Cover Stories
Navy SEAL Down
It has been a quiet deployment. Maj. Jeff Peterson passes the daytime hours sleeping in his hooch in Kandahar, and at night, he stays awake “holding the brick”—his alert radio—waiting for a call. The job of the 305th Rescue Squadron, based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, is to pick up downed airmen. That’s usually not…
Tipping Point
How do we make choices? How do we live with those choices once we’ve made them? Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Delicate Balance explores the consequences of emotional dishonesty. The drama, from 1966, also uncovers the hidden consequences that “go underneath,” as one of his characters puts it. Opening its second show in its…
Shaun McClusky, Big Spender!
Here’s a surprise from the recently wrapped city election: Democrat Richard Fimbres, who won the race to replace Steve Leal in Ward 5, was outspent by Republican opponent Shaun McClusky. New campaign-finance reports show through Nov. 9, McClusky spent $90,211, compared to Fimbres’ $78,526. McClusky, a political rookie, also managed to outraise Fimbres, despite Fimbres’…
Lodge on the Desert’s Restaurant to Reopen
Lodge on the Desert’s restaurant (306 N. Alvernon Road)—which closed back in July for renovations and a concept change—is reopening this week with a new chef and menu. A press release put out today says the restaurant will begin serving dinner on Friday, Nov. 20, with lunch service beginning on Monday, Nov. 30. The place…
ScrambleWatch 2010: Democratic Dogpile
The dust is still settling from our 2009 City Council election, but candidates are already preparing themselves for next year’s midterm election. In 2008, we had the seven-way super-slam in Legislative 29, where seven Democrats jumped into a primary for two House seats. Something similar may be brewing for next year in midtown Tucson, where…
McCain’s Sexy Frankenstein
With Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue loaded with (apparently inaccurate) criticism of his presidential campaign, I gotta wonder if John McCain regrets picking her as his VP yet… Andrew Sullivan, as you might expect, is having a field day: As this blog persistently demonstrated in last year’s campaign, Palin is a delusional fantasist, existing in a…
Friday Roundtable: Ernest Calderon
A conversation with Ernest Calderon of the Arizona Board of Regents, after the jump.
Friday Roundtable: The State’s Ongoing Economic Collapse, Paton’s Congressional Ambitions & More!
It’s our first post-Ann Brown Friday Roundtable, after the jump!
Sky Bar Open Tonight
The new astronomy-themed Sky Bar (536 N. Fourth Ave.) located right next to Brooklyn Pizza Company will be open for business as of tonight, says owner Tony Vaccaro. The place has piped in images of deep space and other planetary goodness going on throughout. A planetarium with a full bar? Be still my cosmological heart.
Seoul Food
Kimchi is awesome. Seoul Kitchen rules, and the people who run it are nice. Plus, the owners said that if I liked the food, I should tell my friends about it, so I am. The place opened a few weeks back at 4951 E. Grant Road. It’s a family-run eatery with 10 or so tables…
Merry Pranksters at The Loft Cinema
The Yes Men Fix The World opens tonight at the Loft Cinema. You can read about these Merry Pranksters, who specialize in media and corporate hoaxes, right here. One of the Yes Men, former Tucsonan Andy Bichlbaum, will be visiting the Loft to talk about his work at a special screening at 7 p.m. Monday,…
Remembering Maeveen
Reporter Tony Davis has a lovely remembrance of Maeveen Behan in today’s Star: Maeveen Marie Behan was a renaissance woman whose drive to protect the Sonoran Desert was fed by love and a sense of justice. She was a lawyer who knew that the best way to reach people on a wonkish subject such as…
A Savage View on Marriage
Dan Savage explains who really redefined marriage.
Society of Southwestern Authors Book Fair
Just in time for holiday shopping, the Society of Southwestern Authors will hold its fifth annual holiday book fair from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 15, at Four Points Sheraton Conference Center, 1900 E. Speedway Blvd. The event features 40 local authors. David Fitzsimmons, editorial cartoonist for the Arizona Daily Star, will…
Melvins: Chicken Switch (IPECAC)
The Melvins did more to influence the whole U.S. sludge-metal-noise-punk scene than any other band. Sure, you could make a case for Black Flag or Swans as being the genre’s true pioneers, but it really wasn’t until 1987’s Gluey Porch Treatments that it became cool to slow things way, way down, and revel in excruciating…
Unfortunately Unassuming
A central symbol of this ambitious new novel by Barbara Kingsolver is the howler monkey. Denizen of the treetop canopy in Mexico and Central America, a howler is hard to see, but impossible to miss. Once a howler has trumpeted his message to the world, other howlers pile on to outdo him. Just—according to Kingsolver’s…
Holiday Classic
Shame on me, for I allowed my expectations for Robert Zemeckis’ animated A Christmas Carol to be clouded by Disney’s lousy marketing campaign, which made the film look like it was going to be a loud, silly wannabe thrill ride that featured the famed Scrooge flying about and screaming a lot. In truth, Scrooge does…
Top Ten in Books
Mostly Books best-sellers for the week
Emotionally Intense
Thao Nguyen appeared on the national music scene as a 23-year-old Vietnamese-American from Virginia with a voice that exploded, whispered, lulled and beatboxed, and songs that hopped, skipped and danced, even as they explored domestic violence and feminism. It was no surprise that after the 2008 release of We Brave Bee Stings and All with…
Young Psyche
For the most part, I don’t like contemporary horror movies, but then I may just be too sensitive to enjoy the pastoral image of a woman being fed into a food processor by a man in a clown mask. I accept that this is a matter of taste, and that perfectly decent people who never…
Grand Archives: Keep in Mind Frankenstein (Sub Pop)
Not one to offer up much in the way of new tricks, Grand Archives’ Mat Brooke instead maintains a remarkable level of quality control. A veteran of both the cult-favorite Carissa’s Wierd and the quickly ascendant Band of Horses, the Seattle singer-guitarist sounds content to remain firmly planted at the easy-listening end of the indie-rock…
Now Showing at Home
Brüno (Blu-Ray); Say Anything: 20th Anniversary Edition (Blu-Ray); Monsters, Inc. (Blu-Ray)
A Foot in Two Cultures
The film Barking Water takes viewers on a journey alongside a man who has reached the end of his life. We ride with Frankie in his battered station wagon, hear the rhythmic soundtrack of his thoughts, and root for him to find forgiveness on his way home. This may sound like one sappy road trip…
Toole Avenue: For Sale
Chris Larsen went through a wild couple of days last week. The guitar-maker had expressed interest in purchasing a downtown warehouse from the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). On Thursday, Nov. 5, he thought he had the building; later, he was told the building would instead go to auction. Finally, on Friday, he was outbid.…
The Power of No
When did Ward 6 City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff realize she was going to lose her re-election bid to Republican Steve Kozachik? It was right around 11 p.m. on Election Day. Trasoff—who started out behind her GOP challenger when early-ballot results were released, but then took a lead as the first Election Day votes were counted—was…
City Week
Toddlers and Books Read to Me, Arizona! launch and Story Town 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14 Jácome Plaza Joel D. Valdez Main Library 101 N. Stone Ave. 721-2334; www.readtomearizona.org Keep an eye out for Honorary Mayor Curious George. He’ll be patrolling the streets of Rhythm Road and Art Alley at the sixth…
Weekly Wide Web
If you were one of the thousands of people on Fourth Avenue and/or downtown last Sunday, Nov. 8, for the 20th Annual All Souls Procession, you probably saw dozens of people with fancy (read: expensive) camera equipment, steady-cam rigs, boom microphones and crane lifts. The people sporting this serious-looking stuff (and the unserious-looking orange armbands)…
Global Stall
Speaking before colleagues on June 9, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl criticized an ambitious bill that would create carbon-emissions limits, an “Efficient Buildings Grant Program” and a cap-and-trade system for polluters. Rather than lauding the measure for its lofty goals, Kyl called it a backdoor tax increase. “At a time when the Senate should be looking…
Danehy
Some stuff I need to mention before we get into the holiday season: • Is this a great time to be an Arizona Wildcats football fan, or what? Only one Pac-10 team is ahead of Arizona in the standings, and a home game with that first-place team is coming up. We need to bask in…
Campus Cops
The fact that some people are surprised when they get stopped by a UA Police Department patrol car amazes Sgt. Juan Alvarez. “It’s as if they think we’re some type of campus security,” quipped Alvarez, the UAPD public-information specialist who has been with the force for more than 20 years. The UAPD patrol area reaches…
Downing
My mom fell and broke a bone in her hand a couple of weeks ago. She was beautifully cared for at El Dorado Urgent Care, where we got in quickly—and where, as the nurse told us, they were thrilled to see somebody who didn’t have the flu. They took X-rays, splinted her up and sent…
The Skinny
SCRAMBLEWATCH 2010: LET THE GAMES BEGIN! While we’ve yet to be persuaded that an off-year election means all that much, the walloping of Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia, as well as the local thrashing of Tucson City Councilwoman Nina Trasoff (and the close call of her colleague, Karin Uhlich) have caused Republicans to smell…
Guest Opinion
In late September, Joe Shirley Jr., president of the Navajo Nation, sent out a provocative press release charging that “environmental activists and organizations are among the greatest threat to tribal sovereignty.” Shirley made his attack while joining Northern Arizona’s Hopi tribal council in “unwelcoming” conservation groups from those tribes’ lands, which sprawl across portions of…
Media Watch
‘Star’ loses experience; ‘East Valley Tribune’ to shut down; ‘Daily Wildcat’ theft case closed
Mailbag
MOCA ‘Controversy’ Yet Another Example of Republicans Trying to Control Personal Lives Over the past decade, I’ve been continually amazed by how members of the Republican Party concoct stories, with no basis in the truth, to further their political and social-control agenda. Now we have the national drama playing out in our own backyard (“Bunch…
Headlights: Wildlife (Polyvinyl)
The music of the band Headlights combines electronica, chamber-folk and drone-pop, highlighted by minimalist, repetitive keyboard and guitar patterns that bring to mind Brian Eno and Philip Glass jamming with Velocity Girl. Singer Erin Fein, who also plays keyboards, escorts the band through this hypnotic landscape with enchanting vocals that hover somewhere between ’60s girl…
Police Dispatch
HE MEANT TO ROB THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR WEST MAXIMILIAN WAY OCT. 16, 10:42 A.M. A burglar came up with a lame excuse when he was caught, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. The reportee, a female homeowner, said the doorbell woke her up that morning, but she ignored it in favor of…
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: Whenever I see ads for Mexican ramera, they always describe themselves as “spicy.” Are Mexican women hiding habaneros in their panochas? Concha Curious Dear Gabacho: “I wish I could say that ‘Mexican Spitfire’ Lupe Vélez was to blame for the ‘spicy’ epithet so often associated with Mexican femme pulchritude,” says William Nericcio, author…
Live
Calexico and Friends, Molehill Orkestrah
Polish Up Those Kickin’ Boots!
Is there a person, a place or a thing that you think Tucson would be better off without? If so, let us know! We’ll be publishing our seventh annual Get Out of Town! issue on Dec. 17, and alongside the list of ne’er-do-wells that we Tucson Weekly scribes are dispatching from the Old Pueblo, we’ll…
Top Ten in Music
Zia Records top sales for the week
Noshing Around
Taste of South Tucson South Tucson is home to some authentic, delicious food, so we’re excited about the Taste of South Tucson event, taking place at the House of Neighborly Service (243 W. 33rd St.) from 3 to 6 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14. More than 15 restaurants have signed up, and there’ll be dancing and…
Life After Death
There is a moment in the second act of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Rabbit Hole, now playing at Beowulf Alley, when the characters, and the play itself, let go of their tension for a first tentative moment. It’s almost magical, because suddenly, in the audience, you can feel yourself begin to breathe freely again. It’s like the…
Soundbites
AWFUL RACKET, INSANE CLOWNS Perhaps it’s a Halloween hangover: The Rialto Theatre this week hosts a pair of acts known as much for their costumes and stagecraft as their music. First up is GWAR, which was formed in the late ’80s at a Virginia university, reportedly as an experiment in marketing. Not that it really…
T Q&A
Marc David Leviton
Demos, Sales and Snacks
When Linda Rosenfield’s Great Uncle Phil died, a lifetime of photos almost got tossed in the trash. His fine black-and-white prints captured New York City in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, picturing people, buildings, streets. “He was not simply a snap shooter,” says Rosenfield, a photographer herself. “He would develop and print his own images…
Nine Questions
Sean Murphy
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week
Gyro Heroes
My biggest complaint about Zayna Mediterranean Café: It’s more than 10 miles from my house. This little strip-mall counter-service joint on the far eastside, at Tanque Verde Road and Catalina Highway, offers some of the best Middle Eastern food you’ll find in Tucson—and the gyro is absolutely fantastic. We first visited Zayna on a recent…
Espresso Pundit Pushes Paton in CD8
Patterson turns up the heat on Paton for Congress speculation: So Giffords has had the benefit of running in two elections in which Democrats have done very well. Now in 2010, the mood has shifted and the turnout will drop. Trasoff’s gone, and if Republicans can field the right candidate in 2010, there will be…
A Case for Health-Care Reform
Robert and Walter Wick, the brothers whose company own the Tucson Weekly, make a compelling case for the passage of health-care reform. BY ROBERT WICK AND WALTER WICK Aside from war and death, Americans face few issues as immediate as access to health care, particularly during times of economic hardship and its accompanying stress. More…
