It wasn’t planned, but in one week, we have been to two famous Route 66 destinations: Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and now Albuquerque, NM. Because it was rather hot in California, we didn’t get to explore that portion of Rte. 66, but we did get to explore the famous highway in New Mexico. Know as Central Avenue, in the area known as Nob Hill (no relation to the neighborhood of the same name in San Francisco), the area we visited was lined with hip restaurants, converted gas stations, galleries and even a Starbucks built to fit the area.

We may soon forget our few hours at Graceland. We may even forget the Civil Rights Game. One thing's for sure: we will not forget our visit to the Civil Rights Museum. The museum is on the site of the Lorraine Hotel, where Dr. Martin Luther King was shot in 1967. Many people know where they were when JFK was shot; I remember like it was yesterday where I was when Dr. King was shot.

Inside, where I respected the policy of no video, you see the Freedom Riders' burned-out bus, the bus on which Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and a replica of the lunch counter where a sit-in was staged to protest segregation. There are pictures, videos, artifacts and more.... Across the street is the spot from which James Early Ray, Dr. King's assassin, snuffed out one our nation's greatest heroes.

The Civil Rights Museum is worth the trip.

Every morning at 11 and eveing at 5, a group (gaggle?) of ducks make their way back and forth from a penthouse at the Peabody Hotel (in Memphis) to the lobby. It's quite the scene!

 

Seems this Peabody guy (not the dog from the cartoon) brought a group of mallards back from a hunting trip in the ‘30s and they have been a fixture at this grand Memphis hotel ever since. Note all the St. Louis Cardinals fans in the lobby; as my producer pointed out, they are hungry for baseball after a long winter. The Cards play their AAA Memphis farm team tonight and the Indians tomorrow in the Civil Rights Game

Welcome to Memphis. It’s hot, humid and the smell of barbecue is in the air.

 

We’re here for the first ever Civil Rights Baseball Game (Cardinals vs. Indians) on Saturday, but we’ll be soaking up the scene til gametime: music, food, Graceland, Stax Records Civil Right Museum and even the Peabody ducks.

 

 

 

What better way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day than at a Chicago Cubs Spring Training game. There were lots of green, lots of beer and lots of sun. Check out the guys in the kilts.

Podsafe music is “Drunk Tonight” by the Bloody Irish Boys.

It's been close to 20 years since I saw Rick The Peanut Vendor (Kaminski) toss peanuts to hungry fans at the cavernous Kingdome. In this clip, Rick, who now plies his trade at Safeco Field, uses Spring Training to get in form for the Seattle Mariners 2007 campaign. Rick didn't get a lot of action at this Cactus League game as the Padres (who share Peoria Sports Complex with the M's) were the home team. San Diego fans are more the sushi sorts than peanut afficienados.

Now I've seen it all: here's a look at the ostrich races at the Chandler (AZ) Ostrich Festival. They might not be the smartest animals in the world, but they sure are entertaining.

Cubs fans will recognize their unofficial mascot, Ronnie "Woo Woo." Ronnie made the trip from Mesa, the Cactus League home of the Chicago Cubs, to Phoenix Muni to cheer on the Cubs as they played the Oakland A's. The game ended in a rare 5-5 tie after 10 innings. The players may need to tune up, but Ronnie "Woo Woo" is in mid-season shape.

At the Arizona Diamondbacks Fan Fest, 10 singers competed for the chance to sing the national anthem before a Diamondbacks home game. The first nine were women; the last one is the PA announcer at Chase Field.

Circled in red is the day pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in Arizona. Today, we ventured over to Scottsdale Stadium to see the Giants 2007 hurlers in their tune-up sessions. Of course, our #1 mission was to see Barry Zito. As this clip shows, we were not disappointed. The position players reports next week--we'll be back (as well as to other Major League camps in the area).

Just for kicks, we drove over the meadow and through the desert to Fort McDowell Casino to see a large group of game show wanna-bes try out for Jeopardy. (Side note: with the FBR Open in town, it's hard to get from here to there). I was heartened by everyone's enthusiasm and dreams of being declared a winner after Final Jeopardy. Day one was test day, and the top finishers in that portion are invited back to play the game after which a few lucky folks get to go on the game.

In 1984, I was on Jeopardy. Yep, check the video archives of Game Show Network if you don't believe me. How'd I do? That's a story for another day. One thing I will say, Alex is no Art Fleming.

You have to have a "taste" for the unusual to go out of your way to see a city replica made entirely out of Jell-O. Yep, Scottsdale in Jell-O, now showing at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Yep, my tax dollars at work. Actually, the work by Bay Area artist Liz Hickok is quite clever and precise in its attention to detail. I told her, in her depiction of nearby Scottsdale Stadium, she needed a little gelatin statue of Barry Bonds.

Rao’s is a legendary New York restaurant noted for being one of them most difficult reservations in the nation. It’s a small place in Harlem with something like 10 tables, which are generally saved for such noted celebs as Martha Stewart or Bill Clinton (if you consider him a celeb). I think there was some consternation when the great sportswriter Dick Schaap (who had a table at Rao’s) died, in that there was some question as to that would inherit that cherished seat.

We had the chance to meet Frank Pellegrino, one of Rao’s current owners, who was on a national tour for his Rao’s cookbook. Pellegrino also is an actor of some note who has appeared in “Law & Order” and “Sopranos.” In “Sopranos,” he is the head of the FBI task force, once uttering the words, “So, Tony Soprano…weak in the knees.” (Tony was brought in for questioning after getting food poisoning).

For those who make their way to Caesar’s Palace, there’s now a Rao’s west which offers those who cannot make their way to Harlem to attempt to enjoy this rare dining experience.

What’s there to say about CES—it’s exhausting, exhilarating, a pain in the ass and there’s a lot of waiting in lines. My feet hurt, but I saw the immediate future of the media-technology world. It’s a world going in opposite directions. We are looking to connect everything together and we’re looking as having the freedom to roam. We want portability but we want to have all our gadgets and gizmos connected to alow us to play anything, anytime, where.

This “clip” is long, but has lots of cool stuff inside. Enjoy.

Hopefully, this will not be my last video for 2006.

Once the crowds cleared, we ventured forth to Scottsdale’s shopping palace, Fashion Square, to imbibe in some post-holiday cash flow maintenance. In keeping with an ongoing video theme here, we caught some musicians entertaining the passers-by at Nordstrom.

Yes, we are food celeb junkies. We watched Gordon Ramsey's new show in the UK last week, and it was pretty wild. He actually dropped the F bomb more than "Goodfellas" and The Sopranos combined. Certainly would not work on US TV networks.

A long Tube ride landed us at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, a restaurant that employs disadvantaged youth to inspire them to have better lives. Jamie was nowhere in sight, but the place looks quite good. Sadly, they don't take a lot of walk-in diners--reservations appear to be a must.

En route back to our hotel via the Circle Line, we came across this musician who was playing "The Girl From Ipanema." Rather well, I'd say.

The sun, the sea air, the smell of grilled fish in the air… Yes, I have to say, Cannes, in the south of France, is really splendid. There is a promenade along the sea with restaurants, folks out for a stroll, artists and musicians. Here is a quick clip of one such duo.

Celebrating 15 years as quiet but powerful force in Major League Baseball, the Arizona Fall League commemorating its anniversary with a mid-season All-Star Game, featuring the best players in the league, many of whom are top draft picks destined for stardom. I read somewhere that nearly half of the players in this year's World Series were former AFL stand outs. That speaks volumes.

The game featured a rematch between the Mets Mike Pelfrey and the Phillies Gio Gonzalez. The spotlight in this clip is on three other players: Hunter Pence of the Astros who is one of the best young players I have seen in a while (he can hit, hit with power, field and throw), Dewon Day of the White Sox (his proud mom and dad gave us free tickets before the game) and Scott Tyler of the Marlins. We learned about Tyler, a Philadelphia-area kid, from his proud father who sat behind us. His dad, Toby Tyler, is a former ABA player who flew to Arizona to see his son (a second round pick) show his stuff.

The West team lost 3-1, and the sad note here is that the losing pitcher, Devin Perrin, is a Phoenix area guy with a huge cheering section of friends and family.

Back in March, when we attended the World Baseball Classic in San Diego, we happened upon the great Hillcrest Market. We are in town to see Dylan perform, so we went back to the market and were entertained by the 7^th Day Buskers. And we were pleased to see pluots still are in season.

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For quite a while now, we have heard a lot about oddball video experiments that mixed Mentos candies with Coke. Well, we don’t keep Coke in our house (maybe some Diet Coke...not sure), but we have some really old Diet Mountain Dew. So, with the free Mentos candy we got the other day at Costco, we tried putting a Mentos in a jar and then poured some Diet Dew on top.

It was a long-anticipated videoblogging event: The Duck Derby at Kiwanis Park in Tempe. And sure it was hot (101) and the race was slow (40 minutes), but the cause (Make A Wish) is a great one, and we had 15 rubber duckies in the race. The winner (which we weren’t) received a new Chevy and even the runner-ups prizes (which we also didn’t win) were good, ranging from airline tickets to an overnight at Casino Arizona.

Big kudos to Mark Lewis, a local TV personality who was the emcee and kept everyone entertained in the blazing sun with some funny banter.

On of the highlights of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Pittsburgh was the parade that introduced the players. After the caravan of stars (a few of whom have been traded in the past few days) made its way over The Roberto Clemente Bridge, fans followed. Here’s an enterprising “street performer” who is perched on the bridge playing the sax.

As we rode the tram back to our hotel in Amsterdam, I couldn't help but think of how Amsterdam's Jews were hoarded onto trams in the early 1940s by the Nazis. It was their first step on the way to concentration camps where they were put to death.

After a long day of going back and forth to the US Consulate to get new passports, we finally had some time to relax and do one of the touristy things in Amsterdam we had our sights set on: a canal boat cruise.

Well, without a doubt, our time in Amsterdam was filled with highs and lows. Despite everything, our time at the Amsterdam Historich Museum seeing Anne Frank, Her Life in Letters, and then later a visit to the Anne Frank Huis (Anne Frank House) was a lasting memory. Everyone–not only Jews–should visit the Anne Frank House; it will not only change your perspective on history, it will change you perspective on modern events.

Our first full day in London started off with a long-awaited trip to the Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner. Essentially, it’s an area in this large, sprawling park in which folks with something on their minds get to stand up (on a ladder or some sort of stool) and share “wisdom” with the crowd. Today, we spotted two speakers—one was a Middle Eastern bemoaning the Israel-Lebanon conflict, the other was a middle-aged Brit who was rambling on about sin, G-d, and heaven knows what else.

 

It was modestly entertaining, but perhaps with the advent of 10 zillion TV and radio channels where any fool can grab a mike and share his or her insight, the impact of this public venue has lost its impact. I can imagine that 30-40 years ago, it probably was the place to be on Sundays.

After living in Arizona for a number of years, we felt it was our duty to see if the expression “It’s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk” was true.

At the Diamondbacks-Mets game on June 10th, home plate umpire Jim Reynolds takes time away from calling balls and strikes to rescue a rather confused bird who was trapped on the pitcher’s mound.

The second to the last stop of the tour took me to the Seattle area. I lived in Seattle from 1980-1989, and got sick of the weather (among other things). Some 26 years after first moving to the Northwest, I am stuck by two things--the traffic and the strip mallification of  The East Side (aka Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, etc..). People think LA is bad, but you cannot go two blocks in the East Side without seeing some cluster of shops. Needless to say, it does not add to the area’s natural beauty. And, as we see here driving over the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge (aka 520), from Bellevue to Seattle, traffic is heavy at 11 am in the drizzle/mist/light rain.

Earlier this year, I created a controversial video called “Why I Hate LA.” Who knew so many people were so passionate about LA? Well, I lived and worked in the Bay Area from 1993-2001 and loved it. I still do. So, in my NoCal versus SoCal clash, here’s my short homage to San Francisco. Take that LA!