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What would it be like to eat only unprocessed food for a year? That’s just what Tucson author Megan Kimble wondered. So that’s what she did. And then wrote about it in her book, Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food.  By Joan Calcagno. 

Author Megan Kimble turned her year of living less processed into a book. Photo courtesy of Megan Kimble.

Early bird or night owl? “I‘m an early bird. Definitely these days with my puppy – she gets up at seven so we get up at seven. When I was in grad school I’d stay up later and write. But these days, I’m definitely an early bird. I like to get up, have breakfast right away and then get going.”

Favorite accessory? “Probably my water bottle. I drink an obscene amount of water. I go through lots of water bottles. I also tend to forget water bottle places, so I kind of acquire them. Whenever I go home – my parents live in Los Angeles – I steal one from them. And my sister gave me a really cool one – glass with a rubber coating around it. Durable is key for me. I’ve had a few water bottle floods in my purse so they have to have good ‘cap integrity’.”

Meagan Kimble (left). Photo by Steven Meckler. Right: her new book.

Favorite faux pas? “I have this backdrop of the same people I see – that’s one of my favorite things about Tucson. I love that faux pas of ‘meeting’ people and you don’t know if you’ve met them – that dance of when you officially meet someone. I’ll see people through Edible [Baja Arizona] and we’re in our professional context and then I’ll see them out in a social context and it’s funny to be like ‘I know you’re familiar’. And [in Edible] we publish these beautiful photographs of people in Tucson and they’re up on the wall for two months while we’re producing the issue, and they become part of my life, but I‘ve never met them. So I’ll see them out in Tucson and it will be ‘I feel like I know you, but I don’t know if I actually know you.’”

Who is your dream reader? “Someone who wants and likes to read. Someone who is similar to me – curious and wants to learn about the world, how things work and why they work the way they do, what makes people excited, inspired and engaged – because that is why I write. I feel that I have been successful as a writer if someone reads something I’ve written and they see the world in a different way and maybe they make a different choice. It can be super small. Maybe they make a different choice for their dinner, they cook something instead of buying a meal from McDonald’s. Those little daily decisions, if I can change someone’s mind and impact them, then that’s a success.”

Wheat berries ready to be ground into flour. Photo courtesy of Megan Kimble

If I weren’t the managing editor of Edible Baja Arizona and an author, I would… “I might be just travelling. I think I’d like to be doing something outside because so much of writing is inside. I’d love the opportunity to just go explore. But being a writer is so much a part of my identity – like being female. I cannot remember wanting to do anything different.”

If I could change one thing I would… “I would change our political process. I wish that it was more accountable and transparent and direct. There are so many opportunities to do good work and I don’t really understand why it’s so hard. And that’s partly why I write about what I write about – which is what we can do in our individual lives on a day-to-day level – because it bums me out to such a degree that the larger, broader conversation seems to be so stagnant.”

Wheat berries go into the grinder. Photo courtesy of Megan Kimble

Wheat berries turn into ground flour. Photo courtesy of Megan Kimble

The wheat berry flour is turned into dough. Photo courtesy of Megan Kimble

What or who sparked the idea to live for a year “unprocessed”? “I came across a blog about unprocessed eating. This was almost four years ago, before processed food was being talked about very much. And that word ‘unprocessed’ really stuck with me as a conceptual framework for understanding the food that I was eating and buying.  So I tried to eat only unprocessed food for two weeks and it was so hard, and it brought up so many issues. But it was such an interesting experience that I decided I wanted to investigate it further, thinking ‘What makes food “processed”?’   I was in the MFA program at the University of Arizona. I got my MFA in creative writing, non-fiction, and already writing about food. The idea of [eating unprocessed] for a year was ‘Oh, I could write about my experience.’ I didn’t know what form it would take, but I started out intending to write about it. So much of my learning process was interviewing people about things – like how do you grow mill wheat and how do you make cheese. I didn’t know and I wanted to go out in the world and find that out.”

Megan says she would do her ‘unprocessed’ year all over again. Photo courtesy of Megan Kimble

 As you got to the end of your year of eating unprocessed, what where you looking forward to eating on day 366? “There were definitely specific foods that I craved. Cheddar Chex Mix – inexplicably. I don’t know why! It just became this thing that stuck in my brain for a year. That and Diet Coke. I just wanted them. And I remember clearly, that first day, day 366, I went and had them and thought ‘Well, these are gross.’ My taste buds had totally changed. Diet Coke just tasted like chemicals to me and the Chex Mix didn’t even taste like cheese.”

What were your biggest challenges? “I lived alone and was single, and I decided to do this thing in my own kitchen. [Making things] was hard initially. But I figured things out. I made my own chocolate. That was like week one. I said ‘I’ve got to figure out how to unprocess chocolate or I’m not going to make it though a year!’ It took me a few tries to get the cocoa powder and cocoa butter to combine.

“The hardest part was just being able to eat out in the world – which is full of processed food. I really missed the social aspect of food – of being somewhere and eating something because that is what everyone else is doing, taking part in that spontaneous ‘Hey, let’s go get some pizza’ or having a Sonoran hotdog as we’re walking up Fourth Avenue. All my friends are meeting for pizza and ‘I’ll just come and hang out and I won’t eat anything’. So, definitely the social side. I was lucky to have a really great group of friends who just kind of rolled with it, but it was still challenging.”

Part of Megan’s CSA haul. Photo courtesy of Megan Kimble

Would you (could you) do it all again? “I could absolutely do it again. I still eat about ninety percent unprocessed. Ten percent is that social eating, mostly going out to eat. What I would want to do is take it a step further. Now that I’ve thought a lot about the food I’m eating, what about all the stuff I’m consuming, all the stuff that we buy?  That consumer spending side is something I think a lot about – getting people to put their money where their mouth is, saying they support local food, then you have to go buy it! That was a huge revelation of what I learned through my year: the money we spend on food matters. It shapes the food system.”

 *Find out more about Megan and her year eating unprocessed on her website.  You can purchase Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food here and in local bookstores.

* Read an excerpt from Megan’s book here.

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When Caitlin Myers performs burlesque as part of this week’s Body Love Conference in Tucson, it will be in her new wheelchair – a gold painted, sequined wheelchair she has transformed into her own throne. Caitlin sat down with friend and fellow burlesque performer Adiba Nelson to reveal why her wheelchair has become her seat of power, and made her love her body even more. By Adiba Nelson. Photos by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp.

Photo by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp.

When I was asked to interview Caitlin for this story, I was excited and angst ridden at the same time. I met Caitlin in November 2014 as we both navigated our way through burlesque. I was excited to sit down with my gal pal and chat our faces off over mimosas. I was also terrified because I knew Caitlin had a story, and I didn’t want to get it wrong. Much like my own daughter, Caitlin has a disability and, much like my daughter’s disability, hers is incredibly rare. But also, much like my daughter, Caitlin Rose Myers is a force to be reckoned with.

She has struggled with what she now knows is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome for nearly her entire life (she was only recently diagnosed). It is a connective tissue disorder that causes chronic pain. She has been told numerous times by numerous doctors that she should not dance. However, Caitlin pushed through. She craved dance, she needed it, and has stopped at nothing to get it. Caitlin is the only burlesque performer in Tucson who uses her wheelchair in her acts. Through her performances she is challenging the social norm that says a disabled body is not a beautiful body. She is tearing down walls of limitations for people who once thought doors were closed to them, simply by saying “find a way, any way, to be authentically YOU”.

Caitlin has worked her wheelchair into her burlesque act. Photo by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp.

I sat down with Caitlin ready to laugh and tell funny stories about how pastie making was almost the death of us, or how at age 29 she is killing it as a PhD candidate in English Literature, or discuss in great detail her odd love affair with the ampersand. Instead I reminisced, I grimaced, I became overwhelmed with pride, and I cried. Caitlin, in her quest to be authentically herself, is the living embodiment of every trait I want my daughter to possess. How many people can you say that about? She moves like a goddess, swims like a mermaid, and lives life fully on her terms.

Caitlin, anyone who has ever seen you on stage knows that you are an incredible performer. You move like it’s as natural as breathing. How did you get started in dance? Is it an inherited talent, or are you one of those people God just touched with the ballet stick and said “Poof! You shall be a dancer!”  “My mother was a dancer and she imparted that love of dance to me. I took ballet, tap and jazz from four or five years old. Every single week I was in somebody’s class dancing. I just loved moving. It became my passion. For some reason at that time my favorites were tap and jazz, but not ballet. Even at that young age I could tell that I wasn’t the ‘normal’ ballerina shape.”

Photo by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp.

The ‘normal’ ballerina shape. Oh, you mean petite, slender, and not chesty in the slightest? “Yes. I was always tall, and tall women don’t make good ballerinas. Neither do chesty girls, which I was. And I had a larger bum than all the other girls. So, there were a lot of reasons.  I remember we had a ballet teacher and she was very traditional – complete with a heavy cane that she would rap on the floor. She was always coming around and gently tapping me with the cane on my lower back and saying “BUTT IN! BUTT IN!”, and I was like “My butt is in as much as it can be! I just have a big butt – it doesn’t go anywhere!” So needless to say, ballet was not my favorite.”

Completely understandable! I don’t think I would love it either. Actually, I didn’t love it for those very reasons – I was also always the big girl in the class. However, you continued dancing. Did you continue with ballet? So much of modern dance and jazz is gleaned from ballet. “No, I loved tap and jazz. I loved how fun it was and how free it was, but around the time that little girls in ballet transfer into pointe, what we now know was Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome began to rear its head. I started to complain about leg pain when they tried to make me do a lot of pointe work. After seeing a doctor it was decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea that I go into pointe.

“But I still kept dancing – I just found new ways to dance. I kept doing tap and jazz and added in swing dancing. And then I got into Indian classical dance. But again, that is a style of dance that is very hard on your knees due to the standard position, so that didn’t last long. But I had this passion – I had to perform. So I came back to belly dance, and actually got to a point where I was teaching classes. I did that for a year and a half. And then everything changed.

Photo by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp. Shot on location at Sparkroot.

“I was teaching a move called the Turkish Drop. From standing you drop directly down, with your knees thrust forward  and your back down on the floor.  I was practicing those and I went down and than I could not get up. I was laying and I remember thinking ‘this hurts too much – more than it should’. It was really scary. Coincidentally, this was also when I was starting to do burlesque for the first time. In my act I was a maid balancing a tea set on my head, and I went down into a slow Turkish Drop. It was right after that when I realized the pain wasn’t going anywhere.”

And then you were hit by a car. First of all, I can’t even begin to imagine the pain simply from being hit, but you were already in immense pain from the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I know from our conversations that this accident marked the first time you ever had to use a wheelchair. How did this affect you? “It was very intense. I have a lot of memories of butt-scooting down the stairs of my apartment just so I could see the sunlight outside. I had to heal mentally and physically. I didn’t dance for a long time because of the mental anguish and the ridiculously long healing process.

“In hindsight, I realize that Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome has been behind my lack of healing the entire time. When the physical therapy wasn’t working, when the doctor recommended surgery to release the tension on my patella and it didn’t work, when nothing I did was helping me heal, it was due to the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I didn’t finally get a diagnosis until this year, when my husband’s doctor looked at my records and said ‘This is not normal – someone this young should not be in this much pain every single day.’ To finally hear that, that validation – it was amazing.”

Caitlin swims twice a week, on doctors’ orders. She does her own “modified” breast stroke to avoid dislocating her joints. Photo by Danni Valdez

Photo by Danni Valdez

I remember that. By that point you and I were already in Burlesque for the Soul together. But your doctors had told you that you really shouldn’t dance anymore, and the pain wasn’t going away. So how did you get to that point in your head where you were just like “f you – I’m gonna do what I wanna do? I’m gonna push through this and do this program.” What happened? “I needed power. I remembered when I first got into burlesque in college, it was after a particularly horrible break-up and I needed power, and some sort of self-affirmation that I was worth more than my ex said I was. When I met the women of that troupe in college I noticed how powerful and strong they were. Their acts were almost like a joyfully antagonistic reclaiming of their sexuality, as if to say ‘This is mine, and I’m gonna use it the way I want to, not the way you tell me to’.  I also attended a workshop with world-renowned burlesque performer Rose Wood and I’ll never forget her words: ‘Challenge the notion that when people go to a burlesque show they’re there to be seduced. I am not on stage to be what they want me to be, I’m there to be what I need to be.’ Those words stuck with me.”

That is such a strong statement, and it is exactly what you’re doing now with burlesque. Watching you go through the process from beginning to end, just even signing up for Burlesque For The Soul, was the beginning of reclaiming your power. “It is a strong statement, but it is everything that I think burlesque is. It was that statement and a huge leap of faith that pulled my act together. When it came time to actually conceptualize the act, I knew I had to use a chair but I wanted it to be a “happy” chair – a chair that made a statement. Well, what’s a happy chair? A throne. And that song Royals by Lorde was still popular, so it just fit. I would perform in a throne.

“But then the idea of using the wheelchair was brought up, and I fought against it. The very notion of it harkened back to a time when I was confined to my apartment, trapped in a wheelchair and in immense pain due to that stupid car accident. I wanted nothing to do with it. But then you and the ladies of Black Cherry Burlesque reframed it for me, and helped me see that a wheelchair could actually be a very powerful tool – giving me greater freedom and independence in my movement.

Photo by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp.

“Once I realized that, the love affair began. I now had my seat of power, my throne, if you will. That’s why I customized my chair to look like a throne. And that’s why I liked it in my act: because I was truly in love with it and all that it represented for me. It was no longer a trap or a cage. It was freedom. It was power. It was sexy. And it was mine. Every time I worked on it I got happier and happier. When I finally finished spray painting it [metallic gold], applying gold sequins to the spokes, and adding a back with a gold wood detail, I pushed it out into the sun to take a picture and was just in awe of it. It was beautiful, and that moment marked the turning point in accepting what was happening to my body.”

Did you have any idea how powerful that moment would be (in your act) when you got up into your wheelchair? How did that moment feel? Because I can tell you that watching it – it was a HUGE moment. Immensely powerful.  “I knew that it was a powerful moment. I knew that sitting in a wheelchair and putting a crown on my head was important in a broader sense. We had the dress rehearsal and [burlesque performer] Paco Fish filmed it. There’s something that I see when I watch that first rehearsal. There’s an aggressive power in my movements. I watch it now and realize that was the moment. It was kind of a ‘f you’ moment. At that moment, all of my fears of went away. I put that crown on my head and was like ‘I don’t care if this is not what you paid for, this is me. This is what I wanna do, so deal with it’. The entire struggle to accept this part of my life was gone. I didn’t even have the diagnosis yet. I just knew that I was going to be the kind of performer I needed and wanted to be.”

Which leads me to your *new* stage name. You were previously known as Jacqueline Boxx, now you’ve added. Miss Disa-Burly-TEASE. Tell us about that.  “One of the reasons I love that name so much is because of the playfulness of it. The ‘tease’ in all caps challenges the notion that if you have a disability you can’t be cute, playful and sexy. And I wanted to say that yes, you absolutely can be. That’s how a lot of non-disabled people develop their burlesque personas – cute, playful, sexy. In a way I’m combining the general aesthetic with the social consciousness work that I want to do – in terms of letting my story of my body be told and heard.”

Top and above: Caitlin, a.k.a. Jacqueline Boxx, performs burlesque. Photos by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp.

I wonder if for some people it borders on fetishization, the notion of disabled and sexy? “You hit the nail on the head. There is a perceived fetishization that comes along with finding someone with a disability attractive or sexy, and I want to challenge that. Why can’t someone in a wheelchair be sexy? Why can’t they be hot? My first act was very sensual – I mean for Pete’s sake I licked my wheelchair as I was groping it. I want to have more people question against the norm. They’re recoiling against the idea of someone being sexy and in a wheelchair. People in wheelchairs have sex! It happens! And you don’t have to be a freak to be attracted to them. You can be a freak if you want to be a freak, but it has nothing to do with the wheelchair. People with disabilities have sex too, and it doesn’t make you weird, strange or bad if you lust after them. It makes you human.”

You are a powerhouse – wheelchair, crutches, leg brace, whatever – you are incredible. Your message is fierce, and as real and raw as one would expect of a woman strives to live authentically. So what’s next for you? What sort of shimmies and shakes do you have coming down the pipeline? “With Ehlers-Danlos you never know. It’s not something that gets better. There’s no cure, only pain management and ongoing physical therapy, and sometimes even that is difficult. But for now I’m still shimmying, so I will shimmy until I can shimmy no more! I think it would be great to teach workshops someday, to other individuals with disabilities who maybe thought that burlesque wasn’t available to them. I’d like to guide them in telling their own story through burlesque, because honestly, if all you can do is just move my shoulder, I can do burlesque.”

Photo by Danni Valdez. Hair and make-up by Perfection Artistry. Jewelry by Christine Bartfai. Photography assistant: Jocelyn Warner-Brokamp.

I am incredibly excited, thrilled and so honored to be sharing the stage with you this week. I feel like every time I watch you perform I learn something new, a different nerve in me is struck, another ‘a-ha’ moment takes place. The dash of your life – you know, the dash between the date of your birth and the date of your death – that dash is going to be so full of “How did she do that?” and “Oh my goodness, this woman!”. But I have to know, what do you want the dash of your life to be chockfull of? “I want it to be full of ‘She lived authentically. She was true to herself, and in that, she encouraged other people to be true to themselves and live authentically.’ Everything I’ve experienced, good and bad, has made me who I am right now – – and there’s been a lot of bad. My diagnosis comes with hyperflexibility and I am now incredibly flexible in my life. I can just go with the flow. I don’t have to hold on to the structure of what once was. I am now just able to say ‘This is how it is’. Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome almost took center stage in my life but I’m a performer, and when I’m on stage I’m performing on my terms, disabled or not. And my light’s not out yet, so the show must go on.”

* Caitlin is one of the speakers at The Body Love Conference on  June 6th. Purchase your tickets to the conference here. Watch Caitlin and Adiba in the Every Body’s Beautiful Revue at The Flycatcher (340 E 6th St – 85705) Saturday evening June 6th. And if you’re still not shimmied out yet and you’d like VIP tickets to see Caitlin debut another new act at The Surly Wench on Friday, July 3rd, purchase those tickets here.

* Read more of Adiba Nelson on her blog The Full Nelson and in The Huffington Post.

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A new space in downtown Tucson is pushing the boundaries when it comes to design and function. It does double duty – as a salon in both senses of the word. By Gillian Drummond.

Salon Salon is in the historic train depot in downtown Tucson in the space formerly occupied by Obsidian Gallery.  Photo by Erin McDaniel

The restaurants, bars, coffee shops and clubs are in place in the ever-burgeoning downtown Tucson. Now it’s time to add the next layer of business. So says Jessica Baylon, owner of the new Salon Salon on Toole Avenue.

“It seems like we’re doing a lot with entertainment but people need grocery stores and places to get their hair done,” she says. Salon Salon, which occupies the former Obsidian Gallery space in the historic train depot, lives up to its name: a hair and beauty salon that does double duty as an 18^th century-style salon – that is, a gathering and meeting space for thinkers and artists.

Jessica Baylon enjoying her new salon space. Photo by Colleen Loomis

“For me it was an amalgamation of all the things I love. I love learning and networking with people, introducing people to one another. And I love hairdressing,” says Jessica.

Already the space has hosted yoga classes and a talk by academic Meredith Hay on women, sex and estrogen. On June 3rd there will be an art lecture by husband and wife Fleurette and Marc Wallach.  Currently the events are free, although in the future there may be a cover charge. Jessica also plans to offer hairdressing education units here – classes for local hair stylists who can’t afford to travel to bigger cities for their training.

Inside Salon Salon, where many of the fixtures were custom-made. Photo by Erin McDaniel

This is the eighth hair salon Jessica has opened in Tucson and the first she has owned outright. Formerly with Toni & Guy and latterly managing director and investor with Fringe Hair Studios, she was tipped off about the Historic Depot space by a client. Enter Kathy Hancox and Michael Kothke, the husband and wife architect team behind HK Associates. The couple had worked with Jessica on several salons in the past. But this was different.

As soon as they walked in, they felt the quiet of the building – despite the obvious noise of passing trains. It was historic and museum-like, says Michael. “It was just a calming and serene and well proportioned space.” Which was something he wanted to perpetuate. “Men are a little intimidated” by salons, he says. “There’s a lot of activity, there’s humming. I want to get in and get out. This is so calming, it doesn’t have that frenzy.”

As well as commissioning furniture pieces, the architects designed 6-feet mirrors for the salon. Photo by Gillian Drummond

“Jessica didn’t want it to feel like a hair salon,” says Kathy. “We wanted to give her the function of a hair salon and yet have it be a cool place to hang out in.” Kathy and Michael’s aim was to use the fixtures and furniture as if they themselves were exhibits. “It became clear that the salon aspects needed to function more like art and objects,” says Michael.

Kathy and Michael took inspiration from American artist and architect Donald Judd, famous not only for his geometric and modular sculptures but for his theories on art exhibition. His studios and living quarters in Marfa, Texas are open to the public and demonstrate his support of permanent art exhibitions.

It helped that the building’s former occupant had been Obsidian Gallery, which closed last summer. It also helped that the 1907 building had been lovingly restored a little more than a decade ago by Tucson architecture firm Poster Frost Mirto.

Concrete floors were re-grouted, walls were re-painted and the exposed ceiling was painted black. But the basics of what they needed to set up their hair-salon-with-a-difference were there. Jessica and staff use the rooms that functioned as the Obsidian (and before that an office) to their advantage; rather than having one open space as is often found in a hair salon, there is a separate room for cutting and styling, another  for washing and another that functions as a nail and makeup room. The further back in the building you go the quieter it gets, says Jessica. And that’s deliberate. “I wanted it to be quieter, more restful, calming. A lot of the spaces I’ve had in the past they have been these big open spaces. I like the idea of having intimacy and one-on-one.”

The owner and architects wanted to maintain the building’s calm, museum-like feel. Photo by Erin McDaniel

Washing takes place in a separate room. Photo by Erin McDaniel

She adds: “Our lives are so busy. But services like [hairdressing] are not being taken over by our iPads yet. I want to create an atmosphere where people have a chance to take a moment and be where they’re at.”

That said, Salon Salon also caters to the customer whose moments of quiet are deliberately few. For those who like to stay in work mode or online, the main entry space features a high-top table/work station on wheels, which means it can be moved for an event. There is wi-fi and retractable cables with outlets that hang from the ceiling.

The work station on wheels. Photo by Colleen Loomis

Also in the main space, Tucson jeweler Sofie Albertsen Gelb has her jewelry displayed in cases. Jessica says she plans to introduce more retail and feature additional local artists.

Jessica eschewed pre-fabricated furniture and fixtures that might be seen the world over. “I hate the idea for hairdressers that there’s one formula you can choose from,” she says. Instead, HK Associates turned to long-time collaborator and Tucson furniture maker Ben Schmitt, owner of Davinci Designs and one half of the new furniture and art gallery Wood and Pulp. Ben made most of the fixtures out of hardwood core plywood sourced in Mexico (it is sturdier, more damage-resistant and good for stronger structures). Among them is a floor-to-ceiling pair of plywood panels that holds hundreds of air plants. The ‘living wall’ was done in collaboration with Tucson florist Colleen LaFleur (also in the Historic Depot but about to move to a bigger space.)

Sofie Albertsen Gelb’s jewelry is on display. Photo by Gillian Drummond

A wall of air plants provided by Atelier deLaFleur. Photo by Colleen Loomis

There’s a third “level of occupancy” to Salon Salon, says Michael. Thanks to the communal work station and hanging electrical outlets, customers can bring their own lunch (the salon is a few steps from Maynards Market), charge their phones or just hang out. “I think that’s where Jes has great instincts about providing this other community space downtown that’s not just retail and not just a salon.”

* Find Salon Salon at 410 N. Toole Avenue, Tucson or visit its website.

* Look out for our feature on Ben Schmitt’s new venture Wood & Pulp coming soon in 3 Story.