Writer-director Ale Abreu did his own drawings and paintings for this animated film, nominated for a Best Animated Film Oscar this year.

Boy and the World tells the story of a little boy who goes on a big, color bursting journey in search of his dad, and it’s not your standard animated movie. The film consists of pencil doodles, collages, crayon drawings, water paints and other mediums, strung together in a manner that flows surprisingly well.

The film contains almost no dialogue, and when characters do speak it’s in a make believe language. It’s full of vibrant music, and creative imagery. The story isn’t necessarily linear, and often told in impressionistic ways. In other words, it doesn’t have your standard beginning, middle and end.

It’s very dreamlike, and even a little scary at times. It also qualifies for multiple interpretations (I rather like my personal explanation for the ending, that of which I won’t give away here). Abreu must’ve had a blast drawing his many pictures for the movie, and it’s certainly a blast to watch them come to life. It doesn’t stand a chance at this year’s Oscars, but it does deserve a chance for you to see it. 

#Italy and the #Alps last night were breathtaking! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/Sgbkb1CPA4

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) January 26, 2016

Gizmodo collected highlights from astronaut Scott Kelly's weekend Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. One, of course, involves the space station's toilet:

When asked what the creepiest thing he’s encountered on the job, Kelly admitted, “Generally it has to do with the toilet.” Considering the previous horror stories we’ve heard of floating messes or broken toilets creating a vacuum seal, we’re not surprised. But he still managed to add something novel and gross to the collection: “Recently I had to clean up a gallon-sized ball of urine mixed with acid.” Why acid? It’s added to the urine to keep it from clogging the system or damaging machinery. Ew.

Read the whole thing here.

Here's the background. Gov. Ducey wants us to vote in $300 million a year to fund K-12 schools. His plan is controversial because he wants to use money from the state land trust and put in all kinds of economic triggers that could cut the extra funding back to zero. And it's money the state already owes the schools by court order—actually only 70 percent of what the state owes. So Ducey shouldn't be patting himself on the back proclaiming he supports education—which, of course, hasn't stopped him from going on a 24/7 "I support education" public back patting tour.

But for now, let's put everything aside but that one figure: $300 million added to school funding.

Money matters in education despite protests to the contrary from the "Don't throw money at education" crowd. And our per student funding level is very low compared to most other states. The census puts us in 49th place. Bottom line, we need more funding.

How much more? I went through the figures in a post last week, so I won't repeat the details here. The fact is, if we want to reach 46th place in per student funding, tied with Tennessee, we need to add a billion dollars a year. Let me say that again. If we want to move up three notches and only have 45 states spend more money to educate each of their children than we do instead of the current 48, we need to increase our total K-12 spending by $1 billion a year. Including the $300 million Ducey is recommending, we have another $700 million to come up with.

No matter how you play with our current surplus and the rainy day fund, there's no way Arizona can add $700 million a year to its education budget and sustain it year after year. Yet somehow, other states manage to spend considerably more than we do, even states with similar average incomes and poverty levels, so it's not ridiculous to say we can do it as well. But there's only one way to make the numbers work, unless you believe in magic ponies. Raise taxes.

There it is, the dreaded T word.

I'm not expecting to get any love from Ducey and the rest of the Republican office holders for my suggestion that we raise taxes. But the sad thing is, Democrats don't think much of the idea either, or at least that's what they say in public. When Democratic legislators held a press conference before Ducey's State of the State Address, they explained how to raise school funding without raising taxes, because as everyone knows, you shouldn't be for higher taxes. How do we know that? Because Republicans and Democrats both tell us all the time, that's how. Democrats, are supposed to believe in science, facts and basic arithmetic, not magic ponies, and they say correctly, we need more funding, not just for schools but for child services and road repair and other things we've been slighting for years, but they say they can do it without raising taxes. True, Democrats want to bring in a little more money—not nearly enough, but a little more—by ending some tax breaks. But new taxes? Who needs 'em?

Hey there! I'm Red!

I have lived at the Humane Society of Southern Arizona for over three months and I’m really ready to find my forever home!

I know that my perfect family is out there somewhere, I just have to be patient! I’m looking to be a great companion for a family, I’m very loyal and love to snuggle.

If you or someone you know is interested in giving me the love and home I deserve please stop by HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. to meet me. I'll be here waiting.

See ya soon,

Red 815248

The 5th Wave is based upon the young adult novel by Rick Yancey, the first in a trilogy. God willing, this movie will be the only one to receive a movie adaptation.

Further cinematic installments will cause me to punch myself in the face and hurt my standing at the workplace, in social gatherings, etc.

Chloe Grace Moretz plays Cassie Sullivan, a normal teenage girl who drinks beer at parties, drools over high school football guy Ben Parish (Nick Robinson) and calls the guy from Office Space (Ron Livingston) dad. Things go from routine to wacky for Cassie when a big metal spaceship thing parks over Ohio and starts messing with the human race in “waves.”

The first wave involves an electromagnetic pulse that knocks out all power and renders PlayStation 4 useless, while the second wave brings earthquakes and tsunamis. The third wave involves plague, while the fourth includes survivors battling with aliens in human hosts. The fifth wave…well, that’s a mystery. A mystery you will solve really quick if you put forth even the slightest effort. Liev Schreiber and Maria Bello chime in as military personnel, each doing nothing to advance their film careers.

One of last year’s “It” girls, Mika Monroe of It Follows, plays young alien resistance recruit Ringer, a Goth girl who takes the time to put eye makeup on for the apocalypse. Hey, one hast to keep up appearances, right? Goetz in an interesting young actress but she makes a lot of bad movies. I haven’t been blown away by one of her movies since Hugo five years ago. She looks lost this time out, her bid for her own Twilight or Divergent a sad, sad thing.

Looking for something to do on Friday night without hitting the bars? Head to lululemon’s Girl’s Night Out event at La Encantada on Friday, Jan. 29. This free event offers attendees aromatherapy, eyebrow advice, pastries, alcohol, and general wellness-centered endeavors. "#GNO" starts at 6 p.m. and promises raffle prizes along with marked-down and full-price lululemon apparel. Show up early, though, because according to lululemon's Facebook page, around 500 people plan on attending. Find more on lululemon athletica Tucson’s GNO event page.

There’s something for everyone, this week in music. On Jan. 29, artists ranging from pop icons to Brit-emo originals will release new LPs.

BASEMENT — Promise Everything

Ah, yes, good ‘ol Basement—comforters of insecure adolescents everywhere. The British alt-rock band (which has a pretty pop-punk sound, IMO) is back after a 2013 hiatus. Based off the singles from their upcoming album, they’re not too different from when they left us. The title track, “Promise Everything,” reminds me of “Spoiled” and “Control” off 2012’s Colourmekindess, and single “Aquasun” vaguely reminds me of old Title Fight, in a good way. Check out Promise Everything for an update on Basement’s classic sound—heavy guitar riffs, drums and, of course, Andrew Fischer’s enjoyably detached voice.

MILK TEETH — Vile Chlid

Milk Teeth actually already leaked Vile Child—well, more so willingly released it—on Pandora Premiere early on Thursday, Jan. 21, so you can give the grunge-punk record a listen before it officially releases on Friday. I’m not too familiar with Milk Teeth—when I read they were dropping a new LP, I was briefly confused, as I thought of Keaton Henson’s “Milk Teeth”—but they have a pretty good grip on the garage-band sound, from the looks of Vile Child. If you like Bully, Paramore or Pity Sex, you might enjoy this record. It’s varying vocals, LOUD guitar riffs and banging drum samples reminded me of a fusion of those bands’ sounds.

This is part seven of a journal I’m keeping during my time working at a refugee camp in Greece. Part six, covering my first week working as an interpreter at a medical clinic, can be found here.

I started this week with the same job as last week, working as a Farsi interpreter at the medical clinic at Lesvos island’s biggest refugee camp, Moria.



Jan. 11

Today brought two of the most memorable stories of this month.

First was a young man who came in with charred and peeling skin on one hand. “It got burned in a fire,” he told me, “in Turkey a few days ago.” A doctor looked at his hand and found that there was no permanent damage, then went to get the young man vaseline and bandages.

While the doctor was away, I asked the young man how he burned his hand. “I was throwing gasoline on a bonfire,” he told me.

“Shouldn’t you pour the gasoline before starting the fire?” I asked him.

“Yes, but I wanted to throw the whole can on the top of the fire.”

I couldn’t help it. I turned my head to the side and pretended to cough while I quietly laughed, but he caught me. Learning to keep my mouth closed while swallowing a yawn has been the best employment skill I’ve learned, but I imagine that making an unavoidable laugh look like a cough would be equally useful. When I turned back around, the patient and I made eye contact and he tried to hide a smile. The secret was out. We both dropped the serious tone and laughed at what happened. His laughter grew as I explained to him that “The Spanish firefighters on the beach poured gasoline on a fire last week too. They lost control for a moment and scared everybody at the beach, and they were firefighters! At least you can pretend you didn’t know better!”

We quieted our laughter when the doctor came back. I resumed my role as a medical interpreter. A professional, stoic, interpreter. Definitely not someone that laughs at/with patients. “There is no permanent damage and your hand will get better every day. Apply plenty of vaseline, and change bandages whenever you do. Keep your hand clean. Come back here if the burning gets worse.” I shook the young man’s good hand and led him out of the clinic. I looked for him around camp later when I went for food but couldn’t find him. Something tells me we could have shared more cool stories.




The other story involved zero laughter.

Photos from the 22nd annual Dillinger Days event at Hotel Congress on Saturday, Jan. 23. The notorious bank robber John Dillinger—also known as Public Enemy No. 1—and his gang were captured in Tucson in 1934, 82 years ago. 

ZonaPol1-21Final from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo.

On this week's episode of Zona Politics: UA College of Science Dean Joaquin Ruiz talks about climate change and previews the UA's Spring Lecture Series, Earth Transformed, Then Kacey Ernst, a UA associate professor of public health, joins me to talk about how climate change will impact human health, particularly when it comes to us here in the Southwestern United States.

The Spring Lecture Series kicks off Monday, Sept. 25, at 7 p.m. at UA Centennial Hall, with UA geosciences professor talking about the impact of climate change on the oceans. It's free. Find more details here.

If you don't want to watch online, Zona Politics airs at 8 a.m. Sunday mornings on the CW Tucson, Channel 8 on Cox and Comcast, and Channel 58 on DirecTV, Dish and broadcast. The show also airs at 5 p.m. Sunday on KXCI, 91.3 FM.

Here's a transcript of the show:

(Nintzel) Hello, everyone. I'm Tucson Weekly senior writer Jim Nintzel and we're here to talk Zona Politics. Today, we're taking a break from the usual political debates to lay a little science on you. Every year, the UA College of Science presents a spring lecture series and this year, the six lectures will focus on climate change Joining me today to talk about the upcoming lectures is Joaquin Ruiz, the dean of the UA College of Science. Dean Ruiz, welcome to Zona Politics.

(Ruiz) Thank you for having me.

(Nintzel) So, you've been packing people into Centennial Hall lectures for several years, now. This year's theme is climate change. You're calling it "Earth Transformed." It begins on Monday, Jan. 25. Why did you pick this topic?

(Ruiz) We've been doing these lecture series 11 years. Ten years ago we did it on global climate change. So much has happened that we thought it was important to bring it for a tenth anniversary of what we said ten years ago, and bring it and really to show how the earth has really been transformed by us. Ten years ago we were still debating it. Now we know.

(Nintzel) And, bottom line, how badly have we screwed up this planet?