Cover Story
Stealth But Not Silent
The U.S. Air Force in March held two open houses in Tucson, with the goal of gathering public input for an environmental impact statement on a proposal to bring the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to the Tucson International Airport. Five sites around the country are possible Air Force-training locations for six squadrons, or 144 planes,…
Jon Stewart on McCain/Palin AZ Visit: “What Is This? Weekend At Bernie’s?”
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c <td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'Lady and the Gramps www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform Jon Stewart weighs in on the McCain-Palin reunion tour that visited Pima County last week.
A Profile of David Tineo: 25 Years Ago In The Tucson Weekly
Photo by Michael Malinski “Woman with Crown of Flowers,” ca. 2006-2008, acrylic on canvas, by David Tineo, is among the works in ¡Viva David Tineo!, at the Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave. From the collection of Donna Al-Ghurab, Tucson, Ariz. Twenty-five years ago in the Tucson Weekly: While Tineo sees himself as…
Art Thieves Strike! Conrad Wilde Gallery Robbed!
TW arts editor Margaret Regan shares the disturbing news that crooks have hit the Conrad Wilde Gallery. “This is horrible news for a very nice small gallery,” Regan writes. “Conrad Wilde just moved to their new location at Sixth and Sixth in the New Year. They’re right next door to Lulubell, which got robbed a…
On The Hunt For the God Particle
The Large Hadron Collider is up and running. Details here. Mari Jensen of the UA College of Science gives us the local angle: Now the research begins for the team of University of Arizona physicists whobuilt pieces of the largest scientific instrument ever, the Large HadronCollider. At 4:06 a.m. Tucson time, two beams of protons…
Patterson: Tucson Cyclists Hassled By The Man
Red Star directs us to TucsonVelo, where we learn that state Rep. Daniel Patterson’s bill to let bicyclists treat stop signs like yield signs has a stick in the spokes. Patterson says Tucson cyclists are getting hassled by the man: Patterson said the law would help cyclists around Arizona, but would be particularly useful to…
Blogislature Update: Divorce Bill Advances
Howie reports that the “Let’s Stay Together” Act is on the verge of Senate passage: The move to make divorces a longer procedure was backed mainly by Republicans. But at least one, Sen. Carolyn Allen of Scottsdale, chided her GOP colleagues for sticking their legislative noses where she believes the change is not only a…
Sizzle Gives Them the Old Razzle-Dazzle
Sizzle comes to the Loft Cinema at 7 p.m. this Wednesday, March 31. Details here. Randy Olson, a marine biologist who became a filmmaker with Sizzle, will be at the Loft for the screening and a subsequent Q&A that will include UA professors Julia Cole of geosciences, Diana Liverman of the Institute of the Environment,…
Don’t Forget: Mind and Brain Talk Explores Metamemory
CARL PHILABAUM How do we pull up all that data in our head? Alfred W. Kaszniak of the UA Psych Departmentl, explains it all as the UA College of Science continues its Tuesday night lecture series with Metamemory: How Does the Brain Predict Itself? Details here. The gist: Our brains recreate past experience, monitor recall…
Sarah Palin and the Power of Myth
In the wake of the passage of federal health-care reform, Arizona Sen. John McCain started off last week with a promise to stop working with Democrats for the rest of the year, even if he thought the legislation was the right thing to do. Way to put country first, John. He ended the week by…
Republicans: So Very Gay
H/T: Sullivan
First in the Crowded House: Democrat Bob Gilby Files in LD27
UPDATED on Tuesday March 30: Well, Bob Gilby tried to file, but he ran into a snag. Turns out you have to file your petitions with the Secretary of State’s office in Phoenix, not Tucson, so he’ll be driving up north tomorrow. With two open House seats—Rep. Olivia Cajero Bedford is running for the state…
Flandrau to Reopen
Good news for astronomy fans! Here’s part of a press release we got today: FLANDRAU PLANETARIUM AND EXHIBITS REOPEN TO THE PUBLIC APRIL 3RD Planetarium shows, special exhibits, and expanded hours to reconnect the community with science Tucson, Arizona — UA Science: Flandrau, on the campus of The University of Arizona, will celebrate the reopening…
Giffords Campaign Hires Mouthpiece
District 8 Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has hired Anne Hilby, who most recently spent three years working in the public-info office of Attorney General Terry Goddard, as her campaign spokeswoman. Giffords, who will face the winner of a four-way GOP primary that includes Jonathan Paton, Jesse Kelly, Brian Miller and Andy Goss, has not yet named…
Roller Derby Returns!
Photo by Otto Ross/ArizonaNewsService.com Kamanda and Poly Graf flank Georgia W. Tush during a roller derby match at the Tucson Indoor Sports Center. The wild women of roller derby are back into action. Erica Nannini of Arizona News Service reports: Eye-gouging and hair-pulling are no-nos. Light jabbing, pushing and diving into opponents, however, are completely…
Sierra Club Update: “Speaking of Truly Terrible Bills…”
Sandy Bahr of the Sierra Club sends us this dispatch: “The long fight to save wild beauty represents democracy at its best. It requires citizens to practice the hardest of virtues—self-restraint.” —Edwin Way Teale. Hi everyone! That whole self-restraint concept is lost on the majority in each house of the Arizona Legislature as they pass…
Artistic Range: David Tineo at Tucson Museum of Art
Photo by Michael Malinski “Woman with Crown of Flowers,” ca. 2006-2008, acrylic on canvas, by David Tineo, is among the works in ¡Viva David Tineo!, at the Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave. From the collection of Donna Al-Ghurab, Tucson, Ariz.You can check out that show (and the ongoing shows featuring work by…
Tucson Bike Survey
Help a UA grad student and take this survey to determine basic bicycling needs of downtown Tucson. Go here.
Concealed Weapons, Illegal Immigration & Incandescent Light Bulbs: Updating The Blogislature’s Bill Tracker
As we note in this feature story, our state legislators have filed more than 1,200 bills and a bunch more resolutions and memorials, ranging from a bill that provides new ways to hassle anyone who looks like an illegal immigrant to a resolution praising the Chicago Cubs for continuing to hold spring training games in…
Health Care: GOP Legislature vs. Obama Administration
Christopher Conover of KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated gives us an update of how the federal health-care plan creates a big hole in the state budget that was approved last week because the state will be obligated to continue to provide health-care coverage to kids and poor people. Watch it after the jump. Well, Republicans were warned…
Cochise County Rancher Murdered
Leo W. Banks, who has been covering border issues for years, brings us news that Rob Krentz was killed yesterday in the Chiricahua Corridor. Leo—who has written about the Krentz family before (see here)—says: Cochise County rancher Rob Krentz was shot and killed on his ranch some time Saturday, presumably by a drug smuggler. The…
Catch “The Cove” Tonight at Drinking Liberally
Tonight at The Shanty: Drinking Liberally presents a screening of The Cove, which recently won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Details here. It sounds pretty disturbing, based on what we read at Wikipedia: The movie follows former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry’s quest to document the dolphin hunting operations in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. In…
Palin Stumps For McCain
The New York Times covers the McCain/Palin rally at the Pima County Fairgrounds: Ms. Palin, Alaska’s former governor, is the latest in a parade of prominent Republicans coming to Mr. McCain’s aid in Arizona. In recent weeks, he has stood side by side with Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Mitt Romney, the former Republican…
Miguel Ortega Announces TUSD Run
Miguel Ortega, an aide to Tucson City Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, announced on Facebook this morning that he was seeking a seat on the Tucson Unified School District Board this November. Current TUSD board member Bruce Burke has already said he won’t seek re-election this year. Current board member Adelita Grijalva, daughter of Congressman Raul Grijalva,…
Friday Roundtable: Health Care, New Polls & Other Election 2010 Notes
Dan Shearer of the Green Valley News joins Linda, Bill and me on Arizona Illustrated’s Friday Roundtable. Lots to talk about this week, including health-care reform, the gubernatorial race, CD8, the possibility that Rodney Glassman may have some competition from Nan Walden in the Democratic race for Sen. John McCain’s seat and the Rosemont mine.
B.S. + Carrots = John Boehner
What gives John Boehner his fabulous tan? Well, a delicate combination of loads of B.S. and a few carrots…
Friday Roundtable: Giffords Talks Health Care
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is getting her message out on health care. Watch it after the jump. Giffords’ GOP opponents—Jonathan Paton, Jesse Kelly, Brian Miller and Andy Goss—are scheduled to have their say with a debate on Arizona Illustrated on Tuesday, April 6.
‘Jewish Post’: ‘Daily Wildcat’ Accused Of Biased Reporting
An article from the UA’s student newspaper, The Arizona Daily Wildcat, has been drawing objections from several community and student members of the campus’ Hillel Foundation, reports the Arizona Jewish Post in its March 12 edition. The Feb. 15 Wildcat article “Human Rights Violations” cites the efforts of a student group that is trying to…
Tubac Presidio State Historic Park to Remain Open
Here’s some good news on the state park front. Details below, courtesy of Arizona State Parks public information officer Ellen Bilbrey. Santa Cruz County Will Operate Tubac Presidio State Historic Park Arizona State Parks and Santa Cruz County announced today that Tubac Presidio State Historic Park will not close as planned on Monday, March 29.…
Video: Rep. Patterson Loses Temper, Committee Seat
You may have heard that state Rep. Daniel Patterson (D-Tucson) was removed from his seat on the House Committee on Military Affairs and Public Safety earlier this month. Well, we at Tucson Weekly TV have tracked down the video for your viewing pleasure, so you can see first-hand the terse March 17 exchange between Patterson…
The Case for Arts Funding
I made the case for government funding for the arts on Arizona Illustrated last night. Watch it after the jump.
Health Care Bill Estimate for AZ: $11.6 Billion Over The Next Decade
Thomas Betlach, the director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, has some bad news for Gov. Jan Brewer: The estimated cost of the new health-care reform package for the state of Arizona is $11.6 billion over between fiscal years 2011 and 2020. In a statement, Brewer called the costs “staggering.” That cost includes…
A Look At Mars’ Melas Chasma
NASA/JPL/University of Arizona The latest batch of pics from the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab’s HiRISE camera in orbit around Mars can be found here, including this shot of Melas Chasma. HiRISE team member Cathy Weitz tells us: This subimage shows layering in a light-toned deposit in Melas Chasma. The layers are sedimentary in origin,…
Writer’s Block: Beth Alvarado and Colleagues
UA lecturer Beth Alvarado and several UA alumni have been published in Dedicated to the People of Darfur: Writings on Fear, Risk and Hope. Rutgers University Press $23.95, 224 pages edited by Luke and Jennifer Reynolds Contributions from 46 authors, including UA alumni Sherwin Bitsu, Robert Boswell, Ann Cummins and Peter Turchi. Summary (from Rutgers…
Event Cancellation: Christopher Smith
The following event (listed on page 27 in the print issue) has been cancelled. CHRISTOPHER SMITH FLUTE RECITALPCC Center for the Arts. 2202 W. Anklam Road. 206-6986. A flute recital by local musician Christopher Smith features pieces by Debussy, Bach, Taffanel, Hindemith and Briccialdi at 3 p.m., Sunday, March 28. $6, with discounts available. Call,…
Breaking Local News: Time-Traveling Jacuzzi
If you opened the morning daily’s site this afternoon, your probably saw this as top story: That’s right, the most important thing going on today is the opening of Hot Tub Time Machine. Here’s the kicker: The review is credited to Roger Moore of The Orlando Sentinal. That’s right kids, if you can write 400…
Glassman vs. D.C.?
Tucson City Councilman Rodney Glassman, who is expected to announce his campaign for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s seat in early April, may be having trouble with Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is rumored to be hunting for a stronger candidate in race, especially with the possibility (however slight) that McCain could lose to Republican J.D.…
Artistic Range: “Warhol: From Dylan to Duchamp” at Eric Firestone Gallery
A sample of the photographs on display in “Warhol: From Dylan to Duchamp,” continuing through April 25 at downtown’s Eric Firestone Gallery, 403 N. Sixth Ave.
Howe Gelb At MAST Tonight!
Head on down to MAST (299 S. Park Ave.) from 6-8 to hear local musician Howe Gelb and friends perform songs from the Johnny Cash album, Live at San Quentin. Tonight’s event is also your last chance to check out the art from local artists Nick Georgiou and Titus Castanza on exhibit at MAST. Sounds…
Pop Goes The Loft Featuring Live Music!
Local rock ‘n’ roll band Monster Pussy will be performing before Pop Goes The Loft tonight! Get the scoop here.
Trash At Rialto Theatre
They’re at it again! The folks that brought the Clusterfuck dance party, Glitter Ball and last month’s Pop to Rialto Theatre are celebrating punk rock this Friday with Trash. Details here.
Various Artists: Afro-Rock, Volume One (Strut)
The subtitle of this collection is: “A collection of rare and unreleased Afro-Beat quarried from across the continent.” That aptly sums it up. Originally released in 2001 on Kona Records, Afro-Rock features a dozen tracks by 11 acts recorded in the 1960s and ’70s. They span a wide gamut of African funk and soul from…
Police Dispatch
REDNECK FOR LIFE WEST ORANGE GROVE ROAD FEB. 24, 6:44 P.M. A boy’s bike was stolen by a self-labeled redneck, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report stated. A witness reported that he saw the boy leave his bike outside of a Circle K while he went inside. A Caucasian male “kind of sneaking around” then…
Protect Yourself
At the beginning of Dance in the Red, this weekend’s concert by Art.if.Act—a benefit for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation—no fewer than 15 dancers will march into Stevie Eller Dance Theatre carrying red ribbons, a symbol of the fight against the disease. “The whole concert begins with a ribbon procession,” says troupe choreographer and co-director…
Mailbag
Preview Article Didn’t Include Everything I Wanted; The Legislature Thinks Restricting Texting Is Oppressive, but Restricting Abortion Is OK?; ‘Shrew’ Should Be a Drag—Literally; Don’t Discuss Issues Regarding First Things First; That Gives the Legislature Cover
Emotion Exposed!
The one thing that separates us from our robot masters is that we have genitals. And feelings. Actually, genitals and feelings are deeply linked, and much of modern cinema is tasked with describing that relation. Also, in much of modern cinema, middle-age men fall in love with beautiful young women who reciprocate their feelings and…
Now Showing at Home
Elvis; The Princess and the Frog (Blu-ray); Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Blu-ray); An Education (Blu-ray)
Failed State
The next time a state legislator running for office claims that he or she supports public education, you may want to check the campaign rhetoric against a handy list released this week by the Arizona Education Network. The public education-advocacy organization tracked the voting records of all state lawmakers during the 2009 Legislature—and discovered that…
Free Advice!
Some advice from those of us at Weekly World Central. Because, y’know, we care. • If you’re putting together a panel titled “The Performing Arts and Arts Journalism in Tucson,” you should probably invite arts journalists from more than one media source. A local theater company and the morning daily teamed up to create such…
Media Watch
Tucsonsentinel.com adds another voice to news landscape
Celebrations of Conservation
Tucson definitely has a lot of sun—but we don’t have a whole lot of water, a resource that’s seemingly getting scarcer each day. So … how do we take full advantage of the sun, while treating water like the precious, scarce resource it is? This weekend is the time to find out—when two different but…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: I just read that Speedy Gonzales is getting his own feature film and will be voiced by George Lopez. I read in the The Hollywood Reporter that Lopez gave Speedy his “Latino Seal of Approval.” Who grants this seal? What does it look like? And how did Lopez get it? Hija of the…
Weekly Wide Web
There’s a site called TweetCongress.org which collects the feeds of all the Twitter-using U.S. House and Senate members. However, if you’re thinking it might be a great idea to collect the Twitter feeds of members of the Arizona Legislature, you might want to consider that only 27 percent of our state lawmakers have accounts—the irony…
Messina
With a small alcove leading to large glass doors, the entrance to Hirsh’s Shoes on Broadway Boulevard is reminiscent of shops of the past. Inside the store, the feeling of nostalgia continues. The staff attends to shoppers in an old-fashioned way—addressing customers by name, measuring feet and retrieving shoe boxes from the back storeroom. The…
Noshing Around
Zoofari Café; New Cajun Food; Eat More Pie; Noshing Notes
Joyous Colors
David F. Brown’s joyous visions of nature are almost always tempered by gloom. Take his painting “Plumbing the Depths,” one of two dozen works in his solo show at the Temple Gallery. A backyard is painted in crayon brights: The flowers are pink and purple; the oval pool is turquoise blue; the ladder is red;…
Guest Opinion
President Dwight D. Eisenhower gave a speech before he left office in which he warned of the possibility that private industrial firms, the military and Congress would form a mutually beneficial but self-serving relationship that would promote false threats to the detriment of our liberties. He called it the “military industrial complex.” Today, we are…
Top Ten in Books
Antigone Books best-sellers for the week
Dance and Magic
Susan Eyde, former belly dancer, is now Susan Eyed, magician extraordinaire. The Tucson dancer once ran the “ethno-modern” dance troupe Hadia Sahara, famed for its contemporary take on belly dance. Now renamed Eyed, she has teamed up with Roland Sarlot for an act filled with movement. The Tucsonans regularly travel the country performing their Carnival…
Slippery Slope
A movie in which John Cusack hops into a hot-tub time machine and travels back to 1986, where he must don ski gear and deal with relationship problems while tripping on mushrooms? Oh yeah, sign me up. Hot Tub Time Machine stars a game Cusack as Adam, a depressed insurance salesman who conspires with friends…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Danehy
Stoners of the world, rejoice! Actually, that should be: Stoners of the world, you suck! However, while you really, really do suck, there may also be something over which to rejoice: I love messing with stoners, although it often tiptoes right up next to picking on the handicapped. The last time I mentioned stoners, I…
Artistic Sensibilities
Sanda Schuldmann is poised to celebrate the miraculous. The pianist, one-half of the brains and muscle of Chamber Music PLUS, had a stroke in December. This weekend, she will take the stage with her husband, cellist Harry Clark, to resume the work she loves. Actress Margot Kidder will again join Clark and Schuldmann for A…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Tasty to Terrible
Two visits to the Hog Pit Smokehouse Bar and Grill … two radically different experiences. Experience 1: Lunch. Rainy Sunday, about six tables occupied, country music. Our server came to the table relatively quickly and asked if we’d been there before. She explained that all of the meats are “marinated” for up to 12 hours,…
Financial Hole
A long string of numerals bracketed within parentheses—signifying deficits—are almost never good to see on budget reports. And that’s exactly what the city of Tucson’s self-insurance fund has experienced for many years. To help get the program out of its deep financial hole, an increase of more than 15 percent in the city’s primary property-tax…
Metal Conspiracies
Since heavy metal’s inception 40 years ago, back when Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut was released, the notorious genre has been politically aware and sensitive to the state’s growing power at the expense of individual liberties. Well before today’s Tea Party began harping on issues like the Federal Reserve and the soon-to-arrive New World Order, thrash…
Dancing Home
Out of money and needing to get to San Carlos, my brother and I thumbed it from the Obregon City bus station. I wouldn’t pick up those scruffy, half-inebriated gringos today, and I probably wouldn’t have stopped back then, more than 10 years ago. But it didn’t take long to find a ride. A late-model…
Belting It Out
The songs of Tucson’s Leila Lopez, while being what one might ostensibly refer to as folk music, balance assertiveness and sensitivity, navigate lyrics both oblique and frank, and incorporate the influences of jazz and rock. All of which might explain why her Web site calls her style “folk fusion.” Lopez will celebrate the release of…
History and Help
Given our pathology of self-reliance, hunger doesn’t eagerly announce itself in America. So I have to go looking. I find it—or at least its potential—on the third floor of downtown’s Armory Park Apartments. That’s where I meet Marcia Donovan. She’s 67, suffers from cancer and arthritis, and scrapes by on a $937 monthly Social Security…
Live
Les Yeux Noirs
Soundbites
The beat goes on; in with the ‘in’ crowd; groovy music of all persuasions; heavy metal thunder; Congress is definitely in session; local recordings continue to bloom; act fast, or you’ll miss out
Nine Questions
Bo McGuire
The Skinny
Political prognosis; survey says: J.D. closes in on McCain; neither a borrower nor a texter be
Backyard Tire Fire: Good to Be (Kelsey Street)
An all-too-common trap for Americana bands is to lay down an easy beat and dial in some twang. Bloomington, Ill., trio Backyard Tire Fire settles in miles away from that cookie-cutter approach, mixing barreling roadhouse rockers with lean, catchy, soulful tunes. The band plays with a versatile authority, but it’s the lyrics of Ed Anderson…
T Q&A
Kenya Masala
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists: The Brutalist Bricks (Matador)
Whichever fountain Ted Leo draws his energy from has an endless and remarkably consistent stream, rich in the sort of intensity that passes easily from singer to audience. The Brutalist Bricks is more of his signature brand of surging, thinking-man’s punk rock, with soaring melodies to counterbalance the cranked amps and pummeling drums. Opening track…
City Week
An Evening With Spike Lee; Book-signing by B.J. Kurtz; “Art Fights” Art Show and MMA Demo; R. Carlos Nakai headlines benefit for KARE Family Center
Welcome Back, Joe Scordato
Joe Scordato seems happy to be back in the restaurant business, and why wouldn’t he? His name is synonymous with fine food in this town and people have reportedly been flocking to his new Italian restaurant, Guiseppe’s, since it opened a few weeks ago at 6060 N. Oracle Road. Scordato sold his popular and well-reviewed…
Smash Senation, Con’t.: Vandalism at Giffords’ Office Makes The CBS Evening News
Watch CBS News Videos Online The smashed windows at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ office is the subject of a CBS News report tonight. There’s also a mention of the crosshairs that Republican Sarah Palin has placed on congressional districts across the country, including Giffords’ CD 8.
Smash Sensation: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Isn’t The Only One With Broken Windows
A broken window at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ office Weird and violent acts by the fringe right, such as the smashing of the windows at Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ office, are spreading across the country in the wake of the health-care vote. Max Fisher of the Atlantic Wire notes: As conservative anger over the passage of health…
Barrio Food and Drink Update
A message on the answering machine at Barrio Food and Drink says the restaurant has closed and that the business will continue on as Barrio Catering. Rumors have circulated for months, but this is the first solid information we’ve received concerning the fate of the downtown restaurant. The Arizona Daily Star published this article earlier…
Wednesday Night Music
Catch Hugh Cornwell (above), Marianne Dissard and Brian Lopez tonight at Club Congress as this year’s WXSW festival comes to a close. Full details here. Should be legendary!
