If Bob Ross were alive today, he’d be painting happy little trees all over the place in ecstatic fervor for all the arts and culture happenings in Phoenix. To help you see the forest for the trees, here’s a recap of the top arts and culture stories of the week…
Spring’s around the corner, which means there’s plenty of time to get creative (and finish a few projects) before the sun really comes out. Lucky you, there happen to be a handful of great opportunities for local artists to have their work displayed, purchased, and recognized. From design to public…
Christopher Coville’s most recent exhibition Works of Fire is explosive . . . or the result of an explosion at least. This series of photographs, on display at Bokeh Gallery through the end of the month, was created through a process of igniting gunpowder on silver gelatin paper. The images…
The setup: Doing anything artistic in the Valley for five straight (as it were) years is a huge accomplishment. A sketch comedy troupe that’s been performing several times a year in a dump on Grand Avenue, beginning in 2008 when the economy tanked? Hella impressive. Guess what else? They’re smart,…
A new film is screening around the Valley for Black History Month featuring a family of strong women persevering in Phoenix. The documentary centers on two of Phoenix’s champions of the black community: Helen K. Mason and her maternal grandmother, Mary Green. See Also: – Sundance 2013: America’s Black Indie…
Hello, weekend. We promise not to waste you. Here’s how. Picasso at the Lapin Agile @ Brelby Studio For those of us who delight in the absurd, there is never enough Steve Martin to go around — no matter how many bluegrass records and TV cameos he makes, or the…
Nothing beats creativity — especially if it makes a difference in our community. Since 2010, we’ve been on the hunt for emerging creatives in the Valley who are working on cool projects. Call them designers, performers, chefs, singers, dancers, painters, sculptors … We’re sticking to Big Brains. This year, we’re…
Few things in the world are as rancorous and unforgiving as hardcore gamers. Waste away a few hours getting wasted by foul-mouthed and amped-up teenagers playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II via Xbox Live for proof of said statement. Or you can check out the gaming die-hards’ reaction to…
When was the last time you pitched a book? Not into a donate bin or a friend’s purse — we’re talking into a recycle or garbage bin. If you just winced at the thought, you’re not alone. And if you can remember (with or without shame) tossing a hardback or…
It’s a mystery which movies will take home the big honors this weekend at the 85th Academy Awards. The winning films might be based on a book or use an original screenplay, but one thing is for sure: No Oscars will be going to movies based on video games. A…
Tiffe Fermaint is officially motivated. The Phoenix-based designer says that her recent engagement to Keith Walker, the other half of her band Being Cool is Lonely, and the approaching due date of their baby, Violet, have her feeling extra-driven. But that sweet newfound domesticity doesn’t mean her spring 2013 line…
Steve Wiley is Jackalope Ranch’s Parent Hood. He’s a slightly unorthodox father of five who will weigh in weekly with his mildly-rebellious views and observations. If you’d like to see how he came to write this column, watch the intro video. This week he recalls some parenting advice he learned…
The setup: Dale Wasserman, who lived and worked in Paradise Valley from 1992 until his death in 2008, was one of the old school of stage and screen scribes who ran off as a youth from a boring small town and made his bones in the golden age of TV…
Good short film anthologies are lovingly culled from disparate sources, so it’s no surprise that the entries in this for-hire horror anthology — in which 25-odd international filmmakers were tapped to provide brief, cheap chillers pegged to a letter of the alphabet — are berserkly inconsistent. What’s unexpected is how…
If Sundance signals the annual launch of American indie cinema’s new product line, the 63-year-old Berlin Film Festival offered the year’s first major look at what the rest of the world has to offer. In addition to the 19-film official competition, there are two even larger “parallel” sections (the Panorama…
On a cool Thursday evening in January, several women gather around folding tables in a Central Phoenix warehouse to sort thousands of books, pausing only to pull out a greeting card used as a bookmark or to show off a rare find. This ritual takes all year — and every…
Depending on your perspective, Zooey Deschanel is either the cutest, funniest, most adorable little retro-kookster on Earth, or she’s an irritating try-hard with zero comedy chops. The only thing the world seems able to universally agree on is that Deschanel has nice bangs. As such, her sitcom — New Girl,…
Child characters endowed with adult intelligence tend to be disappointing puppets through which authors articulate their own views. But allowing a brilliant fictional child her own voice and agency (not to mention age-appropriate behavior) represents this whole other imaginative leap — riskier, but way more interesting and rewarding if actually…
In the opening segments of the original Iron Chef television show, some guy, presumably a chef, bites into a red bell pepper with orgasmic zeal. Expect nothing less (and potentially even more) from bacon fanatics as they descend on Zinnia’s at Melrose for the Bacon Iron Chef Party on Third…
College graduates are oftentimes filled with an overabundance of ambition as they prepare to leave school behind and take the world by storm. Anthony Correnti is no exception. Like many soon-to-be Arizona State University grads, the fifth-year Interdisciplinary Studies senior hopes to accomplish a lofty goal with his newfound swagger:…
Geeks come in all stripes, from those dedicated to science fiction to those entrenched in science fact. Downtown Tempe is the convergence point for the annual celebration where they all strike out on the town for Geeks’ Night Out Thursday, February 21.Local comics and gaming enclave Pop Culture Paradise stages…
With the exception of a Super Bowl here or there, it’s rare that Arizona gets a glimmer of national spotlight for sports. The glaring exception to this rule is the Cactus League. For one month each year, all eyes (or at least all of the eyes that belong to people…
