Yesterday, I went to the contactART Benefit of Phoenix Downtown Artists at the Paper Heart Gallery. It started at 12pm I arrived at 3 thinking it would be jamming with excitement. I blame the weather for the reason why things weren’t happening. It was hot at high noon! Never-the-less I enjoyed meeting the downtown artists especially Joseph, who has the coolest tag and paintings are extraordinary. Ralph Brekan, whose love affair with the well known Barbie Doll, has a great sense of humor. Richard Thompson paintings’, whose work is very strong and evokes tremendous emotion, is a must see.

I also met Barbara owner of Live and Let Live Café and I am very impressed with her vision and new beginnings as entrepreneur. I am planning on a live podcast from Live and Let Live Café to try out Barbara’s menu. I am looking forward to this!

I admit I didn’t hear much music. I apologize to the musicians and performers for not spending more time inside Paper Heart. From what I heard the eclectic lineup was very impressive. I love the Paper Heart as a venue for arts, music, performance, fashion and social gatherings. It’s a great place for a cocktail and culture!

Something to talk about: Arm Candy vs Boy Toy? Tyler Hurst, who is one of the folks over at Contact Magazine (my favorite local read), greeted me with a big smile. He asked me, “Where’s your Arm Candy?” I was dumbfounded by his question but knowing Tyler I thought he would never intentionally insult me to my face. I thought for a moment, quickly going through my inventory of bangles and bobbles, while looking at my arms and replied, ‘Which one?’ Tyler’s mouth dropped. Well you can never have enough arm candy, they just come naturally to me, I’m beautiful, charming, and world known (except to Phoenix I’m working on that), accomplished, why not arm candy in every port I visit? Well, you know that old saying “variety is the spice of life!” I say, “You can never have enough spice.”

This whole interaction made me think back to my wonderful dinner, at a now closed NY Daily Eats favorite, with Minna Citron, who loved to share Truman Capote’s arm at many functions with the intellectual socialites of Manhattan. I pondered over turning Phoenix into a place where artist, scientists, musicians, politicians, designers, architectures etc come together to dine in the riches of life and mind.