Goodbye Blue Monday might sound like a nod to ’80s New Wave pioneers New Order. But GBM, a San Diego quartet whose name actually references Kurt Vonnegut’s seminal Breakfast of Champions, has no desire to imitate either the Manchester Invasion (despite citing The Cure as a major influence) or the…
This is what it’s come to: I have driven for nearly an hour in order to interview a big plastic skeleton. What’s more, I’m doing it at a place I swore I’d never, ever visit: the Arizona Renaissance Festival, a faux medieval village (one of the largest of its kind…
“I just got done burning all my clothes,” explains The Barin, whose real name is Brian, but likes to go under the name Barin Darnew, probably just to piss off his parents, “so I could buy some new ones.” I look at my pal as we make our way toward…
If Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart isn’t often revived, it’s almost certainly because it’s an issue-related drama with a story — about the first few years of the AIDS epidemic in Manhattan — that sounds, in quick summary, quite dated. It doesn’t help that the play is equal parts lecture…
If you run into Josh Provost this weekend, make sure there’s no spinach in your teeth. You never know — you might just wind up an extra in the 28-year-old’s latest short film. Along with the six other members of aptly named Matter of Chance Productions, Provost will be hurriedly…
THU 17 It’s game time for local painter David McPherson. If pro athletes can summon the power of the Almighty — you know, “God was on our side today . . .” — McPherson can draw upon his Zen teachings and the blessing of the Venerable Norbu Lama with the…
Now out on DVD is the entire third season of Fox’s brilliant 24, probably one of the best dramas ever made for television. Much like the first two seasons, this one stars Kiefer Sutherland, and the story in this “season” takes place in a period of 24 hours straight. It…
“The Heart Show” at the Paper Heart: Artists are often accused of thinking with their hearts, especially when it comes to the creative process. So it’s only fitting that this juried showcase of more than 20 different works focuses on the organ itself, as well as its symbolism and significance…
We are under attack. The enemy, invisible and silent, has annexed every living room, classroom and workplace — and gallery. At monOrchid Gallery in downtown Phoenix, a show titled “A WarLike People: Victims or Perpetrators?” exposes the adversary, sounding the alarm on government control through fear, subsequent elimination of civil…
At first (and second and maybe even third) glance, it’s all so familiar: Keanu Reeves shrouded in a black trench coat that flaps behind him like a superhero’s wings, moving between netherworlds and a real world used as a battleground, breeding ground, and playground for higher beings amused and appalled…
It’s hard to know what to expect from Wayne Wang. The Hong Kong-raised director has made one gorgeous mood movie (Chinese Box) and two intelligent literary adaptations (Smoke and Anywhere but Here); he was also responsible, in his early days, for the overwrought sob fest The Joy Luck Club. Then,…
The Sea Inside, the new right-to-die drama from Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (The Others), is a flawed film worth seeing. Based on Letters From Hell, a book by quadriplegic Ramón Sampedro about his 30-year quest to kill himself, the movie favors the emotional over the legal, foregrounding Sampedro’s relationships with…
What’s the worst way to begin an interview with Paula Poundstone? “Uh, well, how about, ‘Got any TV coming up?’ Yeah, that’s a bad way,” Poundstone says, as a matter of fact. “People have a tendency to belittle [me]. You know, like, ‘Got anything that really impresses me?'” No belittling…
2/17-2/20 If you think all black movies have to include the words “phat,” “dope” or “fly” in the dialogue, prepare to be schooled at the Arizona Black Film Showcase, which runs from Thursday, February 17, through Sunday, February 20, at South Mountain Community College, 7050 South 24th Street. “This event…
SAT 2/19 It’s been said that the hardest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball. Those selling that tired line, however, are most certainly blocking out painful childhood Wiffle memories. Making contact with a perforated ball possessed of the ability to move up, down, and sideways seemingly all…
MON 2/21 The words of American soldiers in Iraq are officially “Rated R” by the Motion Picture Association of America. Michael Tucker’s appealing that rating, because he feels his documentary Gunner Palace, about the U.S. Army’s 2/3 Field Artillery unit housed in Uday Hussein’s former Azimiya Palace, needs to be…
THU 2/17 Something fishy this way comes, when the Tuna Helpers flop onto the stage at the Emerald Lounge, 1514 North Seventh Avenue on Thursday, February 17. The female trio call themselves a “pop-goth, performance art, puppet-wielding band,” and intersperse their own songs with performances by homemade puppets, some of…
According to the Internet site TV Tome, more people between the ages of 6 and 30 have heard of Gilligan, that eternal television castaway, than Theodore Roosevelt, John Glenn, or Mary Magdalene. More people have seen an episode of Gilligan’s Island than watched the first astronaut landing on the moon…
There are punk rock bands, and then there are PUNK ROCK bands. Out of New York City comes Endangered Feces. Now, I gotta admit, I’ve known their singer, Jay Levitz, for quite some time. In fact, when I first met him, he was the roadie for one of my favorite…
THU 10 If the organizers of the fourth annual Arizona Black Film Showcase achieve their mission statement — “to become the premier, national media arts event dedicated to supporting black film professionals” — Phoenix could hatch a Spike Lee for the 21st century. On Thursday, February 10, three local indie…
SAT 2/12 She can flex her rippled six-pack one pop at a time. She wrote a book titled The Gut Book! Learn How to Lose Weight and Flaunt a Waist Like Mine!. But Nakarát (née Jennifer Gerhardt) isn’t a fitness instructor. She’s a teacher and performer of “Raks Sharqi” (“Dance…
One should expect little from the man who has directed an Olsen Twins movie (It Takes Two, the one with Steve Guttenberg, no less), Matthew Perry’s first Friends-to-film entry (Fools Rush In, its title an apparent nod to audiences who went to see it), and Sweet Home Alabama, one of…
