By Steve Jansen Full disclosure: A contributor to this blog is currently in a relationship with a member of Miniature Tigers. Just received word this morning that the new Miniature Tigers music video was just added to MySpaceTV Videos today. The featured tune, “Cannibal Queen,” is most definitely one of…
Owning a computer doesn’t equal mastery of the writing craft. That’s why pulp purists like us are constantly teeth-clenching when reading stuff online. However, contributors to the online-only Superstition Review aren’t a bunch of LiveJournal and Blogspot hacks. You see, the fiction, nonfiction, and poetry scribes who have been featured…
One of our favorite movie quotes – courtesy of the late-Chris Farley in Black Sheep, goes like this: “A corn-fed harvest mouse, a hooker, a nun, a Flemish peasant woman, whips, chains, whistles yo-yos, a circus midget.” Every time we think about it, we laugh (haha!) and then, for whatever…
We hate to buy into and prolong stereotypes, but . . . whatever, dude. We’re gonna do it anyway, bra, and talk dude-speak. How else can we gab about the sick Nissan Half-Pipe Jam with dudethority? The two-day extreme sport rush will feature multiple world-class BMX, skate, and inline vert…
Imagine realizing a lifelong dream by opening your own indie business. Not only does it pay the bills, but it thrives for nearly a decade, becoming a much-needed alternative to the big-box stores. Life is good. Love is good. Then, just like that, it’s gone. This pissing-in-your-Cheerios-nightmare occurred to Steve…
Have you high-tailed it down to the Arizona Exposition & State Fair yet and given yourself swamp ass from all of that super-weird-looking grub? Well, even if you have, you should hit it up once again this week, because there are a number of supercool events that can only happen…
We can’t blame Valley sports fans for throwing a conniption fit these days, considering that the D-Backs screwed the pooch, the Mercury dipped far south, and the Sun Devil football team seems to be stumbling. Now your Phoenix Suns are officially back in business, with the 2008-09 preseason commencing tonight…
Doncha love how Anglo-Americans embrace their foreignness during drinking holidays? Every other day of the year, folks curse soccer and the Euro way, but they ride the heck out of that 0.00001-percent Irish/English/Dutch/whatever blood that pumps through their hollow veins when stuff like St. Patrick’s Day rolls around. Don’t be…
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Muay Thai. Grappling and triangle-choking. Is there anything that mixed martial arts doesn’t incorporate? (So far, metal-chair skull-cracking, though the way things are going, that could very well happen one day. For now, the WWE has dibs on that move.) It’s no wonder the sport is blowing up…
By Steve Jansen I’ve had a private relationship with Sigur Rós for years now. You see, the mood-driven Icelandic post-rock foursome is one of those groups that I can only listen to alone, usually when I’m torn up about something. The band’s sweeping instrumentals, charged by the eerie falsetto of…
By Steve Jansen I’m pretty sure that I don’t know a more interesting cat than James Roemer, the Tempe-based sound artist behind Glochids (pronounced “Glow-kids”). Last year, Roemer worked and lived in the wilds of Nevada. Now, at the moment, he is stationed in Antarctica, where he will be working…
One of the art world’s greatest tragedies is scheduled to take place at 12 a.m. January 1, 2010. That’s when the Polaroid goes kaput. In case you haven’t heard, the cats behind the instant-film enterprise are only making enough consumer product to last through the end of 2009. There’s a…
You know those performances that you can’t get out of your head, even years later? For us, that’s the Taraf Degrief show from the summer of 2007. The group – composed of pianist Jacob Adler and unplugged vocalist DJ Richard – performed impassioned traditional Jewish songs written by Adler’s great-uncle…
By Steve Jansen Want more JJCNV? Check them out on a recently-released 7-inch record. Just-Released Records: In the past week, my turntable has been on constant rotation due to vinyl releases by a number of local bands. One is the four-way, two-7” split featuring hard rockers Skinwalkers, polka freakout trio…
It’s 1988. We’re 10 years old and Grandmother Ethel is visiting from Florida. The recall effort of Arizona Governor Evan Mecham is in full effect. Arizona hates him. Our folks hate him. Shut, even our grandma, who had no idea who this guy was until now, hates him. So we…
Did you ever want to bring your laptop to a concert and blog about it? How about sitting next to bona fide musicians while they chronicle the evening’s performance like a sportscaster? Golly gee, kill us now. Thus is the challenge with opera. Though the artform speaks for itself, mention…
Toward the conclusion of the Arizona State Sun Devils’ 41-17 dismantling of the Stanford Cardinal on September 6 in Tempe, the gold-clad student section held up signs reading “Bring on Georgia.” This occurred a week before the Devils’ next opponent, UNLV, came to town. Appropriately, ASU channeled ex-coach Dirk Koetter…
One recent weekday morning, we checked out Randy Slack’s “Paperless Society” exhibit, which is meant to prompt pure Zen, as every inch of wall space at @Central Gallery is covered in a wallpaper tree forest. Our subconscious-engaged being was violently thrown back to an aggro conscious-awareness when about 100 hormone-icidal…
By Steve Jansen The Money Shot In case you haven’t been able to check out a performance by The Complainiacs since my most recent Noise Boy column ran last week, check out these supercool images of the band practicing in Matt Spastic’s old bedroom at The Firehouse…
It’s been a letdown of a season for last year’s WNBA champions, the Phoenix Mercury. At the time of this writing, the Merc were in last place in the Western Conference with little to no chance of making it to the postseason. But that doesn’t mean the lady ballers are…
There’s a reason we don’t hear too much anymore about ’80s rappers like Kool Moe Dee, Doug E. Fresh, and EPMD. It’s because the music outgrew their particular rapping style. Shut, it’s not even called rap no mo’, you dig? DJ Quik, who got his start in 1987, is one…
Kudos to the Pac-10 conference for scheduling meaningful division games in August and September, including last week’s Oregon State-Stanford tilt and a bitter-rivalry contest between Oregon and Washington. What do you have to say to that, Texas Tech (Eastern Washington, at Nevada, SMU, UMass) and LSU (Appalachian State, Troy, North…
