TRIBUNE: US AIRWAYS BLASTED FOR OPPOSING TOWERS

December 15, 2007 at 6:16 pm (Uncategorized)

TRIBUNE: US AIRWAYS BLASTED FOR OPPOSING 300-FOOT-TALL TOWERS

(That were approved by the FAA and Development Review Commission.)

Contact Councilmember Ben Arredondo:

Subscribe to my newsletter–I have a lot to get off my chest.

Barry Goldwater said, “Extremeism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

Sky Harbor is not the only aviation option: For starters, we can develop Phoenx-Mesa Gateway Airport Harry Mitchell’s Article on Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport

JAZZ TO CONTINUE AT MONTI’S BACK DOOR (From Woody):

Live Jazz Continues at Monti’s Back Door through January ‘08.

After six months and 25 weekly shows, the Monday night JAMN happy hour jazz series at Monti’s Back Door will continue into 2008.

“We never thought we’d last this long,” said Tempe architect and JAMN co-founder, Stu Siefer. “The Back Door series was only supposed to be a summer experiment to see if we could develop an audience for live jazz in the Mill Avenue District. Our intention was to build a program and turn it over to a club, or venue that could keep it going. We were fortunate to find the venue in Monti’s La Casa Vieja, but we also discovered booking, promoting and managing the shows was something we just couldn’t walk away from. It was too much fun”

In 2008, the JAMN series will begin again as it did in July of 2007, a month at a time. However, after the previous six months and a sizable learning curve, some changes will be made to enhance both the musical experience and the presenter’s bottom line.

“Everyone should know this series would never have happened without Monti’s,” said JAMN marketing director, Woody Wilson. “They have been absolutely fantastic to us and to the musicians who have played at the Back Door. With a $5 cover, free appetizers and inexpensive drinks, the series has not been a huge money-making enterprise for either JAMN, or Monti’s. But Michael and Eddie have continued to support us. Virtually all the money coming through the door is paid out to musicians. And, if we are going to continue bringing live jazz to Mill Avenue, we’re going to have to make some adjustments.”

Beginning Monday, January 7th, Monti’s will offer a new “supper club” menu in the Back Door that will include Monti’s famous steaks and other dinner entrees. “From the beginning” adds Wilson, “our patrons have asked for the steak dinners, but the limited number of servers precluded full service meals. That will change in 2008, and the Back Door will become an early supper club. Additionally, the unlimited free appetizers will be discontinued and replaced with a special 1/2 price appetizer menu. Another change will be a modest increase in the cover charge from $5 to $7.”

From a programming perspective, Monti’s Back Door will be booking the Valley’s best headliner performers. “After 25 shows,” said Siefer, “we know who and what works and what doesn’t. If we’re going to continue providing a quality live music experience for our patrons, these are all things we have to do.”

The January Monti’s Back Door lineup will include Margo Reed and the Joel Robin Trio on Jan. 7, The Judy Roberts Trio on Jan. 14th, Armand Boatman and the Bebop Revolution on Jan. 21, and the Ioannis Goudelis Quartet on Jan. 28. Shows are Mondays, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Monti’s Back Door is located at 100 S. Mill Avenue (in the back of the building), Tempe, AZ 85283. Call 480.345.2392 for more information.

New Skyline Blog / Downtown Tempe/ William Hermann:

“It’s 1968, I’m driving home from teaching in downtown Phoenix—there were riots in the streets, plenty of trouble, and I was whipped—and I’d stop on Mill Avenue.

Stop for a beer, that is, at the Casa Loma Bar—a dive by anybody’s measure. [Now Cafe Boa--mlm]

But Nat King Cole sang Mona Lisa on the juke box, and even if most of Mill was a dreary nowhere-land, and the hotel above the bar was inhabited by bikers who sometimes rode their hogs into the bar itself, and even if the local citizenry sometimes ventilated each other with bullet or blade in broad daylight, it was a place to unwind and alternatives were few.”