Cover Story
The Border Sheriff
The pale light of dawn slips into Santa Cruz County, sneaking up canyons, and creeping gingerly down the broad, serpentine arroyos. At first glance, it presents the lovely essence of a simple desert idyll. But miles away, along the county’s southern flank, is where the truth really dwells. It is there that the border wall…
Squeal Like a Pig
Bacon Chocolate Cake Is Not Good For You Articles like this little number on the Arizona Daily Star’s Web site are strong evidence that Americans will not stop until every man, woman and child is morbidly obese or able to claim full blockage of at least one major artery. No big deal, though; it’s not…
Job Opportunities at Border Action Network
The good folks at Border Action Network have a few job openings right now, and application deadlines are around the corner: Associate director (full-time) and membership/events coordinator (part-time) applications are due by Sept. 14. They are also looking for a communications coordinator (part-time). For more info, go here. From the job announcement: Border Action’s organizing…
Get Your Soul On
If you’ve always wanted to be involved in the All Souls Procession finale performance, get your Day of the Dead-loving rump to an introductory meeting on Monday, Sept. 7, 7 p.m. at the Rhythm Industry Performance Factory, 1013 S. Tyndall Ave. For more info, e-mail nadia2311-at-yahoo.com.
The Little Things in Life
Today is opening day for the new Mini-Time Machine Museum of Miniatures, a 15,560-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility located at 4455 E. Camp Lowell Drive. The museum is dedicated to miniature houses and room boxes and is the only museum in the U.S. dedicated solely to the display of minatures, said Gentry Spronken, director of marketing and…
Toros Reach Post-Season!
Congrats to the Tucson Toros! In their first year in Golden Baseball League, the Toros won the top spot in the Southern Division in the second half of the season and are headed to St. George, Utah, for two divisional playoff games on Wednesday and Thursday. They will be back here at Hi Corbett Field…
Mo’ Money Problems, Part 348
The doomsday clock continues to tick-tock at the state Capitol as Gov. Jan Brewer weighs whether to sign the budget that Republicans have sent her way. Brewer has until the end of the week to sign the budget, veto the budget, or let it become law without her signature. The governor vetoed a similar budget…
Seeking All Robots
The Robot Exchange, now in its sixth year, will take place beginning at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11, at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. What’s the Robot Exchange? It’s a free art party that evolves into a dance party as the evening progresses. Robots of various shapes, sizes and forms will be on display.…
McCain: “I think it harmed us”
In The Skinny this week, we were critical of Sen. John McCain when he backed Sarah Palin’s nonsense about death panels, but we liked what he had to say today about why it’s not in the country’s best interest to torture people. (Less happy about McCain’s reluctance to investigate actions by people who went beyond…
More From Mars
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Here are some of the latest photos of Mars taken by the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab’s HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The upper image features dunes near the Martian north pole. Shane Byrne explains: Multiple levels within the north polar layered deposits are visible in this…
Context Is Everything
Republican Jesse Kelly, who is challenging Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to debates even though (a) the 2010 election is still 14 months away, and (b) Kelly has yet to even win the nomination to be the actual GOP candidate who faces Giffords, got busted by Dan Shearer of the Green Valley News earlier this week. Kelly’s…
Police Dispatch
WIFE’S NIGHT OFF WEST VALENCIA ROAD AUG. 2, 6:39 P.M. A man was arrested after allegedly stealing from a convenience store and harassing customers with some bad dancing, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. The clerk at a southwest-side Circle K stated that a 280-pound Hispanic male wearing only one shoe entered the…
New Life for Lost Songs
Playing the music of Ireland brought Gudrun Walther back to the traditional folk tunes of her native Germany. Walther is a fiddler, singer and accordion player for the German Celtic band Cara. Although she is a classically trained violinist, she grew up listening to Irish, Scottish and French music at home. “As a young person…
Media Watch
Sadiwskyj bounced at KGUN; KOVA to send out reporters solo, Scarpinato joins ‘Yellow Sheet,’ Facebook a no-no at Clear Channel
Soundbites
THE TUCSON MUSIC SCENE’S BEST! To misquote the great philosopher MC Hammer: Stop! TAMMIES time! Next Thursday, Sept. 3, at a ceremony and concert at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St., the Weekly will celebrate the 16th annual Tucson Area Music Awards, our celebration of the best local music that Tucson has to offer,…
Danehy
I’ve been an Arizonan most of my life. I grew up in Southern California, and Arizona always held a certain mystique for me—wide-open spaces, a certain raw energy and a promise for the future. When I was in high school, one of my teachers brought a stack of Arizona Highways magazines for us to look…
Joe Henry: Blood From Stars (Anti-)
Record-producer extraordinaire Joe Henry takes his own brand of pensive Americana a step deeper into the underworld on Blood From Stars, a dreamy and brooding album that just may be the peak of his career. It’s a shifting kaleidoscope, an album that can’t rightly be called rock, folk, jazz or blues—though by turns, it’s all…
Messina
As the sun begins to rise over the distant mountains at the San Manuel Ray Blair Airport, Jessica Cox stands next to a sky-blue single-engine plane. At this small airport northeast of Tucson, Cox is the only pilot preparing for a flight this morning. She removes the chains that hold the 1946 Ercoupe 415-C in…
Arctic Monkeys: Humbug (Domino)
When Humbug’s first single—the plodding, spacey sorta-ballad “Crying Lightning”—was released, I was underwhelmed. Having fallen in love with the Arctic Monkeys, especially Alex Turner’s sassy coo, with their debut album, 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, and then again with Favourite Worst Nightmare the very next year, I’d been eagerly awaiting…
Mailbag
Unlicensed Boarding Houses for the Mentally Ill Are Often Disgraceful I read “Slums or Salvation?” (Currents, Aug. 13) with great interest and am pleased that someone is finally starting to expose the Tucson boarding-house mess. But the article covered only the tip of the iceberg. My son is mentally disabled and gets Supplemental Security Income…
Clarence Fountain, Sam Butler and the Boys: Stepping Up and Stepping Out (One World/Tyscot)
At 80, Clarence Fountain, founder and lead vocalist of the Blind Boys of Alabama, has some challenges. He recently abandoned the singing group he formed in 1939 at the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind, and now finds himself undergoing dialysis several times a week. Like a true artist, though, Fountain plays the cards…
T Q&A
Josh Calhoon
Live
Los Campesinos!, Girls
Nine Questions
Ruby Mashburn
Guest Commentary
Graffiti is the bane of Tucson residents. It is generally ugly and costly, and can often be an indicator (like broken windows) of a crime-ridden neighborhood. I’ll take it a step further and claim that it is bad for the perpetrators. It is a tool for minors to develop antisocial, even solipsistic tendencies. Few parts…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Young Art
It’s hard being 20. It’s that in-between age when it’s legal to vote, but not to drink. But for Keegan Rider, the hardest thing about being 20 isn’t getting shut down by bouncers at bars. It’s the challenge getting people to take him seriously as a studio artist, despite the fact that he can’t legally…
Conceptually Funny
There are a lot of buddy comedies out there, but there are very few wherein the buddies decide to make the beast with four balls. Humpday is that comedy. I’ve rarely seen a comedy so funny (or a comedy that’s funny, but that’s another issue), which in itself is worth noting, and I’ve rarely seen…
City Week
Drawing Day! Downtown Drawabout 8:30 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Aug. 29. On display through Saturday, Sept. 5 The Drawing Studio 33 S. Sixth Ave. 620-0947; thedrawingstudio.org Get out those sketchpads, Tucson! The first-ever Downtown Drawabout is being held this Saturday, giving Tucsonans the opportunity to get out, see downtown and show off those artistic skills,…
Fierce Insanity
Inglourious Basterds is a masterwork from director Quentin Tarantino, another fine film in his impressive line of crazed, brilliant movies. Whether or not you like the guy, there is no denying that his films and his style are his, and his alone. While many have tried to copy him, nobody does Tarantino like Tarantino, and…
Now Showing at Home
Duplicity (Blu-ray), The Last Starfighter: 25th Anniversary Edition (Blu-Ray), The Last House on the Left: Unrated (Blu-Ray), The Beatles: Rare and Unseen
Compromised Conviction?
Scott Nordstrom has been eagerly waiting for his day in court. However, that day will not come this month. Nordstrom, 41, arrived in Pima County Superior Court last week looking more like a lawyer than an 11-year resident of Arizona’s death row. Nordstrom was one of two defendants convicted and sentenced to death for the…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Robocall of Duty
Sometimes, politicians work their way up from volunteering on campaigns to become the candidate themselves. Sometimes, they earn a position as an upstanding member of the community and are recruited by the Chamber of Commerce or the neighborhood associations. And sometimes, they get a recorded phone call asking if they might want to run for…
Convinced of Greatness
Live Theatre Workshop is giving James Prideaux’s The Housekeeper a mixed-blessing production. Director Christopher Johnson and actors Michael Woodson and Kristi Loera manage to bring sensitivity and nuance to the rather cartoonish characters, making this seem like a better, more substantial, more psychologically adept play than it really is. But in the process, the production…
Passing the Buck
Ex-City Manager Mike Hein had a reputation among political insiders for deals “written on the back of a napkin.” As a result, he was fired. As he exited, a call for transparency was trumpeted, and a new way forward on downtown development was proclaimed. But neither Hein’s dismissal nor the pledges of accountability have erased…
Raising the Bar
Sports-themed establishments (bars, restaurants and the like) are a dime a dozen, and generally serve up cheap beer and greasy food in a dingy environment with TVs blaring—not that I mind, actually. I frequent some of these fine local establishments whenever I’m in the mood for a cold beer and fried munchies. But Game On…
Different Landscapes
When Joan Scott first made her move toward abstraction, she was still painting landscapes. The time was the late 1990s; the place was upstate New York, and Scott was painting evergreen forests and sloping hills, frosty winters and yellow-green springs. Even then, she wasn’t making fully representational images. “Adirondack Lake in Winter,” an oil on…
The Skinny
FINANCIAL TROUBLE Is City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff turning into the underdog in the Ward 6 City Council race? The short answer: No, of course not. Most Tucsonans still don’t know who her opponent, Republican Steve Kozachik, is. And even among those who do know who Kozachik is, some still don’t know how to pronounce his…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: A gabacho in the local daily suggested that some of our prisons be outsourced to Mexico to save us money. What are your thoughts? Would wabs make for good guards looking after homies and white-trash inmates? Have a chew on that taco. Mike the Mick from Missouri Dear Mick: My thoughts? Ew ……
Owning History
Talk about a woman multitasking: This account of a decade in the life of a newly minted New Mexican weaves together a half-dozen strands of activity—emotional, relational, professional, house-building, archeological, activist. And they’re all, in one way or another, “on the rocks.” In 1992, Katherine Wells and her partner, Lloyd Dennis, decided to move from…
Accessibility Issues
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in January launched a one-year, $2 million pilot program in Arizona and Utah, intended to encourage seniors to use online personal health records (PHR). The project has gotten off to a rocky start. “Between 400,000 and 500,000 (fee-for-service Medicare recipients) in Arizona were eligible,” explains Kaihe…
Noshing Around
Perfecto’s A little restaurant called Perfecto’s recently opened at 5404 S. 12th Ave., and it’s a gem. Owned by Leon Perfecto, the eatery serves no-frills Mexican food in unadorned surroundings; you and a guest can get out the door for around $20. It’s also conveniently located right next to Liquor Express, which sells cheap booze…
Top Ten in Books
Antigone Books best-sellers for the week
RumRunner Anniversary Events
Lovers of food and drink, take note: The RumRunner is holding a killer sale and open house this weekend. RumRunner is knocking 20 percent off everything in the store, including rarities and limited editions, from noon to 6 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 30. The store is also offering up a nice selection of snacks throughout the…
