Say Goodbye to the Dog Days of Summer If you're not in school, you don't work at a school and you don't have kids in school, you may not have realized that the end of summer is coming up, because it's still hot. But Old Tucson is celebrating the end of summer with a splash! Head on over for canine demonstrations, vendors, adoptions and good ol' Old Tucson entertainment. Dock Dogs will also be there, presenting dog diving competitions and an amateur class for local dogs, in case your dog wants to try it out for herself. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31 through Sunday, Sept. 2. Old Tucson, 201 S. Kinney Road. $19.95 for adults, free for kids 11 and under. $1 from every admission goes to local donation station Cody's Friends.
Cool Summer Nights at the Desert Museum. At baseball games, you step up to bat, but at the Desert Museum this weekend, you get to step right up to bats, plural. Hear some bat myths get busted, learn about their habit of foraging for agave at night and hear from Bat Conservation International about bats who use caves, mines and crevices to hibernate and raise their young. All evening, you can participate in a scavenger hunt to find the elusive Bat Girl. And Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation will be hosting tons of hands-on activities for you to learn more about bats. And while the kids are making bat crafts and taking bat selfies at a photo booth, adults can try the 7 and 8 p.m. tequila tastings. This is the last of these events for the summer, so don't miss it! 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31. Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road. $21.95 GA, $19.95 seniors 65+, $8.95 for kids 3 to 12, free for kids under 3, $17.95 for active or retired military, $16.95 for Arizona/Sonora residents.
Music & Performances
Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler. The "In from the Heat" concert series at Catalina United Methodist Church continues with this performance by the current organist of Pinnacle Presbyterian in Scottsdale. Kubiaczyk-Adler, who earned her doctorate from ASU, has also studied music in Poland and the Netherlands, and has performed all over Europe and the Americas. She'll be playing J.S. Bach's Toccata in D Minor and Feliks Nowowiejski's Symphony in G-Minor, Op. 45, No. 2. You'll get a luncheon, air conditioning and an absolute treat as you watch this master make her debut on the church's fancy Shirley Morgan Memorial Organ. Noon. Saturday, Aug. 31. Catalina United Methodist Church, 2700 E. Speedway Blvd. $10 donation.
Now and Then. Can you believe the Invisible Theatre is already starting its 49th season? I bet the folks who started this local theater company wish they could go back to 1971, when they started a small arena for local playwrights, and let themselves know how it would turn out. Which brings us to the subject of this play: enouement, or that feeling (from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows) of arriving at your future self and wishing you could let your past self know how it went. The romantic comedy-drama features an old man who offers two young women a thousand dollars to simply sit and talk with him for an hour. Is your interest piqued? Wednesday, Sept. 4 through Sunday, Sept. 15, with 7:30 p.m. shows Wednesday through Saturday and 3 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays (plus a discount preview at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sep. 23 for just $20.) Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave. $35.
Summer is Ending!
Make it Mondays! This is the last week of the Tucson Children Museum's special summer event, which must mean we're getting close to the end of summer, right? Well, we're at least closing in on the end of summer vacation. Head on down to the museum for its extended hours and a special visit from this week's guests, Brain STEM, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Brain STEM is dedicated to teaching kids problem solving and creative thinking skills by making science, technology, engineering and math education hands-on and fun. Get ready for your 6-year-old to tell you all about how she wants to be a mathematician when she grows up! 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2. Children's Museum Tucson, 200 S. Sixth Ave. $3.
Labor Day at the Tucson J. The pleasing rhyme and cadence of this event title alone is enough to make us want to attend it. But, in case you're not sold yet, how does this sound? A live DJ spinning tunes that are just as bumping as they are family-friendly, bounce houses, kosher hot dogs and a pool. Yeah, that's what we thought. The J will be open to the public all day long (7 a.m. to 6 p.m.), so you can check out the fitness center, new tennis courts, indoor play space and specialty classes. The music, games and giveaways (including the J's best membership deal of the year and Disney on Ice tickets) are from 2 to 11 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2. Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road. Free, but register at tucsonjcc.org/labor-day.
Welcome Back Wildcats! It's a little hard to tell, because stores seem to start stocking back-to-school supplies before summer starts, and now it's pretty much fall harvest/Halloween central, but it's back-to-school time already! To celebrate, Flandrau is hosting a three-day weekend full of activities, prize drawings and special pricing. We're talking Saturn's ring-toss, cornhole and leap toad, plus gift certificates and tickets to places like the Desert Museum, Biosphere 2, Main Gate Square, Bookmans and the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. Hours are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31 and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sep. 1. Special activities are 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium, 1601 E. University Blvd. Exhibits and planetarium shows are just $4 apiece for CatCard holders, and they can bring up to three family members or guests for the same low price.
Flashback Friday Nights. It's the last Friday in August, which means it's your last chance to head over to Old Tucson for this event they've been doing all summer and you've been meaning to get to but haven't had the chance! Seriously, there's nothing like spending a summer evening watching the sunset as you make the drive down Gates Pass. By the time you get to Old Tucson for their food and drink specials and signature entertainment, it's really just icing on the cake. Did we mention kids get in free? It's a perfect—and affordable—way to console them as they mourn the end of summer. 4 to 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30. Old Tucson, 201 S. Kinney Road. $19.95 for adults, free for kids 11 and under.
49th Annual Saguaro National Park Labor Day 8-Miler & 5K Walk/Run. Yes, this run is during the summer in Arizona. But it's strategic! You get to look at gorgeous views the whole time you're running, and think to yourself, "At least I don't have to stay outside ALL the time, like those poor cactus bastards." The 8-miler is a paved loops and the 5K fun run/walk is an easier out-and-back. The first man to break race director Randy Accetta's course PR of 42:48 will get $424.80, and the first woman to break the gender-graded equivalent of 47:48 will get $474.80. Talk about motivating! 8 mile starts at 6:25 a.m., 5K starts at 6:30 a.m. Monday, Sept. 2. Saguaro National Park East, at 3693 S. Old Spanish Trail Road. $50 for 8 mile run, $40 for 5K.
Art
Call and Response IV. If you haven't seen this exhibit at Tohono Chul yet, this month is your last chance. It's a combination of the park's Permanent Collection, which features more than 350 objects created by Southwest indigenous people, and a temporary display of art pieces that are "responses" to pieces in the permanent collection. Artists Paul Anders-Stout, Annie Gordon, Susan Hildreth, Kate Long Hodges and Guna Mundheim visited the collection and created pieces designed to be in dialogue with the collection. It's the call and response of old and new—old and new ways of viewing beauty, old and new forms of art and old and new ideas. Through Sept. 29 in the Tohono Chul Entry Gallery, 7366 Paseo del Norte. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. $15 adults, $13 senior/military/student, $6 kids 5 to 12, free for members and kids under 5.
Madaras Gallery: Paintings From Greece. As this local art gallery celebrates 20 years by showcasing paintings by Diana Madaras with a new theme each month, it's difficult to remember a time where the gallery wasn't a part of Tucson. But it was actually only in 1993 that Madaras took a trip to Greece that changed the course of her life and career—it was then that she decided to start painting full-time. Last year, she returned to Greece to paint again. Visit the gallery this month to see some of these Mediterranean Madaras masterpieces. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays throughout September. Madaras Gallery, 3035 N. Swan Road.
Art by Hyewon Yoon. The Joel D. Valdez Main Library is featuring a new artist this month: Hyewon Yoon. Yoon's work is currently focused on depicting natural structures such as wood, plants and flowers, as imagined landscapes full of emotion and story. There's something meditative about the way Yoon recently switched from oil painting to finely drawn pen lines, as well. In her artist statement, she writes, "The permanence of ink does not allow me to retreat or correct, which is in likeness to actions taken in true life." Come see her art, hanging on the gallery walls all month. Library hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Joel D. Valdez Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave.
Fun in General
Defense Against the Dark Arts. Yes, this is the name of the class that was taught by the guy who got Voldemort stuck on the back of his head, and by other icons such as Remus Lupin and Dolores Umbridge. But the version offered at Flowing Wells Library is a little bit different. Geared to ages 10 to 14, the class teaches young people about what classifies as bullying, basic safety measures for self-defense and how to deal with bullies in a nonviolent way. It's one of those skills that is good to have even if you hope you never need it. 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 2. Flowing Wells Library, 1730 W. Wetmore Road.
Second Annual Tucson Big Sing. Some things in life are better done alone—like eating a tube of raw cookie dough (so you don't have to share), clipping your toenails (that's private) and playing solitaire (otherwise, you'd be cheating). But lots of things—eating, dancing, laughing, watching movies, cooking, trying new things, and making music—are enriched by doing them with other people. True Concord, Southern Arizona's only professional chamber choir and orchestra, is hosting this city-wide community sing-along to bring us all together in song. True Concord Director Eric Holton is one of the directors, and other guests include folks from the Tucson Girls Chorus, the Gaslight Theatre, Desert Voices Chorus and Mariachi Atzlán, and you! 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31. Reid Park DeMeester Outdoor Performance
Obscura and Obsession. The Etherton Gallery is hosting this seriously artsy event to help you wind down on a Saturday evening. From 3 to 5 p.m. in the parking lot, come see the only vintage trailer camera obscura that they know of. Yeah, like a pinhole image made using an entire 1948 trailer. Tucson resident and 30-year UTEP art professor Ray Parish created it. Then, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., come watch a gallery talk by Jack Dykinga, who's currently displaying his photography to celebrate the Grand Canyon National Park's 100th anniversary, and will be selling signed books. Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails will be on site as well. 3 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31. Etherton Gallery, 135 S. Sixth Ave.
Center, 900 S. Randolph Way. Free.
Free Vaccines and Microchips. Come one, come all to this clinic sponsored by the Pima Animal Care Center to keep your pets safe and healthy. A licensed veterinarian will administer free rabies and distemper/parvo shots, and they'll also be providing free microchips while supplies last. You don't need to make an appointment—just bring your favorite, furry little friend on down (dogs on leashes and cats in carriers, please). Only the first 300 animals will get the goods, so come early! To make your pet feel better about the whole situation, maybe you can stop to get your flu shot on the way home, too. 8 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 31. Kino Stadium, 2500 E. Ajo Way. Free.
