Your Moment is Now

Bloody Basin Road, Beaver Flats Road, Mammoth Mine Road — Arizona has road names unlike most states. There’s much about this 48th state, a territory which joined the United States a little under a hundred years ago in 1912, that retains its Old West origins, including a reconstructed 1890s gold-mining town, the Goldfield Ghost Town near the legendary Superstition Mountains. If you want to live in the present but visit the past, then you should stay in one of the best hotels in Phoenix , then travel east, just about four miles outside Apache Junction, and find your way to 4650 North Mammoth Mine Road.

You and your family might spend the whole day here, taking a ride on the Superstition Narrow Gauge Railroad on a 36″ gauge train consisting of a Plymouth diesel engine that pulls a passenger car and caboose. The twenty minute trip circles the town for a mile and a half as the engineer tells passengers about the history of the town, the Superstition Mountains, and the desert in general.

There’s also the Goldfield Mine Tours, which takes about twenty-five minutes, consisting of a guided tour underground. The guide will tell you about the history the mine, gold mining equipment and procedures. Literally, there’s everything in this small town — from a Church on the Mount that holds real religious services on Sunday morning to Lu Lu’s Bordello, a fake bordello, which gives you a guided tour of the history of women in the 1800s. A gold historian can teach you how to pan for gold at Prospector’s Palace, and, once an hour on the streets, gunfighters will come out and shoot each other. If you want, it’s possible to arrange for friends to be “arrested” and thrown into jail, too.

Of particular interest in Goldfield, though, is Goldfield’s Historic Museum, which contains an exhibit on the Lost Dutchman gold mine , one of the most famous mines in the country, most likely because no one knows, to this day, where it’s located. There’s a power in myth and names that you can explore in the city of Phoenix (named after a mythic firebird) and out at the Goldfield Ghost Town on Mammoth Mine Road.

Killeen, Texas is famous for the large military post Fort Hood that is located right next to it. And while the post does gain most of the city’s attention and is the most prominent landmark in the area, it is not the only thing going on in this Texas town. There are a lot of interesting cultural elements, entertainment options and intriguing landmarks that attract tourists and are part of the everyday lives of residents. Guests in the hotels Killeen may be interested in the fact that Elvis Presley spent training time at Fort Hood and this adds a certain amount of sensationalism to the post, though there is so much going on with the contemporary culture that pieces of historic trivia fade into the past.

Okay, there is also the fact the US Presidents are periodically seen on the base and much of the festival and parade activities are based on the military history and interaction with the era. And the base is a major economic support to the city and it’s common to see personal in the local establishments. But this still doesn’t mean that Killeen is dominated by the events and circumstances of Fort Hood . However, it can be conceded that the base plays a significant role in local culture and that it enhances the social atmosphere of the city.

Fort Hood regularly gains national attention and most recently this was due to the tragic shooting that occurred there in on November 5 of last year. This was an extremely unfortunate and unexpected occurrence and is vastly different than the majority of events that gain attention for the base. Fort Hood was built in 1942 and is named after the Confederate General John Bell Hood. Hood gained military recognition in the Civil War for his commanding of Hood’s Texas Brigade. Since the 1970s the base has played a major role in the training of soldiers and the testing and introduction of new military equipment. Fort Hood is one of the largest United States military installations in the country as well as throughout the world.

Few capital cities on the earth are quite like Austin. It’s a kind of oasis in the middle of Texas — from the air, it seems as if you’re passing stretches of dry, desert-like territory, then there’s a sudden infusion of greenery and water and life; from the ground, the city may sprawl a little, but its heart is downtown, where you’ll find Austin boutique hotels , the Capitol building, and the fine museums of the University of Texas.

One such museum is the Blanton Museum of Art , an art museum and research cetner at the university under the auspices of the College of Fine Arts. This particular university museum is one of the largest of its kind in the United States, containing about 18,000 works of art from Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. Established in 1963, 47 years ago, the museum has changed its name as it grew, moving from space to space at the university, first to the Harry Ransom Center in 1972, renamed the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery in 1980, then moving again in 2006 to a 155,000 square foot building and renamed the Blanton Museum of Art after the Houston Endowment, chaired by Jack S. Blanton, gave the museum a donation of 12 million dollars.

A number of intriguing exhibits are available throughout the summer and into October of 2010. Presently, until August 22, you might see Matisse as Printmaker, which presents works from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. There are 63 prints here by Henri Matisse (who lived from 1869-1954), which were made by a number of techniques: etching, aquatint, monotype, woodcut, linoeum cut, and lithography.

Through October, you’ll be able to see WorkSpace: Anna Craycroft: Subject of Learning/Object of Study . This installation was conceived by Anna Craycroft, an artist based in Brooklyn, which changes the WorkSpace gallery into a series of educational spaces with sliding chalkboards, modular furniture, computer displays, educational books, all of which is meant to explore the various defintions the individual has in order to understand the structure of our institutions, and how the mechanics of that institution affect the persons within it.

One of the intriguing aspects of Fort Collins, Colorado may not be evident to the people who visit it. That is until the guests in one of the hotels Fort Collins hear something go bump in the night. That’s right, Fort Collins is reported to have quite a few haunted locations and while this is not likely to become one of the main reasons the city is so popular and well known, it is certainly an intriguing element to be aware of while you are visiting it. And for those tourists who are also professional or amateur ghost chasers, you will have your hands, or is it cameras or other instruments, full while you are in town.

Avery House is one of the public accessible buildings that was formerly a private residence and is alleged to be haunted. Public tours are available and one of the common occurrences is a specific sensation that is associated with certain rooms and areas. The kitchen pantry and one of the bedrooms on the second floor are particularly prone to have a cold and somewhat spooky energy in them, and this is felt strongly by many people who visit it. The bedroom has a distinct oppressive fee to it.

Baker’s School is another reportedly haunted location. Sadly this place has burned to the ground three separate times and has been rebuilt after each occasion. Children can be heard playing during off hours and lights will suddenly turn on and back off during the night. There is also an abandoned farm property known as Hell and it is reportedly very haunted. Shadow figures to blobby white figures are commonly seen and sometimes a more clear but still shadow figure of a man can be made out. It used to be a goat farm and many people can hear bells coming from it as they pass by at night.

If there is life on other planets, and if it is more intelligent than we are, then there might be hope for the planet if they are looking closely at Tucson. There are plenty of good reasons to see why Tucson is such a draw for people, with its luxury tucson hotels , a fantastic setting, and a lively community that is very active in arts and culture, it’s just a smart place to be. There are even cool clubs at night, where people can dress up and wait behind velvet ropes.

Lots of cultures cross paths in this little city, which always reveals more than could ever possibly meet the eye. The thought that some of these cultures might be aliens is one that might not fall into the usual pathway of standard suspicions, but it’s one that’s being talked about here because of the work of Chris Impey . He teaches in the department of astronomy at the UofA, and he’s been getting a little bit of attention lately.

While the idea of aliens walking among us is one that usually wakes up a large portion of the population who typically wear tinfoil hats, there are some interesting thoughts going around the scientific community. Impey would shun a tinfoil hat, but he is interested in the notion that the Milky Way holds billions of places where life could exist. The chances that there could be life here, then, are actually a lot higher than anyone might have suspected.

He’s written books on the end of the world, as well as on the search for life, and this makes him fairly popular among the students. They are very theoretical works, however, and reading them requires work, kind of what one would expect from a scientist-scholar. Some of the most exciting ideas start to resonate in the atmosphere when he talks about the likelihood that intelligent life would know more than we do. This means that our means of understanding things would not be able to conceive of such a thing, even if we were confronted by it. And this suggests that it might be occurring right now, at this very moment. This is an idea that is so much fun to think about, that it almost feels like Tucson.

Buena Park is one of the favorite family visitation cities in southern California. It is located in Orange County and is part of the Santa Ana, Irvine region, which is just across the hills from Los Angeles. Many people who base there stay in LA make the short trip to Buena Park to visit some of its main attractions as well as to enjoy the beauty of the geography and major landmarks of and around the city. Interestingly, some of the people who visit Buena Park are more familiar with some of its attractions than they are with the name of the town itself. In fact, Knott’s Berry Farm , its most famous theme park is frequently dissociated with the city itself, that is until the family actual visits and experiences all that Buena Park has to offer. And it is just a short drive from the hotels Buena Park , which makes it easy access for the city’s tourists.

Knott’s Berry Farm actually refers to two separate entities, one is the theme park found in Buena Park and the other is food specialty company. The later is part of the JM Smucker Company and the former is owned by the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. And while they are both quality and popular companies, they are extremely different in their purpose and offerings. Well, purpose might be a little off base as they both are focused on providing the best life enhancing products available. However, and with all of that being said, the theme park of Knott’s Berry Farm popular with people from around the world and holds many distinctions over the others.

This theme park was originally established in 1940 and is recognized as being the first theme park in America. And while it is not nearly as large as some of the others found throughout the country, it is certainly unique and has a charm that is all its own. There are at least forty different rides and nine of those are roller coasters. The Ghost Town in the park is one of the favorite attractions for children and adults alike. This is the oldest section of the enclosed park and much of it dates from the original buildings from the 1940s and 50s. The town is composed of relics from actual ghost towns in the country and many of the buildings were relocated from historic Prescott, Arizona .

Brewster, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts, is something of a perfect moment captured in a lost photo. That’s a perfect metaphor for the place, because the town is still small enough that one can get pleasantly and gloriously absorbed into the network of social life that happens here. It’s also a place where one can find the most intimate relationship with solitude, and just spend some time being and breathing with the waves. These are both perfect circumstances for a vacation that feels like a postcard, but the good news is that it’s really not out of reach at all.

Thousands of visitors do come to the town in the summer months, and in the high season there’s plenty of things to do for all the members of the family. It’s also a pretty place to visit in the off-months, and fall is particularly lovely. But the summer is the time and the season for the hotels. Brewster engages its visitors with graciousness and a warm welcome, and it’s a difficult place to leave. It’s attracted people for a long time now, and the recent finding of a photograph that was thought to be lost in time attests to that.

In 2008, a family was going through their old photos, and found one of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan when they were vacationing here. The family remembers Helen, who felt the mother’s face , and seemed to approve. This was one of their favorite vacation spots, and she apparently loved Cape Cod because she could play in the water, and learned how to splash around without being afraid of it. The photograph is also very telling, and very important, because Helen is holding a doll in her lap. Anne gave her a few dolls in the years that they worked together, and in fact it was her first gift to the little girl. It meant so much to Helen, that “doll” was the very first word she would ever spell.

Business school teaches any number of very useful tactics, strategies, and philosophies for making a good mark in the world at large. Statistics and formulas can be very helpful in making important projections that can give an idea about the life of the company, and offer some hints as to what needs work in order to make things run better. Cultivating charisma, on the other hand, is something that comes out of the person, and is something that can’t be given in any educational context. It comes from experience, combined with the natural talents that people are born with.

It is a very good business strategy, however, to work on one’s own charisma, taking pains to evaluate the effects of one’s charm in the workplace as well as on the ground, where many deals begin. An excellent place to begin is with presentation training , which can offer valuable lessons for the presentation of self. How we perform in everyday life is something of which most people are generally very unconscious. People might be aware of what they want, and how others might affect their drive to meet their goals, but don’t necessarily look at how their personality is playing out in front of others.

Looking at how to make effective presentations is a means toward unlocking the secrets of one’s own inner charisma . This is because it can teach how to perform the self in a way that’s rarely examined. People generally like performances, and when someone is speaking, an effort to assert personality and charm are welcome additions to any presentation. The information sinks in more deeply, and they learn to appreciate that the speaker is making an effort at turning a moment into something exciting.

Just as in customer service training seminars , when there is often a focus on cultivating a friendly demeanor in order to please the customer, these small touches at being in the moment can be enormously charismatic. This doesn’t mean adopting masks and assuming roles one doesn’t believe in, but in highlighting the strong points of one’s own being. It can be the difference between a satisfied customer for the moment, and a customer for life. It can also help to make everyone in the room one’s friend.