Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This is the last of my 2024, Arizona photo sets, just some random stuff from the trip.
At the concourse in JFK there was this bright pink player piano. When I walked up to it, it was playing some gentle jazz. Then it switched to a jazzed up version of ‘Love Me Tender.’
On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024 : Odds & EndsPost + Comments (12)
As many of my AZ friends and family are animal lovers and thus have lots of pets, I always get to get some good scritches in on my trips there. While I don’t think I hit my record (I think it was 16 cats and 6 dogs petted in a weeklong trip), I did meet some very nice furfellas…
These, however, are not cute furbabies. They are pigeons fighting over the remains of our meal at Mango’s, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Mesa which is my favorite such restaurant, well, anywhere. “Our” in this case refers to the two former Mesa librarians who were very helpful mentors in my own journey to being a librarian, whom I was delighted to see.
On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024 : AnimalsPost + Comments (11)
We conclude the Jerome subset, including some of my favorite establishments.
Looking north towards San Francisco Peaks in the late afternoon.
On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024 : Jerome part 3Post + Comments (7)
We continue in Jerome…
The Little Daisy, an event space.
On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024 : Jerome part 2Post + Comments (14)
Jerome is my favorite place in Arizona. It is located about a mile above sea level on Cleopatra Hill (near Mingus Mountain) and overlooks the Verde Valley. It got its start as a copper mine, with the mines literally below the town. The population maxed out around 10-15,000 or so in the ’20s, and at one point was known as the ‘Wickedest Town in the West’. In 1953, played out (and with some worry about the town collapsing into the mines), the mines closed, and the population dropped to around 100 or so. Since then, it’s become an art colony and more lately, a tourist attraction, with a population of 500ish and about 20 art shops, 5 or 6 restaurants, several hotels, a couple bars (and more recently, some wineries), and a few assorted other shops, including Puscifer, which is owned by Maynard from the similarly named band (and also Tool) which is, well, I’ll describe that later.
Jerome is also home to my favorite (and sadly retired) band, Major Lingo. I got to spend time with three of the four members on this trip, though Tony the slide player was as elusive as ever.
Looking north towards San Francisco Peaks.
On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024 : Jerome part 1Post + Comments (18)
For 12 years from the mid-’90s to the mid-‘oughts, I lived in Arizona, mostly in Mesa. After I moved back East, I continued to go back and visit my friends and family there (and also because it’s beautiful and had bands and food and more that I missed). This past February, I went back for the first time in four years, since a month before the plague started. This first set is from the Valley of the Sun (that is, the greater Phoenix area).
And before anyone asks, no, while in or near Tempe I did not see a man, naked or in tie-dye overalls, running down the street with a mop either pursuing or being pursued by an angry cat with a shaved ass. So unless he was one of the folks in tie-dye at Noodles on my last Sunday (see the last set when it posts), I did not come across our dear blogfather.
While most of the photos in this set (and indeed all the AZ collection) were taken outdoors, I thought I’d post this one taken in the main branch of Mesa Public Library, where I got my start in librarianship. As you might imagine, it looked a bit different a quarter century or so ago when I first worked there as a shelving page.
On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024: Valley of the SunPost + Comments (25)