The world of music can be a confusing place and it's hard to even keep up with all the bands that are made up of actual people, now we have Hatsune Miku, who is portrayed by a hologram and is described by her (incredibly confusing) Wikipedia page as "a humanoid persona voiced by a singing synthesizer application developed by Crypton Future Media, headquartered in Sapporo city." Miku, who has, via the computer program that creates her voice, appeared on over 100,000 songs, recently opened for Lady Gaga and has dueted (or something like it) with Pharrell.

All confusion and joking aside, this sort of technology will likely be far more prominent as time goes on (why pay a singer for your EDM track when you can just punch some keys and have Hatsune or one of her digital friends sing for you). In the meantime, here's a Japanese Domino's Pizza ad featuring our delightful imaginary pig-tailed friend and the super awkward head of Domino's:

With so much going on regarding the various marriage equality cases, Lambda Legal issued an update today to get us on the same page, rather than speculating.

Exciting times and with the flurry of court activity, it makes sense that we get ahead of ourselves. The LGBT legal advocacy organization is also live blogging updates on all the court matters here. Keep checking from time to time to see what's changed.

More from Lambda on Arizona:

On Tuesday, the 9th Circuit Court struck down the marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. On Wednesday morning there was a lot of confusion after Justice Kennedy granted a temporary motion for a stay of the 9th Circuit’s decision. After we called the Court to inquire whether that stay also applied to our case in Nevada, we were relieved when later that day Justice Kennedy issued another order clarifying that the stay was only for Idaho—clearing the way again for couples to marry in Nevada. We hope Idaho will also soon be able to join the list of states where couples are marrying. We have an additional marriage case pending in Arizona at the federal district court— which is within the 9th Circuit’s jurisdiction — and we expect the court there to rule quickly now that th e 9th Circuit has issued its decision. Other states with marriage bans in that circuit are Alaska and Montana.Once all the states in the 4th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Circuits follow the lead of their courts of appeal, same-sex couples will have the freedom to marry in 35 states and the District of Columbia — 16 more than just last week!

A series of town hall meetings on the direction and role of the UA Museum of Art begin on Tuesday, Oct. 21 for staff, faculty, students and the Tucson community.

The meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 21, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. is for faculty and staff; for students the town hall is on Thursday, Oct. 23, from 1 to 2:30 p.m.; for partners, members and donors the meeting is Wednesday, Oct. 29, 9:30 to 11 a.m.; and artists and gallery staff will meeting on Friday, Oct. 31, from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
9:30-11 a.m. There's time set aside for Tucson media, on Wednesday, Nov. 5, from 3 to 4:30 p.m.; educators on Friday, Nov. 7, from 3 to 4:30 p.m.; and then finally the Tucson community, on Thursday, Nov. 13, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

From UA:

With roots on campus since the 1930s, the University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA) is a crucial and highly visible asset and educational center on campus. We need your help to keep it that way. With the start of our new director, W. James Burns, we will be holding a series of Town Hall Meetings to hear from faculty, staff, students, and the Tucson community on their thoughts about the role and direction of the Museum of Art. We welcome all opinions, whether you are a museum regular or have never visited.

Town Hall Meetings will last 1.5 hours. Participate in a lively discussion on the future of your museum. The museum is located at 1031 N. Olive Road, next to the School of Art and at the corner of Park and Speedway. Parking is available at the Park Street Garage.

...

We welcome your opinion — if you are unable to attend on the date scheduled for the group you identify with, you are welcome to attend any town hall meeting that fits your schedule

To RSVP, go here. If you want additional info, call the museum at 621-7567 or email [email protected]; and the museum wesbite www.artmuseum.arizona.edu.

I posted an interview I did with Ana Charavin a few days ago, and here's an interview with Alec Moreno. I first heard both of them speak at an Education Accountability Session sponsored by the Pima County Interfaith Council and decided to invite them to the cable access program I host with Ann-Eve Pedersen, Education: The Rest of the Story.

Alec's story is uniquely his, but it's also similar to that of many young Tucsonans. He took advantage of educational opportunities at high school — he went to Tucson High — including classes he took through Pima Community College. He's now studying engineering at PCC and plans to continue on to UA when he earns his associate's degree.

As a retired classroom teacher, I relate more to stories like this than to administration/school board battles over budget and governance. Alec's education is where the rubber meets the road. It's the reason we have a system of public education. He found people who helped guide him toward an education suited to his particular talents and interests. Through his involvement with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers group at PCC, he's already connected with students at UA and has become a student representative to the PCC Board of Governors where he's learning life skills that go beyond his classroom learning. Whenever we focus on all the big-picture trials and tribulations of public education, we need to remember stories like Alec's, which you find duplicated at schools across the Tucson area and around the country.

• JAMES HUDSON

It’s that time of year Tucson, when the weather is about to get perfect and every events planner decides to hold their annual celebrations on the same weekend. This year, that perfect storm of fun hits Downtown Tucson on the 2nd week of October, from Friday the 10th through the Sunday the 12th, making it a great weekend for most of Tucson if you've got the day off, but those who work and live downtown may want to plan ahead before they leave the house.

Here’s a list of all of those major events and their resulting travel restrictions from the City of Tucson Department of Transportation, which wanted to remind you that all "businesses, parking garages and parking lots are open and accessible. There are over 15,000 available parking spaces in the Downtown Tucson.” Broadway Blvd will be blocked, but you can still access downtown from the north on Stone Ave, 22nd St. and Sixth Ave. from the south, and St. Mary’s Road from the west.

Tucson Meet Yourself — Beginning Thursday, October 9, 2013 at 6 p.m. until Sunday, October 12, 2014 at midnight, Church Avenue from Alameda Street to Congress Street will be closed to all vehicular traffic to accommodate exhibits and heavy pedestrian traffic attending the Tucson Meet Yourself event. Tucson Meet Yourself Festival hours are: Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information about Tucson Meet Yourself, please go to www.tucsonmeetyourself.org

On the exhibit and digital archive:

"The Documented Border" exhibit and a digital archive shares original research material collected and curated by University of Arizona faculty on the US-Mexico border. This innovative open access archive documents personal stories of journalists who have been silenced and government processes that cannot be videotaped or photographed.

Contributing faculty include Celeste González de Bustamante and Jeannine Relly from the Center for Border and Global Journalism and the School of Journalism, Lawrence Gipe from the School of Art, and Verónica Reyes-Escudero, borderlands curator from Special Collections, and Erika Castaño, digital archivist with the University Libraries. The yearlong collaborative project was funded by the Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry at the University of Arizona.

One day after criticizing an NRCC ad for co-opting her name and image (and just as early voting is set to begin), Gabby Giffords stars in a new ad from Americans for Responsible Solutions that backs Congressman Ron Barber in his race against Republican challenger Martha McSally. Leaving aside the political message, it's amazing and wonderful to see how far Gabby has come in her recovery. Once again, Gabby Giffords continues to inspire.

Back in 2013, when Eric Swedlund wrote about a Golden Boots show on the Congress patio, he said that Golden Boots "have been a bit of mystery the last couple years, sharing co-frontman Dimitri Manos with the heavy-touring Dr. Dog" and that hasn't seemingly changed recently, although they did play a show at Congress in April and have some new shirts for sale.

But hey, Dimitri's got a new solo project, American Monoxide, which we'll write more about later, I imagine, and there's a new video for the song "Tropical Tripwire," which you can enjoy above. You can hear the debut cassette on Bandcamp now.

Unfortunate news for fans of Mexican rock, but Thursday's Maldita Vecindad at the Rialto has been postponed until December (with a specific date to be announced next week). Hang on to your tickets until more info is available.

I'm not entirely sure why you would want this, but the British telecom company Orange (why can't our cell phone companies have more pleasant names? I like orange the color, I like oranges the fruit. AT&T are all fine as letters, I guess, but together they don't do much for me) has built a seemingly fancy website that allows you to chat with a representation of what you'll possibly look like in twenty years. I assumed I'd be dead, but hey, apparently I'll be wearing sweaters with collared shirts underneath. Things are looking up!

You can talk to the wax-like visage of you in 2035 if you'd like, although it was not super helpful with lottery numbers or winners of future sporting events. So, lower your expectations in advance.