We've had a record number of votes this year for our annual Best of Tucson poll, so hey, Tucson, pat yourself on the back. However, as the number of votes is still a number fewer than the total number of Tucsonans, there are clearly some hold-outs. 



So, here is your one-week-left warning for Best of Tucson, since you have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, July 30 to submit your ballot. You don't have to be interested in all of the categories, but you will need to pick a favorite in at least 35 categories for your votes to be counted (but if you can't find 35 categories to vote in, you might need to get out more). Every vote makes the results more accurate, so be sure to set some time aside to pick your favorite Southern Arizona people, places and things.



Vote now! Go! Do it!

• Wilderness, 02076-7-07 (2007) pigment print © Debra Bloomfield

Wild America, featuring photography from Ansel Adams and Debra Bloomfield, continues through Aug. 30 at Etherton Gallery, 135 S. Sixth Ave. Check out an opening reception from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 21. Bloomfield will be on hand to sign her new book and Carl Hanni, as always, will be your DJ for the evening. Sure to be fun. More details here.

If you're paying attention to our desert, then you know that monsoon season is almost upon us. The cicadas are providing that deafening hum and the saguaro fruits are starting to ripen.

This is my favorite time of the year. First, we in perpetual drought now, so any drop of rain is to be celebrated. Just look at your recent Facebook feed—our recent few drops of rains made people crazy.

So when it rains during monsoon, sometimes we go outside and dance in it while filling up buckets to feed our plants. And we post where the rain is falling, because sometimes the eastside gets a deluge, while my Menlo Park neighborhood gets a drop or two. We compare notes. We get excited. And if we're practiced, we stay out of washes and take it easy on the road.

This weekend is the Raices Taller 222 Gallery and Workshop annual monsoon exhibit and next Tuesday El Dia de San Juan Fiesta. Raices' Chubasco! celebrates monsoon rains and all things water. There's an opening reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at 218 E. 6th St., and it continues through July 26.

Bloom Night 2014 will be the most spectacular botanical event of the summer. Witness the simultaneous nighttime bloom of dozens of dazzling white, hand-sized Peniocereus greggii, the Queen of the Night. During this year’s Bloom Night we’re keeping the best parts of Bloom Nights past and adding a few new things, too. The Garden Bistro will be open and offering a special Bloom Night celebratory summer supper. What could be better than a delectable gourmet dinner under the stars on the patio of the Garden Bistro, followed by a leisurely nighttime stroll through our gardens, taking in the sight and scent of the cereus? As always you’ll be able to purchase sweet and cool ice cream and refreshing bottled water on our grounds. For those who have never witnessed the magic of these amazing Cinderella plants, Bloom Night happens sometime between May 25th and July 20th. Tohono Chul's trails are lined with hundreds of luminarias directing guests to the plants in bloom; don’t forget a flashlight and appropriate shoes for walking our desert. Flowers start opening around sunset and are fully opened and very fragrant by about 9 p.m. Admission is free to members and children under 12 and $5 for the general public.

June is the evidently the first annual Immigrant Heritage Month, and in honor of occasion Congressman Raul Grijalva wants personal stories of immigrants who live and work in the third congressional district. Residents of the 3rd district should email their stories to [email protected] with "My Story" in the subject line. The stories can be submitted in an essay or video format—their own story, or that of family or friends.

The winner will be announced in July and featured on the congressman's website and through social media.

From the congressman's office:

“Immigrants are the foundation of our great nation. Throughout our history, immigrants have come to America seeking new opportunities, safety, brighter futures, and better lives,” said Grijalva. “And in exchange for these opportunities, they’ve contributed so much. Immigrants are our neighbors. They teach our children, cure and care for our sick, run our local businesses, and serve our communities in so many ways. In their efforts to give back to the country that took them in, all of them have made a mark and left a legacy.”

“We now give these well-deserving people a chance to tell their stories; to share with us tales about their bravery, pain, hope, sadness, faith, and the fear and doubts that ran through their minds when they left a place they lived in, so that they might find a home. I’m proud to help tell these stories.”

This new initiative is being spearheaded by the group Welcome.Us, which plans to partner with businesses, media outlets, civic organizations, athletes, faith leaders and political leaders to gather and share inspirational stories of American immigrants.

Together, the TIM company members have the goal of being Tucson's premier longform improv theater. Longform improv originated in Chicago in the 1960s and 70s, most notably with Del Close's invention of the harold format. With longer scenes and deeper themes than shortform (like Who's Line Is It Anyway?), our audiences come to see a show where, as Del Close said, "we create a Theater of the Heart". Today long form improv comedy is performed at the world's most famous improv theaters in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and TIM is working to bring this style of improv to the Old Pueblo!

• Purchase the raw materials needed to build out our stage, DJ/Tech booth, entrance, bathrooms and more
• Put in professional lighting and sound systems for our stage
• Modify our walls with a professional contractor to soundproof and isolate our new theater space
• Purchase and install video screens for the stage to have state-of-the-art interactive show pieces
• Purchase seating and paint to clean and upgrade the theater space for the perfect audience experience
Depending on the pledge amount, donors will be rewarded with TIM shirts, stickers, posters, tickets for events and their name on the TIM Comedy Theater Wall of Donors Plaque.

It's a great idea. Let's get the Santa Cruz River running in the downtown area. Rebuild and maintain the riparian environment, to the extent it can be rebuilt and maintained, anyway. Turn it into a natural attraction for locals and tourists. Bring people to its banks to get a sense of the river and the area as it once was.

Let's bring a little running water to town.

I've bit my lip on this topic for years because, well, I came here from Portland and . . . say no more. Few words fall flatter on the Tucson ear than, "In Portland, we . . ." I feared the rolling eyes, the dismissive grunt. "This is the desert, idiot. Two words. No. Water." But now that the subject has been broached in an article in today's Star, with the blessing of some locals, I'm ready to go public.

Look, we'll soon have functioning light rail here using Portland streetcars and modeled, at least in part, on Portland's light rail system. I'm a big supporter. It looks like it's paying economic and urban dividends even before the first paying passenger hops on board.

I just returned from a visit to Portland, where I rode the MAX from the airport, then back to the airport again, and I took lots of trips on MAX and the lighter-light-rail streetcars while I was there. Years ago, I watched the city being dug up to make way for the tracks. The downtown went through the same agony we've gone through here — torn-up streets (add mud), construction delays and businesses on life support. It was ugly, and it got nasty. Now downtown Portland is hopping (it was dying before), and many of the rail stops around the city have become commercial hubs because businesses know people are going to be walking by when they get on and off the trains. It's really something. It's transformed the city.