Arts & Culture

Despite the copius amount of events, celebrating being one’s self seemed to be the main draw to Phoenix Pride.

This weekend is guaranteed to be 100% Pure fun.

You may not find her in Ethel Merman drag ever again, but you might bump into playwright Patricia Kane when she’s dressed in karate whites and muttering French conjugations to herself. Barring that, you can find her play, Pulp, at Stray Cat Theatre this week and next. I knew I…

Thank God for people like James Garcia. He’s a friend and colleague, so it’s not hard to sing his praises. But this time, I must do so publicly. The local playwright, journalist, and ASU professor has written a touching new piece of theater called Dream Act, which opens this weekend…

Viking: Battle for Asgard shows promise, but not much more. It’s nice when a game comes along that pleasantly surprises you. I admit, I judged Viking: Battle for Asgard by the screenshots, writing it off as yet another one of those grimy, violent games so plentiful that they’re almost their…

It’s okay. Really. Go ahead and say it: Sometimes you want to dance your ass off to thriving beats and rub up against other sweaty bodies. Now that your secret is out, you might as well pounce on the opportunity when the traveling gay Latino dance party Club Papi helps…

Herbie Fully Loaded, The Love Bug – hell, when’s the last time someone made a flick about a Toyota Corolla? The beloved Volkswagen Beetle – old-school edition – is honored at Bug-O-Rama, which features quarter-mile drags, a Show & Shine, and a swap meet. Sun., April 13, 2008…

What’s your definition of a freak? One of those dudes who hangs from the ceiling with meat hooks in his skin? Yeah, maybe. However, our definition are those crazy tri-athletes who train for eight hours a day, drink nothing but pineapple juice, and calculate carbs in order to meet their…

Our flawless asphalt led the cyclists in the RideClean organization to schedule their Arizona State Championship Criterium in downtown Phoenix on Saturday, April 12. The daylong event will feature hundreds of amateur youth and adult riders pedaling in nearly 30 events. What does it take to enter? “It helps if…

Ah, the modern woman. She’s educated (so much so that she emasculates her boyfriends). She’s independent (because she’s too much of a chickenshit to take emotional risks). And she’s career-driven (yep, the uterus is dead). Even with so much, er, success (?), society still expects her to be a culinary…

After downtown Phoenix’s First Friday event began pulling 10,000 people into the city’s core, other sleepy communities, such as Chandler, decided to jump into the art-walk mix. Now, thanks to the neighborhood organization Sunnyslope W.I.N.S., the north-central Phoenix community of Sunnyslope is sending out a wake-up call of its own…

Whatever happened to the good old days of the 1990s? It was the gays’ heyday, and we were all on board. We cried into our leopard-print pillows when Pedro Zamora died on Season 3 of The Real World and blasted Melissa Etheridge on our VW Bug stereo. Our favorite color…

In our experience, most outdoor film screenings skew toward the Adam Sandler/Coors-in-a-cozy demo. The annual ASU Art Museum Short Film and Video Festival, on the other hand, woos the cognoscenti-and-cocktails crowd with works by indie filmmakers drawing on “different visions and levels of experience.” (Translation: You won’t see Happy Gilmore.)…

Eliza Gregory’s amazing portraits of recently resettled refugees in the Phoenix area illustrate an experience that most of us complacent Americans would find nearly impossible to imagine: suddenly fleeing your home, leaving behind not only political unrest and/or violence, but friends, family, and most of your worldly possessions. On one…

There are poetry readings of the “I was born in a log cabin” variety (ick, snore, groan) and then there are poetry readings, those slamming shindigs that showcase raw wordplay with kickback musical backing. If you hit up the Poet Bar Mic Check, you’ll find the latter and more. The…

The Life Before Her Eyes, starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood, is a sort of Gen Next Sophie’s Choice, featuring a fascinating, guilt-racked premise drawn from the book by Laura Kasischke. The film opens nationally April 18, but Phoenicians can get a sneak peek at the flick, which closes…

It’s despicable how Rory Flynn sullies her father’s ne’er-do-well legacy when she describes him as “graced with a combination of charm, eloquence, and courage.” O, wretched lies for a scandalous rogue! Daddy was Golden Age movie star Errol Flynn, who swashbuckled to fame in Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk…

Fictional astronaut Steve Austin had six million dollars behind his rebuilding. What does Matt Spastic — drummer for chaotic garage punks The Complainiacs — have? A little help from his friends. Spastic recently took a sucker punch from the universe, fracturing his jaw in five places and knocking out several…