If you’re from Arizona, chances are you’ll barely glance up from the sports section when someone mentions, “Hey, a small Australian indie label, in conjunction with Rich Hopkins’ San Jacinto Records, just reissued the first Black Sun Ensemble album for the first time on CD . . .” Just because…
The pile in the road didn’t look human. It was a cardboard box, crushed and mangled by Friday evening’s rush hour, or a pile of stray clothes, fallen from the turtle shell carrier of a cross-country traveler’s car. It didn’t seem at all like a man. But it was. He…
When lovers of the Sonoran Desert talk about it, you can almost imagine grandchildren rolling their eyes as old-timers describe the way things used to be. How beautiful the desert was before it became a golf course. But words describing the land don’t come close to the experience of being…
If the alt-fuel program is the great hurricane of bureaucratic snafus, the state’s on-call employment policy is at least a tropical storm.Still, this little piece of employment-manual small print is quietly causing major headaches for some state agencies and could cost those agencies, and ultimately taxpayers, somewhere between $20 million…
A shadow four stories high is looming over Sunnyslope.Developers are planning a 121-unit apartment complex — hardly big enough to bother even the most anti-growth urbanite in Phoenix. But in a small community that is tired of being swallowed up by Phoenix, residents say this project is a rape of…
Patron SaintCultured pearl: I have just finished reading your piece on Kax Herberger and the state of the arts in Arizona (“Queen of Arts,” Edward Lebow, May 3). It is a stunning portrayal of the climate of giving in this state. It is such a thoughtful, comprehensive, well-written piece that…
A van pulls up outside the homeless shelter in downtown Phoenix and disgorges its occupants. They are clad in the jumpsuits of the Arizona Department of Corrections. The tags on their breasts bearing their identifications have been blacked out. One carries a TV he purchased while in prison. You can’t…
StargateThe surprise announcement that the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team would take up residence in Glendale was big news in the west-side burg. Mark Swain, editor of the weekly Glendale Star, dutifully weighed in with his views on April 12.Swain acknowledged that the Coyotes were “a terrific acquisition for the City.”…
Nearly a decade ago, Phoenix resident Brian Brooks was churning out little Xeroxed coloring books filled with inventive characters, clever phrases and subtle skewerings of pop icons. He put Yoko Ono on a snowplow in suburbia. Paul McCartney peddled frozen entrees at sporting events. One showcased geometrically shaped bugs predisposed…
Some arts patrons wear their wealth. Katherine Herberger gives it — by the millions. In the 50-some years since she and her late husband, Robert, came to Phoenix from Minnesota, she and her family have given mint sums to Valley schools, hospitals and museums. She has donated to performing arts…
Every eight weeks, Margaret Manchester begins the task of asking about 40 grown men to stop having sex.Some are already married. Some are thieves, con artists or pimps. All of them are addicts. They come to the Salvation Army for rehabilitation from alcohol, drugs and other addictions. Most are sent…
The tortured personal and legal saga of Luis Sharpe took yet another turn April 19 when a judge released the former Arizona Cardinals star to a Phoenix drug rehabilitation center.Sharpe appeared before hearing officer Aimee Burr Faust wearing a black-and-white-striped jail outfit that said “Sheriff’s Inmate — Unsentenced” on its…
Joey to the World Gabba gabba gab: Although I can’t say that I am very familiar with the Ramones outside of the obvious hits, I can tell you that I relate to your story (“Joey Ramone Leaves Home,” Brian Smith, April 26). Being a public defender by trade, I have…
The street sign on the corner where Cindy Foster lives is handcrafted. It’s not crude, but it’s definitely not government-issue. To get to her place, turn north off Lone Mountain Road onto 66th Street, which in this area northeast of Phoenix is an undulating gravel lane that winds through desert…
Robb LowThe Millennial Arizona Republic’s first salvo of Decision 2002 was fired on April 6, when columnist Robert Robb belittled state Senator Chris Cummiskey for playing “whiffle-ball politics.”Cummiskey, who wants to be your next secretary of state, must really worry the Republicans. Why else would they sic Bob Robb on…
Rolling through downtown as thousands of glum-faced Phoenix Suns fans trek to their cars is not an especially fun ride. The well-scrubbed faces were as long as the afternoon shadows. The Sacramento Kings had just kicked the Suns’ asses in a playoff battle.A dozen or so blocks to the west,…
Thankfully, the extended legal tussle that took place between the Honeydogs’ former label, Mercury, and their new imprint, Palm, didn’t claim this album as a victim, thus robbing us of a dark masterpiece and 2001’s first truly noteworthy record. Tellingly, the group — which recorded some 18 songs during the…
Shades of Gray Second in a series New Times continues this week with its series on the gray whale — its questionable health, its environmental symbolism and the cultural conflicts it is generating from the Siberian Arctic to the warm lagoons of Mexico. On March 29 (“Dying Breeds,” David Holthouse),…
Since his April 20 arrest, Mark Sands has been called an “investigative lead” in the Phoenix Mountains Preserve serial arson case. Authorities have been careful not to label him a suspect in the burning of 11 luxury homes over the past three years. They note he is only accused of…
Inflated ClaimsBag it: New Times’ April 12 article by Laura Laughlin (“Arizona’s Worst Neighbor”) does not offer one single shred of solid evidence that any of the alleged animal illnesses or examples of harm alleged by Bunny Bertleson are caused by TRW’s sodium azide-related operations on Germann Road. Not even…
But things don’t last forever and somehow baby, they never really do. — Joey Ramone in 1977, “I Remember You” I was in seventh grade when I purchased my first record. It was Leave Home, the second album by the Ramones. I got it the day after it was released…
New Times staff writer Laura Laughlin was named the state’s top journalist Saturday by the Arizona Press Club.The 44-year-old Laughlin was selected for the coveted Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award from a field of 14 reporters. It marks the seventh consecutive year that a New Times journalist has…
