Carolyn Classen

Carolyn Sugiyama Classen, a life long Democrat, was born & raised in the State of Hawaii, was a Legislative Aide for U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye on Capitol Hill, and practiced law for a while. In Tucson she worked as a tribal staff attorney for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and later was the Interim Executive Director of the now defunct Domestic Violence Commission. In 2008 she became a “My Tucson” guest columnist for the Tucson Citizen newspaper, then continued blogging for Tucsoncitizen.com for over four and a half years. Her blogsite was entitled “Carolyn’s Community” about community events and some political news, until Gannett Publishing shut down the site on January 31, 2014. She started with Blog for Arizona on Feb. 11, 2014. Part time she sat as a Hearing Officer in Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts Small Claims Division since April, 2005 for 15 years. She is married to University of Arizona Distinguished Professor Albrecht Classen, a native of Germany. They have one son, who lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and daughter. She is also the Editor of the Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition website, www.southernazjapan.org (since Jan. 2013).

Beautiful kimono exhibit opening at Yume Japanese Gardens

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Kimonos made with exceptional skill from fine materials have long been regarded as great works of textile art, often hand painted, embroidered, or brocaded and sometimes costing thousands of dollars. Join us to view nearly two dozen examples of the traditional Japanese robe, ornamented with beautiful painterly designs.

This exhibition runs from Oct. 1 to Nov. 23 and admission to it is included with entrance to the Gardens. Accompanying the exhibition is a permanent display of 19th-century woodblock prints depicting scenes of daily life in pre-modern Japan.

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Terrifying time at The Slaughterhouse in Tucson

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Warning: Never go alone to a haunted house.

My courageous husband and I dared to venture into the Tucson Slaughterhouse on Friday night for a preview of their 5 scary Haunts. This former animal slaughterhouse was indeed full of infected, bloody “zombies”, and other scary creatures of questionable living status. One scary, blood-stained creature was situated in a standing coffin outside, but was he truly dead? We doubted it as the coffin was empty later.

We started off in the Boiler Room with creatures in gas masks and in all forms of decomposition and hacked bodies. They appeared suddenly along creepy corridors with things hanging from the ceilings, dripping liquid (blood? saliva?), gas explosions — more than enough to scare anyone.

Then we proceeded bravely into the City Meats indoor enclosure with insane butchers holding chain saws and grotesque body parts lying around. There was even a very narrow, totally dark maze, which we were ever so relieved to escape from. I heard a lot of screaming inside there as we exited.

Breathing free air again, we hesitantly creeped through the outside Twisted Tree Mortuary/cemetery, where the figure of Death (of course in somber black) followed us.  It was unnerving. We walked past grave stones, tombs, corpses, half dead people, yet to be buried.

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TUSD Governing Bd. candidate forum on Sept. 29

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Organizers have informed me that eight of the nine candidates seeking the two Tucson Unified School District governing board seats will be present at this forum. Only candidate Francis Saitta declined, as he has done the others. Incumbents for these seats are President Adelita Grijalva (3 terms) and Michael Hicks (1 term), who are both … Read more

Pints for Pets to benefit Prop. 415

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This November, voters will have the opportunity to improve Pima County’s animal care facility through the passage of Proposition 415. This bond will provide the funding needed to build a shelter that will accommodate the thousands of animals brought to the shelter and allow for more humane modern animal care practices. The original Pima Animal … Read more

Architecture Week 2014: “Old is the new New”

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Cans, kids, eats and one-of-a-kind architectural streetcar tour make Architecture Week 2014 the most innovative yet This year’s Architecture Week 2014, September 27 to October 5, promises a week of activities that combine great architecture with family activities, hike and bike tours, a celebration of Tucson’s new Streetcar, and an ‘edible’ home tour. Highlights of Architecture Week 2014 include: … Read more