Suzanne Falk, 36, is a self-taught photorealistic painter who creates through a unique imagined reality. Her oil paintings, often mistaken for photographs, portray contemporary storybook worlds using children’s books, vintage toys, and images from her vivid dream life, while whimsical watercolors illustrate back-in-the-day roadside scenes from her travels through rural…
I’ve seen three plays about mothers and daughters this month — two of them just this past week. Pearls: Motherhood Unstrung collects monologues by and about mothers, authored by local writers and read by local actors. The Last Lists of My Mad Mother, about a middle-aged woman dealing with her…
Let’s not beat around the bush: Saints Row is creatively bankrupt. The latest in a long list of Grand Theft Auto imitators, this clone replicates Rockstar’s controversial games so closely that the uneducated eye could mistake it for the real deal. But unlike past rip-offs, Saints Row is actually a…
Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed (HBO) Like many other Daily Show success stories, Lewis Black is a comedian made for these times; his facial contortions and verbal tics are expressions of the Bush-era phrase “outrage overload.” But unlike other big names in political stand-up right now (David Cross, Bill…
Suds: Local critics haven’t much liked this goofball extravaganza of tunes from the 1960s, and who can blame them? Of the innumerable inane musical revues that attempt to wrap era-specific pop songs around a slim story, this one’s the hokiest. To sell its silly tale of a Laundromat owner who…
Avenger (Warner Bros.) Calvaire: The Ordeal (Palm) Cedric the Entertainer: Taking You Higher (HBO) Changing Times (Koch Lorber) Confidence (Lionsgate) Deadfall (Lionsgate) Edmond (First Independent) The Greatest American Hero: The Complete Series (Anchor Bay) Harvey Toons: The Complete Collection (Sony Wonder) Humphrey Bogart: The Signature Collection, Volumes 1 & 2…
Beowulf & Grendel (Anchor Bay) The Book of Daniel: The Complete Series (Universal) Bratz: Passion Fashion Diamondz (Fox) Con Man (Docurama) Curious George (Universal) Danger Mouse: The Final Seasons (A&E) Daniel Boone: Season 1 and Season 2 (Goldhil) Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 26 (MPI) Dracula: 75th Anniversary Edition (Universal) Drop…
In the early 14th century, Italian poet Dante Alighieri penned The Divine Comedy, an epic poem that chronicles his fictional journey through Hell, purgatory, and Heaven. Often considered the last great piece of medieval literature, Dante’s masterpiece has inspired everything from Sandman comics to the latest album by the Brazilian…
Sandow Birk, 44, is an avid surfer with a laid-back California attitude. But he’s far from a slacker. Birk is in the studio six days a week creating fanciful drawings and paintings that translate his experiences living in low-income areas of Los Angeles, Mexico, and South America into socio-cultural commentaries…
Watching The Guardian, you will learn that the U.S. Coast Guard’s rescue swimmers rank among the bravest and least heralded of military personnel, selflessly hurling themselves into raging currents or hurricane swells to save a single human life. But I doubt that even these knights in neoprene armor could rescue…
Sweet, crazy, and tinged with sadness, Michel Gondry’s new feature, The Science of Sleep, is a wondrous concoction. The tricksy romantic narrative — in which Gael García Bernal plays a hapless, Chaplinesque madman — may be reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which Gondry directed from Charlie Kaufman’s…
One would never confuse the work of writer-director Todd Phillips with that of the late Robert Hamer, whose filmography includes the essential Kind Hearts and Coronets. Hamer’s movies had a gentlemanly quality, no matter the cruelty that skulked beneath their prim exteriors; one always felt the characters in his movies,…
Actor/producer/writer Debra Gettleman does everything from arranging chairs to selling tickets for Pearls: Motherhood Unstrung, which she’s co-produced with Mothers Who Write instructors Deborah Sussman Susser (associate editor of Jewish News of Greater Phoenix) and Amy Silverman (managing editor of this newspaper). Gettleman (who has taken Mothers Who Write more…
The Disposable Hero considers himself not an artist but a visual vigilante who prefers to conceal his identity. With a day job in marketing and sales, he offers commentary on his own livelihood. His panda posters pop up on abandoned buildings and public spaces all over the Valley (you can…
Football is a game of inches. The same goes for the Madden series. Each fall, a new Madden game arrives, with a roster update and an incremental change in the game-play formula. Last year brought a “cone of vision” for the quarterback, which mostly just annoyed the fans. Madden NFL…
The Big Animal (Milestone) It’s a simple yet lesser known law of comedy: Camels are always funny. There are the jaws that drool and chew side to side, the front legs that move like a human’s, the humps — but mostly it’s the eyes: There’s something of Buddha in a…
Steve Davis and Chris Caufield at Modified Arts: “Found object” art has come a long way since Duchamp’s urinal fountain. Steve Davis and Chris Caufield incorporate found objects into assemblage that stirs faded memories of antiquated technologies. Davis is the free spirit of the two, haphazardly decoupaging his old boarding…
The past year has been good to Hector Ruiz, artist and owner of the downtown art gallery the Chocolate Factory. After a successful show at the Heard Museum — he sold every piece — Ruiz was picked up by Bentley Projects, is touring Romania this fall, and has a show…
Chef Eulet King’s smile is as warm and inviting as a Bob Marley tune — think “Three Little Birds,” with the line, “Don’t worry ’bout a thing/’Cause every little thing gonna be all right.” You might even hear that melody wafting through the air of King’s modest Irie Jamaican Restaurant…
Jake Shelton has done everything from designing and running a retro diner on the East Coast to co-owning the now-defunct Ziggy’s rock club in Tempe, but he’s probably best known for the custom car couture furniture he’s been making out of vintage car parts since 1988. His company, Jake’s Chop…
Ten years ago, architect Neil Kilby fell in love with Ro Ho En, the Japanese Friendship Garden in downtown Phoenix. He began volunteering as a gardener, and when Ro Ho En expanded to include a lush stroll garden and koi pond, the city tapped Kilby’s professional expertise as well. After…
First sin of the day: scarfing down a buttery, sugary brownie, laced with cherries and topped with thick, homemade pistachio ice cream. Before 9 a.m. The early morning binge is made possible by Tracey Dempsey, the mastermind behind the occasionally offbeat, always decadent dessert menu at three of Scottsdale’s favorite…
