It’s hard to escape trips to the airport this time of year. Most of us either travel during the holidays or get airport duty when friends and family roll in and out of town. Instead of dreading the experience, make time while you’re at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport to…
At the age of 26, High Noon Tattoo’s Manny Hernandez is still working on making his name in the Phoenix tattooing scene, but the traditional-style tattooer wouldn’t have it any other way. “I haven’t done a lot of international shows or anything very far away with tattooing yet, because I…
Make your list. Check it twice. And then head to Frances’ ninth annual Crafeteria. Each holiday season, the Central Phoenix boutique hosts a shopping fair featuring wares from local crafters and makers at Medlock Plaza. This year’s perfect opportunity to don a scarf and pick up presents falls on Friday,…
They say money changes everything, but being broke brings on its fair share of events. From museum readings to pop-up yoga and mingling with movers and shakers, there’s plenty of opportunities to paint the town red while staying in the black. Here are our top three picks for free events…
New York choreographer Jessica Lang, artistic director for Jessica Lang Dance founded in 2011, has been spending time on Arizona stages of late. Recently the company performed in Tucson and in Wickenburg, and they’ll perform this month at Mesa Arts Center, with a touring program that includes five dance works…
All right, all you Tributes and Panemaniacs, we know you’re freaking out right now. You have a right to be. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part I is coming to theaters Friday, November 21, and it is a big deal. But in all this excitement, don’t forget to make plans…
Amada Cruz will be Phoenix Art Museum’s new director, the museum’s board of trustees announced in a press release on Monday, November 17. Cruz will take on the role on February 1, 2015, replacing longtime director James Ballinger, who announced in April 2014 his intention to retire after nearly 40…
Before seeing the solo Fortoul Brothers exhibition inside a pop-up gallery in Phoenix, we never wondered what a cosmic stew of Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, and Steve Jobs might look like. But now we think we know, thanks to Friday, November 14’s opening reception for a seamless mix of art…
“Cultural Savant: The Art and Collections of Joe Willie Smith” Some might call him a scavenger, others a “picker.” The Valley prefers to think of Joe Willie Smith is an artist — albeit an unconventional one. The local talent has participated in Art Detour and events throughout downtown Phoenix, and…
Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but far be it from us to turn down the rest of the precious stone posse. From engagement rings to gauges and watches to one-of-a-kind pendants, the Valley of the Sun has its fair share of razzle dazzle. Whether you’re shopping for someone…
There are stereotypes about every major American city, and in Phoenix, a whole lot of those stereotypes are actually true. Below, find 10 Phoenix stereotypes that are (mostly) based on facts:…
Writing a book is relatively easy, right? You come up with a beginning, a middle, and an end. You add in some characters, maybe a plot twist or two to keep your readers on the edge of their seats. Slap a catchy title on the front, and you’re done. Okay,…
Man versus machine. To many, it’s a theoretical battle best enjoyed via books or big screen. For artists, it cuts to the very nature of their craft. How do the tools artists use shape their ideas, process, and finished product? It’s an intriguing question posed with full force in the…
“Fortoul Brothers Solo Exhibition” Between appearances in magazines around the globe, art auctions abroad, and exhibitions across the country, including the upcoming Art Basel in Miami, Gabriel and Isaac Fortoul are finding themselves more and more in the cultural spotlight. Hard to believe that it was only 2002 when these…
It’s a special The Daily Show edition of the Voice Film Club podcast, as we talk about Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher (starring Steve Carell) and move onto Rosewater, the movie Jon Stewart left The Daily Show for three months in 2013 to direct. Both are in theaters starting November 14…
“Let’s take a road trip!” It always sounds like a good idea when you say it, but a couple hours into the drive, you inevitably end up hating at least one of the people you’re in the car with. The truth is, whether it’s 10 minutes in the car or…
We’re fortunate in metro Phoenix to feel the rich influence of Latin arts and culture not only during Dia de los Muertos celebrations, but year-round as well. Local artists including Lalo Cota infuse their work with skulls and other familiar symbols for death. In a world divided by geography and…
In the mid 1990s, self-appointed cultural gatekeepers used to wield Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s Dumb and Dumber as proof of the deterioration of film artistry. Those people hadn’t, of course, actually bothered to see the movie, and thus had no sense of its peculiar, sweet-spirited, un-toilet-trained brilliance. Times have changed,…
Can profundity be accidental? Marshall Curry’s documentary Point and Shoot is a study in naifdom that seems to think it’s about something else: masculinity, honor, war. But it’s mostly about the way Americans of means see the wider world as a self-help proving ground, an exotic backdrop against which to…
Over the first two Hunger Games films, we’ve watched coal miner’s daughter Katniss Everdeen become the pawn, then the pest, of the Capitol, whose President Snow (Donald Sutherland) has enslaved the adults of the 12 poorer Districts and annually commanded that they together sacrifice 24 of their children to likely…
Minor spoilers for the second episode of The Comeback’s sophomore season. It’s no mystery why The Comeback, which returned for its second season this past Sunday after a nine-year hiatus, never became a big hit for HBO. Other mockumentaries like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Modern Family have thrived,…
Controversy, conspiracy, and corruption are colliding at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art — and not just because of its current exhibition, “Covert Operations: Investigating the Known Unknowns.” Arizona State University’s Banned Plays Reading Series has teamed up with the Scottsdale art venue to perform a one-night-only public reading of The…
