A MINUTE IN FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA, WITH WALTER SALAS-HUMARA

By Guest ColumnistAug 20, 2018

A Minute in Flagstaff, Arizona,

Flag Brew Patio: This downtown pub and brewery has a wonderful patio. In the summer, the Sunday afternoon gigs are the best. We love playing the Flag Brew Patio.

The Hotel Monte Vista: This is a classic old place with tons of character. Right downtown in the middle of everything, it has two tremendous cocktail bars and a small music venue that hosts touring acts both national and international. I saw Tav Falco here with Mike Watt on bass.

Firecreek: This downtown cafe has a vibey back room that hosts everything from poetry slams to punk bands. It’s perhaps the artsiest scene, full of eccentricity.

The Green Room: This is the mid-size rock club. It has a big stage, lots of room to dance, a clear and loud PA system and good lights. Its casual and unassuming atmosphere makes it a comfortable to place to hang. I saw The Melvins here recently and they rocked.

928.774.0492

https://www.motherroadbeer.com/butler-brewery

• https://www.motherroadbeer.com/contact/
• Booker Email: tom@motherroadbeer.com
• Booking Tips: No drums allowed. Performers must provide all their own equipment, including PA and mics.

hard. https://flagstaffgreenroom.com/calendar/action~month/exact_date~1549004400/request_format~html/

The Orpheum Theater: The old downtown movie hall has become the premiere concert venue for larger touring acts. It’s funky and creaky, but well-run and the best place to perform. The audiences are always great. I’ve opened for Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen and Jerry Joseph here. I love the Orpheum. On the side of the building there is an amazing mural by local artist Sky Black.

MartAnne’s Burrito Place: If you come to Flagstaff you MUST have breakfast at Martanne’s. The green pork chilaquiles are to die for. I have sent every touring band I know here and all are blown away by the flavors, portions and atmosphere.

Motel DuBeau: On what was the original Route 66, legend has it this is the original Motel. Mr. DuBeau coined the phrase. Now it’s a very cool hostel full of international travelers. It has a great bar and is a great place to hang with the world traveler crowd.

Mother Road Brewery: One of the many, many breweries in town. They brew an excellent IPA they call Tower Station and the patio is a fun place to hang and order pizza from the excellent Pizzicletta next door.

The Weatherford Hotel: This is the oldest historic structure downtown. It’s gorgeous inside and out with live music in the basement bar, great food in the restaurant, and a cool bar upstairs that opens out onto the wraparound balcony. You get views of the whole town and the majestic San Francisco Peak to the north.

Incahoots: This downtown fixture is where you get your party duds. Flag has a very costumey culture. Where else can you go to a concert and have a dancing costumed 60-year-old offer you a hit of acid? You gotta love that about this town.

Arizona Music Pro: An excellent full-service music shop. It has everything any musician, local or traveling, could ever need. Plus the manager, Rich Neville, used to play bass for Poco and Vince Gill. How cool is that?

New beginnings and old beginnings and new endings and the beginning of the end.

Where has the time gone?

I was asked by this lady who had been chatting at me for some time while I smoked a Kool 100 and was mindful of my manners.

The woman stepped closer to me, her hair and clothes smelled like fresh detergent and then had a sudden tainting aerosal paint.

She asked again, "Where has the time gone." She said it in the form of a sentence, which was wasteful of words first, and was wasteful of my clinging droplets of sanity, those last chemicals where dry for the week - my week used up the whole package.

I asked her why she asked so many rhetorical questions and then immediately shoved my fingers to my lips and hushed her. I wondered it she had ever seen "Harold and Maude" or if she would co-sign on a T-bird convertible with me.

I wondered why everything was okay. I wondered if everything was okay right before it all went wrong. I wondered it everything was wrong before it went all right.

ALL right.

I could never seem to save myself from myself. I know this to be true. I have sought help, performed research, experimented, collapsed, rinsed and repeated. Polyconversely, I had to save something at this point, and as a result finding no safety, I didn't. 

I continued doing this until about an hour ago when I was ending another beginning of a song - a song I tweaked with since I wrote it last summer - but I found a thread of electricity, not warm or shocking; my mind steadily eased....

Here is a little anecdote to break up the whole self-discovery trip:

Kansas Black

   When mom slapped Mrs. Quarterhouse across the face in our new sun-room, even I knew the fact that my mother having Albinism was beside the point. But by this point, all the local buzz was beside the point, the point was clearly unknown, even worse - it was clearly inexistent.

   Mrs. Quarterhouse looked at the ceiling fan and a grin cricked across her maroon face. Mom and I looked up at the ceiling fan, too; so it seemed. That is when she told me that Mrs. Quarterhouse had broken the wall down while I noticed a point was about to be made to ME and I grabbed Mrs. Quarterhorse's purse and my Mom's car keys, and I locked their wheelchairs together with two twist ties.

My name is Kansas Black.

I am an Alibino-American and I am on the run.

Chapter II

Coming soon.

This is a test. This is only a test.

This isn't the real thing. In the event of the actual real thing, we would not call this a test.