I don’t even know why this is news for anyone, but I suppose it’s part of the cult of celebrity that our culture is so tied up in. I tell you what, I have my own celebrities—most of them are dead—but many of them actually sit in my cab time to time and I get to talk to them. As for Mr. Kiowa Gordon, he apparently should have dealt with his DUI rap before running around the state.

According to MTV News, there’s enough truth to the matter of his arrest to comment on it,

“Twilight Saga” actor Kiowa Gordon was arrested in Arizona earlier this week. The 21-year-old was taken into custody by Mesa-area police on the morning of August 8 because of two outstanding warrants, MTV News has confirmed.

Gordon was a passenger in a car registered to him when was apprehended by the Tempe Police Department. Upon discovery of the outstanding misdemeanor warrants, the actor was taken into custody to to the Mesa City holding facility. Contrary to original reports, no new DUI charges were filed against him.

Today I learned that there are misdemeanor DUI charges. I must say, although as a cabdriver I take a lot of drunk people home late at night and end up driving with people still sloshed and on the road, and I’m surprised that there is any DUI charge ever that can be considered a misdemeanor. My understanding of the law is such that I cannot comment on this…but what?

Last I heard, he bailed out of a Tempe jail and received another order to appear.

We also learn that Gordon grew up in Arizona, he’s a Native American actor belonging to the Hualapai tribe, and he’s also a Mormon. He belongs to the same chapter as Twilight author Stephanie Meyer, who deputized him into his role.

He plays a werewolf named “Embry Call”.

People who frequent the ASU campus and the surrounding area may have noticed that there have been a certain number of changes to our fair city. One of the most striking is that the church on prominent display on the corner of Forest and University suddenly stands alone amidst a dusty hole. The fuming crater is all that’s left of the All Saints Catholic Newman Center—a religious community center and a small church, which has stood there for years.

The church on the corner is a historic building, referred to by Newman Center staff as the “Old Church.” The chapel itself is claimed to be the oldest of its kind in the valley and doesn’t seem to have its own name—actually, it does have a name, “Old St. Mary’s Church” but the name is never used and so it fell out of common usage—thus why it’s referred to as the Old Church. In a way, it’s rather endearing that Tempe has the culture to support a nameless church in our midst, rising from the riven landscape.

According to sources briefly available at the All Saints Catholic Newman Center website the heavy demolition began March 8, 2011 and completed March 18. Early estimates put the expectation that construction would begin March 21—obviously this has not happened as it is already mid-July 2011 and no motion has been made on the site.

It’s hard to tell exactly what’s holding up the construction efforts. Looking through their bulletins and constant calls for donations and charity it seems that perhaps there’s been stagnancy in fundraising. Not that fundraising has stopped, but it certainly has not been able to keep up with expenses piling up as the planning and demolition progressed. In fact, during the demolition plans the discovery of asbestos in the original materials that needed to be removed safely (an expensive prospect.)

The run up to the intended construction project has seen a strange history that has been chipping away at the original funds and left the coffers somewhat bare. Include in this the housing crash of 2007—and the loss of potential investors for the church—that lead to the loss of a huge pledge from a company who wanted to build a dormitory to the tune of $250k. Also, a significant percentage of the original fundraising had come through as pledges from the community and in the wake of the crash people lost jobs or found themselves unable to keep to their pledges.

Further, a political shake up with church management changing the staffing of the Newman Center from Dominican leadership to a different faction has caused a certain amount of animosity from the community. As a result, people familiarly connected with Dominican leadership backed out.

Between the economy and internal politics, and the beginning of the construction, this has thoroughly exhausted their finances and serves as a roadblock to starting as immediately as they hoped.

[Pictured above is the “Old Church” the only remaining structure still standing in the lot that once harbored the All Saints Catholic Newman Center.  As a structure, the Old St. Mary’s Church has been in Tempe for over 100 years. The new chapel and community center are expected to be built up around it without affecting the old city architecture.]

As of July 3rd, the MADCAP (Mill Avenue District Community Art Project) Theaters have closed up shop for the summer. The reason? They need to upgrade their air-conditioning system. This venue has done an amazing job for Mill Ave in introducing a lot of new and upcoming artists to the street and I’d like to see it stay.

You can help out. Here’s some information about the campaign and what you can do as a resident of Tempe (or anywhere else) to be part of this:

MADCAP Theaters is a nonprofit organization located in downtown Tempe, AZ and opened in 2009. MADCAP was created to give smaller up and coming artists an opportunity to showcase their talents at a fraction of the cost of larger production spaces.

However, being located in a hot, desert, climate, we have run into an obstacle.  The 16 year old building has over 50,000 square feet, 6 auditoriums, two lobbies and two service floors that require air conditioning. Currently the A/C units are not functioning properly which means we cannot create a comfortable environment for our artists and patrons.

This is our 3rd summer duct taping our air-conditioning units together, and with so much potential, we must reach out for community help or MADCAP will need to close indefinitely. In order for MADCAP to operate, we need working A/C, and ask for your help to reach our financial goal.

I’ve been participating on and off in MADCAP since it appeared in 2009. I’m not a huge player, but I’ev enjoyed what they’ve been doing for Mill. However, with them having trouble with the A/C—and I can attest that’s a huge problem with my cab sometimes—this means that we won’t have them until we can get that fixed up again.

They need to raise about $40,000 for replacement parts for their lobby A/C units (about $15,000) each and the large auditorium unit (about $10,000). There are multiple tiers of donations in the “stay cool” campaign that you can take part in—see the web page for details. Some of them amuse me greatly, such as having your name on the THANK YOU posters at the venue.

So far, only $500 has be raised and there’s 62 days remaining.

Link, via IndieGogo; link to madcaptheaters.com.

Officially announcing the most recent semi-comical work added to the Vexations arsenal: Snatch and Grab (or How Brother Jed Met Vex Harrow.)

This story continues on immediately after the events of Hadaly’s Day Out from Black Hat Magick (although the site is still offline.) It also shows some of the differences between the storytelling across both of these properties; while they cross universes, Elaine Mercer and Vex Harrow have fundamentally diametric approaches to problems.

People probably recognize Brother Jed as a vituperative Christian mall preacher who visits campuses who uses insults, false shame, sexist remarks, and generally bald-faced hateful opinions to gather crowds and preach his message. Of course, in Vex Harrow’s universe activities such as this come with consequences and those can sometimes be quite damming and damaging.

This from the woman who discovered a portal to Hell in the middle of a lane at a local bowling alley.

Read: Snatch and Grab! and while you’re at it check out “Hello Cory” and No, I Do Not Want Fries With That.