It’s a cliché of the voting world that even the staunchest liberals — especially of the privileged male variety —tend to drift rightward through middle age and beyond. Yesterday’s protesters develop the libertarian malaise; its progressives seek to fence in their fiefdoms and tax-proof their stock portfolios. Not so the…
There’s a reason, beyond basic Judd Apatow oversaturation, that hardly anyone went to see his mewl of middle-aged despair This Is 40. A movie about a marriage already in progress — as opposed to one about a marriage just waiting to happen, the province of the romantic comedy — is…
Honestly, when it started six years ago, Californication was provocative, ballsy, and fun, with laugh-out-loud dialogue and plenty of smart musings about love, sex, family and responsibility. Over five seasons, anti-hero Hank Moody (David Duchovny) has drank and fucked his way through a series of Hollywood writing jobs, all the…
Guy humor is always with us, kind of like the poor. For as long as cavemen have been etching fart jokes into the walls of caves, women have been rolling their eyes, as they didn’t yet have the language tools to whip up outraged essays for Jezebel. Still, given the…
We’ll say this much for the lockout that shortened this year’s hockey season: It certainly has made the rest of the season more interesting. In a normal year, it’s likely the Phoenix Coyotes would be sitting comfortably near the top of the standings. The team’s spot in the playoffs would…
Happiness can stem from many things. For example, we revel in listening to Kai Ryssdal deliver nightly business news on American Public Media’s Marketplace. That voice! Perhaps, if we stopped swooning and listened closer, we’d realize that global economics is far less sexy than the silver fox talking about it.The…
Some cast members of Saturday Night Live catapult to superstardom. Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Chevy Chase, and Tina Fey got their fair share of post-SNL fame. Then there are the countless others. They’re the ones who make a splash on the show, but don’t replicate that level of fame outside…
Thirteen years ago, a group of community merchants and neighbors on Seventh Avenue in downtown Phoenix joined forces to turn the neighborhood around. With help from the city’s Fight Back Program and Arizona State University’s School of Architecture, the group envisioned a safer place to live, work, and play, and…
What is the future of truth? This is the boundless topic presented at Emerge 2013, a future-focused festival bringing together scientists, artists, humanists, and engineers “to build, draw, write and rethink the future of the human species and the environments that we share,” according to organizers. If it sounds a…
If we were giving away awards for best grilled cheese sandwich in the world, the prize would go to Mom. Hands down. Lucky for everyone else, we’re not in charge of the judging at the Grilled Cheese Throwdown 2013.The annual event pits Valley chefs against each other in a head-to-head…
The Will Ferrell comedy Anchorman: The Legend Continues will hit theaters in October, but we’d be more jazzed for a fresh dose of Ricky Bobby in a sequel to Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. The NASCAR drivers in Sunday’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 will be more serious, but…
Those meandering through Fountain Park Saturday, March 2, are advised to keep an eye to the sky for more than the giant fountain, as golf discs aplenty fly during final round of the 25th Memorial Championship. The annual tournament began earlier in the week with nearly 300 professional golfers, some…
Blindfolding children, spinning them around, and giving them a stick to whack a piñata is pretty nuts. Just imagine how many injuries arise from kids getting a little too aggressive in their hunt for candy. Some adults continue to play with piñatas, which can be dangerous after a few drinks…
Everyone from the ancient Sumerians to Steven Spielberg has imagined beings from beyond our skies. Whether you’re simply curious or a true believer, the 22nd Annual International UFO Congress lands Friday, March 1.The convention and film festival features the top minds in the fields of aliens, UFOs, and unexplained phenomena…
If “Gangam Style” has left you feeling a little bit empty, maybe it’s time to focus on a more enlightening form of Asian dance. Sure, the new stuff is all in good fun, but wouldn’t it be more fulfilling to experience a history and progression dating back 5,000 years?The Shen…
Buckle up, Phoenix art community: Art Detour returns this weekend. The annual celebration of local art draws visitors from around the state to see the latest work by hundreds of Phoenix-based artists and art spaces. The event began 25 years ago (before First, Third, and Final Fridays), when members of…
The plot of Il Trovatore is enough to get almost anyone to go to the opera. Without giving too much away, there’s true love, vengeance, mistaken identity, bitter irony, suicide, Gypsies, swordfights, and the famous “Anvil Chorus,” which sounds like . . . oh, Google it. And one of the…
There’s only one thing to play for when you’re last place in your division, at the bottom of your conference, and have lost twice as many basketball games as you’ve won: pride. As of this writing, the Phoenix Suns are 17-36. Their Wednesday, March 6, opponents, the Toronto Raptors, are…
Society has jumped leaps and bounds in terms of racial acceptance in the last few decades. Not to say there isn’t more work to be done on the racial front, but most youngsters can’t fathom an era where segregation and oppression were normal. Separate drinking fountains have only lived in…
Is “I am not an animal!” what most of us remember about Victorian Englishman Joseph Merrick, a.k.a. the Elephant Man? Or the myth that Michael Jackson tried to buy his skeleton? In any case, 1980’s film, starring John Hurt, followed Bernard Pomerance’s play, The Elephant Man, a work of enduring…
Normally, we’re not big fans of bugs. In fact, we sort of hate them. The single exception to that rule is the butterfly. Attractive, harmless, and generally shy towards people, they’re the easy favorite when it comes to crawly creepers. That’s why you’ll find us chasing the winged insect at…
Almost seven years after taking the helm of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (back when it was still called the Herberger College of the Arts) Dr. Kwang-Wu Kim is packing his bags and heading to Chicago. According to Julie Newberg, media relations officer at ASU, Executive Dean…
