Phoenix, Arizona

I am writing from the Phoenix airport, having spent the week here. At right is a picture of where I stayed -- the Hotel San Carlos. As you might imagine, this hotel has a long history -- built from what started as Phoenix's first school in 1874. By the way Arizona is the 48th state, getting statehood not until 1912.

Having stayed in this old hotel got me thinking about the commercial appeal of going retro. This hotel called itself a boutique hotel (like, for example, the Raphael in the Plaza), but it was mostly a very old buidling with some of the charm (and inconvenience) of an old style hotel experience. Included were paper thin walls, small rooms, and unregulated water temperatures for the shower. Still, it had more charm than the what the Hyatt (where our event was held) down the street that cost twice as much and had much better amenities.

While the hotel was old and historic, Retro is big business. Converse and adidas sell retro shoes going back to the 60's and 70's -- I can remember wearing the classic cavass Converse shoes when I was kid, which only shows my age. I saw today a retro car made by Nissan in the 1990s --a very old Italian model called the Figaro. Of course many styles are retro. Perhaps that completes my theme here as retro is the regeneration of extinct or dead things, which describes the Phoenix, the city I write from.