Author: Tommy

Verde Valley News – Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen a substantial rise in the incidence of domestic violence in the Verde Valley. Social distancing and other efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 over the last year have escalated the risk of violence for survivors through more time spent at home, increased levels of household stress, and compromised access to advocacy and direct support systems. Verde Valley Sanctuary (VVS) has been tracking occurrences of family violence since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. In our surrounding communities, domestic violence incidents increased as high as 138% with…

Sedona News – On March 24, 2022, the city of Sedona will launch the first phase of its transit implementation plan. The new transit system, the Sedona Shuttle, will begin with service to several of the area’s most popular trailheads, including Cathedral Rock, Soldier Pass, Dry Creek, and Little Horse. In early 2020, the city of Sedona adopted the Sedona Area Transit Implementation Plan (which can be viewed at www.SedonaShuttle.com). The plan contemplates a network of public transit services within Sedona, the Village of Oak Creek, and Oak Creek Canyon. Since that time, the city of Sedona has been working…

Sedona News – The Arizona Community Foundation (ACF) and the Arizona Commission on the Arts announced today a renewed joint effort to support Arizona artists, including additional funding from the Newton and Betty Rosenzweig Fund for the Arts, an endowment held at ACF.  This public-philanthropic partnership strategically pairs the Arizona Community Foundation’s resources and collaborative practices with the Arts Commission’s statewide reach and artist-services infrastructure to serve a common goal: to invest in artists, supporting the work they do as innovators and creative contributors to Arizona’s future.  “We are thrilled to renew our collaboration with the Arizona Commission on the…

… This Great Egret seems to be re-imagining himself as he fluffs out his feathers … perhaps a new way of presenting himself to others … in any event it was a delightful sight to behold. I took the photo below from a place south of Beaverhead Flats Road looking pretty much to the north. Beaverhead Flats Road runs along the bottom of the image on the right side and joins SR179 which travels to the left into the Village and then Sedona. The large greenish area which takes up much of the image is part of House Mountain which is a…

By Amaya Gayle Gregory How much anger do you hold deep inside, stuffed into your cells, hidden beyond the reach of mind, shielded from your heart? How much anger seethes within? And, how much effort does it take to keep it sealed, safe from the light of day, secure from the need to feel it?  Maybe it’s not inside you at all. Unlikely, but possible. Maybe it’s your heart that you built a crystalline palace around to protect it from the anger trying to get in, the anger out there in the world … perhaps it’s both. Either way it…

Camp Verde News – Fiesta Bowl Charities, along with Salt River Project (SRP) and KABOOM!, unveiled a new, 2,000 square-foot playground at Camp Verde Elementary School. The space was built by volunteers across the organizations and the Camp Verde School District and is the 11th playground built across the state by Fiesta Bowl Charities and KABOOM! In November, children from Camp Verde Elementary School were asked to share drawings of what their dream playground would look like. Fiesta Bowl Charities, SRP and KABOOM! came together to make those dreams a reality, taking the children’s visions and incorporating them into the design.…

Sedona News – The Sedona International Film Festival presents Ballet in Cinema on Sunday, March 13 when it hosts the big screen premiere of “Romeo and Juliet” – a new production from The Royal Ballet in London. There will be one show at 3:00 p.m. at the festival’s Mary D. Fisher Theatre.  Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers experience passion and tragedy in this 20th-century ballet masterpiece. “Romeo and Juliet” has become a great modern ballet classic of the ballet repertory since its creation by Royal Ballet Director Kenneth MacMillan and its premiere in 1965. In this special screening, the doomed lovers attempt…

… some winter days when I would head up to the Colorado Plateau, everything would have a strange appearance and an ethereal quality to the earthscape below me … almost anything was possible and all I needed was a palette of colors, brushes and filters to complete the fantasia that I saw in my minds eye. These two photos are examples of what is possible from the same lighting conditions when you free yourself from convention and alter the world to accommodate your imagination. In the top photo you have a view from roughly near the top of the switchbacks…

Sedona News – The Mary D. Fisher Theatre is honored to be the home for the Met Live Opera programs for the 2021-2022 season, presented by the Sedona International Film Festival. The season will continue with Richard Strauss’s “Ariadne auf Naxos” on Saturday, March 12. There will be one show at 11 a.m. — a live simulcast as it is happening at the Met! Plan to come early as Deborah Raymond will lead a pre-opera talk one hour before the production. Soprano Lise Davidsen makes her Live in HD debut in one of her signature roles, the mythological Greek heroine…

Sedona News – Join Keep Sedona Beautiful on Wednesday, March 16, at 5:00 p.m. for its monthly Preserving the Wonder™ Speaker Series. This event will be held both live at 360 Brewer Road in Sedona and virtual via Zoom. The Zoom link is: OHV use in Sedona and the Verde Valley has increased exponentially over the past decade, bringing with it a host of challenges: disruption of neighborhoods, damage to National Forest land, frequent accidents and clouds of dust endangering residents and killing vegetation. While most OHV users drive responsibly, a portion of those who rent OHVs and who bring…

Sedona News – The Dead would like to have some words with you. And so, begins a cemetery walk at Sedona’s oldest cemetery on April 29 and 30, the Schuerman Red Rock Cemetery on the Upper Red Rock Loop Road. The Sedona Historical Society has announced that a limited number of ticket holders will travel back in time to meet some of Sedona’s earliest pioneers. These brave souls experienced triumph and tragedy while carving out a life in Red Rock country. “Voices from the Grave-Spring Spirits Rising” is an open-air cemetery tour with re-enactments by professional actors where original pioneers…

As I watched on TV the Russian helicopter get hit by the Ukrainian Stinger missile, I did with fascination as the rocket came in from the right side of the screen, struck the copter in a ball of light, disintegrating it to pieces, with the bulk of what was left of the helicopter falling to the ground in black smoked flames. The news channel kept playing the video over and over again and it seemed my eyes searched hungrily for any detail I may have missed from the previous viewing, each time it was played. And I noted, deep inside,…

By Amaya Gayle Gregory It seems trite, to sit here in my comfortable home and send thoughts and prayers to those hunkering down, sitting on the cold concrete floors of the Ukrainian subway tonight. To think of parents holding tightly to their children, doing their best to shield the little ones from the bloody trauma of war simply shatters my heart. Nothing I could do feels adequate. Everything seems like it is worlds away from actually meaning anything.        I walk into my kitchen to fix my dinner and my world is the same. Nothing has changed. I have food in…

Sedona, AZ — World renowned blues/rock icon Carvin Jones, voted one of the greatest blues guitarist of all time by Guitarist magazine, is playing tonight at the Sedona Performing Arts Center , Friday, March 5, at 8 p.m. Carvin has received accolades from the likes of BB King and Buddy Guy. He has opened shows for Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Gary Moore, John Mayell, Albert Collins, Johnny Winter, Jimmy Vaughn, and many other Blues Legends throughout the world who have come to admire his immense talents! Eric Clapton quote “Carvin Jones is a young cat out of Phoenix who I…

Sedona News – The Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present the Northern Arizona premieres of the 2022 Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts March 11-17 at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre. Now an annual film festival tradition, Sedona audiences will be able to see all of the short films nominated for Academy Awards before the Oscar telecast on March 27. A perennial hit with audiences around the country (and now the world), don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts. The Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts Program will include: The Queen of Basketball(USA): She is one of the greatest living women’s basketball players.…