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| Barry writing my first impressions:
Urban sprawl - mile after mile of contemporary buildings, town merging with town. Traffic - incessant, aggressive driving. Blazing sun. I was excited and invigorated by the sun in Denver. Here I hide from it. Like in the old westerns, with the sun beating down on horse and rider, as they stumble across the desert. The heat - it’s 97 degrees and I am told it is a relatively cool spring with the temperatures not topping 100. Next day: Goldie is now in Vancouver leading a retreat. I think I’ll stay an extra couple of days. It’s still hot, and the drivers on Interstate 10 still seem hell bent to get out of the sun (my only explanation why they are driving so fast. The guidebook says the pace is slower in the southwest. I wonder when last the author was here?) So why stay longer? I’m beginning to like it here. I’ve learnt to drive old Van Go as if I’m in Goldie’s sports car in New York City. I keep the blinds drawn and stay mostly indoors. And..... On the way to the new Phoenix library, I find myself walking in the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park. At the entrance is a sculpture of five people entering treatment and three emerging smiling, ready to embrace life. On either side of the path, between succulents, are affirmations e.g. "Cancer is the most curable of all chronic diseases" and "make a commitment to do everything in your power to help yourself fight the disease." I sit on a bench in the park and think how empowering this is. The walk is a form of ritual. Who are the Blochs? The library itself is a five floor ultra modern building stunning in design but what catches my eye are the quotes on the wall: "Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Einstein. (ha! Try telling this to med school) "A book is like a gift from the sea.... ......listen quietly and it will speak." - Janet deBerge Lange "Some books are undeservedly forgotten- none are undeservedly remembered." - W H Auden "A book ought to be an icepick to break up the frozen sea within us." - Franz Kafka. Another quote. This time from Fodor’s Arizona 99 page 123: "Walk toward the red-granite Viad Tower, the lobby of which contains the Breck Girl Hall of Fame." I walk past the lifelike sculptures of a window washer, security guard and a man reading a newspaper, past two "hand painted" tapestries (isn’t that an oxymoron?) but no Breck girls. The real life security guard tells me they were removed long ago: "People are always coming in to ask to see them." An obvious question is why we tolerate getting outdated incorrect information from these guide book publishers. Another quote this time from the cover of Fodors: "‘The King of Guidebooks." - Newsweek." Anyway, I enjoyed the sculptures and move on to the Phoenix fine art museum. In the lobby of this beautiful green stone building are quotes relating to art ( can you begin to see a pattern in Phoenix? At home the only quotes are unintelligible and spray painted. Could this be what they do for graffiti here?) "Art disease is caused by hardening of the categories." - Adina Reinhardt On display was an exhibition of modern chairs from a gallery of design in Germany. I was just in time to join a tour. Imagine my delighted to see that the guide, an assistant curator, is a former patient of mine from Reading, David Reuben. Very stimulating, as was the rest of the museum. I am seeing western art differently now. There are even some paintings of Jerome, showing the poverty of the people and hardship of the miners. At a display of vintage hats are more quotes. Listed are fifteen expressions with hat in them e.g : "I’ll eat my hat" "to pass the hat around." Also found out where the term Art Deco comes from. It derives from the 1925 World’s fair - Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs. For some reason I’m pleased by this discovery. Rounded off the day watching "The Amazing Jonathan" at the Improv. He is "amazing" because he does crazy tricks like hacking his arm off, snorting a bucketful of cocaine, imbedding a scissor in his assistant’s head, etc. The two young guys at my table had one thing in common, each one had a girlfriend waitressing there. Occasionally the girls would sneak them a little something - roll, piece of cake. I shared my sandwich with one, since he was still starving. I left after an hour of grossness - Jonathan had made his point. So where are the quotes here? I found them on the shirts of the waiters. "Life is too important to be taken seriously." Day two very briefly, started off with the justifiably famous Heard museum of Native American art and artifacts and ended with jazz at sunset at the Desert Botanical Gardens - both unique. Also discovered "Downtown." Zoomed off the expressway at 75 mph into a sleepy peopleless, carless, section of the city abundant in parking spaces. Now I have it figured, this is a city where the freeways and suburbs are hectic and downtown is dead. Day three, moved to The Ivy on the Waterfront in Scottsdale (irrigation canal in case you’re wondering.) Given their show unit - $49 for a plush apartment with 2 TV’s, private pool, evening wine, a.m. buffet breakfast. They "forgot" to tell me the water was polluted with a serious stenchly hydrogen sulfide problem. Still, it was fun till I turned on the water to take a shower. With my new found interest in western art I thought I’d check out the 100 art galleries in Scottsdale. Goldie always tells me to be positive. So here goes, they have the best BAD AND EXPENSIVE WESTERN ART on the planet. How many noble Indian chiefs staring into the sunset (get the metaphor?) or lonesome cowboys can one appreciate? And the cute bronze little girls sniffing flowers or playing ball? About fifty of them all over the place. An upscale Sedona. Tired of the superficial, I’m off on my first visit ever to Las Vegas. Lots of love to all, Barry Goldie’s experience leading a Shavuout Retreat for Temple Or Shalom in Vancounver will appear in Cross Country #15.
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