Cover Story
The 2014 Non Profit Guide
Listen: No one wants to those heated slippers in the middle of the department store aisle. Why not put your money/time/etc. to better use?
Cheba Hut in Tucson Closes, Plans to Reopen Eventually
Fans of Tucson’s toasted sub franchise Cheba Hut got some bad news last night via Facebook. Owners Steve and Colleen Bigelow announced that after over six years of slinging sandwiches, the location at 1820 E. 6th Street will be permanently closing on Friday, Dec. 5 at 10 p.m. due to “uncontrollable circumstances.” Owner Steve Bigelow…
Everything You Wanted To Read About Arizona (But Didn’t Know Where To Go)
The Arizona State Library has become a go-to digital source for Arizona history, lore and legend. Its new Digital Arizona Library contains over 500 old and new books, pamphlets, databases and timelines related to Arizona. You can simply go to the site, find something you want and read it online, or you can sign up…
Listen Up, Booze Lovers: Rialto Theatre Has Two Imbibable Events This Week
You might not need an excuse to drink, but in case you’re looking for one, Rialto Theatre has you covered this week. Between the Bon Vivant Club on Thursday, December 4 and the AZ Beerd Fest on Sunday, December 7, you’ll have your wine sipping and beer guzzling plans locked in. The Bon Vivant Club,…
Greil Marcus Mentioned Billy Sedlmayr Online, So That’s Pretty Cool
Greil Marcus is one of the deans of what we consider music writing these days, so when he recommends something it holds some weight. He’s doing a column for Barnes & Noble (among other things these days) called the Real Life Rock Top Ten, which is more or less a list of stuff he likes.…
Free Stuff: Win a Pair of Tickets to Keller Williams and The Motet at Rialto Theatre
Looking for something to do on Thursday, December 4? Well, if you want to save a buck (or $46), then you might want to jump on the opportunity to snag some free tickets to Keller Williams with The Motet at Rialto Theatre. We have two pair of tickets will be given away and all you…
Free Bike Lights and Helmets for Cyclists Riding on Campbell Avenue
If you’ve been riding around town without lights or a helmet, it’s time to mend your evil ways and start riding the legal way. This evening beginning at 5 p.m. until supplies run out, Mayor Jonathan Rothschild will be handing out light sets and helmets to riders at the popular biking intersection of Campbell Avenue and…
Nook to Bring Brunch with Hawaiian Flavor to Congress Street
Nikki and Matt Thompson have been running a catering business called 2 Hearts 1 Kitchen in town for about seven years, but now the couple is ready to bring their take on New American cuisine, which she defines as “traditional American with a random international splash” to the public. “We’ve always wanted to have our…
Kids Nowadays!
I’m gonna blame this on the schools. Whenever things happen with kids, no matter what it is, people like to say it’s the schools’ fault, so I might as well follow suit. I guess I’ve got to give a share of the blame to all the sex and violence in the media too — you…
Grab Your Twinkle Lights and Prep Yourself for the 20th Annual Downtown Parade of Lights
If you’re looking to take part in one of Tucson’s most endearingly festive annual events, the Downtown Parade of Lights is currently accepting float submissions. Now in its 20th year, the holiday parade has a long and bright history in town of getting people together to look at a locally made light show. If you’re…
Get Discounted Tickets for the Tucson Jazz Festival Today
While everyone else is fighting over discounted Soda Streams and comforter sets online today, you can spend your hard earned cash wisely by snatching up cheaper tickets for Dianne Reeves’ performance at the Tucson Jazz Festival. Tickets to see the three-time Grammy award winning jazz vocalist range from $35 to $65, but by using the…
Alton Brown Wants You to Tell Him Where to Eat in Tucson
Chances are you have about twenty different food carts, holes in the wall, and other hidden gems that you are just dying to let the world know about. Well, nerdy TV food enthusiast Alton Brown wants to hear what you’ve got. According to Brown’s blog, he’s hitting the road to try tasty places across the…
Going Out the Way I Came In: Muppet Videos
I’m crossing my fingers that Insane Clown Posse do something interesting in the next three days so I can really pay tribute to my Range-muses, but in the meantime, it only seems right that someone posted a Muppets vs. 90’s-hip-hop video mashup on YouTube yesterday, so I could have something to post. Thanks, internet!
Gilbert Conservatives Gird Their Loins [With Chastity Belts] For Battle
Arizona is making Culture War news once again, earning us negative press from, among others, the New York Times and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show. This time the news comes from the Gilbert School District school board, where a 3-2 majority wants to black out or cut out a few pages from a high school biology…
The Gaelic Gravity at Agustin Kitchen Gives Fall Flavors Without Pumpkin Spice Pandering
If you’re looking for a liquor-forward drink for late fall nights, Agustin Kitchen’s Gaelic Gravity is a clever blend of scotch, apples, cinnamon, and smoky flavors that is both drinkable and well-balanced, while still maintaining its edge. Bartender Ciaran Wiese starts the process of making his Gaelic Gravity cocktail about a month in advance. Wiese…
“Zona Politics” Talks with Supervisor Sharon Bronson, Councilman Paul Cunningham
Zona Politics Eps.7 from Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel on Vimeo. On this week’s “Zona Politics with Jim Nintzel”: Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson talks about roads, the county’s vote-counting process, the future of Colossal Cave Mountain Park and more. Then Tucson City Councilman Paul Cunningham talks about the future of Broadway Boulevard, the search…
Murs and ¡Mayday! Bring a Little Miami Hype to The Rock on Saturday
The Strange Music collaboration of rapper Murs and Miami-based Latin hip hop group ¡Mayday! might seem like an unlikely mash-up, but both sides agree it’s all about the intensity. “I feel like I have cannons behind me,” Murs says. The live set-up, which you can experience for yourself at The Rock on Saturday, November 29,…
Can Children Under 13 Opt Out Of “The Test”?
Image courtesy of shutterstock.com Opposition to high stakes tests is growing. More parents and teachers are joining the movement to decrease the frequency and impact of those standardized tests which distort classroom education into an exercise in “teaching to the test” and can result in students being held back or not graduating, teachers and administrators…
How Do You Get a Medical Marijuana Card?
While Arizona isn’t quite to the level of Washington and Colorado yet, our state is one of 16 (plus the District of Columbia) that offers public medical cannabis, thanks to Proposition 203’s narrow passage in 2010. However, potential patients still need to go through a process to legally obtain marijuana. So where do you start?…
Better Than It Should Be
Maybe it’s time for a new measuring stick with comedy sequels. Maybe it’s just as simple as “Was it better than it should have been?” Sequels, in the majority of cases, are lacking. It’s especially true for comedies. For every “Back to the Future Part II” there are dozens if not hundreds of examples like…
Ask the Mexican
Dear Mexican: I was wondering why Mexicans in Chicago are meaner than Mexicans in California. I love my Mexican brothers and sisters in California (I’m from Cali), but they are the biggest pendejos in Chicago! Does cold weather make Mexicans pissed off? And why do Mexican women like to ram white girls with their shopping…
Cinema Showdown
SOMETHING YOU WOULDN’T RECOGNIZE. IT’S CALLED LOVE One series ends at the Loft this week (The Films of Paul Thomas Anderson, with the screening of probably-about-Scientology-but-let’s-not-say-that-because-they’ll-sue-us film “The Master” on Sat. Nov. 29 at 7 p.m.) and another begins, as The Films of 1939 take over our favorite Speedway theater in December. As you may…
Live Music & More
We recommend that you call and confirm all events. THU NOV 27 LIVE MUSIC Chicago Bar Neon Prophet 10pm, $5. La Cocina Restaurant, Cantina and Coffee Bar Stefan George 6:30pm. The Coronet Jimmy Carr and The Coronets Jimmy Carr on accordion, Chris Black on stand up bass and Samantha Bounkeua on violin. Prix fixe menu…
Wasted Talent
A quick look at the roster for “Elsa & Fred” reveals the involvement of three Oscar winners, a couple of Oscar nominees and the dudes from “Quantum Leap,” the original “Fun with Dick and Jane” and “Sex and the City.” The movie certainly has a formidable pedigree. It also has a creepy scene late in…
Editor’s Note
It’s not all that often you say goodbye to a workplace twice, but as you might have read online or in the Star (weird), I’m leaving the Tucson Weekly (again, I left in 2012 when I was online editor) at the end of the month. It’s been a strange and wonderful two years since I…
Police Dispatch
WILD INSIDE SAN XAVIER BEAT OCT. 24, 9:36 P.M. After downing some serious medication with hard liquor, a man began a terrible tantrum while channeling a variety of wildlife, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. Sheriff’s deputies were called to the man’s house, where he lived with this father. The father said his…
Warthog Worries
As pundits, analysts and the blogosophere attempt to predict all the ways in which the midterm elections have changed the political landscape in Washington, it doesn’t take a political scientist to realize that the A-10 Warthog’s future now looks much brighter than it did on Nov. 3. The Senate Armed Services Committee will have a…
Film Clips
FORCE MAJEURE What do you do to get away when the vacation is worse than the stress you’re vacationing to avoid? That’s what a Swedish couple faces on a family skiing holiday in the Alps. A controlled avalanche, and one partner’s perceived reaction in its wake, leaves the couple reeling for days and days, arguing,…
The Skinny
Immigration Overhaul President Barack Obama takes unilateral action on immigration reform President Barack Obama announced last week that he would concentrate immigration-enforcement efforts on dangerous criminals and suspected terrorists rather than undocumented immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding people. “I continue to believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together to…
This Week in Craft Beer
Arizona’s craft beer scene is something of an anomaly. Though the state produced a very respectable 117,000 barrels of craft beer last year, making it the 28th biggest producer in the union, the majority of shelf space in local beer shops is still dominated by brands from California, Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, Michigan and Europe. This…
Danehy
Dear President Obama: With all due respect, Mr. President, where the hell have you been for the past six years? And why did you wait this long to shrug off your too-cool persona and stand up for something? I would say that it’s about damn time, but it’s probably way past damn time. For six…
Noshing Around
THANKSGIVING RANT Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Besides that it is a holiday centered on food, and drink (oh yeah, and family), there is a certain level of purity to it. The fact that you do not have to buy presents, decorate (at least, not all that much), send out cards and all the commercialized…
Media Watch
IF YOU’RE GOING TO KEEP AN ARBITRON DIARY, YOU MIGHT AS WELL LISTEN TO THE RADIO Last week’s column focused on the process that went into receiving an all-important Arbitron radio ratings diary. To recap: the system is outdated because Tucson is considered too small a market to bother with upgraded PPM (People Meter) ratings…
Nine on the Line
Carlos Calderon is the Executive Chef at NoRth Italia, “A Love Letter to Italy” in La Encantada. His resume is as impressive as his homemade pasta, including being a Culinary Institute of America grad, and formally working as a Sous Chef at Miraval and as a Chef De Cuisine for Janos Wilder’s Janos and J…
Shaping the Sound
Nick Chiericozzi and Mark Perro have been busy leading punk band The Men for the past six years. But not all of the duo’s musical impulses and experiments fit with The Men, so they started Dream Police as another creative outlet. “It started a few years back, 2010 or so. We always had some stuff…
City Week
City Week Guidelines. Submit event listings online at tucsonweekly.com/tucson/Events/AddEvent. The print deadline is Monday at noon, 10 days before the Thursday publication date. Send corrections to listings@tucsonweekly.com. Because of space limitations, we can’t use all items. Event information is accurate as of press time. The Weekly recommends calling event organizers to check for last-minute changes…
Soundbites
BEFORE SOMEBODY GETS HURT It’s quite rare that a week goes by without a free show happening at Club Congress, and typically there’s acts you’d actually pay cold, hard cash to see, so praise be unto the booking powers that be over there. This week looks especially good, with psychedelic psychos Dream Police headlining. This…
Welcoming the Refugees
Iskashitaa Refugee Network is serving a first Thanksgiving dinner to refugees who’ve settled in our desert city. The meal, on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2 p.m. at the Desert Courtyard Apartments, 1411 N. Alvernon Way and Las Casitas, 3835 E. Fairmount St. will serve up traditional foods, as well as cultural foods prepared by refugees. More…
Memories and Meaning
“It was in middle school, and all of my friends started playing music,” says Jess Matsen, of the time he taught himself how to play the guitar. He concludes with typical self-effacement: “I never really thought I wanted to do that.” The 24-year old songwriter has a long discography to his name—at least a half…
Journey of the Wolf
The Center for Biological Diversity brings the documentary “OR7: The Journey,” to Tucson on Wednesday, Dec. 3. Telling the story of a famous wolf who wandered hundreds of miles from northeast Oregon to become the first documented wolf in California in more than 80 years, the screening takes place at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E.…
Mik and Scott “Introducing” (Self-Released)
The live performances of Mik Garrison and Scott Kerr are inherently experimental—funk and R&B in the setting of theatricalism. The duo’s unpredictable fourth wall-breaking is among few constants in a concert setting, be it taking place in an underpass or on the stage at a bar, but their first collaborative full-length “Introducing” show them fully…
Around the World
If you’re into stars, you’ll want to clear your schedule Saturday, Nov. 29 to head to Himmel Park Library for the last free Portable Planetarium library presentation of the year. The 2 p.m. star experience, “Astronomy Around the World,” has an emphasis on Native American astronomy with this being the Thanksgiving season. For more on…
Shaun Harris “Journey to F-Sides” (Self-Released)
Journey to F-Sides, Tucson’s hip-hop artist Shaun Harris’ new full-length record, finds the rapper refining his strengths, while building on them and adding a few new tricks. Last year’s EP Shock G Calls Me Chris was a breath of fresh air—devoid of posturing or personas, it felt like a day in the life of an…
WIP It Good
Hey, listen, you could spend the day after Thanksgiving running for your life from the inevitable Black Friday stampedes, if that that’s the kind of life you want to live. Or, if you want to be a civilized human being separate from the madness of the common folk, head to Café Passe for WIP-Giving. From…
Nine Questions
Summer Disney, who calls herself an “almost life-long Tucsonan,” went to middle school at Casas Adobes Baptist and high school at Salpointe Catholic, “because my parents were/are indecisive.” These days, she works as a job coach for Café 54’s food truck, Truck 54. And in her spare time she’s all about thrift stores, trying to…
California Dreaming
A man dressed in a magician’s hat and cape—and scruffy jeans—pushes a wheeled sculpture down a city street. A plaster magician’s assistant is on board the contraption, entombed inside a big blue box. In the familiar magic trick, she’s cut in half, her feet hanging limply out one end of the box, and her platinum-curly…
What You Need to Know Before You Go to That Poutine Place, U.S. Fries
The prospect of a restaurant that serves only poutine dredges up some complicated emotions. There’s the side of you that wants to eat French fries, gravy, and cheese curds all night and forget about all of the locally-grown, artisanal stuff for a little bit—it’s hard to be responsible all of the time. Then there’s the…
