Hey all, sorry for the lack of posts this weekend and yesterday but I was on vacation in Phoenix. It struck me while there that the city would absolutely perfect for the next season of “The Real World,” especially the tony suburb of Scottsdale, which has nightlife galore and tons of wannabe celebrities. The town’s exploding population means lots of young people are moving there to boot.

– What do you think? Maybe we should start an online poll on the subject. I like the city’s logo too. It looks vaguely like the symbol for the Rebel Alliance in “Star Wars.” I know… I’m a freakin’ nerd. Give me a break. I was born in the late ’70s.

– Anyway, no one cares about my vacation so let’s get back to tracking the movements of the Denver “Real World.” I have lots of updates for the site, including a revised cast list and some interesting stories from readers over the weekend. I’ll be posting those shortly here. Also the response to this blog has been incredible. We’re approaching 100,000 hits a day and we’ve only been up a little over a week. Links on a few other big sites haven’t hurt (including USAToday.com) but mostly it’s just overwhelming reader interest…

– Of course, as you can tell by some of the comments, not everyone thinks this is the best idea. Besides being called “sick” and “a stalker” by the MTV crew, one reader wished that I “die a thousand deaths,” another called me “a stalker” again and yet another called me and Rocky Mountain News gossip columnist Penny Parker “stuck up, egotistical, self-serving, get-yourself-some-attention-by-sensationalizing reporters.”

– Fortunately journalists aren’t easily deterred, or else this thing would have been dead before it started. Plus, we have every right to chronicle a show that blows into town and tries to make everyone mum about the filming until it airs. Don’t you guys want to know what goes on behind the scenes in a “reality” TV show? I know I do, so keep the those comments coming…