VISIONS OF PUBLIC ART: The climate for public art, particularly downtown, has changed dramatically since the 1991 public outcry over David Black's "Sonora," the Main Library's red metal sculpture pavilion (or "modern art monstrosity," as some have called it) on Stone Avenue downtown. These days, semi-permanent murals, "phantom gallery" window displays, and even more colorful metal sculpture by Stephen G. Derks (in front of the Bank of America building just across the street from the controversial library commission) has made its way into our city center with nary a sniff or a whine. Or has it? Three local video artists, Patti Cassidy, KT Good and Eleanor Kohloss, explore themes and attitudes about public art in Tucson with Visions of Public Art: Documentary and Experimental Video Works, a free screening and discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, July 24, at the T/Pima Arts Council, 240 N. Stone Ave. For more information, call 624-0595. T/PAC's Beth Hancock anticipates the program will be of interest to local artists, as well as "people who've enjoyed (public art) and want to know more about the artists. KT Good's work focuses on murals, and also incorporates artist interviews." Hancock says the program is also part critique, both of the work and of the commission process--namely, the concessions artists are often forced to make. MAKING HEADLINES: What appeared to be some really good news was splashed across the front page of Inside Tucson Business last week (Tuesday, July 13, if you must know). There in bold type at the bottom of the page we learned, "Puto resigns as Eller School head." (For those who missed out on the singular pleasure of extracurricular high-school Spanish vocabulary, puto is a slightly more potent translation for "son of a bitch." It even had his picture, a smiling middle-aged guy with the simple caption "Puto" italicized under his mug. In the interest of full disclosure, we're obliged to point out that this particular "Puto" refers to one Christopher Puto, who by this account seems to be a good guy whose resignation will be a great loss to the UA Eller Graduate School of Management's administration. So we intend no disrespect to the man himself. But his unfortunate last name got us thinking about a better world, where the daily papers announced putos everywhere resigning from the school boards...starting, say, with TUSD and Amphi? GIVING AT&T A BAD NAME? It seems long-distance phone solicitation has gone guerrilla. In a phone scam alert making its way around the Internet, individuals allegedly identifying themselves as AT&T service technicians may request that you hit the 90# keys to complete their test on your phone line. The scam goes that by so doing, you give that individual access to your long-distance service, allowing the caller to place long-distance calls billed to your account. "We were further informed that this scam has been originating from many of the local jails/prisons." (Apparently jails are to Pittsburgh what colleges are to Boston--there's one on every corner? Are we to infer that there are actually some remaining Pennsylvania jails and prisons with good, honest inmates?) A software engineer from Phoenix says he confirmed the access code with one AT&T long-distance repair center, which said the 90# code is available through just about any long-distance service provider, not exclusively AT&T. As long as it's going to go the route of urban myth, we'd like to suggest the "90-pound brigade" is actually a loose band of consumer vigilantes, fed up with early morning and dinner-hour interruptions by automatons insisting that a quick change in carriers will yield better rates. Tired of being victimized by a ringing phone with blocked caller ID, they've taken long-distance service into their own hands! They go around calling 800-numbers saying things like, "You want True Savings, AT&T? You can't handle True Savings!"; and "Hey MCI...who's part of your Friends and Family circle now?" True terrorists, their demands are unclear and their tactics indiscriminate. They cannot be stopped. It may not be true, but you heard it here first.

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