Mementos Mori

Last year, we cared a bunch when we heard that one of Van Buren’s last remaining vestiges of a nearly forgotten Phoenix, the circa-1939 Log Cabin Motel, had changed ownership and was in serious danger of being torn down. Then we read an impassioned four-page essay and photo/memorabilia piece in the Society for Commercial Archeology Journal by former New Times contributor Douglas Towne and we wanted to storm down there and demand that the joint be preserved. Towne’s “Lighting Up the Past: More Art About Buildings, Roads and Maps” exhibit is an awesome display of matchbooks, postcards, and decals from similarly endangered structures and/or unique independent mom-and-pops that fell victim to the wrecking ball long ago.

Fri., June 20, 6-9 p.m.; Fri., July 4, 7-10 p.m., 2008