def parse_json(pairs):
    """
    modified from:
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/956867/how-to-get-string-objects-instead-of-unicode-from-json#34796078

    pass this to the object_pairs_hook kwarg of json.load/loads
    """
    new_pairs = []
    for key, value in pairs:
        if isinstance(value, unicode):
            value = value.encode('utf-8')
        if isinstance(key, unicode):
            key = key.encode('utf-8')
        new_pairs.append((key, value))
    return dict(new_pairs)
modified from:
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/956867/how-to-get-string-objects-instead-of-unicode-from-json#34796078

    pass this to the object_pairs_hook kwarg of json.load/loads