The Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance does a great job in promoting Southern Arizona: The rich history, the bounty of the farms and ranches, the diverse landscapes and, ultimately, the story of this land. The industrious non-profit has assembled a terrific tourism map that highlights everything from bird watching to various military posts, as well as an digital calendar of fun heritage events in the area. Their Heritage Foods Program is dedicated to preserving native crops and promoting the homegrown wineries. And Executive Director Vanessa Bechtol continues the challenging work of persuading D.C. lawmakers to formally designate the area as a National Heritage Area. You can learn more about the group's hard work here.

Once a year, the Heritage Alliance brings people together to taste the flavors of Baja AZ at a Harvest Dinner. This year's dinner will be in the historic environs of Maynards Market & Kitchen, where Maynards chef Jared Scott will whip up a four-course meal highlighting local ingredients State Rep. Demion Clinco will be the keynote speaker and (full disclosure) I'll be master of ceremonies. Plus: a silent auction, live music and—if last year was any indication—plenty of Southern Arizona wines and beers to sample.

It's all from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26. Tickets are $75 before Oct. 12. Get yours here.

• The Mensch from Fourth Avenue Deli

If you're down by Fourth Avenue on Saturday (and if you're going to the football game, you'll be close enough), stop by the Fourth Avenue Deli and grab a sandwich. A friend of the restaurant, Justin Hughes, is battling cancer, so the deli is donating 10% of sales to help the guy out.

As the Deli's Facebook post about the event says: "If you met him, you would like him, guaranteed!" That plus a delicious sandwich sounds likes a solid deal.

The Mini Museum Celebrates its fifth anniversary with free admission this month. 

The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures will be celebrating its fifth anniversary by offering free admission and twenty-percent off memberships during the month of September 2014. General admission to the Museum is regularly nine dollars. The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures is a nonprofit organization with the mission of sharing the artistic, historic, architectural and creative aspects of miniatures in an entertaining and interactive way.



The Mini Museum opened its doors to the public on September 1, 2009. Since opening, more than 190,000 people have visited the museum.



The Museum has received the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence Award in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and is currently ranked in the top 10 attractions in Tucson on TripAdvisor.com. The Official Best of Arizona TV Series awarded the Museum Best Unique Museum Experience in 2013 and The Chicago Tribune has claimed; “The magic of this place cannot be overstated.”



Additionally, September is Member Appreciation Month. All active members will receive 20% off (regularly 10%) museum store purchases during September 2014. Plus, both new and renewing members will receive a free museum of miniatures logo tote (while supplies last) and 4 free guest passes. Memberships include annual admission, 4 free guest passes, discounts in the museum store and invitations to special events. The value of member benefits outweigh the cost with just one visit! 



Museum hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 9am-4pm and Sunday from 12pm-4pm. For more info, visit www.theminitimemachine.org or call 520-881-0606. 

Shawn Hillman works with beer distributor Pitcher of Nectar and helps get the local beer of Borderlands on to taps up in Phoenix, which is a noble venture indeed.

However, his son Gavin was born in July with a series of complications, including hydrocephalus and corneal issues. To support their friend in an incredibly difficult and expensive time, the guys from Borderlands are donating a portion of their proceeds tonight to help the Hillman family. If you're in the downtown area from 4 to 9 p.m. tonight, stop by and have a pint for a good cause.

Sometimes I feel blessed we got to sit down with Jes Baker in what may seem like her early days now, but really it was just the very beginning of her revolution as her Militant Baker blog gained a record-breaking following, right before she took on the Abercrombie & Fitch CEO in an open letter and her own ad campaign—Attractive and Fat.

The world seems a Militant Baker blur from that point on—with the development of the Body Love Conference, the first of it's kind bringing more than 400 women together for dozens of workshops on body acceptance. Then Baker was invited to do a Ted Talk, which was uploaded to Upworthy. Then most recently her second collaboration with Tucson photographer Liora Dudar, The Expose Project: Shedding Light on Collective Beauty, a beautiful project that's given Baker (and Dudar) even more exposure through dozens of stories in almost 48 languages.

What's become obvious is that Baker's message is needed, and what's become obvious to Baker is that this is a calling and it's time for her to focus her work on body acceptance full-time.

On Monday, Sept. 1, Baker released her latest campaign on Patreon, a crowd-source campaign to help creatives and revolutionaries figure out a way to earn a living doing what they love. Right now, Baker works full-time for a local mental health organization, and she's been honest—she wants to quit to focus on all the good that's come from The Militant Baker, the Body Love Conference and more.

Patreon, like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, allows you to make a donation, but not just a regular donation—what you can afford monthly. Kind of like a work-place giving campaign. Baker has a couple of goals set. The first is to get $1,600 in monthly contributions so she can do her work and feed her cats, the other is larger sum that could help her hire an assistant. This woman gets email like you can't imagine.

Anyway, here's a link to Baker's Patreon campaign. And more from the Militant Baker below the cut on this next stage of her dream, what that means for her and what that means for us:

If you're a medical marijuana patient or you're interested in becoming one, check out the MMJ for Tucson event at Whistle Stop Depot (127 W. 5th St.) tomorrow from 6 to 9 p.m. (partially sponsored by the Weekly).

• Somewhat dated pop culture reference, but it works.

Like Stefon sort of says above, this event's got a lot going for it: prizes, food trucks, music, guest speakers and representatives from all the dispensaries, certification centers and alternative health places you could ask for.

Plus, it's free to attend, and some of the proceeds from booth rental and such go to Worldcare. Everyone wins!

More info at the event's Facebook page.

Although Namoli Brennet no longer calls Tucson home (she's missed and I hope she misses us too), that's no reason to not throw some love her way.

The popular singer/songwriter just launched a Kickstarter campaign to help her record a new album:

One of my absolute *favorite* things in the world is being in the studio - recording, producing, picking up instruments left and right, losing track of time and sometimes even forgetting to eat or drink for hours on end. I've been doing so much traveling and writing over the past few years and have just been waiting for the right time, for some stillness, to sort through it all and see what jumps out.

As it turns out, a lot of meaningful songs. Some I've had the chance to break in live, like "Gabriel", "Babylon" and "Bleecker Street" - to me, those feel like the kind of songs that I had help with, that reached some kind of depth of meaning that is impossible without a little divine spark. Others, newer ones - they all have some of that. Some of them involve me continuing to beat the bejesus out of my guitar, and others have the most delicate, wispy accompaniment. Lyrically, there is a very poetic thread that connects the album - the potential title track, "Ditch Lilies", was inspired by finding these beautiful flowers proudly growing by the side of a gravel road. And there are a lot of stories on the CD that connect with that idea, finding beauty in unexpected places, in people and places that are often overlooked.

So - I'm so excited to dig into this collection of songs and flesh them out, see what they want and need to feel complete. And I'm beyond excited for them to find their way to your ears and hearts and do what they do best.

A local group of African-American students, artists and community representatives kicked off a GoFundMe campaign on Friday, Aug. 22 to raise funds to send five people to Ferguson, Missouri as part of a national effort called the Black Lives Matter Ride done in conjunction with the National Weekend of Action.

So far $1,940 has been raised for the group's $2,500 goal. While five people from Tucson are part of the ride, the group hopes additional riders from Phoenix will join them. Upon return, the group plan to organize a Black Action Forum, and additional funds from the campaign will help cover facility, childcare and material costs for the event.

Tonight at 6 p.m., the group will hold a send-off and press conference at Cafe Desta, 758 S. Stone Ave., but over the weekend I had a chance to meet with some members of the group, including Matice Moore, UA's African American Student Affairs program director, who said the local campaign allows representative from Tucson to participate in a series of non-violence training workshops in Ferguson—important training they can bring back to teach Tucson and share as part of a Tucson Black Action Initiative they want to develop to create a network and address the needs of Tucson's black community.

With the UA Gender Studies Department, a Black Lives Matter conference takes place on January 15-17, with scholars, writers, artists and leaders from throughout the country and locally taking place to talk about "s WHY Black life matters and WHAT can be done about sustained racialized state violence." For more on the conference, go their page here.

All good reasons to keep giving to the group, even once they reach their goal. Go here to their GoFundMe page.

Moore said the goal, while the national call is short notice, is to encourage people with many different skill sets to come to Ferguson and help the affected community, as well as improve organizing skills to take back to their own cities and towns. Youth organizing, and bringing people to work with youth, is one area, as well as those familiar with theater of the oppressed and medial and photography. Those with medical experience are also needed, she added.

Joining Moore for the trip is Thomas Martin a marketing senior at the UA Eller College, said that anytime a community gets a call like this is is "an obligation to respond to the call and work to stop these things from happening in the future."

Poet Jada Boyd, who works at Bicas, had planned to join the group, but decided to stay in town to read at Words on the Avenue, on Sunday, Aug. 31, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Cafe Passe, 415 N. 4th Ave. The focus that evening is on Ferguson, Michael Brown and his family, and donations collected at the reading will go to the Brown family. Suggested donation is $5 per person.

Boyd said if she was going on the ride, she'd participate in local voter registration efforts. "Right now this community wants to change it's representation. That's something we should all get behind."

Sitting next to Boyd is Beverly Makhubele, a South African emigre, who works in community planning and development, who said she hopes to learn in Ferguson. Not sure what particular skill she brings, but what's important, too, is "learning as much as possible on how to use what we learn in Tucson when we come back."

Javetta Clemmons, also leaving for the ride, said she agrees. The community in Ferguson has done a good job facilitating a conversation locally, but those going to Ferguson for this ride from across the country, like Clemmons, want to learn how to have that conversation in Tucson when they return.

One of the goals of the ride is to support the Ferguson community demands that their Missouri legislative representatives introduce anti-police violence laws that work to address excessive force and the militarization of police. The idea, Martin said, is to shrink the police force by half and put that money toward under-funded school and in the community."

"When we come back we want to establish a training," Martin said. "Part of the problem is that we might be treating this as an isolated incident. We need to be prepared for any response as a community and as a nation."

Somehow, in my second improv group appearance of the month, I'll be performing with the quite funny folks of Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed this Saturday night at their newish theater on Speedway next to Fronimo's (3244 E. Speedway Blvd). There will be two shows for your enjoyment: a 7:30 p.m. family-friendly show and then a more "adult" version at 9:30 p.m. Tickets for either are just $5, which is a solid entertainment bargain.

More info at unscrewedtheater.org.

• Photo courtesy of Tucson Improv Movement.
• Dan Gibson and The Soap Box at Beowulf Alley Theatre Company.

Here's your last chance to catch the Tucson Improv Movement before they hit their new stage on Fourth Avenue in September. TIM's Soap Box group are performing tonight at 7 p.m. at Fluxx Studio and Gallery, 414 East Ninth Street. The cast includes Jessica Crombie, Michael Dean, Ben Dietzel, Cory Jenks, Daniel Kirby, Mishell Livio and Justin Lukasewicz.

We should note that this could be Livio's last performance considering that her and Fook (former KFMA talk show hosts) are relocating to another city to deejay for a bigger network.

Dan Gibson and I will be telling stories from our pasts to inspire the performers' improv sketches.

Admission is only $5 (cash only) and it's an all ages event.

Click here to RSVP on Facebook.