• Jim Nintzel

Howe Gelb brought a new version of Giant Sand—featuring Thøger T. Lund, Gabrielle Sullivan and Winston Watson—to the New West Records party on Thursday, March 19. Giant Sand celebrates its 30th birthday with the release of Heartbreak Pass on May 5.

Here's "Transponder" from the album.

• By Jim Nintzel

Germany's Milky Chance performs at the Radio Day Stage at Austin's SXSW festival.

• By Jim Nintzel

Another day in the world's largest all-you-can-hear audio buffet: Frank Turner performs a solo act at the SXSW Flood party.

• Jim Nintzel

With the fire marshals keeping a tight lid on the door, the crowd was thick at Clive Bar for Future Islands' performance on Tuesday, March 17.

Ten Fifty-Five's collaboration saison with Agustin Kitchen is now at Tap & Bottle.

A photo posted by Tucson Weekly (@tucsonweekly) on Feb 20, 2015 at 12:09pm PST

National adjunct walkout day at the University of Arizona.

A photo posted by Tucson Weekly (@tucsonweekly) on Feb 25, 2015 at 11:22am PST

Bandito Blanco at 5 Points Market.

A photo posted by Tucson Weekly (@tucsonweekly) on Feb 12, 2015 at 10:31am PST

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Phil Plait at Slate's Bad Astronomy blog highlights a recent photo captured by the UA's HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

On Earth, you don’t usually get craters this size; our atmosphere slows and stops smaller rocks from space. The air on Mars is less than 1 percent the thickness of ours at the surface, so smaller rocks get through.

The impactor apparently came in from the west (left). It dug a hole big enough to excavate material under the surface, which appears much darker. You can see the characteristic splatter pattern of chunks thrown out, dripping debris down in long plumes, too. This is pretty amazing; we don’t usually see this so cleanly in new craters!

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Tucson wasn't the only place that had a nice, white frosting in recent days. The UA's HiRISE camera, aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, snapped this gorgeous photo of the frost melting in a Martian gully a few weeks ago. HiRISE researchers note: "At this time of year only south-facing slopes retain the frost, while the north-facing slopes have melted. Gullies are not the only active geologic process going on here. A small crater is visible at the bottom of the slope.

More from HiRISE here.

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

The UA's HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter got a great snapshot of comet Siding Spring as it passed by Mars over the weekend. HiRISE mastermind Alfred McEwen explains what you're seeing in the above image:

Oort Cloud comet Siding Spring made its closest pass to Mars and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on Sunday, 19 October 2014. The highest-resolution images were acquired by HiRISE at the minimum distance of 138,000 kilometers. The image has a scale of 138 meters per pixel.

Telescopic observers modeled the size of the nucleus as about 1 kilometer wide. However, the best HiRISE images show only 2-3 pixels across the brightest feature, suggesting a size smaller than 0.5 kilometers for this nucleus, the first ever imaged for a long-period comet.

This composite image shows two of the best HiRISE images of the comet. Shown at top are images with the full dynamic range, showing the nucleus and bright coma near the nucleus. Shown at bottom are versions where the fainter outer coma is brightened, saturating the inner region.

These closest-approach images were made possible due to very precise pointing and slewing of the MRO spacecraft by engineers at Lockheed-Martin in Denver, based on comet position calculations by engineers at JPL. HiRISE acquired three images 12 days before closest approach, when the comet was barely detectable above the “noise level” of the images. These early images showed the comet was not quite at its predicted location! This new viewing angle on the comet was used to update its predicted location and timing at closest approach. Without this update, the comet may have been outside the HiRISE image area in the best images.

"I told Linda Ronstadt I had a crush on her back in the day." How many music fans over the years have wanted to tell Tucson's favorite daughter these words in person? When you're the leader of the free world, you can make these kind of things happen.

This whispered admission occurred last night during an awards ceremony as singer Linda Ronstadt received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama. The White House was recognizing her "one-of-a-kind voice and her decades of remarkable music. Drawing from a broad range of influences, Ms. Ronstadt defied expectations to conquer American radio waves and help pave the way for generations of women artists."

NPR Radio talk show host Diane Rehm was there as well, having received the same award in 2013, and got an additional thanks from President Obama for interviewing him as a young, struggling writer. Today, Ronstadt was on The Diane Rehm Show in a rare interview, and the first discussing her book, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, which will be out on paperback in September.

During Rehm's in-depth interview, a good-humored and relaxed Ronstadt discussed those many musical influences, and how her artistic choices were a reflection of her upbringing in Tucson. Ronstadt continually persevered in a mind-bogglingly diverse forty-plus-year career that saw the pop artist conquering the genres of country, rock, jazz, big band and mariachi. While taking questions from Rehm's audience, Ronstadt covered many topics from Simple Dreams, including her childhood growing up in such a naturally musical family; strict piano-teaching Catholic nuns; hard times in The Stone Poneys; and enjoying her first hit song, 1967's "Different Drum."

Ronstadt also touches on Arizona politics, the Mexico border, and coming to grips with the realization that her voice was rapidly deteriorating following her Parkinson's disease diagnosis. Particularly touching is her sharing the sadness of not being able to sing harmony with her nephews here in Tucson, some of whom perform solo ("Mikey", ) or as part of Ronstadt Generations. Life with Ronstadt's adopted daughters, a subject she rarely addresses, is also discussed.

Listen to the complete interview here: Linda Ronstadt on The Diane Rhem Show (07/29/2014)