Logan Phillips - "South Tucson" / "Sonoran Strange (excerpt)" from dirtyverbs on Vimeo.

If you've got 11 minutes to spare today, make sure to give a look at this performance by Logan "Dirtyverbs" Philips, a Southern Arizona native who gives a rousing bilingual performance on life on the South Side and in the Sonoran at Skrappy's during "Tucson Stand Up!" on Aug. 31.

For more on Philips, check out his website here.

Congressman Raul Grijalva, running against Gabrielle Saucedo Mercer in this year's race for Arizona's new Congressional District 3, blogged about the forthcoming impact of Latino voters in this upcoming election. His belief, he writes, is that Latinos are going to make their presence felt this year because they value substance over style.

From TheHill.com:

Consider what we saw at the Republican convention: a parade of high-profile Latino conservatives was presented as an argument, all by itself, to vote for Mitt Romney. The speakers were not presented as emissaries from the Latino community, or signs of a changing and better future, but modern-day Horatio Alger stories who tried to prove that when you vote Republican, you too can succeed in America.

This is simply not going to work. It shows a profound Republican misunderstanding of the Latino community. Latino voters are not impressed by window dressing any more than other voters. They know the difference between style and substance. They know that when [San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro] talks about an America that includes rather than separates us, he’s telling the truth and speaking to their hopes for their own children. They also know that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio votes to cut Head Start and child nutrition programs and Medicaid even while he talks about his own exclusive version of the American Dream.

For the rest of Grijalva's article, visit The Hill's Congress Blog.

• Jim Nintzel

It's been a long summer for Congress Street regulars, but it appears as though the end of the streetcar construction—and those chain-link fences—may be near. The new tracks are starting to be laid down.

The Tucson City Council voted unanimously last night against extending a rezoning agreement for a key downtown parcel.

The property in question, at Stone Avenue and Franklin Street, sits on the edge of the historic El Presidio Neighborhood and is smack-dab in the midst of the developing Warehouse Arts District.

A string of speakers, mostly made up of downtown residents and business owners, spoke against the extension of the rezoning.

Town West, which has done some good developments around town (such as its current work rehabbing a deserted apartment complex on Fort Lowell Road east of Campbell Avenue), got the original rezoning on the property in 2007.

The plan at that time was to build a hotel, brewery, retail space, artist studios, condo units, parking garages and such in a complex that would include towers as high as 15 floors.

But with the economic slowdown, that project—which had the support of some of the neighbors—has stalled.

Town West officials had recently approached council members and neighboring property owners with the idea of doing a student-housing complex instead.

This week, Eric & Arnie pull back the curtain and show us the seedy underbelly of the comic book industry...on Twitter.

Also, they talk about a rad little comic called Hero Worship, written by Zak Penn & Scott Murphy, featuring artwork by Michael DiPascale.

There's a new restaurant at Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Resort at 10000 N. Oracle Road called Epazote Kitchen & Cocktails. I found this description of the place on the hotel and resort's website:

Literally translated as “Mexican Tea,” Epazote is prominently used in Southwestern cuisine to add a spicy yet earthy flavor somewhat reminiscent of fennel. Inspired by this flavor and the traditions of the Southwest.

Guests will enjoy Southwestern dishes featuring locally sourced specialties such as Arizona grass fed beef, Southwest mountain trout, Colorado lamb, selected cheeses and Arizona grown produce. Along with their meal, guests will also take in some of the most spectacular views of Pusch Ridge on the outdoor patio.

Featuring a wide selection of tequilas, locally brewed beers and Arizona Wines. Those looking to sample the taste of the Southwest will be able to select from a bar menu of delectable options ideal for a shared dinner or snack.

Now, I'm not talking any smack, but if I were local chef, author and restaurateur Janos Wilder this new eatery would irritate me a bit. Wilder's downtown restaurant is called Downtown Kitchen & Cocktails - no resemblance there at all - and Wilder is widely known for using indigenous ingredients like epazote in his French-inspired cuisine.

I'm not saying he has any sort of corner on such things, but the similarities do sort of jump right out at you, so much so that I had to call up there to make sure Wilder wasn't involved (he isn't). Then again, it has been said that imitation is the greatest compliment, so there's that.

That aside, the food does sound very good, and a good way to give it a whirl will be the upcoming Arizona Restaurant Week, where you can try a multi-course dinner there for a cut-rate price. More information on that over here.

There's about three weeks left in the regular season for Major League baseball, and at this point the vast majority of teams' fan bases have given up on their annual overembellished hopes of a World Series title.

That includes you, Diamondbacks fans. Stop kidding yourself: they're 10 games behind the Giants for first place in the NL West with 20 to go, and at five back in the wild card standings they'd need to leapfrog four other teams to get into the playoffs. Ain't. Gonna. Happen.

That's why it's time to bite the bullet, suck it up and look to the future. The future that came today in the form of the 2013 schedule announcement!

Arizona opens the 2013 slate at home on April 1 (nope, this isn't an early April Fool's Day joke) against the St. Louis Cardinals. The D-Backs will close out next season with three games against the Washington Nationals Sept. 27-29.

In between is the usual flotsam and jetsam of games against the National League West, but there's also some very intriguing highlights. First and foremost: a Memorial Day (May 27) doubleheader at home against the Texas Rangers. That's followed by a day off, then two games in two days at Texas.

Those interleague matchups are part of the quirky 2013 schedule for all of MLB, as Houston's move from the NL to the American League means interleague games will occur all season instead of just a block in May-June.

Arizona's other interleague foes all hail from the AL East, with the D-Backs hosting Tampa Bay and Baltimore in August and Toronto in September (including Labor Day), while visiting the New York Yankees in mid-April, Tampa in late July and Boston in early August.

For fans of other teams not named Arizona, the Los Angeles Dodgers come to Phoenix April 12-14, July 8-10 and Sept. 16-18, while the Chicago Cubs will make their visit July 22-25.

Next year's gonna be awesome! That's what all you downtrodden D-Backs are thinking now, huh? Much better than lamenting the current team's 2-games-under-.500 record.

Democrat Ron Barber, who won the hard-fought race to complete Gabby Giffords' term in Congressional District 8, is on the air with his first ad of the race to win the new Congressional District 2, created by Arizona's redistricting process.

The ad features Fran Bartholomeaux, who nearly lost her home to foreclosure but found help from the Congressional District 8 office.

The ad is a positive spot, which suggests that Team Barber isn't concerned about going negative on Republican opponent Martha McSally—or at least not yet. Polling has shown Barber with the lead and McSally, who has a good bio as a former Air Force fighter pilot, has yet to get a commitment from the National Republican Congressional Committee for monetary support.

Last year a 120-pound competitor ate 10 pounds of hot dogs in 10 minutes at Sir Veza's Copa de Hot Dog eating contest. Will the gluttony at this year's event put that to shame? There's only one way to find out: Head over to Sir Veza's at the Tucson Mall (220 W. Wetmore Road) and find out for yourself.

The contest, now in its second year, takes place at 6 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 16, which also happens to be Mexican Independence Day. The winner takes home $500 and a belly full of bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

Twenty-five competitors from various states showed up last year, but even more are expected this year. For more information on Sir Veza's, head over here.

Last month marked the first-ever Cat Video Festival, in which someone won with a video entitled "Henri 2, Paw Deux," a title that tries so hard to be clever it makes my eyes ache.

Now the Friskies cat food brand has decided that they want in on the lucrative cat video market by creating the Friskies awards, which may either be the best or worst thing that could happen to the Blogosphere.

From Fast Company's interview with Friskies communications brand manager Shaun Belongie:

“One of the things we celebrate is that cats have this really vivid imagination," says Belongie (a claim substantiated by the brand’s jaw-droppingly trippy "Feed the Senses" ads). "They experience the world differently. Cat videos, in a lot of ways, really do celebrate the imagination of cat owners and cats.”

...

“The cat video has almost become an art form. But it needed to be legitimized, in our estimation, as an art form. It needs a major award—like movies have the Oscars, like TV has the Emmys, Internet cat videos needed an award. Friskies can do that.”

Spectacular.

For more on this story, including a conversation with the editor of Cat Fancy, check out Fast Company.

For the cherry on the kitty cat cake, let's watch a cat stalk its owner below the jump.