No idea why we haven't talked about this event already, but tonight's Industrial Bowling event at Golden Pin Lanes seems like one of the most unique evenings of entertainment to occur at a bowling center in some time. $5 gets you three games of bowling and shoe rental (not a bad deal, really), but you also get industrial and electro music played by three DJs and "club lighting & visuals" (which sounds sort of like black lights and strobes with Eraserhead projected on a wall to me, but I suspect it's more involved than that). Plus, if you're over 21, there's a full bar, so that's a definite plus.

If anyone goes, please send photos. Seriously.

So how many of you out there shopped local this holiday season? I know I tried my best, but while running errands with my mom one day, I realized that in preparing for the holidays there's not much you can do except buy local — masa for the tamales (Alejandro's for us), extra tortillas for a tamale party (Anita Street Bakery and La Tauna), and meat for the tamales (American Meat Market — BTW, they have bacon-wrapped weenies in the freezer section that I might write about later).

If you need more reminding on how important shopping local is, we came across a video produced by former Tucson Unified School board candidate and city council staffer Miguel Ortega with the purpose of doing just that — reminding you all the good reason to shop local as much as you can.

The video is part of a project Ortega is working on called Vamonos Tours. So far, Ortega told us, KXCI and Access Tucson are running the video as a public service announcement. The goal he said is to get local businesses to sponsor these buy-local messages.

"These are not commercials for their businesses. They have no say in the content. We only guarantee that we will tape the message at their place of business, use their product or services to underscore the message and thank them for sponsoring the PSA," Ortega said.

For more info on his latest project, go to its Facebook page at Vamonos Tours Arizona.

The launch party for the LGBT film festival, Out in the Desert, is Friday, Jan. 4 at the Fluxx Studio and Gallery, 414 E. 9th St., 7 p.m. Festival tickets and passes will be available at the party. An artist reception for the festival is Friday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m., and it officially opens Wednesday, Jan. 23, 7 p.m.

Jaime J performs at the lunch party, and you can also watch trailers and enjoy some of complimentary food and drink, plus be one of the first to see what's on the festival program. For more on this year's festival, go to www.outinthedesertff.org.

The 2013 festival runs from Wednesday, Jan. 23 through Sunday, Jan. 27. Buy your film passes now at a reduced rate — $125 for a full pass, $60 for a 10 program pass or $35 for a F5 program pass.

Festival organizers just released a series of film trailers to give us peek of what's to come. We'll post one almost everyday until the launch party.

Here's the first from Trevor Anderson's The Man That Got Away:

... the new short film written and directed by Trevor Anderson, with original music by Bryce Kulak. It's a musical documentary that tells the true life story of Trevor's great-uncle Jimmy in six original songs. (25 minutes, Canada, 2012) World Premiere: Berlin International Film Festival (DAAD Short Film Prize); US Premiere: SXSW 2012; Canadian Premiere: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. Produced with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton Arts Council, Bravo!FACT, NFB Filmmaker Assistance Program, and FAVA. More info at dirtcityfilms.com

Info on the soundtrack CD, featuring remixes by Chad VanGaalen, Cadence Weapon, members of Shout Out Out Out Out, DVAS and more, can be found here: itunes.apple.com/album/the-man-that-got-away/id500699270

THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY movie trailer from Trevor Anderson on Vimeo.

The guys at Ten 55 Brewing are having their first public tasting today from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. The brewery is located at 3810 E. 44th St. They will be selling their Leap Pale Ale, and you may be able to squeeze out samples of the Lazy Duck Wheat. If you have beer lovers that you’re still shopping for they have the usual stuff for sale (t-shirts, growlers, etc.) as well. Have one, or more, for me. I will be stuck at work dreaming of a pint.

If you're still trying to figure out where to watch the Arizona Wildcats take on Nevada's Wolf Pack, the Loft Cinema invites you to head on down to their digs and check out the game on the big screen—and the best part is, it's free.

If you'd like to ensure that you have a spot, you can order a $5 concession voucher. For more information, call out to the Loft Cinema box office at 795-0844.

Ready for Las Adelitas Arizona's holiday tradition? The Latina progressive political organization's posada is tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 15 at 6 p.m. in the courtyard at 326 S. Convent Ave. (Best place to park is on the street on South Convent Avenue.)

Tickets are $20 at the door, and this year the project benefits Scholarships A-Z.

Scholarships A-Z was started in 2009 to provide college scholarships to all students regardless of immigration status.

Also, if you're feeling extra mensch-y this holiday season, organizers of the posada are looking for a tent to help keep everyone dry and toasty in case it continues raining. Have a large event-style tent? Message Diana Uribe at [email protected].

I've noticed that the number of entrants in our GIF contest is quite low. In order to better entice you, the creative and attractive reader that you are, I've decided that you need to see the bounty that you may receive.

• Seriously. A stack.

In the pile, in case you can't see it as clearly as you may like, we have offerings from Caruso's, Sher-E-Punjab, Hub, Playground, Enoteca, Don Pedro's, Canyon's Crown, Tucson Tamale Company and a whole mess of gift cards from the folks at El Charro and Sir Veza's. Most all are valued at $25.

You've seen your bounty. Get to work, Tucson. We'll provide some examples for you soon.

The Slaughterhouse haunted house seems to find new ways to make some money outside of the actual Halloween season all the time, whether that's a celebrity ghost tour (still no idea what that means) or the occasional concert, but their newest off-season event might be the most inventive: the opportunity to shoot pretend zombies with pretend guns. The ominous titled Apocalypse: A Zombie Kill Experience is running on the 16th, 21st, 22nd and 29th and is your chance to bring your video-game fantasies to life. The Slaughterhouse gives you an Airsoft (think paintball without the paint) gun, some amount of training, then you run through a building shooting zombies. I have no idea how this will work or how they plan on preventing someone from losing an eye in the process, but there you go.

Tickets are apparently limited (although I guess tickets generally are) and available on the Slaughterhouse website.

Hey folks, if you're looking to celebrate a good cause this weekend, consider heading to Donn R. Liggons Recreation Center to join PCC students in celebrating the holidays with children and staff from the Devereux and Vision Quest group homes.

From the event's press release:

The Social Services Students in the Community Organization & Development Class at Pima Community College have invited 50 youth in foster care to a “Holiday Celebration” event at Donna R. Liggins Recreation Center, 2160 N. 6th Avenue on Saturday, December 8, 2012 from 12:00 pm — 3:00 pm. The program will include a festive holiday meal, individual gifts, Christmas music, carnival games, prizes, guest speakers and exhibitors from various social services organizations that include: Pima Community College, Luz Social Services, Marana Health Care, General Dentistry for Kids, Job Corp and the U. S. Handball Association.

For three weeks, the PCC Social Services Students have been working very hard to secure resources and donations from local businesses and community members such as: Tucson Parks and Recreation, Walmart, Target, Albertsons, Bookman’s, Cinemark Movie Theatres, Baskin Robbins, Safeway, Starbucks, Game Works, and many others. They have invited 50 children and 6 staff from the Devereux and Vision Quest group homes to be their special guests.

City Council members, Karin Uhlich, Richard Fimbres, and County Supervisor Richard Elias have confirmed their attendance to the event.

For more, check out the event's Facebook page.

If you aren't familiar with TED, you should be.

Using the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading," the organization that originally began to bring together minds from technology, entertaiment and design fields (get it? TED?) has since branched out into accepting lectures and discussions from all subjects, featuring nearly 1,400 talks on their website.

TEDx began as a way for communities to independently produce their own talks with the same mission of spreading good ideas, which brings us to this weekend's TEDx Tucson, where the theme will be "A City of Healing and Innovation."

The speakers for Saturday's event include New York Times journalist Patricia Pearson; University of Arizona professors Stuart Hammeroff, Alex Nava and David Sbarra; and former Gabrielle Giffords intern and current Sunnyside Unified School District board member Daniel Hernandez, Jr., among others.

Topics of the day include the future of consciousness, how seeds change the world and local tech innovations in healing brain diseases.

Tickets for the evening are $20 and can be found here. More information for the evening can be found at tedxtucson.com.