Cover Story
Border Patrolled Youth
A friendly Border Patrol agent, who has just lit up a cigar, is pointing across the international boundary to Nogales, Sonora. He says that these are the places where “lookouts” are watching him and other agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. I look through the bollard-style border fence, reinforced steel poles placed side…
Olympians Need (Random) Love, Too
US Weekly Jamie Anderson, U.S. gold medalist in snowboarding and avid Tinder user The smartphone-based matchmaking app known as Tinder has its fair share of both proponents (i.e., those who’ve scored a hookup or 12 out of it) and critics (including those who rack up nothing but “nopes” from other users, as well as prudes…
U of A Professor Apparently ‘Robocop’ Expert
The futuristic robo-remake hits theaters everywhere today. But is Robocop too good to be true? Robocop takes place 14 years from now where the world is “robo-phobic” and evil scientist are capable of making disabled cops like Alex Murphy in to cybernetic, bad ass machines. Is this fictional action sci-fi stretching the “truth” by making…
Win Tickets to The Smog City Show at The Rialto
Photo courtesy of PHAT Entertainment. 12th Planet, Los Angeles based dubstep and drum and bass producer and DJ, and friends will be in town on Friday, Feb. 21, at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E Congress St. Protohype, Anitserum, STEADY and SPL are the featured acts in The Smog City Tour. SMOG RECORDS record label and…
Tucson Weekly Dive Party at Music Box Lounge
So, we are confident that the eastside can handle Tucson Weekly’s Dirty Thirty party from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Music Box Lounge, 6951 East 22nd Street. We are throwing a monthly happy hour party every second Wednesday of the month. We had a great time at the World Famous Golden Nugget. The staff…
Dolores Huerta in Tucson on March 4
The Arizona César E. Chávez Holiday Coalition has organized the first Dolores Huerta International Women’s Day Luncheon & Awards Ceremony from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, March 4 at the YWCA, 525 Bonita Ave. Tickets are on sale now. Go here for more ticket information. What’s exciting about the luncheon is Huerta’s return…
John Huppenthal, Arizona Superintendent Of Privatization
Dan Gibson beat me to the punch with his post about Ed Supe John Huppenthal shilling for the Goldwater Institute. Huppenthal voiced a robocall telling parents how they can use taxpayer money to send their kids to private schools. In his post, Dan includes the video of Brahm Resnick’s news piece about the robocall and…
State Superintendent John Huppenthal Suggests You Take Your Kids to Private School
A fascinating story from Brahm Resnick on a robocall that went out using the voice of Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal to remind parents of the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts and how they can be used to pay for private schools. Because of course he doesn’t, Huppenthal fails to see an issue being…
Another Adult Boutique to Open on Speedway
Photo by G.PAGOMENOS/Shutterstock.com There’s another adult store popping up in Midtown Tucson. Le Boutique Erotica will open its doors tomorrow, and will be conveniently next to Ten’s Showclub on the corner of East Speedway and North Rosemont Blvd. James Caddell, store manager, says that Le Boutique Erotica will be the biggest Corset dealer in Arizona…
OFF! Is Coming to Tucson in Loud One Minute Bursts
Their third album comes out on April 8 and 13 days later, punk supergroup OFF! will play Club Congress. Made up of members of Black Flag, Redd Kross, Burning Brides and Rocket From the Crypt, the band was a big deal the minute they played their first show, holding true to the same simple-chorded, single-minded…
Read Part of a Comic for Free That You Should Probably Go Ahead and Buy
Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. Traditionally, new comic books hit stands every wednesday at every comic book shop in the country. But now I don’t have to leave my house to get pages full of new high concept ideas on a weekly basis. Digital first comic book publishers like Monkey Brain comics…
March Radness Preview: Wild Ones
March Radness is not terribly far off (March 8! Get your tickets now! They’re going to get more expensive!), so we’re going to give you a taste of what to expect from the stellar lineup of bands here on The Range between now and then. First up, Wild Ones. Portland alt-weekly Willamette Week called them…
Kon Tiki is 50! Will They Bring Back the Gardenias?
kontikitucson.com In 1963, the sounds of a swooning steel guitar might have wafted through the palm-fronds as baby boomers were seduced, if not back to a suitor’s off-campus lodging, at least into the tender mercies of alcohol (ew! ptui!) swathed in sugary fruit juices with a gardenia on top. Happy 50th birthday, Kon Tiki! UA…
Today in “That Story Sounds Familiar” News
If you were looking around the Arizona Daily Star’s website yesterday, you might have noticed a blog entry by Darren DeRonco about an app designed to fight the scourge of graffiti: Got a graffiti problem in your neighborhood? There’s now an app for that. Tucson’s released an app where residents can file a report and…
Video: The Sonoran Glass School 13th Annual Flame Off
Alan Davis, Tucson Weekly multimedia intern, captured some glass blowers competing at the 13th Annual Flame Off on Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Rialto Theatre. There were 20 local and international talents playing with fire at this year’s Flame Off. This is one of the most visually appealing Gem, Mineral & Fossil events that comes…
Potted Garden Care in February
The Potted Desert Winter in Desert Potted Garden We have had an inconsistent winter this year so far. Warmer than average temperatures while the rest of the country suffers through freezing, snowing conditions. Our fluctuations have confused our plants so extra care is needed. Do not let a warm week in February allow you to…
The “Low Income Word Gap”
Warning: This is going to get pretty wonky, so now is the time to flee if you don’t want dive deep into the weeds of educational theory. That being said . . . The Star published an AP article, High-tech RI project tackles low-income word gap. It’s an interesting piece about a project in Rhode…
KFMA and La Caliente to Switch Frequencies
Check out the snappy new logo. In what’s seemingly a promotion for the world of alt-rock in Tucson, Lotus-owned radio stations KFMA and La Caliente (the biggest Spanish language in the market) are switching frequencies, with KFMA moving to 102.1 and La Caliente taking over the dual spots of the dial of 92.1 and 101.3…
Cats Win Big Over Oregon State
Jim Nintzel Yesterday’s 76-54 win over Oregon State delivered a confidence boost to the Arizona Wildcats, following their first loss of the season, the season-ending injury to Brandon Ashley and the recent trouble the team has had with free throws. This week, the Cats—now 23-1 overall and 10-1 in the conference—are going up the road…
AZ Department of Transportation Posts MVD Wait Times Online
Photo by: Robert Kneschke / Shutterstock.com Need to go the living hell that is MVD for a new drivers license but you want to know how much time you’re never getting back before you arrive? The Arizona Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Division has decided to make life easier on Arizona drivers and post estimated…
Baby’s Reaction to ‘Man of Steel’ Flying is Priceless
The nerd community struggled with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel despite it being an overwhelming box office success. I know I had some issues with Kal-El’s moral decisions — especially at the end — but at least it wasn’t as bad as Richard Donner’s third Superman movie. However, I never really considered what kind of…
A Hostile Takeover of Rosemont Copper?
The Range has been hearing more rumbles lately about the possibility that Rosemont Copper might sell the open-pit mining operation it’s developing in the Santa Rita Mountains once it gets all the permits it needs to operate. But now it appears the Canadian company may be facing a hostile takeover from Hudbay Minerals Inc. The…
‘SUITS’ Exclusive Screening and Q&A with Stars at UA Student Union
USA Network’s hit series SUITS stars Rick Hoffman and Amanda Schull are on a SUITS College Tour and will be stoping by Tuesday, Feb. 11, at the UA’s Gallagher theater, 1303 E. University Blvd. There will be an exclusive screening and TV GUIDE’s Damian Holbrook will moderate a Q&A with the cast members. Students will…
Standardized Op-Ed In The Star Advocates For Standardized Testing
Maybe the Star got conned, I don’t know. If so, it shouldn’t have. Even a sleepy-eyed editor should have seen through the deception. When I gave today’s “Special to the Arizona Daily Star” op-ed in defense of the Common Core a sleepy-eyed reading this morning, I could tell a few paragraphs in it was a…
‘Zombeavers’ Are Coming
So, someone sent me this ambiguous youtube link with no preview, and I had to click it to find out what she was was trying to tell me. I’m glad I did because it lead me to the latest trailer for Epic Pictures Group’s new horror film: ZOMBEAVERS. It’s not The Shining or Exorcist, but…
AZ Illustrated Politics: Supes Oppose Rosemont, City Faces Deficit, Streets Still Need Work & More!
On Friday’s AZ Illustrated Politics: Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik, Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias and Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Steller joined me to talk about Pima County’s opposition to the Rosemont Mine, the city’s looming $33 million deficit, the condition of Tucson’s streets, the possibility that Green Valley might secede to Santa Cruz…
Toiling At TUSD’s Adopt-A-School Day
I went down to Davis Bilingual Elementary Magnet School Saturday morning to join in the Adopt-A-School program and see if I could help put “some added sparkle to the historic school,” like it said in the TUSD press release. Lots of people were there when I arrived — district employees, parents and children. After they…
Saturday is Adopt-A-School fix-up day at Davis Bilingual Elementary
Saturday morning, from 8am to noon, TUSD administrators as well as other district employees and volunteers will gather at Davis Bilingual Elementary Magnet School (500 W. St. Mary’s Road, just north of downtown and east of I-10) to bring, in the words of the media release, “some added sparkle to the historic school.” Anyone who…
The Day I Met Fabio at Whole Foods
So, I’m not a celebrity stalker. I keep trying to tell myself that. Honestly, I try to attend all the events I post on the Range. I didn’t really intend on going to see Fabio at Whole Foods on Speedway because no one wanted to go with me. Why would they? Who wants to see…
The Epic Failure During the Opening Sochi 2014 Opening Ceremony
Nothing is going right for the epic PR failure that is the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. The most noteworthy scene from the opening ceremony was the technical difficulty when the fifth Olympic ring failed to unfold. Let the games begin?
The T-Pads (Er, Chihuahuas) Live!
Who didn’t see this coming … ? Chihuahuas play Reno Aces in PCL series @ Kino Stadium April 11 – 14 while construction gets completed in El Paso. More details to follow.— Mike Feder (@MikeFeder) February 7, 2014 Owners of the El Paso Chihuahuas, the team formerly known as the (but hardly supported by us…
The Week (At the Capitol) Feb. 3-7
The cluck of chickens and the howl of wolves: The Committee of Government and Environment was a zoo of sorts on Monday. The Homegrown Freedom Act, a bill that would allow residents to raise fowl in their backyards, was brought to committee. … “Fowl” encompasses any bird that is raised for the purpose of consumption:…
Download the Tucson Weekly App and Try Our ‘Weekly Picks’
Save money on food and at local attractions by downloading the Weekly’s “Best of Tucson” mobile app. Here are 5 deals that start on Saturday, Feb. 8: – Buy a sandwich at 4th Avenue Delicatessen and get free chips and soda. – $10 off when you spend $40 or more at Social House Kitchen &…
Well, That Didn’t Take Long: House Republicans Give Up on Immigration Reform
Last week, we saw GOP leaders unveil their principles on immigration reform. This week, House Speaker John Boehner threw in the towel. The New York Times reports: Facing growing resistance from conservatives, Speaker John A. Boehner on Thursday cast strong doubt that he could pass an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws this year, leaving…
Rialto Theater To Get TV Time During UA Hoops Broadcast
So will we see you tomorrow night, Bill? @BillWalton @hottunaband @leonrussell #ArizonaWildcats pic.twitter.com/Cd37jSlY8A— Rialto Theatre (@TheRialtoTucson) January 25, 2014 As if you needed another reason to watch the Arizona men’s basketball game tonight, how about this enticement: thanks to the rambling interests of former college and NBA great/color analyst/space cadet Bill Walton, our very own…
Cinema Showdown: Funny Faces, Cats and Schizophrenic Beatniks
Valentine’s Day is fast upon us, and The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., is giving us the gift of romantic comedies starring Audrey Hepburn all month long! Tonight at 7:00 p.m. you catch the delectable Ms. Hepburn along with Fred Astaire in the 1957 film version of George Gershwin’s musical Funny Face. Tickets are…
Former D-backs MVP Curt Schilling Announces he Has Cancer
Photo by: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com Curt Schilling and wife Shonda attend the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Awards at the IAC Building on November 30, 2010 in New York City. It’s a sad day in the world of Major League Baseball. Curt Schilling, former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher, announced that he has been diagnosed…
Beware Of Mock Political Websites
Ann Kirkpatrick supporters landing on a website with the “Kirkpatrick For Congress” graphic above might decide to make a donation. It looks legit, until you read the words below the head: “Make a Contribution Today to Help Defeat Ann Kirkpatrick and candidates like her.” It’s actually a website set up by the National Republican Congressional…
Billy Crystal Will be Jay Leno’s Last ‘Tonight Show’ Guest
Jay Leno will finally host his last Tonight Show episode, again. Leno took over hosting duties from the legendary Johnny Carson 22 years ago in May. Leno’s first guest ever was none other than Billy Crystal, so it’s fitting that the actor/comedian will be his last. Now that the late night talk show wars are…
AZ Legislature hits send on revenge porn bill
A bill that would make revenge porn a felony in Arizona passed through the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. The bill would prohibit people from sharing or publishing photographs and videotapes of people in the nude or engaged in sexual acts without the subject’s written consent. Rep. J.D. Mesnard (R-17) was inspired to propose the…
The Manly Manlesque Valentine Show at Surly Wench
All aboard the hairy, tattooed, burly and seductive man train! The Manly Manlesque tease devils are back, so you don’t have stay to home alone and watch your favorite romatic comedy while devouring a whole carton of Isabella’s Ice Cream, again. There will be two shows on Valentine’s Day, Friday, Feb. 14, at the Surly…
What Danehy Said About Charter Schools
Tom Danehy is on a two week tear writing about charter schools. In an earlier post, I quoted last week’s column about charters “spend[ing] public money like drunken sailors with almost no official oversight.” Now Tom has put together an Arizona charter school quiz, with good questions and on-the-money answers. I won’t give away the…
Tribal Youth Art Showcase
Some of the best and brightest young artists from the Pascua Yaqui Nation will be showing off their work at the second annual Pascua Yaqui Festival of the Arts. The daylong event, which is sponsored by the Arizona Commission of the Arts, was created as a way to showcase the native talent present in the…
DVD Roundup
The Americans: Season 1 Two deep-cover Russian spies (Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys) pose as a suburban married couple in 1980s Washington D.C. But, in their mission to destroy America, did they count on … falling in love? No, no they did not. Also: wigs. (Fox) Anna Nicole The true-ish story of Anna Nicole Smith…
Art That’s a Steal
Spirit Art House, BICAS (Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage) and Thunder Canyon Brewery invite you to a one-of-a-kind experience that could change the way you think about art shows. Mitchell Moen, Spirit Art House curator and owner, describes the Grand Theft Art show as the “evolution from an exhibition to a show.” The show is…
Emotions in Eire
Will Forte follows up his strong dramatic turn in Nebraska with an even better performance in what turns out to be a better movie with Run & Jump. For the record, I wasn’t a huge Nebraska fan. I liked it just fine, and found the work of Forte, Bruce Dern and Bob Odenkirk to be…
120 Seconds
It’s a half-marathon of theatrical creativity. A sprint of skill and originality. It’s 30 plays in 60 minutes in which the audience is critically involved. It’s the Short Attention Span Theatre, which will dish out another plateful the next couple of weekends, and again in May, after having opened its theatrical buffet last October, with…
Eastside Eats
While a significant percentage of Tucson’s population lives east of Swan and south of River in the somewhat made up zone someone at the Weekly decided is the eastside of Tucson ages ago, it’s a generally identity-less part of town. Downtown gets to be the subject of Rio Nuevo and streetcar arguments and the general…
Danehy
In response to some feedback I’ve received, please allow me to make clear a few things. I DO NOT believe that all of Arizona’s charter schools are staffed by right-wing lunatics. I DO believe that some charter schools provide a decent education for some students. Mostly, I DO NOT believe in the excuses given 20…
Literally, Love Hurts
Did you ever see the movie Crash? No, not the racially charged Paul Haggis drama that somehow beat Brokeback Mountain for the Best Picture Oscar in 2006. I’m talking about David Cronenberg’s Crash, a sicko movie from 10 years earlier starring James Spader as a numb-nut who gets off on vehicular crashes and especially the…
Messina
At 86 years old, Vic Ferrera doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. You won’t find this gentleman spending his golden years on the golf course or lounging by the pool. Instead, he’s on the streets of Tucson, driving his cab in city traffic, down dusty roads and wherever a passenger needs to go. Ferrera…
Building Brand
The term “brickfilm” denotes a very specific kind of thing. It’s a stop-motion animated movie that doesn’t use Claymation or posed figures but rather Lego blocks. People have been making brickfilms for 40 years now, believe it or not, but it wasn’t until a Lego version of the famous “Camelot” sequence in Monty Python and…
Police Dispatch
STOP BEATING YOURSELF UP! SOUTH CARDINAL AVENUE DEC. 21, 10:46 P.M. Deputies were called to break up a fight on a busy southwest side street, but they discovered there was only one participant in the brawl—a woman who repeatedly punched herself in the face, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. Witnesses to the…
Noshing Around
A Bad Week for Monkeys Nimbus Bistro, 6464 E. Tanque Verde Road, has closed following rumors of a possible closure for the past month or so. The Nimbus brewery (which has been unaffiliated with the bistro in recent years) remains open at 3850 E. 44th St. You have to wonder if the Tanque Verde location…
Media Watch
The Gannett Co., which clears more than $6 million a year through its joint operating agreement with Lee Enterprises and the Arizona Daily Star, decided that its salary overhead—one full-time employee—was too much of a burden for its bottom line. Gannett announced Friday, Jan. 31, that it had shut down its community blog site effective…
Songs in a Safe Place
Going home and turning inward gave Jess Williamson her debut album. The songwriter describes the meaning behind Native State in two ways, the geographic and the personal. After leaving graduate school in New York and returning to Austin, Texas, Williamson fell in love with the city all over again. And in doing so, Williamson found…
Pedersen on Sports
Raise your hand if, like me, you’ve spent at least a little time in the past few weeks watching news coverage, checking out Facebook pics or reading tweets about the calamity that has been winter 2014 for nearly all of the rest of the country. Winter. You know, that thing we see in movies about…
Soundbites
CAREFREE HIGHWAY Since 1955, people who enjoy looking at rocks and stones have converged on Tucson this time of year to share their love of nature’s creations and buy stuff. I’m guessing a whole lot fewer people attended the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in its inaugural year than do now; and I can tell…
Buyer Beware
We are standing in a tiny motel room with six other people. What appear at first glance to be ancient Native American artifacts are packed into protective cases and strewn haphazardly across the room; the bed, the dresser, the bedside table and even an extra card table have been stacked high with black faux-leather cases.…
Live
ARRIVAL FROM SWEDEN: THE MUSIC OF ABBA RIALTO THEATRE Tuesday, Jan. 28 If you don’t appreciate the music of the Beach Boys, the Ramones, AC/DC and ABBA, well, buddy, you must not like living life and breathing air. It’s the beauty of simplicity. They’ll give you the bouncy rhythms and infectious harmonies; all you have…
Change Call
While a recent academic program review of the UA American Indian Studies program highlights internal issues that have troubled the department the past few years, according to one administrator the report is part of a review process occurring with many departments on campus that occurs every seven years. The report, issued to Andrew Comrie, UA…
Mogwai: Rave Tapes
I think it’s safe to say Mogwai have reached their twilight years, and that’s not a bad thing. With the release of their eighth studio album, Rave Tapes, the five-piece post-rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, may have slowed down the dramatic crescendos, but there’s still plenty of solid, mostly instrumental tracks to fog your head…
Laser Dad: Shit Ton
Instrumental trio Laser Dad are an impressive and obvious choice for any listener who holds technical mastery in high esteem. But for those who wouldn’t know the difference between the Dorian mode and Depeche Mode, the band’s virtuosity supports strong and interesting compositions, full of unexpected twists and turns. This much is clear from the…
Editor’s Note
On Friday, Jan. 31, 2014, if you stopped by TucsonCitizen.com, you would have seen a note from someone at Gannett informing visitors that the website will soon become an archive of the former newspaper’s articles. Mentioned briefly in the second of four paragraphs of the announcement was that the Citizen had existed as a “web…
Young the Giant: Mind Over Matter
Southern California’s Young the Giant leapt from unknown to radio darlings on the band’s 2011 self-titled debut. For an encore, the band recorded a superior-in-nearly-every-way album. But what Mind Over Matter lacks is a song as immediately compelling as Young the Giant’s inescapable breakthrough hit, “My Body.” Neither of the first two singles, “It’s About…
Rosemont, So Much to Answer For
Photographer Josh Schachter first photographed the Santa Rita Mountains and Sonoita 15 years ago, documenting the gorgeous views so prized by locals and tourists. Two years ago, knowing that that landscape was now “in jeopardy” from the proposed Rosemont copper mine, Schachter set about trying to save it through art. He and fellow photog Brian…
For the Kids
There’s been a lot of talk since the medical cannabis system started in Arizona—even before it started—that it was a sham. Naysayers have claimed all along that it’s nothing more than a thin veneer of fake compassion laid over a deep well of recreational use. But even if what Arizona Department of Health Services Director…
Poetry Pursuits
Final preparations are under way for the 31st Tucson Poetry Festival in early April, a three-day celebration of the spoken word that is among the oldest events of its kind in the United States. Until then, members of groups organizing that festival have put together a bit of a poetic interlude, one that could set…
Ask A Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Why is it that many first-generation Latino students are so quick to judge and alienate second-generation students just because their parents went to college and are able to afford a little more? This happened to me recently. People treat me differently and think I will look down on them, yet I grew up…
Paper Planes for a Purpose
Throwing paper airplanes in class used to be a sure way to get detention and a lecture from your teacher. But this weekend, the maker of the paper airplane that flies the farthest will win an iPad and a flight for two over Tucson. About 350 children have registered to compete in the third annual…
The Skinny
THE LATEST LINE IN THE SAND Congressional Republicans last week unveiled a list of principles that House leaders have said would guide any new immigration-reform legislation this year. Most of it is pretty much what you’d expect—secure the border before doing anything else!—but the key question has always been what the GOP would do about…
Brazilian Love Story
The UA’s Lesbian Looks film series has grown from a small, on-campus event to a citywide celebration of films that delve into the intertwinings of lesbian life not normally found in mainstream entertainment. Now in its 21st year, the series kicks off with a screening of Reaching for the Moon, a 2013 Brazilian film that…
True TV
Wrong & Right Waaay back in September of last year, The Only TV Column That Matters™ passed judgment on all of the new series premiering on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and The CW for the 2013-14 television season. Though the majority of my pilot reviews were, of course, dead-on, a handful of the shows drifted…
Tucson Weekly’s Endless Dive Bar Birthday Celebration!
We are hosting monthly happy hours at various dive bars around Tucson to celebrate our “Dirty 30” all year long. The endless Birthday madness will occur every second Wednesday starting on Jan. 8 at the World Famous Golden Nugget, 2617 N. 1st Ave. There will be Birthday cake, prizes and drink specials. You better brush…
