Note: Spoilers for DC Rebirth #1 to follow. The comic-book crossover is a staple of the industry and genre, permeating now between television shows and movies from Marvel and DC. But is it a cheap ploy to drive sales from two different fan bases? Or can there be some genuine…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 89. Tara Sharpe. Tara Sharpe’s…
The Poisoned Pen becomes geek central on Wednesday, June 1, as the biggest names in science fiction and fantasy this side of George R.R. Martin converge for Elevengeddon, a massive, pre-Comicon book signing. The event, which started last year, is the brainchild of former Valley schoolteacher and urban fantasy author…
The time has finally arrived, geeks. It’s June, which means Phoenix Comicon is here. Ready to put on your probably-way-too-layered cosplay and go out into 112-degree weather to hang out with thousands of other people doing the same? Great. But remember: We’re all in this together. And also remember: deodorant…
Don’t be alarmed if your geek friends haven’t been returning your calls or Facebook messages lately. They’re just fine, of course, other than the fact they’re probably really busy right now. That’s because Phoenix Comicon kicks off a day from now, and it’s crunch time for many of the 70,000-plus…
It’s a feat to out-idiot TMZ culture. In achieving that, the fake-doc white-rapper satire Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a breakthrough for studio comedies, which here at last catch up to the metabolism and meaninglessness of the internet age. In its generous, frenetic first hour, Popstar’s jokes and parodies…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 90. Christian Adame. Christian Adame…
It’s hard to believe we’re already six months into 2016. If you’ve found yourself bogged down and wishing you’d have gotten out more or tried something new here in the desert, then you’re in luck. June is a great month to get outside and get to know the desert. No…
The high-pitched call of horses breaks the cool morning air as Chuck Browning stands near the corrals outside Banning, California, working the lasso he hopes will separate him from the scores of other rodeo cowboys milling about the show grounds. The others nervously fire their ropes at anything that doesn’t move —…
Starting June 4, visitors to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art can travel in the footsteps of two pioneers — one modern, one medieval, one an artist, one a scientist, one female, one male, but both expanding notions of Muslim identity. As part of the museum’s southwestNET series, which highlights…
Sean Riley is what you’d call a die-hard fan of Phoenix Comicon. An avowed geek, the 34-year-old Glendale resident has not only been attending the event annually since 2011, he buys his tickets well in advance, keeps abreast of the latest news about its special guests, and considers it one…
“Did I want to shoot comedies?” asks Brandon Trost, director of photography on two of this summer’s funniest films, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. “It’s funny — not at all.” But then came MacGruber, Jorma Taccone’s 2010 SNL film.“The director wanted me because I wasn’t…
New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix from Monday, May 30, through Thursday, June 2. For more events, see our curated online calendar. Memorial Day Divas Show Consider it a throwback canteen concert à la The Andrews Sisters — if the World War II-era swing singers…
It is completely possible that Rihanna’s most glamorous moment, the instant she will look upon with a wistful sigh in her senior years, was at the 2015 China-inspired Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala. She arrived, arguably the pinnacle in a long line of celebrities and fashionistas, in a…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 91. Christina “Xappa” Franco. There…
With the perfect timing of a deadpan comic and the keen observational skills of a zoologist, Athina Rachel Tsangari highlights just how bizarre the most banal of human activities can be. In Attenberg (2010), the filmmaker’s previous feature, walking itself is presented as a deranged means by which to move…
At first glance, the most obvious analog to Mark Elijah Rosenberg’s Approaching the Unknown would be The Martian, both being about lone men on treacherous missions to Mars. But Approaching the Unknown operates on a much smaller and more philosophical scale, and is ultimately more satisfying. Captain William D. Stanaforth…
Mockumentary Hitler’s Folly, at only an hour long, stretches its incredibly thin premise over a surface area the size of the European front. Its single, exhausting joke: Hitler, a misunderstood artist, actually built a Disney-style animation empire that was mistaken for a fascist regime. Bill Plympton is a singularly gifted artist…
Every other year, New Times puts the spotlight on Phoenix’s creative forces — painters, dancers, designers, and actors. Leading up to the release of Best of Phoenix, we’re taking a closer look at 100 more. Welcome to the 2016 edition of 100 Creatives. Up today is 92. Sarah Waite. Sarah Waite’s…
Each week, we will be recapping the first season of Fuller House, episode by episode. Please, we beg you, no more musical numbers. As we near the end of season one, our spirits were buoyed seeing our main ladies make some significant strides in their professional lives during the previous…
If you like comedy and aren’t easily offended, then you probably already know that Lisa Lampanelli is coming to Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale on Sunday, May 29. The queen of insult comedy isn’t for the thin-skinned, but everyone in attendance this weekend knows that she’ll always make her fans…
The City of Mesa and Arizona State University are one step closer to bringing a new ASU campus to downtown Mesa after writing a formal intergovernmental agreement, which was presented during a May 26 special council meeting for the Mesa City Council. The agreement was unanimously approved at that meeting. …
