It’s sometime between 11 and midnight, and I’m seated at the bar of the “air patio” at e4 (www.e4-az.com), Scottsdale’s new epicenter of wickedness, a Vegas-style nightclub with four theme rooms based on the elements: fire, water, air and earth. Next to me is the devil in the flesh herself,…
Bill Rudy takes a slurp of the melted ice and Coke at the bottom of his cup. He cradles his last 1,400 in chips, takes another peek at the pair of cards he’s been dealt, mumbles to himself, and then makes the call. “What the hell,” he announces, pushing all…
Hours after the bizarre death last December of the City of Phoenix’s chief financial officer, city officials blamed a brain parasite contracted in Mexico for his bizarre demise. Now, nine months of extensive testing have eliminated the possibility that such a parasite caused Kevin Keogh, 55, to crawl out the…
In retrospect, it wasn’t exactly a brilliant move for an AIDS charity to bring on arch-conservative Congressman J.D. Hayworth as its partner. Hayworth, after all, has repeatedly refused to sponsor legislation that would prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. In 2001, he voted to bar the District of Columbia…
Girl-on-Girl Reaction Curious no longer: Your thesis on bi-curious women is something I’ve always observed, but I’ve never seen anything written about it before in the press (“The Vagina Dialogues,” Sarah Fenske, September 15). The fact is, women are almost always more attracted to other women’s bodies than to men’s…
Fundamentalist Mormon polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border are steeling themselves against law enforcement agencies coming at them from several fronts. Formidable eight-foot walls — built from blocks, wood and steel, and occasionally mounted with surveillance cameras — are under construction around the homes of many of the followers of Warren…
Elton Bush loves Arizona. He’s not too fond of his ironic namesake, the president, for taking his time mobilizing the guard while Elton and his wife waited for a helicopter on the interstate for three days. He’s also not too happy with the mayor of New Orleans, for not having…
Funny Business A “Wonderful Russ” sighting: Really great article on the Valley’s comedy scene (“Jokers Wild,” Jimmy Magahern, September 8)! When I saw the cover of New Times, I just had to read this, having personally done standup comedy a decade ago. Dan Mer still knows better than everyone else…
“Jesus H. Christ on a crutch!” I cry as I ease our whip a block south of the downtown Phoenix arts venue .anti_space at 815 West Madison Street. “It looks like a freakin’ Rob Zombie flick down here.” “Oh, Kreme, they’re just crackheads,” sputters the J-unit, pooh-poohing my dismay at…
Jen Sincero was having the best sex of her life. And while that should have been cause for celebration, it wasn’t quite that simple. After all, in the age of Oprah, you can’t simply live. You need explanation. Analysis. Most important, you need written assurance that your life choices fit…
Six nights a week, Karamba is all about gay Latinos. But Fridays are more complicated. Friday nights, the club hosts Hot Pink!, a dance scene for the young and would-be fabulous. In most clubs, the women are the pretty ones, but the men here have picked up on the chicks’…
On its face, the federal law safeguarding religious beliefs in the workplace is a simple one: Employers must make reasonable efforts to accommodate workers’ “sincerely held religious beliefs.” Beyond that, though, there’s really nothing simple about it. What’s a reasonable effort? What does it mean to “accommodate”? And really, what’s…
Night Galleries Or we could just be law-abiding: About your “T.G.I.F.” article (Benjamin Leatherman, September 1): I was on the Roosevelt strip on August 5 and saw the officers who seemed to be posted on every corner. I didn’t think anything of it because where people gather in the thousands,…
In a corner of a packed sports bar, beneath a neon Captain Morgan sign and a blank TV monitor, Erik Miller steps up to the mic and launches into his regular Friday night standup routine at Chilly Bombers Bar & Grill in northwest Phoenix. “Let’s keep it going for John…
Maybe it was watching Tommy Lee get tutored by that hot blonde in Tommy Lee Goes to College that inspired us. Or maybe it was just cruising through Tempe the other day and noticing that all the fly Arizona State University chicks are back for fall. Or perhaps we were…
Base Balls Baseball stage parent: Robert Nelson drives home a timely parable on the over-parenting that is helping transform youth athletics into a modern-day Children’s Crusade. As a father who was once the worst kind of baseball stage parent, I couldn’t help but insert myself into the ego-driven thought processes…
It’s a sticky Saturday morning in mid-August, and Tara Logsdon is fried. The sun beats down on Logsdon, 31, as she arranges her bizarre-looking paintings next to some artful teddy bears and handmade clothing on the outdoor stage at Holga’s, during the downtown Phoenix apartment complex’s monthly flea market. The…
For all but the most breathless pageant addicts, the Miss Arizona competition this past June was low on drama. Miss Arizona 2004, a busty blonde, handed off her crown to the new Miss Arizona 2005, a slightly less busty blonde. People clapped. Surely, someone’s mother cried. To see the fireworks,…
The party’s just getting started inside The Fort, even though it’s well past 2 a.m. on the first Friday in August. Haunts like the Emerald Lounge have long since discharged their drunks, but numerous night crawlers have journeyed to the squat gallery run by brothers Isaac and Gabriel Fortoul next…
“There’s more white cloth in here than a Klan meetin’ in Georgia!” I spit as we cross the threshold of Old Town Scottsdale’s Dos Gringos for the club’s toga party last Thursday. “So, uh, how do I look?” “Like someone tried to tie a tablecloth around a hippo,” cracks my…
ClothesHorses Homegrown talent: With regard to the story about Arizona’s fashion scene (“Angela’s Ashes,” Joe Watson, August 18), I strongly disagree with several points. First, the author suggests that talented designers leave the state. But there are talented designers with very successful lines that choose to make Arizona their home,…
“First off, no pullin’ out your ‘man,'” Mr. Luscious informs his fellow male strippers, minutes before they take to the Celebrity Theatre’s stage as the erotic revue known as The Main Event, Part 2. “You can act like you’re about to pull it out, but you better not.” “In case…
