Chuck our friend Eve and I just spent the last 8 hours filming two Clip Shows and a Cinema Psychic. It was the perfect end to a roller coaster week. Happy we are done with it and I am looking forward to the week ahead.

This week we go to Phoenix to attend the first annual Podcamp AZ which is being held in Tempe on Saturday the 3rd. Chuck and I are really excited and I cant wait to get the next couple of days done so we can meet up with old friends in the PHX and enjoy some great food.

What does the week, or the three days before jetting off to Phoenix hold. Work and a quite a lot of it. Chuck and I set a schedule last week that included producing both shows and extra content for the next two weeks. This allowed us to take the week off while in Phoenix, which is great! This leads to a big crunch right before we leave that combined with my “work a day job” brings the stress! Someone said to me last week, “you could skip a week” I laughed. Chuck has yet to miss a week since we started the Psychic and we are quickly approaching a year. It is always hectic and sometimes rushed but I enjoy the race to the finish.

This week is also the celebration of that pagan holiday, Halloween. Over the last couple of years I have paired down my excitement over this time of year. I know I have written a couple times as to why, but I think this year might just be different. I have been thinking that maybe my head is been in the wrong hole which has lead to my removal of feeling and or overall excitement in the holidays that I once loved. This year I would like you to know, I am back. Which is to say, I will be dressed as a masked murder, watching scary movies and handing out candy to the kids this Wednesday night. You should stop by and say “boo!”

This weekend is done. I spent the whole week waiting for it to get here and in a blink of an eye here it is Monday. Why is it when you want the time to slow it speeds up and the reverse for when you just want it to be over. Spent quite a bit of time this weekend soul searching. I want to report, I might be a little more screwed that I had originally thought. I guess time will tell.

One last thing, I spent last night at a Halloween party. I dressed as Geek Guy of Clip Show fame. Chuck and his lady friend were along for the ride with a couple of their friends. For the most part I spent the night solo talking to randoms about any number of things. Quite a few friendly people and it turned out to be a decent party all and all. It is the first party I have been to in, well I cant remember when? Got me thinking about the parties we use to throw and how much fun we all had. Maybe it is time for another party. I guess what i might be saying is, New Years 2007?

If you are going to be in Phoenix this week. Drop me a line. Lets get together and have a drink or two. If you are not, why not? We could have a drink and talk new media. Fun times!

Click To Play

Chris took some video while driving in the rain. I love the monsoon in Phoenix!!

Now here is a great mash up!  Gophernow is a simple google maps mash that lets you enter your address and then gives you a map and list of restaurants that are open right now.  This is such a great idea that it seems strange that it has taken someone this long to mash this data.  Not only does it give you restaurants in your area that are open and serving it also lets you know who is delivering.  This will be handy to have when you are in a unfamiliar city and looking for food, late!

Would have come in handy last week when looking for late night food.

GopherNow 

When the City of Phoenix approved the plan to build a light rail system in the valley that would connect Glendale, Phoenix and Mesa, some how the Airport was left out. I realize the link to Sky Harbor would have added a significant amount of money to the final price tag of the light rail project. And it was hard enough selling the 1.4 billion dollar project to the City, so having to add another couple hundred million would not have helped. In my mind though, I will never understand why the link was not just added to the final plan, instead of waiting and paying more later to add the line to Sky Harbor. It is hard for tax payers to see the long term benefits, come on what is another 500 million among friends? So, the thought around the campfire was once the City sees how great the light rail is working, it would not be hard to sell an expansion. Well the light rail is still a year away from completion and there is already talk of a “people mover” connection to Sky Harbor.

The People Mover will be an automated train that will take people from the light rail station at Washington and 44th street right into the Airport. This project is part of the larger Airport expansion which includes the expansion of terminal 4, the future demolition of terminal 2 and construction of a new terminal in its place.

The money has been approved, 3.3 billion dollars, and the work on Terminal 4 has started or will start soon. The People Mover has a goal of 2013 completion and operation. The demo of terminal 2 will come as further expansion is needed.

Being able to take a train from close to my house all the way to the Airport is a great achievement for Phoenix. In my mind this sets Phoenix out in front of other western cities, all of which are striving for this kind of connectible mass transit system. Phoenix is all growed up!

People Mover
Phoenix Light Rail

Finally AZ has joined the long list of states that have banned indoor smoking. The law takes affect May 1, 2007. Guess this means I am not going to AZ till May. Oh and if you do smoke in AZ, they have upped the tax on a pack by .82 cents. There is no better time to quit!!

NO SMOKING

Arizona, finally after all these years, changed the law prohibiting drinking between the hours of 1am and 6am. Yes that’s right you can now party till 2am. I know what you are thinking, what could one more hour possible get a guy or gal like me. Well if you have ever been in a bar that stays open till 2am. Let me tell you, I have done this many times. You would know this extra hour can get you the long lasting relationship you have dreamed about all your life. It might also get you something like the clap so watch yourself.

Come to think of it, I am not sure who is benefiting from the extra hour. It is sure not your liver, or the other drivers on the road. Wait, I just figured it out. Businesses will make a couple extra bucks. That and everyone likes to party, right?

Its dark you want to go home with me?

I am by no means a sports fan. I don’t like to watch the stuff on TV and going to an event is like being drug through nails. I went to a hockey game a couple of years ago and I thought the people around me where joking with there animal like behavior. It was not till after when I asked my girlfriend at the time and she informed me this was just what happened at those events.

Through out my life I have on occasion taken a liking to one sport or team in particular. When I was a young lad I was a big fan of Kansas City Royals Baseball, my grandfather was into the game which made me into it also? Anyway the only other time in my short history when I was a sports fan was in the early 90’s and the team was the Phoenix Suns. I had been a basketball fan on and off through my young years but for the first few years of the 90’s I was hooked.

I know you are thinking right now, why the hell do I care about Jim and his sports interests. I am thinking the same thing; I guess all the background was so that you would understand, as if you wanted to understand, why I was giving a link to the couch of the Suns. Cotton Fitzsimmons died yesterday due to complications with lung cancer. He was the coach of the Suns during the time in which I was participating in viewing the sport.

I guess you could say, for this one brief minute I am going to do what all other guys do and send a shout out to a coach of a team in which I have no real ties other than watching a game played on TV?

Here is the link..

Fitzsimmons

I just finished reading Chucks review of Fahrenheit 9/11 and this guy is way under rated. Just when I think you can not possible top yourself you have done it again Charlie. That is by far the best review you have writtenn yet and the best one I have read about this movie.

If you have not read it, read it now!

The Man

Nader is out in Arizona after two voters filled a lawsuit challenging the validity of the petitions and other documents filled in Arizona. Nader withdrew and will not be on the ballot in November.

Things are not looking good for King Nader.

Story from Fox News
Don’t you just love fox news!

Phoenix again? I just finished reading the Republic and came across this story on the city’s downtown park. The park is called Patriots Square and I have some found memories of it has a kid. My friend Chris and I used to go down and hang out and a couple of times we were lucky enough to see the laser light show. It has been years since the laser shows and now the park is pretty much bum central.

The new mayor of Phoenix is thinking about bulldozing the park and starting over. Read the article below for the rest of the story.

Hot Zone