Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 5:30 PM

It's not all that often that we have a job opening around here, but we're currently hiring for a new position here at the the Weekly: Online editor.

So, here's most of what the gig entails:

• Creating and managing content for our website, including The Range (this is harder than it seems, believe me...writing six posts a day or so)
• Work with writers, editors, photographers and designers to develop Web-exclusive content
• All the social media stuff, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and whatever else pops up
• Developing new features and such, including evaluating vendors, determining new forms of revenue
• Tracking analytics, metrics, developing plans to get more people to look at our website and for longer
• Apps or whatever
• The other stuff that seems to come up each week
• Being awesome and brilliant and whatever

Consideration will go only to those who have writing and reporting experience in addition to the necessary technical skills. (We're serious about this. It's a fun job, but you need to know what you're doing.) The ideal candidate will have a wide variety of experience doing Web development; have a knowledge of basic HTML; be familiar with various website and social-networking platforms; and be ready for the Tucson Weekly work environment. It's a complicated job with a lot of moving parts, so if you're the sort of person who likes to focus on one task at a time, uninterrupted, you will be unhappy and we will be unhappy.

This is a full-time position, with benefits. Please send a cover letter, a resume and links to work samples to mailbag@tucsonweekly.com NO LATER THAN 3 P.M., TUESDAY, AUG. 6 (we're in a hurry). Thanks!

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Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 4:30 PM

No white Broncos this time. No ill-fitting gloves, fame-seeking judges or Kardashian-producing attorneys. Just a simple ruling for OJ Simpson, one that grants the infamous football player/ham sandwich actor/alleged murderer parole on a handful of the charges he was convicted of five years ago.

But since he still has to stay in prison, what the heck does it matter?

The Nevada Board of Parole Commissions granted Simpson, 66, parole for good behavior during his stint at Lovelock Correctional Facility in Nevada. But the parole only applied to two kidnapping, two robbery and one for burglary with a firearm conviction.

The rest of his convictions, all of which were part of a 33-year sentence for his involvement in a 2007 memorabilia robbery gone bad in Las Vegas, do not offer the chance for parole until nine years have been served. That's four years from now, so in the meantime OJ should probably continue to work on his whittling and toilet wine skills.

There had been talk that, had Simpson won a complete parole that would have let him out of prison now, he would almost immediately return to his acting career. Naturally, that meant picking up a guest spot on Charlie Sheen's train wreck of a sitcom, Anger Management.

Since no new glimpses of Nordberg (his eponymous character from the Naked Gun movies) will be coming around anytime soon, it's best to end this blog with some classic OJ work. With Polish subtitles, naturally.

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Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 2:30 PM

Generally, one would not expect a lawyer referral service, especially the sort that might advertise on an urban radio station in the Georgia/Florida area, to be a fount of pure creative genius, but yet, while driving somewhere near Tallahassee two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to hear the jingle above. I assumed, as I hope to never be in Florida again, that I would never hear this adaptation of the Khia classic again, but Soundcloud came through. "

There isn't a 411 Pain location in Arizona, so I won't likely ever partake in their services, but I can always appreciate this ad. Enjoy.

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Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 1:30 PM

Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times"? David O. Russell directing his follow-up to Silver Linings Playbook? 70's haircuts? Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence? It feels cruel that I have to wait until Christmas (assuming this actually opens here on the date) to see American Hustle.

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Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 12:30 PM

As we've noted on The Range and in our print edition, Sen. John McCain is getting a lot of attention these days, with some folks observing that he is undergoing yet another makeover. The New Republic's Isaac Chotiner asked him about it in an interview that was posted today:

IC: I am sure you hate psychological questions, but people say you are driven by anger: that you were angry about Bush, so you worked with Democrats; and then you were angry with Obama, and so you swung right. And now there’s Ted Cruz and the rest, and you are working with Democrats again.

JM: If you use the word anger, then obviously it is a very detrimental trait. If you use the word passion, that is a valuable thing to have. Losing to George W. Bush didn’t change my behavior. I thought as a fiscal conservative it was wrong to have tax cuts that we didn’t pay for, to have a secretary of defense who was the steward of a failing strategy in Iraq. And so it wasn’t anger, but when I go to Walter Reed and see men with no legs, and have my own sons serving in the military, I feel passionate. If I didn’t feel passionate, I shouldn’t be in the business I am in.

Have I stepped on some toes? Yes. Have I angered some people that I probably could have avoided? I think so. But I would challenge you to talk—with rare exceptions—to my colleagues, and they would say I treat them with respect. It’s maybe interesting that, whenever there is a major issue to be addressed, somehow I am in the mix. You don’t get in the mix unless you have the respect of your colleagues. Maybe you can name me a major issue that has come up that I haven’t been in the mix about.

He also addressed the question of how he feels about Sarah Palin these days:

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Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 11:37 AM

Facebook, the social networking site seemingly everyone uses, but no one seems to enjoy, is considering adding TV-style fifteen second commercials to users' news feeds, according to Bloomberg, priced at $1-2.5 million a day.

People at Facebook, including Mark Zuckerberg, are apparently paying at least lip service to how their customer base will react to these ads:

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, who has been working with global marketing head Carolyn Everson on the video ad service, pushed back the start date at least twice, wanting to make sure Facebook’s user experience won’t be tainted by the ads, according to the people. Zuckerberg wants high-definition video and easy-to-use playback features, the people said.

Zuckerberg said last week that he’s sensitive to how users react to advertising in general. He plans to limit the amount of ads people see to about one for every 20 updates. That would comprise about 5 percent of a user’s news feed.

“One of the things I watch most closely is the quality of our ads and people’s sentiment around them,” Zuckerberg said. “We haven’t measured a meaningful drop in satisfaction.”

However, the Bloomberg report mentions that the ads will only make up five percent of a user's feed and that a user won't see a commercial more than three times a day, but the real question is whether these ads will auto-play, similar to those on YouTube. It's hard to imagine a company coughing up seven digits to buy a video ad that requires a click to become active, basically because no one (well, very few people, at least) is ever going to willingly subject themselves to fifteen seconds of McDonald's championing the return of the Monopoly game. I deal with the ads on YouTube because I recognize they're the cost involved in being able to watch 90's music videos at my whim. It's a workable deal. I don't know if I'll feel the same way if a video starts playing, with audio, so I can see another shared post from George Takei.

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Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 10:00 AM

I feel like I've listened to a lot of music this year, but there are a few albums that I've listened to over and over: Random Access Memories, Bankrupt! by Phoenix (partially because my kids are fans), Disclosure's Settle and Foals' Holy Fire. Phoenix were already in town pre-Coachella, Disclosure and Daft Punk aren't likely coming anytime soon, so I'm incredibly excited that the other band making up my obsessive playlist is coming to town on August 7.

Clearly, based on my personal preferences, I believe you should have purchased tickets to see Foals immediately when they went on sale in May, but perhaps you haven't quite been convinced.

You could be in luck, because thanks to the Rialto and Warner Music, we have two Foals prize packs to give away.

Foals_PrizePack-1.jpg

The prize pack includes tickets to the Foals show at the Rialto, a signed poster, a copy of the album and a few other band-related trinkets. You can enter to win at our Free Stuff page. One entry per person, etc. etc.

We'll draw two winners after the contest closes Sunday, August 4 at midnight and inform them via email on Monday, August 5. Good luck and I'll see you at the show!

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Posted By on Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 9:00 AM

From the Fonzi the Corgi Tumblr, here's an afternoon's worth of enjoyment.

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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Posted By on Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 5:00 PM

Jackpots and other such promos aren't what draws me to a poker table, but I understand the allure of a shot at free money. And if that is you're cup of tea, you might want to get down to Casino del Sol before the end of Wednesday.

Nearly $50,000 is up for grabs in the Casino del Sol poker room's Super Jackpot promotion, which comes to end at midnight July 31. If you happen to get four of a kind or better in a hand, and still lose, you, the person who beat you, the rest of the table — heck, everyone seated in a game — will split the Super Jackpot that is over $49,000 and has been building since April.

If it doesn't hit by the end of July, at least some of the funds collected for that promotion will get funneled into the regular bad beat jackpot, which itself stands at more than $30,000. That jackpot triggers if someone has their full house of aces full of jacks beaten by a four of a kind or better.

Poker room director Rick Chaurette said the Super Jackpot was always intended as a temporary promotion, meant to draw in traffic during the slow summer months. If it hasn't hit by the end of July between $15,000 and $20,000 of it will get added to the regular jackpot, but not until after it's hit at its current payout.

Chaurette said the Super Jackpot hasn't provided as much of a spark as expected, and certainly not as much as the Progressive High Hand promo that began July 1 and will continue. That offer, which awards between $50 and $500 to the first person during a given 8-hour time frame to hit a qualiyfing hand. If no one gets, for instance, a 10- thru king-high straight flush during a time period, another $50 gets added to that category for the next day's corresponding time.

"It's been fun," Chaurette said of the high hand promo. "People have enjoyed it."

While action in Del Sol's room has been down this year from 2012, when the buzz surrounding the recently opened hotel was still driving traffic, Chaurette said the poker room has remained up overall every year since 2008.

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Posted By on Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 4:45 PM

The UA Black Student Union, Tucson Solidarity Organizing Network, the Black Chamber of Commerce and the We Care Coalition are hosting a Community Forum for Justice tonight, Tuesday, July 30, that will bring interested community together to "address how we can combat the criminalization of people of color and build solidarity across our communities."

It takes place at the Dunbar Cultural Center, 325 W. 2nd St., 6 p.m. Spanish interpretation will be provided, as well as childcare.

From organizers:

Our Agenda:

How to take action in support of justice for Trayvon Martin
Arizona's issues with maintaining a school to prison pipeline
Stand Your Ground Law in Arizona
What the New Voting Rights Act Means for POC and Immigration Reform
Coalition Building Among People of Color

This event is intended to be action oriented, informative and as interactive as possible. Please be prepared to share your experience, perspective, and offer feedback about how we continue to work to make our communities safe for everyone.

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