Texas-based artist Casey Cooper’s floating triangles may look like oversized floaties from a distance, but don’t be deceived — the pieces are actually made of inflated steel. Through a process of welding, heating, and compressing, Cooper creates sculptures that look like they could be made out of light rubber (though…
Attention science enthusiasts: The second annual Arizona SciTech Festival is dishing out the opportunities to explore the art of science and how it impacts our everyday life through a series of 300 events statewide. Kicking off February 9, the month-long festival is a collection of innovative events in collaborations supported…
Those who enjoy film director Wes Anderson’s visual style, witty dialouge, and sepia-soaked color schemes — well, they just get it. Some people, actually a lot of people, don’t. There’s very little middle ground on the subject, which is why he might not be a natural choice to direct commercials…
One of ASU’s cultural leaders and producer of Performance in the Borderlands, Mary Stephens, has created an event to help raise awareness and encourage open dialogue about women’s representation in the media, particularly women of color, LGBTQ community, class, and citizenship status. Beyond “Miss Representation” is presented under the Performance…
Looking for ways to fill up your weekend? Here are your five best bets for getting out and about in the Valley of the Sun. Season Opening @ ASU Art Museum Get an eyeful of art and performance when ASU Art Museum celebrates the opening of its new exhibitions. On…
The Cajuns have a particular phrase to describe having a memorable time and it goes something like, “Laissez les bons temps rouler.” While our French Creole is a tad bit rusty, the saying roughly translates to “Let the good times roll,” whic is what plenty of people around the Valley…
Graffiti writers across the country might not be thrilled to know their work ultimately ended up on popular art/flash sale site Fab.com, but fans of graffiti (and the increasing blur between graffiti and contemporary art) will likely jump at the chance to snatch up a copy of “History of American…
Sherri Shepherd is a force of nature. In addition to co-hosting The View and starring as Angie Jordan in 30 Rock, Shepherd has created her own line of wigs and will release her second book this Spring. This weekend, the Emmy-winning actress comes to the Tempe Center for the Performing…
You. You think you’re sooo smart. Know what, genius? So are a bunch of other folks in town. Take in their theories as they pontificate on such subjects as superheros, hiking, and UFOs this February. It’s mind-expanding stuff, and it needs to be penciled in the ol’ planner. “Superheros in…
The setup: Ken Ludwig, great American farceur, has penned such solidly wild comedies as I Hate Hamlet, Lend Me a Tenor, Moon over Buffalo, and the mystifyingly underproduced Leading Ladies. Since all those plays are about show-business people (mostly actors), I was curious to see what Ludwig did with the…
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 enlightens would-be parents about what to…
In springtime, as they say, thoughts tend to turn to such subjects as love, romance, and — of course — sex. It’s just part of nature, yo. This proves doubly true during the time leading up to Valentine’s Day as many seem to have all things amorous on their minds…
Set in East Germany in 1980, Christian Petzold’s superb Barbara is a transfixing Cold War thriller made even more vivid by its subtle overlay of the golden-era “woman’s picture,” the woman in question being Dr. Barbara Wolff, brilliantly played by Nina Hoss in her fifth film with the writer-director. Yet…
Just a week or so after the Pentagon reversed its ban on allowing female soldiers into combat, here’s another breakthrough, of a sort: The funniest scenes in the confused and shaggy comedy Identity Thief are of Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman beating the hell out of each other. McCarthy —…
If Side Effects, an immensely pleasurable thriller centering on psychotropic drugs, really is Steven Soderbergh’s final big-screen film, as the director claims it will be, then he has peaked in the Valley of the Dolls. Scripted by Scott Z. Burns, who also wrote the screenplay for Soderbergh’s Contagion (2011), Side…
To watch Melissa McCarthy as lovable chef Sookie St. James on seven seasons of the Gilmore Girls was to see an actress perfect the art of playing a sidekick. As best friend of the show’s protagonist, Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham), McCarthy dutifully provided comic relief and a shoulder on which…
“I’ve been lucky in that I’ve always worked with writers whose voices are so specific that there really isn’t any way to recalibrate things without them being intimately involved,” says Steven Soderbergh as he swivels in a chair in the happily cluttered Flatiron District loft space that doubles as his…
Human beings have a unique talent for believing they’re discovering patterns, though those patterns actually don’t exist. This explains why people dump small fortunes into slot machines, why it seems like the number 23 is following you everywhere, and why Phoenix Coyotes fans were expecting big things from the team…
Valentine’s Day comes with ridiculously high expectations and plenty of potential for hurt feelings. What if your super-expensive dinner sucks and your date gets you a lousy teddy bear? Lame. Romance is nice and all, but maybe V-Day would be best spent releasing some sexual tension. Everyone has a little…
“Multidisciplinary” probably wasn’t coined to describe enjoying cocktails and buff acrobats while getting our highbrow culture on, but we’re running with it now. Museum programmers realize that if you expose people to something fun while introducing something new, they might come back for that second thing. Sounds like our dating…
On pretty much every day of the year, showing your boobs to some stranger in exchange for jewelry probably would be highly illegal (or at least morally questionable). But during Mardi Gras, you’d be rude not to partake in some public nudity. What a special time of year.The Downtown Phoenix…
Last fall, eccentric Pennsylvanian gearhead Cal VanSant grabbed his 15 nanoseconds of Internet fame when photos were posted online of a souped-up shopping cart-shaped hot rod he spent two years constructing. Dubbed the “Shopper Chopper,” the nine-foot motorized monstrosity boasts substantially more muscle and macho than those wobbly carts down…
