• Courtesy of the Sunshine Mile Facebook Page

One of Tucson’s most historic mile-long stretches will have its day in the sun tomorrow, and with a forecast of just over 80 degrees, the timing couldn’t be better.

The Historic Sunshine Mile Festival, honoring the strip of Broadway Boulevard highly populated with local businesses between Campbell Avenue and Country Club, kicks off tomorrow at noon with an appearance from Ward 6 Council Member Steve Kozachik as he unveils a mural at 2610 E. Broadway Blvd. Demion Clinco, the president of the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation Board, will also speak at the event, while the Tucson Barbershop Experience Men's Chorus and a trumpet soloist from Catalina Foothills Band are scheduled to perform.

Looking at the Tucson streetwear scene is kinda like looking at the downtown's retail scene.

It's sparse.

VII Grand Premium Streetwear and Sneakers, located at 178 E. Broadway, looks to change that—and with the backing of one of UA's favorite sons, current player for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves Derrick Williams, they've got a good shot.

The shop was the brainchild of Mario Escalante, a Tucson native, Air Force veteran and Pima Community College grad who had originally planned to get into graphic design.

But when he had trouble finding work during the summer of 2012, his attention started to shift.

"I wasn’t getting a fast enough response, I was getting nervous — I always wanted to do the boutique, and I thought, 'why not try?'," he said. "You ask anyone who knows me, I've always been into fashion, sneakers. It’s always been something that I've wanted to do."

Enter Derrick Williams.

Escalante and Williams rolled in the same friend circles during Williams's time with Arizona, and bonded over a shared passion for sneakers and streetwear.

“The whole Arizona basketball team was really known for wearing the best sneakers on the basketball court, so I'd encourage them to outdo everyone,” Escalante said. “Him being from California, these type of stores are everywhere. It’s not uncommon to go down the street and see a sneaker shop or streetwear shop in L.A.”

“In Tucson, it’s something that he noticed and that I noticed, we really don't have anything. We really need it here.”

So, he decided to float the idea to Williams via text.

"I told Derrick, 'out of all the people you know, who would you say would be successful at opening a streetwear and sneaker store?' and he got back to me and said 'Paul George (current player for the NBA's Indiana Pacers), or you,' and I was like 'wow, to be mentioned as one out of all the people he knows...I figured if he said so, I’d be successful at it."

If you're among those good, kind, literary folks that are still interested in reading books in both paper and electronic formats, the good folks at the Pima County Public Library have a treat for you. They've put together a list of the best books published this year, sourcing 32 separate lists that's sure to stir something within the hearts of Southern Arizona's book loving community.

If you're interested in checking out the list of lists, head over to the Pima County Public Library Ravenous Readers blog. Hopefully, if Black Friday didn't knock out your holiday shopping, these will be able to help you pare down your gift lists.

[h/t: @bookmans]

Now, I didn't experience this level of chaos and obnoxiousness last night as I ventured out with my family for Black Friday/Darkest Timeline Thursday shopping—the Walmart that I spent too much of my life at last night didn't get all that violent last night, for instance—but from what I've seen, there's been a fair amount of rowdiness at America's shopping centers over the past 24 hours.

This supercut of Black Friday violence has it all: brawling, stampeding, yelling, general camera-whoring; basically, it's everything that you might want to watch on the internet and not experience in person.

Thankfully, Black Friday is nearly over. If you're still thinking about heading out tonight to take advantage of a few deals, do yourself a favor and be careful—you don't want to end up as part of next year's supercut of madness.

If you haven't already checked out our gift guide for suggestions on what to be buying your friends and loved ones for the holidays (though there are some pretty damn fine ideas in there for local goodies, great books and wonderful music), fear not: we'll be supplying you with ideas for great local gifting throughout the holiday shopping season.

• Philabaum Glass Gallery and Studio

First up: The Philabaum Glass Gallery and Studio is running special prices on their work on November 23 and 24—Black Friday and its lesser-known cousin Shopping-Related-Injury-Recovery Saturday.

You'll be able to pick up such spectacular glassware as ornaments, dishes, vases, perfume bottles, goblets, jewelry, glass cherries and many assorted glass gifts. Remember, hand-made craftsmanship always beats digging through department stores for whatever overpriced lighted bauble they'll be trying to sling at you.

Philabaum, located at 711 S. Sixth Ave., will be selling at special prices on Nov. 23 and 24 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Holiday music is already playing at the stores, so you know what that means ... time to give to someone less fortunate.

The local Home Instead Senior Care office is partnering with retailers and community organizations to help seniors through the holiday season. Gifts will be collected and distributed to seniors who might otherwise be alone.

On Monday Nov. 19, Christmas trees go up at the following locations: K-Mart at 7055 E. Broadway Blvd., Deco-Art for Living at 2612 E. Broadway Blvd, Rocco's Little Chicago Pizzeria at 2707 E. Broadway Blvd., and Home Instead Senior Care, at 3208 N. Tucson Blvd.

To play Santa, pick an ornament off a tree, buy the items on the list and return them unwrapped to the store with the ornament attached.

From Monday, Dec. 3, through Tuesday, Dec. 18, gift wrapping will be done between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday, at Home Instead Senior Care, 3208 N. Tucson Blvd. Volunteer gift wrappers are welcome.

From Tuesday, Dec. 18, through Friday, Dec. 21, gifts will be delivered.

For more information, call 770-9943, or visit www.beasantatoasenior.com.

Seriously, it's a thing. Sure, it's more of a collection of items thrown together on a page for their supposed utility in surviving hordes of the undead, but hey, who am I to turn my nose up at the opportunity to buy every variety of duct tape that Amazon offers?

• Seriously, no machetes? Where's the fun in that?

As you can see, their categories of offerings stop just shy of presenting actual self-defense items (machetes, clubs, semi-automatic rifles—you know, the basics) for you to purchase, but that doesn't mean that their shopping list is without value — it's just incomplete.

Though really, I've got to question some of their ideas here: Safety goggles? Vests? Helmets? As someone who has spent far too much time absorbing zombie-related material in the past few years (with "Shaun of the Dead" and Max Brooks' "World War Z" in heavy rotation), it's obvious to note that every zombie-preparedness kit must involve gear to protect the extremities from bites and clawing, and vests aren't going to do the trick.

But the interesting thing to note is the tiny logo in the center of the page: a clickable image promoting "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2" and its zombie-survival mode. That can't be a coincidence, right?

At the very least, make sure to check out the selection of zombie-related books, films and games down there at the bottom. Personally, I recommend Colson Whitehead's "Zone One" — it's a captivating, if bleak, look at what it must be like attempting to survive in post-apocalyptic New York as part of a block-sweeping clean-up crew.

Like most Tucsonans, I'm spoiled by the existence of a Bookmans within reasonable driving (or in my case, walking) distance. Typically, I'll wander through the stacks, searching for one particular book by one particular author—whether it be an obsession with finding new-ish Kurt Vonnegut, Neil Gaiman, or David Foster Wallace on that day—and I'll give up upon not finding my target, completely ignoring the rows of fascinating books that are lay on those shelves. I imagine I'm not the only person who does this, either, meaning that (guessing off the top of my head) thousands of Tucsonans go home without a spectacular bit of reading material each week.

Well, Canadian used bookseller The Monkey's Paw has a solution for that: Enter the Biblio-Mat, a vending machine specializing in offering up a random used book in exchange for a measly $2.

• The Biblio-Mat

Quill & Quire, a book-centered Canadian magazine, has an interview with the owner of The Monkey's Paw, Stephen Fowler here, where they get a look at the inspiration behind the machine, and a touch of his philosophy:

What is the story behind the Biblio-mat? I went fishing this past summer with Craig Small, co-founder of The Juggernaut, an animation studio in Toronto. I had this idea that I would love to have a vending machine that gave out random books. I pictured it as a painted refrigerator box with one of my assistants inside; people would put in a coin and he would drop a book out. But Craig is more pragmatic and visionary then I am. He said, “You need to have an actual mechanical vending machine.” That was beyond my wildest imaginings, but not Craig’s, so he just built it for me.

...

What books are stocked in the Biblio-mat? The books in the machine are two dollars each — that’s not enough to make any profit, but the nature of the second-hand book business is that I end up with a lot of books that are interesting and worth keeping and disseminating, but have no practical retail value. Historically in the used books trade there has always been the dollar cart in front of the store. This is just a spin on that.

Personally, I'd love to have a similar machine in my tiny hallway of an apartment, if only for the ease of deciding which to pull next from my immense to-read pile of books.

For the rest of the interview, check out Quill and Quire's write-up here — and if you've seen anything else booksellers have done that's similarly clever, share it below.

If you're not familiar with the small business advocates Mind Our Own Businesses, it's about time that you should be — Mind Our Own Businesses has made efforts to motivate Tucsonans to keep our local businesses alive, particularly those that might be suffering as a result of construction along Fourth Avenue and Congress Street. Already they've dropped money bombs on Ooo! at Main Gate Square, Hydra Leather and More along Congress, and Café Passe on Fourth, among many other locally-owned businesses.

Tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 13, Sunday, Oct. 14, they're planning on heading to Antigone Books with the expressed purpose of sharing great books among new and old friends — and, of course, buying your own copies to help benefit Antigone's bottom line.

If descending upon businesses with a number of your fellow Tucsonans sounds like something you're interested in, take a look at MOOB's Facebook page, and consider meeting up at Antigone tomorrow Sunday between 3:30 and 5 p.m., which seems like just enough time to recover from marathon eating sessions at Tucson Meet Yourself.

Fall is here and it's time for the 24th annual Patagonia Fall Festival, a celebration of art, music and fun. The small town of Patagonia invites the whole family to come enjoy some cooler weather in the town park, where the festivities are held. Shoppers will find authentic gifts, trinkets, food, art, and more.

“This festival is truly one of the best small-town celebrations anywhere, and has been growing and getting better with each year of juried artists and great food vendors,” said Lars Marshall, the marketer for the celebration. Marshall has attended the festival for the past 11 years.

There will be more than 140 booths of arts and crafts, jewelry, fashion, furniture/household creations, gourmet food and non-profit and informational exhibitors from all over the United States.

Here are just a few examples of the numerous exhibitors that will be participating in the Fall Festival, which runs Oct. 12-14:

* Sunshine Specialty Food will be selling salsas, spreads, gift bags and recipes.
* Creek Ranch Design will be selling turquoise and coral jewelry.
* Copper Anza Furnishings will be selling metal benches, tables, lamps and furniture.

A lineup of musicians will play on the Gazebo stage performing a variety of genres, ranging from the band Americano—playing electronic/dubstep, to the band Haywire—playing jazz, rock and classical.

For more information on the exhibitors or schedule, visit www.patagoniafallfestival.com.