Some say baseball is a dying sport. Too much strategery, say its pinheaded critics, too few highlights à la the NFL and NBA. You wouldn’t know it by standing at the intersection of Van Buren and Galvin on one of those glorious March days when the Oakland A’s are hosting…
As founding members of Procrastination Nation, we were just fine with the notion of leaving our unfinished artsy-craftsy projects unfinished — until we read the tag line for Modified’s January Art Night event: “Felipe will bring the soy milk & cookies.” Okay, well, now that you mention it, that little…
On March 14, 2007, the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks played one of the greatest regular-season games of all time. The 2-OT affair in Texas pitted the West’s top teams – and best pals Steve Nash and the Mavs’ Dirk Nowitzki — in a seesaw slugfest that ended 129-127 in…
Like a secular Noah, George L. Ellis hand-built his Ark, the Scottsdale artist colony known as the Cattle Track Arts Compound, on the banks of the Arizona Canal beginning in 1937. Though he didn’t single-handedly found the Scottsdale arts scene, his numerous constructs housed many of the significant artists who…
Here’s the thing about hiking: You’re either a lone nut like us or a people person. For the latter, hiking doesn’t get much better than the City of Scottsdale’s free Preserve Connections Hiking Tours of the northeast Valley’s still largely restricted McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Or simpler. Or cheaper. After registering,…
Though they’ve been hauling the boat anchor in the Eastern Conference’s Central Division all year, the Indiana Pacers — including third-year superstar-in-the-making Danny Granger (pictured above) — aren’t your prototypical NBA doormat. Another year (two, max) and Indiana Coach Jim O’Brien should have these young guns challenging the Cleveland Cavaliers and Detroit…
“Charmed” seems an odd descriptor for the 2008-09 Arizona Cardinals, who lost — no, were crushed in — four of their last six regular-season games. Yet here they sit, all warm and snuggly at 9-7, hosting a first-round playoff game at home in the Red Zone. Meanwhile, a couple of…
It seems fitting that our birds, so charmed in 2008, will meet the NFC’s other enchanted avians, who, in the post-Michael Vick era, are led by a big, burly Cinderella Man named Matt Ryan (pictured). The rookie QB from Boston College was recently named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year,…
Note to Phoenix Suns head coach Terry Porter: Don’t look past the Indiana Pacers. Though they’ve been hauling the boat anchor in the Eastern Conference’s Central Division all year, the team has beaten both the Celtics and the Lakers, and the Pacers have a solid young core centered on small…
If you can thump an opponent 75-23, as ASU Women’s Basketball did to UC Irvine back on December 6, you’ve got some skillz. But just how good are kickass senior guard Briann January and the Lady Devils as they head into Pac-10 play on Friday, January 2? Well, coach Charli…
Resolved for ’09: Don’t go bankrupt. Hug the kids more. Spend time outdoors in this little slice of nirvana we call home. Many of you will scoff at the notion of Phoenix as any sort of heaven, but schmoes in less-clement climes pay handsomely to bask in our rays. Our…
The Boston Celtics bought themselves an NBA Championship in 2007-08. The Los Angeles Lakers nearly stole one by snookering away the rights to All-Star forward Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies last February 1 for the NBA equivalent of nothing. Oh, Memphis Coach Marc Iavaroni, a former Suns assistant, called…
If you’ve been putting off a visit to Wells Fargo Arena to see ASU Men’s Basketball’s All-American whiz kid James Harden, consider that life is messy, remaining home games are fewer than you think, and the sophomore sensation’s gonna be in the NBA lottery, not on the ASU hardwood, next…
We have some pretty sick fantasies, but none ever centered on staring at the night sky through a telescope, especially when it’s freezing out. Undaunted hat- and scarf-wearers and general-punishment gluttons can rendezvous at the secluded Estrella Mountain Regional Park on Friday, December 26, for the Dark Sky Telescope Hike,…
Choosing a New Year’s Eve party is not unlike purchasing a prime piece of real estate. Location, location, location. And you won’t find a more desirable destination than the W Scottsdale, the angular, glass-and-steel boutique hotel located a precious-stone’s-throw away from the Scottsdale Waterfront and nightclub districts. Let’s compare those…
Anyone else miss the good ol’ days, when the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs were locked in a bitter struggle for ideological supremacy (and home-court advantage in the playoffs)? When the Lakers and Hornets were laughable, and the thought of a return to form for the Boston Celtics was…
The Arizona Cardinals got hammered by the Giants, dismembered by the Eagles, and just plain embarrassed by the Vikings. In between, they clinched the NFC West, guaranteeing themselves a home playoff game on the first weekend in January. It would be nice to go into the playoffs with momentum, and…
Ah, chemistry. In the NBA, acquiring talent and getting your talent to properly combust are the real tricks of the trade. But what looks good on the drawing board — like, say, the Denver Nuggets’ pairing of body-modified human pinball machines Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson (see image below) –…
Generally speaking, we frown on guided hikes. The Sonoran Desert is not the Louvre, and true hikers hardly need to have someone spell out its (fairly obvious) magnificence. The extraordinary exception is this relatively difficult seven-miler, which takes participants into the park’s achingly beautiful backcountry for some sublime views and…
Things with big hearts: elephants, Valentine’s Day cards, teen-girl signatures, Denver Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups. Things with no hearts: amoebas, Tin Woodsmen, slumlords, former Nuggets guard Allen Iverson. Since the early-season Denver-Detroit swap of Iverson for Billups, the latter’s hard, smart play has ratcheted the Nuggets up a notch in…
Despite its yee-haw history, modern-day Phoenix has kicked cowboy culture to the curb, and ropers and wranglers are as hard to come by ’round these parts as fans of the UofA. One place you can usually find ’em in droves is at Friday Night Bull Riding at Rawhide at Wild…
We won’t go see art. You can’t make us. We . . . what’s that? Okay, we will go see art, frequently and with great enthusiasm, thanks to the Scottsdale Gallery Association’s new Mimosa Sundays art-walk promotion, wherein various “mimosa-friendly” member galleries ply attendees with free champagne mimosas and appetizers…
