As part of the National Action Network's 100 City "Justice for Trayvon" Vigil, Tucson folks are gathering from 9 to 10:30 a.m., El Presido Park, 160 W. Alameda St., downtown Tucson.

Still pissed? Still hurting? Still thinking about The Wire's David Simon wrote right after the Zimmerman verdict? Then show-up. From Simon in Salon:

Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies: Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible. I can’t look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country. Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.

From Tucson organizers:

Show up on Saturday to:

• Remember the lives of Trayvon and other victims of gross injustice from around the nation and Arizona. Share your story.

• Learn about how you can take action against Stand Your Ground laws.

• Find out about other upcoming events and actons, and sign up to participate.

FC Tucson, the little semi-pro team that could (and has, and will continue to do), is playing their final game of the season tomorrow — and, for that matter, the final game at their current field, before they move into their new digs next season.

And for tomorrow's game, they want you, Tucson, to join in and help give them their very first sellout game of the season.

From FC Tucson:

“This has been a fantastic season of accomplishments for our growing and passionate fan base. We went over 1,000 fans twice this season and now, we want to challenge our community to come out for one final summer celebration and be a part of our first official sell-out of 1,200 fans,” said FC Tucson Chief Business Officer Chris Keeney. “These players have fallen in love with Tucson and it would be tremendous to send them back to their collegiate or professional careers with a massive home field advantage and a standing ovation when the match ends. It’s also the last hurrah at Field 5 because we will open next season at our new stadium which will be an epic event as well.”

Added FC Tucson Head Coach Rick Schantz: “Revenge is on all of our minds. When we lost to BYU in Provo on July 4, they had their biggest home crowd of the season and it was clear their players fed off that energy. We want to return the favor and show the Cougars just how difficult it is to play against us in Tucson, Arizona.”
In addition to “Pack The House” Night, July 20 is also “Fan Appreciation Night.” In addition to FC Tucson’s match with BYU, fans can also expect the following:

· Chapman Tucson Champions League Men's Over 45 Final
· adidas water bottle giveaway to first 250 fans.
· Tucson Adult Soccer League Night.
· $3 hot dogs.
· Hero Appreciation: Military and first responders get in for $10.
· Frost gelato bites to the first 100 fans.
· TMC Mini-Balls.
· Team Posters.
· Raffle for team-autographed soccer balls.
· Post-match autographs.
· Halftime appearance by new University of Arizona women’s head soccer coach Tony Amato.

If you've support FC Tucson this season, or if you're wondering what all the fuss is about, head to tomorrow's game and check it out — and if you're so inclined, it wouldn't hurt to look up the FC Tucson supporters, the Cactus Pricks, while you're at it.

We all know that not having dental insurance can be a drag especially if you have children.

The good news is that YMCA of Southern Arizona, in partnership with the Arizona Dental Foundation, United Concordia and The Dental Health Committee, are hosting a free dental and wellness clinic for children ages 4-12 on Friday, July 20 from 8:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Mulcahy YMCA Kino Community Center, 2805 E. Ajo Way.

Services available include dental screenings and referrals, child fingerprinting, certificates for sports physicals, free bike helmets and fittings, and more.

I recommend getting there just a little early to avoid the crowd. To learn more about this event check out the Family Support Alliance website.

There's the cookout with family and friends in the afternoon, and the fireworks to look forward to at night, but the dog's still going to wake you up at 6 a.m., so why not get an early start? It's never too early to celebrate the independence of our great nation. Give in to the patriotic fervor and bunting-strewn, marching-band fun of a small-town celebration!

You could start with a charming, old-fashioned (literally!) neighborhood parade. The Palo Verde neighborhood is hosting its 50th(!) Annual July 4 parade at 9 a.m., at the corner of Palo Verde Avenue and Camden Street in Tucson. Prizes will be awarded for the best hand-pulled floats and patriotic costumes; Mayor Jonathan Rothschild will be the parade marshal; and Tucson Police are providing the color guard. The event gets underway at 7 a.m. with a $3 pancake breakfast, including bacon, fruit, coffee and juice, in a driveway on Fairmount just west of Palo Verde Avenue.

If you're up for a drive, you can get into the spirit with the Bisbee Rotary Club July 4 parade featuring the theme "Celebrating Our Families." The parade includes music, animals, and groups of all kinds; prizes are awarded for best of parade, most humorous, best depiction of the theme and best depiction of family history. Line-up is at 9 a.m., at 1 Main Street in Old Bisbee; the parade begins at 11 a.m. Call 266-2194, or (520) 432-7071 for more information.

Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel Street, offers an "Old Fashioned Fourth of July Celebration" with games for kids, free hot dogs and watermelon, and a "squirt down" courtesy of the Tubac Fire Department from 10 a.m. to noon. Parking is free, and so is admission to tour the park and learn what was happening in Southern Arizona at the time young U.S. of A. first celebrated its independence.

Kore Press, the local publishing house dedicated to "lifting the voices of women and girls," is celebrating 20 years publishing this year, and is doing so by publishing a multi-author "Best of 2012" book of poetry, showing the work of 36 women poets.

The thing is, they need your help to get there. Currently, they're planning on raising half of the funds via outside sources, but that means that they need your help for the rest of it, Tucson.

From the Kore Press Kickstarter:

One of the organizing principals around which the collection has been assembled is poet Muriel Rukeyser’s famous proposition: “What would happen if a women told the truth about her life? The world would split open.”

Editor Dernier says, “We did not send out a request for submissions. We read only the manuscripts already submitted in 2012 as a way of showcasing the work that women were sending to Kore within a period of time; we did not invite the writer to choose for us, I read the manuscripts, and with the help of the other editors, made final selections and came up with an order.

Though we each employed a different set of criteria for choosing our favorites, I believe these choices have a commonality: the first would surely be that electrified moment when the poem charges through and lights up the reader. Like the inventor, Nikola Tesla, who used to run the alternating electrical current through his body as a way to support his theory, readers of poetry employ a similar system."

My favorite part of this Kickstarter? The fact that each donation level's dollar amount has significance to Kore and to feminist publishing (such as the top, $1,993 level, which denotes the publishing house's incorporation and includes this tidbit in the description: "Speaking of dreaming: the conversation between founders Karen Falkenstrom and Lisa Bowden out of which Kore Press emerged, took place in 1992 at the Cup Café in the Congress Hotel.")

To help out Kore Press, check out their Kickstarter here.

A decision by the U.S. Senate is expected today on the latest version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. In response to the CIR's increase in Border Patrol spending and additional surveillance — what some consider another tactic to further militarize the border — activists and organizers are holding an anti-militarization rally today, 4 p.m. at the DeConcini Federal Courthouse, corner of Congress Street and Granada Avenue.

Press release:

With the U.S. Senate on the cusp of passing its version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR), Tucson migrant rights groups and their allies are rallying downtown to denounce the bill’s unprecedented militarization of the southern border. Speakers and street performers will call attention to some of the dramatic consequences and likely human costs of the bill’s passage for migrants and border communities.

Luz Argueta-Vogel, an event organizer, said that the bill’s extreme measures are pure politics. “This has nothing to do with improving border security. This is about getting votes for a deeply flawed bill,” she said. “As Southern Arizonans we know that more drones and agents do not make anyone more secure, least of all those living on the border or those trying to cross into the United States.”

Arizona Senator John McCain, one of the members of the Gang-of-Eight senators that have been the bill’s primary backers, has said that the changes will make the frontier with Mexico “the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall.” The bill represents, in short, a doubling down on decades of failed enforcement policies on the border, policies which have been principal culprits in the deaths of more than 6,000 migrants trying to cross the desert since 1995. The price-tag for this unconscionable expansion of the militarization of our communities is about $40 billion.

The bill calls for a near doubling of Border Patrol agents, a massive increase in surveillance and detection technology on the border, and a tripling of the number of apprehended migrants criminally prosecuted through Operation Streamline. Immigration enforcement agencies are under increasing scrutiny for the systematic abuse of migrants; internal corruption; the impunity of agents who shoot migrants and Mexican nationals; and the lack of meaningful performance metrics. Local organizers are calling on the national groups advocating for reforms to make policies that rein-in Border Patrol their top priority.

Stephanie Quintana, an organizer with the Southside Worker Center, said that immigration reform is extraordinarily important, but that it can’t come at the expense of migrants and border communities. “Border militarization is not immigration reform,” she said. “If this bill means more migrants dying in the desert, more people being killed by agents and millions of people under constant government surveillance along the border, then we need to go back to the drawing board. Tying much-needed pathways to citizenship to profoundly inhumane border policies is politics at its most cynical.”

Travellers and Magicians is playing tonight at 6:30 at Fluxx, 414 E. 9th Street. The film is told from a Himalayan Buddhist perspective and runs just over an hour and a half.

Members of Nalandabodhi, a local Buddhist study group, will lead a discussion after the film. The screening is the first in a four-part series Nalandabodhi and Fluxx are putting on together.

From the Nalandabodhi website:

In the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, nestled deep in the Himalayas, two men seek to escape their mundane lives. Dondup, an educated university graduate decides that he will be better off picking grapes in the US than working as a government officer in a remote rural village. Tashi, a restless farm youth studying magic, cannot bear the thought of a life consigned to his village. Through a trick of his brother, he is delivered into a dream world of seduction and intrigue. The two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is a common one — for a better and different life.

The series will continue with Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion on July 25, Kundun on Aug. 30 and My Reincarnation on September 27.

Complete with a soundtrack of Starbuck's "Moonlight Feels Right," the sight of Kenny Stewart in particularly revealing undergarments, and ...Music Video?'s Paul Jenkins doing some excellent dancing with his hands, the promo video for Thursday's Yacht Rock 2013 party at La Cocina is now online for your enjoyment.

I don't know if it's quite as emotionally evocative as last year's tribute to the video for Michael McDonald's "Sweet Freedom," but it's still worth a view (or twelve).

We've given Dan Buckley's "Mariachis Transform Tucson" Kickstarter some love in the past, but now's as good a time as any to take another look at it:

Buckley's project, which is set to take a look at mariachi programs have affected Tucson in positive ways (because, strangely, giving kids something to do keeps them out of trouble!) only has four days left to raise a bit less than $9,000, which is completely do-able in this city.

So let's help Buckley, who is also responsible for the documentary Tucson’s Heart and Soul: El Casino Ballroom, which looked into the history of the El Casino Ballroom, continue his look back into the history of Tucson's Latino community.

Head to the Mariachis Transform Tucson page for more.

There are some great things happening in the Moldy Pueblo tonight, but one highlight is sure to be Jen McDonald's open mic from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. at Riley's Irish Tavern, 5140 N. La Cholla Blvd.

Remember Jen? She was the owner of the late Glass Onion Café, a Beatles-themed sandwich shop that cultivated a following for its open-mic nites and eclectic music offerings. Jen is now doing her thing at Riley's: open mic, terrific musicians and some of her fine food, too.

Tonight's special guest is Darren Gallagher, but we have it on good word that the special friends involved include some great local blues and Jazz folks Malik Alkabar, Glendon Gross, JR Rodrigues and Tony Morrata. If you have something to offer—as a musician or singer—you can sign up to sing or play your songs, too.

The other good word out there is Jen's good food. Every Thursday she brings in several different cheesecakes. (I understand strawberries and chocolate are going to be on one of those cheesecakes tonight.) And according to the Facebook invite, Jen is also cooking up some porknbeef meatball subs, steak fajita, grilled chicken with fresh basil and tomato quesadillas, beef n bean chili with cheese and onions and super nachos and build-your-own quesadillas.