HOW ARE AZ CITIES STACKING UP AGAINST THE ECONOMY?

posted to AZ Week Notebook by Melanie Huonker

University of Arizona economist Marshall J. Vest projects Arizona’s economic outlook to rise 45.5 percent by 2015 through personal income, retail sales and employment. That’s a sign for economic prosperity in the future, but how do cities stack up in the economy and job growth now, in 2011?

Friday’s Arizona Week broadcast will address that question with a panel discussion of five mayors reacting to an address by Gov. Jan Brewer at the League of Arizona Cities and Towns Annual Conference as well as discussing their local economic and public policy issues.

Arizona Week most recently confirmed Mayor W.J. “Jim” Lane’s participation in that discussion. A recent editorial in The Arizona Republic written by the mayor illuminates his confidence in Scottsdale’s ability to control the budget amid the financial crisis. Lane is so convinced of his city's ability that he thinks “Washington could learn a thing or two from Scottsdale.”

Others who confirmed for the program earlier this week are Mayor Byron Jackson of Eloy, Mayor Fernando Shipley of Globe, Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers of Avondale and Mayor Sara Presler of Flagstaff.

In early August, Avondale approved an expansion of the Phoenix International Raceway. The City Council said the move would bring new employment and national marketing exposure. Avondale also made a leap to increase small-business productivity through a partnership with Chandler’s Gangplank Collective, a non-profit organization that gets businesses on their feet without having to pay overhead costs.

Other cities like Eloy and Globe are looking to “lock up” to increase local job opportunities. Mayor Jackson told TriValley Central that the city’s four private prisons are good business. Despite high unemployment, Jackson said “the jobs are here.” While, Mayor Shipley was pro-prison for Globe, his city was divided. Added agreements if Globe housed a private prison would have drawn business into the community, Shipley said to TriValley Central.

In Flagstaff, Standard and Poor’s dropped the economic outlook for the city from “stable to “negative.” Despite the drop, Flagstaff sold $15.9 million in general-obligation bonds.

For more on AZ cities’ economic and job outlook and to hear from the mayors of each city, watch Arizona Week this Friday.

WON THAT ONE; NOW BACK TO WORK

posted to Political Buzz by Michael Chihak

Democrat Jonathan Rothschild, candidate for mayor of Tucson, was ensconced in his law office downtown first thing this morning, even after a celebration of his victory in Tuesday night's virtually uncontested primary election.

Rothschild's car was in its usual spot in the parking lot of Mesch, Clark & Rothschild before 7 a.m. It's not uncommon to see him at work that early. But the morning after the primary election seemed a bit of a surprise.

Rothschild will face Republican Rick Grinnell in the general election in November. Grinnell won his spot on the ballot the hard way, by collecting more than 5,700 write-in votes. He needed 1,060 to make the ballot.

Rothschild has said he already is stepping away from his position as the law firm's business manager to focus on his campaign and that he will resign the firm altogether if elected.

FALL FUNDRAISING FIESTA AND SPECIAL 9/11 ANNIVERSARY PROGRAMMING

posted to From the General Manager by Laura McKee

PBS-HD Channel 6 kicks off a ‘fall fiesta’ of programming with world-class special programs including the Bee Gees: One Night Only, Barbra Streisand: One Night Only at the Village Vanguard plus Lower Your Taxes! Now and Forever with Ed Slott, and Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America, just to name a few. These specials start Labor Day Weekend through September 18th, to engage and remind viewers just how important membership is to the fiscal health of Arizona Public Media.

In commemoration of the 10th anniversary of September 11, AZPM will provide coverage of the day’s national and local events including: PBS-HD Channel 6, NPR 89.1/1550AM, Classical 90.5FM/91.7FM, online at azpm.org, and in the community.

Starting at 3 p.m. on the 11th, PBS-HD Channel 6 will air national specials including Frontline: Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero at 3 p.m., a live PBS NewsHour: America Remembers 9/11 at 5 p.m., Great Performances: The New York Philharmonic 10th Anniversary Concert for 9/11 at 6 p.m., a special NOVA: Engineering Ground Zero at 7:30 p.m. and a second Frontline special, Top Secret America at 8:30 p.m. Click here for complete program details and schedules.

As part of our ongoing commitment to the community, we are proud to be a sponsor of Remembrance and Renewal: A Concert Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of September 11, 2001, presented by the Tucson Chamber Artists, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and UApresents at Centennial Hall at 3 p.m. Classical 90.5 FM will broadcast the concert later that same day, tentatively scheduled at 8 p.m.

We’ve launched a special web feature, Ten Years On: Tucson Remembers 9/11, inviting viewers and listeners to share remembrances of 9/11, or reflect on change over the past decade. Please share your stories.

Radio highlights for the anniversary include comprehensive NPR coverage leading up to 9/11 and the day itself. Programs include The Sonic Memorial Project which commemorates the life and history of the World Trade Center and the people who passed through its doors. We Remember: StoryCorps From 9-11, hosted by NPR's Audie Cornish, takes an intimate look at lives forever changed by the attacks on 9/11 on the 10th anniversary of the attacks -- and checks in with those StoryCorps families to find out how they make their way today. The NPR Music website will stream several of the live memorial/tribute concerts taking place during the day and Classical 90.1FM/89.7FM will broadcast Great Performances: The New York Philharmonic 10th Anniversary Concert for 9/11 at 10 a.m. on the 11th. Click here for full program schedules.

On Saturday, September 24th, PBS-HD Channel 6 launches a new weekly film series Hollywood at Home, a significant collection of features showcasing the works of innumerable major stars and including many films never before seen on public television. Every Saturday night at 9 p.m. these films will be shown in their entirety, completely uninterrupted. The first film in the series is the classic comedy detective film The Thin Man (1934) starring Myrna Loy and William Powell and Asta, their wire-haired fox terrier. Titles coming later this fall include The Music Man (1962), A Shot in the Dark (1964), Moonstruck (1987), and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).

Be sure to tune in for Series IV of the popular Inspector Lewis Masterpiece Mystery series every Thursday night starting on September 22nd at 9 p.m., with four new episodes; Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things; Wild Justice; The Mind Has Mountains and The Gift of Promise.

The city of Tucson faces a Mayoral ballot and City Council elections in November. AZPM’s political team, Christopher Conover, Andrea Kelly, and Michael Chihak will provide breaking news stories as campaigns heat up during the months leading up to election day. Look for complete coverage on the Arizona Illustrated Roundtable which returns each Friday starting on September 16th with host Jim Nintzel, of the Tucson Weekly.

I am pleased to welcome our newest members to the AZPM Community Advisory Board, and James Allen, the new ASUA Student Body President; Dr. Harold Paxton, the U.S. Steel University Professor (Emeritus) of Metallurgy and Materials Science at Carnegie Mellon University (now residing in Green Valley); and Andrew Schorr, a partner in the Tucson law firm, Lewis and Roca.

As always, thank you for your viewership, listenership and continued support of Arizona Public Media.

Jack Gibson

YAWN! IT'S ELECTION DAY IN TUCSON

posted to Political Buzz by Michael Chihak

We can blame government, or we can blame the candidates.

In either instance, it would be like motorists blaming the automakers or the auto dealers for providing Hummers and other gas-guzzling road beasts.

We're the customers. When we insist on economical vehicles, we get them.

As customers of government, we can get what we want. But we must insist. And that means making ourselves heard first and foremost at the ballot box.

We're the customers -- customers of government.

If we think about it that way, rather than thinking of ourselves as citizens or voters, we might begin creating a new mindset that allows us to re-engage in the democratic system.

If a merchant does poorly by us -- sells us inferior goods or provides lousy service or maybe even charges us too much or gives the wrong change -- we complain. We let the cashier or a customer service representative or even the manager or the owner know.

We do it even with the monopoly businesses that we are customers of -- the electric and gas utilities, the cable TV company. We complain when service is bad, and we get results more often than not.

Those consumer actions push change in the businesses. Dry cleaners knock a button off your best suit? Make a complaint; they'll fix it and improve the service. Store clerk not thank you after taking your hard-earned money (a pet peeve of mine, by the way)? Point it out to the clerk and the manager. You'll get an apology and a thanks.

If it experiences enough complaints, a business will change.

What about government? We want change, we insist on change, we rant and rave for change. What we don't do is vote for change. What we do is we don't vote; we walk away.

That's not working, is it?

We should behave like customers of government, asking to get what we pay for and complaining if we don't. Just walking away isn't working for us.

If you're eligible, vote today. If you're not, get eligible for the general election coming in November.

Yes, the choices this time out are pretty meager. That's the customers' fault for not insisting on better.

Start insisting; we customers of government have to start somewhere.

SACD REVIEWS: BEN JACKS AND MICHALA PETRI

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

Worthy horn and recorder SACDs I reviewed for Fanfare a year or more ago ...

RHAPSODIE – FANTASIE – POÈME * Ben Jacks (hn); Barry Tuckwell, cond; O Victoria; Queensland O * MELBA MR 301117 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 71:11)

DAMASE Horn Concerto; Rhapsodie. KOECHLIN: Poème. DUKAS Villanelle. SAINT-SAËNS Morceau de concert. MARSHALL-HALL Phantasy

Ben Jacks, principal horn with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, seems poised to become the next big thing in the horn world. Or so this new disc suggests; not only does Jacks implicitly bear the seal of approval of a celebrated predecessor, Barry Tuckwell, who serves as this program’s conductor, but Jacks’s playing stands on its own: lithe, technically impeccable, and displaying the varied coloring you’d be more likely to expect from a vocalist.

Nearly half this disc is devoted to works by Jean-Michel Damase (b. 1928), a composer who may be familiar to aficionados of woodwinds and harp, but perhaps to few other listeners. If you know his sonata for flute and harp, which has been recorded several times (most notably in the 1960s by Rampal and Laskine), you’ll know what to expect from the two horn scores here, dating from 1987 and 1995: a blend of angularity and French lyricism, comfortable for Poulenc fans, and often demonstrating melodic roots in Fauré. Damase wrote the Rhapsodie in 1987 upon a suggestion from Barry Humphries, best known for his comedic alter ego Dame Edna. There’s nothing funny about this music, though; Humphries requested something “inspired by the ocean and the atmosphere of the coast” to be performed by Barrry Tuckwell. Like Debussy’s La Mer, it recounts the passing of a day at the seaside, and its great technical demands pose no apparent problems for soloist Jacks. Damase’s more abstract and traditionally structured Horn Concerto from 1995 features some of Jacks’s loveliest playing on this disc.

Charles Koechlin’s Poème, from 1927, is as substantial as either Damase work (each lasts roughly a quarter of an hour). This is Koechlin’s orchestration of his Horn Sonata, intended to be played by an orchestra’s principal hornist from his or her usual seat rather than next to the conductor. The soloist weaves through a woodwind-rich texture rather than dominating the stage, giving Jacks several opportunities to display his fine legato, with soloist and conductor maintaining careful balances throughout.

The remaining items are more modest in duration, though not necessarily in technical demands. Jacks may lack a distinctively French tone, but he has just the right Gallic aplomb in the familiar and viciously difficult Villanelle of Paul Dukas, presented here in a sparkling and colorful new orchestration by Paul Terracini. The same can be said for the other standard-rep piece here, the Morceau de concert of Saint-Saëns. There’s one last novelty to mention, a lovely but relatively unfocused Phantasy (as the Brit-oriented spell it) written in 1905 by George William Lewis Marshall-Hall, a London-born contemporary of Dukas who became a major musical figure in Australia during the first decade and a half of the 20th century.

Melba’s DSD surround sound is spacious and full, and the packaging, as usual for this Australian label, is elegant but not overdone. In every respect, this is a fine release. James Reel

DIALOGUE: EAST MEETS WEST * Michala Petri (rec); Chen Yue (xiao, dizi) * OUR RECORDINGS 6.220600 (hybrid multichannel SACD: 67:46)

YAO HU Rong (Fusion) M NIELSEN Stream RUI LI Peng Zhuang (Sparkling-Collision) SEJLUND Butterfly-Rain GANG CHEN Greeting from Afar MONRAD EastWest-project 16 SIQIN CHAOKETU Yan Gui (The Wild Goose Returns Home) ROFELT Circonflexe RUOMEI CHEN Jue (Very Rare and Fine Jade) MURASHKIN Cascades

Contemporary Chinese pieces alternate with works by young Danes on this recording teaming the European recorder family with its Chinese analogs, the xiao and dizi. All of these pieces were written, mostly by composers under 30, in 2007 especially for this project spearheaded by the two performers. Most of the Chinese pieces sound distinctly Chinese, through the composers’ choice of scales and use of note-bending and other Asian playing techniques. A couple of them quote Chinese melodies, but none of this is travelogue music. Peng Zhuang, for instance, sounds like an extract from Orff’s Schulwerk. The Danish pieces, I suppose, are also typical of their culture, yet the greatest interest here is not hearing who uses a pentatonic scale and who does not, but how the various composers cause the two wind instruments to interact. Rong, for example, has Michala Petri and Chen Yue engage in independent but parallel play, whereas Stream establishes a closer, more interdependent relationship between the two lines. The Greeting from Afar by Chen Gang (not the composer by the same name responsible for the “Butterfly Lovers” Violin Concerto) is a playful piece calling for the highest instruments from the dizi and recorder families, while Circonflex requires the players to switch among the full range of their instruments. Some of the pieces, like Cascades, are lovely, rippling, and fluid, while others are a bit more thorny. This is certainly not New Age meditation music, but neither is it strenuously avant-garde. Both artists play superbly, and the audio quality is notable for what it lacks—there’s no high-frequency distortion, no extraneous noise, no strange coloration, nothing but the natural sounds of the instruments recorded in the flattering acoustics of a Danish church. James Reel

NEW CANDIDATE IN CD8 RACE

posted to Political Buzz by Andrea Kelly

Anthony Prowell is the new entry into Congressional District 8 race.

He filed paperwork to run as a Democrat, which would pit him against U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords if she decides to run for her seat again.

But Prowell said the party has given him the cold shoulder, and he may change to run as a Green, instead.

He's an elementary special education teacher who says people want Congress to create jobs and protect Social Security and Medicare.