Exploring your authentic Arizona lifestyle
“Would you like a Coca Cola and a muffin?” Kim Moody of the Alwun House asks as we walk through a nostalgic front hallway toward a distinguished, sun-drenched door leading to the back yard. With the swoop of his hand, it opens to a rare downtown courtyard oasis that I wasn’t prepared for. It seemed to proclaim a serendipity existence: a Sonoran masterpiece in the center of Phoenix.
The concept of yin and yang is a theory of opposites. Everything has a darkness (yin) and a light (yang), and one cannot exist without the other. For night, there is day; for cold there is heat; for birth there is death; and for masculine there is feminine.
It begins with a slight whiff of something wonderful. Within a few hours, the scent of the summertime barbecues of childhood begins to fill the air, and by mid-day, it becomes an aromatic dinner bell for anyone fortunate enough to find themselves within a radius of a city block or two.
We’ve all witnessed the beauty of the desert, from its subtle seasons to its powerful storms, but Missouri-based photographer and author William Fields has captured its wonder in a whole new light. Through the use of infrared photography, Fields shares an almost other-wordly view of our own Arizona back yard. We’re thrilled to share his work in our pages.
If ever there was a woman comfortable in her skin, it’s Patricia Griffin. Wearing paint-spattered overalls, owl-rimmed glasses and a smile that shines with inner radiance, she took time to talk about life and art from inside her studio.
Back in the 1600s, a wave of immigrants from Ireland, Scotland and England made their way into remote areas of North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, bringing with them ideas and music from their native countries. As they cultivated the land and forged new lives, they began singing songs and playing music that not only reflected their day-to-day struggles, happiness and loves, but that also gleaned bits and pieces of the cultures from which they came.
In the aisles of Desert Foothills Library, David Court is a rock star. Though he lacks a swagger and the button-up shirts he wears are far from flashy, when he steps inside this building, he’s a hero.
Touchdowns, cheers and school fight songs—it’s as American as apple pie and the Fourth of July. Yet in Cave Creek, the sound of the band has been nearly non-existent in recent years. Budget cuts all but amputated funding for music, and the high school band program tapered down to a dozen or so students.
For a couple of guys who make their living fooling the eye, Rich Kovacich & Felix Lagazo are as real as they come.
If summer heat has got you down, a taste of the Valley has moved to the cool pines of Prescott. Just an hour or so from Phoenix, Chef Ryan Peters and his wife Brittany, who kept crowds coming to Tonto Bar and Grill, have opened the doors to Farm Provisions, one of the newest farm-to-table ventures in a growing list of restaurants focused on fresh, local fare.
