The end of Latin@ Pride Week is almost here, so you best get out there to enjoy the last two events — tonight's Odyssey Storytelling evening (yep, I'll be there telling a story among some other pretty fabulous people) and tomorrow evening EL TAMBO: Cumbia y Mas, which is shaping up to being an fun dance-your-ass-off tradition.

Tonight's storytelling event, “Tradiciones y Transiciones/ Traditions and Transitions” starts at 7 p.m. at Fluxx Studio, 414 E. 9th St. off Fourth Avenue. Seven stories from Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias, Oscar Jimenez , Sarah Gonzales, Mari Herreras, Alejandro Castelar, Miguel A Moreno and two spontaneous storytellers. The evening is hosted by Jerry “Che” Diaz. $7 donation at the door, but I suggest you get there early to get a good seat.

Friday's event of cumbia will feature Quita Penas from California, our local Jaime J, burlesque by Lola Torch and more hosted by cumbia master DJ Dirtyverbs and Jerry "Che" Diaz — all at Club Congress, 311 E Congress St., $5 at the door for 21 and older.

Quita Penas - Que Te Pasa @ El Tambó from Sello Vagamundo on Vimeo.

The second annual Born & Brewed Tucson Beer Cup is happening this Friday at Hotel Congress, from 7-10 p.m. Part beer festival, part competition, it's a great excuse to get out and try some of the best local brews. The hotel also offers special packages that include a room for the night in case you "sample" too much. Some of the featured breweries are: Dragoon, Barrio, Nimbus, Borderlands, Thunder Canyon, 1702, Ten 55, Sentinel Peak, along with some special guest breweries.

What's beer without food and music you ask? They will have that covered as well. This event sold out last year and a good number of folks were turned down at the door, so get your tickets quick!

You can purchase them here : http://hotelcongress.com/music/2nd-annual-born-brewed-tucsons-beer-cup/

Happy Drinking Tucson!

• Courtesy of The Loft Cinema

Local comedians Mike Sterner and Bridgette Thum joined forces with the The Loft Cinema to create a free weekly comedy night. Thus, Happy Tuesdays was born. Every Tuesday a local comedian or comedy group hosts different hour long variety shows in Mooney’s Back Lot (behind the new digital theater three). I host “Viva La Viral” on the third Tuesday of every month. I perform some standup then show my favorite viral videos people have sent me or I discovered throughout the month.

There's special local personality at every show to share their favorite videos. This month’s guest is Jacob Breckenridge. Breckenridge is the co-host of “The Switch” a monthly improv comedy show at Plush Tucson and he’s comic book writer and artist.

All the Happy Tuesday shows are all ages (but the theater encourages that folks don’t bring children 3 and younger; get a babysitter) and free, but seating is limited. Come relax on either on the love seats, comfy chairs, and satisfy your thirst at the well-stocked bar. The doors open at 8 p.m.

Check out the Loft’s website for all the details.

We have talent in Tucson and possibly a future Steve Jobs in our midst (but of course a nicer desert variety). The good folks at Startup Tucson celebrate and develop that entrepreneurial spirit with Tucson youngsters at Startup Weekend Tucson Kids.

There's only space for 10 to 15 kids ages 5 to 12 at this year's Startup Weekend Tucson Kids from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at Gangplank Tucson, 17 E. Pennington St. Cost is $10 to $15. FYI: A parent or responsible adult person is required to be with their kiddo during the event.

What's it all about:

Parents, bring your 5-12 year old children and have a blast at Startup Weekend Kids. At this great event, you and your children will have fun building a business or invention just like the grownups at the main Startup Weekend event. Your kids will get hands on experience pitching ideas, making a prototype, and learning about costs, customers and profit.

It’s a fun frenzy of learning key skills unlike anything you’ve tried before! Your kids will leave having practiced essential 21st century skills like problem solving, public speaking, math and data collection.

When I first read about the new Spanish study on how drinking wine can conquer the blues I misread and through it recommended up to seven glasses a day to defeat depression. I thought, "Finally, a reason to love the Spanish."

But no. No. Sorry to report the study shows that those prone to depression found relief through the enjoying of two to seven glasses of wine .... a week. Damn.

From The Guardian:

The research, part of the broader Predimed report on the Mediterranean diet, followed 5,500 light to moderate drinkers of both sexes over a period of seven years and found that those who drank two to seven glasses of wine a week were less prone to depression than non-drinkers. The findings, published in BMC Medicine, remained significant even when other factors such as smoking, diet and marital status were taken into account. The results were the same for men and women.

"The results show an inverse association between low to moderate alcohol consumption and new cases of depression," said lead researcher Miguel Ángel Martínez-González of the University of Navarra. None of the participants had suffered from depression or alcohol-related problems at the start of the study. Wine was the most popular drink among those studied, who were aged from 55 to 80, an age group in which the risk of depression is relatively high.

BTW, the lead researcher interviewed did warn that depression prevention is not a reason to start drinking. Geesh:

"Depression and heart disease seem to share some common mechanisms because they share many similar protective factors and risk factors," Martínez-González said. However, he added that depression prevention was not a reason to start drinking.

"If you are not a drinker, please don't start drinking," he said. "If you drink alcohol, please keep it in the range of one or less drinks a day and consider drinking wine instead of other alcoholic beverages."

• From "Price Is Right Live"

I'm sort of an obsessive game show fan (last night at dinner, I surely bored an audience of my friends discussing my year or so of trying out for and appearing on game shows in LA), so just the mention of a live stage version of Price Is Right coming to Tucson this Sunday night was exciting for me. Talking to Todd Newton, the host of the show, on the phone, however, it seems like anyone who has affection for the classic show or just feels like having a chance to win prizes should probably get tickets.

My big concern, because I am a nerd who needs better hobbies, was that the stage show wouldn't have the same feel as the TV version, like a regional theater version of a Broadway musical, but Newton assured me that the audience will be impressed. "The similarities are endless," Newton said, "since the live show is produced by the same people as the TV show, there are still the same prizes, the cars, the vacations." In seemingly an apt comparison, he described the traveling version like a band playing its greatest hits, since they bring the full-size versions of games like Plinko and Cliffhangers. However, one advantage the live adaption has is ditching the time constraints of TV. "We go at least 90 minutes," Newton said, "sometimes up to two hours, if things are going well with the audience." Also, the show gets more people on stage than TV. Instead of bringing four people to "Contestant's Row" and then those people staying until they get on stage or the show ends, four new contestants are chosen for each pricing game. The contestants will be chosen at random from those who chose to put their names in, so the people in the cheap seats have the same chance as those up front. In this case, wearing a novelty t-shirt doesn't help you get on stage, although Newton noted that "it helps any game show to have people dress up and be loud."

Tickets for Price Is Right Live range from $38 to $64, not including fees, for Sunday, September 15th show at Centennial Hall. Showtime is 7 pm.

Buena Vista Social Club alumni Omara Portuondo, Guajiro Mirabal, Barbarito Torres and Eliades Ochoa return to the stage to perform with La Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club, a 13-piece group including a new generation of musicians, will perform Saturday, Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. in Centennial Hall. Fans will be able to hear some of their most famous songs like "Chan Chan," "El Carretero" and many other classics.

“I am very happy to be back with the public in the United States, I have done a lot of tours and the public has always been great, they know all our songs and are always welcoming,” said Eliades Ochoa, an original member and one of the founders of the Buena Vista Social Club.

Opening for them will be jazz pianist, Roberto Fonseca, a highly acclaimed, well respected musician from Havana.

“He is a very talented young man; what makes him great is that he can play variety of music. He is a complete artist,” Ochoa said.

Tickets are $45, $43, $40, $37, $30 with discounts. For information about the concert call (520) 621-3341 or go online to uapresents.org.

Eliades Ochoa had a few moments to talk to the Tucson Weekly:

What is the difference or similarities to the new generation of members in the Buena Vista Social Club?
The new generation in Buena Vista Social Club plays peninsular Cuban music. They come to us at a young age but they have a deep knowledge of the music of peninsular Cuban music and want to be there playing this music with the Buena Vista Social Club.

What is your favorite type of music and why?
Son cubano. I am sonero, my life is the countryside (the fields and land), I was born in the fields and will die there. (A style of music that originated in Cuba and gained worldwide popularity in the 1930s. Son combines elements of Spanish canción and the Spanish guitar with African rhythms and percussion instruments of Bantu and Arará origin.)

If you were not performing and playing music what would you be doing instead?
I think I was meant to be born as an artist and if I weren’t meant to be playing music, it would be better that I was never born. So if I wasn’t playing music, I don’t know what I would be doing.

If you are not playing music what are you doing?
I visit with my friends. I read a lot. I am like any other person.

What is your favorite song to play while on tour?
That’s hard; I love all the songs.

Many people compare you to Johnny Cash, does that bother you?
It is something beautiful; he is an artist of the world. I think when one is compared to another artist of quality whose music has made it around the world and brings joy to others is beautiful and to be compared to him I value a lot.

What is the most popular music in Cuba right now?
The youth is listening to a lot of a Reggeaton.

Did you like the documentary made by Wim Wenders about the Buena Vista Club and why?
Yeah, of course. It was very beautiful and it made us be even more well known around the world. Now wherever we go people recognize us and because of that we are all very thankful for the documentary.

Many Cuban artist have left Cuba but you have decided not to leave why?
Many artists do leave and they go travel the world, work and do whatever this is where I feel comfortable.

What kind of legacy do you hope the Buena Vista Club Leave behind?
I hope that we are known to have always played the best possibly could at our concerts and that we always gave the best to our fans, that we celebrated our public because they were always their for us. We did it all with lots of love.

Beer lovers, here's a cool event at Borderlands (119 E. Toole Ave.) today. Lance Rice, a beer expert with autism, is traveling across the country with his cousin Lance (a director) filming a documentary and gathering information for a book about his life and experiences with the American craft beer movement in every state. Brewers from Barrio, 1055, and Sentinel Peak will be there as well, and 10% of Borderlands sales will go to help fund the film project.

The event should start around 5:30 tonight and run until 9.

Tomorrow night is the first night of the Arizona Underground Film Festival, a week-long festival chock-full of new and exciting films!

The fest is opening the proceedings with two horror films, it being Friday the 13th after all. At 7 p.m. is the U.S. premiere of Discopath, which the AZUFF website declares is a "salute to 70′s to 80′s exploitation slasher films with disco balls, roller skating, and tons of 70′s synth dance hits." Following that is the world premiere of Truth or Dare at 9 p.m. This is Scream Queen Jessica Cameron's (Hell-O-Ween, The Black Dahlia Haunting) directorial debut, and she'll be at the fest along with writer/producer Jonathan Higgens and few members of the cast for a Q&A session after the film.

Other films of note this weekend -

SXSW winner Loves Her Gun, featuring music by Howe Gelb, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14.

Fateful Findings, which according to Badass Digest, is "...the ultimate midnight movie for a post-The Room world. It may not be the most polished movie you've ever seen, but goddamn does Fateful Findings go for broke, and goddamn is it full of heart and special vision." You can catch this next cult movie sensation at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. Local psychotronic art collective Carne and Queso is sponsoring this screening, and rumor has it they'll have free pizza on hand.

For a full schedule of films and other information, you can check out the AZUFF website here. For festival passes and tickets, you can find info and purchase (for super cheap!) them here. All screenings are held at The Screening Room.

I'll be covering the fest for The Range, stay tuned for previews, reviews, interviews, etc. Check #AZUFF on Twitter for the latest info, potential changes, observations, meanderings and inane ramblings.

For some reason, I've been invited to perform (?) some brief monologues tonight at Beowulf Alley as part of the Tucson Improv Movement's show Shoe Box tonight at 7 pm, if that's the sort of thing that might interest you. Somewhat more seriously, I'm certain the other people involved (including Mishell Livio from KFMA) will be quite funny, since they practice this stuff and I'm going to try to just stay out of the way. Should be a good time.

Adding to my general unease about this whole thing, the example I received of what to expect was the video above, an episode of Upright Citizens Brigade that aired on Bravo in 2005. The person doing what I'm supposed to do tonight? TINA FEY. Oh sure, I'll just be as funny as Tina Fey. No problem. Sigh.