Posts Tagged ‘Roosevelt Row’

Shop Local at Phoestivus Market

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Local business is integral to the growth and health of Downtown Phoenix and the holidays are an ideal opportunity for you to invest in our local economy.

Phoestivus

Get Your PHX and Phoenix Public Market have assembled a dynamic group of local businesses and vendors for two special nights of local shopping called Phoestivus Market.

On Dec. 14 and 21, from 4-8 p.m., at Phoenix Public Market (14 E. Pierce), join these local vendors for a holiday celebration like no other, featuring locally produced and locally grown food, unique gifts, drinks, and entertainment.

PLUS:

* Phoestivus Pole

* Feats of Strength

* Airing of Grievances

* Holiday Carolers

(If the first three bullet points aren’t making any sense, please watch this Seinfeld clip.)

So join Downtown’s newest holiday tradition, Phoestivus Market, and support local business in the process.

Phoestivus Market is made possible by Community Food Connections, Downtown Phoenix Partnership, Phoenix Community Alliance, Phoenix New Times, Film Bar, Downtown Phoenix Journal, Roosevelt Row, CenPho, Oasis on Grand, Lincoln Family YMCA, Local First Arizona, and La Piccola Cucina.

PAPA Comes To Civic Space Park Saturday

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

The Valley’s only pedestrian-driven community parade returns for a sixth installment this Saturday, this time with a new home at Civic Space Park in Downtown Phoenix.

2011PAPAPhoenix Annual Parade of the Arts debuted Downtown in 2006 and this year transitions from Roosevelt Row to nearby Civic Space Park, one of Sunset Magazine’s Top 10 City Parks.

But don’t let the fancy new digs fool you: PAPA promises more of the same brand of family friendly fun including live music, puppet shows, street performers, circus attractions, floats, face-painting, and dance–all leading up to the 5:45 community led parade that will weave through the streets of Downtown.

There’s no event like PAPA, which unites the arts with the greater community by providing a free and open to the public, mobile expression of the arts lifestyle that is unique to Downtown Phoenix.

So decorate your bike, dress up like a elf, paint your face, and let loose at the Phoenix Annual Parade of the Arts, an all-ages, all-shapes, all-sizes, all-day party like no other.

Nomojoe and Tequilya

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

NoMoJoe and Tequilya. If you live in the Phoenix area, you know what that means and who these calaveras represent.

This mural on Roosevelt Row is by Lalo Cota, who I wrote about~again~a few days ago and his sometime collaborator, Thomas Breeze Marcus. I’ve photographed this building in the alley of the 400 block of East Roosevelt between Eye Lounge and Modified Arts before. This is what it looked like a year ago:

You can see that some of the roses and part of the background remain the same.

Over to the left, under the billboard, this is the mural on the side of Eye Lounge this month.

This mural changes every First Friday (except in the summer) and is always done by Joe Pagac, who you can watch paint amidst the crowds. This is what it looked like about a year ago:

And below is what it looked like about 6 months ago. This performance wall is commissioned by Stateside Presents, a concert and event promoter. So it’s a good gig for Joe Pagac.

Check it out this coming First Friday and see what changes are in store…

Valley of Sunflowers Groundbreaking September 9

Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

A formal groundbreaking ceremony for the Valley of the Sunflowers Project, located on the southwest corner of 6th Street and Garfield, will be held this Friday, Sept. 9, from 10-11 a.m..

sunflowersMayor Phil Gordon and Phoenix City Councilman Michael Johnson are scheduled to attend the kickoff event.

The Valley of the Sunflowers Project [VOS], championed by Downtown residents with assistance from nearby BioScience High School and a pair of grants from Intel, will produce a 2-acre crop of sunflowers on the vacant property located between McKinley and Garfield streets, and Fifth and Sixth streets.

To read more about this inspiring community project please read Sunflower Project Poised To Bloom at Lot In Phoenix

Downtown Gets Smart

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

Now you can hold Downtown Phoenix in the palm of your hand with the new SmartPHX mobile phone app, released last week by Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications’ New Media Innovation Lab.

Cronkite_Phone_WebIn collaboration with the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, Red Development, Phoenix Community Alliance, and City of Phoenix, SmartPHX is the first smartphone app of its kind designed to help tourists, locals, and students better experience our ever-evolving central city.

Details on more than 150 restaurants, events, up-to-the-minute deals, plus transportation and map information can all be accessed in seconds via SmartPHX, your personal tour guide and social coordinator in Downtown Phoenix.

Not only will SmartPHX tell you whether or not that new Vietnamese restaurant your co-worker was telling you about is open, with your GPS enabled it can lead you right to the front door.

Best of all, SmartPHX is free of charge and free from advertising.

Here’s how to get it.

Using your smartphone browser visit  www.smartphx.com

Tap + or the iPhone arrow key and then “add to home screen”

Or download SmartPHX from the Android Market**

SmartPHX is also compatible with newer BlackBerry phones.

Free, easy to install, and helpful, SmartPHX is a great tool for Downtowners and visitors alike.

**SmartPHX is not currently available at the iTunes store.

First Annual Phoestivus Market Wednesday!

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

If you’ve always wanted to buy local but never knew quite where to start, Wednesday night is your big chance.

The Downtown Phoenix Partnership, Phoenix Public Market, Phoenix Community Alliance, Roosevelt Row, Local First Arizona, CenPho.com, Grand Avenue Merchants’ Association and Co+Hoots have teamed up to bring you the First Annual Phoestivus Market.

From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. the Phoenix Public Market will play host to a dynamic collection of vendors offering locally produced food and unique gifts, plus drinks and entertainment, all in the spirit of supporting local business.

Among the locals who will be on hand showing off their wares:

Pink House Boutique

This beloved Glendale shop specializes in funky vintage clothing and accessories.

Makes the Perfect Gift For: That niece who recently discovered Joni Mitchell’s Blue.

grapeyNina and Grapey

Jannine Doto makes sock puppets and loveable monsters from fresh socks imported daily.

Makes the Perfect Gift For: Anybody with a pulse. Seriously, these quirky puppet companions are all sorts of adorable.

wine_glassesPractical Art

Phoenix Public Market and First Friday regulars, Practical Art is “the best place in Phoenix to find unique useful items of all types, in all media, exclusively handcrafted by local artisans.” My all-time favorite are the glasses fashioned out of recycled wine bottles.

Makes the Perfect Gift For: Someone going off to college or that bachelor in your life whose cabinets are filled with hideous plastic stadium cups.

Flashpants

Flashpants specializes in recycled apparel repurposed. As a dude I lack the vernacular or fashion knowledge to describe their offerings. Just visit the web site.

Makes the Perfect Gift For: A dancer, your beagle, or eccentric Aunt Sheila.

If you’re looking for unique holiday gift ideas come down to the Market Wednesday for an evening of shopping and Phoestivus fun. After the retail spectacular has concluded, our friends at CenPho are hosting a karaoke party at The Duce.

Concentration (Matching Murals Downtown)

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Now that I’m becoming an “old pro” at mural-hunting, it’s a little like the old Concentration game. I keep coming across muralists whose work I’ve seen before and recognize either by the style or by their signature. Where was the other one(s) by this person?

This one, in the heart of the Roosevelt Row arts district (at Pravus Gallery, 501 E. Roosevelt Street), was done by “Elmac Kofie.” See the signature on the upper left above. I know I’ve seen that name before (actually this mural is a collaboration by Elmac and his friend, Kofie). Elmac is very prolific and has painted murals all over the world. You can see more of his work on his blog.

Oh, yeah, I saw it a mile or two away a couple of weeks ago in another section of the arts district at 1105 Grand Avenue. And now that I look at both of them, they look very similar to one I saw at Zao Gallery/Universal Hair Salon (925 Grand Avenue) recently.

Yes, down there on the left side, amidst her hair, is “Elmac.” The signature is a little different but the style is the same. This was a couple blocks away from the one above it. And back to the one above it:

Next to the Elmac mural is one by Lalo Cota, who I wrote about in my Calaveras post, including this one by him above. Murals at three different locations were shown in that post and now here is another one by Lalo, distinct in its style:

This van is outside Conspire, a coffeehouse/artist-run shop, at 901 N. 5th Street. The walls of Conspire have more murals by Lalo.

It’s pretty fun getting accustomed to their styles and coming across them all over downtown Phoenix. Every time I go out to photograph a mural, I seem to see or hear about some other ones. This project could go on for a long time. Hopefully, you will go out and see them in person and let me know of others that you have seen Downtown in the Comments section.

More Murals on Roosevelt

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

In the same alley in the 400 block of East Roosevelt Street (between eye lounge and Modified Arts), as one of the Lalo Cota murals in my Calaveras post, there are quite a few other colorful murals.

Um, let’s lose the billboard. We Phoenicians would like to see an unobstructed view of a frolicking snow scene. This one is by Joe Pagac of Tucson, and Stephanie Michalsky advertising the National at the Marquee Theatre in Tempe Oct. 14.

Here’s the view again of the side of the alley with Lalo Cota’s mural. I don’t know who did the mustachioed guy. And here is the other side of the alley:

Once again, this alley is behind several galleries and shops in the heart of the Downtown arts district. This building above, at the end of the alley on Garfield Street, had some renovating going on while I was photographing and it looks like it may be a new gallery or possibly some other business soon.

More murals to come…

Fifth Annual PAPA Parade

Monday, August 30th, 2010

PAPA’s home.

Dry_RiverFringe art is all the rage in Downtown Phoenix and there’s no better showcase for our central city’s talented and proud fringe art community than the Phoenix Annual Parade of the Arts, or PAPA if you please, now in its fifth year.

This year’s PAPA festival is going down Saturday, Nov. 13 in the Roosevelt arts district and promises a fun-filled day of snake-charming, puppeteering, face-painting, stilt-walking, performace art, music, dancing and probably the most uniquely awesome family-friendly extravaganza the Valley has to offer. The day culminates with a community parade through the streets of Downtown Phoenix. The public is encouraged to enter their own floats in the parade and registration forms and rules can be downloaded here. 

papa 09 logo smallYou can bet the Strange Family Circus, led by the Dr. Rev. Steven Strange, will be in attendance. Here’s a quick look at the itinerary:

5 p.m. Pre-parade excitement, including live music on the PAPA stage, street performances, costume and float displays, parade competition registration and various kid’s attractions

6 p.m. The Parade of the Arts (community march through Downtown)

  • 8 p.m. PAPA Main Stage headline performance
  • 9 p.m. Parade Awards Ceremony

Are you all about Downtown?

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Calaveras

Friday, August 27th, 2010

I love Day of the Dead art, the calaveras (skulls) associated with the primarily Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos. Some people (usually non-Mexicans) find it creepy, depressing, or just strange but, like the holiday, that is not the intention. The holiday occurs on Nov. 2, in conjunction with the Catholic observances of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (Nov. 1 and 2). It is a day to remember friends and family who have died but it is a time of celebration, where partying is common.

Because of Phoenix’s  large Mexican-American population, celebrations of this holiday are common and, more and more, so are displays of the art, year-round. The above mural is in the Downtown arts district at 1105 Grand Avenue. It is by Lalo Cota, a Phoenix artist born in Mexico.

Several blocks away, on Roosevelt Row, is this new mural, on the side of Carly’s Bistro at 128 E. Roosevelt Street. Lalo painted this one with his collaborators, Pablo Luna and Thomas Marcus (aka Breeze).

These are such fun murals. About two blocks down the street, in the alley between eye lounge (419 E. Roosevelt Street) and Modified Arts (407 East Roosevelt Street), there are more Lalo Cota murals.

The sun was shining so brightly during this late afternoon that there is a glow on the mural but maybe that is appropriate.

There is another Lalo Cota mural around the corner at Conspire (901 N. 5th Street) but it was extremely hot that afternoon so I decided to leave it for another day…and another post. Check these murals out next time you’re in the area and get a little of that Day of the Dead feeling.