Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Cherish the Ladies, an all-woman Irish music band, rolls into town Friday, March 18, the day after St. Patrick’s.
“The show is spectacular,” crows Joanie Madden, the Ladies’ founder and its prizewinning flute and tin whistle player. “We’ve been getting standing ovations everywhere,”
The traveling extravaganza of Irish music, song and dance will fill the stage of the Fox Tucson Theatre with a bakers’ dozen of artists. The performers hail from all over the Irish diaspora, coming from the U.S., Canada and Scotland—and Ireland.
Fiddler extraordinaire Liz Carroll, born and bred in the Irish immigrant community in Chicago, is a superstar who played with Altan in Tucson last year. Bronx-born Madden is the daughter of Irish immigrants from Clare and Galway; her father, Joe Madden, was a noted accordionist. Guitarist Mary Coogan, likewise born into the New York immigrant community and to an accordionist father, has been with the Ladies since the band’s start 31 years ago.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Tucsonans inspired by last weekend's Festival of Books, listen up: Pima Community College is hosting a creative writing weekend this Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday.
From the press release:
What differentiates the impulse to write poetry from the impulse to write prose? Can that seed go either way?The event will take place at Downtown Campus (1255 N. Stone Avenue, room AH 140) March 25-27.
These questions and other innovative ways of thinking about poetry, fiction, the essay and more will be explored during Pima Community College’s spring 2016 Creative Writing Weekend Workshop on poetry writing led by writer and editor Aisha Sabatini Sloan. We will look at literary models that hover – deliriously – between fiction, poetry and the essay.
The workshop beings on Friday at 6 p.m. with a two hour session, and continues on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Pima students can enroll in the course (Writing 298T2, CRN 22557) as they do with regular classes. Non-students must fill out the college admission form before enrolling in the two-credit course. The cost of this three-day workshop is $177 for Arizona residents.
Visit PCC's website for more information.
Virtual reality becomes a dangerous thing in director, co-writer and star Benjamin Dickinson’s craftily shot and cleverly scripted latest.
Dickinson plays David, an advertising executive with a beautiful yoga instructor girlfriend named Juliette (Nora Zehetner) and a tendency to get a little too wrapped up in his work. His latest client, a virtual reality company named Augmenta, wants him to come up with a campaign for their new virtual reality glasses. David becomes a little bored and frayed at the ends when it comes to his job and his girl, so he finds himself playing around with those glasses. He eventually comes up with a way to virtually recreate Sophie (Alexia Rasmussen), his best friend’s girlfriend. He starts a virtual affair with virtual Sophie, and the lines of reality begin to blur. Shot in black and white with brief flourishes of color, the film feels a little too real for comfort in that the devices being used in the movie seem to be just around the corner.
Society has already been gulped up by their smart phones and video games, so Dickinson’s film is simply representing the next step in the dehumanization of relationships. Creative Control is often funny, sometimes scary and always an interesting look at what happens when virtual reality represents too much relief from real life pressures. It’s an impressive effort from Dickinson, all the more impressive in that the film’s budget is listed at a cool one million dollars.
Tucson’s very own craft whiskey distiller, Hamilton Distillers, and The Coronet’s Ericka Bostick are teaming up to serve up a special dinner that celebrates Whiskey del Bac. The event, which begins at 5 p.m. on Monday, March 21, will feature four dishes from Bostick paired with three cocktails.
Some highlights from the night’s planned menu include blue cheesecake with lemon blueberry jam, kumquat-glazed duck breast and grilled radicchio with pork cracklings. Cocktails for the event will feature Whiskey del Bac’s mesquite smoked unaged, mesquite smoked aged and unsmoked aged varieties.
Tags: coronet , tucson , erika bostick , whiskey del bac , hamilton distillers , dining , event , Image
In 2016, the industry is estimated to contribute between $14 and $17 billion. Four years form now, marijuana could fuel between $24 and $44 billion into the economy, the report says.
The figures come from the industry's overall contribution, such as licensing fees, tax revenue, and retail sales.
The projections reflect marijuana’s march towards the mainstream as it emerges from the shadows to become a respectable, above-board industry that is giving birth to scores of jobs, fostering new business opportunities and creating a broad ripple effect across the country.This election cycle, Arizona, California, and Nevada are among the handful of states that could vote to legalize recreational weed, while Ohio voters will decide the fate of medical cannabis in the state.
“We’re witnessing the emergence of a business that is about to become a massive economic force,” said Chris Walsh, managing editor of Marijuana Business Daily. “These figures, which we deem conservative, show not only how important the industry already is to the U.S economy at large, but also how much more important it is about to become.”
Colorado and Washington state legalized weed in 2012. Alaska, Oregon and D.C. legalized it in 2014.
Tags: marijuana daily business , weed , legalize , economy , colorado , washington , oregon , alaska , arizona , california , nevada , dc
Monday, March 14, 2016
Unfortunately, the answer is more complicated than I had hoped.
It turns out that most of the clay-based kitty litters my family has been using for years is collected through strip mining, a notoriously environmentally unfriendly process. Though there are more eco-friendly products on the market, they are expensive and often rejected by picky pets. As unpleasant as it sounds, the consensus seems to be that the safest place for used litter is a landfill.
But there is always the option of flushing solid pet waste down the toilet, right? Well, yes and no.
Tags: cat , litter , kitty , pet , animal , cat litter , sustainability , waste , biodegradable , Video
Hi I’m Cactus Jack!
I’m a 6 year old little boy looking for a home! I was found as a stray and am happy to be off the streets!
I love people and am very friendly! I get along well with my kennel mate and know how to sit for treats. If you’re looking for a sweet chill doggy come by HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. to meet me!
Love,
Cactus Jack (821905)
After less than 24 hours at my new job in coastal Mozambique, I decided it was time to leave. My new boss had changed his mind or been misleading about a couple of key things, then wouldn’t be available for several days to answer questions. I had a bad feeling. So I left.
First I wandered onto an island nearby and asked a hostel if they needed help. Unsurprisingly, they didn’t. I went to a hotel, asked the same question, and got the same answer. I decided to look for work at a hostel in a nearby city where I had grown impatient previously because there was nobody working in the morning. I grabbed my backpack and flagged down a van, stuffed to the gills with 25 people people and their bags. It broke down 30 miles into the 120-mile trip. The driver of course didn’t offer a refund.
I flagged down a Toyota Tacoma and rode in the bed for the next 30 minutes, then was left at a fork in the road. A passenger from the first minibus helped me find another ride and jumped into the bed of a farm truck with me.
We spent the next hour driving down a small highway, constantly surrounded by green plants, palm trees, and small hills. It was perfect. But the approaching grey clouds made us nervous.
Tags: into the mild , mozambique , africa , work , luck
I was lucky enough to moderate the panel, which examined the human cost of the U.S. border policy and the decision to keep detainees locked up in Guantanamo without trial—or even charges, in the case of Slahi.
You can watch the whole thing here.
Regan did an open-phones segment with callers from across America that you can watch here.
Green beer is weird and gross, so let’s all vow this St. Patrick’s Day (Thursday, March 17) to give the stuff up and go for something more delicious and less dyed to celebrate the occasion.
Hotel Congress’ Cup Café (311 E. Congress St.), for instance, is offering three specials for the day, including house-cured corned beef and cabbage with boiled potatoes ($20) served all day starting at 11 a.m. Other offerings at the Cup are a cast iron shepherd’s pie with minced lamb and Irish cheddar cheese ($22) and an “Irish car bomb” cupcake ($4; Guinness cake, Jameson Mousse, Bailey’s frosting)—both of which will be served starting at 5 p.m.
Over at Kingfisher (2564 E. Grant Road), chef Jim Murphy will be transforming the seafood-centric spot with a taste of Dublin. Throughout the day, you can sink your teeth into a classic Reuben sandwich for lunch, while dinner will offer the traditional combo of corned beef, cabbage, new potatoes and Irish soda bread.
If you're looking for more craft beer for your St. Paddy's celebration, 1912 Brewing Co. (2045 N. Forbes Blvd. #105) is offering an employee corned beef and cabbage cook-off where the talented brewers and staff will show that their prowess for crafting flavors extends off the brewery floor and into the kitchen. The event begins at 5:30 p.m.
And, for a more upscale dining experience, chef Ryan Clark of PY Steakhouse at the Casino del Sol (5655 W. Valencia Road) will be serving up a three-course, prix fixe menu from March 17 through 19. The menu will offer Arizona prime corned beef that was brined in a special blend of pickling spices for two weeks before being paired up with potatoes and braised cabbage. A spring lamb stew and apple pie with and Irish whiskey merengue will be served as well for the meal, which is $45 plus tax and gratuity. Best of all, the steakhouse's bar has an estimated over 200 different whiskeys that you can sample while you dine, which should firmly plant you in the celebrating mood even if you decide to celebrate after St. Pat's day proper.
Tags: st. patrick's day , tucson , corned beef , hotel congress , cup cafe , kingfisher , jim murphy , 1912 brewing company , py steakhouse , casino del sol , ryan clark , whiskey , events , dining , irish
