The New York Times examines how a developer is destroying murals painted by Ted DeGrazia in downtown Phoenix:

The 65-year-old mural, a tribute to alcohol, depicted guards armed with shotguns overseeing a still; women hovering like ghosts, a glass in each hand; and a dancer with one leg raised high, bloomers in full view. Even to the best-trained eye, it did not look like much. But the work represented a rare link to its creator, Ted DeGrazia, a wildly prolific artist born when Arizona was just a territory, whose career followed a trajectory that in many ways paralleled the ascent of the region that served as his muse.

Just as Mr. DeGrazia’s legacy faded after his death in 1982, the mural, along with a smaller one in the same building, was largely ignored for years. But the murals began to draw attention recently when the building was condemned to make way for new construction. The developer plans to turn the site into a luxury apartment complex, loaded with amenities like a fitness center, a pool and rooftop decks with sweeping views to entice the millennials who have been flocking to the city’s downtown.
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In the district here known as Roosevelt Row, an eclectic enclave where neglected warehouses have been transformed into art galleries and bungalows into bookshops, this shoe box of a building, adorned with a trio of colorful birds on an outer wall, long fit right in. Threatened with its loss, longtime residents mobilized, determined to keep out what they saw as an outside business trying to capitalize on their neighborhood’s homegrown appeal.

The building, which served over the years as one of the city’s first drag clubs and years later as the headquarters for a mayor’s re-election campaigns, was an artifact well worth saving, said Bob Diehl, a neighborhood resident who started a petition to block demolition.

“We have to stop destroying history in order to put up boring stuff,” Mr. Diehl said. “We’re replacing interesting, funky urban stuff with dead sidewalks.”

Starting on Friday, April 3, Yume Japanese Gardens of Tucson will be presenting an exhibition of beautifully crafted origami works from a local artist. 

Since 1996, origami artist M. Craig, who has lived in both the U.S. and Japan, has taught the art of Japanese paper folding to Tucsonans in conjunction with the Tucson Origami Club. Through workshops at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, Pima County public libraries and the Tucson Children’s Museum among many other local organizations and events for Tucson Meet yourself, Craig has carried on Japanese traditions in an effort to share a bit of that culture in town. 

Known for crafting both miniature and life-sized pieces, Craig's work has been selected to show at the Sonoran Desert Museum among other places. 

Craig's origami will be on view from April 3 until May 2 with admission to the gardens running at $9 for adults. There's a free opening reception on Friday from 5 until 7 p.m. at the gardens, located at  2130 N. Alvernon Way. For more information on this exhibit or Yume Japanese Gardens in general, call 332-2928 or visit the garden's website.

Trans Van Santos' Mark Matos splits his time between Tucson and San Francisco, a fact that's abundantly clear in the motifs of his latest release "Moon Mirage"—an album that successfully evokes the feeling of driving through the desert for hours at a time on your own.

The album starts off simply with "Wild at Heart," which, if you didn't listen longer than the first few seconds, might have you assuming that Matos was going for a strong Townes Van Zandt vibe. However, moments later the album's first hint of psychedelia wails in by way of a single strum of a heavily distorted guitar. The song uses harmonica unlike run-of-the-mill folk's melodic solos, instead using it as an ambient layer of sound. In terms of content, the first song enforces "Moon Mirage"'s overall thematic melancholy and restlessness.

"Turquoise and Silver" uses woodwinds in a similarly textural way—simulating a coyote's howl more so than playing a tune. All of this lends to the album's strong sense of place. It feels like the desert in a way that bands like Timber Timbre have only recently also accomplished. It's dark and unyielding. It's mysterious and almost mythological. It's the '60s without the optimism.

The somber notes of the first two songs are broken almost instantly when "Rocket Man" chimes in as the album's third track. It's the sort of infectiously catchy, plucky song that you'll remember off of the album, though it certainly isn't the album's highest moment. If anything has overt pop viability, it's this song, which would fit in on a Diablo Cody soundtrack as the quirky lead character rides past on a bike in some ironic, but endearing outfit.

After the sunniness of "Rocket Man" subsides, "Moon Mirage" descends deeper into its Cimmerian mood. "The Flight" doesn't seem to want to stick with you at all in any of the more traditional earworm kind of ways. Instead, it's a spooky, messy, but methodical bit of gloomy psychedelic folk music that isn't more of one than the other by any means. It's the kind of song you'd do peyote to, not mushrooms.

After that the "Agua Fria" and the seven-minute droning, listless "Homecoming King" finish out the album with moments of choral vocals, organs and an overall mellowness that smooths out some of the more intimidating moments on "The Flight."

In that way, Matos as Trans Van Santos creates a range of emotion successfully on an album that sides heavily with the dark side. He also accomplished the fusion of two genres—neo-psych and folk—which seem to typically butt up but never quite cross paths.

You can visit Trans Van Santos' website for information on how to get your hands on a copy of his newest release "Moon Mirage."

Hey there, sports fan! I bet you want to go see the Wildcats play some baseball. Well, good news—you've got a couple of chances to do that! We've got four tickets to tomorrow's game against USC at 6 p.m. and four tickets to Saturday's game against USC at noon. 

Just click on the link above for the game you want to go to and fill out the form. Fill 'em both out, I don't care! We'll be drawing for the April 2 game today at 4 p.m., and we'll draw the winner for the April 4 game at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Our office is located near the Foothills Mall. We're open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., so make sure you're able to pick up the tickets.

Good luck!

So, April Fools Day sucks—take it from John Oliver. You can't trust the news, you can't trust eegees, can you even really trust yourself? Try again tomorrow.

But, instead of pulling a prank, Netflix decided to engage in a little reverse psychology. Or maybe they just chose a really bad day to release this PSA. Go ahead and search "Binge Responsibly" on Netflix. It'll remind you to hug your friends, kiss your kids, and, upon seeing Taylor Schilling and Uzo Aduba, to finish rewatching Orange is the New Black.

Will Humble stepped down as head of the Arizona Department of Health Services last month, saying he wasn't sure where he'd head. Well, it was just announced that he was appointed Division Director for Health Policy and Evaluation at the Arizona Health Sciences Center's Center for Population Science and Discovery in the UA.

His first day is April 13. 

Elizabeth Calhoun, Humble's new boss and the Associate Vice President for Population Health Sciences and Executive Director of the Center for Population Science and Discovery, issued this statement:

“The Center for Population Science and Discovery Center is well-positioned to bring the kind of analytical depth needed to catalyze improvements in population health in Arizona. Will brings unique skills and strong relationships to the center – a perfect fit for our strategic goal to create linkages among researchers, public health organizations, health providers, health systems and payers to improve population health and reduce health-care costs."

"The center rapidly is becoming Arizona’s 'go-to' clearing house for identifying evidence-based solutions and best practices to improve population health and promote health equity throughout Arizona," a UA press release says.

Gov.  Doug Ducey had said he wanted to keep Humble as AZHS director, but Humble announced his retirement from the department shortly after. He'd been there since 1992 and was director for six years. His last day was March 3.

He was at the forefront of the implementation of Arizona's voter-approved medical marijuana program. Marijuana advocates argued he didn't do much for the industry afterwards. He was in a couple lawsuits, including one to force him to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of the Medical Marijuana Act's qualifying debilitating conditions.