Radio host John C. Scott is dedicating his entire radio program Thursday, Feb. 12 to help Habitat for Humanity Tucson raise funds for its work to end poverty housing.

Scott is having several guests come by during his live show from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., where they will discuss Habitat's work and why people should support it. Among the guest voices will be Habitat's CEO T. VanHook, who will be co-hosting that afternoon. Other guests include Capt. George Rodriguez of the Tucson Police Department South Division, who will talk about the community building he has seen take place in the Copper Vista neighborhood in the Drexel and Campbell/Park area, where Habitat has been lending its helping hands building affordable housing.

Habitat for Humanity builds and renovates houses for low-income families and veterans, as well as fix up schools and other facilities in low-income neighborhoods. This happens locally, nationally and internationally.

The radio fundraiser this week is for the Tucson area only, of course.

Tune in on 1210 AM or stream it online on PowerTalk1210.com, Thursday Feb. 12 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Living in Tucson, I think it is fascinating that we are two, three, four hours away from some rather interesting towns in Sonora, Mexico. You wake up in the Old Pueblo and by noon you can be eating birria tacos from a street vendor and looking at the remains of Father Kino through a glass.

That's what I did this weekend. 

Early Sunday morning, three friends and I drove down to Madgalena, Sonora, and made pit stops in two other towns in the area, Atil and Tubutama. It's a very easy trip, you just get on the I-19, go through the Mariposa Port of Entry and then take the 15 once you are in Mexico. As long as you stay on that road, you'll see the turns to these small towns.

The first stop we made was in Tubutama. It was deserted. I counted maybe 15 people in the town's plaza, playing corridos (traditional, narrative Mexican songs) through small speakers, and what seemed like a hair styling event. Then we turn to the church, and there is an older woman sitting in there, praying, waiting for mass to start, but we didn't see a priest or any signs of anyone aside from her at the church.

A couple of years ago, there was a shooting in Tubutama, or a massacre I should say, allegedly between two drug cartels. It was reported by residents that in one night about 100 trucks and SUVs made their way into the town. The drug war has definitely been the driving force for people abandoning towns like Tubutama. The more deserted it gets, the better for drug cartels.


Atil was the second stop. Beautiful, colonial, quiet. No one on the streets except for a teacher and two of her colleagues who were leaving a church after mass.

Visit these two if you're into places that haven't changed in decades and if you'd like to see the effects of Mexico's drug and human smuggling, as well as poverty—many of these towns are empty because people have migrated here. They're located very close to Altar, Sáric and Sásabe where there are more coyotes (human smugglers) than there is vegetation. 

Then, there's Magdalena. What a change of scenery. People everywhere, loud music (they had some sort of festival on Sunday with dance groups, singers, food) vendors on the streets, what seemed to be the entire town hanging out by the Magdalena river and the main plaza.

This is interesting: locals like to hang out by the river, and watch smaller cars try to cross through the water and then get stuck in the river. There's music (trios of musicians called taka takas), alcohol and food. You don't need much else. That river had been dry for a while, but recent rains filled it up with a little bit of water recently.

Madgalena is also where you can see the remains of Father Kino. His bones are placed in the same spot where he died, and what was his old parish. That parish is now dust, but he's still there.

Beautiful town.

We are all aware of borderland dangers, but places like Atil, Magdalena, even Tubutama and the others (I don't know about Sásabe, you might not want to go there or Sáric. They are popular drug smuggling corridors) are worth exploring.

We are giving away passes for you and a friend for the whipping cinematic experience you've been waiting for — "50 Shades of Grey." The screening is Wednesday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m. at AMC Foothills. You can come by our office at 7225 Mona Lisa Rd. Ste. 125; or dear readers, you can also pick up passes at Jellywink Boutique, 418 E. 7th St.

There's also a chance to win VIP reserved seating, too (Because the closer you experience the world of Christian Grey, the better, right?)—if you answer a question correctly, we'll put your name in a drawing and let you know by Tuesday that those seats are yours.

Questions provided by Jellywink's Ally Booker. Email your answers to [email protected]:

Question 1:
Which kind of candle wax burns the hottest and should not be used for
erotic play?
a) Soy Wax
b) Bees Wax
c) Paraffin Wax

Question 2:
In the world of BDSM, what does O.T.K stand for?

Question 3:
In the world of BDSM, what does RACK stand for?
a)Risk Aware Consensual Kink.
b)Regularly Available for Clean Kink.
c)Large Breasts
d)Risk Adapted Computer Kink

Question 4: What is "Queening"?
a)cross-dressing
b)air escaping through vaginal lips and creating a fart-like sound, but
is odorless
c)face sitting
d)caning

Non-BDSM sexuality related questions:
Question 5:
What is a Dental Damn?
a) A device you lay over your teeth so that you don't scratch your lover
gentle parts with your teeth
b) A rectangular, usually latex barrier you place between your lover's
vulva and your mouth as a form of safer oral sex
c) A technique used that involves sliding the smooth flat surface of
your teeth over your partner's erogenous zones.

Question 6:
Sex toys made of this material is sterilizable:
1) Elastomer
2) Silicone
3) PVC

Question 7:
Tribadism is the sexual act of rubbing ones vulva against her partner's
thigh, buttock, vulva, or other body part. Name one band that derived
their name from this sexual act. (There are a few to choose from.)

Ready for the show? Plan to dress up in your BDSM best and bring your "50 Shades of Grey," accessories—think again. AMC Theaters prefers you leave all of that at home, and just bring your love for Christian and your imagination and your new found interest in BDSM:

Your plans to go see "Fifty Shades of Grey" in full costume have just taken a turn. In a statement to Mashable, AMC Theaters spokesperson Ryan Noonan revealed viewers would not be permitted to bring many movie-related props into the theater.

"While we welcome those guests who want to show their excitement for a film by dressing up in costume," Noonan said, "we do not permit weapons (real or fake), or props/costumes that would make guests uncomfortable, or detract from the moviegoing experience."

After months of anticipation, "Fifty Shades Of Grey" finally hits theaters Friday, Feb. 13. While you may not be able to show up in your outfit of choice, the film's trailer suggests you still likely won't be bored.

For just a couple minutes, let's all suspend our cynicism here and rally together in support of a little pug puppy named Apple. Poor little Apple jumped off of a high sofa and fractured her dog elbow. She found her way to the Hug A Pug AZ Rescue and Adoption Group after her original owners had to give her up because they couldn't afford the surgery to get her fixed up.

"She is in pain and we want to get the surgery as soon as possible," Peggy Gal of Hug A Pug AZ said. "In addition to the surgery on her elbow she needs to be spayed and microchipped before she has a chance at adoption and a full, pain free life."

The rescue group has taken to a crowdfunding campaign to raise $2,000 for Apple's puppy surgery. You might be thinking, "Why should I care about this tiny baby dog with a broken elbow?" Well, here's some reasons:

1) Have you looked at that dog's smushed up little face? Come on.
2) It's Friday, which means it's payday and you probably already paid rent last week. You know you have a few bucks to spare.
3) If my dog got hurt, I'd hope people would help and if your dog got hurt, I definitely would help. That's what people do in a community: they help each other—especially when the one that needs help is a helpless puppy named Apple with a broken leg. Without upholding these basic tenets of community and human decency, we'd all be living in anarchy.

Cough up $10 or so for this dog via Fundly and be a better person for it.

If you find yourself doing things last minute more often than not, and forgot that if you don't have health insurance, you have to sign up by Feb. 15, keep reading.

Tucson Unified  School District and the Pima County Health Department are going to help people sign up for health insurance Saturday, Feb. 7 at Tucson High Magnet School. They will also provide free flu shots and measles, mumps and rubella vaccination for kids 17 and younger and adults without coverage. (If you believe in vaccines, definitely take advantage of this, especially nowadays that everyone is freaking out about the measles outbreak.)

Reps from the Pima County Enrollment Coalition will be there to help you explore the insurance options and find a plan that best fits you. 

This enrollment period, there are 13 health insurance providers, among them the country's largest United Healthcare. More options help keep the premium cost down. Last period, there were 10 providers to choose from.

The deadline to sign up for a health plan through the Affordable Care Act without having to deal with tax penalties is next Sunday (Feb. 15). If you don't apply, the next enrollment period is later this year, but coverage won't start until 2016.

The city of Tucson also partnered with local health organizations, such as El Rio Community Health Center, for various events where people could get help signing up. 

Pima County would like to reward you if you get covered, too. All of those who attend qualify to win an iPad.

Also, there will be food trucks, mobile health units, TUSD student performances and many more services. 

The event is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and, if you can, bring your child's immunization record if you plan to get them vaccinated that day.

The next enrollment help event, according to the county's calendar, is Feb. 14 at Tucson Medical Center's El Dorado Campus, 1400 N. Wilmot Rd., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. You'd be really pushing it at that point.

Here is a helpful guide courtesy of Pima County. 

Logan Phillips—widely known in the Old Pueblo, the Arizona-Mexico borderlands and beyond as DJ Dirtyverbs—got hooked on cumbia in the early 2000s while living in the central Mexican state of Querétaro. 

Particularly Cumbia sonidera (which has humble beginnings in the poorer barrios of Mexico City) became the unofficial soundtrack of Phillips' Querétaro life and the many other years he orbited through Latin America (including my homeland, Guatemala).

"Playing on the buses in Querétaro, there is something about the guacharaca (a fundamental percussion instrument in cumbia) that just pierces through the noise of the bus and the engine," he says. "It became part of who I was, but when I moved back to Arizona in 2011, I didn't find a space that felt like where I had been."

So he created one.

And for two years now, El Tambó pops up every couple of months or so at Club Congress to celebrate old school cumbia and to be a magnet for the culturally diverse minds that inhabit these desert grounds. But it hasn't been about, "Hey, it's Latin night, everyone else fuck off." It's been a space where Phillips gets to share music that has emotional meaning to his soul with us, no matter where we come from, regardless whether we have heard cumbia before or not, he wants people to visit, get to know each other, have a good time and expand their interests even if that takes us through routes we thought we'd never cross paths with.

"Also, I wanted to create a platform to connect Tucson into this national alternative Latino movement that is happening. There are amazing events in LA, San Francisco...(groups like) Quitapenas...young alternative Latinos with a strong sense of identity," Phillips says over some afternoon coffee at Café Passé. "I really wanted to put Tucson on the map as far as taking advantage of that. Why is the sound of Tucson dusty twang, when we have this huge Mexican population and Chicano population or people like myself who just grew up around that."

What went on to become El Tambó started out with Phillips DJing every Thursday at the then-recently-opened La Cocina. (DJ Herm took on Saturday nights.) That lasted for about three months, then Phillips left town and El Tambó went to sleep for some time. Upon Phillips' return to this land, Congress approached him about bringing some of his flavor there.

"I feel lucky that Hotel Congress would be open to have cumbia sonidera on a Friday night in the middle of downtown, that is a very strong cultural message, especially in the way downtown is changing so fast," he says. "I give credit to Congress and now the Rialto as well, who brought amazing acts like Ana Tijoux, Café Tacuba, Calle 13, amazing, huge acts. Those two spaces are really working hard to advocate for inclusion."

He calls cumbia a genre without borders. Cumbia is created from Canada to the southern-most tip of Argentina, he says.  "Arizona is also part of that experience. Arizona is part of Latin American regardless of the geopolitical borders that there are, through cumbia we can kind of find our heart in that as well...for me it is about a lot more than just a party."

On Friday, Feb. 6, at El Tambó, Phillips is dedicating a set to '90s cumbia sonidera. During our chat, he remembers the first time he scavenged for a cumbia album in the markets, mercados, of Querétaro. He said, "I want cumbia," and they gave him a '90s cumbia CD that featured artists like Los Ángeles Azules, "and I just listened to it over and over again."

"I'm going to play a set of those songs, some of it is pretty heavy cheese, the '90s were a hell of a time for cumbia," he says.

El Tambó is still growing, but Phillips is pretty satisfied with what's been happening. He'd like to keep that "it happens when it happens" vibe, too.

"We need dance floors that really represent who we are as a community in all of our shades and linguistic varieties, it is really important," he says. "A lot of music has taken a very aggressive turn, very misogynistic and materialistic turn. (Although he is a fan of a lot of hip hop, these days) some hip hop has become a de facto pop culture instead of being a niche. Boiled down to its lowest common denominator of message, and I don't feel good dancing to misogynistic lyrics."

It's refreshing to walk into a place and hear songs that are like poems, celebrating life, people close to the land, "to me that is something that resonates a lot more than making money or whatever the theme is."

His long-time friend DJ Herm (an El Tambó virgin) will be joining, as well as the Los Angeles-based, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latin band Cuicani (also El Tambó virgins). 

After this, Phillips is off to the Phoenix Feb. 11 release of his book, Sonoran Strange, and then going on a short tour.

El Tambó starts at 9 p.m. and is $6. For more info, visit the event's Facebook page. 

Pima Community College's annual Speaker Series is getting started Tuesday night with a talk about DNA and how it is used to in police work. The talk will be given by Christian Wilson, a Biology instructor at the college. 

The free event will take place at Pima's District Office, 4905 E. Broadway, at 6 p.m.

The other two talks in the series will take place in March and April. In March, Biology instructor Theodore G. Manno, Ph.D., will give a talk titled “Social Behavior of Prairie Dogs and Ground Squirrels,” recounting his time studying rodents in colonies across western North America.

Then, on April 7, Art instructor  Barbara Jo McLaughlin will give a talk on Japanese wood sculptors, focusing on her research in Tokyo. She will show photographs and discuss the artists’ works, working methods and unique tools. She also will talk about her immersion into Japanese culture.

I'm always hearing people say (well, I'm always hearing myself say) they work best under pressure. You know—if you start your taxes in January, your kitchen table is going to be covered in paperwork for two weeks, but if you start them April 10, you're done in an afternoon? Well, now you've got the chance to test just how good you are under threat of murder.

Step back in time to 1952. The Hollywood Golden Age. Elvis Presley played on the radio, Dragnet on the television. You have entered into a glamorous Hollywood starlet's dressing room but she is nowhere to be found. Upon investigation you discover she's been murdered! Can you follow the clues to solve the murder before the killer returns? Do you have what it takes to get out in time??? WILL YOU ESCAPE?

Oh man, that's a lot of question marks. I find myself intrigued and terrified. 

A rather mysterious website has popped up, inviting Tucsonans to sign up for the "Hollywood Room." Tickets can be booked from Feb. 1 to the end of July. You can book private parties if your office or D&D group or babysitter's club want to give it a go.

I've heard some really wonderful things about How to Host a Murder parties, and $20 per person sounds pretty reasonable for not having to be the person who sets the whole thing up.

The work of internationally and locally famous Mexican artist Cristina Cárdenas has been showcased at the YWCA's Frances McClelland Community Center since the beginning of the month. 

If you haven't checked it out already, plan to go tomorrow between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. for the opening reception because Cárdenas will be there hanging out.

There will be music by the local band Tumbao. They play Cuban son, salsa and Latin jazz. 

The pieces at the YW will exhibit the past about 15 years of Cárdenas' work. The painter/sculptor/print maker/activist follows the traditions of other Latin American artists - like muralist Diego Rivera—of using her pieces to protest social and political issues affecting Latinos, women from all over and others. 

The show runs through Feb. 19.

One of my favorite spring traditions, the UA College of Science Lecture Series, gets launched again on Monday, Jan. 26, on campus at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd.

This year's theme is life in the universe:

For its 10th anniversary, the University of Arizona College of Science's popular spring lecture series will present seven free lectures exploring various aspects of life in the universe.

The first lecture will be on Monday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall on the UA campus.

Life as we know it produces complex order. Earth's many life forms are diverse and continually changing through birth, growth and evolution. The series will investigate questions including: What is life? How do we recognize it?

To understand life in the universe, we ask: What environments produce life and which attributes make something alive? How does life change? Is there life in our solar system or on one of countless exoplanets? Is there a connection between life on Earth and life elsewhere — or are we alone?

This first lecture tackles the topics of "What Is Life?" with Guy J. Consolmagno, a planetary scientist with the Vatican Observatory Research Group. The details on his talk: