As September comes to an end, it is finally that time of year once again. The annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folklife Festival is upon us in just two short weeks. Tucson Meet Yourself is a festival that celebrates Tucson in all of its glory, bringing together local artisans, musicians, cooks and dancers, and putting them all in once place with the goal of spending a weekend celebrating the history and traditions that make Tucson so great. 
This year Tucson Meet Yourself is looking for volunteers to make the 43-year-old festival a reality once again. Volunteering to help with Tucson Meet Yourself is a perfect way to give back to our community that gives us so much daily.

Visit http://www.tucsonmeetyourself.org/volunteer/ for steps on how to sign up to help. 

The Screamery Handcrafted Ice Cream has a couple other locations in Tucson, but its latest one—in the heart of downtown, which opened this summer—has been getting the most attention. It’s pretty daring to open a location of your gourmet ice-cream shop smack in the middle of HUB territory (the HUB is basically across the street), and The Screamery has a lot in common with its already well-established competitor (widely-praised-as-tasty products; eclectic flavors; homemade and locally sourced fare; friendly staff; awesome interior design … and the prices are comparable, too).

But there are a few things that make The Screamery stand out:

1. “The Flight”: a menu option letting the customer choose six (count ’em, six) different flavors (served as small scoops) as one order.

2. A punch card! The Screamery isn’t above a little customer-incentive hack like giving you every 15th scoop free.

3. Ice cream that’s pasteurized by the shop. Screamery co-owner Kenny Sarnoski II is the only certified pasteurizer the state, and his stores make their own cream base out of milk from grass-fed cows, instead of ordering it from Shamrock Foods. This lets the Screamery mix in their (chemical-free) flavors and ingredients early on in their signature five-step process.
What about taste? We have no doubt that a bajillion HUB devotees would declare it impossible for any other store to top the deliciousness of a particular favorite HUB flavor (“bacon bourbon” comes to mind). But we’ve also heard and read plenty of amazing reviews of The Screamery’s ice cream, such as that it’s “lighter” and/or less sweet than the HUB’s—and this place, too, has some rave-worthy flavors (like “sweet cream honeycomb”).

Anyway, we’re not gonna argue that either place is better than the other. We’re really just thinking, “Now we have two super-delicious and trendy hand-churned ice-cream shops downtown?! YAY!”

So go do some sampling for yourself—before the high temps drop to, say, below 80 degrees.
The Screamery, 250 E. Congress St., 207-7486, 

A couple (Itay Tiran and Agnieszka Zulewska) have the worst…wedding…ever in Poland after the groom has seemingly become possessed with the ghost of a Yiddish woman. The groom’s possession comes after arriving at the old house he and his soon-to-be wife are to live in. He goes for one of those creepy nighttime walks, sees an apparition, gets sucked into the ground, and it all goes bad from there. His behavior goes from belligerence with wedding guests, to all out seizures and, ultimately, talking in another language to a man who knew the ghost when she was alive.

Director and co-writer Marcin Wrona has crafted his movie in a way that is funny, creepy, genuinely disturbing, and just the right amount of insane.

Tiran is excellent as the guy who rushes into marriage without knowing his in-laws all that well, and Zulewska is equally good as a woman who might not have picked the right guy after all.

The film is based upon a Jewish haunting legend called they dybbuk, but it also acts as a nice parable about the dangers of rushing into matrimony. Wrona made a good movie, and it’s too bad we won’t get more from him. He took his own life at a film festival where this movie was in competition.

Disclaimer No. 1:I was married to the singer (Shireen Liane) and we lived in Tucson for a
spell, had a little place with our cats and a garden over on Camilla Street. I was drunk so we splintered and she landed in London with a fat major-label deal with Virgin Records, and did the sole Slingbacks album (All Pop, No Star) with pop-mighty producer Mitch Easter. Like any great album it tanked—Virgin was fizzing on the Spice Girls then—but it did OK in Japan. (Disclaimer No. 2: I know it did OK in Japan because I co-wrote a couple of the album’s tunes and the Japanese royalties kept the beer flowing freely for a number of weeks. Truth is, I had zero to do with how brilliant this record is. Can’t help it if I’m lucky.)

All Pop, No Star is a stunningly overlooked gem, testament only to Liane’s pen-perfect writing abilities and mad love of mid-period Kinks, Odessey-era Zombies, Chrissie Hynde and Suzi Quatro. This title tune, the album’s first single, kills with that jackbooted stomp of glitter (nods to Noddy Holder, natch!), deceptively haunting and literate turns to our tragic, fallen mutual pal, Gin Blossoms songwriter Douglas Hopkins (such as, “This should’ve been your rags-to-riches/Instead of detox wards and stiches”), and a sugar-stained key change into the bridge and gooey choruses that release butterflies under our skirts. And the video’s a ’70s pisstake of Top of the Pops! 

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, the Republican candidate who is facing Democrat Tom O'Halleran in Congressional District 1, has been hammered throughout the campaign for his history as a headmaster at a Massachusetts school for troubled youth some 16 years ago.
Several of Babeu's GOP primary opponents hit him for his past support of what certainly appear to be the school's abusive practices, but he still emerged on top of a crowded primary with one-third of the vote. But it didn't take long for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to weigh in with their own ad highlighting Babeu's sketchy past.

Babeu called the press together yesterday in an effort to proclaim his innocence, but news outlets haven't exactly exonerated him. You can see the Arizona Republic's coverage here.

Babeu offered some 1,700 pages of background material for the press to examine that he claimed would show his innocence. TW has not yet received a copy of the campaign's flash drive but has requested from Team Babeu, so I have not reviewed what he offered.

But the fundamental problem for Babeu in this conversation is a videotape of Babeu himself praising some of the abusive techniques. The tape was made by Babeu's sister Lucy, who has a strained relationship with her brother. She provided it to ABC-15 Dave Biscobing,  who has been covering Babeu's history at the school for years.

In the video, Babeu describes one of the techniques called "cornering," which involved forcing kids to sit in chairs facing the corner of a room and not allowing them to them to interact with anyone else at the school. Babeu says in the video that the school's students “need to feel hopeless and feel depression and complete failure.”

Babeu has said that he was not prosecuted for any wrongdoing and, at other times, said he was unaware of the disciplinary techniques, but the videotape shows that he was aware of at least some of them and defended them. At the press conference yesterday, he said that he no longer supported that kind of disciplinary action.

Beyond his sister's damning videotape, Babeu has other problems. The DCCC is willing to spend to amplify this story, while the National Republican Campaign Committee has not reserved ad time to defend him. Nor has Babeu put together some kind of TV ad to defend himself. And that means that voters in CD1, which stretches from Oro Valley and Marana all the way to Flagstaff and includes much of rural Eastern Arizona, are getting just one side of the story—and it's not the side that favors Babeu.

Dean Saxton, whom you might know as "Brother Dean" or the "You Deserve Rape" guy, appears to have finally crossed a legal line and assaulted a student.

UAPD confirms that Saxton was arrested and given a one-year exclusionary order banning him from campus until next Fall after students reported seeing him kick a woman in the chest.

The reaction from UA students has been undeniably celebratory: 

Someone @ the girl that was kicked by brother dean, I want her to be the godmother of my firstborn

— Claudia LaBeaniebaby (@OhMyClaud1) September 20, 2016

These guys were talking about how it's sad that the next class of freshmen won't know who Brother Dean was like it's such a bad thing 😂

— Gab (@Gibbyluu) September 20, 2016

I mean Brangelina is done but Brother Dean got arrested today so I think we're all winning

— łįbbÿ (@libbyisagoddess) September 20, 2016

Check in on student media websites The Tab and The Daily Wildcat for more details and reactions from campus. 

"To be or not to be, that is the question." Or is the question to go or not to go? Well no matter the question the answer is most definitely Tucson's 10th Annual Shakespeare in the Park event. Now, everyone has heard of the reputable Shakespeare in the Park that happens in New York City. But, did you know that for 10 years Tucson has done the same exact thing right in our own backyard? The yearly event is put on by the El Rio Theatre Project and this year the group is tacking the age old classic, Romeo and Juliet. 
For a refresher: Romeo and Juliet is a tale of star-crossed lovers who find themselves and their love in the midst of a family feud. The story takes them on a journey of trials and tribulations that will put their love to the test. Romeo and Juliet is arguably Williams Shakespeare's most famous work and it is a sight that you will not want to miss. 

One leg of the show has already passed, but do not fret because there are still two more to enjoy. Make sure to catch Romeo and Juliet either Sept. 22-25 or Sept. 29- Oct. 2. Admission into the event is free, but donations are gladly accepted. Make sure to mark your calendars because I'm sure this play will be to die for. 

For more information check out the event page on Facebook.

There has been a lot of hype over tech juggernaut Apple’s new iterations to the iPhone 7—primarily over the introduction of packaged in Bluetooth headphones and the removal of the headphone jack which will not allow wired headphones to be used unless you have an adapter.

Many see it as a step forward, others see it as a disadvantage. This bold decision by Apple is a step towards evolution in the tech world. However, also points us in a less desirable direction: loss of sound quality.

Bluetooth headphones are nothing new. They have been in on the market for a while now with prices ranging from fairly affordable to fairly expensive. But if you are looking to get the best quality sound from your iPhone or MP3 player, Bluetooth headphones are not the way to go.

There's an event for all the fruit fanatics out there and it's coming to you this Saturday, Sept. 24. The Annual Pomegranate Festival will be coming to Tucson's Mission Gardens, 946 W. Mission Ln., for the second year in row from 9-11 a.m. 

Brought on by the Friends of Tucson's Birthplace in conjunction with the Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the festival is a free, all ages event. Festival goers can enjoy the wide variety of pomegranates with other fruit enthusiasts as well as music, tastings and presentations from Jesus Garcia, Nina Sajovec and Alfredo Gonzalez.

You don't want to be caught off guard of your fruit knowledge at this homage to pomegranates.

Here are few fruit facts to know before going to the Pomegranate Festival:

- Pomegranates are in season from September to February in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, the fruit is in season from March to May.

- The pomegranate originated from the Mediterranean area. Today, it is cultivated all over the world including California and Arizona.

- In ancient Greece, the pomegranate was regarded as "the fruit of the dead."   

Click here for more information on the festival.

There's an estimated 90,000 people in Arizona with medical marijuana cards, making company and employment policies surrounding cannabis use a hot topic of discussion. What can and can't employers ask of their card-carrying employees?

Find out at the free information seminar Lovitt & Touché Learning Academy (7202 E. Rosewood Street #200)
is hosting on Thursday, Sept. 29. The seminar will run for an hour starting at 9 a.m. and will be looking at marijuana laws from a business perspective, so CFOs, CEOs, Risk Managers and HR Directors are encouraged to attend. 

Some topics that will be covered:

• In-depth overview of the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act
  
• The rights employers have with Medical Marijuana
  
• Safety Positions
  
• Recent MMJ cases in Arizona
  
  

Thom K. Cope, a lawyer who specialized in employment and labor law, will be the featured speaker.   

To register for the seminar, click here.