Cover Story
Get Out of Town!
Those of us here at Weekly World Central are a bit depressed. Why, you ask? Well, we’re now in our seventh year of kicking people/places/organizations/whatevs out of town, and a disturbing number of our dishonorees have not heeded our instructions to leave. Case in point: At least two of this year’s Get Out of Town!…
Economist Marshall Vest: “We’re Not Going To Ruin The Economy By Raising Taxes Here”
Marshall Vest repeated his warning that the state budget is “unsolvable” during a talk with Arizona Illustrated’s Bill Buckmaster. Watch the segment after the jump. I spoke to Vest earlier today as part of a legislative preview piece I’m working on for next month. He threw cold water on the proposal to just cut more…
Arpaio and Thomas: “A Threat To The Entire Criminal-Justice System”
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, a Republican who looked over some alleged public corruption cases because Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas had a conflict of interest, takes on Thomas and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio today in the Arizona Republic: I was happy to remove myself from the cases and from contact with Sheriff Joe…
Health Care Reform: Passage In Senate, Trouble in House?
It looks as if a health-care reform package will pass the Senate this week, although I’d be hard-pressed to explain the details to you at this point. But I can tell you what it doesn’t have: A public option, which was of great importance to some Democrats in the House, including Congressman Raul Grijalva. Provided…
Merry Christmas Marana
Steve Blomquist, one of several neighbors suing Saguaro Ranch developer Stephen Phinny and the town of Marana (see first blog here), put out this to get his message across, asking holiday shoppers to reconsider where they spend their money and if they want those sales taxes to benefit Marana. Blomquist was arrested for trespassing and…
Picture This: Roxana Vasquez
John DeDios sends long some more student work from the UA School of Journalism: Roxana Vasquez is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona School of Journalism. In her time as a student, Vasquez was published by several publications including The Arizona Daily Wildcat, Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Citizen, El Independiente, Borderbeat.net and also…
Painting With Dale Strong
Adding in Trees I recently interviewed Dale Strong, a local artist who uses iced-tea spoons to paint instead of brushes or palette knives. Read it here. He teaches inexperienced students how to paint landscapes using his method. On a recent Saturday afternoon, I paid for a class and accepted Dale’s challenge to paint a picture.…
Snowball Fights and Cops Don’t Mix
While it’s good to be reminded once in a while (if the East Coast blizzard footage isn’t enough) that living in a winter warm-derland is a good deal, this story from D.C. is also a good reminder for cops to cultivate a sense of humor when caught in the middle of a snowball fight. And,…
Clarence, Little Mary and Evil Mr. Potter
It’s a Wonderful Life is the best holiday movie, and lucky for us, it’s showing Tuesday (tomorrow) at the Fox Theatre at 7:30 p.m. During this time of foreclosures, layoffs and uncertainty, seems we need George Bailey now more than ever. My favorite scene is when George and Mary sing “Buffalo Gals” and he offers…
An Open Letter to Santa Claus
Dear Mr. Santa Claus, Sir, We’re one week out from C-Day, so I’m writing to officially inform you of my Christmas gift request. This year, I simply desire “Crud.” Crud, as I’m sure you are aware—what with your extensive history in product handling and all—retails in a green bucket with red lettering. Although Crud is…
Tucson Jazz Institute Events
Here are several jazz-related events that were received too late for inclusion in our Dec. 17 issue.Friday, Dec. 187 to 9:30 p.m.Trombonist Joey Sellers and Tucson’s Blue Note Combo will conduct a free jam session (open to all) at Sheraton Tucson Hotel and Suites, 5151 E. Grant Road. Saturday, Dec. 191 to 3 p.m.Trombonist Joey…
So Much for Resign-To-Run
Espresso Pundit is going to be so disappointed. Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall has released on opinion on whether anyone—Democrats Terry Goddard, Kysten Sinema and Daniel Patterson or Republicans John Huppenthal and Ray Barnes—violated Arizona’s Resign to Run law with their ambitions for higher office. LaWall said none of them did. Telling a group you…
Based in Nature
Each summer, when the days are long and the sun shines bright, Nanette Robinson thinks about winter’s shadows. The artistic director of Tucson’s ZUZI! Dance Company, Robinson directs the company’s annual Solstice concert during December’s darkest days. But she starts the planning in the white-hot summer. She dreamed up this year’s theme, House Made of…
Talking Trash
In their ongoing struggle with the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, members of the humanitarian group No More Deaths have offered to unleash a huge trash-gathering operation on the border-area preserve. The group wants to offset the effects of their efforts to place 1-gallon water jugs along migrant trails. But the offer has been flatly…
Messina
As outdoor temperatures drop, certain activities are popular. Skiing at Mount Lemmon? Yes. Snowboarding in Pinetop? Sure. Gardening in Tucson? Absolutely. For people used to frozen ground, it may come as a pleasant revelation that, in the desert Southwest, you don’t have to pack away your gardening gloves—ever. This fact is well-known by members of…
City Week
Shopping AND Fun Mercado Holiday Bazaar 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday, Dec. 18 and 19; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 20 Mercado San Agustin 100 S. Avendia del Convento 461-1106; www.mercadoholidaybazaar.com Holiday shopping isn’t always candy canes and carols. Busy parking lots and long lines can really damper the mood.…
Get Out of Town!: Readers’ Picks
We offered our readers the chance to join the kicking-out party. Here’s a sampling of what they chose to expel from the Old Pueblo. THE AMERICAN GEM TRADE ASSOCIATION AND DOUGLAS HUCKER Douglas Hucker’s threats toward Tucson—build a downtown hotel and remodel the Tucson Convention Center, or he will move the Gem Show—fail to note…
The Skinny
FORECAST: ECONOMIC TSUNAMI AHEAD UA economist Marshall Vest became the latest Cassandra to warn about the state government’s impending financial collapse. Vest and fellow Eller School big-brain Gerald Swanson delivered their annual financial forecast last week. Guess what? The news is not good. Although the private sector is creeping toward recovery (at least at the…
Pass the Salt
Salt can make or break nearly any dish: Too much, and the dish is rendered inedible; too little, and the dish is bland. It brings together everything from salads to desserts. Complex flavors develop; savory hints of subtle flavors appear with the right amount. Wars have been fought over it. It might be the single…
A Familiar Trip
If you go see Up in the Air, do not sit through the final credits. There’s an incredibly catchy but annoying song that starts playing sometime after the gaffer is listed, and as I write this review, I still can’t stop humming it in my head. There are other annoyances in this film, but the…
Police Dispatch
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES FOOTHILLS AREA NOV. 22, 3:22 P.M. A young man learned a lesson after lending out his parents’ luxury vehicle for illicit errands, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report stated. The teenager told a deputy that a friend of his was accusing him of stealing a backpack. He had gone to a…
Noshing Around
Whiskey Weekend Hotel Congress and Maynards Market and Kitchen host the Second Annual Whiskey Weekend from Thursday, Dec. 17, through Saturday, Dec. 19. Thursday offers a tasting affair at Hotel Congress (311 E. Congress St.) where guests pick 10 tastes from more than 20 whiskey varieties for $15. The festivities move across the street on…
Theater Company
The infamous 1937 Mercury Theatre staging of Julius Caesar is given a magnificent treatment in director Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles. Linklater approaches the story of one of theater history’s greatest happenings with a surprisingly intimate eye and a true sense of authenticity. This was Orson Welles before he broadcast War of the Worlds…
Guest Opinion
I live in Winterhaven, and I have a major concern that needs to be brought to the attention of all Tucson residents. This concern: the negligent and irresponsible water usage in the Winterhaven neighborhood. As most of us are aware, the National Weather Service’s Southeast Arizona Drought Monitoring data clearly indicates that all of Pima…
Soundbites
COVER-UP AND TUNE IN Two of my favorite holiday-season musical events occur this week. One has nothing to do with the season at all; the other has everything to do with it. The former is the 12th annual Great Cover-Up. An eclectic roster of local bands and musicians have been toiling away, forsaking their original…
Now Showing at Home
Extract; (500) Days of Summer; Gone With the Wind: Two Disc 70th Anniversary Edition; G-Force (Blu-Ray/DVD Combo)
The Opinion Shuffle
Some informational tidbits … • Thanks to the readers who took the time to submit Get Out of Town! nominees. You can see the readers’ choice dishonorees for which we had room on Page 22, at the end of our Get Out of Town! package. • You’ll see that we’ve shuffled some things around in…
Santa Swears!
A little more than a year ago, the Beowulf Alley Theatre Company launched its Late Night Theatre series. “The program started because Beowulf is downtown, and there are a lot of people around from the Rialto or (Hotel) Congress,” says Michael Fenlason, director of Late Night Theatre. “It’s another fun thing to do down here…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Vicious Verse
Many red devils ran from my heart And out upon the page. They were so tiny The pen could mash them. And many struggled in the ink. It was strange To write in this red muck Of things from my heart. —Stephen Crane As far back as Stephen Crane’s The Black Riders and Other Lines…
Last-Chance Nutcrackers
The dancing candy canes and Sugar Plum fairies continue their lively occupation of the Old Pueblo. Nutcracker season is not over yet, not by a long shot. Make that not by a toe shoe. Two local studios make their moves this weekend. Ballet Rincon goes on at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 18, and 2 p.m.,…
Top Ten in Music
Toxic Ranch Records top sales for the week
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I’m an Asian female, and for some time now, I’ve been fascinated by Mexican culture. I find Mexican males to be very attractive. Their food, language and music are just amazing! How much of a chance do I have of dating a Mexican hombre if I’m Asian? Muchacha China Curiosa Dear Chinita: Dios…
Spirit of Holidays Past
The holiday season is full of traditions, especially in Tucson. One particular Tucson holiday institution, now making its 10th annual appearance, is Top Hat Theatre Club’s A Pickwick Christmas. Written and performed by Top Hat’s producing director, James Gooden, the show is adapted from the three Christmas chapters in Charles Dickens’ first novel, The Pickwick…
Live
Howe Gelb and His Melted Wires
Media Watch
‘Daily Wildcat’ concludes contentious semester
9 Questions
Marcus York
Weekly Wide Web
Ever wish there were some way to get inexpensive, fresh food without leaving your neighborhood? Now through the miracle of gardening (note: not an actual miracle), you can make that wish come true, right in your own backyard. Don’t have room? Then you can reserve a plot with the Community Gardens of Tucson for a…
T Q&A
Sheryl WuDunn
Top Ten in Books
Antigone Books best-sellers for the week
Lady Gaga: The Fame Monster (Interscope)
To steal an American Idol-ism, a diva is a triple-threat. Lady Gaga’s just threatening. “Take a bite of my bad girl meat … Show me your teeth / The truth is sexy” are some lines announcing that her inner freak’s been unleashed on The Fame Monster. No longer content to “Just Dance,” Gaga wants to…
The Theory: The Theory (Self-released)
Jazz-indie-rock quartet The Theory has been kicking around Tucson for a few years, and finally, a full-length CD is arriving in time for Christmas. The band comprises members from different geographies—drummer Aleksey Vays is Ukrainian; singer Anastasia Gorbunova is Russian; and keyboardist Jon Powell and bassist Alaric Weber are from the United States. This distinctive…
Them Crooked Vultures: Them Crooked Vultures (Sony)
It would be far more interesting to write about a supergroup composed of Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones and Josh Homme if the music sounded nothing like a combination of Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and Queens of the Stone Age. But that is exactly what Them Crooked Vultures sounds like. See the cover of Rolling Stone,…
A New Development
Evan Kligman fears the semi-rural feel of his River Road neighborhood is about to disappear. Kligman and his wife bought their home in 1998. Back then, the stretch of River Road between Dodge Boulevard and Hacienda del Sol had almost no commercial development. However, when the Kligmans received a letter from a property-management company in…
The Disappeared Ones
“John Doe” and “Jane Doe” are the generic names you see used as examples at the top of various forms. Imagine if the name “John Doe” were on your birth certificate. The Pima County Public Fiduciary deals with real-life John and Jane Does every day. Those are the names they assign to the bodies of…
No Wrong Notes
One of the hardest-working musicians in Tucson’s rock-oriented music community is a classically trained, lifelong violinist who hasn’t yet quit her day job. Vicki Brown didn’t even start playing in bands or doing studio sessions until 2003, the same year she earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Arizona. Brown has played with…
Mortgage Futures
The number of foreclosures in Pima County hit a record high in 2009. The number of trustee-sale notices (a step in the foreclosure process) will approach 12,000, while the number of homes actually sold at auction will reach approximately 5,500, up about one-third from 2008—and almost nine times higher than the number in 2006. The…
Danehy
With a few notable exceptions (Abraham Lincoln’s administration comes to mind), America tends to succeed despite its government rather than because of it. So it is in Arizona. President Harry Truman had the “Do-Nothing” 80th Congress. We Arizonans have the Do-Almost-Nothing (and when you do, it’s almost-always wrong) 49th Legislature. Facing a budget deficit in…
Sales Tax Effort Collapses—Again
Howie brings us the news that plans to get a sales-tax proposition before Arizona voters have collapsed. We kinda figured that would happen.
Arpaio & Thomas: Menaces To Society
AZ Blue Meanie over at Blog For Arizona complained a while back that TW wasn’t paying enough attention to the civil war underway between Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on one side and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the judiciary on the other. It’s a bit out…
