Like an Arizona Cardinals fourth-quarter rally that typically stalls just short of pay dirt, the team’s long pursuit of a new football stadium and the Super Bowl is in serious jeopardy. New Times has learned that construction of the $355 million multipurpose facility, scheduled to begin in days, could be…
Country ComfortThe Spike used to have squirrel pelts with a 12-gauge shotgun hole in the side tied with twine onto mesquite branches hung on the guest-room wall. Their little heads and tails used to give The Spike nightmares, almost as much as eating their tiny, deep-fried legs. Squirrels, incidentally, taste…
In the last place anyone would expect to unearth hipness the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in central Phoenix one of the West’s biggest annual hip-hop cultural events is halfway through its weekendlong stint. In a school cafeteria-size room normally reserved for slimming seniors with herniated disks, nearly 700 kids, most…
The Spike loves a superhero. In this case, that would be Roy Solaski, 72 years old and disabled but still fighting the good fight for truth, justice and the American way. Solaski is waging war against a collection agency (a true American villain) in federal court (totally the American way)…
As the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, it’s business as usual at Privé, a new player in the Valley’s hip-hop nightclub scene. The music is thumping, rattling the wall it shares with Seamus McCaffrey’s with such force that liquor behind the bar threatens to topple. Privé’s staff has…
Struggling to Stay AfloatWater gates: I wish to clarify a couple of key inaccuracies in Quetta Carpenter’s article, “Kid Drownings” (December 26), specifically those regarding the KSLX/Fulton Homes Fence Watch program. KSLX (100.7 FM) created the Fence Watch Program in the spring of 2001. Instead of giving away cash for…
The Year of Living Dangerously Cinema 2002 counterbalanced a treacherous world. In order to distill the essence of a year in cinema, one must first appraise the year itself. In a word, 2002 was about strife. Why? Mainly because some of our leaders are stupid and/or insane. (We’ve all been…
Ten. Now there’s an arbitrary number for a best-of list. Kinda limiting. What about 11, 12 and 13? Didn’t they matter? Completely in the interest of self-indulgently trumpeting la crème de la crème of 2002 cinema without throwing down a laundry list here’s my traditionally unorthodox tip-top lineup, sorted mainly…
In all, a far better year than any in recent memory, so much so that it feels impolite and irresponsible to choose a mere 10 best among the annum’s offerings. This list remained in flux ’til the last possible moment; five seconds ago it featured, among others, Signs, Full Frontal,…
The 10 best pictures of 2002: 1. I’m Going Home: The most beautiful film ever made about aging by the world’s oldest working filmmaker, the 94-year-old Manoel de Oliveira. 2. Far From Heaven: Todd Haynes’ Douglas Sirk-inspired melodrama about race and gayness in the 1950s is more timely than ever,…
Four of the top 10 films I saw this past year don’t actually open in the U.S. until 2003, but they played at various film festivals during the year. By listing them here I not only alert readers to films they should watch out for in ’03, but I also…
There were lots of good movies this year, but few great ones that left me thinking one couldn’t have asked for more. I resolved to see as many as possible way back in January, and did okay; there are still one or two I missed, and while Adam Sandler’s Eight…
It’s never a good sign when somewhere in the vicinity of half of my most memorable moviegoing experiences in a given year come from reissues of films at least three decades old. But there it is: In my memory banks, 2002 may well be remembered as the year of the…
The biggest event to happen to television this year took place at the multiplex last summer: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a one-woman show that has blossomed into a one-woman franchise. This spring, CBS-TV will debut My Big Fat Greek Life as a midseason replacement, featuring the entire cast of…
Save the ChildrenIrresponsible pool owners: I have been a reader of your newspaper for about eight years, and I would like to say that you are the only voice of reality in the Valley. Also, as a somewhat new parent, I have to say the story that you ran in…
Let’s make this clear: These aren’t bad albums bands you hate make bad albums. No, these five records do something much worse: They’re disappointments, unworthy efforts from once-great artists and overhyped freshmen. What’s most offensive, though, is that a lot of people didn’t even seem to notice. 1. The Vines,…
1. Oasis, Heathen Chemistry (Epic): This bloated corpse of a band, overhyped from its first note and compared to the Beatles during its brief peak, was never all that. It’s always written bland songs. Even its hits are just glossy hooks and shimmery guitars bereft of any substantive content. But…
At a time when officials were leaving faculty positions vacant, firing secretaries and talking about raising tuition as much as $1,000 per student, top executives at Arizona State University were getting hefty raises. And President Michael Crow was getting ready to redecorate his office. Between September and October of last…
Jefferson Davis McGee was not the man who raped and killed 8-year-old Elizabeth Byrd. But on May 28, 2001, McGee was beaten to the brink of death by fellow maximum-security jail inmates who believed he had killed the girl. The inmates of Madison Street Jail believed McGee was what cons…
On a recent Wednesday evening, Paul Hewitson dressed up in a neatly pressed gray suit and a western-cut white shirt, and headed out to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. Many people take a meal of crab legs and coleslaw for granted, but until recently, such an event was…
One of Arizona’s most reviled killers apparently is going to have to wait much longer to get his wish — to die by lethal injection. On December 16, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals tabled its discussion of whether Robert Comer is mentally competent to become a so-called death…
Courting Trouble Ad nauseam: I have just finished reading Paul Rubin’s article titled “Courthouse Scoundrels” (December 19). Obviously, Mr. Rubin spent significant time doing research. Of particular interest to me was what you had to say about Gary Karpin. One can’t help but wonder how his victims even heard about…
