11/17/08 The Spicy-Dust Smell of A Ghost Town

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Righteous Kwanzaa! Etc., etc. The Sedona Uptown Mall Plaza looks like the North Pole today -- minus snow and reindeer. Last Friday, the ladies in charge of decorating our plaza brought out a team of employees to transform the plaza into a holiday scene. They did an excellent job: Glittery balls the size of small pumpkins hang from the trees; plastic candy canes are placed in strategic locations throughout the prickly shrubbery. I took inspiration from their work, and I've spent the last few days decorating Sedona Green. I've strung dozens of silver, green and black ornaments from the ceiling beams inside the store, placed wreaths outside the front door -- even tried to fit the house elf with a red-and-green suit, but he bit me.








Today, the temperature is 70 degrees in Sedona. The sky is ocean blue. High-desert sunshine is beaming the silver-foil garland on my balcony railing. Yeah, several of my friends have told me it's way too early to decorate for Christmas; but, hey, the box stores stocked their Christmas aisles the week before Halloween. The "folks" are doing their gift shopping, and we Sedona shopkeepers need to make a living, too. Trust me, nobody's getting rich in Sedona retail this year.

Been to the Arizona ghost town of Jerome twice since I last blogged. Once with my friend, Greg Lilly, author of Under A Copper Moon, a fictional novel set in Jerome during it's wild west days. Former Sedona resident, Lilly, who now resides in VA, was visiting town for the Jane Seymour art event at El Prado Gallery here in Sedona, and he took the opportunity to sign some copies of Under A Copper Moon at the various souvenir shops in Jerome. I'm usually only in Jerome after dark, so it was a treat for me to browse the galleries and gift shops with my pal. Lots of arts-and-crafts style art in Jerome, but not much on par with Sedona Green Gallery. :)

My favorite quote about Jerome was made by a Sedona friend who wishes to remain anonymous. In speaking about his dislike for the historic, hillside Jerome, he said: "The whole town smells like funky, old beer." I respectfully disagree, but admit the town does have a certain ... spicy-dust smell, similar to what you find in used book stores. But that's the smell of history ... or the rotting skins of unhappy endings.

My second journey to Jerome this week was for karaoke at the Mile High Restaurant with some of my local friends. That's always a good time, usually followed by getting my butt kicked in eight ball at Paul & Jerry's Saloon. No difference this time. I lost five games in a row to my buddies, Dennis and Matthew. Also ran into another local writer: Joel M. Andre, nationally known for his off-beat horror novels, such as Death At The North Pole.

Oh, I did another appearance on Allen Elfman's VisitSedona.TV program on KAZM last week. I think it was my best so far -- Allen and I have that back-and-forth-buddy-banter down to a style. Check it out at http://www.visitsedona.tv/ Let's see if this works ... I'll try to post a link of the segment with my appearance here:


OK, much more going on, but I'm short on time. Blog more at you soon. Really.

11/03/08 Scarves, Pumpkins & Underbellies Unzipped

11-2-08 A cool front moved into Sedona last night. This morning I awoke to a white sky; segmented, parallel lines of blue showing between the clouds. “It was evening all afternoon.” (I remember that description from a poem I read in college. Can’t remember the writer‘s name, but I’ve remembered the quote for 15 years now.) Around 2:30, the clouds bulged and their underbellies unzipped. I quickly brought in the scarves and pumpkins from the patio. Rain poured for twenty minutes. The sun is out now, but the customers have not yet returned. Nor have I carried the pumpkins back out to the patio … giving it a moment … another bottom-heavy cloud is drifting this way.

Trick Or Treating in Uptown this past Friday night was great fun. Rather, it looked to be great fun for the kids. I closed the shop early and wandered around Uptown for a half hour, observing the goings-on. I had never seen so many people crowded into Uptown Sedona . I decided to eat dinner at Mago Café. The café’s patio overlooks the sidewalks and the south side of Uptown Sedona’s tourist strip. Kids, Mommies & Daddies everywhere. Uptown was packed. I enjoyed watching the costumes between bites of rice and broccoli.

Oh, I also caught the Thriller Dancers who perform in Uptown Sedona every Halloween. That was cute.

Later that evening, when I dropped by Old Marketplace for the Yin, Yang & Zen Some concert, I witnessed the largest crowd I’ve ever seen in Sedona. Probably 400 people, almost all wearing elaborate Halloween costumes. OK, maybe 400 isn’t a big crowd in your town, but that’s enormous here. An earlier party I attended had a large turn-out as well. October weather in Sedona is about perfect -- low 70’s during the day, 40’s after sunset -- so that helps bring out the crowds, I’m sure.

Note: In the time it took to type the above paragraph, the rain started up again -- I rushed out to the balcony and brought in a scarf mannequin -- rain stopped again. I think it’s done now. There’s a fragrant dampness in the air: the woody aromas of rosemary and sage. Not sure if that’s the opening pores of high-desert foliage drinking in the rain, or dinner prep at the restaurant across the plaza.

11-3-08 Attended another Halloween party last night. This one was more a going-away party for a friend who is moving to Ashville, NC, but some of the guests arrived in costume. Not me. Not a costume-kind-of-guy lately. Maybe next year. Good time nonetheless. The party was at the house of Yin, Yang & Zen Some band members, and those guys have the largest collection of 80’s music downloads of anyone I know. My friend Matthew did some fortune readings. My friends, Annalisa, Danielle and Zen Jen got their groove going. My friend Nate M. shared cup after cup of a smooth Alaskan coffee -- a gift from his Alaskan pals who had come from Sitka to Sedona for Halloween. (Seems like a long way to travel for trick-or-treating, but I guess Alaskans judge distance differently.) Cottonwood seems like a long trip to me.

Autumn is officially here. Election day is tomorrow -- sure to be followed by conspiracy theories week. Soon thereafter, Sedona will have a surge of cool-weather tourists and an occasional dusting of snow. I’m looking forward to outdoor fire pits and the smell of mesquite smoke on my long sleeve shirts.

10/28/08 "Stuff Sedona People Like."

Shout Out to Rick from Detroit, a SedonGreenBlog reader who was kind enough to drop by the store last week and introduce himself. Thanks, Rick!

Flipping the through TV channels last night, I happened across a program that mentioned the hilarious Web Site “Stuff White People Like,” and some of it’s many imitators -- “Stuff Asian Americans Like," “Stuff Southern People Like,” etc., etc. Later that evening, lying in bed, I had a couple minutes to contemplate “Stuff Sedona People Like.” Here’s a short list "stuff" that came to me before sleep:

18 Estate sales - drive through West Sedona on any weekend. You’ll spot cardboard signs on every other corner: “ESTATE SALE!!!” and hand-drawn Magic Marker arrows pointing off toward side roads. (Often these signs are accompanied by colorful balloons.) Shortly after moving to Sedona, I discovered just how popular these events are. At one especially memorable sale, I entered a line of vehicles five blocks long, all of us eager to see what goodies were being “gotten rid of” by the children of someone rich and recently deceased. You see, two-thirds of Sedona’s population is retired; and, well, retired folks occasionally “assume room temperature,” and most have kids living far away and eager to sell everything for some happy cash. Anyone moving to Sedona would be foolish not to explore the estate-sale circuit before buying a new sofa, golf cart, silverware set, meditation-theory book, Indigenous Peoples Mask or 70’s-style lamp shade.

17 Local Discounts -- It’s difficult to keep track of which restaurants have opened and closed in Sedona. It’s a good bet that, if you visited the area five years ago, most of the restaurants you ate at have since closed -- or at least changed their name, their chef, their menu, ownership and management. There are some “pillars,” such as Cowboy Club and Heartline Café, but these are outnumbered. Of course, the restaurant business is that way everywhere, but when a restaurant closes in Sedona, locals frequently point to the establishment’s failure to cultivate a local following. In other words: Sedona People like local discounts, expect local discounts and will hold it against a business if they don’t offer a discount to local customers and clients. Count me in that group. Hey, I send dozens of customers to my favorite restaurants every day … I should qualify for FREE dinners.

16 Dogs -- Lots of dogs in this town. It seems Sedona people take them everywhere they go. Yeah, it’s cute; however, some dogs don't play well with other dogs, especially in the shopping district. A brave bark becomes a fingernails-on-the-chalkboard Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! and suddenly somebody's pet is missing an ear. Keep 'em on a leash, folks.

15 Honeymooners -- Young people in love spend money freely. And they smile a lot.

14 Waking Up Early -- I’ve always been a “late-to-bed, late-to-rise” person, but it seems most Sedona residents are up by 5AM. A contributing factor is the fact that AZ doesn’t participate in Daylight Savings Time. This makes our sunrises and sunsets early. Another contributing factor is Yoga -- see next item.

13 Yoga -- Sedona people like yoga. And, apparently, Yoga must be done early in the morning, preferably outdoors. If I ever wake up early -- like 9 or 9:30 -- maybe I’ll try it. Kidding, I'm always up by 9:30.

12 Weed -- a lot of folks of all ages smoke weed here. Not a weed-man, myself, so I can only speculate on the reasons. I think it’s a California influence. ;)

11 Natural / Organic Foods -- Thanks to irrigation, Arizona farms provide lots of organic food options. Other factors include obsessions with health and self, both common to Northern Arizona. See items 10 and 9.

10 Obsessing, Particularly Over Any Change -- you name it, somebody in Sedona is obsessed with it, and convinced it’s a plot by the Time-Share Companies to loosen building regulations. (And, well, often it is.) In Sedona, one often hears the warning, “This town is going to be another Las Vegas strip.” Personally, I think that would be kind of cool. (Ohhh, here comes the hate mail.)

9 Themselves -- Sedona people find themselves interesting. That’s a good thing … in moderation. Yes, the self is a powerful, magical, beautiful place -- like Sedona. Yet, it serves one well to broaden his or her topics of conversational knowledge beyond … self. “Well, that’s enough about me, let’s talk about you -- what do YOU think of me?”

8 City Council Meetings -- They’re like baseball games for this small town. Popular AND entertaining with frequent come-from-behind surprises.

7 Sculpture -- The arts -- including sculpture -- are wonderful & important, I totally agree. Still … I’ve always considered sculpture just a wee bit creepy. Reminds me of people frozen by Medusa awaiting magical rescue.

6 Hiking -- There are more trails right here in Sedona than any one person could fully explore in a life time. Most people who move here at least “plan” to do tons of hiking … eventually. Include me in the "eventually" category.

5 Cults -- If you’ve ever stood atop Bell Rock eagerly awaiting your turn on an invisible space ship, this might be a good time to hand over power of attorney to your kids.

4 Drums -- Every full moon, at the Cathedral Rock Trailhead, you'll find a giant drum circle of volunteer participants. Dozens of drummers. Hundreds of bodies in the trance-like ecstasy of transformational shared dance. Actually, there are drum “circles” all over town. Walk down some streets on a full moon and you’ll think somebody’s trying to summon KONG.

3 The Irish -- Lots o’ Irish influence here, and EVERYBODY loves the Irish.

2 Past Life Relationships -- Theologies that incorporate past-life experiences with current-life crises are fairly “main-stream” here. I describe myself as “open-minded but skeptical.” I have friends who make a living as Intuitives, and I’ve received local readings meant to decipher my “past lives.” They’re fun, interesting … but I’m a forever skeptic.

1 Volunteering -- Sedona people like to volunteer. And that’s a very good thing.

Got to run. Blog more at you next week.

10/20/08 Giant's Thumb & Artists at The Trailhead

Did you see yesterday’s sunset in Sedona? Spectacular with three !!!, folks. October sunsets in Sedona are some of the best of the year. The red rocks visible from uptown -- Giant’s thumb particularly -- literally glowed yesterday around 5 PM. A number of controlled burns in northern Arizona have put a slight haze in the sky. Although this can frustrate photographers in search of crisp, blue skies, the haze contributes to bizarre and interesting sunsets. Yesterday’s colors on and around Giant’s Thumb: Think of Giant’s thumb as a thick paint brush freshly dipped in cadmium orange; think of the sky as a saucer of water; someone dips the brush into the water, and now the colors are swirling outward on ripples. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me, so you’ll have to employ your imagination. (The pics shown are actually Upper Bell Rock and a sunset Uptown from last year. Sorry.)

This week is Sedona’s 4th Annual Plein Air Festival. The weeklong festival, sponsored by L’Auberge de Sedona, brings 30 of America’s best plein air painters to Sedona. These artists set up their easels around town -- trail heads, sidewalks, wherever -- and paint “the immediacy of the moment … reflecting the excitement of the changing light, weather conditions and deepening shadows …” When you put it that way, it sounds pretty exciting. If you’re in town this week, you’ll likely see some works in progress. Click here for a list of scheduled events.

Store Stuff: Speaking of artists, Sedona Green Gallery & Gifts has added several new, emerging artists this month. Drop by and check out Brent Monger’s large-format photographs. Brent specializes in images of Sedona’s Monsoon skies, and he has captured some once-in-a-lifetime dramatic moments above the red rocks. Local photographer, Tom Kelly, whose work is notable for it’s high contrast and light/dark juxtapositions, has also added to his collection of Sedona images. Additionally, Sedona Green favorite, Kim Hoshal, has added perhaps the best photograph of Bell Rock I’ve ever seen to her collection. While you’re here, check out Roger Brunner’s hand-painted Arizona gourds. Try on Jennifer Marshall’s active-wear jewelry, designed to stretch with you during your yoga workout. And, yep, I’ve now put out Sharon Herman’s handmade scarves, knit caps and crochet belts. Also: new, handmade wind chimes by Dennis Mead, locally famous for his whimsical, recycled art. And more original watercolors by Jennifer Valencia (priced under $200!).

On a political note: I made a sale to a national political figure this past week. And, no it wasn’t Obama or McCain. No, not Palin. Uh, no, not Biden either. Yeah, it’s not so exciting now that you know who it wasn’t. Think Third Party.

Still haven’t decided on my Halloween plans. A lot of goings-on in Sedona for the holiday, most of which involve costumes. If I dress up for any of these events, I’ll just throw on my Civil War reenactment clothes and accoutrements. It’s been close to three years since I’ve participated in a reenactment, so it’ll be fun to see if I remember over which shoulder to hang the cartridge box, on which hip bone the cap box sits ….

10/14/08 Speakeasy Party & The Tip of The Spear

Blog Time. Been a busy week already, so I’ll make this fast as I’m sipping my second coffee. Gulp. Gulp.

News on the world economy have been all over the map these past couple weeks. Retail businesses in a tourist town feel the effect immediately. We’re at “the tip of the spear,” as economists say. If a Friday night news report tells people to stop spending, Sedona shopkeepers feel it Saturday morning. If the DOW jumps 800 points on Monday, we feel that as well. In the past two weeks, Sedona Green has had record sells (Woo-hoo!), but we’ve also experienced long, frustrating days during which tourists shuffle in and out, not a shopping bag in sight. (Tourist town shopkeepers gauge a crowd by observing the percentage of shopping bags in hand, indicating whether the tourists are purchasing or simply browsing.) In other words, we’ve been up and down, up and down. Makes coming to work interesting.

My friend CFG hosted a Roaring 20’s theme party last Friday. Good times. For some reason, I didn’t expect that anyone would actually dress to the period. Wrong. Approximately fifty guests attended as speakeasy-style gangsters and flappers. I was one of maybe five who showed up in a sweatshirt and shorts. Hummm. Lesson learned: Never underestimate enthusiasm for a theme party.

Probably heading up to Jerome this Saturday. It's Halloween Costume night at Mile High restaurant where some friends and I are meeting ... but I don't plan to dress up. Seems early for Halloween costumes. If I were to dress up, how much you wanna bet I'd be the only one? Hummm. Maybe I don't learn me lessons so quickly after all. Just not much of a costume fella nowadays. I could be convinced, but I'm out of practice.

Must run now. Coffee done. Gulp. I’ll leave you with more snapshots of the Speakeasy Party courtesy of Gregg Ensminger.

Next Sedona Blog Scheduled for 10-20-08