Saturday, May 19, is a citywide park clean-up day. Volunteers will be working in most neighborhood parks from 8 a.m.-noon. Kidd Springs Park is getting special attention in advance of a Dallas Symphony Orchestra performance in the park May 30.

The 2012 Visual Speedbump Art Tour in Oak Cliff is from noon-6 p.m. Saturday. The free, self-guided tour includes about 15 galleries and studios.

An opening reception for “Seventeen Hundred Seeds,” the public art project at West Davis and Van Buren, is from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday. It’s free and kid friendly.

The fourth-annual Brew Riot is from 4-8 p.m. Sunday.

Fifteen graduating seniors will receive scholarships totaling $44,000 from the Adamson High School Scholarship Foundation in a ceremony Thursday. The awards include a $6,000 four-year scholarship and a $2,000 one-year award, which is renewable.

The foundation has been awarding scholarships to Adamson students since 1950. Since then, it has awarded more than $1.4 million in scholarships to almost 2,000 students.

In total it will give $72,000 this year to graduating seniors and alumni.

Taste Addison, the three-day food festival, kicks off this Friday, from 6 p.m. to midnight. This year’s event will feature food from more than 60 Addison restaurants, live music, celebrity chef demonstrations and wine tasting seminars, carnival rides, midway games and more.

The 5th person and the 10th person to email “I Love the Advocate” to mriney@advocatemag.com get four passes to the festival and a gift card to either On the Border or Nate’s Seafood and Steak House.

On your mark, get set, GO! …

The fourth-annual Brew Riot is Sunday, May 20, from 4-8 p.m. More that 80 home brewers will compete for prizes and bragging rights. Taste as many of them as you can handle for $20. Tickets are available online, and proceeds go to Go Oak Cliff, a neighborhood nonprofit that benefits local schools.

This year, organizers are adding a “beer run.” The 1.1-mile run starts at Nova. When the gun fires, runners chug an 8-ounce beer. The run includes other stops along the way, including the Kessler Theater and Bolsa. Drinking isn’t required to participate in the run. Tickets cost $35 and include entry to Brew Riot. Everyone who participates in the run gets to be first in line for Brew Riot.

Diorama-O-Rama raised more than $7,500 for Cafe Momentum Saturday. Artists and amateurs alike created dioramas, which were auctioned. The Cafe Momentum guys passed tasty dessert bites, and the room was filled with stylish people. It was a good time.

Here are a few pictures from the event, which volunteers from Oak Cliff organized.

I didn’t set out to eat tacos in New York City, but I happened to be there on May 5 weekend, and you guys, tacos are super trendy in New York. On our first day there, my Texan pal Nick D. told us we should try Habana Outpost in Fort Greene Brooklyn. Since it was recommended by a Texan, a Houstonite no less, we decided to stop in after walking all those blocks from the Union Hotel, where we stayed.

Looks good, right? Yeah, not so much.

What’s interesting about Habana Outpost is that it’s basically Taco Cabana. Not the same menu, but very similar concepts. It’s Mexican fast food (not sure why the Cuba reference) with beer and frozen margaritas. There’s a patio with picnic tables, and the atmosphere is almost suburban. I ordered one pork taco and one chicken taco with a beer. It was happy hour, and my whole meal was under $8.

The pork was so dry, I was afraid I might break a tooth. After a couple bites, I actually found little bits of bone and almost did break a tooth. I so totally would’ve sued them in a Texas state district court, but I was able to oh-s0-gracefully fish the bone fragments out of my mouth before they caused dental damage.

By the time I got to the chicken taco, I just couldn’t. It was like, Tyson frozen chicken chunks or something. I don’t know, but for sure very, very not good.

So what happened is that I had these terrible tacos right off the bat in New York, so I resolved to find at least one good taco during the four-day trip. Admittedly, it was a half-assed effort. Friends recommended a couple of taco places in … Soho? The Village? It all becomes kind of a blur … and I didn’t make it to either one. The only one of those I remember is called Pinche Taqueria. We didn’t have their tacos, but we snacked on their Yucca fries at Botanica Bar one night, and they were amazing. Someone in Dallas, please get on that.

Next on the half-hearted taco tour, we visited Smorgasburg, the food flea market organized by Brooklyn Flea. We tried these tacos, ordered from a very serious 20-something whose mom was cooking the tortillas. I ordered one pork, one chorizo, and they cost two for $7. The chorizo was pretty good, but I noticed that taco places in New York want to put like, a cup of shredded ice-berg lettuce and out-of-season tomatoes on top. No me gusta! I ordered mine without the salad bar and then added spoonfuls of green and red salsa, which later set my face on fire. Evidently, this was the only spicy salsa in New York.

My apologies for this disgusting picture.

Here is a nicer one from the waterfront park in Williamsburg, where we ate.

After wandering around Williamsburg waiting for a pal to get off work, we stopped into San Loco. This is another Taco Cabana, which bills itself as “gringo Mex.” It’s basically Taco Bell with a bar.

Just look at that green tomato and ketchup sauce.

Whatever. It wasn’t that bad. I did not eat that sad little tomato-like wedge. At this point, I started to lose hope that I would ever find a good taco. It was Sunday, and I wasn’t going back to the city for the recommended tacos, but there was one last hope. A taco truck at Union Pool.

At last, I thought I had found good tacos. Don’t they look good? That’s one chorizo and one pastor, the first time I’d found it on a menu in New York. I ordered them in English, and I didn’t put any cash in the tip jar. Call me cheap, whatever, why am I s’posed to tip for tacos? That is foreign to me. The cool guy behind me looked me up and down, then ordered two pupusas, loudly, in Spanish and wafted a couple of bills into the tip jar. Whatever, nerd. As it turns out, if you don’t tip, they won’t give you any napkins. Whatever, taco guy, I am from the South; I carry a hanky.

These tacos tasted of not much. Several times, my tacos in New York came with this lovely looking salsa that tastes like … not much. That’s typical, the pal Ali tells me. “It’s like that everywhere in New York,” she says. “No one has good salsa.”

Here’s a question for Mayor Vision: How did he get to Fair Park for last week’s Texas-OU announcement? He didn’t need to take a signature bridge.

Nothing illustrates the short-sightedness that dominates the thinking of those who run the city better than Fair Park. They whine and bellyache about the need to build things — signature bridges, convention center hotels, toll roads in river levees. That we already have something that exists nowhere else in the world is something they seem to be happy to ignore.

Unless, of course, it’s budget cutting time, when they always notice Fair Park. It has lost 12 percent of its funding since the 2007-08 budget, though we’ve managed to build the bridge and the convention center hotel despite the budget crisis.

I’ve always wondered why the bosses downtown dislike Fair Park so much. Is it because it’s not in a “convenient” part of town? Is it because it’s not new, and the only way to have a world-class city is to have lots of new things? Call me a cynic, but I’ve always suspected that Fair Park gets short shrift because it doesn’t lend itself to the sort of real estate development that motivates the people who run the city. You can’t tear it down to build something new.

For women older than 40, getting regular mammograms can be life saving. Dallas pastor Dr. Sheron Patterson knows this all too well.

Five years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Because she was diligent to have regular examinations, it was caught early. A hard fight and a mastectomy later, Patterson calls herself a “grateful and fun-loving survivor.”

For too many women, the story does not end on such a happy note.

According to Methodist Health System, a mammogram without insurance costs around $266. For some, this cost is too high.

To celebrate her 5-year victory with cancer, Patterson is reaching out to those women who cannot afford this essential medical care. Early detection saved her life, and she wants to give that gift to others.

“I praise God that I had the health insurance to pay for it,” Patterson says. “I have great concern for those who cannot.”

This Sunday, May 13, launches Patterson’s “Year of Living and Giving.” Patterson has teamed up with Methodist Health Systemto raise funds for the next year to provide 1,000 free mammograms for women who most need it in the Dallas area.

Methodist will focus most heavily on five zip codes with high breast cancer rates and low screening services, identified by its mobile mammography units: 75210, 75215, 75216, 75232, and 75241. Women in these zip codes will be provided with free education and screening

It will cost $200,000 to provide the mammograms, and Patterson is asking the community to get on board.

“I want this to be a grassroots, philanthropic event,” Patterson said. She hopes that people will come up with innovative and creative ways to raise the funds.

The first event benefiting “A Year of Living and Giving,” is “Bring Your Bling,” which takes place on June 10at 4 p.m. at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. Donations also are accepted anytime on Methodist’s website.

What a fabulous Spring we have enjoyed! This time last year, we were already in the furnace. However, our luck won’t be with us much longer and the temps will rise consistently after the next couple of weeks.

So how can you help protect your vegetable and ornamental plants, bushes and trees? A good 2-3 inches of decomposed native hardwood or cedar mulch will do. Purchase “decomposed” mulch because it has already gone through the process of breaking down and no longer needs to take nitrogen from the soil. Nitrogen is one essential element needed for plant growth. In the nitrogen battle between the plant and mulch, mulch will win and the plant will suffer. You can purchase mulch from the city vendors, but I would suggest letting it sit and breakdown before using it on precious veggies.

Now that we have covered what kind of mulch to purchase, decomposed, lets talk about why we are mulching for the health of the plants:

Save water ($) — In the heat of the summer without mulch you will have to water daily. My gardens, mulched 2-3 inches high, only had to be watered every two to three days last summer.

Save the microbes — These tiny microscopic animals are the ones working the ground and feeding your plants. Without a good layer of mulch to keep them cool, they will fry in our Texas sun quicker than a french fry in a Fry Daddy.

Save the soil — Dry, cracked soil is not helpful to anyone. The plant is not protected and the cracks here can get so big you could twist your ankle in them.

Happy Gardening!

Rebirth Brass Band performs at the Kessler Theater Friday, May 11.

The Texas Theatre is showing “The Avengers” all weekend.

The Trinity River Wind Festival is from noon-6 p.m. Saturday at Commerce and Riverfront. Fly a kite, plant wildflowers, listen to the Dallas Wind Symphony. It’s free.

Diorama-o-rama, a fundraiser for Cafe Momentum organized by Oak Cliff volunteers, is from 4-8 p.m. Saturday, May 12 at Bolt Studios, 2408 Converse. Participants have created dioramas to auction for the nonprofit. Admission costs $5. Food and beverages will be available for purchase, cash only.