Weekly Wide Web

Where's the Blog?

When I started here at the Tucson Weekly as the web producer and learned that I would be responsible for this space in the paper and online, I wanted to get my finger on the pulse of Internet life in Tucson: Who's using social media, blogs, webpages and the like to best inform and entertain the community at large?

I spend a lot of time online, so I dug through my own bookmarks—and discovered that I don't read all that much stuff originating in Tucson. So I put the question out as my Facebook status, expecting to receive a flood of responses letting me know what I've been missing. After all, a photo I posted of John Davidson garnered 10 comments, so it's not like my "friends" aren't willing to offer their opinions.

But regarding this topic, digital tumbleweeds might as well have rolled though the empty space below my question.

It's not like there aren't local blogs—and good ones—originating in Tucson, but are there any URLs that nearly everyone knows, that provide reliable, interesting information on a regular basis about food, culture, politics or life in Tucson in general?

Hopefully, the Weekly and our daily dispatch, The Range, are those kinds of resources for you, but what else is there? Let me know what I've missed, and what we can do better. At very least, this city, flawed as it might be, deserves online resources better than the ones I've found so far.


THE WEEK ON THE RANGE

We recapped our abundant Election 2010 coverage so y'all would have some homework to do before the election; looked at how Sen. John McCain was giving Ruth McClung—the Republican candidate seeking to unseat Democrat Raúl Grijalva—a piggyback ride toward the goal line; and linked to the NPR story last week that suggested private-prison companies helped get SB 1070 passed, because any law that locks up more people is good for business.

We noted that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords spent the weekend before the election pouring beers at Trident Grill, serving gelato at Frost and cleaning tables at The Good Egg; told you how the Arizona Democratic Party was blowing its dollars by promoting a Libertarian; and let you know that Republican Jesse Kelly was telling stories about Mexicans being bused across the border to vote in Southern Arizona elections.

We shared an amusing exchange between state Senate candidate Ted Downing and City Attorney Michael Rankin; linked to the Az Fact Check piece that explores whether Gov. Jan Brewer had too much scotch to drink before she was in a fender-bender on Interstate 17 way back in 1988; and shared a frank discussion about porn piracy.

We gave you tips about where to spend your weekend if you were looking for a good time; brought you photos from of Montreal's show at the Rialto; suggested you check out the Tucson Innovative Home Tour and Solar Tour; let you know that there's a new grill serving pulled-pork sandwiches, fish tacos and a whole bunch more at 17th Street Market; and tracked the whereabouts of the not-to-be-missed Planet of the Crepes food truck.


COMMENT OF THE WEEK

"You want to talk about My Punctuation Creeping You out. That's just the way I CHOOSE to type & Communicate on here...What are You some kind of English Professor?"

An as-is excerpt from Charles Jeremy Buchanan, via Facebook, responding to another commenter on "Jesse Kelly: Bullshit Artist" (The Skinny, Oct. 28).


BEST OF WWW

You might be sick of the campaign signs, the phone calls and the seemingly nonstop commercials, but there's no avoiding the fact that the news this week in this part of the world still revolved around the election, including the neck-and-neck battles for Southern Arizona's seats in the House of Representatives, the not-so-neck-and-neck U.S. Senate race, a stack of offices at the state Capitol and a long list of propositions. We shot video at both parties' Election Night parties, capturing both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, sometimes at the same time in the same ballroom. Next week, we'll try to provide some video that has neither Jesse Kelly nor Gabrielle Giffords in the frame ... adorable kittens, perhaps?