If you're a fan of wacky '80s romps, "can do" sportsmanship, and movies (partially) filmed smack dab in the middle of the Old Pueblo, you should check out Major League tonight at The Loft.

It's all part of a celebration for Tucson's birthday month. In addition to the movie, there will be a Tucson-themed birthday cake, and several food tucks will be in attendance. There's also a free prize raffle for a "fabulous Tucson Gift Package which includes dvds of films made in Arizona, Tucson-centric books and gift certificates from local retailers!"

The 1989 comedy about a struggling, fictionalized version of the Cleveland Indians filmed their spring training segments over at Hi Corbett Field, back when the Tucson Toros reigned supreme and the actual Cleveland Indians did their actual spring training there. According to the Hi Corbett Field Wikipedia page, the film production used several University of Arizona baseball team players as extras. I can remember when the casting call for extras came out, asking for the city of Tucson to come on down and fill the bleachers while Sheen, Tom Berenger, Wesley Snipes and the rest of the cast goofed around on the diamond. I repeatedly begged my mom to take us there, but apparently she had better things to do than sit around Hi Corbett Field for nine hours.

Major League is a light, hilarious movie that still manages to hold up. The plot is standard Bad News Bears fare; a struggling band of wash-outs and rookies prove their naysaying owner wrong and rise to the occasion by the end of the credits. The grizzled Berenger plays veteran catcher Jake Taylor, a womanizer with bad knees who was last seen catching stray balls in a dusty town in Mexico. Sheen is Ricky Vaughn, a pseudo-punk rocker with bad eyesight, a mean throw and a prison rap sheet. Watching the movie when I was younger, I always assumed Sheen's scenes were filmed right after he awoke from a coke-binge coma, turns out I was close; Sheen is on the record about juicin' up on steroids during the production.

Snipes, Corbin Bernsen, Rene Russo, Bob Uecker, the tough-as-nails and gravel-voiced James Gammon and current Allstate spokesman Dennis Haysbert round out the cast. The movie has a bevy of great lines; everything out of Willie Mays Hayes (Snipes) mouth is pure gold, and I still say "Fuck you, Jobu" with alarming regularity. You might also recognize a line you and your drunk uncle say when watching any game together; "JUUUUUST a bit outside" was heard here first!

Also, if you just can't get enough of Charlie Sheen filmed in Tucson hotspots, The Loft will be playing the bitchin' 1986 sci-fi revenge film The Wraith as part of their "Mondo Mondays" series on August 19 at 8 p.m. What's the matter Loft, you couldn't go for a Sheen/Tucson trifecta and book Terminal Velocity?

The fun and festivities start at 5 p.m. Tickets are the Loft's regular admission prices. More information can be found at the Loft's website. Batter up!

Raise your hand if you've ever assassinated an hour or two just following a thread through Wikipedia. My favorite was the time I started with  the Bilderberg Group and wound up via sub-atomic particles, etc., at art taxidermy.

Imagine how much you could discover about your home town if you had a Tucson-only "Wikipedia." You could start with a question about your neighborhood and wind up reading about haunted houses, the first bar in town, hunting woolly mammoths , Hohokam ball games, ranching tips, bird indexes, how to make an adobe brick ... whatever someone might be passionate enough to write about, list references to and invite legitimate and courteous revisions from anyone who might know more.

At Code for Tucson 2013, July 27 and 28 at Gangplank Tucson, one team experimented with what a TucsonWiki might look like. The result was this prototype, developed in 24 hours with team lead Justin Williams of Startup Tucson. 

This Thursday, Aug. 15, at Gangplank, anyone interested in working on a TucsonWiki can join a conversation about how it might be structured and rolled out to the community. Subject matter experts, people with blogging experience and anyone who can recruit others to contribute skills and information are especially encouraged to attend. It's free, and there will be cake. Please RSVP via Tucson Wiki Meetup on Facebook.

If you already have a blog and a website to maintain, come anyway. Through its discovery process, TucsonWiki can direct traffic you might not otherwise attract. Organizers encourage bloggers and website owners to attend because of all the experience you bring to the planning, and the insights you'll have about how the TucsonWiki can work for you.

Gangplank is located in the Pioneer Hotel building, at 17 E.Pennington. Parking is free in the library parking lot, assuming you'll be leaving after 5:40 p.m.  There's also the Pennington Street Garage.

So you can see more of what it's about, here's Justin giving the TucsonWiki pitch and final presentation at Code for Tucson.  

As someone with basically no business instincts whatsoever, I might not be the best judge of these things, but recent University of Arizona graduate Stephen Ost is in the running for College Entrepreneur of the Year for his post-class hangout app concept U Free. If he wins, he'd get $5000 in cash and some other stuff, plus I think we'd all agree we'd rather that money go to a Wildcat instead of someone from BYU (something with cakes, I think), Purdue (fancy grocery stores?), Babson (not a real school, I'm pretty sure) and God forbid, some guy from Girls Gone Wild University and Casino trying to purify water.

Voting is relatively painless, you just have to login in through a social network. Good luck, Stephen.

Huge apologies for the late notice, but here's a Monday recommendation: a free screening of the Dan Rather report on Tucson's Operation Streamline followed by a panel discussion from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Loft Cinema.

From the folks at the American Friends Service Committee:

On Monday, August 5th, a free screening of a Dan Rather exposé into the deportation practice known as “Operation Streamline” will be hosted at The Loft Cinema. The event will begin at 7pm and will be followed by a panel discussion on Operation Streamline and its future with regard to Immigration Reform. This screening is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona (ACLU AZ).

Operation Streamline is a little known practice with big consequences for immigrants who receive criminal records and deportation as a result. Every day in downtown Tucson at the Evo A. DeConcini Federal Courthouse, 70 Spanish-speaking immigrants are filed into the courtroom and in groups of five given 30-180 day sentences that they must serve prior to being deported. Conservative estimates place the cost of Operation Streamline proceedings in the Tucson Sector alone, at $96 million per year. This figure does not include the $3,458 monthly cost per detainee paid to private prison companies such as Corrections Corporation of America.

Even so, the number of people going through Operation Streamline stands to be tripled if current immigration reform that passed the US Senate is ratified by Congress. Operation Streamline is part of larger efforts to criminalize immigrants and militarize the southern US border.

“What we are seeing with programs like Operation Streamline, is a concerted effort to criminalize immigrants, spend millions on incarcerating them, and then separate them from their families and communities through deportation,” says Matthew Lowen of the AFSC. Lowen adds, “It’s an outrageous waste of money and resources, not to mention a dehumanizing and morally repugnant practice, and one that we are committed to ending.”

AFSC is a member of the End Streamline Coalition that is actively working to raise public consciousness about the practice of criminalization of immigrants, as well as endeavoring to halt Operation Streamline all together. There will be information about how to learn more and get involved in the End Streamline Coalition at the event.

Maker House, the lucky bastards that took over the Bates Mansion downtown, have announced their first round of classes they're going to offer in their five instructional spaces, and the list is a delightful mix of the immediately useful and delightfully strange. The complete list is online (a schedule is forthcoming, but at least you can get idea of what they're going to offer), but here are some highlights:

Knit-to-Death: Knitting Needles for Self Defense
American Clog
Fabulous Felted Flowers
Hand Brewing Coffee
Healthy Relationships: Communication and Effective Conflict
Student Loan Workshop
Making Jewelry from Guitar Strings
Painting with Oils and Cold Wax
Mini-book Making
Introduction to Steampunk Fashion
Arcade Controls
Principles of Graphic Design
Precision Chainsaw Wood Carving
Screenplay Writing

To get a better idea of the concept behind Maker House and what they're doing with the space, here's a video tour led by founder Tony Ford:

They're also in the midst of a crowd-funding effort to help make all this happen, if you want to chip in.

I have a weird fascination with tribute bands...I used to see the Atomic Punks semi-regularly when I lived in LA, I make an effort to see Purple Reign when I'm in Las Vegas, and I've spent actual time plotting how to start a Totally Sincere Tribute to 90's Adult Alternative Radio. It's probably not a healthy thing.

However, if you're like me and believe that "close enough" is sometimes better than the real thing, the next two nights in concerts were nearly custom made for your interests.

Tonight, the Iron Maidens (above), who are advertised as the only all female Iron Maiden tribute band, are playing Casino Del Sol. They're playing in the Paradiso Lounge, which isn't so much a lounge, but a stage adjacent to a bunch of slot machines, but the show's free, so there you go.

Tomorrow night, the Rialto is going all-in on tribute bands with five acts playing for $8 starting at 7. My personal preferences mean that the idea of Grateful Dead (Top Dead Center) and Doors (Strange Days) tribute bands are not terribly appealing, but hey, maybe you're not into Journey (Evolution) or The Ramones (The Ramonz, which feels a little lazy name-wise). I'm most interested in Heart to Heart, which is not a celebration of the theme to Hart to Hart as you might believe, but a tribute to the Wilson sisters and Heart. Hear their take on "Barracuda," although I really would like to hear them do "Alone," but what do I know?

The UA Black Student Union, Tucson Solidarity Organizing Network, the Black Chamber of Commerce and the We Care Coalition are hosting a Community Forum for Justice tonight, Tuesday, July 30, that will bring interested community together to "address how we can combat the criminalization of people of color and build solidarity across our communities."

It takes place at the Dunbar Cultural Center, 325 W. 2nd St., 6 p.m. Spanish interpretation will be provided, as well as childcare.

From organizers:

Our Agenda:

How to take action in support of justice for Trayvon Martin
Arizona's issues with maintaining a school to prison pipeline
Stand Your Ground Law in Arizona
What the New Voting Rights Act Means for POC and Immigration Reform
Coalition Building Among People of Color

This event is intended to be action oriented, informative and as interactive as possible. Please be prepared to share your experience, perspective, and offer feedback about how we continue to work to make our communities safe for everyone.

Tomorrow, Dragoon Brewing and Boca Tacos want you to join them for great beer and great tacos to support the Tucson Fire Pipes and Drums band.

The event is set to kick off at 6 p.m. Friday, 'til 8, where Dragoon will be releasing Tartan 479, a Belgian-style Blonde ale. According to Dragoon, sales from the beer will benefit the TFPD Band:

A portion of every keg, growler and pint sold by Dragoon goes to help the Pipes and Drums in their mission of honoring their fallen brothers and sisters. It’s available on draft in our taproom and at select bars and restaurants in the Tucson area.

It is made from a blend of North American 2-Row and German pils malts, with a bit of Vienna Malt and unmalted barley. It is lightly dry-hopped with Cascade and Sterling hops and is fermented with a Belgian Abbey ale yeast. The result is a balanced Blonde ale—bready and toasty, with a lightly spicy sweetness and subtle fruity hop nose.

Boca also plans on running a special, offering two tacos and a pint of Tartan 479 for $10.

Tacos, beer and a good cause? Sounds like a good way to kick of the weekend to me.

If you are looking to do something different this weekend, you can head on out to the fourth annual Garlic Festival at Triangle T Ranch, 4190 E. Dragoon Road. The event will be benefiting the Wounded Warriors Project. The event is Saturday, July 26 and Sunday, July 27 from 10 a.m. 'til 6 p.m. There will be a garlic cook-off, garlic food vendors, garlic recipes, live (probably not garlic-related) music, horseback rides and games for the kids.

This is a free event but there is a $3 parking fee. For more information check out http://www.azretreatcenter.com/garlicfest2013.html.

After the jump, there's a survey that should only take a few minutes. Basically, we get a little bit of info about how you interact with the Weekly and you get a chance to win a gift certificate to HUB. One lucky survey taker gets $100, someone else with get $50, and I'm pretty sure we'll get another $20 for someone else. We won't do anything with your personal info or hold a grudge if your answers are unkind. We'll draw winners at the end of the week. Good luck and thanks for helping us out with some answers.