The Logical Lizard

In preparation for the launch of the new and improved TucsonCitizen.com site, our esteemed editors Mark Evans and Ryn Gargulinski invited the blogging contingent down to the TC.com offices for some hands-on interfacing this week. There isn’t much I enjoy more than spending time with some super-smart guys who know computer design and programming inside-out, so yesterday was a real treat for me.

Not only did I enjoyably go though the mutual friends and seen-you-before discussion with Mark, but I also had the pleasure of meeting the friendly and accomplished brainiacs who built the new TC.com site. As if that wasn’t enough entertainment for one afternoon, our tech and design experts unveiled the new site layout and gave us some helpful tips on how to make the most out of using it. I was highly impressed by the new concept and design, and after spending many years working as an art director in New York City I don’t say such things often.

Sky's the limit with the new TucsonCitizen.com. Check in with us Monday morning!

The tech team had an array of Macs set up for us, all networked and logged in to a demo version of the new site . . . and  . . . a projector displaying the entire operation on the office wall! In everyday life we usually don’t get to meet the ones who make things happen behind the scenes, and I was grateful for the opportunity.

A lot of people have worked very hard to make TucsonCitizen.com happen. Tune in on Monday morning and enjoy the fruits of their labors. From my end, I’m just thrilled to be part of it.

Welcome to the first installment of The Logical Lizard.

I am a science writer and columnist, a television documentary host, meteorite hunter, photographer, musician and artist. I was born in New York City’s East Village, but grew up in London, England. I have been visiting the Southwest since I was a little boy, attended my first Tucson gem show in 1998, and made Tucson my permanent home in January of 2004. I haven’t looked back for a minute.

I love this small, quirky city and the way in which it inexplicably balances an avant-garde arts and music scene with a cutting edge scientific research community, a lingering Wild West frontier atmosphere, shockingly hot summers and pitch-perfect winters, and a vibrant Mexican influence. It is the perfect home for a cultural misfit with too many interests.

Outside my exhibition room during the 2009 Tucson gem showcase. I designed the neon sign and it was fabricated for me by a local artist.

In this blog I intend to muse on my specialities which include meteoritics (the study of space rocks), astronomy, geology, ecology, paleontology, wildlife photography, adventure travel, cinema, punk rock, painting and the graphic arts. My late mother often used to comment, jokingly, that I should “focus on just one thing and become really good at it,” but, alas, it was not to be.

Our talented and charming blog editor, Ryn Gargulinski, has encouraged me to use this forum to range across my various interests, and I think we’re going to get along just fine. Thank you for reading. I will do my best to keep you amused, entertained, informed and maybe, once in a while, enlightened as well.

See you tomorrow.

Photograph by Jim Breitinger Utah Red Rock

Folks, you’re going to particularly enjoy meeting blogger Geoffrey Notkin.

I don’t want to ruin the surprise by giving him much in the way of an intro. I just read the bio he’s prepared and he does a much better job than I could, anyway.

Anyone looking to expand their horizons will simply adore they way this guy thinks, not to mention the adventures he undertakes.

Get ready because his first post will be here before you can say: “How the heck do all these subjects go together but dang, that sounds interesting.”