The Tucson Padres closed out the homestand last night with an extra-innings loss. The details from Tim Hagerty of the Padres:

Albuquerque scored three times in an eventful top of the twelfth inning and beat the Tucson Padres 11-9 Tuesday. With the score tied at eight, the Isotopes had the bases loaded in the twelfth with two outs when Ivan DeJesus hit a high chopper to second baseman Robbie Hudson, who flipped to shortstop Alex Cintron for what appeared to be an inning-ending force out. First base umpire Jason Millsap called Dee Gordon safe at second base, forcing in the go ahead run. Hudson was ejected from the game after arguing the play.

The Padres scored once in the twelfth on Cintron’s sacrifice fly, and had two runners on base for Anthony Rizzo, who grounded to second base. Albuquerque then intentionally walked Jesus Guzman to load the bases, forcing pitcher Aaron Poreda to bat for the fifth time in his professional career. Poreda struck out on a 3-2 pitch and Albuquerque won.

The Padres split the eight-game homestand and do not play on Wednesday before traveling to Iowa and Omaha.

Tonight at 6:30 p.m. at Armory Park Center, 220 S. Fifth Ave., Global Chant will be commemorating their 15th anniversary with Chant Fest.

Chant Fest is a part of World Chant Day, which is a celebration created by Global Chant's founder, UA psychologist Dr. Victor Shamas.

This year, the lineup will include chanters from the Tucson Women's chorus and representatives from local Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Sufi chant communities.

Per a press release:

“This is not just a birthday party for Global Chant,” says Shamas. “Chant Fest is a celebration of our community’s love of chanting.” Shamas defines chanting as the repetition of a simple refrain such as a prayer or mantra. “When you add melody, rhythm, and harmony to prayers, you create an experience that is beautiful and compelling.”

Through Global Chant, thousands of Tucsonans have been introduced to the delights of sacred chanting. The group’s Wednesday night chant circle at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (2331 E. Adams) attracts upwards of 150 people, including musicians, dancers, and drummers. “Our weekly gatherings are much livelier and more exciting than one might expect,” Shamas observes. “This is nothing like the stereotype of monks chanting in a dark room somewhere.”

The event is free, but donations are welcome. For more info, call 838-4194.

Evidently, it's illegal to bring pork products over the border because this other white meat "has the potential for introducing foreign animal diseases to the U.S. pork industry."

According to the Associated Press story, the agents usually see one or two rolls of bologna come across the border, not the 35 rolls hidden behind seat of the pickup truck.

In the story, officials declared this meat bust he largest bologna bust ever recorded at the Santa Teresa crossing.

You should go ahead and start planning to be at Club Congress on July 26th to see Ben Sollee. First, he's an amazing cellist, who does amazing and stunning things with the instrument. Secondly, if you're a fan of the quirky, string laden pop of Andrew Bird, his new album Inclusions will be right up your alley. Only $12 to see an incredible musician? What a bargain!

Three videos from the latest Ben Sollee album for your enjoyment:

"Close to You":

I have no idea what prompted someone to index the patterns of sweaters worn on The Cosby Show
(although the show's appearance on Netflix Instant Watch probably helped), but now that all the immediately useful information has been cataloged, it's time to move on to less obviously relevant concerns.

Bonus blog content: the first Cosby sweater pop culture reference I could think of:

I watch far too much television, so Roseanne Barr's essay on her experience developing her self-titled program for ABC was always going to be fascinating for me, but even for people with actual lives, her thoughts on the nature of fame might be the most interesting non-Tucson Weekly-related thing you read this week:

Nothing real or truthful makes its way to TV unless you are smart and know how to sneak it in, and I would tell you how I did it, but then I would have to kill you. Based on Two and a Half Men’s success, it seems viewers now prefer their comedy dumb and sexist. Charlie Sheen was the world’s most famous john, and a sitcom was written around him. That just says it all. Doing tons of drugs, smacking prostitutes around, holding a knife up to the head of your wife—sure, that sounds like a dream come true for so many guys out there, but that doesn’t make it right! People do what they can get away with (or figure they can), and Sheen is, in fact, a product of what we call politely the “culture.” Where I can relate to the Charlie stuff is his undisguised contempt for certain people in his work environment and his unwillingness to play a role that’s expected of him on his own time.

You'd think that the fact that the candidacy of Donald Trump, about whom any number of wildly negative things can be said including just sticking to "reality show star", was taken vastly more seriously than his would be a sign, but Rick Santorum keeps plugging away at convincing people he might actually be a legitimate candidate for president. However, I know it's hip for Republicans to dismiss John McCain, but Santorum might want to defer to his expertise on torture:

John McCain has been on something of a crusade this week on the question of how we found Osama bin Laden, giving speeches and writing op-eds outlining his position that it was not torture of detainees that led the U.S. to its man.

Now comes presidential candidate and "enhanced interrogation" supporter Rick Santorum arguing on Hugh Hewitt's radio show that McCain simply "doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works." Yes, he's talking about the same John McCain who, in his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, was interrogated during a program of beatings and torture.

Here's Santorum:

HH: Now your former colleague, John McCain, said look, there’s no record, there’s no evidence here that these methods actually led to the capture or the killing of bin Laden. Do you disagree with that? Or do you think he’s got an argument?

RS: I don’t, everything I’ve read shows that we would not have gotten this information as to who this man was if it had not been gotten information from people who were subject to enhanced interrogation. And so this idea that we didn’t ask that question while Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was being waterboarded, he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works. I mean, you break somebody, and after they’re broken, they become cooperative. And that’s when we got this information. And one thing led to another, and led to another, and that’s how we ended up with bin Laden.

• Samantha Sais

Anthony Rizzo homered twice as the Tucson Padres clobbered the Albuquerque Isotopes. Here are the details from the Padres' Tim Hagerty:

Anthony Rizzo hit two home runs in the first two innings Monday, leading the Tucson Padres to a 10-4 win over the Albuquerque Isotopes. The Padres have now won two of three in the series, and three of their last four games. Wade LeBlanc continues to be as consistent as any T-Pads starter, pitching seven innings, allowing three runs, while striking out eight.

One night after falling behind 7-1 early, the Padres scored eight times in the first three innings, and at one point led 8-2. Every Tucson starting position player had at least one hit, including Orlando Hudson, who was 1-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored. In total in his injury rehab assignment, Hudson has been retired only one time in seven plate appearances.

Greg Burke pitched two innings for Tucson to close the game, allowing one run on a pinch-hit home run by J.D. Closser. Aaron Cunningham was 2-for-5 with a double and two RBIs for Tucson, and Matt Clark went 2-for-3 with a home run, triple and three RBIs.

The final game of the homestand is tonight—and a wrapper from Kraft singles gets you two-for-one admission! Details here.

In general, motion captured film making is still a little strange - I suppose we have Robert Zemeckis, what's called the Uncanny Valley, and movies like A Christmas Carol to blame for that - but for me, that Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg are making a 3-D Tintin movie is probably enough to get me to buy a ticket. However, it seems like this teaser was deliberately put together to avoid showing the characters looking at the screen and talking, so this might still be just as disconcerting as this style of film making has been so far.

Two federal court filings Monday in the criminal case of the man accused in the January shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in Tucson, Ariz., strongly suggest that two health professionals who evaluated his mental state have determined he isn't competent to stand trial, according to legal experts.

The filings, one by the defense and one by the prosecution, indicate that a competency hearing for Jared Loughner scheduled in a Tucson federal court for May 25 could largely be a formality. Both filings agreed that the two doctors who evaluated Mr. Loughner wouldn't need to testify. The filings also said neither side would dispute the doctors' written reports.

If these reports, which are under seal, hadn't concluded Mr. Loughner was incompetent to stand trial, the defense would almost certainly be planning to put up a fight, experts said.

"My initial gut reaction would be that both have found him not competent to stand trial," said Kurt Altman, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Phoenix office who isn't involved in the case. Mr. Altman said defense lawyers wouldn't object to a finding of incompetence since it would delay Mr. Loughner's trial. Mr. Loughner could face the death penalty.

[Wall Street Journal]