Chumps & Gertie: A Streetcar Romance from Brink on Vimeo.

The whole Modern Streetcar thing seems to be working out better than nearly anyone (other than Steve Farley, perhaps) expected and part of that seems to be the fact that our city has embraced the vehicle's ability to make the corridor that it travels seems like one cohesive place. When you don't have to get in and out of your car, find a space to park, etc. etc., Main Gate Square and the Mercado basically seem adjacent to each other.

In that spirit, the super clever folks at Brink put together a short film featuring the slice of Tucson along the Streetcar route, themed around a Harold Lloyd-style silent film romance. It's as charming as it sounds.

Brink's website has a recap of how they put the video together:

When we first were approached to pitch a concept for a video about the Tucson Streetcar, we were just one month away from opening day (which was slated for July 25th).

On June 26th, we met with the Friends of the Streetcar and collectively decided we couldn’t just do a slideshow. Whatever we did had to have “big city sizzle.” So what was originally just a gig that required collecting unique images had now become a huge project.

We hashed out some ideas, hit some roadblocks with the approval process and then finally on July 14th we got the green light for a proposed film (a slapstick comedy, following a smitten boy’s mad dash along the streetcar route). Now the big work would really begin. Our team was tasked with permitting, casting, scripting, filming and editing a film that highlighted each of the Sun Link stops, captured the character of the city and showcased the streetcar experience, to be viewed on projectors at the launch parties.

The result of our efforts would be a 10 minute film that used storytelling and humor to introduce the streetcar to the public. It had the charm only a local firm based in the city could capture and we executed it at a pace few could match.

You have to applaud the hustle of the Southwest Terror Fest guys. They've consistently expanded their event, bringing in bigger and bigger acts and have worked incredibly hard to promote the shows on basically every media platform imaginable (there's a Terror Fest Tumblr!). In a town that sometimes lacks ambition, their hustle is encouraging. Anyhow, we'll have more on the shows starring Sunn O))), Neurosis and others in this week's issue, but for now, get into the spirit with the above Spotify playlist, which samples a few tracks from the bands on the multi-day lineup.

It promises to be a hot time in the ol' district Tuesday night, at least for TUSD junkies. At the Tuesday night board meeting, the financial report for the 2013-14 school year will be presented. According to Mark Stegeman's constituent newsletter, the cash reserves — the amount left over to give the district some room to deal with unforeseen expenses — were about $10 million at the end of that school year, down from $14 million in cash reserves left by previous superintendent John Pedicone at the end of the 2012-13 school year. You can expect CFO Karla Soto to report that the cash reserves were significantly higher than Stegeman's estimate.

You can take a look at the Annual Financial Report for the 2013-14 school year here. It's way above my pay grade, so I won't try to interpret it too closely. Any brave souls or CPAs out there, feel free to dig in.

The question is, if there's a serious disagreement in the numbers, who should you believe, Mark Stegeman or H.T. Sanchez? The answer is, this isn't about belief. Budgets aren't religious documents. Let's see what the numbers show and try to make a reasonably objective assessment of what they mean. Remember, it's election season, and the spinmeisters are out in force on all sides. (I was planning to dress up as a spinmeister for Halloween, but I don't know what they wear.)

• Photo by Steven Dewall

The New Pornographers start with classic pop, crank the energy, add some wallop and a few wild flourishes.

That’s been the basic formula since the band’s 2000 debut “Mass Romantic,” but on the new, fantastic “Brill Bruisers,” The New Pornographers found themselves pushing the music to new heights.

“This is the first record where we really had an idea going in to it of what we wanted to do,” says frontman Carl Newman. “We new we wanted to belike the New Pornographers slightly super charged. Everything a bit more extreme.”

The band’s intentions shine through from the first peek at the cover art, with the band’s name in bold block type and the album title overlaid in scripted, multi-colored neon.

“The big black letters are like the rock foundation, the guitar bass and drums and then the neon is all the crazy synths that are flying around it,” says Newman. “When I think about it, “Brill Bruisers” is a pretty decent title for our career, the sort of songs we write. If you use Brill to mean the Brill Building and Bruisers to mean our songs, we’ve always taken this blueprint of classic pop and warped it and revved it up.”

Republican Rep. Ethan Orr probably couldn't get marijuana/PTSD researcher Sue Sisley reinstated at the UA if he tried, but convincing his pot-paranoid fellow lawmakers to decriminalize marijuana to refill the state treasury?

Well, a guy can try—after all it's election season. Orr happens to be running for re-election for his District 9 seat.

Orr is looking at Colorado, which recently made marijuana legal and taxes, licenses and fees have brought the state more than $7 million so far.

H/T Arizona Republic:

Revenue projections provided Tuesday to the Legislature's Finance Advisory Committee predict the state will end this budget year with a $520 million deficit and an up to $1 billion deficit in the coming fiscal 2016.

"Given the massive budget shortfall we're facing, we need to look at revenue and I think this is a logical place we need to look," Orr said. "I think it's time to have an intelligent conversation about it (legalization)."

Similar attempts to decriminalize pot have failed in recent years.

Orr said lawmakers should consider his proposal before supporters of an effort to legalize recreational marijuana take their measure before voters in 2016.

The Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona initiative almost certainly will be modeled after the voter-approved marijuana program in Colorado.

For about a year, Colorado has allowed adults 21 and older to buy and possess up to an ounce of pot, which can be purchased at one of the many marijuana shops allowed under the law.

Colorado's 2013 measure taxed recreational marijuana at 25 percent and earmarked $40 million in tax revenue for school construction.

The state's Legislative Council recently estimated Colorado can expect to bring in about $175 million through the fiscal year that ends in 2017.

All this marijuana election-season talk is on the heels of the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona getting permission from the state to start raising campaign funds for their citizen's initiative to legalize marijuana to go before voters in 2016.

If you thought the Americans for Responsible Solutions "stalker" ad or the Wendy Davis wheelchair spot were tough, how about an ad accusing the Republican Party of helping the spread of Ebola via their cuts to the Center for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health and other government healthcare organizations?

However, it's not just a Democrat-friendly PAC making this claim, but also the head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, in an interview with the Huffington Post:

"NIH has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001. It's not like we suddenly woke up and thought, 'Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here,'" Collins told The Huffington Post on Friday. "Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would've gone through clinical trials and would have been ready."

It's not just the production of a vaccine that has been hampered by money shortfalls. Collins also said that some therapeutics to fight Ebola "were on a slower track than would've been ideal, or that would have happened if we had been on a stable research support trajectory."

"We would have been a year or two ahead of where we are, which would have made all the difference," he said.

So, should Republicans take some responsibility for their love of budget cuts, usually symbolized in speeches by some seemingly-ridiculous research study about mice or something, but that also attacks lifesaving work by the NIH, CDC and others?

Paul Berry, the Executive Director, News and Engagement at the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader (and, full disclosure, a guy I'm Facebook friends with) wrote an editorial in his paper's Sunday edition about why they're dumping mugshot galleries:

I'd been thinking lately about the mug shots and our role as the community newspaper. As I've said countless times since getting here, our success hinges on our ability to produce quality journalism that impacts our community.

Good journalism seeks to bring clarity to confusion, helps us ask informed questions and provides us with the information we need to make informed decisions for our families, businesses and communities.

We've been struggling with how these galleries fit into our approach. While they serve as a record of arrests in our area, they raise significant questions. Was the arrest justified? Were formal charges filed? What is the condition of the person arrested?

Without proper context, the galleries serve as little more than a place for people to gawk at those who have been arrested. Many of those who are arrested need our community's help, not our ridicule.

[...]

We'll continue to report on the serious crimes against people in our community, as you've come to expect from us. And we won't shy away from holding people accountable for their actions, including publishing their photos.

But for now, mug shots are a machine we won't be turning back on again.

I've made this point before, and while I know the clickbait value of these slideshows (LOL PERSON AT THEIR WORST MOMENT LOL), it seems like newspapers, as Paul wrote, as agents charged with bringing "clarity to confusion" should probably avoid being in the business of shaming people who are still innocent until proven guilty.

Do these photos help you live a better life? No. Help you be a better member of your community? Not really. Inform you in any manner whatsoever unless you just happen to recognize someone in the photostream (and even then, you're only ahead in knowing that they were arrested, not if the case was resolved somehow)? Nope.

In fact, many of the Star's mugshots are from Maricopa County, which sort of invalidates the idea that posting these photos is some sort of community service. Even the wire-service-supplied weekly slideshow of NFL cheerleaders, which has zero news value and should be somewhat embarrassing for a theoretically serious newspaper to host, at least doesn't infringe on our basic values of justice.

Now that the paywall is up (more or less) for the Star, shouldn't they be able to dump the most absurd traffic-baiting features? First up, learning from the example of the Springfield News-Leader, should be the mugshots.

Yes, we endorsed Fred Duval in the governor's race in this week's issue and yes, we probably should make sure the ice cream guy doesn't win, but if any media outlet in town should appreciate a quixotic, doomed and basically imaginary run for office, it would be the Tucson Weekly, home of Project White House, the movement of democracy that frightened the status quo so much that they changed the law.

So, in that spirit, maybe we could also suggest considering a write-in vote for W.D. Reyes, who is running a social-media campaign that's racked him up 88 likes on Facebook so far, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Sure, he's not actually signed up as a write-in candidate, but let's not let those technicalities halt progress. Plus, he has a snappy webpage and that's probably a better qualification that some paperwork Ken Bennett makes you sign.

Part of what makes Reyes so appealing is his honesty. He's faced some troubles (that seem remarkably similar to those of other public officials), but he's putting a positive spin on his mistakes:

Supports Local Economy

In January 2014, Reyes and his wife were indicted on 14 counts of corruption. He is alleged to have accepted over $165,000 worth of gifts from a tobacco entrepreneur in return for giving a conglomerate political aid. He used campaign contributions to fund an all-expenses-paid New York trip and shopping binge, a $50,000 two-year loan, and multiple lavish dinners and luxuries. His wife claimed that they were bankrupt. He is now known as the first governor facing criminal charges in Virginia’s 250 year history.

Supports Women in the Workforce

W.D. Reyes only lasted for six months as Mayor of San Diego before rampant allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment came to light. Three of his long-time supporters called for his resignation based on allegations that he had sexually harassed female staff members. While apologizing via video statement, he also claimed innocence and said he was seeking help for his behavior and would not resign. A total of 19 women stepped forward to continue allegations. Then he had the gall to ask the city to pay his legal fees regarding the sexual harassment lawsuit, which city council voted against. Reyes resigned and faced one felony count of false imprisonment and two misdemeanor battery charges, reaching a plea bargain for three months house arrest and three years probation.

We're listening, Candidate Reyes. You might just get our revised endorsement yet.

Not that you don't have enough to see in movie theaters in the next week or so (Skeleton Twins! Kill the Messenger! Gone Girl! The Loft Film Festival! Left Behind...well, maybe not that one), but if you want to see Harmontown, a documentary about Community creator Dan Harmon and the "concert" tour he embarked on after being fired from the show he created (before eventually getting it back).

The AV Club gave the film a B, if that helps:

In a cliché so pronounced it couldn’t work anywhere but in a documentary (and even then, it’s sometimes a stretch), it turns out that Harmon only wants to be loved. So after being fired from Community after its third season, he decides to take his warts-and-all podcast on the road in order to connect with his small but very worshipful fan base. The shows come across as shambolic but somehow magical: Harmon is joined onstage by his co-host Jeff Bryan Davis and a fantastic, plucked-from-obscurity sidekick named Spencer Crittenden, whose chief job is Dungeon Master for onstage Dungeons & Dragons games. The shows are frequently drunken revelries, with Harmon talking about whatever pops into his head, unfiltered, as well as doing some impromptu singing and crowd surfing. It feels like an inclusive celebration, with a beloved, drunken ringmaster at the center.

Harmontown screens at the Loft tonight at 7 p.m. Regular admission prices apply.

Yes, I get it, it's Monday and some of you have real jobs to go to tomorrow, but if you can duck in a bit late on a Tuesday morning, may I humbly suggest you see Poliça tonight?

Here's what I wrote in Soundbites this week:

However, I am personally super excited for the opportunity to see Poliça again on Monday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. ($15, all ages). The Minneapolis group played Congress in 2012 and blew me away with their double-drummer, bass, synths and singer-through-a-million-waves-of-effects sound. Plus, they played a Keith Sweat cover, which is the key to my heart. They manage to be seductive, weird and paranoid all at the same time and while their records are a great listen, the live show is something else entirely. More info at hotelcongress.com.