Cover Story
An Analog Experience
On any given evening, in the middle of any given week, just off of Fourth Avenue, you might stumble across the editors of Spork Press as they dutifully work on their next set of printings. They might have music blaring out of the carport in which they work while they press ink onto boards using…
Tucson Needs a Comic Book Vending Machine
Comic books weren’t hard to find growing up. I remember buying comics at swap meets, yard sales, grocery stores and gas stations. This particular kind of reading material left those racks and became novelty items you can only find in specialty shops, so the popularity in the funny business took a sharp decline with a…
Watch the Kitty Quasar Movie and Win Tickets to Glitter Ball
Photo courtesy of Kitty Quasar. Have you ever tasted the hair from Uranus? There’s a happy place where everyone is dancing, drinking and glitter is EVERYWHERE. Kitty Quasar and his motley crew from Uranus are back, and they want to give you free tickets to Glitter Ball. The long awaited extravaganza is taking place on…
Friday Vigil Planned for Carlos La Madrid at El Tiradito Shrine
According to a press release from La Coalición de Derechos Humanos and Border Action Network, the late Carlos La Madrid’s mother Guadalupe Guerrero has requested a vigil to bring attention to the tragic border events. The vigil is Friday, March 21, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the El Tiradito Shrine, 400 S. Main…
CODAC LGBT Community Health Center Opens this Summer
Rumors no more! A LGBTQ-focused health and wellness clinic will open at 3130 E. Broadway early this summer, according to an email from CODAC Behavioral Health Services. The Living Out Loud Health and Wellness Center will provide wellness services, traditional behavioral health treatment as well as primary care for children and youth age 6 and…
The Dream Is Gone: Arizona Basketball Makes Sports Illustrated Cover
As a No. 1 seed, Arizona is considered one of the favorites to win the NCAA tournament (Bovada gives the Wildcats 9-to-1 odds, fourth-best in the field) and has the kind of lineup that can bring home another title. But no amount of talent and not even the most favorable of draws can compensate for…
Why Are Arizona Lawmakers So Conservative?
Harry Enten at Nate Silver’s new 538.com site looks at why Arizona lawmakers are so much more conservative than Arizona voters: But the legislature’s conservatism is out of step with the people it governs. Voters in Arizona are more in favor of abortion and gay rights than the nation as a whole, and only a…
Stylin’: Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta, for NPR at SXSW
Somewhere between the mambo and the cumbia, NPR Music picked up on the sartorial side of the y la Orkesta tribe. A.J. Wilhelm shot this GQ-worthy photo series, which wound up in a nifty Instagram bundle. //instagram.com/p/lnpb5Glbi2 The photos were taken at an in-store performance at Friends and Neighbors, a lifestyle boutique on boho-trendy East…
The Coronet Plans Soft Opening During Fourth Avenue Street Fair
Photo by Henry Barajas The Coronet will have a soft opening this weekend starting at 10 a.m. Friday, March 21. Good news for Tucson foodies: The Coronet is coming. The Brasserie-style restaurant located in the historic Coronado building at 402 E. Ninth St., near North Fourth Avenue announced on its Facebook page that there will…
U.S. Rep. Ron Barber Returns From Trip to Afghanistan
Courtesy Office of Congressman Ron Barber Congressman Ron Barber meets with Maj. Gen. Gregg Potter, deputy chief of staff of Intelligence for the International Security Assistance Force, delivers salsa from Tucson Tamale Company Congressman Ron Barber is on his way back to the states after a quick visit to Afghanistan to meet with troops and…
Fox News Affiliate Flashes a Dick Pic on Live TV (NSFW)
Thankfully, the world is focusing their efforts on another news station for its eye opening coverage and forgotten all about Paul Cicala’s fall. Denver’s Fox affiliate KDVR was reporting the horrific helicopter crash in Seattle on Tuesday morning and accidentally flashed of a twit-dick-pic on live television. KDVR has had the video removed from Youtube,…
Andrew Jackson Jihad & Friends to Perform Benefit Show at New Tanline Studio
Photo courtesy of Tanline Press. Joe Marshall and the Tanline Press crew have moved their business to the City of South Tucson. You know you’re on the south side when you can see a giant Food City sign from your doorstep. The new location accommodates their printing production needs, and makes for a good space…
To Picket or Not Picket: Westboro Baptist Church Founder Now on Deathbed
Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps made a life of calling his followers to hate and thought it was perfectly Christian to show up and picket funerals for war veterans and members of the LGBT community while holding signs that read, “God Hates Fags.” News that the father of hate is now in hospice has…
Seattle Helicopter Crash Kills Two
This morning an ABC news affiliate KOMO helicopter in Seattle crashed at Broad Street near the Space Needle striking two vehicles below. The Seattle Fire Department confirmed two dead in the charred wreckage. A third victim was rushed to Harborview Medical Center with critical injuries. Fuel from the vehicles caught fire shooting up huge flames…
The Dap Kings Are Doing a DJ Set at Zia Speedway Thursday
We’ve tried our best here at the Weekly to help you with your life choices and get you to the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings show this Thursday at the Rialto (here, here and here), but at this point, if we haven’t swayed you, we give up. Live your life, even in wildly erroneous ways.…
Paul Cicala Speed Walks Into Unfortunate Internet Fame
It’s not everyday that one of our local news outlets makes the Internet’s front page of embarrassing moments on live television section. KVOA News 4 reporter Paul Cicala decided to “speed walk” towards the MGM Grand Garden Arena after signing-off on Friday afternoon, but Cicala tripped and fell while the feed was still live. At…
SXSW: The Wrap-Up
I’m back from SXSW, in the comfort of my home, with my feet up on the footstool and a hot cup o’ joe in my hand. Here’s a run-down on some of the bands I caught over the last couple of days. Over at the Thrasher Death Match party at the Scoot Inn, I caught…
RIP, Ralph Gonzalez
Today, there are some people grieving and celebrating the life of Ralph Gonzalez. Gonzalez’s funeral took place at St. Margaret’s off Grande Avenue in Barrio Hollywood this morning. The Tucson Weekly wants to extend our sympathies to Gonzalez’s friends and family, including his daughter, Julie Gallego, founder and director of Viva Performing Arts. Weekly contributor…
Topaz Tucson Done as a Venue
The eclectic music/art venue Topaz Tucson will no longer host live musical performances after April. Topaz founders Joel and Krysta Leshefka announced the news on Temple of Cairo early Monday. The independent venue has been a major catalyst for various local bands including Prom Body: When we opened, Tucson didn’t really have a space dedicated…
Here’s Your “Tucson Sucks” Article of the Week
Image courtesy of Shutterstock In case you don’t feel like spending your time reading Doug MacEachern’s Sunday column for the Arizona Republic entitled “Tucson, where bad fiscal ideas thrive”, here’s a quick summary: • Speedway is ugly. • There’s a lot of traffic in Tucson, but not all that many cars and nowhere to go,…
UA Journalism Student Could Use Your Help Getting to Cambodia
One of the benefits of writing for the Tucson Weekly is working with a new group of interns every semester. Last year, working with UA journalism senior Noelle Haro-Gomez was, well, like working with family. I’ve gotten to know other interns over the years and watched them go on to do amazing work for us…
Tucson’s Rand Carlson One of 7 Arizona Artists Selected to Create Governor’s Arts Awards Awards
It was recently announced that Tucson’s “Tin Man” (and Tucson Weekly contributor) Rand Carlson, local painter Don Carter and glass artist Paul Anders-Stout are three of seven regional artists who’ve created awards for each of the 33rd annual Governor’s Arts Awards. There are six categories and the Shelley Award to be presented on Tuesday, March…
Photos: Tucson Festival of Books 2014
Alan Davis The Tucson Festival of Books kicked off on Saturday March 15th, 2014. Alan Davis The Chinese Lion Dance costumes were brought out to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Alan Davis The young man’s eyes never left his yo-yo as it twirled through the air. Alan Davis Panelists answered questions about conflicts around the…
John Huppenthal: Unfit To Serve?
How badly did Ed Supe John Huppenthal screw up when he made a robocall urging parents to yank their kids out of public schools and put them in private schools “for free” (meaning, on the taxpayers’ dime)? Badly enough he issued a public apology at the State Board of Ed meeting and sent a letter…
The Food Truck Diaries: Banh Mi Edition
How do you make the perfect Vietnamese banh mi sandwich? That’s a question Linh Nguyen, owner of the new food truck Vina Baguette, is uniquely qualified to answer. “Well, 50 percent is the baguette you use. I get mine from La Baguette on Pantano,” Nguyen said today. “And you have to marinate the meat for…
Tucson Should Really Have a Choir That Meets in Bars
I’m not entirely sure how I stumbled upon them, but for the last few months, I’ve been following the Toronto group Choir! Choir! Choir! on Youtube and Soundcloud. The concept is pretty simple: people get together and sing indie-friendly songs together. The group has covered songs by Haim (above), Erasure, Robyn, Big Star, Daft Punk…
“Captain Al” Melvin Toeing the Line on Campaign Ethics
On Sen. Al Melvin’s (R-Tucson) legislative bio, there is a sentence that directs readers to www.votealmelvin.com in order to contact him. That website is a violation of campaign ethics according to Sen. Steve Gallardo (D-Phoenix). “It’s definitely illegal for him to utilize the state website to promote his gubernatorial campaign so it should definitely be…
Article About RAW: Natural Born Artists Might Confirm What You Thought About the Organization
It’s been awhile since RAW Tucson hosted an event here in town (the last one I see was in November at Club Congress and the organization’s website for says our location is currently “coming soon”), but for awhile, every time there was a RAW event, someone in the arts community would ask me what I…
Finally, Music That Doesn’t Suck at a Bowling Alley
I’m sure it’ll be just like this tonight at Golden Pin Photo courtesy of Shutterstock As someone who has had all the jobs, I used to work at a local bowling center ages ago. It wasn’t the worst experience as a whole as far as crappy low-paying service gigs go, but the worst part of…
A Delayed Endorsement: The TLDR Podcast
There are media topics I’m generally ahead of the curve on (promising indie bands from Australia, trivia games for the iPhone, a few others), but I guess I’m a little out of the loop on the podcast beat. I listen to podcasts on my way home sometimes, but I don’t really seek out new stuff…
“Imagine Learning” Bill HB2485 Is an ALEC Model-Bill Clone
(Hat tip to Lisa Hoffman, Arizona’s best source of information about Arizona-ALEC Model Bill connections.) This is the third try for a bill giving “Imagine Learning” what is essentially a no-bid contract to supply ELL learning software to Arizona schools. It passed the House with bipartisan support (and bipartisan opposition) in its current incarnation, HB2485.…
Ozomatli Returns to Tucson Tonight at the Fox
The founding members of Ozomatli met at a Los Angeles rally for workers’ rights in 1995; appropriate since the band seems to be almost as well-known for their politics as for their music. They were one of many bands to boycott the state of Arizona when SB1070 reared its ugly head in 2010 (a controversial…
A New Way To Turn Obama Into Hitler
Image courtesy of shutterstock.com No, the Tea Party Patriots didn’t exactly call Obama Hitler in the top image, which I found on the group’s Facebook page. But when I looked at the graphic with a cut-off image of an iron Caduceus, a symbol connected with medicine, I immediately associated it with Nazi symbolism. The way…
In Cool Librarian News: Justine Hernandez
Yeah, tell us something we didn’t already know Library Journal. We think it’s pretty cool to see Pima County Library’s Justine Hernandez named a mover and shakers for 2014: Librarian Justine Hernandez was at one of Tucson’s farmers markets trying to figure out how to connect Pima County Public Library (PCPL) to gardeners and the…
SXSW Driver Identified and Charged
The Austin Chronicle has reported that Austin Police Department have officially charged Rashad Charjuan Owens with two counts of capital murder. The 22-year-old suspect may have been driving a stolen Toyota sedan when he fled a DUI checkpoint and intentionally drove through a crowd killing two people and injuring 23 South by Southwest attendees at…
Network TV Show Looking for Tucson Homeowners & Interior Designers
Do you want to remodel a room in your house but can’t afford it? Are you a interior designer with a face for television? A casting agency is looking for some local homeowners and interior designers for a new half-hour television show called Fix It & Finished It hosted by Antonio Sabato Jr. It’s good…
Throwback Thursday with Colin Powell
Photo snagged from Colin Powell’s Facebook. Colin Powell took bedroom selfies before Myspace was invented. You might have noticed it was “Throwback Thursday” when you noticed all your friends and family posting nostalgic photos of themselves. Retired four-star Army General Colin Powell decided to share a selfie he took 60 years ago on his Facebook…
Destroy Things With Arnold Schwarzenegger and His Tank
) Dreams do come true. After all theses years, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger finally has his own tank. The Terminator wants you to destroy obscure fixtures with him to raise money for charity. Click here and donate a minimum of $10 for a chance to spend a day smoking cigars and demolishing things with…
SXSW 2014: Stay Safe
Yesterday I started off the festival at my home away from home, the Thrasher Magazine Death Match party at The Scoot Inn. Plant a Lone Star tall boy in my hand, place me next to a half-pipe and in front of a stage and watch me smile. I caught Cherry Glazer, a three-piece, female-fronted punk…
Word Odyssey: With this Ring I Do Thee Wed
Image courtesy of Shutterstock George Bernard Shaw once said about marriage: “When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting condition until death do them part.” This weekend my…
Car Crash Kills 2 and Injures 23 at SXSW
FOX 7 Austin reported that at 12:30 a.m. Austin police tried to pull over a suspected drunk driver but the driver turned down 9th Street then right on Red River St., hit and a man and woman riding a moped and then crashed through a South by Southwest barricade and plowed through a crowd of…
Arthur Migliazza: Laying it Down
When Arthur Migliazza started showing up on Tucson stages as a preteen prodigy, it was generally assumed he was headed for greatness. It was thought that reaching it might coincide with his 2010 move to New York City. It’s perhaps been his subsequent relocation to Seattle, however, that’s benefited him most, at least as evidenced…
Sets on the Sand
University of Arizona Wildcat Women’s Sand Volleyball 2 p.m., Friday, March 14; Noon, Saturday, March 15 Jimenez Field, located on the corner of Enke Drive and Campbell Avenue on the University of Arizona Campus 621-2200; arizonawildcats.com The University of Arizona Women’s Volleyball team is currently undefeated. The squad had their first official game on Friday,…
The Skinny
INSIGHTS INTO THE ARIZONA POLITICAL MIND A new survey of Arizona voters backs up what The Skinny observed last week while reviewing some polling data released by Democrat Fred DuVal’s gubernatorial campaign: The governor’s race is up for grabs. Public Policy Polling’s survey of political attitudes in Arizona was loaded with interesting tidbits, but when…
Now on Shelves
Now on Shelves Mary and the Giant Mechanism By Mary Molinary Tupelo Press $16.95; 70 pages; poetryA fluttering fragility permeates this debut collection of poems by Tucson resident Mary Molinary, a delicacy of existence that’s menaced by the “giant mechanism” in the title. The recipient of the Tupelo Press First Book Award, Molinary’s work presents…
Andrew Collberg and Mimicking Birds, Plush, March 10
A last minute transportation issue resulted in scheduled headliners The Parson Red Heads being stranded in Los Angeles, unable to perform in Tucson. On a personal level I feel bad for the Portland, Ore., rock band but I’d be lying if I implied that Mimicking Birds’ (also from Portland) and Tucson’s Andrew Collberg’s outstanding respective…
Circumnavigation Concerns
Because, 140 years after the feat, we are accustomed to split-second communication and jet travel, Around the World in 80 Days sounds like it could be the title of a disaster film. But in 1872, Jules Verne’s tale of a globetrotting challenge to be completed in a scant 80 days was a laughable impossibility. So…
Nine Questions
Amanda Paige Albert was born in the wrong era. Albert would have been comfortable when disco was still cool. The 25-year-old photographer, born and raised in the Old Pueblo, graduated from the UA with a degree in Art History and currently works for Center for Creative Photography. When the sun sets, Albert and the rest…
Collision Course
The Weekly caught up with Washington Post chief correspondent Dan Balz ahead of his appearance at this weekend’s Tucson Festival of Books to discuss Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America. You can catch Balz discussing “Can Democracy Save Our Politics” alongside John Nichols and John Schwarz at the UA’s…
Feeding the Monster
From the forthcoming book: Border Patrol Nation: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Homeland Security by Todd Miller | City Lights Publishers, March 2014 It is 6:00 a.m., and there is a loud pounding on the door. Gerardo looks to Luz, who is also suddenly jarred awake, and both get up quickly. He is in…
Once More Unto the Breach
After he lost the governor’s race in 2010, Democrat Terry Goddard thought he was retiring from the campaign trail. Goddard had been one of the few Democrats who had won statewide office, serving two terms as attorney general from 2002 to 2010. But the governor’s office was a prize that eluded him in 1990, 1994…
Soundbites
PLEASE DON’T TELL ME HOW THE STORY ENDS It’s going to feel weird to not pack a suitcase as soon as I hit “send” on this column. With the exception of one year, I’ve gone to Austin for South by Southwest for the last 16 or 17 years. This year, due to extenuating circumstances, I’m…
Editor’s Note
While I generally loathe the very idea of giving credit to the Arizona Daily Star for anything (it’s part of the gig, I suppose), the Festival of Books is a really big deal for Tucson. I probably won’t spend too much time on the mall this edition after spending both days of last year’s fest…
Retreats and Returns
The “Retreat” that Sharon Jones sings about on her new record was originally a command from a woman scorned. But after cancer treatment sidelined Jones—and pushed the album release back for five months—the powerful soul tune, with lines like “What a fool you’d be to take me on,” started meaning an entirely different thing for…
Danehy
It’s Lent, and being of Italian and Irish descent and married to a woman whose forebears hailed from Spain and Mexico, I’m an industrial-strength Catholic. And that means that, around the Danehy household, Lent is Jubilee Time. It’s funny, really. I’m old enough to remember when Catholics couldn’t eat meat on Fridays year-round. My sainted…
Climbing History
Granitica Festival 2014 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March 16 Summit Hut 7745 N. Oracle Road 888-1000;summithut.com Five thousand feet up in the Dragoon Mountains lies a beautiful woodland area guarded by a rampart of granite domes and sheer cliffs called the Cochise Stronghold near Benson. Once a refuge for the…
Serraglio
About 25 years ago, when I was a rather unstable and impressionable young man just embarking on a career as a professional troublemaker, I worked for an organization named Ohio Citizen Action. It was built on the premise that you could walk the streets, knock on doors and convince perfect strangers to contribute money and/or…
Noshing Around
Mercado San Agustin News #1 This section is definitely not sponsored by Mercado San Agustin, but there just happens to be quite a bit of news coming from the Westside gathering point, so here goes. As previously mentioned in this space, Seis Kitchen and Catering has found a permanent wheel-free location at the Mercado. Now…
Too Little, Too Late?
Six months ago, five Tucson High Magnet School employees met with Tucson Unified School District Superintendent H.T. Sanchez, handing him a signed wrongful conduct and discrimination complaint detailing allegations of student safety and discrimination. Since then not much has happened, although the original copy of the complaint went missing and they had to provide another.…
Beer and Bad Service
I love the new face of downtown Tucson—I’m definitely not in the “Keep Tucson Shitty” camp, and while I don’t intend for this to turn into a discussion or a diatribe to that regard, I also think it’s important that we continue to support our local businesses, business owners and the folks that they employ.…
Pushing for Public Education
Being pro-public school doesn’t seem like a controversial notion. But at a time when Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction lends his voice to a robocall pushing vouchers (“You may be able to send your child to private school for free!”) and charters, a public-private hybrid, are all the rage, advocating for preserving and improving our…
Call Them Ishmaels
Are you a fan of classic literature, especially one who grasps the latent sexual tension and eroticism in many age-old tales? Do you enjoy risque performances that try to push the envelope on what is suitable for a general audience? Do you like dressing up in nautical clothing? If that sounds like you, then you…
Ask a Mexican
Dear Mexican: The current clothing trend is for ladies to wear low-cut jeans and belly shirts that expose their midriffs. That looks great on a hard-bodied woman, so why do so many fat Mexican mujeres insist on dressing like this? It’s one of the grossest things imaginable. Their gut hangs over their pants and pushes…
Variety of Victories
A medical marijuana bill passed a Florida state senate committee last week, inching it toward passage, but it isn’t as exciting as it sounds. The bill, which has already passed the Florida House of Representatives, legalizes only one strain of cannabis—Charlotte’s Web. That strain, which is very low in THC and high in cannabidiol (CBD)…
One Last Job
One of the better films of 2012 was Headhunters. You probably didn’t hear much about it because it was a Norwegian movie that got limited play in the States. It barely made a million dollars at the box office. But despite that, HBO is already slated to give us a remake. It’s an art heist…
Sports
Bryce Cotton hopes to wrap up an excellent (and unlikely) college basketball career with a trip to the tournament Bryce Cotton got to take a little break last Saturday, which is the last thing he wanted to do. The time off came during the first half of a critical game for his college basketball team.…
Police Dispatch
WEARING NOTHING BUT A SHIRT AND A SCOWL CATALINA BEAT FEB. 4, 7:28 P.M. A drunken woman dressed in nothing but a shirt was jailed after trashing her boyfriend’s trailer and covering the floor with crunchy edibles, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. The woman’s boyfriend called deputies and told them she was…
Riveting (But Ridiculous)
In describing Grand Piano, I have to go to my verbal tool belt and pull out that made-up word that so many critics resort to when it comes to thrillers. That word would be “Hitchcockian.” I know, I know … I can’t stand it when critics throw out that word, but there really isn’t a…
Media Watch
DOWNTOWN GROUP HOPES TO CLEAR LAST OBSTACLES FOR LOW-POWER FM Jason LeValley has been trying to jump the necessary FCC hurdles for the better part of three years in an effort to launch a low-power FM frequency that can transmit programming to the city’s most densely populated areas: downtown and the UA. LeValley formed a…
North: Metanoia
The Metanoia EP is the follow-up release to local trio North’s The Great Silence (2012), which received glowing reviews from the likes of Alternative Press and Decibel magazine. The group is startling and innovative, boldly jumping into unexplored terrain. While North’s style is ostensibly stoner metal with avant-garde leanings, the band is far more than…
Now Showing at Home
American Hustle A con man (Christian Bale) and his faux-British partner (Amy Adams) work with an FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) to bring down a corrupt politician (Jeremy Renner) while Jennifer Lawrence chews scenery. Winner of 10 Wiggy Awards. (Sony) Cybergeddon A Fed (Missy Peregrym) and a hacker (Kick Gurry) race to stop a cyberterrorist (Oliver…
You Heard It Here First
Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival Sunday, March 16, through Sunday, March 23 Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave; Arizona Inn, 2200 E. Elm St. 577-3769;arizonachambermusic.org The Arizona Friends of Chamber Music is in the midst of a 66th season of bringing some of the top acts in the world to Tucson. And the nonprofit’s…
The Monitors: Dead Sick Winter
Releasing an average of an album a year since their 2008 debut, Tucson’s the Monitors are prolific, consistent and dependable. While the quartet’s sound hasn’t taken any sharp turns over the years, it has evolved with each record, and the songs are always catchy and well-written. All five songs on the Dead Sick Winter EP…
True TV
The Grim Sleeper Saturday, March 15 (Lifetime) Movie: Believe it or not, The Only TV Column That Matters™ is gaining a real affinity for Lifetime movies—better hurry up with Sharknado 2, Syfy. In the nicely-titled The Grim Sleeper, a far-too-good-looking L.A. Weekly reporter (Don’t Trust the B in Apt. 23’s Dreama Walker, unbelievably pretty even…
Tucson Festival of Books: Q&A with Augustine Romero and Julio Cammarota
When Arizona’s fine crazy-land legislature passed HB 2281 in 2010—the anti-Mexican-American studies law that targeted Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American studies program—their handiwork did more damage than hurting some of our city’s students and ending a successful program that was increasingly reaching more students at its height with a proven track record helping students graduate…
