Tucson Weekly 11.10.22

LOCAL AUTHOR DEBUTS ITALIAN ROMANCE NOVEL

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THROUGH TRAUMA AND WAR, A LOVE STORY LAUGHING STOCK: ‘The Big Daddies’ | MUSIC: Kid Congo Powers tells all

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NOVEMBER 10, 2022 | VOL. 37, NO. 45

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CONTENTS CURRENTS

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COVER

EDITORIAL Christina Fuoco-Karasinski, Executive Editor, christina@tucsonlocalmedia.com Hope Peters, Staff Reporter, hpeter@timespublications.com

TUCson salvage

THROUGH TRAUMA AND WAR, A LOVE STORY

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Katya Mendoza, Staff Reporter, kmendoza@timespublications.com Karen Schaffner, Staff Reporter, kschaffner@timespublications.com

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Contributors: David Abbott, Brian Box Brown, Rob Brezsny, Max Cannon, Rand Carlson, Clay Jones, Xavier Otero, Linda Ray, Brian Smith, Will Shortz, PRODUCTION Courtney Oldham, Production Manager, tucsonproduction@timespublications.com Tonya Mildenberg, Graphic Designer, tmildenberg@timespublications.com CIRCULATION Aaron Kolodny, Circulation Director, aaron@phoenix.org

Local author debuts Italian romance novel

NEWS

CURRENTS

LAUGHING STOCK

CURRENTS

ARIZONA TRAIL ASSOCIATION VETS PROGRAM OFFERS CAMARADERIE IN THE DESERT.......... 8 LATINA STARTUP CULTIVATES COMMUNITY, UPLIFTS CREATIVES................10

CITY WEEK

12 Supporters go over the edge rappelling for Girl Scouts

CITY WEEK CALENDAR ........................14

‘THE BIG DADDIES:’ IMPROV LESSONS FOR LIFE .......................15

Brian Juhl, Distribution Manager, brian@timeslocalmedia.com ADVERTISING TLMSales@TucsonLocalMedia.com

XOXO ........................................................16

Gary Tackett, Account Executive, gtackett@tucsonlocalmedia.com

WEEDLY

Kristin Chester, Account Executive, kristin@tucsonlocalmedia.com

FUN FACTS ABOUT MEDICAL AND RECREATIONAL CANNABIS ..........................22

ASTROLOGY ............................................25 CLASSIFIEDS ..........................................26

RANDOM SHOTS By Rand Carlson

MUSIC

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19 In his new memoir, Kid Congo Powers tells all

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Story & photos by Brian Smith

THROUGH TRAUMA AND WAR, A LOVE STORY THIS IS A PLACE RETAINED BY nightmares. Peggy Sue Hamon is about dead in Tucson’s VA Medical Center parking lot. Delirious, doused in her own vomit, she is suffering septic shock from a flesh-eating infection. She is depilated from alcohol too, and terrified of her ex-boyfriend from whom she has a restraining order. Into hot bright light, she all but crawls from her car, which has doubled as her home since her money ran out.

She makes it to the hospital ER entrance where alarmed receptionists fish her pockets for a military ID. Doctors are shocked she is alive.

They saved her life with hasty action and surgery, draining two liters of fluid from a body infection, and placed her on 24-hour suicide watch.

This was April this year.

Peggy knew this was it. A now or never.

“I was thinking about my kids,” she said later. “My grandchild who was just born. Said to myself, ‘What would they think if you died like this?’ I was so lost. I made up my mind to live.”

She added, “If it weren’t for the staff at the VA, I wouldn’t be here.”

IT IS LATE OCTOBER AND 43-year-old Peggy is sitting at a little table in her bright tiny kitchen. She is alive, healthy and eager, and newly in love. Big expressive, hopeful eyes, cropped blonde schoolboy hair, straight-shooting with a tinge of obsequiousness; it is easy to see she spent two decades in exemplary military service. Unbroken monologues erupt on the hyper energy of new-found self-awareness, and myriad hours of challenging, taxing therapy. The murky gauze covering her fractured backstory unwrapped, in its place are truths, theories and a program. She whittles it down to simple words: “I made it over the hump,

so I can share with others now.”

Most of that “hump” is about the unimaginable normalized, the choking down of sexual traumas to exist in a world that otherwise could not accommodate, and to struggle back into said world and resume her life in a way that has some meaning.

THE “DEMONICALLY POSSESSED” child-rapist dad never went to prison. To hear daughter Peggy Sue Hamon tell it, the old Navy Nam vet should’ve been locked away forever, not living in a privately funded VA home in Idaho. Tick off the survivor reasons: terror, humiliation, self-blame, disillusionment, shame …

Peggy and her family lived in a trailer in the Pacific Northwest. Peggy was the sixth-born of eight kids. It is crammed, where a baby lived in a laundry basket, and a wood platform nailed to a hallway doubled as a bed. Church twice-weekly, Southern Baptist. The belief for Peggy, you’d get married and have kids, no other option. She was terrified to go home, from school, from work. Dad was a baker, worked early and late hours. “I would wait until he was asleep to come home.”

As a girl, Peggy would dream of becoming a nurse, caring for others. Early in high school suffered under the burden of home life and her weight had ballooned. She was made fun of, and missed a lot of school. But she worked steady at Dairy Queen and bought herself a car.

By senior year, her father shamed her into losing the weight, but she was getting straight A’s and attending a separate nursing school.

Now, Peggy’s grandfather (father’s side) committed suicide when her dad was a teen. Dad’s mother lived in Washington state, prostituted out of the house.

So, at the mercy of dad’s hideous compulsions, the kissing, the clawing, the

molesting, chasing children around the trailer with a chainsaw or forcing them to watch as Peggy’s older sister performed fellatio on him. “He would pee on top of us in the bathtub. His favorite thing to do was walk around the house with an erection and have us sit on his lap.” Dad raped her older sisters and older brother, and the brother in turn raped her when she was five years old.

Dad would climb into bed naked and molest Peggy Sue Harmon said that if not for the staff at the VA, Peggy once she hit pu- she may not be here today. berty and she would run.

“We would sleep with our shoes on.”

She continues to recount countless ep- ally forgive her. Internally I guess I have.” isodes of revulsion and child abuse and The Air Force provided Peggy a ticket family rape in detail because she is used out of the home, she summoned all her to talking about this now, but she flusters courage and enlisted. It flew in the face of and tears fill her eyes at times, run down family beliefs: A girl stays home until she her cheeks, and her words turn flat. She is married. That’s it. is revisiting a rotted place inside a healThrough the testing and basic training, ing place and the words are still never she was gone. She specialized in health easy. With three children of my own it is services management. She is smart, difficult to try and inhabit a world where learns fast she was able to bloom in a milsuch things originate and I am hushed, itarized zone of discipline and immediate notions of betrayal, defenselessness, and accountability; the horrors of what a dad terrified children fill my head. can do to his children lived deep inside After violence the police would show her, left to fester, a buried rage. up at the home and the dad would end up In 2000 she was stationed at an Air in the drunk tank, released the next day. Force duty station on an island in the The kids would show up at school trau- Azores outside Portugal, where it was matized and bruised. The teachers knew “one woman to every ten guys.” She was but there was “no follow up.” Mom would raped. call pastors who would come to “cleanse” Peggy didn’t bother reporting it, so a the house. The pastors knew. Neighbors male friend did. “I was so sick to myself,” knew. Nothing happened. she said. “I couldn’t cry, that would show Peggy’s mother looked the other way. weakness. It’s what I knew.”

She didn’t think she could fix things at Two other women came forward. A home but she could with the kids in her hearing saw the guy kicked off the island, job as a preschool teacher. There was de- but not out of the Air Force. “The unit nial, rage, instructing the children to do loved him,” she said, a dour chuckle inwhat the father said so as not to suffer side a shrug. “He was ranked higher than his drunken wrath. Mom was a prisoner me.” That soldier got the Air Force boot too, helpless in her mind, helpless in her later after getting caught watching porn world. on a government computer.

“All I wanted to do was get out of that Peggy floundered emotionally, grasphouse. I gave him (my brother) a lot of ing at whatever forces of desire bounced forgiveness because I knew what it was around the universe, striving to muddle like in that environment.” the severity of others into contours of She detests her dad. And her mother?

“If she went and sought help I would reSEE SALVAGE PAGE 5

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

SALVAGE FROM PAGE 4 one she could love. One she thought she deserved.

Stationed in Florida, Peggy discovered she was pregnant by a guy she’d broken up with in Portugal. She later saw that same guy in a starring role on an episode of Cops, busted for picking up a trans sex worker in Las Vegas.

She met and married her ex-husband in Florida, a military and I.T. specialist who happened to know the man who had raped her. He told the husband to be careful with Peggy.

“I just pushed all of this off,” she said.

“It was more me just trying to establish a life. It wasn’t long in that marriage that I recognized the red flags.”

Her eight-year Air Force commitment ended. They birthed the first child (a son) and soon a daughter with heart issues (open heart surgery at six months old), and moved around — Washington state, Yuma, Arizona and finally, Louisiana. Peggy earned a bachelor’s degree as a business systems analyst. In 2012 she joined the military again — the Louisiana National Guard — for stateside emergences and overseas combat. The military gave her that strict structure, a sense of place and purpose, a good income for her family. Her upbringing at least taught her what not to do with her children.

Fulltime in the National Guard, trained as a petroleum specialist, she worked hurricanes, floods, ice storms, and in 2017, spent 10 months in the U.S. War in Afghanistan. She was schooled for advance leadership and made it to an E6 rank (staff sergeant) and commanded a squad, knew the nuances of wartime fuel distribution, audits and contracts, the security for local nationals and fueling tankers in Kabul. “I was terrified of bombs,” she said. “Afghans were terrible at aiming.”

These were triumphs despite her raging ghosts and realities, and she talks of shielding marital abuse from her children: “You don’t think about your past, you’re in survival mode. Mother mode. I will say this about my ex-husband: he was not comparable to my dad. But I didn’t know how weird it was until I got out of it.”

She had also begun drinking to numb festering rages. “As the kids started to get older, the drinking had gotten worse.

It was hurting my life and being a mother.” At one point she entered a treatment

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tion, which, it should vets, where she completed a doctor-led be noted, offers dis- trauma-intensive program. Soon she was tressed people second housed at Esperanza En Escalante (EEE), an effective non-profit that provides chances.

This guy, this housing and social rehab for homeless ex-Marine was driv- veterans and families. There, EEE case ing an ATV when it worker Mary Cuevas got close to Peggy.

“Peggy’s story is one of success,” Cuecrashed in March. She was the passenger vas told me via text. “She has overcome and woke up in a hos- so much and is living a loving and happital with brain bleed, py life. Peggy gives me such a profound head staples, a broken sense of hope. That hope is all about femur and the hema- making it out of the horrors of abusive toma that started the childhoods.”

Peggy is now out of the National Guard infection that a month later put her in sepsis. on medical discharge for PTSD and in an She left her boyfriend apartment. Her 19-year-old daughter reand panicked. It was cently said to her, “you weren’t meant to hotels and hiding, die yet.”

Peggy’s siblings live in various parts of physical pain and suicidal ideation, and the country, and she is close with some. blackout drinking, She says she is the first of them to earn a until she was living in college degree and also seek professional Peggy Sue Harmon and her current boyfriend, Eric Ackerman, her car. That’s when help. “None of us as parents have passed live in a one-bedroom apartment together. she arrived at the VA down the abuse to our children. My kids have never met my dad. Maybe my mom hospital.

The months of heal- once or twice.” Her siblings exist in what program. It didn’t stick. ing began. Out of the hospital, she landSEE SALVAGE PAGE 6 In Afghanistan, the longing for her ed at Old Pueblo Community Service for children left pains in her gut nightly (“before the Afghan deployment, I was so focused on my kids”). Yet, her husband moved another woman into the family home, which she learned while facetiming with her daughter. Her kids were shocked.

She met a guy an ex-Marine in Louisiana soon after the split and divorce from her husband. He fit her dad’s archetype; controlling, emotionally and physically abusive. There was the torque between her personal strictures, moral conflicts between what was right and what was broken, who she would think she was, and how easy it was to descend into the abyss of emptiness. The drinking made it so much worse.

Hurricane Laura in 2020 took out her - Brittany house. Her children despised this new boyfriend, but by this time her son was married and her teen daughter was off Drug & alcohol treatment • No judgment • We believe in you to college on Peggy’s G.I. Bill benefits.

She left Louisiana and moved to Tucson with her boyfriend and it was painful to Walk-in or Call 24/7 move far away from her kids. “I told my 380 E. Ft. Lowell • 520-202-1792 children ‘y’all need to focus on your life, CODAC.org/GetYourLifeBack enjoy life.’ I didn’t want to cause more torment with them.”

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She tried to leave him, had good work as a dispatcher at Primevara Founda-

Get your life back.

I did.

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LOCAL AUTHOR DEBUTS ITALIAN ROMANCE NOVEL

By Katya Mendoza Tucson Local Media

BONNIE CALLAHAN accomplished what many said they’d do during the pandemic: write a book.

She recently released her first novel, “Remy vs. Rome.”

“During the pandemic the kids were home, and we did this really cool literature-based homeschool program,” Callahan said. “They were doing their thing and I was trying to do mine and had kind of started writing.” She decided to enroll in the online UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

“I signed up late and the only thing they had was this romance writing class.”

Never really reading romance, outside of Diana Gabaldon’s Out- Tucson-native Bonnie Callahan published her debut lander series — “if that counts,” novel, “Remy vs. Rome,” in September of this year. she said — the assigned reading Her work, as she describes it, is an art mystery with wasn’t what she expected. They a romantic subplot inspired by her real-life love for were rather well-written prose that the Eternal City. (NOELLE HARO- GOMEZ/CONTRIBUTOR) addressed real issues. sophomore and junior years, Callahan Callahan is a Roman classicist by train- participated in the UA study abroad proing and “Remy vs. Rome” is an art mys- gram in Orvieto, Italy, where she met her tery with a romantic subplot inspired by real-life Italian love interest. her real-life love for the Eternal City, she “They’re not really similar except he said. (the love interest) does cook and his love “I’d have scenes pop into my head,” Cal- language is definitely food, which comes lahan said. “There were five scenes that I’d across,” Callahan said. written and then I’d fill in those spaces.”

The two also coincidentally share Living in a full house with her husband, southern Italian roots. two children and parents, she used the “It was the night Italy won the World project as a nice escape during the shut- Cup and (he) came up to me and grabbed down. my head and gave me a huge kiss on my Callahan, who graduated from the Uni- forehead,” Callahan said. They’ve been versity of Arizona with a degree in classics married for 13 years in November. and Italian, said her love for Rome began As a way to honor her former profesduring her first backpacking trip through sors, Callahan said she strived for hisEurope after her high school graduation. torical accuracy throughout her work. “It “I remember being there for the first was fun to be reading through textbooks time, have you ever just shown up some- again and be in that world all over again,” where that feels like home already?” Cal- she said. To ensure accuracy in the Italian lahan said. “Like it makes sense to you, language, her husband helped with the and it just feels right.” translations.

During the summer in between her “The character, (Remy), isn’t me but

there are elements that are,” Callahan said.

“I really loved Rome, so it was easy in some ways to write it and feelings of being there are what I hope come through in the writing, (and) the whole experience without making it too much of a caricature of the city.”

Her affinity for Roman history started

in the sixth grade after watching a video about Pompeii. She hopes readers will also be curious about Italy’s history and its culture.

“Maybe it encourages them to read something else that they wouldn’t have otherwise,” Callahan said.

As they say in Rome, do as the Romans do.

SALVAGE FROM PAGE 5

in many frightful ways. He grew up with family trauma and his older brother committed suicide because of it. He suffered the same depression. He served in the Navy and then the Army. He broke his back in the Army stateside moving medical equipment, losing his chance to become a Green Beret. He spent five painful years in a wheelchair, and it took 10 years to get his disability. He spent a decade homeless or “couch surfing,” he stole, he panhandled. He found heroin for the pain and got strung out. He cooked meth in Florida and went to jail for nearly a year.

He first moved to Arizona for the cheap heroin. Simple as that. He acknowledges it was hardly any reason to live.

His last girlfriend died in his arms in Tucson after a string of nights doing drugs. His final impulsion was pushing a shopping cart filled with his belongings miles to the VA hospital while withdrawing from heroin in the middle of a blazing Arizona summer.

He’s been sober since. “I was just done with drugs,” he said. “I suffered enough.”

He receives military medical disability and works many hours weekly as a volunteer maintenance man at EEE, his way of giving back. He talks a lot about giving back. He is grateful to be here. The man is at peace finally and it shows in his carriage, his perspective, his speech.

Timing is everything in this life. Peggy and Eric lived in Florida at the same time and laugh about it. Had they met then, catastrophe.

The couple will begin visits with a therapist together, to learn what not to do. It is their dream to live on an acre of rural land outside Tucson, with animals and a garden. “And live in peace,” Eric says.

Outside the apartment, the couple smoke cigarettes. Peggy, sitting on Eric’s lap, said, “I would envy couples that were happy, plans for the weekend, festivals, wake up in the morning and say, ‘I love you.’ I never thought I would have that.”

Eric nods in firm agreement.

she calls an odd scenario. “The way people process the trauma is all different.”

She adds, they all suffer “deep depression.”

Peggy adds, “my situational awareness is on high. You can’t turn that off. If someone is going through this, if they are even taking the blame, I want them to know they aren’t alone.”

PEGGY’S ONE-BEDROOM apartment she shares with her boyfriend, Eric Ackerman, is a stone’s throw from EEE, maybe a location of comfort for her, whose car had been repossessed. Two bikes parked neatly together against a wall of the living room tell something else; their use aligns with a world that now makes some sort of sense, inner peace emits freely as forehead sweat. It is a foundation, based on a mutual understanding of life struggles.

It is difficult to prove PTSD for military disability, the grief merchants, the doctors and therapists need to sign off.

Peggy is waiting for her full disability to kick in. She is hunting for work and, for a woman with her experiences, she is often told she is overqualified. She needs to work; wants to work.

“I ask myself, ‘What do I do today?’

Well, service to others, and write my story.” Soon she will travel back to Louisiana to meet her grandson. She talks at length about finding acceptance with her past.

Now, we must meet Eric. I was introduced one night in their apartment. He is soft-spoken, gentle, speaks only when spoken too, like a guy in charge of guarding something important. One could say he looks ex-military; high and tight hair, air of confidence. He gets up early.

He has children, with whom he speaks daily. It wasn’t always that way.

The two met while staying at EEE. She asked for a shovel one day and he appeared with one. His story dovetails hers

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

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CURRENTS

ARIZONA TRAIL ASSOCIATION VETS PROGRAM OFFERS CAMARADERIE IN THE DESERT

By David Abbott

Tucson Local Media

CARING FOR OUR MILITARY veterans is an awesome responsibility, particularly toward vets who may be dealing with the after-effects of combat or other stressful service, and while we might think of the Veterans Health Administration as the vehicle for that care, there are other ways to help.

That is where the Arizona Trail Association (ATA) enters the picture.

For nearly two years, the ATA, a nonprofit established in 1994 to manage the 800-mile Arizona National Scenic Trail (AZT), has administered a program called Veteran Engagement & Trail Stewardship (VETS) designed to help vets enjoy

the healing qualities of Arizona’s natural wonders.

“There’s a nature-based therapy aspect the VA healthcare system has yet to recognize that could offset costs of prescription medications, hospitalization and help reduce the suicide rate,” said Michael “Chappy” Chappell, who has led VETS since February 2021. “Let’s just call it what it is: Nature’s therapy. Nature is the perfect prescription.”

Chappell is a Tucson native and Navy veteran who served from 1999 to 2004 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. As a civilian, he has a rich and varied career working as an EMT and in veteri-

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nary medicine. More recently, Chappell worked for several outdoor businesses in the Tucson area until the COVID-19 pandemic set him on a search for a new career.

He has found his true calling though, helping his brothers and sisters in arms as they perform a public service, building and maintaining an iconic Arizona attraction.

THE ARIZONA TRAIL The AZT is one of 11 federally recognized National Scenic Trails in the United States, on par with such well-known trails as the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail. It stretches from the Mexican border near Douglas to Utah-Arizona border. Completed in 2011, the trail is the brainchild of the late Dale Shewalter, who moved to Arizona in 1974 and fell in love with the desert. In 1985, he hiked from Nogales to the Utah state line, demonstrating that it was possible.

He became the AZT’s first paid coordinator, but died in January 2010, a little less than two years before the trail was completed. His legacy remains intact through the existence of the trail and in the hearts of its volunteers.

The trail consists of 43 “passages,” and visits 36 towns along the way. The southern Arizona portion from Nogales to Oracle traverses approximately 227 miles through two “sky islands,” the Santa Ritas and the Santa Catalinas. Tucson is the largest “gateway community” on the trail.

Thru-hiking the AZT generally takes five to eight weeks and adventurers from all over the globe bring their sense of adventure — as well as tourist dollars — to take on the challenge.

The AZT VETS program is not only about stewardship of the national treasure but also offers a chance for participants to enjoy a sense of camaraderie in a safe and non-threatening environment.

“I’ve seen it work its magic many times over at this point during events where people come out with a certain expectation, and they walk away feeling like they got something out of it,” Chappell said.

“Not just by what the experience gave them, but also in the form of connection to the people that were in attendance with them, and hopefully they feel like there’s a little bit of a new connection, a new bond made during that time together.”

The outings take place on various parts of the trail from the low deserts to the

heights of the Mogollon Rim to the Kaibab Plateau. The work takes shape as either short-day outings for trail maintenance or multi-day camping adventures to create new trails or repair backcountry trails that are too remote for regular maintenance.

A VOLUNTEER EFFORT The VETS program is volunteer-based so Chappell spends much of his administrative time organizing and reaching out to new recruits, but he does have a core of reliable veterans who have joined him in his quest.

One of Chappell’s primary volunteers is Air Force veteran Charles Neal, who spent 41 years in service from the time he graduated high school in 1979 to his recent retirement in 2020. During his career, he spent 30 years as an aircraft mechanic, nearly a decade in the intelligence service and held a command leadership position his final five years.

“I’ve been hiking ever since we moved to Arizona about 20 years ago and just wanted something to do in retirement that was not being forced upon me,” he said. “I’m doing this because I want to. I’m on the trails, so I might as well give back, and the question I asked myself was, ‘If not me, then who?’”

Neal participated in hiking clubs on base and has done multiple “rim-to-rims” of the Grand Canyon and hiked about 350 miles of the AZT in sections. He also volunteers for Saguaro National Park West, scouting trails, identifying damage to the desert and carrying provisions to help hikers who may not have prepared for the often harsh conditions encountered in the desert.

During his time as a VETS volunteer, he has worked trails near the southern border and made several trips to Flagstaff, as well multiple events from four to six days each.

For Neal, a lot of the satisfaction he gets is offering the succor of camaraderie that can be found around the campfire, far from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

“It’s the older cats, the Vietnam guys that I respect, because they’re still out there working the trail with me and can out-work me any day,” he said. “But when we sit around the campfire and they need to talk, I have a great ear. So it’s good for me and It’s good for them.”

For Chappell, volunteer outreach is difSEE VETS PAGE 9

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

VETS FROM PAGE 8 ficult, but as the program matures he feels he is making inroads to the veteran community. He said that many of his events are about half and half returning participants to neophytes, and that his face has become more recognized at the many veteran stand downs — programs that help homeless vets — resource fairs and ceremonies related to military communities.

“Because of the nature of volunteerism, you can never really get someone to commit fully unless they’re there,” he said. “The biggest struggle is not necessarily participation, it’s about getting them to commit and show up. But if they come to my event, not only will they have an amazing experience, but they will feel better by the time they’re done with the weekend, and I’m there for them the entire way.”

For “newbie” Chad Flannery, the history he has found along the trail is as important as the camaraderie he has found around the campfire.

Flannery served in the Navy from 2000 to 2006 and his unit received a Presidential Unit Citation for securing the Iraqi oil

fields in the initial days of the invasion.

His first trip with VETS was Passage 42, the Kaibab Plateau, near the Utah border.

“That was my first time on the Arizona Trail and it was the 165th anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre,” he said. “It was quite fascinating and led me down a very awesome rabbit hole all the way back to Johnny Appleseed. I was like, ‘Holy (expletive), there’s so much history here.’”

The massacre was an ugly blot on southwestern history, when in September 1857 a community of Mormons joined by a band of Paiutes, massacred about 120 immigrants traveling by wagon train to California.

Flannery was initially hesitant to join the VETS program, but feels as if he has found a lifelong friend in Chappell.

“Thus far, I would have to say the camaraderie is the best part for sure,” Flannery said. “They got me belting out songs around the campfire. They said we’re in a band now, so I have to learn how to play the bass.”

He also sees the program and the trail as an opportunity to expand educational opportunities, ecological conservation as

well as bridge political differences that are tearing at the fabric of our society.

VETS GOING FORWARD Chappell said that as the program matures, so does his ability to manage it, both the “hard skills” of the physical aspect, as well as the “soft skills” dealing with myriad personalities away from the support of civilization.

“I think by virtue of doing several of these at this point, I’m gleaning information all the time,” he said. “Most of it’s positive, but I always honor and welcome the negative or constructive feedback as well, because it helps me see something that I wasn’t able to see.”

And of course, there is always the eternal search for funding, as the ATA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dependent on memberships, donations and grants to survive.

According to Chappell, there is a new program that is helping with overall trail maintenance known as the Fox Squad.

The name is derived from the military phonetic alphabet, where the letter “f” is notated as “foxtrot.”

The Fox Squad is a small group of paid contractors, funded by a generous grant

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM

through the Coronado National Forest, who go out into the field for days at a time to work on backcountry trails allowing for a “deeper and more immersive” experience.

Ultimately, the program is about the spirit of volunteerism and camaraderie that can only be gleaned by a group of individuals who’ve gone through similar experiences.

“Where I see it going as I get more comfortable in this role, is providing much more personalized and intimate experiences,” Chappell said. “I feel confident they’ll walk away with something other than just getting dirty with me over the weekend and maybe really, really appreciating a shower at the end of it.”

The next VETS event will be the second Veterans Day Volunteer Special Event, taking place on the Butterfly Trail near the top of Mount Lemmon at Crystal Spring from Thursday, Nov. 10 through Sunday, Nov. 13.

For information on this or other upcoming events, or to learn more about the ATA, go to aztrail.org, or contact Chappell at chappy@aztrail.org or leave a message at 970-779-5740.

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NOVEMBER 10, 2022

CURRENTS

LATINA STARTUP CULTIVATES COMMUNITY, UPLIFTS CREATIVES

By Katya Mendoza Tucson Local Media

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AS THE FOUNDER OF THE LOCAL networking group for Latina entrepreneurs the Tucson Creative Comadres (TCC), Fabiola Bedoya cultivates a sense of belonging by promoting community and collaboration.

It was a pipe dream that blossomed into a monthly meet-up group and growing social network community. Through it, Bedoya encourages Tucson Latinas to uplift and seek support from each other. Their most popular event, Cafecito & Chill, brings together comadres to discuss ideas, promote their businesses or even just to spill the frijoles.

Most recently, Bedoya participated in the Startup Tucson’s 2022 Idea Funding Pitch Competition to present her idea to a panel of judges. She made it as far as the second down-select round on Oct. 5, competing against over 50 other companies.

Although just falling short of the Main Stage prize, she is still eligible to win the Adelante Arizona and Social Impact prizes, both worth $5,000 each.

“I started through (my pitch) strong

and the questions were very engaging that I got from the judges, that gave me hope that they were invested in what my plans were with the possible funding and what the big plans are for this group,” Bedoya said.

A graduate from the University of Arizona College of Fine Arts, Bedoya said it didn’t teach the fundamentals of building a small business.

“That’s what you are, you have to put yourself out there and market yourself.”

Just before graduation, she learned her peers were in a similar spot.

“A lot of people didn’t really know what they wanted to do because they weren’t sure how to go about it,” she said.

She had taken it upon herself to attend entrepreneurial workshops and networking events such as Techstars Startup Weekend Arizona during the fall of 2020.

A three-day program for aspiring startup entrepreneurs to collaborate with experts and other aspiring creators to turn an idea into a minimal viable product to present in front of a panel of judges. After SEE LATINAS PAGE 11

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The Tucson Creative Comadres at their Cafecito and Chill event at Cartel Roasting Co. on Sept. 18. The group of Latina creatives and entrepreneurs meet monthly to network, collaborate ideas and cultivate community. (ANGIE ROBERTS/SUBMITTED)

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

LATINAS FROM PAGE 10 graduation, she applied for an Idea Funding Pitch Competition through Startup Tucson that centered BIPOC creatives the following spring of 2021.

“I made it two rounds in and (received) positive feedback that I (could) put in my back pocket,” Bedoya said.

Her second time around in the competition, had she moved forward to the final round in November, would have allowed her to present during the TenWest Festival. The grant would have helped her build a website with a directory of Latina creatives, allowing the online community to expand outside of Tucson; a working space for affordable workshops and funding for behind-the-scenes business fees.

“I want to build a big storytelling aspect of a creative entrepreneur journey and highlight different artists,” Bedoya said Through her research of the Hispanic community, Bedoya found that the culture brought additional challenges to the pursuit of a creative or artistic career.

“If you’re a first-generation, you know your parents came here and worked hard to provide for their kids and they want to see their kids succeed and not struggle like they (did),” Bedoya said.

It is embedded in the culture to pursue an education and get a well-paying job that has benefits.

“One night I was like, ‘You know what, you gathered all the data about creatives and their pain points, let’s start looking at Latina stats,’ as soon as I started picking up on the Latina pay gap, something lit a fire in me,” Bedoya said.

After becoming a mother, she knew she couldn’t attend as many workshops because kids weren’t allowed in those

Alejandra Foerg at the Cafecito and Chill event on Sept. 18 at Cartel Roasting Co. Foerg, who hails from Nogales, Arizona, is a postpartum doula. Her small business La Chuparosa offers “sacred care for all of life’s cycles.” (ANGIE ROBERTS/SUBMITTED)

spaces. She noted a need for Latinas and mothers within the entrepreneurial community.

“The first meeting I launched free of charge and honestly I used a $25 gift card that I got from attending a focus group and $10 of my own,” Bedoya said. “I wanted to test it out first.”

About 10 attendees came to the first meeting including Erica Cantua, a local painter and muralist of Erixaart, who met Bedoya through a mutual friend at a popup flea market at Borderlands Brewing Co. in 2018. Since the first meeting, Cantua said the attendees have “grown every month.”

Cantua, who quit her job last year to pursue art full-time, painted the mu-

ral on Speedway and Columbus, on the west-facing wall of the Tucson Appliance Company. She is working on constructing a mobile art shop out of a yellow school bus.

“My mission and vision have always been the same, to help creatives succeed with the tools to be able to catapult themselves as a small business,” Bedoya said.

“Even if they just need help learning how to market themselves as artists or (making) connections, or (accessing) resources.”

Bedoya, who is a full-time marketing coordinator for Goodwill Industries of Southern Arizona and a single parent, said she’s been exploring her place within the community and developing community engagement through social media.

“I make sure I know what people are doing, what accomplishments they’ve done and make them feel seen,” Bedoya said.

“If I am paying attention, then they know that I care, and I do care.”

Ali Baxley of Ali B Confectionary said Tucson Creative Comadres “popped up on Instagram.” A full-time Latina cookier who makes “pretty cookies,” wanted to join a creative and supportive community, a common sentiment heard throughout “las comadres.”

“I was referred to (Tucson Creative Comadres) by a friend,” said Marcia Fragoso, small business owner of SocialBuzzAZ, a bartending and catering service. “That’s really all it is, small business owners being able to talk to one another and getting to meet people and hearing what inspired them.

“I want people to bounce ideas off of each other and have that support,” said Angie Roberts, a local wedding photographer who owns CandidSol. Alejandra Foerg, a postpartum doula

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11

who recently moved back to be closer to her home of Nogales, Arizona, was also looking for the company of like-minded individuals with whom to share and contribute her gifts.

Through networking events like the Cafecito and Chill, “comadres” are able to cultivate connections in an accessible and relaxed setting.

“I just know where I want to take this and branch out to a general creative comadres community online and travel to smaller places that may not have this kind of thing,” Bedoya said. “I want them to know that they’re a part of something.”

Founder of the Tucson Creative Comadres group, Fabiola Bedoya, at Cafecito and Chill on Sept. 18, at Cartel Roasting Co. Bedoya, recently applied for the Startup Tucson Idea Funding Pitch Competition for the Tucson Creative Comadres and is in the second down-select round of the competition.

(ANGIE ROBERTS/SUBMITTED)

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TUCSONWEEKLY.COM

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

CURRENTS

SUPPORTERS GO OVER THE EDGE RAPPELLING FOR GIRL SCOUTS

By Hope Peters

Tucson Local Media There is no age requirement, however, participants must weigh between 100 and 300 pounds due to safety equipment standards.

This year makes the seventh year the local Girl Scouts have hosted this event.

In November 2021, Over the Edge raised just shy of $100,000. Its highest-grossing year was in 2017 with $105,000.

“Last year we were able to bring in $95,000,” said Niki Hoffman, GSSOAZ’s chief marketing and fund development officer.

“Our hope is $100,000 for this year.

Last year was the second-highest grossing year for the event. But it usually generates about $70,000 to $90,000.”

Tank said the money includes corporate sponsorships, as well as funds raised by the individual edgers.

“We have some individuals, who come through at the last minute, so the fundraising plat for more will remain open; some are still raising funds even up to the day of,” Hoffman said. “We will keep it open. If they want to come in at the last minute most will pay the full $1,000 to get a spot, but we usually have everything scheduled and ready to go, so we will plug them in where we have availability.”

Sixty-three individuals have registered. People who want to participate can come in after fundraising or paying the full $1,000 up until 4 p.m. The last edger will rappel at 4:50 p.m.

They have nine corporate sponsors that, depending on their level of giving for the event, do receive some gifted spots.

Edger Dominic Ortega dons a Captain America custom for Hoffman said having his rappel. (GIRL SCOUTS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA/SUBMITTED)

Thrill-seekers will descend 17 stories for a good cause in an exclusive rappelling fundraising event in Southern Arizona for the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona.

The professional event and rappelling organization, Over the Edge, is hosting the fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at the 5151 E. Broadway building. Each participant entered the event by raising $1,000, and all the proceeds go to Girl Scouts-led programs.

“The beauty of this event is that it is led by a team of professionals,” said MacGyver-Marsha Tank, chief operating officer for the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona.

“Over the Edge is our partner in this.

It’s not just the name of the event, Over the Edge is a company who does these events across the country. They are highly skilled and certified.

“We like this event because it truly speaks to our mission. Of building girls with courage, confidence and character.”

(Left) Dani Kennedy of SPENGA is brave about going over the edge.

(Right) Abby Charles, Miss Tucson 2021, braved the descent last year.

(GIRL SCOUTS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA/SUBMITTED)

Girl Scouts participate helps ease the nerves of adults and the descent.

“Last year, the girls going over were the calmest out of all the groups,” Hoffman emphasized. “We like to pair an adult with a girl; adults were shaking and nervous. We do this for them (the Girl Scouts). So, to see such fearlessness in them…and it really calms some of the adults down.”

People can sponsor a Girl Scout to do the rappelling at the event, but Hoffman said some of the girls have raised their own funds to go over the edge.

Each year the funds raised by the Over the Edge event goes to the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona and its self-supported programs. Some of the programs bring Girl Scouting to girls in low-income and high-need communities of Southern Arizona, giving them access to handson learning in STEM, the outdoors, life skills, service learning, self-esteem building, financial literacy, career exploration, and building sisterhood.

This year’s corporate sponsors are: • ONEAZ Credit Union • Arizona Blue Cross Blue Shield • Desert Diamond Casinos • Pima Medical Institute • Tucson Medical Center • GEICO • Hughes Federal Credit Union • Tucson Electric Power • Gibson’s Office Solutions

Edgers rappel from the 17-story building at last year’s event. (GIRL SCOUTS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA/SUBMITTED)

Girl Scout Shop 4330 E. Broadway Boulevard 520-319-3145 girlscoutssoaz.org Tuesday to Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

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NOVEMBER 10, 2022

VETERANS MEMORIAL WALL DISPLAY For the 12th year, Casino del Sol hosts the American Veterans Traveling Tribute/ Vietnam Memorial wall display through Sunday, Nov. 13. Visitors are invited to sign the wall with personal stories and notes of appreciation to military personnel. The wall is an 80% scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., and includes all 58,000 names that are etched into the original.

Through Sunday, Nov. 13, Casino Del Sol, Conference Center foyer, 5655 W. Valencia Road, free.

“GREAT PAPER AIRPLANE FLY OFF” AT PIMA AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM The organizers’ website is helpful, offering instructions for six popular folding patterns, along with instructions for entering the competition. Kids ages 6 to 14 compete in one of three age categories.

Each contestant builds and throws their paper airplane, and the farthest throw wins. Prizes also go to the top three finishers in each age category. Contestants are admitted free along with three of their friends and relations. Everyone gets a free lunch.

8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Pima Air and Space Museum, 6000 E. Valencia Road, pimaair.org, free admission and lunch for contestants and up to three of their guests.

PIMA COMMUNITY ARTS: “CABARET” American Sign Language interpretation is featured Nov. 18 in a two-week run of one of the most popular Broadway musicals. Set in Berlin during the jazz age, in the shadow of the Nazis’ rising power, the play centers on escapist pleasures in a nightclub. Romance ensues between an American writer and an English cabaret singer. Fans of the movie version may forever project Liza Minelli on her.

Various times through Sunday, Nov. 20, Pima Proscenium Theater, Pima Community College West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road, pima.universitytickets. com, $15.

TUCSON MODERNISM WEEK A stunning, mid-century classic, the Jacobson house reaches up at every angle to embrace Sonoran sunlight. It’s among four modernist homes opening its doors

,

and reservations.

Times, events and prices vary, Wednesday, Nov. 9, to Sunday, Nov. 13, preservetucson.org/modernism-week

by Linda Ray PLAYGROUND NIGHT CLUB GRAND REOPENING Finally! Downtown Tucson’s favorite indoor/outdoor rooftop dance and social club flings open its doors once again this Friday. The kitchen and bar offer some new creations among the old favorites.

Just remember, the kitchen closes at 11.

Get your munchies on early.

4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, Playground Bar & Lounge, 278 E Congress Street, free, $20 VIP admission.

TUCSON FOLK FESTIVAL BENEFIT CONCERT A Saturday fundraiser offers a sampler of things to come in April’s Tucson Folk Festival. The benefit’s lineup includes Eric Schaffer & the Other Troublemakers and The Tirebiters and it features Matt Rolland and Rebekah Sandoval Rolland’s new RISO project. The duo walked away from their nationally recognized bluegrass and folk group, Run Boy Run, to embark on a more melodic and writerly sound. They released their first, eponymous, RISO recording in July. It’s available on all music apps.

Tucson musicians note: applications to perform in the Tucson Folk Festival, are online at tucsonfolkfest.org.

7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Hotel Congress Plaza, 311 E. Congress Street, $15 advance, $20 at the door.

TRULY NOLEN COMMUNITY CAR SHOW Tucson Car Club entries join classics from Truly Nolen’s Antique Car Collection, (including the perennially popular 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air) at an event that’s becoming an annual tradition. Vote for your favorites and they may win trophies. Food trucks and a Kid’s Corner full of activities make it a family affair. This year, the community’s invited to “Stuff the Mouse Limo” with new, unwrapped toys to benefit children served by the late Ramon Gonzales’ charity, “Miracle on 31st Street.”

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Truly Nolen Corporate Leadership and Training Center, 432 S. Williams Boulevard, free. to mid-Mod enthusiasts during Tucson Modernism week. A tour of noted landscape architect Garrett Eckbo’s 20th century designs includes the restored rock and water garden at the Tucson Convention Center. A free bazaar at the former Hirsh’s Shoe Store, another MCM classic,

displays paintings and fashion designs from the estates of prominent Tucsonans of the era. Among other opportunities, the week also offers a $200 tour of the mid-century modern architecture in “Ambos Nogales,” along the Mexican border. See the website for event details

LYNN XU: “AND THOSE ASHEN HEAPS/THAT CANTILEVERED VASE OF MOONLIGHT” Pan-genre artist and poet Lynn Xu makes art with words, in sounds, across space and on three-dimensional media. Over the course of the exhibit, Xu will turn reading into a dance party, hang enormous banners of text, read in Japanese and Spanish and incorporated video, audio and site-specific “interventions” that give 3D space her writing. The exhibition’s title is the name of her book. Xu teaches at Columbia University and has exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, among other highly regarded spaces.

Various times and dates through Sunday, Jan. 8, Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), 265 S. Church Avenue, moca-tucson.org, $7, kids free.

“BEST 23 MILES O MEXICAN FOOD” A benefit for the Tucson International Mariachi Conference brings Tucson’s vaunted “Best 23 Miles of Mexican Food” to the MSA Annex in the Mercado District. Restaurants along the traditional 23-mile route set up shop on the MCA Annex Grounds to offer a sampler of quality and variety of our town’s favorite Mexican cuisines. Mariachi bands and folklorico dancers provide entertainment throughout.

3 to 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 12, MCA Annex, 267 S. Avenida del Convento, tucsonmariachi.org, $60.

SIERRA VISTA: COX MOVIES IN THE PARK Cox Communications reboots its Movies in the Park series with a screening of “Nightmare Before Christmas.” The family favorite is a timely mash up of Halloween and Christmas stories. Festivities begin with a food truck round up at 5 p.m.

Families are welcome to bring their own picnics, too, but no fires or grilling are allowed. The movie starts at 6 p.m.

5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at Veterans Memorial Park, 3105 E. Fry Boulevard, Sierra Vista, free.

SEE CITY WEEK PAGE 20

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

LAUGHING STOCK

‘THE BIG DADDIES:’ IMPROV LESSONS FOR LIFE

By Linda Ray WE CAUGHT UP WITH MICHAEL Vietinghoff and Matt Beaudry just after they wrapped their weekly Monday podcast, The Big Daddies. The pair have seven children between them, hence the name.

Vietinghoff ’s four are grown and out of the house; Beaudry’s three are all under 12. Fortunately, the duo likes to laugh.

Friends for years, they can’t talk 60 seconds without riffing. There’s always something funny about kids and families, even if it’s painful or awkward at the time.

Their chemistry feels like alchemy when The Big Daddies are live onstage, uncensored, at Unscrewed Theatre on the second and fourth Saturday every month.

Their next show is at 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12.

The Big Daddies’ rich vein of slice-oflife inspirations is augmented by the pure gold of character influences they draw from their work environments. Beaudry is a social worker with La Frontera Centers; Vietinghoff is a long-time card dealer at Casino Del Sol. Oh, the character traits they’ve borrowed!

The podcast was Beaudry’s idea. “We would talk on the phone and laugh and crack each other up,” said Vietinghoff, “and he was, like, ‘Why don’t we just record this? Because if anyone out there finds our conversations as amusing as I find our conversations, we’ll be doing the world service.’”

The kinship that drives The Big Daddies’ humor has been almost 15 years in the making. “Back in (2005), before we had the (first Unscrewed) theater,” Vietinghoff said. “I taught what is now our basic Unscrewed class curriculum for free out in the community to try to grow the troupe. Matt signed up for that. You could call it a ‘learning experience.’”

Vietinghoff had performed in plays and choirs in school but gave up the stage to be an adult head-of-household. His kids grew, time freed up, and he wanted to get back to performing. So, he signed up for

The Big Daddies find improv helpful in family life. (LINDA RAY/CONTRIBUTOR)

“Acting 101” at a local community college.

“One of my classmates was performing at a theater in Scottsdale (formerly Star Theater) and he invited me to his short form (improv) show. I watched and thought, ‘I can’t believe this exists. I want to learn how to do that.’”

Beaudry, by contrast, was practically a seasoned improviser. “I started my ‘improv journey’ here at Pima Community College in a troupe called the Peanut Gallery back in 2001.” Then he went off to see the world in LA. “I moved back into Tucson and was working at a call center when I saw a ‘Not Burnt Out, Just Unscrewed,’ bumper sticker,” he said. “I wanted to audition but I had to go through this class.” Not long after, he became a member of the frequently performing, but at the time, itinerant, NBOJU (Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed) improv troupe.

By 2014, Unscrewed had a physical theater and The Big Daddies started performing as a duo, eventually becoming a house team. Now they’re sharing the laughs in Unscrewed Theater’s regular rotation.

Vietinghoff said he loves being a dad.

It fuels his passion for improv. “I’ve been performing and teaching improv for 20 years and the reason I’m so passionate about it is that the minute I applied the lessons I learn about improv to my personal life, my whole life got easier, better, and more productive,” he said.

TUCSON COMEDY ARTS FESTIVAL Workshops, out-of-town guest artists, standup shows, a dozen improv teams an afterparty, free jams and lots of opportunities to socialize will pack the three days of the Tucson Comedy Arts Festival Thursday, Nov. 10, to Saturday, Nov. 12.

Guest improvisers from as far away as Chicago and as close as Phoenix will take the stage throughout the weekend.

Unscrewed Theater’s premier NBOJU and Big Daddies teams will take the stage as will several teams from the host company, Tucson Improv Movement. The UA’s long-running Chomsky School of Business also is featured, along with a revival of Party Barf and a set from Phoenix’ VerizonQwest.

Dante Lauretta, who serves as the principal investigator on NASA’s OSIRIS-

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REx mission is the special guest for The Soapbox. The Soapbox team will improvise funny scenes inspired by his stories.

All details, workshop reservations and ticket packages are available at tucsonimprov.com/tcaf

MORE COMEDY THIS WEEK Black Rock Brewers Comedy, 1664 S. Research Loop, Suite 200, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, Black Rock Brewers, $5 at the door. Mo Urban hosts and Ali Musa headlines a lineup including Priscilla Fernandez, Autumn Horvat, Derek McFarland, Joe Tullar and Matt Ziemak.

Colin Quinn Live!, The Rialto Theatre, 318 Congress Street, 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, Rialto Theatre, ticketmaster.com, tickets start at $24.

Clean Comedy Marana/Vail, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 11, Coyote Trail Stage, 8000 N. Silverbell Road, maranalaughs.com, tickets start at $10. Also, 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Vail Theater of the Arts, 10701 E. Mary Ann Cleveland Way, vaillaughs. com, tickets start at $10. Tucson favorite Monte Benjamin headlines; Phoenix SEE LAUGHING STOCK PAGE 18

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TUCSONWEEKLY.COM

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

By Xavier Otero

Tucson Local Media

MARK YOUR CALENDARS… THURSDAY, NOV. 10 “You can build the wall if you want. But life on a border has always been about exchange,” said Ricky Shimo. He is a product of such an environment where multinational brands like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola coexist alongside carne asada and horchata sold by street vendors from a cart in perfectly pitched harmony.

Now Shimo — co-founder of Lenguas Largas — is ready to embark on a West Coast tour that will take the “Groovysmo” of his band Anchorbaby all the way up to Canada to join Built to Spill for a few dates. Extending a stiff middle finger at the misguided blame cast upon marginalized peoples, Anchorbaby — along with special guests the Freezing Hands and Mute Swan — perform at 191 Toole…

Like taking a stroll in the gentle rain, jazz vocalist Steve Duson — accompanied by guitarist Matt Mitchell, upright bassist Evan Arredondo and Pete Swan behind the trap kit — perform jazz standards and Bossa nova classics at The Century Room… Heavy metal, death and punk rockers form a group therapy circle.

Sleeping with the Witch, Old Fashion Assassin, Napalm Strike and Standard Deviance consort for an evening of not so well-adjusted aberrancy at Club Congress… Continuing her monthly residency, pianist Susan Artemis tickles the keys into the Late Night at The Century Room… In an epic bashment celebrating Tucson musician Rae.L’s 24th birthday, Aura, Mo LaFlow, Sycness, Spit The Rat, Sol and LynZee pull together to form an unstoppable all-female lineup at Thunder Canyon Brewery…

FRIDAY, NOV. 11 The sixth annual DUSK Music Festival befalls upon Downtown Tucson once

again. GRiZ, Alison Wonderland and Young the Giant headline the two-day experience where music, art, cutting-edge cuisine and games intersect. Featuring over 40 artists — including Cannons, NGHTMRE, Nora En Pure, Sofi Tukker, Zomboy and many others — on three stages, this year’s festival promises to be the most diverse convergence to date.

DUSK Fest runs Friday, Nov. 11, and Saturday, Nov. 12, at Jácome Plaza… Taking cues from mid-1970s and ’80s post-punk frontiersmen like The Cure and Elvis Costello, the Bad Suns’ fourth album, “Apocalypse Whenever” functions as a conveyance. Frontman Christo Bowman opined, “Though we can now reflect on that era of music, those artists were ahead of their time in a lot of ways. That’s what is most inspiring.” Not just “Daft Pretty Boys,” Los Angeles indie rockers Bad Suns return to the Rialto Theatre. Last Dinosaurs and Quarters of Change render opening sets… Acclaimed pianist Natasha Paremski and the mighty Tucson Symphony Orchestra, led by maestro José Luis Gomez, perform Juan Pablo Contreras’ “MeChicano,” Sergei Rachmaninoff ’s “Piano Concerto No. 2,” and Carl Nielsen’s “Symphony No. 4” — in the first of two dates — at The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall… DJ Remix mans the decks for Downtown Tucson’s premiere queer dance party. In a dazzling night featuring burlesque artist Kitty Catatonic, entertainer Ima Peepers and dancer Na-il Ali Emmert, Super Gay Party Machine returns to Club Congress… P.D. Ronstadt & The Co. fête the release of “Standing in the Shadow of Giants.” A project that broke ground in December 2018, this long-awaited debut album features drummer Bryan Matyjasik, bassist Sam Eagon, saxophonist Alex Flores, accordionist/pianist Bobby Ronstadt, vocalist Katie Arellano, multi-instrumentalist Alvin Blaine, violinist Matt Rolland, cellist SEE XOXO PAGE 17

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

XOXO FROM PAGE 16 Michael G. Ronstadt, banjo player Don Armstrong and vocalist/guitarist/banjo player Peter Dalton Ronstadt, of course.

P.D. Ronstadt & The Co. perform its debut album in its entirety, with many of the musicians who cut tracks during the studio sessions joining Ronstadt on stage.

Immediately afterward, DJ Humblelianess curates a picante mix of bangers as El Tambó keeps the Latinx dance party lit, all on the plaza at Hotel Congress…

Celebrating the music of jazz great Wes Montgomery, guitarists Howard Alden and Mike Gellar, accompanied by double bassist Evan Dain and trapsman Arthur Vint, present “Wes’ Coast Blues” — a play on the song title of Montgomery’s classic album “West Coast Blues” — at The Century Room… After slogging through the trenches of the Tucson music scene for over 40 years — casting aside desert rock tropes — honky-tonk/hard country-blues provocateur Hank Topless & The Dead Horsemen are poised to desecrate the patio once again at St. Charles Tavern.

Phoenix honky-tonk maven Brea Burns kicks off the evening… Spinning vinyl for music lovers, long-time Downtown DJ Carl Hanni — filling his sets with a mix heavy on funky 1960s and ’70s jazz, cocktail lounge, bossa nova, Ethio-jazz and classics — sets a chill vibe for Late Night Lounge at The Century Room…

SATURDAY, NOV. 12 After touring worldwide before the onset of the pandemic in 2020, to critical acclaim, producer/show creator Angelo “Scrote” Bundini has once again assembled a formidable ensemble to interpret the music of legendary artist David Bowie. Featuring Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Todd Rundgren, guitarist extraordinaire

Adrian Belew, Spacehog’s Royston Langdon, Fishbone’s Angelo Moore, guitarist Jeffrey Gaines, saxophonist Ron Dziubla, producer/multi-instrumentalist Narada Michael Walden bassist Angeline Saris, and drummer Michael Urbano, the interplanetary spectacle that is Celebrating David Bowie makes landing at The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall… In 2018, after 30 years of friendship, country musicians Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore released “Downey to Lubbock.”

Covering old blues and folk songs — Will Shade’s “Stealin’, Stealin,’” Lightning Hopkins’ “Buddy Brown’s Blues,” Chris Gafney’s “The Gardens,” Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” and eight others — the record is an exploration of their shared musical roots.

Out on the road again, with a full band in tow, Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore perform material from their critically acclaimed collaborative album. Special guest Mark Insley opens the show at the Rialto Theatre… Closely following the release of “Pa’ Luego Es Tarde” — an album in which the Mexican pop singer reconnects with her Norteño roots — Yuridia returns to Centennial Hall… In honor of the four-year anniversary of Nitecall, overseer of the dark realm, resident DJ Mijito with special guest Phoenician DJ Tristan Iseult present Stripped: A Depeche Mode Tribute at The Royal Room…

Created in 1950 to continue the musical tradition established by Maj. Glenn Miller’s Army Air Forces Orchestra, the premier jazz ensemble of the United States Air Force, the Airmen of Note — consisting of 18 active duty musicians and a vocalist — perform a free concert event at the Fox Tucson Theatre… Established to further public awareness and interest in acoustic music and folk arts, the Tucson

Kitchen Musicians Association presents Americana Night. A benefit for the annual Tucson Folk Festival, the concert event features performances by Eric Schaffer & The Other Troublemakers, The Tirebiters and RISO on the Hotel Congress plaza… Sonoran Desert country-tinged rockers Armando Moreno & The Revival — with special guests Znora — transform the faithless at the House of Bards…

Setting the tone for Saturday night, DJs Bex & Halsero “Throw Some Flips” on the dance floor, outdoors on the plaza.

While resident DJ Posi spins all the jams indoors in the club at Hotel Congress…

SUNDAY, NOV. 13 John Craigie’s storytelling, often interspersed with comedy, evokes a keen sense of sadness or regret. While his music and commitment to living life on the road has drawn comparisons to folk icon Woody Guthrie. On “Microdose” the Portland-based singer-songwriter sings, “I microdosed for months and months / Dissolved my ego in the acid.” The track is from “Mermaid Salt,” written amid the social disconnect of the pandemic.

During this period, he explored the environment around him. “From the Oregon coast to the waterfalls,” Craigie said. And he read books about Levon Helm, Billie Holiday, and Ani DiFranco. “I (had) time to silence all the noise and chaos of touring and look inward,” Craigie observed.

Craigie carries on the long legacy of storytelling — with special guest Anna Moss — at 191 Toole… Born and raised in New York City’s Lower East Side, indie-rock/folk-punk Jeffrey Lewis has taken a somewhat scuzzy, urban sound — a sonic mash-up of acoustic guitar-propelled, rambling, folksy spoken-not-sung spiel — and turned it into compelling 21st

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century indie-pop wig-outs. Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage — with special guests Golden Boots and The Sinks — share the stage at Club Congress… Find out what everyone’s “Talkin’ Bout.” Known for his conscious, affecting rap style, underground hip-hop artist O.E of ColorBlind — backed by Phínix, SeenLoc and special guests — leads the Back to the Grind Tour to the Thunder Canyon Brewery…

Hosted by Paul Bowman, the latest manifestation of the Fruit Cocktail Lounge showcases the talents of pianist Dylan Dominguez and vocalist Shira Maas.

Tucson’s premiere LGBTQA+ jazz cocktail party unfolds at The Century Room…

A hurricane is coming your way. Featuring saxophonist “Hurricane” Carla Brownlee and Arizona Blues Hall of Famer Mike Blommer on guitar, Tucson blues institution Bad News Blues make landfall on the Hotel Congress Plaza for the latest installment of the Congress Cookout…

MONDAY, NOV. 14 Turning his childhood experiences into a new reality. As a teenager Mark Henriquez, known by his tag Gremlin, grabbed a pen, put it to paper and has not looked back since. “I make music for people who’ve gone through pain and feel broken.” Growing up in working-class Santa Ana, California, watching his mother struggle with addiction, Henriquez’s eyes were open wide. “You see a lot of things you shouldn’t see as a kid; like addicts coming in and out of your home to dealers pulling a gun on your mom because she owes them money,” Henriquez reflected. “The way I coped with the madness was with my writing.”

SEE XOXO PAGE 18

Life Under the Oaks is bringing a bit of the Lavender Farm to the “Old Pueblo.” We are excited to announce the Grand Opening of the Lavender Manor at 347 East 4th Street in Tucson!

Grand Opening will be November 12th The Lavender Manor will offer our natural, small batch, handcrafted lavender farm products, dried lavender bundles, wreaths, sachets, special curated plates, mugs & jewelry, ALL from local artists!

520-820-3454 • lifeunderoaks@gmail.com

Go to our website for all upcoming events www.lifeundertheoakslavenderfarm.com

Wed-Fri 11am-6pm, Sat 11am-7pm, Sun 11am-4pm Closed Mon & Tues

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NOVEMBER 10, 2022

XOXO FROM PAGE 17 Rapper/model/YouTuber Gremlin is at 191 Toole…

TUESDAY, NOV. 15 Showcasing some of Tucson’s finest experimental artists: XSONAZX, Lid Ismuth, Igloo Martian, Sun Spit, and Zack Hansen for an uncanny evening filled with liminal ambient washes, jarring walls of noise, distortions and resultant visual manifestations. Desert Drone: An immersion in noise, drone, experimental and ambient music generates an oscillating low-pitched hum at Club Congress…

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16 Following up on the success of their 2020 full-length album debut “Infinitely Ordinary” — spawning runaway hits “Favorite Liar” and “Fvck Somebody” — The Wrecks volley back with “Sonder.” The urban dictionary defines the word sonder as “the realization that everyone around you has a life outside of yours, complete with their own thoughts, feelings, and emotions.” Can you imagine that? Oh, and by the way, as per the Los Angeles alt-rock/pop punk’s Twitter account, they

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comics Carole Freeman and Leigh Cummings feature.

David Sedaris, Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Boulevard, 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, centhall.org, tickets start at $41. The show was sold out at press time.

Depression is No Joke! Comedy Show, Bumsted’s, 1003 N. Stone Avenue, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, ladyhahacomedy. com, $5, maximum capacity 70, featuring Allreddy Improv, Andrea Salazar, Jessie Sweeney, Kathie Hedrick, Lux’Shree, Mo Urban, Morgan Kuehn, Priscilla Fernandez and Stacy Scheff.

Laff ’s Comedy Caffe, 2900 E. Broadway Boulevard. 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 12, laffstucson. com, $15, $20 preferred seating, Ivan Pecel is to juggling what Edward Lear was to poetry.

The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress Street, 11 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, screeningroomdowntown.com, free, Late Night Comedy with Chris Quinn.

Tucson Comedy Arts Festival, Tucson

are “stoked to announce the release of the first ever nail polish by The Wrecks. This color is Sonder.” The Wrecks are poised to embrace all the age of narcissism has to offer at Club Congress… Few chamber ensembles in history have enjoyed the success that the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio savored for 45 years. In homage to the trio’s pianist who passed away in March of 2022, Arizona Friends of Chamber Music present a Concert Honoring Joseph Kalichstein. Featuring violinist Jaime Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson, violist/composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and pianist Anna Polonsky — performing Mozart’s “Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478,” Ngwenyama’s “Elegy for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello,” and Dvořák’s “Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87” — at the Leo Rich Theater…

Following in the tradition of Louis Armstrong, Sydney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton and other early jazz innovators that came out of New Orleans and Chicago in the early 20th century, the Mysterious Babies perform at The Century Room…

Until next week, XOXO…

Improv Movement/TIM Comedy Theatre, 414 E. Ninth Street, tucsonimprov. com, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, The College Show; 8:30 p.m. Big Wet Throbbing Queer Comedy Show; 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, Improv Appetizer: Big Daddies, NBOJU and Kitten Spit; 7:30 p.m. The Soapbox with Dante Lauretta from the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory; 9 p.m.

Standup Showcase, 10:30 p.m. Late Night Jam and After Party; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, The Dating Scene, Party Barf, Unscrewed Theatre and the UA’s Chomsky School of Business; 9 p.m. Improv Feast! featuring VerizonQwest, Your Favorite Movie Improvised, Jacque & Liz, Turtle, Festival All Stars.

Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E. Speedway Boulevard, unscrewedtheatre.org, $8 live or streaming, $5 kids live, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov.11, Family-Friendly Improv; 9 p.m.

Unscrewed Fridays After Dark; Saturday, Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m. Family-Friendly Improv; 9 p.m. Uncensored Improv featuring NBOJU, The Big Daddies with special guests, Rolland & Riches; Monday, Nov. 14, 6:30 p.m. Improv Drop-ins, free.

NOVEMBER 10, 2022

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MUSIC

IN HIS NEW MEMOIR, KID CONGO POWERS TELLS ALL

By Xavier Omar Otero

Tucson Weekly Contributor

NAMED AFTER THE CRAMPS’ classic banger, Kid Congo Powers’ new book “Some New Kind of Kick” with co-author Chris Campion is a confidential, coming-of-age memoir.

The illustrious guitarist formerly with The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Gun Club details the exploits and misadventures of a young, queer Chicano kid, set against the hedonism and revolutionary spirit of the 1970s and ’80s underground music scenes.

Born in La Puente, California, in 1959, Brian Tristan was later christened Kid Congo Powers by Lux Interior and Poison Ivy shortly after joining The Cramps in 1980. He found inspiration in the invocation on the label of a Santeria candle.

Powers is a second-generation Mexican American. He describes his early childhood as prosaic.

“Life was pretty good. I had a great mother and father and two sisters. At the time La Puente was a brand-new suburb in the San Gabriel Valley. Lots of kids around. I was never at a loss for friends and neighborhood trouble.”

But the normalcy of suburban life would not last.

Raised in a Catholic family, Powers went through experimental phases.

“During junior high and high school,

I was more of a ‘weirdo’ into rock than a queer kid.” He was president of The Ramones fan club and ran a fanzine for the first wave of LA electro-punks The Screamers.

Being queer was not talked about at home.

“I could hide my queerness in things like glam rock,” Powers said. “Music gave me license to be free, to be flamboyant and the desire to explore what was going on inside me.”

During this formative period, Powers found a confidant in his beloved cousin Theresa. She was his age and understood. They shared secrets. “She was one of the first people who I said, ‘You know, I could maybe be bisexual.’”

With her he found acceptance.

Tragically, Theresa was murdered in Boyle Heights. The case remains unsolved.

“I was about 15 years old when it happened.”

For Powers the Earth shifted axis.

He did not receive much in the way of guidance from the adults. “They were in their own grief and maybe didn’t know how to explain it to a young kid.”

He was left to find his own ways to cope.

“The walls went up, and the gates went

Kid Congo Powers reads from his memoir, “Some New Kind of Kick” at MOCA on Thursday, Nov. 17. (LUZ GALLARDO/CONTRIBUTOR)

down,” Powers recalled. “No one (in my family) was going to talk about it. I had to take things into my own hands.”

What ensued was a heady period of experimentation mixed with nihilism.

“I decided that I was going to experience everything,” Powers stated. “Because life is not worth much. And it can be over at any second.”

Powers found escape in the changing musical tide. Glam rock was an explosion that resonated deep within his soul.

“David Bowie stood as a teenage dream,” Powers reminisced. “The Ziggy Stardust character provided an amazing analogy for a teenager, being a sexually ambiguous alien lost in outer space.”

The timing was perfect.

Identifying with a group of people bored with convention, Powers found the

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way to deal with the depression after losing a family member to gun violence.

“Finding excitement was my holy grail,” he said. “The crazier and more fun, the better.”

Glam rock created a safe space.

“It gave me a sense of liberation. I could have queer feelings or not. I could dress up and be ambiguous or not,” Powers added. “Very much like what’s going on with trans kids today.

“I was about 14 or 15 when I started going to Rodney Bigenheimer’s English Disco, in LA.” For a misfit searching for identity, the legendary Sunset Strip den of iniquity, that catered to the glam rock movement, proved to be a place where Powers could SEE KID CONGO PAGE 20

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NOVEMBER 10, 2022

KID CONGO FROM PAGE 19 mark his own identity.

The glam scene interwove seamlessly with the gay disco scene, during that time. The Other Side and The Odyssey nightclubs were frequented by the English Disco crowd. The Paradise Disco was also a regular haunt with glam rockers. “You could always buy quaaludes there,” Powers said.

“I couldn’t afford expensive designer clothes, so I actually made my own clothes. I got into sewing because I was like, ‘Oh, I have to make this satin outfit or suit,’” Powers recalled, fondly. “I would put glitter on my platform shoes. I could be completely flamboyant, primping around, prancing, dancing and romancing.”

Yet, music is a fickle art form. And change is the only constant.

“This was also the beginning of bands like the Runaways. They formed a bridge that spanned between glam rock and punk, that was more hard rock.” Along with seminal proto-punk acts like a dog-collared Iggy Pop and The Stooges and The MC5 — meting out a raw, at times vicious, brand of rock ‘n’ roll — this advance guard rapidly gained notoriety.

Rooted in ’60s garage rock, punk as a reactionary movement — against what punks saw as bombastic forms of heavy metal, progressive and arena rock — exploded in the United States and England by the late ’70s.

“Patti Smith, in 1975 when ‘Horses’ came out, completely changed my whole

CLAYTOONZ By Clay Jones

idea of performance.” And opened yet another door of exploration for Powers into Beat poetry and literature.

“Perfect for the ‘Catholic kid’ was the first line from Smith’s first album, ‘Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.’”

From that moment on, Powers found a new religion, worshiping at the feet of the Godmother of Punk Rock.

During this time Powers met Jeffrey Lee Pierce — who unbeknownst to him at the time would become his consort in The Gun Club — while standing in line at The Whisky a Go Go, queued up to see Pere Ubu. “He just struck me. He didn’t really look punk. He was dressed in an homage to Deborah Harry: a white trench coat, a big Deborah Harry badge, weird ribbons in his hair and two-tone saddle Oxford shoes.” “‘This guy’s a real weirdo,’ I thought.

‘But I like him.’ He was neither a slick city guy nor a hard punk rocker. He was something else, I like confused identities.”

Intrigued, the two spoke, as they drank from a brown paper bag.

The music fanatics discovered they had common ground.

“We had both been gripped by a desire to search out new music, sounds, scenes, and people. Like me, Jeffrey had been to New York, where he had tried to start a band. And while reviewing reggae releases for Slash magazine, he’d gone to Jamaica to experience the music at its source,” Powers enthused.

The conversation culminated with Pierce proposing that they should start a

band together.

“Well, I don’t play anything,” Powers replied. Despite having a lot of musician friends, being in a band was something he had never seriously considered.

Undaunted, Pierce said he could teach Powers an easy method to learn guitar, using open E tuning. “‘That’s how blues musicians play slide guitar,’” he explained. “‘You can play chords with one finger.’ He made it sound easy enough.”

Despite Powers’ reluctance to take the blind leap of faith, crossing over from fan to musician, ultimately, it was Pierce’s confidence and insistence that persuaded Powers to embrace the do-it-yourself spirit of the times and jump. “‘We’ll get free drinks and get into shows easier,’ he said with the glee of a carny who’s hit on a surefire scam. If I was feeling trepidation before, I was all in now,” Powers said with verve. “Free drinks? Sold!”

The next day a nascent version of The Gun Club was born.

“We made something out of nothing.”

Pierce, ever ambitious, hoodwinked their first gig opening for The Blasters at

The Hong Kong Café; an infamous Chinatown venue host to numerous early West Coast punk rock shows during the late 1970s and early ’80s.

“I remember thinking, ‘I’m not ready to play.’ We had just started rehearsing.”

“Everyone (on the scene) was just making up new sounds and creating a new language,” Powers recalled. “That’s what The Gun Club was doing.”

“We set out to destroy music, as much as create it.”

“The more chaos, the more magic,” served as the band’s unwritten manifesto.

And that is where Powers’ story begins.

Kid Congo Powers reads from his memoir, “Some New Kind of Kick,” followed by a Q&A and book signing WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17 WHERE: MOCA: Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, 265 S. Church Avenue, Tucson COST: Free admission INFO: 520-624-5019

CITY WEEK FROM PAGE 14 “A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY UNIT AT MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY” A romantic comedy, and a New York Times Critics’ Pick, “A Funny Thing…” is, in fact, a hilarious thing about a topic we’d expect to have us weeping. One critic called it, exultantly, “raunchy!” Still it is poignant, tense, alarming and, against all

odds, romantic to its core. That is to say it’s deeply human, and it’s the humanity that prevails. Preview night, Nov. 18, benefits the Arizona Oncology Foundation.

Various dates and times, Nov. 18 through Dec. 4, Next Stage Theatre Southwest, Temple of Music and Art Cabaret Theater, 330 S. Scott Avenue, eventbrite.com, $50 benefit, other tickets start at $22.

Next Class Series: November 14, 2022 Monday Night 10-Week Progressive Tango Series BB DanceSport 6383 E Grant Rd Suite 115 Contact Kate Rosalik: 520.609.2159

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NOVEMBER 10, 2022

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TOP (L-R): English Bernhardt, Jasmine Rogers, Nadina Hassan, Morgan Ashley Bryant, Lindsay Heather Pearce and BELOW Lindsay Heather Pearce in the National Touring Company of MEAN GIRLS (photos © 2022 Jenny Anderson)

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NOVEMBER 10, 2022

FUN FACTS ABOUT MEDICAL AND RECREATIONAL CANNABIS

By Hope Peters

Tucson Local Media

SINCE THE PASSING OF PROP 207 in November 2020, legalizing adult use marijuana in Arizona, some may not know the difference between having medical and recreational cards.

According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, there is no age limit for someone purchasing marijuana for medical use once the person has received their medical marijuana card. However, there are different card types depending

on the patient’s age. As for purchasing cannabis for adult/recreational use, the customer must be at least 21 years old.

Users cannot purchase more than 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana in a 14-day period for medical use. For recreational users, per ADHS and in the statutory provision Prop 207, Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) Title 36, Chapter 28.2, the initiative allows adults older than 21 to possess, purchase, transport, or process 1

ounce or less of marijuana or 5 grams or less of marijuana concentrate.

Medical marijuana use qualified patients can only possess the “allowable amount of marijuana,” 2 1/2 ounces.

For recreational use, per A.R.S 362853(A), a “person who possesses an amount of marijuana greater than 1 ounce or less of marijuana, except that not more than 5 grams of marijuana concentrate, but not more than 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana, of which not more than 12 1/2 grams is in the form of marijuana concentrate, is guilty of a petty offense.”

Adult users can possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and no more than 5 grams

of concentrate.

For medical and recreational users, cannabis cannot be used in public or when driving.

According to ADHS, patients and their caregivers can purchase medical marijuana from a nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary and it can only be sold by a licensed nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary.

Adults can purchase marijuana from a licensed marijuana establishment. Only licensed marijuana establishments may sell adult-use cannabis.

SEE WEEDLY PAGE 24

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Comics

WEEDLY FROM PAGE 22 Here’s the difference regarding paying tax on cannabis purchases. There is no excise tax on medical use marijuana.

Those who purchase recreational marijuana will have to pay a 16% excise tax, making great revenue for Arizona.

Employees are protected against discrimination if they’re using cannabis for medical reasons, and they are registered users. However, with recreational users, the employer has “the right to maintain a drug- and alcohol-free workplace.” (See

A.R.S.36-2851).

Now that recreational marijuana use has passed, revenue for Arizona that has been collected for medical and adult usage. According to the Arizona Department of Revenue, more than $34.1 million was collected in medical use sales in August. For the same month, recreational use garnered $68.4 million. Total tax collection for medical marijuana sales in August was $2.8 million and adult use tax collected in August was $5.7 million.

For more information, visit azdhs.gov or azleg.gov.

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By Rob Brezsny. Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY HOROSCOPE 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700 $1.99 per minute. 18 and over. Touchtone phone required.

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19) When you Aries people are at your best, you are driven by impeccable integrity as you translate high ideals into practical action. You push on with tireless force to get what you want, and what you want is often good for others, too. You have a strong sense of what it means to be vividly alive, and you stimulate a similar awareness in the people whose lives you touch. Are you always at your best? Of course not. No one is. But according to my analysis of upcoming astrological omens, you now have extra potential to live up to the elevated standards I described. I hope you will take full advantage.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20) In my experience, you Tauruses often have more help available than you realize. You underestimate your power to call on support, and as a result, don’t call on it enough. It may even be the case that the possible help gets weary of waiting for you to summon it, and basically goes into hiding or fades away. But let’s say that you, the lucky person reading this horoscope, get inspired by my words. Maybe you will respond by becoming more forceful about recognizing and claiming your potential blessings.

I hope so! In my astrological opinion, now is a favorable time for you to go in quest of all the help you could possibly want. (PS: Where might the help come from? Sources you don’t expect, perhaps, but also familiar influences that expand beyond their previous dispensations.)

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20) Sometimes, life compels us to change. It brings us some shock that forces us to adjust. On other occasions, life doesn’t pressure us to make any shifts, but we nevertheless feel drawn to initiating a change. My guess is that you are now experiencing the latter.

There’s no acute discomfort pushing you to revise your rhythm. You could probably continue with the status quo for a while.

And yet, you may sense a growing curiosity about how your life could be different.

The possibility of instigating a transformation intrigues you. I suggest you trust this intuition. If you do, the coming weeks will bring you greater clarity about how to proceed.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22) “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality,” wrote ancient Roman philosopher Seneca. That’s certainly true about me. If all the terrible things I have worried about had actually come to pass, I would be unable to function. Luckily, most of my fears have remained mere fantasies.

What about you, fellow Cancerian? The good news is that in the coming months, we Crabs will have unprecedented power to tamp down and dissipate the phantasms that rouse anxiety and alarm. I predict that as a result, we will suffer less from imaginary problems than we ever have before. How’s that for a spectacular prophecy?

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22) Poet Matt Michael writes, “Sure, the way trees talk is poetry.

The shape of the moon is poetry. But a hot dog is also poetry. LeBron James’ tomahawk dunk over Kevin Garnett in the 2008 NBA Playoffs is poetry. That pothole I always fail to miss on Parkman Road is poetry, too.” In accordance with current astrological omens, Leo. I’d love for you to adopt Michael’s approach. The coming days will be a favorable time to expand your ideas about what’s lyrical, beautiful, holy, and meaningful. Be alert for a stream of omens that will offer you help and inspiration. The world has subtle miracles to show you.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22) Virgo author Michael Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka, but as a child moved to England and later to Canada. His novel, “Running in the Family,” describes his experiences upon returning to his native Sri Lanka as an adult. Among the most delightful: the deluge of novel sensory sensations. On some days, he would spend hours simply smelling things. In accordance with current astrological omens, I recommend you treat yourself to comparable experiences, Vir-

go. Maybe you could devote an hour today to mindfully inhaling various aromas.

Tomorrow, meditate on the touch of lush textures. On the next day, bathe yourself in sounds that fill you with rich and interesting feelings. By feeding your senses like this, you will give yourself an extra deep blessing that will literally boost your intelligence.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22) You evolved Libras understand what’s fair and just. That’s one of your potencies, and it provides a fine service for you and your allies. You use it to glean objective truths that are often more valuable than everyone’s subjective opinions. You can be a stirring mediator as you deploy your knack for impartiality and evenhandedness.

I hope these talents of yours will be in vivid action during the coming weeks. We non-Libras need extra-strong doses of this stuff.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21) Here are tips on how to get the most out of the next three weeks: 1. Be a master of simmering, ruminating, marinating, steeping, fermenting and effervescing. 2. Summon intense streams of self-forgiveness for any past event that still haunts you. 3.

Tap into your forbidden thoughts so they might heal you. Discover what you’re hiding from yourself so it can guide you. Ask yourself prying questions. 4. Make sure your zeal always synergizes your allies’ energy and never steals it. 5. Regularly empty your metaphorical trash so you always have enough room inside you to gleefully breathe the sweet air and exult in the earth’s beauty.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21) “I straddle reality and the imagination,” says Sagittarian singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

“My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.” I think that’s great counsel for you to emphasize in the coming weeks. Your reality needs a big influx of energy from your imagination, and your imagination needs to be ex-

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tra well-grounded in reality. Call on both influences with maximum intensity!

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19) Sometimes, Capricorn, you appear to be so calm, secure, and capable that people get a bit awed, even worshipful. They may even get caught up in trying to please you. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily—as long as you don’t exploit and manipulate those people. It might even be a good thing in the coming weeks, since you and your gang have a chance to accomplish big improvements in your shared resources and environment. It would take an extra push from everyone, though. I suspect you’re the leader who’s best able to incite and orchestrate the extra effort.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18) If you have been posing as a normal person for too long, I hope you will create fresh outlets for your true weird self in the weeks ahead.

What might that entail? I’ll throw out a couple of ideas. You could welcome back your imaginary friends and give them new names like Raw Goodness and Spiral Trickster. You might wear fake vampire teeth during a committee meeting or pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster to send you paranormal adventures. What other ideas can you imagine about how to have way too much fun as you draw more intensely on your core eccentricities?

PISCES (FEB.19-MARCH 20) I suspect you will have metaphorical resemblances to a duck in the coming weeks: an amazingly adaptable creature equally at home on land, in the water, and in the air. You will feel comfortable anywhere you choose to wander, and I’m guessing you will want to wander farther and wider than you usually do. Here’s another quality that you and ducks will share: You’ll feel perfectly yourself, relaxed and confident, no matter what the weather is. Whether it’s cloudy or shiny, rainy or misty, mild or frigid, you will not only be unflappable—you will thrive on the variety. Like a duck, Pisces, you may not attract a lot of attention. But I bet you will enjoy the hell out of your life exactly as it is.

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