Tonight, Rawhide, the “wild west town” in N. Scottsdale, a mile or so from my house, is closing. The last night. Tomorrow, sayonara. Of course, Rawhide would end its 30+ year run on Halloween.

Here’s a short clip of Rawhide’s signature statue, “Come and Get It” which sits out front on Scottsdale Road. The rest of Rawhide is headed to the Gila River Indian Community, but the statue is headed for eBay. Really.

Three or four lifetimes ago, my wife and I worked one night at Rawhide as temp workers (we didn’t have a proverbial pot to p*** in and would do anything for a buck). Actually, the gig got cancelled and we were sent off to Troon to be a bartender and waitress. For those who know me. The concept of me as a bartender is somewhat hilarious. Anyway, fireworks start shortly and then it’s one more tourist attraction down the tubes and one more shopping center springing from the earth.

My annual Fall League birthday baseball game was a day late, but full of excitement nonetheless. It was the Surprise (nee Scottsdale) Scorpions at the Peoria Saguaros. First viewing of the Scorpions this year, and it’s a team filled with talent: Brandon Wood, Kendry Morales, Michael Bourn, Jared Weaver, etc..

This clip provides an overview of the game and then some up-close shots of a few players, most notable Alex Gordon (No. 2 pick in the most recent draft) and Brandon Wood (he of 43 minor league homers this past season), a graduate of Horizon High School in Phoenix (and former top draft pick of the Angels). By the way, if you want to get a glimpse at a future Cy Young candidate, look at Jared Weaver (also of the Angels). He was a No. 1 pick who held out an entire season before signing. He is the real deal with major heat plus a wicked, major league curve.

Here’s something you won’t find on local Phoenix TV stations until they get around to their ho-hum coverage of the news: Empty Bowls, an annual charitable event in commemoration of World Hunger Day. Here’s a clip from the Empty Bowls event in Carefree, Arizona. The event also had a silent auction and was adjacent to the weekly farmers market (sadly in need of some good greens vendors.)

While in Orlando, Mike and I took some time to go over to Disney's Boardwalk (faux b-walk, if you ask me) and talked about our personal experiences with boardwalks. Mike's from Santa Cruz, which has one of the best-known plank-doms on the West Coast.

(bare with the sound quality, it's a good clip)

When you have four hours to kill between flights, you look for strange things about which to shoot video. I have long wanted to take a clip of the underground light show that serenades travelers as they go from Terminal B to Terminal C in the United wing.

Who knew? In light of my "surreycam" clip from the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk, I found it interesting to see surreys on the boardwalk by the Disney Boardwalk Hotel in Orlando. The boardwalk is much shorter (and far less colorful) than its NJ counterpart, and the surreys are a "tad more" expensive to rent. It would be difficult, however, to keep my surrey-loving wife away.

This clip is for my favorite pool person (and she knows who she is). Here's a few seconds of the person whose job it is to keep the fountain/pool in front of the Walt Disney Dolphin Hotel well chlorinated. Still, I wouldn't be willing to take a dip in the massive fountain.

This weekend (Oct. 7^th and 8^th) marks the grand opening of the Carefree Farmers Market. As you can see, it’s a small gathering of vendors so far, but one of the sellers told my wife more vendors will be at the market once the market in Cottonwood is over.

Well, it's not the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco or Union Square Farmers Market in New York, but today the Roadrunner Park Farmers Market kicked off the Arizona Farmers Market Season. No organic stone fruit, rosemary sea salt or heirloom tomatoes, but good-looking salsas and chiles.