Cover Stories
Tucson Hip-Hop Fest is more than dope flow and strident rhymes
Tucson’s hip-hop scene is growing, and the main players know that it’s not just about the music.
Ten must-sees at Tucson Hip-Hop Fest
The Tucson Hip Hop Festival Murs A Living Legend and indie hip-hop icon, Murs is set to release his tenth solo album next month (tenth!). His second for Strange Music, Captain California features the advance singles “GBKWS (God Bless Kanye West)” and “Survivor” and finds Murs at peak form. Since his last record, the Tucson…
Cinema Clips: Neruda
Director Pablo Larrain is a busy man, having directed both Jackie and this, a beautiful and creative look at the life of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco). The film isn’t a biopic in the traditional sense in that it mixes fact and large doses of fiction as it creates an investigator character (Gael Garcia…
Things To Do In Tucson
Your Weekly guide to keeping busy in the Old Pueblo. Cinema First Friday Shorts: If you haven’t been yet, it’s time. On the first Friday of each month, Red Meat’s Max Cannon (yes, that cartoonist you love to send us letters about) hosts the biggest, baddest short film contest in town. Bring your short film (before…
Hurry! Deadline is March 6 For Zia Records’ Kick-Ass Comp Featuring Bands and Artists (All Genres) From Phoenix, Las Vegas and Tucson
The mighty Zia Records is still taking music submissions from local artists and bands from the Phoenix, Las Vegas and Tucson areas for their annual music compilation. The hard-working Zia Records team (man, are they ever fightin’ the good fight) reminds us down here at TW that the record store chain is celebrating 10 years…
Cinema Clips: The Great Wall
Matt Damon stars in this mess, and this may very well represent the low point of his career, a career that has included the atrocious Jason Bourne and Hereafter. He probably thought he was in safe hands because The Great Wall is helmed by director Zang Yimou, maker of such masterpieces as Hero, House of…
U.S. Rep. McSally Says She Supports Protecting Americans with Pre-Existing Conditions in Obamacare Replacement
There are a bunch of knots for the GOP Congress to untangle as they work toward repealing, replacing or reforming the Affordable Care Act. Among them: How to deal with the Medicaid expansion that helped low-income Americans get health insurance (at least in states that accepted the Medicaid dollars from Washington); whether to continue the…
Streets of This Town: Motorcycle Graveyard
This little photo series will feature random pics I take on long walks through Tucson—to sort of coincide with my column Tucson Salvage. It’s called “Streets of this Town.” Found this motorcycle graveyard in a neighborhood behind Grant Road and Alvernon.
Is Antisemitism Rising to the Threat Level?
I’m Jewish. I’ve watched intently as the antisemitic alt right has grown in prominence during and after the presidential campaign. Breibart.com gave the haters a voice, orchestrated by Steve Bannon, Breibart’s executive chair. Trump retweeted some of the alt right’s garbage because he liked the way it sounded. After his election, he made Bannon his closest…
Cinema Clips: Toni Erdmann
Ines (Sandra Huller), a terse, corporate type is busy trying to conduct international relations involving big dollars when her dad Winfried (Peter Simonischek) shows up with a goofy wig and fake teeth as Toni Erdmann, corporate coach. He throws a wrench in the works with his prankster ways, and Ines must learn to lighten up…
Streets of This Town: Blue-Nosed Pit
This little photo series will feature random pics I take on long walks through Tucson—to sort of coincide with my column Tucson Salvage. It’s called “Streets of this Town” and it begins today. I met this guy Dan at Navajo near Stone Ave. He was selling is lovely blue-nose pit Romeo for $200. I didn’t…
EDM Fest Roundup: An ABunDance of Wobbles!
As we walked into the gates of Wobbleland in (San Jose, Calif.) on a recent Friday I couldn’t help but notice the swarm of ravers donning the same trendy merch from their favorite artists: Black “Snails” shirts that have “#VOMITSQUAD” on the back and white images of snails on the sleeves, Japanese lettering and shuriken…
Song of the Day: Green on Red ‘Hector’s Out’
The trepidation and tension is so lovely and palpable it plays like the perfect backdrop to an August monsoon roiling over the Rincon Mountains, darkening slowly all of Tucson. There’s some Southern gothic too, coming on like a debilitating booze relapse, or the devil himself, where it’s so hot “even the birds won’t sing,” and…
A Dispatch From Tucson Hip-Hop Fest 2017, Lando Chill, Jaca Zulu, Murs, and More!
Spawning from the potent mixture of sperm and eggs deposited during the mid-’90s at Skrappy’s (an erstwhile downtown Tucson youth collective), “artists like Big Meridox, Jivin’ Scientists, and James Ciphurphace were paving the way before I was even there,” says musician/writer/promoter Black One (aka Jaron Ikner) giving props and providing some history about the early…
How Susan Holden and Don Armstrong Uphold the Honor, Tradition and Beauty of Folk Music
The Rhythm and Roots Concert Series is showcasing a variety of folk genres including Americana, blues, bluegrass and Celtic. The series, which gives musicians the space and resources to share their craft, is taking place this week at Hotel Congress with two free shows. “‘Music is medicine’ is our motto,” says the series director Susan…
Have Some Fun and Help Planned Parenthood Fight for Your Rights
With the GOP Congress and Conman-in-Chief looking for ways to eliminate funding for the organization, Planned Parenthood may have never faced a more dire future. Show your support for safe and confidential sexual health care for women and men at the Very Big Show (Of Suppport), featuring a jamboree of fun. You’ve got circus troupes…
All Hail the King (Kong)!
The original King Kong earned its spot as a cinema legend, but the remakes—John Guillermin’s lackluster 1976 film and Peter Jackson’s bloated 2005 effort—have done little to improve on the original, despite advances in film technology. So it’s great to see that director Jordan Vogt-Roberts has evidently foregone the “Kong comes to the big city on display and…
Are Vouchers Bad For Students Who Use Them?
Arizona’s Republican legislators are pushing a vouchers-on-steroids-for-everyone bill. Betsy DeVos, Trump’s new Secretary of Education, loves vouchers and private schools far more than public schools. A bill being pushed in Congress would change the way the Feds give money to the states, requiring that the money go to students attending private schools as well as…
Torque Needs a Home
Hi, I’m Torque! I’m a very silly, 3 year old big boy! I was transferred from a different shelter, but have quickly become an HSSA staff and volunteer favorite! I’m a short little guy, but am very powerful. I love to play and know how to sit for treats! I would do well in a…
What To Do If ICE Comes To Your Door
The threat is all too real for many people around the country, especially in areas like Tucson: someone coming to their door asking about their immigration status. The group United We Dream has put together a simple flier telling people what to do in case they find themselves in that situation. You can download the flier…
Laugh Like a Woman: Tucson Women’s Comedy Festival
Getting the full disclosure out of the way: I’m a member of the Tucson Improv Movement company. I’m not performing in the TIM-hosted first Tucson Women’s Comedy Festival Feb. 23 through 25, but as a 72-year-old woman, I can attest to TIM’s commitment to diversity! “Sometimes women … feel uncomfortable going into a situation that…
Political Theater: McSally Schedules Town Hall Just in Time To Scramble Critics
You have to hand it to Congresswoman Martha McSally: Faced with the possibility that she would look cowardly for refusing to hold an open-topic town hall, she figured out a way to outmaneuver local constituents who were hoping to tarnish her carefully polished image of a fighter who is standing up to Washington. And so…
Editors Note
Let’s get to the good right away, because right now, we can all use some good news.
Dust Devil
Sporting fringed buckskin tight fitting jeans…
Police Dispatch
Someone smeared excrement (human or animal, we’ll never know) on the door handle of someone’s car
Police Dispatch
Two women escaped punishment for a conspicuous tiff in a grocery-store parking after their cars got a little too close on the road
Modern Slavery
The stories that Jill tells are horrifying.
All That Glitters
Walk into the newly remodeled Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery at Pima College and the first thing you see is a fairytale forest of golden trees.
No Ordinary Pie
There is a bizarre rolling of the eyes in some when you mention that a new pizzeria is opening.
Noise Annoys
I’m scrolling through Facebook’s events page, as I do. It’s a neat little time killer.
Teen Dreaming
Over the 24 years since forming, Mesa band Jimmy Eat World has evolved from cult emo kids on the pop-punk circuit, to a group of It kids capable of writing some of the finest anthems in contemporary rock ‘n’ roll.
Know Your Product
Dave Lombardo’s a badass. People rarely say that of drummers, unless it’s Buddy Miles or Randy Castillo or Keith Moon or Al Jackson Jr.
Barely budding
The next underdog marijuana legalization initiative is out of the gate as the group Safer Arizona filed their vision
Reform School Girls
It’s 1914, and in New York City four adolescent girls inhabit a sparse room in a Catholic reformatory for wayward girls.
Dickweed Mess
Something in the neighborhood of 17 bazillion zillion dollars got thrown
Larger Than Life
Martin Bacal died at age 84 on February 14 of an apparent heart attack.
Ask a Mexican!
Mexican illegals don’t just apply for citizenship instead of coming here illegally
The Pleasure Activist
It’s difficult to announce this, but life has pulled me in another direction and so Jellywink Boutique’s last day will be this Saturday, Feb. 25.
