Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area for the Nature Walk at Spur Cross. The newest gem in the Maricopa County Regional Parks crown, Spur Cross is many…

Bloody Ear Candy

Not since, well, ever, has a band like San Diego-based quintet Upsilon Acrux seamlessly married the spontaneity and energy of freeform jazz with the abstract and angular rhythms of progressive rock. Often described as “brutal prog,” the group jams in a style that is both spontaneous and tightly composed. (Think…

Some Liked It Hot

Bernie Taupin, Elton John’s longtime lyricist, doesn’t particularly care for Marilyn Monroe. Fair enough, except it was Taupin who penned the elegiac words for “Candle in the Wind,” which read like a love-struck schoolboy mash note. Not so. Taupin’s on record as saying it was merely a cautionary tale about…

´Scuse Me While I Piss the Skyy

We won’t pretend to claim that ASU is the Harvard of the West. On the contrary, we wouldn’t be surprised if pulse-taking docs reside inside the school’s cavernous admission quarters. You fog the mirror, you’re in. Thus the need to dedicate additional wordage for the Mill Avenue Fall Crawl. Though…

15 Minutes of Shame

The delicious irony of Dirty Scottsdale is that the notorious Web site not only trashes the debaucherous denizens of the city’s nightlife scene but celebrates them at the same time. For instance, enigmatic Webmaster Nik Richie repeatedly rips on vain cases like the P-Nazi — or “Picture Nazi,” an ultra-narcissistic…

“Satisfaction” Guaranteed

Does anyone know how to say “sexy dance orgy” in Italian? Because that’s the most accurate term for what’ll happen when internationally known DJ Benny Benassi drops by Myst. Benassi has earned critical acclaim from some of the most famous DJs in the world for his innovative blend of dirty…