The art of brewing beer sour has taken hold of the craft beer world and no event showcases this more in town than Tap & Bottle’s (403 N. Sixth Ave., #135) annual Sour Fest. Now in it’s third year, the two-day tap takeover of all things tart will showcase more than 20 different sour beers from all over the country.

Arizona brewers included in the event are 1912, Arizona Wilderness, Historic, Iron John’s and Fate, while national brew contributions come from Ninkasi, Funkwerks, Ballast Point, Stone, Firestone Walker and more.

Tap & Bottle’s weekend of sour beer kicks off on Saturday, May 21 at 11 a.m. with a sipping session led by Almanac Brewing’s Phillip Emerson. The tasting will offer six different Almanac beers. It is a ticket event with limited space, so send a message to [email protected] for more information and to secure your spot.

Otherwise, you can just head into the bar on Saturday or Sunday to try out some of the many beers offered in the 3rd Annual Sour Fest.

By now, you’re likely feeling that summer heat hit pretty hard. You might not be able to actually get out of town, but you can certainly mimic some seaside eats on Sunday, May 22. Peruvian food truck Don Pedro’s (4101 S. 12th Ave.) will be hosting a Día de Mariscos from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., serving up some tasty seafood with South American flare.

Featuring dishes previously known and loved at the truck’s now-defunct brick-and-mortar, Don Pedro’s will offer chaufa de mariscos (a rice-based seafood dish), jalea (fried mixed seafood, typically paired with yucca), sudado de pescado (fish-centric stew) and the restaurant’s signature Peruvian ceviche.

For more information on Don Pedro’s menu, schedule and more, visit the food truck's website.

Team McCain spokeswoman Lorna Romero responds to the Public Policy Polling survey that the Range posted yesterday:

We put zero stock in a partisan Democrat poll that is obviously aimed at boosting John McCain’s opponents in the primary and general elections. And even if you took this bogus poll at face value, it actually shows McCain in a stronger position today than PPP’s last poll, with his favorablitiy up eight points since March.

John McCain has always known this will be a tight race - that’s why he’s built a strong campaign that’s ready for any challenge this November. We’re confident that voters will choose John McCain, a great Arizona hero whose record of service and sacrifice is unmatched, over a documented conspiracy theorist or a rubber-stamp for President Obama’s failed agenda.

Vice's Noisey is calling out Arizona psych in a big way right now. To quote their most recent article, which features an interview with The Myrrors' Nik Rayne:

Arizona seems to have a particular quality that creates inspired rock bands with slightly fried edges or more, whether it’s long-running stalwarts like the Meat Puppets or underground psych legends like the Black Sun Ensemble. Call it the harsh environment—or the fact that it’s better to practice inside away from the heat and dust, even while feeling it through the walls.

The interview goes on to explore about a decade of Myrrors music, including Arizona influences like Sun City Girls, though Rayne explains the desert itself often acts as the largest influence and tie to their home state.

I think the strongest link we might have as far as environment is just being in the desert, being able to draw out some certain aspects of music that—when you're playing music in this vein, it becomes emphasized more strongly. There's a space here in the desert.

You can check out more on the making of and meaning behind the name of their new album, Entranced Earth, along with seven songs from the new album on Noisey now. The Myrrors' Entranced Earth will be released on Beyond Beyond is Beyond on May 27.

You’ve watched your favorite barista in town pour works of caffeine-laced art into a demitasse morning after morning and surely you’ve thought the act could be turned into competition. Well, latte art is just a small part of how baristas from Tucson and Phoenix will vie for Barista Olympics titles at the second-ever event hosted by Presta Coffee Roasters (2502 N. First Ave.).

Though the first event, which marked Presta’s opening one year ago, was primarily just a latte art competition, this year the Olympics will include palate taste tests, a coffee sack race, an espresso puck toss, a pour over challenge (without the aid of timers or scales) and more. Prizes for participating baristas are provided by Hario, La Marzocco, Chemex, Bodhi Leaf, Roast Magazine and more.

For those looking at coffee as a spectator sport, you can get your hands on some of those artfully-poured lattes, as well as eats from Planet of the Crepes and beer and wine at the competition on Friday, May 20. Festivities kick off at 5 p.m.

I would have preferred a cleaner, clearer outcome, a two or three point spread on Prop 123 no matter whether it went up or down, but here we are, stuck in the middle. We'll know, maybe by Friday, maybe next week, if it squeaked by or just fell short.

Meanwhile . . .

The next step begins. As the twitter hashtag says, #nowitstarts. The vote counting and the court battles which will inevitably follow mustn't obscure the fact that Prop 123 is only about giving back the money for our children's educations which voters demanded in 2000 and the Republican leadership took away illegally in 2009. It's about trying to get back to Arizona's previously lousy per student funding before the majority leadership used the recession as an excuse to make it even lousier. And if Prop 123 passes, then manages to jump over whatever legal hurdles are put in front of it, that won't get us all the way back. That will only get us 70 percent of the way there. If it goes down, we're back to the earlier unresolved court battles which, if they're resolved in the schools' favor, will bring us 100 percent of our previously lousy per student funding.

Either way, it's not enough. Not nearly. We're thousands of dollars per student below the national average. States lower than us on the economic ladder spend more than we do.

The next important step for us regular folks isn't watching the vote counts ebb and flow or following the court fights. Those are spectator sports. Most of us can only watch passively, there's not much we can do. The next important step is at the ballot box. Vote out the candidates who don't support significant new funding for our children's educations. Vote in candidates who do.

This is one of those times when a one issue state election makes sense. "Will you do everything you can to provide substantially more money for our children's educations? If so, you've got my vote. If not, see ya' later." Because this one issue speaks volumes, not just about where the candidates stand on the improving the present and future of our children but where they stand on the general well being of all Arizona residents regardless of racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. It tells us what the candidates think is more important: starving the budget and giving tax cuts to the wealthiest among us or making Arizona a better place for all of us to live.

This is one oddball movie. Tale of Tales sort of comes off like David Lynch’s Princess Bride. Italian director Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah, Reality) adapts three fairytales and sort of mixes them together, creating one semi-consistent and relatively cohesive narrative.

In one of the stories, John C. Reilly plays a king (he actually looks like the Burger King) who must stalk a sea monster and get its heart so that his queen (Salma Hayek) can devour it and become pregnant. In another, Toby Jones plays another king who becomes fascinated with a flea, feeding it blood and steak until it grows to the size of a large sow. In yet another, Vincent Cassel is a king who falls in love with the voice of what he thinks is a fair maiden, but it turns out to be an old lady.

All of these characters share the same universe. There are times where it becomes a little lifeless, but the visuals are always remarkable, and some of the performances (especially Hayek and Jones) are pretty great.

Garrone knows how to put a film together on the visual side. He can use a little tightening up with the verbal part. Still, the overall experience is a good, albeit very bizarre, one, and lovers of decent fantasy films should indulge (Available for rent on iTunes, Amazon.com and On Demand during a limited theatrical release).

Prop 123, the controversial school-funding initiative, was narrowly passing when the vote counters went to bed last night—and when I say narrowly, I mean it: Just 8,789 votes separated the Yes votes from the No votes.

The measure, which would add $3.5 billion to education funding over the next decade, was the brainchild of Gov. Doug Ducey, who pushed to tap the principle of the state land trust to provide the majority of the funding. While Ducey brought along the education establishment and the business community—and spent more than $4 million promoting it in recent months—critics complained that the plan shortchanged schools, set unacceptable caps on education funding and set a bad precedent of draining the principle of the land trust. (You can read the details here.)

Here's what Ducey and Co. should worry about: Opposition to the campaign was growing in the final weeks and most of the ballots that remain uncounted are the vote-by-mail ballots that were dropped off on Election Day. If the No trend persists, Prop 123 could fail—which would be a shocking upset, given the wide public support and money behind it.

Public Policy Polling has a new survey of Arizona voters out today. 

Big takeaways: Kelli Ward could give Sen. John McCain a run for his money in the GOP primary, especially if it's just a race between the two of them; McCain's approval rating stands at 34 percent, while disapproval is at 52 percent. Despite those lousy numbers, McCain is still leading Democratic challenger Ann Kirkpatrick by 6 percentage points. Trump and Hillary are neck and neck. And former Gov. Jan Brewer is fairly unpopular with Arizonans.

Here are details from PPP:

PPP's new Arizona poll finds that John McCain has a negative approval rating with Republican primary voters, and is at pretty serious risk of losing nomination for another term. Only 35% of GOP voters approve of the job McCain is doing to 50% who disapprove. He's in particularly poor standing with conservative voters. Among 'somewhat conservative' voters his approval spread is 33/52, and among 'very conservative' voters it drops all the way down to 18/67.

McCain is polling at only 39% in the Republican primary field. He's benefiting from having multiple opponents. Kelli Ward is at 26%, Alex Meluskey at 4%, Scott McBean at 3%, and Clair Van Steenwyk at 2%. 27% are undecided. McCain is very strong among moderates, leading Ward 60-10. But among 'somewhat conservative' voters he leads just 34-29, and with 'very conservative' ones he's down 35-28. When you narrow the field down to just a choice between McCain and Ward, it's a tie at 41%. Ward is polling this competitively at this point despite having only 41% name recognition.

Enjoyed last week's cover story? Author Amy Silverman will be at Antigone Books this Friday, May 20 at 7 p.m.

A short excerpt from Silverman's book:

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of walking through the sliding doors of Good Samaritan Hospital in downtown Phoenix, feeling a whoosh as the hot outside air mixed with the icy air conditioning, ushering me inside a grown-up, important place. I loved the gift shop at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital, particularly the flower arrangements you could order that looked like a clown or a shaggy white dog. I didn't know how they did that, but I knew that if I was ever in the hospital (I never was, not till I had babies), that's what I wanted. Years later, as an adult, I was poking around that same gift shop and noticed something in the back of the refrigerator case. A clown flower arrangement! It didn't look as good as I remembered, just a carnation in a cheap vase, decorated with googly eyes and pipe cleaners. But that wave of nostalgia was a huge rush.

Here in the hospital, at the bedside of an elderly grandparent or great aunt, I'd see cousins, aunts, and uncles I hadn't seen in months (or longer), tape my homemade card on the wall, and head down with other visiting family members for what I considered to be an exotic meal in the cafeteria. Even my father, not the most sentimental of souls, often showed up for visiting hours, which tended to involve minor injuries and illnesses. Nothing too serious (I was not brought along on those visits, anyway), and as far as I know, no one in our family ever had a baby with any kind of significant health issue.

Until Sophie.