The contracts were in the mail. And that was bad news for Phoenix officials and volunteers struggling to organize a massive downtown turn-of-the-century celebration that hopes to attract more than 100,000 revelers into the city’s resurgent central core for an evening of partying, dancing, music and awe beneath an unprecedented…
New Mexico record producer and piano player Norman Petty jotted some advice for his pals Buddy Holly and the Crickets in the summer of 1957. The red-hot band was about to embark on its first trip to New York City, and road warrior Petty felt obliged to help. In a…
A kid limps up and offers his palm. He wears a black Misfits tour shirt and Marine fatigues, glittery combat boots and a teal-colored mess of hair. Framed by the hazy hues of Mill Avenue on a Friday night, he seems an antagonistic juxtaposition to the street’s sugary chain-store harmony…
Lorraine DeJongh Gamble wheels her husband of almost one year into the Lakes Club in Sun City. “Good evening, Commander,” the maitre d’ greets Edward Gamble, who sits ramrod straight in his chair, nattily attired in a bola tie and blue blazer. “And happy birthday to you, sir.” Actually, Gamble’s…
Ethically Challenged True Flashophiles are aware that the “Daily Flash: A Reader’s Guide to the Arizona Republic” each day (attitude permitting) chronicles the foibles of that ponderous publication on the New Times Web site (www.phoenixnewtimes.com). Readers of the Daily Flash know that this Pulsing Strobe has been going off on…
She says she still feels like a leper, showing off the wounds where the worms popped out. “They were all over me,” says recent parasite host Barbara Carroll, 42. “I could see them, moving beneath my skin. I could feel them.” The memory sends Carroll into shivers of disgust. She…
Maryanne Your First, Your Last, Your Everything (Contingency) It was almost a decade ago when Dave Slutes sang the fateful lines, “Consistency’s a virtue/Except when it’s abused.” Back then, of course, he was one-fourth of Tucson’s much-loved Sidewinders (later Sand Rubies). For several years the group’s signature “desert-rock sound” –…
When Charles Keating’s Lincoln Savings and Loan Association collapsed in 1989, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain’s political career nearly went with it. McCain, the country learned, was one of five senators who had met with federal regulators at Keating’s behest. Although the senators insisted there was no quid pro quo,…
Senator John McCain doesn’t get high ratings from the League of Conservation Voters or the Sierra Club, but he and environmentalists have worked together for years to limit noise over the Grand Canyon. Concern about canyon overflights began in the mid-’80s as a debate over safety, but once that matter…
Here is a breakdown of the top 50 contributors to Senator John McCain’s 1998 senate campaign and his current presidential campaign. The gifts were made by employees of the firms, their relatives, the companies’ political action committees and, when the information was available, their lobbyists. This list also briefly highlights…
For a ceremony eulogizing “Tish Tanner” (née Garry Mangum), the trash-talkin’ male comedienne who brightened up Valley drag revues since RuPaul was a boy, the final gathering was a remarkably staid affair. Unless you count the spangly costumes, array of wigs, piles of costume jewelry and trays of makeup artfully…
They worship trees, you know. A Minneapolis attorney from a conservative think tank has convinced loggers in northern Minnesota to file suit against Forest Guardians, a Santa Fe-based environmental group, for allegedly influencing the U.S. Forest Service into making logging decisions based on the religion of “Deep Ecology.” In October,…
A Journalistic Wilding First Outside magazine took it to task for not being “hippy” enough for the writer’s taste, insinuating that Center for Biological Diversity director Kieran Suckling had somehow sold out because he was drawing a $20,000-a-year salary. Now the New Yorker magazine denounces the Tucson environmental group for…
His ass twitching like a pair of brained salmon in a black leather sack, Ricky Martin ascended into view, gyrating upon the hood of a silver drop-top Mustang. The 11-year-old girl in the seat to my left commenced caterwauling. “Rick-eeeeee!” She would repeat this exultation approximately 2,269 times last Thursday…
Apologies for the solipsism seconds above. For those of you with no nostalgia jones whatsoever, we’ve included (free of charge) these fussy anal-retentive comparisons with the original CDs and LPs — the kind you’ve come to expect from pricey audiophile magazines. After a quick Q-tip swab of the lobes with…
Haggis Piper Down (Epixuti Records) It’s not easy writing pop songs. That much can be heard at most any local club where musicians clang through words and notes that have no business in the same police precinct. So it’s refreshing to hear a band like Haggis, which, on this eight-song…
ROB SCHUH USED TO BE ABLE TO bench-press 500 pounds. These days, he struggles to lift a more pedestrian 150. Schuh — arguably the Valley’s finest jazz drummer — is only 36, but he looks more damaged than his years. His short, receding hair exposes his huge Vulcan ears and…
As 13,000 investors-turned-creditors of the bankrupt Baptist Foundation of Arizona try to figure out how to recover their $590 million, two state officials are researching ways to change state law to protect future investors in religious organizations. With $640 million total liabilities and $160 million to $200 million in assets,…
Rinky-Dink Los Arcos hockey arena supporters are worried that opponents may still thwart construction of the $1 billion project that will feature an 18,000-seat arena for the Guadalupe Coyotes and at least $352 million in taxpayer subsidies. The Vote Yes Los Arcos! campaign committee has asked candidates for the upcoming…
To hear them tell it, the 16 members of the Hispanic Citizens Advisory Committee went into their late-August meeting with Phoenix Police Department officials bearing a reinvigorated trust in the City of Phoenix and its police department. They came out with a dagger wedged against their spines, its blade inscribed…
The following is a draft of a public-service announcement to inform the community of the new police policy: Important announcement for undocumented immigrants living in Phoenix! To improve relations with the Hispanic community and to help the police solve more crimes, including ones in which you are the victim, the…
Vin-Fiz Step Off the Porch (Self-released) Somewhere between the wandering prog-rock of Tortoise and the teetering precision of 5ive Style, there’s a narrow path of tempting yet treacherous instrumental noodling possibilities. Local trio Vin-Fiz takes a successful trip down that road with Step Off the Porch, a four-song collection that…
