az. phx to be exact.

September 27, 2008

Although I have been to Phoenix before, on our great Southwestern style family vacation of many years past, I’ve never spent much time here. This week has been an interesting cultural study – things here are so different from my life on the east coast. Incidentally, people here refer to New York / PA as the east coast and AZ as the west coast…? huh?

Here are some of my observations:

• Everyone at the airport when I was passing through on a Monday morning seemed to be a middle aged white man about to go golfing… in khacki cargo shorts (!!).
• PHX has this huge new complex just for car rentals. It seemed to be a bit much.
• Everyone thinks it’s cool to refer to the city as PHX.
• HOT! Wooeee I would never be able to live here. It’s been 101 all week. And this is fall!
• Buildings are large, clean, and have the hugest windows ever. Architecture downtown has a modern organic feel. Architecture outside the city is very blendy – everything seems to be some version of the color that is not brown and is not red but somewhere in between.
• Cacti! I almost went to this huge desert botanical garden today but realized that I have already seen all 145692 species of cacti next to the roads. Those things are huge and wonderful, but not beautiful.  It’s just different and interesting terrain, much like walking out of the airport on the Big Island (Hawaii) and feeling like you’re on the moon.
• Everyone thinks Scottsdale is the place to go. But really it seems to be about shopping and being tan and trendy.
• Southwestern theme. Everywhere. Must be quite profitable with the tourists.

Yesterday I spent my afternoon at the Phoenix Art Museum. There was one exhibit in particular that blew me away  — actually it disoriented me quite a bit. Everyone refers to it as the ‘firefly room’ but its official name is “You Who Are Getting Obliterated in the Dancing Swarm of Fireflies” by Yayoi Kusama (reviewed by others here and here). It was basically the most dazzling and effective piece of interactive art I have ever experienced.

Today was different. I took a drive up to Carefree, Arizona to do some location scouting. In January Carefree will play host to the DWF 2009 convention and several hundred eager photographers will descend upon the community. Carefree seems to be well-versed in corralling visitors through webs of interlocking parking lots and mini rotaries, past southwestern themed everything (even the Target had unusually high amounts of adobe) and past landscaped desert garden medians galore. It’s an unusual place, and very scenic for someone who finds desert to be exotic. I really, REALLY want to do an outdoor desert boudoir session but I need to find the right model first.

After location scouting Carefree, I checked out Phoenix’s Heard Museum. A few locals groaned when they mentioned this museum, and I wondered if it would be full of kokopelli print kitsch, but I have to give major props to the people who designed the museum displays and even the museum interior. Everything worked well together, from the lighting to the wavy wood paneled viewing hubs, to the wording on the signage. Everything was intelligent and avoided overexplanation without leaving me feeling confused about what I was seeing. The Heard Museum is a wonderful visit, and I no longer question why it is the number one stop on this list of “Best Things to Do and See in the Phoenix Area“.

If I were looking for a really cool wedding venue in Phoenix, I’d choose the Heard Museum or the Phoenix Art Museum. Both are unique spaces full of light and color and culture without being too pretentious.

OHHH!! also, I got to eat at Chick-fil-A, and for some reason that always makes me happy.

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