Taking celebrity advice on how to get (and stay) skinny is glamorous and tempting. But once Tracy Anderson’s personal trainer bills arrive, gung-ho gals realize the pilates classes are full of snotty, competitive yuppies, and Bethenny Frankel’s intense calorie restrictions are revealed as bananas (but you may not eat the…
Sports never seem to come back into fashion after they stop being popular. Competitive bodybuilding is a perfect example. It’s hard to imagine a bodybuilder today being a household name like Lou Ferrigno or Arnold Schwarzenegger once were. Nowadays some of the most successful bodybuilding organizations are the ones trying…
There’s some pretty nasty gossip floating around sports punditry that Justin Upton isn’t long for an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform. The 24-year-old right fielder and one-time all-star has had a relatively uneven year at the plate so far this season (to put it best) after suffering a thumb injury back in…
In these dog days of summer, any interaction with the outside world is just a foggy, sweaty blur that will break your spirit if you can’t find a way to break from the mundane. You stay inside. You go crazy. Maybe you look through the spare closet of sweaters, coats,…
Christopher Nolan’s ponderous, pontifical action movies are written less as screenplays than as operator’s manuals, guiding an audience through assembling their important themes while scrupulously making sure you don’t miss a thing. This is as true of Inception, with its reams of expositional walk-through, as of Nolan’s superhero saga, now…
In just two feature films, writer/director Joachim Trier has proved to be unparalleled in exposing the foibles and delusions of all the sad young literary men — or of one man in particular. The 20-something character played by Anders Danielsen Lie in Reprise (2006) finds immediate cult success with his…
A team of scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and MIT recently figured out how to create organ tissue with blood vessels. While the discovery’s upside could be tremendous, a viewing of National Theatre Live’s Frankenstein on Saturday, July 21, might be in order if simply to remind us of…
Every morning while out walking our dogs, a group of ultra-skinny guys (and sometimes gals) darts past at a brisk pace. Their speedy run seems like a walk in the park, and, as they aren’t panting helplessly, they’re probably discussing some upcoming running event. Perhaps the race in question is…
Normally, a trip to the zoo during summer means sweating and watching animals in heat. Not that kind of heat; just literal, stifling heat. By Saturday, July 21, even the zookeepers will have had enough and proclaim it Winter in July. They’re trucking in more than 20 tons of snow…
The art of dance has progressed many a step since the days of Fred Astaire, but no matter how dazzling the choreography becomes, America will always have a sweet spot for a well executed Charleston. That is why Dancing With The Bars has become one of Phoenix’s most anticipated annual…
Esquire editor-at-large A.J. Jacobs released a list of takeaways from his latest book about fitness, Drop Dead Healthy. The most horrifying of which is number three: “Why I use the Purell dispensers at the gym: MRSA, athlete’s foot, jock itch…” The cringe-inspiring list goes on and makes the prospect of…
Of all American popular sports, slow-paced, detail-oriented, and poetic baseball might be the most Shakespearean. The pastime collides with the storied scribe in Friendly People Productions’ Bardball and Other Plays, a trio of comedic shorts by Cindy Brown, Drew Derrix Templeton, and New Times contributor Julie Peterson. On stage through…
Thanks to la Madre, la Madonna, and mujeres around the world, we exist and have plenty of artistic inspiration. This summer, we have a chance to celebrate all three at Arizona Latino Arts and Cultural Center (ALAC). The downtown art space, studio, and gallery is hosting its second annual Latina…
This summer, curators from the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art dug deep into the archives, and, from the museum’s permanent collection, they selected a range of modern and contemporary works that possess what English art critic Clive Bell described as the quality “shared by all objects that provokes our aesthetic…
As the talking Barbie dolls on the cable news channels recently informed us, this summer is reportedly one of the hottest on record. While said story may come as shock to some people living in, uh, Alaska, it was sort of a “no shit” revelation in the Valley of the…
We’re onto you, you bunch of bars hosting ladies’ nights. When you say “ladies get in free!” and “bottomless margaritas!” you really mean: “We don’t have enough women to even draw men into the bar at this point. Please bring your hoo-ha in and drink for next to free as…
Violence is as integral a part of American entertainment as the banjo. If you think you can get away from it by avoiding sports and World’s Dumbest… then think again. The world of comedy, for instance, is a ferocious battle for dominance that’s reflected in its vocabulary of cheap shots,…
In case you hadn’t heard the news, Octomom invaded the Valley of the Sun yesterday. Don’t worry, little harm was done to either person or property. Nadya Suleman, the notorious attention seeker baby factory Orange County mom who birthed a brood of eight children back in 2008, traveled to Phoenix…
Most Phoenicians face a frustrating commute to and from work, but artist Lee Davis accesses his workplace with a shuffle from his bedroom to the kitchen (can’t bypass the coffee) and a couple paces to the front entrance room of his home. The cookie-cutter orderliness of his neighborhood makes for…
Pedal Craft PHX, which made its debut this past April at the Kitchen Sink Studios, is getting an encore presentation in the main lobby of Phoenix City Hall in advance of a new exhibition this fall. The exhibition is on display now through July 27 during City Hall’s regular business…
Ah l’amour. It seems that finding true love is not as cut and dry and Disney and Hallmark would have led us to believe. Fortunately, there’s an online dating site for almost anyone nowadays, including a few we never would have considered (or believed). Here are some of the oddest…
When we last put the spotlight on 100 creative forces in Phoenix, it was no secret there were more than 100 individuals who were making waves in the local arts community. So as we count down to our annual Best of Phoenix issue, we’re profiling 100 more. Welcome (back) to 100 Creatives Tyler Quinn…
