Cover Story
Planting Hope
The U.S.-Mexico border is an omen for tragedy. But, sadly, to many people living south of these lands, this hell monster also marks the anticipated arrival for a new life in this country. Every year, millions of undocumented migrants from all corners of Latin America make their way to these foreign lands. For those who…
TSA’s New Instagram Account Shows America The Terrifying Things They Take From Flyers
In late June, the Transportation Security Administration started an Instagram account in which they post images of the weirdest, wackiest, weapon-iest prohibited things that they pull out of the luggage of screened air travelers. And yes, that does exclude things that people tend to use for personal, sexual gratification. However, that does mean that guns,…
Student Loan Interest Rates Double After Congress Didn’t Act In Time
Interest rates doubled on Monday, for Stafford subsidized student loans. After an entire year, Congress has failed to come up with a plan that would prevent government-funded Stafford subsidized student loan interest rates from doubling — effective Monday. Though the lack of decision will not affect students who have already taken out these loans, it…
Celebrity (Offspring) Wildcats: UA Football Grabs Commitment From Dead Rapper’s Son
Reporting on the ‘commitment’ of a high school kid to a college is far down on my list of noteworthy news items, especially considering my personal recollection of being able to commit to something at age 17 was limited to whether I’d get the Chicken or Steak Soft Taco at Taco Bell. That being said,…
Someone Managed to Make That Lumineers Song Tolerable
During my brief stint at Clear Channel, My 92.9 played over the loudspeaker in the hallway adjacent to my office, so I’d hear the fifteen or so songs in regular rotation over and over and over again, nine hours a day, five days a week. Other than Katy Perry’s “Part of Me,” no other song…
City Hall Brawl ’13: Candidates Show Us The Money
It’s still early in this year’s City Council campaigns, but you can still glean a few things from looking over the campaign-finance reports that came in earlier this week. One sign of healthy organization for a Tucson City Council campaign is an application for public matching funds. The city’s matching-funds program, in place since the…
Apparently, Someone At Amy’s Baking Company Grew a Sense of Humor, and It’s Five Years Out of Date
Armed with a “teaser” for their new reality show, the folks at Amy’s Baking Company offer this to you, folks: Yeah, that’s a Rick Roll — you know, the phenomenon wherein people would trick you into watching something, then hit you with Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”? It’s fine if you don’t remember,…
The Fourth of July: Get Out There and Celebrate!
There’s the cookout with family and friends in the afternoon, and the fireworks to look forward to at night, but the dog’s still going to wake you up at 6 a.m., so why not get an early start? It’s never too early to celebrate the independence of our great nation. Give in to the patriotic…
Rocco’s Little Chicago is Saying Goodbye to Chicago’s Old Style Beer
This just in from Rocco’s Little Chicago: Holy cats! Today’s our last day on God’s green Earth with Old Style in the house. Help my staff drink it up tonight, 5 till close, buck a can! The word is that the local distributor of Old Style, Finley Distributing, simply hasn’t gotten enough orders to continue…
Where’s Waldo Hiding in Tucson?
Waldo, the elusive children’s book character with a limited wardrobe, is hiding out in Tucson this summer. Twenty-six local businesses around Fourth Avenue, Downtown, and around Broadway Village will be hosting six-inch-tall Waldos for the month of July. Kids who get their passport stamped for finding Waldo in 20 of those locations will be entered…
Power to the People: The Tastykake Caper Update
We’ve got some new Tastykake info via Matt Russell this morning: To all Tasty fans in AZ and other parts far from Philly: Please excuse our growing pains!We’re sorry you may be unable to find your favorite Tasty item in your area. As we expand Tastykake into new markets, we have to take into careful…
A Vet Shows You Why You Shouldn’t Leave Your Dogs (Or Anything Else) Sitting in a Parked Car
As anyone who has the ability to discern between hot and cold can tell you, it’s hot out there. Ridiculously hot. Almost like the sun is bearing down on you, asking you for change. It’s that hot and uncomfortable. With that in mind, there’s absolutely no good damn reason for you to leave anyone or…
Campaign Group Turns in Pension Initiative Signatures
Looks like voters will get to decide whether the city should scrap its current pension program. Political consultant Pete Zimmerman emailed The Range today to inform us that the Committee for Sustained Retirement Benefits has turned in more than 23,000 signatures to put the Sustainable Retirement Benefits Act on the November city ballot. The group…
Finally, ‘Science’ Explains Why People Are Assholes
Fine, it’s not really science. But it’s plausible enough, right? No? Whatever. Sometimes, people are assholes — at least this video takes the time to try and make sense of that assholery by committing it to a particular recessive gene that may or may not be passed down by one’s parents. It’s a fairly long…
Apparently, Paul Babeu Might Run For Congress Again
Pinal Sheriff Paul Babeu has made a hell of a name for himself in recent memory, as a version of Maricopa County’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio — but with more of a propensity for trying to find love (or whatever) using online dating sites. Whatever. We don’t judge here. But according to the Phoenix New Times,…
Be Careful In the Monsoon, Folks
Rhonda Kendrick / Facebook Downed power lines ain’t nothing to play with, Tucson Those downed power lines are on Ironwood Hills Road — not sure of the exact cross streets quite yet, but stay clear of the area. In fact, be careful in general right now — already I’m seeing downed branches and the trees…
Save Some Cash With Local Businesses During Local First Arizona’s Independents Week
In case you were unaware, it’s currently Independents Week, according to Local First Arizona. (Get it? Independence? Independents? Homonyms, anyone? Okay, I’ll move on.) That means that, using a “Golden Coupon” from the one of the largest partnerships between local businesses in the state, you’re entitled to 20 percent off select goods and services from…
We’re Giving Away Books! Who Wants ‘Em?
As you may have noticed last Friday, we’ve got a ton of books to give away to people who want them Well, I’ve got one thing to add to the pot: New Kids On The Block: Five Brothers and a Million Sisters, the Authorized Biography. It’s been taking up space on a corner of my…
Amy’s Baking Company Still Crazy, Allegedly Asks Employees to Sign Insane Contract
Dammit, every time I think I’m done writing things about Amy’s Baking Company, they pull me back in. According to Consumerist (via Radar Online), apparently those wacky Bouzaglos are at it again (or, perhaps, remain at it), as they allegedly make their employees sign a contract prior to employment. As one might assume, this contract…
Immigration Reform: Why House Republicans May Kill the Senate Bill
The Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration-reform bill made it through the Senate last week, but faces a rockier road in the GOP-controlled House. Pundits are becoming increasing skeptical that the GOP needs to do anything to reach out to Latino voters, perhaps for good reason. Slate’s Dave Weigel does the math: Republicans currently control 234…
A Wildfire Tragedy: 19 Firefighters Die in Prescott Blaze
Last night, report confirmed that 19 missing firefighters from the Prescott Fire Department have died fighting the Yarnell Hill fire. From Prescott’s Daily Courier: The elite 20-man hotshot team is the only one in the country that is organized through a city fire department. It earned its national interagency hotshot designation in 2008. Prescott Fire…
H.T. Sanchez’s TUSD Contract Set at $247,000 for First Year
With H.T. Sanchez letting the Ector County school district know that he’s leaving, it seems certain that TUSD won out for his services as superintendent after today’s governing board meeting. Dr. Sanchez thanks Odessa for its support; says he will always hold Ector Co. in highest regard; wishes #ecisd nothing but the best.— Ector County…
KGUN’s Fry-Day Gimmick Gets a Bit…Creepy
For the past few weeks, the folks over at KGUN have been running a gimmick where they use the natural heat of the Sonoran desert to do silly things with food — baking, making smores, so on and so forth — on Fridays. Because, y’know. Fry-Day. As in, it’s hot enough to FRY things during…
Free Book Friday: Take Our Books — Please!
That sign isn’t lying, folks. Folks, it’s that time again: we’ve got too damn many books, and we want to share them with you, the loyal Tucson Weekly readership. We’ve got somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 books taking up valuable shelf space at Weekly World Central, and we want to give them away to…
TUSD Governing Board Executive Session-O-Rama
A final contract for Tucson Unified School District’s lone superintendent finalist isn’t the only contract that’s being discussed in the TUSD’s governing board’s continuing executive session meeting today at 4:30 p.m. A press release went out this morning that the meeting, first posted yesterday on TUSD’s website, would convene today to “consider the contract for…
Jade Beall’s ‘A Beautiful Body’ Project Considers the Beauty of Pregnancy
Jade Beall A Beautiful Body Project Jade Beall, co-founder of Fed By Threads latest project celebrates the changes made to a mother’s body after pregnancy. More than 50 mothers were photographed for the project. The book will also include written experiences of the photography subjects regarding their changing bodies. Beall’s project is already receiving a…
The New Nine Inch Nails Video Might Determine If You Have Epilepsy
Some things cannot be unseen. Some images burn into your brain so strongly they never go away, like staring at the sun for more than a millisecond. But in this case, instead of little spots all over your vision, there’s a fly-like creature, some weird piggish face and Trent Reznor shakily yelling at you. That…
New ‘PorchFest Armory Park’ Musical Event to Debut This Weekend
PorchFest will include 19 different musical acts on 12 different neighborhood porches. Take a stroll this weekend and immerse yourself in Tucson’s very first PorchFest, a community-based musical event that will take place in Armory Park Historic District on Sunday evening. Sponsored by the Downtown Tucson Partnership, Armory Park Neighborhood Association and participating musicians, artists…
Next Week’s ‘New Yorker’ Cover Celebrates the DOMA Decision With Bert and Ernie Cuddling
The New Yorker In light of this week’s landmark decision from the U.S. Supreme Court repealing major aspects of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, New Yorker magazine is celebrating with the kind of cover that validates many, many jokes about the sexual orientation of puppets. The New Yorker’s Culture Desk blog has this from…
Will Immigration Reform Pass the House of Representatives?
There’s been a lot of reaction to the Senate passage of the Gang of Eight’s comprehensive-immigration reform legislation, which won the votes of 68 senators after billions in spending on a “border surge” was added to the package. Congressman Raul Grijalva’s reaction: This is a time to move together on a bipartisan basis and really…
Love this Inside View on Wendy’s Filibuster (and Critique of National Media)
My spine is still tingling after watching Texas Sen. Wendy Davis’ filibuster on Tuesday and the aftermath of how it was covered (and not covered) by the national news. That said, I have to share this inside perspective that went up on the Good Men Project yesterday. A snippet: Yesterday, I witnessed women’s rights under…
[UPDATED] Solo To The Pacers, Grant To The Thunder: Hill Goes In First Round, Jerrett a Second Round Pick To Portland (Then Traded To Oklahoma City)
Solomon Hill is a first-round NBA Draft pick. And Grant Jerrett, against all odds, was taken in the second round, albeit after an Arizona State player. Hill, Arizona’s do-everything forward was taken 23rd overall by the Indiana Pacers, a team that took the Miami Heat to the brink in the NBA Eastern Conference finals and…
The Guys Who Made A Campy Movie About Moon Nazis Are Making A Sequel
If you’re not familiar with the 2012 film classic, Iron Sky, let me give you a quick synopsis: There are Moon Nazis. They try and take over the Earth. That’s it. That’s all you need to know, honestly — it’s a well done, decently acted, campy-as-hell take on an invasion film that does a heavy-handed…
After Complaints About Freeway Artwork at Prince Road Exit, AZDOT Fixes the Problem
A Thursday, June 20 blog post on Casa On and Off the Rez about a controversy over an Arizona Department of Transportation freeway art project on Interstate 10 at the Prince Road exit had the internets buzzing last week. From the blog: I just sent the following email to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT)…
Kore Press Needs Your Help to Celebrate 20 Years of Empowering Writing Women
Kore Press, the local publishing house dedicated to “lifting the voices of women and girls,” is celebrating 20 years publishing this year, and is doing so by publishing a multi-author “Best of 2012” book of poetry, showing the work of 36 women poets. The thing is, they need your help to get there. Currently, they’re…
CIR Passes Senate 68-32 Margin, Democrats Head to Showers to Clean Off that Nasty Feeling
Well the Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill passed the US Senate today in 68-32 margin after a bipartisan effort that was all about compromise — creating a 13-year path for citizenship while at the same time putting millions of dollars to increase Border Patrol presence and more because, as you know, that border is still an…
Anti-Militarization Rally Today, 4 p.m., Federal Courthouse
A decision by the U.S. Senate is expected today on the latest version of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. In response to the CIR’s increase in Border Patrol spending and additional surveillance — what some consider another tactic to further militarize the border — activists and organizers are holding an anti-militarization rally today, 4 p.m. at the…
A Texas SB 5 Update: Rick Perry Is Dragging The Bill Back From the Dead
Things don’t appear to be good for Texas’s Goddamn Hero, Filibusterin’ Wendy Davis and her fellow challengers to Texas’s Senate Bill 5, which would impose harsh restrictions on abortion clinics in the Lone Star State. Texas Governor (and former presidential candidate) Rick Perry has announced that there’s going to be a re-do, and that another…
Buddhist Film Series Starts Tonight At Fluxx
Travellers and Magicians is playing tonight at 6:30 at Fluxx, 414 E. 9th Street. The film is told from a Himalayan Buddhist perspective and runs just over an hour and a half. Members of Nalandabodhi, a local Buddhist study group, will lead a discussion after the film. The screening is the first in a four-part…
Cup Café Closing for Penny Polishing
The Cup Café in Hotel Congress will be temporarily closed starting this Sunday, while its famous penny floors get a facelift. Seems the Café floor was missing a little over a dollar and they are working with local coin shops to replace the missing copper with unique pennies to keep things interesting. The floor will…
Editor’s Note
It’s a little strange here on Tuesdays at Weekly headquarters when there’s live news happening somewhere. We spend most of the day getting the week’s issue together, proofing pages, adding last-minute copy, laying everything out, plus the normal office stuff that happens here most days, so it can be a little hectic. Just like an…
Feeling the Aftershocks
after the quake Presented by the Rogue Theatre 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; 2 p.m., Sunday, through June 30 300 E. University Blvd. $30 Runs 75 minutes, with no intermission 551-2053; theroguetheatre.org On Jan. 17, 1995, an earthquake registering 7.2 rocked the city of Kobe, Japan, killing more than 5,000 people and leaving 300,000…
Hard to Watch
Kenneth Shorr: Action Through Redaction Noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, through Sept. 15 $8; free for kids younger than 17, veterans, active military and public safely officers. Free to all on the last Sunday of the month, including this Sunday, June 30 MOCA-Tucson 265 S. Church Ave. 624-5019; www.moca-tucson.org EXTRA: Chico MacMurtrie, whose…
True TV
You Should Watch It Maron Friday, June 28 (IFC) Season Finale: Marc Maron’s (hopefully) exaggerated version of his WTF podcast and daily life started as pretty good, developed into potentially-great around the middle and ends better than even Maron himself likely imagined—plus, he got to sleep with an impressive array of “podcast groupies” along the…
Soundbites
Well, it’s summer, so the music calendar isn’t chock full this week, but what we do have in town is more than worth the price of admission.
Guest Commentary
No serious observers of the political scene take what they see and hear from politicians at face value. That’s why political junkies like me pore over newspaper articles and check the pundits’ latest analyses to divine what’s really going on in that dark, murky world. But when it comes to the TUSD school board, too…
Pedersen on Sports
The NBA playoffs mercifully came to a conclusion last week, ending two months’ worth of easily the most unimpressive display of basketball you can find. The plague has lifted, people. Go off and live your lives as you wish. But despite this newfound freedom, I found myself hunkered down in a high school basketball gym…
Mailbag
Readers remember Ira Andrews … Mr. Smith strikes a nerve … and more!
The Skinny
This week in The Skinny, it’s all border news, all the time!
Bodies in the Desert
On June 21, Border Patrol agents flying over the Southern Arizona desert spotted two bodies and three small bundles lying on the ground near Quijotoa, west of Tucson. The agents called Tohono O’odham police, who went to the remote spot a couple miles off state Route 86 and found two dead men and three bundles…
T Q&A
Charlotte Gillis was tired of feeling guilty about selling exotic reptiles such as baby boas and baby monitor lizards to people who didn’t really understand how to care for them. She’d get panicked calls from the new pet owners, and often the lizards or snakes would come back to the store with a new set…
Messina
It’s another hot evening in the Old Pueblo as you sit in your air-conditioned home, drinking a cold beverage while watching satellite television. Suddenly the TV goes off, the lights fade to black and all appliances stop running. Normally, service is repaired in a few hours, but what if it takes days, weeks or months?…
Media Watch
A Tucson anchor leaves for greener pastures … and an online rivalry draws real-world consequences.
Ask a Mexican!
The Mexican tackles the differences between civic and national pride; and deals with an issue of ethnic immersion.
Danehy
Way back when we were kids, the three scourges of the playground were The Bully, The Snitch and The Yobbit. By the time we reached adulthood, there weren’t many bullies left. Most had had their asses beaten, not by other bullies, but by former victims who had grown into bodies (and temperaments) that allowed them…
Creation From Contrast
The forces pulling Mikal Cronin in different directions all find a place on his second album. Loud, quiet, light, dark, intense and tender, the disparate feelings that play out inside his head are all translated—both lyrically and musically—onto an album that sparkles, unsurprisingly, with both pop perfection and edgy, chaotic noise. “The heaviest theme is…
Walking the Line
Why Walls Won’t Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide By Michael Dear Oxford University Press $29.95; 270 pages On his new book, Why Walls Won’t Work: Repairing the US-Mexico Divide, Michael Dear, a professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley, writes that people have a tendency to think of the borders…
Live
Locals Outlaw Rebels describe themselves on their Facebook page as “kick ass rockabilly.” If a sound and style not unlike Buddy Holly via The Smiths is kick ass rockabilly, then Outlaw Rebels fit the bill. This quintet, led by the charismatic singer “Jammin'” Jim Wilson, leans towards the romantic, swooning brand of late ’50s and…
Top Ten in Books
1. Jack Holmes & His Friend: A Novel Edmund White ($16) 2. The Midwife of Hope River: A Novel of an American Midwife Patricia Harman ($14.99) 3. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls David Sedaris ($27) 4. Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris ($7.99) 5. Flight Behavior: A Novel…
Top Ten in Cinema
1. Identity Thief 2. Oz the Great and Powerful 3. Jack the Giant Slayer 4. A Good Day to Die Hard 5. Warm Bodies 6. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters 7. Quartet 8. 21 & Over 9. Snitch 10. Stoker
Nine Questions
A 1998 inductee into the TAMMIES Hall of Fame and a Tucson Musicians Museum honoree, Chuck “Wagon” Maultsby is presenting the Music on the Mountain series at Summerhaven Saturday afternoons this summer, performing with his band and Ned Sutton and the Last Dance on July 6. For more info, visit www.chuckmaultsby.net. What was the first…
Jessica Campbell: The Anchor & the Sail (1-2-3-4 GO!)
Caught between pop and a twang place, Nashville singer-songwriter Jessica Campbell gives us a sophomore album that accomplishes everything that Taylor Swift’s bland and inexplicably popular music does, but with more character and charm. Campbell writes near-perfect blends of power-pop and country, and sings them in a gorgeous soprano that is rich and warm, seasoned…
Historic Effort
Morgan Maxwell Jr. can still remember when Fort Huachuca Mountain View Colored Officers Club was built back in 1942 because African-Americans weren’t welcome in the same room as white officers. “There was a white officers’ club and a black officers’ club,” Maxwell says. “Just like there was a colored officers’ swimming pool and a white…
Top Ten in Music
1. Dead Moon Stranded in the Mystery Zone 2. Dead Moon Strange Pray Tell 3. Ex-Cowboy Ex-Cowboy 4. Monster Pussy In Heat! 5. ACxDC / Magnum Force / Sex Prisoner Split 10″ 6. Various Artists Wake Up Dead 7. Swamp Wolf The Brilliance of a Feral Mind 8. Sabertooth Snatch Sabertooth Snatch 9. Propagandhi Today’s…
Smith Westerns: Soft Will (Mom + Pop)
The “soft” in Soft Will signals its mood (just as Smith Westerns’ sophomore title, Dye It Blonde, connoted that album’s Garnier Nutrisse-style light scuzziness). This is indeed a downy record, each song blown in a light zephyr. There’s little of the band’s former glamminess on “Glossed,” a sugary slice of dream pop that seemingly wants…
Cruel, But Not Unusual
A narrow road shadows the outer fence at Arizona’s state prison in Tucson. Composed of light gravel, always raked smooth, the lane is a blank palette for the footprints of escape. Yet much of this complex holds only petty offenders—short-termers, really—for whom such capers would seem pointless. But it seems even they can face a…
Skinny Lister: Forge & Flagon (Side One Dummy)
Alternately rambunctious and tender, Skinny Lister play a distinctly English brand of folk music. And calling on the traditions rooted in taverns and busking, this is music to crowd around and join in. The band’s own biography describes Skinny Lister as “not your average, modern day, gentrified English folk group” and indeed, the band’s debut,…
The Other Mom
Like many gays and lesbians across the country, Suzan McLaughlin is waiting for history to be made and rights protected. The Supreme Court is expected to decide any day now on California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, but those decisions won’t help McLaughlin’s current battle, which involves gay and lesbian parents…
Noshing Around
‘Vegetable Forward’ Restaurant Coming A new restaurant is slated to open this fall at 330 E. Seventh St. According to its Facebook page, the Ascension Café will be “a vegetable forward, plant-based, seed-to-table, community supported restaurant” that will feature fresh produce from Avalon Organic Gardens & EcoVillage in Tumacacori. The café aims to use as…
Cheap Tacos and Cold Beer
Calle Tepa 6151 E. Broadway Blvd. 777-5962; www.calletepa.com Open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday Pluses: Inexpensive beer and tacos; friendly atmosphere; quick service Minuses: Some of the food is bland and underseasoned; full bar and draft beer not always available Every neighborhood should have a little hangout that serves cheap tacos and…
City Week
Dancing for horseback riding therapy … a classic of Spanish-language cinema … the history of Arizona, in music … and a look at art pieced together, bit by bit.
A Work in Progress
For many people, the term research is often associated with fieldwork, data collection or laboratories. But for crew members aboard SHUTTLE, it means something entirely different—mobile performance desert art. The collaborative research project began last Monday when eight international artists, researchers, designers and performers set out on a journey across the American Southwest. Traveling in…
Delightful, Not Daring
If anyone has laurels to rest on, it’s Pixar. After nearly 20 years of releasing the smartest, most rewarding family movies (not counting the somnambulant Cars amid its creative highlights), Pixar has been operating on cruise control of late. The last excellent film in the company’s canon is Up, and then came Toy Story 3,…
Police Dispatch
Messy car thieves can’t escape the law … and a sad shoplifter needs to feel pretty.
Leave Before the End
With World War Z, we are getting two-thirds of a halfway decent movie. It has a helluva start, and an even better middle, making it seem like it’s going to deliver the big summer goods. Then, in its final act, it totally craps out. Too bad, because I was looking to Brad Pitt’s zombie movie…
