Friday, Aug. 2

Hosted by KXCI's Marty Kool, the eighth annual House Rockin' Blues Review is a West Coast Blues explosion. This year's event features Junior Watson, Billy Watson and Taryn Donath, backed by  the all-star rhythm section of Troy Sandow and Marty Dodson at El Casino Ballroom. The Bryan Dean Trio kicks off this barnburner. Proceeds will benefit KXCI Community Radio.

During the '90s, this alt-folk singer fronted a noisy post-grunge band, Verbena. In 2003, after the band dissolved, he found a piece of himself that had been missing and began recording American Hearts (Fat Possum Records), a transmutation towards a minimal folk sound. Despite a few modern conventions—the sparing use of a synth or drum machine—the sorrow at the heart of his music is timeless. A.A. Bondy renders "Images of Love" at Club Congress.

As humanity plunges into its darkest hour, the fog of existence has finally cleared thanks to the fruits (and campy VHS tape clips) of your favorite found footage collective, Everything Is Terrible! at 191 Toole.

"We're all just out of college. By the time you're out of school, you'll have it all figured out, we were told. But that's not really how it is," said bandleader Cleto Cordero. Red Dirt country outfit Flatland Cavalry of Lubbock, Texas, storm The Rock with The Cole Trains of Safford, Arizona, in tow.

Bryan Thomas Parker & Friends dole out "lizard-flavored roots and rhythm," enough to make you shed your skin at Sky Bar.

Led by vocalist (retired Command Sergeant Major) Connie Brannock, Little House of Funk, like a violent thunderstorm, will energize the evening air with R&B as part of the Friday Night Live Free Concert Series at Main Gate Square.

"Round & Round": Niki J Crawford, one of L.A.'s hottest soul/blues/funk bands, return to Monterey Court.

Mother's House finds August resident DJ Mother Tierra spinning an eclectic mix poolside at Hotel McCoy.

Beloved acoustic performers Sam & Dante play original jazz and ragtime with a twist of whimsy at Westbound.

From Barrio Santa Rosa, this bajo sexto and accordion-driven conjunto specialize in a polka and música norteño so intoxicating that one can easily lose their volition and dance with abandon. Pedro Y Los Liricos are at Exo Roast Co.

The Telecasters will surely howl and snarl, during this psycho country skirmish, when The Hank Topless Band (featuring ax-man Loren Dircks) and Kentucky country/rockabilly picker Michael Monroe Goodman take to the stage outdoors on the plaza at Hotel Congress.

Saturday, Aug. 3

In 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees appointed this Japanese pop star as a Goodwill Ambassador for his work visiting refugee camps around the world. "Under the Same Sky," Miyavi brings the No Sleep Till Tokyo Tour in for a stop at 191 Toole.

Fronted by vocalist Randy Cordeiro, Super Diamond: A Tribute to Neil Diamond play a verisimilitude of the hits that transformed the real Diamond into an international pop icon at the Rialto Theatre. Like a pearl handled pistol, The Lola Torch Trio lend dangerous intrigue.

DJ Jahmar International hosts Locals Only Saturdays. This installment sees J Sims, Jase, Super Sick, Pharaoh Abstract and Suuugggaaarrr perform at Mr. Head's.

Mutiny: DJ NoirTech spins alt/'80s/indie/electronic/industrial at the Surly Wench Pub.

Guitarist extraordinaire Pete Fine is Beyond Words at House of Bards.

An evening of time-honored Latin American music with Tradiciones Entre Peruanos unfolds at Exo Roast Co.

Hosted by Marley B and Johnny Rubix, For The Love: Sanctuary features performances by Jaca Zulu, Lizzy Page, Vinney Mendez, EZ Goin, UG Desert Artists, Jaron Ikner, Street Blues Family y mas. Donations support the political committee Tucson Families Free & Together in the effort to persuade voters to make Tucson a sanctuary city this November at Thunder Canyon Brewstillery.

Break out your holy water sprinkler. Los Diablos, Drug Thirsty Mule, Conqueror Worm and Gun Runners play "The Devil's Music" at Irene's Holy Donuts.

Imagine that... It's an art party! Artist Dimitri Manos' latest work, "Up to Bat," is a 3-dimensional installation utilizing salvaged materials. The opening reception features a live set by Golden Boots at How Sweet It Was. DJ Ponytail Cruiser provides ambience.

"Train, Train, take me on out of this town." With no original members, Southern fried hard rockers Blackfoot perdure at Encore.

Sunday, Aug. 4

On Lucas Acid (Fake Four, 2018), frontperson/lyricist Chris Martinez came out as a transgender  woman. The result: An unflinchingly ferocious album of trans anthems with a glitch-laden industrial edge. "The biggest difference was just being able to write freely, openly and honestly," said Martinez. "Once you come out, there's a whole host of issues that you don't really consider. This record has a lot of that in there." Pioneers in noise rap, Moodie Black are at Club Congress with Coolzey, Liquid Space and Atmosphere.

Like your toast with jam? Mik & The Funky Brunch provide family-friendly funk at La Cocina.


Jazz saxophonist Autumn Dominguez leads her quartet at Bar Passé.

All for One and One for Ball sees FebboFuentes, Billy Sedlmayr, Heroes Reunion, Amy Mendoza & the Strange Vacation, The Bennu, Golden Boots and Loveland circle the wagons in support of beloved local guitarist Joe Fanning, who was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer at Tap + Bottle–Downtown.

Is it real? Out on The Simulation Tour, Born Of Osiris wheel into The Rock with Michigan harcore/punks Spite.

This is one of the saddest articles I've read recently. The daily stories about Trump and his minions keep me in a constant state of anger and anguish, but this is something different. It is an education story about a rare school desegregation success story which looks like it's about to come to an end.

The Jefferson County School District in Kentucky is one of the best examples of a desegregated urban school district in the country. It's actually one of the few examples. School desegregation efforts are not doing well these days, to put it mildly.

But according to a recent article, the school district has lost some of its community support for its desegregation efforts and is likely to become increasingly segregated. Worse, Kentucky's Department of Education is talking about "taking over the district." That's Conservative-speak for "Let's put blacks in black schools and whites in white schools where they belong."

Like I said, it's a sad article.

A few years ago I was part of a book group where we read and discussed recent books about education. Not surprisingly, the discussion often veered from the books we were reading to TUSD. At one point, the district's desegregation efforts became a topic of intense conversation. None of us thought the district's efforts have been a success, but we differed about the reasons for its failings.

I decided to do some research to find urban districts that have gotten desegregation right. My hope was, we could sift through the positive examples and compare them with the mixed — at best — desegregation efforts in TUSD. Maybe we could find some ideas for improving our desegreg efforts.

I took a deep dive into the internet and came up with hundreds of relevant items from newspapers, magazines and scholarly monographs discussing desegregation efforts, beginning with the 1954 Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision which made school segregation laws illegal, to the present. I created two folders on my computer desktop, one for the successes and one for the failures.

Soon, my deseg failure folder was stuffed to overflowing with examples of individual districts which made, at best, halfhearted attempts at integration and others where a short period of school integration was followed by a long slide into increasing segregation.

My success folder had a total of one example, the Jefferson County School District in Kentucky. It wasn't for lack of looking. It wasn't that I was making the perfect the enemy of reasonably good desegregation results. Other urban districts whose desegregation programs could be considered a success were nowhere to be found.

The Jefferson County school district was the subject of a long 2015 article delving into the complex history of its successful deseg efforts and the continual efforts by some people in the community to dismantle it.

One positive example is better than none, I guess. But the problem is, there is little for TUSD to learn from the Jefferson County success. There is zero chance it will be reproduced here.

The most important thing I learned from Jefferson County is, its desegregation efforts were only successful because the district has a program of mandatory busing which has continued long after most districts abandoned the practice. Requiring students to climb onto buses and travel long distances to attend faraway schools met with fierce resistance all over the country. It still leaves a bad taste in many people's mouths. Thanks to a 1974 Supreme Court ruling (Milliken v. Bradley), communities have been allowed to abandon their mandatory busing programs. The result is, schools have become increasingly segregated.

Love it or hate it, every indication is, mandatory busing is the single most effective way to desegregate schools.

Find more Claytoonz here.

“Never the bridesmaid, always the bride.”

Eternal MILF and perennial bride Jodi White has kept all four of her wedding dresses - like notches on a belt, we imagine. Mostly we’re impressed that, with three kids, she has room to store them all. Good job on the divorce settlements!

In comedy, White’s the mom everyone wishes they had and the date whose eyes the boys may never see. Her energy pops like a party girl’s, but her comedy shines on the sharp edges of all that sparkle.

White performs four shows at Laffs Comedy Caffe on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 2 and 3. Visit laffstucson.com for details and reservations. Tickets are $12.50 and $17.50 and there’s a two-item minimum.

Everything Is Terrible

Dr. Who and Monty Python are way too linear and subtle for our times. Everything is really that terrible.

The genius of the internet phenomenon Everything Is Terrible is that it captures the chaos and wraps it in comedy like bubble-gum, only it’s more like phosphorescent atomic goo in psychedelic colors with odd vignettes of, say, a creepy yoga farmer and a cat massage mixed in. But it’s people, see, with videos and something they describe as “unseen schlock.” Also, there are puppets and you’re to bring your "Jerry Maguire" VHS for sacrificing.

If it were more self-regarding or the tiniest bit pretentious someone would call the live version of EIT “performance art”. Instead, it’s plain preposterous fun, inspiring for its sheer inventiveness. Both CNN and the CBC dubbed Everything is Terrible ‘The Best Site.' The Chicago Reader and Film Threat called the collective’s 2018 movie, "The Great Satan," “a masterpiece.”

It all comes alive at 8 p.m., Friday, Aug. 2 at 191 Toole. Tickets are $15 via Eventbrite.
Pa’l Gabacho Tour USA 2019

Known as El Caballero de la Comedia, Mike Salazar is one of the most popular comedians in Mexico. He makes a rare visit north of the border to perform at the Rialto Theatre on Friday, Aug. 2. The show starts at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 to $92 on ticketfly.com. The show is entirely in Spanish, as are the Ticketfly details.

Salazar started in comedy at age 18 in Santiago, Nuevo León. In just a few years his comedy shows were among the biggest box-office draws in Mexico.

In 2009, he began performing regularly at El Unicornio in Monterrey, evolving quickly into one of that comedy club’s most popular comedians. Word of his talent and charisma quickly spread nationwide through social media. Last year the most widely watched program on Mexican television, Televisa Mexico’s "Sabadazo," invited him to host.

Jesus Sepulveda and Jerry Garcia at the O

Two bright comics out of L.A. light up The O’s new comedy program at 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug.3.
Jerry Garcia and Tucson’s own Jesus Sepulveda may be remembered best from their sets in the Netflix special "Chingo Bling: They Can’t Deport Us All." Sepulveda’s set reflected his life growing up in Southern California.

With fellow comedian Christian Saragoza, the pair produce the gleefully NSFW weekly Latino podcast "American Wannabes."

Garcia’s comedy, chatty and relatable, is cut from real life. It revolves around the complexity of his home life as the single father of three boys. Luckily, he can joke about it.

Last year, Garcia performed in the HBO comedy series, "Entre Nos." He will also be seen in an HBO comedy special, "It's Not My Weekend," set for release this summer.

Local comedy veteran Jose “Joey G” Giron features. Tickets are $15 via Eventbrite.

Mario Aguilar at The Fox Theatre

Mexican YouTube celebrity Mario Aguilar brings his unmissable Celosa yo? Jamás!(Me, Jealous? Never!) tour to the Fox at 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 17. Tickets are $33 to $78 via foxtucsontheatre.ticketforce.com/ordertickets.

The show is presented entirely in Spanish. Details are available in Spanish at foxtucson.com/event/mario-aguilar/.

Aguilar has been creating content on Facebook since December 2014. Some of his most popular characters are in various states of drag. Today his Facebook page boasts more than ten million “likes”; his followers on YouTube number five million. For his social media work, Aguilar earned back-to-back nominations for Mexico’s coveted Eliot Awards in the comedy category. He has performed more than 300 dates throughout Mexico, the U.S., Guatemala, Argentina and other South American countries.

Aguilar continues to release videos every Monday on his YouTube channel, and he also makes frequent appearances on popular Mexican television shows.

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