Fountainless Hills

The other day, Erin and I went out to take some pictures. We go hiking a lot and we go on trips, but not exclusively to take pictures. Our travels lead us north of Tempe to Mt. Mcdowell. There wasn't too much to photograph there and it was getting late, so we backtracked to Fountain Hills.
Above is picture of Mt. McDowell at twilight.
Fountain Hills is known for having a gigantic fountain that is many stories high. When we got to the park the fountain was really going. It was huge. It was pretty dark out, so I set the camera on the tripod and adjusted the camera and just as I was going to take the picture, the stupid fountain shut off. We decided to wait to see if it would come back on. We waiting for 45 minutes, in which time we took these pictures.
Fountain Hills at night.
We don't know these people. The dude said, "Take our picture! We're good looking!" So I said, "Ok." I am a man of my word.
Messing with the flash and long exposures.

I bought this hat at a rest stop. It's sweet.
Yert! After 45 minutes we figured the fountain wasn't coming back on so we left. When I got home I read that it came on for the first 15 minutes of every hour. We barely missed seeing it come back on. We'll go get a picture of the damn thing soon.

Check back soon for more pictures from my second camping trip to Weaver's Needle.

Our First Visitor!

We had our first visitor from back home! The winner is....... Kevin! Kev was out here on business. He's a V.I.P. In fact, he's such a V.I.P. that they put him up in a smoking room at the Comfort Inn on 27th Ave in Phoenix (ghetto!).

We didn't have long to hang out, but it was really cool seeing him. It was almost surreal to hang out with someone from Massachusetts here in Tempe. It's the first time our worlds have crossed.

We went to Casey Moore's and had food. Yum.

If you are unfamiliar with Kevin and the missus, Jen, check out their blog. Kev and Jen are both talent artists. You can check out Kev's work at encourageothers.com. He even has a sweet picture of yours truly on there.

So the moral of this story is that we like it when people come to visit. Come to visit.

A New Year's Plea

Billy Mays, you have made it unbearable for me to watch TV for years. Your "high energy" sales pitches only make me scurry to the remote control to hit the mute button. The clever contraptions that you push are so amazing they can practically just sell themselves. So please, Billy, in this new year do us all a favor: be a nice, gentle, salesman with a great beard. We know you have it in you.

On behalf of all TV Watchers in America,

Thanks.

Who's that man in a black sedan...

...with two cheap hookers and a Mexican?

It's Mickey Avalon - Mr. Right!

Those are some lines from the new earworm that Veau infected me with, "Mr. Right" by Mickey Avalon. Don't listen to it or you'll never get it our of your head.

(This is the links issue of the blog. Have fun.)

We spent last weekend with Veau and Emily in Anaheim, California. Of course, we hung out with Katie too. It was a much less eventful trip than our prior excursion and I mean that in a very good way. The Matrix held up there and back. Except for one little bit of highway confusion around Riverside, the ride was smooth both ways. I even bought a sweet hat at a rest stop!

We didn't really take any pictures this time around. We just hung out and enjoyed ourselves. Veau and Emily took some pictures at the Rio, so those are forthcoming.


Did you think we would go to California without going to the Rio? Of course not!

Our trips to California do contain several similar elements:

1. We go to the Rio. The Rio is a karaoke bar in Anaheim. It might be the best people watching location in the world. Not least of the spectacular specimens is the DJ, Smitty, who you may remember from our previous California blog entry.

2. We get lost and confused by the multitudinous freeways and confusing signs and make myriad comparisons between California's lack of easy navigation and how wonderful it is to get around Phoenix and the Valley.

3. We go to the Lab a.k.a. the Anti-Mall and go clothes shopping. It's overpriced and trendy, yet we invariably get someone to take us there. This time we drove, but Katie navigated. She missed our exit because she was busy telling us about an old man who went to an emergency room with a banana stuck up his butt. It was worth missing the exit to hear about that. I did end up finding a Rogues Gallery T-Shirt, which is my favorite brand of shirt.

So we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and ate at some good restaurants - Sidney's in Fullerton and Rutabegorz in Orange.

Hooray for links!

Kickin' 'round the Valley

The other night Erin and I took our cameras and headed to the lookout point on South Mountain. We were trying out Erin's new Diana + camera and my new Holga from Holgamods. We got one another plastic toy cameras for Christmas. Those pictures will be ready to pick up at Tempe Camera on Monday. We hope the results will be good. All these photos are from out trusty Nikon D50.
This Diana+ is in the background, the Holga's up front. I have the Holgaroid Polaroid attachment on it.
The sun setting behind South Mountain.
The sunsets out here are awesome and it doesn't hurt that we can just drive up our local mountain to see them.

On New Years Day, we got up and tried to recover from our crazy New Years Eve (we watched Mr. Bean's Holiday and didn't realize it was 2008 until 12:07) by heading out to the White Tank Mountains in Goodyear, AZ.
Our hiking book suggested a trail called the Waterfall Trail and said it had great petroglyphs. It had a lot of petroglyphs, but it also had about a billion other people. Real annoying people who walked side-by-side at unfathomably slow velocities. It was like being at the Grafton Flea Market. The petroglyphs were alright, but there are way better petroglyphs on the Hieroglyphics Trail in the Superstitions (see previous blog entry).
However, we did see a man wearing these boots! I tried to take a discrete picture and this is best I could do. He had a mustache. He looked weird, but way to normal to be wearing such haggard boots.



At the end of the Waterfall Trail was this pool of water. The way people were crowding around looking at it you would think we were in a scene from Dune. Kids were throwing rocks in. It sucks when people show up and leave a negative imprint on a natural place. If you don't appreciate what you're looking at, just go somewhere else. This, as Sean Flanagan could certainly tell you, is giant water bug (a.k.a a toe-biter) and he was in the pool. It was definitely over 2 inches long. It looked like it was dying.
Here's where that water runs down to fill the pool, hence the name Waterfall Trail.
After our hike I went into the bathroom and overheard the following conversation in the large handicapped stall between a man and a very young boy who I assume was his son:
Little boy: I whispered the bad thing again.
Man(somewhat disinterested): Oh ya.
Little boy: I said the bad thing again.
Man (in a flat tone): You mean "gonads"?
Little boy: I don't want to pee by myself.
Then the little boy commenced singing the theme to "George of the Jungle" incorrectly.After our disappointing experience at the White Tank Mountains, we decided to head to Papago Park and climb the buttes. It was really windy! The buttes are a fun, quick hike and you get a pretty good view from the top.
Erin taking a picture with her new camera.
Papago Park is actually right in the middle of the city. I think it's actually in Phoenix, but on the Tempe line. You would never know it from the pictures, though. Look how mint the sky looks. (It looks a lot cooler if you click on the picture to enlarge it.)


Let me explain these blurry pictures. I used an old body cap, some tin foil, electrical tape and a lens filter to make a pinhole "lens" for the Nikon. Basically, these pictures were taken with a tiny hole in a piece of tin foil. Pinhole photography is a really old form of photography. This is a real old meets new kind of deal - digital pinhole. The plans to make your own are here.
Phoenix from South Mountain.

Pinhole self-portrait. For an interesting photographic experience, check out this dude's take on pinhole photography. His name is Wayne Martin Belger.

This is why Erin and I are vegetarians.

This could be you...

the New Year

I'm usually not a huge fan of quotes. But, we have had this quote on our fridge for a few years now. I got it from my aunt who I believe had cut it out of a magazine.

the New Year

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no
doubt crept in: forget them as soon
as you can. Tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely and with
too high a spirit to be cumbered with
your old nonsense.
This day is all that is good and fair.
It is too dear, with its hopes and in-
vitations, to waste a moment on the
yesterdays.

Emerson