Arizona off-topic

[MJLO]

haha, after months of nipping at the heels of it, we have finally passed the Hawaii/territories forum to have the most posts in the west. Right on! Lets keep talking guys I think we're doing ok.

[colin]

Those non-contiguous states seem to get shafted on everything else and ignored by the feds. Why are you so insistent on taking away this one, small victory?

Edited February 8, 2007 by colin

[MJLO]

lol, there has actually been talk about dividing that subforum up into more manageable parts. It's a cluster from things in the Caribbean, all the way out to Gaum. It's the Miscelaneous bin of the West forums doesn't make much sense. Tell me how Puerto Rico is part of the west? 90% of the posting in it is about Hawaii anyway. It's just something I have personally been chasing for a while. I've wanted to see Us be the number one out here. Forgive me i'm an accounting major I think in numbers and decimals. I'd really love to see us take off and be one of the most viewed on UP.

[MJLO]

I just realized we passed 2,000 posts today. I'm not sure how much of a milestone it is. But if you consider than 9 months ago AZ had only 65posts and 8 threads I'd say we've come along way.

[colin]

I've quit my UA job and will start working for what is effectively the nation's alternative newspapers (or rather, a tiny company here in town which supports the small corporation who owns most of the alternative newspapers) early next month.

Between about now and then (I still have some UA time to cruise these forums), I am going on an extended trip. Thus far I'm planning on an Austin run to see one of favorite bands (who once again skipped the Southwest on their tour), then back west to LA to see another, ironically Austin-based, band playing at, of all places, the Natural History Museum. I mean, how cool is that where they have bands playing at the museum? Why don't they do that here??

This may change though. Just last night I was going to Northern California and even had hotel reservations. So it goes with my trip planning.

On the way to/from I'll be hitting some cities and towns in various states (i.e. TX, NM, AZ, CA) and should have plenty of pictures by the end.

[convulso]

I've quit my UA job and will start working for what is effectively the nation's alternative newspapers (or rather, a tiny company here in town which supports the small corporation who owns most of the alternative newspapers) early next month.

Between about now and then (I still have some UA time to cruise these forums), I am going on an extended trip.

On the way to/from I'll be hitting some cities and towns in various states (i.e. TX, NM, AZ, CA) and should have plenty of pictures by the end.

[colin]

Thanks, Ben.

I never used the almost-free tuition, but maybe in the next job.

There's actually no content involved. I can't really say much more than that. Anonymity, yo.

[MJLO]

Alright you all, I need help. I having trouble finding newsworthy stuff to post. Not much going on in AZ since the weekend hit.

[MJLO]

Alright ya'll, I haven't left you, I'm just in a pinch these last couple of days. I'll return to my usual spamming of the boards tommorrowl.

[MJLO]

Will somebody go out and create some news I'm bored!!

I need something to post about. Today is a picture day

[colin]

Anyone ever seen "Bad Santa"?

I'm watching it for the first time now, and there's a sequence where they're working a mall in what's supposed to be Phoenix. From the shots and list of filming locations, it's not Phoenix (although there are AZ plates on the cars in the lot), but there's an interesting dialogue with a kid:

"What's the North Pole like?"

"It's just like the suburbs"

"Which one?"

"...Apache Junction"

Interesting.

[convulso]

Anyone ever seen "Bad Santa"?

I'm watching it for the first time now, and there's a sequence where they're working a mall in what's supposed to be Phoenix. From the shots and list of filming locations, it's not Phoenix (although there are AZ plates on the cars in the lot), but there's an interesting dialogue with a kid:

"What's the North Pole like?"

"It's just like the suburbs"

"Which one?"

"...Apache Junction"

Interesting.

Edited February 18, 2007 by convulso

[MJLO]

I would have laughed at that. I don't think AJ is that bad, but there sure are alot of AJ jokes running thru Mesa. It's like the "Go back to Jersey" for Valley residents.

[colin]

It wasn't bad, but I'm usually pretty hard on these Hollywood "moral" and "lesson" movies. I thought a lot of it was stupid and made no sense. I also get upset when they try to use metaphors to make a point, but make the metaphor so obvious and glaring that you want to hit yourself saying "duh, duh".

Anyway, they never mentioned the mall's name, which I thought was interesting, and the bus that was featured at least 3 times always said "Phoenix" on the front, which doesn't jive with reality.

But they did have a neighborhood "luminaria" (they pronounced it wrong, but I'm not sure how stiff, white Phoenicians would normally pronounce it) scene that was fairly significant. There was a lot of that, as if the writer was saying "Hey, this is based in Phoenix. Don't you see that?"

I've never heard of "Medium" but I'll try to check it out. But, according to the IMDB entry, it's not filmed here, which is typical.

For instance "Reno 911" is filmed entirely in the LA area and spliced with a few shots of the Reno area as transitions (no actors in those shots).

[MJLO]

I didn't know that about Medium either

I am going to have to check it out. I like it when shows are based near the home and stuff like that .

[colin]

Oh, and I like Billy Bob as well. In fact, I loved him in "Monster's Ball", which is about as mainstream as I'll allow myself to enjoy.

If you're interested, the director of "Bad Santa", Terry Zwigoff, also did one called "Ghost World" which was based on an old comic book. It stars Steve Buscemi and Thora Birch (Jane in "American Beauty"). Very cool movie.

[MJLO]

Wickenburg Prepares to grow to battle Growth.

Wickenburg is Battling the encroaching cities of Suprise, Peoria, and Buckeye, by getting ready to annex a whole buncha land. The city wants to keep the theme it's had for years, but know's growth is unavoidable. So instead of being annexed by another suburb. They'll just soak up all the land around them and control the growth the way they want it. I think that's smart.

[colin]

It is smart! And Wickenburg, although kinda tacky, is really a cool, little town. I'd hate to see it changed by suburbia encroachment with sprawl capitals like Peoria nipping at their heels.

I hope the down-side of this annexation binging is evident at this point. Don't do it, kids!

[MJLO]

you guys we need something to talk about around here!!!! Start giving fluff replies to things so activity picks up, I'll start paying 5 bucks a post.

[colin]

You and your damned quantitativeness.

Actually, I have a Phoenix question (I actually thought I had already asked this here, but I guess not):

Restaurants? I'll be in town in a week or so (Sunday) to meet my dad for an evening and wanted to take to some place fairly cool. My dad likes fairly upscale places, although it doesn't have to be some posh/hoity-toity BS place.

A friend in Tempe had suggested Oregano's, and that might be good since it's AZ-based, also Capitol Grille in Snobsdale, which I know nothing about.

Any other suggestions?

MATT??

[MJLO]

You and your damned quantitativeness.

Actually, I have a Phoenix question (I actually thought I had already asked this here, but I guess not):

Restaurants? I'll be in town in a week or so (Sunday) to meet my dad for an evening and wanted to take to some place fairly cool. My dad likes fairly upscale places, although it doesn't have to be some posh/hoity-toity BS place.

A friend in Tempe had suggested Oregano's, and that might be good since it's AZ-based, also Capitol Grille in Snobsdale, which I know nothing about.

Any other suggestions?

MATT??

[colin]

Just messin' with you, Matt.

I do appreciate your work to get the traffic up on the forum and, yeah, we've had issues with people just disappearing. It's hard to encompass everyone's interests though.

I'll just have to see what my dad wants when I see him. He's really picky though (and I'm the exact opposite: as long as it's not a chain, then I'm fine), so I wanted to try to research it first.

[MJLO]

there's nothing in the news today I think i'm going to have to do actual grunt work, take pictures and crap blech

I hate manual labor.

[colin]

So I'm out on my trip right now and in Austin for a couple of nights. I picked up the local indie paper last night and basically the whole thing is about urban development.

The funny thing is that it sounds exactly like Tucson. For instance, there's a redevelopment plan for an old university campus that involves 20-story towers and a New Urbanist environ. The neighborhood is vehemently against it because of height and concerns over traffic. Sound familiar? An op-ed piece also talks about how "New Urbanists" are either typically labelled as commies or as being in bed with developers (basically hit from both sides).

Then there's a multi-story condo proposal for Town Lake (the lake Downtown) that has drawn even more fire because there are no tall buildings near the lake (Austin actually has a city ordinance against it). Also, there's an old 80's thing called the "Capitol View Corridors" which specifies certain vista paths of the state capitol that should be preserved.

Not only that, but there's an old mall that may be redeveloped into a Wal-Mart. And, of course, people are up in arms.

It makes me feel a little better that it's not just Tucson that is so slow regarding large-scale developments.

[MJLO]

No any town where there is a major national university seems to be that way, Ann Arbor, Madison, Boulder. Cities like these, all have that same anti growth appeal. What's funny is that they are so economically viable, and wealthy that Developers are drooling to be able to make $ in them. However I've been to Austin a few times, and it has a great skyline, and a great vibe in the city. Is the whole city anti height? or just certain parts, because it definately has cool buildings.