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275 • JAN 2019<br />
MIKI GARCIA • TANIA KATAN • JONOTHON LYONS • NEO SOUL
GABRIEL KAHANE’S<br />
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January 16<br />
Portland Cello Project:<br />
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January 18<br />
Dakh Daughters<br />
January 21<br />
Lizz Wright<br />
January 31<br />
Villalobos Brothers and<br />
Flor de Toloache<br />
February 4<br />
And many more!<br />
2019 Concert Series sponsored by<br />
MIM.org | 480.478.6000 | 4725 E. Mayo Blvd., Phoenix, AZ
CONTENTS<br />
8<br />
12<br />
22<br />
30<br />
34<br />
FEATURES<br />
MIKI GARCIA<br />
ASU Art Museum Director<br />
By Rembrandt Quiballo<br />
Cover:<br />
Photography: Sean Deckert<br />
Model: Natalie Vie<br />
8 12 22<br />
34<br />
TANIA KATAN<br />
Creatively Disrupting the Workplace<br />
By Jenna Duncan<br />
SCORCHED EARTH<br />
Photography: Sean Deckert<br />
Styling: Natalie Vie<br />
THE MAYA SPECTRA &<br />
PALO BREA<br />
Two Soulful Phoenix Bands<br />
By Kevin Hanlon<br />
JONOTHON LYONS<br />
Scottsdale Native Barnstorms the Big Apple<br />
By Jeff Kronenfeld<br />
COLUMNS<br />
7<br />
16<br />
20<br />
38<br />
40<br />
BUZZ<br />
Borderline<br />
By Robert Sentinery<br />
ARTS<br />
Scandinavian Pain at PAM<br />
By Mikey Foster Estes<br />
MIM Traces the History of the Electric Guitar<br />
By Jeff Kronenfeld<br />
FOOD FETISH<br />
Alexi’s Keeps It Classic<br />
By Sloane Burwell<br />
GIRL ON FARMER<br />
The Best Medicine<br />
By Celia Beresford<br />
NIGHT GALLERY<br />
Photos by Robert Sentinery<br />
JAVA MAGAZINE<br />
EDITOR & PUBLISHER<br />
Robert Sentinery<br />
ART DIRECTOR<br />
Victor Vasquez<br />
ARTS EDITOR<br />
Rembrandt Quiballo<br />
FOOD EDITOR<br />
Sloane Burwell<br />
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR<br />
Jenna Duncan<br />
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS<br />
Celia Beresford<br />
Mikey Foster Estes<br />
Kevin Hanlon<br />
Jeff Kronenfeld<br />
Ashley Naftule<br />
Tom Reardon<br />
PROOFREADER<br />
Patricia Sanders<br />
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS<br />
Sean Deckert<br />
Enrique Garcia<br />
Johnny Jaffe<br />
ADVERTISING<br />
(602) 574-6364<br />
<strong>Java</strong> Magazine<br />
Copyright © 2019<br />
All rights reserved.<br />
Reproduction in whole or in part of any text, photograph<br />
or illustration is strictly prohibited without the written<br />
permission of the publisher. The publisher does not<br />
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Publisher assumes no liability for the information<br />
contained herein; all statements are the sole opinions<br />
of the contributors and/or advertisers.<br />
JAVA MAGAZINE<br />
PO Box 45448 Phoenix, AZ 85064<br />
email: javamag@cox.net<br />
tel: (480) 966-6352<br />
www.javamagaz.com<br />
4 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE
LAST CHANCE<br />
THROUGH FEB. 3 ONLY<br />
YUA HENRI MATISSE AND THE INNER ARCTIC SPIRIT<br />
Original Works by Henri Matisse and the Alaskan Native Masks that Inspired Him<br />
OPEN FOR FIRST FRIDAY | JANUARY 4, 6-10 P.M. | HEARD.ORG<br />
Central Yup’ik, Napaskiaq Village, Kuskokwim River, Alaska. Wanelnguq dance mask c. 1900. Wood, feathers, pigment. Collection of the National Museum of the American<br />
Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 9/3432. Photo by NMAI Photo Services.
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BORDERLINE<br />
By Robert Sentinery<br />
BUZZ<br />
Writing this in the midst of a government shutdown and plunging stock<br />
market makes me think that things can only get better from here. There is<br />
hope that the rift tearing this country apart will somehow be healed in the<br />
new year. When it comes to the issue of the moment, walls and border security,<br />
Arizona is on the frontline.<br />
Having grown up in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, ASU Art Museum<br />
director Miki Garcia has a unique perspective. Her family has lived in southern<br />
Texas for generations, since when the land was still part of Mexico. Despite<br />
being a U.S. citizen, her father faced discrimination and segregation growing up,<br />
similar to African-Americans in the South. The Chicano movement in the ’60s<br />
helped to empower and create opportunities. Garcia is the product of all that and<br />
understands the struggle it takes to overcome, yet she has risen to the highest<br />
level of leadership in her career.<br />
Garcia has lived and worked in major art markets like New York but appreciates<br />
being here. She feels that the Phoenix arts and culture scene is booming,<br />
partially due to artists being priced out of traditional creative hubs like Los<br />
Angeles, San Francisco, and Manhattan. She also feels that there is an urgency<br />
here due to politics, border issues, education debates, and more, that creates a<br />
hotbed for artists and creative thinkers to thrive (see “ASU Art Museum Director<br />
Miki Garcia,” p. 8).<br />
Tania Katan is one of Phoenix’s clearest voices when it comes to identity issues<br />
and empowerment. Her new book, Creative Trespassing, is slated for release next<br />
month. A regular on the TEDx circuit, Katan has been recruited by corporations<br />
to fulfill various roles as a motivational speaker, in-house disruptor, and<br />
comedienne of sorts. Ultimately it is Katan’s ability to reimagine roles within the<br />
work environment to enhance productivity that makes her such a valued asset<br />
(see “Tania Katan: Creatively Disrupting the Workplace,” p. 12).<br />
Jonothon Lyons is a product of this city’s ability to support creativity through<br />
public education. After showing an early affinity for the theater – he wrote an<br />
award-winning play at age seven – Lyons eventually ended up attending Arizona<br />
School for the Arts high school, where he honed his stage skills. At ASU he<br />
studied under top-notch professors and gained an understanding of the inner<br />
workings of professional theater and the culture that supports it.<br />
Upon graduation, Lyons shipped off to the Big Apple, where he has staged his<br />
own productions, joined the famed Blue Man Group, and mastered theatrical<br />
puppetry. His latest production, “The Apple Boys: A Barbershop Quartet<br />
Musical,” just wrapped a three-week run to overwhelmingly positive reviews.<br />
Lyons plans to look for an established off-Broadway company to stage the<br />
production for larger audiences in the coming months (see “Jonothon Lyons:<br />
Scottsdale Native Barnstorms the Big Apple,” p. 34).<br />
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MIKI GARCIA<br />
ASU Art Museum Director • By Rembrandt Quiballo<br />
Portraits 8 JAVA by Rembrandt Quiballo<br />
MAGAZINE
Miki Garcia truly believes in the<br />
transformative power of art and<br />
has made it her mission to share<br />
this belief throughout her career.<br />
For her, the museum is the best instrument to<br />
get this message across. She couldn’t have<br />
landed in a better place to do that than at<br />
Arizona State University, one of the leading<br />
research institutions in the world. For Garcia,<br />
her role is more than a job, it’s a calling.<br />
It’s been a year since Garcia was appointed<br />
director of the ASU Art Museum, and her<br />
impact is already being felt. She has used this<br />
time to familiarize herself with the community<br />
and to study the institution she now runs in<br />
order to advance and enrich its mission. The<br />
museum has produced events such as Party<br />
Underground to engage the arts community in<br />
creative ways and Get Weird to subvert the<br />
conventions of a typical museum visit. There<br />
are plans to create more expansive shows that<br />
will run for longer blocks of time throughout<br />
the year in order to create an increasingly<br />
substantial effect.<br />
Beyond these tangible changes, Garcia is<br />
really thinking about what an art museum’s<br />
role is in the wider context of society. “I’m<br />
interested in how institutions run,” she said.<br />
“How they make choices. How they represent<br />
the communities they serve, or don’t represent<br />
the communities they serve. How they acquire<br />
objects and why. How they reach out to<br />
audiences. How they support artists. All of that<br />
is really up for renewed exploration.”<br />
“We were operating from a classical museum<br />
model that was very much about curators and<br />
directors as the sole arbiters of taste – lone<br />
connoisseurs who put works in a gallery,”<br />
Garcia said. “You, as audience members, came<br />
in as blank slates and were invited to learn<br />
about a show or an artist.<br />
“There is something to be said for scholarship<br />
and expertise. I absolutely agree that the<br />
people who are experts in their fields should<br />
telling stories. But I’m more interested in a<br />
new model where we also honor the lived<br />
experiences and expertise of the communities<br />
we serve, and have their voices at the table.<br />
“So the question becomes, how can we invite<br />
audiences into the museum to make their own<br />
meaning while also bringing their experiences,<br />
so we end up with a much richer community<br />
space? Those are the kinds of ideas I’m<br />
interested in right now.”<br />
Garcia is originally from the border town of<br />
Brownsville, located at the southernmost tip<br />
of Texas. Both her parents were educators<br />
as well as artists. Her father was an art<br />
teacher and later an arts administrator. Her<br />
mother was an elementary school principal<br />
and a painter. Garcia’s upbringing exposed<br />
her to art at a very young age. “I was raised<br />
around museums and art studios,” she said.<br />
“It’s just been part of my life. As a child,<br />
I loved being inside museums. I loved the<br />
stories. We traveled to Mexico quite a lot<br />
and went to all of the museums. We went to<br />
Houston and many different places. It was<br />
while visiting those art spaces that I felt like I<br />
really belonged.”<br />
Garcia’s appreciation for art continued as she<br />
matured. She went to school at Vassar College<br />
for art history and continued her graduate<br />
studies at the University of Texas at Austin.<br />
“I took an art history class and that was it,”<br />
she said. “I was hooked. It felt like art was<br />
the discipline of all disciplines. Through art,<br />
I could learn about history, religion, politics,<br />
philosophy, and geography. For me, it was<br />
an entryway into learning about the world.<br />
But early on, I knew I didn’t want to be in<br />
academia. For me it was about the audience<br />
experience and how museums are alive.”<br />
Garcia gained invaluable experience at other<br />
institutions, such as the Blanton Museum<br />
of Art at the University of Texas at Austin,<br />
the San Antonio Museum of Art, and the<br />
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.<br />
Her most significant position prior to<br />
ASU was as executive director and chief<br />
curator at the Museum of Contemporary<br />
Art Santa Barbara. MCASB started as a<br />
small alternative space, but under Garcia’s<br />
guidance for 14 years, it became a renowned<br />
contemporary art museum.<br />
Garcia’s newest challenge is directing an<br />
educational museum that supports one<br />
of the largest public universities in the<br />
United States. Now the fifth-largest city<br />
in the nation, Phoenix is quite different<br />
JAVA 9<br />
MAGAZINE
from Garcia’s hometown of Brownsville,<br />
which recently became a flashpoint in the<br />
debate over border security as the migrant<br />
caravan reached the U.S./Mexico border.<br />
However, there are parallels that speak to<br />
her personal experience.<br />
“My mom is from South Texas. She was born<br />
in Mexico, but she’s an American citizen<br />
because her grandparents were American<br />
citizens – people just went back and forth.<br />
My father’s family has been in Kingsville,<br />
in South Texas, for about five generations.<br />
That is a narrative that doesn’t really get<br />
told. There is a sort of entrenched belief<br />
that every Mexican-American is first<br />
generation or second generation, and that<br />
10 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
is absolutely not true. In 1846, Mexico<br />
ceded much of the Southwest to the United<br />
States, and there were lots of Mexicans living<br />
in those territories. They stayed on the land<br />
and became U.S. citizens at that point. Many<br />
lost their property and had to endure horrible<br />
things, but they have been here for many<br />
generations. So, in that sense, the border<br />
crossed me, I didn’t cross the border.”<br />
This family history has only made Garcia<br />
more driven to make museums inclusive and<br />
reflective of their communities. It informs the<br />
way she thinks about how art is presented,<br />
to whom it is accessible and how it can touch<br />
lives. “My dad was from a very rural part of<br />
South Texas, and his family had been there<br />
Photo: Ken Howie Studios<br />
for generations. Back in the 1950s and ’60s,<br />
they had to enter through the back door of<br />
restaurants. They couldn’t drink at the ‘white’<br />
water fountains, those kinds of things.”<br />
“My father didn’t come from college-educated<br />
parents, but he became part of the Chicano<br />
civil rights movement. It was really through his<br />
discovery of art that he became connected to<br />
people, stories, and expressions from around<br />
the globe. It made him feel like he wasn’t this<br />
lone person having this one experience, that<br />
he was part of a larger space of possibility. He<br />
went on to get his master’s degree and travel<br />
the world. He became an educator. I think<br />
about how art can do that. I would not be in<br />
this privileged position today were it not for
the power of art, and that is an incredible story<br />
that I will continue to tell.”<br />
Garcia’s career in art has enabled her to live<br />
in many places with vastly differing socioeconomic<br />
levels. At every stop, she has<br />
made an effort to engage with the immediate<br />
community. This experience has given her<br />
insight into the potential advantages of<br />
running an art institution in a burgeoning city<br />
such as metropolitan Phoenix.<br />
“I’ve lived on both coasts, and I’ve lived in<br />
other places,” she said. “When I was in New<br />
York in the ’90s, I could see that the East<br />
Village and that sort of CBGB artist culture<br />
was fading away. Those kinds of underground<br />
subcultures of LA, San Francisco, and New<br />
York are really almost impossible to sustain,<br />
because the cost of living has just gotten so<br />
unaffordable for the creative class.<br />
“Now what I’m seeing is that places like<br />
Phoenix, Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland, and<br />
Atlanta are cities where people can afford<br />
to stay. Poets, writers, artists, and such are<br />
staying in these regional capitals and creating<br />
a local culture that’s really cool, that maybe<br />
wouldn’t exist if all these people had scattered<br />
to New York, San Francisco, or LA. They’re not<br />
doing that anymore, it’s just too expensive. I<br />
feel like I’m in Phoenix at a time when there’s<br />
this incredible culture happening all over, and<br />
that’s pretty exciting.”<br />
“I feel like Arizona has a real sense of urgency,”<br />
Garcia said. “There’s a sense of urgency here in<br />
terms of the realities of the educational system,<br />
the changing demographics, the politics, and<br />
what it means to be a university student here.<br />
We have a lot of first generations, a lot of vets,<br />
lots of online students. The world is changing,<br />
and in Arizona you can really see it. So for<br />
me, it’s very exciting to think about where the<br />
museum fits into all of this.”<br />
Photo: Lamp Left Media<br />
JAVA 11<br />
MAGAZINE
Tania Katan just keeps popping up everywhere these days.<br />
There she is at Giant Coffee near Burton Barr library at 8:30 a.m., getting some work done. Then<br />
there is her bright, squinty smile on a huge poster outside Scottsdale Performing Arts Center,<br />
announcing an upcoming stage performance on Feb. 22. And there’s her name in big letters again<br />
on... What is that? A book cover?<br />
“I’ve published essays and short stories in books. But this is the second, meaty undertaking,”<br />
Katan says of her second full-length work of non-fiction, Creative Trespassing: A Totally<br />
Unauthorized Guide to Sneaking More Imagination Into Your Life and Work, to be released by<br />
Penguin-Random House in February.<br />
The book developed after Katan spent the last several years serving as a tech industry hired gun,<br />
doing a little consulting over here, motivational speaking over there, and generally creatively<br />
disrupting countless traditional workplaces, infusing them with her infectious energy, off-the-wall<br />
extroverted-ness, and keen eye of a quirky outsider.<br />
“People would constantly ask, What do you do? And I remember always answering that question<br />
with a job title.” Katan has held a number of different corporate positions. But at some point she<br />
realized that putting on a label such as “program coordinator” or “curator” did not extend far<br />
enough to explain who she is and everything she does for a company.<br />
“Then I finally realized, that [title] says so little about what I actually do. In fact, I think I’m<br />
more than my job title!” she declares. “When I started speaking as a representative of these<br />
organizations, people began saying, yeah, but you bring so much more to the job – you bring a<br />
sense of humor and lightness!”<br />
“I feel like my entire life has been creative trespassing. I just didn’t have a word for it.”<br />
Katan used her experiences in the corporate world to begin experimenting with her own inventions,<br />
disruptions, and interventions. Many of these exercises in reclaiming space and agency at work<br />
became direct inspiration for what she calls “productive disruptions” in the book. For example,<br />
Katan advises readers to invent their own job titles and then print new business cards and own that<br />
self-proclaimed title.<br />
During her time at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, she titled herself Curator of<br />
Shenanigans. Some in the office frowned at the silly new title, but Katan took her business cards<br />
to conferences, handed them out, and the title stuck. Potential new clients and professional<br />
connections remembered her and contacted her to help promote and advance SMoCA.<br />
“If you take the initiative to do something that furthers the mission of your company or organization,<br />
and it works, they are not going to be like, ‘Throw away those business cards! They’re too racy.’<br />
They’re going to be like, ‘Thank you for getting us extra business’,” she explains.<br />
The productive disruptions encourage employees to push the rules and seize agency in their places<br />
of employment. These bold moves show the management you’ve got “moxie,” just like Tania<br />
Katan. “As I got an awareness of what I was doing – by bringing in skills that were not on my job<br />
description but were necessary – it actually helped. It helped generate revenue, it helped marketing<br />
efforts, and it helped really traditional boxes get ticked.”<br />
Katan says she has always been a writer, her entire life. She began as a kid, journaling. Developed<br />
her own code in a handwriting that only she could read, just in case she needed to protect her<br />
secret information. Sometimes it was stories, sometimes it was poems. She has never limited<br />
herself to any genre.<br />
Tania<br />
Katan<br />
Creatively<br />
Disrupting<br />
the<br />
Workplace<br />
By Jenna Duncan<br />
12 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE
13 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE
“Since I was little, I would keep journals. Like,<br />
little-little, five or six years old. And then as<br />
a teenager, I think I developed that chicken<br />
scratch-y [style] so that only I could read it if<br />
anybody found it. I was protecting my thoughts<br />
and ideas and allowing them to unfold without<br />
anybody intruding.”<br />
Katan says no matter where she lived or<br />
whether or not her family had money, she<br />
always had a journal. “Writing, for me, in real<br />
life, has been an experiential first,” she says.<br />
“I don’t know why I picked writing. Maybe it’s<br />
because my family was really poor. However,<br />
I always had a pencil or pen and a piece of<br />
paper. I knew that I was seeing things that were<br />
interesting or funny to me, or absurd, and I<br />
knew that I had to record them,” she says. “Had<br />
I had other options, like if we had money and I<br />
had a video camera, maybe I would have gone<br />
that route. But I just grabbed what I had in front<br />
of me and used it.”<br />
In addition to her love for observing and<br />
documenting, Katan is a natural extravert. In<br />
high school she became involved in drama<br />
classes and speech and debate. She gravitated<br />
toward comedy and says as a 16-year-old<br />
she even snuck into local comedy clubs and<br />
competed onstage, often winning prizes, like<br />
overnight hotel stays, candles, and nice bottles<br />
of wine. She would gift her speech and debate<br />
coach and drama teacher at school with these<br />
21-and-over prizes.<br />
“I wrote my own sets before I went and<br />
performed them,” she says. “How amazing, as a<br />
16-year-old, I had all this courage, and I would<br />
go and compete in comedy contests with adult<br />
people!” she says, her eyes lighting up.<br />
Katan is sure that somewhere her mother has<br />
an old, deteriorating VHS tape of her on stage<br />
performing comedy as a teen with big, bleachblonde<br />
1980s hair. “I was giving a talk at Uber<br />
and my friend from high school works there. She<br />
was also in speech and debate. I was like, Oh<br />
my god, Justine, you look exactly the same, and<br />
she was like, You don’t!”<br />
Katan’s background in theater has allowed her<br />
to embrace permission, to try something even<br />
14 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE
if there’s the risk she might fail. “I didn’t know<br />
anything about technology,” Katan explains.<br />
“But I did know, through theater, that we could<br />
try anything out.”<br />
As a teen, Katan dreamed of a life in comedy.<br />
She says she was inspired by “Saturday Night<br />
Live” and especially Gilda Radner. “It was<br />
something really compelling. And it framed the<br />
way I walked through the world and approached<br />
different situations. I really thought ‘SNL’ was in<br />
my future.”<br />
Katan also credits her quirky family for helping<br />
her embrace her outsider-ness and learn to<br />
make bold moves as an adult. But in school, it<br />
wasn’t always easy. She remembers wishing<br />
more than anything for the chance to fit in. She<br />
wished she had two parents who were together<br />
instead of divorced. She wished she had a<br />
mother who wasn’t foreign and didn’t talk with<br />
a funny accent. She wished for the right clothes<br />
and shoes; she recalls a school-bus bully calling<br />
her “four eyes” for wearing glasses.<br />
“I wanted parents who had ordinary jobs, who<br />
packed snacks in my book bag and ate dinner<br />
around an actual table at a certain time each<br />
night,” she writes. “It took me a long time to<br />
figure out that standing out was any kind of<br />
advantage,” Katan writes in the first chapter of<br />
Creative Trespassing. “I come from a long line of<br />
outsiders – people who didn’t, and would never,<br />
fit in.”<br />
But as she performed in theater and grew into<br />
an adult in the “real world,” she realized that<br />
her outsider attributes and differences were<br />
really what made her special – able to stand<br />
out in any workplace setting and contribute<br />
valuable insights that drones and stuffed shirts<br />
simply could not. And she encourages others to<br />
break the cubicle mold, embrace their creativity,<br />
and find slyly effective ways to integrate that<br />
creativity into work life.<br />
“We are in a moment where we can take<br />
permission, because no one’s giving it to us,”<br />
she says. “So just take it! Creative people –<br />
artists in particular – are trained to see limits as<br />
opportunities. And constraints as invitations,”<br />
she says. This kind of disruption can help<br />
support, encourage, and motivate employees<br />
who relate to their workplace when they feel<br />
connected. “It’s about collaboration. It’s about<br />
elevating the people around you, elevating what<br />
you are doing collectively.”<br />
Tania Katan will perform at Scottsdale Performing<br />
Arts Center on February 22, in partnership with<br />
SMoCA and Changing Hands bookstore, to launch<br />
her new book, Creative Trespassing: A Totally<br />
Unauthorized Guide to Sneaking More Imagination<br />
Into Your Life and Work. She will also present at<br />
The Moth storytelling night at Mesa Center for<br />
the Arts on February 1.<br />
TaniaKatan.com<br />
Photos courtesy of Tania Katan<br />
JAVA 15<br />
MAGAZINE
ARTS<br />
SCANDINAVIAN PAIN AT PAM<br />
By Mikey Foster Estes<br />
“Scandinavian Pain and Other Myths” presents three<br />
distinct works by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson.<br />
Organized by Phoenix Art Museum and curated by<br />
Gilbert Vicario, the exhibition pairs The Visitors,<br />
an expansive video installation newly added to<br />
the collection, with two other key works. Though<br />
differing from one another in terms of format, this<br />
sampling of Kjartansson’s oeuvre highlights the scope<br />
of the artist’s playful approach to performance.<br />
Kjartansson, having grown up in the theatre – his<br />
mother an actress and his father a director and<br />
playwright – often creates works that engage in<br />
pretending, evolve through repetition, and pull from<br />
both history and popular culture. In theatre and film,<br />
the audience is well aware of fiction, and Kjartansson<br />
applies that set of relations to his projects that<br />
span across multiple mediums: video installation,<br />
durational performance, painting, and drawing.<br />
The two works presented alongside The Visitors are<br />
remnants of performative actions but are presented<br />
outside of their original context. Scandinavian<br />
Pain, from which the exhibition takes its title, is<br />
an 11-meter-long (36 ft.) neon sign that diagonally<br />
protrudes through the space. Its hot pink glow directly<br />
contradicts its bleak phrasing. The sign, originally<br />
installed outdoors atop a barn in Norway, loses a bit<br />
of its pointed irony here, but it sets the stage for its<br />
salon-style companion, The End – Venezia.<br />
Extending along the walls from floor to ceiling, the<br />
144 paintings that compose The End were produced<br />
as part of a durational performance – Kjartansson’s<br />
contribution to the 2009 Venice Biennale. For six<br />
months, the artist adopted the persona of a bohemian<br />
artist and worked out of a studio that was open to<br />
the public. His muse, fellow performance artist Páll<br />
Haukur Björnsson, appears in each painting donning<br />
a Speedo.<br />
The paintings, which display a range of scenes and<br />
styles, playfully satirize the myth of the artist and<br />
muse. Equal parts endurance and method acting,<br />
the performance situates the artist as an actor and<br />
the public as an audience. Kjartansson’s deflation of<br />
the figure of the artist speaks not only to antiquated<br />
myth but to contemporary realities, as well. Through<br />
elaborate staging, Kjartansson mocks the weight we<br />
put on “truth” – in this case, we the audience are in<br />
on it.<br />
The Visitors, perhaps Kjartansson’s best-known<br />
work, has its own space at the back of the gallery.<br />
The expansive work, a nine-channel video and audio<br />
installation that spans just over an hour, can be heard<br />
even before one walks in. Set at an estate in upstate<br />
New York, each video, carefully composed as in a<br />
painting, features a musician (including the artist)<br />
secluded in a different area of the house. Separated<br />
yet together, the figures perform a sprawling piece<br />
of music with repeating lyrical bits adapted from<br />
a poem by Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir, Kjartansson’s<br />
ex-wife.<br />
The song reverberates over the course of the hour.<br />
Performers take breaks, move from one channel<br />
to another, and collectively pour emotion into the<br />
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music. With each video equipped with its own<br />
respective speaker, listening becomes a spatial<br />
exercise. As the viewer walks through the<br />
space, the work repeats itself, but it never quite<br />
sounds the same. It’s a beautiful experience, both<br />
cinematically and sonically.<br />
Borrowing its title from Swedish pop group ABBA’s<br />
eighth and final studio album, the work shares<br />
characteristics with its namesake. The Visitors album<br />
is considered to be ABBA’s most moody and complex<br />
effort. Through the form of the pop album, the songs<br />
dwelled on the subject of divorce. The album cover,<br />
which depicts the four members in a dim room<br />
together but standing apart from one another, is<br />
echoed in Kjartansson’s installation.<br />
Although planned and rehearsed, the overall gesture<br />
of the work has a poetic simplicity to it. It’s neatly<br />
bookended: each performer sets up on their own<br />
individual timecode, they play, moving in and out<br />
of chorus with one another, and at the very end of<br />
the song, they run off into the distance together.<br />
Kjartansson, then alone in the house, moves from one<br />
frame to another, turning each camera off.<br />
The myths examined by Kjartansson in this exhibition<br />
and throughout the entirety of his practice center on<br />
contradictory notions of Scandinavian identity. What<br />
is often imagined as peaceful or ideal is also grey<br />
and gloomy. Kjartansson reminds his audience that<br />
beauty, light, and humor can come from pain.<br />
“Ragnar Kjartansson: Scandinavian Pain and Other<br />
Myths”<br />
Through April 14<br />
Anderman, Marcus, and Marley Galleries<br />
Ellen and Howard C. Katz Wing for Modern Art<br />
Phoenix Art Museum<br />
phxart.org<br />
Ragnar Kjartansson, Scandinavian Pain, 2006, at the Hirschhorn Museum<br />
and Sculpture Garden. Neon. Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New<br />
York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik. Photo: Cathy Carver<br />
Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors (detail), 2012. Nine-channel video.<br />
Restricted gift of the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation to Phoenix Art Museum,<br />
The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.<br />
© 2012, Ragnar Kjartansson. All rights reserved.<br />
Ragnar Kjartansson, The End – Venezia, 2009. 144 Paintings. Installation<br />
view at Phoenix Art Museum. © Ragnar Kjartansson; Courtesy of the artist,<br />
Luhring Augustine, New York and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik. Photo: Cathy Carver<br />
All rights reserved.<br />
Ragnar Kjartansson, Scandinavian Pain, 2006-2012. Neon. Installation view<br />
at Phoenix Art Museum. Courtesy of the artist, Luhring Augustine, New York<br />
and i8 Gallery, Reykjavik.<br />
Ragnar Kjartansson, The Visitors, 2012. Nine-channel video. Restricted<br />
gift of the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation to Phoenix Art Museum, The<br />
Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. © 2012,<br />
Ragnar Kjartansson. All rights reserved.<br />
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MIM TRACES THE HISTORY OF<br />
THE ELECTRIC GUITAR<br />
By Jeff Kronenfeld<br />
On November 10, the Musical Instrument Museum<br />
unveiled its newest exhibit, The Electric Guitar:<br />
Inventing an American Icon, with more than 80<br />
historic guitars, instruments, amplifiers, and original<br />
design sketches. While you’ve probably heard some<br />
of these very instruments – Pete Townshend’s “5”<br />
Les Paul Deluxe, Keith Richards’ Telecaster, and Bo<br />
Diddley’s custom “The Get Drum” – visitors have<br />
a chance to see the DIY origin story of the first<br />
electrically amplified string instruments unfold before<br />
them in their steel and wooden flesh.<br />
The electric guitar so revolutionized popular music<br />
it’s hard to remember when horns ruled the roost in<br />
the early 20th century. The first of the exhibit’s three<br />
sections displays a number of seminal electrified<br />
instruments, including a ukulele, banjo, violin, and<br />
zither. There is a hand-drawn sketch from Frederick<br />
Deardorf, who designed one of the first functioning<br />
electronic stringed instruments in the early 1920s,<br />
in this case a violin. There are also a number of very<br />
early amplifiers, some which look straight out of<br />
Edison’s lab and others that appear astonishingly<br />
modern for the time.<br />
As the exhibit’s title promises, it includes a plethora<br />
of guitars from this period, however unrecognizable<br />
their designs may be. The first to be electrified were<br />
not “Spanish” guitars, those often played while<br />
standing with the instrument suspended from a neck<br />
strap, but instead lap steel or “Hawaiian” guitars,<br />
which are generally laid flat and played while sitting.<br />
“In a few short years, people explored a staggering<br />
range of possibilities,” said curator Richard Walter.<br />
“It’s just hard to imagine that so much development<br />
across so many categories had already been<br />
investigated just between 1932 and 1938.”<br />
By the late 1930s, the simple yet elegant form of<br />
the modern electric guitar began to take shape.<br />
George Beauchamp’s refinement of the stringdriven<br />
electric pickup – the device that converts<br />
the physical vibrations of the strings into an<br />
electric signal – helped make this possible. After<br />
the exhibit opened, Beauchamp’s nephew reached<br />
out to Walter, sharing the story of how his uncle’s<br />
first model was made with parts cannibalized from<br />
the family’s washing machine.<br />
“I thought that was a perfect example of people<br />
using what was at hand to develop something totally<br />
new, because there were no ready-made parts,”<br />
Walter said. “It was kind of the Wild West.”<br />
The exhibit’s second and third sections see the<br />
electric guitar go from technical oddity to massproduced<br />
commodity and cultural icon, including<br />
instruments such as the Elektro A-25, known<br />
commonly as the frying pan, which became the first<br />
commercially successful electric guitar. It was also<br />
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first to grace a national radio broadcast, in January of<br />
1933. Alvino Rey’s historic performance caused quite<br />
a stir, prompting a number of listeners to contact the<br />
station to find out what it was they had just heard.<br />
“The electric guitar was a different sound,” Walker<br />
said. “Some people thought it sounded almost like<br />
an organ and some like a horn. Depending on the<br />
recording quality, sometimes it even sounded like a<br />
kazoo, that real nasal-but-dense sound.”<br />
Rey also helped a number of companies with<br />
research and development, all of it together earning<br />
him the moniker of “Father of the Electric Guitar.” It’s<br />
no wonder Rey’s historic instrument – with its faded<br />
white paint chipping along the edges – is given such<br />
pride of place in the exhibit and its marketing.<br />
More than 20 years before Elvis gyrated his guitar<br />
and hips into the national consciousness, the<br />
instrument was already an emblem for a changing<br />
society. As electric guitars became more widely<br />
available, they revolutionized popular music, helping<br />
usher in first western swing and later rock ’n’ roll as<br />
popular genres.<br />
“Leo Fender in particular was really important<br />
because he took the principles of the electric guitar<br />
and applied a very smart mass-manufacturing<br />
sensibility,” Walker said, pointing out another<br />
instrument of particular historical significance in<br />
the show. “For all the images of Jimi Hendrix, Eric<br />
Clapton, and all the great Stratocaster players,<br />
Leo Fender personally wanted to put his fanciest<br />
early one in the hands of Eldon Shamblin to play<br />
Western swing.”<br />
Whether it was a discordant rendition of the national<br />
anthem in the ’60s or the staccato aggression of<br />
punk in the ’70s, the electric guitar has continued<br />
to be a totem of youth, rebellion, and consumerism.<br />
To learn the rest of this story – and find out how the<br />
Stratocaster got its horns and the Gibson Les Paul its<br />
double humbuckers – you’ll just have to explore the<br />
MIM’s exhibit yourself.<br />
The Electric Guitar: Inventing an American Icon<br />
Through September 15<br />
Musical Instrument Museum<br />
mim.org<br />
Alvino Rey’s Electro<br />
Audiovox model 336 Duo double-neck<br />
Bo Diddley’s The Bad Dude<br />
Pete Townshend’s Gibson Les Paul Deluxe<br />
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Photos courtesy of Alexi’s Grill
Alexi’s Keeps It Classic<br />
By Sloane Burwell<br />
It’s impossible to miss the facelift happening in Central Phoenix. With the<br />
explosion of new builds and faux-Tuscan remodels, there is almost nothing left of<br />
old Phoenix – except maybe Alexi’s. For years, I’ve driven by and thought, “One of<br />
these days, I’ll go there.” I’m not alone in that – legions of fellow Cenpho peeps<br />
say the same thing every time I bring it up. So I took the plunge, and you should,<br />
too. Alexi’s is one of the last untouched pieces of our collective history. The<br />
building, the service, and the menu are warm and comforting, kind of like a hug<br />
from your favorite aunt.<br />
If you’ve ever pulled into the Alexi’s parking lot on Central Ave. instead of<br />
Walgreens, you’ll remember the huge lot out in front (that blocks your access to<br />
Walgreens). It’s a treat, these days, to have enough parking and not feel obligated<br />
to quickly download an app to tip the ubiquitous, mandatory, and “free” valet<br />
(seriously, who has cash anymore?).<br />
Inside, the restaurant is warm and inviting. And it was fairly packed on every<br />
one of my visits. Alexi’s is filled with celebrating families (several generations,<br />
sometimes), people from the neighborhood, and hipsters who have discovered the<br />
tasty food, attentive service, and extremely fair pricing (more on that later). The<br />
art, the tables, the decor seem charmingly out of the ’80s, and the entire place is<br />
polished to an impressive shine. Alexi’s is well loved and looked after. The ’80s<br />
feel isn’t at all ironic, and more like that aforementioned hug from your favorite<br />
aunt. This is a place that hasn’t changed, because it shouldn’t have to, and I hope<br />
it never does. I will cry if I ever return to find a cheap IKEA-style remodel. Or even<br />
an expensive remodel. Please don’t change.<br />
The menu reminds me of places my parents would take me when I was younger,<br />
and it was a special (at the time, that meant fancy) meal. Do try the Fried<br />
Calamari ($10), an impressive plate of fried, crispy perfection. The adorable steel<br />
gravy boat holds warm housemade marinara. We used the basket of yummy freshfrom-the-oven<br />
rolls (delivered almost as soon as you sit down) to scoop it up with<br />
quickness. If there is a better fried calamari around, I have yet to come across it.<br />
Since I’m a sucker for a retro appetizer, I had to try the Shrimp Cocktail ($12). Four<br />
enormous and delicately poached shrimp arrived perched atop fresh greens. A<br />
quick spritz of the lemon slices and a dash of kicky cocktail sauce and it’s almost a<br />
salad. It’s clear that these were poached in-house (that is the only way they taste<br />
this sweet and perfect), and it’s obvious nothing here comes out of a bag.<br />
Speaking of salads, every dinner comes with soup or salad. Get the salad,<br />
especially if you love a mustardy vinaigrette. You’ll get a generous serving, which<br />
is missing cheaper greens like iceberg. It’s fresh and pretty fabulous. I sampled several<br />
soups – the chicken noodle was great, but to me the salad is the way to go.<br />
Don’t skip the Catch of the Day Salad ($16) – on one visit it was halibut. A rather<br />
large raft of buttery, exquisitely cooked fish comes perched atop a mesclun green<br />
mix. I would ask for a light hand on the cabernet vinaigrette, as the salad was<br />
a bit heavily dressed on my visit. I recently had a smaller piece of halibut on a<br />
smaller salad at another well-known place in town, and it was closer to $30. At this<br />
price, this dish felt like a steal.<br />
I’m careful about the carbs these days, so it seems decadent to see an entire<br />
section of the menu devoted to pasta. I absolutely adored the Sirloin Pasta ($16):<br />
an entire steak covers an enormous portion of penne, covered in mushroom,<br />
gorgonzola, and wine sauce. Plate-lickingly good, and get some more fresh bread to<br />
sop up the sauce. I almost made a tiny steak sandwich with the leftovers (there are<br />
ALWAYS leftovers at Alexi’s).<br />
The Eggplant Parmigiana ($15) comes with two eggplant discs, smothered in cheese<br />
and marinara, and served alongside linguini. The eggplant was well cooked, not<br />
mushy, slightly sweet, and still savory (thank you, oregano!). The Vodka Tortellini<br />
($17) comes in a giant white ’80s bowl (like the ones used for Lobster Bisque back<br />
in the day), with your choice of sauces. Go for the Jalapeno Alfredo – a slight heat<br />
lingers and enhances the sauce, with grilled chicken tossed inside and a smattering<br />
of black beans. Don’t skimp on the spoonfuls of fresh-grated parm they bring around<br />
– it’s gilding the lily, but you only live once, right? Knobs of chunky tortellini are still<br />
toothsome and eminently slurpable.<br />
My favorite surprise here was the New York Strip. I love a good steak, especially<br />
at $28. This is 12 ounces of excellent grilled beef, and would easily cost twice this<br />
amount at other places. It’s served with a side of grilled potatoes and super yummy<br />
and sweet carrots (in the ’70s these were called Num Num Carrots – you should<br />
Google. Made with about a stick of butter and brown sugar, the end result is totally<br />
worth it). Try as I might, after the appetizers, the fresh warm rolls, and the ample<br />
salad – there was no way to finish this. But it made an excellent breakfast burrito<br />
the next day.<br />
The dessert was the real walk down memory lane. We had the Cheesecake ($5).<br />
It was like a literal slice of 1984, in the best way. Once upon a time, every fancy<br />
restaurant had cheesecake. And it was this cheesecake – straightforward, simple,<br />
dense, and served atop a puddle of strawberry sauce. It’s a comforting dessert<br />
that harkens to a simpler time, before the Food Network turned cheesecake into<br />
a complicated thing. Don’t get me wrong – I love a fancy cheesecake with handgrated<br />
nutmeg, locally sourced pinon crust, and housemade whipped cream from<br />
fancy cows. That also has a place. But so does this. I hope this dessert transports<br />
you as much as it did me and my guests.<br />
As this city continues to evolve and change, I’m on board with most of it. It’s great<br />
to watch this place grow up a bit and feel like the big city that it is. And at the same<br />
time, I’m a bit sad and wistful for all we’ve lost, which is why places like Alexi’s<br />
Grill are all the more important. It is our history, our city, and our collective culinary<br />
memory of a time and a place that doesn’t really exist anymore. But within these<br />
walls, it does.<br />
Alexi’s Grill<br />
3550 N. Central, Suite 120<br />
alexisgrill.com<br />
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Photography: Sean Deckert<br />
Styling: Natalie Vie and Sean Deckert<br />
Makeup: SuperSonicNava<br />
Location: Calabasas, California, post Woolsey Fire<br />
Models: Natalie Vie, Ray Ochoa (dog)<br />
Blue necklace: Anya Melkozernova<br />
Vintage Tiara: curated by Nadine Allen<br />
Silver and turquoise jewelry: Natalie Vie<br />
Skull Ring: The Great Frog<br />
Snake Ring: Gucci<br />
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Two Soulful<br />
Phoenix Bands<br />
The Maya Spectra and Palo Brea • By Kevin Hanlon<br />
Photo: Dino Webb<br />
Some people consider music to be the language of the universe – an<br />
integral part of the all-encompassing mystery of being. The authors of The<br />
Kybalion identified seven principles of truth to understand the construct of<br />
life. The same seven principles live within music. The fourth principle<br />
is polarity. “Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of<br />
opposites; like and unlike are the same; opposites are identical in nature, but<br />
different in degree; extremes meet; all truths are but half-truths; all paradoxes<br />
may be reconciled.” Beauty is found where these two points meet – this is<br />
known as the point of balance.<br />
Countless artists and musicians experience peaks of triumph and valleys<br />
of struggle in various parts of their lives. These trials and experiences<br />
affect everything they create. Most artists would agree that they need<br />
both aspects present if they are ever to realize their creations. People<br />
are merely machines of experience that process what they perceive and<br />
produce what they come to know. They can try to explain their work –<br />
what happened to them, etc. But in the end, all they’re really saying is, “I<br />
didn’t know how else to say this. I made this for you.”<br />
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The Maya Spectra<br />
The Maya Spectra is everything you didn’t know you<br />
needed and nothing you would expect. The band<br />
creates what they refer to as “omnigenre” music.<br />
Their 2016 release, Music Box, found them diving<br />
headlong into their varied influences of electronica,<br />
hip-hop, jazz, funk, and soul. They cite James Blake,<br />
Tigran Himassyan, and Stateless as influences. The<br />
band blends their favored elements to craft a sound<br />
that spans tranquil meditation, nourished vigor, and<br />
informed politics.<br />
The group’s history is as varied as their tastes.<br />
Donald and Julian Pena are brothers born and raised<br />
in Arizona. Donald didn’t find himself behind a guitar<br />
until he was 17 years old, but he quickly rose in<br />
prowess and went on to earn a degree in music from<br />
the Santa Fe University of Art and Design. Donald<br />
attended school with Julian, a drummer, and once<br />
there, the pair met French-Canadian vocalist Janel<br />
Blanco. In 2016, the trio formed The Maya Spectra.<br />
After graduating from college, Donald and Julian<br />
moved back to the Phoenix area, and Blanco soon<br />
joined them. Since that time, the trio has played rare<br />
Photo: Dino Webb<br />
shows at Valley Bar, Musical Instrument Museum,<br />
Lost Leaf, and Crescent Ballroom. While their dates<br />
have been few, The Maya Spectra’s impact has been<br />
great. This past September, the group opened for<br />
musical juggernauts Kneebody at Valley Bar. It was<br />
the band’s largest and most prestigious show to date.<br />
“We rehearsed that set every day for about a month,”<br />
Blanco says. And as the old adage goes, hard work<br />
pays off. The band performed a crowd-pleasing set<br />
worthy of their Kneebody nod.<br />
The three members of The Maya Spectra harness a<br />
uniquely rich sound. Their music exhibits ethereality<br />
and carnality. Blanco’s voice crystallizes over<br />
electronica-driven beats, synth pads, and other<br />
sounds crafted by the brothers Pena. Their sound<br />
is dreamlike, phantasmagorical even, and yet<br />
thoroughly energized – the perfect soundtrack for a<br />
psychological thriller, a library session, or a winestained<br />
evening.<br />
Donald’s technical handiwork is partly to thank for<br />
the multi-instrumental soundscape. For live shows,<br />
he splits his signal with a pedal into three different<br />
sounds: guitar, bass, and synthesizer. Julian holds<br />
up the other half of the music with percussion that<br />
is by turns fervent and poised. Finally, Blanco brings<br />
Photo: Brandon Mendez<br />
the experience full circle with her enchanting vocals<br />
that are at times textured with reverb and delay for<br />
increased effect. “We talked about getting another<br />
member, but if we can get the sound we need by<br />
ourselves, we might as well just go with what<br />
works,” says Donald.<br />
The band gets their name from the Hindu goddess<br />
Maya, known as the force that creates and maintains<br />
the physical universe. Brahman is considered the<br />
supreme cosmic power of every physical object,<br />
while Maya is the illusory individual created by the<br />
consciousness that allows us to reach the highest<br />
truth, enlightenment. Blanco explains, “The spirit of<br />
The Maya Spectra is openness and freedom.”<br />
“Our goal is to always remain conscious socially and<br />
politically, but we want it to stay open,” explains<br />
Donald. “We’re open,” Blanco affirms.<br />
In 2019, listeners can expect a new release from The<br />
Maya Spectra. “We’re reintroducing ourselves with<br />
this new music,” says Donald. Look for The Maya<br />
Spectra’s live shows throughout the Phoenix area,<br />
and listen to their music on your favorite streaming<br />
service. Their newest single, “Cerulean Eyes,” will be<br />
available February 22.<br />
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Photo: Cody Simpson
Palo Brea<br />
Another Phoenix band that explores the confluence<br />
of polarity is Palo Brea. In the group’s rehearsal<br />
space near downtown Phoenix, Daniel Byers spins<br />
silk magic from his keyboard and Laura Berens is<br />
crooning a vocal warm-up as she checks the levels on<br />
her PA system. She shrugs and offers an untroubled,<br />
“I don’t know,” once she gets her levels dialed to<br />
where she wants them. Owen Ma’s fingers roll<br />
through his warm-ups, which consist mostly (and<br />
hilariously) of playing the theme to Seinfeld, and<br />
Connor Sample is telling an anecdote about someone<br />
who told him to “beat the hell out of those things –<br />
this is a rock show,” referring to his drums.<br />
Byers and Berens have been making music together<br />
in Tempe and Phoenix since 2014. I first had the<br />
pleasure of hearing the pair play in 2015 at a house<br />
show in Tempe as part of the pop-soul band Blacktop<br />
Chalk. The band was made up of four ambitious<br />
undergraduates, all remarkably proficient in their<br />
respective crafts. Just as today, Berens led the band<br />
on vocals and Byers was behind the keyboard. Their<br />
sound was playful and intimate, full of consideration<br />
and emotion. Audience members couldn’t help but<br />
become entranced, smile, and break into dance. To<br />
put it simply, people fell for the group when they<br />
played. That reaction hasn’t changed at all when<br />
listeners come across Palo Brea.<br />
Photo: Cody Simpson<br />
After graduating from ASU, Berens and Byers stepped<br />
away from their independent project to work as cover<br />
musicians at various lounges and restaurants in the<br />
Phoenix area. “It was mostly just pop tunes,” says<br />
Byers. “You know, top-forty songs; playing ‘Piano<br />
Man’ for tips. Things like that. It sounds funny, but it<br />
was fun, too.” The duo took the gigs out of necessity<br />
more than anything. “Basically, we just needed the<br />
money,” Byers says, laughing. While the lounge gigs<br />
might have paid the bills, it’s evident that they also<br />
helped build the duo’s technical proficiencies. Berens’<br />
voice is stronger than ever, and Byers is simply a<br />
wonder to witness on the keyboard.<br />
During their time as lounge musicians, Byers and<br />
Berens met bassist Owen Ma and drummer Connor<br />
Sample, and the four of them formed Palo Brea. With<br />
the right pieces finally in place, Palo Brea has brought<br />
their music to new creative heights. Berens and Byers<br />
couldn’t be happier to be back performing with a<br />
band and working on original music. “It’s the freedom<br />
of improvisation and being able to talk with the band.<br />
It allows us to create original music that speaks<br />
collectively,” Berens explains.<br />
At the end of 2018, the band released their first EP,<br />
Palo Brea. They consider it to be a departure from<br />
and a marker of their former selves. From what they<br />
were before their release, the band seems more<br />
cohesive and willing to enter new spaces with group<br />
confidence. Their communication structure is sublime.<br />
Each member takes cues and advice from the others,<br />
and each offers advice in return when needed. Byers’<br />
Photo: Corey Johnson<br />
demeanor is perhaps the most apt to describe the<br />
band’s: fun, but ever-focused.<br />
Palo Brea’s music is a mixture of pop, soul, and jazz,<br />
among other genres. “Crafty jazz-pop,” says Berens<br />
with a laugh; she credits Holly Pyle (House of Stairs)<br />
for the description. But their music continues to<br />
grow in so many new directions. At their rehearsal,<br />
I was lucky enough to hear some of the band’s new<br />
material. A hip-hop beat paired with an infectious<br />
synth hook slid into new territory, via a prolonged<br />
hold on the synth-pad that dovetailed into the<br />
caressing arms of psychedelia before landing in fastpaced<br />
electronica.<br />
Palo Brea’s music is honest and raw. Byers’<br />
musicianship drives placid, graceful moments into<br />
wondrous, ebullient climaxes. Sample and Ma are an<br />
ever-present support system. Berens’ voice is at all<br />
times tenacious, confident, and familiar, with a full<br />
spectrum of angst and triumph. Flow comes naturally<br />
to the quartet, and beauty and truth are well within<br />
their purview. They each know how to support, fill<br />
gaps, and let the other members breathe, and, of<br />
course, they are all marvelous soloists. The band<br />
members wrap in and out of each other with ease<br />
and familiarity. Their rehearsals are full of laughter<br />
and joy, and yet their sound exhibits a maturity that<br />
suggests years of serious study and living.<br />
Both Palo Brea and The Maya Spectra are examples<br />
of what happens when hard work meets stable roots<br />
and a desire to seek out the unknown. Look for shows<br />
from both of these bands in the new year.
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Jonothon Lyons<br />
Scottsdale Native Barnstorms the Big Apple<br />
By Jeff Kronenfeld
Although Jonothon Lyons was born in Scottsdale<br />
and lives in New York City, his true home is the<br />
stage. Whether as an actor, dancer, puppeteer,<br />
or playwright, Lyons has dedicated his life to theater.<br />
He has performed on and off Broadway with the Blue<br />
Man Group, “Sleep No More,” and in Basil Twist’s<br />
“Symphonie Fantastique,” to name a few.<br />
His most recent original work – “The Apple Boys: A<br />
Barbershop Quartet Musical” – wrapped its premier<br />
off-Broadway run at the HERE Arts Center in New<br />
York City on December 23. Having received rave reviews<br />
from dozens of prominent publications – The New<br />
Yorker described Lyons’ writing as “wonderfully silly<br />
yet tightly constructed” – the offbeat musical seems<br />
set to run for seasons to come, with the possibility of<br />
a national tour in the not-too-distant future.<br />
Lyons’ dream of conquering the theater world’s<br />
capital city didn’t begin on the streets of Manhattan.<br />
At just age seven, he wrote his first play – “The Fox,<br />
the Hunter, and the Rabbit” – which tied for first<br />
place in a competition with a play written by high<br />
school seniors. A 10-minute version of the play was<br />
staged, with Lyons’ father (Richard Howard, a mixed<br />
media artist who passed away last year) contributing<br />
an original song. A local TV news station seized on<br />
the play, which reporters interpreted as an allegory<br />
for the then-ongoing Gulf War.<br />
“They thought the hunter represented George Bush<br />
and the fox represented Saddam Hussein,” Lyons<br />
recalls with a laugh. “I had no idea what they were<br />
talking about. I was seven years old. To me, it was<br />
just a fable.”<br />
Lyons father returned to ASU to study theater<br />
around that same time, exposing his son to more<br />
plays. At nine, Lyons stepped in front of the curtain,<br />
performing as Man Number Two in a production of<br />
“Rumpelstiltskin” staged by Greasepaint Youtheatre<br />
in Scottsdale. Lyons didn’t let the part’s supporting<br />
status deter him in the slightest. “When I auditioned<br />
for that play, something really clicked,” he said. “I<br />
knew that’s what I wanted to spend my time doing.”<br />
Lyons continued to audition for and land parts in<br />
community and school productions. The next big<br />
step forward was enrolling in the Arizona School<br />
for the Arts for high school, a charter school<br />
with an emphasis on performing arts located in<br />
downtown Phoenix. Lyons recalls the passion and<br />
professionalism of his theater teacher, Ron Bonanni.<br />
“He set a new bar and demanded that acting and<br />
theater be taken as seriously as the ballet program,<br />
which, at the time, had students dancing with Ballet<br />
Arizona,” Lyons said. “He was also a multidisciplinary<br />
artist. He was our director, but he was also the<br />
scenic designer, lighting designer, and construction<br />
craftsman. The sets in our school productions were<br />
unbelievable. That really raised the bar and taught<br />
me about the collaborative aspect of theater.”<br />
The first play he performed in with the school – “The<br />
Fantasticks” – still holds a special place for him and<br />
was a deep influence on “The Apple Boys.” When<br />
the Arizona Republic did a series profiling promising<br />
graduates from the class of 2000, the school put him<br />
forward. ASU faculty saw the article and suggested<br />
Lyons apply for an Arizona Community Foundation<br />
scholarship, which he received.<br />
Though adjusting to the larger class sizes at ASU<br />
took some time, Lyons connected with his professors<br />
and performed in numerous plays and improv nights.<br />
One of his professors, Marshall Mason, received a<br />
Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater<br />
in 2016 for work on numerous Broadway productions.<br />
One aspect of Mason’s class that strongly impacted<br />
Lyons was the weekly quizzes about the New York<br />
Times’ Sunday Arts & Leisure section. “It really<br />
gave us a New York–centric view of what it takes to<br />
succeed in theater,” Lyons said.<br />
Gitta Honegger and Lance Gharavi were two of<br />
Lyons’ ASU professors who encouraged him to think<br />
about producing his own original work. “Gharavi had<br />
JAVA 35<br />
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a thing he called the ‘edifice complex,’ where he sees<br />
breaking into theater or the entertainment industry<br />
as a process where you have to get inside an existing<br />
building, as opposed to building your own thing,”<br />
Lyons said. “I took that to heart, and now I’m finally<br />
at a place where I have built something myself and it<br />
is breaking down walls.”<br />
A performance highlight from this period was landing<br />
the leading role of Alex in a Stray Cat Theater<br />
production of “A Clockwork Orange,” based on the<br />
novel by Anthony Burgess. “That was just a dream<br />
come true, being 21 or 22, playing Alex,” Lyons<br />
said. Robert Pela praised Lyons’ performance in a<br />
review for the Phoenix New Times in 2004, as “a<br />
swaggering recital that’s equal parts Iggy Pop and<br />
Joan Crawford.”<br />
After graduating from ASU, Lyons relocated to New<br />
York City intent on pursuing his dream. He soon<br />
landed a job working for a mask puppetry theater.<br />
Inspired by the elaborate papier-mâché masks he<br />
encountered there, he created his first large rat mask.<br />
A theater in Brooklyn hosted a night of 10-minute<br />
dance and movement-based plays, and Lyons create<br />
a piece for it. “The rough idea was that an old man in<br />
a New York apartment dies, and a giant rat eats his<br />
brain and becomes a human,” Lyons explained. “Then<br />
he notices the audience and realizes he’s a naked rat<br />
and puts his clothes on.”<br />
36 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE<br />
After the performance, Lyons continued developing<br />
the story, using his anguish over a recent<br />
heartbreak as creative fuel. He gave his Kafkaesque<br />
anthropomorphized vermin a darkly ironic profession<br />
and tragic arc worthy of a German Romantic opera.<br />
He submitted it for a program at the HERE Arts<br />
Center, which provides subsidized space for new<br />
works. Lyons staged roughly a dozen performances of<br />
“The Tenement” at the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre<br />
in 2009.<br />
The judges for the New York Innovative Theater<br />
Awards were in the audience and liked what they<br />
saw. “The Tenement” received nominations in many<br />
categories, and Lyons won for Outstanding Original<br />
Short Script. In 2013, ASU commissioned a new and<br />
expanded version of the show, which Lyons wrote<br />
in collaboration with another playwright, Matthew<br />
Keuter, who helped with dialogue.<br />
Around this same time, Lyons began working<br />
with renowned puppeteer Basil Twist – recipient<br />
of a MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2015 – on the<br />
Broadway staging of “The Addams Family Musical.”<br />
Lyons continued to work with him over the next few<br />
years on productions such as “Petrushka,” “The Rite<br />
of Spring,” and “Symphonie Fantastique.” Twist<br />
became a mentor and role model for Lyons, who was<br />
inspired by how Twist developed unique works on his<br />
own terms that were both critically and commercially<br />
successful. “I’ve absorbed so much from him that’s<br />
led to my ability to write, produce, and perform in my<br />
own work,” Lyons said.<br />
In 2011, Lyons joined the Blue Man Group, a unique<br />
performance art company famous for their stage, film,<br />
TV, and even audio work. Being a member of such<br />
a well-known production group changed his status<br />
within the industry. It was also a reminder that truly<br />
unique acts could succeed.<br />
Lyons’ next original project, titled “Enso,” made use<br />
of Bunraku puppetry, a traditional form of Japanese<br />
puppet theater where a single puppet is operated<br />
by three individuals. Lyons was inspired by Philippe<br />
Genty’s famous work “Pierrot,” in which a marionette<br />
puppet slowly becomes cognizant of its strings and<br />
the one who pulls them. “Enso” was to culminate in<br />
a scene where three Bunraku puppets, operated by a<br />
total of nine puppeteers, would pick up and operate a<br />
fourth one. Though he received a grant from the Jim<br />
Henson Foundation, the project didn’t advance far<br />
past the developmental stage.<br />
In 2012, Lyons joined the cast of “Sleep No More,”<br />
an award-winning New York City production by<br />
Punchdrunk, a London theater company. An example<br />
of promenade or interactive theater, the show’s stage<br />
sprawls over several floors of the McKittrick Hotel, a
enovated warehouse in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The audience<br />
wears masks as they follow performers through psychedelic sets in a show<br />
inspired by Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” Alfred Hitchcock movies, and the 1697<br />
Paisley witch trials.<br />
Also in 2012, Lyons began forming a barbershop quartet with another Valley<br />
transplant, Cameron Malstead. Their first performance was in a show held in<br />
the Manderley Bar, a venue within the McKittrick Hotel with a 1920/30s theme.<br />
Having recruited Zach McNally, another actor, to be the third member, they still<br />
needed a tenor. In the dressing room while preparing, they asked Lily Ockwell,<br />
another “Sleep No More” performer, if she would don a mustache and striped<br />
vest. She accepted, and the Apple Boys’ first incarnation was born.<br />
A few years later, at a cast party, Lyons discussed his vision of a musical built<br />
around the Apple Boys with actor and writer Mat Fraser (who has thalidomideinduced<br />
phocomelia and appeared in the third season of “American Horror<br />
Story”). Fraser told Lyons to stop worrying and just write a draft. This encounter<br />
proved the final impetus.<br />
Lyons approached composer and lyricist Ben Bonnema from “Sleep No More,”<br />
who agreed to write the music and songs. Lyons then wrote the rest of the script<br />
(called the “book” in musical parlance). Tired of schlepping puppets, masks,<br />
projectors, and other props, Lyons wanted this project to be performance driven<br />
and require minimal set-up. “I decided I’d do it as long as everything fit into one<br />
suitcase,” Lyons said.<br />
The story is set on Coney Island in the first half of the 20th century. The four<br />
protagonists are drawn from American and New York lore, with Lyons himself<br />
portraying Warren Lincoln Travis, the world’s strongest man. Throughout the play,<br />
the four actors portray more than forty characters. Even before it was finished, the<br />
pair started submitting it to various development projects. “It got rejected from<br />
basically everything,” Lyons said.<br />
Finally, they secured a venue for August of 2016 and staged what would become<br />
the first act of “The Apple Boys.” The next spring, they held a number of table<br />
reads. With their tenor Ockwell unavailable, Emily Skeggs, a Tony-nominated stage<br />
and film actress, was recruited to fill in. She drew further attention to the project.<br />
Then one April afternoon, while working on “Symphonie Fantastique,” Twist<br />
turned to Lyons and asked what he wanted to do with “The Apple Boys.” “I said,<br />
‘Honestly, I’d love to have a production in the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre in<br />
December,’” Lyons recalls. Twist informed him of an available slot due to another<br />
show’s cancellation.<br />
Lyons and his team wasted no time, submitting a proposal that was quickly<br />
accepted. The full musical ran from November 30 through December 23 of 2018,<br />
garnering overwhelming positive reviews from critics and audience members<br />
alike. Famous stage and film actor Alan Cumming said the show “managed to<br />
reinvent the barbershop form for the twenty-first century.”<br />
“Our hope is that next year we can be produced by an established off-Broadway<br />
company or maybe an out-of-town production,” Lyons said of the show’s future.<br />
“With the right reviews and the right advertising, we could really run for a while.”<br />
However far his dreams and craft may take him – whether performing in shows<br />
such as Anthony Minghella’s “Madama Butterfly” or harmonizing his own<br />
creations – the commitment and focus Lyons honed in school and community<br />
theater productions in the Valley will ensure he’ll never forget where he’s going –<br />
or where he came from.
GIRL ON FARMER<br />
BY CELIA BERESFORD<br />
On a train from the Philadelphia airport, I overhead<br />
a Pentecostal-looking girl of about 17 and her<br />
friend having a conversation. It was mostly teenage<br />
job jab, but my favorite part was when the friend<br />
complimented the girl on her long hair. “Yup,” she<br />
responded, “17 years of hard work.” I don’t know if<br />
you are allowed to call not doing something, i.e. not<br />
cutting your hair, “hard work.” And I don’t say this<br />
just because I think hair you can sit on seems a little<br />
gross. I also know it must get caught in her butt crack<br />
like crazy. Any person with mid-to-long hair can tell<br />
you how after a shower, or a vigorous brushing, there<br />
are hairs stuck everywhere.<br />
In New York City, I watched a woman on the train<br />
platform poke around with what I assumed to be a<br />
walking stick. It was long and she tapped it around<br />
before moving ahead. She also had sunglasses on.<br />
These clues led me to believe she was blind. In my<br />
mind, I congratulated her on her bravery of navigating<br />
the world in the dark. Eventually, as I am prone to do,<br />
I imagined a scenario that required me to rescue her<br />
from some sort of atrocity. That could be anything,<br />
really, an oncoming train, a pickpocket or maybe just<br />
a bully. Regardless of the scenario, it always ends<br />
in me doing something heroic and then us – me and<br />
the person I save – becoming lifelong friends. We go<br />
on vacations together, or maybe just meet out for a<br />
few drinks. We always end up telling people how we<br />
met and they just can’t bel ieve it. In this particular<br />
scenario, she teaches me to read Braille and I show<br />
her what colors look like using hot rocks like in the<br />
movie Mask.<br />
The horn of the actual train shook me from my<br />
fantasy. Crowds of people politely parted as she<br />
made her way to the edge of the platform, and when<br />
the train pulled up she haphazardly folded the stick<br />
up, got on the train first and then played around on<br />
her phone. And when I say she folded that stick up<br />
and got on the train, it wasn’t like she did a careful<br />
fold and then tentatively moved along. It was like, f*<br />
this stupid stick and then full steam ahead. So, does<br />
this mean she’s not blind? She only plays the part to<br />
get first dibs in a busy city? It seems like any act that<br />
requires props is cumbersome and also risky. At any<br />
38 JAVA<br />
MAGAZINE
How much kissing is allowed on an airplane?<br />
I don’t mean sexy tongue kissing, because the<br />
answer to that is none. But what about just<br />
some mild lip kisses? Not quite a smooch, but a<br />
bit more of a lip press.<br />
moment you could be called out by an angry person demanding that you give up<br />
your act. Luckily, I would have been there to save her.<br />
In the Phoenix airport bathroom, as I perched precariously above the seat, I<br />
overheard what could only be the voice of Judge Judy. I guess she could be here,<br />
Phoenix is a pretty big city. But isn’t it strange that she is talking in the stall and<br />
shouting and belittling someone about being a bad person? And then I smelled<br />
something. Things started coming together, but it still took me a moment to<br />
realize what was happening. The person in the stall next to me, IN THE AIRPORT<br />
BATHROOM, was sitting around taking a crap while watching TV on her phone.<br />
I am all for relaxing, but come on! That is ridiculous. We need to somehow<br />
distinguish between public and private places so we can be a functioning society,<br />
and I draw the line here.<br />
Speaking of being in public and maintaining yourself, how much kissing is<br />
allowed on an airplane? I don’t mean sexy tongue kissing, because the answer<br />
to that is none. But what about just some mild lip kisses? Not quite a smooch,<br />
but a bit more of a lip press. In these close quarters, I want to say you can kiss a<br />
person one time before you should get a written warning. I wondered about this<br />
a while ago on a flight when I heard what I was sure was some kissing. I turned<br />
around to give a look like I might be sick, when I saw that it wasn’t kissing, but<br />
a person loudly slurping an ice cube. It was the intermittent slurping sound that<br />
was easily confused for kissing. I also believe that this type of activity on a plane<br />
should receive a warning.<br />
Although 2018 has been full of so much unbelievable, sci-fi, you-couldn’t-makeit-up,<br />
jaw-dropping, eye-popping shit, it was also funny, as it always will be<br />
when we get to observe and be observed. If this past year hasn’t taught us to<br />
laugh at ourselves and this whole facade we’ve built, we really are a lost cause.<br />
And, although you may want to curl up in a fetal ball, never leave your house and<br />
have food, booze and all the necessities delivered to your door – you must go<br />
out because, although there is sadness and fear, there is also funny stuff going<br />
on everywhere. The ability to see it and be a part of it is the only thing saving<br />
us from heartbreak and full-blown insanity. Your grandma was right, laughter is<br />
the best medicine. It makes us feel better. I hope 2019 is full of lots of laughing.<br />
Especially the kind that makes you cry and your stomach hurt.
NIGHT<br />
GALLERY<br />
Photos By<br />
Robert Sentinery<br />
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1. Tarah looks très élégant tonight<br />
2. Renée dons a pretty party dress<br />
3. Lee and Sarah at the Lodge Art Studio<br />
4. Vivienne Lux shows her art in “Tiny Dances” at {9}<br />
5. All smiles at Dana’s Christmas Classic<br />
6. EFFEN Vodka’s label art contest with lovely judge Claudia<br />
7. Jeff and Stephen at Dana’s Christmas Classic<br />
8. Valerie shows her work in “Tiny Dances” at {9}<br />
9. Patricia and Bill and Phoenix General<br />
10. Good cheer at Kaiserworks Christmas party<br />
11. Marshall Shore at Phoestivus
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17 18 19 20 21<br />
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12. Holiday fun with Carrie Beth and Sean<br />
13. Trunk show shopping at Framed Ewe<br />
14. First Friday at Heard Museum<br />
15. Housewarming fun with Jack and friends<br />
16. Ring-a-ding me up, please<br />
17. SaludEats sells healthy goodies at Phoestivus<br />
18. Handsome couple at Jack and Kathy’s party<br />
19. Grand Arthaus with Janel and JB<br />
20. This guy has the moves at “Tiny Dances”<br />
21. Fortoul clothing line release at Phoenix General<br />
22. Alejandra and Ashley at A Bloom Salon<br />
23. Melissa’s colab show at Abe Zucca Gallery<br />
24. Kimberly and Julie at Unexpected Space<br />
25. Michael checks out JB Snyder’s show at Grand Arthaus<br />
26. Checking out Kimberly Marie Jack’s artwork<br />
27. Lexie sells her wares at Phoestivus<br />
28. All together now at Third Space<br />
29. Good to see these guys again at Phoestivus
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30. Bowling & Art Friends night<br />
31. HILALI jewelry at Phoestivus<br />
32. Phoenix painters Lalo, Tato and Abe<br />
33. Kari from Mermade jewelry and friend<br />
34. Sara is behind the scenes at Phoestivus<br />
35. Jayson from Saffron Jak with his mom<br />
36. Pretty EFFEN Vodka girls<br />
37. Holiday shopping fun at Phoestivus<br />
38. Davina and Deana at Abe Zucca Gallery<br />
39. Michael from Copperstate Collection<br />
40. Found:Re in the house<br />
41. Check out this cute family<br />
42. EFFEN Vodka bottle sleeve art contest<br />
43. Celebrating the season with Larry and Sandra<br />
44. Sabree took third place in the EFFEN bottle art contest<br />
45. Laura and co. at JB’s First Friday opening<br />
46. Thanks, don’t mind if I do<br />
47. Jesse Perry wins the EFFEN bottle art contest
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48. Bowling & Art Friends night with Fausto<br />
49. Idave is in town from Guadalajara<br />
50. Mikey and Michelle rockin’ vintage Suns gear<br />
51. Hey ladies! Dana’s Christmas Classic<br />
52. Christmas Classic fun with Jenny and Jonathan<br />
53. Kimberly Marie Jack with her work at Unexpected<br />
54. Met these guys at the Kaiserworks holiday party<br />
55. Holiday fun at Jack and Kathy’s<br />
56. Christmas cheer with Laura and Danielle<br />
57. “Tiny Dances” show at {9}<br />
58. Around the fire pit at the Christmas Classic<br />
59. Chillin’ with Shana and Lisa<br />
60. Kaiserworks Christmas party crew<br />
61. Pretty sisters are dressed for fests<br />
62. More fun at the Christmas Classic<br />
63. Michelle and her beau at Dana’s party<br />
64. These guys were spinning the vintage vinyl<br />
65. Plaid on plaid
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66. Mitch and Thomas party at the Classic<br />
67. Awesome posse at Dana’s<br />
68. Cozying up with a cactus<br />
69. Indigo and her blonde pal<br />
70. Best sweater of the night<br />
71. Velvet lovelies at the Christmas Classic<br />
72. Right back atcha<br />
73. Lovely Tondra and friends at Jesse’s Christmas party<br />
74. Jesse is the pirate Santa<br />
75. Cute couple at Jesse’s fete<br />
76. AZ homecoming for this Barcelona guy<br />
77. Tarah is feeling festive at Jesse’s party<br />
78. More fun at Dana’s Christmas Classic<br />
79. Venuses in furs<br />
80. Fate of the Galaxies rocked Jesse’s party<br />
81. Christiana and Destyn spread the Christmas spirit<br />
82. All together now at the Christmas Classic<br />
83. Dallas releases her inner wild child
“ATC’S<br />
THE MUSIC MAN<br />
IS TRUTH AND BEAUTY<br />
AND LOADS OF FUN.”<br />
– TUCSON WEEKLY<br />
JANUARY 5 – 27<br />
“A JOYOUS<br />
THEATRICAL<br />
EXPERIENCE.”<br />
– ARIZONA DAILY STAR<br />
GET<br />
YOUR<br />
TICKETS<br />
TODAY!<br />
ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY COMPANY AT THE HERBERGER AT THE HERBERGER THEATRE CENTER THEATER CENTER ARIZONATHEATRE.ORG / 602-256-6995<br />
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