In our opinion, parades don’t come around often enough. But when they do, there’s that entire cleanup of crap such as ticker tape and horseapples. So what to do if you want all of the fun and bluster, but none of the mess? If you’re Chicago composer Mark Messing, you…
Scoot closer, honey, and turn those lights down so we can tell you something. Legend has it that the government experimented with D-13 serum to turn dead soldiers into fighting machines, but instead they became man-eating zombies. The D-13, stored near Mesa Riverview, leaked into a local graveyard, and those…
Know anyone who’s a pathological optimist, the kind who always sees the glass half full? Maybe you envy them. Or maybe, like us, you secretly hope they’ll “accidentally” fall down a flight of stairs. In writer/director Mike Leigh’s latest film HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, Poppy is a sunny optimist whose positive-thinking ways falter…
Way back in 1884, a small band of heat-addled Phoenicians put their hardscrabble noggins together and thunk up the Arizona Territorial Fair, which was essentially a reason to bust out of their stifling shotgun shacks after a season on the brink of madness. The diversions they installed at the old…
Dunno if y’all heard the news, but the economy’s kinda in the toilet. Majorly. So much so that what little money you have for leisure activities has to be stretched tighter than the spandex hugging the naughty bits of the Cardinals cheerleading squad. Hence, you’re probably in the market for…
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…
Want to become relevant in an oversaturated and distressing sports market? Win. Some. Freaking. Games. Already. You can say what you want about the decision makers in the Phoenix Coyotes front office, but the team’s struggle to be recognized and revered will eternally be an obstacle until the hockey club…
Since the opening of University of Phoenix Stadium and the hiring of head coach Ken Whisenhunt, the Arizona Cardinals have made significant strides toward painting this anti-Bidwill town red. The Birds have developed a nice little home-field advantage, and it’s rare anymore to see the UofP blitzed with foreign colors…
Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin were glorified hoods, or at the least gambled (and gamboled) with floozies and wiseguys, so if you’re looking for a PBS-style documentary about what really happened during the Rat Pack’s famously tawdry run of concerts at the Mob-owned Sands in Golden Age…
By Lilia Menconi For more sterile poses, check the slideshow. Not that we don’t love the youth of Phoenix, but it sometimes gets a little much on a busy First Friday, when you accidentally rub up against a greasy teenager as you’re trying to get through a gallery. Not the…
By Lilia Menconi If you grew up in the West, you’re probably pretty hungry for space. With our ranch-style homes, big back yards and seemingly endless desert, we’re sensitive to the way our walls block us from that which we crave. Such is the focus of a discussion, curated by…
The third runway show of Phoenix Fashion Week 2008 took place Friday night in a loft-like space in the unfinished condos at Hayden Ferry Lakeside. The bulk of the evening’s participating designers presented T-shirts — seriously, four lines of T-shirts in a row, which made me itch to run off…
By Jonathan McNamara Another week has drawn to a close. Don’t worry, we’re not pulling a 32 post blog tour de force like last Saturday’s Edgefest coverage. Nah, we’re taking it easy. Here’s where we’ll be chillin’ this weekend. Friday, October 3: First Friday Saturday, October 4: SMoCA Fall Opening…
By Lilia Menconi A sample of recent works by Colin Chillag as seen on the show’s flier. First Fridays can set my brain on fire. I always show up in a rush because my third coat of mascara took too long or I got stuck in game traffic or I…
The sun was setting like a luscious new shade of rosy lipstick as hundreds of beautiful people streamed into the Royal Palms Resort Wednesday night. And that was a sneak preview of an evening of all things pink, in honor of the kickoff event of the fourth annual Phoenix Fashion…
It’s difficult to enter “Lowriders and Tattoos” at Mesa Contemporary Arts without preconceptions. Let’s be honest: Both cultural phenomena carry a negative stigma, even in a country where Hispanic culture is blossoming and, according to exhibit curator Patty Haberman, nearly half the population is inked. My fondness for body modification…
The most recent example of bleak chic, Fernando Meirelles’ mostly harrowing adaptation of José Saramago’s international bestseller Blindness mixes the high-velocity pace and stylishness of the Brazilian director’s breakout City of God with the Portuguese author’s thinly metaphysical horror thriller. Unflinching at best and treacly at worst, the film unveils…
“Course he’s willing to die. You think we do this kinda work ’cause we scared to die?” So speaks Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) about his sidekick Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen), as the two stare down a posse of bad guys in Appaloosa, New Mexico, circa 1882. Cole and Hitch, who…
This summer, the drummer from Joan Jett and the Blackhearts threw a drumstick at my face. To be fair, that’s what drummers do — even fill-in, faux-Blackhearts from Joan Jett’s new live band (at a county fair near you). After defensively swiping the stick out of the air, inches from…
I spoke recently to a college journalism class on the subject of critical thinking. “You mean,” a student asked after I was done blabbing about synthesis and evaluation, “that you can find beauty in anything based on what its intention was?” “Yes,” I said, and launched into a description of…
Recognized for producing of some of the greatest records of the punk era (Elvis Costello, The Damned, the Pretenders), it’s his own records where Nick Lowe left the most indelible mark. Witness Yep-Roc’s recent 30-year anniversary edition of Pure Pop for Now People. In 1978, dressing up like the Riddler…
Artists Michele Bledsoe, Richard Bledsoe, El Moises, Annie Lopez, Jeff Falk, and Steve Gompf salute Dia de los Muertos. Fri., Oct. 3, 6:30-10 p.m., 2008…
