“Places!” yells Susan Bendix to a room full of young dancers. “Become centered and connected.” A dozen of Bendix’s Herrera Elementary and Middle School boys and girls drift and fidget their way to their spots. Among the youngsters are an equal number of dancers from Arizona State University. The dancers…
Gilbert Jones should have been among the hundreds of Indians marching to the Fort McDowell Casino last week.The five-mile walk and Sovereignty Day celebration commemorated the day eight years ago when the Yavapai tribe took its most dramatic stand, facing off against federal agents who raided the tribe’s casino and…
Face the Music What about Bob? It always amazes me when someone picks a job he hates. Take, for example, your music editor, Bob Mehr. Funny how he works for you, but he seems to hate every minute of it. This is very apparent in his article “Had a Nice…
A word of warning, my fellow Arizonans: The Legislature adjourned last month, which means it’s high season for fund raising. The next time a candidate comes begging for your hard-earned cash, don’t just ask what he or she plans to do, if elected. Ask what he or she plans to…
Tee-Ball for DummiesAh, spring! It’s that time of year when young men’s minds turn to the whack of horsehide on ash. Bat on ball. Mandible-straining wads of bubblegum. Colorful uniforms.Okay, I’m talking very young men. I’m talking tee-ball. And very young women, too. The Flash has coached some tee-ball, and…
Tempe Butte is an island of rock in the midst of a city, a volcanic and sedimentary bump that rises barely 300 feet above downtown Tempe. Yet to an increasingly vocal crowd of locals, the Butte — also known as “A” Mountain and Hayden Butte — looms as the latest…
Two things on Tempe Butte are irritating corporate lawyer turned anti-corporate activist Randall Amster.The first is a City of Tempe sign that says “Enjoy your parks.” It’s a message on the westward side of the Butte, the section long owned by Bay State Milling that the city council quietly approved…
Ann Jardee chose to attend Grand Canyon University in part because she is a Christian. She figured she’d feel more comfortable on the campus of the self-described “Christian liberal arts university” founded by Southern Baptists than, say, in the crowded secular classrooms of Arizona State University. But Jardee was soon…
Pencil in Tuesday on your calendar. That’s the day Phoenix dies.The day will begin with a little meeting of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. By noon, news of Alan Greenspan’s radical inflation-busting rate hike will have filtered into the cars of all the hopeful young couples driving from…
Chicken Tenders Blood bother: David Holthouse’s missive on the joys of watching chickens tear each other apart was very educational (“Fowl Play,” April 13). It shouted volumes about a man who loves blood and violence.It is good to have things like this in print because it allows psychologists and sociologists…
Rev. Ev Meets Mad MaxJust when Eyes Wide Shut had convinced you that fiction can be stranger than truth, along comes truth to goose you once again. To wit: Impeached former governor Evan Mecham is finally going to prison. But it’s not for any crime. He’s going to visit convicted…
Did renowned attorney Charlie Brewer actually shoot at Earl the parrot in his old office at downtown Phoenix’s Luhrs Building? If he did, it would have been circa 1960, ancient history in a city that measures its eras in months, not decades. Whatever the truth, the relationship between man and…
Jim Kaufman, a developer who has played a key role in the revitalization of downtown Phoenix, has been credited with saving many cherished buildings: The renovated Orpheum Theatre, the art deco Professional Building just south of Bank One center, the majestic administration building on the old Phoenix Union High School…
New Times staff writer Amy Silverman was named the state’s top journalist Saturday by the Arizona Press Club. It marks the sixth consecutive year that a New Times journalist has claimed the coveted Virg Hill Journalist of the Year trophy. Silverman, 33, was honored for a 1999 portfolio of work…
Laugh, Don’t Cry I was trying to explain how Phoenix works, or rather doesn’t work, to my out-of-country sister and brother-in-law before Sunday’s baseball game. Reaching for a New Times at Filiberto’s on Broadway in Tempe, I read aloud to them David Holthouse’s column on Mayor Skip Rimsza’s “State of…
Out of the Woods Aside from Amy Silverman’s richly earned triumph as the state’s Journalist of the Year, the clear highlight of Saturday’s Arizona Press Club banquet was emcee Grant Woods’ riffing. The Flash — who attended the Burton Barr Central Library function disguised as a shelf of classic fiction…
Editor’s note: Maybe it was the tight wristband cutting off the oxygen flow to his brain. Or perhaps it was the kiboshing he got from crazy mofos in the Flys’ mosh pit or the foolhardy mixture of sun, sound and Alabama Slammers from four different venues. Maybe he’s attended too…
The pro-choice community in this state is in big trouble. May 1, the Arizona affiliate of NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) will shut its doors. Bruce Miller, essentially NARAL’s one-man show for the past four years, is headed to Minnesota to run that state’s Common Cause chapter…
Beck Blanket Babble On The Flash had looked forward to the Beck concert at Mesa Amphitheatre Saturday night with great anticipation. Beck and his band didn’t disappoint. More on that later — first, the Flash must go off on the abuse dispensed by The Man! “Security” is simply mo-ronic at…
“In 1966, one of the great albums in rock ‘n’ roll history was made: Pet Sounds, by the Beach Boys. Even today it holds up. I listen to it and moan, sit on my bed encircled in a knee-high pile of paper and write poetry.” So who’s that waxin’ wimpy…
Knurly, ass-length dreads, cleverly dowdy attire and a faint, oil-scented aura of some Rastafarian priest say the man could be some roots-revivalist south London hipster. In a Phoenix environ, he could be mistaken for an old-school weed connect, the one guy in tie-dye still clinging with bongloading fingers to a…
Last week, the Arizona Reform Party suffered a setback in its quest to qualify for November’s ballot when Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell refused to certify thousands of signatures turned in by the party. Purcell says the Reform Party’s petitions — which included scores of non-registered voters, duplicates and possible…
