WHO SAYS WHAT WHERE. Quick quiz: How many radio and TV stations does ClearChannel own across the country? If you think it's just a handful, you also probably think the guy spinning the tunes you're listening to on that hip commercial station is sitting in a studio somewhere in Tucson. (Maybe he is, but certainly his playlist is generated out of town.)
Access Tucson, our community's answer to the ever-encroaching media hegemony, invites you to participate in a live, cable-access program on Thursday, April 24, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., to consider what free speech means to the folks running commercial and independent media.
Be a part of the studio audience or call in with your questions to an assembled panel of community members addressing how commercial media affects and represents all of us. Building Free Speech: Democracy in Action looks at how Tucson uses commercial and independent media and other venues for awareness and education.
Panelists include John Fife from Southside Presbyterian Church; Caitlin Hall, writer for the Wildcat Daily News; Moji Agha, a member of Tucson Poets Against the War; Veronica Scheid from Las Sinfronteras; and Kent Burbank, director of Wingspan Community Center. Sam Behrend, Access Tucson's Executive Director, moderates.
If you can't make the panel, you can watch it at home live at 6:30 p.m. on cable Channel 74 on Cox Communications and Comcast (within the Tucson city limits). Alternately, go online for a simultaneous streaming at www.accesstucson.org.
A reception follows the panel held at Access Tucson, located at 124 E.
Broadway Blvd. For more information, call 624-9833.
DUSTY, BUT MAJOR FOOD GROUPS. When the tomb of the legendary King Midas--the sovereign who tried to turn everything to gold--was excavated in Turkey, you'll never guess what archaeologists unearthed.
Let's just say the guy wasn't going underground without his comfort food. Remnants of the funeral feast were so perfectly preserved on bronze drinking bowls and plates that they could be analyzed using modern archaeological techniques. Scientists were able to determine the exact menu consumed by the royal elite some 2,700 years ago.
Slow Food Tucson re-creates that meal on Saturday, April 26, at 12:30 p.m., at Olive Tree Restaurant. After a toast of Midas' Golden Elixir, dine on spicy, fire-roasted, sliced leg of lamb with Mediterranean lentils, Turkish mezze salad, red wine and traditional fig tart on pomegranate swirl with coffee--a kingly feast.
Al Leonard, a UA classics professor, archaeologist and chef, offers details at the lunch about the King Midas Tomb excavation by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, including how they figured out all the tasty ingredients. Slow Food is an international movement with 60,000 members based in Italy. It's dedicated to preserving culinary heritage, small local farms and artisan operations as well as offering information about food and culture--even if the culture goes back thousands of years.
Olive Tree Restaurant (not to be mistaken with the Olive Garden chain) is located at 7000 E. Tanque Verde Road. Lunch costs $28 for Slow Food members and $32 for nonmembers. Call 290-1355 for reservations.
VALLEY GIRLS (AND BOYS). Still haven't landed on the moon--as in Tucson's own Valley of the Moon? Here's your chance to wander and wonder in its imagination (and yours) and help out a musician in need.
Kathy Rote is a local girl who began playing music in 1969, sharing the stage with such Tucson greats as Shep Cooke, The Dusty Chaps and Travis Edmonson. When she lived in Texas, Rote shared concerts with Jerry Jeff Walker and the late Townes Van Zandt. A singer and songwriter, she's also taught guitar classes and organized benefits for members of the Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association when illness or misfortune hit.
But Rote has struggled with her own health. She had polio as a child and has always needed leg braces and crutches. Her shoulders are in need of serious medical repair to ease her pain and help her regain mobility.
An all-day concert to raise funds to help Rote with the medical bills starts at 11:30 a.m. and goes until 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 27. Featured musicians include many locals: The Mollys, Black Leather Zydeco, Ted Ramirez and The Santa Cruz River Band, Sal Valdivia and The Titan Valley Warheads, just to name a few.
$7 is the suggested donation. Bring lawn chairs or blankets to sit on. The park is mostly wheelchair-accessible. Leave the beer and dogs at home--alcohol and animals aren't allowed on the grounds, other than service dogs. Valley of the Moon is located at 2544 E. Allen Road, one block north of Prince Road and Tucson Boulevard.
Call 323-2138 for details.
HANDSOME DOGS ONLY. My scruffy, orange-and-white tomcat with the fancy French philosopher's name was selected "Pet of the Month" at Trader Joe's years ago. I'll never forget the pride I felt when I saw his photo hanging in the store for all to see. Gushing is not an understatement.
For all you dog folks, here's your chance to show off your pride and joy. Think your pooch is picture-perfect? Tucson Lifestyle wants to make you gush with the Dog Day Afternoon cover dog contest. Their June issue could sport your pooch on its cover.
On Sunday, April 27, from 1 to 4 p.m., bring your dog (or dogs, if you have a clan) to be reviewed by a panel of judges from Tucson Lifestyle, the Humane Society of Southern Arizona and Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, among others. You'll be notified the next day if your canine is a winner. The cover photo session is held on Tuesday, April 29.
The bow-wow contest takes place at Loews Ventana Canyon resort located at 7000 N. Resort Drive. The entry fee is a suggested donation of $10 per dog, and proceeds go to the Humane Society.
To apply or find out about the contest rules, call 721-2929 or go to the HSSA Web site, www.humane-so-arizona.org.
A MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN. Remember those halcyon days when all we had to worry about politically was how Hillary and Bill were getting along?
Come see a play that brings to life the tumultuous relationship between two equally strong personalities in the center of political mayhem. John and Jessie: The Story of the Frémonts sneaks a peek at the lives of explorer, soldier and politician, John C. Frémont, and his wife, Jessie Benton Frémont. Their 50-year marriage succeeded despite a turbulent life amidst a mud-slinging 1856 campaign for the presidency, John's getting lost and nearly starving in the unexplored Rocky Mountains and Jessie's midnight showdown with Abraham Lincoln at the White House.
The play, now in its eighth season, is a fund-raiser for the Arizona Historical Society. Doors open at 1 p.m. on Sunday, April 27, with the performance beginning at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $7 for adults and $5 for kids under 12 and are available at the door. The show takes place at the AHS Museum located at 949 E. Second St.
Call for details at 628-5774.
NOSH WITH HITLER'S SECRETARY. At 81, Traudl Junge has stories to tell. As Hitler's personal secretary, she worked with the dictator from August 1942 until the final weeks of the war when they huddled in the bunker where he dictated his last will to her.
The Tucson Film Society presents a special screening of Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, a provocative documentary based on extended interviews with Junge. Her words paint a picture of her unique experiences as well as her later reassessment of the man who was her boss.
Come early for a snack at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 27. The screening starts at 4 p.m. A discussion about the film follows with Rabbi Sam Cohon of Temple Emanu-El, John Peck of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Barbara Kosta of the UA's German studies department.
Screening and discussion take place at The Loft Cinema located at 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Tickets for members of the Tucson Film Society cost $7 and $10 for nonmembers. You can join the TFS at The Loft any time. All tickets are available at the door. Questions? Call 529-0764.
MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD. Sam Hamill's Poet's Against the War Web site has spurred similar-minded writers all around the country to wax poetic about their disgust with the American empire's militaristic activities of late.
Locally, a group of graduate students has launched their own project, a corollary of sorts--a short book titled, Poets for Peace. They've selected work by students, faculty and local poets to be included in the book--26 writers altogether. Their project is intended to help kids whose lives are affected by war. Proceeds from sales of the book and door fees go to UNICEF--an organization dedicated to helping children. Recent projects include vaccinations and distributing medicine in Iraq--a country where UNICEF has been helping kids since the first Bush invasion.
On Saturday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m., Bentley's Coffee House launches the book's debut with 10 poets reading from their work. Featured poets include Alison Deming--1993 winner of the Walt Whitman Prize in Poetry--Ann Dernier, Adam Chiles, Cat Bohannon, Brad Cran, Sommer Browning, Jason Zuzga and others. Though the group is inspired by Hamill's project, the event organizer Gillian Jerome says, "We stand against the loss of life on all sides--in Iraq, but also American troops."
She's invited people in Tucson, no matter what their political affiliation, to come out to the reading. In a town adjacent to one of the largest airfields in the nation, it's a bold move to try to bring together college students and locals with relatives in the armed forces in the same room.
Suggested donation for the evening is $5. The limited-edition, hand-stitched chapbook will be on sale and costs $7 or $5 for students.
Bentley's is located at 1730 E. Speedway Blvd. Call 794-0338 with questions.
