Full disclosure: I once managed a soccer team with an unicorn in its logo, so perhaps I'm biased, but this ad for Tucson tattoo shop Magic Fun Store, which I don't think will ever appear anywhere other than online, might be the greatest single thing on YouTube ever. Kind of makes me want to get a tattoo, although I will not be getting the one seen at the end of the video.

[HT: Reddit Tucson]

While I'm sure their 56 Facebook friends will be devastated, 97.5 "Bob FM" will be no more in a few minutes, as Cumulus Media flips the station to "i97.5", which I guess is supposed to make you think of iPhones or something. Cumulus has other stations with the "lower case letter I" theme, including Indianapolis' WRWM, so if you're looking for a station that plays The Fray, Adele, Katy Perry, Gavin DeGraw and Selena Gomez (WRWM's top five artists over the last five days) another place to hear the KRQ playlist, you're probably in luck. If you're looking for some sort of local presence or personality, you're still going to need to look elsewhere. But, hey, they're playing N*SYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" now, so there's that.

UPDATE, although probably no one cares: They're going to play 10,000 songs in a row without a commercial break, kicking off with LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem", a song you certainly CAN'T HEAR ANYWHERE ELSE. Sigh.

The last time the Tucson Weekly interviewed LuisCarlos Davis in May 2009, his documentary 389 Miles: "Living the Border", had just won the Golden Iguana audience award for best film at the Puerto Vallarta International Film Festival. Since then, Davis' documentary that explores the complexities of life along the Mexico border starting from Douglas, Arizona and ending in San Luis, Sonora, has been seen by audiences overseas and across the country.

Davis said he presented this work at leadership conferences, medical schools, and journalism, media arts, and communication departments, movie theaters, film festivals, jails, juvenile centers, and alternative schools. "All places where people come from different backgrounds and beliefs."

"In these difficult times we are living it is important to increase our points of view on the reality that we are living in our border of Arizona and Mexico," Davis said.

To help that effort, Davis' documentary is now aavailable in its entirety on YouTube. Currently, Davis, who was born in Nogales, Sonora and raised in Noglaes, Arizona, is writing two screenplays. Davis was also recently selected by the Spanish Embassy and Fundacion Carolina as one of 15 Hispanic leaders from the United States to visit Madrid, Bilbao, Vitoria and San Sebastian to learn about the culture, politics, economics and social issues of Spain and explore the international relationship between the U.S and Spain.

Publishers of the book 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures, one of the books banned from the Tucson Unified School District's now dismantled Mexican American Studies classes, is offering 1,000 books to TUSD Mexican American Studies students:

KGUN is reporting that chief meteorologist Erin Christiansen has contracted Valley Fever. The ailment has sidelined her of late and KGUN management expects her to remain off television for at least another week. According to a statement, Christiansen is undergoing treatment and the prognosis is good.

In the interim, Aaron Brackett has been filling in. Brackett will transition to mornings starting next week and April Madison will handle the evening weather reports until Christiansen returns. Jessica Chapin will take care of weather updates during weekend newscasts.

If your "public editor" is positing this idea and asking for input from a comment section on the internet (nothing personal, commenters), that's a good sign you need to hire a new "public editor":

I’m looking for reader input on whether and when New York Times news reporters should challenge “facts” that are asserted by newsmakers they write about.

One example mentioned recently by a reader: As cited in an Adam Liptak article on the Supreme Court, a court spokeswoman said Clarence Thomas had “misunderstood” a financial disclosure form when he failed to report his wife’s earnings from the Heritage Foundation. The reader thought it not likely that Mr. Thomas “misunderstood,” and instead that he simply chose not to report the information.

Another example: on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney often says President Obama has made speeches “apologizing for America,” a phrase to which Paul Krugman objected in a December 23 column arguing that politics has advanced to the “post-truth” stage.

As an Op-Ed columnist, Mr. Krugman clearly has the freedom to call out what he thinks is a lie. My question for readers is: should news reporters do the same?

In the sense that the basic premise of what news reporters do for a living is presenting factual information to their audience, then yes, new reporters should probably call someone out when they lie. The Thomas situation is probably not something that can be contested, due to the fact that it's impossible to actually say whether Justice Thomas is able to actually understand the basic ethical standards of his position, but it would be relatively easy to ask Mitt Romney (or one of his legion of press representatives) for examples of speeches in which Obama has apologized for America. That's sort of a basic obligation of journalism. A newsmaker says something, and then journalists do the legwork to fill out the story, possibly challenging the assertion. Otherwise, why not just reprint press releases and speeches in their entirety?

Maybe this is just an attempt by the Times to start a conversation about what journalism means in the 21st century, but as one of the standard-bearers in the news field, you'd hope the New York Times would be driving the conversation, not conducting a poll to see what their readers want. As someone who reads most of the New York Times everyday, I'd like them to just do their job.

A few weeks back, I wrote about an effort to raise money for a women's shelter by selling soup and brownie mixes. I heard back from those people today and they said they've seen an outpouring of support from Tucson Weekly readers, which is very awesome.

The organizers of the project got especially excited when a local business owner called to see if they could work together to produce an ice cream using the brownies, which would be an amazing leg up for the project. I can't mention the name of the business yet, but when and if they get a deal hammered out, I'll dish out the details here on the Range.

It will be a long road trying to establish the shelter, but the people trying to pull it off are more motivated than ever, thanks in part to all the support they've seen in the past weeks.

So Tucson Weekly readers are awesome, and it's truly a pleasure to write for all of you. Have a nice day.

As it was in Jan. 2010 and 2008 before that, The New York Times Student Journalism Institute is back in Tucson. This time, five journalism students fro the University of Arizona are part of the program, joining 18 other students to provide a very talented and strong newsroom.

This year's group boasts a talented group of four photojournalists, including Josh Morgan, a former Tucson Weekly intern and now contributor. The photographers, under the mentoring of New York Times staffer Jose R. Lopez, who serves as the director of photography for the program, photographed the many events of the Jan. 8 Shootings anniversary weekend.

Visit and follow the students' work at the Institute website for the span of the weekend's events and other news in Tucson.

In France, a fast food chain is selling Darth Vader burgers with black-dyed buns. Apparently, everyone in the 3D version of The Phantom Menace will be drinking Lipton Brisk. There's something almost admirable in how George Lucas seems to find new ways to obliterate any sentimentality for the original stories he created. Oh, you thought the commercialism was bad before? Lucas could use a few extra million dollars, so there's always something else to sell. Serves me right for once caring about what was essentially just a brand to begin with.

I generally assume that people who read The Range realize that we put out an issue every week, so I don't always mention the great stuff we have outside of the blog. However, this week's issue is particularly notable due to the subject matter and the excellent reporting involved, so if you haven't read our series of articles focused on the anniversary of January 8th, here they are in convenient link form:

• First, the introduction.


• What has it been like for those who work in Congresswoman Giffords' office, including those injured alongside her?
  


• Remembering those who died that day, and the people left behind.


• 
  Did anything change in the way guns are sold in Arizona in the past year?


• Mental health services in Arizona are still trying to make the best of a bad situation, resource-wise.


• 
  Catching up with some of the heroes of that day, even if they refuse the title for themselves.


• A look at some of the good that came out of an ugly day in Tucson history.


• 
  Author Tom Zoeller asks if the Tucson we've created over time helped form the killer Jared Loughner became.


• And finally, a list of events this week reflecting on the events of last year.