Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Flying Leap Wine Tasting. Hotel McCoy is hosting Flying Leap Vineyards & Distillery for a tasting and winemaking seminar. Here, you’ll get to taste the wine from a small farm, growing 18 different wine grape varietals just south of Tucson. 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. 720 W. Silverlake Road. Details here.
Whiskey Wednesday. Reforma Modern Mexican and Union Public House are opening up their expansive whiskey collection, at a discounted price! They are offering Mexican food and half off all the whiskey in their collection. Rumor around town is it’s the largest whiskey collection in all of Tucson! 11 a.m. to closing on Wednesday, Feb. 6. 4340 N. Campbell Ave., suite 103. Details here.
60th Tubac Festival of the Arts. Holy moly! The longest-running outdoor art festival in Southern Arizona has been going for 60 years! They’re celebrating with more than 200 participating artists and more than 100 art galleries at this year’s event on the sweet streets of Tubac, the perfect setting to wander around in for hours to enjoy the unique merchants and to enjoy a beer or two at their signature beer garden and a snack from a local vendor. Entertainment includes Nashville singer-songwriter Cary Stone and Nashville transplant Tige Reeve performing a blend of classic country, rock and original material. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6 through Sunday, Feb. 10. Tubac, AZ. $8 fee per vehicle comes with a $5 gift certificate redeemable at more than 50 of Tubac’s permanent shops and galleries. Details here.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? I consider myself quite a wrathful person. One time I came home in a bad mood, ripped all of the spoons out of my kitchen drawer, and threw them back into that same kitchen drawer, clang after spoony clang, until my rage was abated. And this documentary on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood still managed to reduce me to a teary, blubbering fool multiple times in a single sitting. What more is there to say about Fred Rogers? It’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood. 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6. The Loft Cinema. 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Regular admission prices. Details here.
Events compiled by Briannon Wilfong, Emily Dieckman, B.S. Eliot and Jeff Gardner.
Tags: things to do , fun in general , Tucson events , wine , whiskey , tour , art , entertainment , Wednesday , Image , Video
Unleashing her soulful voice and interpretative talents upon The Bards celebrated oeuvre. Joan Osborne sings the Songs of Bob Dylan. At The Fox Theatre. Details here.
They began as a one-man band serenading 20-something university co-ed partiers on the streets of Miami, Magic City Hippies bring their indie-funk-dusted, oven-baked hip hop/soul to The Rock. With the electro indie-pop of Future Generations. Details here.
Sound, visuals and dance combine. Obsidian features Skynia, AWN and ΣΕΘ at Solar Culture. DJs Toby Roberts and Justin Silva spin underground EDM. Details here.
Pedro y Los Liricos play cumbias, rancheras and baladas to benefit La Tierra del Jaguar farm and school. A project working to help save the jaguar and the human in the region of Sahuaripa, Sonora, Mexico. Details here.
Tags: music , where to rock , Wednesday , live , concert , show , Image
Tuesday, February 5, 2019
One Tucson company is celebrating the 2019 Girl Scouts cookie season with a big promise: They will buy cookies from every girl who visits them this Thursday, Feb. 7.
For the fourth year in a row, Trusting Connections nanny agency and sitter service co-founders Rosalind Prather and Caroline Wesnitzer are vowing to purchase cookies from every scout that visits between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. while they set up shop at the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona headquarters (4300 E. Broadway Blvd.)
The cookie sales don't just help fund Girl Scout programming. Young women also learn entrepreneurial skills and self confidence.
From the Girl Scouts website: “It's about the experience of running her very own cookie sale, working with others, and building a lifetime of confidence as she learns five skills (goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics) essential to leadership, success, and life.”
In the spirit of the programs’ educational goals, girls will be asked to give either individual or group sales pitches to Prather and Wesnitzer. The scouts will then draw from a jar with notes indicating how many boxes the company will purchase—between one and 25.
Signs, posters and other sales props are welcomed.
Tags: girl scouts , cookies , support , sales , cookie sales , Trusting Connections , sales pitch , Image
SB 1394, a bill intended to bring more oversight and regulation to charter schools, hasn't gone anywhere yet. Like lots of other bills, it's waiting to be considered, amended or ignored to death.
The bill has some good stuff in it, but it also has a loophole big enough to drive an eighteen wheeler through packed tight with all the state's Charter Management Organizations. That means lots of charter schools, including the entire BASIS chain, won't be bound by the new regulations.
There are charter schools, and then there are Charter Management Organizations.
Everyone knows about charter schools. They're buildings filled with teachers and students, just like other schools. (Online charters are the exception, where students work at home sitting in front of their computers [or that's the plan anyway. Whether they're actually sitting and working is another matter]). Like school districts, charters are supported by taxpayer dollars, but with fewer regulations and restrictions.
But not everyone knows about Charter Management Organizations. CMOs work with one or more charters. In some cases, they're outside management companies hired by the schools to take care of things like administrative and accounting duties. In other cases, the CMOs run the whole shebang. They're like school districts in charge of their schools, overseeing everything from curriculum to purchasing to the hiring and firing of administrators and teachers.
Not all charters use CMOs, but lots do, including well known Arizona-based charter chains like BASIS and Great Hearts. Arizona also has charters that belong to national chains, like Imagine Schools with 12 Arizona campuses and online schools like Arizona Virtual Academy, which is part of the publicly traded corporation, K12 Inc.
Charters with CMOs get money from the state based on how many students are enrolled just like everyone else, but they send a portion of their money upstairs to the CMO, where it disappears from sight. In the case of the charter chains I mentioned above, the schools send nearly everything upstairs.
Tags: SB 1394 , Charter schools , Charter Management Organizations , education , schools , K12 , legislation , Image
In what amounted to a kind of #MAGA field trip, former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach, former Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, baseball legend Curt Schilling, and former Sheriff David Clarke convened to discuss a new plan for building a wall along the southern U.S. border. Blackwater founder Erik Prince phoned in from South Africa.
With Congress refusing to pony up the $5.7 billion Trump has demanded for the project, his allies now are plotting to kick things off with private money and private land.
The idea, which began in December as a Florida man’s quixotic online crowdfunding campaign, is becoming something more, well, concrete. Big name Trump supporters like Bannon, a former Trump campaign and White House strategist, have flocked to the project. And they have initiated talks with the Israeli firm that constructed that country’s border fence with Gaza, the group told POLITICO. They expect to hold a town hall in Tucson, Arizona, as soon as Friday and to visit the border in Laredo, Texas, next week.
Tags: Trump , Politico , politics , visit , trip , border wall , Bannon , Tucson , Friday , Image
The release from Team Dorman:
Local businesswoman and Chairwoman of the Downtown Tucson Partnership, Randi Dorman will be holding an event for the public to announce and celebrate her campaign for Mayor of Tucson.
“I’m Randi Dorman, I’m a mom, I’m a businesswoman, I’m the Chairwoman of the Downtown Tucson Partnership and I am pleased to announce I am running to be the next Mayor of Tucson.
Nearly two decades ago I made the life-changing decision to leave a successful career in New York City to join my husband in downtown Tucson. I fell in love with the natural beauty, the culture and especially the people of Tucson and knew that this was the right place to settle and start a family.
In 2002 we and our partners found an old ice factory on the edge of downtown and converted it into Tucson’s first residential loft development. People told us we were crazy, that no one would live downtown. But we could see it so clearly.
And at the end, we saw our vision become reality - giving a piece of Tucson’s rich history new life for the next generation. That philosophy has guided me in everything I’ve done in business, downtown and the arts.
Just like our vision for the ice factory, we must work together to create a vision for Tucson. A vision that includes jobs that provide Tucsonans with the opportunities we all need; that encourages our children to stay and raise their families, that empowers small businesses to grow and new businesses to come here so that we can build the vibrant, thriving economy we deserve and a better quality of life.
It won’t be easy. Nothing worth doing ever is. But “good enough” is no longer good enough.
It’s time we create a vision for what Tucson can be for the next 20 years and beyond. Let’s do it together.”
Tags: news , politics , Mayoral race , Randi Dorman , Tucson Mayor , elections , announcement , Image
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Something Rotten! “Welcome to the Renaissance!” says the minstrel at the beginning of this show, which takes place—you guessed it—during the Renaissance. Nick and Nigel Bottom are brothers running a largely unsuccessful theatre troupe, probably because they’re literally competing against Shakespeare. Desperate to make a splash, Nick goes to a see a fortune teller, who tells him that the next big thing in theater will be something called “A Musical,” in which “an actor is saying his lines, and out of nowhere he just starts singing.” Ridiculous, right? Watch Nick and Nigel set off to write the world’s very first musical, and laugh out loud the whole way through. Tuesday, Feb. 5 through Sunday, Feb. 10, with shows at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. UA Centennial Hall. Students get $10 off, and seniors and military get $5 off. $19 to $120+. Details here.
Ana Mendieta: Fuego De Tierra. The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block and Center for Creative Photography are screening this 1987 film, highlighting the life and work of Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta. Working in the mediums of photography, video, sculpture and environmental art, known as “earth-body” art. A talk by members of the Tucson Museum of Art and Center for Creative Photography will be held prior to the screening. 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5. 140 N. Main Ave. Free. Details here.
Events compiled by Briannon Wilfong, Emily Dieckman, B.S. Eliot and Jeff Gardner.
Tags: things to do , Tucson events , Tuesday , Feb. 5 , fun , events , fun in general , theater , dance , film , cinema , movies , Image
Out on the Mi Vida Loca Tour, Slug and Ant, otherwise known as Atmosphere, rain a mighty dose of hip-hop down at The Rialto Theater. Backed by Dem Atlas, The Lioness and DJ Keezy. Details here.
The lizard flavored roots and rhythms of BTP & Friends fill the air at Royal Sun. Details here.
“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” Two husband and wife indie folk rock bands, Flagship Romance and Moody Little Sister spread love at Monterey Court. Details here.
Tags: music , where to rock , live show , concert , musicians , Tuesday , Tucson , Image
Monday, February 4, 2019
- Silver, 3 year old Male Cat
Visit Silver at HSSA Main Campus at 635 W. Roger Rd. or call 520-327-6088, ext. 173.
Tags: pets , cat , Silver , HSSA , Humane Society , new best friend , male cat , adopt , Image
