I tried to save it till May. You know, do this like a once-a-month thing, but it’s Springtime and it is beautiful and windy and there is less clothing being worn and school is wrapping up and it is wonderful. So what do I decide to do? Stay inside, write a column for Flagstaff’s premiere internet presence: Robothouse dot org!
So here’s this:
If you weren’t sure it was Springtime, you can always tell by the amount of hippies milling around the front of Macy’s European Coffee Bistro, and this weekend there were a lot. If Fox News was there, they would’ve called it a riot.
Speaking of Macy’s, can someone please tell Tim Macy that his photos are embarrassing, if not insulting and trite? Am I being too harsh? Okay, if I am, then who likes them? They must be selling, because I saw he put more up. But, judging from the prices, I bet the people buying are the business owners that support putting fake snow on Snowbowl; in other words, the same folks that think they can obtain the level of peace depicted in Macy’s photos from ignoring and downplaying the beliefs and concerns of Native Americans and environmentalists over and over again. Maybe if people stopped posing for the damn things, then he’d just do high contrast landscapes and save us from the didactic sentiment, or at least stick to children. You can’t get bummed at pictures of children. Unless they’re naked, and selling clothing. Then you can be bummed.
And if we’re discussing art, what about Beaver Street Gallery? Stories about this guy have been circulating since he opened up shop back in the early aughts. The one time I went in there was for Andrew Hayes’ fabulous show way back when, and I mean, I’d like to complain more, but they had free wine and cheese, and well, you just can’t complain about that. I bet that guy’s all for fake snow.
But it turns out that all the stories I heard about this guy are due to folks like Tim Macy and their “good ol’ boy” mentality of “locals only, man.” Like Point Break.
Case in point: take the lovely, new Applesauce Tea House up the road, supporting the kids, having movie nights, doing shows, just being rad. They had a rough start, but once they got going, Tim Macy decided he’d have a “grand tea opening” at Macy’s where he introduced new lines of local teas, etc. Why does he feel the need to compete with local businesses that are not at a threat to his own, which despite this rather critical mental thread, is a Flagstaff institution?
To keep it going: rumor has it this guy owns three SUVs. That’s one way to make world peace happen.
Or, maybe by ditching the night time cleaning crew and making the night shift clean with no raise in pay.
Or, lovely Jane, whom you should remember from Universalia Jane, she used to clean his house, and she did so for a fair price. When he moved to a bigger house with more rooms, as anyone interested in saving the world with their religion should do, he wanted her to clean the entire house for the same price. She called bullshit and he balked for a few weeks before paying this lovely lady who occasionally wore leather pants, and loyally cleaned his house for over 2 years, a fair price. Nice.
Or, and this is a good one, and keep in mind, these are all completely unsubstantiated rumors. I’m just talkin shit here. But at any rate, Mr. Macy, Mr. World Peace, demanded his night bakers to make this certain bar, which requires an extra hour of time, which had nothing to do with weekly sales, which is usually how they determine what to bake, and somehow these bars were never on the shelf the next day. Turns out, Mr. Macy was feeding these bars to his birds.
It’s Flaaaaagstaff, maaaaaan! It’s for the birds!
Speaking of fascist art, don’t even get me started on Louis Buchetto. Where the hell is Joe Soren when you need him?
Enough of that, I’ve got enough people mad at me.
So, moving on to more positive stuff, if you haven’t seen, heard, or felt him, Josh Williams of various infamies, (now there’s an awkward phrase) is indeed back in town. (As pictured below.) If you haven’t been fondled yet, it’s just a matter of time. Though it looks as though he’s been selling himself rather short, only starting about fifteen new bands, and only six record labels this time. Now all we need is Joey Balls back in the food chain and we got one big homo mixer.
For those on a similar nostalgia trip, pick up the Mae Shi DVD, which features their 2004 tour in documentary form, and their Cottage basement show is featured, with IHYWYP and “I got My Picture In an Issue of Thrasher.” Various locals are highlighted. Phil is not. People are having too good of a time.
And the biggest news: Kickball for the season has been kicked off. Sunday, sunday, sunday. There’s no better way to ruin your Monday. Me, I don’t do Mondays. Nevertheless, I wasn’t there last week, at the kick off, but also, and you can ask anybody, I suck. Sucking continues this week, as I will be at Heritage Square reading my work. Maybe I should just read this.
Even bigger, breaking news: the NAU republicans were shut down rather mercilessly this week by various groups like ASWI, Concerned Citizens for Robothouse dot Org (CCFR.O.) and about 90% of the student population, as the concerned republicans whined about border reform. And you know what border I’m talking about. They sure weren’t talking about the Canadian one. I mean, those folks are mostly white, and not poor. The successful shut down was due to the outlining of a few simple facts for the swine to mull over, and blasting some of the worst Clash songs in that overrated band’s repertoire (“Rock the Casbah”) and not looking like shaved weasels. The simple facts being, well, simple. Like the one above about the Canadians, or perhaps the one about we all being poor immigrants once, (it’s at the base of the Statue of Liberty) except of course, those that we stole the land from in the first place, and maybe it’s not a fact, but the stickiness of calling a human being ‘illegal.’ Please, republifucks, tell me, how can a human being be illegal?
Okay, moving on.
In Phoenix news, because Flag just isn’t that big:
Very sad to report that Tempe Stinkweeds is closing. The Camelback storewill stay open, which is where I go, because it’s right next to the greatest skateshop ever, Cowtown, but nevertheless, it’s kind of like the scene in Old School… oh, nevermind. Anyways, here’s a few bands I saw at the Tempe location: Thrones, Peechees, Satisfact, Monorchid, June of 44, Sleepytime Trio, Ida, Low, etc, etc. Blog about that, weirdos. That was my Robothouse.
Speaking of Old School, Old School 2, is in pre-production and Will Farrell, Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn are indeed signed on. This rivals Snakes On A Plane, in excitement-level, and it hasn’t even begun filming yet.
In other movie news, Matt Dillon is going to play the infamous Henry Chinaski in Factotum, perhaps my favorite Bukowski novel. No doubt he’ll do a better job than Mickey Rourke, but yikes, look for the freak show this summer.
More ‘Oh-Jesus Christ-Why?’ movies coming out this summer: Clerks II, Superman,
World Trade Center (I can’t make this up! And Oliver Stone is the director. And of course, it has Nicholas Cage. Only in America!)
What else? I don’t know, but I’m actually looking forward to Strangers With Candy (the movie!), Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (though, apparently there’s performances by U2. Fuck.) Nacho Libre (not really for the Jack Black or the Napoleon Dynamite connection, but because Mike White wrote it.) And An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s movie, and you probably think I’m joking, but Al Gore is the man. Ask Spike Jonze.
I think that’s it.
Also, to close this thing down: Yo, you should write for Robothouse. I can’t hang out all by myself. I’ll feel weird. Then it’s like my stupid blog or something and who wants that? Well, I’ll tell you: Nobody. So stop being a lazy no-good republican. It’s easy. Just talk to Ray. Who, as we all know, lives in Florida.
Did you know the Iraq War costs 10 billion dollars a month? Now you know.
Holy shit, dude! Stinkweeds is closing? That’s fuckin’ lame. Where’s the journalism? The W’s man? Why being the primary one.
dude, that guy at beaver street gallery is fucking INSANE. i see him yelling and calling the cops at people at least twice a week, because they park in front of the dumpsters behind macys (the fighting usually involves him becoming incredibly aggressive and accusing people of drug dealing on his land, followed by a “DON’T YOU FUCKING TELL ME THIS ISN’T MY PROPERTY, I FUCKING PAID FOR THIS PROPERTY,” the “fucks” included. they’re not even technically on his fucking parking lot, but he’s got a problem with anybody sharing space apparently…last month one guy parked in the actual lot and he sent tim macy a legal letter stating that if the employees of macys give anybody a “knowing wink” (and that shit is verbatim, the letter is hanging on our walk in) permitting them to park in the lot, he will press charges. he couldn’t even muster up the decency to ask tim about it (not to mention he has actually spit at tim’s feet, and i’m not defending tim for his business practices, but shit, that’s just rude) and what happens to that lot? i haven’t seen one fucking car parked there yet. not even for openings. the dude is a psychopath. he’s yelled at me for walking next to the rio to get to the street from work, not to mention physically attacked a former macys employees automobile while he was trying to back out from doing laundry (this was before it was widely known that it was not permitted). legend has it that he was chased out of cave creek for the same behavior. if there is any space to boycott other than studio 111, it is totally beaver street gallery.
also, the tea tasting tim had was at the request of the company which is locally owned and operated…that’s all i gotta say about that.
the author of this peice was not aguing that the beaver street guy is not insane, but rather WHY he’s insane (i.e tim macy). keep in mind, these are two grown men that have beef because of a parking lot. only, one of the men has nice art in his esablishment and has been effectively blackballed by the other, who has tim macy’s art in his establishment, which i don’t see anyone defending as of yet.
as for boddy’s thing, here’s some W’s:
CONTACT: Hayley Ringle, (480) 898-6301 or hringle@aztrib.com
After 19 years in the East Valley, beloved independent music store Stinkweeds is closing its doors in Tempe.
Owner Kimber Lanning said she is still breaking the news to her longtime customers and spent the better part of last week sending out e-mails and making phone calls.
“It’s emotional,” Lanning said. “I’ve made 10 people cry in the last few days. It’s a lot of things for a lot of people.”
“Other than burying my father, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
Stinkweeds has been an East Valley staple, finding its own niche amongst the sea of large corporate music stores. It’s been one of the few places to find new and used independent and local music at reasonable prices, a place to buy actual records (which people are still listening to) and an all-ages place to see live music.
A stage was added in 1996 with many well-known indie bands giving in-store performances, including Elliott Smith, Blonde Redhead and Folk Implosion. (I remember paying $5 to see many memorable shows, including The Delta 72 and Karp.)
Lanning is closing the store to devote more time for other projects, including Arizona Chain Reaction, a nonprofit organization she co-founded in 2003 that encourages people to support locally owned businesses. She has plans to take Arizona Chain Reaction to the national level and help other cities start their own organizations. She also has a couple other ideas she is working on, including a music consulting business and an arts leasing business.
“There’s just not enough time in the day,” said Lanning, adding she’s been busy working seven days a week for the past three years.
“It’s really important that people know this isn’t the death of a record store. It’s just a change in my life,” Lanning said.
It’s really important to me that people know the Tempe store is doing amazingly well.”
Lanning opened Stinkweeds in 1987 at Dobson and Guadalupe roads in Mesa, when she was 19. The store moved to Dobson and Baseline roads in Mesa in 1989, then to its current Tempe location, 1250 E. Apache Blvd., in 1996.
Lanning sold the Tempe Stinkweeds inventory and fixtures to a local couple who do not wish to be named. Lanning said the couple plan to use the inventory to open a record store called Slow Train in Salt Lake City. The couple did not buy the Web site or the Stinkweeds name, she said.
Lanning has no plans to close the other Stinkweeds and Modified Arts, a music venue and arts gallery, both of which she owns in Phoenix.
Bob Hoag, who has recorded many bands that sell their music at Stinkweeds in his Mesa recording studio, Flying Blanket Recording, said it’s a “bummer” that the store is closing, but has faith in any decision Lanning makes.
“I love Kimber and I love Stinkweeds,” Hoag said. “It’s sad to me because I like having things in the East Valley. (However,) she has the best interest of the Arizona music scene at heart always.”
Lanning plans to close the Tempe record store on or around May 25. She will have a 19thanniversary party May 6 at the Tempe store with live music, giveaways and a barbecue.
That’s sufficient.
Yeah, both of those dudes sound shady.
And Macy’s once great tempeh “tuna” was pretty bad the last time I was in town in 2002.