I first heard about Huell Howser when I was a teenager. I caught parts of his public TV show, "California's Gold" and loved that he highlighted California people and places. His signature "that's amazing" even has a small hand in influencing my genuinely enthusiastic "awesome". Before reality tv shows and YouTube, there really were some kickass public access shows. I dabbled in public access tv in the 90s and it was all because Huell Howser's Lowrider Magazine Show episode. I was sold. I had never seen anything like it but I knew I wanted to cover events and show what I loved about California. It started with me going to events in 1997, taking pictures with my film camera, scanning 'em and putting them on my Geocities hosted website. Those were the days... and what kicked off my future on the Internet.