Video shot and edited by Rogelio Garcia

Harmony. Grace. Beauty.

Words to describe Cirque du Soleil’s Dralion and so much more.

The oftentimes jaw-dropping show features a melding of Chinese traditional dance and martial arts with Cirque’s trademark Avant-garde style of acrobatics.

“We took 3,000 years of Chinese acrobatic tradition,” Artistic director Sean McKeown said, “and did a very special blending of that tradition with a very unique Cirque du Soleil of doing things.”

• John de Dios
• House Troupe performers Xia Bin, left, Zhang Delong, Yin Yupeng, Chang Wenfeng and Luo Shaohua rehearse the Dralion sequence where one of the dragons jump onto a giant ball. The performers, 26 in all, are from Shandong, China. Seventeen nationalities are represented in Dralion.

Take a look behind the scenes of Cirque's Dralion, which will be in Tucson until Sunday.

• John de Dios
• Kevin Chung, a prop technician for Dralion, makes opening-day fixes to one of the Bamboo Pole props while the house troupe practice on stage.

More after the jump

With the votes counted, Pima Community College Board of Governors District 5 candidate Richard Fridena sent this to his supporters:

Dear Friends and Supporters,

With the delay in counting votes in Pima County and the low public profile regarding the Pima Community College Board of Governors District 5 race, I bet you are wondering about the outcome. Yesterday afternoon, the final election results were released:

Cortez 17,131

Fridena 14,846

Saitta 7,344

Sadly, Ms. Mary Cortez retained her seat by a 2,285 vote margin. There are many things to say about why the election turned out as it did. I want you to know and understand my respect for your attention to and care for the Tucson community expressed through your support of our campaign to secure a voice on the Pima College Board.

I have additional two thoughts about this outcome. First, we all need to continue watching her and the Governing Board’s performance. We must continue to insist that she, and the other trustees, represent our best interests and that Pima Community College better serves the residents of Pima County. This vote has shown that the Governing Board needs to wake up and again focus on serving students and not a misguided, bloated Administration. They are accountable.

Second, I was aware of the historical pattern that two opposition candidates frequently split the vote thereby allowing the incumbent to retain their office. I thought the continued embarrassment wrought by the sitting board and the compelling need for change in College leadership would have been enough to overcome the predictable splitting of the vote. While close, this simply did not happen. Ms. Cortez cannot truly claim she won this race. She must realize that 57% of District 5 voted to replace her.

Therefore, it falls on all of us to continue holding her and the Governing Board publically accountable. As has been made clear in the last week, the current Board holds public accountability in distain. (See http://azstarnet.com/news/opinion/editorial/public-comments-belong-at-start-of-pcc-s-meetings/article_a8e79279-80a6-5d1b-9002-3d364eb61e7f.html#.UKOQQ30AVsM.email)

I am touched deeply by all of the support and encouragement given me. My heartfelt thanks to you. All of you symbolize citizenship and community to me.

Sincerely,

Richard Fridena

P.S. As you, know from my previous letters, my campaign mailed out 20,000 postcards at a cost of about $7,000. I was able to raise about half of this amount. For the duration of the campaign, I incurred a debt of $3,200. Any amount you may spare would help me to retire this debt. You can use PayPal at my website: www.fridenaforabetterpimacollege.com. The website will no longer exist after November 30. Mail your contributions to Fridena for a Better Pima College, P.O. Box 86135, Tucson, Arizona 85754.

The Tucson Unified School District's governing board heard pleas from dozens of parents, students and educators on why their school shouldn't be on the proposal list for school closures and consolidations — made public for the first time on Monday evening. The meeting started at 6 p.m. and ended around 11:30 p.m.

Held at Catalina Magnet High School, about 300 people filled the large auditorium. The largest contingent of parents and students came from Hollinger and Pueblo Gardens schools, as well as a group from Ochoa. While Ochoa was not on the closure list as it has been in the past, a group of parents and activists from South Tucson who helped start a campaign this summer to prevent school closures, showed up to show their support.

They also expressed their thanks to the board, and let them know they were there to support other schools, and to help develop other solutions, besides school closures.

The entire point of the meeting is to figure out what schools to close and consolidate in order to chip away at the $17 million budget shortfall first presented to the governing board by TUSD Superintendent John Pedicone last spring. Three community town halls were held to explain the financial issues and get input; and most recently several focus groups made up of parents, business owners and community members met to put together options and school closure/consolidation criteria.

That criteria was shared with TUSD staff in a letter from Pedicone explaining the process. Based on that criteria approved by the board, at the end of the meeting— a meeting in which the board extended call to audience twice — the board took the list of schools provided to them and decided which ones should be put in the closure/consolidation proposal and be presented to the community in a series of public hearings.

Another group of schools were tabled for discussion at the next TUSD meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 27 — board members requested more information on the school, what schools those students would go to when their school closed and other community issues.

The public hearings scheduled by the board take place Saturday, Dec. 8 and Dec. 10th, The board discussed having one hearing on the east side and another on the west side.. The board is expected to make a final decision on the closures on Dec. 18. The next year — with new board members Kristel Foster and Cam Juarez replacing Miguel Cuevas and Alexandre Sugiyama — the board will have to approve boundary changes to go with the closures and consolidations, and work on a bond project to help pay for the renovations of some of the schools kids would be moving into.

The way the vote went down:

Just a heads-up, folks:

We're going to be taking things a bit slow today, what with the food to feast upon and the football to watch in near-vegetative states, but you'll be hearing from us a bit throughout the day.

Don't worry though. We'll be picking back up tomorrow, though if we're a bit on the sluggish side, don't be too harsh—as many of you well know, there are few things more debilitating than a turkey-and-cranberry hangover.

One more thing: We're very grateful that you continue to choose to read us, Tucson. We offer our heartfelt thanks to all of you readers, supporters and detractors alike. Without you folks, we wouldn't have much reason to come back here at all.

Have a happy and safe holiday.

• John de Dios
• Dante Adela melds martial arts and ballet in his interpretation of Yao, the representation of Fire.

• John de Dios
• Jonathan Morin plays Kala, a time-keeper of sorts, that performs in the unique Crossed Wheel that he invented specifically for Cirque. Morin joined the stage opening night with more than 50 other acrobats and artists representing 17 different nationalities.

• John de Dios
• Tara Catherine Pandeya, center, portrays Oceane, the representation of Water. Oceane is flanked by acrobats who performed on trampolines. The set for Dralion itself was as big a part of the show as the cast members.

• John de Dios
• The lead characters of Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Little Buddha prepare to welcome the other lead characters at the start of the performance. The cast members wear elaborate costumes specifically designed for their bodies, said Melody Wood, the head of wardrobe.

In a word: breathtaking.

Cirque du Soleil's Dralion, a traveling whiz-bang spectacle captivates and mesmerizes it's audiences with a rich melding of Chinese traditional performances and Cirque's trademark Avant-garde style of acrobatics.

The slightly over two-hour event is a harmonious blend of rich color, texture and a powerful expression of music and song.

Gezile Daka, 24, a local, attended the show with her boyfriend Jhonas Rubalcava, 26. Both have seen Cirque in Las Vegas and were a bit skeptical when they saw that Cirque was traveling to Tucson, they said. But after the first hour before intermission, both Daka and Rubalcava were already blown away what the show had to offer, they added.

And rightfully so: Dralion's 54 performers from 17 nations take the stage unflinchingly diving through hoops, suspended in the air by silk, or spinning in a unique and innovative "Crossed Wheel" contraption made specifically for Cirque by gymnast and performer Jonathan Morin. Morin, himself a sight to see, spins perpendicular or parallel to the ground effortlessly with such grace that he seems to fly across the stage. Then again, it probably helps that he is also built like a comic book superhero.

"It was pretty magnificent," said Georgina Hillman, 33, who brought her son Ben Cañeda, 11, with for his birthday. "(We were having) one of those superhero conversations where if you could have one superpower, poof, you have all the talent it takes to put on a show like (Dralion)."

During the performance, you can see people around us literally cringing and biting their teeth about some of the things they were doing, Hillman said.

"They harmonized really well together," Hillman said about the music and the singing used throughout the show and acrobatics. "It just made me happy."

The show is about harmony, peace and family, said Sean McKeown, the artistic director.

It's the perfect show to bring the family together, Rubalcava said.

Go see it. Consider it an effective and worthy counter programming to all the Black Friday craziness that begins, at some places, as early as 8 p.m. Thanksgiving night.

Cirque du Soleil at Tucson Convention Center Arena
Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m through Sunday, Nov. 25
Showtimes at 7:30 except for Nov. 24, 3:30 & 7:30 p.m. and Sun., Nov. 25, 1 & 5 p.m.

Read the preview for the show written by editorial intern Mariana Dale here.

Visit Dralion's website here.

More photos after the jump.

Well, okay. Dean Chambers, of Unskewed Polls fame, doesn't 'expose' anything so much as he asks rhetorical questions, raises a conspiracy theory about the 1980 general election as a way to suggest that there could be funny business involving the 2012 election, and posts some ideas about Democratic voter suppression while using a chart from Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight blog:

For months the mainstream media clearly communicated a message with ONE voice, that Barack Obama was likely to win reelection, Mitt Romney was a weakened candidate that was damaged in the primary process and further weakened when Obama attacked him with tens of millions of negative ads on TV and Romney stood no chance of getting elected. That millions of potential Republican voters, that vote for McCain in 2008 while far less enthused about doing so, did not turn out to vote for Romney in 2012 clearly proves the voter suppression campaign waged by the mainstream media and to some extent by the Democrat Party, worked quite well.

While the overall strategy was voter suppression, it is clear from viewing these stats that boosting the turnout in key swing states (the ones in yellow above) was taking place as well. Without further or more detailed proof, there is objectively two ways to increase voter turnout on the side of those supporting Obama, as it clearly did happen in some key swing states: either get more real people out to vote who will vote for Obama, or stuff the ballot boxes and engage in a variety of vote fraud and vote scamming methods. Odds are quite likely, to maximize their odds of succeeding in getting President Obama elected, that they engaged in all of the above to make it happen. Other information presented on this web site is gradually building the case that the margin of voter fraud exceeds any real margin by which this race was won by Obama. It is beginning to appear that the likely Romney victory, even it was to be close, that many believed was going to happen was actually going to happen if it was reversed with vote fraud.

Sure, that makes, uh..."sense." Until someone considers the source, which is, of course, a man who finagled with polls until they all leaned in favor of Mitt Romney. Not that there's anything wrong with that though, right?

Check out the Barack O'Fraudo (which doesn't even make sense to birthers unless they've decided that Obama is suddenly an Irishman rather than a Kenyan, I guess) website here, if you dare.

The fine folks over at Gizmodo know that, after a while, simply roasting a turkey is boring. And after a while, the novelty of deep-frying a bird fades like so many clear bills of cardiovascular health from your physician.

So what do you do then? Well, if you've got an Antares-class rocket engine, you do this:

Here's an excerpt from the article at Gizmodo:

What you need:
One turkey.
One Antares-class sounding rocket
Extra fuel

One structure of brick or stone to protect the bird and store heat, as well as the possibility of placing your turkey offset from the main stream (unless you want to solve the problem of distributing bits of cooked turkey to a broadly dispersed audience as quickly as possible.)

Instructions
1. Get the turkey in the protective box.
2. Fire the rocket engine for 1:45 hours. That's it.

For the rest of ideas collected from NASA personnel by Gizmodo, head over here post-haste; and if you happen to cook your turkey in an incredible (yet safe!) way this Thanksgiving, let us hear about it—or if you're feeling generous, let us watch the footage—so we'll have something to enjoy and share while we recover from our feasting.

Celebrated singer-songwriter and one-time occupant of a jail cell in Texas Fiona Apple has postponed her South American tour to care for her dying dog. She let fans know by posting a long, hand-written letter—which she then helpfully transcribed for everyone. Here it is, in part:

It's 6pm on Friday,and I'm writing to a few thousand friends I have not met yet.
I am writing to ask them to change our plans and meet a little while later.
Here's the thing.
I have a dog Janet, and she's been ill for almost two years now, as a tumor has been idling in her chest, growing ever so slowly. She's almost 14 years old now.I got her when she was 4 months old. I was 21 then ,an adult officially - and she was my child.
She is a pitbull, and was found in Echo Park, with a rope around her neck, and bites all over her ears and face.
She was the one the dogfighters use to puff up the confidence of the contenders.
She's almost 14 and I've never seen her start a fight ,or bite, or even growl, so I can understand why they chose her for that awful role. She's a pacifist.
Janet has been the most consistent relationship of my adult life, and that is just a fact.

...

I can't come to South America. Not now.
When I got back from the last leg of the US tour, there was a big, big difference.
She doesn't even want to go for walks anymore.
I know that she's not sad about aging or dying. Animals have a survival instinct, but a sense of mortality and vanity, they do not. That’s why they are so much more present than people.
But I know that she is coming close to point where she will stop being a dog, and instead, be part of everything. She’ll be in the wind, and in the soil, and the snow, and in me, wherever I go.
I just can't leave her now, please understand.
If I go away again, I’m afraid she'll die and I won't have the honor of singing her to sleep, of escorting her out.

It just gets more heartbreaking from there, to be honest—but it's worth the time, and strikes a chord with anyone who has every loved (and lost) anything that deeply.

Find her letter here.

Local conservative talk-show host and Best of Tucson winner Jon Justice is, apparently of the opinion that this cartoon by Arizona Daily Star political cartoonist David Fitzsimmons is an indicator that he "needs mental health" (sic).

I'm going to assume that Mr. Justice means "mental help," but hey, his mind was moving faster than fingers. I get it.

But let's take a look at this with a less hyper-sensitive eye here, folks (I can't believe I actually have to do this for some people) and we'll break it down after the jump.