Why is it special? Well first you need to know exactly where it is. From about Baseline and 24th street there is a gate which you might think is for a residential development, but no it is indeed the entrance to The House at Secret Garden. It is quiet and serene. It is set back a ways from Baseline road  so you don’t hear the traffic. The restaurant resides in a restored old historic 1929 Spanish Mansion. There are three unique dining areas with their own ambiance. You can eat at The Urban Barn where they have live music, the old world spanish mission barrel-ceiling dining room or the patio al fresco. The food is prepared fresh from local farms and ranches. The menu and it’s items are seasonal and represent the vision and philosophy of Chef “D” who is also influenced by the Slow Food movement.

Chef Dustin knows his stuff. He is a graduate of The Italian Culinary Academy in Manhattan, New York, as well as the culinary program at La Scuola Internazionale di Cucina Italiana in Parma, Italy. Dustin is also a graduate of the Wine Immersion Program at the Culinary Institute of America, Napa Valley, California. Let’s just say you are in very good hands with Chef Dustin.

I don’t really care for sweet potatoes, but that has changed since my visit at the House. They are famous for their Sweet Potato Planks, so I had to try them and see what everyone was talking about. Wow! They are good and I just feel more healthy eating them. I got mine with my order of their also famous smoked brisket sandwich. Other favorites include the Pulled Pork Sliders and the Golden Plenta Fries. You also have to try their Pancetta Wheels. Their pastas are hand-made fresh daily and they also have their own herb garden right in back. For desert, I recommend trying the Puddin’ and Pie as well as their Fig-Ricotta Fritters compliments of Tracy Dempsey Originals, a long time pastry chef of the Christofolos.

Happy Hour runs 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Take a special friend or significant other to enchant their boots off with this hidden gem. The house is also a popular place for weddings and birthed parties. It’s that special.

Hollywood I hope you are reading this because us horror fans are tired of sequels and low budget crap.

Speaking of scary movie lists, I think there is a lot of confusion out there. Many top 10 scary movies lists include “Jaws” and “The Exorcist”. However, they are not scary any more. Don’t get me wrong, they are great classics and they were scary in their time, but not anymore. In fact each decade has set new thresholds for “Scary”. In the 60s it was Hitchcock’s “Psycho”. In the seventies we had also the cult phenomenon “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”. The 80s Stephen King’s “IT”, “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street”. The 90s gave us such treasures as “The Sixth Sense”, “Scream” and “Jacob’s Ladder”. Then in the early 2000s we got “Saw”, The Ring”, “Jeepers Creepers” and the “Uninvited”. This is not a complete list by any means just a point of reference. I think every decade has its own flavor and we are still new to our current decade.

Looking at some of these titles that frequently make it to top scary movie lists like “Sixth Sense” aren’t really scary. They are great films of great quality and acting, but not really scary. Not like what Jaws was in the 70s. Millions would not go near water after seeing that movie. Jaws was a really well made film with all the right ingredients and especially a killer sound track to make it as terrifying as it was. We can certainly make scarier movies now but the “scare threshold” has been lifted pretty high.

From what I have gathered reading many horror movie forums, the things that make a movie scary are the soundtrack and not seeing the monster. One of my favorites is “Dead Silence” mostly because of the awesome creepy music written especially for the movie’s atmosphere.  So sound and music is a very important element for a scary horror movie. In “Jeepers Creepers” we get a good scared feeling until we saw the flying demon monster thing. The movie “Alien” is a science fiction horror but was wildly successful in the scare department because we couldn’t really see the alien.

So it is the fear of the unknown that does it for most of us. The “What is that” factor makes for a good tension builder. Coupled with that our characters need to present a genuine sense of helplessness. It has to be real enough for us to put ourselves in those situations. “Saw” is also a good example.

What makes “Cloverfield” more scary is that we really don’t get a good look at the monster till the end. I know, some people find camera shake nauseating and I agree that they should stop that trend.

Some milestones to take note of:  The Blair Witch Project 1999.

The technology for making movies as well as distributing movies is changing. Now the time is ripe for rank amateurs to produce a horror film and get it out into the masses within weeks. That means a lot of titles need to be sorted through to find the diamonds on the rough. Thankfully the internet helps us make more informed decisions on where to best waste our time.

Over the years, we have seen some very interesting formulas for horror playing on a variety of anxieties.  “The Descent” and “The Cube” come to mind for claustrophobia.  The Saw series for what is termed the “torture-porn” sub-genre. Then there is the “Based on True Events” sub-genre like “Paranormal Activities”. The movie producers are indeed trying to scare us. Their success rate seems to be one out every hundred films. There are also some cult films like “The Human Centipede” that are going to higher extremes to gross us out. I think the idea is to make the audience feel as uncomfortable as possible. Still, to me, gross isn’t that scary, it’s just gross.

I know some of you really like zombies, but to me they are not scary. They are usually dumb and annoying. Please no more zombie movies we have had plenty already.  Dolls are freaky, but usually those types of movies are not very good.

Still others are reporting on the film forums that the movie producers are simply not making the monsters scary enough. It would be hard to top “Alien”, but if you create a creature that is not bi-symenitrical we would be fearful of it because it would be foreign and there would be no possible way to fit a guy in a rubber suit for it.

I will settle for well made horror flicks anytime. “Devil” by M. Night Shyamalan was pretty entertaining. Maybe a little scary. I hope more movies like this are on the horizon and I will continue searching for a good scare. Most important is a good story. Writing is key for great horror.

They were a huge hit with “Mr. Hou$ing Bubble” in 2005. When I saw it I was ROFL for lack of a better term. This is great pop-art as it is responding to news items in a Wacky Pack way. It is creative and entertaining. Makes great activist wear and generally gets you attention any where you go.

I just wish they would keep producing them. T-ShirtHumor is no longer on line. All that remains on the web are just remnants from past years. John if you ever catch this blog post, please let me know what you are up to. I am an avid follower of your work.

Sources:

• PRNewswire
• DemocraticUnderground.com

The “Solar Chimney” will be 2600 feet tall which is more than twice the height of the empire state building and is slightly higher than the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa. It will sport 32 massive turbines powered by heat draft that comes from a 2 mile greenhouse canopy surrounding the base of the tower. It will produce enough electricity to power between 150-200 thousand homes. It will take $750 million to erect this solar tower and it should last maintenance free for 80 years.

This is an expensive and audacious project, but it is getting thumbs up from governments not only in the US, but in particular China.

The Solar Tower is not without its critics. Frequent among questions is “Why does it have to be so high”? The driving force in Solar Chimneys is the weight difference between the hot light air inside the chimney flue and the corresponding heavy cold outside air.

However, we are trying to move towards clean renewable energy. The one factor that sticks out in my mind is the monthly or annual maintenance costs. Heliostat or Photovoltaic panels need to be cleaned for peak efficiency. Perhaps a large concrete solar chimney doesn’t need much maintenance. I guess it is possible. It will take $750 million to erect this solar tower and it should last maintenance free for 80 years.

This concept is quite old. One of the earliest descriptions of a solar chimney power plant was written in 1931 by a German author, Hanns Günther. In 1975, Robert E. Lucier applied for patents on a solar chimney electric power generator; between 1978 and 1981. Lucier’s patents have expired, however have been renewed by companies in Australia, Canada, Isreal and the US.

So if this concept is so old has it ever been tried? Yes, in Manzanares Spain with German designer Schlaich Bergermann. It was a small scale plant with an  output of 50 Kilowatts. It ran from 1982 to 1989. It was a “proof of concept” project that was run for three years to get the data needed to determine larger scale projects.

From Solar Power Tap.

We think a-like as he set forth to develop a body of artwork called “Cafe Surreal” and I happen to have snagged the domain for it. My friend doesn’t mind as he has abandoned the Cafe Surreal concept for many years, but glad that I was doing something with it.

Where is the Beef?
While most restaurants carry a good amount of liability insurance it can be very difficult to successfully win a claim against a restaurant for food poisoning. The problem is sustaining poof. Many personal injury lawyers will not take a food poisoning case because of the lack of evidence to win the case.

If you feel that you were a victim of food poisoning with a particular restaurant, you will need to act immediately. First go to a hospital and get documentation from a doctor that your illness is due to food poisoning. Now you will have to link that with the restaurant. For that you will need your dining receipt and a witness that will testify that you ate at that restaurant.

Here is the other problem. Was it really the food that made you sick? If no other reports were made about that restaurant at about that time you were there, you will be in a very small minority. So small that it makes it unclear that food was what made you sick if no one else got sick. If you were able to sample the take home food and have it tested and the results came back positive for bacteria or a virus you would have a more compelling case.

The Stomach Bug
A very common stomach virus that can make you very ill and usually comes from restaurants (and even hospitals) is the norovirus. It appears usually in situations where food is prepared. This virus is found in the vomit and fecal matter of the infected person and is transmitted by touch. You will become infected through food, drink and even touching a surface that has been contaminated.

This is why you have to be careful when using public bathrooms. If someone before you goes to the bathroom and doesn’t wash their hands they are going to be touching surfaces like door handles. A food handler or yourself can be transmitting this virus very easily and will become ill in a few hours.

Do you feel you have been injured by a restaurant? Seek a personal injury attorney for advice. You may or may not have a case.

Don’t Have a Case?
As you can see it can be difficult to prepare for a good food poisoning case against a restaurant if you don’t have enough evidence. You are still mad that you paid good money to dine at this restaurant and you may have lost wages because you were to sick to go to work the next day.

Well, first I would contact the management of the suspected restaurant and let them know in a nice way that you had gotten ill. Ask them if anyone else had reported an illness at about the same time you did. Come from a sense of public duty and not a hand out. The restaurant may apologize and give you a free meal, however, I don’t know why you would want to go back to it if that is where you got sick.

The establishment should take your concern seriously. If it appears that they are not going to address the problem and you get a rude response then you have one last course of action, call the health department and launch a complaint there. If there is a pattern and some people come forward with the same illness it is easier to locate the problem and correct it.

By the way, I always find great restaurants that I feel safe in at Phoenix Restaurants.

Police officers are trained to build a case against you. First they use a tool called “Reasonable Suspicion” to stop you, also referred to as a Terry Stop. This in my opinion is the gray area that can lead innocent people to getting into trouble with police officers simple because they are not prepared to deal with this type of harassment. By using reasonable suspicion they can stop you, basically detain you, and interrogate you to make sure you are not doing anything illegal.

Police officers may seem like they are pulling you at random, but there was something that caused them to stop you and check you out. They may use lines like; “Do you know how fast you were going?” or ” It looked like you were swerving a little back there, did you have anything to drink to night?”. To the innocent Terry Stop victim this may sound like an insult. If they had been drinking they might carelessly admit to something thus giving the police officer “Probably Cause”.

You have to be careful with the words you use with police. Obviously you don’t want to be belligerent or over state your rights. The best policy is to be calm and be clear with your answers. The officer is really just testing you.

Know Your Rights

To protect yourself against a Terry Stop, take some time and research online the best ways to deal with Police officers. You will learn a lot. Remember that police officers are highly trained to deal with the public, so they have an unfair advantage over you.

In the case of the Terry Stop the officer is going to proceed to ask you questions. They may even lie to you about why you are being stopped in order to get you to say something incriminating. Officers are legally allowed to lie to you.

If they ask you; “What’s in the bag” or “Is there anything illegal in your trunk”, it is your right to refuse the search. Simply say “Officer, I don’t consent to any searches“. Be careful here and make sure that you are clear to the officer.

If the officer orders you to do something, you are going to have to do it whether it is right or wrong. The distinction here is an “order” versus a “request”. You don’t have to fulfill a request, but you need to make sure that you are clear with the officer that it was indeed a request and not an order.

Then if there is nothing else, ask the officer if you are being detained. If not calmly ask if you are free to go.

Police officers are humans too and they make mistakes. They might be a little overzealous hitting the streets and trying out all that intense training. First off, their lives are on the line every day. You might be wondering; can’t they tell that I am not doing anything wrong? They are trained for both the obvious and the not so obvious. Their perspective will most undoubtedly be different than yours. So see where it goes first before opening your mouth and saying something you shouldn’t. Say as little as possible because what you say can be used against you.

Don’t wait for your Miranda Rights to be given at a Terry Stop. It is only given when you are being hand cuffed which means you are a suspect in a criminal investigation.

Sometimes there is something going on. Maybe the office is having a bad day, maybe you found yourself in a crime sensitive area. Or the office is just a bad cop. Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do except remain calm and alert. Remember that you have the power to keep the situation from getting out of control. If there is a rights violation it will have to be settled in front of a judge.

They have the guns so do what they tell you.

Sources:

• Law-FAQ.com “Can a police officer stop you for no reason?“
• FlexYourRights.org
• Wikipedia.org

The InVision Zero Home uses Dow Chemical’s Powerhouse Solar Shingles. These solar shingles are easy to apply on asphalt shingle roofs and they look so much nicer than bulky solar panels.

The home is 1,556 square foot and they estimate the price to be around $250,000. This is a little higher then the median home price however, the energy savings will make of the difference in a short period of time.

This is home does not store energy for night time use so it is not “off-the-grid”. Instead it sells power to the local utility during the day using net-metering to offset the energy used at night.

This is a great step forward showing that solar power can be used efficiently in the everyday residential consumer application. In the end, we give off less harmful emissions in the environment and safe money.

Source: SolarPowerTap.com

Some people have gluten allergies or may have Celiac Disease. The problem is that gluten is found in most foods like breads and starches. Someone on a gluten free diet would need to avoid flours and starches. These are the whole grains which would include wheat, barley, oat and rye.

So what is Gluten?

Gluten is an elastic protein found in most grains, cereals and breads. It is insoluble in water and gives bread that bendy chewy characteristic. It also keeps the gases that are released when dough is fermenting and gives the bread the ability to rise before it is baked. Gluten (from the latin Gluten “glue”).

Gluten can be removed from wheat flour to produce a wheat starch, however, not all of the gluten can be removed. The Food and Drug Administration will still label a food “Gluten Free” even if there is a small amount. This is problematic for people who need to be a on a strict 100% gluten free diet. For those who suffer from Celiac Disease, a gluten intolerance can be fatal.

Other things to watch out for if you need to be gluten free are MSG, Lecithins, veggie burgers or fake meats, soy sauce, prescriptions and over the counter drugs, and even vitamins. Unfortunately for the gluten free dieter it is everywhere and it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the label. It could be a result of the packaging process where a dusting of flour keeps things from sticking together. Even the glue from an envelope may have wheat associated with it.

So you see a restaurant that features a gluten free menu has to be very careful. It is a big responsibility and they have to know their ingredients, how they are handles and where they come from.

Many restaurants are featuring gluten free choices including fast food chains like McDonald’s. Gluten free really hit the scene in 2010 for the Phoenix area. Some restaurants have made modifications to their menus and ingredients to accommodate the gluten free dieter. Some restaurants have also found gluten free replacements for bread, pasta and pizza. Here is a great list of Gluten Free supporting restaurants in Phoenix AZ

If you are extremely intolerant of gluten it might not be safe for you to eat anywhere. While many restaurants are saying they have gluten free options, it would be wise to ask if they are aware of cross-contamination in the food preparation. Gluten free dishes need to be prepared separately away from non-gluten free dishes. Ask the chef if he is absolutely sure that his ingredients are gluten free. The smaller independent restaurants are probably more equipped and more prepared to accommodate the gluten free dieter.

Sources:

• What is Gluten-Free Cooking? by Teri Gruss, MS from About.com
• What is Gluten at wiseGeek.com
• Wikipedia.org
• GlutennFreeGirl.com
• Gluten Free Restaurants
• Gluten-Free Dining in Restaurants
• Gluten-Free Restaurants in Phoenix by Caley Goldblatt of Arizona Foothills Magazine
• How GLuten Free Aware are the GLuten Free Restaurants? by Laura the GF Travelor
• Gluten Free Restaurants. Make Right Choices at Gluten-Free-Today.com

The time is September, 2011. The place Phoenix and surrounding areas. I make this distinction now because you will find restaurant failure rate statistics for different years and for this article we are talking about 2011. 2 years after the official end of the Recession reported by the NY Times.

While a lot of restaurants close in Phoenix a great many open. Their staying power will depend on many factors; their brand, location, offering, management, marketing and capitalization.

In the case of Marie Calendars, the closings were due to a bankruptcy filing and was a very abrupt closure as there was no warning. It was reported that customers were told to leave a Marie Callender’s in Northgate Washington.

Some restaurants who have served their communities faithfully for years were not strong enough to weather this recession. However, for Rock Bottom Brewery, located in Ahwatukee, this was just an unfortunate corporate decision. It wasn’t a management problem or lack of identity. Rock Bottom would have done fine with it’s loyal customer base.

According to the NPD Group, U.S. commercial restaurants closed at a faster rate than new openings. A two year decline.

“A volatile economy, frugal consumers and a lack of financial backing have made it a difficult business environment for independent restaurants,” said Greg Starzynski the NPD Group director of product development-foodservice.

“Pasta Bar’s closure or Verde’s closure is not systemic or indicative of anything happening downtown,” Says Dwayne Allen Co-owner of the Breadfruit, a Jamaican restaurant in downtown Phoenix. “Any restaurants downtown that are unique and making themselves a destination restaurant are doing quite fine”.

The restaurant closure shock started in 2009 as reported by The Arizona Republic. Most were shocked by the closing of the Pink Pony which had been an old town scottsdale favorite for 60 years! The Republic just wanted to demonstrate that many restaurants were closing as a result of the recession. Many folks commented on the list and said that these were not great restaurants. The great recession shakes out the weak restaurants while leaving the better restaurants to continue.

Summer time in Phoenix is particularly difficult for most restaurants because a lot of the snow-birds are gone. Hey it gets very hot in Phoenix! If a restaurant is in trouble in the Spring then it most likely will not make it to the Fall.

All indications suggest that the restaurant turnover in Phoenix is normal and expected. We will of course miss our favorite restaurants when they go, but with many new ones to try on the horizon, there is no more to look forward to.

If we have learned anything it is that we can’t expect restaurants to stay forever. Kudos to the ones that do! Make sure you call in advance

Sources:

• Ahwatukee restaurant industry hits Rock Bottom this week? by Kelly Mixer of the Ahwatukee  Foothills News
• Marie Callender’s closes in Arizona by Catherine Holland of AZfamily.com
• U.S. restaurant count continues to fall by Ron Ruggless of Restaurant News
• Pasta Bar becomes second downtown restaurant to close doors in past 2 months by Victoria Pelham of DowntownDevil.com
• The Recession Has (Officially) Ended by Catherine Rampell of The New york Times
• 2009 Restaurant Closings reported by the Arizona Republic
• Pink Pony – Scottsdale Oldest Restaurant Reopens