The U of A will be hosting a two-day Hip-Hop symposium this week to teach the community about the many faces of the culture in attempt to get rid of common stereotypes that are attributed to Hip-Hop.

Organizers argue that Hip-Hop goes beyond these stereotypes and should be discussed in an academic institution:

Thus, as researchers and educators, our view of hip-hop culture goes beyond the stereotypical gangster and drug cultures to incorporate this expressive medium's relationships and presences across different academic disciplines such as art, music, dance, language/poetry, religion, gender, culture, history, politics, marketing, fashion, sociology, management as well as film, radio, television and performance studies. Besides its commercial clout, hip-hop's role in challenging stereotypes, destabilizing and unsettling the meaning of blackness and bridging cultural divides in the USA and abroad, merits a place in serious academic discussions of how contemporary societies function.

Hats off to the event planners for reaching out to the community and trying to set the record straight about a culture that has been ignored or considered demeaning in the past.

Hip-Hop music, videos and movies that go mainstream are often those that display violence, drugs and sex, making it difficult to take the culture seriously. Its roots, which reflect a history of black oppression, have been buried and, at the surface, most only see negative connotations of what Hip-Hop is.

Not only have songs and movies tying Hip-Hop to violence, gangs and drugs allowed people to ignore the truth about the culture, they have also allowed these people to separate themselves from it. Such stereotypes allow people to see the struggles that Hip-Hop reflects as a struggle among blacks instead of one which we are all responsible for.

Hip-Hop is not just a negative, violent or demeaning culture. It is a cry for help. It is an expression of a way of life that surrounds us all. It is an artistic and talented culture that should not be ignored. All things in life balance good and bad aspects. In recent years main stream society hasn't seen this balance between the two when it comes to the Hip-Hop culture.

As far as the negative connotations, I think it's time we stop pointing fingers or ignoring the violence, drugs and gangs and instead ask ourselves why Hip-Hop has such a reputation. How can we change it? It's obviously a pattern, and it's obviously political. Society as a whole in the U.S. just needs to care enough to address the problems instead of isolating them. Of course, it's always easier to point fingers.

Embracing the positive, addressing the negative and bridging cultural gaps is what the Hip-Hop culture needs and it looks like the U of A is moving in the right direction.

"The Poetics & Politics of Hip-Hop Cultures" will take place Feb. 7 and 8 at the U of A Student Union Memorial Center and Poetry Center and is free and open to public.

One of the many reasons I would really love to win the lottery right now is so I can be a Sugar Mama for the local production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. If I had $1,000 to spare, I'd gladly hand it over to the Bastard Theatre's Christopher Johnson. If I did, here's what I'd receive:

... permission to attend a closed music rehearsal with the cast and full band, an 11x17 print of an original illustration created for the 'Origin Of Love' montage and a guaranteed seat for you or a loved-one of your choice in the exclusive Car-Wash Chair (optional, depending on your own personal space issues / feelings about sweaty fishnet lap dances) during the night you attend the show. Additionally, The Bastard (Theatre) Artistic Director Christopher Johnson will cook and serve dinner to you and your chosen guests inside your home while in full drag. Whether or not you invite him to eat is up to you. He won't wear a hair net, and needs a cigarette break every forty-five minutes.

I don't know if Johnson is a good cook. I know from personal experience he's a hell of an actor, and my kid thinks he's nice. And my kid doesn't like everyone. But I'm ready to let Tucson know that I want the Car-Wash Chair option. Fishnet lap dances do not scare me. Bring them on.

My reality is I'm a broke writer, but a broke writer who is happy to see the return of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Johnson first produced the show in 2009 when he was artistic director of Etcetera at Live Theatre Workshop. To bring the show back, Johnson founded the Bastard Theatre, with 10 performances at the Screening Room next month beginning on Feb. 14. This isn't just theater—this is a Valentine's Day love letter to Tucson. Take Johnson up on his offer, especially if you missed the last production.

Big congratulations to the 2013 Governor's Arts Awards nominees, especially our Tucson brethren. Nominated under "Arts" is our friend, Tucson composer and filmmaker Daniel Buckley, as well as Tucson painter Jim Waid.

In "Arts in Education, Individual," are Tucson nominees Tucson Junior Strings director Dennis Bourret and Simon Donovan. Under "Arts in Education, Organization" is Tucson's Sonoran Glass School, as well as UAPresents. There were no Tucson nominees for "Business," but under the community category is Tucson's KXCI Community Radio and the Warehouse Arts Management Organization.

No Tucson nominees in the "Individual" category.

To see all the nominees go to http://www.governorsartsawards.org/2013-nominees/.

As someone who is happily in a relationship, I'm not looking for reasons to put my memories in the Museum of Broken Relationships—but I'll gladly visit to view the wreckage that people have sent in to commemorate their failed courtships.

Let's look, for an example, at the story of "An Ex Axe," part of the permanent collection at MoBR:

• The Museum of Broken Relationships

She was the first woman that I let move in with me. All my friends thought I needed to learn to let people in more. A few months after she moved in, I was offered to travel to the US. She could not come along. At the airport we said goodbye in tears, and she was assuring me she could not survive three weeks without me. I returned after three weeks, and she said: “I fell in love with someone else. I have known her for just 4 days, but I know that she can give me everything that you cannot.”

I was banal and asked about her plans regarding our life together. The next day she still had no answer, so I kicked her out. She immediately went on holiday with her new girlfriend while her furniture stayed with me. Not knowing what to do with my anger, I finally bought this axe at Karstadt to blow off steam and to give her at least a small feeling of loss — which she obviously did not have after our break-up.

In the 14 days of her holiday, every day I axed one piece of her furniture. I kept the remains there, as an expression of my inner condition. The more her room filled with chopped furniture acquiring the look of my soul, the better I felt. Two weeks after she left, she came back for the furniture. It was neatly arranged into small heaps and fragments of wood. She took that trash and left my apartment for good. The axe was promoted to a therapy instrument.

Hot damn. I know that not every story can be of that quality—but if even a portion of them are, it's well worth the price of admission. You'll have to navigate the slippery detail that the museum is located in Croatia, but you take the good with the bad.

Of course, you could always check out the current call for donations in Boulder, Colo., where the Boulder Musuem of Contemporary Art will be showcasing an exhibit from Feb. 14 (Valentine's Day!) to May 26. You can find more info on that here.

xoJane.com, described as a website "where women go when they are being selfish, and where their selfishness is applauded. This is not the place to find out how to please your husband, mom, kids or boss. This is the place to indulge in what makes you feel good."

Well, so if tattoos fall under you indulgence radar, they recently offered some advice on what to think about before heading to that tattoo studio, as well as how not to be a dick at that same tattoo studio.

Consider No. 9:

Don't ask what's playing on the stereo while you're getting a Social Distortion logo tattooed on you. Because it will probably be a Social Distortion song you haven't heard and then you'll look like an even bigger moron.

You can read entire list here.

• facebook.com/pimacountyfair
• I would love to hear T-Pain do a solo rendition of "I'm On A Boat."

Today, the Pima County Fair Facebook page spent the last few hours asking what fairgoers wanted to hear this year in their Hip-Hop/R&B category (if we're nitpicking, and we are, those are not the same kind of music), and were treated to the kind of responses you'd expect to see when you crowdsource on social media:

On T-Pain:

"I had a great comment going and criticizing the support of what i call GHETTO GARBAGE music but twice today my screen blips and i lose my post but i don't give up easy. So yes, why the hell support this crap, at least bring in someone whose lyrics aren't FN THIS AND FN THAT every other line. Or go ahead and support the FU g eff generation and the disrespect thats consuming us."

I will not support talentless artists

Hollywood Undead

A MILLION TIMES YES

On Tyga:

Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth, the boxing-related theatre event of the season is coming to Centennial Hall for its Arizona premiere—which is cool, but probably not as cool as the Daily Star made it in its separate story to announce that we're getting it before Phoenix—and tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Centennial Hall Box Office.

Ticket prices will range from $29 to $69, with VIP packages going for $179 apiece. If that sounds like a bit of a stretch to you, keep in mind that they'll include premium seating and, more importantly, a meet and greet(!) with Mike Tyson, where he'll presumably take a picture with you and maybe answer a question or two about how he would have prepared Lennox Lewis's children for consumption.

Tickets for "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth" will be available at the Centennial Hall Box Office, 1020 E. University Blvd; online at uapresents.org; or by phone at 621-3341.

just got out of a great meeting with my wonderful staff of writers and art directors. so far I love my new job as EIC of #RollingStones !!!
— timheidecker (@timheidecker) December 3, 2012

Tim Heidecker, of Adult Swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! fame as well as the new film The Comedy (opening at the Loft this Friday), is clearly a talented, albeit strange, guy. He's also scheduled to perform at Club Congress on Saturday night with Neil Hamburger. However, if his online presence is to be believed, he might be too busy to get to Tucson, considering he's telling the world that he took over as editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone today.

Among the changes, Heidecker is considering in his seemingly imaginary new role, according to his Tumblr page:

- I’d like to slightly revise our rating system for music - I believe we should add a star so there is the potential for a six star review (perhaps only as a nod the the “six string” guitar)

- would like to introduce cartoons in the style of the New Yorker but with rock themes.

- return focus to the bands and artists that helped build Rolling Stone into the Icon that it is, with celebratory stories, covers and features on Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Eagles, Rolling Sones, The Beatles, Zeppelin, etc…

The delusion/elaborate prank continues on Twitter and possibly on stage Saturday. Who knows?

If you'd like a preview of Heidecker's comedy stylings, here's the first episode of new series "On Cinema, At the Cinema," with co-host Gregg Turkington (who is definitely not the same person as Neil Hamburger). Note: if you're a Michael Keaton fan, this will be of particular interest:

Apparently, Mike Tyson's one-man show, "Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth" is coming to UA's Centennial Hall. I am so legitimately excited about this right now that it is incredible.

I mean, it's Mike Tyson, who I believe could have been the greatest boxer of all time and still think could have beaten Ali in his prime, on stage, reciting his life story in a show written by his wife and directed by Spike Lee, of all people. The entertainment potential there, given Tyson's relatively insane personal history, is astounding.

But, to be honest with you, reviews for the former heavyweight champion's show have been, uh...less than great, so far. The New York Times said that Tyson "...is doing little more than relating his well-publicized life story, and, under Spike Lee’s direction, he’s doing so with a clumsiness startling to see on a Broadway stage,"

The New Yorker is more harsh, saying that "the performance feels more like a slavishly chronological series of boozy barroom reminiscences, complete with the high-spiritedness, the cringe-inducing settling of scores, the wallowing, the feints of solemnity, and occasional blubbering incoherence built into that form." But on the bright side, the Telegraph called it an "amusingly honest, if at times self-indulgent, two hours." That's vaguely positive, right?

If nothing else, this has the potential to be one hell of an entertaining evening, whether or not Tyson gets his verbal delivery as sharp as his left hook.

Tickets aren't yet on sale, but Broadway in Tucson appears to be the place to get 'em when they're announced. We'll keep an eye on it.

If you missed the debut of Tucson writer and filmmaker Daniel Buckley's Tucson’s Heart and Soul: El Casino Ballroom, thank the Tucson gawds you've been given a chance to redeem yourself.

The documentary on the life, times, destruction and rebuilding of Tucson iconic performance and celebration venue first premiered to a full-house at the Fox Tucson Theatre in August. While Buckley was a bit disappointed the documentary was still a work-in-progress when it screened as a part of the Cine Plaza series, this time its done and the "redebut" takes place appropriately at El Casino Ballroom during Fiesta El Casino, Saturday, Dec. 8, 6 p.m. Doors open at 5 p.m. so you can get your El Casino on.

The Ballroom, and I shouldn't have to tell you this, but I have to, is located at 436 E. 26th St. $5 admission at the door goes to the El Casino Restoration Fund.

From Buckley's press release: