Wednesday, June 19, 2019
Tags: comics , politics , cartoons , Claytoonz , top secret , Trump , classified , Image
Southern Arizona Senior Pride Book Club. Happy LGBTQ+ pride month! One of the ways our local senior pride group is celebrating is by reading a true classic in their book club: Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. Here’s a line from it: “One’s duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.” Hear, hear! Just add one more thing to your list of duties and we’re set: Join a book club! It’s a great way to make friends, and, of course, to keep yourself reading. 2 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 19. Ward 3 Council office conference room, 1510 E. Grant Road. Details here.
Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday. Add some humor to your Wednesday with this Jacques Tati 1953 classic. Monsieur Hulot takes a summer vacation to a seaside resort that turns out to be anything but relaxing. Dogs, boats and firecrackers dazzle with delightfully silly antics. Co-presented by the Loft and the Tucson Museum of Art, this showing is one not to miss. 7:30 to 9:15 at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Details here.
Tags: fun in general , things to do , happenings , Tucson , local , events , Wednesday , books , film , food , fun , Image
Chromeo on their latest release: “The mission statement for this album, for us, was to pen this overarching love letter to funk music.”
Dressed to kill, eschewing Business Casual, these electro-funksters slip on glitter stilettos on Head Over Heels (Big Beat, 2018). At the Rialto Theatre. With self-confessed synth-freak Touch Sensitive. Details here.
It has been said that singer-songwriter Mike Kanne possesses “the voice of an angel in the body of a steel worker.” At Crooked Tooth Brewing Co. Details here.
On the strength of Goodluck Man (Good Horse Records), and a voice that perforates the aorta, Rolling Stone hailed this Austin singer-songwriter as one of the “10 New Country Artists You Need to Know” in 2017.
Carson McHone emotes at Club Congress. The bluesy pop-rock of Adara Rae & The Homewreckers kicks things off. Details here.
Bluesman Christopher T. Stevens keeps it real at Public Brewhouse. Details here.
Tags: music , live show , live shows , crooked tooth , club congress , public brewhouse , hotel congress , rialto theatre , chromeo , carson mchone , mike kanne , christopher t stevens , country , funk , Image
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
A Pima County Sheriff’s Department search warrant shows that a 19-year-old man who accidentally shot his 17-year-old nephew earlier this month thought his gun was empty when he pulled the trigger.
On June 7, deputies were dispatched to an unknown problem call at 8961 N. Country Home Lane, near Mountain View High School. They were informed that the 17-year-old male, identified as Luis Lopez, was accidentally shot in the head with an AK-47 rifle by his 19-year-old uncle, identified as Raymundo Lopez Casillas, and became unresponsive.
When they arrived at the residence, deputies went upstairs to the den area and reported seeing Luis lying on a couch, partially covered by a blanket. A green towel was soaking up blood behind his head.
Deputies did not feel his pulse when they made contact. Northwest Fire Department officials treated Luis at the scene, but he was pronounced dead soon after. Deputies found that his injury was consistent with a gunshot wound, which they believe entered from the back of his head and exited through his throat.
There was a hole from a projectile in the adjacent bedroom wall, which they say was consistent with the manner in which Luis was shot. In the bedroom, which belonged to Raymundo, deputies found an AK-47 rifle, an AR-15 rifle, multiple handguns and ammunition.
Raymundo told deputies he was in his bedroom and took the magazine out of the AK-47 rifle. He then thought the rifle was empty and pulled the trigger. The rifle fired a shot that went through his bedroom wall and struck Luis, who was standing in the den area.
Raymundo said he dropped the rifle and went out of his bedroom to check where the bullet had landed. When he realized it struck Lopez in the back of the head, he grabbed a towel to cover the wound.
He then texted his girlfriend and told her that he accidentally shot Luis with the AK-47.
According to the search warrant, deputies have seized SD cards from surveillance cameras that were set up in the room where Luis was shot. They hope it will have captured the entire incident on tape.
They recovered a safe that they claim only Raymundo had access to. In the safe, they found a rocket prepared grenade launcher and four PVC pipe bombs. Deputies also found at least eight guns throughout the home, including shotguns, pistols, semi-automatic rifles, a Thompson submachine gun and related ammunition.
Deputies have requested access to Raymundo’s cell phone and access to the vehicles on the property.
The incident is also currently under investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. No further details are available at this time.
Supervisor Ally Miller successfully convinced a majority of her colleagues to "sharpen their pencils" and come back with a budget that doesn't include increases in the primary and secondary tax rates, specifically for the library and flood districts. The county has a $1.3 billion spending cap.
"If one of them goes up that's okay, but we have to find money somewhere else," Miller said at the meeting. "That's what my tax-neutral budget is all about."
With new libraries expected to open in the future, it is likely that the library district tax will have to increase. Miller wants to scale back funds in other areas of the budget to make up for the difference.
In order for taxpayers to see zero change in their bottom line, the county needs to find about $10 million from somewhere within current revenues.
Miller suggested putting a freeze on hiring within the county, since there are already many vacancies that are having difficulty being filled. The budget already includes a two percent salary adjustment for existing employees as well as an increase in the hourly pay range for sheriff's deputies from the previous $23.50-$29.84 to $25.50-$32.94.
She estimates that move could generate $8 million in two months.
Supervisor Ramón Valadez said that some of the $10 million the county is now trying to come up with can be attributed to decisions made at the state level, such as an increase in costs for the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System.
"The reason this is not property tax-neutral is because the state's costs transfer," he said.
Supervisor Richard Elías provided the sole "no" vote to continue the hearings, since he rejected the proposals Miller brought forth.
"We've been unfair to our employees for over 10 years, our staff works to terrible ends trying to get that done," he said. "Many left the county because they could see no improvement coming from us."
Elías also wanted to see money included in the budget to fund high quality child care for low-income families in Pima County, but the other supervisors were not as welcoming to the idea.
According to Arizona statute, the board has until Monday, Aug. 5 to adopt a final budget. If they can't come to an agreement by then, last year's tax rates will be applied to next year, which show a $17.7 million reduction in what was proposed for this year.
Tags: budget , pima county , board of supervisors , ally miller , ramon valadez , richard elias , property tax , tax neutral , Image
Winding Road Theater Ensemble aims to produce plays that are entertaining but outside of the box, and always speak to the human condition. The way co-artistic director of Winding Road Maria Caprile says “the human condition”, it sounds like an illness. Not one we need to get over, but one that we all share, and one that we can manage better by experiencing it together. This season at Winding Road explores life’s harder decisions, funny moments, challenges, morals, coping with loss, family dinners and simply surviving.
If she had to choose one show that audiences not miss, it isn’t the trip to the chapel or the family dinner the actors aren’t excused from (not to say those aren’t well worth seeing, obviously); rather, the one she felt we all need to see is a staged reading of The Women of Lockerbie as part of the Winding Read series. Shown in the style of a Greek tragedy, this play revisits the explosion of PanAm 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.
“That was so long ago and so much has happened, is this going to resonate?” Caprile said, wondering if it would be a good fit for modern audiences. “But it isn’t about the incident. It is about grief. And how this keeps happening. And how we deal with it. You can’t just ignore it. It isn’t about PanAm 103, it’s about public grief.”
In this day and age, and maybe in every age, grief is one part of the human condition that we need each other more than any other to understand, process, and, with time, overcome.
Read more about this season and Winding Road Theater Ensemble at TamingoftheReview.com.
Tags: Winding Road Theater Ensemble , Taming of the Review , Season Preview , local theatre , plays , live theatre , human condition , Image
Tags: comics , politics , cartoons , Claytoonz , president , polls , off with your head , Image
Taco Tuesday at Batch: Borracho Edition. Batch Cafe & Bar are pairing up with Barrio Brewing to make a taco and beer flight. Each of the three tacos features a different meat, and every beer is a different style. Barrio’s Beach Brew is paired with a pollo taco, Rae’s Ruby Red Grapefruit IPA is with a Cochinita Pibil, and the Citrazona is with Tacos Borrachos. The price gets you all three tacos and three eight-ounce beers. 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, June 18. 118 E. Congress Street. $15. Details here.
Return to Earth. The Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists group are hosting the Tucson premiere of this documentary featuring some of the best mountain bikers in the world. Created by Anthill Films and screening at The Loft Cinema, this movie takes viewers on a journey to showcase “what is possible on a mountain bike.” All proceeds benefit the 100-acre Wood Bike Park. 6:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 18. 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. $15. Details here.
Fight Club. Whoever would have guessed getting Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf and Jared Leto together to beat the hell out of each other would be so much fun? Especially when you pair the mayhem with in-depth examinations of the mundane horrors of modern life. For their Tuesday Night Classics, Harkins Theatres is screening the embodiment of 1999. 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 18. 5455 S. Calle Santa Cruz & 5755 W. Arizona Pavilions Drive. $5. Details here.
Events compiled by Tirion Morris, Emily Dieckman, B.S. Eliot and Jeff Gardner.
Tags: things to do , fun in general , happenings , Tucson events , Tuesday , fun , film , food , beer , movies , Image , Video
Languorous and forlorn, Catch Prichard’s debut EP is collection of windswept folk/country songs where his valley deep baritone hangs in the air over dispirited pedal steel, at once expansive yet eerily still like the disquietude of the terrain.
Prichard inhabits Club Congress. The Wanda Junes bring cake. Details here.
Tags: catch pritchard , wanda junes , the wanda junes , club congress , hotel congress , live shows , live show , music , Image
Monday, June 17, 2019
“Everyone has a story, and if you’re open to listening, you’re going to find a connection,” Susan Claassen, managing artistic director at Invisible Theatre, told me in a recent conversation. “Now people are so isolated that the mere nature of coming to live theatre is empowering.” She takes the almost magical, invisible connection between actors and audience as a universal truth — and as the namesake of the theatre.
Forty-nine seasons in, the play selection still resonates with what got them started in the first place: love, passion, and necessity. What that means varies from play to play, as they take a broad look at the concept of love. From love of humor to familial love to Becoming Dr. Ruth, “Which is certainly one way of looking at love,” Claassen remarked with a chuckle.
As an actor (she’ll be playing Dr. Ruth) she knows actors and directors take risks, and that audiences trust them to produce work that is entertaining and thought provoking. “No one does theatre for money,” she observed, “so if the experience isn’t amazing, we aren’t doing our jobs.”
Read more about this season and Something Something Theatre at TamingoftheReview.com.
Tags: season preview , theatre , Invisible Theatre , Susan Claassen , Taming of the Review , Image
