impressions of tempe
Music: Apoptygma Berzerk: Harmonizer (2002)
I am on my third day in Tempe, Arizona and am enjoying the people and place very much. (Wouldn't you know it: I forgot the camera!) This place is not quite what I had expected; it reminds me of a cleaner, less stuck-up Los Angelas, but without the pollution and traffic. Mountains are everywhere in the distance, sometimes in your face (as is the case with "A" mountain where the stadium is built). Palm trees line the streets; a lot of attention went into landscaping on just about every bare spot: cactus and strange succulent plants are strategically nested in a bed of zero-scaped pebbles. Orange trees are everywhere and little yellow and orange balls dot the ground in many places. The temperature has been cooler than I expected, but quite pleasant. Dan mentioned it often felt like a movie set, and I agree it's just a tad too clean and tidy . . . everything seems new and shiney in Tempe.
I've had a couple of charmed evenings with Dan Brower for drinks and conversation, gossip, the usual. For those of you who don't know him, Dan is a brilliant critic and theorist who has done some path-breaking work in public sphere studies and had made sure the field has not ignored the AIDS epidemic. Aside from his dazzling noggin, though, he's also one of the kindest, gentlest, and friendliest people I've hung out with in some time. He is a generous person and, if you ever get an opportunity to come visit Tempe, you must insist on hanging-out (unless you're a jerk, cause then you don't deserve his company). Don't tell Dan but I think I have a crush. Oh wait: everybody does . . . . Anyhoot, later today I'll join him and Cheree Carlson, another smarty-pants in ASU's team rhetoric, for lunchness. Hanging with these folks is the best part of this trip!
Not all of the people here are as hospitable. One thing I've definitely noticed is that norms of "customer service" are very different here. Yesterday I went to this massive mall in Scotsdale (cause that's one of the things you do here; you marvel at the massive shopping centers) in search of Doc Martins. At a shoe store a young salesman took a personal call in the middle of a conversation with me . . and that call lasted at least two minutes. I spent some time on campus and, unable to find the campus bookstore, went to the student union's information desk. The woman I approached gave me directions while "texting" a friend! Now, in Texas this would not simply be considered rude, but un-Texan. And I think it would considered increasingly rude the further southeastardly one went.
But, truth be told, that's my only complaint about Tempe; I'm finding it quite lovely. As I toured myself though campus I admired its beauty, all very well planned and easily accessible. There are no roads in the center of campus, just wide sidewalks and carefully planned landscaping: flowers, lots of trees. One thing I've noticed also about campus is how modest the buildings are. A number of them are that ugly 70s prison-box crap (what state school a century old doesn't have a dozen of these?), but the older buildings and renovated ones are really a hodgepodge of interesting styles. I say they're modest because they're not massive, like the buildings I'm accustomed to seeing at UT, with huge columns and such.
So, I really am enjoying it here. When I said I was coming some people moaned, but I think they were moaning about Phoenix. I've not explored Phoenix yet. I'm just saying Tempe (and Scotsdale) are pretty groovy. Oh yeah: and the wifi in my hotel sucks and for some reason webmail is like horribly terribly slow and Eudora will only retrieve messages. So, if you've sent me an email I'm sorry about not responding. I'll be back in Austin for a brief touch down on Sunday and Monday and will get back to you then. Ok, that's enough computing for today!