Arizona State Fair  -  Oct 17th, 2008 5:18pm

October is such a great month here.  The will of summer weakens, and a cool breeze invades town at night.  Grass stops growing like some sort of drug crazed vegetation, and the State Fair comes to town.

There are a lot of people who don't love the fair here.  Viewed in daylight it certainly has its failings.  But as a provider of free (with admission) concerts, fried food, and the always laughable crap tent its one of my favorite things to do this time of year.  Avoid the rides, keep your expectations low and you can't loose.

This year the Goo Goo Dolls were playing.  They actually played our fair over a decade ago before they became a big deal and I remember being so sad that I missed them.  I'm happy I made it this time with at least a few hundred others.  For a band with a half dozen platinum albums and at least as many hit songs, you'd think they would pack that place with a free concert, but I doubt there were even 2000 people there.  It was a little depressing.  I think they noticed too as the lead singer prefaced probably their biggest hit by saying "I'm trying to pull my head out of my ass and write some new songs.  You gotta be careful with that or you can just disappear."

The concert got off to a slow start but things picked up and it was a great show in the end.  There may have only been a few thousand people there but everyone there was a real fan of their music and it showed.  We quickly peeled out of the concert and continued our festival of fried goods which began earlier in the evening with Indian Fry Bread and a Moon Pie.  The crap tent was next - and it didn't disappoint.  There is something wonderful about a mall filled with things that aren't good enough for the "As Seen On TV" store.  I bought a $10 leather wallet made by the finest child labor I'm sure.

The only letdown of the night was our trip through carney lane.  Prior to this year, the carney's thrust fists filled with small bills at you and offered extra tries, guaranteed wins, and even insults - anything to get you to play.  The wheeling and dealing were part of the experience.  Now though the games were all handled by bar coded tickets and prices were posted in gooneybucks or whatever monetary system they created on a per game basis.  It really sucked the life out of the carneys and it made me sad that I had to visit some dumb booth before wasting my perfectly hard earned cash on a rigged game I had no chance at.  Oh well - times change and we won a stuffed turtle and monkey with our gooneybucks.

As much as I like the fair I never seem to go back twice in 1 year.  Maybe the smell of fry-bread has limited appeal or maybe I just like to leave wanting to go again next year.