The ONLY Internet Cafe in Phoenix

It seems that greater Phoenix made the leap from Stone Age to WiFi without anything in between. Oh, to find an internet cafe in this valley!

Well, thanks to some recent writer's conference at ASU (I love writers, they WRITE, for God's sake), there was an obscure posting of internet places near the campus. Two of the places were those kind of mom-and-pop Kinko's type outfits (Alphagraphics... apparently gone bust because I never found either shop), and the other was eJoy Cafe.

eJoy Cafe sits on Seventh Street at Mill, just opposite the big old Borders Books in Tempe.

It is loaded with terminals in a cool, high-tech setting (but comfortable and the coffee is good). There's a room in the back filled with kids on terminals under black light... is that the x-rated area? I don't know, but I am satisfied with the connections and refreshments, and I always have enough space to put my big binders at easy reach while I work on real estate deals.

eJoy, you saved Phoenix for laptop-deprived moi!

And did you know that, even though Tempe is the most WIRED town in Phoenix, no one else (not Scottsdale, not Phoenix) so far offers the humble user a terminal for rent. I mean, Tempe could have been the ones to assume we all have a laptop and take a snobbish attitude, but NO, they went the extra mile (or, at least the Asian guy who runs this joint went the extra mile) to be nice to the laptopless ones.

Thanks, eJoy!

Extreme Normal

I happened upon Never Been Thawed in, of all places, Tempe Arizona, in May of this year.

I cannot help but associate Tempe with the LDS Church, because in 1976 I went on a school chorale tour which took many of us into the Tempe homes of Mormon student hosts. It was an interesting experience for our little group of hippies from Berkeley. With two other girls, I stayed one night in the home of a girl our age, also in her Tempe high school choir, who looked like she was modeling her looks on Farrah Fawcett's. Tempe was flat, white bread suburbia. We ate dinner at Pizza and Pipes. Tempe became, in my mind, synonymous with Middle American tastes and culture.

That experience actually threads quite well into the realm of Never Been Thawed, which I saw in a cute little art house theatre (spiffiest, cleanest art house between the Hudson and LA) in downtown Tempe. NBT is about the far reaches of suburban dweebiness. It identifies the strange moment when white bread-ism becomes so intense in its own right that it is in itself radical. The characters are fanatics for FROZEN MEALS and they collect them the way my brother did comic books. There are many tasty subplots and plenty of laughs along the way. (Cast/crew candid shot -- hey, their damn website uses Flash, so I can't kife photos)... give 'em a visit at neverbeenthawed.com .

Oh, and about Tempe? This is the most mind-blowingly clean town I have ever visited. For having the big Arizona State University right there like a battleship in dry dock, Tempe manages to be cute, fun, and friendly. We had steak at Monti's historical adobe hacienda, listened to a reggae concert in the park, and took in NBT, which, incidentally, was followed by a concert given by the director and his band, The Christers. The appearing cast members' in-character demeanor was utterly brilliant, to the point that audience members clearly did not totally believe we were seeing actors.

Hope you'll get to see this wacky film!

Tell the Cook!

That soup recipe looks great. Mental note to self. Pardon me. No one reads this blog, anyway.

Inflight Hell

Visit by clicking:
Passenger in seat 29E



This hilarious file is making the email rounds, and for good reason.

It must have been leaked from some employee of the airline, a soul with a sense of humor greater than his corporate devotion.

I must say, I do sympathize with the poor chap in the ill-conceived seat 29E, BUT he's complaining about a -what- 3 hour flight between Houston and San Diego? Try the EWR-SIN sixteen hour backpacker and expat marathon! Not that I've been condemned to sit next to the toilet on that record-breaking astronaut run, but if I didn't love this writer, I'd say, LIVE with it, pal! Anyway, a fabulous piece of comic writing.