City Week

Using Media Rather Than Letting It Use You

"Empowering Youth Through Critical Thinking"

10 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 21

Loft Cinema

3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

795-0844

Cyndy Scheibe has made it her mission to observe the world's media and ask, "What does it mean to be literate in today's world, and how can those literacy skills be developed?"

In an era when we are inundated with a dizzying array of information choices and outlets, it's often difficult for teachers, parents and other educators to empower today's youth to be critical thinkers. That is the challenge posed by Scheibe's free, interactive seminar, "Empowering Youth Through Critical Thinking and Media Literacy in the Age of Google, Facebook and YouTube," on Saturday morning at the Loft Cinema.

Scheibe, executive director of Project Look Sharp, will demonstrate how a savvy education in media literacy can engage students of all grade levels through the processes of inquiry, analysis and creation. The seminar also will offer participants the opportunity to reflect on the roles that media play in their daily lives.

An associate professor of psychology at Ithaca College, Scheibe teaches courses in developmental psychology, media literacy and television research. She has conducted research on television content and children's understanding of media messages for more than 20 years. Scheibe's latest book is The Teacher's Guide to Media Literacy: Critical Thinking in a Multimedia World.

Participants in the seminar will learn more than a dozen ways to incorporate media literacy for youth into curriculum-driven approaches that can be employed in any classroom.

Sponsored by the Loft Cinema, Literacy Connects and the Educational Enrichment Foundation, the seminar will earn teachers from the Tucson Unified School District two hours of professional-development credit.


Finding the Fun in Mystery

The Mystery Genius of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown

7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m., Sunday, through Saturday, Jan. 28

Comedy Playhouse

3620 N. First Ave.

260-6442

Following its success with The Comedy Genius of ... series, the Comedy Playhouse will kick off a new series of plays with The Mystery Genius of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown. The show will present four Father Brown mysteries onstage in one show.

Unlike Sherlock Holmes, who used the process of logical deduction to solve mysteries, Chesterton's Father Brown employed his keen knowledge of human nature to get to the bottom of his cases.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was a much-loved English writer from the turn of the 20th century until his death in 1936. The scope of his writing was astonishingly wide. In addition to detective fiction and plays, he wrote philosophy, poetry, journalism, literary and art criticism, biography, history, literary fiction and fantasy fiction.

Although Christian themes and symbolism often appeared in his writing, Chesterton was at times known as a satirist or social commentator in the style of contemporaries Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, whom he knew well.

The Mystery Genius of ... series is slated to continue every other month, for two weekends, joining The Comedy Genius Series of ... series between productions of the Comedy Playhouse's full plays. Upcoming mystery writers slated to be featured in the series include Arthur Conan Doyle, E.W. Hornung, Thomas Burke and Sax Rohmer.

General-admission tickets for the two-hour show (with one 15-minute intermission) are $12, or $10 for seniors and students. For more information or to make reservations, visit thecomedyplayhouse.com.


Public Enemy No. 1

Dillinger Days

7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 20; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 21

Hotel Congress

311 E. Congress St.

622-8848

One of the most-colorful episodes in Tucson history came in 1934, when bank-robber John Dillinger and his gang were arrested after a fire at the Hotel Congress. To commemorate the anniversary and share a little local history, the historic downtown hotel presents the annual Dillinger Days.

The man known as the FBI's first "Public Enemy No. 1" came with his associates to the Old Pueblo to lie low after months of brazen bank robberies and murders in the Midwest. Some members of the gang were staying at Hotel Congress when it caught fire, and firefighters helping the criminals remove luggage—filled with firearms and cash—tipped off local police, who later arrested the felons.

The hotel will provide the location for the events, which are being presented as part of a new partnership with the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation.

On Friday night, a new addition is The Speakeasy, a party re-creating the spirit of the 1930s. There'll be a museum of '30s memorabilia, a premium-whiskey tasting, and music by Kings of Pleasure and Duo Vibrato. A $10 suggested donation will help the foundation restore a 1923 American LaFrance Fire Engine—the very engine that responded to the Hotel Congress fire.

The documentary film Hot Pion, which recounts the 1970 fire at the Pioneer Hotel, another historic downtown building, will be shown Friday night and regularly throughout the day Saturday.

The family-friendly Saturday events will include re-enactments of Dillinger's capture, vintage car shows, historical lectures, live music, an old-time radio show and tours.

The Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St., will supplement these activities with a screening of the 1957 film 3:10 to Yuma at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets cost $5 to $7.


Sensational Musicality

Johannes Möller in concert

7 p.m., tonight, Thursday, Jan. 19

Holsclaw Hall

UA School of Music

1017 N. Olive Road

342-0022

He's one of the rising young stars of a new generation of classical guitarists. He's the first-prize winner of the 2010 Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition. And Sweden's Johannes Möller is crazy cute, with a head full of floating blond curls. He'll visit Tucson for a solo recital on Thursday.

Möller played his first public concerts at 13, and since then, he has performed more than 500 times throughout Europe, Asia, South America and North America. He holds three degrees in guitar performance from some of Europe's top conservatories and has won numerous prizes in international guitar competitions.

Winning the GFA competition affords him the opportunity to play more than 50 concerts in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America and China—including a Carnegie Hall debut.

The young guitarist is acclaimed for his sensational musicality and breathtaking technique. A Soundboard magazine reviewer called his performing style "some of the most sheerly beautiful playing I have ever heard, with gorgeous sounds and exquisitely balanced sonorities."

Within the last two years, Möller has seen the release of three albums in the United States, one of them a showcase of his work recorded as part of his GFA award. His concert here will combine the work of classical composers such as Albeniz and Barrios with more-contemporary compositions.

The concert is presented by the Tucson Guitar Society in collaboration with Bolton Guitar Studies and the Guitar Foundation of America. Tickets cost $20 for Guitar Society members; $25 for nonmembers; and $15 for students with ID.