Reader Carl Noggle sends in this plea. E-mail [email protected] for more info.

Two statues are missing from traffic circles in the Samos neighborhood. They disappeared a few months ago. They represent a lot of work by the artist and were loved by the residents of Samos. The circles are at Highland and Spring streets, and at Warren and Water. No questions asked—we just want them back.

Here are pix of the two statues.

• Adding in Trees

I recently interviewed Dale Strong, a local artist who uses iced-tea spoons to paint instead of brushes or palette knives. Read it here.

He teaches inexperienced students how to paint landscapes using his method. On a recent Saturday afternoon, I paid for a class and accepted Dale's challenge to paint a picture. I have never painted before.

• Adding Water and Rocks

In a period of about four hours, Dale and I created a landscape scene of Cottonwood Creek at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. I have to give credit to him, as he touched up my goofs and painted the bridge, for the sake of expediency.

I learned about persepective, composition and balance and was taught to look at things with greater awareness. The sky is not just blue, nor are trees all the same hue. Proper shading is important; you wouldn't put shade on both sides of a tree trunk, as the sun is only on one side.

• Completion

With a very encouraging demeanor and non-intimidating style, Dale is the art teacher you wish you had in school. He made jokes, kept it light and was very complimentary. Had he taught me in grade-school art class, I wouldn't have missed a day.

For more information, visit www.artistdalestrong.com

Longtime TW readers may recall "Staggering Heights," a ongoing comic strip by Joe Forkan, whose work also graced many a cover for TW through the 1990s.

Joe is now an associate professor of art at California State Fullerton. Check out some of his latest work here.

He's also posting those old strips on his Staggering Heights blog, along with commentary. One great story he tells:

I met Charles Schulz once. I was in my early twenties, and I was drawing comic strips and editorial cartoons for a bunch of college papers at the time. I heard that Schulz was in Tucson, where I lived, filming a live-action sequence for some Peanuts special at the local skating rink. Well, when I was a kid I loved the strip, as did anyone my age. He did artwork for the Apollo 10 moon landing, for god’s sake. Snoopy was everywhere, and Christmas and Halloween weren’t the same if you missed the Peanuts specials when they aired. So the strip was a bit of a touchstone for me, and Schulz was certainly the most successful cartoonist imaginable.

Well, being an industrious young man, I decided it would be a good idea to head right down to the skating rink and show him my cartoons, thinking of course, that he would

I had the pleasure of interviewing famed ballet dancer George Zoritch in his Tucson home in August 2008. My piece on the native Russian appeared on Dance Magazine's online site in February 2009.

Zoritch, who died Nov. 1 at St. Mary's Hospital, will be memorialized at a service at the UA Ina Gittings Building, at 2 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 6; call 743-7976 for more information.

Here's that Dance Magazine piece.

When 19-year-old George Zoritch first leaped out onto a London stage in 1936 with the Ballets Russes, dancing the poet in Massine’s Jardin Public, a breathless critic declared, “At last the company has found its pure classical dancer.”

Zoritch had a barrel chest, perfect lines and a face so dazzling that one of his partners, Maria Tallchief, called him the “most handsome man I’ve seen in my life.” His bravura grands jetés, beautiful port de bras, and engaging personality made him stand out in an age of strong male dancers. Critic Walter Terry declared that Zoritch embodied the “real spirit of the rose” in Fokine’s Spectre de la Rose. He was “poetic” in Fokine’s Les Sylphides, another wrote; in what became his signature role, the Faun in Nijinsky’s L’Après-Midi d’un Faune, he danced “with exquisite grace.”

He danced with nearly all the reincarnations of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes: Nijinska’s short lived Ballet Russe de Paris, Col. de Basil’s Ballets Russes, and Serge Denham’s Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. (He is featured in the Ballets Russes documentary; see www.balletsrussesmovie.com.) After working in Hollywood during World War II, he returned to Europe to dance again with Denham’s group and with the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas.

Now 91, the grizzle-haired Zoritch lives in Tucson. “Russian dancers dance from the soul,” he declares in English still tinged by his native Russian. “Dance should live. If it doesn’t come from the heart it is not dancing.” And by dance, he means ballet, “not modern,” he says with a wicked grin. “Anyone who’s not lying in bed can do Agnes de Mille.”

He was born Yuri Zoritch in Moscow in 1917, the year the Russian Revolution erupted. When his parents’ marriage broke up, his mother moved her two small boys to Kovna, Lithuania. After she took Yuri to see Coppélia, “I became intolerable, hopping around, menacing the furniture,” he remembers. So his mother hauled him to the ballet studio of Pavel Petroff, who had danced at the Maryinsky.

“I was lazy. I hated it. I didn’t want to dance. But in Europe mothers had the upper hand.” He pauses. “I owe everything to my mother.”

When Yuri was 13, the Zoritches moved to Paris, where he studied with Olga Preobrajenska, the luminary who taught Anna Pavlova among other greats. After just four years in her studio, at 17, he started dancing professionally, first with the Ida Rubinstein troupe in Paris, and then with the succession of post-Diaghilev troupes.

“I never saw Nijinksy or Pavlova,” he laments, but he danced for the great Russian choreographers who carried on their tradition: Michel Fokine, Bronislava Nijinksa, and Léonide Massine, who created 18 ballets on him. He calls Massine the “greatest choreographer I have ever known.”

He danced with all three of Balanchine’s “baby ballerinas” of the Ballets Russes, also trained by Preobrajenska: Tatiana Riabouchinska, Irina Baronova, and Tamara Toumanova. But his favorite partner was a Frenchwoman, Yvette Chauviré. “She was wonderful to dance with. She was such a great artist. She allowed you to have a ‘conversation’ with her.”

He put in years of grueling travel, to Asia, Australia, North and South America. On one Monte Carlo tour the troupe performed in 120 North American cities in six months, many of them one-night stands. “We traveled in sleeper cars—one for the dancers, one for the musicians, one for the stagehands.” But the tours introduced classical Russian dance to new audiences, he says with pride, and revitalized ballet around the world. “From Podunk to L.A. to New York and Winnipeg, the crowds would come. They’d be cheering.”

Zoritch eventually opened a school in Los Angeles, but in 1973 he leaped at an offer to start a ballet program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He retired in 1987 after 14 years.

Nowadays, he gets around his townhouse in a wheeled office chair, enjoying the view of the lush desert and mountains. And he keeps moving. Every morning at 7:30 he exercises in bed. “I lift one leg, then the other leg. Then I stretch them sideways.” Ever the dancer, he demonstrates, moving his limbs with grace and precision. He holds out his arms in an elegant gesture, then grins. “I was always praised for my arms,” he says.

Due to an illness, Beowulf Alley Late Night Theatre group has cancelled performances of Athene. They were to take place on Friday, Oct. 23 through Sunday, Oct. 25. Call 882-0555 or visit www.beowulfalley.org for more information.

Antigone Books hosts a benefit for Owl and Panther on Friday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m. Five authors of young adult works will read at one of our favorite independent book shops at 411 N. 4th Avenue:

Robin Brande will read from Fat Cat (Knopf, $16.99), a funny, thoughtful novel that explores how girls feel about their bodies, and the ways they can take care of their most precious resource: themselves.

Juanita Havill will read from Grow: A Novel in Verse (Peachtree, $14.95). This novel, written from the perspective of 12-year old Kate, shows how an inner-city community garden brings neighbors together.

Marge Pellegrino will read from Journey of Dreams (F. Lincoln, $15.95). A modern-day Underground Railroad during conflict in Guatemala forms the center of this wonderful and stirring novel told from the viewpoint of a 13-year-old Mayan girl.

Janni Lee Simner will read from her novel, Bones of Faerie (Random House, $16.99). The war between humanity and Faerie has devastated both sides. When 15-year-old Liza discovers she has the Faerie ability to see into the past and future, she finds what may be the key to healing both worlds.

Jennifer J. Stewart will read from her novel, Close Encounters of a Third-World Kind (Holiday House, $6.95). When 12-year old Annie's father announces that the family will be spending the next two months in Nepal on a medical mission, Annie’s not so sure about this adventure. But when she meets Nirmala, a girl close to her own age, the real adventure begins.

Besides listening to great authors with or without your kids, 20 percent of sales from the evening go to a local organization Owl and Panther, a group that helps those affected by trauma through creative writing and counseling. Owl & Panther also works to treat trauma associated with torture, dislocation, refugee status, or family problems. The group sounds amazing. Check them out at http://www.owlandpanther.org/aboutus.php

For those of you who are wondering what all the fuss is about regarding "Big Dick No. 1," here's a full-color look at the piece in question, courtesy of artist Jaime Scholnick.

Batucaxé Afro-Brazilian drum and dance ensemble is searching for original artwork for the cover of their upcoming CD.

Submit a medium to high-resolution jpeg (smaller than 5MB) to [email protected] OR send a CD with the artwork to: Batucaxe Art Contest, 3321 E. 25th St. Tucson AZ 85713 OR send a hard copy of non-digital artwork to the address above OR e-mail [email protected] to make other arrangements.

Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of work. Deadline for submissions is Friday, Oct. 16.

The winner receives membership in Batucaxé, a $420 value, which includes drum/dance lessons, workshops, Culture Night events and more.

Visit www.batucaxe.org to learn more about the ensemble.

The Robot Exchange, now in its sixth year, will take place beginning at 7 p.m., Friday, Sept. 11, at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. What's the Robot Exchange? It's a free art party that evolves into a dance party as the evening progresses. Robots of various shapes, sizes and forms will be on display.

The organizers are still looking for robots. Per the press release, "Whether you build, weld, sew, paint, sculpt, find, whittle, or draw a robot, we want to exhibit it."

Musical acts will be: Mean Beans, DJ Illete, Switchblade Parade, E-Rupt, Hometown Herm, Flagrante Delicto, Mr. Free and the Satellite Freakout, Dewtron, Shaun Harris and Matt McCoy. Cheese and crackers will be served.

If you want to submit art, e-mail Janessa at [email protected] by Tuesday, Sept. 8.