City Week

Silly You

Shakespeare said, "The wise man knows himself to be a fool." In that case, why not celebrate our knowledge at Friday's All Fools' Pageant?

Presented by Many Mouths One Stomach, the festive folks who put on the annual All Souls' Procession, the event features a plethora of performers. Pyrotechnic theater troupe Flam Chen and creative Tucson Puppet Works headline the night's live entertainment, along with the eclectic musicians in The Molehill Orkestrah. Other acts include Industrial Mice and Rabbits and a range of unique guests seeking to dazzle the eyes and stimulate the mind.

Flam Chen fuses fire, martial arts weaponry and circus feats to create what they describe as "unique panoramas of spectacle and narrative." Each performance is different, with a variety of themes based on anything from a gigantic toy box to the lives of insects. Tucson Puppet Works complements the activities with their humorous productions.

The Molehill Orkestrah plays an impressive range of music, from American folk to klezmer, Mediterranean to Middle Eastern, and everything in between. Like many of the acts in the All Fools' Procession, the Orkestrah is a local group with a long history in the All Souls' Procession; the group grew out of the festival four years ago.

Perhaps the best part of the All Fools' Pageant is that all proceeds benefit November's All Souls' Procession. So while you are traipsing through downtown Tucson in your costume for the All Fools' Procession (see the pattern here?), you can rest assured that you are traipsing for a good cause. $10; $7 with costume.

Party at the Planetarium!

It's not a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most people, but there's just no snazzy way to describe something that happens only once every 32 years. For the first time since the '70s, we're seeing a special emergence of an elite group of heavenly orbs, and this has the folks at Flandrau Planetarium pretty darned excited: the Naked-Eye Planets! No, it's not the newest foreign-import kids' show. It's the group of planets which can be seen by the average person staring out into space with nothing more than their own 20-20 vision. During this relatively rare occurrence, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all be visible and shining bright at dusk. As a bonus, the Moon joins the party for about a week and a half around April 1.

Did you know that Venus alone accounts for a disturbingly high number of UFO sightings? Expect a few interesting rumors to fly about this weekend.

In addition to public telescope viewings (and explanations) of this celestial soiree, there will be a lecture given by Flandrau favorite Bob Martino at 8:30 p.m. on both days. "Conjunction Function: A Brief History of Planets," explores changes in humanity's relationship with the planets through the centuries. The lecture will also discuss Sedna, the newly discovered object that lies beyond Pluto. While donations are requested for telescope viewings, Martino's talk carries a $5.50 price tag ($4.50 for seniors or students, and $4 for kids 13 and under).

Women Take Charge

Hey, ladies! It's a fact of life that gals need to pay special attention to their health. Annual exams, brittle bones, monthly mood swings and other uniquely female issues conspire to make doctor visits as frequent for some women as coffee with the girls.

This weekend, the nice folks at the University Medical Center want to make staying healthy fun for women of all ages and backgrounds, so grab your girlfriends and head down to DuVal Auditorium for a day of workshops, speakers and screenings. Health professionals will offer screenings for asthma, diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, osteoporosis, vision and depression. Guest speakers will discuss important topics like contraception and sexual health, mood disorders and depression, herbal medications for women, heart disease and general female health. For las mujeres, Spanish translations and screenings will be available, thanks to the College of Medicine's Commitment to Underserved People program.

The event, hosted by UMC students from the UA Colleges of Pharmacy, Nursing, Medicine and Public Health, and the UA National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, seeks "to use education to empower and motivate women to take charge of their own health." The exposition is free, but participants are requested to sign in at the AHSC Plaza, the courtyard area just south of UMC and the College of Medicine.

Smells Like Spring

One of the most delightful things about Tucson in the springtime is the sudden explosion of color, scent and texture, courtesy of our local flora. Aloes raise their pink umbrellas skyward; Mexican gold poppies light up roadsides; and the heady perfume of citrus permeates downtown Tucson. Appropriately, Tohono Chul Park has chosen this Sunday for their annual Wildflower Festival.

While wildflowers are certainly the guests of honor, the party doesn't focus exclusively on flowers. Regional food, music, art and heritage accompany the horticultural hootenanny. Taste delicacies from more than a dozen establishments, including Tohono Chul Park Tea Room, Sauce, Wildflower, Pastiche, Papagayo's, Kingfisher, Old Pueblo Grill and Cuvée. As if that weren't enough, the Michael J. Ronstadt Trio, Mariachi America and cartoonist Dave Fitzsimmons will be on hand to entertain attendees. Best of all, the tranquil surroundings of Tohono Chul Park and the warm, fragrant spring air provides the perfect backdrop to relax, munch and enjoy yourself.

One of the highlights of the festival is the auction of Sonoran Springtime. This quilt, handmade by Tohono Chul staff and volunteers, celebrates the desert's seasonal floral guests. Also on the auction block are more than 150 items for home and garden.

Tickets for the event--Tohono Chul's main fund-raiser for the year--are $50 per person. "Friends of the Festival" sponsorships are available at $170 for two people.