Thursday, September 14, 2017
16th Annual Roasted Chile Festival. The Rincon Institute hosts this chile and spice and everything nice event at the Rincon Valley Farmers and Artisans Market. Aside from fresh roasted chilies, locally grown produce and a beer garden, there will also be artisans and crafters, activities for kids and live music by John Grant & The Guilty Bystanders and Johnny Bencomo. Come get your metaphorical fill of local culture and your literal fill of hatch and poblano chilies. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16. Rincon Valley Farmers & Artisans Market 12500 E. Old Spanish Trail. Free entry.
Born & Brewed Beer Battle at Hotel Congress. Which brewery produces the best pint in town and deserves the coveted 2017 Beer Cup? Help decide by casting your vote at Hotel Congress’s sixth annual event. It’s more local than ever this year, with beers strictly from Tucson breweries, who will compete in three categories: best flagship beer, best specialty beer and people’s choice. There will be panelists from Dragoon Brewing Co, Tucson Foodie, Tucson News Now and USBG Tucson. Beats, brews and eats abound with the tastings, food pairings and live music. 6 p.m. Saturday Sept. 23. Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St.. $15 designated driver, $30 general admission, $50 VIP.
Tags: Primavera Cooks , Kingfisher , Roasted Chile Festival , John Grant & The Guilty Bystanders , Johnny Bencomo , chiles , Born & Brewed Beer Battle , Born & Brewed , born and brewed , Hotel Congress , hoco , Dragoon , Tucson Foodie , Tucson News Now , USBG Tucson , beer
Angry Crab opening. Phoenix favorite Angry Crab Shack & BBQ is open in Tucson! After a grand opening on Sept. 1, this seafood spot continues to serve up all of your favorite crab, clams and shellfish right here in the desert. Seafood is prepared just the way you like it at the Angry Crab, as every menu item is specialized to your taste. First, pick your fish or shellfish, then pick a sauce and finally decide how spicy you want it for the perfect mouthwatering meal. Burgers and brisket are also available for a menu that is sure to please the whole family. Open Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. 1365 West Grant Road.
Spaghetti Western Steakhouse Opening. Get ready for some steak and spaghetti, in both Western and noodle forms. They’ll be coming your way this week at the grand opening of Classic Spaghetti Western Steakhouse on Stone Avenue. The new restaurant will join Brother John’s BBQ, which opened in 2015, to add to the growing Bronx Park Neighborhood food scene. Decorated with murals from local artist Danny Martin, the restaurant will channel the spaghetti western fan in all of us while serving up a juicy mix of steakhouse favorites and classic Italian fare. Grand opening event at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14.
Culinary Dropout Opening. Another distinctive and delectable restaurant is being added to the Tucson food scene. With four locations in the Phoenix area, Culinary Dropout is bringing its classic dishes and self-proclaimed “inked up” and “mohawk rocking” staff down to Tucson. Along with food, beer and cocktails, the space at the former Grant Road Lumber will have games and live music from local up-and-coming artists for patrons to enjoy. Opens Wednesday, Sept. 20.
Regular hours: Monday through Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. and Sundays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. 2543 East Grant Road.
Tags: Kief-Joshua Vineyards grand opening , Angry Crab openingg , Spaghetti Western Steakhouse opening , Culinary Dropout opening , mohawks , cocktails , spaghetti , westerns , spaghetti westerns , Danny Martin , seafood , shellfish , burgers , brisket , wine
Steff and the Articles’ Timekeeper album release
With Birds & Arrows and Infinite Souls
8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15
Club Congress
311 E. Congress St.
$5, 21+
622-8848
hotelcongress.com
Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years… Time never stops.
For Steff Koeppen, working on a new album with her band the Articles over the last several years, that insistent march of time weighed on her mind, framing her goals as a musician, her relationships and her day-to-day work in a way that brought more focus to everything.
It wasn’t a conscious theme to the album until it became time to shape it all into one whole thing and by that time, the name Timekeeper fit it all perfectly.
“In the past, I’ve always taken a phrase from a lyric in a song to name the album,” she says. “I was trying to do the same thing and I found the word ‘timekeeper.’ It helped me put the songs together, all in a place. For me, even though there’s not a concept that ties these songs together, lyrically it was all during a time just after I graduated college and felt a lot of stress. I felt the anxiety of time pressing down on me and that’s in a few songs. Like I’m my own timekeeper.”
The songs were written over years—with two already released as singles to help promote the band on tours—and sprung from different origins, not meant to offer different perspectives on any one theme. But once they were all collected and titled, Koeppen began to see there was more to unite them than she’d thought.
“I started to look at the songs a little differently,” she says. “There’s my personal disposition, where I was coming from at the time, that was always hanging over the songs.”
Books
Tucson Analog Hour. How many of us love reading but can’t seem to find a moment to sit down and focus on actually doing it? It’s no fun to admit, but maybe we just don’t have the attention spans that we used to. Between comparing ourselves to others on social media, checking our phones 46 times a day (that’s the American average) and looking up all the coolest things to do in Tucson this week, we’re collectively exhausted. Set aside some time for just you and a book, no phones allowed, and rediscover the joys of reading, or having a conversation without being distracted by your phone, or even playing a board game. 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17. Exo Coffee and Tap & Bottle, 403 N. Sixth Ave. Free.JA Jance comes to town. The bestselling mystery author’s book tour is hitting Tucson this week, and she’ll be making two local appearances. In the ’60s, Jance was denied entry into UA’s creative writing program because of her gender, but now she's been writing for over three decades. (Take that, patriarchy!) This tour is to promote her new book, "Proof of Life," which brings the character Seattle lawman J.P. Beaumont out of retirement. Saturday Sept. 16, at 5 p.m. at Mostly Books, 6208 E. Speedway Blvd. and Sunday, Sept. 17, at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 5310 E. Broadway Blvd. Free.
Theater
Celia, A Slave. The Rogue Theatre brings Tucson this play by Barbara Seyda, winner of the 2015 Yale Drama Series Prize. The haunting story is based on court records from the 1855 case State of Missouri vs. Celia, a Slave, in which a young woman was convicted and hanged for killing her prosperous owner. It brings to light the horrific violence and harsh realities of America less than 200 years ago. Vain Suitt stars as Celia, Cynthia Meier directs and Jake Sorgen does music direction and original composition. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays, plus 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday, Sept. 16 and 23. Through Sept. 24. The Rogue Theatre at The Historic Y, 300 East University Boulevard. $38, or $15 for student rush tickets (15 minutes before curtain call, pending availability). Tags: Tucson Analog Hour , reading , technology , JA Jance , Proof of Life , J.P. Beaumont , Celia , a Slave , Rogue Theatre , Chapter Two , Arizona Theatre Company , Neil Simon , Shakespeare in the Park , El Rio Theatre Project , A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Tigers Be Still , Arizona Repertory Theatre , Tornabene Theatre , Dash & Walk Like MADD , MADD , 5k , mothers against drunk driving , Loop the Loop , el Tour , Felt bicycle , WBO , Oscar Valdez , Genesis Servania , Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez , Jesse “Hard Work” Hart , boxing , apple pie weekend , country craft fair , apple burgers , apple picking , apple pancakes , Apple Annie’s , Oracle Ford Peppersauce Roundup Adventure Festival , stampede trail runs , gravel grinder bike race , Mr. Nature , Arizona Zipline Adventures , Santa Cruz County Fair , horse show , Sonoita , Greek Fest , dolmathes , baklava , spanakopita , Downtown Radio 2-Year Anniversary Bash , 2 years , motor skills , Los Guapos , Shooda Shook it , Lemon Drop Gang , Tucson Light the Sky Lantern Festival , Tangled , princesses , magical , oooooh , Pet portrait series , dogs , cats , pigs , birds , pets , The Drawing Studio , Arizona Living Economy Forum , Mrs. Green’s World , YWCA of Southern Arizona , Adulting 101 , flat tires , handshakes , dinner that isn’t ramen , the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell , nightcrawler , Her Name Echoes , Pyrotechnica , Thic as Thieves , The Rock , Thee Commons , Vox Urbana , Club Congress , Reverend Horton Heat , The Mighty Fishbone , Strung Out , Los Kung-Fu Monkeys , Rialto Theatre
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
But one possible culprit that doesn't come up as often as it should is lack of opportunities for quality early childhood education. The U.S. sits near the bottom of the list when it comes to the percentage of 3 and 4 year olds enrolled in educational programs. Is that one reason for our low scores on the international tests? Maybe so, maybe no, but it should be a larger part of our national discussion, even among the privatization/"education reform" crowd, who are all about charter schools and vouchers for private schools. If they care more about education than privatization, maybe those folks should be more into promoting early childhood education.
The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) administers the PISA international student testing, and it analyzes the results as well as other relevant educational information. It recently published Starting Strong 2017, a 200 page document focusing on early childhood education and care. Starting on page 128, it compares the enrollment rates of 3 and 4 year olds in pre-primary education in 2014 in about 35 countries. In the U.S., 40 percent of three year olds were in educational programs compared to an OECD average of 70 percent. Only five countries had lower numbers. Among four year olds, the U.S. enrollment was 70 percent compared to an OECD average of 85 percent. Only three countries had lower numbers.
Tags: Early childhood education , OECD , U.S. , Arizona
Monday, September 11, 2017
This is a fictitious take on the real-life fight between Wong Jack Man and martial arts legend Bruce Lee, has a couple of good fight scenes in it. In fact, they could be called very good. And, yet, I’m forced to give this movie my lowest mark because those fight scenes are surrounded by crap.
Picture a diamond like the blue one that the old lady had in that Titanic movie. Dip it in gold and put it in a bag with $780 million dollars and a Babe Ruth autographed baseball, and then drop that bag into a communal spot where a bunch of sick hippos have taken massive shits and formed a virtual lake of shit. Let that bag sink to the bottom and become immersed in the lake of sick hippo shit. That’s what happens to the very good fight scenes in this movie. Lost in shit. Sick hippo shit. (Sorry to pick on hippos for this analogy, but, hey, they are huge, and, I imagine, rather disgusting when overcome by intestinal stress, making them capable of generating the amount of shit I needed for this particular illustration.)
The movie deals a little bit with actual, real-life fight between Lee and rival martial arts teacher Wong Jack Man, but it blows the details up to ridiculous extremes, even turning Lee and Jack Man into Batman and Robin by film’s end. It’s garbage.
Hi, I'm Marvin!
I am a 2 year old black male cat looking for the purr-fect home! I am very independent but will come to you for attention. I L-O-V-E LOVE to be affectionate. I will purr and even roll over to let you rub my belly. Playtime is my second favorite thing and I could easily spend my whole day on a cat scratch tree. On my lazy days I will sit in a window and watch for hours. I do good with kids and have been nonreactive with the cats here. I will need to go to a home that will let me be indoors only and does not have any dogs. I have a food sensitivity and will need to be on a special diet as well as Advita for life. Come see me at PAWSH in La Encantada, or give an adoption counselor a call at 520-327-6577 for more information!
Lots of Love,
Marvin (838237)
Hank Stephenson, the new education reporter at the Star, is a good journalist who does the necessary leg work and phone work to get the story—far, far more of it than I do as a humble blogger—but with this article, he's earned a spot at the top of the front page by telling only part of the story, which does a serious disservice to our two districts with the lowest income students. Unintentionally, I believe, Stephenson has followed one of the Star's unwritten maxims: If TUSD bleeds, the story leads. So let it bleed.
TUSD must be doing a terrible job educating its students, or so the story makes it sound.
Southern Arizona’s largest school district is dragging down the county’s results. Students in the Tucson Unified School District performed well below the state average on the standardized test and were also outperformed by students in eight of Pima County’s nine major school districts.Sunnyside must be doing even worse, according to the story.
The test results were even worse for Sunnyside Unified School District, which scored the lowest of any of Pima County’s nine major districts.
Tags: Pima County schools , TUSD , Sunnyside School District , AzMERIT scores
Friday, September 8, 2017
And what would a class lesson be without a fire drill? Yes, even when the fire alarm was tripped mid-performance, Frankie Cosmos frontwoman Greta Kline instructed everyone to remain calm and collected, as if her music wasn’t doing that already.
Despite the sweet simplicity of most of the songs performed, Frankie Cosmos’s indie textures were surprisingly on-point. With keyboard/guitar interplay, concussive drumming, and even an organized dance routine, the performers showed they had much more going for them than sentimental lyrics. It also probably helped that the crowd sang along to just about every song.
A live band sounding exactly like they do on their albums might seem a disappointment to some, but when the albums in question are as joyous, sublime, and introspective as Frankie Cosmos’, the tightly crafted sounds of the studio come as a welcome to any ears.
Tags: Frankie Cosmos , HoCo Fest , bedroom pop , Greta Kline , my daddy is a fireman
Six years ago, Goon, a funny-as-hell hockey comedy based on a real sports figure who played shitty hockey but fought like a madman, came out and seemed to give new life to the acting career of one Seann William Scott.
This sequel, directed by Goon costar Jay Baruchel, is an embarrassment from all angles. For starters, it’s sloppy, the kind of sloppy you would expect from an actor who has no clue behind the camera. The tones shift like crazy, the jokes fall flat, and the performances get killed by piss editing. The movie deals with Goon hero Doug Glatt going into retirement shortly after being named captain of his team because he can’t fight from his left side. Then it goes into a strange side story involving his work as an insurance salesman while he tries to come back, eventually getting fight training from Ross Rhea (Liev Schreiber). His training includes fighting in a hockey league that has no actual hockey, just guys dressed in hockey gear, fighting. That sounds like it could be funny but, trust me, it’s not.
The talented Alison Pill return as Eva, Doug’s love interest, and her talents are wasted, as are the talents of Elisha Cuthbert as her drunk pal. I laughed twice at this thing, both moments involving Doug’s insurance boss and his activities in Doug’s basement office. Otherwise, I just sort of groaned and felt bad for all involved.
Available for download on iTunes and Amazon.com during a limited theatrical release.
