[author's note: Yes, this is the third theme for the Blog of the Week series. But whereas my colleagues, I'm sure, are going to interpret this prompt as what physical place makes Downtown Phoenix special, I'm taking it a bit more in the abstract. How is this possible? Read on, friends; read on...]
There are hundreds and thousands of places in Downtown Phoenix that are intriguing. The last time I was approached with this writing theme, I discussed the Phoenix Symphony and the amazing things that they do. But this time around, I’m taking it from a different lens. Downtown Phoenix is special because of the people of Downtown Phoenix. It’s special because of the memories I have made in the area. It’s special because as I have grown and learned more about myself, Downtown Phoenix has grown and learned more about itself.
Consider Fair Trade Café at the Civic Space. It’s special not just because of the fact that they serve amazing coffee and have amazing food. It’s special because of the people that are there behind the counter. I know them, they know me, and they know what my favorite coffee drink is and that I always want a bit of room left in the cup for some cream.
Or consider the greater entity that is the Civic Space Park. There are people from the community that sit and chat, there are students studying for classes, there are kids playing football (or football), and there are just people being there enjoying the park and its surrounding urban environment.
Or consider the people at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus. When I had to first talk to a staff person on the campus, I was immediately surprised at how friendly they are. Coming from the sea of humanity that is the Tempe campus, where one is not a name but a number, this was a huge culture shock. Stepping inside to a classroom, one would be surprised that it’s not a lecturer preaching from the altar in a lecture. There’s discussion, discourse, and even disagreement happening in those classrooms.
What’s special about Downtown Phoenix? It’s the people. It’s the memories. It’s what you make it to be. Downtown Phoenix is that blank canvas on which one paints one’s memories.
[source: Trinity Episcopal Cathedral Center for the Arts] The season of Lent is a particularly important time in the life of the church. Lent gives each of us pause in our yearly pause in our yearly cycle for a period of reflection and meditation within the Christian community. The arts, and music in particular, have frequently been used to enable and enhance these two disciplines. This season, Trinity Cathedral in Downtown Phoenix offers a special Lenten series of musical events to mark this important season of the church year.
Friday 5 March 12.15pm: James Gerber (director of music and worship at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Phoenix)
Friday 12 March 12.15pm: Ilona Kubizczyk-Adler (music director, Episcopal Church of the Nativity, Scottsdale)
Friday 19 March 12.15pm: Skye Hart (director of music and liturgy, St Maria Goretti Church, Scottsdale)
Friday 26 March 12.15pm: Erik Goldstrom (Canon Musician, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Phoenix)
Sunday 14 March 4.00pm: Choral Evensong for Mothering Sunday
Trinity Cathedral is at 100 W. Roosevelt St., in Downtown Phoenix. It is readily accessible from the Roosevelt/Central Ave light rail station and the Downtown Phoenix DASH. All these concerts are free of charge. For more information, visit azcathedral.org or call 602.254.7126.
So for some, the benefits of being car-free are enough to take public transportation. There’s that feeling one gets that one is helping the environment. There’s also that feeling that one is contributing to creating walkable cities. But if that isn’t enough incentive, there’s a contest with prizes to ASU sporting events, whose stadia are located close to the light rail line. More details:
This February, Valley Metro is asking residents to “Try 1 in 5” , share the ride via carpool, vanpool, bus or light rail at least one day a week. It reduces pollution, eases traffic congestion and saves money. They also want to help residents find a commuting partner using their new Share The Ride ride-matching system.
As a thank you to residents who are sharing the ride, Valley Metro will be giving out pairs of ASU Baseball and Basketball tickets to their fans and followers this month. They will announce via Twitter (@ValleyMetroRPTA) and Facebook (Valley Metro RPTA) ways that fans can win the tickets, and where they will be to give them out. Valley Metro staff will look for people with transit passes on hand or who are tweeting pictures of themselves on the bus.
I’ll be seeing you on either the light rail or the bus!
The National Weather Service is predicting a large storm to descend into the valley tomorrow, 1-21-10, bringing up to 5″ of rain, possible thunderstorms and gusty winds. The prediction calls for light rain to begin to fall after 11pm tonight and pick up around 11am tomorrow. The Downtown Phoenix Partnership is working closely with police and city staff, and will provide current information throughout the day based on the severity of the storm.
Please be aware of unscheduled road closures put in place due to flooding, debris in the roadway, and traffic signals that may be out due to a power outage.
Contact the Downtown Phoenix Ambassadors at 602-495-1500 to report power outages or debris – we will contact the correct department at the City. Also – call if you have questions about travel conditions in the downtown area – they are your Go-To-Resource!! Remember – the Ambassadors provide Umbrella Escorts – so if you need to go out during the day…they are equipped with large umbrellas and can escort you to your destination.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. [the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, emphasis added]
Thus begin the Amendments to the United States Constitution. As anyone who’s taken a civics course knows, the US Constitution is the “supreme law of the land” (cf. Article VI par. 2; also see the 14th Amendment).
Consider also the late developments happening with Crossroads United Methodist Church. As preface, they had a homeless ministry at their church, Central Avenue and Northern in the quasi-upscale North Central neighborhood. Then the neighborhood didn’t like seeing homeless people in their posh neighborhood, complained, got the city involved, and the city made a decision that Crossroads had to stop this ministry. After an appeal made by Crossroads, the city still stood by its decision.
Depending on your angle, it’s NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) at its finest or its worst.
Granted, when one thinks of the neighborhood around Central and Northern, one doesn’t really think about homeless ministries. Most of the homeless reside in and near Downtown Phoenix. I would think that if Crossroads wanted to do this in a more effective (whatever this means) fashion, then doing outreach and meal service would be more effective there. There’s a fantastic human services campus at 12th Ave and Jefferson–maybe a partnership there should be in the works.
But that’s irrelevant to my argument. I am, however, reminded of something from Scripture:
“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” [excerpted from "The Judgment of the Nations," Matthew 25:31-46 NRSV]
As The Rev. John Petty (All Saints’ Lutheran Church, Aurora, Colorado) noted in his blog Progressive Involvement,
In liberation theology circles, this is called the “preferential option for the poor,” which is supposed to be controversial, but, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why. All four gospels state very clearly, one way or another, that Christ is a friend of the poor, identifies with them, is found with them. It’s not for nothing that Jesus was born to a poverty-stricken Jewish family from a hick little town. [source]
Jesus was a friend of the poor. Christians – followers of Christ – should be friends of the poor as well.
This brings me back to the original crux of this entry, taken from the First Amendment: Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Let’s make a few assumptions here. First, that the Gospel of St Matthew is accepted canon in Christianity. Second, Christianity is accepted as a religion. In essence, the city is redefining Christianity. Christianity by city policy.
If a church wants to reach out to “the least of these” in a homeless ministries program, then it has its Constitutional rights to do so. NIMBY-ists can complain until they’re blue in the face, but it should be a Constitutional right. Wait: it is.
Last week, retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stopped by KAET’s public affairs program Horizonto talk about what she’s been doing since she retired from the high court, civility in government, and her O’Connor House Project.
Justice O’Connor’s confirmation created the Horizon program back in 1981 and it’s apropos that she was the first guest in Horizon’s new set in the Cronkite School building on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus.
Reporter JJ Hensley from the Arizona Republic sat down with Ted Simons on a recent edition of KAET’s Horizon to discuss what’s going on in Maricopa County.
With apologies to Stanley Kramer, it’s a mad, mad, mad, mad, county…
Last night (6 January 2010) was the crowning concert of the first Arizona Bach Festival. On the program were four of six parts of Johann Sebastian Bach’s beloved Christmas Oratorio (S. 248) featuring the Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale and a chamber festival orchestra. The venue was the recently-renovated Central United Methodist Church in Midtown Phoenix, whose acoustics quite possibly rival Trinity Cathedral’s in Downtown Phoenix. (Yes, I said it.)
A quick note about the Christmas Oratorio: Unlike other grand oratorios from the period, Bach’s work is comprised of six separate cantatas that are for Christmas Day through Epiphany (January 6). Bach’s original design was for the six separate cantatas to be performed separately. Modern concert performances perform all six. JS Bach’s cantatas combine grand choruses, settings of chorales, arias, and recitatives. Some feature small overtures/sinfonias at the beginning of each cantata.
There is a strong element of musical foreshadowing in the Christmas Oratorio. Bach employs the Passion chorale Befiehl du deine Wege (usually sung in English as O sacred head now wounded) throughout the work. Most notably, the chorale concludes Part VI as well as the complete Oratorio. In addition, an aria and chorale from Part V (Wo ist der neugeborne König der Juden?) are borrowed from his St John Passion (S. 245).
Joining the 27-voice Phoenix Chorale was a 19-member chamber orchestra as well as a continuo organist. It should be noted that a key element to Bach’s works (and most Baroque works in general) is a strong basso continuo. In the performance, cello and organ combined to play the continuo. Jan Simiz (cello) and Sue Westendorf (organ) were perfectly together in this respect.
For the most part, the Phoenix Chorale’s pronunciation of the German text was easily discernible. When the choir was singing the same words at the same time, even non-German speakers could transcribe the text. But like most of Bach’s work, unison writing is rare and often times the different vocal parts are singing different words. That, combined with the live nature of the space’s acoustics, muddied up the text. I was sitting about 30 feet from the choir so I cannot imagine what it was like for people sitting in the back of the house.
On his game at the concert was Erik Gustafson, a tenor in the Phoenix Chorale, who performed the role of evangelist. (In the Christmas Oratorio as well as the Passions, the Evangelist connects the different arias and chorales together with text from the Bible sung in recitative form.) He sung with a pure, refined sound that, in my mind, made for a perfect evangelist. Mr. Gustafson kept to the simplicity of the text and added vocal effects (e.g. vibrato) very sparingly that actually contributed to the success of that role.
It was good to see the Phoenix Chorale return to its roots (they were, until recently, called the Phoenix Bach Choir). The Chorale, along with the orchestra and conductor Scott Alan Youngs, performed this work brilliantly. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is not a work that should be taken lightly. The combined ensemble presented the work in a manner that even those who do not appreciate JS Bach’s music would suddenly appreciate it; for those who admire the great composer’s music, their admiration would become even greater.
This concert was one part of the Arizona Bach Festival, and so far, each of the performance spaces have been packed houses. It truly is heartwarming that, even in times of economic peril and also in a state whose legislators do not recognize the value of arts in the community, people enjoy and support the arts. With a concert like last night’s, it can be truthfully said that there are artistic gems in this desert.
-Edward Jensen
(For pictures from last night’s concert as well as the previous concerts in the series, check the Festival’s Facebook page at facebook.com/arizonabachfestival.)
Coming in just a couple days (actually, beginning on the 3rd!) is the premiere Arizona Bach Festival. It’s the logical next step in Phoenix’s American Bach series that just wrapped up a seven-year cycle of the complete JS Bach cantatas as well as his St Matthew and St John Passions at All Saints’ Episcopal Church.
So this month, from the 3rd-7th, the Festival will happen at locations up and down Central Avenue. The orchestra features members of the Phoenix Symphony, the chorus is the Phoenix Chorale (of Grammy fame), the guest concertmaster is Dr. Stephen Redfield, the concert organists are Dr. Kimberly Marshall and Scott Dettra, and the conductor is Scott Youngs.
There are five events: two organ recitals (both at All Saints’), a solo violin recital (in the lobby of the Viad Tower in Midtown Phoenix), a performance of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (at Central United Methodist Church), and an educational component sponsored by ASU and Arizona School for the Arts. The events list is online here and tickets are available here.
[source: METRO light rail/17 December 2009] Take a trip on light rail this Saturday for your chance to receive a “golden” transit pass, discover new and interesting retailers offering discounts to transit riders and be generally rewarded for your support of METRO in its first year. Here’s the inside scoop:
GOLDEN PASS PROMOTION
Ala Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, METRO will specially mark “golden” transit passes in station fare vending machines along the line. With more than 100 machines, METRO wants to help increase your odds. Visit any or all of the following stations and their on-platform fare vending machines for your pass purchase and chance to win.
Montebello/19th Avenue
Central Avenue/Camelback
Roosevelt/Central Avenue
Van Buren/Central Avenue and Van Buren/1st Avenue
Mill Avenue/3rd Street
Veterans Way/College Avenue
Price-101 Freeway/Apache Boulevard
Sycamore/Main Street
The 50 “golden” transit pass recipients will be entered into a raffle to receive one of 30 pairs of US Airways Center event tickets – either to a regular season Phoenix Suns home game or a family-friendly event, Disney on Ice or Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus – or one of two “Grand Golden VIP Experiences” that include:
Four lower-level tickets to a Phoenix Suns home game
Seats on the Suns bench during pre-game warm-ups
Suns locker room tour
Suns autographed memorabilia
For additional information, including rules, regulations and eligibility details, visit www.metrolightrail.org. Platinum Pass and U-Pass cardholders have also been integrated into this program.
RIDER APPRECIATION DISCOUNTS
To sweeten the anniversary celebration, more than 45 gracious retailers along the line will offer special discounts or deals to anyone who presents a valid transit pass on December 19. Riders will enjoy substantial savings such as two-for-one deals or as much as 30% off at these one-of-a-kind businesses.
The Suns are also offering a great deal extended through the holiday season. Present a valid transit pass at the US Airways Center ticket office between December 19 – 31 and receive $20 off lower level tickets or $10 off upper level tickets for any January 2010 game. Great seats are still available. Give a gift that will make your favorite Suns fan cheer! The offer may be redeemed at the US Airways Center ticket office during normal business hours while supplies last.
METRO is celebrating it first year of operation having served more than 10.3 million riders through November 2009. With the community’s support, METRO’s weekday ridership is 34 percent greater than projected, with Saturdays and Sundays fairing even better. METRO will continue to look for ways to refine its 20-mile operation and level of customer service, while also planning for 37 miles of future extensions. Go to the www.metrolightrail.org site and click on Metro Turns One. At Events to Enjoy there are lists of activities in the areas around Metro stations.
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