Quantum Bleep

“I recently got a tattoo that says ‘bleep’ on my forehead,” says William Arntz, one of the filmmakers behind the blockbuster docu-movie What the #$*! Do We Know!? Arntz is joking, but given the immense fan base behind the film, which explores, through quantum physics, the idea that the mind…

Butter Tart

The Arizona State Fair is known for rodeos, midway rides, music, and . . . spreadable art? Yep, you heard it right. This year’s fair features “The Lost Cow” butter sculpture by California artist Sarah Nep. Nep’s specialty is cheese sculpture, and she made her first foray into fromage after…

Bone Mama Mia!

SUN 10/16″Poetry readings are boring. This is a rock show compared to poetry readings,” says Mary “Bone Mama” McCann, who will perform her high-octane sound poems at the Noisy by Nature book-release party on Sunday, October 16, at Modified Arts, 407 East Roosevelt Street. This definitely ain’t your ordinary “I…

Amazing Race Home Edition

SAT 10/15f you’re tooling around in Tempe on Saturday, October 15, and see a screaming horde running around and tearing its collective hair out, don’t fret; it’s not Godzilla rising from the abyssal depths of Town Lake, but a high-concept affair called High Trek Adventure. The homage to TV’s Amazing…

This Year’s Models

SAT 10/15There you are, surrounded by models from Maxim, FHM, and Playboy, all wearing butt-floss bikini bottoms. The smell of burning rubber permeates the air and, out of a fog of custom-car exhaust, Maxim “Top 10 Hottie” Martina Andrews materializes. She leans over your table with her firm, perfectly symmetrical…

You GoGirls

SAT 10/15You don’t need testosterone to make hardcore music hard. Though it’s always been implied that the ol’ punk-rock “oi” be sung by a boy, the sixth annual GoGirlsMusicFest 2005 tour dishes up acts that chuck tradition into a pile of discarded Britney Spears CDs. The music fest offers a…

This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

THU 13Many stogies will be smoked, cocktails consumed and hors d’oeuvres devoured at Doggy Style — a guys-night-out affair scheduled for 7 to 10 p.m. Thursday, October 13, at Phoenix Greyhound Park, 3801 East Washington Street. Though the event targets the high-testosterone crowd, it’s open to bash-crashers of all genders…

New Times‘ top DVD picks for the week of October 11

Alicia Keys: Unplugged (J) Audioslave: Live in Cuba (Sony Music) The Best of the Chris Rock Show: Volumes 1 and 2 (Warner Bros.) Bomb the System (UMVD) The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Warner Bros.) The Dresden Dolls: Paradise (Fontana) 11:14 (Warner Bros.) The Ellen DeGeneres Collection: The Beginning/Here &…

How to Be an Actor in Five Easy Steps

1. Start out as a more-than-slightly neurotic child, perhaps with a nervous tic or a speech impediment — or at least as a kid whose parents are divorcing. Having an emotionally distant father and/or alcoholic mother is helpful, too. Homosexuality is a definite plus. Start small: Reenact toothpaste commercials in…

Goy Gevalt

Director Curtis Hanson, a journeyman only recently bestowed the title of Great Director, has already made his horror movie (1973’s The Arousers), his kiddy action comedy (1980’s The Little Dragons), his teen sex romp (1983’s Losin’ It), his handful of Hitchcock riffs (1987’s The Bedroom Window, 1990’s Bad Influence, and…

You Got Served

All the publicity for Waiting . . . has focused on the scene in which an annoying customer at the fictional chain restaurant ShenaniganZ sends her food back to the kitchen, where it meets with all sorts of nasty modifications, courtesy of some dandruff, pubic hair, and mucus. The teaser…

Say Cheese

Ah, Wallace and Gromit. Who doesn’t get a little lift at the sound of those names? Who doesn’t feel the edges of her mouth begin to tickle toward a smile, her heart grow warmer with images of the love between a (plasticine) man and his (plasticine) dog? Perhaps you’re not…

Monster in Hiding

Crónicas’ biggest claim to fame ought to be that it was Ecuador’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but what most people tend to notice is that it stars John Leguizamo. Mixed messages ensue: “Oscar submission” makes one think of quality, while John Leguizamo’s name inspires visions of…

Breast Feet Forward

Tania Katan has no boobs, but don’t cry for her. The ASU grad turned Renaissance woman has overcome dual mastectomies, transforming herself from a “nerdy 21-year-old” lesbian just trying to get laid into an author, performance artist, topless 5K runner, topless dancer wanna-be, and raconteur deluxe. She lost her first…

Pigment of Imagination

Showcase nudity or violence at an art exhibit and you’ll pack a large gallery, but mention “contemporary art” and you’re relegated to a tiny, one-room studio in the basement. But contemporary art has climbed out of the aesthetic cellar in recent years, thanks in part to the PBS documentary series…

Trash Talk

10/7-10/31Teresa Widmer loves trash. The local mixed-media artist has collected garbage off the streets for the past 12 years, documenting her finds and recycling them into artistic assemblages that comment on America’s disposable culture. Among her finds: the People magazine cover featuring Liz Taylor’s 1989 wedding to “that construction worker,”…

You Can Drive 155

10/7-10/16Armchair daredevils, wrest yourselves from your Barcaloungers and make tracks to Phoenix International Raceway this weekend for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, which offers average joes the opportunity of a lifetime: to hitch a ride in an honest-to-god stock car. The brain child of the 68-year-old former NASCAR king, Petty’s…

Monsters’ Ball

10/6-10/31The three bone-chilling extraterrestrial attractions at Alien Extreme, 4011 South Power Road in Mesa, are like an episode of The X-Files come to life. Wanna-be Mulders and Scullys can poke around inside a government research outpost, a mysterious UFO, and a crash site, looking for ginormous creatures of extraterrestrial origin…

Kota Many Colors

SAT 10/8If you’re a fan of mainstream, steak-and-potatoes Broadway shows — your Phantom, your Rent — then more power to you, frankly. But the latest offering in ASU’s “Beyond Broadway” series brings us something, well, beyond — in a gentle, lovely way. What else would you expect from a troupe…

Called on the Red Carpet

The road to stardom may be paved with some kind of intentions, but Lisa Murray’s was slick with hand lotion. The Scottsdale publisher’s assistant is now Hollywood-bound, thanks in good part to her recent win on Entertainment Tonight’s “Caress Confidante” contest. (Although her new title suggests a career spent listening…

Out of the Box

Sue Chenoweth, 52, starts at one small place, and ends up with painfully intricate paintings that chase through the psyche and surprise even her. The lifelong Phoenician paints in a big, bright studio at Metropolitan Arts Institute (a.k.a. Metro Arts), a charter high school downtown, where she teaches art. Earlier…

Roll Play

Last year’s Katamari Damacy was so quirky, it should have been subtitled “Marketed to Stoners.” Its star, a little green prince, was forced to roll a giant gravity ball to atone for the sins of his father, the King of the Cosmos, who had gotten drunk one day and knocked…