Name a Phoenix-based musical act that’s been nominated for five Grammys in the same year. Alice Cooper? False. CeCe Peniston? Uh, no. Jimmy Eat World? Gross, dude. Phoenix Bach Choir? Say what? Say yes to the following nominations for the choral group: • Best Classical Album • Best Choral Performance…
You may be a pock on the rash of post-post-adolescent artist folks squatting in the downtown area, but that doesn’t mean you gotta spend your Saturday nights as the scrubby alterna-type that you are. So go on, swank it up a bit, but this time, don’t outsource your glitzy evening…
Good old Michel Foucault would likely regard Jessica Calderwood’s enamel art as mere fodder for the repressive hypothesis, which attempts to give revolutionary importance to discourse on sexuality. Before we whip out footnotes and alphabetized bibliographies, we’re just going to point out, with sensitivity, that Foucault is, in fact, a…
Hey, you got your hiking in my karaoke! The two have more in common than you think. Both take some amount of courage and correct breathing techniques, not to mention appropriately stylish outfits. So break out those sassy stilettos you got at REI, ’cause someone over at Estrella Mountain Regional…
Are you a poet and you know it? Psh! Talk to the hand, because we know the cats in the Jazz Poets, backed by folky rockers Obadiah Parker, are the real deal. Fri., Dec. 21, 7:30 p.m., 2007…
We pansy-ass boutique shoppers are pretty ambivalent about the new Tempe Marketplace megashopolopolis, but we do dig the big-box nirvana’s Third Thursday at Tempe Marketplace series, which features big-name acts for zero dinero. This edition features California hardcore crew Unwritten Law and local power-popsters Good With Grenades. Thu., Dec. 20,…
To remain attractive, personal hygiene is important. However, if your cleanliness creeps toward godliness and spills over into the realm of sterilization, it’s just not sexy. Anyone who’s obsessed with germ contamination is probably a lousy lay, so if you want to be good in the sack, you’ve got to…
While our lame ass sits at home reading crime novels and waiting for the phone to ring, somewhere in this city of immolation Susana is carefully choosing a skin-tight outfit to rival any high school bleacher slut for her Travesty Show. She of the golden cowgirl hat, trembling lamé bikini…
Agoraphobes dread going outside. Dentophobics haven’t had a teeth cleaning in years, and sufferers of lachanophobia are deathly afraid of vegetables. As for us, we’re terrified of something so strange that the headshrinkers haven’t yet created a catchy term to describe it: hideous Christmastime sweaters. Crack wise if you must,…
Don’t you just love watching children cry when they didn’t get absolutely everything they wanted for Christmas? If there’s one kernel of knowledge worth taking away from this painfully gluttonous holiday season, it’s that you can’t please everyone. For some reason, the people behind the weekly Embargo Wednesday refuse to…
The tendency of art in the past century has been to kick the old to the curb, to break away from the traditional once any medium is labeled as such. Lately, certain contemporary artists have seen fit to drag various processes from the crowded depths of obsolescence and attach new…
If your gift list’s long and bank account short, we suggest a pit stop at Artist Alley. Local artists and artisans will be selling their handcrafted goods at prices ranging from $1 to $30 — and there’ll also be tamales and mini cakes. Yum. Sat., Dec. 8, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.;…
Unless you count “Fairytale of New York” by Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor — which we don’t, necessarily — what’s the last popular song that entered the collective Christmas consciousness? (Don’t say Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” Them’s fightin’ words.) And how about Hollywood? The dream factory specializes in pumping out…
Ben Franklin defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results,” which explains why he only flew his kite into lightning once. In pop music, you want that kind of insanity — plus repetition and reiteration on a theme, which, if done properly, can intensify…
If Christmas carols have taught us anything, it’s that Santa Claus is a fat, old, reclusive voyeur who’s constantly peeping into everyone’s private life from atop the Arctic. Not to slander the good name of jolly old Saint Nick, but consider the lyrics to that Yuletide standard “Santa Claus Is…
Things that are typical Phoenix in the wintertime: Holiday lights. Strip malls. Strip malls with holiday lights on them. And, of course, ZooLights: Nature All A-Glow, which has become a Valley institution like the aforementioned, but way, way cooler. The seasonal light exhibit wraps up on Sunday, January 6. Nov…
Y’know, it’s pretty remarkable how many ancient hardcore bands — ones most of us thought were long gone — are still crisscrossing this great land of ours with Econoline vans and U-Haul trailers, playing shows for the faithful: Agent Orange, Agnostic Front, Sick of it All, Suicidal Tendencies, and Circle…
These days, it seems like half of Arizona is on its way to pseudo-Tuscan McMansionville. It’s too bad, really, since mid-century modern architecture is found in exactly two places on earth: Palm Springs, California, and the Phoenix area. One local diamond in the rough, the Hotel Valley Ho, was barely…
The Phoenix Suns’ December 5 schooling of the Toronto Raptors on the latter’s home court stretched Phoenix’s winning streak against the birds of prey to seven. The Sunnies try to make it eight straight with a rematch. The game is officially sold out. Try http://teamexchange.ticketmaster.com. Sat., Dec. 22, 7 p.m.,…
Actors Theatre’s A Christmas Carol is — and we say this lovingly — the cockroach of local theater. The sky could be falling, it could be raining nukes, the sun could blow up and the annual holiday extravaganza would go on without pause or fail. Need we tell you –…
The ’07 Atlanta Falcons suck, victims of quarterback Michael Vick’s dog-fighting debacle. But we don’t have to tell you that the Arizona Cardinals historically suck against other teams that suck, and we’ll see if the trend holds true. The game is officially sold out. Try www.ticketmaster.com/trade. Sun., Dec. 23, 2:05…
Eat a deep-fried chimi, then work it off. Hell, eat a dozen, ’cause love handles are an endangered species at the muy picante Latin dance night called Caliente Friday featuring DJs AL3 and Manic Hispanic. Fridays, 9 p.m.-2 a.m., 2009…
