The yuletide season can be an exercise in utter chaos. Or, at the very least, busy. There are gifts to buy, feasts and fêtes to plan, trees to trim, halls to deck, and family gatherings to attend. Making your to-do lists even longer are the hundreds of special events over…
When we’re not busy checking out our favorite artists on Instagram or debating the aesthetic merit of iPhone photography, Jackalope Ranch is trolling the deepest depths of the Internet in search of all that is good, bad, and often unholy in the virtual art world. Today’s subject: Dramatic Portraits of…
On Sunday, November 24, the Phoenix Art Museum is inviting truth-seekers, conspiracy theorists, and documentary junkies alike to enjoy a free screening of the Sundance award-winning film Dirty Wars…
Photography, crafts, and the Phoenix Coyotes round out the five things you have to do in the Valley this week. “Western Eye Photography” @ Eric Fischl Gallery This year, the 2013 Western Eye Photography Competition received submissions across each of the Maricopa Community Colleges. Of those entries, 35 were selected…
Shine, our annual pocket guide to all things Scottsdale, is out. And this year, local artist Luster Kaboom is taking readers on an illustrated ride through the city’s best spots for food, drink, art, and entertainment. Here, in no particular order, are the 10 best places for arts and culture…
Bad news for any ladies over 25: You should have been having babies yesterday. At least that’s what the average American thinks, according to a recent Gallup survey…
These days, anyone with a smart phone is an amateur photographer. Or at least they think they are. Don’t get us wrong, we overuse Instagram filters as much as the next person, but we’re starting to wonder how this technology is affecting one of our favorite art forms. And we’re…
In January the seventh annual contemporary dance festival Breaking Ground will take place at Tempe Center for the Arts. The two-day event will include performances, films, and more. Tickets for the event are already on sale now — and we’ve got the list of Main Stage Artists who will be…
AirwolfberlinJonathan Brandis hanged himself 10 years ago this week at Sixth and Detroit in Los Angeles, in the second-floor hallway of an apartment building south of Hollywood near a decent doughnut shop and a cat groomer. He was 27 years old. And he was my first big crush. If you’re…
Lit-inspired theater, a night as a curator, and the end of 2013’s Arizona Fall League round out this weekend’s must-attend events in the Valley. Have at ’em. 50 Shades of Felt @ Phoenix Theatre There have been plenty of satirical spins on 50 Shades of Grey since the erotic romance…
It’s hard enough to do your holiday shopping on an individual basis. But gift-giving for couples? It’s damn near impossible. Fortunately Jackalope Ranch has stumbled upon the ultimate gift for that special couple that seems to exist in every social circle — the couple that stays together, clings together, does…
Even when I haven’t always loved living in Phoenix, I’ve always loved returning here — from any trip, long or short — so long as I get to return via Sky Harbor International Airport’s Terminal 2. This smaller terminal, completed in 1962, is more navigable than the monster-size Terminals 3…
Dale Chihuly returns to Desert Botanical Garden this week in the form of “Chihuly in the Garden,” a highly anticipated exhibition of his signature hand-blown glass sculptures. His 12th garden exhibition, and second in the Valley, is installed throughout 55 acres of the 140-acre garden, with the landscape as a…
Dallas-based Main Event Entertainment, a family entertainment center operator, opened its first center outside Texas this week. Located in the Emerald Center in Tempe, near IKEA, the 55,000-square-foot location offers more than 100 video arcade games, an upscale bowling alley, laser tag, and gravity ropes. Unlike some other entertainment centers,…
Marshall Shore, the Valley’s Hip Historian, has a penchant for history, specializing in the unknown, the weird, and, come Friday night, the queer. The Fruit Loop Run, a brainchild of Shore and Roosevelt Row, is a walking tour of once-open gay clubs along Roosevelt Street, a thoroughfare steeped in vibrant…
Good news, spinsters. You can now tie the knot with the one you love the most — the one who will never leave you, never judge you, and totally supports your Jane Austen obsession. You…
It had to happen: There’s so much voiceover narration in today’s movies, so much needless verbal play-by-play, that it was only a matter of time before somebody made a picture narrated by that life of the party himself, Death. The Grim Reaper delivers the opening monologue of The Book Thief,…
From the mid-1990s to somewhere around 2006, Hollywood bankrolled a number of romantic entertainments targeted to — though not made exclusively for — black audiences. Pictures like Love Jones, Brown Sugar, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and Something New provided a showcase for actors of color, a refreshing change…
An old friend who knows theater phoned me last week. “I’ve just seen the most perfect production of Ragtime,” she said. “At Theater Works. You should go!” Oh, dear, I thought. A community theater production of Ragtime. No. But I went — fortunately. This well-crafted production of Terrence McNally’s musical…
The residents of Tokyo are locked in an epic battle with giant jungle crows. Sounds like a great monster movie — but it’s a documentary, Tokyo Waka, presented at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art by No Festival Required Independent Cinema. It’s a poetic, contemplative film that weaves a philosophical framework…
Turns out you don’t need an art history degree and a background in curating to make an impact on what hangs at Phoenix Art Museum. Not during ArtPick, anyway. The annual event turns patrons into curators by having them vote on one new piece to be added to the museum’s…
The Phoenix Suns may end up having four first-round draft picks in 2014. What’s more, the 2014 NBA draft is being touted as the best in a decade. Understandably, Planet Orange devotees find themselves in the ambivalent position of rooting for their team whilst secretly being okay with the losses…
