Past a certain point in their careers, musicians tend to get more serious, putting away childish obsessions with pop culture in favor of creating something of more importance (or self-importance), sometimes with mixed results. The career of Mike Park, former vocalist/saxophonist for the ’90s third-wave ska supergroup Skankin’ Pickle, certainly…
FRI 1/28 So when, exactly, is local filmmaker Zachary Yoshioka going to get the fuck out of the Valley? Don’t get us wrong: The local film scene needs plenty of young talent if it hopes to amount to anything. But with 15 films and a few music videos under his…
Good band names can be hard to come by. Budding groups have to conjure up something catchy and unique that nails their sound exactly. For instance, there’s San Diego-based indie Tristeza, whose moniker sticks in your brainpan but also describes the emotional makeup behind a bulk of its songs (the…
SAT 1/22 Face facts, football fanatics — true gridiron glory isn’t found in some climate-controlled arena, but rather amidst the grass and mud of an outdoor field. So instead of watching the Arizona Rattlers fumble away yet another championship this spring, check out the Copperstate Football League, which kicks off…
It’s the third week of January. By now, if you’re like everyone else we know, you’ve broken your New Year’s resolution — popped that Vicodin, lost your gym membership card, hit the drive-through at Jack in the Box. We know a guy who resolved not to make any resolutions –…
SAT 1/15 Few poets and authors deserve a posthumous roasting more than Edgar Allan Poe. The Master of the Macabre, whose tales of woe and fright have haunted us for more than 150 years, will be “slammed” both literally and figuratively, again, on Saturday, January 15, at the fourth annual…
SUN 1/16 Very bad thoughts equal very bad health. Okay, so it’s not that simple, but you try boiling down the quirky indie film What the #$*! Do We Know!? to something rather elementary, Einstein! Still, Dr. Joe Dispenza, an Olympia, Washington-based chiropractor/author who makes a memorable appearance in the…
1/14 – 1/30 Some people say they’ll wear purple when they grow old. We say we’ll wear leopard print, poke the opposite sex in the buttocks with our canes, and meet at the retirement-home bench for daily arguments. That’s what Harold and Ben, the lead characters in the play A…
SAT 1/15 Doctor’s orders: You’re to exercise more in 2005! Running is a good option. But frankly, jogging alone looks painfully boring. Perhaps your ideal workout is something more akin to frat-house activities: frequent “beverage” breaks, drinking games, and singing some bawdy songs. If so, you should join the Phoenix…
WED 1/12 While the Blunt Club has been lighting up the Priceless Inn, 5014 South Price in Tempe, for almost three years, promoter Adam Dumper (a.k.a. Dumperfoo) is promising something decidedly dope on Thursday, January 6, when the third round of the “All B-Boys Armory Hip-Hop Invasion” goes down. Two…
SAT 1/8 Has it really been five years since we all got our collective panties in a bunch over the misplacement of a few lousy zeroes? If you’ve already forgotten the experience of crouching in your shelter with a shotgun in one hand and a flute of Brut in the…
First Fridays have long been the spot for lucky scenesters to score, whether it’s scamming some hottie’s digits or getting the skinny on local music. But hepcats can double up on depravity in one spot during the hippest night of the month at the Paper Heart’s fifth annual “Sex, Drugs…
THU 6 Admit it: You’ve always wanted to be on shows like Wheel of Fortune or Street Smarts, but you just can’t get past the audition. Don’t give up practicing your buzzer-beating skills just yet, as the folks at Hamburger Mary’s, 5111 North Seventh Street, will debut their weekly Game…
“Brian Alfred: The Future Is Now!” at the Phoenix Art Museum: New York-based artist Brian Alfred ponders corporate culture and rampant industrialization in his latest exhibition. Although Alfred’s retro-futuristic paintings and collages emphasize society’s fascination with the digital age and subsequent sensory overload, his collection of work is surprisingly sensory-friendly…
12/30- 2/12 Paul and Corrie just got married. She’s beautiful, and he’s a hotshot lawyer who just won his first case, a whopping 6-cent settlement. But their life as newlyweds quickly digresses into one long, hilarious argument in Neil Simon’s classic comedy Barefoot in the Park, opening Thursday, December 30,…
FRI 12/31 It’s New Year’s Eve and you’ve got at least two options: Join the hordes (via ample television coverage) in NYC’s Times Square to watch the ball drop; or ditch the sofa and ring in the new year by dropping a beat. For pleasure-seeking funkophiles in favor of option…
1/3 – 1/28 Our couch-potato habits are so ingrained that it takes a drill sergeant to get us into shape. Too bad we recoil at the thought of a military haircut. Ladies, on the other hand, can sign up for the Phoenix Adventure Women’s Boot Camp and still keep their…
When New Year’s Eve comes a-knockin’, this town’s a-rockin’. With almost every style of bash going down, it’s hard to find some wallflowerin’ excuse to stay home watching Regis Philbin filling in for the ailing Dick Clark. Even Indo-Pakistani folks can kick it like Kali and welcome the new year…
SAT 1/1 The year 2005 is only mere hours away, so you’d better get cracking on some resolutions quick, lest your better half will think you’re slacking in self-improvement skills. They already guilted you into snuffing out the cigarettes, so consider whipping your fat ass into shape. Plus, you’ve somehow…
12/24-12/25 Can’t afford a plane ticket to go home for the holidays? Don’t end up alone in your crummy apartment with a lukewarm TV dinner when you can surround yourself with a flock of female impersonators at Pookie’s Cafe, 4540 North Seventh Street, where drag queens perform their usual Vegas-style…
TUE 12/28 These Beavers are anything but sloppy. Sure, Oregon State started the 2004 season by posting a dismal 1-4 record (including getting walloped 49-7 by Cal-Berkeley in October), but head coach Mike Riley turned the team’s fortunes around, and OSU won five of the next six and clinched a…
12/31 Appearances often are deceiving. You’d probably expect a public performance of Aesop’s fables to be some infantile feel-good production aimed solely at children. Just like the sheep that mistook the wolf as one of their flock, you’d be dead wrong. Gerry Cullity and Adele Dodds, two members of the…
