ZOMG! Did you go to Phoenix Comicon’s “preview night” on Thursday evening and see that full-sized mockup of the Mos Eisley Cantina? What about that gruesome zombie created by the peeps from Making Monsters at the Chamber of Fear booth or the first night of the Phoenix Ultimate Geek Smackdown?…
Phoenix, get out. There’s too much to do and see this weekend, between Phoenix Comicon at the Convention Center, Paul Rodriguez at Stand Up Live, and a sure-to-be cool downtown mural tour. But you’ve gotta choose. Here are a few of our top picks for things to do in (and…
Gardening help can be one of the toughest things to come by. After spending hours on Google trying to figure out whether your plant needs more water, less fertilizer, more sunlight, or new potting soil, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up on the hobby altogether. Admittedly, there may…
Let’s just get this out of the way: Renowned comic book creator Mike Mignola has no earthly idea if Hollywood will ever get around to making Hellboy 3, the third cinematic portrayal of his signature red-skinned character. It’s a question that the 52-year-old artist and scribe will get hit with…
Phoenix is undergoing a beautification process. That’s what Kate Saunders, Phoenix Hostel & Cultural Center’s volunteer coordinator, calls it. “There’s more commissioned art work, more bright colors and simple figures,” Saunders says regarding the current state of Phoenix’s ever-changing mural scene. That constant change inspired Saunders to plan and lead…
To the average person, the name Paul Rodriguez invariably brings to mind memories of his numerous appearances in flicks like Tortilla Soup, A Million to Juan, or Born in East L.A. (the film that launched his cinematic career). Those are merely one part of Rodriguez’s lengthy and varied résumé over…
There’s plenty of reason to be wary of 3D printing technology — what with the arrival of 3D printed gummy avatars, fetuses, and most terrifyingly guns. But a Japanese start-up is giving the whole world an entirely new reason to shudder. Human. Doll. Cloning. See Also: We’re Doomed: Robot Therapists…
The setup: The only 20th-century book for young readers that’s sold more copies than Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is Charlotte’s Web. Childsplay’s current production of John Glore’s stage version of Wrinkle is a great introduction to L’Engle’s Time Quartet/Quintet/Murry-O’Keefe series for those who might not have read the…
Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, and Zach Galifianakis are back. Fans of the trio (a.k.a. The Wolfpack) will find it hitting the road and theaters this weekend in The Hangover Part III. And, if the movie’s poster is any indication, then all bets are off. See also: Lens Flares and the…
Designers and design lovers, mark your calendars because Phoenix Design Week 2013 is officially just a few months away. From October 18 to 25, Design Week events — including workshops, training sessions, and parties — will draw out the region’s best designers and bring a lineup of speakers to the…
Residents of the historic Coronado District are usually pretty proud to tell you where they live. The neighborhood located just outside downtown Phoenix is home to 1920s bungalows and 1940s ranch homes, one of the larger city parks, plus a plethora of diverse businesses and residents, including artists. In recognition…
Heads up, letterpress lovers. If you want to attend the first-ever Phoenix Wayzgoose, hosted by the Amalgamated Printers’ Association from June 5 through 9, your registration is due today. Letterpress Central co-founder and local artist Cindy Iverson says that registrants can drop off their forms and payment ($25 to $75)…
In case you haven’t heard, the mustache look is out (thank God). In its wake, facial hair fanatics have turned to the more rugged (albeit less summer-practical) trend of Beard Nation. With untamed face foliage garnishing the landscapes of indie rock concerts, bike shops, and coffee bars nationwide, media masterminds…
The unlikeliest of all the Hangover trilogy’s comic implausibilities might be its four pampered, rich-boy leads unironically calling themselves the “Wolf Pack” without anybody ever making fun of them. In the slobs-versus-snobs comedies of the 1970s and ’80s, the snooty rich kids were always the antagonists, bullying the nerds and…
There’s one key truth that separates the tank-topped gearheads of the Fast and Furious movies from the rest of us. Every problem these lugnuts face can be solved by doing the one thing these lugnuts love most: driving really fast. It’s what it would be like if you could deal…
At long last, there’s pie again at Bragg’s Pie Factory. A new vegan cafe has opened in the very spot out of which the Bragg family originally sold cakes and pies in the ’40s and ’50s. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the 15,000-square-foot cast-in-place concrete Pie…
New York is a cruel and beautiful place, just as 27 is a cruel and beautiful age. In Frances Ha, Greta Gerwig plays a woman who’s feeling the weight of both. Frances is an aspiring dancer who has reached the age when “aspiring” really means not cutting it. Life with…
Expectations here in Cannes were high — or at least semi-high — for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives, in which Kristin Scott Thomas and Ryan Gosling play a mother-son duo with what might politely be called unresolved issues. Gosling’s Julian has always played second fiddle to his older brother,…
You know those two little lines you get in your forehead when you frown? The ones that, if you frown too much, stick there for good? The French have a name for that: “the lion wrinkle.” And by the 10th day of Cannes, there are a lot of lion wrinkles…
Ladies and gentlemen — anyone, really, who cares about his or her mug — step right up. According to a bit of advice proffered in one of the festival editions of The Hollywood Reporter a few days back, the beauty product to buy while in Cannes is Avibon, an “only-in-France…
Justin Lin may strike some as out of place in the pantheon of contemporary auteurs. The Taiwanese-born American filmmaker, best known for having directed Fast Five and its sequel, Fast & Furious 6 makes unabashedly populist blockbusters for mainstream audiences — hardly the purview of a “serious” artist. His films,…
Phoenix FC is a long way away from being a great soccer team. The Wolves only claimed 9 points in the first eight matches of their inaugural season. The football club has a lot of talented young players but that young talent seems to translate into red cards just about…
