(Space) Rocks In Her Head

For Java Magazine,

February, 2010 - On newststands now!

You may be surprised to know that the top of the world is a cluttered office at ASU's main campus. Behind a desk there sits the stunningly beautiful Professor Meenakshi Wadhwa, Director of ASU's Center for Meteorite Studies. Not content with merely being a renowned scientist in the field of cosmochemistry, (because, honestly, who couldn't do that?), this PhD from Punjab is also an avid hiker, triathlete, pilot and potential astronaut. She's doing what she loves, and having a great time doing it - on top of the world, as they say. Did I mention the stunningly beautiful part? Well, it bears repeating.

Sorry guys (and girls), she's taken.

Born and raised in India, Mini (her favored nickname) was not the typical young Indian girl. In a culture that generally expects different things from its daughters than from its sons, she credits her parents for keeping her free to set her own path. "My father was always very progressive and my family never imposed any limitations on me. A lot of girls in India grow up with the pressure to get married as soon as they can."

"IF they go on to higher education at all, it's with the idea that it will just help them get a better match when they do get married. More often, they just learn how to cook and how to clean. I didn't even learn to cook until I attended graduate school here in the states."

How is she now? "I'm pretty good!"

Professor Wadhwa is by no means boastful, but she's not self-effacing, either. When our conversation gets to how she spends her leisure time, tucked between running and seeing bands, she casually mentions "I just got my pilots license." It's clear she didn't want to draw attention to it, but when I do a double-take, she admits her enthusiasm. "Yeah, I've wanted to do that for a long time… it was very cool!"

Perhaps she's accustomed to being exceptional, but she bears herself with an easy assuredness and lack of affectation. "Cool" seems to be how she describes the things that please her the most.

Her path to ASU began with a youthful interest in rocks and the physical world, but she says she wasn't one of those people who knew what they wanted to do from an early age. "I went into geology not fully appreciating what it was all about, really. I knew that it required a lot of field work and I liked the idea of being outdoors and basically doing something in the physical sciences."

It was early on, however, that she realized she'd chosen an untraditional pursuit. "...so I went to the university to sort of talk to the professors and look into it, and there wasn't a single woman faculty member; and even today it's a very small minority of departments of geology in India that will have faculty that are women."

Though she won't describe it as a struggle, she did have some convincing to do. "They were not very encouraging. The professors would say 'no no, it's not a field for women. You have to go on these long field trips and trudge around a lot…' They didn't think I could do it. I just said, 'wait a minute, I'm pretty sure I CAN do it.' "

How much of a motivation was proving them wrong? She laughs. "Well their attitude kind of goaded me on, but that was really secondary," she says. "I mean, at that age (17) you're still trying to prove yourself, but I KNEW I could do it just as well as anyone else, and I wanted the chance to actually do the work, that's all. In the end I was first in my class, so I kinda did o.k., I think." Point proven.

In deference to her father, Mini applied for a potentially lucrative position with the Indian oil and natural gas commission just after graduation and got it! This meant financial security, relative prestige and, since she was so young, the likelihood of even higher promotion in the future. Besides which, and not unimportantly as far as her family was concerned, she could still live in India. By any traditional standard, accepting the position was an easy choice.

Mini Wadhwa, as you may have already gathered, is not about easy choices.

"At the same time, I'd applied to grad school here [the U.S.] and been accepted here, too," she explains. "The job in India was just not where my heart was. If I'd taken it I probably would have left anyway...it's not what I wanted to do."

And so she came to Washington University in St. Louis for graduate work in geology - basically the study of physical Earth. One fateful day, however, a professor allowed her to examine a piece of a Martian meteorite that had been discovered. The lightbulb went off that she could apply all of her training not only to Earth, but to the arguably far cooler entire solar system as well! The die was cast, the seed was sewn, insert your own cliche here because I'm out.

Since then, she has done field work in Antarctica, been Visiting Scholar at the University of Chicago, Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, and Curator at the Field Museum, among other positions and appointments. Some of her awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Wings WorldQuest Air and Space Award, and the Meteoritical Society's Nier Prize - among others.

If you look up at the right time, you probably won't see it, but somewhere up there is an asteroid named in her honor as well - 8356 Wadhwa.

She also got married - to another geologist whom she first met in Hawaii, fresh from her Antarctic stint.

Doesn't that mean she never really gets too far away from work? "Yeah, well, maybe, but we love our work! Also, there's a lot about his work that I don't know and vice versa, so it's always interesting still." Does that sound ideal? Maybe it is. Eleven years suggests something's working here.

"I have absolutely no tips whatsoever on balancing personal and professional time...I'm a big believer in doing the most that you can every single day and having fun with it," she says. Still, she's avoided burnout by getting outdoors. She hikes, goes to concerts and has become, to even HER surprise, a triathlete. "I was an outdoorsy kid, but I never did any of the three sports before really. I got to know people here and they were getting into it and I thought, 'why is it that I can't get into that?' " Why not, indeed?

[One of over 1,500 meteorite samples which comprise the collection of the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration]

Drawn To ASU

The Center for Meteorite Studies has been at ASU since 1960, when the university had the foresight to purchase the collection of Arizona resident and avid meteorite collector Harvey Nininger. A "gentleman" scientist who also operated a museum at northern Arizona's Meteor Crater, Nininger virtually established the field of meteoritics in the US, according to Wadhwa. A portion of the collection had already been sold to the British Museum and ASU had to scramble to get the rest.

Today, the center holds the largest research collection of meteorite samples in the world, and the fifth or sixth largest collection even considering those held by museums.

In 2006, ASU incorporated the center into its newly-formed School for Earth and Space Exploration, a multi-disciplinary school, encompassing everything from meteoritics to engineering, geology to astrophysics. It was the attraction of building this dynamic new school from the foundation that lured Mini and her husband (also on the faculty) to Tempe.

Though very active following the lunar missions of the early 1970's which brought back moon rocks for examination, the center itself was still not widely known, despite having such a significant collection. Part of Prof Wadhwa's mission is to change all of that.

"The center really is a kind of unique resource," she says, "so we've been trying to rejuvenate interest in our samples and try to make them more available in the science community as well as to the general public. And now there are plans for the school to have a new building and a big component will be exhibit and interactive space, and the meteorite collection will be a big part of that."

The outreach extends into the local community as well. "We have samples that we take to schools to try to get kids fascinated with this stuff. Plus there's a lot of people who don't know we're here." Probably most people don't, actually.

Like the rest of the faculty, Wadhwa had to take a furlough earlier this year to help make up for budget cutbacks brought on by the recession. In addition, she says they lost the equivalent of at least one and possibly two positions this year.

Might there be a well-endowed benefactor out there who just needs to be made aware of the school?

"That's why I'm talking to you."

Mini Wadhwa, you sweet-talker, you! Oh. Yes, publicity. Yes, I see. I'll certainly do what I can.

As full as Wadhwa's life may seem at the moment, it's about to get even fuller.

After a career spent largely studying Martian soil that has found its way to Earth by natural means, Wadhwa would like to go and get some for a change. She is principal investigator for a Discovery Class mission to Mars, which aims to collect Martian atmosphere and dust samples and return them to Earth for study. "It'll be a big time commitment but I'm really excited about it because Martian samples will mean a lot to different scientists around the world."

"Right now, we can only be 99 percent sure that what we think are Martian meteorites are actually from Mars," she explains. Part of the SCIM (Sample Collection for the Investigation of Mars) mission would be to give us samples that we can be 100 percent certain of for comparison. Further experiments on the samples would seek to answer questions about the evolution of Mars, the solar system and the Earth itself. NASA will decide next year whether or not SCIM is included in its next mission.

Assuming the mission does go through and is successful, Wadhwa and her team at ASU would be first up to receive the fruits of their labors. "We'll have six months after the samples get back to do a subset of experiments on them. The idea is to try and get the most science out of the sample, so the last thing we'd want to do is hoard them. It's impossible to have our small group of individuals do all the research that needs to be done, so we limit ourselves to just what we think we'd be best at and then make the samples available to others."

Having Wadhwa as "principal investigator" on this project will certainly raise her profile, as well as that of the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration. "Part of the draw of being in this unique environment is that you have all of the different parts together at this one school. The goal is to prepare the next generation of space scientists, so bringing NASA projects here is definitely something we want to do as much as possible."

And what does the future hold for this award-winning and amply accredited professor?

"Twenty years from now I hope we'll have actual samples back not only from Mars, but from some of the other planets in the solar system. I want to be involved in some of these missions."

JAVA: And if there's a manned mission…?

Wadhwa: Oh...

Throughout our long and pleasant conversation, Professor Wadhwa was always sure-footed. She's been interviewed a lot and is justifiably confident of her material. It was intriguing, therefore, when she hesitated slightly at this question.

Wadhwa: Oh...GOD yes, absolutely!

JAVA: Is that why you're keeping in such good shape?

Wadhwa: Well...you know…who knows...

JAVA: Is that actually what's in the back of your mind when you're doing triathlon - so that you can still pass the astronaut exam when you're sixty?

Wadhwa: Ha ha ha ha...of course not...I mean, of course SO! That's what I meant to say [she is now officially blushing.] Yeah, I would LOVE to have been an astronaut. That would have been very cool!

Lest we think that her head is now in the clouds, she takes pains to explain that it is not.

"At the same time, there's so much cool stuff for me to do...and the important thing is to have fun at what you're doing at the present time. You don't want to just sort of make do and bide your time while you're thinking about some really really long term sort of plan that you're aiming towards..." Yeah yeah yeah, the common term for those things is "dreams," Professor. I get the impression that she's trying to convince herself as much as me.

She needn't worry.

Who among us would ever accuse Mini Wadhwa of simply biding her time?

See more pictures of the esteemed professor at my Flickr page.

Queen of the Scene

For JAVA Magazine, on news stands now!

If you're a part of the local party scene, you probably already know her name. You may be among the few who realized who you were looking at as you watched the thin, buxom visage stride from shadow to shadow around the dance floor, but never on it. Even if you don't go out, you've probably heard of her parties sometime in the last two years. They come up regularly in the mainstream press. They begin waves of copy-cat events throughout the Valley. She is Miss Jen Deveroux, and at the moment she is Queen of the Scene.

I say "at the moment," because nothing so etherial can last very long, and that's fine with Deveroux. With a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Loyola University and more than half-way through pre-med, throwing trendy DJ parties has been more of an inspired diversion than a calling.

Deveroux moved to the Valley from Chicago in 2000 to be on her own and go to school. "In 2007, I had a job as an aesthetician in a clinic, working with reconstructive surgery patients and doing chemical peals and stuff like that, and after eight or nine months, it just got so boring." A friend of Deveroux's, Jas Tynan, introduced her to local powerhouse DJ William Reed, who was an established local act, and the boredom was cured.

"I approached William Reed and asked if he'd teach me how to DJ, and he basically blew me off." He did recommend to Tynan that she help promote a night called Old School Thursdays at Club E-4, and Deveroux found she had a knack for creating energy AWAY from the turntable.

Still, says Deveroux, she found a lot lacking in the local party scene. "Most of these parties put a lady on the cover and they give it some lame name and then that's all they do. It's generic at almost every venue. There are one or two exceptions, but basically all the parties, quote unquote, are the same." Jen wanted more of the diversity and dynamism, some of the "cool" she had seen at parties in L.A.. She set about building a party from scratch.

She lined up Reed and another local DJ, Jared Allen, to share mixing duties. Both men had amassed a healthy following at other venues. In order to provide a diversion from the steady music, she approached various artists and performers who would rotate into the party. Not only would they be selling their art during the shows, but in many cases they would also be creating on-site. Next, they needed a venue.

"We wanted something with its own character that wasn't just an ordinary club. Most big cities have these great old hotels and that's always where the best parties are," she says. "Los Angeles has the Roosevelt on Hollywood Boulevard, and The Standard; San Francisco has tons of them. When I saw the San Carlos, I fell in love with it!"

That's how I met her. I was managing the Hotel San Carlos at the time. It was early April, 2008, and I was looking ahead to a long Summer with no revenue coming into our food and beverage operation. Our restaurant staff already wasn't making much money in tips, and soon they would be making even less. We couldn't count on locals to make up for the absent tourists, either. The hotel had just celebrated its eighty-fifth year in the center of Downtown Phoenix and aside from old-timers, very few people in town even new it existed.

Looking out the window at the outdoor pool deck, I thought there must be a way to entice people to come enjoy the pool and, more importantly, buy booze! A mere day later my phone rang, and Jen Deveroux made her proposal for a weekly pool party. Perfect!

Thus started Adult Swim, the event that put Jen Deveroux AND the San Carlos on the map. Not only did it attract scenesters from all over the Valley, but students, artists, business people and people who didn't even know what a "party scene" was. The event grew to capacity quickly and it wasn't long before hotels Valley-wide were trying to jump on the bandwagon. Still, Adult Swim was the hottest, hippest party in the Valley that season. By the next Summer, the party had outgrown the San Carlos and moved to the Wyndham, which could handle the capacity.

Since then, Jen Deveroux has been a minor celebrity in town. She has launched numerous parties with greater or lesser success, but her reputation for creating a cool event has remained intact and sought after by business people wanting to bolster flagging interest in their clubs and bars.

Her current hit is a party called "Harlot," which inhabits both the Red Room and Peire Lachaise lounges at the Mondrian Scottsdale Friday nights. While there are no bathing suits, the vibe is much the same as Adult Swim. People are laughing, dancing, having a great time. A girl dressed as a living anime character is putting paint to canvas at an easel on one side of the room. On center stage, a contortionist from the performing troop Scandalesque draws whoops of applause for adopting superhuman positions. In the far corner, DJs William Reed and Tricky T are behind their laptops cueing up the next transition of songs.

And in walks Jen in a smart black blazer, skin tight jeans and straight, shoulder-length hair. She looks professional, thin and shapely. She's difficult to get a beed on from across the room because she is everywhere. Two feet through the door, and she's stopped by an admirer. Another joins. She laughs, answers a question or two and excuses herself, only to take a few more steps and then stop to answer text messages. Then it's across the floor and over to Reed, over to the bar to check on liquor sales and out to the patio because someone out there is partying a bit too hard. Over the course of the next hour, she has been downstairs twice to check on the party there, conferred with hotel management three times about sound levels, rowdy attendees and an animated DJ, and given small bits of personal time to about a dozen friends, most of whom she never knew just two months ago and won't see or speak to again until next Friday.

Go to the Mondrian any other night of the week outside of tourist season and it's dead; but on Harlot Fridays, the place rocks and the bars make bank.

There are a couple of reasons why Jen Deveroux's success in the Phoenix party scene is deeply ironic. Private by nature, she is decidedly not promiscuous. She marvels at the level of hooking up she hears about through the party grapevine, but is only interested in it for its soap opera qualities. She only drinks alcohol on rare occasions, and never to excess. Although she can appreciate the thumping beats of the party music, she admits that her secret favorite parties are the ones with live indie bands - a crowd that wouldn't normally be caught dead at a place so chi chi as the Mondrian Snottsdale.

A quick scratch of the surface, however, suggests she may have a genetic predisposition to successful wheeling and dealing on the periphery of the stage.

The name Anthony Pellicano would be familiar to anyone watching the nightly entertainment news magazines a few years ago. Pellicano, once known as "Private Investigator to the Stars," did detective work for the likes of Michael Jackson, Steven Seagal, Michael Ovitz and Chris Rock, among many others.

Possibly not content to just sit back and let clients come to him, Pellicano is alleged to have drummed up business by actually purchasing incriminating information and charging would-be clients big money to keep the information a secret under the pretext of "managing" it for them. What Pellicano may have considered a bold and innovative business idea, eventually resulted in racketeering charges, and later a conviction for other prodigious transgressions.

He's a real go-getter, that Anthony Pellicano; much like Jen Deveroux. Also like Jen, he is creative and energetic and driven. He knows everybody and everybody knows him. Jen Deveroux knows him perhaps best of all.

Pellicano is Jen's father.

(Cue the Darth Vader theme.)

Jen loves and once trusted her father. The revelations of his misdeeds and the reality of his subsequent downfall put Jen through the mill. The move to the Valley was a much needed escape from a more fucked up reality - one she now has in perspective and no longer needs to feel threatened by. The creativity she has exercised here and the success she has had has enabled her to lay claim to her own identity. She is in control of her life and her destiny and is determined to keep it that way.

Even though we admire one another because of our past collaboration, Jen was slightly apprehensive at being interviewed for this piece. I knew I'd have to be somewhat cautious, and ease into it gradually.

Java: Some people say the party scene is where you go to find tomorrow's homeless people today. Basically it's for losers. What do you say to that?

Answer: I'd say they don't know what they're talking about. I'd also say you're an ass!

Wow, a simple question, and she was already being so sensitive!

Java: Why do people go to a "Jen Deveroux party?"

JD: Well, all these parties have their own sort of characters. For Adult Swim, people came to see vast amounts of other people who are cool, artsy, tatted up, in bathing suits. Also because the Hotel San Carlos was just the only place in town where you could get the really hip kind of vibe. So that all came together. And yeah, there was a bunch of people who were looking to get laid. I mean, come on, let's be honest.

...and even now at Harlot, you still have most of that, minus the swimming pool. The Mondrian has its own cool vibe, plus we give them a lot to look at. We get people who wanna hear good music and from the best DJs. And we always get a real variety of people. We get artists, intellects, wealthy people, people on a budget because it IS a free party...

...one thing I want to have at all of my parties is that cool mix. I don't want it to be just a meat market or just for girls or just for rich people. Just for cool people. Haha - You know who you are!

Java: So how do you achieve that?

JD: Through branding. Through the look of the flyers, the promotion, marketing, musicians, the DJs involved. I try to imagine stuff that's totally different than what's going on. With Harlot I'm trying to use the physical entertainment, the contortionists and performers with live painting with DJs and integrate it into a hip night that would be attractive to a lot of the population. You don't really go to a club here and see that type of performance. You see go-go dancers, but not someone breathing fire or hanging from the ceiling. It might be more common in L.A., but it's not here.

Java: What changed after your success with Adult Swim?

JD: It was amazing! For one thing I got a lot of name recognition. We were featured in The Arizona Republic, New Times, on television. I think it gave me credibility right away. People who had clubs started seeking me out to see if I could do something for them. I think it made everything else possible, really.

Java: Unless a party is really successful, there's not a lot of money to go around. Why wouldn't the DJs just do this themselves and cut out the middle-man?

JD: It's funny because back ten years ago, most DJs were hired just as a DJ, but now they've merged into promoters, too. Some DJs are o.k, with it, but most aren't. I mean, I actually used to hear that a lot from some of my DJs, like "why should you get a cut when it's all about the music, and I play the music." That works until one of the hotel managers wants to pull them out of their sets to talk about room capacity or until one of the DJs friends does something stupid to get themselves ejected. The truth is these DJs are performers. They can't do what they do if they're also juggling the other performers, the guests, the parking, the receipts... Some of our DJs are absolutely wild, too, and that's part of their popularity. From the venue's standpoint, they always know where to find me and I'll solve their problems and keep the party going. From the DJs standpoint, they don't have to worry about anything but the music. Ha - I'm VITAL!

But so are they. I love my boys! William Reed, Jared Alan, Sean Watson and Tricky T. They're the best, and I couldn't do it without them.

Java: Was there a party you did that just didn't work and that baffled you?

JD: Yes! Royal Filth! That was downtown (Phoenix) at Rose and Crown. I thought the concept was very intriguing. It was a really attractive place and it was outdoors. Ultimately, though, there are a lot of thing going on on Saturdays that targeted the same people - other really well-established parties - and that's probably what did us in.

Java: You're in great shape! What's your routine?

JD: Well, I run six to seven miles, four times a week. Twice a week, I do yoga at Bikram Yoga of Phoenix. They're actually the only place in town I'll go for Yoga. I've been Vegetarian since I was fifteen. I'm one of twelve brothers and sisters, and I'm the only vegetarian. I started that because I became aware of the torture that animals go through when they are in our food chain, but I also loved the health benefits I got from it.

Java: How old are you?

JD: 37

Java: You're not going to be mysterious about that? You know, that makes you the oldest girl at most of your parties.

JD: No, I'm not going to be mysterious, I think that's great! I'm very proud of my age.

Java: What are your parties going to be like ten years from now?

JD: Ha! I'm not going to be doing this ten years from now!

Java: Back to medicine?

JD: Maybe. I really love that, and I love helping people. I'm thinking about some other things too, though. I've met a lot of really talented people over the last couple of years. I think I could do a good job representing them.

Java: O.K., now just a couple of quick questions "for classification purposes:" First, boxers or wrestlers?

JD: What? Boxers, because they're extremely disciplined as far as their workouts and I admire that. There's also something about two dudes rolling around on the floor. I mean not that there's anything wrong with that...

Java: O.K., Rough or smooth?

JD: Rough or smooth? Rough, definitely! Wait - What are we talking about? Did you go to school for this?

Java: What's coming up, party-wise?

JD: Harlot's still the big thing right now - it's getting bigger every week! What we've got planned for Valentines Day, though, is going to blow everyone away. It's a French Revolution themed masquerade night - We're calling it Let Them Eat Cake. We're having a fashion show with six or seven designers, contortionists, aerialists, fire eaters, clairvoyants. No admission without a costume. People should hit me up on Facebook to keep up to date.

You can see more pics from Harlot and other of Jen Deveroux's parties, along with a whole bunch of random stuff in the JAVA set at my Flickr site.

Also, pick up a copy of JAZA Magazine around Phoenix and Tempe. Among the places that carry them is Zia Records, Buffalo Exchange, Urban Grocery, Tempe Camera.

The Real Deal

A large group of friends and peers gathered in the office of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon tonight to celebrate the work and accomplishments of Mr. Scott Phelps, who was the Mayor's Communications Director until today at 5pm, when he began his retirement. A 19-year employee of the Mayor's office and a nearly thirty-year civil servant in various capacities, Scott chose early retirement ahead of upcoming budget cuts mandated city-wide. Had he not elected to do so, it would have meant a less senior employee (or more than one, since Scott had a relatively high salary by city standards) would have been out of work; a situation Scott was quoted as saying "would certainly not have been acceptable."

You can find plenty of accolades of Scott on the web, so I won't be too expansive with mine. He's affable, intelligent, and absolutely tuned-in. He makes friends easily and has tons of them. Even after nearly thirty years of being in the orbit of the local political world, he seems remarkably un-jaded and un-guarded. He once devoted some of his scarce time to advising me how to work within the system to get something done - note that I said "within" and not "around" the system. Scott's response to my gratitude was to say "Government should be in the business of achieving the right outcome." It's the attitude and mindset we can only HOPE our public servants will have.

It's further testament to Scott as a person that among the many well wishers were political operatives of both major parties, as well as two former Phoenix mayors, business people, media personalities, sports personalities and a contingent from the Phoenix zoo - just one of the local concerns Scott has made better with his service over the years.

Along with the recent retirement of Frank Fairbanks after 20 years of HIS service as Phoenix City Manager, Scott Phelps' departure highlights the importance of the unelected and mostly unlauded people BEHIND the scenes of our government. Scott worked for several different mayors during his career with the City, in both Republican and Democratic administrations. His devotion was to the City and its citizens, rather than to a person or party. In truth, Scott, Fairbanks, and other long term civil servants have an impact every bit as important, if sometimes less tangible, as that of the elected officials they report to.

Without them, there would be no continuity, no institutional memory, and reckless follow-through, if any, on long-term goals and projects. Without Fairbanks' dedication, spanning multiple administrations, Valley lightrail would still be a dream and downtown redevelopment would have stagnated. With the wisdom and network of contacts that only comes with time, Scott Phelps was able to help new administrations hit the ground running and avoid many of the pitfalls and errors of rookiedom. He put the right people in touch with the right people. What's more, these men didn't need to make a profit with each connection. They weren't "owned," except by us.

It will be interesting to see where each of these men target their talents next. They are both retiring with many good years left, and it's unlikely they will be satisfied with lives of leisure. For all his joking about having time on his hands now, I doubt that Scott's Blackberry will actually get much of a rest. If nothing else, there is a small army of public servants that both of these gentlemen have inspired and who, if they find themselves at a loss, will be well-advised to "use a lifeline."

Volcanico a tranquilo

Something really cool happened over at my Flickr account last week. Two people started out being pricks to one another and ended up friends. As is the nature of Flickr, it all surrounded a picture. In this case, one that I posted of a lady at a demonstration in downtown Phoenix, supporting immigration reform. Since we're dealing with humans here, the debate began with vitriol, generalization and accusation. Thankfully in this case the parties remained engaged long enough to actually come to some understanding and even cordiality. Maybe friendship.

You can check go see the bile in all its glory at my Flickr site, or continue reading here, where I've selected choice bits. If you do go to the Flickr site, you'll need to look at the comments HERE and HERE and HERE.

Here's the picture that sparked the blowup:

And here's the result:

Rick248: Too bad the real illegals don't look like that. Most people that protest think of them as poor, misunderstood types. Not the drug dealers, murders, sumgglers and I could keep going on but you get the picture. They use our emergency rooms for their personal doctors, so when you need to go to the ER it's a five to seven hour wait. Of course they don't pay so guess who picks up the tab? No matter what that poster shows, your more likely to be shot than handed flowers. I've with Sheriff Joe. I don't have a problems with sending someone back who interes our country illegally.

Corrin: By all means, Rick248, I certainly hope that you support a comprehensive guest worker program that allows the immigrant labor we exploit to also buy health insurance and be registered as having limited rights as long as they contribute to our economy. Please vote for that the next time you have a chance. Also, unless you are approaching the issue with a purely racist foundation, you will surely concede that even Arpaio's office admits that the vast majority of the illegal aliens he has turned over to the feds are not guilty committing a crime other than coming here.

Rick248: I knew it wouldn't take very long to be called a racist. If wanting my country to be safe with secure borders is racist, fine, go ahead and call me anything you want. Tell me something, when did we start picking and choosing what laws to enforce and what laws to ignore?... During my years as a LEO, I've been in four shootings. Three were illegals. I was stabbed by an illegal. You're doing no one a favor by allowing illegals to remain here. They don't learn the language so we have things in two languages. I'm 61 now and have been out of L.E. for quite a while. Both my wife and I have CCW permits. Six times I've been accosted (that is a polite way of saying attempted robbery) by illegals. Displaying my holstered weapon was enough to stop them. Two months ago three gentlemen tried a home invasion on my house. I make it a habit of answering my door with my former duty weapon in my hip pocket.

Corrin: This goes on all around the world, and it's always a problem. I really don't see it as liberal versus conservative, either, because it seems to cut across party lines. No one wants to be taken advantage of financially and certainly no one wants to be a victim of crime. It's a fantasy, though, to think that we could honestly secure our borders and an economic reality that in a profit-driven economy rotten jobs will always fall to an underclass to perform.

Plus which, having guest workers that only tap a small portion of the benefits of citizenship allows us to use them to support a time of economic growth and abandon them during a recession. Illegals aren't coming here in smaller numbers over the last year because of Sherif Joe - it's because the jobs are no longer here.

... sorry about your personal experience, but I see this as a result of not having a comprehensive guest worker policy that would truly allow us to attack the violent criminals separately from the busboys, housekeepers, produce pickers, etc.

Rick248: I'm 61 and I remember when we did have a "guest worker" program. I don't remember when it expired. I'm in favor of bringing that program back. We both know that there are jobs that Americans just don't will not do, If that program came back, then things would be better for everyone. Pay would be fair, benefits would be provided, it would be legal to obtain a drivers license and insurance. I wouldn't have any problems then.

A "guest worker" is not citizenship. If that is desired, then the person in question would be required to go though normal channels. I would be quite happy with that arrangement. It should work to everyone's advantage. Does that work for you?

Corrin: Oh definitely that would work for me - sanity, that's all. My neighborhood has a mix of both legals and illegals from Mexico and the lower Americas, so I hear a lot of different perspectives. Some of the most vehement critics of illegals are people who came during the 80's and worked really hard WITHIN the system to finally get full citizenship. I can see their point very easily. "I earned this, what did all of YOU guys do?" At the same time, I'll sit outside with the parent of a family of illegals and he tells me how much happier they were in Mexico where they had family, property and a lot less stress; but that their family is relying on them to send money back.

I didn't mean to soft-sell the crime among this group; but aside from what is a direct result of the border issue, it doesn't SEEM to me to be any different from what you find among the lower socio-economic strata in general, regardless of ethnic makeup. Also, to be sure, they have their saints and sinners like the rest who further muddy the issue.

Then in a follow up letter, Rick wrote: Just because we disagree doesn't mean we can't be friends and respect each other. You seem like a pretty good person to me.

There. Hope for humanity?

Here's a great picture from Rick's Flickr site

Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton

An hour ago, the Whitehouse posted a photo taken by one of their official photographers of the President greeting Mr. and Mrs. Dumbass at the state dinner for visiting Indian president Singh. The photo can be viewed and reproduced in any of six different sizes by anyone who has copy/paste capabilities and can find their way to the Whitehouse's Flickr account.

They didn't have to do this. They could have rightly claimed the photo was evidence in a potential criminal case. Its only real value is to administration critics who already feel that the office of the presidency is being dishonored by its current resident. They could have waited until someone in the media went through months of petitioning under the Freedom of Information protocol, betting that demand for the image itself would wane with time. That has been a common tactic in the past.

I wonder if I'm the only one who thinks this is refreshing. Understanding as they must that it will not always paint them in a positive light, I think they are showing a deliberate commitment to openness. They seem to have much less of a filter before the public than even the Clinton administration had (even PRIOR to Monica-gate.) From what I've noticed so far, they take their hits pretty straight on. Isn't it nice not to have a presidential administration described as "secretive" for a change?

Ralph Nader and the Urban Grocery

It always amazes me how quickly people can turn when their need for instant gratification isn't met.

A Zogby pole conducted in late August found that over the preceding six weeks, support for Barack Obama fell a whopping 18 percent among liberal voters aged 18 to 29 years. This is when it was being suggested that Obama may not find it possible to abandon the Afghan war right away and may entertain a compromise in order to pass healthcare reform legislation. Lower support will translate to fewer of these voters turning out for crucial mid-term elections, or to their votes shifting to fringe left candidates who don't have a real chance of getting elected.

One consequence of this last phenomenon was evident in the presidential election of 2000, when Ralph Nader's candidacy drew votes away from Al Gore and effectively put George W. Bush in the White House. How many well-meaning but short-sighted liberals ended up saying "oops" after that?

There's more than a little of this short-sightedness surrounding some Phoenix residents' reception of the Urban Grocery and Wine Bar.

If you're one of the privileged few, you will have read here about the wonderful fact that Phoenix now has a store right in the middle of downtown where we can get farm-fresh produce five days a week during regular hours. The store also serves food and wine that patrons can enjoy on-site or back at home. It's not perfect. For one thing, it's small and therefore its assortment is limited. It's run by a not-for-profit entity, and at the moment can't afford to stay open seven days.

Just the same, isn't this a step up? Won't downtown dwellers who have been clamoring for this for decades bend over backward to show their support? Isn't it better than nothing? Doesn't the fact that it DOES have farm-fresh produce, fresh bread, pasta, and candy mean that it gets at least 3 out of 5 stars for merely existing?

Not according to some people on social networking sites such as Yelp.com. "Glen D." of Phoenix writes that he's "been waiting for a grocery store downtown for almost 5 years." You might think he'd be really happy to have his five-year dream come true, but you'd be wrong. "...I do my grocery shopping on Sunday...but they are closed. Try and go back Monday...they are closed. At this point, I really need those items and I'm just going to buy them from a normal store." Great job showing your support, Glen D.!

His tag line says, "I act real shallow when I'm in too deep." Boy oh boy, Glen D. of Phoenix must be in really REALLY deep. I can't emphasize enough how "in deep" I think Glen D. of Phoenix is. So deep, in fact, that instead of reading the store hours on the door, he just keeps coming back day after day. D'oh! That's deep, Homer - I mean Glen D of Phoenix.

I won't go too far into the fact that his wife writes a second two-star review on top of his. Don't know what that's about, unless her father is Mr. Safeway or something. Please get a different hobby, guys. Remember that episode of Extreme Makeover you Tivo'd last week? It's calling you.

So...The reason for the tiresome paragraph on politics at the beginning was to underscore how sometimes we humans unwittingly do ourselves in by not seeing the big picture. I don't want supporters of a downtown farm-to-table grocery to end up saying "oops" because they fail to support the Urban Grocery and Wine Bar and thereby lose the only chance Phoenix has had in decades of making a permanent farmers' market a reality.

This is a sprout, if you will, that needs to be sheltered and nourished if it's ever going to flourish. It has City backing and an entity with full non-profit 501c-3 status running it. This is our best shot, Phoenix. It will grow or die based upon its viability as a business, for sure; but for us to doom it because it isn't perfect would be...that's right...voting for Nader.

Eat THIS!

Nothing poetic this time, but I have great news for anyone living or working around downtown Phoenix. If you like to cook with farm-fresh, locally grown produce, you no longer have to wait for a weekly market. In case you haven't heard, the Urban Grocery and Wine Bar is open for business at Central Avenue and Pierce St. It bridges the gap between the convenience of Safeway and the direct-from-the-Earth purity of Phoenix Public Market.

The grocery occupies a building adjacent to the parking lot where the normal Wednesday and Saturday markets continue to be held. Sharing the space is Royal at the Market coffee bar, which roasts their own coffee and offers a variety of homemade baked items.

Local farmers, four of whom I profiled in my piece for JAVA Magazine, keep the grocery supplied with fresh fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. The current inventory also includes locally made pasta, bread, chocolates, sauces and artisan cheese. Don't feel like cooking? Order a sandwich or soup from the lunch counter and choose a glass of Arizona wine to get that glow going. A handful of tables just inside the sunny front window make this a great place to pass the time with a friend (Or the remainder of the bottle of wine. Or both.)

The Urban Grocery and Wine Bar is all part of a master plan developed by Community Food Connections to bring a thriving and much larger permanent market to the heart of the city. According to Cindy Gentry, Director of CFC, this stage of the plan has so far gone well. "I think it's exceeded our expectations. We did a lot of careful planning because there's not a lot of room for mistakes...but we're right on target."

By next week, the Urban Grocery shelves should be completely full, after the arrival of staple items that Gentry feels are absolutely vital to the success of the shop.

"People need to be able to do a lot of their shopping here and not just their produce. Rice, flour, baby food...we're not very big, but we need to have some of the everyday items." That gives people less reason to make a trip to one of the huge, traditional stores, where convenience will likely tempt them into buying their produce as well.

"The next step is to grow the capacity of these vendors and increase the size of the store...A typical public market is about 25 to 40 thousand square feet. We have about 17 hundred here now." Whether that means purchasing adjacent lots or moving elsewhere in downtown, only time will tell. First Community Food Connections needs to prove that the community at large will support Urban Grocery by giving it some of their regular shopping time and money.

Urban Grocery and Wine Bar is located at 14 E. Pierce St., and is an easy walk from the lightrail and bus hub at Central/1^st Ave and Van Buren St. Hours are 11am to 8pm, Tuesday through Saturday. Royal at the Market coffee bar is open 7am to 8pm, and can be entered through a door around the side when the grocery is closed.