Paul Cézanne at Phoenix Art Museum
Recently, due to budget cuts that have precluded mounting large exhibitions, Phoenix Art Museum has looked more like the Phoenix Museum of Fashion and Photography.
The abundance of photography shows, made possible by PAM’s partner the Center for Creative Photography at University of Arizona have been more than welcome, as are PAM curator Denita Sewell’s fashion exhibitions—a rarity in museums, and not to be taken for granted. Today, the museum gets back in the mini-blockbuster game with the opening of Cézanne and American Modernism.
From Richard Nilsen’s review in the Republic:
Modern art. Wow. Who saw that coming?
Well, Paul Cezanne, for one. The French painter, who died in 1906, is the artist most often credited by 20th-century artists as the fountainhead of Modernism.
Who’d have thought that a schlub with little appreciable art talent – at least as it was understood at the time – and who didn’t really have a talent for anything else, would lead the way to the 20th century.
“He is the father of all of us,” Picasso said.
The direct line from Cezanne to Modernism in America is drawn in a new show at the Phoenix Art Museum, “Cezanne and American Modernism,” which includes 16 works by Cezanne and 85 works by 33 American artists, all before 1930.
Read the rest of Nilsen’s article here.
12:36 PM
Sarah Fenske leaving New Times
At the end of Fenske’s typically unputdownable last column for the paper*, she tells readers she’s leaving town.
Her next gig will be as managing editor of the Riverfront Times, the New Times paper in St. Louis**.
Her envoi:
SO LONG, FAREWELL
In case you haven’t heard, I’m leaving Arizona to work as the managing editor at New Times' sister paper in St. Louis, the Riverfront Times. And it’s fitting, I suppose, that my final column in Phoenix is about the Housing Authority of Maricopa County.
To me, this story exemplifies everything I hate about Phoenix — as well as everything I’ve grown to love. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in the country where con men prosper so quickly, where rules are broken so casually, where the rule of law is something that’s enforced only on the poor and the alien.
In almost any other big city, a guy like Doug Lingner would still be setting tile, not given the keys to a major nonprofit organization. In other places, people would be up in arms demanding Joe Arpaio’s resignation. (Say what you will about immigration, but this clown has squandered $45 million in lawyer fees and insurance payments! $45 million!) In other states, too, a guy facing a credible threat of disbarment — ahem, Andrew Thomas! — would not be considered a viable candidate for state attorney general.
Let’s face it: Shysters thrive here. Too many people are transplants who don’t care. Too many people hew too closely to ideology and have no interest in getting at the truth.
And yet, I’ve met more brave people in this state than anywhere else I’ve lived. It’s been easy to be a reporter here. For every con man, there’s someone willing to turn him in. For every Doug Lingner, there’s a Janet Belfield.
I may not miss the dry white heat of Phoenix summers. But I will miss having this weekly soapbox. And I’ll miss the brave people of Arizona, too.
* It’s about how the woman in the Maricopa County Housing Authority who has been fired after helping bring down former director Doug Lingner, who was driven out of the agency after numerous investigations and press exposes. Fenske:
Belfield, a longtime agency employee, is the one who blew the whistle on Lingner. And last week, she was fired by the housing authority. No severance. No chance to resign.
There’s not a doubt in my mind that her treatment is directly related to her attempts to expose Lingner.
** The New Times parent company is technically called Village Voice Media. It’s run out of Phoenix and Phoenix New Times remains its flagship.
7:01 AM
PHXations—Thursday, July 1, 2010
Phoenix is not a finalist for the Democratic National Convention in 2012. But, in a refreshing change, SB 1070 doesn’t appear to have been the reason:
The Democratic National Committee said Thursday it had narrowed its convention search down to Charlotte, N.C., St. Louis, Minneapolis and Cleveland.
Both Republican and Democrat officials toured downtown Phoenix as a possible site. The Republicans picked Tampa, Fla., as their 2012 convention site. Salt Lake City also was on the GOP short list.
The DNC will make a decision by the end of the year. The Valley has the hotel rooms and event space to host party conventions, but the conventions occur in late August and early September when temperatures in Arizona are often well above 100 degrees.
Read the whole story at the Phoenix Business Journal
12:01 PM
Dan Harkins—pet safety activist
Harkins, the owner of the Harkins movie theater chain, will be doing pet-safety public service announcements that will run in all his theaters, the Republic’s Krystal Klei reports.
The newfound enthusiasm for the subject came after Harkins got cited last week while leaving his dog in his car in 100-degree heat while he watched a movie in a Scottsdale theater.
The Republic story seem a bit overly Harkins-friendly:
According to police records, Harkins checked on his dog multiple times, providing her with water and taking her on walks. Records also say he said he never left the dog in the car for longer than 45 minutes, and parked in a shady space with the windows cracked.
Although Harkins made efforts to ensure his pet’s safety, police cited Harkins because temperatures outside exceeded 100 degrees, police said.
“He never left his dog in the car more than 45 minutes” is not exculpatory.
Earlier stories established that the dog had been in the car for nearly four hours during the hottest time of the day—and that Harkins had been parking in a handicapped spot to boot.
12:03 PM
More important dog news from the Arizona Republic!
In recent posts we have noted that the Living section of the Arizona Republic has published a lot of stories about dogs—more than you’d expect from a paper that doesn’t print enough news about people.
We finally came to conclusion that the section was being edited by a dog, and even found a picture of the editor in question, which you can see here.
Reading the Living section and keeping in mind that that’s the fellow in charge helps in understanding some of the editorial choices the paper makes on a given day.
The pieces were in most cases crappy little wire-service stories about pet-related products or ephemera.
There was the one about dogs on Facebook:
“Busy social network for the furry set.”
And one about dogs on Twitter:
“Dogs can tweet, too (sort of).”
There was a story about swanky places to board your dog:
“Posh pads for pampered pooches.”
And then, mind-blowingly, another story about swanky places to board your dog:
“Ritzy pet resorts replace kennels of yesterday.”
While examining some old files here at PHXated world headquarters we came across a torn-out front page of the Living section from February.
We realized that we’d missed some of the paper’s hard-hitting dog coverage.
We mention it now because it’s quite a story.
It’s about a church (in LA, not Phoenix, because this is just another space-filling wire story), that allows dogs.
This is how it begins, emphasis added:
As the Presbyterian service was about to start, one of the congregants was being disruptive, making a spectacle of himself once again on a Sunday. But that’s what other members of the Los Angeles church have come to expect from Mr. Booby.
At Covenant Presbyterian Church in the city’s Westchester neighborhood, dogs like Mr. Booby are welcome congregants at the Sunday night services, where howling and sudden bouts of scratching may interrupt prayers, and the collection plate holds treats for poodles and golden retrievers alike.
The hedline?
12:33 PM
Gratehouse: Glenn Hamer's crocodile tears
It’s not hard to get an “open letter” to anyone published in the Arizona Republic, when you’re the President and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce. And it’s not hard to feign outrage over Corporation Commission candidate Barry Wong’s statement about cutting utilities off to undocumented immigrants when Wong is the one GOP Corporation Commission candidate the Chamber didn’t endorse.
8:54 PM