Cover Story
100 Essential Dishes
Blessed be the brunch revolution and its surge in the Old Pueblo. One of the best spots in town for the hybrid meal, Prep & Pastry, waxes the meal poetic on their chalkboard wall, which says, “brunch without booze is just a sad, late breakfast.” Cheers to that and to spots like the Cup Café,…
Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame Should Be Renamed the Scottsdale Culinary Hall of Fame
One of the first things I noticed about Tucson’s food and beverage scene was a somewhat prevailing mentality of not needing or wanting to be recognized. I’d ask folks in the industry around town just how it was that Tucson isn’t a bigger deal nationally and at least statewide. That line of questioning was typically…
PHOX Talks Frankensteining Songs Together Before Their First Tucson Show
The members of Wisconsin sextet PHOX set a no-compromise policy when recording their debut album. Any and all elements of jazz, folk, pop, soul and rock that had developed since the band got together in 2011 in the small town of Baraboo were to be incorporated into the overall PHOX sound. “Every time I’ve been…
DeGrazia Vs. the Wrecking Ball
The New York Times examines how a developer is destroying murals painted by Ted DeGrazia in downtown Phoenix: The 65-year-old mural, a tribute to alcohol, depicted guards armed with shotguns overseeing a still; women hovering like ghosts, a glass in each hand; and a dancer with one leg raised high, bloomers in full view. Even…
Origami Art on View at Yume Japanese Gardens
Starting on Friday, April 3, Yume Japanese Gardens of Tucson will be presenting an exhibition of beautifully crafted origami works from a local artist. Since 1996, origami artist M. Craig, who has lived in both the U.S. and Japan, has taught the art of Japanese paper folding to Tucsonans in conjunction with the Tucson Origami…
Review: Trans Van Santos’ “Moon Mirage” Sets Itself in the Desert
Trans Van Santos’ Mark Matos splits his time between Tucson and San Francisco, a fact that’s abundantly clear in the motifs of his latest release “Moon Mirage”—an album that successfully evokes the feeling of driving through the desert for hours at a time on your own. The album starts off simply with “Wild at Heart,”…
Have Some Wildcat Baseball Tickets
Hey there, sports fan! I bet you want to go see the Wildcats play some baseball. Well, good news—you’ve got a couple of chances to do that! We’ve got four tickets to tomorrow’s game against USC at 6 p.m. and four tickets to Saturday’s game against USC at noon. Just click on the link above for the…
April Fools Day is Stupid But Netflix Understands Your Struggle
So, April Fools Day sucks—take it from John Oliver. You can’t trust the news, you can’t trust eegees, can you even really trust yourself? Try again tomorrow. But, instead of pulling a prank, Netflix decided to engage in a little reverse psychology. Or maybe they just chose a really bad day to release this PSA. Go…
Former State Health Director Will Humble Heading to the UA
Will Humble stepped down as head of the Arizona Department of Health Services last month, saying he wasn’t sure where he’d head. Well, it was just announced that he was appointed Division Director for Health Policy and Evaluation at the Arizona Health Sciences Center’s Center for Population Science and Discovery in the UA. His first…
Catch The Attic Ends for Free at The Hut Tomorrow
Atmospheric indie rockers The Attic Ends are finishing up a month long tour and one of their last stops is in Tucson. On Wednesday, April 1, the Brooklyn-based band will be bringing their mellow, piano-centric brand of indie rock to The Hut in support of their new live EP “Stripped: A Live Recording.” The EP…
8 Places to Get Easter Brunch this Sunday
Regardless of whether you’re planning on observing the Easter holiday on Sunday, April 5, there’s plenty to celebrate this year with eight local restaurants serving up some great brunch specials. Fresh fish, roasted lamb and a handful of Benedict options are available to make your Easter Sunday as tasty as possible. Cup Cafe From 9…
‘Ditch Common Core’ Bill Dies in State Senate
Just like so many other anti-Common Core bills this legislative session, the sole surviving bill that would have Arizona ditch the standards died on the Arizona Senate floor yesterday. In a 13-16 vote, four Republicans said no to the legislation. The bill asked to go back to the standards that were in place five years ago,…
Skratch Shack Gives a Home to Live Hip Hop in Tucson
Booking hip hop shows in Tucson can be tough and no one knows this better than Pike Romero. As both a performer and booker himself, Romero has struggled to find a place that is welcoming to hip hop acts in a town saturated with old desert rock, psych revival acts and the occasional cumbia or…
No More Elective Abortion Coverage Under Obamacare Health Plans & There’s a Website with ‘Abortion Reversal’ Info
Well, it wasn’t surprising that Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law a bill that prohibits health insurance plans under Obamacare from providing abortion coverage. This restriction has been in place in at least two dozen states. Ducey issued this statement after he signed the bill: “The American people overwhelmingly oppose taxpayer funding of abortions, and…
Ever Wonder How Charters Pay For Those Nice, New Schools?
Have you ever wondered how, say, BASIS finds the money to build new schools and furnish them without getting millions of dollars from the state for construction? Here’s part of the answer. The Phoenix Industrial Development Authority issues bonds to pay for charter school buildings. From 2006 through 2014, the Phoenix IDA floated $431 million…
Mulan, Like Apparently All Classic Disney Movies, is Becoming a Live Action Film
It’s happening again, movie lovers: the beloved, gender-bending animated flick “Mulan” is being turned into a live action film. From Entertainment Weekly: Disney has purchased a script from writing duo Elizabeth Martin and Lauren Hynek with Chris Bender and J.C. Spink attached to produce. No release date or casting has been announced for the in-development…
Luke’s on Speedway Has Closed
Luke’s on Speedway has closed, after being locked out of his restaurant for failure to pay rent. Luckily, there are other Luke’s locations to keep your belly happy. From the Luke’s on Grant Facebook: A Message to Our Valued Customers of Lukes Restaurants. As some of you may have heard, the Lukes location on…
Sen. Steve Farley: “This Is Not Your Father’s TUSD.”
Late Wednesday night at the state legislature, SB 1120, the bill to create a forensic audit of TUSD’s desegregation budget, was in front of the House Appropriations Committee. Superintendent H.T. Sanchez made a strong, detailed statement at the hearing. Senator Steve Farley, who represents part of the Tucson district, followed. He began his statement by saying,…
Trevor Noah Named Next Daily Show Host
Comedy Central has picked a new host for the Daily Show. Trevor Noah, who just joined the show in December, is a South African comedian. He’s been only been on the show three times so far. From the New York Times: The appointment of Mr. Noah, a newcomer to American television, promises to add youthful…
‘Let’s Ditch Common Core’ Bill Lands in the State Senate Floor for Debate Today
The Arizona Sate Senate is debating legislation that would rid Arizona of the Common Core standards. A Senate committee said yes to HB 2190 a couple of weeks ago. The committee passed the bill with an amendment allowing the state Board of Education to collaborate with the Arizona Education Standards Steering Committee (committee would be established…
RIP, Ernie Menehune: Hawaii’s Suntanned Irishman Has Died
I learned today from local drummer Winston Watson that Ernie Menehune, Hawaii’s suntanned Irishman, has died. I haven’t tracked down the details, but Menehune was in his early 90s. Menehune was inducted into the Tucson Music Hall of Fame in 2007. Gene Armstrong profiled him: Ernie Menehune has been performing music of all styles—including country,…
Zona Politics: Broadway Widening, Obamacare Anniversary & AZ Legislature’s Final Days
Zona Politics Eps.23 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo. On this week’s Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel: Attorney Jeff Rogers and occasional radio host Shaun McClusky talk about the city’s plans to widen Broadway between downtown and Country Club Road, a proposed Tucson crowd-control ordinance, the fifth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act,…
Grijalva: “The United States Is Leading a Global Race to the Bottom” With Trans-Pacific Partnership
The New York Times reported earlier this week on a crucial detail in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement now being hammered out. The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision would allow foreign companies to sue over the United States over regulatory policies that hurt the corporations’ bottom line. From NYT: An ambitious 12-nation trade accord pushed…
Mark Kelly Watches His Twin Brother Launch Into Year-Long Space Mission
Mark Kelly Mark Kelly gives his twin brother Scott a fist-bump through a glass quarantine window. Retired astronaut Mark Kelly writes about his twin brother Scott’s launch for a year-long stay aboard the International Space Station: He’s off the planet — and on his way to the International Space Station. Earlier today, I watched as…
Breadsmith to Open in Oro Valley with Over 300 Varieties of Bread
Listen up, carboloaders. The European-style bread bakery chain, Breadsmith, is opening its first western outpost and it just so happens to be in Oro Valley. With 43 locations in the midwest and east coast, owners Jan and Mike Kruziki are excited to bring Breadsmith the farthest west its ever been. The Breadsmith name and recipes…
Celebrating Cesar Chavez’s Legacy
As the League of United Latin American Citizens, Council 1057 kicked off the Cesar Chavez Holiday weekend by hosting their 26th Annual Youth Leadership Conference at Pima Community College’s West Campus we must not forget the legacy left by him such as his determination to improve the quality of life for all. He was an…
Five Flowing Wells Students Will Not be Charged
The Pima County Attorney’s Office will not press charges against the five Flowing Wells students arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit first degree murder, according to a press release. According to the release, the office conducted a comprehensive review of the investigation and determined there was insufficient evidence to file formal charges against the students,…
Artful Living Gallery Brings Jeff Ferst’s Art Downtown
Downtown has a new gallery dedicated to the works of Jeff Ferst. The Artful Living Gallery and Studio, located on the northeast corner of Stone Avenue and Broadway Boulevard, quietly opened its doors a couple weeks ago, luring curious passersby with bright works. Ferst says he’s always been attracted to vibrant color in art and…
STEM Is Only One Part of a Good Education
Fareed Zakaria has a terrific column in the Washington Post, Why America’s obsession with STEM education is dangerous (STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). Zakaria is not a technophobe or a Luddite. He just understands that an overemphasis on science/tech education can rob students of other kinds of learning that both enrich their…
Interview With Nancy Montoya About “Arizona Stands Up”
Last week I interviewed Nancy Montoya, executive producer/reporter for Media Source America, on the show I cohost on Access Tucson, Education: The Rest of the Story. We talked about Arizona’s education cuts at the K-12 and college levels and the efforts of a newly created group, Arizona Stands Up, to inform Arizonans about the importance…
Bon Boutique to Open at Five Points on Saturday
Bon is known to sell adorable novelties, clothing, kitchenware and more in Broadway Village, but owner Crystal Flynt is moving on from the complex and over to Five Points. “The energy was changing there the past couple of years,” Flynt says. “It just didn’t feel like the right place for us anymore.” So Flynt and…
Sierra Club Isn’t Happy with TEP’s Proposal to Reduce Solar Buy-Back Incentive
The Sierra Club isn’t a fan of Tucson Electric Power’s proposal to do away with the state’s metering rules for solar energy—something that tells TEP to buy back, at full retail price, any excess energy that a solar customer did not use. The utility company filed a request with the Arizona Corporation Commission a couple…
Slate on AZ Abortion Bill: “You Should Be Able To Get Through an Abortion Without Having To Indulge a Right-Wing Delusion”
Slate’s Amanda Marcotte looks at the anti-abortion bill that is awaiting Gov. Doug Ducey’s signature. Marcotte zeroes in on the provision that requires doctors to tell patients they can reverse a medication abortion: Anti-choicers, backed by one particularly vocal doctor named George Delgado, are claiming that you can “reverse” medication abortions. A woman having a…
Teen Fights for Her Father’s Release from Immigration Detention as He Struggles with a Health Condition
As she steps up to the podium, 17-year-old Ana Cobos Lugo has to take a few deep breaths while she tries to control the tears. She and her mom, Norma, are there to start a campaign on behalf of Ana’s father, Felipe. He’s been held at Eloy Detention Center, where his progressive skin infection has…
High-Tech Scouts: Data Mining the NCAA Field
Ahead of the UA’s game against Xavier in the Sweet 16 at 7:17 p.m. tonight, the UA News Service tells the story of Synergy Sports Technologies, which compiles extraordinarily precise highlight reels so that coaches can get a look at their opponents’ strengths and weaknesses: With Synergy’s services, teams are able to go back and…
Dutch Folk Trio SnowApple to Play Monterey Court
Fans of First Aid Kit, The Dirty Projectors and Au Revoir Simone should head to Monterey Court on Friday, March 27 to catch SnowApple. The all female trio layers sweet, delicate and harmonic vocals with synth arrangements that bounce from a quirky Jon Brion style to more overt pop influence. Their sophomore album “Illusions” was…
Ermanos to Bring Craft Beer, Wine and a Killer Grilled Cheese to Fourth Avenue
Fourth Avenue is about to get a cool new spot for beer, wine and late night eats when Ermanos opens between 8th and 9th streets. Now, before you get all up in arms that the name misspells the word brother in Spanish, you should know that it’s a play on the brothers Mark and Eric…
University of Phoenix is Losing Students, Stock Value
It looks like all the bad press for-profit colleges have earned recently has taken a toll on the University of Phoenix. Its enrollment has been cut in half over the past five years, from 460,000 to 213,000. Between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning its stock dropped from 28.04 to 22.17 and is at 19.62 as…
Dust Devil
JOAN DIDION & I Threw the I Ching. Her coins, unread, sunk at the bottom of her swimming pool in LA CA. Mine are scattered across the scarred surface of our old table (which we bought in Tucson 30 years ago). After a 29 year hiatus in the East, it is back again. An encore…
Police Dispatch
San Xavier Beat Jan. 30, 6:10 p.m. A soaking-wet man wearing only his underwear—likely high on marijuana (and possibly more)—was found in a random homeowner’s laundry room, which he snuck into to dry the clothes he’d been wearing, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report stated. Sheriff’s deputies arrived at a local couple’s residence to find…
Time for Some All Souls Love
Time to gather and raise funds for the Tucson All Souls Procession, but still celebrate. It all takes place at Moctoberfest, the 4th annual spring carnival to benefit the procession, on March 28. The $5 admission gives you some Kenny Stewart magic, Logan Phillips and Verbobala’s Sonoran Strange (please, people, this is a must see),…
Police Dispatch
UA Area Feb. 15, 2:16 p.m. A man screamed as if he wanted to be pepper-sprayed after he made a big scene in a local market over a burrito he’d ordered, according to a University of Arizona Police Department report. The manager of Highland Market, 525 N. Highland Ave., called UA officers because a customer who’d…
Ink City
The annual Tattoo Expo is back at Hotel Tucson, 475 N. Granada Ave., with tattoo contests, a car show and pin up contest and more. $10 per day or $15 for the weekend. Opens Friday, March 27, 4 to 11 p.m. with tattoo contests, a Razorz Edge fashion show and graffiti art. On Saturday, March…
Power Control
A crowd management policy—that would have given the Tucson Police Department authority to crack down on gatherings of 100-plus people—quietly landed on the City Council’s agenda last week, but drew enough attention to start a conversation with local activists. By the time they took their indignation to the streets last Monday afternoon, the proposed ordinance…
Fighting Hunger
The Interfaith Community Services’ Empty Bowls fundraiser is Saturday, March 28, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I can’t think of a nicer way to help these folks with their work. Tickets are $20 each at the Tucson Chinese Culture Center, 1288 W. River Road. Sample soups, breads and desserts from 20 Tucson area restaurants…
The Skinny
Statehouse Stampede Something’s hitting the fan as the Arizona Legislature races to wrap up work As the Arizona Legislature hurtles towards the end of the session, a whole bunch of legislation is on the move. Some highlights, as of our Tuesday morning deadline: • Gov. Doug Ducey rolled out a brand-new idea last week: Creating…
Remembering and Living Cesar
The 15th Annual César E. Chávez march and rally is Saturday, March 28, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. starting from Pueblo High School, 3500 S. 12th Ave., and going east on Veterans and south on Sixth Avenue to Rudy Garcia Park, 5001 S. Nogales Highway. Elected officials will be on hand issuing proclamations and…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Why are we put down by our own people for being educated and articulate (I’ve been called gabacho, and I’m as brown as the next guy) while the Anglos accept us for being smart? I work in Santa Ana as a high school teacher and am considered very good at what I do,…
Rethinking Sexuality Politics
This year’s Miranda Joseph Endowed Lecture is with Paul Amar, Thursday, March 26, 6 p.m. at the UA Center for Creative Photography, 1030 N. Olive Road. Amar’s lecture, “The Security Archipelago: Rethinking Sexuality Politics in an age of Global Counter-revolution,” is free and followed by a reception on the patio of the College of Architecture…
Letters to the Editor
Meet Zana, Our New Favorite Reader I find the paper much improved under your editorship—more locally focused, more in-depth reporting. You have hired some fine writers. The “Editor’s Note” is now worth reading, and I thank you for bringing back “Dust Devils” and encouraging reader responses so we can be more fully engaged. As for…
Monster Mayhem
A young woman pays for having some car sex fun in a very, very big way in “It Follows,” a creepy, ghoulish, unrelenting horror film from writer-director David Robert Mitchell. Taking more than a few cues from John Carpenter’s “Halloween” and the zombie works of George Romero, Mitchell is very much tuned into the sort…
Media Watch
Lotus hires Kelli Gero for sales manager role A familiar name has returned to the terrestrial radio sales game. Kelli Gero has been nabbed by Lotus to handle sales operations for the four-station cluster, although most of her involvement will focus on advertising efforts for new rock/alternate format KFMA 102.1 FM and classic rocker KLPX…
B-Sides
BLUES TRAVELLER Three Blues Hall of Fame inductees are set to play the Fox Theatre stage, serving up all the grungey, moaning, noodley jams that your soul so desperately wants to hear. Combining the live performances of Charlie Musselwhite and James Cotton on harmonica, John Hammond on guitar and a full band backing, the show…
Danehy
I once interviewed Tupac Shakur. It went better than I had expected, mostly because he graciously spared me the whole Thug Life gangsta’ persona B.S. and just talked to me. I was convinced that he was going to make the seamless transition from rap icon to movie star. He had only made a few movies…
Musical Story
If you are a serious musical theater fan, you will know the names John Kander and Fred Ebb and the catalog of musicals they have written over three or so decades. If you’re a half-hearted fan, you might be clueless about most of their efforts, although you most likely are familiar with “Cabaret” and “Chicago,”…
Dancing the Mural
This Friday and Saturday night, you can catch dancer Yvonne Montoya soaring above a 1965 Chevy Truck in the front yard of South Tucson’s House of Neighborly Service. Or watch other performers from Montoya’s Safos Dance Theatre dance with jets of water. Both dances commemorate memorable events on the southside. The water represents the Old…
The Southwest and Mexico, Illuminated
Alejandra Platt Torres has long photographed the horrors of the border—the deportees crowded into shelters in Nogales, Sonora; the border crossers praying for God’s help on the journey; the dead sheathed in body bags in the Tumacacori Highlands. This time around, in an engaging group photography show at Contreras Gallery, Platt goes deep into Mexico…
Cambodia Rising
If you play Dengue Fever’s “The Deepest Lake on the Planet” (For the record, that would be Siberia’s Lake Baikal, 25 million years old and threatened) on an off-brand .mp3 player with your crappiest ear buds, you might get an idea of how something like that could sound coming from the radio of a decrepit…
Hometown Psych
On the new “Arena Negra” album, The Myrrors embarked on a journey to push their sound to new edges and in new directions. The result, a dramatic and otherworldly collection of psych-rock songs, was released this week on the fittingly named Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records. The Tucson band—which has until now slowly and steadily…
The Pleasure Activist
Just what is an orgasm? Depending on whether you ask a psychologist, biologist, sacred sexual practitioner, or reflexologist—the answer will be different. In case you don’t know, several parallel and intersecting truths can exist all at once! As the title of this article implies, though, human nerve wiring has a pretty big role in what we experience…
Editor’s Note
OK, so I’m going to share some feelings. Prepare yourself people. I know not everyone is comfortable with emotion, and some of those happen to be newspaper people. I think in part it’s because we deal with emotional upheavals every day—in the stories of the people we write. Perhaps that’s why reporters carry around that…
