Business trip to Scottsdale

So I am in Scottsdale for a few days on business. The flight was short and uneventful. Renting a car was easy and we were off from the airport to the resort in town. Nice Great rooms (with Wifi) and beautiful weather make this trip fun, but I am on business so there is only a little time for cultural events. Doing a search for things to do in Phoenix, I found the Lonely Planet recommended a visit to Taliesin west, Frank Lloyd Wright's summer compound and school. A big art fan, I am always looking for opportunities to see art in cities I would not normally visit if I weren't on business.

Taliesin west is at the base of the mountains in North Scottsdale, AZ in the beautiful sonoran desert. It is a very worthwhile trip to visit and take the tour of this magical place. A still working school and architect center, the place has a small campus vibe with natural integration of writght's great buildings. If you are ever in Phoenix, it is worth a look.

On my way back today, I stopped in to browse at the airport borders bookstore and was surprised to see these. Playaway is a self contained audio book within a digital audio player. So you have a audiobook that is ready to listen to, no CD's, no downloads, no ipods and for Dave Winer no Audible.com. A great idea for the traveller and the price seems to be right around the cost of a audio book CD. The web site even has ideas on how you can share your playaway when your done with it. I can see a great web 2.0 business sprout up by providing an exchange program for these audio book digital players. I am officially calling it Playawayr. I am glad to see the digital audio player technology get cheep enough to have essentially throw away players.

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