Last October my husband and I “survived” our first Zombie Walk (see photos here). I still have nightmares about some of those “undead” people trying to bother me.

On August 25 zombies are taking over Mama’s Hawaiian BBQ (both locations, one in Tucson at 850 E. Speedway Blvd, and the other at 15990 S. Rancho Sahuarita Blvd.,Rancho Sahuarita, AZ). 20% of the proceeds go to help Zombie Walk but don’t forget to moan “Tucson Zombie Walk” when you order the Hawaiian food. Note the times for this offer: 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. (yes, they stay open into the wee witching hours past midnight at the Tucson location!)

As a local Hawaiian I’ve eaten at Mama’s a few times and have enjoyed the Kal-bi ribs, Mahi Mahi, fresh salad with Oriental dressing, etc. Their Big Kahuna Plate (beef teriyaki, chicken teriyaki, kalua pork, 2 scoops rice & mac salad) is some “ono” (delicious in Hawaiian) and plentiful. Just like we like ‘em back home from the lunch wagons.

The zombies are coming this fall. Mark your calendars now for Saturday the 13th of October, when the 7th Annual Zombie Walk takes place along with 2nd Saturday Downtown, 6 to 10:30 p.m. More info at their website:
www.tucsonzombies.com. The theme this year is “The End of the World: How do we go out?”

Sounds pretty scary to me.

Like Scheherezade, the Persian storyteller of “One Thousand and One Nights”, I have now, as a female voice in Tucson, related to our readers 1001 blog articles/”stories”.

It’s the 3 year anniversary of when I started blogging here for the online Tucsoncitizen.com. It was June 18, 2009 when I wrote up a blog article entitled “Is Lani’s Luau international cuisine?” (link), as I was wondering how varied the food & ethnic culture was at Lani’s, my favorite Hawaiian restaurant in Tucson. For those of you who don’t know it, Lani’s is located at the NW corner of Harrison & Golf Links, 2532 S. Harrison Rd., phone 520- 886- LUAU (5828).

As for my 1001 blog articles, it’s amazing that I’ve managed to write so many, as it is now at the stage that I don’t remember all the topics I’ve chosen to feature in my blogsite — focusing mostly on community events/issues/groups.

And which one has been my most popular post? Sadly my farewell article on the late Gabe Zimmerman, Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Gifford’s slain aide, whom I knew.

I do have a chronological listing by categories for myself, but the most useful is the “Search the Citizen” box on the Tucsoncitizen.com front page. If you want to know when I wrote about a certain person or topic, just type it in. It’s been very helpful, even for me to locate previous articles. And because the tags below each article are so powerful, you can usually find our articles via Google as well. And I do have a long listing of archives on my blogsite (left column) starting in the hot summer month of June 2009, followed by each month up to June 2012.

So after being a “My Tucson” guest columnist at the original Tucson Citizen afternoon newspaper in 2008, I can now write on my resume that I’ve blogged for 3 years at Tucsoncitizen.com. Some of my blogs have been re-printed in Oasis, the only Japanese magazine in Arizona (published in Phoenix by editor George Nakamura). And I may be free lancing articles for a new magazine to debut this summer, “Tucson Woman” edited by Linda Ray, of Tucson’s Birthday fame.

Stay tuned, keep reading, and happy blogging!

“Carolyn’s Community” aka Carolyn Classen

My photo taken at Tucsoncitizen.com Dec.2010 holiday party

Information from one of my favorite guitar folk singers in Tucson:

Saturday, November 19 (6:30pm) Lani’s Luau (2532 South Harrison Road, Tucson – [520] 886-5828), Tucson’s authentic Hawaiian Restaurant presents:

An evening of Celtic Aloha!

Hawaiian Music Award winner Jamie O’Brien comes from a London-Irish family, but his heart lies across a different ocean. Tonight, he presents an evening of the music he loves: a little bit of Irish, a little bit of Hawaiian … a lot of Celtic Aloha.

Lani’s Luau presents Jamie playing solo from 6:30 to 8:30pm: songs, slack key guitar and ukulele. He has played Irish music for as long as he can remember and Hawaiian for over a decade. Since meeting and teaming up with slack key guitarist and singer, George Kahumoku Jr., to present “Oceans Apart – Islands Together”, Jamie has been making connections between the music and culture of the islands.

Jamie has taken his Celtic Aloha performance to Maui, Oahu, the Big Island of Hawaii, Lanai and Kauai, as well as across the Mainland from Washington State to Washington DC and many places in between. He has played with such musicians as Daniel Ho, Keoki Kahumoku, Ozzie Kotani and many others from the world of Hawaiian music and Aoife Clancy, Danny Doyle, Jim Eagan and many others from the world of Irish music.

Enjoy a meal at Lani’s Luau, Tucson’s authentic Hawaiian restaurant and enjoy the music of Jamie O’Brien and a Celtic Aloha. No cover charge, but reservations are recommended.

And read my previous blog about Jamie’s latest CD “Chasing Ghosts” (click here), which I listen to often in my car. Lani’s Luau is on the NW Corner of Harrison and Golf Links, and serves delicious (ono) Hawaiian food.