Cover Story
Teen Tales
Each afternoon at VOICES Community Stories Past and Present Inc., low-income youth age 14 to 21 from all over Tucson stream into our downtown headquarters to grab laptop computers, digital cameras and recorders—becoming journalists and documentary artists. During an eight-month mentoring program, youth identify personal and community issues that matter deeply to them. They gain…
Daily Show Takes On Sun Devils
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M – Th 11p / 10c Arizona State Snubs Obama thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor
Shut ’Em Down: Feds Take Aim At Car Warranty Robocalls
If you own a telephone, you’ve probably received a call from a robot telling that your car warranty is about to expire. And if you’ve tried to talk to a live person to tell them to leave you alone, you’ve probably had them hang up on you. Well, it looks like the federal government might…
A Packed Schedule
The Democratic caucus posts this week’s Arizona Senate schedule: Arizona State Senate: Schedule for May 11 through May 15, 2009Updated May 11, 2009 Monday, May 11, 20091:00 p.m. Floor1:30 p.m. Committee on Judiciary (not meeting)Committee on Natural Resources, Infrastructure and Public Debt Tuesday, May 12, 20099:45 a.m. Republican Caucus (not meeting)10:00 a.m. Democrat Caucus (not…
Frontline: The Madoff Affair
Just how did Bernie Madoff pull off one the biggest Ponzi schemes in history? Frontline has the story tonight on KUAT-TV at 10 p.m. on Channel 6.
The Onion: Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable
Haven’t seen the new Trek yet, but I love this report from the Onion News Network:Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’
A Helpful Memo From City Manager Mike Letcher
Tom Danehy talks about a recent memo on “problem solving” from City Manager Mike Letcher in his upcoming column. Tom points out that one of Letcher’s problems seems to be proofreading, if this memo is any indication. The thrust of the memo: It appears that Letcher and Assistant City Manager Richard Miranda are tired of…
Creative Non-Friction
I have an acquaintance who secretly peed in an urn in an antique shop in Bisbee. He filled it to the brim, while the unaware owner at the cash register remained Prim, Proud and Proper—the three P’s in antiquing parlance. I can only imagine the owner’s reaction when he discovered the travesty! (I’m thinking of…
Friday Roundtable
Clarence Vs. Raul…Where’s Jan?…The Faltering Fox…It’s Arizona Illustrated’s Friday Roundtable, after the jump…
Holy Grail Batman!
You love knights and you love being taunted by the French? You still have one more night to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail on the big screen at the Loft. Tonight, Saturday, 10 p.m. Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say “ni” at will to old ladies.
SCAAP Crap: Why Does The White House Hate Paying Its Prison Bills To the States?
It doesn’t seem to matter whether George W. Bush or Barack Obama is in the White House: When they look for savings, they always seem to target the SCAAP program, which provides federal dollars to cover the cost of housing foreign nationals in our prisons. Back when she was governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano delighted…
Condiment Abuse: Obama’s Elitist Burger Appetites
Some liberals in the MSM think that Sean Hannity and the rest of the remaining patriots in this country have been a little too critical of Obama for ordering a burger with spicy mustard instead of ketchup. But as someone who has seen Obama order a burger, I can attest to his elitist ways. As…
Limbo Continues at ‘Citizen’
The Tucson Citizen is reporting that the afternoon daily’s fate remains uncertain. You know the phrase “the king of all mixed blessings”? Well, in this case, it applies. On one hand, the Citizen employees keep getting a paycheck, and Tucson gets the blessings of another media voice for at least a little while longer. On…
Presidential Sports
President Obama, jonesin’ for fast food, took his motorcade to a burger joint in Virginia. That should have played well in the sticks. Unfortunately, he put fancy mustard on his quarter pounder! Major gaffe, at least according to Fox News. So, how is a Dijon mustard-spreading, arugula-eating President supposed to maintain his Joe Six Pack…
Changes at the ‘Star’; Word on the Citizen?
It’s turning out to be an interesting week for those who toil at Tucson’s dailies. At the Star: The Hot Blog, a movie-related Web site, reported today that Arizona Daily Star film critic Phil Villarreal has been stripped of his reviewing duties, and has been given general-assignment duties instead. Villarreal confirmed the report via e-mail.…
Isn’t Bristol Living Proof?
Telling the truth? Not telling the truth? Bristol Palin is hitting the road as part of a campaign that promotes abstinence rather than safe sex in preventing pregnancy. Only four months ago, Bristol told Fox News that abstinence wasn’t realistic in preventing pregnancy, and now it’s evidently the only way to make sure the kiddies…
Tucsonan Interview of Star Trek Creator
Back in 1981, Tucsonan Ellen Adelstein had the opportunity to interview Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, for station KZAZ-TV. The interview was filmed in Roddenberry’s Beverly Hills home and, according to Adelstein, is the longest and most intimate TV interview he ever gave. The interview originally aired in Tucson in the summer of 1981…
Avett Brothers at Rialto: Money-Back Guarantee!
Rialto Theatre General Manager Curtis McCrary is so sure you’re gonna enjoy tonight’s Avett Brothers show that he’s offering a money-back guarantee. Steve Seigel has the details on why you should go. Get a taste of what the band is all about when they perform for free at 5 p.m. at Bookmans on Grant and…
Hard Living and Heartache
In 10 years, Fourkiller Flats have experienced the surging good times of a band on the rise, plenty of booze-filled nights, a pile of tour antics they’ll laugh about forever, a breakup, a resurrection, and eventually the sort of contentment that comes from simply playing music on their own terms. Looking at the details—ups and…
Now Showing at Home
JCVD PEACE ARCH MOVIE A- SPECIAL FEATURES D DVD GEEK FACTOR 7 (OUT OF 10) Here’s a surprise: One of last year’s more moving, complicated performances was delivered by none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme. Playing himself in a film that passes as both a satirical comedy and a decent action thriller, Van Damme makes…
Soundbites
THE NEW-MUSIC FLOOD RESUMES After a slight lull during which a local CD was released here and there, we’re back to a week that bears a pile of new local releases (OK, so it’s only four), each one in a rootsy vein, each with its own accompanying celebratory shindig. The Tucson Community Food Bank might…
Live
VIENNA TENG, BEN SOLLEE
Significant Shawls
A popular piece of Mexican culture—especially to Mexican women—is finally getting its day in the spotlight at the Tucson Museum of Art. You may not be familiar with the word “rebozo,” but you have most likely come across this popular Mexican garment and have seen it worn by women in the Southwest: Woven from fine…
9 Questions
Christopher Holt
Noshing Around
Cookies for a Cause I never thought Hugh Jackman and cookies had much in common, outside of the fact that both are described as “delicious.” But that was before a press release arrived to announce that Pepperidge Farm is auctioning off a Jackman-autographed case of Aussie-style Tim Tam cookies to raise money for Feeding America,…
All About the Sauce
GoodFellas—the Main Gate Square bistro, not the movie—left me puzzled. Located in the former site of Chow Bella, this place could be the great little Italian restaurant that every college area needs. It could be. While the menu has expanded from the previous incarnation, little has changed with the décor. There’s new artwork, some of…
VOICES: Acts of Devotion
Years ago, when I would visit my grandmother in Douglas, I would pass by this house where, if I waited long enough, I could see nuns walking from the backdoor to the garden in their long, black habits. They seemed barely human, like phantom beings in dark robes. Later, at home, I’d ask my family…
Police Dispatch
BASHING AND TRASHING WEST ALASKA STREET APRIL 8, 10:17 P.M. A southwest-side homeowner suffered through odd instances of vandalism after calling the police on an attacker, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report stated. The homeowner said he had gone outside one day to find his front yard covered with layers of trash. He believed the…
Apologies, Returns, Goodbyes
Some housekeeping matters this week … • Our online ballots for both Best of Tucson™ and Tucson Area Music Awards (aka TAMMIES) voting were down for about two days (much of Sunday, May 3, and Monday, May 4). The techies tell me that the hard drive on their server died a sudden and painful death.…
Bold Journey
Trekkies … you can exhale now. Director J.J. Abrams has pulled off a modern movie miracle with his reboot of the Star Trek franchise. He manages to retain the vibe of the beloved TV and film series while creating something altogether different, fresh and irresistibly entertaining. This is the best Star Trek film I’ve seen,…
Ask A Mexican!
Is it true that most Mexicans are carriers of the swine flu due to the fact that they eat a lot of chicharrones, or is it the fact that your women are so piglike? I knew that Mexicans have muy shitty diets, but now we have to worry about them infecting us with a pig-borne…
Special Effects, Naked Chests
Most professional critics have given low grades to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. They claim their bad reviews are due to the clumsy script, the derivative directing and the film’s low interest in being intelligent. I think, rather, that the reason X-Men Origins: Wolverine has gotten such bad reviews is that reviewers do not understand something that…
The Other Side
To the “hero” in this Mexico City-set historical novel, “to flee or not to flee” is the question. Men of thought versus men of action, personal ambition versus the common good, outside forces exploiting national disunity—it’s all the stuff of classical drama. As Ignacio Solares tells it, it’s also the stuff of 19th-century Mexican history.…
Mailbag
Danehy Is Narrow-Minded and Misguided; I Am Healthy and Moral! Tom Danehy resorts to name-calling in his misguided take on animal rights (April 23). A bumper sticker reading, “Equal Rights for All Species,” could have several interpretations; Danehy’s is the most extreme and allows him to remain in a safe, narrow-minded state, spewing words like…
Rumor and Reality
Business is brisk at the Happy Home Nutrition Center, where proprietor Elvia Marquez is grabbing natural anti-flu supplements such as Immune Action and Herbal Defense Complex from her crowded shelves. Located just a block north of the border in Nogales, Happy Home is also a bustling sounding board of binational concerns. So what is Marquez…
Top Ten in Books
Antigone Books best-sellers for the week
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Pink-Slip Pain
On the same day that Liz Samuels unpacked her last box, one month after moving into her new home, she and about 600 other Tucson Unified School District employees received pink slips. The Reynolds Elementary School first-grade teacher was stunned; she knew the economy was a mess, she says, but she didn’t expect to start…
Media Watch
RADIOEXILES.COM HELPS RADIO TALENT RETURN TO THE MEDIUM Some estimates place the amount of displaced radio talent at 60 percent over the last five years. As the terrestrial radio model’s bottom line shrinks, those numbers will increase before they level off. Tucson has certainly not been immune from the chopping block, considering the ouster of…
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Study Buddy
Before a test in his traditions class near the end of the fall semester, Bradley Brown, a UA freshman majoring in economics, went online and downloaded a study guide. He had never used Notehall.com before, but he liked what he saw. Notehall.com was launched in September 2008 by Justin Miller, a junior in the Eller…
T Q&A
T Q&A with Patricia Hirsch
Pansy Division: That’s So Gay (Alternative Tentacles)
If California’s Prop 8 bummed you out, it might make you feel better to know that Golden State natives Pansy Division do away with the notion of gay marriage on their latest album. On “Life Lovers,” Jon Ginoli sings, “No box to check on the census form / Unless they’ve got one that says ‘Don’t…
VOICES: Authority of Fear
The pungent aroma of urinal cake and pot filled my nostrils. It was 11 o’clock at night. Three other kids stood huddled shoulder to shoulder with me, looking for whatever warmth we could find. I tended to feel invincible in the shadiest of situations—that is, until the night I got arrested. As we sat in…
The Skinny
PARTYING LIKE A ROCK STAR We read in the daily papers this week that the UA’s student council managed to lose nearly $1 million on the Jay-Z and Kelly Clarkson concert at Arizona Stadium last week. Yes, you read that right: They lost nearly a million bucks on a show that was supposed to be…
1990s: Kicks (Rough Trade)
This late in the ’80s new-wave imitation game, it’s eye-rolling to learn that yet another band—this time, it’s 1990s, out of Glasgow, Scotland—is working to construct the ultimate Reagan-era pop album. Naming itself after the Clinton decade is the band’s effort to throw critics off the scent of the 1980s, but there’s no way to…
Back to the Drawing Board
After facing a standing-room-only crowd of more than 500 angry citizens at a five-hour budget hearing last week, members of the Tucson City Council appear to be backing away from a proposed 2 percent rent tax. But some members say they may still support a lower tax on housing-rental payments. “I think that’s much more…
City Week
Awesome Auction Treasures for TIHAN 6:30 p.m., Saturday, May 9 Doubletree Hotel 445 S. Alvernon Way 299-6647; www.tihan.org The Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network is getting ready for one of its biggest fundraisers: The 12th annual Treasures for TIHAN event. Treasures for TIHAN will bring together an exceptional bunch of items for both silent and live…
Carrie Rodriguez: Live in Louisville (Luz)
Carrie Rodriguez, from Austin, Texas, is a competition-quality fiddler who recorded several collaborative albums with troubadour Chip Taylor before striking out on a solo career as a singer-songwriter specializing in edgy alt-country. Her new CD, a fierce and artful live set, was actually created between the releases of her two studio albums—Seven Angels on a…
VOICES: Connection to Calm
At church camp, when I was younger, I was always the first to memorize our Bible verses—”God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his son”—and the first to participate in our church music groups, writing songs and singing them onstage during worship. My favorite Bible story was about Noah and the…
Danehy
I’m thinking of joining the Air Force. You probably think that it might be a tad late in life to be making such a move, but I’ve got a good reason. Actually, I took a test to go to the Air Force Academy a long time ago and did pretty well. But when the Air…
Messina
On a moonlit night in July 2004, William Maddux left his home in Fond du Lac, Wis., and headed for New York City. Led by his dream to become a published author, Maddux didn’t board a plane, take a bus or drive a car. Instead, his mode of transportation came in two forms: his intuition…
VOICES: Otherwordly
Ominous music plays in the background as eerie, green lighting surrounds a lone cabin in the woods. A family huddles inside, blockaded by otherworldly creatures. When I was younger, I watched a lot of alien movies with my grandpa on Chicago’s South Side. He owned a video store and had a large collection of conspiracy-theory…
Guest Commentary
My mom is one tough gal. Most folks her age—she celebrated her 80th birthday not so long ago—aren’t still going to work every day. But Mom—Margaret Tilton, as she’s known to her friends, or Miss Margaret, as she’s called by her young students at Outer Limits School—still heads off to the job every morning. Mom…
Grassroots Dance
Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner are on the Ballet Tucson studio sidelines, watching as the company stars move through the grand pas de deux from the final act of Sleeping Beauty. “That’s a lot better,” Gardner says encouragingly to dancers Jenna Johnson and Daniel Precup when they’re done, but McKerrow has a few corrections. “Jenna,…
Wry Observations
Tucson’s 2008-2009 theater season is almost over. After Invisible Theatre opens Don’t Talk to the Actors next week, your friendly neighborhood drama critic will have to hustle to fill this space during the coming months. Summer may be Tucson’s primary rainy season, but in terms of play-going, it’s parched. This week, with some time to…
Martian Frost Melting
Our friends at the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab have released a whole new crop of images of Mars taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The above shot captures frost melting around an ancient volcano: This HiRISE image was intended to investigate the nature of the volcanic materials at this location. However, the image was…
We’ll Drink To That: Buffet Among America’s Best Bars
The Buffet has been named one of America’s Best Bars by Esquire magazine. Says Esquire: A classic American dive, the Buff dispenses cheap beer and strong drinks. It’s Tucson’s oldest bar, there by the railroad tracks since 1934, and ten bucks still gets you two pitchers of Coors. At 6:00 a.m. it opens. At 6:00…
Partying Like A Rock Star: ASUA Loses a Cool Million Bucks On Jay-Z Stadium Show
This is one of those times when you have to wonder if you’re reading The Onion: ASUA managed to lose nearly $1 million on the Jay-Z concert at Arizona Stadium last week, according to the Arizona Daily Star. Yes, they lost nearly a million dollars. On a show that was supposed to be a fundraiser…
