I did Odyssey Storytelling in April and, trust me, it is not as terrifying as it sounds. I mean, right before they call your name, your blood pressure might drop down, way down, but once you are on stage, it is dark enough to make you think you're just chatting with your friends. It also helps to have a couple of drinks beforehand.

(My friend Tony Panigua, who is a TV producer in my old stomping grounds, Arizona Public Media, kinda forced me to do it, but I'm happy to have gotten that phobia of public speaking out of the way.)

The theme for that month was rules, so I shared a few unwritten/made up rules from my weird, little country Guatemala.

Anyway, the Odyssey friends need storytellers for next month's show: Taboo. 

If you have been thinking about participating, this is a fun topic and I am kind of envious. I will be in Guatemala those days, otherwise I would sign up. I have one or two offensive stories in mind.

From the Odyssey folks:

We know that one of you out there has a story about something that NO ONE SHOULD BE TALKING ABOUT! Sex. Religion. Death. Money. Politics. If you have a story to tell, contact [email protected] or [email protected]

And we hope to see you all at this provocative show! 

Don't worry, you get to rehearse a week before the show and hear good insight from fellow storytellers.

Odyssey happens on June 4 at The Screening Room.

Come on, scratch this off your bucket list. 

Congratulations to City High School freshman Michael Fisher, who was named the winner of the Congressional Art Competition for Southern Arizona's Congressional District 2. His charcoal drawing "Raven" will hang in the U.S. Capitol for the next year and he's invited to a reception in D.C. to celebrate the winners across the country.

“I congratulate Michael and all the participants of this year’s competition for their hard work and exceptional pieces of art,” said U.S. Rep. Martha McSally. “This year’s submissions really reflected Southern Arizona’s vibrant and diverse culture, and the amount of creative pieces of art we saw highlights the immense talent of our young artists. Every student should be proud of his or her work, and I look forward to seeing all the winning pieces displayed where they will be seen by thousands of people from our district and around the country.” 

You can see the other CD2 contest entries here.

This is a story about charter school funding that flew below my radar until now. The new state budget cut a money stream for some charters, saying it would be a $6.5 million cutback during the first year of the phase-in. Now the Department of Ed is saying it'll be closer to $15 million, which will grow to $24 million in 2017 and $32 million in 2018. The privately funded Arizona Charter School Association wasn't very happy before, but now it's really, really unhappy.

What's happening is, a loophole some charters were exploiting for extra cash is being closed. The lege was right to close it, but given Republican majority's pro-charter orientation, I'm surprised it happened. Basically, charter groups with lots of schools have been getting extra money which is only supposed to go to individual schools and districts with fewer than 600 students, and the new legislation stops that from happening.

The small schools allocations makes sense. If a district has fewer than 600 students, its per-student costs are higher than bigger districts which have the advantage of economies of scale, so the state gives those small schools some extra money—even more if a district is in an isolated area. Multiple-school charter organizations have gamed the system by pretending the schools are separate entities and scrupulously keeping each school's enrollment below 600.  Senate Bill 1476 closes that loophole. If the charters are run by a single management company, if they have identical board members, if they are subsidiaries of a corporation with other subsidiaries in the state—if any of those hold true, the schools' enrollments are added together. If the total is larger than 600, they get no extra small schools money.

The change will affect BASIS, Great Hearts and Imagine charters as well as a number of other schools which are connected to other schools.

(I haven't been able to pin down how much the small school allocation amounts to per student. I know it differs by total enrollment and grade level, and I know it's got to be a sizable chunk of change if, once it's completely phased in, the total is $32 million just for those charters that are part of a larger group, but I don't know the actual amounts. I'm looking into it.)

I already mentioned I was surprised that the AZ lege would allow a cut to charter funding like this one to pass. I guess if the target is education funding, they'll even take money from their buddies, and I guess Ducey was OK with it as well. But with the new, higher number, some of them are having second thoughts.

I'm speculating here, but I wonder if the higher number had something to do with the feud between Diane Douglas and Ducey over Common Core and control of the Board of Education. It was Douglas' Department of Ed that announced the new, higher figures. My bet is, if Huppenthal were still in control, he would have figured out how to fudge the numbers down to what had been promised to the legislators. After all, he played fast and loose before when he spent more state money on the vouchers-on-steroids, aka Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, program than he was supposed to. But there's no love lost between the Governor and the Ed Supe, not to mention her running battles with the Board of Ed, which she said s conspiring with Ducey to move students from district schools to charters. So I'm thinking, when she and her staff crunched the numbers and found the cuts were more than double what the legislators had been promised, she decided to go with the higher figure. Maybe she plans to hold firm on that number, or maybe she wants to see what kind of concessions she can wring from Ducey and the Board that might help her change her mind. Can you say Bargaining Chip, boys and girls? (Does it show how much I'm enjoying this education-leadership cage match? Maybe they'll be so busy going after each other, they won't have time to do as much damage as they want to.)

Speckelo—3-years-old —Labrador Retriever Mix—F—#803363

Speckelo is one beautiful pup! This sweet girl has been with Humane Society of Southern Arizona for two months and she is ready to find her forever home! Speckelo is shy, affectionate, high energy, and loves treats. This darling girl is looking for a family that can offer her plenty of adjustment time as she can be nervous in certain situations, positive reinforcement training to keep her bright mind sharp, plenty of exercise and playtime for her adventurous side and, most importantly, love. If you are Speckelo’s perfect match, please come by HSSA today to meet her!

As you should already know (because you should have already read the introduction and started your ballot—you only have until June 15 to participate in the first round!), this year's Best of Tucson® theme is Our Ink Stained Heart. 

In case you missed it:

Tucson leaves an impression. It doesn't matter if you grew up picking cholla out of your shins or if you just stopped by for few years at the UA, Tucson pens itself on everyone. And, like the tattoos so many of us desert rats bear, we carry our Tucson with us—through the holes in the road, the sweaty summers and that gentrification our commenters love to complain about.

The fact is, Tucson has an ink stained heart—fragile, strong, in love, in pain, but definitely covered in ink. Our ink. It's true, we newspaper folk have ink-stained everything... but Tucson stains souls. We'll show you in this year's Best of Tucson®—that's the theme of our annual guide to all things good and loved in the Old Pueblo.

Now, we want to see your ink. We need to illustrate our Best Of edition and we thought, hey, maybe our readers have some tattoos that might do the trick. Now, we are specifically looking for heart tattoos (what have you got? Maybe something anatomical? Something a little abstract? Textual?)  that we might be able to use to pair with the ballot but we're also looking for some cool tattoos for the issue as well. (You have a pizza tattoo? We have a pizza category! Literary tattoo? We have several book categories! Tooth/Lisa Frank/color-by-numbers tattoos? We have—well, nothing, but we might still want them in the paper).

Despite the accolades given to Earl Sweatshirt—from his Odd Future breakthrough to his chart-topping studio debut album “Doris”—the rapper says his new record is the first thing he can fully stand behind.

Released in March, “I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside” is an introspective and often dark album, with Sweatshirt’s fluid lyrics centering on questions of identity, maturity, and communication, or the lack thereof, in human relationships.

“It’s just fully real,” Sweatshirt says. “I can point to every statement on that album and I have a picture for it, something that made me say that. It’s more like a reporter’s role.”

And while the title, which Sweatshirt came up with as he started work on the album, points at some of the struggles he’s experienced in the last couple years, it isn’t the full summary of the 10 new songs that form one of the most talked-about hip-hop albums of 2015.

“It was kind of a sarcastic play on where I was at a point in time and over time it became less sarcastic because it became real,” he says. “If you go literally by the title, it’s shortchanging the body of work because it goes a lot of different places in the human mind and the human set of emotions. It captures a lot and goes every where I can go.”

Fans of Brian Metzger's New England style eatery got some bad news on Saturday, May 16 when the restaurant announced its close via Facebook. The post from Jackson Tavern, which was located at 2900 N. Swan Road, said:

To our valued guests:
We are sad to report that effective immediately Jackson Tavern is closed.
We were excited to bring a taste of New England to Tucson and had hoped to serve our community for many years to come. Unfortunately the concept never took off the way that we thought it would and we won't have that opportunity.
We would like to thank our staff for all of their hard work.
We would like to thank our guests for all of their support, and would welcome the opportunity to serve you at Poppy Kitchen.

Metzger opened Jackson Tavern in December 2014, giving the restaurant just five months before closing on Saturday. 

Ginny Wooters, who opened Jackson Tavern as the chef originally, will be going on to run the kitchen at Commoner & Co., according to owner Nathan Ares who also owns Prep & Pastry. The Range will have more on what to expect from that new space coming this week.

As for Metzger's restaurants, Poppy Kitchen remains open with Gio Taco recently closing downtown as well. The taco fusion concept shuttered in March of this year. 

For more than 30 years, Access Tucson has given Tucsonans the opportunity to learn how to work cameras, soundboards and editing equipment to create their own TV shows for broadcast on the local cable system. And until a few years ago, the nonprofit was among the best public-access facilities in the nation.

But in the face of fiscal troubles, the city has been steadily cutting back on Access Tucson's funding—and a few weeks ago, it issues an RFP to see if a new entity wanted to create a community media center to teach video classes, manage the public-access channels, broadcast the Tucson City Council classes and create a new marketing campaign highlighting the city as a positive place to do business. There's little longterm funding for the Community Media Center and it likely won't be allowed to remain in the current downtown home of Access Tucson and Channel 12.

Yesterday, Access Tucson Executive Director Lisa Horner announced that Access Tucson would be closing on May 31. Here's her statement:

Zona Politics Eps.30 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.

On this week's Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel: Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll stops by to talk about the county budget, this year's bond proposal, the latest on the Rosemont Mine, how state budget cuts are affecting Pima County and more. Then Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich talks about the city budget, the mass transit system, potholes, the homeless and more. Watch online here or tune in at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning on KGUN-9.

It seems like ever since the Saint House shuttered its Cuban/Caribbean concept with an extensive rum bar in fall 2014, folks have been peeking in trying to figure out what the space would become. Well, you can wonder no longer because Ruben Monroy is bringing his popular upscale Mexican eatery Elvira's to the space at 256 E. Congress St. 

While initial plans set the opening date within a couple months, Monroy says he and his team have decided to completely rebuild the interior to make the space more functional for their concept. He says to expect much of what Elvira's has become known for in terms of fare with plans to "maintain 70 percent of the menu" and change the rest up.

"It's a different kind of Mexican food—it's elegant and sexy," Monroy says. "We're going to play with Latin flavors and focus on seasonal, local ingredients."

He says he's been using the Tubac location as a testing ground for the new Tucson menu, creating weekend specials that he's seeking to include on the new menu. The menu will feature the famous chile rellenos and the variety of moles from Elvira's, while incorporating fusion elements like complimentary Thai flavors and even French sauces. The bar will focus on tequila, mezcal, margaritas and Mexican wines.

"I really love the culture of wine," Monroy says. "Downtown doesn't have too many places for wines, except maybe Maynard's, which focuses on French wine."

Although Cafe Poca Cosa and Penca are both flourishing in the upscale Mexican fare and mezcal bar concept downtown, Monroy says he isn't worried about a little healthy competition. 

"The Mexican menu is endless and my menu is very different from them. We go different ways without leaving the Mexican scene," he explains. "I think competition makes you better."

One unique facet of Monroy's plans is to stay open late—like any good Latin restaurant. 

"We're not trying to close on the weekends at 9 or 10 (p.m.)," Monroy says. "We want to bring nightlife—to go a bit away from the college scene and be something more romantic."

That plan includes live, acoustic music from Cuban and other Latin musicians. 

Monroy originally operated his family's restaurant (which had been open since 1927) out of Nogales and, before re-locating to Tubac, he says his initial plan was to open Elvira's in Tucson. This location will be a realization of that initial plan, but with inspiration he's gained from his travels and work since. 

"The stars didn't align then," he says. "Now we'll be bringing a new idea from an old restaurant."

Monroy says he hopes to be open on Congress Street by November of this year.