Herm, who clearly doesn't have enough going on, is launching a new night of dancing and frolic at Flycatcher tonight: "COLD SWEAT, a funk and soul getdown."

To get a sense of what sort of soul jams you might hear tonight starting at 10 p.m., we asked Herm for his Cold Sweat top five:

• Brenton Wood “Gimme Little Sign”
A tasty morsel of sweet soul, the man’s specialty. Not necessarily a dance floor filler, but one that helps set the mood just right.

You remember how excited you were about the World Cup? Went to a bar in the middle of the day to watch matches, pretended that you understood the offside rules? A bunch of the members of the US National Team (Clint Dempsey, Jermaine Jones, Graham Zusi, Matt Besler, Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando) are coming to town as part of the fourth annual Desert Diamond Cup from Wednesday, Feb. 18 to Saturday, Feb. 28. This year, the Colorado Rapids, Montreal Impact, New England Revolution, Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders and (at least for awhile) the reigning MLS champions Sporting Kansas City will be playing preseason matches at the fields of Kino North Stadium.

General admission tickets will be $18, allowing the lucky soccer fan to see three matches in one night. More info at fctucson.com.

The Twitter-sphere was alive this week with the sound of celebrities taking marker to poster board for #HeForShe selfies shortly after Emma Watson's United Nation's speech on Saturday on gender equality.

But maybe a simple hash tag campaign and that Hermione was put one some feminist pedestal didn't sit right with you either?

Mia McKenzie of the blog, Black Girl Dangerous, explained it perfectly in her recent post:

I think one thing Ms. Watson was kinda sorta but not really getting at was the idea that femininity, whether expressed by women or men (or genderqueer people, I guess, but who knows because they don’t exist in this UN speech or the “HeForShe” campaign), is what gets the short end of the stick in the world. Femininity is seen as weakness and is hated and abused. That’s valid and very, very important, but she didn’t say any of that, doesn’t appear to have a solid analysis of that yet, and it’s a reach to suggest that’s what will come across to most people who listen to her speech.

So, can we please stop trying to make Emma Watson the new feminist icon of the universe? She’s not there yet. She’s still learning, I think, just like Beyoncé, who, by the way, rarely even gets the benefit of the doubt from white feminists, let alone hailed as feminist queen of all things, when her feminist expressions are less than perfect. (Imagine if Beyoncé got up at the UN and gave a speech that centered men in the fight for gender equality. The white mainstream feminist skies would rain down hellfire upon us all. Well, some of us, anyway.)

I hope that as Emma Watson continues to grow into her feminism she’ll chuck these unfortunate approaches. But, frankly, it’ll take a lot more than that for me to see her as the “game-changing” feminist she’s being called. Where’s her analysis of racial justice and its necessity in ending gender inequality? What does she know about misogynoir? Does she understand that wealthy white women like her are often oppressors of women of color and/or poor women in the world? Where’s her understanding of transfeminism? Can she explain to the UN, or anyone else, why violence against trans women needs to be centered in our work against misogyny? Does she know and can she articulate that ableism is woven into not only gender inequality, but every form of oppression that exists? And, importantly, does she understand that as a white woman she is granted access and taken seriously by mainstream feminism in ways that a woman of color wouldn’t be and why, then, it’s necessary for her to step aside and make room for women of color to be heard if gender inequality is ever to be eradicated? Because any real “game-changing” feminist needs to.

This is the second year that some smart and creative folks have designed and built a guitar to support the All Souls Procession - remember that the Procession happens entirely from donations, no sponsors or government support - and considering the work (by DJ Odious, Doc Hudson Guitars and Moises Orozco) that went into this stunning thing, the $5 it costs to get into the raffle seems like a bargain.

Tech stuff for people who have some idea what this stuff means, from the raffle's website:

Solid Mahogany body — hand-rolled fretboard — Flamed Maple 24 3/4″ scale Neck — Medium jumbo frets — Grover style tuning machines — GFS Power Rail humbucking Pickups (15.8K bridge and 10K neck) — Top-loading Hardtail Bridge — CTS Pots — Sprauge Orange-Drop tone Capacitor — Switchcraft Jack.

More info from the guitar's builder, Simon Davenport, via Facebook:

I spent the afternoon test-driving the thing through a two-channel tube amp and a 2X12 speaker cab. As gorgeous as it LOOKS - it sounds and plays even better. There were times while building it that I wished I'd gone with basswood for the body instead of mahogany. Its lighter and MUCH easier to work (its a softer wood, closed cell structure, with similar tonal characteristics) but having played it I'm glad I didn't! I played, blues, rock, pop, jazz, even (forgive me!) "Smoke on the Water". It handled all of them with ease. I didn't try country or death metal - not genres I've spent any time with. The overwound pick-ups LOVE an overdriven amp - sustains forever. Stick it in the clean channel and its clear, warm, and articulate (also with great sustain) with a nice balance between the bridge and neck pickups. Even rolling the tone all the way down it refused to get muddy. The maple bolt-on neck even lets you pull a nice Fender-like quack that makes me think it'd work fine for country - It'd be interesting to see that! But I built it, so I'm not exactly an unbiased opinion - I'm looking forward to other guitarists playing it and getting their views.

Tickets go on sale this weekend, with the winner announced at the Dance of the Dead event at the Rialto on November 9. You can pick up tickets at PopCycle, Borderlands Brewing, Tucson Thrift Shop, 5 Points Market and at various events around town. Follow the raffle on Facebook for more info.

Tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 26, is the final deadline to submit three-dimensional art work for the Cardboard Ball, which takes place, Saturday, Sept. 27, 7 p.m. To submit your art work, from noon to 8 p.m., go to Maker House, 283 N. Stone Ave. Tucson artist Mykl Wells will be there to take your beautiful work.

Now hopefully, you're also working on your cardboard costumes. At my house we have run out of glue sticks and I think I cut my right pinky, but life goes on. You can still get your Cardboard Ball tickets at Maker House, Yikes or Pop-Cycle for $10 (if you hurry), but if you forget to get them in advance, you can get them at the door for $15.

Wells, who organizes the ball, is a co-founder of the All Souls Procession. The ball helps raises needed funds for a series of weekend community workshops Wells runs all next month to help people build the entries, memorials, masks and lanterns—really anything they want specifically for the All Souls Procession. They are amazing workshops. Mykl is very helpful and his beautiful mom is often on hand to help folks out. While we can talk about the All Souls being a true community-inspired event, the workshops Mykl organizes lead up to that really all in the spirit of building community and culture. It's actually what I'd say is another good example of what you can do in Tucson to "walk the talk" we so often love to claim around these parts.

So, really, consider coming to the Cardboard Ball to help kick off the workshop and celebrate community. Last year, I believe our friend Daniel Buckley wore a box from a Coca-Cola 12-pack. You don't have to go crazy (even though my household is, at least a little).

Want to understand where Mykl is coming from in his work? I really recommend an interview on the Many Mouths One Stomach site done by All Souls Procession volunteer Jhon Sanders. It's a great interview with Mykl that gets into the history of All Souls and the heart of Mykl's workshops.

From Sanders' interview:

Probably one of the key elements to a healthy and happy individual —a happy life, a good life— is….before things like health and food and shelter, is actually the efficiency of the community working together. Can people gather together around a common cause and do something about it? Can they organize? Can they work effectively together? And I would say that’s probably one of the greatest strengths in this, that it’s this intense community-building thing, and it really has this powerful ability to break down barriers between people. It doesn’t matter if you’re conservative or liberal, or this or that, whatever….everyone shares this stuff in common, this is universal. And in the workshops especially: when you come together to build things, the focus is on the project, it’s not on who you are or what you’re doing. It gives people this opportunity to work together and really bridge the gaps that occur between us. It brings our community much tighter together.

Those people, when they walk out of there, they have much more of an experience than just making a mask or whatever; they’ve worked with other people, they talk, they bond. I know lots of people who’ve made friendships in the workshops that have lasted for years. I also know that just seeing other people do these things is inspirational. “Oh…they just put together this thing and they did it. We could put together something and do it”. You see a lot of smaller cultural events popping up out of this greater Procession community. And that is the essence of building community, that right there.

I’m not very big on organizing people, but what I’m very big on is trying to spread a culture. To me it’s really about creating a culture of collaboration and creativity, and getting people excited about that. You don’t get sailors by offering them money, you make them yearn for the open sea, right? I’m paraphrasing there. But, so, to create this community you don’t do it by saying, “Okay! We’re going to build a community!” You say, we’re going to build an amazing Procession. We’re going to give you opportunites to create with other people. You create the incentive and th yearning to be part of something bigger and to work well with others. I don’t think I could have organized the workshops to function as well as they have if I hadn’t done it from a cultural approach as opposed to an organizational approach. Instead of trying to impose this rule on it, you instead create a culture of openness, and non-judgement, and creativity, and you show people how to do things but you let them make their own things. It pretty much self-organizes if you let it. People want to contribute to that. People feel like they’re getting something out of it. And they are.

I've clearly reached that age where one finds young people and many of their interests confusing, so the idea that I would choose to listen to music on cassette is wildly befuddling to me (Hey, do you miss when you couldn't really skip songs without a significant hassle? Me neither!), but hey, if you enjoy antiquated methods of listening to music, you'll be psyched to hear about Cassette Store Day, happening this Saturday, Sept. 27.

Zia Records will have many, many cassettes available for purchase from people you've likely heard of, including They Might Be Giants, Karen O (from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Julian Casablancas (of the Strokes), the Circle Jerks, friend of Tucson Robyn Hitchcock, Testament and of course, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees PIZZA and their immediate classic "#funeral".

However, if you're trying to keep things a bit more local purchase-wise, Zia will have a compilation called You Heard Us on Cassette Vol. 2 for sale, featuring bands from their three markets - Tucson, Phoenix and Las Vegas, with tracks by Brian Lopez (“Modern Man”), Prom Body (“Money (I Hate You)”) and Chicha Dust (“Como Un Ave”).

If you'd like a preview, you can listen to the cassette comp on Soundcloud now:

More info about Cassette Store Day at the event's website.

One thing I really appreciate about the Rialto is that you get some strange back-to-back-nights show combos there...one night it might be a flamenco-inspired guitar act, the next, the Insane Clown Posse. They just book acts people might want to see and people in Tucson tend to want to see interesting stuff.

Tonight, you get one of those weird genre collisions on the same night, as Buckwheat Zydeco plays the early show and Easy Star All Stars play the late show (and if you want, you can see both shows for one ticket price).

Here's what I wrote in Soundbites last week:

An interesting double-bill of sorts at the Rialto on Thursday, Sept. 25 with two shows on the same night—Louisana legend Buckwheat Zydeco at 6 p.m. and reggae cover artists Easy Star All Stars performing later that evening. If you enjoy fun, you'd probably be into Buckwheat Zydeco who has been playing music for an exceptionally long time, but focusing on the accordion in the late '70s. Zydeco is about the most danceable music out there, so expect to see a lot of people shuffling around the Rialto's floor.

Easy Star All Stars is something else entirely, a reggae band largely created to create covers of popular albums in the Jamaican style, most recently a take on Michael Jackson's "Thriller," but probably most famously their album "Dub Side of the Moon," which they'll perform at the Rialto front-to-back. It sounds a little cheesy (especially considering there are a ton of third-rate "[Fill in genre here] tribute to [popular band] albums out there), but the band's legit and even deeply cynical music critic types have generally agreed that the Easy Star takes hold up on their own. For what it's worth, their version of Radiohead's "Let Down," featuring Toots of the Maytals is one of my favorite covers ever.

Opening for Easy Star, Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, who have an incredibly ridiculous name, but play a really interesting take on contemporary reggae with a good chunk of jam band culture thrown in. My general beef with these sort of bands is that there are barely songs there underneath the jamming and aesthetic, but GPGDS's songwriting holds up, especially on their new material from the album, "Steady," coming out at the end of the month.

You can get just a ticket for the Easy Star show ($15), but for $24, you can see Buckwheat as well. Hell of a deal. More info at rialtotheatre.com.

Narco News, which has been loyally persistent in getting word out about their friend Gary Webb, his work and the upcoming movie starring Jeremy Renner as Webb, Kill the Messenger, has a new story by Bill Conroy out today, which allows his family to explain what happened and how they feel about the movie.

It's another great read on Webb from Narco News that's worth your time. Also seems worth noting, too, is that Nick Schou's book the movie is based on, "Kill the Messenger: How the CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb," is on Audible and read by Chuck Bowden.

Now that's got to be a damn gift right there, right?

From Conroy:

Also important to the family is the fact hat the people involved in making the movie are invested in the project, and care about the events portrayed in the movie. It wasn’t just a money grab for them, the family says.

“When we were at the filming in Atlanta, they were talking about how the actors and actresses, and everyone involved in the movie, were doing it because they care about it, not just for the money,” Christine says. “Someone said we’re basically calling up actors and actresses on family vacation asking them if they want to come to hot, humid Atlanta for $8 to film a movie.”

“They’re not getting paid much,” Sue adds, “and Oliver Platt cancelled his vacation to do the part because he really wanted to play [Mercury News Executive Editor] Jerry Ceppos so much.”

She says it was clear to her that Jeremy Renner also has put his heart into the project. “He spent so much time with us in Atlanta [where the film was shot], had lunch with us, warmed up to us, gave us hugs, and he was so excited about it, and moved by it too,” she says.

Sue is particularly impressed with another aspect of Kill the Messenger: The fact that it gets the story right.

“We’re just so happy Gary’s going to be vindicated, and he is in the movie. The core of the movie is right. The truth is there.

“I think Gary would have liked it. I think he would have really liked the movie, and been so excited about it,” Sue adds.

“It just feels right,” Ian says. “It makes everybody who was bad look bad, and everyone who was good look good. It just serves everyone a little bit of justice.”

Congrats to the gentlemen at Borderlands Brewing Company, as they're the latest Tucson brewery to go the route of retail, canning about 400 cases or so of their Noche Dulce vanilla porter in 16 ounce cans to be sent around town. Look for it in stores starting this weekend, but in full force next week or so. The suggested retail price for four cans will be in the $12 range and you'll be able to pick them up at Total Wine, Plaza Liquors, 1702, Tap and Bottle, Rumrunner, Magee Road Liquors and elsewhere around town.

Based on past experiences speaking in front of the Arizona Board of Regents, a group of military veterans looking to protest the firing of Sue Sisley were worried they'd be turned away or not allowed to speak during the call to audience at today's ABOR meeting.

We talked to Sean Kiernan, founder of Veterans for Doctor Sue Sisley MD & PTSD Research, for our story last week about a sent a letter he sent to ABOR asking for an independent review "surrounding the termination" of Sisley. He did just that, along with about 15 others—a mixed group of other veterans, nonvets and activists—all asking for Sisley to be reinstated and more transparency from the UA on her termination.

"Everything went well," Kiernan said, adding that everyone was respectful, including police in attendance, as well as ABOR members.

No decision was made at the meeting, but Kiernan was told a video of the meeting would be archived and available soon. We'll post that video on the range as soon as ABOR makes it public.