5/27-5/30One thing’s for sure about the ongoing NHL lockout: Neither the owners nor the players at the heart of this ridiculous impasse will ever be mistaken for Mensa members. And while the sporting public at large has responded to the impasse with a collective yawn, that whimpering in the corner…
SAT 5/28You are an MFA candidate. Tuition is sky-high. A 5,000-word short story is due tomorrow. A stack of rejection letters from highbrow publications is piled on the desk. You marinate in your own filth for days. Your partner hates you. And the frequent diarrhea. Oh, the shitty end. You…
SUN 5/29Kneebody isn’t lacking in credibility, not with the L.A.-based, instrumental jazz-rock fusion quintet’s collective résumé that sports gigs with Ani DiFranco, Snoop Dogg, and jazz trumpet luminary Dave Douglas. Yet even with academic credentials from New York’s prestigious Eastman School of Music for four of Kneebody’s five members (the…
THU 26 Girlie shows never get old, even if the girlies do. Such is the appeal of Terry Earp’s play Have Tassels, Will Travel, based on the life of legendary burlesque performer CeCe Walker, a.k.a. “Satan’s Angel: The Devil’s Mistress.” Walker herself, long since retired from her days of twirling…
THU 19 Try as you may, you can’t have a social life through osmosis, introvert. But you can celebrate plant life on Thursday, May 19, by visiting Objects Gallery at Biltmore Fashion Park, 24th Street and Camelback, where Craig Pearson and Potheads International host “Tropical.” The event kicks off a…
It’s 10 a.m. Do you know where your cats are? According to Nohl Rosen, they’re probably crapped out in front of the television, enjoying reruns of Seinfeld while you’re at work. Rosen is co-owner and co-operator of Cat Galaxy, a Scottsdale-based Internet radio and TV station for cats that broadcasts…
Two women kiss on a deserted Manhattan street, and the consequences of that kiss change their lives forever. Diana Son’s Stop Kiss burnishes a brief moment in the lives of ordinary people, making it memorable with smart dialogue and familiar personalities. And Stray Cat Theatre once again rises to the…
Somewhere, this could all be happening right now,” spoke the narrator in the trailer for the first Star Wars movie (thereafter known as Episode IV: A New Hope), and to those who were small children then, it rang true. For an entire generation, the Star Wars trilogy could never be…
It’s a question to which the response should be more than a shrug, but it’s the only thing I can offer anyone who asks, “So, how was it?” The final installment in the mostly irrelevant second Star Wars trilogy is far superior to its immediate two predecessors, The Phantom Menace…
Here’s the scenario: You’re Jet Li, the international action star who has finally become a semi-household name in America, thanks to imported DVDs and various cinematic team-ups with rappers and singers. But in Hong Kong, where you’ve done several movies that don’t depend solely on ass-kicking, you are revered as…
It’s a warm Tuesday evening in May, and Aaron Rosen is chilling on the outdoor patio at Three Roots Coffee House in Tempe, demonstrating his digital deftness to anyone who’s interested. While the air is clogged with the sound of Mill Avenue traffic zipping by, the lanky 24-year-old uses his…
Fashion designer Angela Johnson hasn’t made any Day-Glo straitjackets yet. Nevertheless, she’s dubbed her Fall ’05/’06 runway show “Sideshow Freak in the Padded Room.” The co-founder of the LabelHorde fashion network likens her latest threads to creepy carnivals and mental disorders. “The Padded Room theme is because many of the…
TUESDAYSHold on to those collagen-coated dreams, because that little Botox blast you’ve been praying for might just be within your grasp. Palazzo, the downtown hot spot at 710 North Central — and advocate of sexy, hedonistic fun — is paying homage to both the addictive television show and the cosmetic…
SAT 5/21And now, ladies and gentlemen, we are proud to announce a one-night-only event filled with murder, mayhem, and all that jazz! A soiree celebrating the red-hot moving picture Chicago hits the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the Pumphouse II, 4132 East McDowell, a secluded night crawl…
WED 5/25Face facts, game junkies, everyone’s gotten tired of your bragging. Whether it’s disgruntled friends — weary from getting “pwned” at Unreal Tournament — or your ex, who left after your declaration that a high kill ratio in Battlefield: 1942 translated into bedroom prowess, it’s “game over” for your personal…
FRI 5/20Way back in the late ’80s when college radio was actually a living, breathing entity, many a dorm room in these United States was filled with the smart-ass humor and sublimely amateurish pop-punk of Philadelphia’s Dead Milkmen. Such heartfelt songs like “Punk Rock Girl,” “Bitchin’ Camaro,” and “The Thing…
It happened again the other day. I was asked what I do for a living and, when I confessed that I’m a theater critic, I got the same response I’ve been getting for years. “Is there enough theater in Phoenix for you to cover?” That’s the polite version. I’ve also…
Don’t pigeonhole Nissa Kubly . . . she’s an artist, but also an inventor and a scientist. What’s clear is her passion for one place — the brink of discovery. Almost any day, you can find Kubly, 29, tinkering in her Phoenix studio — a converted garage crammed with books,…
“Virgil Ortiz: La Renaissance Indigène”: Native American tradition meets downtown hip as Virgil Ortiz puts designs inspired by the pottery of his native Cochiti Pueblo on contemporary objects. Black and white lines, swirls and geometric shapes that owe much to op-art show up on purses, corsets and skirts; in a…
I arrive early at America West Arena and feel especially imbecilic telling the parking attendant that I’m there “to see the gorilla.” But I’m apparently the only one who finds this foolish. “He’s expecting you,” she tells me without a hint of irony. “Please tell him hello for me.” Inside,…
Jane Fonda comes from a good Hollywood family and used to be a pretty fair actress herself. Klute, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, and Coming Home were three of the better films of their time. So, after getting a look at herself in her first movie in 15 years, La…
The mockumentary is a tricky thing and not to be attempted by amateurs, many of whom treat the form like a joke without need of a punch line; damn the filmmaker who thinks it clever and ironic enough to “interview” “real people” “talking” about other “real people” who, of course,…
