Steff and the Articles embarked on a three week tour up and down the west coast at the beginning of the year. Steff Koeppen, Tom Beech, Chris Pierce, and Alex Tuggle are performing a free show with Ex-Cowboy and Captain Squeegee at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, at Hotel Congress, 311 East Congress Street. The "Why It Was So" Tour ends in this Saturday. Here's a brief glimpse of their adventure in the words of Steff Koeppen:

The "Why It Was So" Tour has been a great success so far! There were so many wonderful people, places and things. I'm so proud of my Nissan for making it all the way up the coast and back. It would be cool to have a van next time. Finding parking with a trailer attached in crowded cities took us through many obstacle courses.

We kicked things off in Phoenix at one of our favorite downtown spots, the Lost Leaf. Lots of familiar faces showed up to sing along and wish us well on our journey.

We played the next night in San Diego at The Griffin. Cool venue. It was exciting to hear that a good handful of people came specifically for our set in a city we had never played before. We stayed with our friend Jerome and his playful little kitten, then spent the next afternoon downtown. We found some delicious paninis at Cafe Zucchero in Little Italy and then hung out down by the water.



That Saturday night was spend in Los Angeles at Room 5 — a classy little upstairs lounge in the Beverly Hills area. We didn't get free drinks, but that's okay. We played for a packed venue with some fantastic L.A. acts. Good vibes. We had the next day off and spent it walking along the beach. I can't believe we enjoyed a warm day at the beach in January. Our friend Kelsey has a cozy little apartment in Long Beach where she so graciously welcomed us for a couple nights. On the way out of town, we had to make a stop at Amoeba Music — the world's largest independent record store.

We last saw Eric M. Esquivel talking about how gods suck compared to what humans are capable of at Long Beach Comic-Con. He's been all over the place since he up and left Tucson.

Esquivel was a guest on Gil Dominguez-Letelier's Nerdist podcast show: The Mutant Season. The 11-year-old podcaster and Esquivel discussed his latest comic book project Loki: Ragnarok and Roll and run on Adventure Time: Bravest Warriors with Boom Studios. I'm surprised Eric went so long without swearing in front of a child.

Click here to listen to podcast while you're supposed to be working.

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Degas Magdalena Lopez remembers Gabe Zimmerman, the congressional aide who was among those killed three years ago at Gabby Giffords' Congress on Your Corner:

Dear Gabe,

Hey. I miss you. It's been too long. I used to love unexpectedly seeing your handsome face at the bar. I swear, I could feel your smile through walls, before I even saw you. Sometimes, when I walk into a bar now, I'll see someone who looks enough like you that I momentarily forget to breathe. Then I stare at the person uncomfortably for a long time, trying to make sense of what I’m seeing, almost as if I'm challenging them to prove they're not you.

It hurts.

I don’t know if I’ll ever reconcile the fact that I won't ever just happen to run into you again. It’s just not fair. But beyond not being fair, it’s just simply incomprehensible. I won’t serendipitously run into you, when I'm alone after being stood up for the second time in a row, feeling heavy and near tears, and share your beer. We won’t keep trying fruitlessly to make those plans to go hiking on a sunny day. You won’t call me up out of the blue to invite me to volunteer with you.

Youtube released the top ten most trendiest videos of 2013, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

How this video managed to get 311,380,107 views in three months is beyond me.

1. Ylvis - The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)

The "Harlem Shake" has to be the shortest lived internet meme of all time.

2. Harlem Shake (original army edition)

New York Times columnist Ben Schott crafted this brilliant Year in Questions quiz that will take you down memory lane. Do you remember who killed Travis Alexander? Can you recall who purchased the Washington Post? There's a "Match the Apology to the Apologizer" and 81 questions that sums up how bizarre, beautiful and tragic this year has been.

The world of Lisa Frank isn't just filled with colorful hearts, bears dressed as painters, seals swimming in tie-dye oceans and unicorns dancing on rainbows surrounded by musical notes. Fame and fortune are apparently tainted by drugs and infidelity in the secrecy-cloaked convergence of people and events behind the colorful 90s phenomena. And it turns out that Tucson, of all places, has played a major role in Frank's fortunes and misfortunes, as revealed in a recent story published by Jezebel.

Frank comes from a rich family in Bloomfield Hills, Detroit. Bloomfield Hills is ranked one of the top richest cities with with a population under 10,000.

Her father was in the automotive industry, running Detroit Aluminum & Brass, a publicly-traded family company founded by her grandfather and his brothers in 1925. D.A.B. manufactured automatic transmission components, clutches, et cetera; to put their early success into perspective, D.A.B. was the only company in the United States to make the engine bearings for tanks used in WWII.

Frank enrolled into the same private, PK—12 preparatory school that Mitt Romney and Selma Blair attended.

But her success went stratospheric once she honed her entrepreneurial instincts at the University of Arizona and started crafting jewelry with local Native American communities.

"If I said 'Make a teddy bear or a unicorn,' that was what sold," Frank said in a interview with Urban Outfitters.

In 1979, she renamed the company and Lisa Frank, Inc. was born. That same year she received her first million-dollar order from Spencer Gifts. She was 25 years old.

Tucson became the headquarters for her multi-million dollar conglomerate.

The small staff of LFI still reports to Lisa Frank HQ: a 320,000 square-foot building in Tucson, infamous in the area for its decor, featuring giant, multicolored music notes, hearts and stars and oversized, fiberglass character statues. Near the building's entrance, a large silver unicorn sculpture is missing its horn. The building and land are listed for lease or sale at a reduced price of $13.25 million. According to Tim Healy, the listing agent at the time, LFI was "still operating inside the facility but not at full capacity."

The World of Lisa Frank from Urban Outfitters on Vimeo.

Do you love Tucson enough to wear a shirt inspired by Food City and bacon wrapped hotdogs?



TUCSON IS THE SHIT is a group of local artist that sells art, jewelry, apparel and accessories influenced by the old pueblo. The website says 90% of the sales go to the creators. My favorite for sale is the Grill memorial shirt. It only costs $15 unless you're David Mendez. 

I have been waiting all year for the 94.9 MIXfm Christmas Radio Play, “Merry Twistmas, Tucson." The annual live performance and recording is Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.

The story is an original play written by the Star's David Fitzsimons. 

Visits from alien spacecraft, martians and a festive Chupacabra mark the journey of main characters Marge and Tom as they vie to win first place in the Winterhaven Festival of Lights Decorating Contest and ultimately understand the true meaning of Christmas. This musical extravaganza promises to keep everyone from tots to seniors on the edge of their seats and tapping their feet.

The cast includes Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Police Chief Chief Villaseñor, TV news anchors (I hope KGUN 9's Guy Atchley reprises his Keebler elf performance) and various MIXfm DJs. I'm going to play Detective Alvarez! The score and effects will be provided by Diane Van Deurzen and Lisa Otey. 

All my life people have been telling me that Hotel Congress is haunted, but they can never explain why. Some say there are some visitors that never checked out when a fire in the basement traveled to the third floor of the hotel while authorities were trying to apprehend John Dillinger and his gang in 1934. I have never heard of the story behind Room 242 in 1993. Aric Allen filmed this hard boiled, noir Youtube video reminiscing what happen the night of the suicide.  

I travelled to Tucson in October to visit family, but I used that opportunity to check into the “Suicide Room” at Hotel Congress. I learned about the haunted room a few years back when I was trying to recall the events of a night that changed my life, I was at the hotel about twenty years ago when a woman in room 242 killed herself. 

I attended my first All Souls Procession ceremony last night.

My friends and I joined the thousands of Tucsonans at the parade after a full weekend of Tucson Comic-Con. It was great to reconnect with some old friends and make some new ones in the process. I can't think of another way to end my weekend in the Old Pueblo.

Here's some photos I took at the celebration: