Phoenix Comicon is going to be big this year — really big. In fact, we’ve heard rumors that it will be the biggest year to date for the much-beloved geek bonanza and pop culture convention. Not only are there going to be more guests (read: actors, actresses, comic book creators,…
Unmotherly Insights (Into Modern Mothering) Debra Rich Gettleman is a writer, an artist, an actress and, as so many of us must be these days, many other things. But what she is every minute of every day is a mom, and she shares the highs and lows of that honorable…
Phoenicians soaked up the sun while the East Coast was shoveling through mountains of snow for the past few months, but Valley dwellers are going to be on Vitamin D overload all too soon as summer hits and temperatures climb into the triple digits. Anyone who’s survived a Phoenix summer…
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a NASA scientist, a writer, and a children’s rights advocate walk into the Arizona Science Center. This isn’t a joke, it’s what’s going to happen on Thursday, May 27. Mayor Stanton, who has been a staunch supporter of bringing bioscience industry to the metro Phoenix area,…
The interplay of art with commerce has long been a controversial topic in the arts world. Artists fear that the business side of things might somehow stifle their creative muse, and yet they lament the fact that their artworks aren’t in higher demand. It’s sometimes tough for artists to strike…
“One-of-a-Kind” In a world of Dubsmash videos, #nomakeup selfies, and misattributed inspirational quotes pinned and re-pinned to infinity, originality isn’t so easily encountered. But the photographic works by artists including David Emitt Adams and Betty Hahn found in Phoenix Art Museum’s “One-of-a-Kind” are not so easily duplicated. By virtue of…
What happens in the studio, shouldn’t always stay in the studio. Studio Visit Q+A is a weekly series that profiles artists in their studios. We ask them questions, they provide answers, and then we have a nice discussion about their work. This week: Tempe photographer Thomas Locke Hobbs. Thomas Locke…
If you know what you’re doing, Vegas can be a really good place for a random fling. If you don’t know what you’re doing, Vegas can be a really bad place where you waste a ton of money trying to make a random fling happen. There are no promises once…
Seed Spot has earned some bragging rights. The Phoenix-based nonprofit specializes in providing budding entrepreneurs with the tools and mentorship they need to succeed. It’s now helped 143 Arizonans be the change they want to see in our state through two-day workshops, five-day “bootcamps,” and 12- and 14-week intensive programs. Seed…
During “Compliments,” a first-season sketch on Inside Amy Schumer, a group of female friends respond to every bit of praise with a verbal self-maiming: “I tried to look like Kate Hudson but ended up looking like a golden retriever’s dingleberry,” says one. Sighs another, “Of course I see everyone when…
Typewriter collectors and appreciators, grab your keys, ribbon spools, and platens, and make sure you’re at First Draft Book Bar in Changing Hands on Saturday, May 23, for the sixth annual Phoenix Type-In. “Just imagine a car show for people who like typewriters,” says event organizer Ryan Adney. “It’s a…
In the last couple weeks, New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult’s daughter, Samantha van Leer, had to have a special meeting with a dean at Vassar College to move her statistics final. “Yeah, I have this book tour thing,” Picoult says she imagines her daughter telling the dean. Picoult…
Visitors to the Arcadia Community Association website are greeted these days by a colorful banner proclaiming “Stop the Madness! Help us Preserve Arcadia!” In this case, the madness concerns the David and Gladys Wright House, the recently rescued and controversial “round house” designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright toward…
In a junk-food summer, Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland is a defiant carrot stick, a blockbuster adventure flick where the message is “Think smart.” It’s a deliberate phooey to the kiddy carnage of movies like Transformers and The Avengers, which frighten children about the apocalypse before they can even spell the word…
As a middle-aged woman, I rarely have a conversation with other middle-aged women in which the subject of movies “for us” fails to come up. As a critic, I don’t really think of movies in terms of which ones are “for” me and which are not, but I know what…
Fictional movies that tackle topical subjects often have about them the fusty air of a civics lesson, as if we’re supposed to watch pretending that we’re not being led down the path of righteousness. But writer-director Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill is something else. It’s immediate and vital, and it doesn’t…
Poltergeist 2015 is to Poltergeist ’82 what today’s shipped-frozen-to-the-store Pizza Hut dough is to the kneaded-on-site pies the chain’s stoned cooks tossed in the Reagan era. It’s the same kind of thing, with the same shape and some shared ingredients, but the texture’s gone limp, and there’s no sense of…
The final episode of Mad Men was upbeat — if you enjoy the death of the counter-culture. On this special episode of the Voice Film Club podcast, Village Voice film editor Alan Scherstuhl and editorial fellow Lara Zarum, along with the Voice’s TV critic Inkoo Kang, discuss the final episode…
For many decades, major performing arts organizations including ballet companies have followed a fairly predictable path: presenting well-known repertory in large venues, while expecting contemporary audiences to sit through lengthy productions of classic works. For ballet audiences, it’s included a never-ending stream of Swan Lake, Giselle, and The Nutcracker. They’re…
We get it. You’ve got enough on your plate to worry about. Whether it’s navigating day-to-day life, discovering your larger purpose in the world, or figuring out a time to go see Mad Max: Fury Road. Allow us to help you out with some of that stress and cross worrying…
Once upon a time, there was a guy named Charlie Levy, and he opened a music venue in downtown Phoenix called Crescent Ballroom. The bar served burritos and beer and whiskey cocktails and Levy brought all the coolest bands there to play. And the people were happy. But that wasn’t enough…
All About Books and Comics owners Marsha and Alan Giroux have their hands full these days, and not just with stocking the latest titles from Marvel and DC. The couple, who have run the renowned Phoenix comic book emporium for 33 years, are getting ready to leave their longtime location…
