This totally bonkers film plays out like David Lynch meets John Waters.

Grouchy old man Big Ronnie (Michael St. Michaels, who once played a security guard on Diff’rent Strokes) and his weird son (Sky Elobar) conduct disco tours in which they lie to tourists about where the Bee Gees wrote their music.

In the evenings, the grouchy old man just might be the Greasy Strangler, a man who is basically what his title implies: a dude covered in grease (in part due to the greasy food he eats) who strangles people.

Things become complicated when Big Ronnie takes a liking to his son’s girlfriend, resulting in a lot of full frontal nudity from all cast participants.

First time director Jim Hosking traffics in a sort of absurdist humor that won’t be appreciated by all, but for those who like their movies weird, he’s serving up a smorgasbord with this one. It’s also really gross, with lots of grease, farts, and eyeball consumption. If you are a fan of such cult films as The Dark Backward, you will eat this up. If you don’t like your comedies weird and gross, stay far, far away.

Are you up for the job of leading one of Tucson's most wonderful feminist and literary sanctuaries? Antigone Books (411 N. 4th Ave.) is up for grabs.

Here's the email Antigone's subscribers received last night, in its entirety:  

The two of us have owned Antigone Books for more than 25 years, happy to
be part of Antigone's long (43 year) history. It's been an absolutely fabulous time, surrounded as we've been by great staff, great customers, wonderful books and assorted miscellany.

It's getting to be time for us to pass the baton! Hard as it is even for us to believe, we are ready to begin a careful search for a new owner or owners
who will be a great match for the store. Might that person be you or someone you know?

There's no rush on this process. We'll be continuing with business as usual at
the store, meanwhile taking our time to look for the perfect person or persons.

It seems that about halfway through each decade since the 1970s, prevailing rock music trends and styles begin to run out of steam, including some of the form’s most recognizable purveyors. This happened explicitly in the ’90s, with the fallout from grunge resulting in a fragmented mess of pop-punk, ska, rap-rock and just about everybody else tentatively embracing the most obvious aspects of then-current cutting-edge electronic music. What all of these sub-sub-genres had in common was a lack of confidence, direction and relevancy.

There were some exceptions, of course, as there are now, in an era of shifting cultural norms and the dominance and creative pinnacle of R&B and hip hop. During the ’90s, there were a few notable bands that doubled down on their own rock ’n’ roll hootchie coo, and Tucson’s Asian Fred is today’s equivalent. Reaching far back into history’s stylebook and sounding like The Band or George Harrison in the immediate aftermath of The Beatles, Asian Fred­–somewhat defiantly–relies on the twin pillars of impeccable craftsmanship and studious inspiration to carry on a tradition while contributing to its canon.

With a dream of a rhythm section–nodding to Stax and even disco–Asian Fred has a deliberate, considered, monolithic style that encompasses the perfectionist technique of, say, Steely Dan, along with the eazy riding of a hundred forgotten ’70s FM heroes. And that leaves Asian Fred as one of today’s most exciting and accomplished straight rock ’n’ roll bands, and one that would stand tall in any era.  

Ahead of tonight's televised debate between Sen. John McCain and his Democratic challenger, Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, McCain decided to dump his endorsement of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In so doing, he has undermined on of Kirkpatrick's best attacks against McCain and eliminated any need to defend the collapsing Trump.

McCain could put up with a lot from Trump: The personal humiliation of having Trump mock his time as a prisoner of war and other tweeted insults; Trump’s repeated praise of Russian overlord Vladimir Putin; the plans to round up all the illegal immigrants in the United States; Trump’s feud with the parents of a fallen serviceman; and Trump’s obvious ignorance of the details of both domestic and international politics.

But after the “grab-them-by-the-pussy” tape emerged last week, McCain finally had a reason to withdraw his endorsement of Trump. In a statement to the press on Saturday, Oct. 8, McCain said that he “wanted to support the candidate our party nominated. He was not my choice, but as a past nominee, I thought it important I respect the fact that Donald Trump won a majority of the delegates by the rules our party set. I thought I owed his supporters that deference.

Then he lowered the boom: “But Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy. Cindy, with her strong background in human rights and respect for women fully agrees with me in this.”

“Cindy and I will not vote for Donald Trump,” McCain concluded. “I have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate and we will not vote for Hillary Clinton. We will write in the name of some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be president.”

Kirkpatrick, who has built much of her campaign around McCain’s support of Trump, said McCain's decision to dump Trump comes too late.

Hi friends!

I'm Gerard and this is my big, best friend named Butch! We were brought into the shelter together and have been officially deemed a bonded pair.

I am an 8 year old poodle mix and Butch is a 3.5 year old pit bull mix.

Butch and I love to go on walks together, play together and take naps together. I have known Butch for almost his entire life and I can't imagine going to a new home without him.

We're a packaged deal, but don't worry, if you're interested in giving us a home we have a 2 for 1 adoption fee.

Contact HSSA Main Campus at 327-6088 ext. 173 to check on our availability and for more information.

Lots of love,
Gerard and Butch

A few weeks ago I posted about the independent expenditure campaign, TUSD Kids First. The main takeaway was that TKF had collected a total of $35,150, most of it from five local businesspeople: Committee Chair Jimmy Lovelace, $3,334; Treasurer Kathleen Campbell, $8,170;  Cody Richie, $7,500; Jim Click, $7,500; and Tom Regina, $5,000. At the time, the TUSD board candidates and TKF had submitted their Pima County campaign finance reports listing their contributions through Aug. 18. Since then, a new set of finance reports have been filed which include contributions through Sept. 19. The only new contribution to TKF was from Jimmy Lovelace for $216.05. However, new contributions to the candidates reveal more about the priorities of the independent expenditure committee.

TDK appears to have two main objectives. The first, which has been clear since the IE began in February, is to get rid of either or both of two current board members, Cam Juarez and Kristel Foster. That would shift the balance of power to a new board majority, replacing the current majority formed by Juarez, Foster and Adelita Grijalva to one which included Mark Stegeman and Michael Hicks. The second objective, which has become clearer with the most recent financial statements, is to elect Brett Rustand as a member of the new majority. 

Three of the major TKF contributors, Ritchie, Campbell and Flake, have been active in contributing to individual board candidates. Let's go through them one by one.

We'll begin with Cody Ritchie, even though at $7,500, he's not the largest TKF contributor, nor is he one of the two people running the committee. The reason to begin with Ritchie is, he's the principal owner and president of Crest Insurance Group. Board candidate Brett Rustand is a vice president at Crest, one of more than twenty employees with that title; it's a large company. That means Ritchie is Rustand's boss and most likely would be delighted to see his employee sitting on the TUSD board. Ritchie is a generous political donor who has given over $100,000 to political candidates over the past ten years, exclusively Republican candidates, including most recently, more than $5,000 to Donald Trump. His one contribution to a 2016 TUSD board candidate was for $1,000 to Brett Rustand. He gave $1,500 to Michael Hicks' reelection campaign in 2014.

Next is Kathleen Campbell who gave $8,170 to TKF and is its treasurer. She isn't listed as giving any contributions to board candidates. However, her husband James gave $1,000 to Mark Stegeman's campaign and another $1,000 to Brett Rustand. Other than their contributions related to TUSD board races, the Campbells aren't big political donors. The only other recent contribution I found was $1,250 to Martha McSally's reelection campaign.

Director Nate Parker’s biographical film about Nat Turner plays out like the scariest of horror shows, and it very well should.

The film scarily portrays Turner’s slave rebellion in the south, one that resulted in many African Americans being slaughtered in retaliation. It’s bloody, it’s heartbreaking, and it’s the two-by-four to the face type of film the subject warrants.

Parker plays Turner, a slave raised as a preacher and exploited for money by his plantation owner (Armie Hammer in a most scary performance), and his performance is a powerful one. As for his directing, he portrays white plantation and slave owners and preachers as hissing, hateful, almost cartoonish demons, and I say amen to that.

Some of the history might not be 100 percent accurate, but the portrayal of the hatred and disgusting state of affairs that led to Turner’s uprising is vivid and on target. Jackie Earle Haley, a.k.a. Kelly Leak of The Bad News Bears, successfully portrays one of the most repugnant, irredeemable characters ever put to screen.

Stylistically, the film gets a little strange in a few moments, but the end results and impressions are long lasting, very meaningful ones.

Did this week feel 500 days long to anyone else? There are many ways to let loose this weekend, but my favorite remains lying on the couch, doing a little binge watching with my cats and a glass of wine. 

Thinking about planning your own movie marathon? Check out Casa Video's most popular rentals from this week:

1. Neighbors 2

I don't know if Tom Horne and John Huppenthal, Arizona's two most recent ex-superintendents of education, ever get together, and I don't know if either of them spend any time with recalled Republican State Senator Russell Pearce. But the three of them definitely should find time to gather and celebrate now and then. They have every reason to high five one another as they look down from Phoenix at the political and personal battles raging in and around TUSD and say to each other, "Look at the mess we created down there. We did some good work, didn't we?"

Conservative Republicans outside of the Tucson area no longer have to expend much energy trying to take down the school district which serves the children of the city they love to hate, the Democratic-leaning metropolitan area they think of as "The People's Republic of Tucson." They took a problem-ridden district and planted within it the bitter seeds of dissension and animosity. They helped create anti-district alliances among groups on the right and the left which previously had been at odds. Then they sat back and watched with satisfaction as forces in the school district and the community tear each other apart.

TUSD has long been a district with a reputation of poor management and poorer financial practices, and it couldn't hold onto its superintendents, shedding them almost as regularly as trees shed their autumn leaves. But for all that, the district has always had its share of strong schools, strong teachers and strong programs. Among its strengths was the Mexican American Studies program which had a national reputation for innovation and excellence. It served a portion of the Hispanic community, as well as some non-Hispanic community members, who wanted to give their children a representation of Mexican and Mexican-American history and culture different from the more mainstream depiction which disparaged them. A dedicated core of teachers and administrators worked diligently to create a curriculum and an ethos which instilled pride in students while it dispelled some of the negative stereotypes which are pervasive in the normal school curriculum and society at large, empowering students with knowledge of the positive aspects of their history and traditions and spotlighting ways society has conspired to keep them poor, powerless and self hating. The program was well known and respected in some parts of the Tucson community, and disliked in some others, but beyond those groups, it mostly flew under the radar. It was just one of many programs in the school district about which the general public had little knowledge.

Then, a golden opportunity to demonize MAS fell in the lap of the right wing scream machine. Three words spoken at a school assembly by Delores Huerta, an icon of the labor movement and the fight for Hispanic rights, were used to spark conservative outrage. "Republicans hate Latinos," Huerta said.  The phrases and sentences surrounding those three words qualified them and made them less incendiary, but all anyone heard from her talk was, "Republicans hate Latinos." National right wing media seized on the words, and Arizona's conservative community latched onto them with a vicious glee. It was Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks saying she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas" all over again. It was John Lennon saying the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Unlike the Maines and Lennon episodes, Huerta's words didn't lead to record burnings, reminiscent of book burnings, cheered on by self righteous, cheering mobs, but they led to a reinvigorated wave of anti-brown agitation, fear and hatred.

On Thursday, Sept. 29 the League of Women Voters held a forum for candidates seeking election to the Tucson Unified School District governing board. The current board consists of five members: Adelita Grijalva, Michael Hicks, Cam Juárez, Kristel Foster, and Mark Stegeman. The terms of Juarez, Foster, and Stegeman are up and all three are running for re-election. However, the election is at large and nonpartisan and a number of other candidates have joined the fray. These other candidates include: Betts Putnam-Hidalgo, Lori Riegel, Brett Rustand, and Rachael Sedgwick.

The candidates were each given two minutes for an opening statement. They then answered questions, two of which were provided in advance. The advance questions were in regards to the ongoing desegregation lawsuit and district administration transparency. The candidates were then provided with questions from the audience to which they gave one minute responses. Steve Lynn was the moderator.

Background

Alas, TUSD is not without its controversies. We have seen reports of student violence in and around Palo Verde High School, illegal grade changes by the principal of Pueblo High School (allegedly to increase graduation rates), the changing of absent/tardy records at Pueblo, the fact that less than half the budget goes to the classroom (TUSD: 48.7 percent, state average 53.6 percent), multi-million dollar contracts buried in consent agendas, and who could forget the hijinks when half a dozen boys and girls chained themselves to chairs in an effort to disrupt a district meeting?

It is important to note that the schools themselves vary widely from total failures to wildly successful. University High, which is nationally recognized, is an example of a TUSD school that is succeeding in virtually every category. Schools that do well do so on their own. Those that are in need of guidance and support find little from the administration.

As mentioned earlier, the current board consists of Adelita Grijalva, Michael Hicks, Cam Juárez, Kristel Foster, and Mark Stegeman. Grijalva, Foster, and Juarez make up a majority of the board. More often than not they vote as a block, giving them control of the board and thereby the district. Stegeman and Hicks tend to vote with the majority on routine matters, but are regularly at odds with the majority when it comes to making changes to the status quo. There has been ongoing tension between the board majority and its minority.

The Event

The tension between board members was evident at the forum. Fortunately for all concerned, Juarez and Foster sat at one end of the table and Stegeman at the other. Foster took the lead in attacking Stegman, sometimes by name, sometimes not. It did seem, however, that Stegeman had to correct, or “fact check” as he put it, statements from Foster before answering the question at hand. Stegeman did not retaliate, though towards the end he did mention some of the details of news stories that embarrass (or should embarrass) the district. An example is the controversy that ensued when when it was reported that three members of the internal auditing committee were married to employees of the district which was a violation of the charter, two resigned, the third stayed on and voted for the new watered-down charter that allowed him to stay. Foster was lucky in that she delivered her closing statement after Stegeman, so when she delivered the final laundry list of criticisms he had no opportunity to respond.

The other candidates pretty much left each other alone, though Riegel chastised Juarez for referring to University High students as “upper class,” and Putnam-Hidalgo had to pause in the middle of an answer to ask Juarez to stop talking to her while she was speaking (he apologized at his first opportunity).

None of the candidates were critical of the now discontinued Mexican American Studies Program (MAS), there was unanimous approval with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Putnam-Hidalgo was the biggest fan gushing about how “very successful” it was and that the district should “bring it back.” Riegel expressed support and suggested that it be expanded to include other ethnicities. She went on to say that she arranged to have a Holocaust survivor speak at University High School after some anti-Semitism was observed there. Stegeman said that any “hook” that inspired an interest in learning was great. Juarez said that the program gave Latino students confidence.

Putnam-Hidalgo pointed out the irony of a career path that paid more as educators moved further away from contact with students. She also claimed that the superintendent encouraged teachers to not report or document incidents or problems to make it easier to “game the numbers.”

Stegeman, Riegel, and Rustand expressed the need for increased student discipline and teacher support. Rustand also spoke in favor of “site based leadership,” and he is not a fan of “high stakes testing.”

None of the candidates were critical of the over forty year (that’s four-zero year) old desegregation lawsuit.

Jonathan Hoffman is the Weekly's resident Libertarian columnist.