Native American Music Festival

JWise Moments

Native American Music Festival in Tsaile, Arizona

Who gets so lucky to attend something as special as the 2nd Annual Native American Music Festival held at the Navajo Community College in the Tsaile Mountains of Arizona? We do, of course. From traditional native sounds to metal and hip-hop, this festival had a little bit of everything. Caroline and I had already been in America for two years by this time, but this wasn’t our first time on the Navajo Reservation. The opportunity to dip into some authentic culture absolutely justified the 5-hour drive north to get up this way. That, and the roast mutton and pine nuts.

Somewhere on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona

For those of you who may be stumbling upon my blog and find these old posts that predate the existence of blogs: these get posted from time to time after I’ve scanned in old photos or negatives. Even though the old film quality nature of the images and our cheap scanner leave a lot to be desired, I still enjoy the images that inspired us to continue exploring our world. Being able to extract enough data to pinpoint certain aspects of these times is also helpful. While I’d forgotten what year and the specifics of the event, we still have a t-shirt with the dates and list of performing acts.

Caroline Wise and Mark Shimer at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona

Traveling with my 29-year-old wife (who looks like a 15-year-old boy here), and I was Mark Shimer, who was still living with us at the time while he and Caroline worked for the Marion Foundation. Those two are pictured here at Canyon de Chelly National Monument of the Navajo Reservation.

Caroline Wise and John Wise at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona

Seeing we were in the area, an obligatory stop at Petrified Forest National Park was in order, especially because Mark had never been here. Notice my lack of a beard? This has only happened on very rare occasions.

Somewhere on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona

Taking sunset photos from the car has never proven very worthwhile, but that hasn’t stopped us in the 30 years we’ve been doing just that.

Seeing Jessica – First Time in 6 Years!

JWise Moments

John Wise and Jessica Wise at the San Diego Zoo in California

The last time I saw my daughter Jessica face-to-face was back in 1989, shortly after her mom, Sheila, and I split up. Caroline and I had been in the States nearly a year before we were situated well enough that Sheila and I could coordinate Jessica boarding a plane in Texas for the unaccompanied flight to Arizona over Spring Break. Our first time outside of Arizona was a trip to the San Diego Zoo over in California.

Jessica Wise at the San Diego Zoo in California

Jessica was only nine years old, and other than some minor initial shyness, we all got along wonderfully. When last I saw her in Frankfurt, Germany, she had a regular little girl’s voice, now, she traveled with a Texas drawl. Here we are having the first experience together again in 6 years, and being a still-naive 33-year-old, it never occurred to me to note my impressions of what I was recognizing or feeling with seeing her again. What a wasted opportunity.

Caroline Wise and Jessica Wise at the San Diego Zoo in California

Some of the few things we remember about the visit were that when she did return to Florence, Texas, was that we sent her home with new clothes, a bunch of books, about a ton of messaging about the importance of reading. We hammered upon her the need to always be an avid reader. Caroline adds that she has the memory of Jessica wanting nail polish that we didn’t see anything wrong with, so we indulged her; seems that her step-father had other ideas and that the nail polish didn’t fly after she got home. For that matter, he didn’t much like the idea of all the books we sent either out of some kind of jealousy that his own three children weren’t benefiting from them. In divorcing her mom, I inadvertently turned her over to a broken, insecure man who would scar her. Guilt for contributing to the grief of a child runs deep.

Congo Internet Cafe

JWise Moments

Congo Internet Cafe web page

On July 19, 1995, I registered our company called Velocity Life to operate the Congo Internet Cafe located at 2515 N. Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, Arizona. Caroline made the graphics, and I scavenged the HTML to build our web page.

Congo Internet Cafe featured in Arizona Republic newspaper on August 9, 1995

Over the course of the month, before we opened, we had to renovate the space we were occupying. Before we christened it as the Congo Internet Cafe, it was simply the Congo and was a joint for live music. We were able to generate some press before opening with the Arizona Republic doing a front-page story about us in the business section back on August 9th.

Flyer for Swell Records in Scottsdale, Arizona

Our neighbors were an early promoter of all things rave culture with their shop called Swell, which is the entire reason we were able to open Arizona’s first dedicated Internet Cafe. The year before, in 1994, when Caroline and I were getting married, we visited the Arrowhead Mall, where we ran into Russel Ramirez. Something about techno music connected us, and he asked if we were ever in Arizona again to visit his shop. Well, that’s just what we did, but he wasn’t in. Turned out he and his wife were notorious for being late. We did meet the owner of the property, who listened to our story and asked if we’d be interested in taking over the next-door space. I told him it could be a great idea for an Internet Cafe as they were starting to kick off in England and Japan. He became one of the investing partners.

John Wise and others at the Congo Internet Cafe in Scottsdale, Arizona

When we finally opened, we had $47 dollars in cash left of the money we raised and invested, enough for our change drawer. We had to make money immediately, and with the help of Swell, that’s just what happened.

Flyer for the Congo Internet Cafe in Scottsdale, Arizona

DJs Z-Trip and Emile were going to headline Fridays as The Bomb Shelter. Mixing music from across the spectrum on four turntables, we took a mic and turned it over to the floor, and blam, the place was packed with guys rapping freestyle over the eclectic mix of tunes.

Flyer for the Congo Internet Cafe in Scottsdale, Arizona

Saturday’s went off the clock and kept us open until daybreak. The place was lit by a single strobe light for DJ Shawn’s performance, with women coming in from the Arcadia district while some of the women from Babe’s Cabaret up the street would show up after their strip club closed.

Tobias Beldermann and Kermit at the Congo Internet Cafe in Scottsdale, Arizona

This is Tobias Beldermann, a.k.a. Redeye, Acidisn, and Arena Trex, who came in from Germany over the summer to stay with Caroline and me and help paint our place. From the images behind him and Kermit to the “Mushroom Runners” overhead, he lent a lot of creativity to this endeavor. As for the Dreamfish on the right, that was spray-painted by Dion Terry.

Flyer for the Congo Internet Cafe in Scottsdale, Arizona

We had most of the early movers and shakers from the Phoenix area who would define much of the electronic and club music scene of the late 1990s and into the new century with Zack Sciacca, a.k.a. Z-Trip going on to work with LL Cool J, Beck, and even performing in front of 450,000 people, opening for the Rolling Stones.

Caroline and I bailed out just before Halloween that year due to cultural disagreements with some of the investors. For the 90 days, this was part of our lives; it created a huge impact and opened many doors.