Check out this Olympia, Wash. band, You Are Plural, who played the Red Room this past Saturday night, Sept. 24. Wurlitzer-whiz Ephriam Nagler and cello virtuosa Jen Grady weave keyboard, cello, and vocals into a stunning, lush exploration of pattern and rhythm in their latest EP, "No More," released this month under label Side With Us Records. You Are Plural's minimal instrumentation leads to big sound thanks to live looping, wicked fast cello and keyboard licks, and stunning vocal harmonies. A rejuvenating sound in today's over-saturated, sample-heavy indie scene, You Are Plural combines heartfelt lyricism with serious technical skill.

Their entire EP can be heard here.

There's something to be said about people who stay at a baseball game until the final out. Even if the home team had given up five runs in the top of the 10th inning to turn a tight 1-1 game into a 6-1 blowout.

A Tuesday night road trip to Phoenix resulted in witnessing one of the most amazing comebacks in baseball history when the Arizona Diamondbacks waited until the absolute last possible moment to beat the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers and keep alive their hopes for having home field advantage in the first round of the National League playoffs.

I could try to give you a detailed, pitch-by-pitch analysis of the amazing rally, but instead you're better off watching the video [web producer's note: which you will have to go to MLB.com to watch, because Major League Baseball is dumb and won't allow embeds] to get a real sense of what happened. If you listen closely you can hear me 'woohooing' in the background.

I don't care if he's a womanizer, a liar, and a drunk...the man was a visionary.

The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission issued this press release yesterday announcing it filed a lawsuit to determine if state Attorney General Tom Horne's investigation of the commission is constitutional. Horne is "investigating" if the commission allegedly violated open meetings laws when it hired a mapping firm:

PHOENIX (Sept. 27, 2011) — The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court today asking the court to determine whether state Attorney General Tom Horne’s investigation of the commission is constitutional. The commission asserts that the attorney general’s investigation “is in excess of his authority and in violation of the constitutional independence of the IRC.”

Arizona’s Constitution requires that the commission conduct its business in public, and the panel goes to great lengths to fulfill that mandate. But the constitution does not give the attorney general any investigative or enforcement authority to wield over the commission.

Instead, to maintain the commission’s independence, the constitutional openness requirement that governs commission activities is enforced through the courts rather than through attorney general investigations.
The commission asked the court to consolidate its lawsuit with one that the attorney general previously filed against three commissioners concerning the investigation. A copy of the commission’s complaint is available on the commission’s website, azredistricting.org.

So, there was a major hearing in U.S. District Court in downtown Tucson today to determine the competency of accused Gabrielle Giffords et. al. shooter Jared Loughner ... and just down the street Tucson police evacuated buildings and blocked off streets because of a 'suspicious vehicle' that may or may not contain some sort of explosives.

Coincidence?

Whatever the case, TPD has blocked off a huge chunk of downtown while its Bomb Squad checks out white box truck near Broadway and Scott Avenue. That's the area near the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, for those keeping score at home.

A local tweeter, using the screen name @chrisblackmusic, has posted this pic of the scene. Originally it was thought the Jeep seen on the far left side of the pic. Now, authorities are looking into the box truck on the right side of the pic, behind the trees.

Odds are by the end of the day every vehicle in that lot will get the full bomb squad treatment. Anybody who left anything, ahem, illegal in their trunks might be getting a call from the cops.

Here's hoping this wasn't the day you had to actually venture into Tucson's core to handle some business.

From the opening of a new outlet of the Alabama and Florida chain Lime Fresh Mexican Grill in Winter Park, Florida.

I laughed when I read this, but then the sadness set in.

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE OUR STATE IS RUN BY RACISTS.

Sigh.

[Reddit]

V Fine Thai Dining, the newish downtown restaurant by the owner of Vila Thai, has added lunch hours.

If I was a businessman trying to impress a client, I would take them to V Fine Thai Dining for lunch. The place is immaculately decorated, yet comfortable. There's a killer wine list and a swanky courtyard. Long story short, it's just a great dining experience that's maybe just a tad nicer than your average lunch spot.

But I am not a businessman trying to impress anyone, and I still want to go to V Fine Thai Dining for lunch today. But that's because I can't stop thinking about the restaurant's mussels in fragrant curried coconut milk. Things like that are hard to forget.

Lunch hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. There's a bit more about the restaurant over here.

Time to Play, an online magazine, put together a list of what they suspect will be the hottest toys of the holiday season, including the DaGeDar toys that I spent ten minutes trying to figure out at Target the other day. So, they're fancy coated ball-bearings that you race down a track? And you can unlock stuff on the internet? Ok, sure.

Also, among the faux iPads for the toddler set, more Legos, and the other actual fun stuff, they feature The Logo Board Game, which seems like a delightful celebration of Western commerce:

[Wildly unsafe for watching at work, by the way, unless you work here, then I think it's ok.]

Basically, someone just went to the Gathering of the Juggalos and interviewed Insane Clown Posse fans. In the end, it turns out that they're just people who aim to accept other people, but also value "not giving a fuck". A philosophy perfect for our post-modern age, I suppose.

ICP hit the Rialto Theatre, Faygo in hand, on October 8th.

[Reddit]

As attorney Don Bivens launches his campaign for U.S. Senate, Andrea Kelly of Arizona Public Media catches up with Richard Carmona, who has a lot of people asking him to get into the race as a Democrat:

"I am doing the internal due diligence necessary to balance the call to national service one more time vs the contributions I can continue to make to community, country and globally in my present positions," Carmona wrote.