PHXated - Arts, Politcs and Culture in the Valley of the Sun

Free movie tonight at PAM

2010-09-08T16:55:37Z

Phoenix Art Museum presents free film viewings occasionally—tonight’s show is Cézanne in Provence, in Whiteman Hall at 7pm. Here’s the blurb:

This new high-definition documentary explores the deep connection between Post Impressionist master Paul Cézanne – credited by many as the father of modern art – and his native Provence, illuminating how the region and its history fostered the painter’s genius. Featuring footage of some of the same locales made timeless by Cézanne and his work.

Friday at PAM, a showing of two films by and about director Elia Kazan:

An Evening of Elia Kazan September 10, 6:30pm – 10pm The evening will begin with a screening of the new documentary “A Letter to Elia” directed by Martin Scorsese. “A Letter to Elia” is Martin Scorsese’s intensely personal and deeply moving tribute to the films of director Elia Kazan. Kazan’s body of work, including A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Gentleman’s Agreement, On The Waterfront and East of Eden, captivated Scorsese as a young man, mirroring his life story and inspiring him to become a filmmaker.

Following the film “A Letter to Elia” enjoy the classic “Gentleman’s Agreement”. This is Elia Kazan’s first major film triumph, resulting in an ACADEMY AWARD® for Best Picture and Kazan’s first OSCAR® for Best Directing. Gregory Peck stars as a journalist who poses as a Jew to investigate anti-Semitism in postwar America.

Film discussion will be moderated by film critic Colin Boyd.

Reservations for this evening strongly encouraged. Go to phxart.org.

Jon Hulburd on 'Hardball'

2010-09-08T15:30:29Z

Host Chris Matthews makes plain his contempt for Hulburd’s opponent, Little Benny Quayle:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Headless Jan Redux

2010-09-08T10:46:40Z

It looks like the Headless Jan meme just won’t die. Today, the Arizona Republic shared Steve Benson’s take on it:

New Times suing an ex-employee for cybersquatting

2010-09-08T09:59:57Z

Heat City has the story here.

The alternative weekly and its parent company, Village Voice Media Holdings, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against one of the newspaper’s former employees, accusing him of Internet piracy and trademark violations for cybersquatting on the website domain names bestofphoenix2011.com and bestofphoenix2012.com.

The newspaper is demanding that the ex-worker, Ty Liebig of Phoenix, surrender the domain names and pay them as much as $200,000 in damages for refusing to give up the URLs when asked.

Scruffy McPoochie's power grows at the Arizona Republic

2010-09-08T09:00:31Z

Dog stories, the obsession and life’s work of Arizona Republic Living section editor Scruffy McPoochie (right), are coming fast and furious at the paper.

Our staff of McPoochieologists here at PHXated read the Kibbles from the paper closely.

They are the only hints as to who’s in and who’s out at the secretive, closed society at 2nd and Van Buren.

We’ve noticed more and more non-Living section dog stories.

It’s a clear sign, our analysts think, that underlings are jockeying for advantage in a roiling, uncertain time.

McPoochie may or may not come out as top dog when the turmoil finally ends.

But when it does, one group of folks will be there in canine supplication, offering up their greatest dog stories.

Today, the front page of AZCentral.com links to a story about … a stray dog.

The hed is “Woman spends months trying to save stray dog in Mesa.”

And that’s the tale it tells, at an extraordinary length of 1600 words.

It’s slugged “community,” not “living”—a clear sign another of the paper’s editorial satraps is hitching his or her star to McPoochie’s tail.

The story is written with no little sentimentality by the paper’s Scott Craven.

Read the first grafs and hold back the tears:

It was just one dog.

It roamed a concrete basin south of Mesa’s Fiesta Mall, not far from a two-story parking garage where everyday shoppers likely caught a glance of the stray, scared and dirty, ribs poking through matted fur. Maybe they shook their heads and felt pity before stuffing their bags into their trunks and driving away.

Because it was just one dog.

A few months earlier, it had been two dogs. A large yellow dog ran with the smaller, scrawny one, until a rescue agency was called and took away the yellow dog, which eventually had to be euthanized.

But the smaller dog was too smart, too fast to be taken in. And so the man carrying the long pole with the noose gave up, hopping into his truck and disappearing.

Leaving just the one dog.

You, too, will shake your heads and feel pity, albeit for yourself, long before the story is over.

The complete PHXated Scruffy McPoochie Chronicles are here.

An incomplete catalog of the Arizona Republic’s ongoing experiment in dog journalism is here.

The Daily Show whacks Jan Brewer

2010-09-08T07:57:33Z

Stewart was on vacation last week.

He gets around to Brewer at the 5:45 mark.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Indecision 2010 - Are You Ready for Some Midterms?

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

The Cronkite School launches a new news site

2010-09-08T07:01:46Z

ASU’s journalism school says it’s created a site featuring “the deepest and richest university-generated journalism content produced on a daily basis for a statewide audience anywhere.”

The school is basically consolidating its web news service, its nightly TV show, and some smaller news initiatives into one web presence. The focus will be on “critical public policy issues facing the state.”

The URL is cronkitenewsonline.com.

From the school:

Arizona State University today launches Cronkite News, a news website providing Arizonans original multimedia stories each day about critical public policy issues facing the state.

Available free at cronkitenewsonline.com, Cronkite News offers original news, feature and investigative packages combining student-produced, professionally edited video and text reports as well as photography and multimedia elements.

“This is an unprecedented endeavor,” said Christopher Callahan, dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. “Cronkite News will be the deepest and richest university-generated journalism content produced on a daily basis for a statewide audience anywhere.”

The complete release on the project after the jump.

Skateboarding Plaza Site Selection Public Input Meeting

2010-09-07T22:32:20Z

As I noted last week, the City of Phoenix and the Rob Dyrdek Foundation are partnering for the construction of a new skateboarding plaza in central Phoenix.

They have narrowed down the location to either Margaret T. Hance Park or Townsend Park and need your input to decide. They will be a public input meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at the Phoenix Center of the Arts. See poster below for details:

Details:

Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Time: Meeting starts at 6:30pm

Location: Phoenix Center for the Arts 1212 North 3rd Street

Recommendations for Arizona’s leaders

2010-09-07T21:10:24Z

While much of the coverage of this years statewide elections has focused on the circus surrounding the illegal immigration debates, we can’t forget that there are real issues at stake. The Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG), a statewide public interest advocacy organization reminds us of some of the less sensational challenges facing Arizona:

During the past two legislative sessions, lawmakers have faced significant budget deficits and likely will continue to have to deal with Arizona’s financial woes. At the start of the fiscal year on July 1st, state budget analysts estimated that the state already faced a budget deficit of up to $1.3 billion dollars.

According to Serena Unrein, Public Interest Advocate for Arizona PIRG,

One of the most important issues that will face the governor and state legislature after the November election will be the financial health of our state. It is important for candidates to publicly discuss how they will address Arizona’s fiscal problems.

Arizona PIRG listed four main recommendations for candidates, which included:

Increasing government transparency by prioritizing the launch of a top-notch state spending website to show taxpayers how government uses taxpayer dollars
Refraining from the use of budget gimmicks to balance the state budget, including the gimmicks used in recent years, such as the sale-leasebacks of state buildings, budget rollovers, and fund sweeps
Scrutinizing tax credits to make sure that they provide a good return on investment for Arizona, cutting those tax credits that do not provide benefits to the state. In addition, Arizona PIRG recommends implementing accountability mechanisms for tax credits.
Ensuring that there are public interest safeguards in privatization deals if the state considers these deals as it has considered doing with a number of state assets in the past few years, such as state prisons, roads, and rest stops.

Arizona faces dire fiscal problems. Not only will the next leaders of the state need to restore fiscal stability to our state, they will need to reestablish faith in state government. The best way to do that is by combining open government with better budgeting practices.

New Times : what happened to Steve May?

2010-09-07T15:11:54Z

Monica Alonso at Phoenix New Times gives some background on Steve May, the GOP operative in the center of the ‘sham’ candidate scandal:

May, a Republican running for a House seat in District 17, once told the nation that he had “chosen to live…life with integrity.”

What’s happened to this honorable, well-respected man?

He’s among the Republican politicos who recruited homeless individuals from Mill Avenue to run as Green Party candidates for the Arizona Corporation Commission, State Treasurer, and the state Senate, the New York Times reports. The former state represenative for four years, working on a political comeback, was ousted from the U.S. Army in 2001 because he had discussed his homosexuality on the House floor a few years earlier during a debate on healthcare benefits for same-sex partners.

He garnered nationwide attention for shining the spotlight on the hushed discussion of gays in the military and its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

[…]

“Did I recruit candidates? Yes,” said May, who is himself a candidate for the Legislature, on the Republican ticket. “Are they fake candidates? No way.”

[…]

In 1999, May told the New York Times that the Republican “party has been hijacked by theocratic fascists.”

Maybe that’s the real reason that he’s working for the Green Party?

Read more here.

Read a 1999 story about May targeted by the military as a victim of ‘don’t ask—don’t tell’ policy here. Source: www.lcrga.com, website of Georgia Log Cabin Republicans.

Green Party sues to block 'sham' candidates

2010-09-07T15:01:05Z

Steve May’s street people are taking some flack from the Green Party. From azcentral.com:

The Arizona Green Party is asking a federal judge to block 11 candidates from being listed on the Nov. 2 ballot, alleging that they are “shams” and not standard bearers for the Greens.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday, also asks the court to declare as unconstitutional the state law that allowed these candidates to qualify as write-in candidates with as little as one vote.

[…]

The Green Party argues that the law that allowed the 11 candidates to qualify under the Green Party label violates the party’s First Amendment rights “by forcing them to associate with candidates who have not been selected by the (party) and who do not represent the (party’s) values and platform.”

Read more here.

The NYT front-pages GOP dirty tricks in Arizona

2010-09-07T08:58:01Z

The story, from the Times' Arizona guy, Marc Lacey, is about how Republicans are rounding up street people to run on a Green Party ticket:

Steve May, the Republican operative who signed up some of the candidates along Mill Avenue, a bohemian commercial strip next to Arizona State University, insists that a real political movement has been stirred up that has nothing to do with subterfuge.

“Did I recruit candidates? Yes,” said Mr. May, who is himself a candidate for the State Legislature, on the Republican ticket. “Are they fake candidates? No way.”

To make his point, Mr. May went by Starbucks, the gathering spot of the Mill Rats, as the frequenters of Mill Avenue are known.

“Are you fake, Benjamin?” he yelled out to Mr. Pearcy, who cried out “No,” with an expletive attached.

“Are you fake, Thomas?” Mr. May shouted in the direction of Thomas Meadows, 27, a tarot card reader with less than a dollar to his name who is running for state treasurer. He similarly disagreed.

“Are you fake, Grandpa?” he said to Anthony Goshorn, 53, a candidate for the State Senate whose bushy white beard and paternal manner have earned him that nickname on the streets. “I’m real,” he replied.

Gathered around was a motley crew of people who were down on their luck, including a one-armed pregnant woman named Roxie whom Mr. May befriended sometime back and who introduced him to the rest.

Brewer says she did not ask for her son's file to be sealed

2010-09-07T07:30:58Z

From the Arizona Guardian:

Days before Jan Brewer became governor, a judge took the highly unusual step of sealing her son’s 20-year-old criminal case file.

The timing of the January 2009 order by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Pendleton Gaines was not coincidental. Ronald Brewer was concerned about his past being revealed, embarrassing his mother and compromising his own mental health.

Gaines' reasoning, however, is a secret.

Now the governor’s son is doing battle with the state’s largest newspaper, trying to prevent it from publishing anything from the sealed case file, which a reporter obtained in May when a county courthouse employee simply handed it over. Even those inside Brewer’s inner circle agree that The Arizona Republic is likely to win the legal fight.

Green Party infiltrated by nefarious GOP agents

2010-09-07T06:01:00Z

Republican agents are recruiting Mill Ave. street people to run as Green Party candidates. From New York Times:

TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street.

[…]

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.

“These are people who are not serious and who were recruited as part of a cynical manipulation of the process,” said Paul Eckstein, a lawyer representing the Democrats. “They don’t know Green from red.”

But Steve May, the Republican operative who signed up some of the candidates along Mill Avenue, a bohemian commercial strip next to Arizona State University, insists that a real political movement has been stirred up that has nothing to do with subterfuge.

[…]

“Are you fake, Grandpa?” he said to Anthony Goshorn, 53, a candidate for the State Senate whose bushy white beard and paternal manner have earned him that nickname on the streets. “I’m real,” he replied.

[…]

The Democratic Party is fuming over Mr. May’s tactics and those of at least two other Republicans who helped recruit candidates to the Green Party, which does not have the resources to put candidates on ballots around the state and thus creates the opportunity for write-in contenders like the Mill Rats to easily win primaries and get their names on the ballot for November. Complaints about spurious candidates have cropped up often before, though never involving an entire roster of candidates drawn from a group of street people.

[…]

Grandpa, widely known in the area through the pedicab he drives for hire, is against higher taxes and for God in the classroom. The other night, he was supposed to debate his Democratic and Republican rivals in the race but after seeing only the Democrat on stage, he decided to watch from the back. “I got a bad vibe,” he said.

This would have been a great stunt by the Dems to discredit the GOP. Perhaps Mr. May is a double-agent?

The full story is much more colorful than the abridged version—replete with strippers, tarot card readings and a one-armed pregnant woman.

Over 25% of AZ legislature is already decided

2010-09-06T19:42:15Z

The Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl highlights yet another way that Arizona’s legislature is broken:

For 22 candidates, the Nov. 2 election is less a contest and more a waiting game. They either have no challengers or face nominal opposition from third-party candidates who don’t have the funding or the political-party apparatus to wage a competitive campaign.

Most of these heirs apparent are incumbent lawmakers or former legislators seeking a return. And perhaps most tellingly, they come from districts that heavily favor either the Democratic or Republican parties, which reduces the chance of a strong challenge from an opposition party.

“That’s a sign that the lines need to be redrawn to have more competitive districts,” said Rep. Robert Meza, D-Phoenix. He is benefiting from this phenomenon: His is the only name on the ballot for a state Senate seat representing his west-central Phoenix district.

He’ll get his wish next year, when district lines are redrawn after results of the 2010 U.S. census come out. For this fall, the lines remain the same.

[…]

It’s not unusual to see candidates with no opposition in the general election, given the way district lines are drawn. In each of the past two cycles, 15 candidates had a free pass.

But this year’s 22 unchallenged candidates is more than anyone can recall in recent history.

[…]

Read the whole article here.

AZ in NYT: No rancor this time, just corn

2010-09-06T17:49:28Z

From NYT:

CHINO VALLEY, Ariz. — The hugely popular Corn Dinner here is in its 64th year, and Carrie Zambrano, as the organizer, sends out invitations to political candidates far and wide offering them the opportunity to serve. Party label means not a thing to her with 6,000 cobs to sling in one night.

[…]

“People want leaders who will serve them,” Ms. Zambrano said.

Mr. Glassman, a former Tucson councilman in his first bid for statewide office, strapped on an apron, slipped on a hot mitt and grabbed a vat of ears. He offered up both the corn and himself, and got more takers for the corn, illustrating the challenges that Democrats face in an election season in which the Washington establishment is viewed as being in the mud.

[…]

“What party are you?” grumbled John Stropko, a dentist from Prescott. He continued eating while Mr. Glassman gave his spiel that party did not matter all that much in this election and that the issue of reviving the economy was one that rose above partisanship.

Once the candidate had moved on, Mr. Stropko said, “The biggest problem is he’s a Democrat.”

[…]

“Are your hands clean?” he asked one woman, who nodded as she ate. “Well, stick your hand in my pocket and take a card.”

Once she had fished out a business card, he had the table roaring when he said, “I’m the only politician who lets you stick your hand in my pocket instead of the other way around.”

No word on McCain at the corn-feed. Given his position in the polls, he probably ate steak this weekend.

Read more here.

The PHXated quiz: News story ... or 'Dukes of Hazzard' plot synopsis?

2010-09-06T08:11:50Z

And quite a rococo Dukes of Hazzard plot at that.

From the Republic:

A dismissed Department of Public Safety officer alleges he lost his job after his romance with the daughter of DPS Director Robert Halliday went badly.

But the state says Geoff Jacobs had a history of professional misconduct, and his writing of a fake obituary about a different ex-girlfriend that was used to take yet another woman on a tropical vacation ultimately got him fired.

The story, with its Sarah Palinesque echoes, gets better:

The soap-operalike controversy, detailed in a federal lawsuit, centers on a relationship Jacobs, who was officially dismissed in April after more than seven years with DPS, had with Ami Halliday. The two had a tumultuous relationship, and the suit says Ami Halliday alleged that Jacobs secretly videotaped her and posted videos on the Internet, that his roommate pointed a gun at her and that Jacobs assaulted another woman. Glendale police investigated her claims but could not substantiate them, and Jacobs was not charged.

The full story, an entertaining read with the requisite car wrecks and a full explanation of the fake obituary scam, is here.

NPR on Labor Day

2010-09-06T07:19:12Z

From NPR’s Scott Simon, via POLITICO:

“Having no job does not mean having no work. Your children must still be fed, bathed, and ferried to school … But you have less money for food, gas, and the new shoes your children need for school. … Having no job means that things people talk about these days — iPads, android phones, 3-D movies, new music, or meeting friends over $4 coffee drinks — are just beyond reach. You worry about getting dull, having nothing to talk about, and losing friends. … You may blame politicians, brokers and bankers, but in the middle of the night you might turn your eyes to the sky and wonder what you did, didn’t do, or should have done. … This Labor Day we might salute the millions of Americans who don’t have jobs, but who in many ways work harder than ever.”

Read more here.

Unplug now

2010-09-06T05:40:59Z

It’s Labor Day- shouldn’t you be outside grilling something instead of hanging here online? From Portfolio.com:

Smartphones and the growth of social media makes us all too available all the time. That’s why disciplined unplugging can be key to sanity, creativity, and productivity.

The Pew Center for Internet Research says the Web has made information “abundant, cheap, personal, and participatory.” It has given us information we need, when and where we need it. We now have the ability to keep connected despite being such a mobile world, with tighter ties with far flung friends and family. (Free Skype calls to Europe, anybody?) Some have called the Web an external hard drive for humanity, or even a sort of collective consciousness.

[…]

…We are collectively distracted online, or on our devices, and we do ourselves long-term harm, not good (such as missing our greater evolution and calling or engaging in meaningful personal connections). To paraphrase Emily Yoffe in Slate: We’re running in endless circles chasing information that doesn’t matter.

[…]

Give your body back its full range of motion: Do you know the physical signs of a right-handed desk worker? Overdeveloped forearms, deeper downward curve of fingers, wide ass, Thoracic spine curved forward rounded shoulders, head forward with a hump at C7, strain in the right neck and right arm from ear holding and mouse movements, lower-back strain. Don’t be that person. Daily use of full range of motion in all your joints, even opposition motion: This mandates getting off the devices and out from the screen. Get back in nature: Once you unplug, you may choose to take another step. Get back into the natural world. Take a real unplugged vacation. Go camping or into a remote cabin or the seashore.

[…]

Read more here. Or better yet, turn off and get out. Happy holiday.

Nat'l Geographic's 'Border Wars'

2010-09-05T14:58:31Z

A recent review of the TV docu-series ‘Border Wars,’ which appears Wednesdays at 8 pm on the National Geographic channel questions the producers' intent. From L.A.Times:

…accidentally or not, “Border Wars” plays like advocacy work masking as law enforcement propaganda. First there is the imbalance in scale between the officers and their targets. The show highlights not only the organization required to track illegal activity, but also the depth and organization of the illegal systems themselves. In one scene, an agent tears open a trash bag filled with all the provisions a border crosser would need for a long journey, provided by the people who steer the grueling trips. It’s as thought-through as any of the agent’s high-tech tools.

“Border Wars” documents an environment where practically everyone is criminalized. When a body is found floating facedown in the Rio Grande, the voiceover narration notes, “Agents can only speculate if the young man was an immigrant trying to cross or a drug smuggler.”

[…]

The immigrants, who are almost never named, are portrayed as threats, though hardly any effort is made to distinguish among them or their goals. The drug busts captured in other segments of the show at least deliver a sense of righteous victory, but the scenes where people are captured — with teams of agents assisted by all-terrain vehicles and helicopters with heat-sensing cameras tracking down packs making their way through harsh Texas ranchland — are far more emotionally ambiguous.

Read more here.