Cover Story
Local Heroes 2016
Our annual look at people who make Tucson such a great place to live.
Cinema Clips: Fences
Denzel Washington directs and stars as Troy Maxson, an ex baseball player in the 1950s. It’s a role originated on Broadway in a 1987 Tony winning performance by James Earl Jones. Washington starred in the 2010 Broadway revival (for which he also won a Tony), and now takes another shot at this great character penned…
Cinema Clips: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
There was a quick little moment in the very first Star Wars (now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) where a character mentions rebels possibly obtaining vulnerability secrets regarding the Death Star. That group of people actually gets their own movie in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a Star Wars spinoff…
The Weekly List: 20 Things To Do In Tucson In The Next 10 Days
Your Weekly guide to keeping busy in the Old Pueblo. New Year’s Eve Mantra: Glow in the Dark New Year’s Eve Party with XIXA: XIXA, the Gabriel Sullivan and Brian Lopez led combo, who not so long ago called themselves the less wieldy Chicha Dust, are just now beginning to headline theater-sized venues all over Europe,…
The Weekly List: 20 Things To Do in Tucson in the Next 10 Days
Your Weekly guide to keeping busy in the Old Pueblo. Holiday Star Wars – A Holiday Special: Come the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special on the big screen at The Loft Cinema and celebrate the season with the best space series ever. But what’s better than space-themed holiday bash? The fact that said holiday bash is…
Laughing Stock: Open Mics are Free, Plentiful and Worth Every Penny!
Asked how he sees his role in Tucson Comedy, Gary Bynum, owner of Laffs Comedy Caffé says, “I think just developing the local comics is important in the comedy scene in general. You have to start locally. Forty comics come every Thursday to open mic nights.” Laffs, 2900 E. Broadway Blvd., has hosted open mics…
‘Classrooms First’ Report. What It Means For Arizona Education
Ducey proposes billions in new taxes to pay teachers! Oops, sorry, my bad. Wrong governor. That should read, [Washington State Governor Jay] Inslee proposes billions in new taxes to pay teachers. The Washington State governor wants to add $4 billion in taxes so starting teacher salaries can increase from the current $35,700 to $54,578. Meanwhile, our governor…
Cinema Clips: La La Land
This is an all new, original musical from director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) that is surprisingly low on melodrama while full of vibrancy, beautiful tunes, outstanding set pieces and a stunning sense of realism for a movie where the characters bust out singing. It’s the best “original” movie musical ever made. The story follows wannabe actress…
Decadence: A New Year’s EDM in AZ with Personal and Communal Resonance, Starring Porter Robinson, Marshmello and Deadmau5
If you’re seeking an artistically inspired way to end 2016, look no further than Decadence on New Year’s Eve and the night before. Featuring all electronic artists spanning a wide array of genres and styles, Decadence goes down at the Rawhide Western Town and Event Center in Chandler, AZ. A lineup star is Porter Robinson,…
Out Of the Mouths Of Conservatives
Conservative talk radio loves to condemn the bias of the mainstream media. The hosts have persuaded their audience to ignore and discount any information coming from the MSM. The result is, the media has been delegitimized, the normal guideposts are down, the referees are discredited. Of course I’d believe that, disliking conservative talk radio as…
Domingo Needs a Home
Hi, I’m Domingo! I’m a handsome 1.5-year-old boy and I need a new home! I was found as a stray, but I’m not letting that get my spirits down, I know I’ll find a new home soon. I love other dogs and love going on my daily walk. If you’re looking for a fun, big…
Cinema Clips: The Love Witch
A witch (Samantha Robinson) moves to a new town after losing her husband, casting spells on men to make them fall in love with her. Writer-director Anna Biller’s crazy ode to sixties Technicolor horror is an absolute triumph of art direction, and also a keen riff on gender issues. The movie looks like it was…
More on ‘Classrooms First’ and Education Spending
Don’t expect to see additional money for education coming out of the 2017 legislature. Ain’t gonna happen, unless I’m happily mistaken. (Man, would I like to be wrong about this!) Instead, expect to see them talk about ways to change how we spread around the current funding, and about how to get more money into the classroom. That’s how the Classrooms…
More Money For Education? Beware of Graham-Keegan Bearing Gifts
“Hey look, everybody, a brand new education finance pony! And there’s money inside!” Yeah, maybe, but I don’t think so. Prove me wrong. Please, prove me wrong. Show me lots and lots of new money for education. But what I see is a new education funding plan that moves around the existing money without a…
Vintage Vinyl Tucson
The Stumps “Think of the Good Times” b/w “My Generation” Boyd Records BB159, Spring 1967 A Daytona band releases a record on an Oklahoma label recorded in Nashville, which was “overhauled” in Phoenix using a Tucson band for backup! This didn’t happen during the digital age—this happened in 1966. The result? A prime slab of…
Pleasure Activist
The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers is this Saturday, Dec. 17 and will be observed in many cities around the world including Tucson. It is an annual remembrance that was first created in 2003 by Dr. Annie Sprinkle (“prostitute and porn star turned sex educator and artist”) and the Sex Worker Outreach…
Editor’s Note
If you haven’t been able to be part of welcoming these refugees to our community as others have, this is certainly one way to welcome these families and enjoy a bit of sweet community goodness.
Dust Devil
What the hell is this garbage shit?
Police Dispatch
A middle-aged man drunkenly—but in an almost robotic manner—drove his car straight into a mass of cacti planted in a stranger’s yard, thankfully emerging from the accident unharmed.
Police Dispatch
A woman discovered her baby stroller missing and presumed it stolen by her estranged baby’s father—especially after the father wrote a Facebook post showing off about owning a new stroller.
Waiting in Line
Approximately 883,647 immigrants live in Arizona, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and according to a Pew Research Center analysis, approximately 300,000 of them are undocumented.
The Skinny
U.S. Rep. McSally’s mental-health legislation gets across the finish line, but without provisions that ease background checks on gun sales.
Ask a Mexican
The Mexican’s annual look at new chicano books you should gift.
When Dark Turns Light
Each year, in the dark of December, ZUZI! Dance stages a Solstice celebration.
Quintessentially Human
As the sun takes its yearly vacation from providing lengthy days, we search for ways to lighten things up.
Ice Dreams
Just stepping into the place brings you back. Even if you didn’t grow up, or were even born, in the 1920s, Isabella’s Ice Cream shop exudes vintage beauty in all its glory.
No-Hate Musical
La La Land is an all new, original musical from director Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) that is surprisingly low on melodrama while full of vibrancy, beautiful tunes, outstanding set pieces and a stunning sense of realism for a movie where the characters bust out singing. It’s the best “original” movie musical ever made. I put it…
Learning to Fly
Following the often-disappearing trail of breadcrumbs of traditional music, Run Boy Run went from local darlings to national recognition on A Prairie Home Companion and lot of cross-country touring. But always at the sonic core of Run Boy’s harmony-rich bluegrass was a combo searching for its own sound, its own purpose and its own way…
Noise Annoys
It hasn’t been an easy year. For pop culture—now more than ever inextricably tied to politics in the labyrinthine structures of social media, cable TV news and the 24-hour cycle of atrocity entertainment—2016 has been a series of breathtaking blows delivered by a disparate group of reporters, from CNN pundits to anonymous Twitter accounts (along…
Know Your Product
Over the years, man about town—er, man for all seasons—Clifton Taylor (that’s Chick Cashman to you, named after Boyce & Hart’s manager from an episode of Bewitched) has donned lots of hats, from filmmaker and musician, to designer and ersatz queen. Mostly he wears his signature Texas cowboy hat. He’s also a genuine Old Pueblo guitar hero.…
Boom and Bust
Chandler-based pharma-eutical company, Insys, found itself in a bit of an embarrassing situation when six of its top brass were arrested for pushing its opioid products last week. If that name sounds familiar it’s because Insys bankrolled the “No on Prop 205” campaign ran by Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy. Turns out the Justice Department…
