John Wise

Views like this one of the head of Camelback mountain were a large part of the attraction of Phoenix, Arizona, that so enamored me into wanting to make the desert my home. Some twenty-five years ago, this isolated desert city still featured dirt roads, unapproachable mountains, views of gorgeous sunsets unmarred by electricity lines. Today these locations are reserved for the super-wealthy, while the population is pushed further outward as we progress on joining our community to that of the Tucson area. Mountain sides that were once protected from development so all the citizens of the Phoenix metro area would be able to enjoy the views, are now sporting guarded and gated private enclaves of four to eight million dollar villas. On the bright side, these wealthy corners benefit from better shopping, less crime, posh office space, and an abundance of car washing facilities.

After decades of sprawl, an intelligent step in the right direction is finally coming to the Valley of the Sun: high-rise condos. The desert is rapidly disappearing as Phoenix and its surrounding communities envelope an area approaching 60 by 60 miles square (97km x 97km sq). This waterfront property near Old Town Scottsdale is built next to a canal that brings drinking water to our community, so we won’t be seeing water taxis any time soon, but the location is definitely a prime choice. The condos start at $1.5 million and there are only 5 left.

This is Phoenix local Don Capp towing his newest handmade custom motorcycle trailer. Don has long been in the business of custom fabrication and with occasional help by his wife Keli Capp runs their own small company called Magic Metals. Working from inspiration with 25 years of experience behind him, Don built this Red, White, & Blue trailer weighing in at about 100 pounds in under three weeks. The custom vinyl work is courtesy of a local company that combined road images with the stars and stripes for this one-of-a-kind wrap, making Don’s creation a true one-of-a-kind motorcycle trailer. You can CLICK HERE

to see Don’s masterpiece from a different angle. I met Don a while back after introducing myself to his dogs who were guarding his open gate and workshop area, I can’t wait to share the custom Christmas trailer with you that he’ll build this year for the annual toy drive he participates in with his wife.

After three days on negative posts, it is time for either positivism or banality, so I’ll opt for the latter. This is a stick. A stick that identifies this area of the desert as future home sites. Nothing real spectacular about that, is there? It is just a stick with letters and numbers surrounded by dirt, little stones, and ridiculously polluted air, soiled by faceless corporate greed-meisters who poison our air for their ballooning sky-high profits used to support the man and keep the rest of us enslaved in our police state managed cage-like existences, ignorant of the true repressed lives we live, so this stick is, in reality, a reminder of the invisible stick of authority that beats us all down. Hehe.