Solomon Hill is a first-round NBA Draft pick. And Grant Jerrett, against all odds, was taken in the second round, albeit after an Arizona State player.

Hill, Arizona's do-everything forward was taken 23rd overall by the Indiana Pacers, a team that took the Miami Heat to the brink in the NBA Eastern Conference finals and might have just been one player away from winning that series. Could Hill, a 6-foot-6 senior, be the answer?

Hill was the second player from the Pac-12 Conference taken, behind Shabazz Muhammad, who was taken 14th by Utah but then was traded to Minnesota.

Jerrett ended up going 40th overall to the Portland Trail Blazers, a pick that comes with no guarantees unlike for those taken in the first round. And all that the ESPN analysts could really say about him was that he has no neck.

Adding to the one-year UA player's career uncertainty: after the draft, his rights were traded to Oklahoma City, which at least means he won't have to go as far to travel to whatever NBA Developmental League team he's likely to end up with next season.

Other notable (or questionable) picks Thursday: Cleveland used the 1st overall pick to take Anthony Bennett from UNLV, someone that NO ONE projected to go in the top six; while New Orleans briefly turned University of Kentucky into its minor league feeder program when it took Nerlens Noel a year after taking fellow one-year-and-done big man Anthony 'The Unibrow' Davis from UK. But then Noel and his sick flattop 'do was traded to Philadelphia for a guy named Jrue.

Oh, and also, apparently the best basketball players in countries like Germany and Greece are also black. Still waiting for a black Mexican or Korean to get drafted.

And for those of you who still care about the Suns (i.e., those who shop at Fry's and notice they have Suns Rewards points that can be converted into suite access!), Phoenix's once-proud-but-now-run-into-the-ground franchise chose Alex Len, a center from Ukraine by way of Maryland, with the No. 5 pick. That's about all you need to know about him.

The Suns also have a connection to NBA history by, as their owning of the 30th pick in the first round made them part of the last-ever pick announced by commissioner David Stern. Stern, who had run the league for 30 years, did his best to milk the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and even egged them on at times, is retiring.

Oh yeah, that Suns pick: guard Nemanja Nedovic from Serbia. Like it matters, since that pick ended up going to Golden State in a trade. Instead, Phoenix got Kentucky guard Archie Goodwin in a trade for the 29th pick.

If you're not familiar with the 2012 film classic, Iron Sky, let me give you a quick synopsis:

There are Moon Nazis. They try and take over the Earth.

That's it.

That's all you need to know, honestly — it's a well done, decently acted, campy-as-hell take on an invasion film that does a heavy-handed take on social commentary.

And the creators want to film a sequel.

I'm in. From their IndieGoGo campaign:

The story of Iron Sky a begun long time a go in a sauna far far away, when a friend of mine told that he's got an idea for a new film — Moon Nazis. We were laughing at it, but decided — let's make this happen!

We had no idea what it meant to do an international, English-language, multi-million film back then, but we went for it. Another six years later, Iron Sky was released, distributed worldwide, got a million people to cinema and even more to buy the film on BluRay and even more to grab it from Pirate Bay. A crazy success for an indie dream.

The story of Iron Sky continues, and this time, we want to be dependant on nobody but our fans, friends and followers out there. With Iron Sky, we spent all of our energy in trying to finance the film, forced to be doing bad deals and compromising a lot. We had to tweak the story to meet the needs of the financiers but still fight to keep the integrity of the story intact — had we not fought, we'd probably had Mickey Mouse in Moon Base with Santa Claus — this actually was one real suggestion to make the story “funnier”. We don't want to end up in these discussions again and we don't want to spend five years trying to come up with the money.

Listen, I already threw my wallet at the screen — and that was before the folks at Film School Rejects indicated that they might include dinosaurs and Nazis from the center of the Earth.

Yes please.

[IndieGoGo - Iron Sky: The Coming Race]

A Thursday, June 20 blog post on Casa On and Off the Rez about a controversy over an Arizona Department of Transportation freeway art project on Interstate 10 at the Prince Road exit had the internets buzzing last week.

From the blog:

I just sent the following email to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) regarding the Art Work by the 1-10/Prince Exit in Tucson:

I drive past the new section of the freeway by I-10 and Prince every morning, on my way to work. I'm Tohono O'odham and I was very interested to see that there is what I thought was a Tohono O'odham Basket Dancer, but which is listed as a Basket Weaver on the ADOT website. Aside from it deviating from the theme of the other panels (a folklorico dancer, a mariachi musician and a ceremonial, Yaqui deer dancer) I've spotted a very, very, embarrassing issue that I hope can be immediately addressed.

The Basket Weaver's image is larger than the other panels, and there is a drainage pipe placed very unfortunately between the woman's thighs. It is clearly visible from the freeway, and as soon as the monsoons come and there is an actual NEED for the drainage pipe due to rainwater, I believe that it will appear that this woman is peeing.

I am assuming that the image of the basket weaver was chosen to honor the Tohono O'odham people, so I am sure that you will be as horrified as I am, knowing that the elder in the image is unintentionally being disrespected.

I am requesting that you either move the drainage pipe off the woman's image or you replace the image accordingly.

Thank you.

Weekly World Central took a drive to check on the panels on Thursday, June 20th but didn't notice the pipe in question, but a call to AZDOT was returned on Monday, June 24 and confirmed that Casa On the Rez wasn't the only person out there who complained.

And yes, at one point there certainly was a drainage pipe sticking out between the Basket Weaver's thighs.

According to Dustin Krugel, an AZDOT public information officer, the issue was remedied earlier that day on Thursday, June 20. Krugel called the pipe a weep-hole and said they are common and needed for retaining walls such as the one where the artwork is displayed along the freeway. Without the holes, the walls could fall apart.

Krugel said the artwork did go through tribal channels for approval. The drainage holes, however, are placed every 10 feet along every wall. Workers were able to get rid of the pipe because of the other existing pipes without worrying that there would be future damage to the wall.

"The work has been done since January," Krugel said. "But once we knew about the problem we notified the crew and they immediately fixed it on Thursday."

Kore Press, the local publishing house dedicated to "lifting the voices of women and girls," is celebrating 20 years publishing this year, and is doing so by publishing a multi-author "Best of 2012" book of poetry, showing the work of 36 women poets.

The thing is, they need your help to get there. Currently, they're planning on raising half of the funds via outside sources, but that means that they need your help for the rest of it, Tucson.

From the Kore Press Kickstarter:

One of the organizing principals around which the collection has been assembled is poet Muriel Rukeyser’s famous proposition: “What would happen if a women told the truth about her life? The world would split open.”

Editor Dernier says, “We did not send out a request for submissions. We read only the manuscripts already submitted in 2012 as a way of showcasing the work that women were sending to Kore within a period of time; we did not invite the writer to choose for us, I read the manuscripts, and with the help of the other editors, made final selections and came up with an order.

Though we each employed a different set of criteria for choosing our favorites, I believe these choices have a commonality: the first would surely be that electrified moment when the poem charges through and lights up the reader. Like the inventor, Nikola Tesla, who used to run the alternating electrical current through his body as a way to support his theory, readers of poetry employ a similar system."

My favorite part of this Kickstarter? The fact that each donation level's dollar amount has significance to Kore and to feminist publishing (such as the top, $1,993 level, which denotes the publishing house's incorporation and includes this tidbit in the description: "Speaking of dreaming: the conversation between founders Karen Falkenstrom and Lisa Bowden out of which Kore Press emerged, took place in 1992 at the Cup Café in the Congress Hotel.")

To help out Kore Press, check out their Kickstarter here.

Well the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill passed the US Senate today in 68-32 margin after a bipartisan effort that was all about compromise — creating a 13-year path for citizenship while at the same time putting millions of dollars to increase Border Patrol presence and more because, as you know, that border is still an insecure menace.

From the NYT:

The immigration effort in the Senate benefited from a series of external factors that helped draw public attention away from the bill as it made its way from a set of principles to a fully formed agreement to a 1,000-plus-page bill with amendments attached. The Boston Marathon bombings occurred on the eve of the bipartisan group’s planned rollout of the bill, and shortly afterward came controversies involving the Internal Revenue Service and the National Security Agency. Even this week, as the bill headed to final passage, major Supreme Court rulings shared the spotlight.

Now, however, all eyes are turned to the House. At a Congressional softball game Wednesday night, Mr. Schumer ran into Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader. Mr. Schumer, an aide recalled, told Ms. Pelosi that he thought the bipartisan group would be able to deliver 68 votes for the bill in the Senate — and that he wanted to talk about how to use that momentum to move forward in the House.

[h/t: Arizona Republic]

A decision by the U.S. Senate is expected today on the latest version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. In response to the CIR's increase in Border Patrol spending and additional surveillance — what some consider another tactic to further militarize the border — activists and organizers are holding an anti-militarization rally today, 4 p.m. at the DeConcini Federal Courthouse, corner of Congress Street and Granada Avenue.

Press release:

With the U.S. Senate on the cusp of passing its version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), Tucson migrant rights groups and their allies are rallying downtown to denounce the bill’s unprecedented militarization of the southern border. Speakers and street performers will call attention to some of the dramatic consequences and likely human costs of the bill’s passage for migrants and border communities.

Luz Argueta-Vogel, an event organizer, said that the bill’s extreme measures are pure politics. “This has nothing to do with improving border security. This is about getting votes for a deeply flawed bill,” she said. “As Southern Arizonans we know that more drones and agents do not make anyone more secure, least of all those living on the border or those trying to cross into the United States.”

Arizona Senator John McCain, one of the members of the Gang-of-Eight senators that have been the bill’s primary backers, has said that the changes will make the frontier with Mexico “the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” The bill represents, in short, a doubling down on decades of failed enforcement policies on the border, policies which have been principal culprits in the deaths of more than 6,000 migrants trying to cross the desert since 1995. The price-tag for this unconscionable expansion of the militarization of our communities is about $40 billion.

The bill calls for a near doubling of Border Patrol agents, a massive increase in surveillance and detection technology on the border, and a tripling of the number of apprehended migrants criminally prosecuted through Operation Streamline. Immigration enforcement agencies are under increasing scrutiny for the systematic abuse of migrants; internal corruption; the impunity of agents who shoot migrants and Mexican nationals; and the lack of meaningful performance metrics. Local organizers are calling on the national groups advocating for reforms to make policies that rein-in Border Patrol their top priority.

Stephanie Quintana, an organizer with the Southside Worker Center, said that immigration reform is extraordinarily important, but that it can’t come at the expense of migrants and border communities. “Border militarization is not immigration reform,” she said. “If this bill means more migrants dying in the desert, more people being killed by agents and millions of people under constant government surveillance along the border, then we need to go back to the drawing board. Tying much-needed pathways to citizenship to profoundly inhumane border policies is politics at its most cynical.”

Things don't appear to be good for Texas's Goddamn Hero, Filibusterin' Wendy Davis and her fellow challengers to Texas's Senate Bill 5, which would impose harsh restrictions on abortion clinics in the Lone Star State. Texas Governor (and former presidential candidate) Rick Perry has announced that there's going to be a re-do, and that another Special Session will take place starting July 1, with SB 5 in the spotlight.

From the spectacular Texas Observer:

Once again, legislation restricting abortion — the same package Davis and her fellow Democrats worked so hard to stop with a filibuster and dramatic midnight showdown — will be front and center. With Republicans in the majority in both chambers, it would seem that only the time and date of passage are in doubt now.

“We will not allow the breakdown of decorum and decency to prevent us from doing what the people of this state hired us to do,” Perry said in a brief written statement about the upcoming 30-day session.

It’s another way of saying the governor, who got elected to statewide office when Democrats still ruled the state virtually unchecked, isn’t about to let them decide what happens on a major policy matter now that the GOP is in charge — particularly a wedge issue like abortion.

...

Congratulating Perry on standing up to the “mob” that he blamed for derailing the abortion bill, Dewhurst said Wednesday that state leaders were “willing to stand up in the face of pressure from Washington and special interest groups in the pursuit of freedom.” He got more aggressive in a fundraising letter seeking to capitalize on the incident, saying "Obama-style" protesters would stop at nothing to "undermine conservative Texas values."

Democrats, meanwhile, ripped Perry for calling a new session, saying it will do little more than waste money and punish women.

“Rick Perry is more concerned with feeding his own political ambitions — even if that means dictating to millions of Texans what they can and cannot do in the most private aspects of their lives,” said longtime Texas Democratic strategist Matt Angle. “Even if it means forcing Texas citizens to pay for his expensive partisan pandering.” 


Something appears to be rotten in the state of Texas — but considering that political gamesmanship won the evening on Tuesday, all's fair here for Texas's top elected executive.

Travellers and Magicians is playing tonight at 6:30 at Fluxx, 414 E. 9th Street. The film is told from a Himalayan Buddhist perspective and runs just over an hour and a half.

Members of Nalandabodhi, a local Buddhist study group, will lead a discussion after the film. The screening is the first in a four-part series Nalandabodhi and Fluxx are putting on together.

From the Nalandabodhi website:

In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, nestled deep in the Himalayas, two men seek to escape their mundane lives. Dondup, an educated university graduate decides that he will be better off picking grapes in the US than working as a government officer in a remote rural village. Tashi, a restless farm youth studying magic, cannot bear the thought of a life consigned to his village. Through a trick of his brother, he is delivered into a dream world of seduction and intrigue. The two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is a common one — for a better and different life.

The series will continue with Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion on July 25, Kundun on Aug. 30 and My Reincarnation on September 27.

The Cup Café in Hotel Congress will be temporarily closed starting this Sunday, while its famous penny floors get a facelift.

Seems the Café floor was missing a little over a dollar and they are working with local coin shops to replace the missing copper with unique pennies to keep things interesting. The floor will also get a strip down and a polish to try to bring its luster as close to original as possible. During the week-long closure, they also plan on finishing some long-needed back-of-house repairs.

It's to reopen July 6; let's hope they don’t do too good of a job on the floor — no one wants to have to wear sunglasses for breakfast!

The Garland was one of the first counter-culture restaurants in Tucson. I’m not sure when they opened but I know I ate there when my daughter was a baby and she turned thirty-five in February. It was veggie oriented with big salads, crepes, baked goods and what not.

Well, in doing a little bit of “presearch” for an upcoming review I called only to find that the number was no longer in service. There was no Facebook page either, even though there was a website. The menu on the website seemed to include a whole passel of new dishes including Vietnamese food and sushi. The omelets and crepes and salads were all there but the new stuff seemed a bit odd.

So I took a drive over and discovered that The Garland is no longer. I don’t know when it closed.

Instead there is a banner that reads, “coming soon…..zemam’s, too!” While I sat there, several women came to the door and knocked. Eventually someone let them in.

When I called over to the original Zemam’s on Broadway the guy I spoke with confirmed that they will be opening a new restaurant some time near the end of July. The original Zemam’s will remain open.

The menus will be similar but the new spot on Speedway will have a menu that features food from “other countries” the man told me. He didn’t mention anything specific — only that the countries involved are the ones the owners traveled in when they were in The Peace Corps.