Tuesday, February 16, 2016
With a new EP that marks his return to music, Austin Counts brings together several new songs to go along with one that’s been running through his head for years.
Counts has been back with a blues-country hybrid style since the summer, playing a weekly gig at The Flycatcher (340 E. Sixth St.) on Monday nights with Tom Walbank, who produced and performs on Counts’ new Pima County Jail recording.
The four-song EP will be released next Friday, Feb. 26 during a free patio show at Hotel Congress (311 E. Congress St.). The show goes from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and features performances from Counts, Walbank and Chris Hall.
“The way I approach it is telling a story,” Counts says. “I like to make my stuff true to life. When I’m singing about something, it’s something I’ve been through. The only way you can have conviction signing a song is that it’s real.”
Counts (a former Tucson Weekly intern) had played music for many years before giving it up to earn a degree and then open his own business (4th Avenue Delicatessen). He began to pick the guitar back up last summer, when Walbank asked him to cover a couple of shows.
“I tried to pull together two sets to see if I could even do it any more,” Counts says. “That broke the ice, and I started writing new music. Coming back to it now, everything is more toward blues and country.”
Tags: austin counts , tucson , music , new , album release , pima county jail , hotel congress , blues , country
Democrat Victoria Steele has landed the endorsement of Congressman Raul Grijalva in her quest for the Democratic nomination to take on Republican Congresswoman Martha McSally.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, Grijalva praised Steele’s support for abortion rights, immigration reform, education, the Affordable Care Act and equal pay for women.
“Victoria represents big goals and big ideas and this country needs both,” Grijalva said. “I’m proud to endorse her. We are at her behest in terms of what we can do to help.”
Steele thanked Grijalva for his “strong and honest leadership.”
“When elected, I look forward to working with Congressman Grijalva on all of the progressive issues he has championed so hard for so many years, from raising the minimum wage to fighting for a reasonable path to citizenship to combatting climate change,” Steele said.
The endorsement of the left-leaning Grijalva could help Steele in a Democratic primary against former state lawmaker and physician Matt Heinz, but it might prove a liability in winning the Congressional District 2 seat in a November general.
CD2, which includes eastern Pima County and all of Cochise County, is basically one-third Democrat, one-third Republican and one-third independent, so it’s a competitive district on paper. But the previous Democrats to win the seat, Gabby Giffords and Ron Barber, both ran as moderate Democrats and kept their distance from Grijalva.
Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee left CD2 off its list of targeted districts.
Advocates argue Senate Bill 1017, sponsored by state Sen. John Kavanagh, a Republican from Fountain Hills, would limit options to develop ID cards in cities statewide for immigrants to get bank accounts or use other city services. The LGBT community says having access to said IDs would make it easier for transgender and gender nonconforming people to choose the gender they identify with, according to the Arizona Republic.
The gathering of roughly 30 people was organized by the immigration rights advocacy group Puente Human Rights Movement—which recently hosted a concert with Colombian singer Juanes and John Legend outside an immigration detention center in Eloy—the Arizona Dream Act Coalition, among other organizations, the Arizona Republic says.
Tags: arizona republic , john kavanagh , francisca porchas , puente human rights movement , arizona dream act coalition , municipal identification , immigration , phoenix , arizona , capitol
In its first year open, Reilly Craft Pizza's basement bar program, Tough Luck Club, gained a lot of attention locally and nationally with playful, inventive cocktails in its cavelike lounge atmosphere. The menu booklets threw industry standards for a loop by including every drink recipe on the menu and naming the cocktails cheeky jabs at bartending pretensions.
However, after just a year, the bar is going through some big changes. The bar's first beverage director, Niklas Morris, has been replaced by a duo of the bar's other beginning bar staff. Bartenders-turned-bar-managers Jon Holcombe and Stephen Ott are currently running both Reilly and Tough Luck Club's drink programs. While most of the changes have been behind the scenes in terms of organization, the bar is now offering more in the way of brand name spirit selection (think Jack Daniels) to help appeal to a wider variety of drinkers.
Owner Tyler Fenton said the wider spirit selection is just one aspect that's changing for the bar.
"Moving forward we're excited to expand the beverage program to offer more for everyone both in terms of drinks and in terms of programming," We also plan to have an intensified commitment to quality, technique and consistency."
The programming he mentioned will include more events and live music. As far as the drinks go, the menu at TLC and Reilly is still the same for the time being, though plans to release a brand new TLC menu are in the works with the release is slotted for March 1. A bottle program for wine will be released later that month.
"I am very excited to have Jon Holcombe and Stephen Ott taking over the beverage program at Reilly and TLC," Fenton says. "TLC recently celebrated it's one year anniversary and we are all thrilled with how things went in that first year."
Tough Luck Club (101 E. Pennington St.) is open Sunday through Thursday from 5 p.m. until midnight and Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. until 2 a.m.
UPDATE: Former beverage director Niklas Morris says that, while he doesn't currently have his next move planned completely, it likely will not be in the country.
"I'm proud of what I achieved and now I'm off to the next thing," Morris says.
Tags: reilly , tough luck club , tucson , new , bartender , bar manager , jon holcombe , stephen ott , niklas morris , craft cocktails
A prisoner at the Auschwitz concentration camp serving in the Sonderkommando (prisoners forced to do grisly tasks for the Nazis) finds a young boy who initially survives the gas chamber, and makes it his mission to protect him as if he were his son.
Geza Rohrig is heartbreaking as Saul, a broken man desperate to maintain dignity in a situation determined to destroy him and his spirit. Director Laszlo Nemes films in a way where Rohrig is constantly in focus, and the horrors around him are often blurred. It’s as if the camera is a prisoner in the camp trying to shut everything out. It’s a bold choice, and Rohrig delivers a solid and stirring performance.
Also in the background would be the events leading up to a legendary Sonderkommando revolt. It isn’t until late in the film that it becomes apparent that is part of the film’s purpose. Son of Saul is nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar, and I suspect it will win.
Monday, February 15, 2016
Count Sen. John McCain among those who believe the U.S. Senate should block any nominee that President Barack Obama attempts to appoint the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died over the weekend in Texas.
“The president can nominate who he wants to,” McCain said during an appearance today on Mike Broomhead’s Phoenix radio show. “I believe we should wait until after the next election and let the American people pick the next president and we should consider who the next president of the United States nominates.”
Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick (D-CD1), who is running for McCain’s seat this year, pounced on McCain’s announcement.
“Members of the U.S. Senate have an obligation to uphold the Constitution and fulfill their duties, including voting on Supreme Court nominees—regardless of party affiliation,” Kirkpatrick told the press via a prepared statement. “John McCain used to take that responsibility seriously. Unfortunately, his comments today show just how much he has changed after more than three decades in Washington. Now is the time to put politics aside and do the right thing for our nation. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to live up to their oaths to the American people and hold up-or-down votes on any nominees put forward.”
Celebrate the finale of Arizona Cocktail Week right here in Tucson for the first year ever when Romo Tonight Live will present AZCW’s Last Call.
Featuring pop-up bars and craft drink samples from some of the state’s top cocktail bars, including Penca, PY Steakhouse, Sidecar and more from Tucson and Counter Intuitive, The Ostrich and Okra from the Phoenix area, the event will showcase the state’s talent behind the stick.
However, since it’s still a Steven Romo joint, you can expect guests like the crew from Hamilton Distillers and AZCW founder Damon Scott, live music from Katterwaul, a comedy set from Paul Casillas and more from the live late night-style variety talk show.
A portion of the proceeds from the event will go to the Tucson chapter of the USBG. The event runs from 6:30 until 11 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 21 at The Flycatcher (340 E. Sixth St.). You can get tickets (which are $15 in advance and $20 the day of) by visiting the Last Call event page on the Arizona Cocktail Week website.
Tags: arizona cocktail week , tucson , bars , romo tonight live , last call , event , craft cocktails , py steakhouse , penca , sidecar , okra , counter intuitive , katterwaul , pauly casillas , Image
I'm Eli! I am a two year old boy looking for a forever home.
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Tags: Eli cat , cat adoption tucson , HSSA , Humane Society of Southern Arizona , FeLV , pet vaccinations , adopt don't shop
Here are a few key passages.
Take off the recession-era glasses, Gov. Doug Ducey.
Look around. Those bleak days of deep deficits are over.
Arizona deserves a vision for the future.
That means restoring budgets for K-12, universities, infrastructure and other basic state needs.
It’s time to show the dynamic leadership to begin aggressively repairing the damage done during those days when slashing the budget was a matter of survival.
It’s also time to recognize that it wasn’t just the recession that put the financial squeeze on Arizona.
Repeated tax cuts since 1993 shrunk state revenue by tens of billions of dollars.
[snip]
Now it’s time to make the state competitive when it comes to funding K-12 and higher education. Now it’s time to make the state competitive when it comes to infrastructure for the 21st Century. Now it’s time to put money into quality of life amenities – like parks, which were stripped of funding during the recession.
There is no reason to create an artificial atmosphere of recession that keeps the state on a starvation diet. Arizona currently has a healthy budget surplus and rainy day fund.
[snip]
[E]ven if voters approve taking more money from the state land trust [by voting for Proposition 123], schools will not be fully reimbursed for voter-mandated inflation funding that the Legislature illegally withheld during the recession.
Passing the plan is important. It will help schools. But it doesn’t make up for recession-era losses. It doesn’t make schools whole.
Tags: Doug Ducey , Education funding , Tax cuts
I’ve never touched a drug in my life. The only possible exception would be when we tried to make a delayed-fuse piccolo pete bomb by poking a hole in a cigarette, putting the fuse of the piccolo pete through the whole, then inhaling to try to light the cigarette. It didn’t work. Instead I just coughed a lot and learned to hate the smell of tobacco. I don't drink alcohol. I even avoid caffeine when I can. Despite this, I ended up overdosing on legally purchased sleeping pills while using them for their stated purpose. Life’s a bitch, eh?
My first job in Brasil was at a holistic retreat in Arambepe. I worked daily from 7 a.m. to noon, handling anything from construction to helping at ayahuasca ceremonies. A month later, I went to coastal Salvador to work at a hostel. Overnight, I went from starting work at 7 a.m. in Arambepe to working nights and ending at 7 a.m. in Salvador. I enjoyed the night shift quite a bit. I only worked thrice a week and spent the first three hours of my shift hanging out with amazing people that I would be hanging out with at night anyways, then spent the rest of the night ironing sheets and watching Breaking Bad.
In addition to working when I usually slept, I also started sleeping in a very active dormitory. These changes in my sleeping pattern completely threw off my internal clock. I was lucky to get four hours of sleep in a day. It started to catch up to me quickly so I went to a pharmacy and asked if they had anything light that could help. I declined the first thing offered and took the cheaper of the two medications. The recommended dosage was one pill, so I took them for a couple mornings. I looked up the pill online to see why it wasn’t working better and found out that it was generic brand valium. Normally I would worry about that but I still struggled to get more than four hours of sleep and I was exhausted all the time. I figured that valium or not, if I wasn’t getting more than four hours of sleep a night with it, it couldn’t be too dangerous to up the dosage. I finally felt horrible one night and took two.
Tags: into the mild , drugs , valium , brasil , health
