I love your ¡Ask A Mexican! column, but I hate reading. Is there some sort of other way to enjoy it without looking at words and stuff?
You're in luck. This week, we're featuring the return of the YouTube broadcasts of ¡Ask A Mexican! columnist Gustavo Arellano. After going on strike in August 2008 for not being able to embed his videos, we came across a dispatch from Arellano a couple days ago from a small enclosed room where he's pleading: "The border agent just told me right now, I can't get out of this cell until someone asks me a question."
As always, he's looking for more interaction from readers, so if you want to see more of the YouTube monologues, find Arellano's contact information in his column at the back of the issue.
Find a link at TucsonWeeklyTV.com or see our own embed on our Range blog.
You usually have two videos featured each week. I really need to waste 1:52 minutes of work time by watching YouTube videos at my office. Whaddaya got for me?
As another semester begins, another batch of interns arrives from the university. This week, we've got new video from intern Will Ferguson, who has an update on the skiing conditions in Arizona. We realize that "skiing" and "Arizona" don't normally appear in the same sentence, but judging by the Sunrise Ski Resort live webcam, it'll be another white weekend in the White Mountains.
If this column is about stuff on the Internet, why is it printed in a newspaper?
Good question.
BEST OF WWW
If you're one of the people trying to enjoy the last bit of the Cactus League, you know that the tickets are now on sale and the opportunities to see Spring Training in Tucson before the Rockies and Diamondback ship up to Phoenix are drying up. A couple of seasons back, we talked with Captain Earthman, a beer-vendor at Hi Corbett Field, about what he thinks of the teams heading for the land of sprawl and freeways. To hear his two-word response, you'll have to visit TucsonWeeklyTV.com.
COMMENT OF THE WEEK
"Regarding Avatar, the plot is not completely original, but the setting is, and the visual component of telling this story is so impacting that it catapults the whole experience into something awe-inspiring. This movie goes somewhere beyond meaningful by reiterating a theme we have seen all too often on this planet in a format that is revolutionarily tangible. It's absurd to think that a movie that addresses the usurping of native rights and terse dismissal of an entire foreign culture for the sake of personal gain could not be meaningful.
Though we have read the story in our history books, and seen versions of it in Dances With Wolves and Fern Gully, we have never had the opportunity to be so close to it (to be almost inside it). The relevance of this movie for a multiple of reasons will have an impact on how we appreciate movies in the future.
Thumbs up for Dances With Smurfs!"
—Posted by "Gawker" in response to Bob Grimm's film capsule review of Avatar.
THE WEEK ON THE RANGE
Last Saturday Jim Nintzel broke the unsurprising news that State Sen. Jonathan Paton is challenging Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords for CD 8. That's right, it was on our Web site before the site of the local daily.
We also had a list of all the programs, grants, training, assistance, money for repairs and departments that Gov. Jan Brewer would like to give the funding chop. This fiscal year, she wants to cut $92 million from the budget. Next year, that number jumps to $1.159 billion. A random sampling of these cuts includes the elimination of early education block grants, the end of money for school repairs and the shut-down of the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections.
Mari Herreras posted a video of the Haitian ambassador's smack-down of the latest idiotic remark from Pat Robertson as well as a list of all the agencies that are collecting donations to help in the earthquake relief effort.
Adam Borowitz gave us a recap of how business has been for Lindy's on Fourth since Man V. Food came to town. (Since the episode aired, about two dozen people take the O.M.F.G. 12-patty burger challenge each week, up from just two challenges per week before the show).
There's also an assortment of other political and government news, including updates on the race for governor and attorney general.
