EV Teens Celebrate Greek Heritage

East Valley Tribune, September 20, 2018

One of the many joys of a freelancing career is contributing to many media: national, books, magazines, websites, ezines and newspapers. Stories such as this one are uniquely pleasing for many reasons, including furthering the success of local newspapers in large and small communities. When the internet first blossomed, the death of print media was widely foretold and extolled, even in print! But local papers, which celebrate the achievements of young people such as Christopher and Mikayala in this story on an annual Greek food and cultural event, are thriving. By focusing on neighbors, they reassert the importance of community events and the people who live just next door or just a block away.

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Michael Furman: Cars and Classics

Highline Autos, August 2018

Michael Furman is one of the world’s premier studio car photographers, that is, for showcasing stationary classics in garages and museums. But, because of his skill and perspective, his cars seem to move. I knew Michael when we were growing up in the Philadelphia area almost a half-century ago. Even then, he had a camera, and you knew what his life focus would be. Even among quality photographers, his work stands out. Look at the Horch and the Delahaye, even the Scarab, in the story: They have a motion and life even in park or neutral. Great car museums such as the Simeone in Philly and the Mullin in California have turned to him to celebrate their stellar collections. And, he was just honored to discuss his work during Monterey Car Week 2018 in California. Please enjoy his superlative work, as I have. His images, indeed, are worth a thousand words.

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Michael Barnard: Ellis Island Medal of Honor

The Entertainer!, July 2018

Michael Barnard, producing artistic director of Phoenix Theatre, was recently honored as an Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipient. Here in New York Harbor, 12 million immigrants entering Ellis Island sought the rewards of America from 1892 to 1954. As described by the Honor Society, “The Ellis Island Medals of Honor embody the spirit of America in their salute to tolerance, brotherhood, diversity and patriotism. Barnard’s paternal grandmother came through Ellis Island just before the Nazi occupation of France in 1941. His grandfather helped found Glendale with Senator Carl Hayden. Others include former Vice President Joe Biden, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Nobel laureates Elie Wiesel and Malala Yousafzai, Coretta Scott King, John Sculley, Muhammad Ali, Lee Iacocca and Rosa Parks. “[The arts] help make us strong, individually and together,” Barnard says. “They offer innovative, evocative ways to build acceptance, hope and tolerance.”

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Terry Larson: Jag Joy

Highline Autos, May 2018

Terry Larson knows how to take care of historic Jaguars. For moving on five decades, he has restored, raced and stewarded examples of the great marque with finesse and passion, in recent years from his hand-crafted garage in the foothills of Mesa, Arizona. He and his wife Darlene have a 1938 Jaguar SS 100 3 ½ litre; an XK120 roadster; a 1952 Hangsen Jaguar; a 1952 C-type; a 1958 ‘Knobbly’ Lister that was a factory team car; two XKE roadsters and a coupe; a few Italian cars; and a 1967 Corvette. The couple are also proud of their motorcycle collection, highlighted by a 1924 Brough Superior SS80 purchased new by the founder of Jaguar, William Lyons, which he raced on English beaches. “These cars are an important part of automotive history, and, as owners, we are their caretakers,” Larson says.

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Ralph Haver: Neighborhoods to Haverhoods

ARA, April 2018

Ralph Haver (1915-1987), AIA, was both architect and builder, designing tract and custom homes, military and multifamily housing, neighborhoods, churches, schools, banks, municipal buildings and malls. He pioneered the new Phoenix following World War II, as GIs returned home and Easterners and Midwesterners found warm climate, A/C and new opportunities in the Southwest. Haver-designed homes in North Phoenix neighborhoods such as Canal North (1946), Marlen Grove (1953), Windemere (1955), and Scottsdale’s Town & Country III (1963) are gentrifying and bringing high resale values. “Ralph Haver was . . . able to deliver inspiring and modestly elegant residential designs on a massive scale, improving the quality of life for tens of thousands of families in the Southwest,” says Alison King, a Phoenix designer and historian who founded and maintains ModernPhoenix.net, a superlative source for Mid-Century Modern resources in Arizona.

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Haunting Return: Anne Frank

The Entertainer!, April 2018

“I can only cry out and implore, ‘Open wide. Let us out,’ wrote Anne Frank in what became the famous ‘Diary of Anne Frank” after its post-World War II publication. The teenage writer was one of 60,000 Jews who found home in Amsterdam, attempting escape from the Nazis, who eventually captured the city July 6, 1942, and began searching for them. Frank died of typhus at one of the death camps, Bergen Belsen, in early 1945, perhaps two months before the liberation of Europe by the Allies. Recently, David Ira Goldstein, who completed 26 years as artistic director of the Arizona Theatre Company in June 2017, returned to the Valley to direct an adaptation of the original Broadway play. The Anne Frank cast featured Naama Potok, daughter of author Chaim Potok, who was Edith, Anne’s mother. The play summons vigilance, self-evaluation and affirmation: “Hatred is a choice,” she says. “We can choose a different path.”

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Barrio Queen

Highline Autos, April 2018

Scottsdale restaurateurs Linda Nash and Steve Rosenfield opened their first Barrio Queen in 2011 in Old Town Scottsdale, bringing authentic southern Mexican cuisine and culture to the Valley. They now have three locations and are planning Tempe Marketplace and Queen Creek restaurants. “We have always enjoyed going to Mexico but for years we couldn’t find good Mexican food here at home. You’d find an American version instead,” Linda says. Signature dishes available at all three for lunch and dinner are the Chiles En Nogada, the Azteca Burrito and the Enchiladas Suizas. One guest recently said, “We haven’t had food this good since my grandmother’s.” So bring grandmom, and gramps, too!

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McDowell Sonoran Preserve: A Picture of Preservation

Green Living, April 2018

Scottsdale’s McDowell Sonoran Preserve (MSP) is the triumphant result of four decades of work by citizens and city, including the acquisition of more than a billion dollars of otherwise developable land. The preserve encompasses 30,580 acres and 195 miles of hiking/biking/equestrian trails in a sublime section of Earth’s most biologically diverse desert. Among the heroes of the preserve effort were legendary Mayor Herb Drinkwater, who was inspired in the 1990s by Phoenicians such as the late Senator Barry Goldwater, who helped set aside the Phoenix Mountains Preserve two decades before, providing miles of hiking and biking trails for a city reeling from sprawl. Desert EDGE, a proposed nature-education center inside the MSP has brought praise for its innovative virtual approach to desert education, though some have criticized it because, they say, it violates the terms and spirit of the agreements creating the preserve. Scottsdale City Council is awaiting the results of a citizen petition drive, due this July, to stop Desert EDGE from being built inside the MSP boundaries. Stay tuned for more.

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Power Couple: The Jarsons

Modern Luxury Interiors, Spring/Summer 2018

Scott and Debbie Jarson founded their Phoenix-based real estate company, azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson, in 1990, specializing in post-World War II Mid-century modern vintage homes. Their life expresses a passion for the work of significant Valley architects/designers, including Al Beadle, Eddie Jones, Steven Holl, Wendell Burnette, Ralph Haver, Cal Straub, Ned Sawyer, Fred Guirey, George Christensen, Darren Petrucci, John Kane, Bennie Gonzales, Paolo Soleri, Brent Kendle, John Douglas, Rich Fairbourn, Hugh Knoell, Taliesin fellows such as Blaine Drake and Charles Montooth iconcoclast Paul Christian Yaeger and Will Bruder, who designed their home adjacent to the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. “The Jarsons . . . [combine] a passion for quality design and architecture, a richly informed awareness of the history of Phoenix and a keen ability to bring to this conversation buyers, colleagues and community members,” says Bruder, FAIA.

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Compass to Camelback

Modern Luxury Interiors, Spring/Summer 2018

Dramatically sited on an acre in Paradise Valley, this one-level custom looks south toward legendary Camelback Mountain, including its eternally devotional Praying Monk. The equally dramatic north entry is sited toward another landmark representational feature, Mummy Mountain. The four-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom Desert Contemporary celebrates the open, indoor-outdoor lifestyle this couple has enjoyed in Arizona since childhood, while still ensuring their privacy and delivering views, views and views. The couple climbed the landmark mountain as youngsters, and still do, and the husband is an avid mountain biker. Scottsdale architect Mark Candelaria, AIA, assured them that after the 1960s existing home was leveled, the obstructive foliage removed and a new well-sited home built with ample windows, they’d be looking real good in retirement. Scottsdale’s Claire Ownby and her adept team provided the crisp, elegant interior design.

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Flying High

Modern Luxury, March/April 2018

Celebrated Candelaria Design of Scottsdale provided the winglike design for this 15,353-squarefoot Mummy Mountain contemporary for a husband and wife; he’s a former airline CEO and aviation aficionado. “The owners knew what kind of style they wanted and came to us,” says Mark Candelaria, who assumed the project in 2007. “The entire design and build team was assembled early on, so it was a great collaboration with the owners, architect, interior designer and builder.” For the challenging hard-granite excavation and construction of this complicated home, the couple hired hillside builder, John Schultz, founder of Scottsdale-based Schultz Development. The well-known design firm of Wiseman and Gale, Scottsdale, provided the contemporary interiors. And Candelaria designed the bar to resemble a cockpit, which should get you flying.

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Elie, Elie

LaSalle Collegian, 1973ish

Elie Wiesel (1928−2016) changed many lives; mine, too. Writer, professor, political activist, Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor. His first book, Night, harrowingly describes his survival of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, which his parents did not survive. My thanks to The LaSalle Collegian staff in native Philadelphia for finding this story in the newspaper archives, or morgue, as we once macabrely called it. This is an early piece written while I was the features editor and trying assiduously not to write for a career. The opportunity to interview a surviving child of the Nazi horror came about. Hearing him speak in such soft tones about the hardness of those years piqued this reaction, which earned a first prize the next year from Pennsylvania Collegiate Press Association. Wiesel went on to accept the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, and, despite my efforts, I succumbed to the passion of a career in writing. Thanks, Elie, for being a witness to history and watching over my history, too.

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Celebrating Leonard Bernstein on his 100th

The Entertainer!, March 2018

The world is celebrating what would have been the 100th birthday of Leonard Bernstein in 2018. Winner of 16 Grammys, Bernstein (1918–1990) was music director of the New York Philharmonic, 1958–1969, and its laureate director until his death. In this spirit, pianist and teacher Jeffrey Siegel recently appeared at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, continuing his 39 years of Keyboard Conversations® there: “Leonard Bernstein at 100: A Musical Celebration.” In his performances, he plays virtuoso works for the piano by a broad range of composers and briefly discusses the works before playing them. The Chicago Tribune wrote: “Siegel’s programs strengthen the fragile bonds of communication between composer and listener.” And, he continues a Bernstein tradition of teaching. Aaron Stern, the founder and president of the Bernstein-inspired Academy for the Love of Learning in Santa Fe, has said, “Apart from his composing and conducting legacy, Mr. Bernstein has inspired us to affirm his belief in people: to allow each of us to be changed by each other and expand our joy for each other.”

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Wanderings: Tombstone

Western Art & Architecture, December/January 2018

For anyone with a love for American history and folklore, Tombstone, Arizona, is still very much Wanted! For a few lucrative years, the “Town Too Tough to Die” was Eldorado for goldstrikers, ore assayers and grubstakers. Here in 1881, the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” transpired, mismatching the formidable Earps, Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday, against cattle-rustling cowboys, the McLaurys and Clantons, including 19-year-old Billy Clanton, not too tough to die. Silver ecstasy had found Indian scout and prospector Ed Schieffelin, who established the Tombstone Gold and Silver Mining Company and found other lodes such as Lucky Cuss, Tough Nut, Grand Central and Contention. Today, The Good Enough Mine Tour takes you underground daily to experience this. You can also visit the notorious Bird Cage Theatre and the Tombstone Historic Courthouse and enjoy boutiques and restaurants and, of course, witness brazen gunfights. Hands up!

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Mark Kramer Celebrates 70 Years of Ferrari

Highline Autos, December 2017

Mark Kramer, Phoenix, loves his Ferraris. His teenage heart leapt up when he saw his first Prancing Stallion, a 250 Spider, in Rome, and he’s been looking in his GreatGarage since, morning, noon and sometimes just before sleep, for quick-paced stylish dreams. Last year, 2017, was the 70th anniversary of Enzo Ferrari’s first supercar, the Ferrari 125, powered by a 1.5-liter V-12 engine, producing 118 horsepower. That won its first race out of Enzo’s Workshop and by the end of the year had secured five more victories. Kramer’s joys are a 1972 365 GTB/4 “Daytona”; 1981 308 GTSI; 1984 512 BBI “Boxer”; 1995 F512M; 1996 eight-cylinder F355 GTS; 1999 550 Maranello and 2003 575M; 1995 308 GTS QV; a 2009 California, with an automatic. Wish list? A California Turbo, an F430 16M, 458 or a 488 Spider. “And, I always wanted a 275 GTB4 and could have had one once for $30,000. I just love everything about it, especially the sound. You know when you hear one coming.”

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Living History

Luxury Living, Fall/Winter 2007

The Glacier Club is an exclusive home and golf community north of Durango, Colo. This custom there celebrates the area’s history and topography: mining, steam trains, cowboys, the Animas River rapids, pristine lakes, Rocky Mountain peaks, pine and fir, golden eagles and elk. This is the refuge you want to be New Year’s Eve, with food, fire and firewater and friends. You know, let it snow, let it snow . . . .

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Serene Sophistication

Modern Luxury Scottsdale, September 2017

The owners were formerly devotees of traditional design, but they asked Scottsdale interior designer Raegan Ford for a more transitional/modern interior for their new Mediterranean-style single-family home in Paradise Valley. The result is a custom one-story, 8,593 square feet under roof, with garages, covered porches and patios on two acres: classic, light, modern, sophisticated and fresh. The five-bedroom main house has an adjacent guest house and a four-car extended-length/height garage. Inside are subtle greys and whites on the walls and custom alder cabinetry, against which standout lighting, soft abstract artwork and color pops provide drama and pizazz.

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St. Mary’s Food Bank Celebrates 50 Years

AFMA Journal, August 2017

Ten days into his job as president and CEO of now 50-year-old St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance in Phoenix, Tom Kertis received an e-mail from a man living near Tuba City on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. His brother had lost sight in his right eye and had had his right foot amputated; the loss of the other eye and foot was imminent. They were living week to week; they were hungry. “I am writing to ask if there is any way you can assist us with a little food; I am not talking about much,” the man continued. “I’ve never asked for help before.” St. Mary’s contacted the Sisters of St. Jude, an agency partner in the area, and arranged for that help. “If we’re not here, what happens to that man?” Kertis asks. “Does this man and his brother fall through the cracks? It hit me like a ton of bricks. We’re changing people’s lives –– maybe even saving people’s lives.”

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Door to Paradise

Modern Luxury Scottsdale, July/August 2017

Where’s the front door? Finding it is the first of many pleasures delivered by this Contemporary home at Mummy Mountain Norte in Paradise Valley. The 3,843-square-foot single-level includes three bedrooms and a one-bedroom casita. “When approaching the main entry, it feels connected to the home and integrated into the glazing system, not intended to stand out,” says Mike Wetzel, AIA, who designed the home with Vern Swaback, FAIA, co-founding partner of Swaback Partners, Scottsdale. The space the architects created is a dramatic dialogue of hillside and homesite. “There is a defined axial alignment that runs through the center of the pool, the center of the water feature and the center of multiple terraced stone-caged gabion retaining structures, all of which align to orient the homeowners and guests to a wonderful view of Mummy Mountain,” says Anthony J. Salcito Jr., president of the builder, Salcito Custom Homes LTD., Scottsdale.

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Bill Harrah’s Rides: The National Automobile Museum

Highline Autos, July 2017

The founder of Harrah’s Hotels & Casinos and Harrah’s Automobile Collection, Bill Harrah, was also one of last century’s most famous car collectors. Opened in 1989, the National Automobile Museum (The Harrah Collection) in Reno features more than 200 vehicles, most of them American-made vehicles from his great collection. The marquee vehicle is one of the most famous American cars ever: the 1907 Thomas Flyer, winner of the following year’s landmark New York to Paris Automobile Race. Others: a 1937 Airomobile Experimental Sedan, styled by John Tjaarda; a 1934 Dymaxion Model 2 4-D Transport, created by Richard Buckminster ‘Bucky’ Fuller (1895−1983), inventor of the geodesic dome and the Dymaxion™ House, a car that was found dilapidated in a Mesa, Arizona, backyard. And, one of the world’s most beautiful vehicles, a 1936 Mercedes-Benz Type 500K Special Roadster, was purchased new by Princess Nina Mdivani, wife of Denis P.S. Conan Doyle, son of author, Sir Arthur.

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