By Jonathan McNamara Giulio Sciorio has invited complete strangers to his photography studio 13 times now to have their portraits immortalized on film mid-orgasm. After bringing them in, Giulio positions them and sets up his lighting gear. He chooses a backdrop and takes a few shots to determine that everything…
It was the strangest day of my life. It was one of the best days of my life. On a Saturday in early April, I went to a funeral, a wedding, and a 90th-birthday bash — all on the same day. It was all quite mixed up. It was all…
Converting a fondly remembered cartoon series — one of the first Japanese animes syndicated on American TV — into a prospective franchise, the Matrix masters, Larry and Andy Wachowski, have taken another step toward the total cyborganization of the cinema. Even more than most summer-season F/X fests, Speed Racer is…
Canadian poet Anne Michaels’ beautiful 1996 novel, Fugitive Pieces — about a Jewish writer immobilized by the memory of his Polish family’s murder at the hands of the Nazis — distills tragedy into grief, terror, and a wary romance built on the redemptive power of love and art, and set…
This year marks the 16th birthday of Mario Kart, the landmark Nintendo franchise that consists of eight identical racing games and legions of fans who buy every one of them. And 16 years later, nobody really has a problem with this. True to form, Mario Kart Wii offers no significant…
The most sparkling bit of dialogue I heard the other night at Actors Theatre’s production of Speak Spanish to Me came from the charming lady seated on my left. At intermission, she leaned across the empty seat between us and, indicating my notebook, asked, “Are you reviewing, or plagiarizing?” I…
David Mamet’s Redbelt is a tricky bar brawl — call it the Roundhouse of Games. The writer-director has scarcely abandoned his sense of the movies as an innately duplicitous medium, one best suited to stories that play out as conspiratorial chess matches. But, with his 10th feature — an entertaining…
No adult has ever been able to codify what separates a good movie from a classic. In kid terms, though — those favored by Son of Rambow, a chipper tribute to the cinema as both supplier and repository of dreams — a good movie merely sends you bounding home from…
Attention, fellas. If you want to know your lady ain’t a ho, get her naked and check for tan lines. If she’s got ’em, that’s a good sign. It means she’s not afraid to show a little flesh but has the smarts to protect her junk. No tan lines? She’s…
The press release for Pink Martini’s upcoming performance in Scottsdale has this to say about the 12-piece ensemble from (where else?) Portland, Oregon: “a cross between a 1930s Cuban dance orchestra, a classical chamber music ensemble, a Brazilian marching street band, and Japanese film noir.” Well, that just about covers…
If you didn’t attend March’s Downtown Chamber Series concert . . . oh, man. That Crumb piece with the pitched wine glasses, intense violin and cello sections, and growling chants in French? Seriously, one of the best live-music events we’ve ever witnessed. The DCS folks have lined up another eyebrow-raising…
The Phoenix Mercury were 2007 WNBA champions. Remember? Of course you don’t, dammit, because they don’t get much love in our Suns-obsessed city. Well, we’re not going to let you forget that our hometown gals will be looking to defend their title this season. The road begins with their home…
What we know about fashion could fit inside one of our C cups, but we do know what we like, and Angela Johnson’s Vaudeville Style Mystery Menagerie Fall 2008 Collection Fashion Show at the posh Clarendon Hotel sounds right up our puckered bodice. Johnson says her target market is “young,…
Anyone who’s survived a few Phoenix summers recognizes that there’s a subtle linguistic thing going on with the phrase “under the stars.” Many arts groups fall back on it this time of year, but no one’s trying to fool you. They’re just doing the semantic shuffle to tempt you from…
Crispin Glover doesn’t want to be misquoted. He’s worried that journalists don’t understand his peculiar new film, What Is It?, so he asks that interviews about the movie be conducted via e-mail. In fact, Glover is so concerned that his oddball movie will be misunderstood that he only allows it…
When you have a successful book and a syndicated column featured in 35 newspapers, what’s a Mexican to do next? Well, we asked the Mexican, and here’s what he told us: see the country and meet the ones who made you famous. “Without my readers, I’d be just another unemployed…
One review of the flick She’s Got It – which opens the Celebrating Israel at 60 Film Festival – used the descriptors “goofy,” “adorable,” and “hijinks ensue.” These are not notions typically associated with Israel, that shy, studious nation that grew up to work for Mossad, but Yankul “Jacob” Goldwasser…
We recently discovered that we’ve been taking Dennis Rowland for granted, especially after the most prominent straight-ahead jazz vocalist in town schooled us last month during an effing amazing rendition of “Lush Life.” Since that night, we’ve been scouring the Internet looking for upcoming performances. The place he, and we,…
You knew this day was coming. Ever since America’s favorite acronym hit the mainstream in America’s quintessential get drunk/get laid flick American Pie, you knew your perv fantasies would leap from the big screen and into real life. Be a real-life Stifler during the Hot Mom Contest. Fridays. Starts: April…
Mike Park boasts quite the résumé. He fronted the legendary ska-punk band Skankin’ Pickle, founded the Plea for Peace Foundation – which is Park’s effort “to promote the ideas of peace and unity through music” – and established Asian Man Records, a bastion for affordably priced releases from ska, punk,…
Digital Summer is one of the most popular bands in the Valley. Their shows attract hundreds of screaming fans who crowd the stage and sing along with such hard-rockin melodic songs as “Suffocate” and “Sweet Misery.” Their stage antics involve a lot of high-energy leaps and bounds. Get a taste…
If Peter Pan owned a gallery, it would be Trunk Space, that Neverland on Grand. Our dauntless Lost Kids strike again on with their SuperFun Activity Challenge!, featuring the unveiling of artist books “inspired by those thick, cheaply made coloring books from days of yore,” says Trunk’s Wendy – er,…
