Cover Stories
The Skinny
With last week’s primary election, we finally know who will be advancing to November’s general election. Here’s a roundup of the key races, along with some notes from the primary.
Mystery Mastery
Author Shannon Baker, who moved to the Tucson area after attending the Tucson Festival of Books a few times, is set to release Stripped Bare, a mystery novel introducing Kate Fox, a Nebraska rancher who takes over her husband’s job of sheriff after he’s shot in the first chapter.
Romeo and Juliet Take Tucson
“To be or not to be, that is the question.” Or is the question to go or not to go? Well no matter the question the answer is most definitely Tucson’s 10th Annual Shakespeare in the Park event. Now, everyone has heard of the reputable Shakespeare in the Park that happens in New York City.…
Create a Masterpiece, Give the Gift of Art
Creative Juice Art Bar (6530 E. Tanque Verde Road) and Gifted Custom Art will team up on Saturday, Oct. 1 to raise money for the local Boys and Girls Clubs in Tucson. You don’t have to be a modern Monet to attend this painting philanthropy event. The concept is simple: Gifted provides a photo for you…
Cinema Clips: Eight Days a Week
Ron Howard directs the first major Beatles documentary since The Beatles Anthology in the nineties. While Anthology is still the most definitive and damn well perfect account of the greatest band to ever walk the earth, Howard does a nice job culling footage snippets of the band during their short lived touring days, replete with…
The Weekly List: 29 Things To Do In Tucson In The Next Seven Days
Your weekly guide to keeping busy in the Old Pueblo. Pick of the Week Downtown Radio One-Year Anniversary Bash: The fight-the-good-fight, anti-corporate folks over at Downtown Radio (99.1 FM) have been on-air for a glorious 12 months. That’s right, a whole damn year in an impoverished city. By our (or any) calculation, that’s a feat worth…
Quick Bites: Sprint for Thin Mints
What’s your motivation to exercise? Weight loss? Heart health? How about cookies? How about not just any kind of cookie, but one of America’s favorite cookies-for-a-cause, the Girl Scouts’ Thin Mints? If you’re willing to sweat for one of these delightfully delicate minty treats—simultaneously helping the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona and earning your own…
Cinema Clips: For the Love of Spock
Adam Nimoy directs this sweet documentary about his dad, Leonard, and the everlasting legacy of his most universally treasured creation, Spock. The film stands as a terrific look back at the origins of the character, and his transitions through time, straight through to the recent Spock incarnation played by Zachary Quinto. More importantly, the film…
Quick Bites: The Other Election
There’s no shortage of controversy over candidates in our upcoming election, both nationally and locally. But there’s another kind of (local) election coming up: The battle over the best Tucson craft beer. And man, if you think political infighting is bad regarding the presidential race, well, that’s nothing compared to how riled up folks get…
How AZ Politics Presaged the Rise of Trump
Journalist Tom Zoellner, author of A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America, has written a Phoenix New Times essay that examines the parallels between Arizona politics and Trump’s rise: There was a moment during Donald Trump’s rambling and free-associative speech at Fountain Hills…
Ducey ‘Next Step’ Watch: Day 118. Duck-Dodge-and-Stall Edition
Ducey and Republican legislators have some ducking and dodging to do. According to a recent Arizona Republic/Morrison/Cronkite News poll, voters still want more money for our schools by a wide margin, even after the passage of Prop 123—74 percent for more money, 17 percent against and the rest undecided. Republicans, many of whom want to weaken or dismantle…
Cinema Clips: Morgan
While director Luke Scott definitely shows he’s inherited some of his dad’s helming chops, Morgan, an ultimately derivative script hampers his feature directing debut. The son of the great Ridley Scott shows some major visual flair and an ability to draw good performances from his cast, but the movie itself, with Dad producing, is a…
Looking So Long At These Pictures Of You: Remembering Wendy Van Leuveren
Friends and family of Wendy Van Leuveren are in shock. They’re grieving, and they’re looking for answers. But one thing is very clear—the sudden death of this well-known and well-loved woman is a tragedy that has rocked many throughout the Tucson community. On Wednesday, Aug. 31, Wendy took her own life after a mostly-private struggle with mental illness.…
Ducey ‘Next Step’ Watch: Day 117. Vox Populi Edition
When it comes to school funding, Ducey has spoken: No. New. Money. But the voters have spoken too, for the second time. They want: More. New. Money. Immovable object, meet unstoppable force. Something, or someone, has got to give on the school funding front. Back in 2015, a Morrison Institute poll found that 74 percent…
Apple’s iPhone 7: Has it Gone Too Far?
When I was younger my mother always told me, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Now, at that time, I don’t think my mother was referring to a cellular device. But, as time has progressed, that definitely seems to be the only Apple people care about these days. On Sept. 7 the heavily…
Sen. Jeff Flake on His Battles With Trump: “Somebody Has To Stand Up and Call Him Out”
Talking Points Memo catches up with Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who has been one of the few Republicans willing to condemn GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump: But, in a candid, Capitol Hill interview with TPM, Flake offered what he has all campaign season, honesty and insight into what it is like to be one of…
John McCain Is Crushing Ann Kirkpatrick. Or They’re Neck and Neck. Who Knows?
So where is the race between five-term U.S. Sen. John McCain and his Democratic challenger, Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick? Two recently released polls tell very different stories: An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist Poll showed McCain with a huge 19-point lead over Kirkpatrick. The survey of 946 registered voters, taken between Sept. 6 and Sept. 8, showed that 57…
Tannahill Weavers and The Outside Track play Celtic Concert Friday at Berger
Roy Gullane, founder and guitarist of the Tannahill Weavers, a Scottish trad band, was rolling down the high way from Estes Park, Colorado, when he phoned into the Tucson Weekly Monday. Spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains were flying by the windows as the band van sped south. “Beautiful,” he declared, praising the American peaks…
Cinema Clips: Complete Unknown
One would expect great things form a film featuring Rachel Weisz and Michael Shannon, but the end result is just sort of weird. Weisz plays Alice, a woman who has been reinventing herself for the past 15 years, assuming new identities and occupations all over the world. She winds up at a dinner party where…
Lola Needs a Home
Hi, I’m Lola! I’m a pretty 5-year-old girl and I need a home! I really love people and snuggles and I can’t wait to move into a home where I feel safe and happy. I like to take a lot of naps underneath my blanket so if you stop by the shelter please ask an…
3 Places to Visit to Explore the True Beauty of Tucson
Tucson is full of outdoor attractions that go unseen and under appreciated. With its beautiful saguaro forests, incredible mountain ranges surrounding the city and unforgettable sunsets, it is most definitely an alluring destination. Here are 3 places any Tucson local or tourist should visit if they are searching for a new adventure and want to…
Win Tickets To See The Diamondbacks Play the Rockies
Sports fans! It feels like it has been a little while since we’ve done this. We’re giving away two pairs of tickets to see the Diamondbacks play the Rockies on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 6:40 p.m. at Chase Field (401 E. Jefferson Street, Phoenix). We’ll get in touch with the winner midday on Tuesday, Sept.…
Cinema Clips: Antibirth
If you are a fan of directors like David Cronenberg and Dario Argento, then you might be able to make it through this rather unpleasant horror-comedy. A party girl (Natasha Lyonne) blacks out at a rambunctious gathering and finds herself going through pregnancy symptoms shortly thereafter. Those symptoms go from standard nausea to skin peeling…
Trump’s Education Policies Are Conservative Boilerplate, Give Or Take $20 Billion
Donald Trump has finally told us what he thinks about education, making it abundantly clear he hasn’t thought much about the subject. Before this, he’s made general pronouncements about wanting guns, not Common Core, in schools, and being for school choice. And of course, “I want the parents, and I want all of the teachers,…
About That Charter School Trump Visited In Ohio
Before Trump gave his speech on education at a charter school in Cleveland, Ohio, he had a photo op talking with an African American student to show how much he cares about those What-the-hell-do-you-have-to-lose? folks. Then in the speech he talked up the value of school choice, including charter schools, as a way to increase…
Get Your Undying Classic Rock Fix With The Zombies at the Rialto
Get ready for a flashback weekend, because The Zombies are coming to Tucson. No, not undead, brain-eating humans, but the 1960s band that graced us with the sultry song “Time of the Season” and the twangy love song “Can’t Nobody Love You.” Sorry, newsletter readers, this performance is happening over the weekend: Saturday, Sept. 10…
Coming Apart: Even The Title Could Function As The Play’s Own Review
I’m sitting here at one of the best coffee houses in our fair city, sipping a wonderfully strong latte, and even in the presence of a pleasing atmosphere that includes a terrific java jolt, I cannot think of one reason why a theater of the stature of the Invisible Theatre would produce Coming Apart, a…
Should Roberto Clemente’s Number be Retired Universally?
Every year on April 15, Major League Baseball has Jackie Robinson Day in honor of the player who broke the color barrier in the MLB. Robinson is not only remembered as being a great player, but is also noted for his use of nonviolence as he was bombarded with hatred and threats of violence though…
The Weekly List: 26 Things to Do In Tucson In The Next Seven Days
Your weekly guide to keeping busy in the Old Pueblo. Pick of the Week It’s another Second Saturday Downtown, which means all manner of fun in the heart of our community. On the art front, you won’t want to miss Etherton Gallery’s opening of Shadowlands, featuring new prints by Alice Leora Briggs and selected photographs by…
Light the Candle: OSIRIS-REx Launches Today
OSIRIS-REx, the asteroid-hunting space probe designed by the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab in partnership with NASA and Lockheed Martin, is scheduled for liftoff from Kennedy Space Center at 4:05 Tucson time today. The plucky space probe will spend two years chasing down the near-earth asteroid Bennu and then spend another two years studying the…
Police Dispatch
A man was literally unable to “keep it in his pants” during a morning stroll through an upper-class neighborhood—although he was fully clothed, he left his penis dangling out of his pants to be seen by numerous female passers-by.
Independent Spirit
A local watering hole will soon be home to a very uncommon spirit.
Local Transition
It seems like there’s a lot of open space on 4th these days.
Retro Threads for a Dollar
$1 clothes? Amazing.
Ask a Mexican!
Dear Mexican: So how long can you keep up this racist shtick in a Los Angeles where Latinos are the majority? You’re clever enough to use irony as a device to blunt your own just-kidding racism, but most of the Mexicans and pochos I know don’t care enough to bother with such clever tricks. I’ve…
Moon, Desert and a Hiking Trail
Explore the caverns.
Tucson Korean Collaborations
Funk Seoul Brother.
Find a Place to Call Home
Want a house?
Inside Out
Jeffrey Jonczyk is painter of jazzy geometric abstractions.
[sic] and Tired
Melissa James Gibson doesn’t pretend to speak for Generation X.
I (Heart) Zombies
Hold on to your hats everybody, because we got us here another zombie movie. I think this is something like the 5,732nd zombie movie or TV thing to come out in the last three years or so.
Rap Van Fresh
There’s an innovative new way to experience hip-hop in a more intimate setting, and it’s rolling through Tucson at 40 mph.
High society’s highest members
It seems the ARDP doesn’t think Arizonans are capable of smoking responsibly. Well, I’d hate to break it to you guys, but about half of us smoke it already and we seem to be doing OK.
The Pleasure Activist
Lube Types and Ingredients We’ve all been there. Staring at a large wall of lubes, as the bottles seem to sit there smugly in their indistinguishable silence – taunting your confusion. Was there some sort of lube class you missed in school? As a result, we reach for the most recognizable brand we may have…
Editor’s Note
We still can’t believe how one of those Aug. 30 elections played out.
Dust Devil
Jojo sat on the curb of the dusty playground and picked sand rubies from the handful of sand she’d scooped up.
