Thursday 25
OVER THE EDGE. An Air Force general goes nuts and orders his bomber wing to drop a few nukes on Russia.
Peter Sellers, playing three men trying to avert tragedy, make Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb a pretty funny farce.
Critic Roger Ebert said Kubrick made "the best political satire of the century, a film that pulled the rug out from under the Cold War by arguing that if a 'nuclear deterrent' destroys all life on earth, it is hard to say exactly what it has deterred."
Too bad the late director isn't around to weigh in on this terror thing, huh?
Anyway, check out this Cold War statement tonight.
The movie starts at 7:30 p.m. at 110 S. Church Ave. The weekly Cinema La Placita screenings are free but a $3 donation to help restore the historic Fox Theatre is encouraged. Several La Placita Village restaurants will be open for dinner. For more information, call 325-2202.
Friday 26
NOW, THIS SOUNDS LIKE FUN. Bored? Pull yourself away from the TV and check out the no frills, cheap thrills, come as you are dance happenin' tonight at ZUZI! Move It Dance Company.
ZUZI! has been hosting dancers from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in a weeklong residency. Martha Whitman, who graced Tucson with her artistry last year through the UApresents Hallelujah Project, will be returning to Tucson with Dance Exchange colleague Celeste Miller.
Although the two artists will be working with ZUZI as they prepare new dances for their forthcoming December Solstice Celebration, the Tucson community will have several opportunities to enjoy the artistic gifts these two women bring to share.
And one of those opportunities is the no frills, cheap thrills, come as you are dance happenin'. Whitman and Miller will join company dancers and other Tucson dance and performance artists in the first in a series of dance events.
This unusual performance venue, which begins at 7:30 p.m., features artists sharing their work in progress and having a dialogue with the audience about their creative process. Tickets are available at the door for $10.Performances are tonight and Saturday at ZUZI's Little Theater, 738 N. Fifth Ave.
MEAN STREETS OF TUCSON. Runnin' at Midnight tells the story of young men struggling to escape the streets of South Tucson through a midnight basketball league. In the midst of illegal dogfights, drugs and gangs, all they want to do is play basketball.
The film, which opens tonight, was written and directed by Tucson independent filmmaker Pablo Toledo, who attended Salpointe Catholic High School and Pima Community College before eventually graduating from the USC's prestigious School of Cinema-Television in Los Angeles.
High school basketball phenom Brandon is forced to choose between a promising career and a life on the streets; Circles wants off the streets and a new life but is tempted at the crossroads; and Darryl, a college basketball star, faces hard choices after a career-ending injury.
Their dreams are kept alive by playing midnight basketball, but when the existence of the league is threatened, they must reach deep inside and figure out how to run at midnight--and survive.
The film was shot in the barrios of South Tucson.
In addition to the film, Pablo directs commercial spots for Hope Street Productions, a locally owned and operated digital design studio. He teaches media production at the University of Arizona and is the program co-coordinator for the New Media Project, which teaches film and video skills to at-risk youths.
Runnin' at Midnight makes its world premiere at The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., at 7 and 9:30 tonight and runs through November 4. Show times include 5 and 7:30 p.m. screenings during the week and a midnight show on Saturday. Single admission costs $5. For more information, call 622-2262. For more information about the film or the director, visit www.runninatmidnite.com.
YOU'LL BE IMPRESSED. Cocktails, an exhibition of original prints created by 10 American Indian artists, a silent auction--of one complete portfolio of 10 prints and one of each of the 10 prints--dinner, entertainment and dancing.
The Lasting Impressions Gala promises to deliver, and at $150 a pop, it ought to, but the money will help create a new University of Arizona art school scholarship in printmaking and enhance the Visiting Artists and Scholars Endowed Fund, which provides residencies.
Also during the evening, guests will enjoy big-screen images of the prints and a short film on the process of printmaking. Additionally, the UA dance division will present a performance.
The 10 distinguished artists participating in the project are Joe Feddersen, Edgar Heap of Birds, G. Peter Jemison, Truman Lowe, Mario Martinez, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Duane Slick, Kay Walkingstick, Emmi Whitehorse and Melanie Yazzie. Their work is sophisticated, widely known and respected both within Native American cultural spheres and in the larger art world.
Bringing them and their work together in a collaborative effort not only showcases the talents of the individual artists but also represents, in some visual depth, the state of vanguard American Indian artistic consciousness.
The Lasting Impressions Gala starts at 6:30 tonight in the Kiva Room at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort,7000 N. Resort Drive. Tickets cost $150. For more information, call Suzanne Rice at 621-3117. For tickets, call Kathleen Huffer at 621-9062.Also, be sure to visit www.arts.arizona.edu/art.
Saturday 27
IT'S CHILE OUTSIDE. Tucson Botanical Gardens has cooked up a celebration both piquant and mild.
The 15th annual La Fiesta de los Chiles puts the chile pepper where it belongs around here--on a pedestal. The two-day event features international chile cuisine, with specialties from Sonora, the Hopi Nation, the Tohono O'odham and Guatemala.
Enjoy the aroma of roasting chiles while you listen to salsa, waila, desert rock and Mexican folklorico.
Shoppers will love the selection of jewelry, clothing, woodcrafts and batiks all incorporating the fiesta's guest of honor.
New Kiva Motions Puppet Theatre, Arizona's premier professional puppet theater since 1980, conducts the opening ceremonies at the Chile Fiesta at 10 a.m. today. Following the opening procession, the puppet theater will perform on the main stage.
At 1 p.m., Frances Manuel, author of Desert Indian Woman: Stories and Dreams, will sign copies of her book during an event that seems to have a bit of something for everyone.
The fiesta is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and Sunday at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way. Admission costs $6 at the gate, $5 in advance, $3 for members and $1 for kids 6 to 11.
GET WRITE ON IT. Dust off that pile of paper in the study and turn it into what it was meant to be--a book.
Marketing Your Book, featuring Allen Kates, will cover marketing topics of interest to writers of all genres, published or not-yet. The seminar is presented by the National Writers Union's Tucson local.
The seminar is from 1 to 4 p.m. today in the Plaza Room at the Radisson, 181 W. Broadway Blvd. The cost is $40 for non-members and $30 for NWU members and students with valid ID. To celebrate its new status as a full local, the NWU will apply the full cost of the seminar to the membership fees of anyone joining the union on the day of the seminar. For more information, call 624-4690 ext. 3.
Sunday 28
JAZZ FOR THE EARS--AND EYES. Longtime New York jazz pianist Phil Markowitz is nothing if not versatile.
His gigs include stints at a variety of prestigious New York jazz clubs including the Village Vanguard, Sweet Basil and Blue Note. His trio, featuring Glenn Davis and Gordon Johnson, has also traveled the world playing every jazz festival imaginable.
Now, recognition of his jazz composition skill brings him to Tucson for a debut presentation of Abstract Expression--Musical Portraits of American Masters. This multimedia work includes a visual projection system that will marry Markowitz' music to 35mm slides of American masterworks in art and computer-generated images.
This show, which should be a feast for the ears and eyes, is part of the Plaza Suite series of six jazz performances organized by the Tucson Jazz Society.
The Phil Markowitz Trio takes the stage at 6 tonight at La Placita Village on the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Church Avenue. Tickets cost $6 members, $11 non-members. For more information, visit www.tucsonjazz.org.
Monday 29
DON'T LET IT SLIP AWAY. Ghosts will disappear soon.
Henrik Ibsen's drama about a mother's love, a father's sins and a son's terrible inheritance runs through November 3. Arizona Theatre Company presents the story of a woman haunted by her husband's disreputable past and the toll their secret lives take on the innocent and wicked alike.
"It's sure to be a towering highlight of the theatrical season," said ATC artistic director David Ira Goldstein.
Ghosts can be caught at the Alice Holsclaw Theatre in the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Tickets cost $28-$30. Tickets are available by phone at 622-2823 and online at www.arizonatheatre.org. For more information, call 884-8210.
Tuesday 30
FANTASTIC PHOTOS. Garry Winogrand's influential street photography brought a new visual order to the chaos of modern street life.
Tucsonans are very lucky; the UA Center for Creative Photography has an amazing collection of Winogrand's work. And the center has pulled out all the stops to put together a two-part exhibition, The Garry Winogrand Game of Photography.
Featuring more than 300 prints culled from its massive and extraordinary Winogrand archive, Part 1: The Known, which runs through November 9, surveys some of his most recognized, published and exhibited prints.
Part 2: The New, which opens November 11 and runs through January 6, is the center's major celebration of one of its richest and most complex archives. Distinguished guest curators and CCP's own curator have worked independently to uncover pictures that further illuminate a photographer whose contributions and approach to his field are landmark.
The exhibition is free. The center is located at 1030 N. Olive Road, in the fine arts complex at the southeast corner of Park Avenue and Speedway Boulevard. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, call 621-7968 or visit www.creativephotography.org.
Wednesday 31
SAFE BET FOR HALLOWEEN. If the idea of finding out what your kids will get from the recluse down the street doesn't exactly thrill you, think about getting the kids off the streets tonight.
Dress up the little ones and haul them off to Crossroads Festival for an evening of magical fun. Stories, spooky snacks and trick-or-treating makes the event a safe way to celebrate Halloween.
The event begins at 5 p.m. at Mrs. Tiggly-Winkle's Toys, 4811 Grant Road. For more information, please call 326-0188.
