Joe Arpaio’s men fail to justify criminally charging New Times reporter Ray Stern in a public records dispute

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

When I read our lawyer's interviews with the deputies in Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's most notorious division, I had one question: Who staged this piece of theater?

You too can read, for the first time, READY DEBACLE

Right about now, Mesa neo-Nazi J.T. Ready must be feeling like John Edwards' mistress, or Shaq's estranged wife after reading about the Suns' center stepping out with Atlanta-area hip-hop artist Maryjane.

Phoenix Country Club board member Mike Hayes turned a sex-segregation issue into a juvenile shouting match

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The e-mail was sent to a female member of the Phoenix Country Club — and it was pointed.

"Can you stop you[r] bullshit at PCC," the e-mail demanded. "Nobody likes you and your type needs to go . . . The last thing we need is more lezzies like you down there . . . Y...

Tawni Mazzone's family finally has closure, nine years after she disappeared

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The tragic and mysterious case of 99-305 was ice cold for nine years. Until last week.

What unfolded over a matter of mere hours last Wednesday and Thursday amazed police detectives and others to whom investigative twists and turns are the norm.

But it really happened.

On Aug...

Feedback from the issue of Thursday, August 28, 2008

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

HEAVENS TO BETSY

It ain't porn: Betsy Schneider is a distinguished faculty member of the Herberger College of the Arts at Arizona State University. She has been acclaimed around the world for the beauty and power of her images. As is true of all a...

Excerpts from interviews and other documents re: State of Arizona v. Ray Stern

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

John Thomas Graham Interview

Jeff Gentry Interview

Scott Freeman Interview

<...

On Olympic gold medal winner Henry Cejudo, striped donkeys, and the “Pachuko Hop”

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Why do Mexicans paint stripes on their donkeys in Tijuana?
Avenida Revolución Reveller

Same reason we put worms in tequila bottles, celebrate Cinco de Mayo, and star in Beverly Hills Chihuahua: to cheat gabachos out of cash. To paraphrase the classic dictum: a <...

Portugal the Man brings its unique psychedelic boogie improv to Phoenix

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Portugal. The Man likes spontaneity. They also like random punctuation in the middle of their name. You could even say the Alaska-based quartet has a knack for doing things ass-backwards. For example: Even though the band writes music while on the road and works out the parameters of its live jams a...

The worst jobs in rock

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Labor Day is upon us once again, so we're paying tribute to America's celebration of the workingman by recognizing the worst jobs in rock. They don't get any shittier than these, boys and girls.

Guns N' Roses' management

June saw the release of nine allegedly mastered tracks f...

Foot Ox’s Teague Cullen works toward modest dreams in the Tempe music scene

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

It's 3 p.m. on a Saturday and I'm sitting on the floor, Indian-style, across from Teague Cullen in a Mitchell Park home that he rents out with six other 20-somethings. Behind a closed door in an adjoining room, Jen McMaster is messing around with what sounds like a clickety electronic synthesizer. D...

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford dishes on Nostradamus

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A symphonic heavy metal concept double album about Nostradamus may not rank among such conceptual classics as Pink Floyd's The Wall, David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, or the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but when the b...

Booze Pig celebrates 134 hours of sobriety by getting plowed at The OX

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

This may sound pathetic to some, but I am proud to report that I made it five days, 14 hours without a drink. Zero, zilch, nada! And I have to admit: Beyond the intense sweating, short-fused temper tantrums, and sleepless nights, I felt great. So what does a confirmed Booze Pig do after being sober ...

The Baseball Project

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Long before steroids scandals, routine strikes (hey, it's hard living on 175 grand a year), and the high jinks of Pete Rose and Darryl Strawberry made national news, baseball was considered America's great national pastime. As near-religious zeal for Abner Doubleday's invention cuts across ge...

David Bowie

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

It's nearly laughable that this album is being marketed as "previously unreleased." Bowie's 1972 show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is, perhaps, one of the most-bootlegged concerts of the rock era, seen by most fans as the ultimate statement of what Bowie offered live in the '70s. Broadcast o...

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

As the continued existence of the Warped Tour proves, I get older and the kids stay the same age. And as long as the latter is true, there will also be room for one more three-chord song based on a one-note joke. Hence the seventh full-length of pop-punk covers by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Form...

F**k The Facts

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

In grindcore's answer to the road movie (sort of), Fuck The Facts wrote its new album, Disgorge Mexico, while taking a group road trip from its Ottawa home to northern Mexico. As the popular expression goes, though, the point wasn't so much the destination as it was the journey itself. Accord...

The John Butler Trio

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The John Butler Trio is one of those jam bands that inevitably ends up compared to acts like, oh, John Mayer, The Dave Matthews Band, and Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. In the band's native Australia, it's more likely that those other guys get compared to The John Butler Trio. Butler, famous...

Funk Shui

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

We've always thought Geisha A Go Go, 7150 East Sixth Avenue in Scottsdale, was a pretty fly place, as the Tokyo-style bar and lounge boasts such ultra-colorful touches as clamorous pachinko machines, cartoonish cocktails, and huge pictures of rock stars like Jim Morrison and Sid Vicious behind its b...

Seven nights of DJs and dancing

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

THURSDAY 28

Axis/Radius: Red Bull Thursdays with DJ MCB (hip-hop, Top 40, rock)

Bar Smith: Peppermint Lounge with DJ Brazilia, DJ Mara, & guests (electro, funk)

Blooze Bar: DJ El Dedo (rockabilly)

Bunkhouse: DJ&nbs...

Asian Café Express serves up Hong Kong-style five-spice beef and hot pots

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Don't blame the Olympics.

I've been craving some good Chinese food for a lot longer than the past couple of weeks that we've been bombarded with coverage of the games. If anything, TV segments about bizarre Beijing street foods have somewhat lessened my appetite for it. (I'm adventurous, but...

Traitor’s Don Cheadle and co-stars can’t elevate the film past ho-hum

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Despite his reputation as that rarest of creatures — a Hollywood intellectual — new evidence suggests that Steve Martin reads (prepare yourself) thrillers and spy novels. Or at least that's the only conclusion one can draw from the "Story by" credit the comedian receives on Traitor

Frozan River may lay it on thick, but Melissa Leo nails the role of a struggling single mom

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
When I'd heard that Quentin Tarantino handed the Grand Jury Prize for best feature to Courtney Hunt's Frozen River at this year's Sundance Film Festival, telling the audience that the movie "put my heart in a vise and proceeded to twist that vise until the last frame," my jaw went slack. A so...

Opposites attract in Chris & Don: A Love Story

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
A glint in his eye and a grin on his lips, artist Don Bachardy looks into the camera and explains the dynamic of his three-decade relationship with the late literary icon Christopher Isherwood as if it were a fairy tale. "His role," says Bachardy, "could be described as that of the arch-villain. He ...

Dearly Departed is DOA

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Something hilarious happens within the first few minutes of Chyro Arts' Dearly Departed: A woman, played by Jacqueline Gaston, reads a wickedly amusing letter to her husband, who suddenly falls over in a dead heap just after she finishes. It's a moment that's shocking and witty and holds a go...

Braid reinvents video game storytelling

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
In the 25 years or so I've been playing games, never once have I encountered an earnest conversation about what a game means. You see every other sort of discussion — people talking about how a game looks, or how it plays, how long or short or difficult or easy it is, or whether the wri...

AZ Bully Expo @ Mesa Convention Center

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Are you still having emotional issues because of that punk ass bully from the fourth grade? Well, you'll have to keep going to your shrink for that, dude. However, if you like tough looking pooches, then you may want to hit up the AZ Bully Expo, which will feature everything you'd ever want to know ...

Hi, My Name is Still Ryan

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Fan or hater, you've kept tabs on Ryan Avery. If you weren't already up on his exploits, then the New Times cover story piqued your interest (“Hi, My Name Is Ryan,” August 3, 2006, Benjamin Leatherman). Then you heard about Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose's documentary Hi My N...

We Like Mic

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
If we know you like we think we do, you like to get drunk and sing your ass off. Don't be embarrassed; we saw you push that mousy guy with the Mariah Carey octave off the karaoke machine and throw the party into gear with your rendition of “Thriller,” replete with moonwalking. So why not k...

Liquid Assets

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Remember how much fun it was to swim at the public pool as a kid? Unfortunately, when you grew up, you realized that the oasis of your memory was just a chlorinated hole filled with grimy little creatures who got pleasure from peeing in the water and stewing in their own filth. This summer, you can ...

Heavy Medal

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

What will life be like for Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps after Beijing? Cheers and parades? His face on a Wheaties box? If his predecessor and former swimming buddy, three-time Olympic medalist and former teen phenom Nadia “Anita” Nall, is any indication, he’ll have a y...

School of Business

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Commodification of art is nothing new (we especially like those Hello Kitty vibrators), but a respectable art gallery slumming in a mall is right up there with Walmarts on sacred burial grounds, even if it’s exactly the kind of "social embeddedness" that Joe Baker, ASU's Director of Communit...

Stripcheese

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Hey, gringos, look what you’ve been missing. Namely, Silverio, a south-of-the-border sensation who will seduce all five of your senses with a wink of his eye and a thrust of his pelvis. The Mexican love child of Peaches and Günther (you know, the gold lamé-loving Swedish sex pant...

Afterparty Politics

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The under-30 crowd made one helluva showing in the 2004 primaries, contributing to a leap from a measly 9 percent of the electorate in 2000 to 17 percent this year, according to The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement. We're hoping the ballot-boothin’ kids keep k...

Football-In-Mouth Disease

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Did you hear what those geezers on the Arizona Cardinals preseason broadcast were saying during the Kansas City Chiefs game on August 16? That the redbirds’ win was a monumental turning point, especially considering that it was coach Ken Whisenhunt’s first exhibition victory in six trie...

Icing on the Cupcake?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
With a football program of ASU’s caliber, a contest against the NAU Lumberjacks is a guaranteed notch in the win column. However, as we learned in 2003 and 2006 when the boys from Flagstaff came to town, not-so-impressive showings by the Devils can spell later-season doom. In the ’03 tussl...

Labor Party

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A bumper sticker proclaims, "Enjoy weekends? Thank unions!" Alas, don't forget an extra tip of the hat for the extended Labor Day weekend, when Sway Events and the Clarendon Hotel spin summer's sunset into the Splash Bash Labor Day Weekend Party.

The Splash Bash pool pachanga light...

Hip-hip Hullabaloo

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The P-Town hip-hop scene has exploded exponentially in recent years. For proof, witness the sheer number of rappers and other ghetto-fab musicians who’ve been dropping their rhymes and rhythms at nightspots all over the Valley (a.k.a. “Phire City”). One popular night is GALLERY BLU...

Alt, Who Goes There?

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Brandon Wronski, frontman for the band Eye Alaska, characterizes his group’s sound as “genre-less.” It’s an appropriate description given that the foursome sounds very little like its stable-mates on Fearless Records or the majority of its peers from Orange County, California. Ho...

Hot Links

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

If you’re a golfer, summer’s either the greatest thing since sliced bread or an involuntary exile from the links. If you’re poor, it’s probably the bread, ’cause you don’t have to spend as much of the doughy stuff to get in your 18. Many of the power resorts signific...

Nice to Meat You

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Your vegan upbringing turned you into a meat-craving psychopath. At age 9, you offed your hippie parents and hid their bodies in your digestive tract. Ever since, you’ve found it hard to control your beastly instincts and have started roaming with the zombie crowd. At night, you loot the but...

Siren Songs

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

But for being born white, San Francisco chanteuse Lavay Smith might be the latter-day Billie Holiday. Smith has Lady Day’s throaty purr, though it might be more appropriate to say that Smith has Holiday’s purr down. Smith, see, is a natural-born self-promoter whose business is ch...

Impressive. Most Impressive

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Among comedy geeks, Frank Caliendo is a divider like no other. First off, he’s an impressionist, and not since the halcyon days of Rich Little-as-George Burns has the skill been comparatively viable to, say, humorous hypnotism or ventriloquism. Second, his interpretations of Dubya, John Madden,...

Ooze of the World

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

A friend of ours freaks out when he realizes the molecules he's inhaling have been inside our lungs, too. You other wusses better check out “Human & Animal Grossology” at Arizona Science Center beginning Saturday, May 24, and get desensitized to all the emissions and secretions of us

Kollectiv Soul

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

You grew up in a fascist household where creativity wasn’t encouraged. At age 2, when you drew an abstract version of your dog, your parents took note of its asymmetry and shook their heads critically. They couldn’t tolerate anything but pure genius, and if that wasn’t achievable, ...

Child at Art

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
As children, we’re filled with creativity. Then real life drowns the butterflies and rainbows in a festering sea of debt, responsibilities, and mind-numbing labor. Some adults choose to deal by popping pills or shooting smack. Siberian artist Natasha Matveenkova has sidestepped the sinkhole of ...

Tome Improvement

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
Every year, like clockwork, New Times bestows our Best of Phoenix Bookstore award on Tempe’s Changing Hands. There’s no collusion or favoritism; the long-lived indie’s indisputably the best. While the new Dog-Eared Pages Used Books is unlikely to dethrone Changing Hands, any bi...

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. St. Louis Cardinals @ Chase Field

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500
The NL Central club who are fighting for their wild card lives visit Phoenix for the final time in 2008 during this three-game series.
Mon., Sept. 1, 1:10 p.m.; Tue., Sept. 2, 6:40 p.m.; Wed., Sept. 3, 12:40 p.m., 2008...

Coke Classic

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Drinking. Drugging. Thugging. Odes to these will be legion when Bay Area underground rapper Andre Nickatina brings his subtly named Coke White Tour to Marquee Theatre.

As he has throughout his nearly 20-year recording career -- as well as on his new CD, A Tale of Two Andres -- Ni...

Phoenix New Times | Complete Issue

Joe Arpaio’s men fail to justify criminally charging New Times reporter Ray Stern in a public records dispute

Phoenix Country Club board member Mike Hayes turned a sex-segregation issue into a juvenile shouting match

Tawni Mazzone's family finally has closure, nine years after she disappeared

Feedback from the issue of Thursday, August 28, 2008

Excerpts from interviews and other documents re: State of Arizona v. Ray Stern

On Olympic gold medal winner Henry Cejudo, striped donkeys, and the “Pachuko Hop”

Portugal the Man brings its unique psychedelic boogie improv to Phoenix

The worst jobs in rock

Foot Ox’s Teague Cullen works toward modest dreams in the Tempe music scene

Judas Priest singer Rob Halford dishes on Nostradamus

Booze Pig celebrates 134 hours of sobriety by getting plowed at The OX

The Baseball Project

David Bowie

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

F**k The Facts

The John Butler Trio

Funk Shui

Seven nights of DJs and dancing

Asian Café Express serves up Hong Kong-style five-spice beef and hot pots

Traitor’s Don Cheadle and co-stars can’t elevate the film past ho-hum

Frozan River may lay it on thick, but Melissa Leo nails the role of a struggling single mom

Opposites attract in Chris & Don: A Love Story

Dearly Departed is DOA

Braid reinvents video game storytelling

AZ Bully Expo @ Mesa Convention Center

Hi, My Name is Still Ryan

We Like Mic

Liquid Assets

Heavy Medal

School of Business

Stripcheese

Afterparty Politics

Football-In-Mouth Disease

Icing on the Cupcake?

Labor Party

Hip-hip Hullabaloo

Alt, Who Goes There?

Hot Links

Nice to Meat You

Siren Songs

Impressive. Most Impressive

Ooze of the World

Kollectiv Soul

Child at Art

Tome Improvement

Arizona Diamondbacks vs. St. Louis Cardinals @ Chase Field

Coke Classic