Entertainment

Four Peaks provides weekend getaway

The Tonto National Forest, which stretches across most of Arizona, offers beautiful scenery and great weekend getaways.

The Four Peaks Wilderness Area is no different. Just north of Mesa on Highway 87, on the way to Payson, is a great location to camp without being to far from home.

When you look towards the east from the Valley it is possible to see the four jagged peaks looming above the horizon, the highest of which is Brown’s Peak, standing at 7,600 feet.

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Entertainment

‘The Fourth Kind’ proves to be unbelievable as based-on-true-story flick

“The Fourth Kind” may seem like just another PG-13 thriller movie, but it can leave viewers questioning the supernatural.

There is something strange going on in the quaint town of Nome, Alaska. Dr. Abigail Emily Tyler has made it her mission to try and figure out what is wrong, but the truth ends up costing her more than she would have ever expected.

The movie is supposedly based off actual audio and visual recordings, as well as an extensive account by Dr. Abigail Emily Tyler, who is played by actress Milla Jovovich. The film includes clips of Dr. Tyler as herself being interviewed by director Olatunde Osunsanmi as well as in clips of “paranormal experiences.”

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Entertainment

China Chili provides delicious dishes, large selection, group dining

China Chili is a fairly popular Chinese restaurant located on 3rd Street, just south of Osborn.

China Chili offers a very large menu, with lots of good choices.

With a menu the size of China Chili’s you can get a lot of overlap; however, it seems that everything meshes well together.

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Entertainment

Indie-supergroup hypnotizes thousands at Orpheum Theater

When indie-folk group Monsters of Folk rolled into downtown’s Orpheum Theater in late October, there were certainly high expectations for the group.

This was especially true in terms of what Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, Jim James of My Morning Jacket and M. Ward were going to achieve with their personal work.

Back in 2004 the group congregated for handful of shows under the banner “An Evening with Conor Oberst, Jim James, and M. Ward,” playing as an off shoot of each of the musician’s core bands. A few years later the band reassembled for an album, and are now embarking of a world tour.

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Entertainment

Overblown ‘2012’ can be a campy, fun ride

When director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) decides to make a disaster movie, he pulls out all the stops.

He does this by making sure no national monument is safe, no cliché is left unused and the constant fears of the general population are not left unstirred, whether those fears are aliens, global warming or the end of the world.

His latest work, “2012,” showcases his penchant for all these things, and in doing so creates a very gaudy thrill ride that doesn’t let up.

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Entertainment

Chicken Little strikes again with ‘2012’

Come Dec. 21, 2012, the world will witness Y2K all over again.

Or so we are told.

A Man and His MoviesFor anyone who has been living under a rock, 2012 refers to the “end of days” that is said to be caused by a planetary alignment. When the planets align some theorize it could create a black hole or lead to a geomagnetic reversal, which would reverse the North and South magnetic poles.

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Entertainment

‘Paranormal’ offers genuine fear

Jump scares and buckets of blood: These are things that I have come to except from horror movies.

It would seem that people have forgotten what horror movies should do. They should play on the audience’s fears, leaving them emotionally unsettled.

Along comes the much hyped “Paranormal Activity,” a pseudo-documentary film that will leave audiences afraid to turn off the lights at night.

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Entertainment

It came from the Internet!

Many people have average stories, like the time that they saw a person drop their coke bottle and have it bounce right back up into their hand, or when their caller ID showed “Raspberry Jam.”

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Entertainment

Rediscover Mogollon, Rim Country with trip north

It may be starting to finally cool down in the Valley, but just a short three hour drive away and you can find temperatures 20 degrees or more lower than the city.

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Entertainment

Xavier Gator

Could I get your full name and year?

As in birth year?

No, what grade are you in?

I am a junior, graduating class of 2011.

And your name?

We’ll go with the non-Catholic version, Katherine Anastasia Beals.

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