The White Side of the Road

JWise Photo of the Day

This is the white side of the road, Anthem, Arizona a new corporate owned community lacking any low cost housing keeping undesirable minorities at arms length

This is the white and fluffy perfect community of Anthem, Arizona. Not just any community, this is a Del Webb 5,860 acre master-(race) planned village for whites. Anthem is not advertised as a white community, nor may there be overt racism at work to keep minorities from this place, but a visit to the sub-communities called Laurel, Joshua, Willow, and Jubilation with street names of Cartier Court, Steinbeck Drive, Hemingway Drive, and the Outerbanks Drive are strangely generic and lacking color.

Anthem is devoid of Arizona’s cultural heritage as an ancient home to Native Americans and a long-time home for Hispanics. You will be hard-pressed to find minorities here. The local McDonald’s was staffed with 100% white people, as was the Safeway grocery store. The Mexicans I ran into do not live in Anthem; they work construction or gardening or even the night shift at McDonald’s, but they all live in Phoenix.

This corporatized version of the American community is an abomination unless, of course, you are looking for that perfect all-white place to settle down.

Movies in Tucson

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

On highway 79 in Arizona

Caroline and I tried for an early morning start for a visit to Tucson today and were finally underway shortly before 9:00. After nearly a half-hour, we began to leave civilization and enter the natural desert.

Along the way, we pass a few gas stations, an ostrich farm, a nut farm, Picacho Peak State Park which was the site of the furthest west Civil War battle, and quite a few cacti. On the outskirts of Tucson, we pass some lush desert landscapes that are soon to disappear, making way for progress. A nearby sign announces the coming of a new grocery store – goodbye, cactus!

The Silvas in Tucson, Arizona

Our first stop of the day is in Oro Valley, just outside of Tucson, to visit the Silvas. Arturo and his family have been friends now for many years. In the photo, Arturo is on the right, his son Arturito (Artoodeetoo) is behind him, and on the left is Arturo’s mother. We pass Guadalupe, Arturo’s wife, as we approach their house, stopping long enough to say hello as she is on her way to take daughters Melissa and Sophia to Sunday School and Church. Our visit was short as Arturito was on his way back to Flagstaff for University after having come down to see a concert featuring Molotov and El Gran Silencio, Arturo needed to join his family at Church, and Caroline and I had primarily come down to catch a couple of movies.

Loft Cinema Lobby in Tucson, Arizona

This is the lobby of the Loft Cinema in Tucson, Arizona. We have visited before to see ‘What is it?” by Crispin Glover, but today we were here for a double feature, including the Chinese film 2046 and the Korean film Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Both films were excellent, although Caroline and I both agreed that we enjoyed 2046 just a bit more. Be careful seeing Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, it is a demanding, violent, even a little slapsticky film that should not be seen by the timid.

Empty Lot

JWise Photo of the Day

Another empty lot in Phoenix, Arizona. This one on Cave Creek Road only adds to the blight

Along Cave Creek Road here in Phoenix, Arizona, many shops are poor and run-down. Empty lots like this one add to the decrepitude. The neighborhoods that are situated off this rare diagonal street in an otherwise rectangular grid layout are just as ramshackle. Strange enough, the other diagonal road slicing across Phoenix, Grand Avenue, is also scarred with blight.

Flowers

JWise Photo of the Day

Flowers greet us at the front of our building coming and going in Phoenix, Arizona

In the front of our apartment complex, these flowers greet us coming and going. This year, I wish I were witnessing the change of seasons. After ten years of endless summer, where the year is differentiated by blue skies with blistering heat and blue skies with comfortable heat, I would enjoy seeing the leaves change color and a snowstorm blanket the land. Instead, I will watch the endless blooming flowers, so well kept, as they enjoy their short burst of beauty under the sun.