Join Don and friends for a goodbye at Sidebar tonight (Monday, June 22nd) at 8:30pm. I’ll be there in spirit.

He’s worked at the Apple store. He’s worked for a music mag. He started a modern design mag. He started an entertainment mag. He’s a photographer, dog owner and member of the YMCA.

He supported downtown. He went to museums. He dreamed of a better downtown Phoenix, a modern, urban oasis filled with people and intelligent conversation. He might have been a little early.

And now Don Crossland is leaving the city he’s called home for much of his life for a new adventure in the Mecca of modernism, New York. Armed with dreams of working for a green publication, a modern design magazine or earning his living from behind a camera, Crossland will surely find the path ahead of him easier than the one he forged here.

I’d like to thank Crossland for a few things. One, never giving up on me even when I cost his magazine tons of free labor (ask about the interns), two for not outright killing me when I feuded with his lady (just guess) and always being available to pick my ass up from the hospital or wherever I lay unable to get home on my own.

Crossland has absolutely no idea how to give up. This is something we can all learn from. No matter the odds, the profits or the bad luck, quality is important. And Don Crossland is quality.

Thank you.