In what I can only assume is some sort of retaliatory shot at our fair city for celebrating the cancellation of The Cleveland Show, the folks at Family Guy dropped another insult on Tucson, this time mocking the young minds being molded at the University of Arizona:

Ooooh, man. That...that one stung. I'm not certain we'll be able to make it back, as a community, from a burn of that magnitude. SOMEONE, BUY ALL OF THE ALOE.

For those keeping score, that was the second insult lobbed in our direction in the past year by Fox's Animation Domination Sunday Broadcast Funnytime Cartoonshow Block, as another Seth MacFarlane animated comedy, American Dad, got us—hard—by calling the Old Pueblo "unnecessary," which, like, still hurts.

Near as I can tell, no one associated with the most recent episode of Family Guy is affiliated with Tucson or UA in any way — which means that this one was personal.

Alright, nerds: Phoenix Comicon starts today.

Notable guests include Jewel Staite (Kaylee, from Firefly), Walter Koenig (Chekov, of Star Trek), Grant Imihara (Mythbusters host and Star Trek Continues cast member) and Wil Wheaton (from the Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Big Bang Theory, and the Internet in general).

A handful of Tucsonans will also be in attendance, including Jon Proudstar, Ross Demma, recent Tucson Weekly cover subject Adam Rex and frequent Weekly contributor and writer of on-going the ongoing comic series Smell Ya Later!, Eric M. Esquivel.

A full list of vendors, guests and a complete con schedule can be found on the Phoenix Comicon website.

The event is being held at the Phoenix Convention Center, 100 N. 3rd St., in the heart of downtown Phoenix.

The Exhibitor Hall hours are:
Thursday, May 23: 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Friday May 24: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Saturday May 25: 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Sunday May 26: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

See you there — I'll be the one dressed like Captain Hammer.

On Tuesday, Arizona's District 26 Rep. Juan Mendez made national headlines for delivering a secular invocation at the beginning of the day's floor session.

Yesterday, District 11 Rep. Steve Smith, apparently, didn't appreciate that at all.

From the Associated Press:

Republican Rep. Steve Smith on Wednesday said the prayer offered by Democratic Rep. Juan Mendez of Tempe at the beginning of the previous day's floor session wasn't a prayer at all. So he asked other members to join him in a second daily prayer in "repentance," and about half the 60-member body did so. Both the Arizona House and Senate begin their sessions with a prayer and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

"When there's a time set aside to pray and to pledge, if you are a non-believer, don't ask for time to pray," said Smith, of Maricopa. "If you don't love this nation and want to pledge to it, don't say I want to lead this body in the pledge, and stand up there and say, 'you know what, instead of pledging, I love England' and (sit) down.

"That's not a pledge, and that wasn't a prayer, it's that simple," Smith said.

...

Rep. Jamescita Peshlakai, who represents a northern Arizona district on the Navajo reservation, did take offense. She said Smith's criticism of another member's faith, or lack of it, was wrong.

"I want to remind the House and my colleagues and everybody here that several of us here are not Christianized. I'm a traditional Navajo, so I stand here every day and participate in prayers," even without personally embracing them, said Peshlakai, D-Cameron. "This is the United States, this is America, and we all represent different people ... and you need to respect that. Your God is no more powerful than my God. We all come from the same creator."

Considering that Smith was so offended by Mendez's non-prayer, it sure seems that Mendez must have said some horribly offensive things, right? Well, let's take a read for ourselves:

Most prayers in this room being with a request to bow your heads. I would ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all the men and women here, in this moment, sharing this extraordinary experience of being alive and dedicating ourselves to improving the lives of the people of our state.

This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration. But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.

Carl Sagan once wrote, "For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love."

There is, in the political process, much to bear. In this room, let us cherish and celebrate our shared humanness, our shared capacity for reason and compassion, our shared love for the people of our state, for our constitution and for our democracy. And let us root our policy-making process in these values that are relevant to all Arizonans regardless of religious belief or non-belief. In gratitude and in love, in reason and in compassion, let us work together for a better Arizona.

Thank you.

How dare Mendez say such things about the Arizona Legislature! I'm pretty sure you can get removed from office for baldly-untrue claims, saying that members of the House have the capacity for reason and logic!

Smith's response was an overreaction of the highest order to what should be a non-issue in a country that enumerated one's right to freedom of religion — even if your religion happens to be a celebration of one's fellow man, rather than an omnipotent creator.

If you want to watch Mendez's invocation for yourself, see the video below, or head here:

Rosemont Mine? No, actually, according to local activists, it's Rosemont Ours.

You probably heard about it during election season. A Canadian mining company is looking to build a 14,000 acre open-pit copper mine in the Santa Rita mountains southeast of Tucson.

Rosemont Ours is a collaboration between NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre and artist/filmmaker Ben Johnson. The group is trying to draw attention to the wildlife that would be impacted by the mine thorough a 10-15 minute dance film.

In the Kickstarter video, dancers are seen holding themselves up in trees to mimic cuckoos and crouching in a shallow pond to portray leapfrogs.

"Here, the human body is window through which we are raising awareness about a rage of species, many of which are federally recognized as threatened or endangered," Johnson says in the video.

The film will be shot on location, where the mine is proposed to be constructed.

They're working to fund the film through a Kickstarter Campaign.

Perks for pledging include tickets to a screening of the film, a signed Rosemont Ours poster and a DVD of the film. For $1,000 donors can receive a guided nature walk and on-site performance by project dancers. There are 15 days left on the campaign and the group is just under $2,000 shy of their goal.

For a more in-depth look into what to expect from the finished film, check out the film below. It was uploaded when the campaign reached its halfway point and features two dancers nestled in fabric and hanging from the celling to represent lesser long-nosed bats:

• Noelle Haro-Gomez
• The Do Lab at Coachella

You might be sad or regretting that you missed Coachella this year. Do not despair music lovers there is always next year. Starting Friday, May 24th, 2013 at 10:00 AM PDT Coachella will start advance ticket sales for next year music festival. It will probably sale out in matter of minutes.

If you are like me and did not have money to pay up front, then this is the perfect time to take advantage of the lay away payment plan that Coachella offers. Keep in mind that you need to go to the websitehttp://www.coachella.com/ and set up an account. Good luck and see you at Coachella 2014.

Big news regarding the Arizona School for the Blind and Deaf, in wake of the tumult we've been covering recently.

This just in from ASDB:

Governor Jan Brewer Appoints Board Members for the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind

PHOENIX — Governor Jan Brewer today named five new members to the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB) Board of Directors.

“The Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind fulfills a critical mission by educating students with unique and specialized needs. So, it has been troubling to see allegations of mismanagement made against ASDB and its leaders. While inquiries continue, I conducted a lengthy and deliberative process to replace Board members whose terms had expired. I am confident the five new members I’m naming today will help give the institution the ‘fresh start’ it needs,” said Governor Brewer. “These new members have outstanding qualifications from across the deaf and blind community. Most important, they are committed to making certain ASDB students are prepared with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed after graduation.”

Each term for the eight gubernatorial appointments has expired; the ninth seat is filled by the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s designee. With Governor Brewer appointing five new members, the other three will continue to serve for the time being as holdover appointments.

New Board members include:

• Dr. Kathy Jankowski: former Dean, Laurent Clerk National Deaf Education Center, Gallaudet University
• Taralynn Petrites: Lead Faculty, American Sign Language and Interpreter Training, Pima Community College
• Elaine Baldridge: former Director of Children’s Services, Foundation for Blind Children
• Michael Gordon: Executive Director, Southern Arizona Association for the Visually Impaired
• Dr. Mark Syms: Otologist, Arizona Ear Center

The three holdover appointments include Sherri Collins who represents the Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; Orlenda Roberts who acts as the Board’s school district employee who works with sensory-impaired pupils; and Michael Williams, who serves as a public member

We'll be updating this story as we find out more.

Attention space enthusiasts!

If you've ever dreamt of taking a photo with an astronaut (I know I have), this weekend might be your chance.

Taking place at the JW Marriott Tucson Starr Pass Resort & Spa, Spacefest V will provide an opportunity for space lovers to chat with astronauts, take photos with them, listen to some really interesting talks and see some space inspired artwork.

Astronauts will include five moon-walkers, Apollo astronauts, space shuttle astronauts and mission controllers.

Speakers will include Professor Brian Cox, author, lecturer, physicist and rockstar, Dr. Carolyn Porco, team-leader of Cassini-Saturn's imaging, among many others.

Of course, we can't forget the astronauts, who will be conveniently sitting in booths with signs identifying them and their missions.

The art show looks pretty promising too:

The main event will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily throughout Memorial Day weekend (May 24-27).
General admission prices are $20 daily, or $50 for all four days.

If you really love space, special tickets can be purchased that include banquets, luncheons, all-day talks passes and VIP benefits.

Get the full details on tickets at Tickets and Registration

• Art show from a previous Spacefest.

In their second offering to YouTube's highly-advertised Comedy Week, The Lonely Island has decided to take the recent hip-hop trend of hashtag rap (as perpetrated by Drake, Childish Gambino, Kanye West and others) and turn it on its ear.

And, I think it's great, mostly because it means Andy Samberg is actually doing something funny again.

Remember our friend/T Q&A subject/spirit animal Jes Baker, keeper of the Militant Baker blog?

We already mentioned that Jes has lashed back at Abercombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jefferies with her photo series, "Attractive & Fat," but her campaign has blown up, sending her all the way to New York and NBC's Today.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

From today.com:

"I wanted to not replicate but kind of show what it would look like to have a plus-size model in that scenario," [Baker] told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday. "I think that fashion is incredibly political when you're fat. And to take the sensuality that's found in Abercrombie ads and apply that to a fat person as well is just taking it one step further."

...

"I would love to see so many images like the ones that we put out, that people are no longer outraged by it, that people are not shocked, that people don't take a second look," she said. "Then and only then will you start to see extra-large shirts everywhere, and by then, people probably won't care."

Keep on kicking ass, Jes. We're behind you.

• Stefan Falke
• Documentary filmmaker Tino Varela of Heroica Nogales.

If you haven't had a chance to see Brooklyn photographer Stefan Falke's photographs of the Mexico border region curated online on Forward Thinking Museum, please go to the website to see Falke's interpretation:

This long term project documents cultural activities in what used to be some of the worlds most dangerous cities along the US/Mexican border. I photographed artists along the entire 2000 miles long divide to show the vibrant cultural side of a region that is usually portrayed by the international media with the sole focus on violent crime. The high security steel fence erected by the US over most of the 2000 miles long border did its part to create a physiological and physical barrier. This had particular significance to me ever since I moved to New York — probably because I am German and because I have lived with a wall dividing Berlin and my country until 1989.

What I particularly liked about his project are the people he captured in Nogales, Sonora — some wonderful artists we met and wrote about in a story in December 2011 on a new arts collective and the work they are doing — documentaries, murals and paintings.

However, while our heart is partial to Nogales and the images and people he captured there, Falke's photos show images that defy Brewer-manipulated stereotypes from one side of the border to the other.