At 10:13 last night, San Francisco Giants’ closer Brian Wilson struck out Arizona Diamondbacks’ slugger Justin Upton on a 3-2 pitch. Upton barked at the home-plate umpire in disagreement. The crowd, numbering in the thousands, booed in unison. We’re not sure if it was over the call or the fact…
For us, the name Black Carl evokes images of Carl Weathers from Predator wailing on the harmonica while Family Matters’ Carl Winslow, in full police regalia, belts out soulful tales of pain and hammers out blues notes on the guitar. While Tempe’s version of Black Carl may lack former celebrities,…
Granted, ASU Football’s win over Idaho State on September 5 was impressive – the much-hyped defense only allowed the Bengals of the Big Sky Conference 37 yards of total offense – but the 50-3 victory was more like a scrimmage against a local high school powerhouse like Chandler Hamilton, considering…
The Arizona Diamondbacks versus the San Diego Padres. A battle of bottom-heavy NL West teams playing in front of nobody at SD’s Petco Park. Totally not-see TV, right? Well, we will see what happens in the latter two games of the three-game set, but last night’s donnybrook was actually pretty…
How much stock should one put in a team’s performance during the NFL preseason? In our opinion, not a damn thing. That’s why Arizona Cardinals’ fans should give a rousing “so what?” and “who cares?” when talking about the team’s zero-win preseason. Yeah, the starting offense only tallied one touchdown…
So maybe this is the year of the celebrity death, but 2007 had its share. That year, all sorts of heavy-hitting jazz musicians crossed to the other side, including Alice Coltrane, Max Roach, Michael Brecker, Oscar Peterson, and Joe Zawinul. The past two years haven’t been immune either (Freddie Hubbard,…
Comparisons to Hoosiers are inevitable for The Mighty Vandals, but the New Carpa Theater-presented tale of the 1951 Arizona high school basketball champions is more unbelievable. A team of predominantly Mexican-Americans, the state titleholders from the small mining town of Miami, Arizona – who lived during a time when public-school…
If you’re one of those types who believes recorded music is far better than witnessing a live performance, go see Snow Songs and then tell us if you still feel the same way. We’re guessing you won’t. The Phoenix-based rock group, fronted by longstanding local musician Yolanda Bejarano (formerly of…
You’re a freshman in college, sitting in your very first lecture hall with 800 other awkward souls. The course is Greek Mythology, and the wavy-haired professor is talking all of this noise about some captivating god-like dudes and dudettes. However, the guy is just so bo-ring to listen to. If…
Before the sushi-dinner night out got all trendy, Mill Avenue’s Ra Sushi Bar & Restaurant was on it, going for a business model that equally satisfied sake-bomber-seeking frat boys and more sophisticated middle-class folks looking to expand their palettes. Ten years later, the joint is still going strong, and the…
Around 3:30 p.m. on Labor Day, while boarding an empty light-rail car at the Third Street and Washington stop, we heard a Sedona-red-wearing male say, in reference to the just-completed game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Chase Field, “Whoa. This [the game] is really the…
September is here, which means it’s time for ASU Football to commence another season. Who cares about those bums, right? Well, we can see why you might feel that way. The Sun Devils, picked to finish anywhere from fifth to eighth in Pac-10 preseason polls, are coming off a total-crap…
Phoenix must be the capital of the “Whoa, I didn’t know this was here.” We hear this sentiment often, especially when downtown newbies are cruising Roosevelt or Grand on their way to a bar or show. Beginning Friday, September 4, Kooky Krafts will join the “whoa” collective. Housed in the…
In 1995, an international pop star in the making released a Euro-electro-heavy debut album that influenced kids from Mexico to Panama. Fourteen years and seven albums later, folks in this country are still sleeping on Fey, the Mexican pop icon whose first record sold more than two million copies worldwide…
Last night during the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fox Sports Arizona confirmed that five-time All-Star Jim Thome had been dealt from the Chicago White Sox to the Dodgers for a player to be named later. (The ChiSox also got rid of pitcher Jose Contreras,…
If you’re the adventurous type, you’ll love this caveat from the folks at Maricopa County Parks & Recreation: “This is not a guided ride. Volunteers will sweep the course to ensure all riders return safely.” Sweep the course? What, for Bell-helmet-wearing, still-warm corpses or something? That’s so cool! To those…
What NFL team should be feeling the best about its upcoming season? Maybe the defending-champion Pittsburgh Steelers, who won their sixth Super Bowl title last February? How about the Dallas Cowboys, who may be feeling a little less emotionally overwhelmed after giving star receiver Terrell Owens his walking papers? Or…
How did this happen, exactly? The Wildcat Kickoff Party, a UofA football confab featuring a pump-you-up speech by head coach Mike Stoops, isn’t taking place at some Tucson piece of you-know-what like Danny’s Baboquivari or the Wildcat House, but in the ASU Sun Devils’ backyard at the Arizona Biltmore Resort…
To boil down the Arizona Diamondbacks’ series in San Francisco (which commenced last night), it’s basically this: The Giants have mucho to play for and the D-Backs ain’t got jack. Because SF is chasing Colorado for the National League Wild Card, they are a bit more motivated each game compared…
In the tradition of Latin American filmmakers, who tend to focus on life’s small-yet-surrealistic snapshots, the bomb-diggity Argentine filmmaker Carlos Sorín directed a slice of Latin Americana in 2008 with his The Window (La Ventana). The celluloid version of Borges-meeting-Bolaño focuses on the 80-year-old protagonist Antonio, who is preparing the…
We like the attitude put forth by the folks who work at Salt River Tubing & Recreation. Inspired by a National Forest Service announcement proclaiming that America’s “iPod-listening, American-Idol-watching, X-box-playing generation increasingly shows a propensity toward sedentary life,” the guys and gals of Salt River Tubing have basically responded (in…
Once upon a time, the Arizona Diamondbacks were winning a game against the defending MLB champeen Philadelphia Phillies (we know, hard to believe). Stephen Drew had slugged a lead-off home run off of pitcher-of-the-decade Pedro Martinez, who was making his second major-league start since being brought up to The Show…
