Comely front-yard art near Stone Ave. Tucson! "Streets of This Town" is a little daily photo series featuring random pics I take on long walks through Tucson—to sort of coincide with Tucson Salvage.

"Vrag naroda" is Russian for "Enemy of the People." I didn't pull the phrase from some online English-to-Russian translation engine. It is, or was, a much used term in the Soviet Union to describe people who the leadership believed were dangerous and were sent away to some distant prison camp, or executed. Until Stalin died, anyway. Nikita Khrushchev, when he came to power, decided to tone down the rhetoric a bit, because he thought Enemy of the People "eliminated the possibility of any kind of ideological fight."

Trump apparently disagrees with Krushchev. He thinks Enemy of the People is an excellent term to use against people, like journalists, who state facts or espouse views he finds objectionable.

A few weeks ago when I wrote about the literary antecedent of Trump's use of the phrase—Ibsen's play, An Enemy of the People—I was being too clever by half. It's true that Ibsen uses the term ironically to refer to people who try to tell the truth—journalists, scientists, whistleblowers—and are condemned for their efforts by the powers that be, just like Trump is doing. But really, that was an English major/English teacher showing off. Far more important is the Soviet Russia reference, given the Trump campaign and administration's many ties to Russia. Trump, I'm certain, didn't pull the phrase out of thin air, any more than the use of the word "purge" to describe the ousting of people suspected of loyalty to Obama from positions of influence is a coincidence. It's a chilling reminder of the close philosophical, ideological and personal connections between the people surrounding Trump and Russia.

I had the honor of moderating a great discussion on freedom of the press under the Trump administration with The New York Times' Maureen Dowd, the National Memo's Joe Conason and longtime political reporter Evan Thomas at the Tucson Festival of Books. If you weren't able to get the festival to see it, you can watch it here on C-SPAN's website. 

You can find some of the other great discussions from the Festival of Books here.

I ran into Brenda Viner, one of the major forces behind the festival, over the weekend and she asked if I had any suggestions to improve Tucson's awesome weekend of celebrating books.  

My only suggestion, which is basically impossible because of the limitations of using the UA campus: Make it longer than two days! There's so much good stuff happening that it's nearly impossible to take it all in on Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks to all the volunteers that make the Tucson Festival of Books possible. In less than a decade, it's become one of Tucson's finest events.

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This year’s secret screening at South by Southwest has been out in the U.K. since January, but a little over a hundred festival goers were treated to an early screening of the anticipated sequel to the 1996 hit, Trainspotting.

If you’re afraid that Trainspotting 2 will be yet another flat sequel that falls short of the emotion reached in the original, don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed.

That was probably due in part to the awareness of Danny Boyle, the film’s director, during the creation of the film.

“We had this expression where sometimes it would be said out loud and sometimes it’d be there unspoken in people’s eyes as they looked at you, and the expression was: ‘this better not be shite, Danny,’” he said during a Q&A with Ewan McGregor, who plays Mark Renton in the film, and moderator Richard Linklater.

It was like visiting an old friend, and true to the movie’s plot, one that you wanted to hit over the head with a barstool as you revisit the range of reactions to one of Scotland’s most defining pieces of cinema in the last 25 years.

Trainspotting 2 took the fast-paced energy of the its predecessor and gave it a facelift.

Seamlessly capturing the feeling of the first movie with less of gore that lent itself to the original’s character, Trainspotting 2 was a modern revisiting of four friends struggling with their past as the persistence of time pushes them forward.

Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams showed off their matching tattoos at South by Southwest. 07.08.09—the date they were cast in Game of Thrones.

Moderating a discussion with David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the show’s creators, the two women (yes, they’re all grown up!) were candid and charmingly awkward. Reading from cue cards, the GoT stars fumbled the wording of questions, talked in funny voices to emphasize their authority as moderators, swore and generally won the hearts of hundreds at SXSW who waited in line to see the Stark badasses.

“Which house would you identify with the most?” said Williams, who plays Arya Stark in the show. Both women exaggerated lounging in their chairs and batting their eyelashes while they waited for the “right” response.

“The Lannister’s,” Weiss said—because you’ve got to “choose the winning team.”

Williams gasped. "That would suck," Turner said.

With two more seasons left to air until one of the most popular shows of all time (which Benioff calls a 73-hour movie) comes to an end, the world is wondering who will be the victor of the game of thrones.

I am not an entertainment journalist.

So imagine my surprise when my editor offered me the opportunity to go to South by Southwest to relay to our beloved Tucson community the performances of the most up-and-coming bands appearing at what is, traditionally, one of the most popular music festivals in the world.

Well, lucky for me, SXSW has much more to offer than the insurmountable schedule of bands and music artists with tracks offering ideas on everything from making music, television and style, to tech, startups and virtual reality, to government, social impact and yes, journalism.

While the music scene doesn’t explode until Monday, we were able to cajole our way to access for all of the festival’s events, and that’s what yesterday was all about. Though much of the day was spent finding our footing, we did manage to make it to some enlightening panels.

Being the journalism and public policy nerd I am, I decided to pop into a panel on “Opening Up Government’s Vault of Data.” This turned out to be an appropriate choice since after I sat down I discovered Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., was one of the panelists.

He was joined by Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, chair of the congressional Information Technology Subcommittee, and Alex Wirth, a Harvard grad “whiz-kid” and co-founder of Quorum, a website that aggregates legislative data.

The panel was moderated by Rene LaVigne, CEO of IT company Iron Bow and an expert on the intersection of technology and government.

Much of the conversation revolved around the ineptitude of the current congressional representation to effectively use technology to create effective policy and maximize transparency when it comes to the drafting of legislation.

Wirth especially made the point that this is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to play a role in increasing government accountability, leading by example.

Though barely missing out on inclusion in the Millennial generation, Hurd and Gallego joked about how other congress members often come to them for advice on the constantly changing fringe of technology.

With a degree in computer science, Hurd said he could more easily identify the missed opportunities for Congress to employ technology in tracking changes to legislation and government services such as census data.

U.S. cities with large immigrant and refugee populations thrive in a variety of ways. There are ways to support this community, which have been proven to make a difference. At the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, mayors of two sanctuary cities and an expert on smart immigration policy spoke on these issues at “Building Bridges When Others Want to Build Walls.”

Welcoming Immigrants Benefits Everyone

• Immigrants keep America youthful, which is essential to a healthy economy and people.
The average age in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was rising, which is common for expensive tourist destinations, said the city’s mayor, Javier Gonzales. They saw that equalize as their immigrant population grew.

• Cities with more immigrants have lower crime rates.
The 10 U.S. cities with the highest percentage of refugees saw a decrease in violent crime and property crime by as much as 70 percent, from 2006 to 2015, according to New American Economy, an organization that studies immigrants’ impact on the U.S. economy.

Philadelphia, a sanctuary city, is at its lowest crime rate in 30 years, said the city’s mayor, James Kenney.

“One crime is one crime too many, but it’s not our immigrants that are doing so,” he said. “These folks work for a living. They start business. They employ people. They pay taxes when they don’t have the ability to take any advantage of those taxes.”

• Immigrants foster population growth, which fuels a healthy economy
Population growth provides taxes to fund shared services, encourages consumer spending to benefit the local economy, and raises housing values, said panelist Kate Brick, the director of State and Local Initiatives at New American Economy.

“There were no major metros in the United States that grew over the last 40 years without at least 10,000 immigrants joining those communities,” she said.

• Diversity is fun
Citizens of Philadelphia have a great time experiencing a variety of cultures right in their own city.

“You can get around our city and really experience every day almost a global trip,” he said.

Integrate and Protect Migrant Communities

• Immigrant-friendly resolutions
Gonzales passed an immigrant-friendly resolution in Santa Fe, which dictated that police should focus on serious crimes rather than looking at immigration status. And he saw it make a change.

“We saw this incredible move, this development in our community where the new immigrant became very much integrated into the fabric of our community,” he said. “They became job creators. They became young students in our schools.”

Tucson’s mayor, Jonathan Rothschild, passed a similar resolution in December.
Santa Fe also recently passed a confidentiality resolution, stating that government organizations won’t ask about documentation status.

By Linda Ray

“People ask me, ‘What’s the difference between a comedian and a humorist?’” Michael Perry says. “and I always say, ‘I don't know, but I think it has something to do with NPR.”

It’s no surprise that Perry’s fans often suggest that he should do standup. His books, newspaper column, blog and podcasts are often funny. But his book readings, storytelling and one-man show are hilarious.

Perry, a Wisconsin native and New York Times best-selling author, joins Tucson’s Dave Fitzsimmons and NPR’s Amy Dickinson in the “Humor” category of events at the Tucson Book Festival this weekend. The schedule can be found at http://tinyurl.com/HumorTFB.

“I write humorous things, and I write heartfelt things,” Perry says, “But for my live performance. I tell stories. There are payoffs and punchlines, just not in the standup comedy sort of way. People laugh just as hard and I do have people laughing and holding their sides and that sort of thing.

But he wants to stress, “Standup comedy in my mind is the single hardest form of performance there is. I'm cheating because if you show up at a book reading to see an author and he or she turns out to be funny, that's a lovely surprise.”

Perry’s background sounds like a setup for a “fish-out-of-water” improv scene. He put himself through nursing school by working as a cowboy, having been born to the horse-and-cow business on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. He still raises a pig now and then, but after a long career in nursing het gave up the day job in 1992. By then he had discovered writing was his passion.

His first book, Population 485, established him as a chronicler of small town and country life, in the context of big ideas and literate prose. His latest, which he’ll be pitching at the book festival, is Roughneck Grace, a compendium of his newspaper columns.

Perry says his comedy LP, “Never Stand Behind a Sneezing Cow”, is named from personal experience. So is his website, sneezingcow.com, where we find his blog, his bio and all nine of his books for sale. There are also links to his weekly Tent Show Radio show, which includes special guests and monologues based on his newspaper column. A recent episode featured, Kris Kristofferson and a live performance by Taj Mahal.

Little lazy off Flower Street. So Tucson.
"Streets of This Town" is a little daily photo series featuring random pics I take on long walks through Tucson—to sort of coincide with Tucson Salvage.