City Week

Thursday 5

SING A SONG OR 365. The Invisible Theatre launches its "Sizzling Summer Sounds" program with a whole lot of singing.

Songs of the Century, produced and directed by Susan Claassen, features a talented cast who will pay musical and dance tribute to the top 365 songs of the 20th century.

Under the musical direction of Khris Dodge, Songs of the Century can be enjoyed during just four performances--today through July 8

Mary Baker, Walter Belcher, Betty Craig and Liz McMahon are among the stars of this show, so you don't want to miss it.

The "Sizzling Summer Sounds" program also features Lisa Otey and the Desert Divas on July 9 (see Monday's listing) and the nUAnce Vocal Jazz Ensemble with Jim Taylor and the King's Quartet July 11-13.

Songs of the Century shows are scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight, Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $22 and are available by calling Invisible Theatre at 882-9721. Buy a pass for all three acts in the series and pay $57.

For more information, see "Triple Play," page 30.


Friday 6

BUMP INTO A COWBOY. John Mitchum--you may remember him as Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter co-star--is among the Hollywood cowboys kicking around this weekend in "The Town Too Tough To Die."

You could also bump into Bruce Boxleitner, Harry Carey Jr., Don Collier, Martin Kove or Hugh O'Brian at the Tombstone Film Festival, which starts today and runs through Sunday.

Mitchum, who co-starred with Eastwood in The Outlaw Josey Wales and was a gritty cop in the Dirty Harry flicks, also starred with John Wayne in The Shootist, the Duke's last movie.

Boxleitner is best known for his starring roles in several TV series, including How the West Was Won, Scarecrow and Mrs. King and Babylon 5. Carey's 50-year career has included appearances in literally hundreds of movies and TV shows, many of which were directed by John Ford. Collier's credits include roles on High Chaparral and Young Riders. You'll remember Kove as the evil karate master in the Karate Kid films. Kove also was on Cagney and Lacey for six years.

The Tombstone event includes film screenings, panel discussions and autograph sessions at various venues around town. Five veteran stuntmen will show behind-the-scenes "home movies" from several great Westerns and a day in the life of a Hollywood stuntman. All of these activities are covered by a three-day badge, which costs $25. Single-day passes cost $15.

If any of these guys is your hero, make plans to drive down for tonight's Dinner with the Stars, which includes cocktails, a sit-down dinner and the opportunity to rub elbows with the big guy. Cost is $45 per person. A salute to Westerns on Saturday by Birdcage Theater Revue costs $15. For more information about any of the events, call the Tombstone Chamber of Commerce at 888-457-3929, or visit the festival Web site at www.tombstonefilmfestival.com


Saturday 7

THOSE CRAZY CELTS. Get over to Plaza Palomino tonight for a big bowl of Celtic funk stew.

That's how some have described Mad Pudding's interesting blending of traditional Celtic styles with jazz and world rhythms.

Mad Pudding has played festivals and toured in Ireland, Scotland, the United States and Canada. The group has been featured in BBC and CBC interviews, as well as in a variety of music magazines. The band was nominated for three West Coast Music Awards, two for CDs and one for Best Live Act.

An evening with these guys, who hail from Vancouver, Canada, promises stunning vocal harmonies and joyfully inventive twists on tradition.

Tonight's performance is part of Plaza Palomino's Courtyard Concert Series. Palomino Plaza is located at Fort Lowell and Swan roads. Lend an ear at 8 tonight. Tickets cost $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Advance tickets are available at Antigone Books, Brew and Vine, City Grill, Hear's Music and Enchanted Earthworks. To charge tickets by phone or for more information, call 297-9133. You can also charge tickets online by going to www.dotucson.com and clicking on "concerts."

GET ON THE BUS, GUS. History buffs hear this: The pros from the Arizona Historical Society have issued an open invitation to take a little ride to the past.

The first of six Tucson Heritage Bus Tours is today.

The docent-narrated trips begin and end at the museum. Docents will tell you all the stories--some are 225 years old--behind Sentinel Peak, the Convento site, downtown, Barrio Viejo, Snob Hollow, the Presidio and Rio Nuevo.

If you can't make today's ride, get a pen and mark your calendar. Other tours are scheduled for August 4, September 1, October 6, November 3 and December 1.

Tickets cost for $20 adults, and $10 for kids 10 and under. For more information, or required reservations, call 628-5774.


Sunday 8

GET IN THE SPIRIT. It's non-denominational, non-sectarian and no-nonsense fun.

The Summer Celebration of the Spirit features 14 musicians, poets, storytellers and artists--many are professional--who have signed up to share their multiple talents with Tucson. The event will include music and dancing and promises to be a great outing for the whole family.

The event is from 1 to 4 p.m. today at Best Western InnSuites, 6100 N. Oracle Road, in the conference room. The hotel is two blocks south of Orange Grove Road. A $10 donation is suggested. For more information, contact the Rev. Melinda Nay at 444-4766.


Monday 9

DIVAS OF THE DESERT. Tucson favorite Lisa Otey is keyed up for an event that's sure to shake your Monday blahs.

The Desert Divas--Anna Warr, "Hurricane" Carla Brownlee and Kathleen Williamson--will be paying tribute to the country's favorite divas, including Billie Holiday, Betty Hutton, Aretha Franklin and, um, Louis Prima.

The event is a great opportunity to wish the Lisa Otey Band bon voyage for its European tour, which begins July 24.

The show starts at 7 tonight at the DoubleTree on Alvernon Way, just south of Broadway Boulevard. Tickets cost $22 and are available by calling the Invisible Theatre, 882-9721. For more information about Otey's band, visit www.lisaotey.com.


Tuesday 10

SUMMER OF '42 (MILLIMETERS). What? Think in the summertime? You bet!

Flandrau Planetarium's newest exhibit is about counting, measurement and graphing, but it is such fun for all ages that visitors will never know they're learning. Fun, 2, 3, 4: All About a Number of Things consists of 16 hands-on exhibits designed to encourage family and group interaction. It's a ton of fun.

At the "How Many is a Million?" exhibit, visitors can converse about large numbers as they try to reach a million turns of the wheel and break the goblet inside the exhibit.

The "Double Your Allowance" exhibit allows visitors to see and feel exponential growth by lifting up tubes containing one penny, two pennies, four pennies, up to 2,048 pennies.

Visitors can measure a life-sized model of a dinosaur using their own feet as units of measurement.

Visitors can also feel how thick a millimeter really is at the "Millimeter Mystery" exhibit by using their fingers to help guess the height of an adjustable peg and comparing the results to answers at the exhibit.

Ms. Measurooni uses graphs to show how visitors' height, weight and grip strength compare with other people.

At the "Super Bowl" exhibit, visitors can make histograms charting how well they do at rolling a tennis ball down a lane to the center of a backboard; patterns of light appear where the balls hit.

Fun, 2, 3, 4 was developed by the Sciencenter in Ithaca, N.Y. as part of the TEAMS (Traveling Exhibits at Museums of Science) Exhibit Collaborative, with funding by the National Science Foundation.

Exhibits admission costs $3 for adults and $2 for children 13 and under, or free with the purchase of a planetarium theater ticket. For more information, call 621-STAR or visit www.flandrau.org.


Wednesday 11

HUMP DAY HISTORY. Wednesday nights will never be the same.

No, this isn't a plug for another crappy sitcom.

Arizona in Transition: 1840-1880 is a lecture series at the Arizona Historical Society Museum that starts tonight and runs every week through August 22.

From 1840 to 1880, Arizona experienced dramatic change. In 1846, the United States went to war with Mexico and troops tramped across Arizona en route to battles in California. In the process, they created a wagon road that would later be used by the Forty-Niners on their way to the gold fields of California. In 1848, Mexico ceded much of the modern American West, including most of what is now Arizona, to the United States.

OK, so we're just eight years into a 40-year period. No wonder the series runs so long.

Tonight's lecture is called "The Pima and Maricopa Indians, and the Forty-Niners." It's presented by historian James Turner. He will discuss, using diaries, memoirs, sketches and military records, the importance of the Pimas and Maricopas in providing European and U.S. newcomers, including perhaps several thousand Forty-Niners, with food and protection from hostile tribes at the villages along the Gila River in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

The talks are from 7 to 9 p.m. every Wednesday at the museum, 949 E. Second St. Admission costs $6 per lecture, $5 for society members and $3 for students with ID. Free parking is available at Euclid and Second Street. For more information, call 628-5774.

BORDER CROSSINGS. If you haven't seen the Lionel Rombach Gallery's latest exhibit, make a run for Borders.

That's the name of the show presented by Misha Harrison and Fiona McLaren, who both immigrated to the United States. The work explores different interpretations of life with, around, through and across borders.

The exhibition looks at two sides of the same coin--that is, while individuals create borders within and between themselves, societies create borders to keep others out. Through visual narrative and simple repetitive sculpture, the two artists illustrate the stark contrast between the first and third worlds.

McLaren, a Canadian citizen who was born in Switzerland and immigrated to Tucson in 1998, centers her work on research and documentation of the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Nogales, Sonora. Her large-scale black-and-white mural photography creates a visual narrative that both documents and investigates what happens when two worlds collide.

Harrison is a Canadian-born U.S. citizen who immigrated to Tucson via other first-world countries.

She uses repetitive box sculpture to question whether or not the sterile environments society creates are serving their purpose. Through use of a somewhat minimalist aesthetic, Harrison examines the way in which we build up walls; why we create international, interpersonal, and cultural borders; and how these borders function as fences and walls over time.

The exhibit, which runs through August 16, is at the Lionel Rombach Gallery on the University of Arizona campus, at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Speedway Boulevard. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call 626-4215, or visit www.arts.arizona.edu/galleries.