Nothing says rock ‘n’ roll less than a lawsuit. Paul Green knows that, which makes him Rock Teacher of the Year in our book. > Nonetheless, Green — a 32-year-old rock god to several dozen prepubescent rockers-in-training — has a legitimate beef with a certain Hollywood film studio that’s raked…
8/6-8/31 If Lee Hazel has to be stuck in medieval times, she’s bringing some friends with her. In her latest exhibition, which opens at Modified Arts, 407 East Roosevelt, on Friday, August 6, Hazel presents more than a dozen portraits of downtown artists in 15th-century settings, beckoning Botticelli, Jerome and…
ONGOING For children, tubing the Salt River is a learning experience. We learned that saguaros are native only to this part of the world, that the bald eagle is an endangered species in the Sonoran Desert and, most important, to keep our butts from sinking all the way down in…
Fri 8/6 This is not your typical shake-ya-ass music: “Open your eyes, see eye to eye with me/Righteous lives, that’s how we try to be/No disguise, this isn’t Halloween . . .” And with that, Oddio Audwell isn’t trying to make mamasitas move in slow motion this Friday, August 6,…
THU 29 Do the South Beach Diet, Scottsdale-style — martinis and menthol cigarettes (low-carb, low-fat, high-maintenance) — as Sonik magazine and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society present “South Beach,” Thursday, July 29, at Devil’s Martini North Scottsdale, 10825 North Scottsdale Road. Giveaways, gift bags, charity raffles and a balloon pop…
Ongoing “Rising to unimaginable heights” doesn’t just describe summer’s sweat-extracting temperatures. Mere mortals have the opportunity to make like degrees Fahrenheit — and rise — thanks to the certified pilots at Gila Air, who offer introductory flights and lessons to anybody interested in putting 1,000 feet between themselves and the…
John Miranda is not a racist. The 68-year-old former Marine insists he posted a sign reading “For Sale to Whites Only” in front of his Waddell home because he wants to protect future owners of the property from racism. Miranda is leaving his Clearwater Farms neighborhood because he says the…
I admit that I ended up more interested in the audience that came to see The Pirates of Penzance than I was in the show itself. That’s not because there’s nothing to like about this latest Hale Centre Theatre production, which contains some beautiful singing and several nice performances. But…
Jonathan Demme’s gutsy The Manchurian Candidate, which dares to rear its head just after the Democratic National Convention in Boston, is the anti-Bush-administration movie for those who refuse to see Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 or Robert Greenwald’s Outfoxed because, well, they just ain’t Right. It’s less a remake of director…
Moviegoers who know the tides of recent Brazilian history likely will get more from Hector Babenco’s new prison movie, Carandiru, than the rest of us, because the filmmaker tells us so little about the society beyond the walls that helped shape the violent yet carefully ordered world within them. On…
If you’re, oh, 11 years old and you’ve had it up to here with Spider-Man’s current case of existential angst, it’s time to blow your weekly allowance on Thunderbirds. This special-effects-crammed action blockbuster aims a bit lower, age-wise, which is to say its hyperactive young hero wears a retainer on…
Last month, Robert Lopez lost a member of his crew — a brother, practically — to a bullet, yet, now more than ever, he sees reason to dance. Kelvin Mitchell, 19, was killed June 28 in a west Phoenix shooting, and this weekend, Lopez (known on the scene as “Chino”)…
Oppressed smokers of the Valley, cheer up: Dave Attell feels your pain. Whether surviving a smoking ban or forking over a fiver to satisfy a nic fit, the 39-year-old comedian, who lights up the Tempe Improv this weekend, is familiar with the trials and tribulations of tobacco use. “In New…
8/1-8/30 In creating her latest exhibition — “Convergent Memory?,” a collaboration with poet John Cauthorn — Lisa Takata merely hoped to advance the working relationship between visual artists and poets. What the exhibition became, and what it promises to become for visitors to the @Central Gallery at Burton Barr Library,…
7/30-8/1 Don’t hate the players — hate the game. Back in the day, all we needed was Mountain Dew, a few Snickers bars, Super Nintendo, and for our parents to leave us undisturbed for 72 hours. Nowadays, we need a full-blown gaming conference. And for what? So we can puss…
MON 8/2 If laughter truly is the best medicine, Gary Coleman just might be the cure for cancer. No confirmation on this, but we even hear that thoughts of Arnold Drummond are directly linked to lower cholesterol levels and speedier recovery from gastrointestinal bypass surgery. So the organizers of the…
“Imagine That!” at the West Valley Art Museum: The current selection at this oft-forgotten spot includes an exhibition organized by the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum titled “Imagine That! A Whimsical Take on Nature.” The idea was to challenge traditional wildlife artists to create images of fictional animals — merging species, switching…
The opening moments of The Door in the Floor are not promising. A little girl stands on a chair in a hallway of photos, pointing at the images and speaking about them. Soon, she is joined by a middle-aged man, probably her father, who takes her on a tour through…
THU 22 We’re not sure who the real star of a Chris Putrino Band show is: a bouncing, jumping Chris Putrino — or his dark, flowing and, frankly, frightening mullet? Nevertheless, Putrino — who jumps off the stage, and “the audience comes alive!” — and the members of his band…
7/22-7/30 Bumper stickers seen on the highways of Arizona, adorning rusted-out pickup trucks, primer-gray vans, and yellow, dented Pintos: “Keep honking, I’m reloading.” “How am I driving? Dial 1-800-Eat-Shit.” “Don’t tailgate me or I’ll flick a booger on your windshield.” When the best you can expect from a commute dispute…
Michael 23 is an artist whose art has taken many forms. At the moment, he’s into robotics. “I try to understand how technology works in order to protect the survival of the species against it,” he says. Michael does that in a studio called Thought Crime located near Third Street…
Without risking much critical credibility, it can be said that Catwoman succeeds on its own feline terms. Much like a cat, the movie is a superfluous gob of fluff with an attitude ranging from idiotic to nasty. It’s a sleek and self-absorbed animal, adoring itself so ardently that those of…
