We were changed forever by Stevie Wonder’s 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. The romantic nostalgia that evoked our personal stuff. The social commentary that wedded hope to despair. The music — mmmm. Black Poet Ventures celebrates Wonder’s wonder with Conversations in the Key of Life. Arizona poets…
If anything, Calaca Café — a gathering of musicians, performers, and Mercado-style art — is the shit because of its venue. Join the folks of the Calaca art collective at the Elias/Rodriguez House, a Sonoran-style adobe that was built way back in 1885. Fri., Dec. 14, 7-10 p.m., 2007…
Austria. Home of Mozart, Hitler, The Sound of Music, the Governorator, and, uh, surfing? That’s right. A bunch of beatniks from the landlocked European country created the epic Zen & Zero, a 2006 flick that chronicles their quest to uncover “the surfer dude myth” as they travel from California to…
The danger with “ART”ini Thursday — an inspired bit of marketing in which patrons can hand-design their martini glasses as customized souvenirs — is that said patrons will get too sloshed to paint, creating unintentional Picasso cocktails. Less-inebriated souls can splash away with artistic impunity during the weekly shindig. Thursdays,…
Local Latin funk band Gunzawless — composed of the Gonzales brothers Frank, Pete, and Paul, Matt Vaiza (a cousin), and Mike “Cheeba” De La Torre — is steadily gaining a reputation for deft musicianship and a tight live show. The band even has a “space and time” mantra, according to…
Midnite Movie Mamacita ends her long-running affiliation with Paper Heart — which is closing up shop at the end of December — with “director” Chester Novell Turner’s just plain nasty awful flick about a bloodthirsty puppet who looks like a cross between Chucky and Whoopi Goldberg. “This low-budget movie is…
Old shock-rockers don’t die, they just play golf a lot. And make public-safety commercials. And — like any reformed blood-spewing, snake-fondling maniac — become pillars of the community. So it is – sigh – with Alice Cooper, who’s transformed the notoriety gained from his rowdy days of the early ’70s…
You probably already know this, but Urban Cowboy was a bunch of bull. Englewood, New Jersey’s John Travolta on a mechanical mount? Cleveland Heights, Ohio’s Debra Winger in ropers? A whole generation grew up believing — to quote another egregious example of Wild West revisionism by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen…
Mannheim Steamroller Sat., Dec. 15, 7:30 p.m., 2007…
Need some coaxing to go out on a Tuesday night? What if we told you that Stinkweeds and Retail Laboratory have put their stamp of approval on a hot weekly event? Would that sway you? Huh? If so, check out 602(sdays) at Glam, where DJs Epidemic, Jump-Off, and EPHX spin…
Women’s sports rule in the Valley. You hear us, Arizona Pigeons, uh, Cardinals? If you don’t believe us, let’s jostle those brain cells and remind you of the Phoenix Mercury’s championship as well as the ASU Women’s Basketball team, who made it to the last year’s NCAA Elite Eight. The…
Howard Stern can make or break you. If you’re the band Gloritone, you lose credibility, but if you’re Florida shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge, the Stern connection can nab you millions of brand-new, like-minded listeners. The Absorbent One was dropped from Clear Channel in 2004 and picked up by…
Admit it: You hear the name “César Chávez” and your mind goes straight to farm-worker strikes and cheesy one-liners about boycotting grapes. Who knew that Chávez was linked to a series of gorgeous Pop Art posters of ladies dancing and cool old airplanes? The folks at Tempe City Hall certainly…
You’re a golfer. You just drove the piss out of the ball straight down that there fairway, Happy Gilmore-style. Then you sink a beast of a putt that’s more ridiculous than an Arnold Palmer hole-sinking tap at The Masters. You’re feeling good about yourself, your life, the kids at home,…
Everybody has a soft spot (pun intended) for the floppy, colorful characters in the “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” exhibit, a traveling show that begins its Southwestern première engagement on Saturday, December 15, at Arizona Museum for Youth, 35 North Robson Street in Mesa. The exhibition combines fascinating fun with reverence…
The Suns Gorilla will take one for the team at this shindig, at which the Great Ape will be situated on the Marketplace’s District Tower for 24 hours or until the 100,000th vote is cast in an effort to send our Suns stars to the NBA All-Star Game. If team…
Re-reading Ian McEwan’s Atonement last weekend, my first thought was: I hope to God that Joe Wright — whose broadly grinning Pride & Prejudice made a mess of Jane Austen two years ago — doesn’t screw up this wonderful novel about lust, love, loss, and what art can do to…
She’s no princess, but Nearly Naked favorite Kerry McCue (starring this week and next in that company’s Metamorphoses) is as close to stage royalty as we have around these parts. Royalty that used to work at Dairy Queen, that is. I knew I wanted to be in show business when,…
The Girl Next Door (Anchor Bay) If the horror of Saw was a poblano pepper, this here is the habañero. Derived from Jack Ketchum’s infamous novel, sometimes word-for-word, The Girl Next Door — based on a true story — is a sort of Hostel meets Stand By Me: A group…
Casting Nicole Kidman as The Golden Compass’ glacial, intractably smooth megalomaniac Mrs. Coulter is no less inspired for being obvious. Indeed, she was the first and only choice for director Chris Weitz, who adapted this first installment of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Despite the book’s description of the…
Rock films come in two forms. The first is the concert/documentary variety, the best of which pinpoint a band’s musical moment within the context of its era: the Maysles Brothers and Charlotte Zwerin chronicling the Stones in Gimme Shelter, Martin Scorsese celebrating the Band in The Last Waltz. Then you…
For a game that’s considered Microsoft’s premier 360 title this holiday season, it’s amazing how sloppy Mass Effect is. Graphical glitches distract from otherwise fascinating character designs and alien vistas, constant stops and stutters lengthen load times, and the inventory system must be the worst in history. And just as…
