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Arizona band sues Apple, Chris Daughtry

LAKE HAVASU CITY — The lead singer of a local band is suing Apple and American Idol finalist Chris Daughtry and for copyright infringement over the song, “Feels Like Tonight.”

Randy Mazick, lead singer of The Asphalt, alleges Daughtry’s song “Feels Like Tonight” sounds like “Tonight,” which his band recorded a year earlier than Daughtry.

Daughtry was a contestant on the fifth season of American Idol, where he became a finalist and finished in fourth place. Record sales indicate he is the fourth most successful contestant in the show’s history. Daughtry’s first album, “Daughtry,” was released in 2006 and was the best selling album of 2007.

The Asphalt is a four-man band out of Lake Havasu City about four hours northwest of Phoenix. Mazick claims that songwriters Lukasz Gottwald, Martin Karl Sandberg and Sheppard Solomon’s song, “achieved worldwide success and notoriety since its release in November 2006,” according to the complaint.

The complaint also says the song’s hook is a copy of the copyrighted song “Tonight,” first publicly performed by Mazick’s band in 2005 and later performed throughout the Southwest.

The complaint was filed Sept. 17 and called for a jury trial. It states Mazick is “entitled to damages and to Defendant’s profits in amounts to be proven at trial, which are not currently ascertainable.”

Linda Schroeder, a court reporter for the U.S. District Court, said that the case could take up to three years to reach trial. In the meantime, the court could choose to take many actions, such as taking depositions of those involved, subpoenaing evidence, and getting sworn testimony.

Daughtry has yet to choose an attorney.

“A summons has been issued for each of the named defendants, and once they’re served, I’m sure an attorney will enter an appearance for them,” Schroeder said.

Jason Marino, guitarist and vocalist of The Asphalt, said in an e-mail that the band declined comment on the case.

Ray Harris, The Asphalt’s Phoenix attorney, said he could not comment on a case that is in litigation.

For more information on The Asphalt and to hear their song “Tonight,” visit www.myspace.com/theasphalt.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Computer-aided Chicano art comes to Phoenix

MESA — If art isn’t free, then what is it, asks local artist Ignacio Farías.

Farías, 61, is a self-taught Chicano artist who creates abstract works using digital composition with acrylics and paints. His sole intention for his work is only to be beautiful, and he makes no bones about being called a “wall decorator” or using a computer to help create his works.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Farías began drawing things as a child. He said he was always in trouble at school for drawing caricatures of teachers and doodling in class.

He moved to Arizona in 1983 with his first wife, a native Arizonan, and their children. His techniques and unique styles come from experimentation and his only standard is to rarely, if ever, use a paintbrush.

“(In the beginning), I felt reluctant to use brushes,” Farías says. “Everyone uses brushes so I had to find another way.”

Instead, he uses a variation of tools that ranges from kitchen and carving utensils to spatulas, ice picks, combs and syringes. The only consistent marking that can be found on his works that were made with a brush is his signature, which he said enabled him to sign his name in a unique, Asian-looking style.

But it was his other hobbies, such as photography and advertising, that led to the use of digital composition in his artwork.

These tools of the 21st Century are the reason that Farías refers to his work as the product of “extreme mix media.” He says he’s a PC guy who uses a Velocity and plenty of Adobe software to bring his artistic visions to life.

Although the use of a computer may help with artistic effects, it doesn’t necessarily make the process go faster, Farías says. Much of the process involves the subconscious mind.

“Inspiration is not related,” Farías says. “Art is like a blessed area where the most beautiful things can happen. Never mind what is outside.”

Farías’ works are often created as a series, such as “The Eyes of a Woman,” which has about 80 different versions.

“No two women have the same eyes,” Farías said. “(They are) like fingerprints.”

Each displays the different types of women in the world. However, a few of them have an animal name that identifies the type of woman it depicts according to the Mesoamerican culture of Mexico. For example, the painting called “Eagle Woman Eyes” is a depiction of the “executive woman.”

Some of his other works are depicted on multiple canvases, such as “A Fascinating City,” which was done as an ode to Paris. This work is a display of five separate canvases that are displayed inches apart from one another but are connected by the flow of the elongated picture that they depict.

Samples of Farías’ work are on display at the Chicano Museum near First and Adams streets in Downtown Phoenix through the end of October. Admission is $2.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

De-pants bandits still at large in Tolleson

TOLLESON — Police detectives are still investigating a robbery in which two men pulled down a man’s pants and robbed him as he tried to enter a local hotel.

The incident occurred on Sept. 19 at the Comfort Suites near 84th Avenue and McDowell Road. Police say a hotel guest was going inside to meet his three traveling companions when two unidentified suspects approached him near the door.

Both men were armed with semi-automatic pistols, and they pointed them at the victim. The suspects then pulled down the victim’s pants and began to search the pockets, according to police.

After removing the victim’s belongings, the suspects told the victim to pull up his pants and run from the scene.

“He ran around the hotel and across the street to an apartment complex, where he waited until the suspects left before returning to the hotel to call the police,” said Tolleson police Officer Rafael Serra, who was one of the officers on the scene.

The suspects got away with the man’s cell phone, debit card, identification, Social Security card and his wallet, which contained over $3,000.00 cash.

The victim was unable to identify the make or model of the vehicle the two men used to flee. “We checked the area for the vehicle, but the victim didn’t give us a very good description,” Serra said.

This lead police to believe that the victim may have possibly known who the suspects were due to the manner in which they robbed him.

“He was running from them,” Serra said. “Maybe they made him drop his pants so he couldn’t run from them.”

Serra also questioned the victim as to why he was carrying such a large amount of cash. “I found that kind of suspicious,” Serra said.

The victim, who is from Detroit, said he was on vacation. He was not alone.

One male and two females were also with him, but were waiting for him inside of the hotel at the time of the incident.

There may be a possibility the two suspects were also involved in another robbery attempt.

Earlier that night a man was walking two female co-workers to their cars at a business near 86th Avenue and Washington Street when, on his way back, he was approached by two males armed with guns.

“He was able to escape and ran back into the business,” Serra said.

No arrests have been made. Tolleson detectives are still investigating the crime.

Anyone with any information about the case is asked to contact the Tolleson Police Department at (623) 936-7111.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Tempe coffee startup gives caffeine crowd the jitters

TEMPE — It all started with a couple wanting to do something together as a family.

“We both love people,” Cartel Coffee Lab co-owner Amy Silberschlag says, referring to the shop’s other owner, husband Jason.

Jason Silberschlag started his quest to open a coffee shop when he decided to go to Guatemala to talk directly with coffee bean farmers.

His love for coffee has driven him to bring some of the best beans in the world to his shop at the southwest corner of University Drive and Ash Avenue in Tempe.

Jason Silberschlag trades directly with foreign farmers to ensure buying the best beans. Needless to say, the shop has attracted a loyal following in a caffeine-crazed college town.

“I think just the idea of having really good coffee makes the difference,” Jason Silberschlag said. “Any one who cares about quality I would say is our main customer.”

But the Silberschlags’ shop also has an eco-friendly approach to their business. The cups are made of a compostable cornstarch and are reusable due to the thickness of the material.

Cartel features a spacious and relaxing atmosphere, despite the slight hum from the big red coffee machine in the back of the shop.

“I love it,” said Jessica Clark, 19, a Cartel regular. “I appreciate the concept. (The shop) is less of selling your soul to the devil and more appreciating each other.”

Jason Silberschlag stated he wanted a place that created a community atmosphere and relationships based on a mutual meeting place. Matt Kenny says it works well.

“I’ve tried other coffee places and this one has won my heart,” said Kenny, 22, a transplant from Bellingham, Wash.  “I thought I would never find a place like this in Tempe.”

“(The) mixture of art makes a good atmosphere,” he added. “It has a real local feel.”

The quality of the Silberschlags’ product and welcoming spacious shop attracts a diverse customer base.

“I would say most people who come in have a respect for higher education,” Jason Silberschlag said. “(We attract) your average chase employee all the way to full-on sleeves of tattoos and piercings.”
The green direction and friendly environment of Cartel has also wooed potential employees.

“I was looking for a more eco-friendly business,” said Liana McNeil, a Cartel barista.  “It almost feels like a second home, I feel really comfortable here.”

The knowledge needed to be a successful barista at Cartel surpasses most major corporate coffee shops.

“It’s not just pushing a button here, it’s more of a skill and a knowledge of the machine,” said barista Melissa Marriott, who will be competing in a national barista contest in Austin.

Cartel staff welcome the competition. On Sept. 20, Jason Silberschlag went to Columbia with an organization called Cup of Excellence, which judges coffee from all over the world.

The winning coffee is sold to the highest bidder during an Internet auction. The winning roast can fetch up to $120 per pound, Jason Silberschlag said.

The Silberschlags actually sell a Cup of Excellence coffee in their shop, plus 3 other types of coffee. They are currently offering La Union Farm from Nicaragua, a top finisher from 2007.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

VP pick Palin wins environmentalist ‘Dodo’ prize

As prizes go, it’s probably not one you’d want on your trophy shelf: the Center for Biological Diversity’s Rubber Dodo award.

This year’s recipient is governor of Alaska and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

“She richly deserves it,” says Tim Ellis, spokesman for the Tucson-based group. “Her environmental record is a disaster and we just wanted to draw attention to that.”

The handsome trophy, pictured above, honors Palin “for seeking to block Endangered Species Act protection for the polar bear, lying about, then suppressing state scientific reviews, and denying that greenhouse gas emissions cause global warming.”

The trophy will be mailed to the governor’s mansion sometime this week, I’m told.

“It’s just about ready to fly north,” says Ellis.

Despite the fairly obvious meltdown occurring in her home state – thawing permafrost, disappearing sea ice, unseasonably warm winters and generally weird weather – Palin still doesn’t believe that human activity is having an impact on the climate.

“A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I’m not one though who would attribute it to being man-made,” Palin told the right-wing magazine Newsmax earlier this summer.

It’s a view that puts her to the right even of the leaders of her own party.

It was the Bush administration’s Department of the Interior, after all, that finally labeled the polar bear as ‘threatened,’ (albeit without taking any actions that would protect the bear’s habitat from offshore oil drilling or carbon emissions.)

If Palin doesn’t believe in manmade climate change, well, I suppose that’s her right.

But where she crossed the line from fool to crook was by using her power as governor of Alaska to obscure the work of biologists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, critics say.

Palin claimed that studies by state biologists cast doubt on the conclusions of federal scientists, who had determined that vanishing sea ice threatened the bears. Without scientific consensus, she said, listing the bears as endangered or threatened was a mistake.

“I strongly believe that adding them to the list is the wrong move at this time. My decision is based on a comprehensive review by state wildlife officials of scientific information from a broad range of climate, ice and polar bear experts,” she wrote in a New York Times editorial.

But through a Freedom of Information Act request, a University of Alaska got his hands on the studies in question — which said nothing of the sort.

“Essentially, she lied,” University of Alaska professor Rick Steiner told ABC News.

The move vaulted her over the opposition and earned her the coveted Rubber Dodo – and the enmity of environmental crusaders like Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

“To maintain her ludicrous opposition to protecting the polar bear in the face of massive scientific consensus, Palin stepped over the line to lie about and suppress government science,” Suckling said in a statement.

The irony is, of course, that John McCain was supposedly one of the few Republicans that actually got global warming.

He’s proposed legislation – co-sponsored with Joe Lieberman – that would have put the U.S. on track to cut emissions.

And here he is nominating for his vice-president a woman who basically thinks climate change is some kind of liberal bogeyman cooked up by environmentalists.

In our view, McCain, in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to get elected, shoved Mother Earth under the bus.

And what does this all have to do with Arizona? Maybe more than you think.

Recent studies suggest that we here in the desert may be more closely linked to the health of the Arctic sea ice than previously believed.

It seems that fluctuations in the sea ice may be linked to weather patterns in the Pacific Ocean. In particular, as sea ice declines, more storm systems from the Pacific may head north, bypassing the Southwest.

It does strike me as an interesting coincidence that the so-called Medieval Warm Period happened to coincide with the mega-drought in the Southwest that led to the fall of the Anasazi civilization.

In any case, fly, dodo, fly.

Businesses keep social networking tools at arm’s length

TEMPE — Even though she’s a young marketing rep for one of the nation’s largest and most cutting-edge universities, Alice Ho says she is still afraid to use social networking tools to spread her company’s message.

What is a “widget”? Are “applications” still something you fill out? And why would anyone want to “poke” or “karate chop” a friend through online networks such as Facebook?

“I’m 27, and sometimes I feel too old for that stuff myself,” Ho admits.

Websites that allow users to interact with each other are called social networking sites. Some business owners still feel these websites are out of their comfort zone, but others say they are the wave of the future for selling products or building an audience around them.

Amanda Vega, founder of Amanda Vega Consulting in Scottsdale, said that social media has been around for more than 10 years now, and includes a variety of different forms including blogs and social networks such as Facebook.

“There are over 250 different tools and technologies and behaviors that comprise social media as a practice,” Vega says. Business should use them as an additional marketing tool, not as the primary one. These sites should allow users to give honest feedback to products, among other things.

But many of Vega’s clients are also concerned about opening themselves up to negative feedback, and they think these comments will be placed on social networks and spread around the Internet, Vega said.

But, Vega states that marketing agencies are able to set up a type of social media that makes sense for the company they are working with. In fact, some tools have popped up recently that allow companies to manipulate search engine results so that the negative comments get driven further down into the queue, and thus, into obscurity.

The problem, Vega says, is that overly positive feedback can ruin a social networking site’s value. Indeed, ASU tends to shy away from using this tool because it can’t control the message.

“When we put a message out there [using social media], it can be interpreted differently,” Ho says.

She also fears social media is only targeting a younger demographic for businesses, and another marketing expert agrees. Jason Ferrara, CEO of Elixir Interactive in Scottsdale, says that some of his clients voice this same concern.

However, businesses need to look towards the future, and that marketing reality includes social networking.

“It’s not a fad. People are using it whether they like it or not,” Ferrara says.

Today’s children are growing up using social networks, and businesses need to react to this by focusing on their clients of tomorrow, Ferrara said.

Yet another challenge that social media faces today is corruption. In 2006, Coca-Cola created a blog for Coke Zero that was suppose to allow consumers to comment about the product. It was soon discovered that Coca-Cola employees were actually maintaining the blog.

In response to this, Ferrara said that this is not a phenomenon of social media, but rather something that we see every day in society.

The key to combating this problem is to be honest and transparent, Ferrara said.

“If you are not strongly represented, people are less likely to place business with you,” Ferrara said.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Local gumshoes pen tell-all book about finding lost loved ones

TEMPE — Most people never experience what it is like not knowing who their real birth parents are.

The book, Back to the Beginning ($18.95, Perfect Paperback), gives readers an opportunity to do just that.  Co-written by Ava Friddle, Judy Andrews and Kristen Hamilton and Joe Bardin, the book is a snapshot of stories about adoption searches and reunions that the authors have experienced throughout their careers as private investigators.

Hamilton, along with her mother, Friddle, and sister, Andrews, formed a family-owned business called Research, Etc., Inc., in 1995 in Scottsdale. While the business specializes in adoption searches, they also conduct investigations involving all aspects of information research.

Hamilton states that it was after their first experiences in the business that the family realized that this was “something we really loved.”

Shortly after opening their agency, Hamilton and Andrews became certified as Confidential Intermediaries and were trained how to handle reunions between adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents.

Hamilton’s goal in writing this book was to show people the ins and outs of adoption searches and reunions.

But “every case is different, and no two people are the same,” Hamilton says.

The first chapter discusses their background as well as a brief introduction on how they typically handle adoption searches.  The authors write:

“It is our opinion, an opinion that we’ve formed through the years of experience acting as intermediaries, that contact, regardless of who makes it, should be approached discreetly, respectfully and considerately.”

Hamilton explains how emotional these situations can be for people, and the need for it to be handled slowly and carefully so that both parties have plenty of time to feel safe.

The following chapters in the book are separated by the different stories about individual searches.

Hamilton and her co-authors will be showcasing their book this Friday at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe.  The event will begin at 7 p.m. for a book signing and excerpt reading.

Todd Denen, a past client of Research, Etc., Inc., will also be attending the event with his birth mother.  He and his mother are one of the stories that are written in the book.  Hamilton wanted Denen to attend the event so that readers would be able to attach a real face to the stories.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Crown King clings to life in the Bradshaw wilderness

CROWN KING — Tombstone is officially known as “the town too tough too die.” That dubious distinction, however, may be more appropriately applied to Crown King.

Springing up in the 1880s around a cluster of gold mines high in the Bradshaw Mountains, Crown King has survived a catastrophic flood, a blood feud between its founding claim holders, a population that has at times approached zero, discontinued service from the U.S. Postal Service and at least five fires.

The most recent, the Lane 2 fire, consumed almost 10,000 acres in early July. Although the burn line came within yards of the town, the efforts of several hundred fire fighters, and some fortuitously timed monsoon humidity, succeeded in saving Crown King yet again.

There are several ways to reach Crown King from Phoenix. The most commonly used route heads north on Interstate 17, exits at Bumble Bee (Exit 248), and heads west on Crown King Road (NF-259). The unpaved road meanders through the nearly uninhabited towns of Bumble Bee and Cleator for several miles before beginning its ascent into the mountains.

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Bumble Bee was established in the 1870s as a stage stop between Phoenix and Prescott. Cleator was built about the same time around series of gold claims along nearby Turkey Creek. In 1904, it became a railroad stop between Mayer and Crown King. Today, Cleator is home to six permanent residents and one world-class bar (in this writer’s humble opinion).

The Cleator Bar, open most weekends is a ramshackle affair – dim and heaped with the detritus of a hundred years on the frontier’s edge. Rusty license plates, beat-up mining equipment, yellowed Polaroids of bygone deer hunts, a life-sized cutout of John Wayne, and several pegged rattlesnake hides cover every surface. Weekend warriors from the suburbs sit alongside old cowboys, and Dave and Darlene keep a healthy supply of cold beer and fresh peanuts on the bar. [After a day spent bouncing around the dusty backcountry, three bucks for an icy Budweiser and the company of an antlered gator head seem like quite a bargain.]

Beyond Cleator, the road turns southwest and gains elevation. Long, scraggly pines appear on either side of the rocky switchbacks. The extent of the recent fire is revealed when the upper slopes come into view above. Charred pine trunks cover the mountainsides like porcupine quills, and the soil is scorched black.

But just beyond the bridge leading into town, glimpses of green appear. Crown King – its cabins and general store protected by a canopy of ponderosa pines and applied in sunlight – lies within this forest.

The saloon is the heart of the town. Established in 1904 in Oro Belle (a gold-mining town that once sat five miles away), the saloon building was taken down and reassembled “board by board” in Crown King around 1910. Stepping inside feels a little like traversing some kind of cosmic wormhole into the past: A battered pool table commands the center of the room, stuffed mule deer heads adorn the walls, sawdust covers the floor, and sepia-toned photos of Crown King’s glory days line the walls. Bottles clink as the jukebox belts out Roy Acuff and Patsy Cline.

The saloon always has live entertainment on the weekends and rooms for rent upstairs, but there are several other rustic places to stay. The town also boasts a chapel, general store, nearby campground and an outstanding restaurant called The Mill, which was built around the actual stamp mill from the old Gladiator Mine.

The route from I-17 to Crown King is about 26 miles. The road up the mountainside is often steep with extreme drop-offs and amazing views a few feet from your tires. It can be a little intimidating, but apart from the occasional stretch of “washboard” conditions, it’s never too rough or technically difficult. Although you’ll be more comfortable in a truck or SUV, regular passenger cars make the trip all the time (especially in the summer when the temperature on top is usually fifteen degrees cooler than it is in Phoenix.)

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com .

Scottsdale charity lends ‘helping hands’

It took Kathy Donaldson 17 years of working in law enforcement to have what she described as her most memorable day. It was May 15, 1991.

That’s when Donaldson was serving a traffic warrant on a man who “went berserk,” and she broke her back in three places.

The crushing blows forced her to retire and re-evaluate her life’s purpose and religious beliefs.

“I was depressed and considered suicide after the incident,” Donaldson says. “I just didn’t see that God had everything planned. I was meant to give back to the community, I didn’t just want to sit around and play golf.”

Donaldson, 52, had relocated to Arizona and started Arizona Helping Hands, a statewide nonprofit that helps needy families. It offers crisis intervention, help for pregnant teens and more, including support for the largest holiday toy drive in Maricopa County.

“She doesn’t separate her personal life from the work she does with Arizona Helping Hands,” says Chris Espinoza, an AHH boardmember. “She really opens her heart to people.”

In 2006, the organization’s revenues topped $1.4 million, according to tax documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Those records show AHH brought 250,000 toys to about 40,000 families in the county, delivered lunch to 900 needy school kids for seven weeks and helped another 350 learn to read. It also provided eye exams and scholarships.

Donaldson says her goal is to expand the organization to Flagstaff and Tucson in the near future while keeping the overhead low so that the money can go where it’s needed most.

SMALL STEPS TO SUCCESS

Donaldson got her start in community work with the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, Boys and Girls Club and the Paradise Valley School District.

“She has an unbelievable willingness to help anyone,” says Renie Scibona, a local newspaper reporter who has covered community organizations Donaldson helped. “She was instrumental in opening the North East Phoenix Boys and Girls Club branch.”

To help fund a National Honor Society seminar for school kids in Paradise Valley, Donaldson founded the Paradise Valley Volunteer Parents and raised $100,000 for a week-long event.

“If you have no ulterior motives, money comes rolling in,” Donaldson says. “But I realized the need was greater than just one school district, and that’s when we founded Arizona Helping Hands.”

A PROMISE MADE

After working with Paradise Valley Volunteer Parents, Donaldson created Arizona Helping Hands based on a promise she had made to her sister, who was diagnosed with cancer at age 28 and given six months to live.

She died five years later, but not before she gave Donaldson some advice from her deathbed.

“The day before she died she told me to do a good deed everyday and to not take credit for it,” says Donaldson.

Donaldson is still an integral part of AHH. Today, the organization sends children to camp with all of the supplies they need and offers dental care for low-income families.

When she is not in the office, Donaldson lives in Scottsdale and likes to spend time with her husband and co-founder of AHH, who is in hospice care.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Finding the Southwest in the Middle East

AMMAN, JORDAN — Walt Disney himself was seduced by the beauty of Sedona, and used the slender pinnacles of the area as a model for Splash Mountain, his famous amusement ride. But Mr. Disney is not the only one who found beauty hidden in the cracks of these sandstone cliffs.

Each year, tourists flood Sedona for a glimpse of what so many others have written, painted, and tried to re-create. The color-drenched rock set against blue Arizona sky attracts an active type to the area. They come ready to explore with climbing ropes in hand and mountain bikes strapped to the roofs of their vehicles. The rich color and mysterious balance of this popular getaway also possesses a relaxing appeal to those seeking refuge in a rare landscape of mountains.

But what about those looking for international adventure of a similar type?

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The vision of star-gazing at the foot of ancient desert mountains will not be found hiding anywhere in Europe. However, a search farther south yields a small country, or rather a kingdom, once ruled in part by America-born Queen Noor. Nestled safely within the borders of the Middle Eastern country of Jordan lies peace and history waiting to be explored from a camel’s back.

Discovering the exotic therapy of the Middle East is possible to do even nowadays during a time of constant turmoil. The probability of returning not only safe but fascinated by the exploration of this biblical land is likely.

Travel to Jordan from the U.S. is not difficult, and visas are easiest to obtain upon arrival at the airport. Although a consistent history of peace has left the country with few travel advisories, one must not expect to arrive in a clean and modern city.

The capital of Jordan is Amman. It is an old Islamic city caught in a moral and religious game of tug o’ war. Visitors will hear the unfamiliar sound of the call to prayer ringing through the streets, reminding all followers of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, to pray five times a day.

While walking down the city streets, one will find feminine eyes peeking out from behind black veils. However, the vast majority of female Muslims in Jordan cover only their hair with a scarf called a hijab . Men wearing their traditional headscarf, called a kafiya , is as common a sight as American men wearing baseball caps.

However, another side of Amman exists. It is fueled by the desire to live with the comforts of the Western world. There are parts of town tailored to please the higher class, with shopping centers visitors would expect to find in Scottsdale, not the Middle East. Also, it should come as no surprise that Starbucks, McDonald’s, even Safeway have set up shop in this Middle Eastern capital city. Night clubs and swanky restaurants are popping up in the ritzier parts of town, with names written in English not Arabic, the official language of the country.

Accommodations in the small kingdom of Jordan have recently been expanding to cater to luxury-seeking clientele. An influx of tourism hit Jordan when the lost civilization of Petra, the country’s most extraordinary secret, became one of the Wonders of the World.

Far away from the beeping horns of taxis and shouting voices in the markets live the ancient people of Jordan. They have wandered the desert trade routes of the Middle East since before Christ was born: the Bedouin tribesmen.

It is in their homeland of Wadi Rum that the visitor to Jordan will experience life without a clock. Meals prepared over the fire, fresh tea with sage, and falling asleep in a Bedouin camp will mark only the beginning of an adventure into the Jordanian Desert.

Exploration by camel caravan to see authentic hieroglyphics will start to make one feel like a desert wanderer. But for those in search of something a little more thrilling than the view from a camel, Wadi Rum also offers off-road desert safaris.

From the back of an open-air Jeep, travelers can feel the sandy wind in their faces as they’re whisked away to world-class rock climbing sites, sand dunes the size of angry sea swells and breathtaking sunset views.

Soon a massive sun slips below a horizon painted with waves of heat. The stars begin to appear in the sky’s deeper colors as the last beams of light shoot across the desert sand. It is when these last few beams of light disappear that the visitor to Jordan realizes just how at home one can feel in a desert halfway around the world.

Sedona and Wadi Rum belong to different cultures. However, both induce a childlike imagination as one explores the shadows of towering red cliffs. Whether it is the desire to be an Arizona cowboy or Aladdin himself, one should explore these natural amusement parks with bright eyes and open minds.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

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