July 13 - July 19, 1995
Thursday 13
VIDEO TENSIONS. This innovative series of progressive video
works continues tonight at 7:30 at the Modern Languages Building
auditorium on the UA campus, with VideoCOLLECTIVE, a showcase
of works by visiting New York artists Cyrille Phipps and Cathy
Scott. The two videomakers will discuss how the process of making
work collectively impacts cultural production and the world we
live in. This carefully curated patchwork of video artistry embracing
social and political issues will send your mind a-swimmin' out
of the mainstream. Admission is free, though a $2 donation is
appreciated. Call 621-7352 for information and a complete schedule
of screenings.
Friday 14
SCREEN SAVER. Just to warn you, this week's trend is toward
finding as many sit-down, climate-controlled entertainment options
as possible. As that infernal blast of desert wind wilts you in
mid-stride, what could be more comforting than thoughts of Sweden,
with all that snow and talented filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman?
The Great Masters Summer Film Series continues tonight with Shame,
starring Liv Ullman and Max Von Sydow, as married concert violinists
who flee to a nameless island to avoid the ravages of a bitter
civil war. The moral challenges the apolitical couple face weave
into a dramatic tale which one character summarizes with the lines,
"Sometimes it's like a dream. Not mine. I'm forced into someone
else's dream." Film historian Leonard Maltin calls Shame
a "powerful, brilliantly acted drama...one of Bergman's best."
Shame screens at 7:30 tonight at the Modern Languages
Building auditorium on the UA campus, and also at 3 and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 16, at The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St. Admission
is $3. Call 622-2262 for information.
Saturday 15
FIRE IN THE PARK. Enjoy our national parks and monuments
while they're still open. Federal budgets and state pols being
what they are, these natural "luxuries" may not be as
timeless as Woodsy Owl and Smoky Bear once led us to believe.
Coronado National Memorial celebrates July with free ranger-guided
hikes on Saturday mornings through July 29, with afternoon hands-on
activities from 2 to 3 p.m. in the picnic area. Each week will
feature a different topic, from making rope from yucca leaves
to identifying edible native fruits and nuts. Today's hike leaves
at 9 a.m. from Montezuma Pass, completing a one-mile loop to Coronado
Peak to observe the effects of the 1988 Peak Fire. The guided
tour will teach hikers how to use the specialized equipment for
fighting wildland fires, and possibly a chance to soak each other
with water from the fire truck. Or mark your calendar now for
next Saturday's tour of a natural limestone cave.
Wear sturdy shoes and carry at least one liter of water per person.
Coronado National Memorial Visitor Center is located in Montezuma
Canyon, five miles west of Highway 92 (21 miles west of Bisbee).
Call (520) 458-9333 or (520) 366-5515 for information.
AMONG THE WILDFLOWERS. Closer to home, Tucson Botanical
Gardens Education Director Meg Quinn graces TBG Porter Hall with
an "armchair photo tour" exploring the high mountain
meadows and coniferous forests of southern Arizona's Pinalenos
and Chiricahua ranges. Mountain Wildflowers will take you
to the gentle world belonging to Fringed Gentian, Shooting Star,
Deer's Ears and Sneezeweed, to name a few. These are a diverse
and abundant group set to bloom in late summer at elevations above
7.500 feet. Stop and smell the flowers from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in
the roomy, air-conditioned Porter Hall, 2150 N. Alvernon Way.
Cost is $8, $6 for TBG members, and includes admission to the
gardens. Call 326-9686 for information.
Sunday 16
BUTTERFLY SAFARI. The word of the week is "lepidopterist."
A title like that couldn't help but pertain to something delicate
and obscure, such as that branch of zoology dealing with insects
with four membranous wings more or less covered with small scales.
Just so happens that's Jim Brock's specialty, and the subject
of his book Butterflies of Southeastern Arizona. Brock
says the abundant nectar of summer wildflowers supports over 100
species of butterflies in one canyon alone. He's hopeful that
today's easy excursion through a "lovely riparian canyon"
should yield as many as 50 species. Mary Erickson, of the Arizona-Sonora
Desert Museum, will lend her expertise to the interpretation of
wildflowers. Call Baja's Frontier Tours (887-2340) or Pima Community
College (884-6720) for registration and information. Cost is $59,
and includes transportation, beverages and snacks.
STAR STRUCK. Crash of the Comet may sound vaguely
like the title of an Ed Wood film, but actually it's the far more
coherent presentation by comet hunter David Levy, co-discoverer
of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. The world-renown starman will give
a non-technical overview of last summer's spectacular collision
with Jupiter, including slides of this cosmic blow-out and what
the scientific community has learned from it. Tonight's exclusive
presentation is sure to entertain and excite your imagination,
proving yet again that truth is much stranger than fiction...the
reference to Ed Wood films notwithstanding. An informal reception
will follow the 5:30 p.m. presentation, allowing guests an opportunity
to meet Mr. Levy. Tickets are $25 and include entry in a raffle
for an evening of star viewing with Mr. Levy himself. Proceeds
will fund Flandrau and Project Artist youth programs. Flandrau
Science Center is located on the north side of the UA mall east
of Cherry Street. Call 621-4515 during business hours for reservations
and information.
Monday 17
TELLING TALES. Artist Syd Clayton-Seeber's life reads like
an epic tale of adventure, from a modeling and television career
in San Diego and New York in the early '50s, through a son's illness
in the '60s that would necessitate moving the family to Tucson's
desert clime. The energetic Seeber supported her family by working
as a disc jockey and television movie hostess, and later as the
owner of a public relations firm and publisher. Her own health
problems in the '80s would force her to close shop, ushering in
a new devotion to painting. "A bout with cancer forced me
to give up painting in my chosen medium, as chemotherapy and the
odor of oils and turpentine did not agree with my system,"
she says of her switch to watercolor.
Her latest show, Tales of the Story Tellers, includes
a series of faux stone pieces she calls "Petroglimpses"
as well as several watercolors depicting the storyteller theme
"as they might be seen through the eyes of Picasso, Dalí
and Miro." See Seeber's works between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily,
through July 31, in the Career Center of Pima Community College
East Campus, 8181 E. Irvington Road; or on-line at http://www.asu.edu/wwol.
Tuesday 18
PUPPY LOVE. Due to a kid-oriented marketing campaign that
was way off the mark, Fluke stands to be one of the most
underrated films of the summer. True, loosely told this is the
story of a man who is reincarnated as a dog. But this movie is
hardly kid stuff. The second cinematic effort by Italian filmmaker
Carlo Carlei (Flight of the Innocent), Fluke plays
off similar themes of survival and karmic redemption in a well-crafted
tale that will have even the most skeptical among you holding
your breath and blinking back the tears. There are some wonderful
cinematic sequences, from a kinetic journey through a possible
life-between-life, to a "pup's eye" view of emerging
anew into the world of men. Go see this film, and you'll never
look at your pet in quite the same way again.
Fluke is showing at El Con AMC Theater, 3601 E. Broadway.
Call 881-1696 for showtimes.
Wednesday 19
WATCH THE SKIES. With the X-Files into the summer
re-runs, you'll have to rely on your own imagination to imagine
what's out there this summer. While the chances of naming your
own comet or having a close encounter of the first kind (that's
a saucer sighting in official extra-terrestrial lingo) are not
likely to come to pass, Flandrau Science Center's Michael Terenzoni
has kindly compiled a list of more dependable cosmic phenomena:
Look high in the south after sunset for a very bright "star"
and you'll find Jupiter, paired with the nearby red supergiant
star Antares; Mars is visible as a fairly bright pale orange-red
star in the western sky after sunset; and for early risers, Saturn
continues to climb in the pre-dawn sky--look for a white star
high in the south one hour before sunrise. If you're wondering
why on Earth you'd want to beat the sun out of bed to look through
a telescope, remind yourself that Saturn's rings won't again be
visible to amateur astronomers until 1996.
Flandrau Science Center, on the UA campus, offers free nighttime
telescope viewing from 8 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday,
providing the sky is clear. Call 621-4515 for information.
Photo 1: Singing a different tune: The affable Sal Valdivia joins
pianist Lisa Otey in the TKMA Tuesday Night Showcase, opening
at 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, in the SWCM Acoustic Café,
2175 N. Sixth Ave.
Photo 2: Comet's tale: World-renown comet hunter David Levy presents
Crash of the Comet at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, July 16, at Flandrau Science
Center on the UA campus. Photo by Keith Shreiber.
Photo 3: Spectral appearance: Phantom Limbs shake a leg Friday
evening, July 14, at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St.
Photo 4: Tall Tales: Artist Syd Clayton-Seeber's faux stone
works highlight Tales of the Story Tellers, on display
through July 31 at PCC East Campus Career Center, 8181 E. Irvington
Road.
July 13 - July 19, 1995
