Ever since we could use our eyeballs, humans haven’t been able to shake a major staring problem with the night sky. The ancient Babylonians were so obsessed that they created the first-known practice of astrology — which we now use as fodder for cheap come-on lines in bars. In the…
Art exhibitions can be frustrating, confusing, and challenging. It’s always a struggle to decide whether the art in an exhibition is total crap or you’re just too dumb to get it. So every once in a while, it’s time to take a break, shelve the ego, and just enjoy something…
“Homegrown AZ Artist Show” at Windup Gallery: Graffiti — it’s not just for cinderblock anymore. The bold and energetic aesthetic has recently popped up in galleries (like five15, or Wet Paint when it was showing artists) and coffee shops. With reasonable prices, the work is gaining popularity among the young,…
The magic has returned to the Harry Potter franchise — albeit magic of the old, black variety. The darkest and most threatening, by far, of the five Potter films, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is also the only series entry outside of the third, Alfonso Cuarón’s Harry…
George Ratliff’s Joshua debuted at the Sundance Film Festival to raves from a particular breed of audience member: parents. Because no matter how hard Fox Searchlight’s trying to sell this movie as a horror picture — Rosemary’s Baby meets The Omen on the way to The Exorcist’s for a play…
One of the best new video games on the market requires you to take math tests. During summer break, no less. But before you cue up “Night on Bald Mountain” and run like hell, you really should play Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. Any “party title” that can hold a…
You’re Gonna Miss Me (Palm) A hit at the South by Southwest Film Festival two years ago, Keven McAlester’s doc about the Papa of Psychedelia, Roky Erickson, at long last gets its proper release. But time has done McAlester a tremendous favor: Had he shot the film too soon, he…
Herberger Theater Center’s Lunch Time Theater series is, quite simply, full of win. You get a break with live entertainment for just $6. Dozens of emerging troupes get exposure to new audiences. And, in the current show, the taffeta-fetish community gets its moment: Larissa Brewington’s one-act comedy Quality Time is…
Scottsdale is ground zero for $30,000 millionaires. Shiny shirts, spray-on man tans, fake Rolexes, and credit-card debt higher than their spiky, gelled hairdos. These late-night leisure zombies have also infected Tempe and Arcadia, and rumor has it that they’ll stop at nothing in pursuit of fake boobs, nose jobs, and…
Here are some terms rock critics — always in search of fresh rock-critic terms — have used to describe the music/persona of SoCal singer/songwriter Chloe Day: “predatory,” “lethal,” “seductive,” “eerie,” “hypnotic,” “trashy,” “vaguely dangerous.” We’re here to tell you that Day’s not all that, but just a St. Louis refugee…
Reading the story of Taraf Degrief (check out www.tarafdegrief.blogspot.com) is like poring over Jonathan Safran Foer’s abstract, sometimes heartbreaking, and intriguing-as-all-get-out novel Everything Is Illuminated. We’ll spare you the sordid details, but basically, the way-underground musician (born Shmuel Schenderovitch) was trapped inside Prague’s Spanish Synagogue for three days in 1963…
Soccer may be the L.A. Confidential of American sports — underrated, overlooked, and lacking in attendance — but in most other civilized countries (and, yes, a few Stone Age ones) it’s the hottest ticket in town. Latin America’s top soccer teams will compete for national pride, glory, and the $250,000…
Some folks, especially art critics, would call Fausto Fernandez’s latest body of work “mixed-media creations,” a cryptic term that can refer to just about any visual artwork juxtaposing multiple mediums. Text with oil paints. Vinyl shrapnel and dead bugs glued to a cigarette box. Rattlesnake dung smeared on Rothko-esque color…
Back in April, everyone thought the Los Angeles Dodgers would run away with the National League West, and that the San Diego Padres, with their kick-butt pitching staff anchored by Jake Peavy, Chris Young, and All-World closer Trevor Hoffman, were the Dodgers’ only speed bump. Well, as this is being…
Pete Cecere must have one sick crib. Evidently, he designed his pumpkin-colored home in western Virginia so it could house his collection of more than 12,000 pieces of folk art — way impressive considering that the Louvre in Paris currently displays about 35,000 pieces. In 2005, Cecere generously donated 1,000…
Baa Baa Black Sheep: Volume 2 (Universal) Baseball’s Most Unbreakable Feats (Shout!) Batfink: The Complete Series (Shout) Disappearances (Universal) Dora the Explorer: Summer Explorer (Paramount) Degrassi: The Next Generation — Season 5 (Funimation) Dream a Little Dream 2 (Echo Bridge) Driving Lessons (Sony) Eureka: Season One (Universal) Filmation’s Ghostbusters: Volume…
Transformers twiddles its big, fat, stupid robotic thumbs for the better part of two hours before jabbing them into your eye socket and finger-fucking your brain in the last 20 minutes. Yes! It’s torture enough waiting for the iPhone and the second coming of Jesus without wondering when, exactly, this…
Dreams and the Internet, according to the psychotherapist superheroine of Satoshi Kon’s loopy Paprika, are “areas where the repressed conscious mind vents.” Is this not the ideal definition of movies as well? Kon’s head-tripping anime universe, which also includes Millennium Actress and Perfect Blue, is about as obsessive and personal…
Here’s the page where I habitually whine about done-to-death musicals; where I make pissy comments about the dreary state of summer stock; where I bemoan the very existence of dinner theater. This is where I normally complain about having to drive 45 minutes to watch a retread of a super-popular…
When Resident Evil 4 was originally released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2005, the game reinvented a lot of what had grown tiresome about the series. Most obvious were the setting and enemies you faced: Instead of the various building-overrun-by-zombies scenarios that played out in past versions, Resident Evil 4…
Chancer: Series 1 (Acorn) Available solely in the U.K. for years, this is a small-time release featuring a modestly big-time star at the get-go of his career: Clive Owen, looking all of 12 years old and 73 pounds, is a sacked investment banker who winds up in the employ of…
I discovered Valium the other day. I know, I know — where have I been, right? But prescription meds and I don’t get along well, so my recreational drug use has mostly been limited to Scotch and the occasional garden-grown cigarette. Prescribed by my charming new dentist to get me…
