Tonight's the big night, as the Spring edition of Club Crawl takes over downtown and Fourth Avenue, with 25 stages of live music. If you don't have your wristband yet, you'll be able to pick one up for $10 at the gate, or upgrade to a VIP pass for $25 (which will give you your own entrance and a special tent with its own bar and restrooms next to the Bud Light Stage).

Despite the inconvenience of the streetcar construction on Congress, there will still be plenty of parking, plenty of music, and minimal inconvenience. For more information, see our Club Crawl FAQ page.

Need information on the bands playing? Check out the schedule.

Want to get something to eat before, after or during the Crawl? We have a guide for that, too.

Also we have a story about Chali 2na, one of the headliners, who you might remember from Jurassic 5 or Ozomatli, and a wrap-up of the acts coming in from out of town.

For up-to-the-minute info during the festival, check us out on Twitter, or get into the conversation by using the hashtag #clubcrawl. See you downtown!

From Saturday, April 21, through Sunday, April 29, all 397 of our national parks offer free admission. Here are national park sites in our area:

Saguaro National Park: website
Tumacácori National Historic Park: website
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument: website
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument: website
Coronado National Memorial: website
Chiricahua National Monument: website
Fort Bowie National Historic Site: website

Visit National Park Service or Arizona State Parks for more information. Support the parks!

It's looking a little bit like summer in the Old Pueblo. The a/c and swamp coolers are on, and temps are approaching three-digits. To cool off, Loews Ventana Canyon (7000 N. Resort Drive) is opening its pool to us locals every third Sunday of the month through September.

The fun starts on Sunday, April 22, from 2 to 6 p.m. The "Crash the Pool" event offers drink specials, promotions and live music. To crash the pool, there's a $25 food and beverage minimum. After this weekend, the next Crash the Pool takes place on May 20.

• Katharine Goeldner and Rebecca Sjowall

In its 41-year history, Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice has not been presented by Arizona Opera—until now. Orfeo ed Euridice is an Italian opera "based on the classic myth of a Greek hero's descent into the underworld to rescue his true love." Mezzo-soprano Katharine Goeldner performs the role of Orfeo and soprano Christine Brandes performs as Euridice. Performances are at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 21, and 2 p.m., Sunday, April 22, at Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.

Arizona Opera is also offering a 40 percent discount on tickets:

To receive this special discount, ticket-buyers are asked to enter promotion code FORTY when placing their order online via Ticketmaster (here) or via telephone at 800-982-ARTS (2787).

(Please note that discount may not be applied to previously purchased tickets and cannot be used with any other discount or promotion. Offer subject to availability. No refunds or exchanges will be allowed for this promotion.)

This is a huge savings for Tucson buyers: That's $68 for a chance at the best seat in the house, or $12 for a seat in the balcony.

For more information about the opera, visit http://azopera.blogspot.com/.

On Easter, the Range ran a meditation from Tucson musician Ricky Gelb that received a great response — 198 Facebook "likes" thus far. Gelb shared with the Range that starting Sunday, April 29, he'll be doing two guided meditations a week at Three Jewels, 314 E. 6th St.

"Starting Sunday April 29, 8 am, I will be doing guided meditation for folks in recovery. The meditations will be based around the 11th Step - 'Improving our conscious contact with God (of your understanding or non-understanding) through prayer and meditation,'" Gelb told us.

"Starting May 1st 7:15 pm I will be doing candlelit guided meditation for the general public to help make the work week more enjoyable, based around relaxation, being in the moment and gratitude, to help folks get out of compulsive spun thinking and into authentic centered being."

Like what Gelb is doing? You can check in with him on Facebook at Meditain Love or on his website, Meditaining.com.

And here's some more of that Meditain Love a la Gelb:

We are the children of the children of the beginning

In the beginning, there were two entities that arose from nothingness and unknowing. Nothingness morphed into stillness and unknowing morphed into love. And they began to dance throughout eternity and their passion created energy. Which spawned matter that we call planets. This is the story of the Earth & The Sun. The Sun, a son of eternal passion, fell endlessly in love with The Earth, the daughter of love and the first mother we know. The Sun, still and dormant set itself on fire out of passion and in a fatherly style out of care and devotion for the Earth and her future. His love for the Earth is so strong, he will burn beyond knowing. The rays of the sun procreated life on The Earth and he was fulfilled, as he inherently knew what an amazing mother The Earth will be.

The Moon, who subdued all but it's eye, couldn't stop observing The Earth & The Sun. Their romantic power awoke the internal emotive passion of lunar love in The Moon. He gravitated to the magnetism between The Earth & The Sun and he found inner peace. He devoted himself from that day forward to act as a reflection of such love and beam it into the heart of all future life.

So in every human heart is a universe of love.
As we are the children of the children of the beginning whose dance is endless before and beyond matter.
As we are all inseparable from the greatest mystery known as God.

~ricky gelb

Catch the "Coppola Restoration" of The Godfather Part 2 tonight at 7 p.m. at El Con 20 (3601 E. Broadway Blvd.) and Park Place 20 (5870 E. Broadway Blvd.). Here's more information from a press release:

Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), a leading motion picture exhibitor, is following up the successful presentation of the Francis Ford Coppola’s restored version of his Academy Award®-winning “The Godfather,” with an exclusive, one-night only XD presentation of “The Godfather Part 2” on Thursday, April 19, 2012. The “Coppola Restoration” of the film, presented by Paramount Pictures, was meticulously restored using 5.1 digital surround sound and re-mastered using state-of-the-art technology, all under the watchful eyes of director Francis Ford Coppola, archivist Robert Harris and cinematographer Gordon Willis.

The brilliant companion piece to “The Godfather” continues the saga of two generations of successive power within the Corleone Family from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola based on Mario Puzo’s novel. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, “The Godfather Part 2” tells two important stories: the roots and rise of a young Don Vito, played with uncanny ability by Robert De Niro, and the ascension of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the talents who made “The Godfather”, Coppola produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision, and undeniably the best sequel ever made. Robert De Niro won an Oscar, and the film received six Academy Awards ®, including Best Picture in 1974. The film has been rated R by the MPAA.

The Coppola Restoration of “The Godfather Part 2” 40th Anniversary Edition as a project began in 2006 between Paramount Pictures and the director. Archivist Robert Harris joined the project, followed by the original cinematographer of the film Gordon Willis, to complete the team who worked arduously on the film for over a year going through the original prints, re-release prints, and negatives, shot by shot, foot by foot, frame by frame and even sprocket hole by sprocket hole.

As part of the Sonoran Science Academy, Team CRUSH 1011 builds award-winning robots, this year building a basketball-playing machine using vision-tracking cameras and other things I don't understand. On April 7, the team won the second-highest award at the Las Vegas regional, allowing them to compete at the national competition later this month. However, there's a catch, since the team only has $5000 left in their budget and getting a team of high schoolers to St. Louis will cost around $20,000 which they need pronto.

The team is looking for sponsors, donations, etc., so if you can help out, email Fiona Hanlan (who has far more drive than I did as a high schooler for sure) at [email protected]. I'm sure she'd appreciate any help anyone could provide, even if the advancement of robotic technology will certainly lead to our future enslavement or doom.

For more information on the team and their activities, visit their website.

Arizona Daily Star cartoonist Dave Fitzsimmons and comedian Robert Mac are headlining a Free Speech Benefit on behalf of Access Tucson, the plucky public-access TV station that's dedicated to helping Tucsonans get themselves on TV.

Access Tucson has seen its funding slashed in recent years and has had to do some major cutbacks in the services that it provides, including video training and TV studios for members. (Back in February, Access Tucson was kind enough to host a pair of presidential debates for Project White House, for example.)

The Free Speech gala next Wednesday, April 18, promises to be a whole lot of fun. Besides Fitz and Mac, you'll be able to enjoy a lovely dinner at Café a la C'Art in the Tucson Museum of Art courtyard and bid on a silent auction.

Good times for a good cause. Details here.

Rachael Ray and the ASPCA are giving away a hundred thousand dollars as part of some sort of populist voting thing, the rules of which are quite confusing to me (apparently there are stages and regions involved), but the Humane Society of Southern Arizona are involved and I'm sure they could use the money, so I'll be voting daily until they make me stop. It feels a little weird to say that one animal shelter should get funded instead of another, but on the other hand, go Tucson!

The last time Weekly World Central talked to Ricky Gelb, it wasn't about being Tucson musician Howe Gelb's brother, but about his own music career and starting a business.

Gelb was the frontman for the band Low Max from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and during his career, he's recorded with the late Vic Chesnutt; Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde; and Isobel Campbell of Belle and Sebastian.

In our last interview, Gelb touched briefly on a time in his life when he turned to spirituality and meditation to help him break from addiction. Today, Gelb is refocusing on what he learned studying transcendental meditation and he wants to work with others as a meditation guide, teaching silent mantra meditation "to help people deeply relax" and ease anxiety. Gelb told The Range this form of meditation is perfect for people in recovery and others who need help "developing self worth."

Gelb asked the Range if we could share some of his meditations, beginning with this one for the Easter holiday.

Want more? visit meditaining.com or e-mail Ricky at [email protected]. He's still in the airport transportation business, and you can always listen to his music at www.reverbnation.com/rickygelb. At the end of this post we put up a video of a recording of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah Gelb did on KXCI with Tucson musician Leila Lopez.

Jesus, Buddha & Self Realization:

Disciples asked Jesus: "Tell us what our end will be" Jesus said: If you havent found the beginning why ask about the end? For where the beginning is, the end is also. Blessed are those who stand at the beginning, for they will know the end, and they will not taste death.

The sages, yogis & spiritually awakened have been telling us this in their own words for thousands of years. Go within and find the light (meaning awareness). Find the still bliss and quell the mind and in transcendence you will come to know unknowing.

An anonymous christian monk in the 1400's wrote about the cloud of unknowing and contemplative prayer came from this. Where you would have a cloud of forgetfulness below you and a cloud of unknowing above to unite with the creator. Focus on the I AM God within the soul, the fragment of God within and the essence of life.

As the Buddha said, do not believe what anyone tells you, even me, go within and find the truth, it will get revealed, more will be revealed in the stillness.