Downtown’s poster child for the arts may be Roosevelt Row, but the true homegrown creativity is found on its streets — like Fifth and Sixth — which spider off the main drag, looking like little more than quiet neighborhood stretches. It’s in these homes, often boasting colorful public art themselves,…
The setup: Mary’s Wedding is a contemporary play set during and just after World War I. This partially historic romance/dream/action adventure about a young Canadian couple has been the most widely produced play in Canada in the decade since its première…
Courting Disaster is Jackalope Ranch’s weekly column of dating horror stories, observations, how-tos, and more by Katie Johnson. Names of ex-boyfriends, past hookups, and bad blind dates have been changed to protect the guilty. I am an old hag. Well, based on my family’s history anyway. My mom had me…
The single-screen cinema, with its balconies and ushers and double features, has joined vaudeville and silent pictures in our hazy American memory. And yet those of us intent on sanctimonious navel-gazing must whine, occasionally, about the good old days, when one saw two carefully paired feature-length films and a couple…
Back in November, Gawker’s Max Reed noted that while Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and Bushwick had become international icons of “hipness,” they weren’t necessarily the only cool neighborhoods on the map. So he asked his online followers what they thought where the Williamsburg and Bushwick equivalents of their home states. Well, the…
For Robert Redford, Sundance’s opening day was a bummer. He woke up to learn the Academy had snubbed him for a (deserved) Best Actor nod for the sparse yachting drama All Is Lost, and he had to spend his typically triumphant morning press conference swatting down questions about being sad…
The single-screen cinema, with its balconies and ushers and double features, has joined vaudeville and silent pictures in our hazy American memory. And yet those of us intent on sanctimonious navel-gazing must whine, occasionally, about the good old days, when one saw two carefully paired feature-length films and a couple…
While our ingenues scurry toward teen bestsellers and David O. Russell flicks, here’s the next generation of talented leading men swaggering into a dude-bro Sex and the City. At night, best friends played by Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan — a.k.a. the player, the goof, and the…
A favorite pastime of critics and serious filmgoers — perhaps the most idiotic and fruitless one — is to complain about how bad the movies have gotten. The complaint is meaningless, because no matter how “bad” the movies get, there are always actors. There’s no such thing as a golden…
Classic ballet can get a bit dull. But contemporary companies like New York-based Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet have proved the future of the art is anything but. Blending athletic movement with world-class choreography, Cedar Lake pushes the possibilities of movement, sans pointe shoes.The company boasts one of the most diverse…
Few things in this world are simultaneously as sweet, sensual, and alluring as chocolate. Once considered good enough for only Mayan and, later, Aztec royalty, chocolate is now one of the most consumed confections worldwide. That said, this yummy treat is a powerful lure for the annual Haute Chocolate Market…
When the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, begin February 6, everyone will be watching ice hockey. But you have a chance to be a hockey hipster, bragging to all your friends about how you watched Olympic-level hockey before it was cool.How? The Phoenix Coyotes have five — count ‘em,…
Since 2004, Phoenician Ryan Avery’s done weird, artsy, generally loud things in public (except for two years he spent in Portland on a Mormon mission). He also creates visual art and recordings of not just his music projects but also performance art and stream-of-consciousness audio.These words don’t do justice to…
The new American Dream for Millennials involves flipping your Tumblr blog into a book deal. But the Indie Author Publishing Conference & Pitchapalooza at Burton Barr Central Library on Saturday, February 1, is all about teaching aspiring scribes about more realistic avenues.Giving advice on going DIY or seeking big league…
Hips don’t lie, and neither do the judges at the Arab American Association’s USA Belly Dance Queen Competition. Sponsored by Arab TV1, this live competition features all levels of performers from novice to professional. The belly dancers hail from all parts of the world, including the U.S., Mexico, and Argentina…
The folks at Art Intersection are being less sneaky than you might imagine by calling Saturday, February 1’s event PhotoTapas. Spoiler alert: There will absolutely be food (sangria, too). But that probably won’t be the most compelling part of the day.The Gilbert art space’s gathering sets out to flip the…
He may be America’s dad, thanks to his roles on the family-friendly Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos, but Bob Saget is known for straddling the line between clean-cut comedy and dirty old man.His Grammy-nominated special, That’s What I’m Talking About, features literal below-the-belt comedy about everything from his…
There aren’t too many places in this wondrous hemisphere of ours where one might attend a pool party in February, let alone a pool party hosted by the Mayor. Lucky for you, Phoenix is one of those places. And regardless of how you feel about our Mayor gallivanting about in…
If you listen to bands that don’t even exist yet, read the manuscripts of books before they’ve been published, and watch films that have yet to make it to mainstream theaters, chances are high that you’ve already bought you ticket for Emerging Artists III.The Emerging Artist series at ASU is…
Yuck’s Max Bloom faced down new songwriting challenges on his band’s second album by concentrating on making Glow & Behold a more cohesive, concise whole. The London band’s 2011 self-titled debut drew widespread praise on both sides of the Atlantic for its invigorating take on 1990s alternative rock. For Yuck’s…
Being evil’s all the rage, we know. Angelina Jolie stars as Sleeping Beauty’s antagonist in the upcoming Disney flick Maleficent. And, yeah, Wicked made us sympathize with ol’ greenie. In theory, we dig the idea of turning a storyline on its ear with a POV change. The problem is that…
Parents have to make choices constantly. For instance, let’s say you and your children are all super-intelligent and hyperverbal. You have one more child who’s just like the rest of you — except he’s deaf. In your world, with your experiences, you might choose not to have him learn sign…
