The new year has done nothing to alter the idiotic behavior of too many of our local elected leaders. But before we descend into the abyss, how about this wonderful weather? Forget about all the negative adjectives used to describe the threatening storms pummeling the Valley. I’m rejoicing with every…
On the morning of January 6, veteran prosecutor Cindi Nannetti received two visitors in her fifth-floor offices at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. There, the longtime chief of the agency’s nationally respected sex-crimes unit learned from Phil MacDonnell and Sally Wells, top aides to new County Attorney Andrew Peyton Thomas,…
If Inferno were to begin accepting commercial endorsements, like NASCAR speed demons or them ho’s at the Olympics, Red Bull and vodka would be the official drink of this column. Though the switch-hittin’ Ciara of the PHX sometimes orders a vodka-tonic, the Kremester always asks for some Bull and hooch,…
N-Word Uproar We ain’t all bad: So I was getting ready to write a letter bashing your use of the N-word. I mean, I can’t believe you racist motherfuckers used that term in a headline, even if it was a quote from some low-life, half-white hip-hop artist and the term’s…
He speaks from the murky shadows of Booth #55, a man in navy pinstripes with a voice like gravel frying in brown butter. “You wanna know about Jack Durant? I’ve got stories you won’t believe.” His hands are neatly manicured; his tie expertly dimpled; there’s a felt hat on the…
A Politician’s Politician A standup guy: Paul Rubin’s story on Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley (“Balls in the Air,” December 16) was first-rate and fair. My assessment is that Romley, even though he’s a Republican, would make a far better governor than Janet Napolitano. I hope he runs against her,…
The Moore the Merrier One film looms over all others in 2004: Fahrenheit 9/11, released in the heat of summer and the heat of an election-year battle, cast all comers in its estimable shadow and renders them moot. Combined, the dozen or so political docs that received theatrical distribution this…
Our best movies of the year actually may have been anything but the best to a few of our critics — such is the dilemma of offering employment to writers of dissenting opinion. In other words, the No. 1 film of 2004 wasn’t universally heralded by our team of Bill…
Dear Alexander Payne: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways: 1. You made Election and About Schmidt, two hilarious, probing comedies about suburban anomie and human angst. 2. You followed these with Sideways, transporting the same deep humor into a totally different milieu and combining a loser-buddy…
Dear Spike Lee: The opening words of Do the Right Thing, your 1989 breakout film, were these: “Wake up!” You wanted the world to awaken to the deep and painful rifts in American race relations — between black and white, brown and white, black and brown, the whole enchilada. You…
To understand this most tumultuous year in film, over which loomed the ghost of a blessed messiah and the shadow of an accursed pariah, turn your eyes from the movie screen and look to the bookshelf. There you will find a copy of Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures, which…
While Michael Moore and Mel garnered most of this year’s critical attention, plenty of fine films opened to little or no fanfare. Following are our reviewers’ favorite movies that didn’t draw the adulation they deserved. Consider yourself armed for the next trip to Blockbuster: Control Room — In a year…
This is the comedy-club rule: Sit up front, and you can expect to get fucked with, at least a little bit. Plus, when you roll on any club with the bisexual Ashanti of P-town lookin’ fine in a low-cut, form-fitting, red satin top, it’s like wearing a raw T-bone as…
Rappin’ ’bout Inferno Enlightening rod: I wanted to write in and tell you how much I enjoy the Inferno columns. The most recent one about the ACME Roadhouse in Tempe (“Monday Night Meatmarket,” Stephen Lemons, December 16) was enlightening — even to somebody like me who frequents the Scottsdale club…
Francisco Valencia’s home in San Isidro, Sonora, would be heaven if it wasn’t in Mexico. He lives under a grove of pomegranate trees on a farm along the cottonwood-lined valley of the Rio Magdalena where his four grandsons run wild most every sun-baked afternoon of the year. He walks with…
‘Tis the season of paybacks, desperation and fear at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is doling out promotions and sweet assignments to his supporters and harsh retribution to anyone who’s dared question his corrupt regime. The shuffling of more than 150 deputies and detention officers to new…
Eminem’s down with his niggas. Puerto Ricans like J.Lo and Fat Joe, and even that Asian kid in the baggy jeans, they claim posses of niggas. Thanks in large part to the marketing of commercial hip-hop, what was arguably the most destructive word in the English language has (rightly or…
Let’s see if I can do justice to this mutha: Monday nights at ACME Roadhouse in Tempe are off the hook, the chain, the rope, the string, and just about anything else you can imagine. According to manager Alex Mundy, ACME, about a block south of University on Rural, serves…
Old Guard A dilemma of epidemic proportions: I was moved by your story on nursing homes. It is about time someone wrote an article about this despicable problem (“Hope I Die Before I Get Old,” Bruce Rushton, December 2)! I am a provider in this area, and I am in…
Rick Romley remembers precisely what he said to his rescuers after a land mine in Vietnam blew his body apart on April 7, 1969. “I asked them if my balls were still there,” he says. Turned out, the 19-year-old Marine Corps squad leader’s cojónes were among the few outward body…
Phoenix residents awoke on the morning of March 9, 1991, to terrible news. Someone had bludgeoned an elderly father and his daughter to death inside their small east Phoenix market. For those who didn’t know 72-year-old John Lee or his 50-year-old daughter Ginger, the apparent robbery-murder was just another lousy…
Anyone who doesn’t believe the PHX has talent like Chi-town, the ATL and the Lou needs to pop over to O’Mallys at 3544 West Glendale Avenue in Phoenix on the day after Monday and check their Roc the Mic Tuesdays, where P-town’s husslas, playas, fly bitches and MCs congregate to…
