So maybe you’ve registered our subtle hints that PHOENIX magazine is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. Yeah, yeah, thanks, we know – we look great for 50. Not a day over 44. But you know what really gives us comfort as we stare down the barrel of magazine middle-age? Making a list of all the people and things that will celebrate the big 5-0 this year, too. It’s a pretty spectacular list. But then it made us feel a little neurotic. Are we as big a deal as, say, Adam Sandler?
We consulted the sagest prophet of our era – Google – to find out. So let this tag-cloud based on Google hits settle the question: Who’s the most famous 50-year-old of them all?
Arizonan Wino
Remember Dan Dunn, the former East Valley Tribune scribe whose scabrous weekly column in the late 1990s managed to go viral in those primitive pre-Facebook years? Well, he’s living in Los Angeles now, and evidently drinking a lot. Dunn’s third gonzo memoir as a self-described “outlaw booze writer,” titled American Wino: A Tale of Reds, Whites and One Man’s Blues (Dey St., 2016), chronicles his cross-country road trip to taste wine in every continental U.S. state, including Arizona. Some highlights:
Enjoys a personal charcuterie spread at the Jerome home winery of Caduceus Cellars maestro Maynard James Keenan, who reveals his plans for a Merkin Vineyards B&B.
MJK on Arizona wine: “Arizona is producing first-class wine and I want people to know about it.”
Dunn admires MJK’s “101 Things to Do With Your Hipster Douchebag” T-shirt. Which might be a PHOENIX magazine cover story next year.
He also recruited PHOENIX magazine editor Craig Outhier to write a brief Arizona wine guide, which appears in the book, mostly unedited. American Wino ($17) hits bookshelves April 5.
HOT MIC
“To us, our religion and our belief, the body is
the temple. The body is
sacred. That may include the genitals. In fact, I’m pretty sure it does.”
– Ben Wade, son of “Temple Goddess” Tracy Elise, in the wake of her conviction for pandering, money laundering and prostitution in early March
On
Location?
One of the deadliest tragedies in Arizona history – the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013 – will soon be revisited for movie cameras, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Based on a GQ article of the same name, No Exit will star Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men) and tell the story of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who perished in the blaze. Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) is set to direct from a script by Black Hawk Down screenwriter Ken Nolan.
It’s obviously a story close to many Arizonan hearts. But will it be shot in Arizona? Hollywood and Arizona have been on the outs since the state’s film-production tax credit expired several years ago, as described in the July 2015 issue of PHOENIX. Movies and TV shows that take place here are frequently shot somewhere else.
One would hope that No Exit proves to be an exception. It would be in vaguely bad taste, so soon after the tragedy, to film it in New Mexico or Canada. The firefighters died in service to Arizona. The filmmakers should honor their memory by shooting their film here – tax rebates or no.
