From the fine folks at Tucson Meet Yourself, their latest online newsletter features a video from one of Maribel Alvarez's UA folklore students that's worth your time (don't blame us if it makes you hungry and in the mood to listen to more Agustin Lara):

Food and Love. The two have been connected through the ages. Our speech is sprinkled with phrases about seduction, satisfaction, longing, indulgence, moderation that often implicate both basic human needs: affection and nourishment. Jose Serrano, a student in Dr. Maribel Alvarez's folklore course "Food Narratives" this fall has produced a beautiful video honoring his "Grandma's Gorditas."

Grandma's Gorditas-HD 720p from J. Serrano on Vimeo.

So how many of you out there shopped local this holiday season? I know I tried my best, but while running errands with my mom one day, I realized that in preparing for the holidays there's not much you can do except buy local — masa for the tamales (Alejandro's for us), extra tortillas for a tamale party (Anita Street Bakery and La Tauna), and meat for the tamales (American Meat Market — BTW, they have bacon-wrapped weenies in the freezer section that I might write about later).

If you need more reminding on how important shopping local is, we came across a video produced by former Tucson Unified School board candidate and city council staffer Miguel Ortega with the purpose of doing just that — reminding you all the good reason to shop local as much as you can.

The video is part of a project Ortega is working on called Vamonos Tours. So far, Ortega told us, KXCI and Access Tucson are running the video as a public service announcement. The goal he said is to get local businesses to sponsor these buy-local messages.

"These are not commercials for their businesses. They have no say in the content. We only guarantee that we will tape the message at their place of business, use their product or services to underscore the message and thank them for sponsoring the PSA," Ortega said.

For more info on his latest project, go to its Facebook page at Vamonos Tours Arizona.

In the wake of Sandy Hook and the national discussion on gun laws, White Plains, New York newspaper The Journal-News, has posted an interactive map on their website, featuring the names and addresses of every licensed gun owner in three counties.

The map is a companion to an article entitled "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood," an article with a fear-inducing title meant to raise discussion about how much we should know about our gun-owning neighbors.

The gun owner information was obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests, as gun licenses are considered to be on the public record in New York.

Obviously, their move attracted a fair amount of negative attention, as noted by a New York Times blog post:

The map thrust the paper directly into the heated national debate over guns that has followed the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., further churning the already frothy argument between those seeking curbs on certain types of weapons and those advocating gun rights.

“Now everyone knows where the LEGAL GUNS are kept, a valuable piece of information for criminals,” wrote an irate Facebook commenter who gave his name as Mike Pandolfo. “Why don’t you do something helpful, like trying to find out where the ILLEGAL GUNS are kept? That would be helpful to the noncriminal population.”

The comment was characteristic of the reaction of many of the thousands that had been attached to the article as it flew around social networking and news organizations’ sites, seemingly shared more in outrage than in support.

As part of that outrage, writer/blogger/real-estate agent Christopher Fountain took the Journal-News, and its owners at Gannett, to task by posting the home addresses and contact information on his blog in an effort to allow people to contact the reporters, editors and publisher themselves.

This spurs a huge debate about journalistic ethics now—the Poynter Institute is just one of many outlets that have questioned the move:

Timeliness is not reason enough to publish this information, though there are important reasons — including public safety — that journalists regularly invade people’s privacy.

Journalists broadcast and publish criminal records, drunk driving records, arrest records, professional licenses, inspection records and all sorts of private information. But when we publish private information we should weigh the public’s right to know against the potential harm publishing could cause.

My former colleague Bob Steele used to compare the journalist’s role in this situation to a doctor who had to decide whether to perform surgery, knowing she would have to cut through healthy tissue to get to a tumor. The damage caused to the skin is outweighed by the good that comes from removing the tumor. But, as Steele used to say, the surgeon uses great care and years of training to cause only the damage that is justifiable — and no more.

The question is, was the damage caused by the Journal-News justifiable? Was there even a tumor to extract here? If anything, it seems like they've caused damage, as a New York state senator is interested in closing up those records in New York State—which raises concern as to whether or not similar moves may take place across the country.

If you're near Weekly World Central, by the airport at 3280 E. Hemisphere Loop, feel free to come on by—Seis Curbside Kitchen and Catering is serving up great food and award-winning tacos here from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Find out more about Seis at their Facebook page and their website here.

Their website may say different, but The Lodge Sasquatch Kitchen at 7265 N. La Cholla Blvd. is open. I happen to be in the area yesterday afternoon and saw a “Now Open” banner as well as a few cars parked in the lot. I popped in and was informed that it was their first day open and they were ready to rock. I had other errands to finish so I didn’t have the opportunity to sample the goods but I'll be back. Check out the menu here.

Jesse Kelly, the failed Republican candidate who pretended to care about Southern Arizona and then got out of here as fast as he could after losing two races for Congress, wasn't just an arrogant jerk when it came to dealing with the local media.

He was also pretty bad with the national guys, if this tidbit from Stuart Rothenberg is any indication:

Least Favorite Candidate Interviews of 2012

OK, so not every candidate interview is a good one. Maryland Democrat Rob Garagiola, Florida Republican Connie Mack and Arizona Republican Jesse Kelly interviewed far worse than any other candidates this cycle, so they share this award.

Garagiola, who I believe is still my state senator, came off as arrogant and smug. Those two words also describe outgoing Congressman Mack, who seemed to have a chip on his shoulder even before we shook hands. And Kelly was the least cooperative candidate I’ve ever met, refusing even to reflect on why he had lost his previous congressional race.

Kelly, who swore he never wanted to be a politician and couldn't wait to get back to running the family construction business once he had defeated the nation's libs, is now hard at work using his snake-oil-salesman charm to convince people to pour money into Citizens United.

The Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity filed formal notice of intent to sue U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent them from capturing wolves that happen to visit us or New Mexico from Mexico.

Here's the press release:

The launch party for the LGBT film festival, Out in the Desert, is Friday, Jan. 4 at the Fluxx Studio and Gallery, 414 E. 9th St., 7 p.m. Festival tickets and passes will be available at the party. An artist reception for the festival is Friday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m., and it officially opens Wednesday, Jan. 23, 7 p.m.

Jaime J performs at the lunch party, and you can also watch trailers and enjoy some of complimentary food and drink, plus be one of the first to see what's on the festival program. For more on this year's festival, go to www.outinthedesertff.org.

The 2013 festival runs from Wednesday, Jan. 23 through Sunday, Jan. 27. Buy your film passes now at a reduced rate — $125 for a full pass, $60 for a 10 program pass or $35 for a F5 program pass.

Festival organizers just released a series of film trailers to give us peek of what's to come. We'll post one almost everyday until the launch party.

Here's the first from Trevor Anderson's The Man That Got Away:

... the new short film written and directed by Trevor Anderson, with original music by Bryce Kulak. It's a musical documentary that tells the true life story of Trevor's great-uncle Jimmy in six original songs. (25 minutes, Canada, 2012) World Premiere: Berlin International Film Festival (DAAD Short Film Prize); US Premiere: SXSW 2012; Canadian Premiere: Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival. Produced with the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton Arts Council, Bravo!FACT, NFB Filmmaker Assistance Program, and FAVA. More info at dirtcityfilms.com

Info on the soundtrack CD, featuring remixes by Chad VanGaalen, Cadence Weapon, members of Shout Out Out Out Out, DVAS and more, can be found here: itunes.apple.com/album/the-man-that-got-away/id500699270

THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY movie trailer from Trevor Anderson on Vimeo.

Last week, Slate published this short news item, looking at how firearm deaths have begun to outpace motor vehicle deaths in ten states, including Arizona. Using data from 2009, Washington, D.C.'s Violence Policy Center released a report in May that shows Arizona had 856 gun-related deaths to 809 vehicle-related deaths that year.

This led me to wonder what the gun-death numbers are in Arizona from year to year, and how those relate to national figures—and the answer, found via the CDC's Fatal Injury Report database, didn't surprise me.

Between 2001 and 2010, Arizona has had 9,117 gun deaths—a rate of 15.48 deaths per 100,000 over that time span. The national average over the same time was 10.33 per 100,000. In 2010 alone, Arizona's gun death rate was 14.57, compared to the national rate of 10.26.

The thing is, 2010 was a bounce-back year for gun-related deaths: the 931 deaths reported that year reversed the trend of decline that we had experienced since the high of 982 gun deaths in '06, dropping to a low of 856 deaths in '09.

2010 was also the year that Arizona began to allow permit-less concealed carry—an interesting coincidence.

We won't know more about the possible relationship between Arizona's gun deaths and the CCW law until mid-2013, when the CDC will release 2011's statistics. Maybe it's an aberration—but then again, maybe not. 'Til then, just some food for thought.