Indian Jones

The massive “Revolution RezFest” will be the biggest party to hit the Salt River Indian Reservation all year, yet no drugs and alcohol are allowed at the event. Who needs them, anyway? “I’d rather have horse leg, pig ass, rabbit soup and Kool-Aid,” says guitarist Onk Akimel, whose band, Diana…

Organ Freeman

9/22-9/25There probably isn’t a musician in town who can command the weekly live audience that Bobby Freeman can — during the summer, at least. You’ve heard him yourself if you’ve ever been to an Arizona Diamondbacks home game, pounding out the Mexican Hat Dance, the Hungarian czardas, or the opening…

Sin-sational

FRI 9/23The first person to shout “Play ‘Free Bird'” at the BlackMoods show on Friday, September 23, might get a microphone up the moo-moo. The local rockers built a reputation for cover songs under their previous moniker, Chalmers Green, but for the BlackMoods, it’s more about their own blistering brainchildren…

Rolling Thunder

SAT 9/24The Bruisers versus the Surly Girlies. It sounds like something out of West Side Story — only with skates. Actually, it’s the latest blood-sport death match between the take-no-shit Arizona Roller Derby chicks, who hit the hardwood for their first match of the new season on Saturday, September 24,…

Found Film

SUN 9/25When the late artist Joseph Cornell found objects, he put them in boxes. When he found celluloid, he crafted it into some of the richest and earliest experimental films this side of the Big Pond. The results were jocular and edgy phantasms that were enough to make Salvador Dali…

This Week’s Day-by-day Picks

THU 22Master chef Stephen Stromberg whips out his magic pan on Thursday, September 22, for the final installment in “Cooking & Cocktails” at Latitude 30, a gratis summer series of culinary demonstrations and tastings at the swank eatery, which is named after the imaginary line that bisects the heart of…

New Times‘ top DVD picks for the week of September 13

After Sex (New Yorker Video) Ben-Hur: Four-Disc Collector’s Edition (Warner Bros.) Candlemass: The Curse of Candlemass (Navarre) Carlito’s Way: Ultimate Edition (Universal) Escaflowne: The Movie — Ultimate Edition (Bandai Entertainment) Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Fourth Season (HBO Home Video) Fever Pitch (20th Century Fox) Happily Ever After (Kino International)…

Drear Factor

Michael Eastman’s unpopulated photographs of empty streetscapes and seedy interiors occupy the same desolate ward as Edward Hopper’s diner and Walker Evans’ still lifes. Boarded-up theaters, abandoned houses and shabby rooms tell of entropy, imploding communities, empty dreams, and a center that cannot hold. You know the drill. That’s why…

New releases available this week

Da Ali G Show: Da Compleet Second Seazon (HBO Home Video) Sacha Baron Cohen’s inching closer to Tom Green territory; come this time next year, his HBO show is likely to be on the pop-culture junk pile. Which isn’t to say this double-disc set doesn’t hold up — it’s just…

Frank, Speaking

It’s nearly as difficult to get an interview with one of the 500-plus New Orleans evacuees housed at Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum as it is to get timely rescue assistance from FEMA. A dozen phone calls to flacks from various agencies in search of an audience with someone — anyone –…

Death Warmed Over

If you’re a character in a movie, and the rain is coming down so heavily that you cannot see out your car’s windshield, for the love of God, don’t drive! Mack-truck drivers interpret such conditions as carte blanche to be reckless and will assume that honking their horn provides ample…

Art of Rebellion

A rich family returns to their nice home after a vacation, but something isn’t quite right. The place has been . . . burgled? No, not quite. The stereo that’s missing — it’s in the fridge. The chairs have been stacked into a tower. And there’s a note attached: “Your…

Good Shot

Andrew Niccol’s first two films as writer-director, 1997’s Gattaca and 2002’s S1m0ne, were hollow, sterile sci-fi masquerading as earnest satire: The former told of a near future in which parents could genetically engineer perfect children; the latter proffered an actress who became the most famous and beloved movie star in…

Best Western

Yes, that could be Vince Vaughn standing behind you in line at your local Fry’s. The actor may be one of Hollywood’s hottest residents, but he’s a frequent visitor to Phoenix. “Phoenix is like a second home for me,” the actor tells New Times via phone from Chicago, where he’s…

Retro Redux

What do cockroaches and ’50s kitsch have in common? They just keep coming back. At first glance, Paul Wilson’s hand-cut prints appear to be family photos from the era of Hula-Hoops and sock hops. Doting housewife Dottie Kimble serves a pitcher of fresh lemonade to a gaggle of teenage boys…

Give Peace a Trance

SAT 9/17In the ’60s, there were love beads and hippies. Today, the “make love, not war” mentality lives on through Kandee Kids — ravers with beaded bracelets and positive vibes. On Saturday, September 17, the Gaia of all raves, Earthdance 2005, heads to a Tucson desert locale so secret you…

Blood Hound

FRI 9/16The Prince of Motherfucking Darkness: That’s the literary epithet that author John Gilmore has earned after a lifetime spent excavating the noirish underbelly of human existence. From his grim account of Charles Schmid, the homicidal “Pied Piper of Tucson,” in Cold-Blooded, to his mortician-like dissection of Charles Manson’s psyche…

Deflating Buffoons

9/16-9/17While most kids long to be baseball stars or astronauts, Darrell Hammond was a comedian born. He started impersonating family members when he was 5, and he’s blossomed into Saturday Night Live’s resident impressionist, specializing in letter-perfect portrayals of political and entertainment figures such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Sean…

Hit Parade

9/16-9/17Ah, there’s nothing so sublime as leaning back on a bleacher with a cool drink and a hot dog, a freshening breeze in your face, and watching pitchers pitch and hitters hit. And while slow-pitch softball may not be on a par with pro baseball, it is in a league…

Legend Has It . . .

The Arizona Print Group and Writers Bloc team up for “Urban Legends,” an exhibition of prose, poetry and prints about those apocryphal stories that float around the culture and illuminate our fears by their very silliness. You know the ones: poisoned ATM deposit envelopes, the escaped serial killer with a…

Art Scene

Nelson Garcia at the Chocolate Factory: You can feel the throb of the tropics in Phoenix artist Nelson Garcia’s surreal abstractions. Vivid colors undulate and biomorphic shapes seem to quiver with life in paintings and prints that show what his native Cuba feels like. The cigars, the heat, the humidity,…

This Week’s Day-by-day Picks

THU 15 The sidewalks are still sizzling, and we survived another Hump Day. Now it’s time to chill out and mellow down, and we can think of no better way than mixing, mingling, nibbling and imbibing at Scottsdale’s sleek and sassy SIX Lounge, 7316 East Stetson Drive. On Thursday, September…