Megalopolitan Life >>

• Readers Choice
  BEST PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE Randy Johnson BEST TOURIST TRAP Rawhide Wild West Town 23023 North Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale 480-502-1880 BEST POLITICIAN John McCain BEST USE OF TAXPAYER MONEY Freeways BEST TV NEWSCASTER Brad Perry BEST NEWS STATION KPNX Channel 12 BEST ART... More >>
• Best Politician
  Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
  How could one guy hurt so many people and maintain the highest approval rating of any elected official in the county? We've gotta hand it to you, Sheriff Joe: You are one fine politician. We'd like to bottle the sheriff's elixir and sell it for those interested in doing good, rather than evil,... More >>
• Best Name For a Lawyer
  Court Rich
  Really, we're not making this one up. Court Rich is a first-year associate at Nearhood Law Offices in Scottsdale, and a recent graduate of Arizona State University's law school. Since he'll be specializing in business litigation, he may even see the inside of a courtroom -- a rarity for a lawyer... More >>
• Best Power Couple
  Cindy Dach and Greg Esser
  So often, people in our (un)fair city use their power for evil. We're happy to celebrate a couple of powerful Phoenicians who, as far as we can tell, do nothing but good. Instead of building skyscrapers, Cindy Dach and Greg Esser are busy constructing culture. Dach is director of events for... More >>
• Best Refuge From Urban Chaos
  Cathedral Center for the Arts
  A few blocks north of Phoenix's business district sits Trinity Cathedral, the 82-year-old Episcopalian church that houses the perfect getaway for those looking for some artistic time off. Between the cathedral itself (surprisingly modern and warm inside) and Bishop Atwood Hall you'll find the... More >>
• Best Lawn Art
  Sunnyslope Rock Garden
  The Sunnyslope Rock Garden is actually the yard of a private home in a modest neighborhood in north Phoenix. But what a yard. Grover Cleveland Thompson began constructing the odd assortment of windmills, concrete figures and fountains in 1952. Current owner Marion Blake purchased the property in... More >>
• Best Place To See Superstars
  Casino Arizona
  You'll never guess who we ran into the other night. Donna Summer! Yes! But that's not all! We also met Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Gloria Estefan, the Four Tops and Elvis. It was so cool. It was also so fake. The artists -- impersonators, of course -- are part of the Showstoppers Live... More >>
• Best Place To Cop Out
  The Phoenix Police Museum
  One day we wandered into the Phoenix Police Museum, and we were charmed by the experience. It's like a little Disneyland for cops, complete with faux streetscapes. Artifacts date from the late 1800s, when officers patrolled the 3.1-square-mile city on foot, and the patrol wagon was pulled by a... More >>
• Best Place To Get Down-Home
  Historic Sahuaro Ranch
  Until NASA perfects time travel, we'll travel to this 17-acre park to get a glimpse of the good ol' days. This home, home on the range, where the peacocks and bunnies do play, ranks among the West Valley's prettiest places. The ranch's original buildings, open for tours, are oldies but goodies... More >>
• Best Chinatown Substitute
  COFCO Chinese Cultural Center
  We long for our days spent wandering deep into New York's and San Francisco's Chinatowns, always surprised by the constant discovery of new sights, smells and sounds. But let's face it -- Phoenix can't compete. Instead, we'll just be happy that we have COFCO, the only place in town where we can... More >>
• Best Way To Catch the Holiday Spirit
  Las Noches de las Luminarias
  Every year, volunteers at the Desert Botanical Garden add to the glow of this favorite holiday event with more luminarias (brown paper bags filled with sand and a lighted candle) and more musical acts. The foliage is barely visible as you wander the brick paths through the garden, guided by the... More >>
• Best Unexpected Place To Find Inspiration
  The Ladies' Room at Postino
  We love Postino for the $5 glass of Merlot at lunch and the comfy couches at happy hour, but we never expected to find inspiration at a trendy wine bar -- let alone in the ladies' room. But there we sat, in a beautiful rest room big enough for a table of six, admiring the candles and the deeply... More >>
• Best Place To See a Peacock West of Central Avenue
  Wildlife World Zoo
  Heading west from Phoenix, there's not much between Luke Air Force Base and the state line. But we were delighted to find a funky oasis full of creatures you'd never expect to see in these parts. The Wildlife World Zoo has the requisite lions and tigers and giraffes (we didn't see any bears),... More >>
• Best Little Playhouse That Could
  Is What It Is Theater
  Phoenix is lousy with little theaters, and most of them are a revolving door for would-be thespians who aspire to community productions of Neil Simon comedies. These petite playhouses cater to theatergoers who'd just as soon rent videos and don't want to be troubled with shows they haven't... More >>
• Best Place To Take A Bite Out Of Drama
  Lunch Time Theater
  Some ideas need a long time to gestate, and maybe the idea of spending your lunch hour watching live drama was just one of them. But this year did mark the return of Lunch Time Theater, an elegant little plan to coax office-workers into a theater with the promise of short, entertaining plays and... More >>
• Best Classical Theater Troupe
  Actors' Renaissance Theatre
  It's not easy getting an audience for Shakespeare in this town. And no one knows that better than Actors' Renaissance Theatre. This truly local troupe started (and still exists) on a shoestring but is held together by strong performances, well-planned seasons, and the passion of its founders,... More >>
• Best Comeback By A Local Theater Troupe
  Phoenix Theatre's Sophisticated Ladies
  After several consecutive seasons of mostly ill-conceived dreck, the Valley's oldest theater company rebounded with what was arguably the best show of the year. Phoenix Theatre's production of Sophisticated Ladies was so letter-perfect in performance and execution, it was nearly enough to make... More >>
• Best Performance In An Otherwise Mediocre Production
  Michael Sherwin in Nearly Naked Theater's The King of Infinite Space
  With a single exception, the acting in Nearly Naked Theater's The King of Infinite Space was unexceptional. But Michael Sherwin's performance in the title role of Andrew Ordover's obscure morality play was so dazzling, it appeared to belong to another production. Red-faced and shrieking one... More >>
• Best Place To See A Play
  Orpheum Theatre
  There are only a handful of theaters in the Valley of the Sun that were originally meant to be theaters, and even some of those have the acoustics of a dank cave. But the historic Orpheum Theatre, with its majestic proscenium, cloud-painted ceiling and rich red velvet seats, puts everything else... More >>
• Best Art Museum
  Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
  In the past couple of years, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art has hosted some impressive shows of cutting-edge stuff, like the mind- and space-bending work of James Turrell and the contemplative conceptual work of German artist Wolfgang Laib. Sure, we wouldn't mind seeing more work by local... More >>
• Best Museum Store
  Museo Chicano
  At the city-supported Museo Chicano downtown, the gift shop is just about as big as the gallery space itself -- and for good reason. The wares on sale are oftentimes as gripping (sometimes more so, actually) as what's on display. Flashy fiesta flags hang overhead. Cigarette-chomping sugar skulls... More >>
• Best Open Road
  Sun Valley Parkway
  Where else can you drive 35 miles on a four-lane, divided parkway in the middle of the afternoon and see only six other vehicles? Long ago dubbed the "Road to Nowhere," the Sun Valley Parkway was built in the mid-1980s as the centerpiece of a real estate development project that collapsed in... More >>
• Best Professional Athlete
  Craig Counsell
  Infielder, Arizona Diamondbacks
  Amid talk of strikes and steroids, there are still a few baseball players you can hold up as shining role models to your kids. Craig Counsell is the shiniest role model of the lot. Undersized and undertalented, Counsell seems to have nothing going for him except heart, an undying work ethic... More >>
• Best Stadium
  Sun Devil Stadium
  Despite all the complaining and groaning about Sun Devil Stadium generated primarily by the hapless Arizona Cardinals, the facility remains one of the finest football venues in the country. Yes, the toilets are old and concessions stands are limited, but for pure football fans, the proximity... More >>
• Best Television Sports Interviewer
  Todd Walsh
  KTVK
  "Walshie," as former Phoenix Coyotes captain Keith Tkachuk used to call him, has a sports nut's dream job: He gets to wander around America West Arena and Bank One Ballpark during professional hockey and baseball games, eyeing the action while hunting for the odd and colorful situation and... More >>
• Best Indie Movie House
  Madstone Theater and Lounge
  Okay, so it's in Chandler. But Madstone Theaters -- a national chain of 20 cinemas that play predominantly independent and foreign films -- is a godsend in any neighborhood. Until last month, the Valley had gotten by with precious few full-fledged art movie houses, and if it weren't for Harkins... More >>
• Best Saturday-Night Date For Classical Music Lovers
  Robert Moody
  Associate conductor, Phoenix Symphony
  As the Valley's arts organizations struggle for economic survival, we hold up associate conductor Robert Moody as a compelling reason to support the Phoenix Symphony. Were his orchestra reduced to a tin whistle and a secondhand set of bongos, we'd wager that Maestro Moody still could conjure an... More >>
• Best Radio Personality
  John Holmberg
  KUPD's "Morning Sickness"
  DJ John Holmberg, along with his sidekicks, Brady Bogen and Beau Duran, have more or less saved KUPD from its longtime creep toward becoming WKRP. Luckily for listeners, KUPD's management got bored with Dave Pratt too. In early September, they replaced him with the relatively young,... More >>
• Best Place To Be Entertained
  Peoria Sports Complex
  Not every Valley municipal project is a boondoggle. In its eight years in existence, the sprawling Peoria Sports Complex has become the northwest Valley's magnet for an incredible array of events. One weekend, you can see the Goo Goo Dolls, the next you can watch Japan's best professional... More >>
• Best San Diego Substitute
  Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Resort
  It feels like everyone is cutting their vacation budget. If the kids are bummed because you aren't going to San Diego to escape the heat of summer, take heart. Try the Sonoran Splash plan at the très luxe Scottsdale Princess. The promotion features Dive-In Movies on a 12-foot-by-16-foot... More >>
• Best Spot For An Impromptu Wet Tee Shirt Contest
  Vista del Camino Park's sprinkler playground
  For those of us forbidden to run through the sprinkler when we were children (for fear that -- heaven help us -- we'd smush up the lawn), this small playground on Scottsdale's greenbelt, just northwest of the Hayden-Roosevelt intersection, is the stuff of wet dreams. Sundry streams shoot from... More >>
• Best Ivy League Wanna-Be
  City of Tempe Parks and Recreation
  Sculling calls to mind images of dear old Oxford across the pond, or even rowing upon the Charles River in Boston. Now you can join the sport of English gentry and New England Brahmins right here in the desert. Don't let the artificial lake distract you. The City of Tempe offers classes in... More >>
• Best Place To Relive Your Brooklyn Childhood
  Beyond Bagels
  Beyond Bagels has all the stuff you expect to find these days at a deli that claims New York roots: an American flag prominently displayed; a giant photo of the now eerie-seeming Old New York skyline; cartoons by the cash register about kicking bin Laden's ass. And bags of Wise potato chips. But... More >>
• Best CD Release Tie-In Event
  Haggis Listening Party
  June 20
  British Open Pub
  In any local music scene, a band announcing a new album with a CD release party is like somebody celebrating a bowel movement. Everybody does it, some several times a week. However, when the band known as Haggis wanted to draw attention to its latest CD, Karma Suits Ya, it did so with a stylish... More >>
• Best Place To Feed The Need For Speed
  Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving
  Living under the watchful eye of the Valley's radar-patrolled freeways and red-light cameras has our inner speed demons so pent up that we could get a Hyundai-manufactured golf cart with two flat tires to exceed 50 mph. Seems it's high time we took a day off from traffic school to spend a day at... More >>
• Best Place To Feel Home On The Range
  OK Corral
  Ever wanted to say something like, "Get along, little dogies," or "Howdy, partner," and have it be somewhat appropriate? We suggest you try a horseback trail ride with the folks from OK Corral, the oldest pack station in the Superstition Mountains. Summer rides are up through Payson and the... More >>
• Best Place To Break Up With Your Lover
  Carlsbad Tavern
  We're not vindictive, really. We wish the best for that yellow-bellied, sneaky, lying hunk of flesh we've been dating. We certainly don't want to hurt anyone's feelings with a breakup. So we'll let Carlsbad do the talking. We'll bring our loser, er, lover in for dinner. A romantic evening out,... More >>
• Best Place To Eat With The Animals
  Farrelli's Cinema Supper Club
  So we're not kid people. So shoot us. Or better yet, shoot the kids. No, really, we think kids are okay; we just don't understand how people can have them and hope to have any chance of a normal life afterward. Farrelli's feels our pain. And so, in a stroke of genius, this feeding/film house... More >>
• Best Place To Be A Jerk
  Callaloo
  One of the things we love about hanging in the Caribbean is the laid-back attitude. No pretension, just cool. At Callaloo, owner Michael Washington-Brown keeps the spirit. If we want our food spicy (and we do), we don't ask politely. We bluntly tell our waiter to "Jerk This!" That's the signal... More >>
• Best Use Of An IRS Refund
  Fighter Combat International
  The folks at Fighter Combat International use flyers from the Top Gun program to offer you everything from dogfights to acrobatic stunts. Using laser weapons mounted on the spectacularly agile, German built, Extra-300 L, experienced pilots take you up for aerial combat against other... More >>
• Best Private Room Party
  Dick's Hideaway
  We love hanging out in nice places with our friends. The trouble is, nice places usually don't want us. Dick's Hideaway has become our personal haunt when we've got a group of up to 25 party pals. There's a $500 minimum to use the room, but divided among our cohorts, that comes to only $20... More >>
• Best Pool Hall
  Pool & Brew
  You go to an aquarium to see sharks swim around and eat little guppies, not to jump in the tank with them. So when you want to see the game of billiards executed as nature intended, go to where the real sharks swallow up the competition. It is said that the Hustler himself, Paul Newman, has... More >>
• Best Game In Town
  Cholla
  in Casino Arizona
  When we go to Las Vegas, it's to eat at the world-class restaurants that suddenly have populated the once buffet-for-a-buck town. When we go to Casino Arizona, it's to eat at Cholla, an amazing upscale restaurant that's completely isolated from the clinging clanging sounds of machines sucking... More >>
• Best Soar Spot
  Turf Soaring School
  We've fallen for more "you can fly" gimmicks and contraptions than Wile E. Coyote, but with Turf, we think we're finally onto something. The school offers sightseeing rides, flight instruction, and soaring and aerobatic sailplane lessons -- and falling anvils are almost never involved. Want... More >>
• Best Song To Request From A Mariachi That's Not "Guantanamera"
  You're feeling no pain from all of the margaritas you just drank. The mariachi is blaring song after song in a language you don't understand. But you enjoy the music and even recognize some of the songs. ("Wow, I like that one," you think as you hum along.) And the more you drink, the more you... More >>
• Best Place To Shoot Something
  Ben Avery Shooting Facility
  Seldom does the thought of camping conjure up images of submachine guns, unless you're camping at Ben Avery Shooting Facility, where nothing says "outdoor fun" like the sound of full metal jacket shells clinking on the pavement. Covering 1,650 acres, Ben Avery is touted as "the country's largest... More >>
• Best Place To Confront Entomophobia
  Katydid Insect Museum
  Excited about collecting all 50 state quarters? Screw that. Nedra Soloman has a state-centric collection with some bite. Inside her Katydid Insect Museum -- reputedly the only such establishment west of the Mississippi -- is a display case with space allotted for an insect from each state.... More >>
• Best Place To Expect The Unexpected
  Hamburger Mary's
  As its name implies, it's a hamburger joint. But what other burger-n-bun shack offers Saturday afternoon tea (Long Island, though), a champagne Sunday brunch, prickly pear margarita parties, Sex and the City viewing parties, service-industry happy hours, karaoke, dollar disco daze, gay lifestyle... More >>
• Best Fall Family Day Trip
  Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
  The 1.5-mile hike through the Boyce Thompson Arboretum is gorgeous and deeply informative any time of the year. But only in fall, as you walk down through the steep-walled Queen Creek Canyon, do you pass through hundreds of different tree species from ecosystems around the world changing colors... More >>
• Best Summer Golf Day Trip
  Apache Stronghold Golf Club
  Apache Stronghold Golf Club is becoming the hot summer golf spot for Phoenix golfers looking for something very different -- and a little bit cooler. Part of the Apache Gold Casino/Resort complex east of Globe on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Apache Stronghold is probably best enjoyed by... More >>
• Best Cheap Golf
  Bear Creek Golf Course short course
  Recession, overbuilding and 110-degree heat can be good things. In south Chandler, they'll allow you to play a Nicklaus Design golf course on a weekend for $9. That's if you're willing to walk the short 18 at Bear Creek, which can be a bear in the heat. But just get there early and it's a... More >>
• Best Place To Spend A Day With The Dog
  Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park
  We had to rub our eyes when we read that Boyce Thompson welcomes quadrupeds (at least on leashes). But it does! We can take our pooch into Arizona's oldest historical arboretum and botanical garden without any fuss. Mining magnate Colonel William Boyce Thompson founded his arboretum in the... More >>
• Best Place To Go Nuts
  The Orange Patch
  The expansion of the 202 Freeway east is a good thing. It allowed us to empty our car into uncharted territory in Mesa, and, as we drove around lost and clueless, to come across the Orange Patch. We were immediately taken with the farmhouse shop, surrounded by more than 200 acres of tree-ripened... More >>
• Best Place To Listen To Music And Eat Chinese Food
  Lucky Dragon
  Johnny Chu has mastered the art of multitasking, and we're grateful as we sip hot tea over a plate of beef and broccoli, listening to live jazz. Chu doesn't only make great Chinese food with a French flair (the portobello dishes are superb) and book all kinds of music into his... More >>
• Best Place To Feed Your Lover
  Palm Court
  So many restaurants these days are so, well, hot. Loud music, a crush of fashionably dressed bodies, edgy service, blaring decor, and a menu that takes an Atlas and foreign dictionaries to decipher. How are we to focus on our special someone under these conditions? We go to Palm Court to... More >>