Meeting Deborah Cox

Deborah Cox, who is an R&B singing star as well as with the traveling company that performed in "The Bodyguard" musical production, was a guest I booked on the TV show.

She was kind enough to let me stand near her to pose for a photo.

Ken Carr and Deborah Cox

One of us is a successful singer

and the other was moments away from being led away by security.

Announcing at Family Fiesta

My radio career is now years behind me, but once in a while I get sucked back in (sort of).

I was asked to do some announcements on stage at Family Fiesta recently, an event put on by local non-profit organization Casa De Los Ninos at Tucson's Reid Park.

I didn't feel very well that day. I think I was having some kind of allergy attack. But, I showed up anyway and filled in for a co-worker whose father had passed away and she had to go to the funeral in Wisconsin.

I was there for a few hours and made it through. Seems like I've done this kind of thing before.

Tucson Police showed up to show off some of their tactical vehicles

That's the bomb.... squad

Handing out awards

My view from the stage

Groove tent and a fire truck

Still handing out awards

The DJ and DJ helper guy

Line dancing on the lawn

Students getting a look in the fire truck

Awards were over, a few people hang around

People spinning the Groove prize wheel

This little guy must like wrestling, he had a WWF shirt on

Performers from the Arizona Rose Youth Theatre

Hostage Crisis Negotiations in da house

Handing out car seats

Car in the parking lot had this sticker on it.

Hilarious.

Tucson Festival Of Books 2017

I went to the University Of Arizona Mall this weekend to help staff the tv/radio tents for the Tucson Festival Of Books.

This event is ridiculous in size (as in huge). Estimated crowds of 130,000 over the two days the festival takes place and over 450 authors in attendance.

It was an unusually warm day for March, around 90 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. It wore me out a bit being in the heat for several hours. I wasn't used to the warm weather (usually we have a little time to get acclimated to it again, spring is usually very short around these parts) but it wasn't too miserable.

We also had a visit from Sarah Whitcomb Foss and Jimmy McGuire from the Jeopardy Clue Crew (as in, the Jeopardy game show), who chatted it up with KGUN viewers and posed for photos.

A cardboard stand up of Alex Trebek, Jimmy McGuire and Sarah Whitcomb Foss

from the Jeopardy Clue Crew, and some random attendee of the

Tucson Festival Of Books

The Reading Pig, the fake Alex Trebek, Jimmy and Sarah from the Jeopardy Clue Crew

I tried to give the fake Alex Trebek a kiss and he didn't even ask for my number

Tucson Festival Of Books attendees visit the radio and tv tents

Chief Meteorologist Erin Christiansen chats with KGUN viewers

I take a picture of anchor Stella Inger taking a picture of her

husband and daughter

We're all representin' at the Tucson Festival Of Books

One of us has a pig head and smells like bacon

and the other has a red shirt and a book

Bow down to the greatness that is Alex Trebek

More visitors to the Scripps village

The young man in the plaid shirt had to spell a few words

to get a little spelling trophy at the radio tent

This guy in the grey shirt tried to do the same thing

Tents and people as far as the eye can see

Taking advantage of shade provided by the KGUN live truck

This leash cord would come in handy at work

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaay

Jimmy from the Jeopardy Clue Crew, KGUN reporter Craig Smith with a sneaky

fake Alex Trebek lurking behind, Sports Director Jason Barr, Sarah from the

Jeopardy Clue Crew

I knew I left my brain somewhere...

Loaded Curly Fries at Arby's

TV commercials excite me. I love commercials, infomercials, almost more than actual programs. I learn about products and things going on and I am always fascinated by how they're presented.

Arby's has been running national TV campaigns for various specialty menu items in recent months "We have the meats!" and one item caught my eye, the Loaded Curly Fries. They looked wonderful on TV and the description sounded amazing. Curly fries with bacon, cheese and ranch on top.

You should know that I love and prefer fast food to fancy sit down restaurants. Eating always upsets my stomach no matter what it is, so there is little joy in dining. Fast food is quick, cheap, and gives me the same stomach churning result that a $50 dinner does. So why waste money?

Back to the loaded curly fries, they were in a pretty small bowl and had four little pieces of bacon (my best guess is they took one strip and cut it into pieces, the cheese sauce they put on the Beef and Cheddar sandwich, a sprinkling of shredded cheese (why that was added in addition to the cheese sauce was a mystery to me), and ranch dressing.

My review: It wasn't very delicious. And I usually adore this sort of thing.

I'm sure they skimped on the bacon because that's the expensive ingredient. But what would make the loaded ranch fries rock stars would be to skip the cheese, amp up the bacon, and the squirt of ranch is fine. As they served it to me, once I stuck my fork in and started to kind of blend the items in the bowl it literally made it a curly fries, cheese and ranch soup.

The roast beef sandwich I had with it was wonderful as they always are at Arby's. A little Arby's Sauce on that and it's freakin' amazing.

This is where Anthony would have been sitting

if he had come with me to Arby's.

This is the little card that was on the table with a photo

of the loaded curly fries.

They look delicious in the picture.

Here's what I ordered:

Loaded Curly Fries, Classic Roast Beef, and a Diet Pepsi

because the Diet Pepsi cancels out whatever calories

are in the food items.

A close up of the Loaded Curly Fries at Arby's.

I had high hopes and they were crushed.

Wheel Of Fortune Wheelmobile at Casino Del Sol

The Morning Blend TV show that I manage is housed in the station's marketing / creative services department. I was asked as part of that department's staff to help out with this weekend's Wheelmobile event.

The Wheelmobile is a giant yellow RV (and trailer) that travels around the United States each year putting on events in search of new contestants for the Wheel Of Fortune TV game show.

It's fun to watch potential contestants get called on stage, play a round of the game and solve a puzzle, and show their personalities to show producers on-site in the hopes that they could get a shot of being on the show.

KGUN 9 station personalities and on-camera talent were on stage as well. This was a two day event, and during the Saturday session (which was the one I was at) there was Tina Jennings from the Morning Blend, Chief Meteorologist Erin Christiansen, and Good Morning Tucson anchor Pat Parris to draw names of contestants to go on stage and help to get the crowd at Casino Del Sol's AVA Amphitheatre excited to be there.

A highlight of the event for me was the catering. I enjoyed some eats between shows during the afternoon and had some delicious potato salad. The last time the station hosted this event in 2014, they also had delicious potato salad but in 2014 it had bacon. This batch didn't have bacon and while I wished that it did, I ate it anyway and it was good.

I won a little money in the casino before the Wheelmobile event started.
Cha ching.

The crowd gathers at AVA Amphitheatre next to Casino Del Sol

for the Wheel of Fortune Wheelmobile event.

A table of Wheel Of Fortune shwag waiting to be won

Vinca, Joe, Tina and Lindsay working the Wheelmobile event

Steve, Andy and Brian checking out video on a GoPro

Gabe and Alex chat with Wheel Of Fortune producer Suzie

Alex and Tina, two of my co-workers on the TV show,

do a little dancing as the event gets underway

A fake owl in the rafters

Wheelmobile host Marty Lublin pumps up the crowd

Marty Lublin

Andy peeps out his phone on the side of the stage

Prize table in the foreground, Gabe shoots video of Marty in action

in front of the attending crowd

Audience view of the stage

Closer view of the stage from the audience

This woman wore an outfit that got her noticed.

She made it up to the stage as a contestant late in the afternoon

and revealed that she's due for a serious surgical operation.

I was thrilled that her name was drawn to go up.

The woman talking to Marty on the left showed off a dance move

These five people were next to take a shot at a puzzle

and were getting coached as to what to do when they got their turn.

Andy and Tina have a conversation on the side of the stage

And.... somebody spotted the Kenparazzi.

Mallory from the Wheelmobile (she plays the Vanna role essentially),

Tina reads more names to come up to the stage, and Wheelmobile host Marty

This potato salad backstage was delightful and delicious

I wanted to eat the whole bowl full

But... I settled for a giant scoop on my plate and a piece of cheese pizza. 

Gabe and Paul shoot video of the Wheelmobile event

Marty introduces Erin to the crowd

One of the banners on stage

Solving another puzzle

Andy shoots Erin and Pat's picture

This contestant played a mean air guitar

The woman with the zebra stripe outfit (even the shoes) finally made it on stage

And she can dance!

This man in the blue shirt was apparently exhausted from watching the action

I wasn't the only one lucky in the casino.

Congratulations Steve!

It was kind of warm and the most handy thing to wipe sweat

from our foreheads were these wads of cash winnings.