Matt Condie, known in many local radio circles as “Rascal,” is the new morning show host at KTGV 106.3 FM. In the process, he becomes the station’s first on-air talent for the so-called “old-school” music format, which is more or less an R&B hits station. Think heavy (really heavy) doses of Michael Jackson mixed with Prince, Whitney Houston and Earth, Wind and Fire.

“It’s already an established brand, so it’s a format we don’t have to change,” Condie said. “The format has held its own jockless, but at this point (management) wants to work on building a big station. It’s a perfect opportunity to grow the brand of the station.”

Condie is best known in this market for morning show stints on what is now Clear Channel owned modern hip-hop format KOHT 98.3 FM and the old Power 97.5. Condie hopes that original audience will make the transition with him to “The Groove.”

“It’s the same music and the same crowd who liked that music. It’s just growing up with them now,” Condie said. “The state of modern hip hop and pop is garbage, but this is classic. This is where hip hop and pop came from, and this is what we grew up listening to. I still have the best of the Gap Band, the Earth, Wind and Fire box set. It’s when music was fun.”

The “Rascal on the Radio” morning show debuts Nov. 10.

“They’ve been looking and looking for a fit at the station,” said Condie. “I’m Program Director/Music Director/Morning guy. My philosophy is this: it’s my belief to compete music wise in this world of iPods and downloads and satellite radio, it has to be smash hit, smash hit, smash hit, and uber-local. We all live here. This is the coolest place in the country because it’s subtlely influenced by hispanic culture, but it’s not overt. Everyone in this area loves funk music. That’s what our musical taste was when we grew up. (Management is) looking for someone to focus in on the station. It’s served its purpose as sort of a united front, and now they want to niche out and make The Groove its own entity. I know the music, and I love the idea they said they want to make this station something.”

Condie’s addition makes him the sixth locally produced music-based morning show in the market. It also marks the first time in many years a music-based radio station without a local morning presence added on-air talent to its roster.

• Lily Eskelsen García, Attorney General candidate Felicia Rottelini, AEA President Andrew Morrill

You know that 6th grade teacher, the one who makes it onto people’s “all-time favorite teacher” lists because she wants nothing more than for you to be the best “you” you can be? The teacher you can’t take your eyes off of, because maybe she’s about to say something or do something great, and you don’t want to miss it?

That’s how the new National Education Association president, Lily Eskelsen García, comes across, probably because she was a teacher for 20 years. Now she’s turned that energy and enthusiasm, coupled with a thorough grasp of educational issues, toward making the country’s largest teachers union as effective an advocate for students and teachers as it can be.

Eskelsen García was in Tucson Thursday attending a fundraiser for Felecia Rotellini at a local home and a Get-out-the-vote rally at Tucson Magnet High School, her first stop on a multi-state GOTV tour. I had a chance to talk with her for what was supposed to be 10 minutes but stretched to 25, and it would have continued if the people whose job it is to keep her on schedule hadn’t pulled her away. She doesn’t believe in short answers when she’s talking about tough issues — and all issues pertaining to education are tough these days. She’s direct, plainspoken and opinionated, and she wants everyone, including President Obama and his Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, both of whom she’s had face-to-face meetings with, to know what she means in no uncertain terms.

Eskelsen García is not your typical teachers union president, or your typical teacher for that matter. Her first school job was as a lunch lady in the cafeteria. She went on to become the first college graduate in her family (she sang in bars and coffehouses to supplement her student loans), then earned a masters degree before beginning her teaching career in Utah, where she was named Teacher of the Year and went on to become president of the Utah Education Association. She took the helm of the NEA in September of this year.

Full disclosure: I was a loyal NEA member during my 30-plus year teaching career. My main complaint then was, I wanted the union to stand up for students and teachers more strongly than it did, not be so cautious. Now, in the face of constant assaults on public education, the union's caution is being replaced by a greater assertiveness, and Eskelsen García is the kind of fresh voice it needs at a time when the stakes in education are so high. At its national convention this year, the NEA called for Arne Duncan, Obama’s Secretary of Education, to resign. And in her meetings with Duncan and Obama, Eskelsen García let them know how strongly she objects to our current regimen of high stakes testing.

• Tom & Ray Magliozzi

One of public radio's first really big stars, a graduate of MIT turned car mechanic, Tom Magliozzi of Car Talk died today of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 77 years old.

While Tom and his younger brother Ray stopped doing new episodes of their famous car repair show two years ago, best of episodes still air on KUAZ 89.1 on Saturdays at 10 a.m. and Sundays at 5 p.m.

From NPR:

After getting out of college, Tom Magliozzi went to work as an engineer. One day he had a kind of epiphany, he told graduates when he and Ray gave the 1999 commencement address at their alma mater.

He was on his way to work when he had a near-fatal accident with a tractor-trailer. He pulled off the road and decided to do something different with his life.

"I quit my job," he said. "I became a bum. I spent two years sitting in Harvard Square drinking coffee. I invented the concept of the do-it-yourself auto repair shop, and I met my lovely wife."

Well, he wasn't exactly a bum; he worked as a consultant and college professor, eventually getting a doctoral degree in marketing. And Tom and Ray Magliozzi did open that do-it-yourself repair shop in the early '70s. They called it Hackers Heaven. Later they opened a more traditional car repair shop called the Good News Garage.

They got into radio by accident when someone from the local public radio station, WBUR, was putting together a panel of car mechanics for a talk show.

"They called Ray, and Ray thought it was a dumb idea, so he said, 'I'll send my brother' and Tom thought, 'Great, I'll get out of breaking my knuckles for a couple of hours.' And he went over and he was the only one who showed up," Berman says.

Today's the 60th anniversary of the release of the first Godzilla movie in Japan, a film which ended up kicking of a series of 28 cinema classics by the Toho company, including 1965's Invasion of Astro-Monster, 1992's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and 2001's Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. While let's all agree to pretend that the 1998 American reboot starring Matthew Broderick didn't happen, critics and audiences seemed to enjoy the 2014 version, although our reviewer, Colin Boyd, wasn't crazy about it.

In honor of the anniversary, the Wall Street Journal has a fun article looking back at the creation of the monster that would destroy Japan, fight other monsters and eventually take on San Francisco earlier this year:

Before signing with Toho Studios, Mr. Kaimai made a living creating life-size dolls, including those used in haunted houses in theme parks. Godzilla was his first job collaborating with a film actor. On his first day, he says, he was presented with a miniature clay model of what the beast might look like and told to get to work.

The exterior of Godzilla’s body was manufactured with rubber material. For its feet, the team came up with the idea of remodeling rubber boots. World War II had ended just nine years earlier and the only place such gear was available at the time was the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, Mr. Kaimai says.

Directors, designers, actors and producers all came up with requests and their ideas on what the beast should look like. Mr. Kaimai would add or reduce bumps on Godzilla’s skin.

“It wasn’t a fun process, to be honest. Everything was done on a trial-and-error basis,” Mr. Kaimai says. The finished prototype was a failure as well. “I knew the moment we were done, the first Godzilla suit had failed. The joints were too stiff and no one could move in it,” he says. “Plus, it weighed 100 kilograms [220 pounds].”

I'm moderately obsessed with the show Shark Tank, possibly because I'm deeply envious of a) people with great ideas and b) people with money, so imagine my excitement to find that the Tucsonans behind Bottle Breacher, a bottle opener made from 50 caliber ammunition, will be on a special veterans-themed episode this Friday.

Tucson hasn't had the best luck on Shark Tank so far, as radio personality R Dub! failed to get a deal on the show, but did find investors for Sunday Night Slow Jams after the show aired. Tucson doctors Albert and Richard Amini struck out with their RoloDoc service, to the point that Mark Cuban called the pitch the show's worst ever. And, proving that the third time isn't necessarily the charm, father/son duo Chase and Bill Hoyt struck out with the Intelli-stopper, due to the price point of their valuation.

Shark Tank airs on KGUN 9 Friday night at 8 p.m.

• Kristen Brockell
• The Stew de Mar from Saint House

In what's a particular bummer to me since I really enjoyed the food and drinks there (RIP, to the Clement Agricole daiquiri) but even more so to the owners and staff, Saint House had their last night of service Saturday night.

Nicole Flowers and Travis Reese, the owners of Saint House, will continue to operate 47 Scott and Scott and Co. downtown.

From the press release:

Located downtown on Congress and Arizona Ave, Saint House Island Bistro and Rum Bar announced its final day of service was yesterday November 1. Open since August 2013, managing company Flowers Hospitality Unlimited and landlord 5 North 5th LLC look forward to new opportunities as diners continue to flock downtown.

Proprietors Nicole Flowers and Travis Reese confess that Cuban cuisine and island-inspired seafood served in the desert Southwest was always going to be a stretch. “We tried to do something new and different with Saint House,” said Flowers. “But the focused concept just didn’t catch on the way we planned in the burgeoning downtown marketplace.”

Saint House is one of over a dozen restaurants to enter downtown’s blossoming East End. Recently, the acclaimed James Beard award winning restaurant, Pizzeria Bianco, opened on Fifth and Congress to wide and resounding reception from Tucsonans, affirming downtown’s reputation as an exciting culinary destination.

“While Saint House was a fun addition to the block, the flurry of demand for new restaurants in downtown Tucson means change is inevitable,” said landlord Scott Stiteler.

Stiteler’s renovations of the 5th Ave and Congress block are at the center of downtown’s revitalization. “Over the past two years, we have been approached by about two dozen restaurant operators who want a chance to open in one of the historic buildings,” he said.

Stiteler added that the new hotel, AC Tucson by Marriott, scheduled to break ground in early 2015, will add additional demand to the restaurant scene.

The space that opened as Saint House in 2013 will become available during the latter part of this year as Travis Reese and Nicole Flowers travel one block away to their original roots on Scott Ave between Congress and Pennington. Flowers and Reese also own and operate 47 Scott, an intimate bistro serving modern American comfort food and Scott & Co, a speakeasy style bar specializing in craft cocktails.

“The hardest thing about all of this is having to lose our staff,” said Reese. “They are knowledgable, professional and incredibly passionate. We were lucky to have them, and know they will make their future employer feel the same way.”

The pair look forward to serving the growing number of patrons at 47 Scott, adding that they “can’t wait to see what new concept joins the East End of Congress.”

47 Scott will continue to honor ALL Saint House Island Bistro and Rum Bar gift cards.

Men all over town are skipping shaving this month, but does the average guy at the barber shop know why? Our sister paper, the Explorer, asks the tough questions.