Mill Avenue Vexations News

Born to the Spectacle: The Nokia Anti-Experience published

Vex Harrow — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 02:05:42 -0700

Exclusive until I feel the need to put it up on Smashwords and break that fact; however, right now, Amazon Kindle is the only place you can find my newest book, Born to the Spectacle: The Nokia Anti-Experience.

Why should you buy it and read it?

Because, if you have a Kindle it’s only $2.99 and it’ll give you at least a night of enjoyment (if not several.) Plus, with Nokia in the news so many times recently, it should also be semi-topical—even if it is set almost a hundred years into our presumed cybertech future.

Also, if enough people buy and read this I'll have enough money to publish the next Mill Avenue Vexations volume! And everyone should love that (I am currently editing the next two, btw, so there'll be at least two this year.)

Who knows. Perhaps Nokia will take over the mobile industry and give us near-telepathy.

It could happen.

Link, via Amazon.com.

Life on the Rail, People of Mill Avenue [video link]

Vex Harrow — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:09:18 -0700

There's a cute little "Life on the Light Rail" video documentary about Mill Avenue that I ran across today and figured people might want to watch to get a little taste of what's out there.

The narrator picks out three people (including Bruce, the spaypaint artist) to interview and speak about. Mill Ave night time flickers in the background, passing in shades of light and shadow. Reminds me a lot of what I see out there whenever I spend the night.

Link, via Blip.tv

A dinosaur, perhaps, but still the jewel of Mill Ave

Vex Harrow — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:03:29 -0700

Unlike the author of the article that I’m about to cite, I don’t think that the old mill is a misfit when it comes to Mill Ave. If anything, it’s become a misfit due to sheer anachronism—Mill Avenue has seen so many revisions and variation that it no longer has a continuity of even architecture.

Walking from one end to the other is a study in differential styles from the glass-and-steel Chase building and the Brickyard; through the attempts to generate a classic style down the red bricks; past La Casa Vieja’s stucco; and finally into the poorly fashioned glass nuveau structures along the fake lakefront.

Clare Hahne of Webdevil calls the mill, “Tempe’s Dinosaur,”

A Connecticut native, Hayden traveled to Arizona around the 1850s where he founded a freighting business (moving items around by wagon or boat) to offer supplies, including equipment, tools and food to various establishments, says Jared Smith, curator of history at the Tempe History Museum.

Hayden, who is credited with founding Tempe, was away on a business trip to Fort Whipple where present day Prescott is when he got held up by high water levels in the Salt River, forcing him to camp there for a couple of days.

“The story, as it goes, is that Hayden used some of that time to climb a Tempe butte and had an epiphany of the areas potential,” Smith says.

If you look at the URL, the title was intentionally or accidentally misspelled “dinasour.”

It’s about time the city did some sort of restoration effort on the old mill.
Granted, I don’t think that we have the money for that, but it’s an excellent place for a museum to communicate the Ave itself and all the changes and fashions it’s seen.

All I’ve got is the wage of days through the windows of my cab, and all the stories that means I get to tell.

Gunfire Near Mill Ave, Wacky Little Story

Vex Harrow — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 22:16:17 -0700

Not quite sure how take this one, but here's a little ditty to hum while you're waiting for your next cab to arrive. Looks like just Saturday, shots were fired on Mill Avenue (away from the strip) when a store owner took umbrage at a customer attempting credit card fraud. ABC15 has the story in spades,

Tempe police spokeswoman Molly Enright said the owner of Up in Smoke, located near Mill Avenue and Baseline Road, told police he believed a customer was trying to commit credit card fraud and he pulled out a gun to stop him.

"Shots were fired, multiple shots were fired,” Enright said. “The owner of the shop chased the suspect out of the shop, through the shopping center, which has many vehicles on this busy Saturday afternoon."

Excessive use of violence.

Credit card fraud is nasty and all, but it's not the sort of thing that I would end someone's life over... Why not let the credit card company do that. Granted, they won't kill the perpetrator, but they'll sure help the police make sure that they see the inside of a 6x6 concrete cell for a while.

I suppose we're still waiting for the police to determine if the perpetrator of the crime had a weapon or not; but from the sound of it, the store owner chased the guy around the strip mall and out into Kiwanis park, all the while firing his weapon. Not exactly the safest environment to discharge a weapon and to continue to do that during a chase seems extremely excessive.

I know that I carry a weapon in my cab, my wands and my runed crowbar for one, but I'm not going to run around slinging firepower at someone who isn't currently intending me harm. There's got to be some sort of reciprocity of force.

Tags: up in smoke baseline kiwanis park gun

Do you like rap? If so, rapper T-Pain comes to Mill Av

Vex Harrow — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:22:16 -0700

Okay, I don’t like rap music, but do you know what I do like? Mill Avenue being a venue for music and culture. So when I heard that Marquee Theater was going to host a rap musician on Saturday I was both repelled and interested. I figured you all might like to know about this:

T-Pain will perform at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Marquee Theatre, 730 N. Mill Ave., Tempe. Free, but you must text a school code to reserve tickets. (480) 829-0607 or luckymanonline.com.

It’s all part of a publicity stunt by Chegg.com, some sort of online textbook rental shop. You college students will probably know more about this than high school dropout me might (straight to cab driving right out of the nest, I suppose.) When I need textbooks I vanish into the library—and I’ll tell you, I’m certain that Chegg.com is not renting out Tobin’s Spirit Guide or the Esoterica Gadelica Tomic.

So be warned.

Tickets are being delivered through a sketchy cell phone gimmick. Students 18 and older are invited to text 44144 with a code that matches their college of scholarship: ASU (for Arizona State University), SCOTT (for Scottsdale Community College), and ARIZONA (for University of Arizona.) Students of other local colleges can simply text the name of the nearest school in that list. The tickets are free—aside from the text.

I might see you on the street Sturday.

Tags: rap music marquee theater

The Byzantium Oucast published on Amazon.com

Vex Harrow — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:24:19 -0700

I just published The Byzantium Outcast e-book Kindle edition in the Amazon.com marketplace. Right now it's going for $2.99. For the moment, I'm going to make the Arsenal stories about that much, while I'll keep the shorter volumes at $0.99.

"In her ongoing search for magickal artifacts in and around Phoenix, occult detective Vex Harrow makes a strange discovery during one of her favorite hunts--at a yard sale. She procures a strange, bronze statue that seems to have a lot more going on than at first it may appear."

Perhaps I should also get some longer, better back matter written. It looks short and weedy compared to others.

The Outcast--as seen on the cover in that oddly torturous and twisted pose--is a bronze-copper statue that I bought at a yard-sale somewhere in Chandler. It took a bit to clean off all of the scabrous green corrosion and centuries of grime, but there are some stains that even TarnX cannot remove. If you are interested in what this has to do with Vex Harrow then I suggest that you visit the story and read up.

The cover artwork is the lovely work of one of my artists, Nicole Cardiff. She's also the artist who did the cover for the 5th volume of Mill Avenue Vexations, "Drum Circle."

Link to buy The Byzantium Outcast at Amazon.com's Kindle store.

Wannabe-Sangs self-proclaimed vampires trolling Mill Ave?

Vex Harrow — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:31:20 -0700

I came across this bizarre tidbit while looking for news about Mill Ave. Looks like we have a new pair of misanthropes to keep a look out for. Not your usual ghouls or drama queens, but self-proclaimed vampires (wannabe sanguinarians with a sociopathic bent is my guess.)

"They said they were vampires, that they can't go in the light because they would turn to dust," Maley told FOX 10 during a jailhouse interview Tuesday. "They supposedly had this fake ring where they could get power and stupid stuff."

Maley's new roommates also had a disturbing taste for blood.

"He slit his wrist one day and they filled up a vial so he could have the drink for his girlfriend to drink," Maley recalls, and soon they asked for his blood. He let him have some, but only because he was worried about his ex-girlfriend who was spending the night.

Later on in the article it describes how Aaron Homer (boyfriend vampire) went on to stab Maley after requesting some of his blood. He and his girlfriend, Amanda Williamson, are up on charges related to the event. Although they’re being eyeballed by the cops, doesn’t mean that we can let our guard down about them.

From the article, “Neighbors told us the vampire enthusiasts troll Mill Ave in Tempe, looking for homeless people to lure back to their apartment to drink from.” Right, you mess with people on Mill Ave and you will have to tangle with me—and you really do not want to do that.

Yeah. No. Homeless or not, anyone who makes Mill Avenue their home is a friend of mine and if you bring harm to them, I will plant my boot so far up your ass you’ll taste the steel toe.

And don’t think I won’t lead the police back to you either, I drive a cab, I know this city.

Link, via FOX10.

Tags: vampires sanguinarians police crime

Pay with a tweet for the Halloween Vexations Tribute e-book

Vex Harrow — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:11:39 -0700

Starting in the month of October you can receive a free e-book copy of "The Legend of Sleepy Phoenix" all for the price of a tweet or a Facebook post.

Help us out and spread the word to your friends too, the more the merrier! If this sort of promotion works out, I will start looking into reducing the price on other e-books (often probably to free) or giving discounts on merchandise through this method.

Go to the promotion page.

Suspicious package detonated by police at bus station

Vex Harrow — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:42:40 -0700

Looks like we had a very fun day out there around the Light Rail station.

1:09 p.m.: A bomb squad detonated a suitcase-like package found at the Tempe Transportation Center Tuesday morning near Veterans Way and College Avenue, police reported.
The light rail station at the transportation center was shut down soon after the package was discovered at about 9:30 a.m. Trains were initially allowed to run through the station, but not allowed to stop, said Hilary Foose, spokeswoman for Metro light rail.
At around 10:30 a.m., trains were not allowed to pass through the station, she said.

The diversion pushed passengers off at the Mill Avenue station and they had to use a bus to get around the affected closures.

Didn't think this sort of thing might happen around Tempe, really, we're hardly the sort of community that supports mad bombers. Right now I imagine that someone's unmentionables are right now flittering in the breeze through Tempe's skies in tatters after being blown to smithereens. After the suitcase was detonated by police it was determined there were no bomb components and the light rail station was unblocked.

I wonder what exact criteria makes a forgotten package suspicious. I guess people don't take suitcases with them very often on the bus?

Tags: bomb tempe

Recently published in the Premier Issue of PANÂCHE

Vex Harrow — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:25:03 -0700

My short story “Meet the Pricers” has been published in the premier issue of PANÂCHE Journal of Poetry & Fiction: Volume 1 Issue 1 Autumn 2010.

“Meet the Pricers” is a short story set at a Goodwill store in Phoenix, Arizona—which just happens to also be the center of all Goodwill stores in the universe. Cammy, who happens to work a register, finds herself in an unexpected adventure when a customer brings a pair of socks to the front that lack a price tag.

An electronic subscription to the journal only costs $35.00 USD ($55 for print). People who buy a subscription now will receive the current issue (and presumably future issues, but it doesn’t say for how long). Although, there is no news yet if individual issues can be purchased.

Curious enough, the publisher of this journal is also in Michigan (where I am staying right now.)

Find PANÂCHE on Twitter and at Facebook.