President Obama was talking about serious business on Thursday's White House manufacturing innovation event. Obama jokingly blurted out "Basically, I'm here to announce we are building Iron Man." Unfortunately, we can't tell if this was just a display of Obama's wit or the honest-to-god truth. Obama backpedaled and said, "Not really. Maybe. It's classified."

Hopefully, Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau are going to run for office and carry out the President's plans if this doesn't happen during his term.

Make my Marvel, Mr. President.

There’s plenty of great offbeat screenings in town this week, including two indy films making a stop at The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St. Both films are directed by up and coming director Geoff Marslett, who’ll be on hand to introduce ‘em, and both premiered last year at SXSW. First up is Mars, an animated film about robotic and manned journeys to the red planet after alien life has been discovered (with Tucson’s own Howe Gelb holding down the fort at mission control!). Mars plays tonight at 8 p.m., and there’s a second screening on Saturday, March 1, also at 8 p.m. Marslett’s second film is the much hyped Loves Her Gun, starring Trieste Kelly Dunn (of Cinemax’s criminally underrated series Banshee) as an NYC refugee in Texas whooping it up with Austin firearm aficionados. This plays on Friday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m. and on Saturday, March 1 at 6 p.m. Both films are $6. Check out facebook.com/tucsonfilm for more info.

The Loft Cinema is wrapping up their February series Our Fair Audrey: The Films of Audrey Hepburn, tonight with Breakfast at Tiffany’s. If you’re looking for a quality date night, you can’t go wrong with this one. Based on a novella by Truman Capote, director Blake Edwards and screenwriter George Axelrod created an endearing classic about young socialite Holly Golightly (Hepburn) finding true love in the Big Apple. Have fun trying not to bristle when Mickey Rooney shows up as a Japanese landlord. Ohhhhh boy, times were different. Sail down the “Moon River” tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets are general admission.

• TucsonFasola.com

Describing the sound of shape note singing can be difficult. But Paige Winslett, of Tucson Fasola, a group dedicated to the performance of songs drawn from some of the oldest musical traditions in America, gives it her best shot.

“I use words like haunting, unique, and kind of loud, kind of unfamiliar,” Winslett says. “But there’s no way to describe it. I usually suggest people come join us, because it’s not describable.”

Shape note singing has roots in England in the 18th century, but is most commonly associated with Sacred Harp singing, a form of a cappella gospel music associated with rural churches in the late 1700s. Sacred Harp features a special written notation, designating which notes will be sung as fa, sol, la, and mi. The sound of Sacred Harp is otherworldly, utterly mysterious sounding despite its often booming volume. Sacred Harp singing has been documented by sound archivists like Alan Lomax, featured in the 2003 film Cold Mountain, and has been explored on record by experimental band Danielson, songwriter Richard Buckner, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and others.

Tucson Fasola — founded by J.P. Thom-Gronachan in the late ‘90s — performs music Sacred Harp music every first and third Saturday at the Sonora Cohousing Common House. On Saturday, March 1 and Sunday, March 2, the group will host the annual Tucson Sacred Harp Convention. This year, the convention features the third Elder Gerald Hand Memorial Sing, celebrating the life of Gerald Hand, a Sacred Harp singer and Southwestern Baptist preacher. His grandson, Eric Morgan, an Associate Professor at New Mexico State University, travels to Tucson to teach an abbreviated singing school. His morning singing class echoes the way Sacred Harp singing spread across the United States, taught by itinerant singers as they traveled and taught rural, largely unschooled communities how to read from shape note hymnals.

• Danielle Wade as Dorothy and Jamie McKnight as Scarecrow in Broadway in Tucson's "Wizard of Oz"

Oh, sure, you say. We’ve been down that road before. (That would be the yellow brick one.) Been there. Done that. Really, haven’t we’ve been “Wiz”-ed, “Wicked”-ed and Surrender Dorothy-ed to death?

I bet you wouldn’t say that after you’ve laid eyes on the bright and bouncy Tim Rice-ed and Andrew Lloyd Webber-ed version of everyone’s favorite lost and found tale, The Wizard of Oz. Broadway in Tucson has had the good sense to lure it here to Centennial Hall, where it plays through the weekend.

Maybe you’re in a quandary. It’s perfect the way it is. Sure, you’re curious, because you’ve loved the story and Judy Garland and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and the segue of black and white into color (and how special was that?!) But, what if they screw it up?

No worries, my pretties. This thing rocks. By some wonderful wizardry they have taken the things we love about this journey of finding home by leaving it, and have made it comfortably familiar, yet charmingly fresh.

Posted on CNN.com last night, an opinion piece from Rocco DiGrazia, owner of Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria, who has undeniably become a bit of a local hero in the fight against SB 1062, with his famous sign being the first to go up when our crazyland lawmakers passed the bill in the name of religious freedom.

You can read the entire piece here, but here's a snippet and an amazing example of why Rocco's deserves our patronage, abrazos and man, he really seems to understand life in our moldy pueblo. Here's a snippet:

As well as hurting small businesses, plenty of large companies have reconsidered locating here, saying, "We'll take our dollars elsewhere." One business owner, reacting to this legislation, even told me: "Arizona is the American Uganda" — where they put gay people in jail. We have so much poverty, terrible roads, some unbelievably bad schools — and this bill is what our legislators wasted their time on.

Many Americans think they know what living on the border is like. But Tucson was long a part of Mexico until the Gadsden Purchase in 1853. Many of our old Indian, Mexican, Chinese and Anglo families here have histories that go back long before Arizona was even a territory of the United States. And as in much of the West, a live-and-let-live philosophy pervades our lives here in a real and tangible way.

This century will be one of expanding civil rights for individuals. But Prohibition, Jim Crow, Indian schools — where they tried to make Native American children abandon their identities — and anti-Chinese immigration laws are not so far in the past that we can safely ignore them. They were wrong, just like discrimination against gay people is wrong.

This legislation was ostensibly trying to protect religious freedom. A lot of Christian groups feel like they're being persecuted by our culture, and that is really what underlies this bill. But if they feel like they're being persecuted, they should try being gay for a little while.

I cannot condone discrimination against one group of people. Regardless of the kind intentions of the lawmakers to the north of Tucson that were trying to make sure I have freedom of religion, I already have it. This bill was gratuitous as well as ridiculous. I can already refuse service to anyone — and that includes any one of those several dozen Arizonans who aren't representing my views in Phoenix.

Craig Barrett, ex-CEO of Intel, is the most powerful person in Arizona education policy nobody's ever heard of, or anyway, not nearly enough people have heard of. You can read some background on Gov. Brewer's go-to, back-room adviser on education here.

Barrett is a huge supporter of education privatization, and he's deeply involved in the charter school movement. He's president and chairman of the board of BASIS charters, whose name is ever on the lips of the well funded, nationwide charter school cheerleading squad. ("Charter schools are great! Look at BASIS. And then of course there's BASIS. Did I mention BASIS?").

Barrett was interviewed recently and was asked about Common Core, which he supports, promotes and helped create. He's chairman of the board of Achieve, the nonprofit organization largely responsible for developing Common Core. A very well connected guy. In the interview, he brought up BASIS to explain why high stakes tests, an important component of Common Core, don't lead to "teaching to the test."

“I'm a CEO of a charter school organization here in Arizona. We've got two of the top five high schools in the United States. Our teachers teach subject matter. They don't teach to the tests. The kids can pass any test."

Yes, BASIS kids can pass any test, because the charters use a three-pronged selection process to guarantee their schools are filled with the best, brightest and most motivated students in the area. I've taught kids like that. The question is whether they'll simply pass the state test or score so high it's scary.

Here's what Mr. Barrett doesn't mention. He's also on the national board of K12 Inc., a for-profit, publicly traded company that runs a string of online charters including Arizona Virtual Academy. Those kids can't "pass any test." Far from it. The schools have racked up more negative press across the country than any schools I've read about, and they've earned every scathing word. You can read multiple stories about low achieving students, failing schools, the outsourcing of student essays to India to be graded, huge "churn rates" — about a third of the students leave every year — gigantic student-to-teacher ratios and stockholder suits as a result of the corporation lying about student achievement.

• Image courtesy of Shutterstock
• An image from The Canterbury Tales

Last week's column was the History of the English language in 5 Minutes, but I didn't quite make it in five, so today I'm going to finish it off—and hey, a history of English in two short columns isn't too shabby.

PHOENIX-Governor Brewer vetoed SB1062 on Wednesday night.

In a press conference in the rotunda of the 9th floor of the Executive Building, the Governor explained her reasoning for vetoing the bill.

“Senate bill 1062 does not address a specific or present concern relating to religious liberties in Arizona,” Brewer said. “I have not heard one example in Arizona where a business owner’s religious liberty has been violated.”

The announcement was received by celebration on the Capitol lawn. Groups that had come to protest began chants of “Thank you Jan!”

Among the throngs of people with rainbow flags and signs that said “Arizona is open for everyone”, Democratic legislators joined in on the celebration and encouraged people to remember this bill in November.

“I think that Gov. Brewer realized that Arizona is just now coming out of a recession. Our economic development is just now coming back.” Sen. Lynne Pancrazi (D-Yuma)

The major reason Gov. Brewer cited for killing the bill was for the effect that it would have on Arizona’s economy. Sen. Pancrazi talked about how she was around when former Gov. Evan Mecham didn’t acknowledge Martin Luther King Day and during SB1070 and how this bill was similar to those discriminatory pieces of legislation.

“People of every background, every race, every socioeconomic level, were all coming to the state of Arizona and this bill, if it were to pass, would have just cut that off and stifled it completely,” Pancrazi said.

Moments ago, I vetoed #SB1062. pic.twitter.com/gdQn0dG2vB
— Jan Brewer (@GovBrewer) February 27, 2014

She didn't answer questions, but Jan Brewer announced this evening that she vetoed SB 1062, stating that she hadn't heard a concrete example of the sort of religious discrimination the bill was designed to prevent.

The governor's comments:

Good evening, and thank you for joining me here today.

I am here to announce my decision on Senate Bill 1062.

As with every proposal that reaches my desk, I gave Senate Bill 1062 careful evaluation and deliberate consideration. I call them like I see them, despite the cheers or boos from the crowd.

I took the time necessary to make the RIGHT decision. I met or spoke with my attorneys, lawmakers and citizens supporting and opposing this legislation.

I listened . . . and asked questions.

As Governor, I have protected religious freedoms when there is a specific and present concern that exists in OUR state.

And I have the record to prove it.

My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona.

When I addressed the Legislature earlier this year, I made my priorities for this session abundantly clear…

Among them are passing a responsible budget that continues Arizona’s economic comeback.

From CEOs — to entrepreneurs — to business surveys — Arizona ranks as one the best states to grow or start a business.

Additionally, our IMMEDIATE challenge is fixing a broken Child Protection system.

Instead, this is the first policy bill to cross my desk.

Senate Bill 1062 does not address a specific and present concern related to religious liberty in Arizona. I have not heard of one example in Arizona where a business owner’s religious liberty has been violated.

The bill is broadly worded and could result in unintended and negative consequences.

After weighing all of the arguments, I vetoed Senate Bill 1062 moments ago.

To the supporters of the legislation, I want you to know that I understand that long-held norms about marriage and family are being challenged as never before.

Our society is undergoing many dramatic changes. However, I sincerely believe that Senate Bill 1062 has the potential to create more problems than it purports to solve.

It could divide Arizona in ways we cannot even imagine and no one would ever want.

Religious liberty is a core American and Arizona value, so is non-discrimination.

Going forward, let’s turn the ugliness of the debate over Senate Bill 1062 into a renewed search for greater respect and understanding among ALL Arizonans and Americans.

Thank you.

Cathi Herrod of the Center for Arizona Policy, which lead the push to pass the bill, released a statement:

Today's veto of SB 1062 marks a sad day for Arizonans who cherish and understand religious liberty. SB 1062 passed the legislature for one reason only: To guarantee that all Arizonans would be free to live and work according to their faith. Opponents were desperate to distort this bill rather than debate the merits. Essentially, they succeeded in getting a veto of a bill that does not even exist.

When the force of government compels one to speak or act contrary to their conscience, the government injures not only the dignity of the afflicted, but the dignity of our society as a whole.

SB 1062 made certain that governmental laws cannot force people to violate their faith unless it has a compelling governmental interest-a balancing of interests that has been in federal law since 1993. The religious beliefs of all Arizonans must be respected and this bill did nothing more than affirm that. It is truly a tragic day in our state and nation when lies and personal attacks can overshadow the truth.

Makers and big thinkers have been around forever. Finally, local collaborative groups like Start Up Tucson, Xerocraft and CoLab Workspace are bringing local liked minded individuals to create stuff. Last Saturday's pre-Make-A-Thon event is a perfect example of the exceptionally prolific talented folks among us. The event was "aimed at fostering creative development in the local hacker and crafter communities." Some created a sleep cycle alarm clock, chicken-wire satellite dish and the world's first Tweet-a-Cola machine.

One of the main goals of the weekend was to provide a space where groups and individuals with varying skill sets could work on an idea in a team setting that enables them to combine their different areas of expertise. The teams had many tools at their disposal, including laser cutting, wood cutting, and 3-dimensional printing provided by both Xerocraft and Maker House.

Click here to see all the inventions and vote on your favorite project. The winners will be announced at the Makeathon on Saturday, March 1, at Maker House, 283 N Stone Ave.