Cover Story
Doing Too Much?
On a Thursday at 4:30 p.m., a vacant lot off 22nd Street between Columbus Boulevard and Swan Road is teeming with people, even though dark monsoon clouds are creeping closer from the southeast side of town. The lot will soon be covered in rain, but for now, people remain in line for a dinner dished…
El Rio Community Center To Open New Southeast Clinic
It’s National Health Care Week, and El Rio is set to open a new clinic on the southeast side. The grand opening takes place tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. Guest speakers will be Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a representative of Congressman Raul Grijalva and Kathy Byrne, El Rio executive director. The new…
ScrambleWatch ’09: Ward 5 GOP Debate
Here’s the Arizona Illustrated debate between Republican City Council Ward 5 candidates Shaun McClusky and Judith Gomez, after the jump.
Daily Show Reaches The Capitol
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Healther Skelter www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance Sen. Linda Lopez just told radio talk-show host John C. Scott that she was interviewed earlier today by The Daily Show, although she didn’t reveal the…
State Budget Updated: Day of Indecision
The Arizona Republic reports that the Senate evidently doesn’t have the votes to pass a budget. Secretary of State Ken Bennett announced on the John C. Scott Show this afternoon that the window has closed on a November election for a sales-tax hike.
State Budget: Day of Decision
We’re on pins and needles wondering if Republican senators will find their 16th vote today to pass their overdue budget for the state of Arizona. We’re past the expanded deadline to get a referendum on the ballot to ask voters to pass a temporary sales tax to get Arizona through these tough times, but Secretary…
Ward 5 Televised Debate Tonight
You probably haven’t noticed, but there’s a Republican primary underway in southside Ward 5, where Democrat Steve Leal is stepping down from the Tucson City Council after two decades in office. Political rookies Judith Gomez and Shaun McClusky are squaring off in the Sept. 1 primary. The winner will face Democrat Richard Fimbres in the…
Roundtable: State Budget and Downtown Troubles
This week’s Arizona Illustrated Roundtable segment, after the jump.
Giffords on Roundtable
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords stopped by the KUAT studios to talk about health care, illegal immigration and the economy. You can see it all after the jump. Another bit of news from Giffords office: Former Tucson Citizen associate editor and columnist Mark Kimble is going to work with C.J. Karamargin in Giffords’ communication office.
On John Hughes
I didn’t get along with my dad too well when I was a teenager. I was actually a bright kid, who would share a lot of insights with my dad when I was 9 years old. I used to have great discussions with my pops, ones where he would be convinced I was to become…
Prize Giveway for the film “A Perfect Getaway”
Check out this sweepstakes to win an annual trip to Hawaii for 10 years or $100,000. A Perfect Getaway opens Friday, Aug. 7 at the following theaters: AMC Loews Foothills 15, Century El Con 20, Century Park 16, Century Park Place 20, Century Theatres at the Oro Valley Marketplace, De Anza Drive-In, Harkins Tucson Spectrum…
Noshing Around
Dog Days of Summer You know what dogs dream about during those marathon naps? Eateries that understand their needs, like the Cereal Boxx (943 E. University Blvd., Suite 101). With a puppy pool outside and complimentary treats inside, you’ll have no problem staying on your dog’s good side. The Cereal Boxx has also started serving…
Meeting With the Secretary
On July 21, a half-dozen members of the migrant-assistance group No More Deaths met with the secretary of the interior in Washington, D.C. They talked about water. Specifically, they met with Secretary Ken Salazar in the midst of an ugly standoff between management at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge—on the U.S.-Mexico border southwest of…
Scrambled Men
In Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, John Gray puts a planetary spin on gender differences, arguing that men and women are so unalike that they could have come from different worlds. His book has a catchy title, sold millions of copies and is a thought-provoking read. However, from my point of view,…
Imaging the Future
With every step science takes toward reliable cancer treatment, science also takes a step back: For every possible solution, there is always a catch. For every group of patients that sees results from an experimental treatment, many more see nothing. However, a new concept—called personalized medicine—has patients finding hope and researchers getting excited. Some of…
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books best-sellers for the week
The Skinny
DECLINING TIMES As the Arizona Legislature struggles to pass a budget, the financial news just gets worse. Arizona finished the fiscal year on June 30 with an estimated shortfall of nearly $474 million, even after all the cuts that lawmakers made back in January, according to the latest report from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.…
Snow, Blood, Nazis
Paint-by-numbers pieces can be beautiful, in their own way. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with making a formulaic movie. So if you’re willing to tolerate a completely by-the-book horror movie—one that knows itself to be utterly derivative—and you like the genre, and you’re between the ages of 14 and 36, and are male, and know…
Police Dispatch
WATCH OUT, OR HE’LL STEAL YOUR BADGE, TOO WEST ROGER ROAD JULY 11, 1:52 A.M. A belligerent drunk man sporting law-enforcement paraphernalia ultimately failed to pass as an officer, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. Deputies responded to the Stockmen’s Lounge bar, at 1368 W. Roger Road, where the bartender reported that an…
Seriously Humorous
Writer-director Judd Apatow and his old roommate Adam Sandler team up nicely in the ambitious Funny People. Apatow’s third film as director is his most adventurous, giving Sandler a chance to truly act, as opposed to the unabashed mugging he’s done in recent films. Funny People offers up Sandler’s best acting since Punch-Drunk Love, and…
Media Watch
Lee Earnings Tumble, Bednarek joins KGVY
Now Showing at Home
I Love You, Man, Repulsion (Blu-Ray), Jim Breuer: Let’s Clear the Air, Robot Chicken: Star Wars—Episode II
T Q&A
Richy Feinberg
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Danehy
I was running a basketball tournament recently, and I hired a young woman who is a member of the Pima Community College team to operate the scoreboard for me. It’s odd but true that the refs can make one or two (or 50) bad calls, and the players and crowd will do a little low-level…
Natural Sounds
One might argue that Bowerbirds make plein air music. The “en plein air” practice of painting outside in natural light—a significant influence on impressionism, among other movements—got its start in the mid-19th century and is all about making art in the great wide open. That’s exactly where frontman Phil Moore, 31, can be found when…
O’Sullivan
I’m dragging the garbage bin out to the curb. At about 200 pounds, it’s way too heavy, and I’m thinking I’ll probably put my back out. I’m not as young as I used to be. Worse yet, the side of the thing is splitting where I repaired it with duct tape four years ago. It…
Soundbites
GET YOUR PLUSH ON To start, a big shout-out to Gene Armstrong for stepping in at the last minute to fill in for me here last week. And now, on to business. There may not be any big marquee names coming to town this week—no Journey, no Wilco, no Snoop Dogg—but there are many smaller…
Guest Commentary
The killing of the jaguar Macho B on March 2, 2009, by the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) should cause everyone to reflect upon how we relate to the natural world and the other life forms with which we share the Earth. Macho B—quite possibly the last jaguar to inhabit the American Southwest—was captured,…
Live
The Handsome Family, Daniel Knox
Mailbag
When It Comes to Bank Fees, Chase Is Top-Notch Jim Hightower’s article (“Wall Street’s Fee Scammers,” July 16) is spot-on, with JPMorgan Chase leading the pack. No wonder they’re one of the few banks which have shown a profit. After returning from a three-week Mediterranean vacation, the day I returned, I purchased with my debit…
Nine Questions
Jared McKinley
List This!
At times, I think Adam Borowitz should be nominated for sainthood. Why? Well, Adam is our City Week listings coordinator, and that means he has to deal with all of the folks who submit listings requests to us. Now, 99 percent of those who request listings are polite, understanding and reasonable people. Then there’s that…
Spindrift: The Legend of God’s Gun (Tee Pee)
Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti-Western film scores had more of an impact on rock ‘n’ roll artists than big-screen composers. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine how bands like Fields of the Nephilim and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds might’ve created some of their best works without drawing inspiration from the dusty splendor of A Fistful of…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Why does El Tri act like pendejos every time the U.S. men’s national soccer team kicks their asses? They won’t even shake hands or exchange jerseys after the game, and they always act like the United States got lucky, even though the Americans have destroyed Mexico on the pitch this century. I’d be…
The Dead Weather: Horehound (Third Man/Warner Bros.)
The Kills. Queens of the Stone Age. The Greenhornes. The Raconteurs. The White Stripes. Members of these decibel-heavy groups constitute the Dead Weather, who have just released a sludgy, nasty and—not shockingly—loud album of excellent blues-rock. Although the Dead Weather’s focuses are Jack White and Alison Mosshart, Horehound stabilizes itself on impressive performances by Dean…
City Week
Jammin’! Coffeehouse Jam 7:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 7 Studio Connections 9071 E. Old Spanish Trail 731-1559; studioconnections.net For almost five years, the monthly Coffeehouse Jams at Studio Connections have brought poetry, music, personal narratives, comedy and even musical theater to eastsiders who’d rather not make the trek downtown. “We try to make it a family-friendly…
Cobra Starship: Hot Mess (Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen)
Quick rewind: Cobra Starship is responsible for the closing-credits track, “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane),” from that Samuel L. Jackson movie, as well as re-recording Katy Perry’s radio megahit as “I Kissed a Boy.” Now the band has released its third effort, Hot Mess, and it’s a consummate piece of throwaway pop music: vapid…
Conspirators in Cool
Several months before painter Alice Neel died in 1984, she sat for a portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe. The photographer put her in front of an almost-plain background, as he habitually did with his subjects, and directed his lights toward her aged face. Her white hair drifted over her soft skin and floated out ethereally over…
About Execution
Tucson has probably hundreds of little sandwich and salad shops, both locally owned and chain restaurants, yet I always return to my four or five favorite haunts, reluctant to try out anything new, lest it pale in comparison to my good-old standbys. My experience at Create Café, an eclectic and quaintly cluttered spot at Camp…
Pricey Passageway
Sold in part as a cheaper alternative to saving the historic Fourth Avenue underpass, a new structure will open on Aug. 20 after a lengthy construction period—and after far more was spent on the new underpass than anticipated. Initial plans called for the old underpass to be restored, with a new subway built next to…
Heart, not Hobby
Ah, the fourth grade. A time for science-fair projects, awkward sex-ed lessons and getting a jump start on your career. Maybe that last one applies only to Olga Flores. The native Tucsonan began learning mariachi music at the age of 11 when she joined Los Changuitos Feos de Tucson—one of the first mariachi youth groups…
