From Michael Graham, City of Tucson Public Information Officer, responding to an email I sent to Maximiliano Torres, the point person for City of Tucson Modern Streetcar Project Business Outreach:

The Federal Transit Administration project security and safety requirements include visibility into and out of, as well as around a construction site. Allowing objects, posters, streamers, signs to remain on the fences obstructs visibility into and out of the construction zone. The fencing is a traffic control device and there are restrictions against placing items on traffic control devices.

An email from the City of Tucson was sent to David Aguirre at 2:35 p.m. yesterday informing him that the contractor would be removing the artwork, saving it, and returning it to Mr. Aguirre to redistribute to the artists who made the artwork.

Of course, one would have to imagine that keeping the fences art free might be a challenge in the long run, but time will tell.

As far as I'm concerned, the modern streetcar construction on Fourth Ave. and Congress hasn't been nearly as troublesome as I would have imagined. By and large, you can still get to where you want to go without too much hassle, the community has rallied around merchants in the area, and it'll be over sooner or later. Still, there's certainly an aesthetic issue with fences lining one of our city's most prominent streets directly in front of storefronts. So, I don't know whose idea it was, but drawings, paintings and such started popping up taped or tied to the fence. Events were launched to celebrate the incidental art, media outlets were interested, but then this morning, all of the work was removed to the dismay of, well, seemingly everyone:

No one seems to know (or is willing to say) who took the art down or why, although I have a few calls out to try to figure it out, so if someone cops to the removal, I'll post an update. However, taking the art down (some of which was damaged by the weather anyway) should motivate people to just put up more, right? What was up there helped me feel a little better about the city I live in, so I hope this mass removal (or any future ones) just multiplies the work that goes up on the fences.

As we told Range readers last week, Citizens United has hired former congressional candidate Jesse Kelly as a director of development. The press release:

Citizens United President David N. Bossie issued the following statement on the hiring of former Congressional candidate Jesse Kelly as the new Director of Development at Citizens United. In this position, Jesse Kelly will handle major gifts and be a part of the leadership team at Citizens United and its affiliate The Presidential Coalition.

“I am honored to have Jesse join the Citizens United team,” said David N. Bossie, President of Citizens United. “As a former Marine, small businessman, and Congressional candidate, Jesse has shown that he does not shy away from tough challenges. Jesse will be a great asset to Citizens United as we continue our mission of restoring our government to citizens’ control.”

We admit that we had expected that Jesse would stick around, running for office and derailing the careers of more viable GOP candidates, but we guess his commitment to Southern Arizona wasn't as deep as he portrayed it while he was still a candidate. We'll miss you, Jesse!

What used to be called the Tohono Chul Park Tearoom is now the Tohono Chul Garden Bistro and a new management team is running it. The food sounds quite good, too, especially if you're into fresh seasonal fare. From the Garden Bistro website:

Each dish is plated to look as lovely as the gardens surrounding the Bistro and the flavors are amazing, truly! We can’t wait to welcome regulars of the Tea Room and to also re-introduce patrons who haven’t visited in a while. The menu will change seasonally, and even daily, based on what local, organic fresh ingredients the chef can obtain. The management will be visible in the dining room and on the patios and look forward to getting to know our guests. The light summer fare menu offers some favorites, but there will also be great variety based on market conditions. The Garden Bistro is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. beginning July 1st for summer hours.

Full disclosure: I worked for Buzzmedia after they bought Idolator from Gawker. Eventually, they killed the freelance budget ending my time on the site, then later restarted the website, firing my boss, and turning the site into a shitty Justin Bieber obsessed fan blog. I wasn't thrilled by that turn of events, but that's life, right?

Enough of my work history, right? I don't know exactly the beginning or end of the age bracket, but if you're a music fan under 50 and older than 25, you probably had a subscription to Spin at some point. As people stopped buying both music and magazines, the publication hit a rough spot, but has actually done a solid job of reinventing itself recently, going to a quarterly publication schedule and focusing on its digital presence. That might be all out the window now, as the company that runs Kim Kardashian's website (and other actually music-related sites, to be fair) is Spin's new owner:

Spin Media, the company behind the alternative-music magazine Spin, has been sold to Buzzmedia, a portfolio of music and celebrity Web sites, in a deal that could expand Spin’s reach online but also calls into question its future as a print publication.

Buzzmedia, which owns or sells advertising for music blogs like Stereogum, Hype Machine and Idolator, and also runs sites for Kim Kardashian and other celebrities, will get Spin’s 27-year-old print magazine as well as its Web site, iPad app and live event business, the two companies announced on Tuesday.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The last time Spin was sold, to the publisher McEvoy Group in 2006, the price was reportedly less than $5 million.

Tyler Goldman, Buzzmedia’s chief executive, said the company would expand Spin’s digital staff.

“Spin to us is more than a print magazine,” Mr. Goldman said. “It’s a great media company for storytelling around music and music culture. People are using multiple platforms to consume more content and context from the brands they believe in, and we see the ability for Spin to bring more storytelling to digital platforms.”

When CEOs start talking about "storytelling," my head starts hurting, but maybe it'll work out for everyone.

The new take-out restaurant O' My Buns is open at Park Place Mall at 5870 E. Broadway Blvd. It sells affordable and slightly-sweet buns in a variety of flavors, coffee and tea. From a press release:

O’My Buns is owned and operated by James Shin, who notes that although popular in other parts of the world, including Asia, the light and tasteful bun is fairly new to the United States.

“It’s a relatively new concept and we think it will attract health-conscious consumers who are looking for something lighter than a traditional cinnamon roll or pastry,” he said. “It’s a new fresh item and I think Tucson needs something like this, particularly for consumers who are more health-savvy and want an alternative to higher fat and calorie items.”

We doubt this will loosen Cinnabon's well-earned grip on the mall-based sweet roll market, but it is nice to have options. Prices are in the $2 to $5 range.

Last week, the internet was abuzz with avant-R&B star Frank Ocean's apparent coming out letter on his Tumblr page, but in a lot of ways, it seems like trying to define the guy's sexuality based on a mini-memoir about a specific time in his life might be short-sighted. The guy is still certainly a mystery (even more confused by his connection to the seemingly homophobic lyrics spouted by the hip-hop crew he associates with, Odd Future), but fussing about his sexuality seems to miss the point that he's working to create art based on moments in his life without having the distraction of critics trying to decipher the pronouns he uses in his songs and what they mean. I guess it makes it easier for us to be able to put Ocean in one demographic box or another, but maybe we should make an effort to just appreciate the fact that he's doing something bold and interesting with the form of R&B.

The promotional push for Ocean's new album Channel Orange began in earnest last night, with his television debut on Jimmy Fallon (performing "Bad Religion," one of the songs that sparked the questions about his sexuality in the first place) and today, the album is available to stream on his website or to purchase on iTunes, a week ahead of its official release date.

Based on what I've been able to listen to so far, if you enjoy the music of soul weirdos like Prince, D'Angelo or Maxwell, you should really just go ahead and buy the album. You're not going to want to be tied to your laptop to have the opportunity to listen to it over and over.

Congressman Jeff Flake has rolled out a new TV ad hammering his opponent in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate, Wil Cardon, over charges that Cardon's Subway stores hired illegal workers.

The Arizona Republic broke the story Sunday. An excerpt from the in-depth article:

In the case of immigration, some of Cardon's business interests have drawn scrutiny from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A Subway franchise company co-owned by Cardon was fined three years ago for federal violations related to failure to document the legal status of more than 150 employees suspected of being illegal immigrants, federal and state records show.

Investigators for ICE reported that nearly half of the 315 employees at some Subway restaurants owned by RCC Partners were believed to be "undocumented alien workers." Investigators also reported that their employer failed to comply with federal employment-eligibility paperwork. Two of the ownership groups for RCC Partners are at least partly owned by Cardon, according to state corporate records.

The Cardon campaign attempted to downplay Cardon's involvement in his company's operation:

David Leibowitz, a spokesman for Cardon, said Cardon didn't have close management oversight of the stores investigated by ICE. He said Cardon had a 28 percent stake in the Subway franchise company, RCC Partners, which meant others were responsible for its operations.

"Wil has never exercised day-to-day control over this business. He doesn't do the hiring and firing in this business," Leibowitz said. "The only way that Wil's ever met an RCC employee is when he stops in to order a sandwich."

We'd hoped to talk to Cardon directly about the story, but he canceled an interview scheduled with Tucson Weekly today.

You might remember LA based DJ Them Jeans from his show at Club Congress last September, but having seen him then isn't necessarily a prerequisite to enjoy his summer mixtape, collecting an of-the-moment selection of breezy, occasionally tropical, electronic tracks from artists such as Tanlines, Clams Casino and Simian Mobile Disco. At very least, it's a more enjoyable listen than the sound of your co-workers talking.

The desire to create a truly immersive movie-going experience in nothing particularly new (a movie theater in 1929 tried spraying perfume during a film and John Waters added Odorama, a scratch and sniff card to showings of Polyester in 1982, among many other smell-based cinema gimmicks), but now, movie theater owners looking for a way to push the cost of a movie ticket into the realm of what we're used to playing for a ticket to an amusement park might get their wish with (wildly inaccurately named) 4-D movies:

In the latest bid to attract moviegoers back to multiplexes, where 3-D — featured in hits such as "The Avengers" and"Men in Black 3"— is already the norm, technology and entertainment companies are pushing a new system known as 4-D....

"Theaters need to find new ways to bring people back to the multiplex and away from their couches, and this is one way of doing that," said Theodore Kim, chief operating officer for the Los Angeles lab of CJ 4DPlex, operator of the specialty theaters....

In one nighttime scene in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," when vampire-like mermaids launch an attack on pirates in rowboats, the seats rocked back and forth to simulate the movement of the boats, a fan stirred a gentle breeze, fog filled the theater and a faint smell of the ocean wafted across the audience. When the mermaids shot strands of seaweed at the hapless pirates, moviegoers were sprayed with water. In "Prometheus," water sprays simulate something entirely different: the innards of an alien.

CJ 4DPlex, which debuted in 2009, now screens about 20 major Hollywood titles a year for the international market and works with several big studios on international releases.

"We've done a number of films with them, and they've been very successful," said Chris Aronson, head of domestic distribution for 20th Century Fox. "It's certainly something that's unique to the theater environment."

It costs about $2 million to design and outfit a 4-D theater, with exhibitors covering half the costs. CJ Group says circuits quickly recoup their investment because the theaters are so popular.

I'm clearly the wrong person for this concept, since I think I've already decided that I'm done with the extra cost and hassle of wearing glasses during 3-D movies, but it's hard for me to imagine why someone would want to be squirted with water during a movie. It's proven to be possible to make big budget movies that people actually want to see that aren't ridiculously stupid (the Christopher Nolan Batman films, in particular), but this summer's The Avengers wasn't missing the smell of burnt aliens empowered by space energy, even if it might make another few million dollars for the studio. Keep the amusement park rides at the theme park, ok?