Cover Story
Spring Club Crawl® Saturday, April 17
Visit ClubCrawl.net for last-minute additions and changes! Bud Select Music Stage 8 p.m.: The Grind 9 p.m.: Loren Dircks and Gila Bend 10 p.m.: Darren Hoff and the Hard Times (Austin) 11 p.m.: The Fremonts featuring Mighty Joe Milsap (San Diego) Midnight: Crosscut Saw The Bud Select Music Stage focuses on roots music, and Tucson…
Project City Hall: Replacing Rodney Glassman
We think we may have missed a great Reality Journalism competition by not encouraging more Tucsonans to apply for the Ward 2 City Council seat vacated by Democrat Rodney Glassman, who resigned earlier this month in an unlikely bid to win the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. John McCain. Surely, the process would…
Brewer: Opposed To GOP Tax-Cut Plan
Gov. Jan Brewer appears opposed to the reckless tax-cut plan developed by House Republicans. Howie has the details: Gov. Jan Brewer wants no income tax cuts for corporations. Brewer, crafting her own version of an economic stimulus plan, also rejected provisions in a House-passed proposal that would allow some multistate corporations to escape paying any…
New Poll: Goddard Trails Republican Rivals in Governor’s Race
Rasmussen puts Democrat Terry Goddard at a disadvantage against his potential Republican opponents in this year’s gubernatorial race: Now Brewer, who became governor when Janet Napolitano moved to Washington to be secretary of Homeland Security and has been plagued with severe budget problems ever since, earns 44% to Goddard’s 40%. A month ago, Goddard posted…
Tucson’s Everyday People: The Shanty’s Bartender Bill
UA School of Journalism student Sean O’Neill-Ryan gives us a look at The Shanty’s Bill Nugent, owner and bartender.
Man Vs. Octopus
octopus steals my video camera and swims off with it (while it’s Recording) from Victor Huang on Vimeo. Who isn’t dazzled by the undersea footage we see these days? Here’s a clip of octopus snatching a vidcam away from a diver and continuing to film during a chase to get it back.
Pima County Fair: Rides
Throughout the week, we’ll be posting slideshows of some of the sights at this year’s Pima County Fair, which is running through April 25. See all our photos at Flickr.com/TucsonWeekly. First up: the rides. More info on the fair here.
Club Crawl Videos Galore
For those of you who didn’t see every single band at last weekend’s Spring Club Crawl (i.e. all of you), here’s a sampling the videos we shot for TucsonWeeklyTV.com:
Local Natives at Solar Culture Tonight!
Who’s excited for the Local Natives show at Solar Culture tonight? If your answer wasn’t “I AM!” then you probably haven’t heard them yet. Click here to download two of their songs for free, and get all the show details here and here.
Artistic Range: Matthew Yates at Temple Gallery
“Happy Jack,” by Matthew Yates, is on display in Tucson Saguaro Photography Invitational, continuing through May 3 at Temple Gallery in the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.
New Cupcake Store Coming This Summer
A new cupcake store called Sweet Things Cupcake Shoppe will open soon at the Foothills Mall. The menu is posted at the shop’s website, which is already up and running. The store’s Facebook page says the opening will happen this summer. It wasn’t long ago that Tucson didn’t have a single store solely dedicated to…
McCain Backs Pearce’s Immigration Bill
Sen. John McCain has endorsed SB 1070, the illegal-immigration omnibus legislation that the Arizona Senate is scheduled to vote on this afternoon.Politico reports: Sen. John McCain has endorsed a tough Arizona anti-immigration bill that will let police arrest people who aren’t carrying identification, the latest move in McCain’s rightward shift in advance of a tough…
Pot Party at the Cheba Hut
The Cheba Hut, Tucson’s pot-themed sandwich shop, is celebrating tomorrow’s pro-marijuana holiday with eating contests, live music and more giveaways than you can shake a pack of rolling papers at. Pot people everywhere celebrate “420” tomorrow, an informal holiday observed annually on April 20. The origins of the holiday tend to vary depending on the…
Women Struggle on Both Sides of the Border
ROXANA VASQUEZ/ARIZONANEWSSERVICE.COM Sofia Torres, right, and her niece Sandra Torres gather at San Juan Bosco migrant shelter in Nogales, Sonora. Migrants are provided with shelter for three days. Written by Nohemi Ramirez / Arizonanewsservice.com They struggled through the spiny desert and felt the harshness of cold winter nights, all before getting caught by U.S. Border…
Tea for CD8
Andrew Sullivan makes an observation about the Tea Party that translates in some ways to the Republican primary in Congressional District 8, where Jonathan Paton, Jesse Kelly, Brian Miller and Andy Goss are competing to take on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords: So they are truly not serious in policy terms, and it behooves the small government…
Pima County Fair: Decorated Rocks
“Fashion Island” is one many decorated rocks now on display in Old Pueblo Hall at the Pima County Fair, which continues through April 25. More info here.
Tucson’s Everyday People: Terry Womer, Tech on Wheels
Jazmine Woodberry, a junior at the UA School of Journalism, gives us an inside look at popular bike shop Fairwheel Bikes, and employee Terry Womer.
Education Without a Price
Written by Victoria Blute/El Independiente Tough economic times have not stopped Imago Dei Middle School from continuing to provide a solid, tuition-free prep-school education to more than 50 low-income students. The school has survived when other schools have failed. Imago Dei Middle School, 639 N. Sixth Ave., was founded in 2006 by the reverends Anne…
Tucson’s Everyday People: The Bike Doctor
RC Bicycle’s bike doctor talks about his history in this multimedia project by UA School of Journalism junior Timothy Arrigo.
McCain to Fox News: Maverick No More. Now a Partisan!
John McCain on Fox News Sunday, explaining his recent comments about whether he’s ever considered himself a maverick.
It’s Official: Janos Takes Over Barrio Spot
The rumors that Janos Wilder would be taking over the old Barrio Food and Drink space are no longer rumors. Here’s the news release: Janos Returns To Downtown Janos and Rebecca Wilder announced this afternoon that they are returning to downtown Tucson to open a new restaurant in the site of the former Barrio Grill…
Pima County Fair!
Get out to the Pima County Fair! Details here.
Friday Roundtable: Income Taxes, Tea Parties & State Budget Cuts
We talk about income taxes, tea parties and (of course) budget cuts on the Friday Roundtable. Watch it after the jump.
Tom Horne on Andrew Thomas: “Out-of-Control Prosecutor”
State Schools chief Tom Horne, who is seeking the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, had harsh words last night on Arizona Illustrated’s Friday Roundtable for his opponent in the GOP primary, Andrew Thomas, who recently stepped down as Maricopa County attorney: If you get that kind of out-of-control prosecutor in the Attorney General’s Office, businesses won’t…
Rasmussen: Brewer Edging Ahead in GOP Primary
The latest Rasmussen poll on the Arizona governor’s race shows Brewer pulling ahead of her GOP rivals: The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the Republican gubernatorial primary race in Arizona shows Governor Jan Brewer gaining ground with 26% of likely primary voters now supporting her in a crowded field. In March, when she attracted…
Free at the Loft This Week: “Night of the Hunter”
The Loft Cinema’s Essential Cinema series continues with a free screening of the classic Night of the Hunter this Sunday and Tuesday. Details here. They suggest you donate $5, but that’s still a bargain!
TUSD Program Promotes Learning Through Arts
Written by Josh T. Saunders/El Independiente KAITE FLYNN First-graders sing a song with their teachers who are opera singers. Some Tucson schools are alive with the sound of music. Elementary and middle school students in the Tucson Unified School District are benefiting from a program called Opening Minds Through the Arts (OMA), which uses the…
Go See ‘White People’ at Live Theatre Workshop
As part of the Etcetera series at Live Theater Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd., White People opens tonight at 10:30 p.m. The play, by J.T. Rogers, shows Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 p.m., through May 1. Tickets are $10 at the door. Call 327-4242 for reservations. Read a New York Times review of another production…
Jonathan Klein: Photos That Changed The World
In this video, Getty Images founder Jonathan Klein talks about the impact a single image can have in changing laws, viewpoints, and the minds of entire communities. Source: TED.com
Rasmussen: Hayworth Gaining on McCain
A new Rasmussen poll shows J.D. Hayworth gaining on John McCain: Incumbent John McCain now earns just 47% support to challenger J.D. Hayworth’s 42% in Arizona’s hotly contested Republican Senate Primary race, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely primary voters. McCain has been losing ground since January when he picked up…
Martian Gullies
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona More new images from the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab’s HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are up. HiRISE team member Ginny Gulick tells us: This observation shows the complex, gullied western wall of a kilometer-deep impact crater in the Terra Sirenum region. This is an interesting crater because it appears…
Former Death Row Inmate to Speak at UA Law School
In January 2002, Juan Roberto Melendez became the 99th death-row inmate in the United States to be exonerated. There was no physical evidence that tied him to the case, yet his conviction was upheld three times on appeal by the Florida Supreme Court. It was a taped confession from the real killer that finally led…
Minuteman Work Continues in Southern Arizona
Written by Adam Lehrer/ArizonaNewsService.com ADAM LEHRER Carmen Mercer started with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps in 2002. Mercer said local chapters will continue to battle illegal immigration despite the fact that the national group has disbanded. The president of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps says that even though her national group has disbanded, local Minuteman…
Jaguar Bike-a-Thon 2010
A 300-mile bike-a-thon through Arizona is underway today to show support for bringing back the jaguar as a native species to the American Southwest. The ride started today at 8 a.m. at Pena Blanca Lake. Riders will arrive in Reid Park on Saturday, April 17, around 9:30 a.m. The bike-a-thon ends in Phoenix at the…
Local Screenwriter Premieres Film
Husband-and-wife moviemakers Bill Briles and Aleta Douroudian will be screening their film Reck and Ima today at Crossroads Grand Cinemas. See film times below. This is Briles’ second film. His first, Romance at Frisky’s Bar, was released two years ago and is on Netflix. Both of his films focus on the struggle of finding that…
Towns and Local Orgs Step Up to Keep Parks Open
MARGARET ZANGER Jim Pagles demonstrates an old fashion printing press. Written by Marissa Hopkins/El Independiente Following the closure of state parks that started Feb. 22, some Arizona communities are stepping in to keep their parks open. The Arizona State Parks Board voted March 18 to allow four state parks to enter into management agreements with…
Tax Day Protests: Do Most People Know What They’re Protesting?
We’re going to hear a lot of angry complaints about taxes in the media today. People who probably don’t owe a dime in federal income taxes will be quoted about how upset they are about their tax bill. Following up on this week’s story about the utter incoherent positions that the GOP congressional candidates are…
Tucson’s Everyday People: Finding the Right Gear
Finding the Right Gear from John deDios on Vimeo. In this second of four parts, UA School of Journalism student Joshua Morgan takes us into the back shop of JJ Bicycles and gives us a look at a work day in the shop with owner Jose Villegas.
Crawl®: FAQ Time
All of us are elated to be celebrating the second Club Crawl® after the opening of the magnificent new Fourth Avenue underpass. After all, the new underpass has re-connected the two halves of our event; the idea of Club Crawl® has always been to promote bands in all of the entertainment hotspots along both Fourth…
Get Smoked!
Maybe you’ve never connected with the whole “Zen of golf” thing, or perhaps the idea of having a meal at a golf course clubhouse leaves you cold. Well, dining at Catalina Barbeque Co. and Sports Bar—located at the ninth hole of the Starr Pass Golf Club’s Coyote Course at the J.W. Marriott Starr Pass Resort…
Club Crawl®: Beats and Eats
At each and every Club Crawl®, we strive to offer a wide variety of musical styles and entertainment options—with many of the earlier slots filled by great acoustic, folk, Americana, blues, bluegrass and Latin music. But Club Crawl® isn’t just about music. With the Fourth Avenue underpass open, and lots of eateries emerging along entertainment…
Ghosts of Vietnam
How do you describe something that’s too complex for words? War, for example. We look back at the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II, and feel confident about the righteousness of our cause. But more often than not, the clear call to battle becomes blurred by civilian casualties, by the deaths of young…
Something Cohesive
Last year, debut albums from The xx, Girls, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Cymbals Eat Guitars deservedly took places on many of year-end best-of lists; similarly, 2008 gave us fantastic debuts from Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver. Now come Local Natives, a Los Angeles by way of Orange County group…
Everyman Heroes
When movie studios realized that billions of dollars could be made by raiding comic books, most of the films that followed used the same blueprint: Throw $150 million or more at massive sets, tons of effects and big names, and line up some mammoth merchandising deals. Some of these movies are great; some are bad;…
T Q&A
Juliette Fretté
Murs and 9th Wonder: Fornever (SMC)
Murs has been among the best MCs in hip hop for nearly a decade, impressively straddling the line between the underground and the mainstream—and he ably proves himself again on his latest collaboration with DJ and producer 9th Wonder. Opening the album, the title track weaves old-school soul grooves and a booming 808-style beat as…
Mild Laughter
Date Night is far from Steve Carell and Tina Fey’s best work. (I mean, it actually has a scene with Fey dressed as a hooker while Carell performs a robot sex dance on her. Really.) Still, Date Night provides the two comedy greats with enough fuel for laughs to get through its 88- minute running…
City Week
Quiz 4 Kids; Book-release party for Crossing With the Virgin: Stories From the Migrant Trail; 2010 Arizona International Film Festival; Cyclovia Tucson
Pat Metheny: Orchestrion (Nonesuch)
A master practitioner of jazz both gnarly and nice, Pat Metheny on this album (and the corresponding 80-date tour) goes solo. But he still plays with a band, thanks to modern technology exercising old concepts: the player piano and other mechanized instruments. Metheny’s steam-punk-inspired Orchestrion allows him to play guitar while triggering an entire band’s…
Serraglio
The murder of Robert Krentz in late March erupted like a political volcano on the border landscape, spewing hot lava on the already incendiary issue of illegal immigration—and generating plenty of hot gas to go with it. It must be affirmed that the death of Robert Krentz is a tragedy, no matter who killed him.…
Club Crawl®: California Invasion
While most of Club Crawl® is dedicated to the best talent that Tucson has to offer, we always sprinkle in some worthy regional acts—and Spring Club Crawl® will be showcasing three bands from California that are as diverse as the state itself. Our 92.9 The Mountain Stage headliner, Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, were…
Dance Deconstructions
Seia Rassenti was boarding a van in Chico, Calif., last week, en route to Davis, the next stop on the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet tour. “I’m just in my first year with the company, and I love it!” Rassenti said by cell phone as she took her seat among the dancers. “The base is ballet,…
Danehy
We’re coming up on four years now since Valerie McGregor died, and the memories are as painful as ever. I didn’t know her all that well. I had watched her and her fraternal twin sister, Emily, compete in track meets for Marana Mountain View High School against my son’s Amphi team. I even wrote a…
Club Crawl®: Country Via Rock
Darren Hoff sure can play him some country music. Actually, the sound of Hoff and his Austin-based band, the Hard Times, is a blend of Bakersfield-style honky tonk, some outlaw twang and hefty doses of alt-country and jangly Americana. A veteran of nearly a decade in the rootsy country act Weary Boys, Hoff is back…
Police Dispatch
F— thy neighbor; he missed the smelly proof
Mailbag
Our Economy Sucks; Let’s Take the Damn Jets!; Our April Fools’ Satire Hit a Little Too Close to Reality; We Waste Law-Enforcement Resources on Marijuana Prohibition; The War on Drugs Has Been a Failure!
Guest Opinion: VOICES
Two days a week, my mother, Angela, takes a Sun Tran bus all the way from our house to the Roy Laos Transit Center. She passes the Department of Economic Security office on her right, walks a few more yards past the El Pueblo Branch Library, and turns into a complex of gray buildings decorated…
Regressive Direction
All four Republicans seeking to oust Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said at a debate last week that they’d raise taxes on most Americans or balloon the deficit in order to provide the nation’s highest earners with big tax breaks. They didn’t come out and say that directly. But all four of the GOP candidates—Jonathan Paton,…
Live
DeGrazia and Daunis Duo
American Women
If a young woman were to ask me for advice on how she might find her way in a society that seems to want her to make an honest stab at raising children, bringing home the bacon and finding that phantom “fulfillment”—all before her 40th birthday—I would hand her a copy of A Volume of…
The Old and the New
Incorporating a large 21st-century structure into a historic setting can be a daunting task. Two local proposals offer contrasting solutions to the challenge—but both a student-housing project near the UA and the new headquarters of Tucson Electric Power have their critics. “There are different philosophies,” says architect Bob Vint about designing a modern building that…
Javelinas and Pink Underwear
The Second City Does Arizona, or Close but No Saguaro is pure entertainment. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It does, however, seem a little strange to see this particular type of entertainment onstage at the Arizona Theatre Company. This is not a play. It’s a series of skits which skewer, send up and…
Now Showing at Home
The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Blu-ray); Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans; Party Down: Season One; Sherlock Holmes (Blu-ray)
A Small World
Ask any Joe off the street what he knows about early-childhood development, and you’re likely to face a blank stare. So it’s understandable that a state program, created to disburse funds for that very purpose, would draw a concentrated crew of the relatively few people who do have knowledge about early-childhood development. It’s likewise logical…
Nine Questions
James Tritten
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Go Play!
This paper is chock-full of useful cultural information: • All of you who enjoy local music know that our twice-a-year Club Crawl® is a can’t-miss. When else can you see 80-plus bands for less money than it takes to buy a movie ticket? Anyway, in the middle of this dead-tree version, and online at both…
Hungry For Dance
Tucson’s NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre usually performs in the big Proscenium Theatre at Pima Community College West, but the adventurous modern troupe decided to weather the hard economic times by dancing in smaller spaces this season. “We were thinking small shows” in storefronts or on street corners, says artistic director Katie Rutterer. “We’d have to…
Noshing Around
Moveable Feast; Café Tremolo; Soup Skills; Dine Out for Safety; Pizza Plus #1
Protection With Teeth
As it stands now, a sweeping conservative revolution could turn Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP) into a useless document, rather than the popular vision on how to both develop in and protect the desert that it is today. Carolyn Campbell, a local environmentalist who helped craft the county’s growth and preservation guidelines, says…
Soundbites
Festivapril continues!; toke time?; short takes; on the bandwagon
India Meets Downtown
Bollywood at the Fox will allow Tucsonans to experience the traditions of India without spending 25 hours on an airplane. Neelam Sethi is the founder of the event and a member of the Fox Tucson Theatre’s board of directors. To make the event as authentic as possible, Sethi gathered authentic decorations and party favors on…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’ve dated a few Mexican girls in the last couple of years, and I’ve come to realize one big, important thing—most of the girls didn’t know how to cook, clean and … you know…bring that ol’ school Mexican flavor from the roots! What’s happening to all of our true mexicanas? I know times…
The Skinny
UA economists say the proposed sales tax will save 13,000 jobs … Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords raises just less than a half-million bucks … Former Marana school boss Wade McLean wants to run for the Legislature … The latest downtown deal-making … and more!
Media Watch
KIIM’s Buzz Jackson receives Academy of Country music award; Citadel enhances office security measures; KVOA moves from ‘Balanced News’ to ‘4 Tucson’; media moves
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: I Learned the Hard Way (Daptone)
Something a little different is definitely happening on album No. 4 by Daptone Records flagship act Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. More overtly pop-soul than the songs on previous records, the 12 tracks here tilt more toward the light touch of Motown soul and the orchestral feel of classic Philadelphia soul than the largely Memphis-laced…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Weekly Wide Web
This Saturday night (April 17) is our semi-annual Club Crawl® music festival. For the uninitiated: Twice a year, dozens of bands fill up nearly every available venue and empty space on Fourth Avenue and Congress Street for a musical extravaganza that spills over into the next day. With numerous places to enjoy music, how can…
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books top sales for the week
Saturday, April 17: Club Crawl!
Remember: Club Crawl is all over downtown this Saturday, April 17! Race You There is performing at 8 p.m. at the KRQ Outdoor Stage. For a full schedule of events, click here.
