it does have a complicated relationship with the Tohono O'Odham Nation. A new program is working to uncomplicate it.
Breaking the mold at Saguaro National Park
BY KAREN SCHAFFNER Tucson Local Media
Visit Saguaro National Park and, besides taking in the stunning beauty of the Sonoran Desert, partake of many of its programs. Learn about tarantulas from Ranger Jordan Camp or the petroglyphs of the people who once walked this way from Raeshaun Ramon. It’s a true diamond in the town.
Not everyone feels that way, however. The relationship the park has with the Tohono
O’Odham nation is complicated. The land the west side park encompasses was once theirs and was appropriated by the federal government. This is the same land where members of that nation and their ancestors once lived and hunted, once gathered the fruit of the saguaro cactus, once cared for the land and its occupants — all the occupants, including the fourlegged, feathered and rooted varieties. Members of the Tohono O’Odham Nation still have a shaky relationship with the National Park Service.
“For me, growing up I’ve always heard how the National Park Service and indigenous nations, there was a very complicated history because the National Park Service claimed these spots,” Raeshaun Ramon said about Saguaro National Park.
He is an enrolled member of the Tohono O’Odham Nation.
“They kind of kicked us out of these areas. A lot of the national park places in the country are within indigenous lands and
www.Maranaweeklynews.com
Williams remembered for his humor, musicianship
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI Tucson Local Media
Vanessa Strollo remembers her father, well-known Tucson musician Richard “Ricky” Williams, for his sense of humor and vivid storytelling talents.
“He was hilarious,” Strollo said.
“He was the best storyteller. He could make anyone laugh. He was a performer. He was most known as the lead singer of Backroads. He was very extroverted. He loved making people smile.”
He parlayed that into live performances with his band Backroads, which was quieted when Williams was killed in a Sept. 24 one-vehicle motorcycle crash in the 2000 block of North Kinney Road.
“Me and my mother came to visit me in the morning. They were visiting their grandbaby. My dad’s life revolved around my daughter, Bella,” Strollo said.
“They left and normally they go through what we call the ‘monument.’ I live out in Picture Rocks. I told them to text me when they got home. I do not like motorcycles. Over an hour went by and I didn’t really worry until my mom’s friend texted me and said, ‘Your mom stood me up.’ I called my mom, and it went straight to voicemail. I called my dad, and it went straight to voice
See SAGUARO Page 4 See WILLIAMS Page 10
Although Saguaro National Park is a Tucson gem,
(Noelle Haro-Gomez/ Contributor)
EXPLORER Hot Picks
The Explorer and Marana News is published every Wednesday and distributed free of charge to homes and in single-copy locations throughout the Northwest Tucson. To find out where you can pick up a free copy of the Explorer and Marana News, go to www.TucsonLocalMedia.com
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ARTS
Wednesday, Nov. 16, to Friday, Dec. 9
Pima Community College presents “Invisible Borders” at the Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery. The exhibit features 31 female photographers from Mexico and Southern Arizona and they present a unique collaboration from women on both sides of the border, who “temporarily make the divisions disappear.” The gallery is open Monday to Friday, holiday hours may differ. Visit pima.edu for information. Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery, West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road.
THEATER
Saturday, Nov. 19, to Friday, Dec. 2
Get in the holiday spirit with the Arizona Theatre Company as it celebrates the holidays early with “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley.” Lydia Wickham (formerly Bennet) returns to center stage for the sequel to last year’s holiday show. For information about ticket pricing and the 2022-2023 season, visit atc.org. The Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Avenue.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Friday, Nov. 18, and Saturday, Nov. 19
BY KATYA MEN DOZA Tucson Local Media
of performers throughout the series and the menu, visit tohonochul.org. Tohono Chul, 7366 N. Paseo Del Norte.
Saturday, Nov. 19
El Tour de Tucson returns for its 39th year on Saturday, Nov. 19. Whether you’re one of the 7,000 participating cyclists or bystander cheering from the sidelines, this annual event brings together awareness, health, wellness and community. To check out this year’s merch, refamiliarize yourself with the route or to register as a volunteer or last-minute cyclist, visit eltourdetucson.org. El Tour de Tucson, 260 S. Church Avenue.
Saturday, Nov. 19
The Oro Valley Historical Society offers docent-guided walking tours of the Steam Pump Ranch Historical Park every third Saturday of the month from 9 to
5-DAY WEATHER
WARNING! PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHY AND CHRONIC PAIN TREATMENTS NOT WORKING!!
Oro Valley, AZ – When it comes to chronic pain and/ or neuropathy, the most common doctor-prescribed treatment is drugs like Gabapentin, Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Neurontin. The problem with antidepressants or anti-seizure medications like these is that they offer purely symptomatic relief, as opposed to targeting and treating the root of the problem. Worse, these drugs often trigger an onset of uncomfortable, painful, and sometimes harmful side effects.
The only way to effectively treat chronic pain and/or peripheral neuropathy is by targeting the source, which is the result of nerve damage owing to inadequate blood flow to the nerves in the hands and feet. This often causes weakness, numbness, tingling, pain, and balance problems. A lack of nutrients causes the nerves to degenerate – an insidious and often painful process.
cannot survive, and thus, slowly die. This leads to those painful and frustrating consequences we were talking about earlier, like weakness, numbness, tingling, balance issues, and perhaps even a burning sensation.
The drugs your doctor might prescribe will temporarily conceal the problems, putting a “BandAid” over a situation that will only continue to deteriorate without further action.
Thankfully, Oro Valley is the birthplace of a brandnew facility that sheds new light on this pressing problem of peripheral neuropathy and chronic pain. The company is trailblazing the medical industry by replacing outdated drugs and symptomatic reprieves with an advanced machine that targets the root of the problem at hand.
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Arrowhead Physical Medicine in Oro Valley, AZ uses a state-of-the-art electric cell signaling systems worth $100,000.00. Th is ground-breaking treatment is engineered to achieve the following, accompanied by advanced diagnostics and a basic skin biopsy to accurately analyze results:
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Arrowhead Physical Medicine begins by analyzing the extent of the nerve damage – a complimentary service for your friends and family. Each exam comprises a detailed sensory evaluation, extensive peripheral vascular testing, and comprehensive analysis of neuropathy findings.
Arrowhead Physical Medicine will be offering this free chronic pain and neuropathy severity evaluation will be available until October 31st, 2022. Call (520) 934-0130 to make an appointment
Brewin’ at the Chul continues at Tohono Chul Botanical Gardens and Galleries from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18. Visitors can enjoy the grounds after hours free of admission, and nosh on food from the Garden Bistro. Sip on a craft beer or refreshing prickly pear margarita while listening to music from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. by singer-songwriter Brett Dooley on Friday, Nov. 18, or Taylor Kraus on Saturday, Nov. 19. For a full list
As displayed in figure 1 above, the nerves are surrounded by diseased, withered blood vessels. A lack of sufficient nutrients means the nerves
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We are extremely busy, so we are unavailable, please leave a voice message and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
where people harvested, gathered, hunted, even had sacred sites within national parks. Over the years, my community tends to stay away from it.”
For the Tohono O’Odham Nation, it’s about the importance of the saguaro cactus to their culture and people, and the West District of Saguaro National Park has the most saguaros in the world, according to Ramon.
“The (saguaro) provides us food with the fruit and it provides us shelter, but also medicine,” Ramon said. “It’s in our songs, in our stories, and we basically say it’s in our blood. We come from the saguaro; we are the saguaro. We see them as our relatives.”
For years, national parks staff considered themselves the storytellers of the land, but these staffers were all too often American men of European descent. Nothing wrong with that, but as a nation we are more than that.
As the community engagement and outreach coordinator, Cam Juarez handles all the special events at the park.
“My primary reason for being hired was essentially to create a pathway for under-
represented audiences to become more aware and potentially more involved with Saguaro National Park,” he said. “That is the beauty of what we do. We are constantly trying to find the connections.”
To that end, Juarez has found numerous opportunities to expand the park’s outreach. Every year staffers make more than 40 visits to area activities such as the Tucson Book Festival, where he emphasizes engagement with the community. It only counts as engagement if a staffer speaks with a member of the public for more than 5 minutes, he said. Juarez plans events for underrepresented communities. That includes a recent naturalization ceremony; Saguaro National Park was one of only five national parks to host the ceremony, according to Juarez.
He has erected ofrendas for Dia de los Muertos at the west and east sites. Along with the Friends of Saguaro National Park, he set up and hired the members of the Next Generation Ranger Corps, which is how Ramon came to the park.
With the help of the Friends, the Next Generation Ranger Corps came to life in 2015. Students from UA and Pima Com-
munity College come to the park to work for a half or full year to learn about the jobs at the National Park Service. For people like Ramon, who strives to become a park ranger, it allowed him to come to terms with his sense of injustice and distrust, and to see things in a new way.
“A lot of families (from my culture) like to come here to either harvest (saguaro fruit), hike or whatever, and over the years there is always conflict, whether it’s being watched by the park rangers or law enforcement, (or) the permit process: How much can you collect? Where can you collect?”
That permit process, which allows indigenous populations to harvest the fruit that comes from the saguaro, discourages many from the Tohono O’Odham nation from visiting the park. Community members say, ‘‘Oh, I don’t want to come here because I don’t want to be watched all the time. I don’t want to go through this specific permit process in order just to get the fruit or gather any materials,” Ramon said.
Once he took the job with the next gen corps, though, he started to expand his vision of what the national parks, particularly Saguaro National Park, could be.
“I learned those stories, too, and I was afraid but at the same time I love the land and the culture,” Ramon said. “Coming here, I just told myself, ‘Well, I have to test the waters and see how it is.’ The first few weeks, the first month, I realized that there needs to be a bridge between my community and the Park Service. If I am that bridge, I open the doors for my community and hopefully they can step into a position like mine and then into the green and gray uniform.”
Raeshaun Ramon is part of a new outreach program at Saguaro National Park in Tucson. (Noelle Haro-Gomez/Contributor)
A UA senior majoring in archeology, Ramon he works in community engagement and outreach. He gives programs on saguaro fruit harvest, and on Signal Hill and the petroglyphs.
“I tend to use what I learned (in school) and I realized that archeology and anthropology and the Park Service, they go hand in hand, so I think it’s the perfect place for me to be,” he added.
Another next gen ranger is Lizbeth Perez, a student in the bio/diversity program at UA she reignited her love of the outdoors. She graduated last May with a degree in natural resources, and never expected to stay here.
“Just seeing that the desert could be so full of life over here, really reinvigorated that (interest),” Perez said. “I love the desert and I’ve been studying it for years at the university. Afterwards, with Cam’s help and inspiration, I’m here now and it’s really incredible. Everything I’ve learned the past five years at the college has been really, really helpful here.”
As a young Latina, Perez, whose specialty is bugs, feels at home right where she is at the park.
“I’m very thankful to be on the west side where we do see more people of color here,” she said. “Otherwise, it has been pretty isolating. It’s kind of eye opening to be in certain spaces, which is still the national parks, but maybe not Tucson.”
Feeling like an outsider sometimes has helped Perez know how to help others.
“It lets me know, for sure keep this in mind for anyone else coming in,” she said. “I am a little bit thankful for that, that I can take my experiences of panic and feeling like I don’t know what I’m doing and keep it in mind for the future for anyone else who comes through, to ensure that they don’t have those experiences.”
Perez sees the next gen corps as an opportunity to open the doors to others who may have not considered that the park is for them as well.
“I really do appreciate this program,” she added. “A lot of time it’s just (inviting) different identities and different ages of people to come in here and find out what National Park Service is about,” she said. “I think it’s really valuable in that way; we don’t have old heads who are keeping everything as it is. It’s really injecting youth and new ideas and diversity. It’s building up a new generation.”
Finally, Camp came into the next gen program also from the bio/diversity program at UA. He calls himself the “white male elephant in the room.” He is a now veteran of the next gen program, and then the Pathways Program, which is a steppingstone to becoming a federal employee. He proudly wears his ranger uniform, though his flat hat has seen better days.
Though Camp gives tarantula programs and is working on a game to be played at dusk in the park, he is also a man of his generation — digitally savvy. He prefers to be behind the camera and mic, and helps with the park’s Instagram Freddie Friday series, among other digital tasks. It’s a new way to work as a ranger.
“You think about a park ranger, you think about a scientist,” Camp said. “The idea is to be able to take my skill set of digital knowledge and digital interpretation and promote other faces, other people that don’t look like me. That’s the goal.”
Juarez added, “These guys are just coming in with all this ingenuity in all these different ways. They’re changing the park service. We’re breaking the mold with having that perspective that young people bring.”
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UA student wins big at business game tourney
BY HOPE PETERS
Tucson Local Media
In a Sims-style video game, students from UA, and Pima and Cochise community colleges competed to make the most revenue for their virtual businesses.
During the tourney, students played entrepreneur and put their business skills to the test. UA freshman Oliver Stoner-German walked away with the $2,500. He grew his in-game revenue to $92.8 million. The event included the UA Venture Expo showcasing student businesses, products, and prototypes.
Travis Gramm won the $1,000 second prize by building businesses worth $76 million and Zane Aljazzazi won the $500 third place. Twelve other students won part of the total $5,000 in cash giveaways and prizes.
University of Arizona FORGE partnered with Venture Valley, a fast-paced multiplayer business simulation game from the nonprofit Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship, for the recent tourney at Roy Place.
“We had almost a hundred competitors,” said Erika Mitnik, manager for University of Arizona Marketing & Communications, FORGE. “The winner racked up about $92 million, (revenue for his simulated business).”
Added Paul Valdez, FORGE Student Venture Pathways program manager in a statement, “As part of our quest to bring entrepreneurship opportunities to our students, we partnered with the Venture Valley mobile and PC game as it encompasses what we teach on a daily basis.
“All of our students had a blast playing the game and walked away from the competition with a real sense of all of the factors and intricacies involved in being an entrepreneur”
Mitnik said Stoner-German, who is studying pre-business and is looking to go into the Eller program, told her the video
game gave him the chance to test his economics studies.
“I signed up for it (after hearing about the tournament at a club fair),” Stoner-German said. “Afterward, I got more involved in the FORGE organization and I’m looking further to get more involved in that.”
Nick Night, Venture Valley game maker, started the simulated business video game about four years ago through the Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship.
“We wanted to take finance education and make it fun and engaging (for business/entrepreneurship education),” Night
said. “How do you make it not just about education? Something that people want to play and have fun, but secretly learn something.”
Night said the video game simulates how to build or model your business in a fastpaced multiplayer game. Venture Valley is a free (no in-app purchases or ads) PC and mobile (iOS and Android) game.
The game has card play events, both good and bad, and real-life situations that are “a bit cartoonish,” Night added. He equated it to having a coffee shop business and then a new coffee shop moves in across the street with less expensive drinks.
“And how do you handle that,” he said. “Maybe make your coffee gourmet or you have espresso for sale, you sell more espresso.”
Night said as players build their businesses, they have to figure in costs for running it—such as research and development and marketing. They have to be prepared for emergencies, too, like plumbing problems or storms that flood the building.
FORGE (Finding Opportunities and Resources to Grow Entrepreneurs) is an entrepreneurial community that combines startup acceleration alongside experiential student and community education. FORGE programs provide entrepreneurial education, mentoring, coaching, exposure
Classy Closets is happy to announce the addition of our newest employee! Mary Ann Barber will be on staff to take design appointments on evenings and weekends. Mary Ann is the ultimate professional who has dedicated her life to customer service. She began as a receptionist in a design center working her way up to editing and even tried her hand at installing. She found her passion when she started designing, she loves transforming clients’ needs into a beautiful, organized space. Over her 15 years in the industry, she is fully versed in designing all facets of the home including closets, laundry, pantries, wall units, garage, home office, and wall bed units. Call us today and let Mary Ann make your design dream a reality.
From left, Travis Gramm, second-place winner; Nick Night, Venture Valley game maker; Oliver Stoner-German, first-place winner; and Zane Aljazzazi. (UA FORGE/Courtesy)
to the venturing process, and readiness assessment tools. FORGE maintains an entrepreneurial resource hub in Downtown Tucson (Roy Place), and several locations on the UA campus and throughout the state.
Asked about his plans for his winnings, the 19-year-old Stoner-German will handle his prize money wisely.
“I will probably invest it into the market and grow more money and use that to fund my college education,” he said. “Put it in my portfolio, I have a stock market portfolio.”
Stoner-German said he was determined to win the tournament, which ran from 2 to 9 p.m. Students/participants were welcome to start their games any time during those hours.
“We got to do a bunch of tries at the game and we had 15 minutes for every single try…to create the business and create as much revenue as we could for said business,” he said. “I was there for about seven hours playing…I was there for the whole entire tournament…I was there to win it.
options. We had options for floral, pizza and hovercraft. I focused basically fully on the hovercraft one because it made the most money and seemed really cool.”
venturevalleygame.com
(Steve Peters/Contributor)
“We got to choose from three business
Saving Tucson taxpayers $15M with EV
BY DIANE E. BROWN AND TONY DUTZIK
Arizona cities and towns spend millions of dollars each year buying, fueling and maintaining vehicles. From pickup trucks to emergency and road maintenance vehicles to ordinary sedans, Arizona’s municipalities rely on a wide variety of vehicles to serve the public. Despite skyrocketing prices and air pollution, however, municipalities mostly use gasoline or diesel to fuel their vehicle fleets. Fortunately, a better option is emerging for Arizona municipalities: electric vehicles (EVs). EVs are rapidly coming down in price and are less expensive to fuel and maintain than gas and diesel vehicles. And recently adopted federal legislation — including the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — provides
valuable new incentives for EVs and infrastructure, making fleet electrification even more attractive.
Taking the relevant factors into account, a new report by the Arizona PIRG Education Fund and Frontier Group, Electric Fleets for Arizona: Saving taxpayers money through municipal fleet electrification, found a combined total of nearly $80 million could be saved in lifetime ownership expenses in 10 of Arizona’s largest municipalities by replacing retiring light-duty vehicles with EVs. Each of the 10 municipalities surveyed would save millions of dollars over the lifetime of light-duty vehicles by “going electric.” Tucson, alone, would save nearly $15 million for taxpayers while also improving air quality.
The good news is that Tucson has already developed a citywide plan toward increasing the use of EVs in their fleets. Here is the roadmap we encourage Tucson and other
municipalities to follow to fully reap the financial and air quality benefits:
• Make bold commitments. Setting a goal of phasing out gasoline and diesel vehicles as electric versions of those vehicles become available can focus all departments of municipal government on the task of transitioning to EVs and create economies of scale in vehicle purchasing and charging.
• Develop municipal electrification plans. A municipal plan can help identify the best near-term targets for electrification and ensure that EVs and charging infrastructure are deployed and used effectively.
• Collaborate with other municipalities in Arizona and beyond, as well as state government, to share information and ideas, negotiate discounts for EVs and equipment, pursue opportunities for financial incentives, and advocate for additional incentives and support for fleet electrification.
• Take full advantage of utility incentives. Arizona’s electric utilities often offer discounts on the installation of EV charging
infrastructure and/or technical assistance to help fleet owners make the transition to EVs.
• Take full advantage of incentives in recent federal legislation. Municipalities should work together to identify and pursue federal incentives that further reduce the cost of new vehicles and charging infrastructure, such as the commercial vehicle credit in the IRA and incentives and funding for charging infrastructure in the IIJA and IRA.
With gasoline and diesel prices on the rise, new models of EVs arriving seemingly every day, and new federal incentives on the way, the transition to EVs now can save taxpayers millions of dollars while continuing to serve the daily needs of their residents.
Diane E. Brown is the executive director of the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, an organization that conducts research and education on issues in the public interest. Tony Dutzik is the senior policy analyst with the Frontier Group.
Don’t blame Mark Kelly
Editor:
If Oro Valley resident Rick Cunnington consulted a non-MAGA news source even occasionally, he'd have learned that the very high price of eggs nationally is caused by an outbreak of avian flu that farmers can't control because it first infected wild birds that spread the disease as they fly over farms. More than 47 million chickens and turkeys have died due to infections and culling. This has resulted in export bans in addition to lowered egg and turkey production, leading to record prices and unprecedented shortages.
Sen. Mark Kelly and President Biden have nothing to do with the inflation that Mr. Cunnington blames them for. He also might go outside his bubble to learn that fossil fuel producers (e.g., Exxon and Chevron) have been accused of price gouging while reporting record profits. They're taking advantage of Putin's attacks on Ukraine. That war is causing worldwide
inflation as Putin doesn't allow Ukraine, one of the world's largest exporters, to ship ores, sunflower seed or safflower oil, corn, wheat and semi-finished products made from iron or non-alloy steel to countries throughout Europe. Inflation is a worldwide problem in large part due to Putin. At least the Democrats are dealing with world problems, including providing intelligence and weaponry to Ukraine. Unlike MAGA politicians, Democrats are not passing tax breaks that benefit the ultrarich and corporations and never trickle down to people like Mr. Cunnington or me. If we as individuals want to help bring down inflation, buy less. Please don't attempt to blame Mark Kelly for issues that are far beyond his control.
Lois Berkowitz Oro Valley
Response to letter
Editor:
I am rather shocked that the publisher and editors at the Explorer decided to expose their readers to the sort of vitriolic tripe that Rick Cunnington spewed in his letter to the editor. Not only does he demonstrate a lack of understanding regarding the workings of economics and government, he also demonstrates a lack of understanding of words.
Cunnington begins with a rant on the price of eggs, describing this as “beyond outrageous,” a rather hyperbolic assessment foreshadowing hyperbole to come. He seems to think President Biden is to blame for this. Apparently, Mr. Cunnington doesn’t know about the devastating bird flu that has resulted in 10s of millions of chickens being killed in an attempt to slow the spread of the disease.
One wonders if he blamed Trump for the
2020 recession and 15% unemployment.
Next, we are told that Arizona families are being devastated by unprecedented hyperinflation. While hyperinflation is not unprecedented, it certainly would be if it only affected Arizona families.
Hyperinflation is defined as the monthly inflation rate exceeding 50%, and typically accelerating far beyond that. So, Arizonans are safe for now. But Venezuelans can tell us about hyperinflation. So can Zimbabweans, Yugoslavs when their country fell apart, and any student of the German Weimar Republic. Any of these people would have been ecstatic to pay $4.50 for eggs. But according to Cunnington, Arizona’s hyperinflation “is 100% the fault of Biden and the Democrats.” Wait, I’m a Democrat, an Arizona Democrat. But I’m going to run a side hustle selling wheelbarrows at a hyperinflated price. I’ll rake in more money than the oil companies currently are. Good
thing Biden declared war on fossil fuels. Take that, Coal Brigade, and that, Oil Armada. But wait. There’s more! $2 trillion more, to be exact. Could Cunnington be referring to the CARES Act, the one signed into law by Donald Trump to stave off economic collapse? Cunnington says that money was “totally unnecessary.” Maybe he means unnecessary for him. Maybe he was sufficiently well-padded to weather the economic recession that began devastating Arizona families in early 2020.
It seems that Mark Kelly was trying to save Arizona families when he voted for the CARES Act. But Cunnington says that Kelly doesn’t care about Arizona families. How can he know that? On what does he base that claim? Oh, it must have something to do with the “Democrat elites”. I wonder if I’m an elite.
7225 N. Mona Lisa Road, Tucson, AZ 85741
Email: christina@tucsonlocalmedia.com
Mr. Cunnington’s tirade is a classic example of the fact that all opinions are not equal. Either Mr. Cunnington is grossly uninformed on these matters, or he likes to make stuff up. One wonders where he might have picked up that little trick. It also represents the standard tactic of Republican politicians during elections; scare the daylights out of everyone and blame it all on the Democrats. Oh my, the sky is falling, the sky is falling! Yeah, yeah, but what does that have to do with the price of eggs in Oro Valley?
mail.”
Strollo, her husband, Tyler, and friends traced the couple’s route and came upon a crash on Gates Pass.
“They let us know that my mom was on her way to the hospital, and they wouldn’t say anything about my dad,” she said. “Unfortunately, he died at the scene.”
Williams’ wife, Jamie, sustained serious injuries.
“Luckily, she made it, but she does have lifelong things that will be a struggle,” Strollo said.
“She had a traumatic brain injury, broke both arms, ribs, and now she’s blind in her right eye. She definitely has it worse than the rest of us. She wasn’t awake for a couple weeks. We went through the grieving process, but for her, it’s still so new.”
See WILLIAMS Page 11
public service from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at Casas Church, 10801 N. La Cholla Boulevard, Oro Valley. (Courtesy of GoFundMe)
Tucson Local Media welcomes letters that express readers’ opinion on current topics. Letters must include the writer’s full name, address (including city) and telephone number. Tucson Local Media will print the writer’s name and city of residence only. Letters without the requisite identifying information will not be published. Letters are published in the order received, and they are subject to editing. Tucson Local Media will not publish consumer complaints, form letters, clippings from other publications or poetry. Letters’ authors, not the Tucson Local Media, are responsible for the “facts” presented in letters.
Kirk Alexander Pima County
Ricky Williams was the lead singer of Backroads, a popular Arizona bnad. He will be remembered during a
The family will host a public service for Williams from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, at Casas Church, 10801 N. La Cholla Boulevard, Oro Valley. Strollo said she’s touched by the outpouring of support for her family.
A GoFundMe at https://bit.ly/RickyWilliamsFuneral has raised $8,700 of $15,000, as of Nov. 9.
“It’s pretty bewildering to see how many people loved him,” she said. “Immediately afterward is an invitation-only private service. We know how many people loved him, but we want some time to grieve, just us.”
Strollo called her father her biggest inspiration. He taught her about music and life.
“He’s the one who made me discover what I wanted to do,” she said. “I perform a little bit of everything. I really do like to take after my dad with the country music. I’m also into the more popular stuff like what you hear on the radio.
“He inspired me in more ways than a career path, too. He was one of my role models. He’s just the kind of person you wanted to be. He was completely selfless and kind and giving. He’d give you the shirt off his back if that’s what you needed. He never asked for anything in return. He wanted to make other people happy. The simple things in life made my dad happy, like camping and fishing and spending time with his family.”
He was enamored with Strollo’s 1 1/2-year-old daughter, Bella. Strollo said he would do anything for her.
“I was always considered the favorite until that little girl came around,” she said with a laugh. “He would do such ridiculous things for her and find time at least every other day to make the long trip out here to hang out with her. He would bring her French fries and ice cream.”
Joe Bonamassa keeps it fresh on new tour
BY ALAN SCULLEY
Tucson Local Media Contributor
For the first 20 years of Joe Bonamassa’s career, one constant was always touring. Even as he maintained a schedule that saw him release 14 solo albums, even more live CDs or DVDs, as well as multiple releases with the bands Black Country Communion and Rock Candy Funk Party and collaborations with Beth Hart, among others, Bonamassa has generally played a pair of extensive U.S. tours and taken a trip through Europe every year.
ed to take that I would never have taken myself,” he said. “So, there’s that. I mean, it is what it is. There was nothing anybody could have done about it. I was just fortunate to be in a position where I didn’t have to sell my car.”
That noted, Bonamassa is happy to be getting in front of concert audiences again. He did a few shows in summer 2021 in the states, followed by a fall tour. Now he’s back on the road in the states for another run of dates.
“Some people can get their point across on Instagram,” he observes. “I need a crowd, you know what I mean, not likes and shares.”
Bonamassa, who shines as a performer, should come across just fine. He has plenty of songs to work with, including material from his 2020 album, “Royal Tea” (the pandemic prevented him from touring behind that album) and his new effort, “Time Clocks,” which was released last October. Despite the wealth of new songs, Bonamas-
sa said his show will cover his back catalog as well.
“We have a lot of new stuff. The whole show is new,” Bonamassa said. “So yeah, I brought back a few old songs, a couple of songs from (older) records we never played (live). I did a lot of stuff. We have a lot of alternates, too, that we haven’t gotten to. The cool thing is it keeps it fresh for us. We can change the sets every night, and still hopefully achieve the same result.”
Writing and recording “Time Clocks” was one way Bonamassa passed time during the pandemic. And in some ways this project was similar to “Royal Tea,” and in other ways it was very different.
For “Royal Tea,” Bonamassa went to London to live and write the album. Then he set up shop in the legendary Abbey Road studio, where the Beatles made their albums and Pink Floyd did “Dark Side of the Moon,” to record the album.
“Well, Abbey Road is a great studio. The thing about Abbey Road is it’s just what it
is,” Bonamassa said. “It’s not just, the gear is great, but Ocean Way in Nashville has got a nice Neve (mixing console), too. And the thing is, all that gear and that location won’t write the songs for you. But it did change my headspace as far as what I wanted to do and how I wanted to approach music, which was the right thing to do.
“Yeah, it was a special time,” he said. “We had such a blast before we didn’t.”
As that last comment indicates, the sessions for “Royal Tea” were completed in early 2020, just before the pandemic hit, dampening moods for everyone and throwing a monkey wrench into everything Bonamassa had planned for the release of the album
For “Time Clocks,” Bonamassa settled into life in New York City, hoping just as being in London brought a British rock accent to “Royal Tea,” the atmosphere of the “Big Apple” would seep into “Time Clocks.”
See LIVEN UP Page 13 DECEMBER 3 & 4
The Oro Valley Festival of the Arts and Holiday Tree Lighting Celebration is a two-day Festival that adds vibrancy to Oro Valley by creating opportunities for people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds to celebrate the arts.
That goal may have been compromised a bit by the pandemic, which forced Bonamassa to adjust recording plans to meet protocols that were in place at the time.
Rather than being able to bring into the studio any number of musicians and singers, Bonamassa had to limit his resources in the studio, taking what he called a bare bones approach to the project.
“It was (drummer) Anton (Fig), (bassist) Steve Mackey and myself and a couple of engineers, and my assistant, who was acting as my guitar tech, and a whole bunch of masks and just whatever,” he said. “Yeah, we only did a three-piece. It’s a small studio. Just logistically, 2019 things were easy, 2020, things were hard.”
Another person who wasn’t in the studio was Bonamassa’s long-time producer, Kevin Shirley, who was stuck in Australia at the time. Once again, they found a way to adjust, using Zoom calls so Shirley could be in touch as takes were recorded.
“Obviously, it was something that was very odd at first,” Bonamassa said. “But then we got our heads around it. It wasn’t a thing that, it was odd at first, but it was workable. But everything was odd. So what can I do?”
What Bonamassa did was make a rock album with a decidedly big and epic feel — somewhat surprising considering the rather minimal approach that needed to be taken to recording the basic tracks. “Time Clocks” features swaggering, blues-laced rock on songs like “Notches,” “Hanging on a Loser” and “The Heart That Never Waits” a chunky rocker in “Questions And Answers” and several multi-faceted songs, such as “Mind’s Eye,” which opens on a silky note and builds into an expansive rocker and the Zeppelin-ish “Curtain
Call,” while Bonamassa also builds plenty of dynamics into the title track, whose understated verses have a slight country tinge that explodes into an anthemic chorus.
“I mean, it wasn’t conscious when I wrote it. It just kind of scaled that way,” Bonamassa said of the album’s feel.
Writing and recording in New York
City marked a homecoming of sorts for Bonamassa, who managed to scrape by as he started his career doing recording sessions around the city. By that time, he had already made waves on the blues scene, getting tutored at age 11 by Danny Gatton and the following year opening some 20 shows for B.B. King, who was generous in his praise of the young guitarist. He made his debut as a solo artist in 2000 with the album “A New Day Yesterday.” He’s released 13 studio albums since then, nearly all of which have topped the “Billboard” magazine blues album chart. Along the way, his formidable skills as a guitarist have grown more refined and his songwriting has improved considerably. The size venues he plays have also grown to the point where he commonly plays large theaters and arenas.
Producer Shirley, in press materials, has said he views “Time Clocks” as an album that could elevate Bonamassa from a blues artist to a superstar. Bonamassa isn’t concerning himself with such talk. His focus is on his music.
“I really don’t know what my future holds, personally and professionally, it’s a very difficult landscape at this point to navigate. And only I can answer that, and only I can see the true (path),” he said. “Everybody can speculate, but I actually have to go out and do the work. It’s like you’ve got to make sure your heart’s in it still.”
Joe Bonamassa
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19
WHERE: Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Avenue, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $59 INFO: ticketmaster.com
Shemekia Copeland still believes
BY XAVIER OMAR OTERO Tucson Weekly Contributing Writer
Considered to be one of the great blues voices of our time, in 2011, at the Chicago Blues Festival, Shemekia Copeland was crowned “Queen of the Blues,” a distinction held by the late blues great Koko Taylor.
Copeland came of age in Harlem, New York. The music that pulsed all around her grew to be the lifeblood that courses through her veins.
“It’s easy to connect to it when your mom’s from Carolina and your daddy’s from Texas,” Copeland reflected.
The daughter of Texas blues guitarist/ singer Johnny Copeland, she made her first public appearance at the legendary Cotton Club in Harlem before she turned 10 years old.
Through the eyes of a child, Copeland
The "Queen of the Blues," Shemekia Copeland, brings her latest tour to the Fox Tucson Theatre (Shemekia Copeland/Submitted)
was unaware of the fabled history — where iconic black artists like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Bessie Smith had once graced the stage — or significance of a club that helped to define the emergence of African American culture during the late 1920s and ’30s.
“We lived right down the street. It was just another place my dad took me to filled with a bunch of old people,” Copeland said, innocently. “Later in life it really hit me that this place was special.”
Despite her father’s influence and mother’s passion for music, Copeland “Married to the Blues” came from another source.
“It was a calling,” she stated, without hesitation.
But a traditional marriage, it hasn’t always been.
Over the course of 11 albums, Copeland has expanded the definition.
“We’ve got banjos and fiddles,” she said, with a laugh. “It’s instrumentation that is not normally used in blues music.”
“Call me old fashioned, but I want to go back to the days where you’d go to a record store and nothing was separated by genre.”
On the title track of her latest album, “Done Come Too Far,” Copeland stares down America’s long history of racial injustice.
“It is just the truth,” she affirmed. “I’m talking about what’s happening in this country today.”
Engaging in social issues is nothing new for Copeland. “Done Come Too Far” is not a departure, but a continuation of her work.
On the title track — referencing the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — she sang, “Thought we were silenced at the Lorraine / But that voice didn’t die in vain / Its echo rings like no other / For every sister and brother / Though many are gone / Their spirits still scream / You can kill a man but not a dream.”
For Copeland the march for justice and equality continues.
“Absolutely,” she said, pensively. “We are still fighting to be free.”
Copeland is talking to Tucson Weekly on Election Day. Taken aback, Copeland saw incongruity everywhere.
Like on “Apple Pie and a .45.” — from her 2020 album “Uncivil War” — where she not only questioned America’s love affair with guns, but a value system gone awry.
“Things are really bad out there. I see so many things out on the road. Like signs that say, ‘I am Christian, and I voted,’” Copeland pondered. “I don’t even know what that means.
“Sometimes I get discouraged and angry.”
Yet, despite everything — searching for a path toward détente in this “Uncivil War” — Copeland said she believes there is still good in the world. As exemplified in her song, “Ain’t Got Time for Hate.”
“We should all love one another.”
For Copeland it all comes down to the will of the people.
“There is so much divisiveness and hate in the background, ruining our lives. But one day when everybody gets together and says, as American people, that we are sick and tired of these politicians ruining our lives, we are all going to stick together and make the changes we want to make in our country,” Copeland concluded.
Possessing a voice that can at once scream out at injustice then function as a healing salve, on “Clotilda’s on Fire” — from 2020’s “Uncivil War” — Copeland acknowledges a chapter of American history often unsung, with weight and tenderness.
In 1859, 50 years after the slave trade was banned, the last known U.S. slave ship, the Clotilda was burned and sunk by its captain to destroy the evidence. Over a decade and a half later its wreckage was discovered in the Alabama Delta, in 2019.
“When I learned of the history,” Copeland said, pensively. “I felt compelled to share it.”
On “Clotilda’s on Fire” — bringing peace to the specters of a multitude held underfoot — Copeland sang, “Her flame no longer lights up at night / Now dreams survive and hope burns bright / People still come from miles around / To praise the folks of Africatown / Who rose from the ashes of sad history / To stand unchained, proud and free.”
HoliDaze 2022
Holidaze … on the stage and with family
BY CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI
Tucson Local Media
Tucson arts patrons can celebrate the holidays with traditional events like “The Nutcracker” or celebratory twists on traditional happenings. Want something low-key? Visit Oro Valley or Marana for their tree-lighting ceremonies.
CELEBRATE
Centennial Hall
1020 E. University Boulevard 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 22, and
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 23
A Magical Cirque Christmas Magical hostess Lucy Darling leads guests through dazzling performances and breathtaking cirque artists, accompanied by holiday music. Get into the spirit with this family-friendly show.
7:30 P.M. TUESDAY, DEC. 6
Mannheim Steamroller
Mannheim Steamroller has become a holiday staple as the show is one of the top performances of the season. Enjoy Mannheim Steamroller Christmas classics in a multimedia setting.
8 P.M. FRIDAY, DEC. 9
Harry Connick Jr.
Harry Connick Jr. celebrates the holiday with his take on Christmas classics, as well as his originals and fan favorites like “(It Must’ve Been Ol’) Santa Claus” and “When My Heart Finds Christmas.”
4 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 10
TDA: Spirit of Christmas Tucson Dance Academy’s “The Spirit of Christmas” embraces “New York City Broadway Holiday magic” (including Santa, Frosty, Rudolph and the Grinch) and the spiritual dimension behind Christmas.
The Century Room
311 E. Congress Street hotelcongress.com/family/ century-room
7 P.M. AND 9 P.M. FRIDAY, DEC. 23
“Nossa Bossa Nova: Jazz Christmas Italiano”
Celebrate the holiday season with Nossa Bossa Nova as it performs songs from its 2020 album, “Jazz Christmas Italiano.”
Featuring Brice Winston, Richard Katz and Alejandro Canelos with Theresa and Mike Levy, the evening will blend traditional holiday standards, sung in Italian with acoustic jazz quartet.
7 P.M. AND 9 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 24
Britney Chauntae:
“A New Orleans Christmas”
New Orleans vocalist Britney Chauntae travels to Tucson celebrate Christmas with jazz music. In 2009, she competed, won, and toured with (BET) 106 & Park “Wild Out Wednesday Competition.” After that win, Chauntae wrote and performed music
while living in California. She then signed on to write music in Australia with the likes of world-renowned aboriginal actor David Gulpilil.
Chauntae first visited New Orleans in early 2012, when she volunteered with the Boys & Girls Club and also sung on Bourbon Street at night. She made it her permanent home in 2014 — the same year she auditioned for season 14 of “American Idol.” She made it to Hollywood Week.
Fox Tucson Theatre 17 W. Congress foxtucson.com
7 P.M. SUNDAY, NOV. 27
Jake Shimabukuro
Jolly ukulele master Jake Shimabukuro will celebrate the holidays with his “Christmas in Hawai’i” show.
7:30 P.M. THURSDAY, DEC. 1
A Carpenters Christmas featuring Lisa Rock
Singer/playwright Lisa Rock and her six-
piece backing band are keeping the Carpenters’ holiday traditions alive with their stage show.
Based on the music of the Carpenters’ two holiday albums and Christmas variety shows, “A Carpenters Christmas” features “Merry Christmas Darling” and the jazzy “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.”
7:30 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 3
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Holiday 2022
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy turns holiday songs into their own with jazzy versions of “Jingle Bells,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Winter Wonderland.”
Expect “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” with an Andrews Sisters-meets-theblues spin, and a take on Heat Miser’s song from the classic “A Year Without a Santa Claus.”
The band rips through Chuck Berry’s “Run, Run Rudolph” and Lou Rawls’ “Merry Christmas Baby” and slows things down for Elvis Presley’s “Blue Christmas.” There’s a New Orleans-flavored “Frosty the Snow-
See HOLIDAZE Page H2
Mariachi Sol De Mexico with Jose Hernandez’s Merry-Achi Christmas is a tradition. (Submitted)
man” and a calypso “A Party for Santa.”
2 P.M. AND 6 P.M. SUNDAY, DEC. 4
“Elf”
The heartwarming “Elf” makes its way to the Fox Tucson Theater.
For the few who have missed “Elf,” the 2003 film stars Will Ferrell as the title character — a human raised by Santa’s elves — who learns about his origins and heads to NYC to meet his biological father. The Fox’s Mighty Wurlitzer plays a medley of holiday tunes 30 minutes before the movie starts.
7:30 P.M. FRIDAY, DEC. 9
“In the Christmas Mood: A Holiday Music Spectacular”
Produced by Khris Dodge Entertainment, “In the Christmas Mood” showcases holiday tunes such as “Sleigh Ride,” “Happy Holidays,” “Jingle Bells” and “The Christmas Song.”
7:30 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 10
The Mavericks’ “Very Merry Christmas Tour” with special guest
JD McPherson
Grammy winners the Mavericks will play selections from their 2018 holiday album “Hey! Merry Christmas!” along with hits from their 30-year career. JD McPherson guests.
8 P.M. THURSDAY, DEC. 15
Doo Wop Project:
“A Doo Wop Christmas”
Hear holiday hits with a doo-wop twist. The show features Christmas tracks as well as “doo-wopified” versions of hits by Michael Jackson, Jason Mraz, Maroon 5 and Sam Smith.
7:30 P.M. FRIDAY, DEC. 16
Merry-Achi Christmas
Mariachi Sol De Mexico with Jose Hernandez’s Merry-Achi Christmas has become an annual tradition.
While his family tree is rooted in five generations of Mariachi musicians who hail from La Sierra del Tigre region of Jalisco, Hernandez grew mariachi music in new lands, in new musical genres and in the hearts of new audiences.
2 P.M. AND 6 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 17
“The Polar Express”
The computer-animated 2004 film “The Polar Express” stars Tom Hanks, with Daryl Sabara, Nona Gaye, Jimmy Bennett and Eddie Deezen.
The Fox’s Mighty Wurlitzer will play a medley of holiday tunes 30 minutes before the film begins.
7 P.M. SUNDAY, DEC. 18
“All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914” A German soldier sings “Stille Nacht.” Thus begins an extraordinary night of camaraderie, music and peace. A true story, told in the words and songs of the men who lived it.
2 P.M. AND 6 P.M. FRIDAY, DEC. 23
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. Based on the short story and booklet “The Greatest Gift,” “It’s a Wonderful Life” stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams to help others in his community. His suicidal thoughts on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). The Fox’s Mighty Wurlitzer will play a medley of holiday tunes 30 minutes before the movie starts.
Leo Rich Theater
260 S. Church Avenue, Tucson leorichtheater.com
VARIOUS TIMES FRIDAY, DEC. 2, TO SUNDAY, DEC. 4
Reveille Men’s Chorus’ “The Gift”
With a mission of promoting acceptance of LGBTQI individuals through music, Reveille Men’s Chorus will present its 28th season holiday show.
FAMILY
Linda Ronstadt Music Hall
260 S. Church Avenue tucsonmusichall.org
2 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 10, AND SUNDAY, DEC. 11
Tucson Regional Ballet’s “A Southwest Nutcracker” tucsonregionalballet.org
Tucson Regional Ballet’s “A Southwest Nutcracker” transports Tchaikovsky’s traditional Nutcracker to 1880s Tucson, giving the characters and events a Sonoran Desert twist.
Since 2003, Tucson Regional Ballet has collaborated with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for live accompaniment.
VARIOUS TIMES SATURDAY, DEC. 17, AND SUNDAY, DEC. 18
Tucson Symphony Orchestra: “Happy Holidays ¡Feliz Navidad!”
Join Maestro José Luis Gomez, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Tucson Girls Chorus, the Tucson Boys Chorus and other special guest artists to celebrate the
holidays with a multicultural Tucson flavor.
VARIOUS TIMES THURSDAY, DEC. 22, TO SATURDAY, DEC. 24
“The Nutcracker”
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra teams with Ballet Tucson for “the Nutcracker.”
Tucson Convention Center
260 S. Church Avenue tucsonconventioncenter.com
VARIOUS TIMES SUNDAY, NOV. 20, TO SUNDAY, JAN. 8
Tucson Holiday Ice
The Tucson Holiday Ice Rink, hosted by the city of Tucson, will be located on Church Avenue, south of Broadway, in front of the Tucson Convention Center.
Skates begin at size 8 for children and run as large as size 15 for adult men. Socks are required, and gloves are highly recommended. Tickets are for 90-minute sessions; adults $20, $14 for children younger than 12. Skate assists are $5. Private use is $700 per 90-minute session during off hours.
Closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
MARANA
11555 W. Civic Center Drive, Marana maranaaz.gov
3 TO 9 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 3
Marana Holiday Festival & Christmas Tree Lighting
The Marana Holiday Festival & Christmas Tree Lighting features artisan and craft vendors; more than 30 food trucks and vendors; free rides on the holiday train; free bouncy castles/inflatables experiences; a photo booth with Desert Photo Booth; holiday laser projections in Santa’s Courtyard/Christmas Tree Lighting (6 p.m.); free photos with Santa and Mrs. Claus; letters to Santa station; community performances and a creation station with Lucky Cat Social Art.
NOVEMBER 18 –20, 2022 10AM–5PM, FRIDAY & SATURDAY 10AM–4PM, SUNDAY
FEATURED ARTISTS
Layton returns to Mannheim Steamroller for year 27
BY L. KENT WOLGAMOTT Tucson Local Media Contributor
ROXANNE LAYTON DOESN’T know exactly how many shows she’s played in the 27 years she’s been with Mannheim Steamroller.
But the recorder player knows she’ll be adding about 40 more to that total this year as the orchestra, which plays the classical rock Christmas music of Chip Davis, makes its annual two-month holiday tour. Mannheim Steamroller comes to Centennial Hall at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6.
“I was trying to add it up,” Layton said. “Here’s an average of at least 40 shows a year. The first 10 years we didn’t have 40 shows. We were playing arenas to 10,000 people a night. So, let’s say 500 shows at least.”
And even though the Mannheim Steamroller program only changes slightly from
year to year, Layton never gets tired of performing it, on her recorder and percussion.
“There is such a joy to doing this,” she said. “This music is timeless. It was the first Christmas album that so many people remember getting introduced to Mannheim Steamroller, even though we know there was much more before that.”
Layton, in fact, came to Mannheim Steamroller before it became an American Christmas tradition.
After graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music, Layton was working in Boston when she initially encountered Mannheim Steamroller.
“I won tickets from a radio station,” she said. “I was making recorders at the time, and someone had given me ‘Fresh Aire III.’ I thought, ‘This is so cool. It’s classical rock and roll.’ They had a (touring) orchestra
Roxanne Layton will appear with Mannheim Steamroller Christmas by Chip Davis when it comes to Centennial Hall.
(Mannheim Steamroller/ Submitted)
back then, and the trumpet player came into the shop. He asked if I wanted to come to rehearsal. I went from my shop with my instruments for the show, met Chip later and ended up talking with him until 2 a.m.”
Layton had left a tape with Davis, the Omaha-based composer who created the neoclassical new age group in 1974, who, apparently, listened immediately after.
The next morning, Davis called Layton. “He asked, ‘Would you like to be on my next album?” That all happened in 24 hours,” Layton said.
So, why did Mannheim need a recorder player?
“Back in the Renaissance, the recorder was like the trumpet and the saxophone. It was the instrument that led all the dances,” Layton said.
“Chip is a big Renaissance fan. He was a bassoonist, but he was also a great recorder player and drummer, which is a double
See MANNHEIM Page H7
you don’t see out there.”
Adding Layton to the group gave Davis, who, for years, played with Mannheim on tour, additional flexibility in his role onstage.
“What it did was allow him to play the recorder while I played the drums or I could play the recorder while he plays drums,” she said of Davis, who no longer tours but still appears at special Mannheim Steamroller events.
The enduring career of Mannheim Steamroller began in 1975 — not with a Christmas album, but with the first “Fresh Aire” album. Combining classical music and pop, and using orchestral instruments and synthesizers and other synthetic tones, “Fresh Aire” helped usher in the new age music genre.
Davis created Mannheim Steamroller during the period when he was writing music with friend Bill Fries, who adopted the stage name and the CB radio toting character of C.W. McCall and became a country music star in 1976 with their hit song “Convoy” (which inspired the 1978 movie of the same name, starring Kris Kristofferson and Ali MacGraw). Davis, though, was soon focusing on
Mannheim Steamroller and what grew to a series of eight “Fresh Aire” albums, which enjoyed major popularity considering they were marketed in a niche genre.
But today Davis and Mannheim Steamroller are best known for Christmas music. Davis entered the holiday fray with the 1984 album “Mannheim Steamroller Christmas,” at a time when such seasonal albums were largely seen as something artists released when they were on the downside of their careers.
Instead, that first Christmas album became a huge hit, selling 5 million copies, and Mannheim Steamroller has gone on to become the bestselling Christmas act of all time.
The way Davis schedules the holiday tours has helped keep fans — especially families — coming out to see Mannheim Steamroller’s Christmas shows year after year.
“We go to the markets every other or every third year,” Davis said in a 2017 interview. “So, then that gives them time to (think about), ‘Oh, you know, the kids are a little older. We should take them this
See MANNHEIM Page H8
WE JUST MOVED!
prancin’ out the door.
• Cat and dog grooming
• Bath and brush
• Ear and eye cleaning
• Nail trimming and grinding
• D-matting
• and much more
• DO NOT use cages or kennels
• One-on-one service
• Well educated & trained groomers
THING HAPPENED
By: Halley Feiffer
year.’ I think that has a lot to do with the
Like every other music group and artist, Mannheim Steamroller was unable to tour in 2020. But it was back for the Christmas tour last year. Once again, this year, two companies of the group will go on tour — one East Coast and one West Coast.
That music will be performed by an orchestra that is made up of a core group of Steamroller players, like Layton, and musicians brought in from each community or area where the group performs,
who rehearse in the afternoons before the evening show.
That combination works well, Layton said, as the local musicians come in well prepared and the rehearsal tightens up the music before the performances.
“We do the same program every night,” she said. “For me, I just try to do it better every night. For me, it’s a gift to get to enjoy this music. I still cry at a point in ‘Oh Holy Night’… I try not to cry during the shows, but sometimes it happens.”
ORO VALLEY
Oro Valley Marketplace, 12155 N. Oracle Road, Oro Valley orovalleymarketplace.com
VARIOUS TIMES SATURDAY, DEC. 3, AND SUNDAY, DEC. 4
Oro Valley Festival of the Arts and Holiday Tree Lighting
Oro Valley Marketplace hosts the Oro Valley Festival of the Arts and Holiday Tree Lighting. Known as one of the largest fine art and craft festivals in the region, the event is programmed for all age groups.
Hosted by Mayor Joe Winfield and Santa, the Oro Valley Tree Lighting Celebration is 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, preceded by cookie decorating and free photos with Santa and the Golder Ranch
childrensmuseumtucson.org
10:30 A.M. OR 1:30 P.M SATURDAY, DEC. 3, AND SUNDAY, DEC. 4
Gingerbread Workshop
For $50, up for four guests can design a preconstructed house with tons of icing and candy. Reservations required.
SOUTHERN ARIZONA
Transportation Museum 414 N. Toole Avenue, Tucson tucsonhistoricdepot.com
10 A.M. TO 3 P.M. SATURDAY, DEC. 17
17th Annual Holiday Express
Features visits with Santa in front of “Oklahoma’s” Locomotive 1673, bilingual exhibits, a reading of “The Polar Express,” singing of holiday music, and an arts and crafts show.
Irish band Altan returns to the Fox Tucson Theatre
BY MARGARET REGAN Tucson Weekly Contributing Writer
Altan, one of Ireland’s foremost traditional bands, is at long last here in the United States.
“We started on the East Coast and creeped our way across America to the West Coast,” says Máiréad Ni Mhaonaigh in her brogue. “Finally, we’re coming. It’s happening.”
Altan, four members strong, will perform Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Fox Tucson Theatre.
Back in March 2020, the band was ready to perform at the Fox near St. Patrick’s Day — until COVID-19 came raging in.
The concert was canceled, like most of the arts in Tucson and beyond. The musicians fled back to Ireland before lockdowns were imposed on both sides of the Atlantic.
Since then, Celtic fans in Tucson were told that the band was returning, but the pan-
demic spoiled plans time and again.
Thanks to promoter, Don Gest, their Tucson audience will see them on their first tour back in America. “We are delighted,” Ni Mhaonaigh said. “Don had great faith in us.”
Ni Mhaonaigh, a renowned fiddler and Gaelic singer, said Altan went to London last St. Patrick’s Day for a few shows.
“The band has not been performing until this tour started in mid-October,” she said.
“This is our first time around since the pandemic started. Everybody’s been well, and we’ve seen old friends.”
Joining Ni Mhaonaigh on stage are Ciarán Curran on bouzouki, Daíthí Sproule on guitar, and Martin Tourish on accordion. Sproule and Tourish are singers, too. And Tourish also is a celebrated composer.
She’s really excited about “an amazing young musician,” their guest artist, Clare Friel, who accompanies the group as a fiddler and singer.
“She’s a family friend. I’ve known her since
she was a baby,” Ni Mhaonaigh said.
In 2018, Friel was named Young Artist of the Year by TG4, the Irish national public television station. She also plays in a trio with her sisters, part of a new generation of Irish traditional musicians.
Although the women grew up in Scotland, their parents were from County Donegal and Friel plays in that tradition.
Ni Mhaonaigh, born and bred in Donegal to a musical family, had Irish as her first language and learned her songs and tunes from family and neighbors.
In the show, “Donegal to Tucson,” “you will see traditional tunes as we are known for that. We have collected tunes from lots of the old fiddle players, and we also compose our own.”
Ni Mhaonaigh especially sings the praises of Tourish “as a great young composer. He will be singing some beautiful songs.” And Irish step dancers from Tucson’s Celtic Steps Irish Dance school will kick up their heels on jigs and reels.
Altan’s repertoire of songs celebrates the Irish language, Ni Mhaonaigh’s native tongue. (“Altan” is Irish for “stream.)
“I will sing lots of songs in Irish. I grew up with it, speaking with neighbors and even using it shopping for groceries. But you’ll not understand a word I say,” she said with a chuckle.
One happy consequence of the pandemic was that it gave Ni Mhaonaigh and her peripatetic bandmates time at their homes to work on new music and some solo projects. She, for example, recorded online lessons of some 32 tunes for aspiring fiddlers.
IN THE DIAMOND CENTER
LIVEN UP
COPELAND from Page 14
Unafraid to cast light on a subject that for many is a taboo best kept in the dark, “The Dolls Are Sleeping” — off of “Done Come Too Far” — acts as a sobering exposé about childhood sexual abuse.
“Something needed to be said,” Copeland said. “I’ve known too many victims of molestation.
“My albums reflect me. But I am not all serious.” As evidenced in “Fried Catfish and Bibles” and “Fell in Love with a Honky,” tracks from her new album.
Once her son was born Copeland became even more committed to making the world a better place.
“When he gets older, I want my little guy to be proud of me,” Copeland said. “To know that his mommy mattered and had the courage to speak out.”
An artist, ever evolving, the underlying thread that connects her recent work, her trilogy, is unification.
“On ‘America’s Child,’ ‘Uncivil War,’ and now ‘Done Come Too Far,’ I have been trying to put the ‘united’ back into the United States,” Copeland stated. “Friends, family
and home, these things we all value.”
In the summer of 2021, Copeland was planning her return to performing, as the world was reawakening post-lockdown. But her plans were promptly sidelined when she was diagnosed with a rare type of kidney cancer: Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. Surgeons operated.
Shortly afterward, she contracted COVID-19 and temporarily lost her sense of smell, despite being vaccinated.
“I feel fine, so far. It’s not recurring,” Copeland said, optimistically. “So, I’m just going to hope and pray that that’s the case with me. I am just going to wait and see what the next months bring.”
Shemekia Copeland w/Sugaray Rayford
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18
WHERE: Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W.
Congress Street, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $35 INFO: 520-547-3040, foxtucson.com
Athlete of the Week: Kayla Carter EXTRA POINT WITH TOM DANEHY SPORTS & RECREATION
BY TOM DANEHY
Tucson Local Media
Kayla Carter has work to do. And we’re not talking about her new weekend gig at the McDonald’s up on Tangerine. As a sophomore, she is already one of the key players for the Mountain View Mountain Lions basketball team and, at 6 feet in height and possessing wing player skills, she has a chance to become a force in Southern Arizona hoops.
Carter (her coach refers to her as Makayla, while the player refers to herself as Kayla) comes from a basketball family. Her dad played ball in high school
and college, while her mom was a softball player. Older sister Tianna Carter starred at Canyon Del Oro a couple years back, where she holds numerous school records, including rebounds in a season and in a career and highest scoring average in a season. Tianna originally went to UNLV on a basketball scholarship, but has since transferred to North Carolina Central.
“Tianna is so much happier at NCCU,” Kayla said. “UNLV was just too big. She feels like she’s part of a family at NCCU.”
In her first year at NCCU, Tianna was twice named Conference Defensive Player of the Week, finished second in the conference in rebounds per game, and grabbed a school-record 21 boards in one
game.
That’s certainly something to try to live up to, but Kayla wants to chart her own path (which may be part of the reason that she goes to a different school).
Kayla plays for Coach Niki Melchiori, who starred on the first Mountain View
High team back in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Melchiori was a baller, a point guard who led the first-year school into the playoffs, which is a rare feat, indeed. She later played college ball.
When asked in Melchiori still gets after it in practice in a scrimmage, “Kayla laughs. “No, I’ve heard that she was really good, but she doesn’t play with us.”
As a freshman, Kayla was part of a team
that struggled, going 6-11 in the regular season. Due to the vagaries of the AIA Power Point system, that record was still good enough to get the Lions into the playoffs, where they were throttled by Casteel in the opening round.
“I really think that we can do better this season,” she says. Our team is mostly (upperclassmen). We have a lot of experience and I think we can have a winning record.”
When asked if she was going to drive to her new job, she laughed and said, “No, I just turned 15. I won’t be driving for a while. I started school early. I was 4 years old in kindergarten. I’m supposed to be a
See KAYLA Page 32
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Pima soccer teams chase national titles
BY TOM DANEHY
Tucson Local Media Columnist
With the World Cup (quite ridiculously) set to start next week, five months late because the event is being held in hell’s foyer of Qatar, soccer will be getting a boost in the public consciousness starting Nov. 21 and running through Dec. 18. But here in Tucson, it’s already soccer heaven. The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) is hold its national championships this week at the Kino Sports Complex.
Pima Community College’s men’s team is the defending national champion. Pima men’s coach Dave Cosgrove started his coaching career at his high school alma mater, Amphitheater. He is the school’s all-time winningest coach and his team made it to the playoffs every year that he was the coach.
He became the head coach at Pima College in 1998 and immediately helped to elevate the Aztec program to a place of national prominence. For many years, Yavapai College in Prescott had ruled the community college soccer world thanks to a steady stream of foreign players making their way to the Northern Arizona school.
As the years went by, Pima chipped away and chipped away at Yavapai’s dominance. The Aztecs finally pulled even, but even then, it was sometimes a pyrrhic victory.
For a time, Yavapai and Pima were the best two soccer teams in the entire country, but because of NJCAA rules, only one of them could advance to the national championships. That meant that more than once, the second-best team in the country was staying at home while their rival was advancing to the NJCAAs.
Cosgrove continued to build his program. They reached the National finals in 2011. They finished third in the nation in
A Help Button
2015 and 2017. They finally broke through and won the national championship in 2018 and then again last year, in 2021.
His teams have been ranked in the Top 15 in the nation more than a dozen times. He has won Conference Coach of the Year six times and Western Region Coach of the Year twice. He has had nearly 100 players named All-Conference and a couple dozen named All-American. He is a member of the Pima County Hall of Fame and the NJCAA Soccer Hall of Fame.
And he just keeps on winning. Following up on last year’s national title was going to be difficult, but if they could pull it off, waiting for them at the end of the rainbow was the grand prize — a chance to defend their title on their home turf.
So impressed with Pima is the NJCAA that they named Tucson as the site for this year’s national championship.
It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Pima would be playing this week. They
lost in the Arizona finals to Phoenix College on penalty kicks. But with a record of 10-2-3, they grabbed an at-large bid into the tournament and are the No. 5 seed.
The tournament will run all week. Pima started off the tournament by taking on Southeastern Community College from Burlington, Iowa. Today, Nov. 16, they will play Morton College of Illinois. The winners of the four pools will square off in the semifinals on Friday.
While the Pima men’s roster has a couple players from South Korea and a couple from Japan, there is mostly a Southern Arizona flavor to the team. There are players from Walden Grove and Ironwood Ridge, a couple former high-school teammates from Tucson High, and players from Cholla, San Miguel, and players from Mountain View, Pusch Ridge, Rincon, Catalina and Marana.
See PIMA Page 32
Having started their run a couple decades after the men, the Pima women are also making a national name for themselves. The women have a record of 132-1 and also earned an at-large bid after falling to Phoenix College in the finals. If anything, their roster is even more amazing. Every single player on the roster is from Southern Arizona.
There are five players from Tucson High and three from Cienega. Other local schools represented on the Aztec roster formerly played at Marana, Salpointe, Sahuaro, Catalina Foothills, Sahuarita, Walden Grove, Tanque Verde, Marana and Ironwood Ridge.
The Pima women have won five conference championships, four regional championships, and four District titles. They were national runner-up last year. Their coach, Kendra Veliz, has also piled up the hardware. She was ACCAC Coach of the Year four times and Region Coach of the Year once.
The Aztec women opened play yesterday against Northeast Community College from Nebraska. Today they will play
Northwest Mississippi Community College. The women will follow the same format as the men. The winners of the four pools will advance to the national semifinals, with those winners meeting for the national title.
It’s an amazing honor for even one local team to make it to the national tournament, but to have both teams make it (for the second straight year) is beyond words. We all need to get down to Kino Sports Complex this week.
from Page 17
freshman this year, but I don’t want to be a freshman. I’m happy where I am.”
Mountain Lion fans are happy where she is, as well. The 5A-Southern team faces a stiff early-season challenge on Nov. 28 when they go on the road to face 3A power Pusch Ridge.
“I can’t wait for our first game.”
KAYLA
There are good uses for psychedelics
BY MIA SMITT
Tucson Local Media Columnist
To those of a certain age, psychedelic substances such as “magic mushrooms” and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) are reminiscent of Timothy Leary, The Grateful Dead, and the “tune in, turn on, drop out” culture of the 1960s and early ’70s.
Hallucinogens are a varied group of drugs that can alter users’ awareness of their surroundings and their own thoughts and feelings.
They can cause a feeling of disconnection with the world around them. There are two major categories: classic hallucinogens such as LSD, psilocybin, and peyote (mescaline) and dissociative drugs such as ketamine and phencyclidine (PCP).
Some hallucinogens are extracted from plants and others are manmade. Historically these substances were used for religious purposes, as medicines, and in healing rituals by various cultures for thousands of years. More recently they have been used for recreation, to create spiritual experiences, or deal with stress.
In 1938, a Sandoz chemist named Albert Hoffman was working on ergot, a fungus that grew on grain when he accidentally developed LSD, a potent psychoactive compound. This ergot fungus can infect various grains and sometimes caused people who ate it to appear mad or possessed. It wasn’t until 1943 that he discovered those hallucinogenic effects when he accidentally ingested a small amount and saw intense colors and shapes. He then took a larger amount and took the first intentional “acid trip.”
Burgeoning research into such drugs was co-opted by both the countercultures of that time and the United States military. During the 1950s, the U.S. government with help from research universities and pharmaceutical companies tried to develop LSD as a weapon of chemical warfare that could incapacitate enemy troops.
Soldiers who volunteered for the experiments were not given adequate information about the drug and possible adverse
effects and sadly later studies found that many of these study subjects experienced such psychiatric symptoms as terrifying flashbacks and they have needed intense psychiatric help for decades following the experiments.
Too many people suffered such severe adverse reactions that they were unable to function and suffered.
This research was halted in 1963 because they found that the LSD effects were too unpredictable to be weaponized. That program had so many violations of research ethics and abuses and these, in part, led to hallucinogens being classified as Schedule 1 substances and preventing any federal funding for hallucinogenic research until recently.
Psychedelics such as LSD, Psilocybin and methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA, also known as ecstasy) are again being researched, not for recreation and profit or for warfare purposes, but for health care.
Goals of this research are not mind control but to reduce cycles of repeat ed reliving of trauma, to change patterns of self-injury or -destruction, and even to promote an affirmation of life in the face of debilitating illness. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), severe substance use disorders, treatment-resistant depres sion, and ruthless mental anguish that can lead to suicide might respond to a halluci nogenic medication.
Ketamine was approved as an aesthetic for painful medical procedures and has been used in emergency settings for severe depression as well. There have been stud ies into the use of psilocybin as an effective treatment for anxiety and depression that doesn’t respond well to conventional ther apies.
Experiments with varying doses of psi locybin in terminally ill patients were conducted at Johns Hopkins, UCLA, and New York University in 2010. Many of the volunteer subjects reported that over the course of their guided psychedelic expe rience, they rethought how they saw their cancer and the reality of dying. Several said they no longer had a fear of death.
The Nov. 30, 2016, issue of Psychopharmacology published an article titled “Psilocybin and palliative End of Life Care,” which highlighted this research.
Other studies have looked at the efficacy in treating alcohol and substance abuse with positive and sustained results. Smoking cessation might be better achieved with psychedelic therapy. PTSD research has shown that when used in a controlled setting, some psychedelics can affect significant and lasting psychological and behavioral changes.
Sometimes depression and anxiety are not relieved with conventional therapies and medications but treatment with certain hallucinogenic drugs can help to mitigate symptoms.
Of course, as with many medications, there are risks with hallucinogenic drugs. Self-dosing and experimentation without proper supervision can be dangerous
and lead to serious psychiatric problems including panic, psychosis, paranoia, depression and suicidal thoughts, memory loss and speech problems. Dependence or addiction can occur with some drugs. But this is true of many conventional psychiatric medications as well, so caution is always advised with most treatment modalities.
“How to Change Your Mind,” by Michael Pollon, is an interesting book with an intriguing history of psychedelics and current research into their utility. He cites many research studies as well as his own experience with psilocybin under the guidance of specially trained psychiatrists. We are a long way from seeing psychedelic drugs on the pharmacy shelves. But what was once considered completely morally and culturally objectionable might someday be a possible answer to maladies for which we have no adequate relief.
AGING WELL Giving Thanks: How Gratitude Helps Us
November—a month containing both Veterans Day and Thanksgiving—is an ideal time to focus on feeling thankful. Concentrating on feelings of gratitude helps you feel happier and more positive in the short and long term.
“Multiple research studies have examined the benefits of a simple gratitude practice,” says Jennifer Smith, PhD, director of research at Mather Institute. The Institute is the research arm of Mather, one of the two parent organizations to Splendido, a Life Plan Community for those 55 and better in Oro Valley. The Institute is an award-winning resource for research and information about wellness, aging, trends in senior living, and successful aging service innovations.
“Gratitude can help us feel more connected to others, increase positive emotions, and reduce negative thoughts,” says Dr. Smith. “And emphasizing the positive can create more positivity.”
The Gratitude-Happiness Link
Many studies have linked higher levels of gratitude to more happiness and satisfaction with life; in other words, it seems the more one feels gratitude, the happier and more satisfied one feels in general. One
study that earned an Innovative Research on Aging Award from Mather Institute points out that older adults consistently report the highest levels of gratitude, compared to middle-age and younger adults. That link between level of gratitude and overall life satisfaction does not change with age, which means those over age 60 have a “happiness advantage” due to their high levels of gratitude.
The good news is that you can practice gratitude at any stage of life to actually improve your happiness, positivity, and life satisfaction. One study showed that a regular habit such as daily journaling can enhance your long-term happiness by more than 10%.
Feelings of gratitude have also been shown to make us more resilient, boost optimism, increase self-esteem, and reduce depressive symptoms. Focusing your attention on the positives rather than the negatives— which is what a gratitude practice does—can actually switch your outlook for the long term.
Physical Health Benefits
Feeling grateful also carries some physical benefits. It seems obvious that feeling optimistic and generally positive would impact one’s blood pressure, and research confirms this. A study of people with hypertension who
were asked to practice gratitude at least once a week showed a “significant decrease” in their blood pressure. A similar study showed that practicing gratitude can improve quality of sleep.
Give Gratitude a Try
If you want to enjoy the benefits mentioned here, try to focus on feeling grateful at least three times a week, if not daily.
Here are some examples of habits you might adopt:
Gratitude journal: Whether you use a special notebook or
scrap paper, take time every day or evening to list five things you feel grateful for. Ideally, you’ll save your lists so you can look back on them over time. Reviewing them will also increase your positive feelings.
Thank-you notes: Write a note or email to someone who has had a positive impact on your life—whether it was a single action or a lifetime of support. Expressing your gratitude in writing gives you a chance to think more deeply about your
thankfulness—and will make the recipient happy!
Gratitude meditation. Take some quiet time to reflect on what you’re grateful for, then examine the feelings brought up when you identify those items, people, or experiences. Focusing on what you value will bring moments of peace and joy.
Share gratitude. Find a “gratitude buddy”—perhaps your spouse, child, or a close friend—and take turns listing a few things you are grateful for.
This adds extra depth to gratitude, as you can build off of each other’s comments.
Take a gratitude walk. Take a stroll and look for positive things—from the walkability of your neighborhood to appealing sights and friendly people.
Whether you’re a natural pessimist or an optimist, try a regular gratitude practice. It will improve your outlook right away, and could result in lifelong benefits.
1 “The Fresh Prince of ___-Air”
4 Icy ocean hazards 9 Less than 90º, as an angle
Down Under bird
State known for potatoes 16 Pirate’s pal
Be determined by
Lying facedown
Encourage, as in behavior
Small drink
fig. that might be weighted
Geometry calculation
Critical moment in tennis 29 Sort who tells no tales, per an old saying
Argue
Wimbledon unit 33 Garlicky sauce
36 Ballet, e.g., in French
37 Extremely flammable, as vegetation
66 Vampire-vanquishing weapon
67 First clue number in this puzzle that doesn’t have an Across answer
1 Gives the Anne Boleyn treatment
2 Many an ex-pat
3 Attack, as in fencing
4 Good, in Guatemala
5 School website ending
6 Genre for Nicki Minaj
7 Stop replying to, as on a 59-Across
8 Video game hedgehog
9 Hype (up)
10 Storage spot in a ship
11 Perfect
12 Ones with leases
39 Certain wedding hairstyles
42 Apt vowels missing from this phrase: TH_ L_TTL_ K_DS’ S_NG
43 Mac alternatives
46 Vampire vanquisher, e.g.
48 “Don’t worry about it” 50 Fuzzy buzzers 53 Keen on 54 Engineered crop letters 55 Repair
56 “Thus ...”
57 Chinese or Lao
59 Modern medium for meeting someone … or what each of the starts of 17-, 25-, 37- and 50-Across is
62 Like the taste of Tic Tacs
63 Give the most votes, as a candidate 64 D.C. baseballer
Common teenage
13 One of up to 200(!) on a scallop
18 Provoke
22 Hood wearer at a graduation, for short
25 Common street name
26 Battery terminal
27 Five Portuguese kings
28 Bit of concert merch
30 “The Marvelous Mrs. ___”
34 Hawaiian garland
35 Adler in the Sherlock Holmes canon
37 Playthings in bathtubs
38 “Ay ___ mío!” (Spanish “OMG!”)
39 Car-to-phone connection option
40 Connects to an electrical outlet
41 Beaver’s job
43 Necklace dangler
44 Person being used by another
45 Go as low as
47 Whistle blower
49 Common eyeliner shape
51 ___ one’s time (waits)
52 Laud
56 Starting poker payment
57 Doctor’s org.
58 Longtime media inits.
60 Green or black beverage
61 “Gross!”
ARIES (March 21-April 19). It's easier to be sure-footed when you're walking the stability of a known world. While there may be a lot that needs to change, when you think about all the systems and routines that have to go right to keep things marching along, you feel grateful for whatever is happening smoothly in this part of life.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20). The week goes well if you don't get too wrapped up in winning. That would make your game tight and vulnerable to mistakes of tension. Back off and consider two ways to relax into your play. Pretend like you have so much advantage you'll never run out, or imagine instead that you have no advantage and therefore nothing to lose.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21). It's a good time for social strategizing. For instance, you may want to decide ahead of time what and how you will share with people. It is both kind and smart to consider the expectations of others. When in doubt, go for a pleasant state of neutrality. Avoid inspiring envy and controversy or giving people a reason to focus unhelpfully. .
CANCER (June 22-July 22). Financial demands seem affordable when someone else is paying. Chores and maintenance go faster when done by others. As true as this may be, you still prefer to take care of things on your own. Your reward for this is that you become incredibly capable, confident, vital, attractive, forward-thinking and unstoppable.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). You'll speak words of kindness if they come to you, but you don't have to. The way you hold yourself open to the world, the nice things you think to yourself about the strangers passing by and the friendliness of your smile contribute more than you know to the spirit of gentleness that would ideally prevail in a better world.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The act of creating a fantasy is like giving yourself a gift. The right fantasy can do more than entertain you. It can give you the clues about the life you might create for yourself. It can be the vision that shows you where you could go and pulls you into a future that would delight you.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). This week's todo list contains items that are less than fascinating, but give them more attention than you think they deserve. They have potential to advance you, perhaps delightfully so. It is the details -- the glorious, captivating details -- that will provide the magic of the week.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). As much as you'd like others to focus on the same things that matter to you, it won't happen often this week. There are benefits to the diverse energies, though. You'll get more versions of the story, and multiple viewpoints will be interesting, broadening the scope of your project and causing you to learn more, and quickly.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). In the animal kingdom, there are not enemies, just creatures competing for resources. Humans tend to see the competition as sinister, and yet the same principle applies. Take moral bias out of the equation and you will see people in terms of what they need or want, not in subjective terms of good and evil.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). You are good at many things and great at something that is rare. Too much time has passed since you gave much-deserved attention to your talent. Use your exceptional gift this week, or at the very least, plan to use it soon, building the schedule, training or environment to make this possible.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You have powers so terrifying and awesome you wouldn't dare use them regularly. That would be like using a lightning bolt to do the work of a stapler. You don't need to deploy these powers this week, though the thought will cross your mind. It's a confident feeling just to remember what you are capable of.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You embrace duty, knowing it's not likely to change. People say it gets easier, but "it" actually remains about the same. What happens is that (SET ITAL) you (END ITAL) get stronger, as well as smarter, more innovative and capable until one day, the task that used to make you sweat will be a piece of cake. That day is coming sooner than you think.
COWBOY CHURCH
Cristian Cowboy Ministries Cowboy Church Sunday November 20th At the Robertson Horse sale barn, Benson, AZ. @10 am For more info. Contact: Ccbm777@aol.com
LUTHERAN METHODIST
Classifieds
LESSONS/ TUTORING
TAP DANCERS
WANTED The Tucson Prunes A senior (50+) tap dancing & entertainment group of 10 currently recruiting women & men. We perform lively musical reviews highlighting dancing, singing & comedy. Tap dancing exp preferred. Student teacher available for training. (520) 591-9810
A life’s journey requires taking one step at a time.
Albert Lavenziano
Certified Life Coach
Atlas.lifecoach22@yahoo.com
Phone/Text: 520-406-8576
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LocalCompany
NOTICE TO READERS:
Most service advertisers have an ROC# or “Not a licensed contractor” in their ad, this is in accordance to the AZ state law.
Arizona Registrar of Contractors (ROC): The advertising requirements of the statute does not prevent anyone from placing an ad in the yellow pages, on business cards, or on flyers.
What it does require under A.R.S. §32-1121A14(c) www.azleg.gov/ars/ 32/01165.htm is that the advertising party, if not properly licensed as a contractor, disclose that fact on any form of advertising to the public by including the words “not a licensed contractor” in the advertisement.
Again, this requirement is intended to make sure that the consumer is made aware of the unlicensed status of the individual or company.
Contractors who advertise and do not disclose their unlicensed status are not eligible for the handyman’s exception.
Reference: http://www.azroc.g ov/invest/licensed_ by_law.html As a consumer, being aware of the law is for your protection. You can check a businesses ROC status at: http://www.azroc.gov.
EverettLeeThurston,90,wenttobewithhisLord JesusonOct29,2022.EverettwasbornonNov15, 1931inRandolphCounty,INtoEverettC.andIrene JenningsThurston.Hemovedwiththisfamilyto Tucsonin1943andservedintheUSArmyfrom 1952-1954.Heworkedinconstructionformanyyears andwoodworkingwasalifelongpassion,aswas servinginthechurch.Hewasprecededindeathbyhis parentsandlovingwifeof28years,Donna.
Everettissurvivedbyhisthreechildren:Cynthia(Mark)Hays,Lee(Carol), and WayneThurston;4grandchildren,6great-grandchildren,and5siblings. AmemorialservicewillbeheldonSat,Nov19,2022at2pmatMountain ViewBaptistChurch,3500WOvertonRd.Acommittalservicewillbeheldon Mon,Nov21at10amatArizonaVeteransMemorialCemeteryMarana.In lieuofflowers,donationsmaybemadetoMountainViewBaptistChurch MissionsFund.
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TO BE YOU.
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