Empty Voices

I’ve been away from the Valley of the Sun for over fifteen years, and don’t get back nearly as often as I’d like, but when I do I sometimes find myself the kind of luxury hotels Arizona is famous for, resorts spread across Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Tempe, that offer comfort, style, and a bit of relaxation.  As tempting as it is to stay in the hotel all day, there’s friends to see and places to explore in Phoenix.  After living there for years, one place I’ve yet to really see is the Mystery Castle.  Near South Mountain Park (head South on Central Avenue, pass Baseline Road, two miles later take a left on Mineral Road), you’ll find this home listed on the Phoenix Historic Property Register.

One of the things that I absolutely love about downtown Glendale is all of the antique and specialty shops. It feels like you ‚ „ ve stepped back to a time where people strolled along the street enjoying the day just window shopping along the way rather than being crammed into a giant building where you can hardly hear because the noise and people are so loud and all the stores care about is whether you buy something. On top of that you know you can always find some unique hand-made treasure that you know you will never find anyplace else.
If opening a store is your calling and a calm relaxing experience is what you desire for your customers, than what you need is a specialty shop. One of the first steps to creating your own specialty shop is deciding what types of products you will sell. Your best bet is to come up with something unique but not too off the wall that no one would ever shop there. Once you have a business plan in hand you can begin to look for a location.
They always say the key to real-estate is location, location, location. This is especially true of specialty shops. The area you choose can really make or break your business. Transglobe property management can help you find commercial property to rent in area that will help your business to succeed. With diversity of properties that Transglobe property management has available you are sure to find the ideal location in time.
Opening day is very important for any business. The key to having a successful opening is advertising. While staying within your budget is important, you can’t do too much advertising. Offer, and advertise, special deals and coupons to help entice customers in.
Once your shop in up and running, you will be another part of keeping our history alive and reminding us of the past.

For many people decorating, and redecorating, their house is a source of great pleasure; especially for women. But with so many budgets pulled nice and tight, we are left wondering what we can do. Purchasing new blinds is just one of the easy and more affordable ways to spruce up a room and breathe new life into your living space. There are a couple of things to consider before you make your ultimate purchase.
The style is the obvious first factor when considering any new decorations for your home. If you decide that you desire a more sheik and modern look, Next Day Blinds offers a variety of blinds and shades that create the sophisticated vibe you are looking for. If you desire a warmer, more traditional style they offer that as well. Next Day Blinds has window treatments for any window size and shape. They also come in a variety of colors that can match or enhance your current decor.
If you already have blinds or shades and are ready for a change, perhaps shutters are more your cup of tea. Shutters are simple, yet eye catching. They provide limitless privacy and style without the hassle of curtains or drapes.
Once you have decided on the style and color of your new blinds, it is best to have them installed ; especially if they are custom made. Instead of trying to figure it out on your own and possibly damaging them, allow the professionals who handle the product every day take care of. That way if they are damaged you will be covered. Some companies will even void the warranty if you attempt to install them yourself.
With your new blinds, shades, or shutters hung you are all set to sit back, relax, and enjoy the new look of your room.

It wasn’t time. It just couldn’t be time, yet. Was it? Yes, shucks, Jaime reached over and shut off the alarm before the snooze period was over and it went off again. Then she jumped up and quickly brushed her teeth and hoped in the shower. This was it, this was her big day and although she could barely sleep the night before, she was wide-awake and eager to start the day that could very easily change the course of her life. She laughed at the dramatic announcement she made in her head. It was true though, if her offer on this house in Plymouth was accepted, she would be moving not only across town, but to another state. She quickly dried off as she thought about the possibilities. She was too nervous to eat though she was more than able to drink a cup of coffee and was ready to go when her friend Jessica picked her up to take her to the airport.

“So, this is it. You might really move away from me” complained, though half heartedly her friend. Jessica was excited about the possibilities for Jaime and she knew it was a dream of hers, she just couldn’t imagine not being able to drop by every other day or so. And what would she do on the weekends? Who would she go to the movies with or go shopping with? Of course she didn’t’ say all of these complaints aloud but she thought them to herself as Jaime talked non-stop about her new house in Plymouth. They arrived at the airport too soon for Jessica and she forced a smile as she waved her friend away. Click here to see some possible hotels to stay at in Plymouth.

A week later Jessica returned to the airport with a brave face to pick up her friend who bounced out of the terminal into the luggage area. “I got it! It’s mine!” she cried. And then before Jessica could manifest a response Jaime told her that the house near Billington Sea, which was actually a warm water pond, was beautiful but too big for herself. That of course was her way of inviting her friend to come and live with her. But Jaime was a writer, she could live and work anywhere. Jessica was a nurse, she needed a place to work. Jaime assured her there would be plenty of options for her and guaranteed her that she would support her until she found something. Without much thought Jessica agreed and the friends planned their move.

Right now, I have an out-of-town guest napping on my sofa; we have about a week before she has to move on, and I’m considering where we can do in Santa Monica, California.  She’s seen the places I usually take people, such as the one hundred year old Santa Monica pier; the Third Street Promenade and its nearby English tea houses, restaurants and pubs; even the art museum at Bergamot Station (once a trolley station; now a place for fifty art galleries).  So, what to do?  Where to go?
 
Perhaps a trip to Magicopolis might be in order!  Magicopolis is a one hundred and fifty seat theater for magic and illusion.  It’s best to call or visit their website in order to get advance tickets, because they sell out often.  Currently, they’re running, “Escape Reality” at the usual theater times — i.e., Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m., and a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m..  Magic shows in the evening run around two hours, while the matinee runs a little over ninety minutes.  There’s a magic shop here and a magic bar; if you come in early, you’ll find magicians performing some pre-show close-up magic.
 
This magic venue has been running since 1998, ever since master magicians Penn and Teller helped out at the opening ceremony.  Run by Steve Spill, a magician who began his life-long interest in magic at one of the world’s rare private clubs for magicians, the  Magic Castle in Hollywood.  There, he studied and talked with magic greats, such as Dai Vernon, Francis Carlyle and Charlie Miller.
 
If I provide my guest with enough interesting things to do, perhaps next time she’s in Santa Monica, she’ll find one of its terrific hotels to be closer to such places as Magicopolis and I’ll have my living room free again!

Lady Gaga might have a good Poker Face but it probably would be no match for the Las Vegas Law casinos throw down in the city of sin. Many singers have come and gone through the city, some only as novelty acts that lasted a few months with whatever smoke and mirrors they brought with them and their entourage, others as stupendously successful acts that lasted for months and even years with all the glitz and glamour of Hollywood clotted into just a solitary theatre on the strip. Celine Dion and Bette Midler are a few of the artists who rolled the die and had it come out in their favor show after show after show.

However, it is a different kind of show back stage where an acquaintance of mine works. Though I only work in the casinos as a card grunt, shuffling cards in complicated patterns and tricky combinations to distract the losing patrons from packing up leaving with the rest of their money, the amateur magician in me sees something kind of magical in the things this guy does back stage.

His name is Antoine. He is French and comes from a long line of French entertainers. He is so entertaining that I have hard time telling the difference from the reality of his past the lovely lies he tells to fill in the gaps and crevices in between his stories. Those fill-ins are usually only there because he wants to cover up the uglier part so his story that he doesn’t want me to hear. Like about his mother died when he was ten. He claimed it was in a trapeze accident where when she flew up in the air, she could not stop falling up. I knew the truth was probably that she could not stop falling down.

He is not just a magician in his story telling art. He also knows how to make a stage shine. He helps to light the stage in reds and yellows and blues in the same bright hues of the Bicycle playing cards that we use at the tables. He knows how to make a shimmer appear across the stage at the right time so it appears as if the light is sighing with the audience. Perhaps most importantly he knows how to read an audience knows what to give them. I know that’s why the story about his mother’s death has ten different versions.

Everyone who makes Florida a vacation destination already knows most of the top places to go: Disneyworld, the other happiest place on Earth; St. Augustine, the oldest European-based city in the country; Universal Studios Florida, one of a number of Universal Studios theme parks proliferating about the globe (for instance, there’s one on Sentosa Island, just off of Singapore).  Everyone knows, too, that there are great places to stay in Florida — fine, luxury hotels that make traveling an absolute pleasure — but what about destinations people don’t think of immediately?  How about something different?

Here’s a few sights and landmarks you might not have otherwise expected to see while in Florida: The Coral Castle in Florida is a man-made structure that doesn’t resemble a castle, but draws in visitors year after year.  It’s a collection of heavy coral rock, artfully and mysteriously arranged, by a man named Ed Leedskalnin, a Latvian immigrant who excavated and carved and installed over two million pounds of the rock, although he himself was only about five feet tall and weighed just a hundred pounds.  He wanted to impress a 16-year-old girl named Agnes Scuffs, who had already jilted him the day before their wedding.  In Ochopee, Florida, you might stop in at the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters.  While it’s true that the headquarters look a lot like a roadside attraction, the two brothers who run the place are tracking down the Florida equivalent of the Pacific Northwest’s Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch.  Apparently, the Floridian version of Big Foot is pretty smelly, providing a reason for the name Skunk Ape.  Also in Ochopee, you can find America’s smallest post office.  It used to be a shed for irrigation pipe, and once a fire destroyed the Ochopee general store, which contained the post office, the office moved into the 7×8 shed.  Because the town’s population is about eleven, there hasn’t been a real pressing reason to move it since then.

Of course if the sights in the preceding paragraph don’t suffice, there’s always Dinosaur World in Plant City, Florida (it was formerly Gator Jungle, which was a gator farm and swamp walk); over ten years now, though, it’s been Dinosaur World, aka, “The World’s Largest Dinosaur Park.”  You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see a full size Ultrasaurus and two Tyrannosaurus Rexes out by the interstate!

Today, the Manhattan borough is one of the most vibrant, and culturally rich neighborhoods in the city, filled with parks, community centers, art schools, fine restaurants, theatres and many a best Manhattan hotel.   Across the country and around the world, the musical genres of Hip-Hop, Rap, Swing and Jazz, all owe their beginnings to this neighborhood and the times during the Harlem Renaissance.  Not only in music, but in political and literary history, this neighborhood, and the people who have called this home for many generations, have changed world views and society norms, through their art, their ideas and their progressive views on the definition of civil rights and equality.

Today, there are new businesses, new families and new housing developments on the rise, and this stems from, and is reflecting in the resurgence that occurred that time so many years ago, the time of the Renaissance, which began just following the American Civil War.  During a time that was still tainted by racism, many African-Americans moved North, in search of a better way of life, a livable way of life, and they found it in the housing developments of Harlem.  Between the years of 1900-1920, the African-American population in the city of New York doubled.

The newly arriving population, brought with them what all of the immigrants have brought over the years, their culture, their art, their ideas, their music, their ambitions and their talents.  During the 1900’s this became the epicenter for the nation, in the fight towards racial equality, supporting three headquarters for civil rights groups.  During 1909, W.E.B. DuBois, together with white civil rights workers and prominent leaders in the African American community, founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP.

As in so many of the streets of the city of New York, this feeling, this historical importance is written on the walls, on the faces, and in the spirit of everyone living in these neighborhoods today.  Take a walk through Harlem on your next visit, you will feel the vibe of a small borough of New York, as well as the vibe of a time in our nation’s grand history.

There’s something that’s rather familiar and mysterious about traveling in the midwest.  All the cities claim to offer some kind of homeyness, a sense of being treated to enormous comfort and hospitality, but people who understand what these things are really all about.  At the same time, the larger cities always surprise me with their unusually cosmopolitan outlook, and I forget that the waves of immigrants that made up these populations a few generations ago are being followed by more waves.  Culture keeps growing and expanding, and this always means there’s more to see, and more to learn.

It also means that the definition of hospitality changes, and becomes much broader, and there are more notions of hospitality that enter into the picture.  All kinds of hospitality, of course, are delightful, and you can certainly find perfect comforts in Indianapolis.  Luxury hotels here have the global perspective to keep their guests living in the lap of luxury indeed, with some very nice amenities that help keep you connected to the world at large.  There are also plenty of remnants of the kinds of hospitality our grandparents knew, reflecting old world sensibilities that are enormously charming.  There’s a lot to see and do in this city, and if you can get yourself away from your pillow, check out the African Art at IMA.

The Eiteljorg Gallery, named for Industrial giant Harrison Eiteljorg, was a few hundred pieces that represent parts of an enormously complex and fascinating continent.  You can find art from the East, West, North, and all over South Africa, just enough to get a taste for it.  It’s also on display outside of glass, the way Eiteljorg wanted it for the people of Indianapolis.  If this sparks your interest, you’re in the right place, because Indianapolis has a very interesting local culture of Africanists, with experts in art, history, as well as ritual, and it’s an interesting place to get busy meeting people.

Once the holidays have passed, life gets back to normal.  Relatively speaking.  If you are traveling to the city, you will notice many events going on when you leave the room of your New York 4 Star hotel. One thing you may notice is a lack of abandoned Christmas trees lining the sidewalks waiting for trash collection day.  This is because one of the last traditions of the holiday season as become the Mulchfest.  At the end of the first week in January, people take their Christmas trees to the parks throughout the city, where the trees are turned into mulch, which is then used to nourish the plants in those parks.  This year the locations for mulching will be Morningside Park, Central Park, Washington Square Park and many more.  This is also an opportunity to pick up bags of mulch for your own gardens or plants in your apartments.  Another event running through the 17th is the Under the Radar Theatre Festival.  For eight days, various companies present performances running every hour or so, and there are many opportunities to experience new and innovative work from some of the finest, smaller companies of New York.

The New York Times sponsors the Arts and Leisure Weekend, which consists of a week of panel discussions and lectures.  This year, some of the participating artists include Natalie Portman, Jimmy Fallon, Jeff Bridges and cast members of the popular production company Cirque du Soleil.  Should you find yourself riding a New York subway this weekend, do not be surprised if the person sitting or standing next to you has no pants on.  The company, Improv Everywhere, has been staging the No Pants! Subway Ride for the last nine years.  This is an activity that has become quite popular, not only in New York, but in other cities as well.  And finally, one of the best times to be in the city is through January 25th and February 7th.  This is the New York Restaurant Week, a time when many of the best restaurants in the city offer outrageous deals on food and drinks.  Any time of the year is a great time to visit New York, and January is no exception.