“Where were you 38 years ago for the first moon landing?” the Usery Mountain Regional Park Web page inquires. Apparently, some conspiracy theorists were watching the live taping at a Hollywood studio, because that’s where it really happened, right? Whatever crackpot theory you believe, celebrate the 1969 moon dance during…
Okay, ´fess up. When you see those promotional signs for the Big Boys and Their Toys expo, do you honestly think about a bunch of testosterone-charged, Monday Night Football-watching dudes checking out graphite golf clubs and custom autos in some clinical convention hall? Didn’t think so. You probably equate “Big…
Wanna see some naked bodonkadonk? Rumor has it that some folks will be partially and/or fully in the buff during the free Independence Mass/Alleycat cycle ride. Downtown’s Lost Leaf is the final destination. Prizes will be awarded for best costume, ugliest bike, and, quite possibly, best glistening ass. Yummy…
Maybe Shane Sittig, owner of the sometimes-performance space known as the Tribe House, lied about the Tribe House Grand Finale. Why else would he book the bloody amazing lineup that includes Djentrification, Sonorous, The Insects, and Panda Smash? If so, he’s a coy fellow. If not, then we’ll soak in…
The Arizona Diamondbacks are great! They suck! They’re great! They suck again! That’s the way it has been for the schizophrenic club and its consistent pattern of win streaks that are quickly erased by a string of goose eggs. The D-Backs will strive for greatness, not sucky-ness, when they open…
If we were to take Andrew Jackson Jihad’s latest effort at lyrical value alone, we may suggest a suicide hotline for the folk/punk duo comprising Sean Bonnette and Ben Gallaty. Because we begin visualizing disenfranchised youth snorting coke off a tombstone while reading the Jihad’s lyrics, Edgar Allan Poe, or…
Picture this: You’re walking down a street, circa 1983, and soaking in all sorts of music from the cool cats carrying boom boxes on their shoulders. Or imagine you’re making a cameo appearance in that killer scene in Amèlie, when the lo-fi sounds from the old dude’s portable record player…
Some folks, especially art critics, would call Fausto Fernandez’s latest body of work “mixed-media creations,” a cryptic term that can refer to just about any visual artwork juxtaposing multiple mediums. Text with oil paints. Vinyl shrapnel and dead bugs glued to a cigarette box. Rattlesnake dung smeared on Rothko-esque color…
Reading the story of Taraf Degrief (check out www.tarafdegrief.blogspot.com) is like poring over Jonathan Safran Foer’s abstract, sometimes heartbreaking, and intriguing-as-all-get-out novel Everything Is Illuminated. We’ll spare you the sordid details, but basically, the way-underground musician (born Shmuel Schenderovitch) was trapped inside Prague’s Spanish Synagogue for three days in 1963…
Depending on where listeners were introduced to Bodhisattva’s sonic mania, they may harbor two significantly different profiles of the duo fronted by vocalist/guitarist Justin Cory and drummer Shane Sittig. Compare their brutal first release, Brain Candy for Insanity, with the deranged (yet more accessible) fare contained within the follow-up, Magnetar,…
Though we would rather swallow a bag of ball bearings than ride a bicycle in this blasted heat, it is nice to have that sweet ride functioning properly. So fix a flat or build a bike from scratch any Sunday at Bike Saviours Co-op, a nonprofit shop that doubles as…
You don’t need to wait ´til October’s Arizona State Fair to enjoy sweet rides, Fatty B. Jones eats, and, uh, real America. Just check out Summer Fun Days at Castles N’ Coasters, where a measly 15 bones will get you unlimited rides on the park’s many attractions, including the Sea…
Props to Eric Dahl, owner of The Lost Leaf, for persevering after taking it in the backside not once, but twice, from the white-collar pen-pushers downtown. In 2004, the space, which then hosted underground art and music, became a casualty — along with the Emerald Lounge — of the Starbucks/Pei…
Meet and mingle with professional jocks, lyrical poets, musical types, bangin’ ladies, and debonair dudes when In the Scene Entertainment presents Sexy.Women.and.Gentlemen (S.W.A.G.) Bryce Breezee hosts the kick-back shindig featuring two-for-one drink specials until 11 p.m. and beats by DJs Essence and Astonish. There’s no cover before 10:30 if you…
Several years ago, I moved to Chicago. Most of the friends I made had never traveled west of Omaha, so they liked to tease me for being a cowpoke from Arizona. One so-called pal wondered if I missed my pet tumbleweed. Another asked if I grew up next to the…
Kitchen cutlery and metal bowls. The Language Master tape card reader and a typewriter. More than 80 telephone bells scavenged from Dumpster dives. Old school analog intercoms and secondhand electronics. Sounds like a pretty cool yard sale, huh? Well, it could be, or you may have just stumbled upon a…
Patriots Square Park will soon be demolished for an AJ’s Fine Foods (“a glorified Circle K,” according to a close pal), and the Taylor Street Bungalows and neighboring Pete’s News Room recently became a pile of rubbish. As if die-hard downtowners needed any more reasons to scoff at the yuppiefication…
Friday Night Out? In Mesa? HAHA! LMAO! ROTFL! Uh, what’s so funny, ´Net chatters? If you actually, like, got out and did something with your life, you’d know that every second Friday of the month, Mesa’s Main Street drag goes off with art openings, Texas Hold ´em tourneys at Kirk’s…
It’s frustrating that so many jackasses embrace Bob Marley’s messages of the ganja smoke while ignoring the bigger picture of 1Love. Whatever, mon. While those fools are making cameo appearances in Idiocracy, we’ll be at the weekly Island Obsessions enjoying live reggae/steel-drum music and a Jamaican open buffet. Thursdays, 9…
Rednecks tend to be attracted to large bodies of water. Don’t believe us? How else to explain the “Redneck Riviera” spanning the area from Mobile, Alabama, to the Emerald Coast near Apalachicola, Florida? Though we live in the desert, that doesn’t mean our state is running a ’neck deficit. Oh,…
From top favorite to most pathetic, here’s a little ol’ hierarchy of bar games we know some people – not necessarily us – enjoy: Golden Tee. Electronic darts. Binge drinking. Shuffleboard. Billiards. Pocket pool in the bathroom. Striking out with some hot floozy. Pocket pool in front of your fellow…
The Messages From Water series (1999-2004), by Masaru Emoto (HADO Publishing) You’ll appreciate water as a living and feeling being after delving into these glorious image-based books. Using lightning-fast photography, Japanese scholars and scientists captured hyper-close-ups of water crystals. Each photograph transforms the mundane — like tap water in Japan…
