Cover Story
Local Heroes
W. Mark Clark He led the charge to keep Tucson’s only public, accredited social-work college alive “In bad times,” says W. Mark Clark, president and CEO of CODAC Behavioral Health Services, “substance-abuse disorders, anxiety, depression and situational stress increase. These times bring out the unfortunate in people.” Economic hardship means more people and families are…
And Life Goes On Without Us…
Let’s celebrate 2010 with a new series about planet Earth—without all those pesky people. Life After People starts on the History Channel on January 5. I’m hoping for an extended version of The Road, without cannibals (and, unfortunately sans Viggo Mortensen.) Check out the series Web site here for more end-time inspiration. Interesting that on…
¡Oye! Congratulations Dean Ruiz
According to UANews.org Joaquin Ruiz, executive dean of the University of Arizona’s College of Letters, Arts and Science and professor of geosciences, has joined the list of outstanding researchers admitted into Mexico’s National System of Researchers, known as SNI. Ruiz will be honored during a ceremony in early spring in which Mexico President Felipe Calderon…
A Steak in the Neighborhood
A Steak in the Neighborhood at 135 E. Congress St. Luke Cusack, the man behind the upscale Pearl and Zen Rock nightclubs, has opened a new downtown restaurant called A Steak in the Neighborhood at 135 E. Congress St. Cusack is also opening a place called Sapphire Lounge in the former Heart Five location at…
The Old Pueblo Blues
Tucson City Manager Mike Letcher revealed his strategy handling the city’s $32 million shortfall this week—and the options are grim. Letcher, who wants the City Council to vote on a plan next Tuesday, Jan. 5, laid out a framework most council members will not be eager to support. For starters, he wants the city to…
Austin’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Apparently Closed
Austin’s storefront at 6129 E. Broadway Blvd. Austin’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream, a local restaurant that opened way back in 1959, has apparently gone out of business. Calls to Austin’s during the past week went unanswered, and a weekend visit to the eatery at 6129 E. Broadway Blvd. showed a sign taped to the window…
Full Avatar Review!
James Cameron, a director who previously could do no wrong in my book, takes a giant step into a big blue turd with Avatar, a movie packed with super visuals but sorely lacking in good writing. Look, I have no problem with big, vacuous entertainment. If it looks good, and the principals make it fun,…
Wilco (The Dog) Wishes A Merry Christmas To All, and To All a Good Night!
Jim Nintzel Wilco (The Dog) unwraps her Christmas present
Facebook Mishigas
Just when I thought Facebook was OK, I got this friend suggestion on the right corner of my screen.
Lucero: 1372 Overton Park (Universal Republic)
The uncompromisingly rough country-punk band Lucero is an odd choice for a major-label pickup, but on 1372 Overton Park, the group’s first outing for Universal Republic Records, the band adds the bright horns of Memphis soul to the mix—and the pairing starts making sense. As gruff as ever, singer Ben Nichols recalls “falling in love…
Serraglio
A holiday concert experience this year was a gift in itself. Billed as a benefit for the “Miles Exploratory Learning Center’s Departed Art Ed,” it was performed by Howe Gelb and His Melted Wires at the Loft Cinema. The gist of the event was that Miles ELC, like other public-education institutions in this increasingly benighted…
Molina and Johnson: Molina and Johnson (Secretly Canadian)
Molina and Johnson, a collaboration that brings together Jason Molina (Songs: Ohia, Magnolia Electric Co.) and Will Johnson (Centro-matic, South San Gabriel), is a gorgeous, spartan collection of haunted folk songs. Written and recorded in a 10-day span, the album’s skeletal songs succeed primarily because Molina and Johnson are legitimate songwriters. Incorporating everything from the…
Guest Opinion
I was privileged to serve as a 911 fire and medical dispatcher for the city of Tucson for nearly 15 years, before retiring in 2001. The city’s Communications Division and, of course, the Tucson Fire Department itself are staffed by the most professional, highly trained and dedicated people you could ever hope to find. In…
City Week
Radio Redefined Old Time Radio Theatre: Three Skeleton Key 8 p.m., next Thursday, Dec. 31 Beowulf Alley Theatre 11 S. Sixth Ave. 882-0555; www.beowulfalley.org Before Mom and Dad could TiVo Full House reruns and watch them with the kids after dinner, families got together to listen to radio shows. With no visual stimulation, everyone had…
A Big Loss
We’re coming to the end of one doozy of a year. Everyone knows it’s been a rough year for those of us who toil in the newspaper business, but I had no idea how rough it has truly been until I read Joe Strupp’s list of the Top 10 2009 newspaper-business stories at editorandpublisher.com. The…
City Week: NYE
Laugh Your Year Off Standup Comedy by Steve Hirst 7 and 10:30 p.m. Laffs Comedy Caffe 2900 E. Broadway Blvd. 323-8669; www.laffstucson.com Ah, we’ve come to the end of a year marked by job losses, home foreclosures and other unpleasantness. That all sucks—but the year’s almost over, so you might as well laugh about it.…
Mailbag
Kids Don’t Need a New Science Center to See Thought-Provoking Exhibits Regarding “The Curious Society” (Currents, Dec. 10): Joe O’Connell and the folks at Creative Machines are fantastic. Their interactive exhibits are imaginative, engaging and high-quality. The Tucson Children’s Museum is proud to call Joe our friend, supporter and consultant. Any venture that allows kids…
T Q&A
Sol Gómez
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Can you recommend a solid, accessible history of California and Arizona so I can learn what really happened when the United States gobbled up Aztlán? La Chica Confundida Dear Wabette: The holistic classic in this genre is Rodolfo Acuña’s Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, but it’s a bit pricey, a problem that…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Unimpressive Adaptation
I could sum up my reaction to John Hillcoat’s adaptation of The Road with the word “unimpressed,” but that’s a little harsh; there are some truly inventive and spectacular visual effects. So I guess “unimpressed except by the visual effects” would be the kinder review. Not that it’s a terrible movie. Hillcoat had the problem…
Noshing Around
Holiday Drinks Thunder Canyon Brewery, the locally owned pub at the Foothills Mall (7401 N. La Cholla Blvd.; 797-2652), recently held a competition to see which bartender could create the best holiday drink. When the results were in, the bosses couldn’t decide on the winner, so they put all of them on the menu for…
Packing a Punch
Robert Downey Jr. dives into yet another iconic role as the title character in Sherlock Holmes, director Guy Ritchie’s inventive, sometimes exhilarating take on the classic sleuth. While the famous detective still puffs on his pipe, he’s now a badass street fighter with major self-esteem issues and a dark sense of humor. He’s also a…
Now Showing at Home
The Hangover: Unrated Edition (Blu-Ray); Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Blu-Ray); 9 (Blu-Ray)
Making a List
It’s that time of year when music critics feel the need to make lists—and our critics are no exception. If you are one of those folks who hate Top 10 lists such as these, take solace in one thing: At least we’re not engaging best-of-the-decade lists like so many other publications. Anyway … here’s part…
Just Desserts
The new year is but a week away—which means all of those resolutions will soon go into effect. In order to help you enjoy your final week of gluttony before the diets begin, Chow decided to do quick mini-reviews of four sweets-selling businesses in the midtown area. Enjoy while you can! CupCakes 4811 E. Grant…
Live
Nitzer Ebb, Alter Der Ruine
The Second First Night
Want to be at the center of it all this New Year’s Eve? Then head to the city center. That’s where you’ll find the town’s biggest New Year’s Eve party: First Night, a family-friendly, alcohol-free festival that will grace much of downtown with music, art, dance, comedy, magic and all kinds of other entertainment; there…
Sing in the New Year
For the second consecutive year, the Downtown Tucson Partnership is sponsoring First Night, “a New Year’s Eve celebration of arts, culture and community” that encompasses many different events at a dozen downtown locations—all of which are family-friendly and alcohol-free. Some events are free, while some require admission buttons for entry. Admission buttons, which allow entry…
Totally Full-Circle
Erin Bradley doesn’t know what the new year will bring for Preen, the vintage boutique she owns on Congress Street. In late October, Bradley and her business partner, Emilie Marchand, got the news that they would be evicted from their storefront near Fifth Avenue to make room for a new restaurant and bar run by…
Renewing the Spirit
Before this continent was colonized by calendar-toting Europeans, the people here celebrated the new year in many different ways. Some tribes marked the new year at the vernal equinox in March; others did so in the fall. The Hopis celebrated a new-fire ceremony in November, while the Creek new year ceremony, known as the “busk,”…
Creature Features
Most of us know from experience that animals have immense power to draw forth fierce, unexpected emotion. In her new collection of short stories, Love in Infant Monkeys, Lydia Millet strikes this particular nerve again and again, using animals—plus her rich prose and expansive imagination—to make us laugh, cry and respect every creature, from the…
Making Bank
In a case that has chewed up untold tax dollars and time, the U.S. Forest Service is still fighting to keep opponents of its fee program out of court. The agency’s challenge grew even bigger last year, when four people filed a class-action lawsuit against the Coronado National Forest, after they’d been fined for refusing…
Raw Life Experience
It took a Nazi clampdown to turn John Gutmann into a photographer. Gutmann’s big retrospective at the Center for Creative Photography, some 118 photographs strong, is mostly about America from the 1930s to the 1980s. It’s full of angular, off-center black-and-whites that delight in American street life, from its painted signs to its denizens of…
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books best-sellers for the week
Christmases Past
In 1909, numerous poor children receiving food items made for a major event on Christmas in Tucson. Fifty years later, teenagers were wondering whether the holiday had become too commercialized—or whether they should wish for a Corvette underneath the tree. To help impoverished kids, employees of the Arizona Daily Star a century ago contributed funds…
Soundbites
TO HELP YOU SURVIVE THE SEASON From family and friends visiting to cooking a crowd-pleasing meal and battling crowds to get that last minute shopping done … you know where we’re going with this: We all know the holiday season can be a mighty busy, mighty stressful time. Well, we’re here to help. Even the…
Afghan Reality
Afghan Star might be missing the snarky commentary of Simon Cowell, but this Pop Idol/American Idol spin-off has offered many people in Afghanistan their first hint of democracy—by allowing them to vote for their favorite singers. A British-produced film, also named Afghan Star, documents the struggle of four contestants to sing their way to fame,…
Nine Questions
Josh Levine
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
The Skinny
CHRISTMAS CRASH It’s not often that a budget briefing brings hundreds of people down to a City Council meeting on a Tuesday afternoon. Then again, it’s not often that the city is discussing how to plug a massive hole in the budget with only six months left in the fiscal year. Worried after headlines announced…
Tom Waits: Glitter and Doom Live (Anti-)
For those unfortunate souls (present company included) who were unable to attend Tom Waits’ 2008 Glitter and Doom tour comes this gracious holiday present: a two-disc, 18-track compendium of the tour. The second disc, “Tom Tales,” is one long track of assorted stage banter that, believe it or not, is worth several spins. Sample: Male…
Danehy
Looking back on a year that was not as good as I had hoped, but not as bad as I had feared, these are a few of my favorite things: • Best Book (That I Read): It was actually a slow year for books for me. I just started reading Where Men Win Glory by…
Just Call It Kiddie Crack
I’ve been dragged into our local Build-a-Bear Workshop countless times, but I never realized this corporate pit contributed to my son’s growing obsession with saving the planet. Lucky for me there’s Big Government. The conservative Website brought to my attention this video posted on the company’s interactive game Website buildabearville.com. …when your unsuspecting tot logs…
More on the Coronado Hotel
News that downtown’s Coronado Hotel won’t be sold to Pima County to retain as affordable housing raises two immediate questions. First, will county officials consider using eminent domain to acquire the property? This prospect could be considered if the eventual buyer proposes converting the Coronado into another use. The second question is: Could the Downtown…
Now That’s a Good X-mas Package…
If you have $5 and nothing better to do Christmas night, then get your butt to this show.
