DOWNTOWN / UNIVERSITY / 4TH AVE

Films May 2014

April 28, 2014 | Marisa Bernal

Cinema La Placita
La Placita Village, 110 S. Church Ave. Thursdays at 7:30pm, $3 suggested donation. CinemaLaPlacita.com

A screening of “The Thin Man” kicks off Cinema La Placita’s 15th Season on Thursday, May 8.

Thu 8: The Thin Man (1934) Starring William Powell and Myrna Loy. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke.
Thu 15: The Philadelphia Story (1940) Starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart. Directed by George Cukor.
Thu 22: Charade (1963) Starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, James Cobern, George Kennedy and . Directed by Stanley Donen.
Thu 29: His Girl Friday (1940) starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Directed by Howard Hawks.

Exploded View Microcinema
197 E. Toole Ave. 366-1573, ExplodedViewGallery.org
See website for details.

The Loft Cinema
3233 E. Speedway Blvd. 795-7777 (show times recording), 322-LOFT. LoftCinema.com

“Butter” screens at The Loft Cinema on Sun, May 18.
Photo courtesy of GorgView.com

Thu 1: The Wicker Man
Fri 2: Hot Fuzz, First Friday Shorts: The Golden Gongs Year-End Showdown, Blue Rain
Sat 3: Step Up, Speak Out, End Bullying: PSA Showcase and Awards Event, Who is Dayani Cristal?
Sun 4: Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre
Wed 7: The Final Member, Earthlight
Thu 8: La Strada
Fri 9: Stage Fright, Anita: Speaking Truth To Power, Hateship Loveship, Finding Vivian Maier
Sat 10: The Found Footage Festival Vol. 7, Standardized
Tue 13: Super Duper Alice Cooper
Thu 15: Nights of Cabiria
Fri 16: Locke, Short Peace,
Sat 17: 8 1/2, King Lear
Sun 18: Butter
Wed 21: The Missing Picture
Thu 22: Fellini Satyricon
Sat 24: Amarcord
Thu 29: Ginger and Fred
Sat 31: La Doce Vita

Pima County Public Libraries
594-5500, Library.Pima.Gov
Thu 8: The New Black (Oro Valley)

Sea of Glass Center for The Arts
330 E. 7th St. 398-2542, SeaOfGlass.org
Fri 2: Beyond Right and Wrong
Fri 9: Gasland Part II
Fri 23: The Hidden Enemy: Inside Psychiatry’s Covert Agenda
Fri 30: Edgar Cayce: The Beautiful Dreamer

¡Es Tiempo para una Fiesta Grande!

April 24, 2014 | Press Release

12th Annual Fiesta Grande

Get out your dancing boots and get ready for Fiesta Grande, Barrio Hollywood’s annual street fair! Start Saturday out
with a parade and then enjoy more than 16 musical and dance groups, including the great tejano sounds of Hollywood Knights, Conjunto Fear and Mariachi Tesoro. Over a hundred vendors will line Grande Avenue for your shopping & eating pleasures along with a carnival rides for your children. This event is free!

Entertainment
APRIL 26th MAIN STAGE MUSIC
11:00-12:00pm MARIACHI MILAGRO
12:30-1:30 MATADOR
2:00-3:00 NEW GENERATION
3:30-4:30 CONJUNTO FEAR
5:00-dusk HERMANOS QUATRO

APRIL 27th MAIN STAGE MUSIC
12:00-1:00 MARIACHI TESORO
1:30-2:30 LUCKY 7
3:00-4:00 GERTIE N THE TO BOYZ
5:00-dusk HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS

Visit FiestaGrandeAZ.com for all of the details!

What is Consciousness?

April 9, 2014 | Eric Swedlund

Illustration by Pop Narkotic

The question—as fundamental and mysterious as any in the universe—intrigues an array of scientists and philosophers today as it has for centuries.

Scientists, philosophers, researchers, scholars, artists, students and humanists from around the world will convene in Tucson this month to speak, listen, discuss, debate and present their ideas on the exact nature of consciousness.

The 2014 Toward A Science of Consciousness is the 20th anniversary of the landmark conference in Tucson that kicked off a new era of studies on the subject. The conference will reflect on the two decades of progress and dilemmas, current research and includes a “who’s who” list of presenters, including spiritual author/alternative medicine/holistic health guru Deepak Chopra, M.D., and world-renowned physicist and mathematician Sir Roger Penrose.

“Consciousness was kind of banned from science for most of the 20th century,” says Dr. Stuart Hameroff, director of the UA’s Center for Consciousness Studies. “William James popularized consciousness in psychology, but the behaviorists took over psychology and what became acceptable was anything you could measure. You can’t really measure consciousness, so consciousness became a dirty word for most of the 20th century and wasn’t really a scientific consideration.”

Hameroff, Professor Emeritus in the UA Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology, says the scientific study of consciousness—after being spurned for so many years—emerged again in the late 1980s. Eminent scientists like Francis Crick, Penrose and others began seriously addressing consciousness, publishing books on the subject and giving it a renewed scientific acceptability.

At first relegated to the realms of very particular fields in inquiry, consciousness studies began crossing and combining disciplines and competing views emerged. The viewpoints closely aligned with ancient philosophical approaches, one more Western in describing consciousness as a by-product of brain activity and one more Eastern in considering consciousness a primary basis for reality.

“There are two basic camps, one is the brain as a computer and the second is that the brain connects our thoughts to the fundamental level of the universe,” Hameroff says. “Both of these views have come a long way (since the 1994 conference).”

Though consciousness began moving into the scientific mainstream, prior to 1994 there were only conferences with specific focus—for example on philosophy of mind, Hindu spiritual approaches, neuroscience or artificial intelligence.

“It wasn’t until our conference in 1994 that you saw an integrated approach,” Hameroff says. “You bring everybody together under one umbrella and try to break down these barriers. That first was very successful. It was phenomenal experience that galvanized the interdisciplinary approach.”

Planning the initial 1994 conference, Hameroff and his UA colleagues Alfred Kaszniak in psychology, the late Alwyn Scott in mathematics and then conference manager Jim Laukes, didn’t know what to expect. The Internet had just begun connecting scientists and philosophers from around the globe and suddenly those shared interests could be explored free from geographic boundaries.

Hameroff describes a then-unknown philosopher, Australian David Chalmers, setting the tone. Chalmers, an Oxford-educated philosopher then a professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, framed consciousness in just the right terms.

“He talked about how problems like memory, learning, attention and behavior were relatively easy compared to the really hard problem of how and why we have conscious experience,” Hameroff says. “We could have been non-conscious, robot-like zombies with no inner life. So how and why do we have feelings and awareness? That was the hard problem and at that moment, we knew why we were there.”

After the 1994 conference, there was great demand for a follow-up and the UA began hosting the conference every other year, helping to sponsor the off-year conferences at other sites around the world, in places such as: Naples, Italy; Tokyo, Japan; Copenhagen, Denmark; Stockholm, Sweden, among many other locales.

In 1998, with a grant from the Fetzer Institute, the UA’s Center for Consciousness Studies began, with Chalmers recruited to join the philosophy department and serve as the center’s director. Chalmers, who became the UA’s youngest-ever Regents’ Professor before returning to Australia, returns as a featured speaker for this year’s conference.

Hameroff, who continues a collaboration he began with Penrose at the 1994 conference on a well-known but controversial quantum theory of consciousness, says breakthroughs in quantum brain biology have them on the verge of catching up to the computationalists.

Illustration by Pop Narkotic

“Consciousness is a fundamental, irreducible part of the universe,” Hameroff says in describing his theory. “Rather than consciousness being a property of a particle, it’s a property of the fabric of the universe. The idea is that consciousness is intrinsic to the universe and it’s built into the universe, it’s ubiquitous, it’s everywhere and what the brain does is organize it.”

As far as the science, Hameroff says both approaches have seen great progress in the 20 years since the initial conference. Major strides in brain mapping join the advances in quantum mechanics in spurring on the competing views in their own ways and continuing to build excitement for consciousness as a field of study.

The conference—from Monday, April 21 to Saturday, April 26—is expected to draw 800 scientists, philosophers, experientialists, artists and students from more than 60 countries to the University Park Marriott Hotel, 880 E. 2nd St. Seating is limited and registration is required. In addition to the keynote, Penrose will also give a public talk on astrophysics on April 21 at the UA’s Steward Observtory, 933 N. Cherry Ave.

The conference will feature presenters on both sides of the quantum-computational divide, as well as discussions of subjectivity and objectivity, near-death and out-of-body experiences, Eastern spiritual approaches, mind uploading and a revisiting of Chalmers’ “hard problem.”

Just as the Toward a Science of Consciousness conference made its mark on the world 20 years ago, this year’s version promises to define the leading edges of consciousness studies for the next decades of breakthroughs. And, Hameroff says, the UA’s prominent role in the field continues to draw global attention.

“What the future will bring, we don’t know,” Hameroff says. “Certainly in an interdisciplinary way, the conference and our center did put the University of Arizona on the map in terms of consciousness studies around the world. Ironically, on campus we’re not all that well appreciated. But worldwide, we’re very well known.”

The conference runs from Monday, April 21 to Saturday, April 26. Registration fees are $450-$550, with additional costs for workshops and other activities. For more information, visit Consciousness.arizona.edu.

Arizona International Film Festival

April 7, 2014 | Herb Stratford

The 23^rd annual fest returns with Cine Cubano

“Harlem Street Singer” examines the contributions of blues and gospel musician Rev. Gary Davis.
photo courtesy AIFF

April in Tucson means it is time for the Arizona International Film Festival. Marking its 23^rd annual event, the granddaddy of Arizona film festivals will once again bring both films and filmmakers from around the world to Tucson from April 11 to 27 at The Screening Room, Grand Cinemas Crossroads 6 and Elliott’s On Congress.

While films from the entire world are often represented in the festival program, one particular focus of note is the Cuban film program this year, which will showcase feature length films, shorts and documentaries from the island nation that is slowly making a splash in world cinema.

The festival’s track record, having shown more than 2,200 films from 90 different countries to a total audience of over 138,000 people since it began in 1991, is definitely impressive, but equally impressive is the continued quality and diversity of films that continue to be showcased each year. This year there are films from 42 countries and there will be about 40 feature length films and 60 shorts screened.

Many film festivals are designed to bring films that might not otherwise be seen by locals in a community. That in itself is a worthy goal, exposing new, quality work to interested audiences. However, the AZIFF goes one step further, by having nearly every filmmaker whose film is being screened at their AZIFF screening. The experience of interacting with the filmmaker is well worth the price of admission, because the audience gets a much more complete experience. In fact, once you’ve seen a few films with post screening Q & A sessions, you’ll wish there was one after most films you see.

The AZIFF draws film from around the world, many of which are United States, West coast or Arizona premieres. This also adds to the fun factor when you are seeing a premiere of a film with the director present. Many high-profile directors have premiered their films at AZIFF and gone on to fame and fortune such as Christopher Nolan (Batman trilogy, Inception, Interstellar) while other filmmakers have continued to make films that are the darlings of the film festival circuit. Other AZIFF offerings have made a splash at other festivals and are brought in for screenings, which may be the only time they will be seen by Tucson audiences.

A still from “Glena.”
Image courtesy of AIFF

One documentary film of note that had its world premiere at the most recent Slamdance Film Festival in Park City is Glena. The film skillfully captures the world of a female mixed martial arts fighter and her quest to go professional at all costs. Sad and brutally honest in its depiction of personal passion, Glena is a must-see film even if you’re not a fan of cage fighting.

Other documentaries of note to watch out for include; Harlem Street Singer about a mostly forgotten ragtime, blues and American gospel singer and American Wine Story about a fledgling family winery. Also of note is the narrative feature film Hotel Congress, about a couple trying not to have an affair. This title was filmed entirely in our own Hotel Congress and on a budget of $1,000.

The Cuban film series, entitled Cine Cubano features six documentaries, four features and three short films will give viewers an inside look at contemporary Cuban life. Focusing on the conflicts due to scarcity of products, social injustice and inequality, the program promises to be an honest and sobering look at our island neighbor. Beginning with the recent high-profile film Juan of the Dead, a zombie/horror comedy, and the rise in prominence of the countries own film festival which is drawing tourists from the rest of the world every spring; Cuban films are making serious waves in the international film world.

The 23^rd annual Arizona International Film Festival takes place April 11-27 at The Screening Room, 125 E. Congress St., Grand Cinemas Crossroads 6, 4811 E. Grant Rd. and Elliott’s On Congress, 135 E. Congress St. Tickets are $6-$8 per screening and an all access pass is $100. To purchase tickets/passes and for film information visit: FilmFestivalArizona.com.

Ryanhood’s Return

April 5, 2014 | Jamie Manser

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…”
– Theodore Roosevelt

After a couple of years of lying low due to music business and touring burn out, Tucson’s power-pop duo Ryanhood released a gorgeously melodic, folksy, acoustic guitar-driven 12-track disk at the end of 2013. The two 32-year-olds, Ryan Green and Cameron Hood, have scribed lilting songs on Start Somewhere that show a Zen growth, themes that arise from experiencing deep disappointments and coming out the other side spiritually as a Phoenix rising. The album’s song Sickbed Symphony recently garnered the band recognition from the 2014 International Acoustic Music Awards as the “Best Group/Duo.”

Recorded locally at Super Pro Studios, the sound is beautifully clean and clear, wonderfully rendering the acoustic tracks that convey positive messages of hope, acceptance, change, growth, and a better understanding of life’s lessons. Highlights of those motifs are in How to Let it Go—a soaring, upbeat account of the struggle to release jealousy and fear; Sickbed Symphony—a sweet, heart-wrenching tune about facing death and finding the best in life: “don’t bother with complaint ‘cause life ain’t the way it ain’t… make your lives a song, a simple symphony, may your melodies be soft and strong… train your eyes to see all the beauty that is in-between, train your lips to make a joyful noise.”

Lifetime continues with a message of pro-active growth, “I keep on waiting on the way it could be and missing everything in front of me; don’t want to anymore. So I make a list of all the things I could do and face everything inside of me that I’m scared to lose.”

Subsequent tracks, Lover’s Lament, The Moon, and Start Somewhere encapsulate the issues we all face—living in the past, not believing in ourselves, and realizing that anything worth doing is difficult.

There are also poignant instrumentals—Red Line Reel, Dillinger Days, and Motels—plus some really tender love songs: Summer Rain, Say It So and All About You.

The album is powerfully genuine, and Ryanhood should be applauded for having the courage and sense of self to be so open-hearted in a hard, cruel world.

Ryan Green & Cameron Hood

In an email interview, Cameron and Ryan offer their insight on the album and the songs.

I love the positive themes of hope, acceptance, love, living in the moment, growth, moving on… are these themes mostly revolving around the lessons learned from trying to break into the national scene and music industry? Along with past/present romantic relationships? Family relationships?

Cameron: Absolutely. Both. I would say, for me, the biggest theme is about accepting and loving what I have now, instead of believing I’ll only be happy later, once some objective has been reached. Like, once we’re playing a certain size of theatre, or have won a certain kind of award, or once a certain number of people know who we are. Or romantically, once I’m with so and so, and we live in a certain size of house. There’s a line from the song “Lover’s Lament” that goes, “If I say I’ll be happy when/Do I keep myself unhappy ’til then? And if I don’t like this moment, how will I like the next?/ It’s probably gonna be, probably gonna feel a lot like this.” So I am learning everyday to enjoy what I have. That way, as we do achieve those things, I stand a chance of actually enjoying them, because I’m already enjoying my life now.

Those messages of change, growth, understanding of life come through powerfully in “How To Let It Go,” “Sickbed Symphony,” “Lifetime,” “Lover’s Lament,” “The Moon,” “Start Somewhere.” What happenstances lead to scribing those songs?

Cameron: Our last record, After Night Came Sun, was, for my part, about the collapse of a relationship I was in. And as a band, it was about the fatigue of beating our heads against a door we didn’t know how to open. It was a chronicle of things falling apart, and though there was a hint of restoration and hope by the end of that record, I think the songs on this record pick up where the last one left off. “How to Let it Go” and “The Moon” are about the troublesome practice of looking for your worth in someone else’s eyes. “Lifetime” and “Start Somewhere” are songs that take stock of where we are musically, professionally; that search for strength to move forward. I can understand if it sounds overly-dramatic to talk about the difficulty of moving forward, the fatigue of being in a band. It’s like; “What do these guys do all day, make music? How hard can that be?” But it’s a marriage, and a friendship, and a perpetual road trip, and business venture all at once, all the time. And as with any business venture, you have to sell a product. But when you’re selling your own art—your own thoughts and feelings—your heart is on the line constantly. If people come to the shows, and buy your record, and give your album positive reviews, you feel great. When they don’t, you don’t. I think this album is about slowly getting out of that entire way of thinking.

What other experiences did y’all cull from to write the songs? During what time period were the songs written?

Cameron: The album opener, “Red Line Reel” was written a few weeks before we went into the studio, and the first drafts of “Start Somewhere” date back to before we make The World Awaits.

I see album was recorded between Oct. 10-13, 2013 locally. Who runs Super Pro Studios and why did Ryanhood decide to record there?

Ryan: It’s run by our friend Ryan Alfred, who I went to Berklee College of Music with. We’ve been longtime friends and musical collaborators. We both have a lot of trust and respect for each other, which helps immensely when making recording/songwriting decisions, and working with him has helped us to turn the page from prioritizing perfect performances and to focus on capturing moving and compelling ones. He also produced our previous album After Night Came Sun and those two records are our personal favorites.

What are the combined influences—musical & otherwise—that inspires the songs? Who are some of your music heroes?

Ryan: My musical heroes tend to be amazing instrumentalists, like Chris Thile, Béla Fleck, Michael Gungor, Tim Reynolds, Joe Satriani. They’ve all inspired me to stretch my approach to playing and writing in new ways.

Cameron: Most of my heroes are songwriting guitar players: David Gilmour, Lindsey Buckingham, Lennon & McCartney. Though I have a lot of room in my heart—an arena even—for Bono. He’s easy to love and to hate. But I am moved at the way he takes the crowd to church, at almost every show. Lots of church services feel like concerts these days, but I still find it amazing that so many U2 concerts feel like spiritual experiences to so many people. How does he do that?

How long have the two of you been playing together? More than a decade! How did y’all end up living in Boston and busking back in the day? What time frame is that?

Cameron: Ryan invited me out to Boston after he’d graduated from Berklee and I graduated from the U of A. It was summer, 2004. I lived on his sunroom porch and we sold our only CD, Sad and Happiness, busking in the subway and at Quincy Market. Ryan convinced me that we could make a living just from playing music, at least for that summer. And we just never stopped.

What are your future plans? Staying local? Keeping on with the music?

Ryan: Lately we’ve been trying out a new touring model where we do shorter, week-long regional tours (our last tour was a week’s worth of shows in the Northeast… in June we’ll be doing a week of shows up the California coast). This model has been great… we’re always fresh and excited about the shows and don’t burn-out from months on the road at a time. And it allows us to be with our friends and family quite often, which is great. We plan to continue touring regionally like this for the foreseeable future.

Congrats on this year’s IAMA award! When was that announced? When did Ryanhood enter the 2014 International Acoustic Music Awards competition? Had you tried to get into that before?

Ryan: The IAMA awards were announced on February 14, 2014. I think we had entered the competition once before, back in 2009, behind the release of our album The World Awaits. We felt like the new album was so heavily centered around our acoustic guitars again that the material might work well for the competition so we entered again towards the end of 2013. And to our surprise, we won!

Regarding the gig on April 12 @ Harlow Gardens. I’ve been there once, many many moons ago. I didn’t realize it was a music venue! How did that show come about?

Ryan: In the past year or two, Harlow Gardens has started to host acoustic concerts during the cool spring evenings. It’s a really nice setup, starting with wine and appetizers beforehand, followed by two sets of music. It only holds about 200 people so it’s a pretty intimate affair, compared to a Rialto Theatre show for example. We’re friends with a great bluegrass band called Run Boy Run who had performed there, and we heard great things from them about it, so when Harlow Gardens contacted us about playing there as well, we were in. It should be a nice contrast to the bigger and flashier shows we’ve tried to put on at the Rialto Theatre… we’re hoping to take it in more of a ‘Storytellers’ direction, taking advantage of the intimate seating and making it more conversational.

Ryanhood performs at Harlow Gardens, 5620 E. Pima St., on Saturday, April 12. Tickets are $25, which includes appetizers and drinks at 6 p.m. Concert starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at Harlow Gardens or by phone (520) 298-3303 option 4.Visit Ryanhood.com or HarlowGardens.com for more information. The group also is schedule to play at the Tucson Folk Festival on Sunday, May 4 at 7 p.m.

Ryan Green & Cameron Hood

Tidbits

April 4, 2014 | Mckinzie Frisbie

Jazz Performances @ Main Gate Square

Whether you are a jazz buff or someone interested in live entertainment, the concerts Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance are hosting this month are sure to inspire. The shows take place at Main Gate Square on April 4 and April 18 at 7 p.m. in Geronimo Plaza, 814 E. University Blvd.

The UA Studio Jazz Ensemble—comprised of the most prestigious student musicians from the university— perform on April 4. The ensemble earned the UA Global Excellence Award in 2013 after showing off their talents in two tours through China. The April 18 concert features soul, jazz and R&B vocalist Crystal Stark. A graduate from the University of Arizona, Stark later made it into the top 44 contestants in the fifth season of American Idol. Parking is free after 5 p.m. in the Tyndall Garage, 880 E. 4th St.

For more information about the concerts, visit SAACA.org, MainGateSquare.com or call (520) 797-3959.

Ethan Bortnick, 13-year-old protégé, Performs in Tucson

World-known musician and humanitarian Ethan Bortnick is performing at Pima Community College’s Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Rd., on Saturday, April 5 at 7 p.m. At only 13-years-old, Bortnick has performed with stars like Elton John and Santana, holds the Guinness World Record for youngest musician to tour solo, and has raised more than $30 million for charity.

During the concert, Bortnick will cover classic pop tunes from artists like Michael Jackson, The Beatles, and Elton John. His performance will also feature songs he composed that are in his newly released movie, Anything is Possible. Bortnick will also engage audience participation with a Q&A and improvisational segments.

Tickets cost $39 each, and may be purchased at EthanBortnick.com/PowerOfMusicTV.

Sam Hughes Garden Tour

Seven private Sam Hughes homes are opening up their gardens for the public to admire on Sunday, April 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. photo courtesy Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association

Seven private Sam Hughes homes are opening up their gardens to the public on Sunday, April 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
photo courtesy Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association

Seven private Sam Hughes homeowners and two public properties are opening up their gardens for the public to admire on Sunday, April 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The two-mile, self-guided tour through the historical neighborhood offers attendees a chance to check out outdoor architectural decorations, sculptures, a certified wildlife habitat garden, a backyard chicken coop, and a hummingbird garden. The neighborhood’s phenology trail, which shows the progression and changes of plant and animal life over time, will also be open to onlookers.

Tickets are $10 for adults, and entry is free for children. Tickets may be purchased between 10 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. the day of the tour at the Inner Courtyard of Sam Hughes Elementary School, 700 N. Wilson Ave. Parking for the tour is free, and can be found around the neighborhood.

Visit SamHughes.org for more information.

Pennington Street Block Party

From April 11-13, Tucson Service Learning Group is hosting the 26th Global Youth Service Days: an international community service event held in over 100 countries that celebrates youth’s contributions to society.

The Pennington Street Block Party, coordinated by City High School and the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona, will kick off the international campaign for community change from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday, April 11. The event happens along Downtown’s Pennington Street, between Stone and Scott Avenues.

At 4 p.m., the block party will hold a ceremony where the Ray Davies Student Service Award will be presented to an all-around honorable student. To receive the award, mentors nominate students who have a finely tuned sense of community, while demonstrating leadership and compassion for others. The award was named after the reputable Human Relations Commission member, Ray Davies. Other activities include: musical performances, teaching demos, interactive booths, street theater, art exhibits, carnival games, and more.

For more information about the event, visit CityHighSchool.org, TucsonSLG.org and GYSD.org.

Sink Your Roots into Sonoran X

Plant lovers unite for the Tucson Cactus & Succulent Society’s Sonoran X Conference! This year’s theme is “Plants for the Sonoran Desert Hobbyists,” a showcase of unique cacti and hybrid plants from around the world. The plant conference is on Saturday, April 19 from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Sunday, April 20 from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at 475 N. Granada Ave.

Registered attendees will get a glimpse of grandeur member collections, participate in workshops, listen to five guest speakers, and enjoy two lunches and a dinner. The $50 registration takes place in the lobby from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, and from 8 a.m. until noon on Sunday. Attendants who do not wish to register will still have access to the plant showings, a silent auction and the pottery, book, art and plant sales.

For more information about the conference and how to register, visit TucsonCactus.org or call (520) 256-2447.

Earth Day $1 Sale

Another segment of Buffalo Exchange’s 40th anniversary celebrations include its Earth Day Dollar Sale on Saturday, April 19. All 49 Buffalo Exchanges nationwide will raise proceeds from $1 ticket items and donate the funds directly to Tucson’s Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Last year, the event raised a total of $43,000, which was donated to the Humane Society. This year’s funds will go to supporting and preserving the outdoor living museum’s “Pollination Hotspots” program. The program works to conserve, sustain and analyze the variation of seed production levels across the Sonoran Desert.

For more information about the museum and Buffalo Exchange, visit DesertMuseum.org and BuffaloExchange.com.

Tucson’s First Open Water Swim Triathlon

5430 Sports has coordinated Tucson’s first open water triathlon: Welcome, the 5430 TriZona Triathlon, happening on Sunday, April 27. Participants will face a 3.5 mile run, a 14.5 mile bike ride and 750 meter swim in the 10-acre Kennedy Lake. (Turner Labs discovered the water flowing into Kennedy Lake to be safe for not only swimming, but also drinking, according to 5430Sports.com.) Swimmers will begin the initial “wave,” or one lap swim, at the southeast corner of the lake. They will then head clockwise and finish at the southwest corner, where they will strip their wetsuits and start the run.

The first, second and third place winners from each age group will be awarded hand-made trophies. Registration for the triathlon is $90 if purchased by April 25.

For more information about the triathlon and how to enter, visit 5430Sports.com/TriZona.

April’s Bicycle Hullabaloos

April 3, 2014 | Craig Baker

Cyclists of all ages and abilities participate in Cyclovia.
photo: Kathleen Dreier/Esens Photography

Paolo Soleri, the architectural mastermind often credited as the grandfather of sustainability, saw the city as earth’s newest organism. More accurately, he called the city a “hyperorganism,” meaning that it exhibits traits of a living thing (consuming materials, putting out waste, supporting the lives of smaller organisms), but that it lacks the self-governing mechanisms (like a brain) that are available to truly organic things. To Soleri this meant one of two things for cities in general—either a transition to hyper-organization, or degradation into chaos. And by choosing to become so reliant on the automobile to get around our cities, Soleri would say we have been choosing chaos for nearly a century.

“What has been happening in the last few generations,” Soleri said in a 2012 talk to students at his famous experimental city, Arcosanti, Arizona, “is that we are no longer persons, but we are car persons. Because the car has become such a familiar part of the family, an indispensable presence in our lives, we are not separable from the car itself… we have accepted the motorized hermitage of a person in a car.”

Enter the Living Streets Alliance (LSA). According to Kylie Walzak, event coordinator for Cyclovia Tucson (a project of LSA’s Bike Fest), LSA is “Tucson’s non-profit organization working toward a more sustainable city and safer, more people-oriented street design.”

This April marks the fifteenth year of Tucson’s annual Bike Fest, which started in 1991 as “Bike to Work Week,” but has evolved over time into the month-long celebration of all things pedal-powered that it is today.

“The festival is not about the bicycle as much as it is about imagining what our streets could look like if we allowed equal access to them,” says Walzak. “Right now they’re very dominated by one type of transportation—the personal vehicle… Our streets are public spaces but they’re not publicly accessible to everybody.” Walzak explains that taking cars off of the road and opening the streets up to safe bicycle and pedestrian traffic “humanizes (a) landscape that’s often dominated by the loud noise and fast pace of cars.”

And that’s just what the organization is doing.

Cyclists of all ages and abilities participate in Cyclovia.
photo: Kathleen Dreier/Esens Photography

Twice a year, LSA takes over a loop of pavement in either Downtown or midtown Tucson for the bi-annual Cyclovia event, which makes the vision of public streets imagined by the likes of Soleri and Walzak a reality, at least in microcosm. Modeled after similar events that have become extremely popular in places like Bogotá, Columbia (Cyclovia comes from the Spanish ciclovia, or “cycle street”), this spring’s affair will link the neighborhoods of Downtown and South Tucson with a roughly 10-mile corridor of car-free roads.

Perhaps the most exciting part of Cyclovia 2014 is the fact that two independent music festivals are flanking the north and south ends of the loop along South Sixth and South Fourth Avenues. To the north, Armory Park hosts the first ever Tucson Hullabaloo—a Flagstaff transplant that has been voted Best Annual Event by Flagstaff Live! (a weekly alternative magazine) four-years running, and to the south, the City of South Tucson stages a mini-revival of their Norteño Music Festival at Tucson Greyhound Park with Feria De Sur Tucson.

Though Cyclovia is undeniably the pinnacle of Bike Fest, events will be held throughout the month of April in observance of the festival. Walzak says, for instance, that the folks behind the local Tuesday Night Bike Rides are putting on a bike-in movie series in secret locations throughout the city only accessible to non-motorized modes of transportation, and the two-mile commuter challenge will run citywide the entire month long.

Ann Chanecka, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the City of Tucson, says that an estimated 43 percent of all trips (yes, that means ALL trips) are less than two miles long, and that a whopping 85 percent of those trips are still made by car—a fact she attributes largely to a lack of bicycle accessibility in the city. She says that, in addition to the $5.5 million put into bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure last year, the City of Tucson is poised to invest another $5 million this year, including the installation this summer of Tucson’s first physically protected bike lane, along St. Mary’s Road between I-10 and Main Street. By making bike lanes safer and getting more of its citizens on bicycles, the goal is to take Tucson’s community rating from the Legion of American Bicyclists from Gold to Platinum—a designation shared by only four cities nationwide.

photo: Kathleen Dreier/Esens Photography

Even Mayor Jonathan Rothschild is weighing in on the importance of bicycles to our community—he’s agreed to join in on the two-mile commuter challenge himself, for one. He says that, not only are alternative modes of transportation like bicycling and walking great for the environment, making bike safety and accessibility a priority in Tucson will help supplement the local economy. In addition to their obvious appeal to cycle-loving tourists and as an alternative source of transportation, Mayor Rothschild says that tech companies are looking to associate their businesses with bike friendly towns. “We have found, and studies have shown, that the folks that are going to be the economic drivers of the next generation… love bicycling and want to be in communities where there is a strong bike ethic,” says the Mayor.

Mayor Rothschild is also quick to talk about the personal benefits of stepping away from your car once-in-a-while: on a bike, he says, “you really get to know your city better… life moves just a little slower, although not much slower, but slow enough to where you notice [things in] your neighborhood” you might otherwise have missed.

Perhaps that’s why bikes seem to be making such a strong resurgence as a primary mode of getting from A to B—says Walzak, “it’s fair to say that the bicycle has reached mythical proportions in terms of marketing and cool cachet.”

If only that were true when I was in high school.

Bike Fest is ongoing throughout the month of April. More info at BikeFestTucson.com. Cyclovia takes place on April 6 from 10am-3pm, CycloviaTucson.org. Feria De Sur Tucson runs concurrently with Cyclovia and is free to attend, see FeriaDeSurTucson.com. Tucson Hullabaloo, TucsonHulla.com, runs April 5-6 from 10am-9pm on Saturday, 10am-8pm on Sunday. Tickets are $5 or free to the first 500 people with two cans of food.

Sweet Ghosts’ “Certain Truths”

April 2, 2014 | Jamie Manser

Sweet Ghosts
photo: Taylor Noel Photography

Transcendent and ethereal are not adjectives to be taken lightly, but such descriptions of this gloriously heart-wrenching debut release are more than apropos. The 10-track album features poetic storytelling, presenting evocative slices of life that put the listener into the thick of alternately uncomfortable and uplifting tales.

The lulling songs are reflective, haunting; there’s lightness to the depth, a deft touch that features spaces between the notes and musical interplay that is as compelling as the vocals and lyrics.

While the songs’ settings are not necessarily Tucson-based, they sonically convey the shimmering, mystical quality of a desert mirage. There’s warmth in the heartbreak, an acceptance of what is and what cannot be changed. The emotive humanity within covers the universal themes of love, affairs, changing seasons and broken people who are looking for acceptance, release, recovery from the pain of life’s challenges and society’s ills.

Sung by songwriter Ryan Alfred and Katherine Byrnes, their vocals blend together exquisitely and overlay on their own instrumentations (Byrnes is on piano/keyboards, Alfred plays guitars, synthesizers, bass), along with those by: Aaron Emery (drums, percussion), violin by Ben Nisbet (Tucson Symphony Orchestra), Sam Eagon (bass), vibraphone by Omar Alvarado, Fen Ikner (drums), Dylan DeRobertis (bass) and mandolin by Ryan Green (Ryanhood).

***

During an email Q&A, Ryan provides some background information on the band and its debut release.

How long have you and Katherine been performing as Sweet Ghosts/when was the project formed?
Sweet Ghosts was started about 2-1/2 years ago…we played a few gigs and decided “Yeah, let’s give this a go!” And then the opportunity to play bass with Calexico came up and it kind of went on the backburner. Calexico’s off tour this year so we have time finally to pursue it.

Did you write both the lyrics and the music?
Yes.

What inspired these songs?
Oh, I don’t know…the songs were written over a pretty long period of time, some as old as seven or so years ago. Some are reactions to certain situations that I encountered and felt compelled to write about, as a way of processing them, and some are just pure creation, like Not Quite December (which was written on a very hot day in Tucson) and She (which isn’t particularly about anybody; the lyrics came to me while I was working the takeout counter at a Bertuccis in Boston).

On the first track, “Detroit,” you and Katherine sing: “There’s a crazy, old homeless woman with more fingers than teeth, she’s got headphones but no radio, doing rain dance down this forgotten street.” Did you meet a woman in Detroit with more fingers than teeth?
I really did…she was a homeless old lady kind of dancing around Cass Avenue with these huge headphones on, the cord just dangling down her back not plugged into anything. As a friend of mine passed, she pointed at us and said “I got my good eye on you, and so does God!” She didn’t say hallelujah, though. I’m not sure how that word found its way in. The Old Miami (Missing In Action MI) is also real, and Danny Overstreet is the owner, the most decorated Vietnam vet in Michigan. I used to play his bar with one of my first touring gigs.

Lots of love songs on this, written very poetically. Do you have a background in poetry? What is your background – music education, Tucson, other bands, etc.
What can I say? Relationships are the most basic, simple idea on earth, and yet they are so confounding that they’ll never stop inspiring songs, haha. I don’t have a background in poetry, though I do love it (especially Jack Gilbert, my favorite). As to music background, I started playing the violin in 3rd grade, moved on to the double bass in 7th grade, and studied electronic music and electric bass at Berklee (where I met Ryan Green from Ryanhood). He and I played in bands together for years, and when I left New York in 2009, I stayed at his house before moving to my own place. Somewhere in 2009 I started doing FOH and tour managing Calexico, and started playing bass for them about 2 years ago.

Sweet Ghosts
photo: Taylor Noel Photography

When were the tracks recorded?
On and off over the last two years…some were tracked at Waterworks with Jim Waters, some at Wavelab with Chris Schultz, and some at my own studio, which is essentially the B Room at Waterworks.

After the Tucson CD release party on April 19, Sweet Ghosts hit the road for an eight city tour through Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. What was the motivation to travel through those states?
We really wanted to go to Jazzfest in New Orleans again, and decided to book a tour around it.

Is there significance to the third chair on the album cover being empty?
Hahaha, we’re not telling.

See Sweet Ghosts at Plush, 360 E. Sixth St., on Saturday, April 19. Dry River Yacht Club, Carlos Arzate & The Kind Souls also perform. Check out SweetGhosts.com for information on the band’s April tour and also look for them on Facebook.com.

Fundraiser + Fun Party=MOCA Gala

April 2, 2014 | Herb Stratford

Chuck George, John Adams, Marta Harvey, Mark Lory, Randi Dorman and Rob Paulus in front of the mural by Gerben Mulder at the 2012 Gala.
photo: Roger Tamietti

While some local fundraising shindigs have gotten predictable year after year—taking place in the same resort ballroom, with elaborate menus, lots of silent auction items and a band to help you dance the night away—other local enterprising entities’ events are standing out with their unique settings, programs and attendees.

Recent events of note have included the “Bollywood at the Fox” fundraisers that closed off Congress Street, the annual Centurions events which rotate venues and themes, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Gala and Local Genius Awards Gala. This year, gala takes place on Friday, April 11 and is promising to raise the bar on what distinctive, fun and successful events look like in Tucson.

The purpose of the MOCA Gala is to raise funds in support of its exhibitions and education programs that aim to inspire, through contemporary art, an appreciation for the creative world. The event nearly always sells out, with many of its 300 plus attendees returning every year due to the exceptional blend of style, food and company.

Set in MOCA’s cavernous Great Hall in the old Downtown fire station, the event has many of the standard elements of a fundraiser such as live and silent auctions, top-notch food and dancing, but there is something different about the event that sets it apart from others. It may be the audience; a matchless blend of art folk, city leaders, scientists and activists, or it may be the setting of a transformed former garage of a fire station that sets the tone for the evening.

Randi Dorman, MOCA’s Board President and chief cheerleader is a tireless advocate for the mission of MOCA and sees the gala as a “perfect blend of fundraiser and fun party.”

This year, as in the past, guests can valet park at the Tucson Convention Center (TCC) as the party begins in the Leo Rich Theatre at TCC. Following the official “program,” a short procession goes from the TCC across the street to MOCA for the main event, which often goes long into the night.

Featuring a lavish buffet from Blue House Catering along with a special “art” dessert from the world famous Kreemart and music from renowned DJ Gaspar Muniz, the night has all the makings of a special evening. Also on display during the gala is the artwork of video artist Janaina Tschäpe whose career retrospective is currently on display. Her artwork can also be experienced from noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, in case you want to see it without a full-blown party going on around you.

A packed house enjoying the 2011 Gala.
photo: Tom Willet

The gala usually raises well over $100,000 for MOCA, helping it operate all year long to bring and host cutting-edge artwork to Tucson. MOCA’s ongoing educational programs are also a beneficiary of the evening, which many Tucsonans are unaware of. Everything from artist lectures, to programs for children from grade school age to high school are offered at MOCA all year long and are helping to create a “new generation of art savvy kids,” according to Dorman.

MOCA’s annual Gala is Friday, April 11 at the Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church Ave., and at MOCA, 265 S. Church Ave., from 6 p.m. to midnight. Artwork by video artist Janaina Tschäpe is featured this year. Tickets are $250 per person, which includes the buffet, champagne toast and dancing. A live and silent auction will also take place during the evening. For more information and tickets visit MOCA-Tucson.org.

Old Pueblo Printers y El Tucsonense

April 1, 2014 | Steve Renzi

Albert M. Elias stands next to a 1914 linotype, the typesetting machine that helped to print the El Tucsonense newspaper in the early years.
photo: Steve Renzi

Standing next to a vintage 1914 linotype machine, in the backroom of Downtown’s Old Pueblo Printers at 255 S. Stone Ave., 85-year-old Albert M. Elias is reminiscing about the days he worked for the Spanish-language newspaper El Tucsonense.

“My grandfather, Francisco S. Moreno, founded the paper in 1915 and served as the publisher and printer until 1929. The paper was published here in this building, typeset on this machine, starting in 1922. After my grandfather died in 1929, my grandmother Rosa Elias Moreno took over as publisher. She had five children, four sons and one daughter, the boys all became printers and the daughter is my mother,” Elias shares.

At the turn of the last century, in 1900, the population of Tucson was about evenly divided between Hispanic and Anglo residents. Let’s not forget, Tucson was once a part of Mexico—an isolated frontier outpost in the midst of a hostile desert environment. As a part of Mexico, the capital in Mexico City was a long, forbidding 1,500 miles away. Under appreciated by many people, the Hispanic pioneers who settled here were resourceful, resilient and independent. They established the traditions and set the stage for those who came after them.

Those traditions included both a pride in the home country, most Tucson Hispanics came from Mexico, and a pride in the Spanish language. In the early 1900s, Tucson was the largest and most sophisticated center of the Hispanic population between El Paso and Los Angeles, according to the book Los Tucsonenses by Thomas E. Sheridan. Tucson had Hispanic entrepreneurs, businessmen, politicians and owners of grocery stores, barbershops and meat markets—in other words, a middle class.

“Their prominence gave Tucson a bicultural vitality unique to the Southwest,” Sheridan scribed in Los Tucsonenses.

The first issue of El Tucsonense.
photo: Steve Renzi

One aspect of that bicultural vitality was Spanish-language newspapers. There were many of them and they were an important forum for Hispanic political and day-to-day life. They covered the news of the United States and Mexico, they covered people and events in the Tucson barrios that the Anglo mainstream press typically ignored, and they were an outlet for Hispanic writers, intellectuals and poets. There was El Fronterizo, El Mosquito and the biggest and longest lasting of them all—El Tucsonense.

“I started working for El Tucsonense as a paperboy on my bicycle in the late 1930s,” Elias recalls. “It came two, sometimes three times a week. It was an afternoon paper, about four to eight pages. Cost 25 cents a week.

“During high school I moved into the print shop and began to learn the printing trade. I got out of Tucson High at 1 o’clock and worked in the print shop seven hours a day. I was a ‘printer’s devil’—an apprentice printer. I learned how to become a typesetter, a compositor who puts the pages together and a pressman who runs the press.

“It was all hands-on, labor-intensive… Everything had to be assembled, typeset and taken to press. A single page may take up to six hours,” Elias explains.

Elias’ favorite part of the paper was the local sports (deportiva) section, especially baseball.

“My uncles played baseball on a local semi-pro level team called the Tucson Aztecas. They played at Riverside field on West Congress, where the freeway is now. There was also Eagle field on 16^th Street, where the Barrio Brewery is (now) and they played at Hi Corbett field before it was named that. I also remember boxing matches at the Labor Temple and wrestling and boxing at the Sports Center on West Congress.”

Elias’s love of baseball was shared later by another young employee at the print shop named Arturo Moreno, who is now the owner of the Los Angeles Angels major league baseball team.

El Tucsonense covered local, national and even international news. It had sports, political cartoons, comics and advertisements printed in Spanish and English. It also had good journalists. Elias remembered Editor Ricardo Fierro as one of the best.

“He was a one-man newspaper—he could do it all,” Elias states with conviction.

El Tucsonense began in 1915 and lasted until 1962. Fortunately, the entire collection of newspapers has been saved and is now preserved at the University of Arizona in Special Collections. It can be accessed online at Library.arizona.edu/contentdm/mmap/.

Old Pueblo Printers is still going strong as a commercial printing company. In 1966, Albert M. Elias and a partner, Oscar Araiza became co-owners. Elias became sole owner after 1990. At 85-years-old, he still goes to work every day.

Old Pueblo Printers is located at 255 S. Stone Ave. Hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Phone (520) 624-5851 with inquiries.