Matt Beem approached us about reviewing his latest CD. It was a pleasure. Posted here because his local gig is too close to the print date of the issue carrying the review to necessarily help generate some attendance. God willing, a miracle may happen and downtown hipsters may log on here and follow up on the tip to go listen to this guy, at Modified Arts, Wednesday, Feb. 21 at the Paper Heart with Down Cast Fabel (other acts TBA), thepaperheart.com.
You criticize the note in his ear when there’s a Beem in your own?
By David Tell, critic
extraordinaire
From the very first signature guitar licks of the opening track on Matt Beem’s new CD “The Part You’re Playing, you feel as if it’s already familiar. That’s even truer as you go about your day, unable to get “ Starting to Crack” out of your head. It’s pretty catchy. (Almost too much so. Hard to resist cracks about “head starting to crack ...”) That’s true of the rest of the CD too, as well as past work by Beem, a childhood drummer who evolved into a guitarist-singer-songwriter and from a N’Hampshah rock star wannabe to whatever passes for mild success at it in the Valley’s music scene.
We’re not up enough on recent rock genres and icons (Beem refers to “jangle band” and “folk-metal” in characterizing some phases of his career) to informedly assess his influences and sound-alikes, but we can say the music manifests a tunefulness and dogged beat (as well as intelligent, clearly enunciated, irony-soaked lyrics) that help explain why he’s been a crowd-pleaser in some circles for several years locally—without the need for gimmicks such as the neo-Turkish riffs of bands such as the Hypno-Twists, reviewed here what seems like ages ago. (Get it from Mozart’s “Zaide,” and “Rondo alla Turca,” leave it out of rock, eh, guys and gals?)
Revealing my age, ignorance and tastes, I will say there’s a hint here of early Crazy Horse (Jack Nitzche, et. al., accompanying Neil Young in the early “Neil Young” and “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” days—even the unjustly obscure “On the Beach,” which I think Ryan Adams said was an influence), Sheryl Crow’s backup musicians, and perhaps Western rockers whose stuff I’m not really too familiar with such as Warren Zevon and John Mellencamp, with a some of the parody and energy of the Stones when emulating U.S.-born musical styles—think stuff from “Some Girls” and whatever their even more mock-Country album was ...
Beem started his local career in a band with a brother of a guy in the Gin Blossoms, who he says gave up on them “because they were a bunch of nitwits”—then formed Solace, who became Long Wong’s house band before dissolving.
Then, according Beem, “I completed my first official release, ‘Choking Down the Roses,’ sparse renditions of new and old tunes, which gave birth to several crowd favorites, including ‘Valley Sickness,’ ‘Relatively,’ and ‘Dolphins Don’t Build Casinos.’ In 2002 I started a new outfit with drummer Matthew Salusky (formerly of local hardcore groups Longsuffer and Kilnemia), this time performing under my name, and recorded the ‘12/09/02’ EP, acoustic demos of new songs that would eventually be recorded by the full band for my next release, ‘The Way These People Drive, You’d Think They Want Me Dead.’ (2003) The band chugged along for a couple of years, went through several lineup changes, and eventually the thing fizzled out. I spent 2005 writing new songs and in ’06 enlisted local drummer and producer Brock Caldwell to put together the latest release, ‘The Part You’re Playing’ EP.”
As to that release, following the infectious “Starting to Crack,” there’s the mock-mournful “Spanish Girl,” which is ballad-with-a-beat stuff; “Everything Seen,” which mimics (not intentionally, we know) the frenetic pace and style of the aforementioned Stones in “Shattered,” their punk-y, Ramones-y paean to the New York rat-race (we referenced the lyric “Can’t give it away on 7th Avenue” in our headline on the Bowey rezoning flap a couple years ago, remember?). “The Fan” again builds on a spare lead guitar riff into a plaintive, fetching anthem; “Theresa” harks to the arpeggiated oldie love songs and other standards such as “House of the Rising Sun” (and, again Sheryl Crow takes on the style such as “Run Baby Run” and “No One Said It Would Be Easy”), and is perhaps a less original, and, to my taste, less enjoyable offering.
Representing the Myspace generation, music impresario extraordinaire Naomi Tell, who sampled the CD in Grand Rapids before her sound card died (was Beem’s music the culprit?), commented, “I did think it had a kind of soulfulness that most alternative-mainstream sounding rock is lacking these days. Damn kids. He also looks like [boyfriend] Jeremy's friend Ronnie.”
“Desert Eagle” rounds out the set, echoing early somebody else, another minor-key bio-ballad telling a road-trip tale. About ending up in Phoenix. I can relate.
More of Beem’s stuff can be listened to or downloaded free from his website, mattbeem.com. It’s all listenable, check it out. And/or catch him locally (see infobox, previous page).
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Ruth Ann Marston seeks Dist. 7 Council seat
We ordinarily would wait a week or two following its cover date to post a story from our print edition. But rather than get scooped, and since, delivery personnel being out of town, the bulk distribution of the paper may be a little late this month, here's the breaking news—already a couple weeks old, actually, as of the posting date—but as far as we know, it hasn't been carried elsewhere ... yet.
Midtowner to vie in Dist. 7
Seeking Council seat when Lingner exits, Marston cites big credentials
By David Tell, Messenger editor
In a field that is growing almost as crowded as the race for the Democratic nomination for president, one of Midtown’s own has thrown her hat in the ring to succeed Doug Lingner on City Council in District 7.
Ruth Ann Marston is a longtime Willo resident and educator who retired from the Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1 a few years ago. She is now in her second term on its governing board, as its president. She also leads the loosely organized Phoenix Historic Neighborhoods Coalition, as well as serving as president of the Central Arizona Chapter of the Arizona Historical Society. Supplicants for rezonings and their opponents also are familiar with her reasoned statements and actions as part of the Encanto Village Planning Committee, of which she is a past chair.
While all these offices and accomplishments position her well for support from within the urban-historic end of District 7, Marston acknowledges that a key task will be introducing herself to residents and organizations in the bulk of the district, which wends through southwest Phoenix.
Despite the fact that Midtown’s historic neighborhoods represent only a small portion of District 7 both geographically and demographically, Councilman Doug Lingner has been a staunch supporter of historic neighborhood and preservation issues. Election of Marston could be expected to only enlarge that support and awareness.
To get acquainted with the rest of the district, “I plan to do a lot of walking and meeting people,” Marston said. But she said she’s not unknown in the southwest part of the city. “I have contacts in the west and southwest valley through the work on the planning committee where I’ve been a member for 10 years. So I’ve been active in planning and zoning issues, particularly when people have tried to break zoning rules, or go around the system so zoning was not predictable—and when they take opportunities for personal self-aggrandizement instead of helping the whole valley develop.”
As an example, “I was active keeping people from building very dense developments around 75th Avenue and I-10. Light rail is going in there and there will be a park and ride lot. Developers were planning to break through the industrial zoning south of the freeway to build very dense industrial housing in areas that would be surrounded by big trucks,” Marston said. She pointed out that seven of the city’s 15 or so village planning subunits are in whole or part in District 7; thus the district’s representative’s reach and sphere of concern is quite broad, in virtue of his or her role in making appointments to the respective planning committees.
She added her service on the school board gives her contacts in school systems throughout the valley.
As for reaching out to the Hispanic constituents in the district, “I’ve taken Spanish classes”; she speaks “porquito, no mas.” She said she spoke Spanish more fluently when she was a school principal and the skill was called upon more often.
Marston said the idea of running for Council had “been growing on me as I’ve watched the city become interested in reinventing itself through education. I’m a lifelong educator. I can see that there are gaps in the city’s effort. Having the university downtown is great, but unless the rest of the educational system support it and kids come to those programs ready, it will be less effective. Having children come from somewhere else is not as useful to Phoenix.”
Marston said access to downtown schools by the city’s own residents involves “being prepared to be successful, and second, to be able to afford to be successful,” she said. “There are a lot of kids in the downtown area whose parents can’t support them through college, they’re going to need ways to work their way through and I don’t think we’ve addressed that adequately.”
Would the inevitable attention to additional city and constituent concerns dilute Marston’s ability to serve the historic end of the district and its issues? “I don’t think it’s a question of dilution. I think things are complementary,” she said. “The historic district supports the whole culture of the city of Phoenix. It’s very important to preserve the historic area itself. Just having a bunch of people living in proximity doesn’t constitute a city. A city is the sum of the past and its future aspirations. It’s important to know what we’ve been in order to build on it. It is absolutely true that you’re doomed to repeat the past if you forget it.
“People don’t move to Phoenix because there’s a lot of dirt,” Marston said, acknowledging that it’s partly the climate that draws them. But they also move here “because of the ambiance, the way they’re treated and opportunities that are available. The opportunities are largely due to foresight of people in the past, on, for example, water conservation and infrastructure. You can move your car in Phoenix, not like LA or Chicago. People have thought ahead in terms of larger infrastructure and we need to continue to think ahead, have that kind of foresight.”
At the same time, “Phoenix needs to be developed for livability, for sustainable growth—and not only for immediate profitability,” she said. “What really needs to happen—I’m a great believer in collective wisdom. We need to have substantial agreement about how Phoenix will grow. It needs to be detailed, especially at the neighborhood and village level. We have to insist on it. We can’t let [personal] gain on the part of an individual or group change the opportunity for sustained livable growth.”
In a field in which other contenders have already announced and in some cases garnered important endorsements, how does Marston see her chances? She points to her two wins in school board elections: “In 2002, I got 38.24 percent of the vote in a field of five candidates and two write-ins, in a vote-for-two situation. For ’06, I got 44.2 percent of the vote in field of three. You know how hard school board races can be fought. Knowing that you have a chance of winning is part of the thing about making your decision about whether to run.”
Marston also said she was more inclined to run when attorney Harry Keidan agreed to be her campaign manager. She said as she is a Republican and he’s a Democrat, that broadens her outreach to the district's voters and people of influence.
Given that Council races are officially nonpartisan, and the rest of her record and profile, she doesn’t expect party affiliation to be a factor overall, nor as to her support within Midtown, where the voter registration tilts slightly Democratic, unlike most of the state. She says she became a Republican during Sen. Barry Goldwater’s heyday, and has toyed with switching parties, as District 4 Councilman Tom Simplot recently did following the November elections. “Many of us are questioning our party affiliation, because it doesn’t mean what it did when we registered,” she said. But she resists switching camps at the moment, acknowledging it would be seen as patently opportunistic. “It would be obviously self-serving. The only reason at this time would be the candidacy, and no one would believe it” to be motivated by principle. She said party registration aside, Midtown “doesn’t’ necessarily vote Democratic. It shouldn’t be a disadvantage.”
Others who have thrown their hats in the District 7 ring include Michael Nowakowski, Laura Pastor, Dustin Steiger, Santos Chavez and Troy Price. Look for coverage later in the campaign season that provides more information on all the viable candidates.
Midtowner to vie in Dist. 7
Seeking Council seat when Lingner exits, Marston cites big credentials
By David Tell, Messenger editor
In a field that is growing almost as crowded as the race for the Democratic nomination for president, one of Midtown’s own has thrown her hat in the ring to succeed Doug Lingner on City Council in District 7.
Ruth Ann Marston is a longtime Willo resident and educator who retired from the Phoenix Elementary School District No. 1 a few years ago. She is now in her second term on its governing board, as its president. She also leads the loosely organized Phoenix Historic Neighborhoods Coalition, as well as serving as president of the Central Arizona Chapter of the Arizona Historical Society. Supplicants for rezonings and their opponents also are familiar with her reasoned statements and actions as part of the Encanto Village Planning Committee, of which she is a past chair.
While all these offices and accomplishments position her well for support from within the urban-historic end of District 7, Marston acknowledges that a key task will be introducing herself to residents and organizations in the bulk of the district, which wends through southwest Phoenix.
Despite the fact that Midtown’s historic neighborhoods represent only a small portion of District 7 both geographically and demographically, Councilman Doug Lingner has been a staunch supporter of historic neighborhood and preservation issues. Election of Marston could be expected to only enlarge that support and awareness.
To get acquainted with the rest of the district, “I plan to do a lot of walking and meeting people,” Marston said. But she said she’s not unknown in the southwest part of the city. “I have contacts in the west and southwest valley through the work on the planning committee where I’ve been a member for 10 years. So I’ve been active in planning and zoning issues, particularly when people have tried to break zoning rules, or go around the system so zoning was not predictable—and when they take opportunities for personal self-aggrandizement instead of helping the whole valley develop.”
As an example, “I was active keeping people from building very dense developments around 75th Avenue and I-10. Light rail is going in there and there will be a park and ride lot. Developers were planning to break through the industrial zoning south of the freeway to build very dense industrial housing in areas that would be surrounded by big trucks,” Marston said. She pointed out that seven of the city’s 15 or so village planning subunits are in whole or part in District 7; thus the district’s representative’s reach and sphere of concern is quite broad, in virtue of his or her role in making appointments to the respective planning committees.
She added her service on the school board gives her contacts in school systems throughout the valley.
As for reaching out to the Hispanic constituents in the district, “I’ve taken Spanish classes”; she speaks “porquito, no mas.” She said she spoke Spanish more fluently when she was a school principal and the skill was called upon more often.
Marston said the idea of running for Council had “been growing on me as I’ve watched the city become interested in reinventing itself through education. I’m a lifelong educator. I can see that there are gaps in the city’s effort. Having the university downtown is great, but unless the rest of the educational system support it and kids come to those programs ready, it will be less effective. Having children come from somewhere else is not as useful to Phoenix.”
Marston said access to downtown schools by the city’s own residents involves “being prepared to be successful, and second, to be able to afford to be successful,” she said. “There are a lot of kids in the downtown area whose parents can’t support them through college, they’re going to need ways to work their way through and I don’t think we’ve addressed that adequately.”
Would the inevitable attention to additional city and constituent concerns dilute Marston’s ability to serve the historic end of the district and its issues? “I don’t think it’s a question of dilution. I think things are complementary,” she said. “The historic district supports the whole culture of the city of Phoenix. It’s very important to preserve the historic area itself. Just having a bunch of people living in proximity doesn’t constitute a city. A city is the sum of the past and its future aspirations. It’s important to know what we’ve been in order to build on it. It is absolutely true that you’re doomed to repeat the past if you forget it.
“People don’t move to Phoenix because there’s a lot of dirt,” Marston said, acknowledging that it’s partly the climate that draws them. But they also move here “because of the ambiance, the way they’re treated and opportunities that are available. The opportunities are largely due to foresight of people in the past, on, for example, water conservation and infrastructure. You can move your car in Phoenix, not like LA or Chicago. People have thought ahead in terms of larger infrastructure and we need to continue to think ahead, have that kind of foresight.”
At the same time, “Phoenix needs to be developed for livability, for sustainable growth—and not only for immediate profitability,” she said. “What really needs to happen—I’m a great believer in collective wisdom. We need to have substantial agreement about how Phoenix will grow. It needs to be detailed, especially at the neighborhood and village level. We have to insist on it. We can’t let [personal] gain on the part of an individual or group change the opportunity for sustained livable growth.”
In a field in which other contenders have already announced and in some cases garnered important endorsements, how does Marston see her chances? She points to her two wins in school board elections: “In 2002, I got 38.24 percent of the vote in a field of five candidates and two write-ins, in a vote-for-two situation. For ’06, I got 44.2 percent of the vote in field of three. You know how hard school board races can be fought. Knowing that you have a chance of winning is part of the thing about making your decision about whether to run.”
Marston also said she was more inclined to run when attorney Harry Keidan agreed to be her campaign manager. She said as she is a Republican and he’s a Democrat, that broadens her outreach to the district's voters and people of influence.
Given that Council races are officially nonpartisan, and the rest of her record and profile, she doesn’t expect party affiliation to be a factor overall, nor as to her support within Midtown, where the voter registration tilts slightly Democratic, unlike most of the state. She says she became a Republican during Sen. Barry Goldwater’s heyday, and has toyed with switching parties, as District 4 Councilman Tom Simplot recently did following the November elections. “Many of us are questioning our party affiliation, because it doesn’t mean what it did when we registered,” she said. But she resists switching camps at the moment, acknowledging it would be seen as patently opportunistic. “It would be obviously self-serving. The only reason at this time would be the candidacy, and no one would believe it” to be motivated by principle. She said party registration aside, Midtown “doesn’t’ necessarily vote Democratic. It shouldn’t be a disadvantage.”
Others who have thrown their hats in the District 7 ring include Michael Nowakowski, Laura Pastor, Dustin Steiger, Santos Chavez and Troy Price. Look for coverage later in the campaign season that provides more information on all the viable candidates.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Archaeologist: 'Apocalypto' more or less accurate
New York Times essay supports our critical deconstruction of Gibson film
In our film review (find link at right), we judged the film a depiction of the clash between the Mayan "Taker" culture (hierarchical, monoculture-based oppressor civilization) and indigenous, forest-based "Leaver" tribes (nomadic, hunter-gatherer types observing a sustainable lifestyle).
Read article on NYT website
Op-Ed Contributor
In our film review (find link at right), we judged the film a depiction of the clash between the Mayan "Taker" culture (hierarchical, monoculture-based oppressor civilization) and indigenous, forest-based "Leaver" tribes (nomadic, hunter-gatherer types observing a sustainable lifestyle).
Read article on NYT website
A Past That Makes Us Squirm
Crawford, Colo.
A FEW years back, while traveling in the Sierra Madre Occidental of northern Mexico, I came upon a canyon packed with cliff dwellings no one had lived in since before the time of Christopher Columbus. On the ground were discarded artifacts, pieces of frayed baskets, broken pottery and hundreds of desiccated corn cobs — the ruins of an ancient civilization.
I reached down to pick up what I thought was a dry gourd, and instead found myself cradling the skull of a human child. As I turned it in my hands, I noticed a deliberate hole in the back of the skull, directly above the spine. The skull was not cracked around the hole, which means the child had most likely been alive when a spike or some other implement had been slammed into his or her head from behind.
This is not the only skull like this. Excavations from elsewhere in northern Mexico have turned up other children killed the same way, human sacrifices to an ancient water deity, their bodies buried under pre-Columbian ball courts or at the foot of pillars in important rooms.
With knowledge of such widespread ferocity, I recently saw Mel Gibson’s movie “Apocalypto,” which deals with the gore of the Mayan civilization. I had heard that the movie’s violence was wildly out of control. But even as I winced at many of the scenes, as a writer and researcher in ancient American archaeology, I found little technical fault with the film other than ridiculous Hollywood ploys and niggling archaeological details.
Indeed, parts of the archaeological record of the Americas read like a war-crimes indictment, with charred skeletons stacked like cordwood and innumerable human remains missing heads, legs and arms. In the American Southwest, which is my area of research, human tissue has been found cooked to the insides of kitchen jars and stained into a ceramic serving ladle. A grinding stone was found full of crushed human finger bones. A sample of human feces came up containing the remains of a cannibal’s meal.
It could be argued that “Apocalypto” dehumanizes Native Americans, turning their ancestors into savage monsters, but I think it does the opposite. Oppressed hunter-gatherers in the movie are presented as people with the same, universal emotions all humans share. And urban Mayans are portrayed as politically and religiously savvy, having made of themselves a monumental, Neolithic empire, something more akin to ancient Egypt than the trouble-free agrarians who come to most people’s minds when they think of native America.
To further shatter that popular notion of Native Americans, there’s the scene in which a turquoise-jeweled priest stands atop a staggering temple yanking out one beating human heart after the next. That’s an image that nearly every archaeologist working in Central America has played in his or her head many times, only now it’s on the big screen for everyone to see.
Being told by screenwriters and archaeologists that their ancestors engaged in death cults tends to make many Native Americans uneasy. In Arizona, Hopi elders turn their eyes to the ground when they hear about their own past stained with overt brutality. The name Hopi means people of peace, which is what they strive to be. Meanwhile, excavators keep digging up evidence of cannibalism and ritualized violence among their ancestors.
How do we rectify the age-old perception of noble and peaceful native America with the reality that at times violence was coordinated on a scale never before witnessed by humanity? The answer is simple. We don’t.
Prior to 1492 it was a complex cultural landscape with civilization ebbing and flowing, the spaces in between traversed by ancient lineages of hunters and gatherers. To the religious core of pre-Columbian Mayans, a beating heart ripped from someone’s chest was a thing of supreme sacredness and not prosaic violence.
If “Apocalypto” has a fault, it is not with its brutality, but with us in the audience who cringe, thinking the Mayans little more than a barbaric people. The fault lies in our misunderstanding of a complicated history, thinking we can lump a whole civilization into a single response and walk out of the movie saying, “That was disgusting.”
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Poor William's Almanack 12-30-06
A lighter shade of 'Borat'
The message in a New Year's e-greeting card sent by an Ecuadorean friend yielded a rather crude rendering by altavista.com's "Babel Fish" translation tool, reminding us of the vulgarities and cross-cultural clashes of sensibilities in Sacha Baron Cohen's hilarious film
"Que Dios bendiga este nuevo ano y les llene de luz, paz, salud y sobre todo AMOR,
RECORDANDOLES SIEMPRE"
came out as:
"That God blesses this new anus and fills to them of light, peace, health and mainly LOVE, REMEMBERING to THEM ALWAYS"
Almost worthy of a "Marci-ism"! Maybe start a new category, "Margoth-isms"?
Happy New Year to the Cordova family and their huge circle of friends!
The message in a New Year's e-greeting card sent by an Ecuadorean friend yielded a rather crude rendering by altavista.com's "Babel Fish" translation tool, reminding us of the vulgarities and cross-cultural clashes of sensibilities in Sacha Baron Cohen's hilarious film
"Que Dios bendiga este nuevo ano y les llene de luz, paz, salud y sobre todo AMOR,
RECORDANDOLES SIEMPRE"
came out as:
"That God blesses this new anus and fills to them of light, peace, health and mainly LOVE, REMEMBERING to THEM ALWAYS"
Almost worthy of a "Marci-ism"! Maybe start a new category, "Margoth-isms"?
Happy New Year to the Cordova family and their huge circle of friends!
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
HP Weekly Report, Dec. 26 2006
Weekly historic preservation report from the city HP Office
Kevin Weight, lead historic preservation planner, provides the Dec. 26 report in HP Officer Barbara Stocklin's absence.
Oakland Triangle Area Historic Designation
On Dec. 19, Historic Preservation (HP) and Planning staff met with opponents to the historic designation of the Oakland Triangle Area (generally bounded by Grand Avenue, 7th Avenue and Roosevelt Street). The opponents indicated that their primary concerns with the proposed HP zoning are limitations on infill development and ambiguity under the current HP design guidelines. HP staff hopes to create a specific set of design guidelines for the proposed historic district that will be agreed upon by both the proponents and opponents. A meeting with the proponents is scheduled for Jan. 2, 2007.
Sacred Heart Church Historic Designation
HP staff met with Aviation staff on Dec. 21 to discuss historic designation for Sacred Heart Church, located at the Sky Harbor Center (near the NE corner of 16th Street and Buckeye Road). The property is one of 22 undesignated sites that were recommended eligible in the Hispanic Historic Property Survey recently completed by the HP Office. Both departments agreed that the building should be designated along with a 25-foot buffer around the structure. HP staff will request that the HP Commission initiate the historic designation on Jan. 22, 2007.
Other properties scheduled for initiation at that time include Grant Park (701 S. 3rd Ave.), Harmon Park (1425 S. 5th Ave.), American Legion Post 41 (715 S. 2nd Ave.), Sotelo-Heard Cemetery (1302 E. Weber), Santa Rita Hall (1017 E. Hadley), Luis Lugo Bakery (415 W. Sherman), Betania Iglesia Presbiteriana (301 W. Pima), Phoenix Housing Authority Office (1305 S. 3rd Ave.), Cartwright School (5833 W. Thomas) and the William Grier House (1942 W. Adams).
Community Noise Reduction Program Meeting
HP staff had a bi-weekly meeting with staff from Aviation’s Community Noise Reduction Program (CNRP) on Dec. 22, 2006. A strategy for evaluating the historic significance of additional residential properties in Phoenix that are eligible for sound mitigation treatments was discussed. Because Federal Aviation Administration funds will be used to reimburse Aviation for these treatments, the project must comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act to ensure that there are no adverse impacts to historic properties or that any such impacts are satisfactorily mitigated. HP staff presented a proposed survey methodology and documentation plan, which Aviation will discuss with FAA. If the survey finds any properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places then an existing Memorandum of Agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office will need to be amended to include additional stipulations regarding the treatment of these HP eligible properties.
Kevin Weight, lead historic preservation planner, provides the Dec. 26 report in HP Officer Barbara Stocklin's absence.
Oakland Triangle Area Historic Designation
On Dec. 19, Historic Preservation (HP) and Planning staff met with opponents to the historic designation of the Oakland Triangle Area (generally bounded by Grand Avenue, 7th Avenue and Roosevelt Street). The opponents indicated that their primary concerns with the proposed HP zoning are limitations on infill development and ambiguity under the current HP design guidelines. HP staff hopes to create a specific set of design guidelines for the proposed historic district that will be agreed upon by both the proponents and opponents. A meeting with the proponents is scheduled for Jan. 2, 2007.
Sacred Heart Church Historic Designation
HP staff met with Aviation staff on Dec. 21 to discuss historic designation for Sacred Heart Church, located at the Sky Harbor Center (near the NE corner of 16th Street and Buckeye Road). The property is one of 22 undesignated sites that were recommended eligible in the Hispanic Historic Property Survey recently completed by the HP Office. Both departments agreed that the building should be designated along with a 25-foot buffer around the structure. HP staff will request that the HP Commission initiate the historic designation on Jan. 22, 2007.
Other properties scheduled for initiation at that time include Grant Park (701 S. 3rd Ave.), Harmon Park (1425 S. 5th Ave.), American Legion Post 41 (715 S. 2nd Ave.), Sotelo-Heard Cemetery (1302 E. Weber), Santa Rita Hall (1017 E. Hadley), Luis Lugo Bakery (415 W. Sherman), Betania Iglesia Presbiteriana (301 W. Pima), Phoenix Housing Authority Office (1305 S. 3rd Ave.), Cartwright School (5833 W. Thomas) and the William Grier House (1942 W. Adams).
Community Noise Reduction Program Meeting
HP staff had a bi-weekly meeting with staff from Aviation’s Community Noise Reduction Program (CNRP) on Dec. 22, 2006. A strategy for evaluating the historic significance of additional residential properties in Phoenix that are eligible for sound mitigation treatments was discussed. Because Federal Aviation Administration funds will be used to reimburse Aviation for these treatments, the project must comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act to ensure that there are no adverse impacts to historic properties or that any such impacts are satisfactorily mitigated. HP staff presented a proposed survey methodology and documentation plan, which Aviation will discuss with FAA. If the survey finds any properties eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places then an existing Memorandum of Agreement with the State Historic Preservation Office will need to be amended to include additional stipulations regarding the treatment of these HP eligible properties.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
A few capsule (and lengthier) film reviews
Reel Roundup
If you're considering going to a movie on New Year's, here's a few tips on what to see, what to avoid:
Spinning Charlotte’s Web
That gander sure is goosey-whipped. Also, Steve Buscemi can’t top Paul Lynde for oily self-involvement in this wonderful film’s weak predecessor. Hooray for big words! Too bad “Stuart Little” strayed from White’s original.
‘Destiny’: Tendentious D
More cowbell, less cornball antics! The musical duo-ism shown when KG and JB meet on the beach was awesome; they should have replicated that throughout. Devil take the hindmost.
Déjà Vu: Encore & Encore!
Great film; fortunately all the stars are very watchable, as it takes a while to get where it’s really going. But what, really, was Jim Caviezel’s beef? Not enough residuals from “The Passion of the Christ”? Oy, McVeigh! (Note: The ending is virtually the same as in the great romantic comedy, "Heaven Can Wait.")
Meyers, oh Meyers: It’s a girls’ world after all
Throughout “The Holiday,” I kept rooting for Jack Black to break character and dump one—literally, kind of like something out of his role in “Orange County”—on this film. I don’t know that I’ve ever sat all the way through a pure chick flick such as this, and I wouldn’t have—except … my chick was clearly enjoying it. I think the MPAA ought to come up with a cautionary rating for films like this. I have never seen so many women jump, both feet off the floor, in unalloyed, girly joy, as happens in this film. Do grown women actually do this? Do they have “jump-for-joy” muscles in their legs we don’t have, as they have “high-pitched-scream” vocal chords that we guys likewise lack? According to the Talmud, I think this is actually the way to deprive witches of their power: lift them off the ground. Speaking of witches, when hollow Cameron Diaz finally sheds a tear, I could only think of the scene from “The Third Witch” in Barbara Leonie Picard’s wonderful book of fairy tales, The Faun and the Woodcutter’s Daughter: “And in that moment, she knew she loved him. So, because she was a witch, and could not love, the piece of flint that was her heart cracked in two, and she died.”
‘Pan's Labyrinth’: The moral (if any) is what’s really a-maze-ing
Purports to be a moralizing fairy tale, with awesome production and costume design, great casting and acting—but is just brutal, without the purported redemption. Key characters are killed off without that furthering any ultimate philosophical or moral clarity, so that those deaths are meaningless and an artistic affront. The graphic gloominess reminds one of the Spanish artistic esthetic evinced in Picasso’s “Guernica,” Goya’s “The 3rd of May,” and “Saturn Devouring His Son” (note the similarity to the eating of the fairy by the monster in the world beyond the wall). Interesting contrast: The baby here ends up being given over for political purposes, or in a politically charged gesture, while in "Children of Men" (a worthwhile though philosophically thin effort), that travesty is assiduously avoided. In the final analysis, though, "Pan's Labyrinth" can’t figure out whether it is mainly an homage to the rebels against Spanish fascism, or an exploration of childhood imagination and innocence (and their loss)—or whether, trying to be both, it fails at either. A gorgeous waste.
It’s the sustainability, stupid (Gibson does get it)
This film turned out to fulfill exactly what I expected of it, especially as set up by the native interlopers telling Jaguar Paw’s tribe they just want unfettered passage through his hunting grounds, as their own land has been ravaged. But by whom? Earlier in the year, a friend e-mailed me some comments by great debunker Michael Crichton, that you didn’t have to wait for the white man’s arrival in this hemisphere to find oppression and domination—New World peoples oppressed each other. Not exactly: Some oppressed others. It’s historically accurate to depict the great, advanced hierarchical civilizations of Mesoamerica as the same kind of monoculture-based, unsustainable societies as those found in the “march of progress” of Western Civilization, as characterized by Daniel Quinn in his fascinating book Ishmael—technically a novel, but actually a deconstruction of the difference between “Taker” cultures such as Pharaonic Egypt, Mayan Mexico and “Manifestly Destined” America, and the “Leaver” societies of nomads—pastoralists and hunter-gatherers. I took my son to see “Braveheart” when he was about 8, at the same time as I was also reading Little Big Man to him, so I noted the parallels between the hill-clans of Scotland and the tribes of Plains Indians, fighting the respective Taker imperialist cultures of England and the United States. —Even down to the use of war paint, as well as the technological disparities. (I also pointed out the Hanukkah story is the same kind of tale—just substitute the zealously anti-Hellenic Maccabees vs. the Hellenized Assyrians.) But as in one of the points “Braveheart” makes, it’s our wits that makes us men, and technologically backward or not, men have been men—and pretty smart, when they apply themselves—as smart if not as learned as any modern videogame player or high-tech military hardware operator—whether a modern aboriginal or a Cro-Magnon of 25,000 years ago. So from this film’s early moments, I was already primed to witness the magnificent, yet rotting Mayan city—whose denizens preyed upon the backward people of the forest—and to continually expect, eventually, the arrival of the Europeans. In the movie’s terms, that event was not the beginning of the end of the New World’s paradise-on-earth: that paradise has perhaps been found mostly among the “Leaver” peoples, spread around the globe—and threatened—in many places. Taker societies, whether the Romans’, the Mayans’ or ours, tend to end up rotting from within due to their abuse of everything from their people (and enslaved neighbors—the multitudes at the base of the system of production on whom the entire edifice depends, and in whom religion is inculcated as reinforcing the whole fragile scheme) to the environment. They thus eventually only need a nudge from outside to collapse—and this is clearly the point of the epigraph by historian Will Durant emblazoned on the screen as the film opens. This thrust—underlined by the inevitable appearance of the European conquerors at the end—is not only the clear intent of the film, it is the only thing that gives it more weight than what it otherwise appears to be—a bunch of aboriginals running around, fearfully, heroically, steadfastly seeking to keep their promises to their family, not to mention their way of life. Last year’s “The New World” makes an interesting counterpoint to this one, with the Europeans there indeed intruding on the earthly paradise of an Indian culture.
If you're considering going to a movie on New Year's, here's a few tips on what to see, what to avoid:
Spinning Charlotte’s Web
That gander sure is goosey-whipped. Also, Steve Buscemi can’t top Paul Lynde for oily self-involvement in this wonderful film’s weak predecessor. Hooray for big words! Too bad “Stuart Little” strayed from White’s original.
‘Destiny’: Tendentious D
More cowbell, less cornball antics! The musical duo-ism shown when KG and JB meet on the beach was awesome; they should have replicated that throughout. Devil take the hindmost.
Déjà Vu: Encore & Encore!
Great film; fortunately all the stars are very watchable, as it takes a while to get where it’s really going. But what, really, was Jim Caviezel’s beef? Not enough residuals from “The Passion of the Christ”? Oy, McVeigh! (Note: The ending is virtually the same as in the great romantic comedy, "Heaven Can Wait.")
Meyers, oh Meyers: It’s a girls’ world after all
Throughout “The Holiday,” I kept rooting for Jack Black to break character and dump one—literally, kind of like something out of his role in “Orange County”—on this film. I don’t know that I’ve ever sat all the way through a pure chick flick such as this, and I wouldn’t have—except … my chick was clearly enjoying it. I think the MPAA ought to come up with a cautionary rating for films like this. I have never seen so many women jump, both feet off the floor, in unalloyed, girly joy, as happens in this film. Do grown women actually do this? Do they have “jump-for-joy” muscles in their legs we don’t have, as they have “high-pitched-scream” vocal chords that we guys likewise lack? According to the Talmud, I think this is actually the way to deprive witches of their power: lift them off the ground. Speaking of witches, when hollow Cameron Diaz finally sheds a tear, I could only think of the scene from “The Third Witch” in Barbara Leonie Picard’s wonderful book of fairy tales, The Faun and the Woodcutter’s Daughter: “And in that moment, she knew she loved him. So, because she was a witch, and could not love, the piece of flint that was her heart cracked in two, and she died.”
‘Pan's Labyrinth’: The moral (if any) is what’s really a-maze-ing
Purports to be a moralizing fairy tale, with awesome production and costume design, great casting and acting—but is just brutal, without the purported redemption. Key characters are killed off without that furthering any ultimate philosophical or moral clarity, so that those deaths are meaningless and an artistic affront. The graphic gloominess reminds one of the Spanish artistic esthetic evinced in Picasso’s “Guernica,” Goya’s “The 3rd of May,” and “Saturn Devouring His Son” (note the similarity to the eating of the fairy by the monster in the world beyond the wall). Interesting contrast: The baby here ends up being given over for political purposes, or in a politically charged gesture, while in "Children of Men" (a worthwhile though philosophically thin effort), that travesty is assiduously avoided. In the final analysis, though, "Pan's Labyrinth" can’t figure out whether it is mainly an homage to the rebels against Spanish fascism, or an exploration of childhood imagination and innocence (and their loss)—or whether, trying to be both, it fails at either. A gorgeous waste.
It’s the sustainability, stupid (Gibson does get it)
This film turned out to fulfill exactly what I expected of it, especially as set up by the native interlopers telling Jaguar Paw’s tribe they just want unfettered passage through his hunting grounds, as their own land has been ravaged. But by whom? Earlier in the year, a friend e-mailed me some comments by great debunker Michael Crichton, that you didn’t have to wait for the white man’s arrival in this hemisphere to find oppression and domination—New World peoples oppressed each other. Not exactly: Some oppressed others. It’s historically accurate to depict the great, advanced hierarchical civilizations of Mesoamerica as the same kind of monoculture-based, unsustainable societies as those found in the “march of progress” of Western Civilization, as characterized by Daniel Quinn in his fascinating book Ishmael—technically a novel, but actually a deconstruction of the difference between “Taker” cultures such as Pharaonic Egypt, Mayan Mexico and “Manifestly Destined” America, and the “Leaver” societies of nomads—pastoralists and hunter-gatherers. I took my son to see “Braveheart” when he was about 8, at the same time as I was also reading Little Big Man to him, so I noted the parallels between the hill-clans of Scotland and the tribes of Plains Indians, fighting the respective Taker imperialist cultures of England and the United States. —Even down to the use of war paint, as well as the technological disparities. (I also pointed out the Hanukkah story is the same kind of tale—just substitute the zealously anti-Hellenic Maccabees vs. the Hellenized Assyrians.) But as in one of the points “Braveheart” makes, it’s our wits that makes us men, and technologically backward or not, men have been men—and pretty smart, when they apply themselves—as smart if not as learned as any modern videogame player or high-tech military hardware operator—whether a modern aboriginal or a Cro-Magnon of 25,000 years ago. So from this film’s early moments, I was already primed to witness the magnificent, yet rotting Mayan city—whose denizens preyed upon the backward people of the forest—and to continually expect, eventually, the arrival of the Europeans. In the movie’s terms, that event was not the beginning of the end of the New World’s paradise-on-earth: that paradise has perhaps been found mostly among the “Leaver” peoples, spread around the globe—and threatened—in many places. Taker societies, whether the Romans’, the Mayans’ or ours, tend to end up rotting from within due to their abuse of everything from their people (and enslaved neighbors—the multitudes at the base of the system of production on whom the entire edifice depends, and in whom religion is inculcated as reinforcing the whole fragile scheme) to the environment. They thus eventually only need a nudge from outside to collapse—and this is clearly the point of the epigraph by historian Will Durant emblazoned on the screen as the film opens. This thrust—underlined by the inevitable appearance of the European conquerors at the end—is not only the clear intent of the film, it is the only thing that gives it more weight than what it otherwise appears to be—a bunch of aboriginals running around, fearfully, heroically, steadfastly seeking to keep their promises to their family, not to mention their way of life. Last year’s “The New World” makes an interesting counterpoint to this one, with the Europeans there indeed intruding on the earthly paradise of an Indian culture.
Poor William's Almanack - 12/24/06
More Marciisms
My wife, Marci, usually hears only partial information about news and current events, digests what she hears poorly and later regurgitates it almost unrecognizably.
Marci heard that Time's "Person of the Year" for 2006 is someone called "You." Who's that Asian guy they named?" she asked. Or maybe, "Hu's that Asian guy they named." With her, it's hard to tell.
My wife, Marci, usually hears only partial information about news and current events, digests what she hears poorly and later regurgitates it almost unrecognizably.
Marci heard that Time's "Person of the Year" for 2006 is someone called "You." Who's that Asian guy they named?" she asked. Or maybe, "Hu's that Asian guy they named." With her, it's hard to tell.
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