Go watch my friend John Janezic perform his funny stuff.

John works on the air with me at The Peak. His day job (and we all have those silly things) is teaching kids. Yay! But John moonlights as a comic in his spare time...when he's not on the air at The Peak with the rest of us, of course. Check him out!

He's perfoming at Big Daddy's North on Saturday, August 19 at 8pm. Tickets are $5 or $15 for VIP.

On the air tonight

I've been on the air tonight and had an amusing call about killing rattlesnakes. "Bill from Desert Hills" called to say he beat a rattler over the head with a shovel and killed it. Then a caller who said he was a herbatologist called to say that killing rattlers is illegal and there is a fine for it. Who knew? So I asked the herbatologist what you are supposed to do if there's a rattler on your property. He says you call 911 and have the fire department come out and get the snake for you so they can release it somewhere. Personally, I'd shoot it. I may be a vegan, but I've lived here long enough to know not to mess with the poisonous creatures, of which there are many. If it can kill me, I can kill it in self defense. Bill called later to say that he had to defend his kids and his German shepard, which I totally agree with.

CURRENT TEMP IS 88 DEGREES!

After Green...

We went to Martini Ranch. This kid with a Dave Matthews vibe, barefoot and in ripped jeans, was playing accoustic guitar to warm up for The Chadwicks. His name was Bobby St. Vincent and he was great! Loved him! Martini Ranch was fun and The Chadwicks were great. I'd like to hear some original stuff of theirs on a demo...that would be cool. Till then, I'll check out this MySpace page.

Here's me at Green

This is me experiencing vegan bliss at my new favorite restaurant in Tempe! Eat here ASAP! It's great!

But DO eat here!

After our disastrous dinner at the Mandala Tea Room in Old Town Scottsdale, we hit the road thinking we'd either lost our appetites or we'd just grab some Taco Bell. We drove North on Scottsdale Road with little direction or hope. Then my man spotted something at McKellips and Scottsdale Road in Tempe called "Green Restaurant." We figured it couldn't be any worse than what we'd just eaten. So we stepped into the Green Restaurant and were greeted by good smells! Ding ding jackpot!

We ordered Egglessrolls and the Greenza 10" flatbread pizza with homemade pesto sauce, vegan mozarella cheese, spinach and mushrooms. It was the best ever pizza! The egglessrolls were so tasty, it made up for our earlier indescretion at the tea house. The Green Restaurant is 100% vegan! We were in heaven. Our bill was $17. You pay first, then grab a table in the modern, clean space complete with hanging lanterns and portraits of animals on the walls done by Rolling Horse Studio. It reminded me of somethng I'd find in San Francisco or on Telefraph Avenue in Berkeley.

We loved it and vowed to go back whenever we're in South Scottsdale, which is a lot because that's where my boyfriend's family lives.

Do not eat here!

First off, the place isn't a total turd. The art hanging on the walls is wonderful, the design of the space and its furnishings are great, the atmosphere is nice, the presentation of the food is awesome, the tea is fantastic and the tempeh lettuce wraps were good. But the one key thing we went for -- the food -- at the Mandala Tea Room in Old Town Scottsdale, was horrible. Worst entrees my boyfriend and I ever had in our lives! So I recommend the Mandala Tea Room simply for drinking tea and chillin'. It has a nice website, doesn't it?

I'm vegan and my boyfriend is vegetarian. I had been dying to try this place for a while. So he surprised me by taking us there on our date last night. We ordered pomegrante black iced tea, which was very good, though served to me in a chipped glas. We then had the tempeh lettuce wraps with the spicy peanut sauce. By the end of the night, we learned that sauce is the best thing on the menu. But the lettuce wraps were good. We were really enjoying ourselves at Mandala Tea Room until we began eating our entrees. I ordered the curry vermicelli rice noodle bowl and he ordered the Mediterranean platter. Both plates were cold, when neither had the "living cuisine" (i.e. raw) designation next to it on the menu. The tempeh slices laid on top of my noodles had no flavor, and neither did my noodles which were mixed in with grated veggies. I detest grated veggies. Give me actual chunks of veggies I can savor -- not shavings! His quinoa was so plain and cold. Nothing tastes worse than cold food without flavor. The only aspect of our meals that did have flavor were the sauces that came with our plates. Oh, and the total came to $43.

So skip the Mandala Tea Room, unless you want tea. Just tea.

Ok, I am over it.

I am over the big deal about the big storm. Why? Because I'm watching Channel 3, that's why! The obligatory "the friends. family and entire 'hood are cleaning up the downed tree in Old Man River's yard" story is on. The best part was Old Man River himself saying "God watches out for drunks, kids and veterans, and I'm all three so he watched out for me." Or something to that effect. That wasn't an exact quote. I was laughing to hard to get an exact quote for you. Forgive me. God was watching out for his drunk, immature veteran oldman-ness so the tree fell into his yard instead of his house. The Good Lord also blessed him with a pack of fine folks to help chop up his tree with chainsaws today simply because he is a drunk, immature veteran. This is news only in Phoenix, our nation's fifth largest city. It would never be news in those other top five cities! I feel like such a hick now for making a big deal about the storm in that last post.

A storm review

Like everyone else in the city, I can't stop talking about last night's storm! We had a deluge here in North Phoenix. I haven't seen a storm like that since moving back here six years ago. I have to say I haven't seen a ballbuster like that since the 1980's. This storm had the loudest thunder I have ever heard, the closest and most plentiful lightning I've ever seen, and the most wind and rain in a combination that had me amazed last night. I was watching from my back patio and then the front patio when I realized everyone else was on their patios too. The rain actually blew all the way into my apartment last night at one point, ending my open-door storm enjoyment policy. I really liked seeing that lightning! It was so close that it looked like it was in slow motion when it struck. I could see it looping and and twisting before my eyes in what felt like the longest seconds of my life. It was so cool! There was certainly a sizzle in the air.

As this is my sixteenth summer in Arizona, I am still in awe of monsoon rain. I've lived in the desert long enough now to be mesmerized by any rain. Since I don't have a pool to clean or branches to clean up because I'm an apartment dweller, I get to enjoy these storms even more!

It is a cold wave!

Here it is Wednesday, and the temperature in Phoenix is 99! At 4:30 pm no less!

Cold Wave?

I heard a rumor it is only supposed to be around 100 degrees here tomorrow. Could it be true? Could it?

Hang with the Phoenix Film Society Thursday night

July Phoenix Film Society Screening -

The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Film Society present a screening
of
“Little Miss Sunshine”

Starring: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear and Alan Arkin

When: Thursday, July 27th at 7:00pm

Where: Harkins Scottsdale Fashion Square

Following the screening there will be a discussion about the film
hosted by Bill Muller.

Synopsis:

Meet the Hoovers of Albuquerque: OLIVE is a seven year old, slightly
pudgy, aspiring beauty queen. Her father is a struggling motivational
speaker with a not-yet-successful plan for success. Her step-brother has
taken a vow of silence until he's old enough to be a fighter pilot.
UNCLE FRANK the world's leading Marcel Proust scholar, is unemployed,
jilted and suicidal. And GRANDPA sleeps on the couch after having been
kicked out of his nursing home for snorting heroin. Olive's mom, SHERYL is
at the end of her rope, trying to keep the family from imploding.

A typically awkward Hoover family dinner is interrupted by the news
that Olive has the unexpected opportunity to compete in the finals of the
Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Southern California. No one wants to
let her down, and with the family's money tied up in Richard's business
venture, they're left with only one option--a family road trip in their
old VW bus.

What follows is a nine hundred mile trip into the heart of what makes
these atypical people your typical American family. Excitement,
disappointment, friendship, and loss all culminate in the strange, heightened
world of a child beauty pageant, where winning and losing take on an
important new meaning for the Hoovers.


Tickets: Tickets for this event are $10 each.

If you would like to purchase tickets on-line for $10 each please go here or call 602-955-6444

My listeners are the best

I have to say, my Peakerheads are better than everyone else's! I have the best listeners in the city. Those who listen to the Peak Party on Saturday nights from 7-midnight are just cool, laid back and have great musical taste. This place is the best; it's truly like no other radio station around. They tell jokes, they ask what they can do for me, they give me compliments, they request cool songs from Bob Seger, they listen to the station while they take long drives around Arizona...they rule.

New Helicopter Flight Training School in Town

There's a new helicopter flight training school in town at the Scottsdale Airport called Premier Helicopters. My friend Debbie and her brother are running it (it's his school, he already has on in Colorado) and my boyfriend has decided he wants to go to school there.

It's actually kind of fun; we're both going through financial aid fun at the same time as I am trying to begin Boston Univeristy online this fall. The couple that goes to school together stays together! That couple also amasses a grand amount of debt and calls doing homework together "quality time." I can see it already!

A broken down Metro bus on the 202 -- imagine that!

Everwhere I drive, I see a broken down Metro bus. A listener just called to say there is one right now broken down at the 202/143. The city just can't keep these babies running and everyone knows it. They are worse than Yugos. I just told Diva Dani, my traffic babe, so she can point it out next on the air as Detour Dan usually would.

Oh, no...c'mon Channel 3!

That's it. They had to do it. Channel 3 just did the annual "it's so hot we can fry an egg on the street" story. Just saw it. Maybe I've lived here too long (a grand total of 16 summers in total) but I don't need to see that story every year. I know how hot it is. Please don't remind me!

Blogging while on the air

I thought I'd blog through the duration of the rest of today's airshift here at the Peak just because it's a really crazy day! I've had three alerts from the National Weather Service already; two warned of the severe thunderstorm we're having and one warned of flooding. This is in the North Valley, people -- lookout! This is all lovely, but I honestly wish I was home right now watching it! I'm a nerd like that. My patio will be a disaster when I get home and hopefully my kitten won't hide forever.

Calls from listeners today give a consensus that we reached 120 degrees here today. I'm watching Channel 3 and they say it reached 118 and it broke records. My Peak thermometer says it's 102 in downtown Phoenix.

Watch "The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club" tonight

Tonight, the Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Film Society are presenting "The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club" starring Dyan Cannon, Joseph Bologna, Sally Kellerman, and Brenda Vaccaro at Harkins Fashion Square at 7:00 pm. You can watch the trailer here.

Here's the synopsis as provided by the Phoenix Film Society:

A romantic comedy about our amazing capacity to rebound and fall in
love at any age. Lois, Harry, Marilyn, Sandy and Jack live in an "Active
Adult" community in Boynton Beach, Florida. Their lives intersect when
they meet at a local Bereavement Club where they go to find emotional
support after the loss of a loved one. For anyone who thinks that new
love and romance ends long before retirement, they're in for a reality
check. No one sees themselves as becoming old, and the residents of
Boynton Beach aren't about to start. But sometimes we all need a little
reminder that life is worth living and sharing.

Oh yeah, it will set you back ten bucks. Go online to learn more, or call 602-955-6444.

Meeting the Baseline Rapist face to face

My girlfriend told me a story at dinner last night about how she is certain she and a friend of hers had a run-in with the Baseline Rapist. Her friend lives on Devonshire...enough said, right? Well, they went to get gas in this neighborhood at 6pm the other night. As her friend was pumping gas, Kris sat in the driver's seat, door half open to get some air. Because of how she was sitting, she really couldn't be seen by the guy who was talking to her girlfriend. A black man pulls up in a black Lincoln Continental and starts talking to her friend. (This is what law enforcement would call the interview process a criminal goes through when picking a victim).

He pulled in at a diagonal to their car, kind of blocking them in. He tells her he has something for her car that he wants to show her. She panics and stops filling up her tank at $5. She refuses to go to his car. Smart deciscion. She makes her way back to the driver's seat of her own car as the guy is still talking to her, trying to get her attention. Kris then gets up and walks around the front of the car, now visible to the shady guy, and he takes off.

The women call 911 and give the license plate to the police. The police tell them the license plate does not belong to that black Lincoln Continental and is, in fact, stolen. The police also say that Kris's friend meets the profile of the women the Baseline Rapist has been attacking; white, slim, long brown hair. I was surprised the police gave all this info, since they always get off the phone with me as quickly as possible when I'm turning in my white trash neighbors for domestic violence. Kris said she just thinks the police really want to get the word out about this guy. He wasn't wearing that silly wig at the time, in case you were wondering.

The police, by the way, are cruising Kris's friend's street all day long.

Our city made CNN today! Woo-hoo!

Our serial killer, or killers, is big enough national news to make CNN. Remember last summer when we had the serial rapist? Summer in Phoenix can only mean one thing -- locking one's doors. Check out the composite sketch at AZCentral.com.

Up early and hittin' the pavement

Yesterday, the boyfriend and I found ourselves unable to sleep at 7:20 am, which is so highly unusual that we decided to take advantage of it by taking the bike out for a ride. Since it was already 90 degrees when we woke up, it was a pretty short ride along Cave Creek Road. We wear helmets too, which wasn't horrible, but I did work up to a nice sunburn from being the passenger dumb enough to wear a tanktop.

We cooled off at my parents' house in their pool with Wilma the Super Swimmer Dog and Betty who isn't big on swimming but definitely big on running circles around the pool. We eventually ended the evening watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which was awesome. The only low point was during seating, when a really rude couple working their way down our row to some empty seats stopped in front of us to talk to a friend two rows down. They had their asses in our face for what was a very uncomfortable long moment. It was long enough to have the boyfriend bristling and saying "Sit down -- we don't like asses in our faces!" Ahh...summer in a crowded movie theater.

Mental note: take boyfriend out to matinees of movies that have already been open for a couple weeks.

And they say Phoenix has no culture...

Actually, come to think of it, I haven't heard anyone say this in a long time. If you're ready for a truly wild and unforgettable weekend, sign up for the 3rd Annual 48-Hour Film Challenge. Make a film in a weekend with the Phoenix Film Foundation!

Blow Stuff Up with Jaime Foxx!

Our Sonoran Desert in the East Valley is about to undergo a Middle Eastern makeover as Jaime Foxx, along with the cast and crew of “The Kingdom,” are moving into the Valley for the summer. (Apparently, they didn’t get the memo on the heat here). In “The Kingdom,” Foxx plays the leader of an elite team of counter terrorism investigators as they hunt down bombers who attacked American workers in the Middle East – hence extras who look Middle Eastern will be needed to work on the film throughout the summer.

The film is being produced by Universal Pictures – the first studio to take advantage of Arizona’s new motion picture incentive plan was signed into affect by Governor Janet Napolitano. Extras Casting Director Maryellen Aviano is looking for men who look Middle Eastern to work as extras and it doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old. If you are Hispanic, Middle Easter or Asian, Aviano wants you to come work for her on the set of “The Kingdom.”

If you fit this description, call the casting hotline at 602-224-5888 ext. 106 so that Aviano can put you to work. Then you’ll be in a Jaime Foxx movie! And you know tons of stuff will get blown up in the movie, so you know your friends will go see it. Then you can point yourself out on the screen. But they won’t care, unless you’re blowing stuff up. Cool!

This is not a ghost town

At least, I don't think it is... Seriously, this is a photo of Downtown Globe. Main Street, if I remember correctly.

A must-drive scenic tour

I honestly can't figure out why, but I'd never been through Salt River Canyon before. I've lived here a total of 16 years, and this was my first drive through this canyon. My boyfriend described it as a miniature Grand Canyon. I thought parts of it reminded me of riding Disneyland's Big Thunder Railroad. We also drove past one of my dad's favorite haunts, Boyce Thompson Arboretum. Fire danger was extreme wherever we drove on Monday and almost every single campground was shut down.

Salt River Canyon was gorgeous

Was it the true beauty of Salt River Canyon that got to us on Monday as we drove through it, or was it the 58-degree rainstorm that endeared us to it?

Road trip!

This weekend, we drove up to Alpine, ended up 13 miles from New Mexico and had a Subway lunch in Springerville. (It was teh best vegetarian option!) We came back through the Salt River Canyon, drove through a hard rain storm there and enjoyed the 58-degree weather as it rained. I snapped this shot in Globe.

A storm photo from the other night

I took this one...was it Friday night? Whatever night we got this total tease of a storm that was just lightning and wind.

It is raining and its morning

This is highly unusual -- it's 9am and raining. So is it officially monsoon season then? I have been ignoring the dewpoint in favor of having a holiday weekend. I hope it keeps raining all day and night for the rest of the summer. It will never happen though. But I can dream!