Jun 6-12, 2013

Jun 6-12, 2013 / Vol. 30 / No. 16

Cover Story

Following Their Footsteps

Everyone in our group of 52 people wakes up at 3 a.m. It’s Thursday, May 30, and we are at a campsite on the northern edge of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, approximately 25 miles from the international border and 40 miles southwest of Tucson. The group is used to getting up early, but…

Antenori on Special Session: “The Base Is Furious. This Is Awesome!”

RT @azfrag @exjon They are not RINO’s they are slime and out of the slime emerges the new Socialist Caucus in Arizona. #azright #azgop— Frank Antenori (@FrankAntenori) June 12, 2013 Update from the special session at the Arizona Legislature: Lawmakers from both parties are putting together amendments on the state budget plan and Medicaid expansion…

Tango for Sex and Social Justice

Argentine tango, its apparent world domination and what it all means is the topic of tonight’s UA Confluencenter event from 5:30 to 7 p.m., at Playground Bar and Lounge, 278 E. Congress. Dr. Melissa Fitch illustrates a world tour of Tango, and how it has influenced different cultures, in “Global Tangos: Adventures in the Transnational…

An Evocative Story for the Romantics and Historians

Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or a history buff, “Finding Frances…Love Letters from a Flight Lieutenant” by Catherine Harris, is sure to spark your interest. Known as “English Cathy” to most, Harris described her first book as a “labor of love,” inspired by her Uncle, Eric Hutchin, a flight lieutenant, who fell in love with…

Greg Byrne, Please Don’t Let This Happen

Count me among the Arizona football followers who are on board with most of the uniform changes to come down the pike of late, most notably the copper helmets and red jerseys. Let me reiterate: most of the changes. But if the freakish A-logo-infused helmet face masks that are circulating the interwebs become an actual…

The Nuns On The Bus Are In Tucson Today

Today at 6 p.m. NETWORK’s Nuns on the Bus will be in Tucson along with the Office of Congressman Raúl Grijalva for an event focused on immigration reform. This will be at the Pascua Yaqui Nation, Albert D. Garcia Justice Center, 7777 S. Camino Huivisim, Bldg C, West on Valencia Rd to Yaqui Nation, south…

An Insane Person Created an 80,000 Volt Thor Hammer

Presenting your latest dose of “The Internet is Weird”: using a tesla coil, foam, leather and a whole bunch of crazy, a man created a replica of Thor’s hammer that generates 80,000 volts of electricity. While it’s fun watching that man go all Uncle Fester with light bulbs, I have to wonder what the possible…

Recent Proposal To Remove Protection For Wolves A Bad Move

The Obama Administration has recently announced a proposal to lift most federal protections for gray wolves across the lower 48 states. An article from ABC by the Associated Press reads: “State and federal agencies have spent more than $117 million restoring the predators since they were added to the endangered species list in 1974. Today…

TUSD Announces Superintendent Finalist

On Saturday, the Tucson Unified School District governing board met to go over 10 potential candidates for the district’s superintendent position. During tonight’s special meeting, the board announced a finalist was selected — H.T. Sanchez, who currently works as interim superintendent at Ector County Independent School District in Odessa, Texas. According to a district press…

Kickstart a Portable Planetarium

If you went to Phoenix Comicon, you might already be familiar with Lauren Ard— or, as she hopes to be known around town, the planetarium lady. Ard is a former middle school science teacher who wanted to bring the night sky into her classroom. Field trips were too expensive for the school and the students,…

For Your Document Viewing Pleasure: TUSD Deseg Budget Filings, Responses

In this week’s issue, we promised to post the current filings before US District Court Judge David Bury from Tucson Unified School District on the deseg budget, as well as responses from the Mendoza and Fisher plaintiffs representing Mexican-American and African-American students, as well as the US Department of Justice. TUSD deseg budget filing: TUSD_s_Notice_of_Adoption_of_Deseg_Budget.pdf…

Some Vet Says that Medical Marijuana Is OK For Pets

If you’re one of the folks who is behind our continued employment of medical marijuana guy J.M. Smith (i.e., you’re not one of the folks Tom Danehy talks to on the regular), this should be relevant to your interests: a veterinarian thinks is OK for you to get your pet high — for medicinal purposes…

Music at the Red Garter? It’s a 99 Percent Perspiration Thing

When I learned the Austin, TX band Shurman would play a half block from my house in a bar that never has music, it seemed providential. Like cosmic UPS delivery. I almost expected a comet over the Red Garter, or roses raising its foundation. Humble but mighty, the restaurant and bar has a main room…

Music at the Red Garter? It’s a 99 Percent Perspiration Thing

When I learned the Austin, TX band Shurman would play a half block from my house in a bar that never has music, it seemed providential. Like cosmic UPS delivery. I almost expected a comet over the Red Garter, or roses raising its foundation. Humble but mighty, the restaurant and bar has a main room…

Creating Cool Nighttime Color in Your Desert Potted Garden

Marylee, Potted Desert Gardener White Potted Summer Garden Dark colored flowers disappear with the onset of dusk, while white flowering plants still shine. There are many plants that are geared to the night -blooming exclusively at night, releasing their fragrance into the twilight. When creating a night garden, consider what part of your garden would…

Four Years, More Than 1,300 Children Detained in Adult Facilities

A young child and his mother wait in a US border detention center before being returned to their home country. Mother Jones/Bill Gentile/Zuma Yesterday’s article in Mother Jones on the numbers of children detained with adults apprehended by Border Patrol has made its way through the internets, really only justifying border activists’ concerns over the…

Your Handy Guide to the 2013 Senate Immigration Bill

If you’re human — Republican, Democrat, tea bagger or Independent — you need help when it comes to understanding the extensive and massive 2013 Senate Immigration Bill. The good folks you may love or hate at the Immigration Policy Center recently released an online guide to the bill, and wow, it really is easy-to-understand. At…

Wait, We’re Still Giving Jonah Lehrer Money to Write Things?

You might not remember Jonah Lehrer. After all, it’s only been ten months or so since he was publicly discredited for recycling his own material, making up quotes and plagarizing others in the midst of a burst of fame as the young, smart guy who creates a strawman declaring that people think one way, when…

Neko Case Has a New Album Coming Out or Whatever

I understand that there are people who enjoy the music of Neko Case, even if I’m still holding a deep, mildly irrational grudge against her more than three years after her “social vampires” rant in the New York Times Magazine, so here’s a teaser for her new album, the ungainly titled The Worse Things Get,…

James T. Harris’s Followers Have An Unsettling Obsession With Racism

If you read this week’s Editor’s Note or Dan Gibson’s blog post yesterday, you might have noticed that there appears to be a slight, uh, “disagreement” between local conservative talk show host James T. Harris and the editor of Tucson Weekly, a conclusion to which Harris is trying to duck like Floyd Mayweather did Manny…

Here’s a Strange 80’s Music Video for Your Enjoyment

It’s Friday, so what better way to celebrate than with the music of Montreal-based husband and wife synth-dance act Lime’s “Babe We’re Gonna Love Tonight”? A selection from the band’s fascinating Wikipedia entry: Lime was a synthpop group from Montréal, Canada, during the 1980s. The group was composed of husband and wife Denis and Denyse…

‘La Industria’ Debuts Online Tonight at 9

LuisCarlos Davis’ first documentary, 369 Miles: Living the Border, was a well-received documentary that Davis put a lot of his heart into as someone who grew up on both sides of the border. Tonight at 9 p.m. you can see Davis’ next work, La Industria, which makes its online debut on his production company’s YouTube…

Former PCC Interim Chancellor Calls It Quits

Suzanne Miles, a Pima Community College administrator who took the reins as interim chancellor from Chancellor Roy Flores for 14 months during the college’s most difficult period, announced her retirement via press release last night. In March, during the Higher Learning Commission investigation that led to the college’s current probation, Miles stepped down from her…

Grijalva: NSA Phone-Record Grab “A Serious Breach of Faith Between the Federal Government and the American People”

Congressman Raul Grijalva isn’t happy with the disclosure that the National Security Agency has been sweeping telephone metadata—or records of who calls whom, in plain English. Press release from Grijalva’s office today: Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today called the National Security Agency’s overreaching domestic surveillance programs “a serious breach of faith between the federal government…

Here’s a Documentary About a Remake of the Opening Credits of “Hart to Hart”

For some reason, Adam Scott, funny person from Party Down, Step Brothers and, currently, Parks and Recreation, has been making fifteen minute long faux-documentaries about remaking credit sequences from 80’s television shows lately for the cable-channel-within-a-channel Adult Swim. Last time, it was a remarkable shot-by-shot re-creation of the theme to the Gerald McRaney vehicle Simon…

You Can Go See Lumberjacks Chop Stuff This Weekend

DLW TIMBERWORKS LUMBERJACK SHOW from Capitol International Production on Vimeo. The Lodge Sasquatch Kitchen is hosting an interesting event Saturday and Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm, benefiting Jared Allen’s Home for Wounded Warriors. DLW Timberworks is bringing a lumberjack show to the Lodge’s Foothills Mall parking lot. You might have seen these sort…

Possibly the Best Part of This Week’s ‘Weekly’

Sure, there’s a lot of great stuff in this week’s issue, including what I think is a great cover story by Todd Miller, but probably my favorite item is a small ad in the classified, placed by Congress’ legendary bartender, Tiger, following his 80th birthday celebration. The text, in case the image above isn’t working…

James T. Harris, Let’s Talk About Your Feelings On Air

I’m really on a roll here with online feuds lately, strangely with two near-polar opposites ideologically … first with the fine people of the anti-Monsanto movement, now with local afternoon talk show host, James T. Harris. Here’s the chronology as I see it: 1. On his blog, James T. Harris included the Weekly as conspirators…

Finally, We Announce the Winner of the Tucson Weekly Celebrity Showdown

Hey, remember our March Madness-esque Tucson Weekly Celebrity Showdown, in which we pitted various members of the Tucson community against each other in what amounted to be a silly popularity contest? Well, the finals came down to the Old Pueblo’s very own celebrity chef, Janos Wilder against Tucson’s symbol of hope and resilience, Gabrielle Giffords.…

Taking the Felony Penalty Away From Prostitution

Plenty of local folks will tell you there are many and better ways to approach the sex work industry and sex workers. There are advocates who want to start by making prostitution legal, while others say the best approach is to stop criminalizing prostitutes and figure out ways to steer men and women from prostitution.…

Artists in the Spotlight

Each year the Tucson Pima Arts Council hosts the Lumies in an attempt to honor local artists of all kinds, but more importantly to bring the many kinds of art Tucson has to offer into focus. “I think people don’t realize how rich the local arts are,” Emily Düwel, the organization’s communications manager, said. “It’s…

Noshing Around

Sentinel Peak reaches their Kickstarter goal … Edible Baja Arizona nears publication … and more!

City Week

March Into the Past Take a Step into 1846 Tucson History 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 8 Fort Lowell Museum 2900 N. Craycroft Road 885-3832; arizonahistoricalsociety.org Step back into the past and march with the Mormon Battalion this Saturday. It will be your chance to experience what happened as the Mormon Battalion infantry…

Two Men and a Tape Machine

Don’t call Cincinnati’s Bad Veins a duo. Though singer-songwriter-keyboardist-guitarist Benjamin Davis and drummer Jake Bonta make up the living, breathing part of the indie-pop band, Bad Veins wouldn’t be complete without Irene, the vintage reel-to-reel tape player that supplies backing tracks. “She’s very huge in Bad Veins,” says Bonta. “She brings an aesthetic that I…

T Q&A

Rae Strozzo, transgender visual artist, photographer, writer and educator, is showcasing his latest collection of work in a gallery showing at Fluxx Productions from June 3 to June 29. The show focuses on the recent loss of his dad through a series of cell phone photos and a video piece taken in Georgia. On June…

Mandolin Master

David Grisman Bluegrass Experience in concert 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 8 Fox Tucson Theatre 17 W. Congress St. Tickets cost $25 to $55 547-3040; foxtucsontheater.org From Old and in the Way to NPR’s Car Talk, from the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty to his collaborations with mandolinist-clarinetist Andy Statman, David Grisman and his mandolin have seemed…

In the Golden Grass

Desert Grasslands 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, with extended hours until 8 p.m. Thursday, through Sunday, July 7 Tucson Museum of Art 140 N. Main Ave. $10 adults; $8 age 65 and up; $5 students with ID; free to members, children 18 and younger, military and veterans. Free to all first Sunday…

Soundbites

Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson bring their shock-rock acts to AVA … Brother Dege makes his way to Tucson … the Geto Boys play the Rialto … and more!

Top Ten in Music

1. Boogie Nazis No Coast 2. ACxDC//Magnum Force//Sex Prisoner 10″ split 3. Various Artists Wake Up Dead (Featuring Sex Prisoner and The Repos) 4. Various Artists Dune Drift (Topaz Tundra compilation) 5. Os Mutantes Os Mutantes 6. Birthday Party Welcome to the Car Smash 7. NOFX Longest Line 8. Propagandhi Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes 9.…

Summer Pageturners

Newspaper people are capable of debating almost anything to death, and one great topic of debate around these parts has been this: Do people still read fiction? I can’t speak for all people, but the folks I run with still read fiction with great zeal. My BFF, for example, spent one recent summer reading what…

Live

I’m deeply infatuated with the music of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Their live performances showcase the essence of a great rock ‘n’ roll show to such a ridiculous degree, I have felt the need to see them nine times—all over the western U.S.—in the past decade. I’m not alone. See them once, and you’ll be…

Editor’s Note

• We’re in the midst of working on a redesign of the print version of the Tucson Weekly this week, which is not just an excuse for me to read magazines at home and pretend that its research, but also a time to think about how we can keep the elements of the paper that…

Nine Questions

Originally from Southern California, Julio Pena has called Tucson home for six years. Host of “Hex Enduction Hours” on 91.3 FM KXCI, Best of Tucson® staff pick in 2012 and three hours of the best punk, post-punk, and noise-rock from the US/UK and beyond, every Thursday night/Friday a.m. from midnight to 3 a.m. Pena is…

Danehy

OK, I realize that the Weekly has a Sports Guy and a Weed Guy, but, without infringing too much on their respective domains, there are just a couple things I have to mention. Before I get started, I have to note a shift in the wind out in the world. For years, the biggest and…

Top Ten in Books

1. Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Dr. Seuss ($17.99) 2. Poems to Learn by Heart Caroline Kennedy ($19.99) 3. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald ($15) 4. Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls David Sedaris ($21.60, sale) 5. Inferno Dan Brown ($29.95) 6. Clockwork Angel Cassandra Clare ($12.99) 7. The Schwa Was Here Neal Schusterman ($6.99)…

Sun Bones: Sentinel Peak (Self-Released)

This remarkable local band—formerly known as Boreas—was voted best up-and-coming artist in last year’s Tucson Area Music Awards (aka the TAMMIES), and this new full-length CD delivers on that promise. Sun Bones have the uncanny ability to play in many different styles, as is evidenced in their frantic in-concert performances. This CD comes pretty darn…

Serraglio

To adapt a well-known saying, “Cook for a man, and you feed him for a day. Teach him to cook, and he can feed himself for a lifetime.” Or, to parse it to modern Tucson terms, “Primavera Cooks!” That’s right, it’s time for the Primavera Foundation’s 12th annual summer dining event, which plays out at…

A Challenge to Survive

Will Smith plays Royal King Douche of All Douchebags in director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest travesty, the unwatchable, intolerable, totally stink-able After Earth. Conceived by Smith (he gets a story credit) as a project for himself and his son Jaden (they were cute together in The Pursuit of Happyness), the Smiths are cast as a…

The National: Trouble Will Find Me (4AD)

“I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in a park,” Matt Berninger bellows near the end of the lovely “Pink Rabbits,” a song that seems to tumble out from its lugubrious, wobbly piano melody. The lyric serves as a litmus test. If you appreciate Berninger’s ability to sincerely peddle such winking…

Signature Effort

The latest wrinkle in the effort to stop Gov. Jan Brewer from expanding Arizona’s Medicaid program is a proposed referendum that would put the program on hold until voters had a chance to approve it in November 2014. Former state lawmaker Frank Antenori has announced plans to lead the referendum effort along with fellow hard-right…

Eleanor Friedberger: Personal Record (Merge)

Eleanor Friedberger’s solo debut, Last Summer, came out two summers ago. It was a ruminative 90 minutes of pop songwriting filtered through a lens of prog-funk that took a few listens to warm up to. By comparison, Personal Record sounds almost like radio-pop. It’s downright jaunty, as if Friedberger were scoring her own dance-party episode…

Truth and Consequences

They are the mystery ships of our borderland highways, embarked upon covert voyages across a barren and treacherous desert. Only in distant ports do they finally alight, these enormous buses with their darkly tinted windows, and their human cargo slated for return to Mexico. According to the federal government, such passages have a purpose: Each…

Window Dressing

Even without the context, most of us can recognize Jackie Kennedy’s pink pillbox hat and where she was when we saw it. The matching suit that accompanied it is locked in government storage for another 90 years, but the hat has been missing since Dallas, 1963. What fewer people know (or remember, at any rate),…

Judgment Matters

There’s been no word from U.S. District Judge David C. Bury on TUSD’s desegregation budget that was filed May 8 in federal court, followed by hundreds of pages filed in response from the plaintiffs representing Latino and African-American students as well as from the U.S. Department of Justice. When Tucson Unified School District governing board…

Top Ten in Cinema

1. Cloud Atlas 2. Side Effects 3. Jack Reacher 4. Stand Up Guys 5. The Last Stand 6. Beautiful Creatures 7. Mama 8. Safe Haven 9. True Blood: Season 5, disk 1 10. Dark Skies

True TV

You Should Watch It Burn Notice, Graceland Thursday, June 6 (USA) Season Premiere, Series Debut: Since they’ve now blown up everything in Miami and costar Gabrielle Anwar is desperate to taste carbs again, Season 7 will be the last for Burn Notice—yeah, I thought it would go on forever, too. At the end of last…

The Skinny

Regina Romero pulls her support for the Grand Canyon University/El Rio deal … We learn that Cap’n Al Melvin doesn’t speak for the trees … we look into the now-locked-in Tucson City Council races … and more!

Truck Stop Treat

Omar’s Hi-Way Chef 5451 E. Benson Highway 574-0961 Open 24 hours Pluses: Giant portions, including the desserts; surprisingly good breakfasts Minuses: Skipable soup; almost a truck stop diner cliché Omar’s Hi-Way Chef is almost too real to be real. If you were making a movie about a diner and wanted to shoot on location, you…

Pedersen On Sports

The mythical ice that blankets the Santa Cruz River each Tucson “winter” cracked and broke free just after noon last Saturday, marking the official start to a storied pastime for many locals: bitching and moaning about how fricking hot it is, in a place they chose to live despite knowing how freaking hot it is.…

Police Dispatch

Three drunk guys don’t care if a cop fought for their freedom … and taking car vandalism to new, uh, “heights.”

Bar Fight

Two lawyers walk into a bar. Then the lawsuits start flying, and nobody gets to have any fun drinking, because the lawyers are throwing briefs around like bar stools and screaming at the judge to throw that motherfucker out of here, because he’s drunk and he’s spilling drinks all over everyone. So the drunk motherfucker…


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