Perhaps you've lived long enough to know everything there is to know about the Phoenix area. Watch them feed giraffes at the Phoenix Zoo? Root for the good guys during the shootouts at Rawhide? Wait for more than two hours for dinner at Pizzeria Bianco? Yes, you've been there, done all that.
But even if you've lived here all your life, we've found a few gems you've likely yet to uncover. At a certain upscale steakhouse, for example, you can belly up to the bar at happy hour and enjoy a free filet-mignon sandwich. Or freshen up in a bathroom named one of America's oddest by the Travel Channel, where lights dance along the walls. And when was the last time you took the reins of a mechanical bull?
Use this list to enrich yourself as a Phoenician, or employ it as a travel guide for when your brother-in-law from Wisconsin "drops by" for the 10th year in a row.
1, 245-part harmony
Hear the pure sound of the Phoenix Boys Choir, billed as the largest such group in the nation, with 245 members. The group has sung for presidents, won a Grammy Award and won prizes at international festivals and recorded with such artists as Stevie Wonder, Doc Severinsen and R. Carlos Nakai. The choir performs throughout the year in the Valley at concerts, festivals and churches. Check its Web site, boyschoir.org, or call 602-264-5328 for details on performances.
2, Musical digs
The Valley is home to dozens of concert venues, from the grand (US Airways Center) to the extremely intimate (Brickhouse Theater). The Dodge Theatre is a nice balance, offering enough room to draw top acts (Chicago and the Doobie Brothers perform there Tuesday), but is small enough to feel close to the performers. For a schedule and tickets, visit dodgetheatre.com.
3. Outdoors country
Dance the two-step under the stars to live country music at Greasewood Flat, the no-frills outdoor restaurant and saloon in north Scottsdale. Originally a stagecoach stop, this establishment has been a Valley fixture for more than three decades. 27375 N. Alma School Parkway, 480-585-9430.
4. Shades of blues
Take in a gritty set of blues music at the Rhythm Room, the Valley's best blues club. For 17 years, the cozy venue has served up local and national blues, rockabilly and roots music nightly. The atmosphere is casual, the patrons are friendly and the cover charge is affordable. 1019 E. Indian School Road, Phoenix, 602-265-4842, rhythmroom.com.
5. Old-time saloon tunes
Sing along with country musicians and other patrons at the Rusty Spur Saloon in Old Town Scottsdale. This tiny venue bills itself as the oldest saloon in "the West's most Western town," and it's one of the friendliest. On an average night, you'll find a mix of tourists and locals, all intent on sipping something cold and singing the likes of Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, George Jones and George Strait. 7245 E. Main St., Scottsdale, 480-425-7787, rustyspursaloon.com.
6. Big sounds, little sites
Sometimes people complain that there's nothing to do in Phoenix. These are people who would say the same thing if they lived in Manhattan, or haven't heard about Modified Arts and the Clubhouse Music Venue, two teeny venues where you can check out cool bands on their way to being hot. They're the kind of places you can see VH1's You Oughta Know artists. They've hosted such bands as the Arcade Fire, Girl Talk, Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers, Blitzen Trapper and other bands you probably already like on satellite radio but never knew their names. Clubhouse Music Venue, 1320 E. Broadway Road, Tempe, 480-968-3238, clubhousemusicvenue.com; Modified Arts, 407 E. Roosevelt St., Phoenix, 602-462-5516, modified.org.
7. Standout stand-up
We're not LA, thank goodness, but we draw the kind of solid comic performers you might see on Sunset Strip, thanks to the Tempe Improv. The club brings nationally known acts (Jerry Seinfeld appeared here when he returned to stand-up after his sitcom ended) and serves dinner to boot. If you've watched stand-up comedy on TV and wondered what's the attraction, take in a live show. That's where the magic happens. Dive into the scene June 27-28 when Cedric the Entertainer performs at the Improv, 930 E. University Drive. Tickets are $45. 480-921-9877, tempeimprov.com.
8. Private karaoke
Indulge your inner Beastie Boy, Billy Joel or Beyoncé in one of four private rooms at the new Geisha A Go Go, a stylish destination for Japanese food and exotic froufrou cocktails. The rentable rooms ($50 to $100 per hour) feature 44-inch flat-screen TVs, their own waitresses, cushy couches and thickly insulated walls. You can bring in your own karaoke disc, or pick from huge books featuring Top 40, standards, rock, hip-hop and everything else. All the signature cocktails feature authentic Japanese sodas, juices or liquors. 7150 E. Sixth Ave., Scottsdale, 480-699-0055.
Must do
9. New Chez Nous
Sample one of Phoenix's best martinis (or a non-alcoholic drink) and hit the dance floor to sweet, old-school soul music at the newly relocated Chez Nous. The venerable lounge, with its notoriously dim lighting, was at another site for more than four decades. Original owner and interior designer Maureen Womack helped current owner Amina Uben decorate the new space, re-creating the gold-flocked wallpaper, picking out swanky new carpet and insisting that the red booths and sconces from the original be refurbished. 915 N.W. Grand Ave., Phoenix, 602-266-7372, cheznouscentral.com.
10. Cactus cocktail
Like Tovrea Castle and Camelback Mountain, some things speak specifically of life in the Valley. But much easier than touring the area, you can just sip a martini at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Phoenix, kind of a gastronomic sightseeing trip. Pink like sunset over the the White Tank Mountains, the Native Arizonan martini ($10) combines Arizona High Spirits prickly-pear vodka and a touch of agave nectar in a chilled glass. The vodka is distilled in Flagstaff. 6902 E. Greenway Parkway, Phoenix, 480-624-1000, kierlandresort.com.
11. Life after Mr. Lucky's
Cadillac Ranch, Saddle Ranch Chop House and Hammerhead Jacks all let you risk your life, or at least your back, on their mechanical bulls. OK, the last place has a modified bull that looks like a hammerhead, but you get the idea. The new Western hot spots are quickly building reputations as places to go to get rowdy. Hammerhead Jacks, 6900 E. Cave Creek Road, Cave Creek, 480-595-7100, hammerheadjacks.com; Cadillac Ranch, at Tempe Marketplace, 2000 E. Rio Salado Parkway, 480-894-1111, cadillacranchtempe.com; Saddle Ranch Chop House, 4321 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, 480-429-2263, srrestaurants.com.
12. Surprise-ing jazz
You might not know that Surprise is one of the hottest jazz spots in the Valley. Owned by bass player Yorman Williams, who has shared the stage with every high-profile jazz musician you've heard of, Yorman's Bistro offers fab music with unjazzlike promptness at 7 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Williams performs with many talented guests, including George Benson, who occasionally drops by. Try the catfish, freshly breaded cornmeal strips or mussels Mississippi. 17191 N. Litchfield Road, Surprise, 623-214-2090.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Fun Things To Do In Phoenix AZ That You Did Not Know
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Instant Profits Trading FREE Forex Video Examples
Instant Profits Trading FREE Examples
So, on Thursday, May 8th, 34 yr. trading veteran Bill Poulos tackled the controversy with some sobering FACTS in a live web- seminar with a global audience of nit-picky traders watching.
He also shared his key trading secrets, the BIG mistake most traders make, and spent 40 minutes in live Q&A!
Afterward, so many traders asked to see it again, Bill made it available in a replay for a short time. I don't know how long the replay will be available, but you can check here:
Click here for more trading examples and a video sneak peek at Instant Profits...
If the replay is still available, you'll discover:
** Bill's #1 Tactic that too many traders ignore (and can often result in portfolio WIPEOUT)...
** The 4 simple steps successful traders know that you don't...
** The simple formula that an 8th grader could solve to determine the profitability of any trading method...
I think he said the replay would be available for a few days after the event. You should be able to access it here:
Click here for more trading examples and a video sneak peek at Instant Profits...
Stop wondering why other traders enjoy success -- discover what edge THEY have that you don't, and 'fix' your trading before you make another trade.
Good Trading,
Bonnie Burns
Friday, May 9, 2008
The Housing Crisis is Over -- Wall Street Journal
The Housing Crisis is Over -- Wall Street Journal
The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.
How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.
Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005.
New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50%, and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982.
Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So what's going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability.
The boom made housing unaffordable for many American families, especially first-time home buyers. During the 1990s and early 2000s, it took 19% of average monthly income to service a conforming mortgage on the average home purchased. By 2005 and 2006, it was absorbing 25% of monthly income. For first time buyers, it went from 29% of income to 37%. That just proved to be too much.
Prices got so high that people who intended to actually live in the houses they purchased (as opposed to speculators) stopped buying. This caused the bubble to burst.
Since then, house prices have fallen 10%-15%, while incomes have kept growing (albeit more slowly recently) and mortgage rates have come down 70 basis points from their highs. As a result, it now takes 19% of monthly income for the average home buyer, and 31% of monthly income for the first-time home buyer, to purchase a house. In other words, homes on average are back to being as affordable as during the best of times in the 1990s. Numerous households that had been priced out of the market can now afford to get in.
The next question is: Even if home sales pick up, how can home prices stop falling with so many houses vacant and unsold? The flip but true answer: because they always do.
In the past five major housing market corrections (and there were some big ones, such as in the early 1980s when home sales also fell by 50%-60% and prices fell 12%-15% in real terms), every time home sales bottomed, the pace of house-price declines halved within one or two months.
The explanation is that by the time home sales stop declining, inventories of unsold homes have usually already started falling in absolute terms and begin to peak out in "months of supply" terms. That's the case right now: New home inventories peaked at 598,000 homes in July 2006, and stand at 482,000 homes as of the end of March. This inventory is equivalent to 11 months of supply, a 25-year high -- but it is similar to 1974, 1982 and 1991 levels, which saw a subsequent slowing in home-price declines within the next six months.
Inventories are declining because construction activity has been falling for such a long time that home completions are now just about undershooting new home sales. In a few months, completions of new homes for sale could be undershooting new home sales by 50,000-100,000 annually.
Inventories will drop even faster to 400,000 -- or seven months of supply -- by the end of 2008.
This shift in inventories will have a significant impact on prices, although house prices won't stop falling entirely until inventories reach five months of supply sometime in 2009. A five-month supply has historically signaled tightness in the housing market.
Many pundits claim that house prices need to fall another 30% to bring them back in line with where they've been historically. This is usually based on an analysis of house prices adjusted for inflation: Real house prices are 30% above their 40-year, inflation-adjusted average, so they must fall 30%. This simplistic analysis is appealing on the surface, but is flawed for a variety of reasons.
Most importantly, it neglects the fact that a great majority of Americans buy their houses with mortgages.
And if one buys a house with a mortgage, the most important factor in deciding what to pay for the house is how much of one's income is required to be able to make the mortgage payments on the house. Today the rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 5.7%. Back in 1981, the rate hit 18.5%. Comparing today's house prices to the 1970s or 1980s, when mortgage rates were stratospheric, is misguided and misleading.
This is all good news for the broader economy. The housing bust has been subtracting a full percentage point from GDP for almost two years now, which is very large for a sector that represents less than 5% of economic activity.
When the rate of house-price declines halves, there will be a wholesale shift in markets' perceptions. All of a sudden, the expected value of the collateral (i.e. houses) for much of the lending that went on for the past decade will change. Right now, when valuing the collateral, market participants including banks are extrapolating the current pace of house price declines for another two to three years; this has a significant impact on the amount of delinquencies, foreclosures and credit losses that lenders are expected to face.
More home sales and smaller price declines means fewer homeowners will be underwater on their mortgages. They will thus have less incentive to walk away and opt for foreclosure.
A milder house-price decline scenario could lead to increases in the market value of a lot of the securitized mortgages that have been responsible for $300 billion of write-downs in the past year.
Even if write-backs do not occur, stabilizing collateral values will have a huge impact on the markets' perception of risk related to housing, the financial system, and the economy.
We are of course experiencing a serious housing bust, with serious economic consequences that are still unfolding. The odds are that the reverberations will lead to sub-trend growth for a couple of years.
Nonetheless, housing led us into this credit crisis and this recession. It is likely to lead us out. And that process is underway, right now.
Source: Wall Street Journal, By Cyril Moulle-Berteaux
May 6, 2008 Mr. Moulle-Berteaux is managing partner of Traxis Partners LP, a hedge fund firm based in New York.
The Housing Crisis is Over -- Wall Street Journal
The Housing Crisis is Over -- Wall Street Journal
The dire headlines coming fast and furious in the financial and popular press suggest that the housing crisis is intensifying. Yet it is very likely that April 2008 will mark the bottom of the U.S. housing market. Yes, the housing market is bottoming right now.
How can this be? For starters, a bottom does not mean that prices are about to return to the heady days of 2005. That probably won't happen for another 15 years. It just means that the trend is no longer getting worse, which is the critical factor.
Most people forget that the current housing bust is nearly three years old. Home sales peaked in July 2005.
New home sales are down a staggering 63% from peak levels of 1.4 million. Housing starts have fallen more than 50%, and, adjusted for population growth, are back to the trough levels of 1982.
Furthermore, residential construction is close to 15-year lows at 3.8% of GDP; by the fourth quarter of this year, it will probably hit the lowest level ever. So what's going to stop the housing decline? Very simply, the same thing that caused the bust: affordability.
The boom made housing unaffordable for many American families, especially first-time home buyers. During the 1990s and early 2000s, it took 19% of average monthly income to service a conforming mortgage on the average home purchased. By 2005 and 2006, it was absorbing 25% of monthly income. For first time buyers, it went from 29% of income to 37%. That just proved to be too much.
Prices got so high that people who intended to actually live in the houses they purchased (as opposed to speculators) stopped buying. This caused the bubble to burst.
Since then, house prices have fallen 10%-15%, while incomes have kept growing (albeit more slowly recently) and mortgage rates have come down 70 basis points from their highs. As a result, it now takes 19% of monthly income for the average home buyer, and 31% of monthly income for the first-time home buyer, to purchase a house. In other words, homes on average are back to being as affordable as during the best of times in the 1990s. Numerous households that had been priced out of the market can now afford to get in.
The next question is: Even if home sales pick up, how can home prices stop falling with so many houses vacant and unsold? The flip but true answer: because they always do.
In the past five major housing market corrections (and there were some big ones, such as in the early 1980s when home sales also fell by 50%-60% and prices fell 12%-15% in real terms), every time home sales bottomed, the pace of house-price declines halved within one or two months.
The explanation is that by the time home sales stop declining, inventories of unsold homes have usually already started falling in absolute terms and begin to peak out in "months of supply" terms. That's the case right now: New home inventories peaked at 598,000 homes in July 2006, and stand at 482,000 homes as of the end of March. This inventory is equivalent to 11 months of supply, a 25-year high -- but it is similar to 1974, 1982 and 1991 levels, which saw a subsequent slowing in home-price declines within the next six months.
Inventories are declining because construction activity has been falling for such a long time that home completions are now just about undershooting new home sales. In a few months, completions of new homes for sale could be undershooting new home sales by 50,000-100,000 annually.
Inventories will drop even faster to 400,000 -- or seven months of supply -- by the end of 2008.
This shift in inventories will have a significant impact on prices, although house prices won't stop falling entirely until inventories reach five months of supply sometime in 2009. A five-month supply has historically signaled tightness in the housing market.
Many pundits claim that house prices need to fall another 30% to bring them back in line with where they've been historically. This is usually based on an analysis of house prices adjusted for inflation: Real house prices are 30% above their 40-year, inflation-adjusted average, so they must fall 30%. This simplistic analysis is appealing on the surface, but is flawed for a variety of reasons.
Most importantly, it neglects the fact that a great majority of Americans buy their houses with mortgages.
And if one buys a house with a mortgage, the most important factor in deciding what to pay for the house is how much of one's income is required to be able to make the mortgage payments on the house. Today the rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 5.7%. Back in 1981, the rate hit 18.5%. Comparing today's house prices to the 1970s or 1980s, when mortgage rates were stratospheric, is misguided and misleading.
This is all good news for the broader economy. The housing bust has been subtracting a full percentage point from GDP for almost two years now, which is very large for a sector that represents less than 5% of economic activity.
When the rate of house-price declines halves, there will be a wholesale shift in markets' perceptions. All of a sudden, the expected value of the collateral (i.e. houses) for much of the lending that went on for the past decade will change. Right now, when valuing the collateral, market participants including banks are extrapolating the current pace of house price declines for another two to three years; this has a significant impact on the amount of delinquencies, foreclosures and credit losses that lenders are expected to face.
More home sales and smaller price declines means fewer homeowners will be underwater on their mortgages. They will thus have less incentive to walk away and opt for foreclosure.
A milder house-price decline scenario could lead to increases in the market value of a lot of the securitized mortgages that have been responsible for $300 billion of write-downs in the past year.
Even if write-backs do not occur, stabilizing collateral values will have a huge impact on the markets' perception of risk related to housing, the financial system, and the economy.
We are of course experiencing a serious housing bust, with serious economic consequences that are still unfolding. The odds are that the reverberations will lead to sub-trend growth for a couple of years.
Nonetheless, housing led us into this credit crisis and this recession. It is likely to lead us out. And that process is underway, right now.
Source: Wall Street Journal, By Cyril Moulle-Berteaux
May 6, 2008 Mr. Moulle-Berteaux is managing partner of Traxis Partners LP, a hedge fund firm based in New York.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Instant Profits Run Bill Poulos Live Free Web Seminar
Instant Profits Run Bill Poulos Live Free Web Seminar - Limited Space Avaliable For May 9, 2008
34 year trading 'vet' spills the beans on Thursday...Worried about a portfolio 'wipeout'? Watch this...Emergency trading web-seminar (#1 tip revealed)...
I seriously hope we're not too late but we just got wind of this...
Someone convinced 30 yr. trading veteran Bill Poulos to spill the beans to a small group of traders in a LIVE web seminar, for NOTHING!
If you don't know Bill, he's one of the most well-respected names in trading education circles for teaching methods he himself uses and for his dedication to making his students better traders.
And since the release of his recent consumer trading guide, The Profit Button, Bill's been getting hammered with tons of questions about the somewhat controversial findings in the guide...
* So, he decided to go LIVE on Thursday, May 9th at 9pm Eastern (New York Time) on a special one-time web-seminar where he'll address all the controversy and also reveal the #1 trading secret to his simple but highly effective trading method (which is NOT in the report)... Click here to reserve your space!!!
"In Just 60 Minutes, You Could Gain A Lifetime Of 'Time-Tested' Trading Knowledge, Straight From The Mouth Of A 30+ Year Veteran... If You Register Quickly Enough..."
...this secret is the ONE thing too many traders IGNORE, and it can often result in a complete portfolio wipeout! You won't want to miss this, so, reserve your spot now: Click here to reserve your space!!! (That will give you the private password to the web-seminar.)
If you can get in, you'll also discover:
** The 4 simple steps successful traders know that you don't...
** How to maximize your profit potential in any market...
** How to evaluate any trading method to see if it has a "Winnin.g Edge" (and why you should abandon it immediately if it doesn't)...
** How a simple formula that an 8th grader could solve can determine the profitability of any trading method...
** ...and, you can also take part in a rare, live Q&A with Bill...
This exclusive, live event is Thursday, May 8th at 9PM Eastern Time.
...BUT...
There is extremely limited "seating" for this event because the virtual seminar room can only hold so many traders. Honestly, registration may already be locked out (depending on when you get this message), but give it a try here:
Click here to reserve your FREE Instant Profits Run Webinar space!!!
If you've been wondering why some traders have success in the markets, while others continue to flounder again and again, this could be one of your best chances to get your trading "fixed"
once and for all.
About The Presenter Bill Poulos
Bill Poulos has been trading the markets since 1974. He's a retired automotive executive who holds a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, and a Master's degree in Business Administration, with a major in Finance.
In his over 30 years of trading experience, Bill has developed dozens of trading systems and methods. In 2001, he formed Profits Run, Inc. to impart his trading experience and wisdom to others so they could shortcut their learning curve and ultimately potentially skyrocket their earnings in the markets.
Bill now has thousands of students all around the world, from all walks of life, and at all experience levels. He prides himself on providing honest and realistic trading education, and is known for the continuous and ongoing support and follow-up he offers his students.
His partner in Profits Run is his son, Greg, who is responsible for marketing and all technical support. In addition, Bill also has a full-time operations staff to ensure his trading education is delivered and supported in a high-quality and timely manner.
Good Trading,
