Zocalo Magazine - April 2014

Z贸calo Tucson arts and culture

april 2014 / no. 51

index April 2014 05. Tidbits 09. Business 13. History 15. People 19. Arts & Tucson Artists’ Open Studios 38. Community 42. Events 57. Culture 59. Film 60. Garden 63. Tunes 70. Life in Tucson On the cover:

“Downhill” by Tucson-based artist Titus Castanza, 2014, oil on canvas. Read about Titus on page 28, visit him during the Tucson Artists’ Open Studios or see more of his work at tituscastanza.com.

Zócalo Magazine is locally owned, produced, and printed in Tucson.

PUBLISHER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR David Olsen EDITOR Jamie Manser CONTRIBUTORS Lee Allen, Craig Baker, Marisa Bernal, Andrew Brown, Jon D’Auria, McKinzie Frisbie, Jimi Giannatti, Emily Gindlesparger, James Jefferies, Eric Johns, Jamie Manser, Brandon Merchant, Stuart Oliver, Pop Narkotic, Steve Renzi, Herb Stratford, Monica Surfaro Spigelman, Elsa Watson.

LISTINGS Marisa Bernal, listings@zocalotucson.com PRODUCTION ARTISTS Troy Martin, David Olsen CONTACT US:

frontdesk@zocalotucson.com P.O. Box 1171, Tucson, AZ 85702-1171 520.955.ZMAG Zocalo Magazine is printed in Tucson at Sundance Press.

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from the editor There are two things Tucsonans can count on in April: a ton of festivals and potentially unpredictable weather (remember the freaky cold rain in 2011 and 2012?). While we can’t forecast the second, between the event listings and articles—we have the first fairly buckled down.

Doing a bit of digging into the historic elements of April, it seems the Old Pueblo is in line with ancient Rome when it comes to spring celebrations. During pastoral times, a bountiful harvest was a perfect reason for rejoicing and revelry.

Locally, April sees rejoicing and revelry during the MOCA fundraising gala (page 52), the many bicycle hullabaloos (page 42) and the Marana Bluegrass Festival (page 63).

Rumor has it (or, according to Wikipedia), April’s name is derived from the Latin verb aperio, which means “uncover” or “open.” Perhaps it’s a nod to the uncovering of the snow in colder climates or the opening of the plants and flowers to the kinder weather. To us, April means it is time for the Tucson Artists’ Open Studios— an invite to uncover the seemingly innumerable studios and artists in town and visit their places of creation. See the guide, starting on page 19.

April was also known to be sacred to the Roman goddess Venus, worshipped for her power in the mysterious realms of love, beauty, sex, fertility and prosperity. Tying in with that, hopefully April will become known internationally as the time of the year when the female movers and shakers of the body love movement descend on Tucson to educate, support and extend “the important conversation about self-love and self-acceptance,” as Elsa Watson writes on page 48, during the Body Love Conference. It will be nice to see a paradigm shift in the way society views women’s bodies. All shapes and sizes ought to be honored as weight doesn’t predicate health, and being healthy to help happiness and longevity is exponentially more important than what size dress one wears.

– Jamie Manser

Tidbits

by Mckinzie Frisbie

Sink Your Roots into Sonoran X

Plant lovers unite for the fifth Sonoran Conference! This year’s theme is “Plants for the Sonoran Desert Hobbyists,” a showcase of unique cacti and hybrid plants from around the world. The plant conference is on Saturday, April 19 from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Sunday, April 20 from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at 475 N. Granada Ave. Registered attendees will get a glimpse of grandeur member collections, participate in workshops, listen to five guest speakers, and enjoy two lunches and a dinner. The $50 registration takes place in the lobby from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday, and from 8 a.m. until noon on Sunday.

Attendants who do not wish to register will still have access to the plant showings, a silent auction and the pottery, book, art and plant sales.

For more information about the conference and how to register, visit TucsonCactus.org or call (520) 256-2477.

“Plants for the Sonoran Desert Hobbyist,” at the Sonoran X Conference.

Jazz Performances @ Main Gate Square

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

The UA Studio Jazz Ensemble—comprised of the most prestigious student musicians from the university—perform on April 4. The ensemble earned the UA Global Excellence Award in 2013 after showing off their talents in two tours through China. The April 18 concert features soul, jazz and R&B vocalist Crystal Stark. A graduate from the University of Arizona, Stark later made it into the top 44 contestants in the fifth season of American Idol. Parking is free after 5 p.m. in the Tyndall Garage, 880 E. 4th St. For more information about the concerts, visit SAACA.org, MainGateSquare.com or call (520) 797-3959. continued on next page

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Tidbits

by Mckinzie Frisbie

continued from previous page

photo courtesy Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association

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

Pennington Street Block Party

A Sam Hughes Garden Tour

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

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

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

Visit SamHughes.org for more information.

Tucson's First Open Water Swim Triathlon

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

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

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

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

The Pennington Street Block Party, coordinated by City High School and the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona, will kick off the international campaign for community change from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Friday, April 11.

The event happens along Downtown's Pennington Street, between Stone and Scott Avenues.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earth Day $1 Sale

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

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

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

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business Z

Connect Coworking, under construction

Modern Offices in a Historic Setting Connect Coworking Invites Professionals to Work & Play in the Rialto Theatre Block

by Mckinzie Frisbie After purchasing the Rialto building in 2008, Scott Stiteler partnered with Rudy Dabdoub to create Connect Coworking—an innovative company that has transformed the space from deteriorating apartments to a funky, functional co-working place for business professionals to collaborate. Construction began January of this year and is wrapping up in two phases with the first set of offices set to welcome professionals on April 1.

The 14,000 square foot office space that has been vacant for 12 years will provide an urban setting for professionals to network with like-minded individuals in an environment that Stephanie Bermudez, community director for Connect, refers to as a “coffee shop on steroids.”

“There’s a lot more that we’re building within just the space. There’s an entire community and culture that we’re establishing,” Bermudez said.

“We’re forming organized events for our members, offering them networking opportunities, and really establishing some pretty creative opportunities for them to thrive and be inspired by our collaborative workspace.”

Connect hopes to expand young professionalism in the Downtown community through supporting both the global movement of co-working spaces and the shift away from the standard 9 to 5 work day, Bermudez said.

“There’s a change in the way that people are working. People are now starting their own businesses,” Bermudez said. “They are pursuing the

American dream, but its being done differently than it was at a different era in our country.”

Corporations are now allowing employees the flexibility to work from home, and the Internet has provided people the opportunity to start ideabased companies from behind the screen of a laptop, Bermudez said.

Connect supports this change in work mobility by providing an inspiring work environment for people to collaborate.

Connect has partnered with Fors Architecture & Interiors to freshen and redesign the Rialto building. Bermudez says that an idea of what Connect will look like is reflected in other Fors' designed spaces like the Hub, Playground Bar and Lounge, Gio Taco and One North Fifth.

Although the building is undergoing complete restoration, Bermudez says that Connect will feature elements to preserve the building’s historical significance. Each workspace will be modernized with glass enclosures, but will retain the exposed brick walls of the original infrastructure. Muralist Joe Pagac will hand paint the building’s original barn doors, and beams from the Rialto will be integrated into re-purposed walls to provide a rustic touch to a contemporary atmosphere, Bermudez said.

“When you walk into our space, its going to be the design elements, the experience, the community and that culture that is unlike anything that Arizona has seen, let alone Tucson,” Bermudez said. “Tucson is a

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Z business

Connect Coworking, under construction

continued from previous page really special place, we are truly looking to create an innovative hub that will drive a whole new wave of economic traffic into our Downtown community.”

Connect is currently stationed down the street from the Rialto building at 245 E. Congress St. in its preliminary “Beta” phase. Bermudez says that Connect Beta has allowed the company to prepare for business and expand its membership during renovations, but is a “tricycle compared to the Cadillac” that is soon to come.

Connect will receive the keys to the Rialto on April 1, initiating the first move-in phase for members. The second move-in phase begins May 1, and Bermudez says that the courtyard will be finished and ready for use

by July.

Represented by the symbol of the all-enduring penguin, Connect will be holding April specials on their four packages: The Slider for $20 per day, the Hopper for $100 per month, the Flock for $375 per month, and the Ice Box for $600 per month.

Slider and Hopper packages are geared towards members who want to drop in and enjoy the atmosphere of the building on a flexible schedule, Bermudez said. Hoppers and Sliders will have full access to amenities on the 2,000 square foot first level during regular hours.

First-floor amenities include a coffee machine, mailbox, conference and meeting rooms, and copy, scan, print and fax machines. The building will also have an individual Internet fiber that feeds into the building, guaranteeing a reliable connection to high-speed Wi-Fi. Friendly dogs are also welcome into the co-working space.

Unlimited, 24-hour access to amenities will be given to Flock and Ice Box members on the 12,000 square foot second level. Bermudez says the 10 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

second floor has more “nesting” perks that include lounging spaces, PingPong and foosball tables, Superman booths (completely insulated rooms for private conversations), meditation rooms, and bathroom facilities with spa showers. Flock and Ice Box members will also have access to a full kitchenette with a coffee station and open beer tab featuring monthly rotations from local breweries.

The second floor will also feature outdoor hanging day beds, big screen TVs, meeting rooms equipped with Pac Man machines, an extended patio with outdoor seating, a balcony overlooking Congress Street, and private offices that range from one to 10 desks.

“No matter what level of membership that you are involved in, you are part of the community,” Bermudez said. “The buzz, and the greatness, and meeting other people in the space who are fresh on ideas.”

Bermudez says that Connect has formed a close partnership with the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Arizona. This year, Connect will invite two start-up companies from McGuire into the space to guide and track the progression of the businesses.

Connect Coworking will introduce its Speaker Series Event on April 10 from 5:30-7 p.m. to focus on the community aspect of small businesses and professionalism. Two highly influential entrepreneurs from Vancouver will arrive to meet with members, discuss strategies for optimizing business relations and educate the young professionals of Tucson.

“We’re kind of working our way into things,” Bermudez said. “But as we increase our membership and we have more access to our space, we’re going to blow things up Downtown.” n For more information, visit ConnectCoworking.com.

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photos: Steve Renzi

history Z

Standing in front of Old Pueblo Printers on South Stone Avenue, Albert M. Elias has been a part of and witnessed much of the history of Downtown Tucson.

The first issue of El Tucsonense.

Old Pueblo Printers y El Tucsonense

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“During high school I moved into the print shop and began to learn the printing trade. I got out of Tucson High at 1 o’clock and worked in the print shop seven hours a day. I was a ‘printer’s devil’—an apprentice printer.

I learned how to become a typesetter, a compositor who puts the pages together and a pressman who runs the press.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old Pueblo Printers is still going strong as a commercial printing company. In 1966, Albert M. Elias and a partner, Oscar Araiza became coowners. Elias became sole owner after 1990. At 85-years-old, he still goes to work every day. n Old Pueblo Printers is located at 255 S. Stone Ave. Hours are MondayFriday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Phone (520) 624-5851 with inquiries.

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Into the Great Beyond As a highly decorated pilot, Colonel Keith “Coma” Colmer has had a storied career in aviation, but he now has his sights set on space as he leads Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic mission to new heights as the first commercial astronaut.

by Jon D’Auria

people Z

U

Order of Daedalians Orville Wright Achievement Award, the Aaron nited States Air Force Colonel Keith Colmer takes advanC. George Award from the USAF Test Pilot School, the Lieutenant tage of a rare moment of downtime in his Oro Valley home before his General Bobby Bond Memorial Aviator Award and the Lieutenant wife Cecilia, 8-year old daughter Annika and 5-year old son Carson General Howard Leaf “Test Team of the Year Award” for the United return home for the day. Colmer himself had just returned home States Air Force. only two hours prior after making a 24-hour trip to Brazil where he After accomplishing more than most pilots would ever dream advised the leaders of the Brazilian Air Defense Command on how of, Colmer began looking towards his upcoming military retirement to conduct safety measures for the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup when he received a call offering him the chance of a lifetime. Bil(Fédération Internationale de Football Association). Just another lionaire mogul Sir Richard Branson was looking for an experienced day at the office for Colmer, though unlike most, his office generally pilot who could navigate his first commercial passenger spaceship resides in a cockpit around 30,000 feet in the air. into space and Colmer fit the exact bill of experience he was lookAs Colmer begins to detail his life as a pilot you start to get a ing for. After 1,000 pilots came true understanding of his extreme forward to compete for that passion for flying (and apparent groundbreaking position, Brandisregard for jet lag) as he weaves son and Virgin narrowed their his encyclopedic knowledge of list to 10 pilots, and then evenaviation with awe-inspiring stories tually down to four who would that quickly make the Dos Eqget the job. Unsurprisingly, Coluis “most interesting man in the mer was one of them. world” seem a few shades of dull.

“They were looking for a few It also becomes evident that the specific and somewhat unusual reason he inherited the call name skills such as a test background “Coma” early on is because of his in flying big handle airplanes cool-under-pressure demeanor and pilots who had flown older and his preternatural ability to airplanes,” explains Colmer. get into a zone of focus that has “The reason is that spaceships allowed him to lead missions of are rocket powered and they fly danger, exploration and innovalike a fighter plane, and White tion throughout the entirety of his Knight Two is the mother ship career. By nature, Colmer is exVirgin Galactic SpaceShip. Photo courtesy of Keith Colmer and it flies like a big transport tremely humble and laconic about his success, but his accolades and novel-sized resume speak for themselves.

Growing up in the small, 3,000 person town of Greer, Arizona, Colmer, 46, knew at a young age that he wanted to take up aviation thanks to his father who was a pilot of C-130 planes in a squadron that created the first paper aviation maps. After receiving a ROTC scholarship, he went on to earn a Bachelors of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Masters degree in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado.

Since then, Colmer has accumulated over 15 years of test flight experience, more than 10 years of military flying experience, with two combat tours in Iraq, and has logged well over 5,200 hours of flight in over 90 different types of aircraft. He became the first Air National Guard pilot ever selected to attend the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and has received the

aircraft and they wanted the pilots to be qualified to operate both crafts. When I was working on active duty out in Edwards [Air Force Base] I got to fly some big airplanes and a lot of older airplanes. It was a right place and right time situation for me where I had the experience they were looking for.”

Colmer’s new space-bound piloting is the lifelong vision of Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, who is watching his dream become a reality, as he is offering the first ever commercial space flights to any and all who wish to venture to the great beyond all for the price of $250,000. Over 700 people have already signed on to take the flight that departs from Branson’s innovative and freshly created Spaceport America in New Mexico. And while there is no specified date for the first commercial launch, Colmer and his crew have already made the trip numerous times in an effort to make the journey flawless. continued on next page

Opposite page: Colonel Keith Colmer.

Photo by Steven Meckler April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 15

Z people continued from previous page “The biggest challenge to flying an experimental craft like this is learning all of the systems and knowing how everything is wired.

We work hands on with the engineers to make every change and improvement. Even if we stub a toe, we feel like something needs to be modified,” explains Colmer. “These things are always delayed because you always find things in flight tests that are unknown unknowns, which are things that you wouldn’t think of unless you’re in a particular situation or rare instance. It could take a year just to fix a small glitch or problem like that. We won’t do the actual flights until we can say with certainty that nothing needs to change. There are no manuals for these crafts, so we’re constantly developing the procedures and information that will be the manuals for the future.”

The experience itself sounds like an action movie sequence, as the passengers will show up four days early for a crash course on the details of their journey including how all of the equipment works, what to expect from a physiological standpoint and how to be part of the crew. The day of the flight, the passengers will be taxied to the craft and boarded where they, adorned in futuristic space suits, will take their seats and be treated to in-flight entertainment for the hour climb to their altitude. At the peak of the parabola, Spaceship Two will be released from White Knight Two and will ascend vertically reaching a rate of three to four G’s. The rocket will then keep ascending until it hits 330,000 feet, where the passengers can unstrap and experience zero gravity weightlessness for around five minutes while looking out the large port holes. This is a sensation that Colmer has experienced numerous times while flying the test runs, but for him the episode is far different.

“When you’re in Spaceship Two you’re attached to White Knight Two almost like a bomb. I’m used to dropping weapons and things off of an airplane but not being dropped off of them myself,” says Colmer. “You’re stuck to the bottom of the craft with no control and you’re sitting there for an hour with nothing to do except build up anxiety about how the mission is going to go and then you suddenly get unceremoniously kicked off without a motor. Then you have to glide and you have to do it perfectly and land it on the first try. All of the rocket power on the craft is there to power you up into space, so you have to glide it down from those heights. The trip in total lasts around two hours.”

Speculation has been raised regarding the celebrity passengers who have already signed up for the experience from the moment of its initial announcement as everyone from Ashton Kutcher (confirmed), Kate Winslet (confirmed), to Justin Bieber, Stephen Hawking, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyoncé and Lady Gaga have been rumored to be on the list. And while Colmer and the rest of the crew haven’t been informed of who all of the passengers are yet, he has high praise about the community of soon-to-be space travelers and the camaraderie they’ve built over their time spent together at the Virgin social gatherings.

“One evening I was over at Space Port in New Mexico and at the end of the night I was sitting at the bar with Sir Richard, Buzz Aldrin, Kate Winslet, Sarah Brightman and some buddies of mine and I paused and wondered, 'How did I get here?'” Colmer reflects.

“Most of the clients aren’t rock stars and movies stars. Many of them are folks who start a business, do well, save their money and then have a passion to add space to their personal adventure port-

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folio. So you meet some really cool people that way because they’re obviously very good at what they do and are passionate people.

They do a lot of interpersonal business and have become pretty close and a lot of philanthropy has come from this.”

And while Colmer has been enjoying his community with Virgin Galactic, his real community and family life resides locally in Tucson. Colmer had been stationed in Tucson two times prior, but he and his family decided to make it their permanent home in 2007.

Colmer’s schedule became quite hectic once he signed on with Virgin, as he would fly from Tucson to Los Angeles every Sunday evening and then make the two-hour commute to the Mojave desert to fly all week with Virgin and then he’d fly back on Thursday night where he would fly through Friday with the Arizona Guard as a traditional guardsmen and F-16 instructor and then he would have Saturday through Sunday afternoon to spend with his family before doing it all over again. But to Colmer, the commutes were certainly worth it.

“We love this town. The great thing about Tucson is that it has a small town feel, which I like, but it has all of the appeal of a big town. You have all of the resources, the education, the arts, the food and of course it’s beautiful. It’s a place that’s nice to raise a family with amazing schools for our kids. From my career perspective, Tucson is a very military supportive town and everywhere you go you see support. When you’re doing stuff and people care and thank you, it makes it worthwhile. As far as my perspective as a pilot, Southern Arizona is the best aviation location on the planet.

You gain huge efficiencies because you can get in so much training with the weather here. This town has so much character. Everything from the Rialto [Theatre] and the music scene to Zócalo Magazine, to the culture and all of the little nuances really resonate with us.”

Colmer’s passion for flying still flows deep within his veins as intensely as it did when he was a boy taking flights with his father and experiencing the sensation of being airborne that resonated within him and stirred up the calling that he followed. It’s no surprise that when he’s not on active duty with the military, instructing, working with Virgin or spending time with his family, the seasoned airman’s favorite way to unwind is by taking his friends and family on one of his personal planes for a flight. For Colmer, he finds himself most grounded while he’s soaring high above the rest of the world.

“Flying still gives me that rush of energy that it always has and I don’t think it will ever stop filling me with that sensation,” says Colmer. “What I love most is slowing down and having a chance to look outside. It’s cool to go 500 miles per hour in jets, but man, are you busy. It’s like a carnival ride, but you’re responsible for so many things that you can’t smell the roses. Most pilots would kill to have flown the planes that I have, but to me the neatest thing about flying is taking it slow and experiencing it. I have a 1938 Piper J-3 Cub with no radios and no electrical systems and I fly it with the doors and windows open over wildlife preserves and other regions that you can’t get to on foot, at about 50 to 100 feet in the air to take it all in.

It’s like being a bird and to me that’s the fun part. That’s my retirement plan right there.” n To learn more about Virgin Galactic or to sign up for a flight into space, visit VirginGalactic.com.

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arts Z

Tucson Artists’ Open Studios arts Z

Saturday, April 12 & Sunday, April 13 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The creative process is a fascinating thing. Trying to pinpoint the eureka moments of inspiration can be as elusive as drilling into quantum physics; getting to the finished product can be as tedious. Sometimes creation comes quickly, other times it takes years. What’s cool about the Tucson Artists’ Open Studios is having the chance to see what the artists of various ilk go through in order to get to their finished pieces. Have you ever looked at artwork and wondered, “How did they do that?” Now is the chance to ask the artists themselves.

Each spring, for the last nine years, the artist-initiated event invites the viewing public into the artists’ private production enclaves to check out the work, watch demonstrations, connect with the creative community and buy art, of course. It’s a good thing the event runs all weekend on April 1213 as there are over 140 artists and 85 studios to visit. The mediums run from traditional—paintings, photography, pottery—to other unique mediums. If it has mass, it can be incorporated into art!

The free, self-guided tours run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, but mapping out your trip beforehand is always a good idea since not all locations are open all weekend.

Included here are listings of the artists who signed up for the tour by early March. The website, which has both listings by artists and listings by studios, will have the most up to date information. So browse the listings, check out the map and tally-ho art hunters and jump into the wild, wonderful world of Tucson creatives.

More information at TucsonOpenStudios.com.

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 19

Tucson Artists’ Open Studios

Sat & Sun, April 12 & 13, 11am-5pm • TucsonOpenStudios.com SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27

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Pattie & Mark Johnson 520-296-5752 glassillusionsstudio.com Glass and steel sculpture

20 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

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Tucson, AZ 85715

Silke Mildenberger Photography 520-490-4776 silkemildenberger.com Photography

16 2730 N Pantano Rd Tucson, AZ 85715

Auerbach Arts and Science 520-245-6730 WeWalkinBeauty.com Photography, engraving

SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27

1938 N Arcadia Ave Tucson, AZ 85712

Kyle Johnston Studios 520-404-9187 kylejohnston.homestead.com Mixed media

Elizabeth Quinn Art 520-730-3561 elizabethquinnart.com Paintings-oil-acrylics-mixed media

15 7529 E Beach Dr

5400 E Placita Del Mesquite Tucson, AZ 85712

Carol Ann Art Studio 520-299-5983 carolannart.com Acrylic mixed media paintings

Tucson, AZ 85750

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Glass Illusions Studio 150 S Camino Seco Suite 120 Tucson, AZ 85710

13 Bunkhouse Studio

14 7440 E Sabino Vista Dr

Joe Zeller 520-647-4043 Pottery

8

James M. Huffer 520-795-1489 JamesHuffer.com Digital art, sculpture

Dan Hickman Western Heritage Bunkhouse Studio 520-591-2642 danhickman.net Photography

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Zenith Way Studios 5173 S Zenith Way Tucson, AZ 85747

2891 N Beverly Ave Tucson, AZ 85712

Ida Kingma-Melen 520-749-0832 Watercolors/oils/beading 4360 N Bear Claw Way Tucson, AZ 85749

Sarah Kucerova Painting Sunday Only

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Tucson, AZ 85750

Creative Kismet 5317 E Rosewood St Tucson, AZ 85711

Regina Lord 520-838-1257 creativekismet.com Mixed media

19

12 8332 E Snyder Rd

Welcome Trail private nature reserve Near S Mission Rd and W Drexel Rd See web site for directions and hours: sites.google.com/site/ welcometrailnaturereserve/

818 W Calle Castile Tucson, AZ 85756

18

Tucson, AZ 85750

Accessible outdoor open studios Assemblage, wildlife, ferrocement, plein air, more Saturday Only

6

Vicki Wolf Wearwolfs 520-290-9008 wearwolfs.com Recycled jewelry

Tina St John Jewelry 559-553-3507 tinastjohnjewelry.com Custom jewelry

Dragana SkRepnik Art Studio and Gallery 520-232-9602 draganaskrepnikart.com Oil/resin

artbyillene 6249 E Hawthorne St Tucson, AZ 85711

Illene Hurley 520-747-7050 artbyillene.com Magnet boards, paintings for patios

11 6234 E Placita Lozana

6162 E Oak St Tucson, AZ 85711

Lynne Yamaguchi 520-760-8938 lynneyamaguchi.com Sculptural wood vessels

17

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4

Frank S. Rose 520-721-1091 franksrose.com Watercolor Tucson, AZ 85748

Tu Kaets Studios 3902 E 17th St Tucson, AZ 85711

Nathanael Addison & Kirk Critton 520-324-0189 facebook.com/tukaets Clay

9233 E Helen St Tucson, AZ 85715

10 10125 E Lost Trails St

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2742 E Exeter St Tucson, AZ 85716

Alexandra Gjurasic 505-604-1348 alexandragjurasic.com Mixed media on paper, wood and collected objects

3

9 

A.T. Willett Photographer 520-661-6060 atwillett.com Photographer / Lightworker

2

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1320 E 16th St #1 Tucson, AZ 85719

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1

4550 E Lester St Tucson, AZ 85712

C. J. Shane cjshane.com Paintings, jewelry

23

Galloway Artworks and Jewelry 4202 E Linden St Tucson, AZ 85712

Valerie and Vanessa Galloway 520-465-4884 valeriegalloway.etsy.com Watercolor paintings, archival prints, and beaded jewelry

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 21

Tucson Artists’ Open Studios

Sat & Sun, April 12 & 13, 11am-5pm • TucsonOpenStudios.com SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27 30

Lindsay Huseby Mixed media

Carolyn Ferguson 520-248-2069 csfergusonwatercolors.blogspot.com Watercolor

Anika Payton Sculpture

26 The Village Blacksmith Jerry W. Harris 520-405-8134 Forged metals

Alan Adler 520-909-5204 thejoyofwoodstudios.com Wood

David Zaslow Mixed media

27 Tucson Clay Co-op

Florence Quater Gallery Multiple Mediums

3326 N Dodge Blvd Tucson, AZ 85711 tucsonclayco-op.com

38

31 Shantu World Beads 2805 E Lester St Tucson, AZ 85716

Maxine Krasnow 520-792-6263 maxinekrasnow.com Clay Arts Village 28 Metal 3230 N Dodge Blvd

Tucson, AZ 85716 MetalArtsVillage.com

M. Diane Dale 520-887-1871 DianeDale.com Painting, Oil & Watercolor

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2233 E Hawthorne St Tucson, AZ 85719

40

Ned & Su Egen 520-334-5332 steel sculpture & handwoven tapestry

Sheryl Holland Art 520-749-3829 SherylHolland.com Acrylics

Joy L. Holdread Holdread Clay Objects Studio 520-628-8180 Clay, acrylic painting, reclaimed objects

41

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SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27

Geronimo Artist’s Collective 2627 N Geronimo Ave Tucson, AZ 85705 holdreadart.com

M Jane Gilbreath Calliope Design 520-647-1630 Jewelry & fiberarts/weaving

E 2nd St 34 3025 Tucson, AZ 85711 

Stone Studios LLC 2506 N Stone Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

32 Cosmo’s Moon Jewelry

33 Egen Studios

30 Southwest University of Visual Arts

Bonnie Brunotte 520-360-4531 etsy.com/shop/bonniebrunotte Fabric art Saturday Only

39

Maureen Brusa Zappellini cosmosmoon.etsy.com Metalsmithing/Jewelry

E Kleindale Rd 29 3250 Tucson, AZ 85716

Casa B Creations 1125 E Seneca St Tucson, AZ 85719

Shannon Haggerty 520-323-7978 Beads and jewelry 2609 E Mabel St Backyard Studio Tucson, AZ 85716

Stephen Kimble Art Inc. Studio F 520-975-9792 Steel

Mykl Wells 520-955-9019 myklwells.com Paintings, prints, sculpture 1601 E Waverly St Tucson, AZ 85719

Terri Turner 520-471-2670 Photography

Kimber DeLorenzo Pieces of the Past Recycled glass windchimes

2115 E Spring St Behind main house Tucson, AZ 85719

37 Bowled Over

Raymond Six Mixed media Sunday Only

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2967 N Alvernon Way Tucson, AZ 85712

22 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

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Rex Koningsor 520-878-8284 KinoPhoto.com Photography

Linda L. Chappel casadesueno.com Painting

36

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Tucson, AZ 85712

Adrian Cornejo 520-342-7872 adriancornejo.tumblr.com Mixed media

2315 E Blacklidge Dr Tucson, AZ 85719

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Jen Feagler jenniferfeagler.com Sculpture, drawing

watercolors 25 csferguson 4423 E Blacklidge Dr

Graduate Studios 2525 N Country Club Rd Tucson, AZ 85716 520-325-0123 suva.edu

35 Casa de Sueño

John Cummins Installation

Judith Mariner 520-270-6040 judithmariner.com Painting

Richard Zelens 520-301-9057 richardzelens.weebly.com Oils, ceramics, silk

continued

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809 N Irving Circle Tucson, AZ 85711

Many Hands Courtyard 3054 N 1st Ave Tucson, AZ 85719

Lynne East-Itkin Suite 7 LMEastDesign.com Gourd art

Tucson Artists’ Open Studios

Sat & Sun, April 12 & 13, 11am-5pm • TucsonOpenStudios.com SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27 46 continued

continued

Jennifer Hill Studio 115B 520-329-9719 jenniferhillartgallery.com Paintings on canvas and gourds

Peter Eisner 520-465-6600 eisnersculpt.com Steel sculpture, both free standing and wall

48

45 Dead End Studios 

Charles Tearney Functional Art 520-661-3193 Steel, glass, stone, wood

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911 N 13th Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

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Patricia Boquard Studio 119 520-235-2128 patriciaboquard.com Oil Hollis Fingold Studio 119 520-318-0347 HollisFingold.com Mixed media

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Gavin Hugh Troy #3 520-882-0763 etsy.com/shop/gavintroy Paintings, drawings, college

52

BG Boyd Photo 520-302-5230 bgboydphoto.com Photography Kim Bannister 520-247-3006 Handcrafted jewelry

19 E Toole Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

Monica Durazo Designs monicadurazodesigns.com Fiber - felt

Brenda Huettner 520-247-3006 Ink on paper 

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Warehouse 901 N 13th Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

Titus Castanza 520-780-3076 tituscastanza.com Oil

Joan Pevarnik El Fuego Pottery 520-405-9294 elfuegopottery.com Pottery 727 N 9th Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

Dirk J. Arnold Endangered Architecture 520-490-6021 endangeredarchitecture.com Historic Preservation Miniatures and Signs of Tucson Refrigerator Magnets Rand Carlson Random Arts upstairs randomshots.com Tin collage and painting

Elizabeth Upham 520-405-7671

49

46 Splinter Bros & Sisters

124 W University Blvd Tucson, AZ 85705

Citizens Art Studios 44 W 6th St Tucson, AZ 85705

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Byron Dyes Third Eye Illustrationz Suite C-7 928-514-7964 thirdeyegallerytucson.com Oils, pastels/air brush, silkscreening/ animation

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657 W St Mary’s Rd Tucson, AZ 85701

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Gallery 801 and Studios 801 N Main Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

Steven Derks 520-370-1610 stevenderks.com Steel Sculpture/Painting

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44 Arizona Sash/Wildcat Storage

Eric Twachtman 520-256-2977 Painting

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Tucson, AZ 85705

Robin Chlad Designs 520-882-8099 robinchladdesigns.com Ceramics

Gary Nusinow Studio 151/161 520-327-7145 Acrylic & oil on canvas

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43 556 E Calle Arizona

Brenda Peo 520-686-1000 brendapeoart.com Oil

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Jim Altenstadter 520-405-4653 jdaartsandletters.com Acrylic paintings

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Suite 161 Tucson, AZ 85719

Steinfeld Warehouse 101 W 6th St Tucson, AZ 85701

Miles Conrad Conrad Wilde Gallery 520-622-8997 conradwildegallery.com Encaustic

Katrina Lasko Studio 150 520-269-8285 katrinalaskoart.com Painting/sculpture

Jane Kroesen 520-237-4430 manyhandsartistcoop.com Ceramics

42 3615 N Prince Village Place

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Laura Tanzer, LLC 520-247-3646 LauraTanzerOnline.com Textiles

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Jeanne Fellow Blue Raven Art School Suite 4 520-834-7800 jeannefellow.com Acrylic inks

Small Planet Bakery Building 411 N 7th Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

Cynthia E. Miller Suite 103 520-275-4331 cemillerart.com Painting

SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27 April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 23

Tucson Artists’ Open Studios

Sat & Sun, April 12 & 13, 11am-5pm • TucsonOpenStudios.com SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27

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Russell W Recchion Recchion Fine Art Studio russrecchion.com Oils, charcoal portraits

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SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27

9th Street Studios 650 E 9th St Tucson, AZ 85705 520-622-6104 ninthstreetstudios.com

Mary Theresa Dietz mtdietz.com Painting, sculpture, printmaking Karen Hymer Photography Rachel Nelson facebook.com/RachelNelsonArt Encaustic, acrylic/mixed media

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Labor Temple Studios 267 S Stone Ave Tucson, AZ 85701

Jean Beck Straight Arrow Studio Studio G (far right door) 520-575-0505 jeanbeckart.com Watercolor Elizabeth Frank Studio B, upstairs elizabethfrank.com Sculpture and mixed media

Gone 2 Pieces 416 E 7th St Tucson, AZ 85705

Chello Chavez 520-207-0445 chellochavez.com Mosaic tile

Sabino Stoneware Pottery 1019 N Jacobus Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

Janet K. Burner 520-624-5201 sabinopottery.com Clay and pastels

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429 N 4th Ave #4 (upstairs) Tucson, AZ 85705

Samuel Ponce 520-310-8868 Mixed Media (acrylic, gouache, charcoal)

Jaclyn Bonzagni 781-603-2942 JaclynBonzagni.com Sculpture

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Wil Taylor 520-275-9484 wiltaylor.com print making and painting

Delectables Restaurant and Catering 533 N 4th Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

1120 N 2nd Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

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Thomas Kerrigan Quonset hut 520-603-0730 Clay

Sandra Procida Quonset hut 520-306-8690 facebook.com/SandraProcida.

ClayStudio clay

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Lisa Agababian 520-770-1946 FuchsiaDesigns.com Ceramics

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Robert Miscione Clay Quonset hut 520-559-3249 Clay sculpture

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Fuchsia Designs 226 E 5th St Tucson, AZ 85705

Rubina Gallo 520-299-9322 rubinagallojewelry.com Jewelry

Nicola Marshall 520-870-7376 Acrylic/oil

Derys Lyttle 845-216-4954 Oil on canvas, watercolor, conte crayon and charcoal

Ron Nelson 520-884-5510 alleyartworks.com Painted paper castings

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Carole Konrath Glass

Autumn Bree Arts 520-661-2731 autumnbreearts.com Multimedia Sunday Only

Kathryn Wilde Studio #5 520-409-1177 kathrynwildeimages.com Photography/mixed media Alley Arts 524 N Ferro Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

174 E Toole Ave Tucson, AZ 85701

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K. Loren Dawn 520-327-5692 Abstract painting/mixed media Crane Day CRANE DAY handWEAVER 520-744-7466 craneday.com Handwoven wearable & decorative art

Nick Tranmer Quonset hut 562-754-8204 nicktranmer.com Ceramic

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7th Ave Arts District Studios 549 N 7th Ave Tucson, AZ 85705 520-624-7419

Maurice J Sevigny Studios 520-465-1223 artbymaurice.com Jewelry and mixed media painting

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OZMA Atelier Wee Gallery Suite #171 520-360-6024 cultofjane.net Enamel paint

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Firestone Building 439 N 6th Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

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Jeff Smith 520-882-2033 jeffsmithusa.com Lightning photography

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56 continued Studio 455 455 N Ferro Ave Tucson, AZ 85705

68 652 S Meyer Ave

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Michelle Legler Mosaic Cottage 520-471-8117 mosaicqueen.typepad.com Mixed media mosaic

Robin Cannell Baker Conceptual Design 520-247-2271 conceptualdesign.com Glass, ceramics & acrylic

Michelle Spanyard michellespanyard.com Sterling silver, copper, enamel, gemstones

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Shloka Mangharam Ettna & Wesley Creigh 520-312-6228 wesleyfawcettcreigh.wordpress.com Painting, printmaking, illustration, public art

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840 S 9th Ave Tucson, AZ 85701

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70 Soft Shoulder Studios

801 S Meyer Ave Tucson, AZ 85701

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Tucson, AZ 85701

SEE MAPS ON PAGES 26 AND 27

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Lorraine Buck 520-331-3022 Acrylic painting, jewelry

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Studio Sale

3791 N Camino De Oeste Tucson, AZ 85745

Jo Andersen 520-743-1127 joandersen.com Printing / painting / artist books

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Oxbow Studios 4200 N Oxbow Rd Tucson, AZ 85745

Tacheenie Arts Studio/Gallery 1970 N Calle del Suerte Tucson, AZ 85745

Glory Tacheenie-Campoy 520-743-9769 arizonaprintgroup.com Painting, printmaking, mixed media

Linda Ahearn Oil paint and bronze sculpture

Sat & Sun, April 12 & 13, 11am-5pm • TucsonOpenStudios.com

Loma Prieta Pottery 6131 N Desert Willow Dr Tucson, AZ 85743

Greg Corman 520-603-2703 cormanart.com Recycled wood and metal

Toscana Studio and Gallery 9040 N Oracle Rd Suites A and B Oro Valley, AZ 85704 520-575-1445 toscanastudioandgallery.com

Tucson Artists’ Open Studios

Studio 7 1801 W Rudasill Rd Tucson, AZ 85704

Terry Parker 520-437-7543 lomaprietapottery.com Pottery

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600 W Pomegranate Place Tucson, AZ 85737

Susan Oyler Desert Mist Designs 520-742-0123 Acrylic paint, acrylic ink and mixed media

Linda Gaeta 520 344-8704 Mixed media art dolls

81

Don Trout 928-245-3878 Oil, acrylic, pastel

72 760 S Stone Ave Brooke Molla 520-792-0148 brookemolla.com Oil, gouache

Two Of Arts 12121 N Sterling Ave Oro Valley, AZ 85755 TwoOfArts.com

Garry Buck 520-245-1160 Fused glass

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Catherine Eyde 520-792-8672 catherineeyde.com Mixed media

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David Larsen 520-270-6325 davidlarsenfineart.com Oil painting

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Keith Marroquin 520-306-0290 keithmarroquin.com Assemblage

Romy Angle 209-613-6957 Mixed media, acrylic and collage

Liz Vaughn Studios lizvaughn.com Oil painting on canvas

84 

Kate Hiller Ceramic

Deanna Thibault Thibault4art 520-907-6108 thibault4art.com Mixed media and collage Barbara Amyx 520-399-1507 Acrylic and mixed media

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Charles Hedgcock Photography 520-325-4241 charleshedgcock.com Gelatin silver prints

Liz Vaughn’s House of Art, Love, and Laughter 5486 W Durham Hills St (In Dove Mountain) Marana, AZ 85658

1566 W San Lucas Dr Tucson, AZ 85704

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Leslie Cho-Newman Jewelry 520-954-1812 Jewelry

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715 S 7th Ave Tucson, AZ 85701

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69 Stinkbug Studio

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Greta Ward 520-300-6198 gretaward.com Oil

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Tucson, AZ 85701

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Del Hendrixson, Jr. Bajito Onda Art to Entrepreneur 520-414-9269 bajitoondabrand.com Screen and digital garment printing

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402 E Burrows Place Tucson, AZ 85704

Gary LaCroix 520-510-7835 garylacroix.com Oil on canvas

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Alex Streeter 917-572-9938 alexstreeter.com Silver and Gold in a Tin Cathedral

Bajito Onda 620 E 19th St #130 Tucson, AZ 85716

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551 S Meyer Ave Tucson, AZ 85701

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67 Alex Streeter Museum

5155 N Avenida Primera Tucson, AZ 85704

Beata Wehr beatawehr.com Artist’s books, mixed media, paintings, collages Sunday Only

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April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 27

28 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

arts Z

Opposite page: “Death of the Beast,” oil on canvas.

Left: “Caeser,” oil on canvas.

Right: “Save the Chimp,” oil on canvas.

A Slice of Titus Castanza

by Eric Swedlund

Titus Castanza says his art is about survival.

Realizing that fact pushed him to hone and focus his painting style, an expressive, raw, immediate and honest take on the world through his eyes.

“My art is about my progression through life. I’m constantly in survival mode. I try to paint quick, expressive pieces that have meaning to me.

I’m not trying for the equivalent of writing a novel. They’re more like short stories or a poem,” he says. “It doesn’t matter how good you are, as you become a seasoned, experienced artist, you realize that expressive part is really how you connect. You give people that raw thing that’s within you.”

Castanza, whose work is on the cover of this issue, contributed the “T” to the Rock Martinez-organized TUCSON mural on Speedway Boulevard and Stone Avenue, the first street or public piece of art he’s ever done.

Lately, much of his work consists of self-portraits.

“I’m looking at myself and documenting myself. It’s self-expression, trying to figure out why you’re in this world, why you’re here now and why you’re surviving and pulling through as an artist,” he says. “I’m just trying to make something that’s art. I’m not trying to make something that the world of art will accept. That’s the cheapest thing an artist can do, make artwork for other people to accept it. I make artwork for myself, usually with the idea that nobody else will see it.”

Most of his paintings are done in one sitting, a rarity among the artists he knows.

“Earlier on, I would work on them for periods of time, even repainting them again until I got it right. Now, I trust myself more and end up with pieces that are more powerful,” he says. “If I come back the next day, I could have changed enough to the point that I don’t want to finish the piece in the same spirit. The longer you keep working on a piece, the further you get away from that original sense of what it was.”

Originally from New Jersey, the 38-year-old Castanza spent much of his childhood in Tucson, leaving Arizona in his early 20s for art school in Florida. The last thing his mother wanted him to be was an artist and Castanza had plans to study aviation and become a helicopter pilot before abruptly shifting gears.

“I just woke up one day and said ‘I have to be an artist.’ It must’ve worked itself out in my sleep. It chose me and even though I’d resisted it, I was stuck with it. It was just a switch that went off,” he says.

Castanza put together his portfolio and applied to the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota. When the acceptance came, Castanza was completely broke, so he took the 1978 Jeep he’d spent five years restoring, finished the job, sold it at a car show within 30 minutes for half what it was worth, paid his first semester tuition and bought a plane ticket. His life changed completely within a week.

“I told my mother that I don’t need a Plan B. If I put any energy into a Plan B, I won’t be able to conquer Plan A,” he says.

After graduating, Castanza moved to Philadelphia to work as a staff artist at The Franklin Mint, working mostly on illustrations of World War I, wildlife and dragons for the company’s collectibles. Frustration with the job set in, so he left and spent most of the next decade as a freelance illustrator. Living in Washington D.C., Castanza went through another period of reflection and decided he had to go all-in as an artist, so he moved back to Tucson, where he found a studio in the Citizens Warehouse downtown.

“I might die a broke, poor artist and it’s taken me years to be in a place where I’m OK with that, because it’s about the art,” he says. “You have to get into your own brain and operate from within on a very sincere, honest level and put your energy and your life into your art.” n Find more info, and to view some of his work, visit TitusCastanza.com.

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 29

Z arts The cast of "Kill Grandpa" rehearing in March. Pictured, left to right, is Tony Ecstat, Nell Summers, Maria Fletcher, with Callie Hutchison on the couch.

photo: Craig Baker

Hilarious Homegrown Theater

by Craig Baker Local playwright Peré Summers never aspired to write humor. In fact, until she retired two years ago, Summers spent her previous life as an occupational therapist—a job she once described as “being in a new play every forty-five minutes.” In her capacity as a medical professional she says she published a handful of papers in journals and presented at international conferences, but writing plays—especially comedic plays—had never crossed her mind. “I’m surprised that I have a sense of humor,” says Summers with an enthusiastic smile, “my mother never thought I did.”

Summers’ mother, who she describes as “the Wicked Witch of the West,” found her way into her daughter’s first play (titled A Pain in the Aunt) as the lead character in a production that ran for six weeks at the Comedy Playhouse last year. She says the reception was good enough that they asked her back for round two, and a number of Playhouse regulars have even been asking about when another play by Summers might surface. Well, the wait is over.

Her most recent effort—a comedy of familial errors in two acts titled Let’s Kill Grandpa—is at times laugh-out-loud funny. In it, the audience is welcomed into the home of the loveable-yet-dysfunctional Daggot family; Grandpa died over a year ago and the Daggots failed to notify the social security office, or anyone else for that matter. Now, with the family fortune missing and their secret under threat of exposure, the Daggots decide to “kill” Grandpa once-and-for-all to collect on his life insurance policy. The resulting ride of ridiculousness is nothing short of delightful.

Both acts are set in just one room of the house, with a view of the front stoop and entryway providing the opportunity for some hilariously ironic moments. The play is written specifically for the Comedy Playhouse and its team, where Summers' daughter Nell both acts and directs. Because Summers is so familiar with the small theater’s available resources, the constraints that might limit other productions actually benefit Summers’ 30 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

work. She writes her roles to the players’ strengths, wittily incorporates available props and costumes, and says she genuinely has fun doing it.

And it’s a good thing since no one at the Comedy Playhouse sees any payment for their work—these guys are all there literally for the love of the art form.

If you weren’t searching for the Comedy Playhouse at First Avenue and Prince Road you’d likely drive right by without seeing it. The building is set back from the road about two-hundred yards in a single-story adobe complex that looks as if it were built in the late 1970s and left to manage itself. The theater is a bit of a hole-in-the-wall—one of those places that always seems to be occupied by either a military recruitment office or a karate school. But in this thirty-by-sixty foot space humbly located behind a coin-operated laundry and a tattoo parlor, a handful of local drama buffs are leaving it all on stage more than 150 times per year.

Bruce Bieszki, owner and operator of the Playhouse, got the troupe together in its current space after the Top Hat Theater closed down five years ago. Bieszki says he’s not expecting any “big life epiphanies” to take place in his thirty-two seat arena since he sticks pretty much exclusively to mystery and comedy shows. “My goal is to make you walk out the door feeling better than when you walked in,” says Bieszki, “what I’m offering is two pleasant hours.” And that’s just what patrons of the Playhouse can expect to get. n The Comedy Playhouse is located at 3620 N. First Ave. Performances of "Let’s Kill Grandpa" run this month on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. through May 4. Tickets are $18 general admission, $16 for students and seniors. For more information or to make reservations, call (520) 260-6442 or visit TheComedyPlayhouse.com.

"Floating Worlds"

by Janaina Tsch채pe continues at Museum of Contemporary Art through Sun, Apr 27.

art Galleries/exhibits ATLAS FINE ART SERVICES

See website for details. Wed-Sat, 11am6pm. Atlas Fine Art Services, 41 S. 6th Ave. 622-2139, AtlasFineArtServices.com

ARTSEYE GALLERY

6th Annual Curious Camera Event opens Sat, Apr 26.

Mon-Fri, 9am-6pm; Sat, 10am-5pm. 3550 E. Grant Rd. 327-7291. ArtsEye.com

ART HOUSE CENTRO Under the Mezcal Moon, featuring paintings by Sam Esmoer, continues through Thu, Apr 10. Sonoran Spring, paintings and woodblock prints by Amy Novelli, opens with a reception from 7pm-9pm on Sat, April 12; shows through May 8. Mon-Sat, 10am-5:30pm; Sun, 11am-5pm. Old Town Artisans Complex, 201 N. Court Ave. 620-1725, OldTownArtisans.com

CONTRERAS GALLERY

Stargazing With Dung Beetles by Marcy Miranda Janes de Quintanilla displays throughout April. Tues-Fri, 11am-5pm; Sat, 11am4pm. 110 E. 6th St. 398-6557, ContrerasHouseFineArt.com

DAVIS DOMINGUEZ GALLERY Paintings by Duncan Martin, watercolors by the late Bruce McGrew and Sculpture by Joy Fox continues through May. Tue-Fri, 11am-5pm; Sat, 11am-4pm. 154 E. 6th St. 629-9759, DavisDominguez.com

DECO Art for the Garden, featuring artwork by Katherine Hetzel and Monica Hay Cook, exhibits through Sat, May 31. Tue-Wed, Sat, 11am-4pm; Thu-Fri, 11am-5pm.

2612 E. Broadway Blvd. 319-0888, DecoArtTucson.com

DEGRAZIA GALLERY IN THE SUN Art by Barbara Smith shows through Fri, Apr 4. Daily, 10am-4pm. 6300 N. Swan Rd. 299-9191, DeGrazia.org

DESERT ARTISANS GALLERY

Desert Spring featuring artists David Brown, Wanita Christensen, Paddie Flaherty, Darlene LeClair, Susan Libby and Margaret Shirer, continues through Sun, May 4. Meet The Artist Series takes place Thu, Apr 3-Sat, Apr 5. Sidewalk Sale takes place Sat, Apr 12, 9am-3pm. Watercolor Demonstration by Susan Meyer takes place Thu, Apr 3-Sat, Apr 5, 11am-2pm. Mon-Sat, 10am-5pm; Sun, 10am-1:30pm. 6536 E. Tanque Verde Rd. 722-4412, DesertArtisansGallery.com

DIGITAL DOWNTOWN DARKROOM The Happening, a body painting art show, featuring photography, video and sculpted car hoods, continues through Sat, Apr 19. 735 N. Alder Ave. DigitalDowntownArtroom.com

THE DRAWING STUDIO Love Your Mother (Earth) shows Sat, Apr 5-Sat, Apr 26 with a reception opening night from 6pm-8pm. Tue-Sat, 12pm-4pm. 33 S. 6th Ave. 620-0947, TheDrawingStudio.org

ETHERTON GALLERY

Under The Violet Sky by Bill Lesch, Gail MarcusOrlen, and Lynn Taber continues through June. Tue-Sat, 11am-5pm. 135 S. 6th Ave. 624-7370, EthertonGallery.com

FOUR CORNERS GALLERY

Dark Skies: Desert Cosmos, Desertscapes: Narrative Landscapes, Primeria Alta: The Spanish Connection all continue through Wed, Apr 30. The spring reception is Sat, Apr 19, 5:30pm-8:30pm. Tucson Desert Art Museum, 7000 E. Tanque Verde. 202-3888, TucsonDArt.com

32 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

Image courtesy MOCA/Janaina Tsch채pe

Z arts

Photo courtesy of Wee Gallery.

OZMA Tabletop featured as part of the exhibit “NO Computer, NO Projector, NO Tape” at Wee Gallery.

JOSEPH GROSS GALLERY

Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition opens Thu, Apr 10. Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm. 1031 N. Olive Rd. 626-4215, CFA.arizona.edu/galleries

LOUIS CARLOS BERNAL GALLERY Annual Student Juried Art Exhibition opens Mon, Apr 7 with a reception Thu, Apr 17, 1:30pm-3:30pm. Mon-Thu, 10am-5pm; Fri, 10am-3pm. 2202 W. Anklam Rd. 206-6942, Pima.Edu/cfa

MADARAS GALLERY

Zee’s Inlaid Mesquite Furniture & Art with Gems and Fossil by Zee Haag opens Thu, Apr 3 with a reception, 5pm-7pm. Mon-Sat, 10am6pm; Sun, 11am-5pm. 3001 E. Skyline Dr, #101. 623-4000, Madaras.com

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART Janaina Tschäpe: Floating Worlds continues through Sun, Apr 27. Wed-Sun, noon-5pm. $8, adults; free, children under 12, members, military; free to all last Sunday of the month. 265 S. Church Ave. 624-5019, MOCA-Tucson.org

OBSIDIAN GALLERY

See website for information. Wed-Sat, 11am-6pm. Obsidian Gallery, 410 N. Toole Ave. 577-3598, Obsidian-Gallery.com

PHILABAUM GLASS GALLERY & STUDIO See website for information. Tue-Sat, 10am-5pm. 711 S. 6th Ave. 884-7404, PhilabaumGlass.com

PORTER HALL GALLERY Paintings by David Scott Allen continues through Wed, Apr 30. Daily, 8:30am-4:30pm. $13, adults; $12, student/senior/military, $7.50; children 4-12, Free; children 3 and younger. 2150 N. Alvernon Way. 3269686, TucsonBotanical.org

SOUTHERN ARIZONA WATERCOLOR GUILD Experimental Art Show opens Tue, Apr 8. Tue-Sun, 11am-4pm. Free. Award reception Thu, Apr 10, 5pm7pm. SAWG Gallery, 5605 E. River Rd. 299-7294, SouthernAzWatercolorGuild.com

UA ART MUSEUM Master Works on Paper and Fate and Fufillment: Selections from the William Small Gift both open Fri, Apr 25. Luminous Moments: Selections From The George Gregson Gift and The Photography of Ansel Adams continue through Mon, Apr 14. From Real to Surreal continues through Mon, Apr 28. Tue-Fri, 9am-5pm; Sat-Sun, 12pm-4pm. $5 adults; children/students/faculty, free. 1031 N. Olive Rd. ArtMuseum.arizona.edu

WEE GALLERY NO Computer, NO Projector, NO Tape, Artworks of OZMA, takes place Sat, Apr 5-Sat, Apr 26. Thu-Sat, 11am-6pm. 439 N. 6th Ave Suite #171. 3606024, GalleryWee.com

WILDE MEYER GALLERY

Season of the Region opens Thu, Apr 3. Amazing Animals opens Thu, Apr 10. Mon-Fri, 10am-5:30pm. Wilde Meyer Gallery, 3001 E. Skyline Dr. WildeMeyer.com

WOMANKRAFT ART GALLERY Drawing Down The Muse opens Sat, Apr 5. Wed-Sat, 1pm-5pm. 388 S. Stone Ave. 629-9976, WomanKraft.org

YOU AND YOUR BIG IDEAS GALLERY

Letters At Large shows Sat, Apr 5-Sat, Apr 26. Thu-Sat, 1pm-4pm. 174 E. Toole Ave. 629-9230, Facebook.com/ YouAndYourBigIdeas

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 33

photo: Tom Spitz

Ballet Tucson's Spring concert "Dance and Dessert" is Fri, Apr 4-Sun, Apr 6.

"Wild and Woolly" takes place at Puppets Amongus Sat, Apr 26 and Sun, Apr 27.

Photo courtesy Puppets Amongus.

Z arts

Performances ARIZONA FRIENDS OF CHAMBER MUSIC Pavel Haas Quartet per-

NOT BURNT OUT JUST UNSCREWED

forms Wed, Apr 2. Nikita Mndoyants performs Sun, Apr 13. TCC’s Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church Ave. 577-3769, ArizonaChamberMusic.org

Shows every Friday and Saturday throughout April. Unscrewed Theater, 3244 E. Speedway Blvd. 861-2986, UnscrewedComedy.com

ARIZONA ONSTAGE PRODUCTIONS

Love, Loss, and What I Wore shows Thu, Apr 10-Sun, Apr 27. Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. 2703332, ArizonaOnStage.org

ODYSSEY STORYTELLING SERIES

ARIZONA OPERA Don Pasquale shows Sat, Apr 12-Sun, Apr 13. TCC’s Music

OLD PUEBLO PLAYWRIGHTS 23rd Annual New Play Festival takes place

Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. 293-4336, AZOpera.com

Fri, Apr 4-Sun, Apr 6. $12-$7. Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. 298-1331, OldPuebloPlaywrights.org

ARIZONA REPERTORY SINGERS

The Gun Show takes place Thu, Apr 3. 7:30pm; Free. Fluxx Studios and Gallery, 416 E. 9th St. 730-4112, OdysseyStoryTelling.com

Voices at an Exhibition Takes place Sun, Apr 27 and Sun, May 4. $15. See website for locations. 792-8141, ARSingers.org

ORACLE PIANO SOCIETY Russian Piano Monuments takes place Sat, Apr

ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY Venus in Fur shows Sat, Apr 5-Sat, Apr

19, 3pm. $10-$25. Desert View Performing Arts Center, 39900 S. Clubhouse Dr. 825-5318, SaddleBrookeTwo.com

26. Cafe Bohemia is Sat, Apr 12, 9:30pm at The Temple Lounge. Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. 622-2823, ArizonaTheatre.org

PCC THEATRE ARTS

BALLET TUCSON

Spring Concert: Dance and Dessert takes place Fri, Apr 4-Sun, Apr 6. Stevie Eller Dance Theatre, University of Arizona, 1737 E. Univeristy Blvd. 903-1445, BalletTucson.org

BERGER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

The Mousetrap shows Thu, Apr 17-Sun, Apr 27. Dr. Mark Nelson performs Thu, Apr 17. Jazz Improv Combos take place Mon, Apr 21.

Ben McCartney performs Sun, Apr 27. 2202 W. Anklam Rd. 206-6670, Pima.edu/cfa

PUPPETS AMONGUS Wild and Woolly takes place Sat, Apr 26 and Sun, Apr 27. The Playhouse, 657 W. St. Mary’s Rd. 444-5538, PuppetsAmongUs.com

Art Express in collaboration with ASDB presents Big River Fri, Apr 4-Sun, Apr 6. 1200 W. Speedway Blvd.

BergerCenter.com

THE ROGUE THEATRE Dante’s Purgatorio opens Thu, Apr 24. 738 N. 5th

BLACK CHERRY BURLESQUE Tantalizing burlesque performance on Fri,

SAFOS DANCE THEATRE Quinque, a five year anniversary celebration per-

Apr 4. Surly Wench Pub, 424 N. 4th Ave. 882-0009, TucsonBurlesque.com

formance, takes place Fri, Apr 4-Sat, Apr 5. Pima West Community College Center, 2202 W. Anklam Rd. $12-$14. 481-1656, SafosDance.org

BORDERLANDS THEATER Burning Patience continues through Sun, Apr

Ave. 551-2053, TheRogueTheatre.org

13. Zuzi’s Dance Theater, 738 N. 5th Ave. 882-7406, BorderlandsTheater.org

SPECIAL HEAD MAGIC SHOW

CARNIVAL OF ILLUSION

gym’s facilities. 6pm, $15. Air Time, 3931 W. Costco Dr. SpecialHead.com or AZAirTime.com

Performance take place throughout April. See website for times. Tucson Double Tree Hotel, 445 S. Alvernon Way. 615-5299, CarnivalOfIllusion.com

FEMALE STORYTELLERS Man Up takes place Wed, Apr 16. 7pm. $7 suggested donation. Plush, 360 E. 6th St. FStorytellers.com

FOX THEATRE Tracy Lawrence and John Anderson perform Wed, Apr 2. Nat King Cole Tribute featuring Ramsey Lewis and John Pizzarelli is Fri, Apr 11. Parallax: Michael Howell takes place Sat, Apr 12. Kathy Mattea performs Wed, Apr 16.

Laurie Berknew performs Sat, Apr 26. Prices Vary. 17 W. Congress St. 624-1515, FoxTucsonTheatre.org

INVISIBLE THEATRE Olive and the Bitter Herbs opens Tue, Apr 15. 1400 N. 1st Ave. 882-9721, InvisibleTheatre.com

LIVE THEATRE WORKSHOP Southern Comforts continues through May. Etcetera: Untitled shows Fri, Apr 4-Sat, Apr 19. See website for prices and times.

5317 E. Speedway Blvd. 327-4242, LiveTheatreWorkshop.org

The Tesla Coil group “Circus Amperean” opens the family-friendly magic show. Guest will also have full access to trampoline

SOUTHERN ARIZONA WOMEN’S CHORUS

Performances on Fri, Apr 11, 7pm, at Catalina Foothills High School and Sun, Apr 13, 4pm, at Ascension Lutheran Church. $15-$20. 404-3148, SouthernArizonaWomensChorus.org

TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Amy Grant performs Sat, Apr 5.

The Ring Without Words takes place Fri, Apr 4 & Sun, Apr 6. See website for times, prices, and locations. 882-8585, TucsonSymphony.org

UA PRESENTS

Diana Krall performs Sun, Apr 6. Ramsey Lewis & John Pizzarelli perform Fri, Apr 11. Soweto Gospel Choir performs Fri, Apr 18. Bobby McFerrin performs Sun, Apr 27. Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd. 621-3341, UAPresents.org

UA’S ARIZONA REPERTORY THEATRE Oklahoma! continues through Sun, Apr 6. 1025 N. Olive Rd. 621-1162, web.cfa.arizona.edu/theatre

ZUZI! DANCE COMPANY Annual Spring Concert takes place Fri, Apr 25Sat, Apr 26. Zuzi’s Little Theater, 738 N. 5th Ave. 629-0237, ZUZIMoveIt.org

34 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

SILVER CITY, NEW MEXICO

SilverCityTourism.org • 575-538-555

Places of Elevation: 6,000+ feet!

Tucson

A -----

YOU CAN BE HE

La Santa Cecilia – 2014 Grammy

Award-winning Latin rock urban alternative at WNMU Fine Arts Centre Theater.

The Great Race – A WNMU tradition

mimbresarts.org June 20

for over 40 years! Human-powered cars, pit stops, and a mud hole!

Wild Wild West Pro Rodeo – Some of

wnmu.edu April 26

the toughest cowboys & cowgirls compete at a cool 6,000’ elevation.

silvercityprorodeo.com June 4-7

CLAY – Week-long festival celebrating all things clay: gala, workshops, lectures, tours, exhibitions, kids’ events.

April is Trails Month! – Spring has

sprung – come take a hike in the fresh mountain air!

clayfestival.com July 30-Aug. 3

fs.usda.gov/gila/

Independence Day Celebration – Allday event including fireworks & Silver’s largest parade in Historic Downtown.

Funded by Silver City Lodger’s Tax

silvercity.org July 4

55

f Interest

ERE FOR LUNCH! - - - - -

B

Silver City

+

Plan to stay.

Rolling Stones Gem & Mineral Show

Silver City Blues Festival – Hear the rising stars of blues music & savor local culture at this free event in Gough Park.

– A premier gathering of rock hounds, geology enthusiasts and the curious.

rollingstonesgms.blogspot.com Aug. 30-Sept. 1

Tour of the Gila – New Mexico’s inter-

national 5-day stage race in a gorgeous mountain setting. Enjoy the action!

mimbresarts.org May 23-25

tourofthegila.com April 30-May 4

Artist Series – Acclaimed crime-suspense author Michael McGarrity shares his experiences as a writer & law officer. will-learning.com April 25

Run to Copper Country Car Show –

Cool cars, music, BBQ, raffles, winners’ parade, and family fun in the park.

coppercountrycruizers.com Aug. 22-23

Farmers’ Market – Come buy fresh

and local beginning in May. Live music, homemade food and natural products.

Z community

The L

A table outside of Tucson's Loop Bicycle Shop, where they provide repairs and special amenities off the Santa Cruz sector.

p

A system of car-free shared-use paths around metro Tucson continues to be constructed and when complete, “The Loop” will total 130 miles and connect the Rillito River Park, Santa Cruz River Park, and Pantano River Park with Julian Wash and the Harrison Road Greenways.

by Monica Surfaro Spigelman

On foot, two-wheels, skates, stroller or horseback, you will find amazing place-making, one mile at a time, along this treasured haunt. The Loop entertains and invigorates all, every day, and it’s one helluva meander.

The city seemingly drops behind when you traverse this interconnection of blacktop, soft sand and gravel paths that hug Pima County’s various riverpark systems. While the exact mileage of the linked, Loop-ed trails is a moving target – The main Loop (along the Rillito, Pantano, Julian and Santa Cruz River washes) is approximately 55 miles. With its “fingers” extending up Cañada del Oro wash to Oro Valley, and the Santa Cruz extensions north to Marana and south to San Xavier – this Loop system is more like 130 miles of connected trails.

Engineer Andy Dinauer is the Pima County regional flood control district Division Manager responsible for The Loop projects. His life’s mission is wrapped up in the vision for keeping The Loop accessible…but you’ll need to hustle to keep up with Dinauer, who cycles 120 miles on The Loop each weekend for fun and another 125 miles during each week as part of his daily bike commute.

“The Loop serves as a fantastic car-free multi-use recreational facility, and it’s also a legitimate transportation system that offers great commuting opportunities by connecting nearly every jurisdiction in Pima County,” says Dinauer, who began working on regional watercourse bank stabilization projects in the mid-1980s and has been active in the creation of new Loop segments for the last five years.

Michael McKisson, publisher and editor of the popular TucsonVelo.com cyclist info and advocacy network, agrees that The Loop makes it easier for people around the city to enjoy a car-free place to recreate and transport.

“I see The Loop as a gateway,” comments McKisson, who lives along the south bank of the Rillito River. “Many cyclists start on The Loop and graduate to other types of riding including using a bike for transportation.

“When we moved in it was dirt and cyclists were banned, but now it’s open to cyclists and my daughter learned to ride her bike on it,” he adds.

38 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

Fueled by Floods According to Dinauer, Tucson’s river park system, and ultimately The Loop, started as a result of the 1983 floods. Following this disaster, Pima County undertook a tremendous effort to stabilize the banks of the Rillito, Pantano and Santa Cruz Rivers. Included with many miles of bank stabilization installation was the need for a continuous maintenance access route along the top of the channel banks.

“Over time these long linear maintenance access routes evolved from simple dirt trails to the fully improved riverpark segments we see today,” he explains, crediting the County Administrator along with the Pima County Board of Supervisors, the Pima County Flood Control District and Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation with crafting The Loop and riverpark vision that has been systematically implemented over the last 25 years.

“Citizens of every demographic can enjoy it,” adds Michael Woodward, founder of Michael Recruits talent recruitment agency who recently moved here from Seattle. “Because it covers so much of Tucson, The Loop is a great socioeconomic connector and sets Tucson apart from other cities.”

Refresh and Ramble The Loop system incorporates many rest stops as well as places to see the artistry, and Pima County’s trail system map, updated in January, outlines the amenities as well as the paths.

One entrepreneurial must-see spot sits along the Santa Cruz route, just north of West El Camino Del Cerro. Tucson’s Loop Bicycle Shop, 3201 W. Diamond St., is an oasis co-founded by Michael Wilkinson along with Sonoran Landscaping owner Robert McLoy. Operating since 2012 out of a metal storage unit just off The Loop along the back side of the Sonoran rock and gravel biz – this respite offers grand vistas as well as bike mechanics, gear, coffee and cold drinks, energy snacks, various local products and very clean restrooms. On weekends and select weekdays, there’s also entertainment and more eats, including Tommy’s On the Road café/ food truck, which cooks up breakfast, subs and other dishes.

photos: Leigh Spigelman

Shaded paths offer green respite and gateways to adjoining neighborhoods.

Dotting The Loop are other interesting rest spots and parking areas. For example, on the south bank of the Rillito just east of Alvernon Way, one station offers crafted flagstone lounge furniture. Near Sweetwater Wetlands, recent path improvements on the east bank of the Santa Cruz between Grant and El Camino Del Cerro also offer a rest area with leaf-themed bike racks, a wildlife themed bench and a decorative trash can.

While each Loop segment has its distinct quality, the granddaddy of them all is the promenade along Rillito. Also the site of the most recent Loop improvements, the Rillito’s north bank path from Campbell to La Cholla (4.5 miles) was just widened and resurfaced. Dinauer notes that this section was the oldest (late 1980s vintage), narrowest and most congested section, and it was long overdue for its facelift, completed in March.

Path Picks With The Loop being a center of gravity for so many, a crossover appeal has emerged, as walkers mix it up with cyclists, who hum alongside joggers, stroller-pushers, dog walkers and septuagenarians. There are unique vistas, eclectic artwork, parks and even historical buildings collected along the natural necklace of trails. There’s the Garden of Gethsemane and the artistic Luis G. Gutierrez Bridge/Cushing Street bridge in the southwest, the Fantasy Island Mountain Bike trails park in the southeast (note: sections here still planned or under construction), and access to Binghampton Rural Historic District to the north. Freestyle BMX riders, sports enthusiasts, hill climbers and soccer players can check the map for additional unique offerings all accessible via The Loop.

Everyone has their favorite route. Dinauer tends to frequent the Santa Cruz and Rillito segments. “During the winter months I probably spend more time on the Santa Cruz because of the abundance of sunshine while in the heat of the summer the Rillito offers some very shady corridors on its many tree-lined sections.”

Velo’s McKisson pinpoints another Rillito spot as his favorite. “There is a section of The Loop on the north side between La Cholla and La Cañada where the trees make a kind of tunnel.”

For Woodward, his favorite section starts at Swan and River, with its

Bridges, like this at River Park Gateway, cross washes and display arts, while providing unparalleled vistas.

parking area and small park, which allows him to travel across the washes in extended directions: “I love the bridges and the vistas they provide heading north from Swan and River you can go off the tar path and walk the trail, experiencing the wildlife. I also love the River Park Gateway Bridge (just east of Rillito Raceway Park) that lets you cross over the wash.”

Future Talk Ongoing are Pima County’s plans for interactive mobile mapping applications as well as completion of missing links on The Loop. Two hopedfor 2015 improvements skirt the Pantano Wash (from Craycroft Road to Tanque Verde Road) and the Harrison Greenway (which links the Pantano and Julian Washes).

Dinauer also mentions the Paseo de las Iglesias Phase I (a Santa Cruz river bank protection, ecosystem restoration and creation of a seven-mile linear parkway, along Ajo Way and Silverlake Road), as an active Loop project, with others in the planning stages.

“I think The Loop’s success should tell government officials that people really want a safe and separated bike infrastructure, not just looping around the region, but right though the middle of it too,” observes McKisson. “I’d also like to see more linear parks within the city limits that connect to the outer loop.”

Woodward adds his hopes for more access points, even a Streetcar connection. “There are whole sections off River and Sabino that can’t be accessed unless you live in a development that backs up to the path,” he says. “Another idea would be to have dedicated paths from The Loop connecting to spots where you can catch the Streetcar, really creating a car-alternate route for commuters.”

So many possibilities for The Loop to fulfill Tucson’s sustainability vision, and connect community to its soul. The adage asks: Is it the journey or the destination? When you explore The Loop’s many dimensions, you discover it may be a little of both. n More information is available at Webcms.Pima.gov/Government/The_Loop/.

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 39

Z along the line

Navigating the Streetcar Tracks

by Lee Allen

Tucson’s ballyhooed SunLink Streetcar—called our “Link to the Future” by City Manager Richard Miranda—represents new opportunities for some and increased obstacles for others, specifically those who transport in a two-wheel mode.

While the $200 million investment, the largest construction project in the city’s history, has already generated in excess of $800 million in public and private investment along the Modern Streetcar line, more positives— and more problems—are anticipated. “With a project of such significance, size, and scope, there are issues to be resolved and challenges to be faced,” says Miranda.

“As we learned with the Tucson Trolley, anytime you put down tracks, there can be problems,” says Ann Chanecka, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the City of Tucson. To which Streetcar Project Director Shellie Ginn adds, “From our perspective, we’ve worked closely with cyclists in the planning, development, and construction phase trying to accommodate all users while minimizing negative impacts before the system goes into full operation in late July.”

Technological innovations were included where possible. “During design, we investigated a potential flange filler that could be used in conflict areas along the line, but there were no products for our type of system that came with a warranty—a problem because flange fillers have a potential to derail our streetcar vehicles,” Ginn explains.

“Cost was not a factor as we would have taken advantage of it if something had been available. We’re hopeful some day in the future if the right product is available, we can put it into the track to fill it up in conflict areas to minimize bike accidents.

“When we start looking at extensions, we’ll continue to design the system to make it more bike friendly,” Ginn continues, “and that means shifting to center stops, moving track to the center of the roadway and creating bikeways. Trying to find alternate routes for cyclists is the preferred alternative if conflicts with the tracks can’t be minimized.”

“Improving safety concerns on a shared roadway is a challenge,” Chanecka says. “The City recognized this from the get-go and a lot of features have been installed to help cyclists navigate across the new tracks. The streetcar project has allowed us to adopt ideas from other cities; things like green marks for bikes to safely cross the tracks, shared lane markings, additional bike lanes we didn’t have before and bike boxes that allow cyclists to queue up in front of motorists stopped at red light intersections. It’s an on-going educational process to communicate the new features and create a more bike-friendly system.”

Making streets safer for cyclists can’t happen soon enough for those involved with the Living Streets Alliance. “I’m a bicyclist and a streetcar supporter and look forward to the streetcar co-existing with other forms of transportation in the Downtown area,” says Alliance member Ian Johnson.

“As a cyclist, I think it important to have real data about what’s really happening so we can make good decisions about finding a good balance between the needs of all concerned—bicyclists, pedestrians, users of public 40 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

transit, motorists and those looking to park their cars.”

Once the tracks had been installed and the first streetcar arrived to undergo testing, the group began to accrue data of accidents and nearmishaps, a process whose results should be available for public consumption soon. Essentially, there have been 100 reports since August 2012 that are being mapped and mined for insights that may prove helpful in making changes to improve safety either through engineering changes at specific locations or increased education for drivers and cyclists.

“Hospital records are unavailable, police records generally report on injuries involving cars, and often bicycle crashes are not even reported, so the hundred incident reports I have are likely just a small set of the total numbers,” Johnson says. “Although there have been a few serious injuries, fortunately most tend to be minor.”

While accident reports have slightly different narratives, there are three types that seem to happen more often than others, according to Living Streets Alliance: 1.

Bikes traveling between streetcar tracks and parked cars where a car pulls out unexpectedly or a door swings open and cyclists take evasive action, crossing the tracks at the wrong angle with a crash resulting. The quick response required doesn’t always allow cyclists to maintain an upright and perpendicular posture and perform a recommended 60 to 90 degree right-turn angle.

2.

Bikes are at unusual pinch spots where tracks are unusually close to a curb and force a track crossing at a bad angle.

“Some of these sites have been red-curbed or a sidewalk bypass route installed, so some of these issues have been addressed by the streetcar team,” Johnson says.

3. Vehicles parked in No Parking areas where their left side is on or near the tracks, forcing bikes to cross the tracks. “Even experienced cyclists aware of that danger sometimes get caught here, often in wet conditions,” Johnson says.

“We continue to monitor and try to make improvements where we can,” notes Ginn. “We’ve already removed car parking in some spots, modified the corner of Park Avenue and Second Street, added the Contra Flow bike lane on James E. Roger Way, and widened ramps where bikes share sidewalk space with pedestrians. None of these changes were included in the original street car plans, but were added to improve safety.”

And more improvements are planned for the near future. “We’ll be adding the Fifth Street Bike Boulevard as an alternative route to University Boulevard,” Ginn continues. “We’re adding ‘Wait Here’ to the Bike Boxes modeled after Portland’s efforts to better communicate with motorists. And there will be modifications in the bicycle bypass area at Plaza Centro garage.” n Travelers—on foot, as well as those on both two- and four-wheels—are urged to check out the Be Street Smart section of the Sun Link web page at TucsonStreetcar.com.

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 41

photos: Kathleen Dreier/Esens Photography

Z events

April's Bicycle Festivities

by Craig Baker Paolo Soleri, the architectural mastermind often credited as the grandfather of sustainability, saw the city as earth’s newest organism.

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

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

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

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

“The festival is not about the bicycle as much as it is about imagining what our streets could 42 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

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

And that’s just what the organization is doing.

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

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

Though Cyclovia is undeniably the pinnacle

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

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

Even Mayor Jonathan Rothschild is weighing in on the importance of bicycles to our community—he’s agreed to join in on the two-mile commuter challenge himself, for one. He says that, not only are alternative modes of transportation like bicycling and walking great for the environment, making bike safety and accessibility a priority in Tucson will help supplement the local economy. In addition to their obvious appeal

Cyclovia takes place on April 6 from 10am-3pm

to cycle-loving tourists and as an alternative source of transportation, Mayor Rothschild says that tech companies are looking to associate their businesses with bike friendly towns. “We have found, and studies have shown, that the folks that are going to be the economic drivers of the next generation… love bicycling and want to be in communities where there is a strong bike ethic,” says the Mayor.

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

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

If only that were true when I was in high school. n Bike Fest is ongoing throughout the month of April. More info at BikeFestTucson.com.

Cyclovia takes place on April 6 from 10am3pm (CycloviaTucson.org) Feria De Sur Tucson runs concurrently with Cyclovia and is free to attend, see FeriaDeSurTucson.com. Tucson Hullabaloo, TucsonHulla.com, runs April 5-6 from 10am-9pm on Saturday, 10am-8pm on Sunday. Tickets are $5 or free to the first 500 people with two cans of food.

Photos: Cyclists of all ages and abilities participate in Cyclovia.

photo: Kathleen Dreier/Esens Photography

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 43

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april THU 3-SAT 5

SAT 5-SUN 6

WED 9

31st annual celebration featuring award winners, the Mayor, poetry competitions and a dance party. Times vary. Free.

Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress. 256-3481, TucsonPoetryFestival.org

TUCSON HULLABALOO FESTIVAL Com-

TAKE BACK THE NIGHT TUCSON Event

munity celebration of all things Tucson; local businesses, non profits, restaurants, musicians and artists. Sat, 10am-9pm; Sun, 10am-8pm. Armory Park, 220 S. 5th Ave. TucsonHullabaloo.com

FRI 4-SAT 5

SUN 6

to stop sexual violence, support survivors & hold perpetrators accountable. Candlelight vigil, Survivor’s Speak-Out, resource fair, performances. 6pm-9pm.

Free. Mercado San Agustin, 100 S. Avenida Del Convento. SACasa.org

TUCSON POETRY FESTIVAL

CRUSH WINE FESTIVAL Fundraiser for Tucson Museum of Art, featuring more than 100 wines from around the world, food from 26 local restaurants, a silent auction, more. $75/$150 VIP. 6pm. TucsonMuseumOfArt.org

SAT 5 EVERYONE RUNS, EVERYONE WALKS An event for beginers to avid runners. 5.2 & 10.3 mile trail race. 7:30am, registration fees. Catalina State Park, 11570 N. Oracle Rd. EveryoneRuns.net

GREY PARTY

Wine, music, silent auction and fundraiser for Southern Arizona Greyhound Adoption.

5pm-7pm. $35. Tucson Museum of Art, 150 N. Main Ave. 955-7421, SAGreyhoundAdoption.org

TUCSON SPRING DOLL SHOW & SALE Features antiques, dolls, clothing, furnishings and more. 9:30am-3:30pm. $6-$10.Sabbar Shriner’s Temple, 450 S. Tucson Blvd. 321-0003, TucsonDollShow. com

HERMITAGE BOWL-A-THON

Three games of bowling, raffling, and fun to benefit The Hermitage. 4pm-6pm. Lucky Strike Bowl, 4015 E. Speedway.

571-7839, HermitageCatShelter.org

CYCLOVIA TUCSON

Car-free event for all ages. Walk, bike, skate & socialize along a 5-mile loop through Downtown. See story, page 42. 10am3pm. Free. Hosted by Living Streets Alliance.

CycloviaTucson.org

COLOR THE MURAL

A community mural painting project along the Cyclovia route. Hosted in conjunction with Safos Dance Theatre. 10am-3pm.

Free. House of Neighborly Service, 243 W. 33rd St. 481-1656, ColorTheMural.com

FERIA DE SUR TUCSON

A multi-block festival celebrating City of South Tucson’s culture and history with a car exhibit, a carnival, jumping castles, games, live music, demos, ensemble groups, arts and crafts, food and beer. noon-7pm. Free. South 4th Avenue, from 28th through 36th streets.

VIVA LA LOCAL FOOD FESTIVAL Over 80 Heirloom Farmers Market vendors, 50+ local restaurants, local breweries and wineries. See story, page 51. 9am-5pm. Free to attend, costs for parking and food. Rilito Downs, 4502 N. 1st Ave. VivalaLocalFoodFest.com

RAM FEST 2014 Celebrate with Indian dance, live music by the Temple Bhajan Band from LA, Kids Activities, drama & free vegetarian feast for all.

5:30pm-8pm. Govinda’s Natural Foods, 711 E. Blacklidge. 792-0630, GovindaOfTucson.com

FRI 11 ANNUAL PENNINGTON BLOCK PARTY Celebrate Global

STREET

Youth Service Day with live music, performers, games, food, community organizations. 4pm-7pm. Free. Pennington Street.

623-7223, CityHighSchool.org

FRI 11-SUN 13 UA SPRING FLING

Fundraiser for student clubs & organizations features rides, food, music, games. Fri, 4pm-11pm; Sat, 11am-11pm; Sun, 11am6pm. $5. Rillito Downs, 4502 N. First Ave. 621-5610, SpringFling.Arizona.Edu

FRI 11-SUN 27 23RD ARIZONA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL A grand showcase of independent cinema. Visit website for times, venues. See story, page 59. FilmFestivalArizona.com

SAT 12 2ND SATURDAYS DOWNTOWN

An urban sidewalk fest featuring vendors, food & street performers. Performances include Cadillac Mountain, The Carnivaleros, & Michael P. & The Gully Washers. 5pm-10pm. Free. Congress Street, 2ndSaturdaysDowntown.com

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 45

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april 5th Annual Vintage and Classic Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet at Barrio Brewery, Sun, April 27.

SAT 12

SAT 12-SUN 13

TUCSON EARTH DAY FESTIVAL Environ-

TUCSON ARTIST’S OPEN STUDIOS Art-

mentally themed exhibits, music, performances, activities, food vendors, parade, and more. 9am-2pm.

Free. Reid Park, 900 S. Randolph Way. 206-8814, TucsonEarthDay.com

ists open their studios to the public. 11am-5pm. Free.

Various locations; see website for list of studios. TucsonOpenStudios.com

ST. LUKES 95TH BAILE CELEBRATION

case of Arizona bluegrass bands including the Sonoran Dogs, Cicso and The Racecars, Run Boy Run, Dan Cray, more. See story page 63. 9:45am-5:45pm. $12-$20. Ora Mae Harn, 13250 N. Lon Adams Rd. MaranaFestival.com

Fund raising event/dinner spotlights a raffle for Santos Barbosa’s painting “Solitude.” Entertainment includes line dance and western waltz instruction. All proceeds benefit St. Luke’s home; a nondenominational licensed assisted living facility for low income Tucson Residents.

6pm-10pm. $100. Mountain Oyster Club,6400 E. El Dorado Place. 792-1639, StLukesHomeTucson.org

ULTIMATE HOME AND GARDEN TOUR Brunch and a tour of six ultimate homes. $140/person, $240/couple. 10am-4:30pm. Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Wy. 326-9686, TucsonBotanical.org

FAMILY DAY-SPACE ADVENTURES

UA Museum of Art hosts family activities including a solar telescope, face painting, self-tour learning guides, gallery drawings and more. noon-4pm. $5. UAMA, 1031 N. Olive Rd. 621-7567, ArtMuseum.Arizona.Edu

OUTDOOR OPEN STUDIOS Event for those in wheelchairs. Private nature reserve, accessible trails, photography and more. See website for times and locations. TucsonOpenStudios.com

CELEBRATION OF KINDNESS

Hosted by Ben’s Bells featuring music, food, local beer and wine and all proceeds benefitting Ben’s Bells Kindness Programs. $60-$75. 6pm-10pm. Ben’s Bells Downtown, 40 W. Broadway. 622-1379, BensBells.org.

11TH ANNUAL SPRING BICYCLE SCAVENGER HUNT Use a bike and a map to scour downtown to find hidden objects, ending with a celebration of food, beer, raffle and lunch. 9am. El Grupo Clubhouse, 600 N. 9th Ave. ElGrupoCycling.org

MARANA BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL A show-

SUN 13 THE EVENT

Sample food from 50 local restaurants, wine tastings and live music. Proceeds help provide more than 40 programs for youth members of The Boys and Girls Club. 6pm-9pm. $150. La Encantada.

TheEventTucson.com

GABA BIKE SWAP

Vendors come down with everything for the casual & serious bike enthusiasts, 5th Avenue & 7th Street. 7am-2pm. Free to browse.

BikeGABA.org

DRINK WINE FOR NO KILL PIMA COUNTY A fundraiser for No Kill Pima County with wine tasting, raffle prizes and more. 4pm-6pm. $20.

CataVinos Wine Shoppe, 3063 N. Alvernon Way. 4777401, NoKillPimaCounty.org

THU 17-SUN 27 PIMA COUNTY FAIR

Carnival rides, food, entertainment, animals, arts & crafts. $8 adults; $3 children ages 6-10; children under 5 free. Hours vary, see website for the schedules. Pima County Fairgrounds, 11300 S. Houghton Rd. PimaCountyFair.com

SAT 19 BACKYARD BBQ FOR THE CASCADE FOUNDATION Benefitting families with hemophilia & inherited bleeding disorders. Music, food, entertainment. 4pm-7pm. $25-$75. Barrio Brewing, 800 E. 16th St. 907-2902, CascadeFoundationAZ.org

WORLDWIDE VEGAN BAKE SALE

Proceeds of the bake sale benefit the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. 11am-4pm. HYM Resource Center, 3913 E. Pima St. 207-7503, HealthyYouNetwork.org

WED 23 STREETCAR CELEBRATION: DESTINATION MERCADO See the Sun Link Modern Streetcar up close while enjoying live music, food, and local shops. 5pm-8pm. Free. Mercado San Agustin, 100 S. Avenida. 271-2992, StreetcarFriends.org

SAT 26 8TH ANNUAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE AUTISM WALK/ RUN Benefit for Autism Society Greater Tucson. 8am-1pm. $17. Kino Sports Park, 2500 E. Ajo Way. AutismSocietyGreaterTucson.org

SAT 26-SUN 27 FIESTA GRANDE

A neighborhood street fair in Barrio Hollywood, featuring food, carnival rides and live music. Sat, 10am-7pm; Sun, noon-7pm. Free. FiestaGrandeAZ.com

SUN 27 MARCH FOR BABIES A walk to support March of Dimes, a foundation to help moms during pregnancy. 8am. Free. Reid Park, 3400 Zoo Ct. MarchForBabies.org

Vintage motorcycle show and swap meet, with rockin’ pinups and motorcycle contest.

10am-3pm, $5 bike entry fee. Free to spectactors and shoppers. Barrio Brewery, 800 E. 16th St. TucsonVintageMotorcycleRiders.com

TUE 29 TWILIGHT WALKING TOUR OF HISTORIC ARMORY PARK Tour focuses on the commercial buildings and history. 5:30pm-7:30pm. $15. Meet in front of the Royal Elizabeth B & B, 204 S. Scott Ave. 625-8365. KruseArizona.com

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 47

photo: Liora K Photography

Z events

A Body Love Revolution

by Elsa Watson "To lose confidence in one's body is to lose confidence in oneself."

—Simone De Beauvoir Jes Baker is fierce and she is fantastic. She also happens to have a plussized body. In our physical perfection-obsessed American culture, fat and attractive are incongruent. We are bombarded with thousands of negative body images from the television, magazines and social media. It's no wonder that 91 percent of American women are unhappy with their bodies. In reality, a mere five percent of American women possess the body type portrayed by the mainstream media as ideal. What's more is that these images of so-called "perfect bodies" are very often digitally enhanced to create an even more impossible to attain and unrealistic standard of beauty.

Why? Well, it keeps us chasing perfection and spending our money to achieve unattainable goals. The real cost to society are the social ills created in great part by marketing the concept of perfection. Low self-esteem, eating disorders, depression and suicidal tendencies all have a causal link to being triggered by the negative body marketing schemes that constantly tell us that we are ugly and unlovable if we fail to meet these impossible standards of beauty.

What began as Baker’s intelligent retort, in May 2013, to Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries' insensitive, derisive comments about fat people not belonging in his clothing line became the spark that ignited a revolution. Jes Baker's revolution is one of celebration: The celebration of women’s bodies for the miraculous and perfect creations that they are, just as they are. It is a revolution that promotes self-love and acceptance in spite of the cultural obsession with physical perfection. A happier and healthier society is the goal of this revolution.

Acclaimed blogger and Tucsonan Jes Baker (aka The Militant Baker), did not anticipate such an overwhelming positive response when she penned her open letter to Jeffries and included a series of edgy, provocative photos similar to the racy Abercrombie and Fitch ad campaigns. Baker wanted to prove—by posing with a slender, chiseled, male model—that fat and attractive need not be mutually exclusive when, in fact, it could be beautiful, lush and sensual. When the photos went over-the-top viral, Baker was thrilled. After NBC’s TODAY show and other mainstream talk shows called, Baker knew what she had to do.

Baker is initiating history-making change locally in the form of The Body Love Conference; a conference that is extending the important conversation about self-love and self-acceptance to the Tucson community.

This high energy, day-long event for women features 30 speakers along with workshops promoting and celebrating body love. Among the many highly relevant and exciting topics to be covered are: How to teach body positivity to your children, loving your body after sexual assault, how to transcend ageism, intimacy and self-acceptance, transgender body positivism and disability and sexuality.

Being held on Saturday, April 5 at the University of Arizona, a sampling of the featured presenters includes: Tess Munster, an international plus 48 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

Jes Baker is the force behind The Body Love Conference.

size model and blogger of EffYourBeautyStandards; Tucson photographer Jade Beall of A Beautiful Body Project and Sonya Renee Taylor, activist and author of The Body is Not An Apology.

Baker is, of course, also a presenter, discussing the history of how and why we've learned to hate ourselves. "Hatred is learned and can only be conquered by love and education," says Baker.

Jade Beall, a Tucson based world-renown photographer specializing in truthful images of women has collaborated with Baker in the creation of the The Body Love Conference. Beall's recent work, A Beautiful Body Project, was created to counter the airbrushed, "Photoshopped" and unrealistic images championed by mainstream marketing campaigns, and to celebrate the beauty of women just as they are. Beall's book series and media platform feature un-retouched photos of women accompanied by their life stories and have garnered worldwide media attention. The images in this intimate project are candid, raw, and as uniquely beautiful as the subjects themselves. Beall's intention for her important project is to inspire future generations of women to have healthy self-esteem and self-acceptance in a world that preys upon and thrives monetarily from the insecurities of women.

Both Baker and Beall agree that every body is a beautiful body and that it is time that we celebrate them as such. Join the body love revolution and help change the world, not your body. n The conference takes place at the UofA Student Union's third floor ballroom, 1303 E University Blvd., from 8:30a.m.-5 p.m. on April 5. Tickets are $80. For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit BodyLoveConference.com.

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 49

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photo: Michael Moriarty

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Tucson’s Local Food Rave

by Craig Baker These days, the world’s rapidly growing population has got a lot of people thinking about resources. Concern about where the food and water will come from to meet our ever-increasing demand has swept across America, and especially Arid-zona, like a sandstorm, and as a result, more and more Arizonans are looking to sustainable local sources for their comestibles.

Maynard James Keenan, owner of Merkin Vineyards and Caduceus Cellars, moved to northern Arizona near Jerome in the mid-1990s. He says the small-town environment “kind of set better” than the fast-paced lifestyle of his rock star peers in L.A. and New York, and so he snatched up a plot of land and settled in more-or-less off the grid. After just a few years on the property, Keenan realized that the environment was “not unlike” a lot of areas in the Mediterranean, and so he planted his first crop of grapes.

He says of his transition from artist to vintner, “My practical side and my artistic side got together (when) I saw the communities around Europe that are based around vineyards and wine, and it just seemed like they were a tighter knit community—there seemed to be a lot more going on (in those communities) that was kind of ‘weatherproof’.”

As the front man for bands like Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer, it is no wonder that Keenan rapidly became the best known face among Arizona’s agriculturalists. But, rocker status aside, Keenan’s take on food sourcing is common sense enough. “Just putting stuff in your body to fill a hole is not acceptable behavior,” he says. “The sooner you can wrap your head around that, great. You know, treat yourself to some snacks now and then—who doesn’t?—but, come on; pay attention to what you’re putting in yourself.” As well as the Arizona wine market, Keenan also has his hands in local food as owner of an organic produce market in Cornville, Arizona.

Here in Southern Arizona, one organization responsible for bringing local growers and vendors together at open-air markets around town is Heirloom Farmers Markets. Most notably, their farmers' markets at St. Philip’s

Plaza sees about 3,000 shoppers every weekend. When Heirloom’s owner Manish Shah found out that St. Philip’s was planning an art fair for the weekend of April 5, he looked at the market’s temporary displacement as an opportunity. “The idea was to throw a big food rave,” says Shah. “It was something that I had been contemplating for a long time.”

So, Heirloom and company is packing everything up for a one day celebration at Rillito Downs called the Viva La Local Food Festival. The festival, says Shah, will feature the biggest farmers' market in Southern Arizona, with more than eighty independent vendors as well as thirty-plus local restaurants serving up some local delicacies alongside a number of Southern Arizona wineries and breweries. But if it all sounds too lavish for your blood, not to worry. “We’re trying to really keep (Viva) accessible to everybody,” says Shah.

Instead of the hundred-plus-dollar entrance fees charged just to get into similar all-inclusive food events, Shah is offering free admission to his "pay-to-play" festival, where every vendor, vintner, and brewmaster on site has been asked to serve plates at a cost of five dollars or less. How vendors choose to use the real estate on those plates is up to them, Shah says.

In addition to a spectacular array of local food and drink, Viva La Local Food Fest will also be showcasing some of Tucson’s best local music with acts like Sergio Mendoza y La Orkestra, Carlos Arzate, and Naim Amor providing the entertainment.

Shah sums up the party with glittering eyes that telegraph his unbridled excitement: “Amazing food, beer, the farmers' market, the party… it’s gonna be insane—I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like it!” n Viva La Local Food Festival is Sunday, April 6 at Rillito Downs, 4502 N. 1st Ave., from 9am-5pm. Parking is free until 10:30am and $5 per vehicle after that. Find more info at VivaLaLocalFoodFest.com.

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photo: Roger Tamietti

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

Fundraiser + Fun Party=MOCA Gala

by Herb Stratford

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The gala usually raises well over $100,000 for MOCA, helping it operate all year long to bring and host cutting-edge artwork to Tucson. MOCA’s ongoing educational programs are also a beneficiary of the evening, which many Tucsonans are unaware of. Everything from artist lectures, to programs for children from grade school age to high school are offered at MOCA all year long and are helping to create a “new generation of art savvy kids,” according to Dorman. n MOCA’s annual Gala is Friday, April 11 at the Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church Ave., and at MOCA, 265 S. Church Ave., from 6 p.m. to midnight.

Artwork by video artist Janaina Tschäpe is featured this year. Tickets are $250 per person, which includes the buffet, champagne toast and dancing. A live and silent auction will also take place during the evening. For more information and tickets visit MOCA-Tucson.org.

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What is Consciousness?

by Eric Swedlund

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

It was phenomenal experience that galvanized the interdisciplinary approach.”

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

Hameroff describes a thenunknown philosopher, Australian David Chalmers, setting the tone.

Chalmers, an Oxford-educated philosopher then a professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, framed consciousness in just the right terms.

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

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

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

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

“Consciousness is a fundamental, irreducible part of the universe,” Hameroff says in describing his theory. “Rather that consciousness being a property of a particle, it’s a property of the fabric of the universe. The idea is that consciousness is intrinsic to the universe and it’s built into the universe, it’s ubiquitous, it’s everywhere and what the brain does is organize it.” continued on next page 69 Illustration by Pop Narkotic for Zocalo Magazine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mellow

Erin

Nick

On Their Bike...

Ari

Duncan

Bill & Clay

Sydney

Titus

Kenny

Paul

Stacy

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Images courtesy Arizona International Film Festival

A still from “Amka & the Three Golden Rules.” (Mongolia)

“Harlem Street Singer” examines the contributions of blues and gospel musician Rev. Gary Davis to the 1960s folk revival.

In “Ghost Forest,” a beautiful native guide splits the loyalties of two explorers seeking the sky burial platforms from the Orphan Tsunami of 1700.

Arizona International Film Fest The 23rd annual fest returns with Cine Cubano

by Herb Stratford April in Tucson means it is time for the Arizona International Film Festival (AZIFF.) Marking its 23rd annual event, the granddaddy of Arizona film festivals will once again bring both films and filmmakers from around the world to Tucson from April 11 to 27 at The Screening Room, Grand Cinemas Crossroads 6 and Elliott’s On Congress. While films from the entire world are often represented in the festival program, one particular focus of note is the Cuban film program this year, which will showcase feature length films, shorts and documentaries from the island nation that is slowly making a splash in world cinema.

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

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

The AZIFF draws film from around the world, many of which are United States, West coast or Arizona premieres. This also adds to the fun factor when you are seeing a premiere of a film with the director present. Many high-profile directors have premiered their films at AZIFF and gone on to fame and fortune such as Christopher Nolan (Batman trilogy, Inception, Interstellar) while other filmmakers have continued to make films that are

the darlings of the film festival circuit. Other AZIFF offerings have made a splash at other festivals and are brought in for screenings, which may be the only time they will be seen by Tucson audiences.

One documentary film of note that had its world premiere at the most recent Slamdance Film Festival in Park City is Glena. The film skillfully captures the world of a female mixed martial arts fighter and her quest to go professional at all costs. Sad and brutally honest in its depiction of personal passion, Glena is a must-see film even if you’re not a fan of cage fighting. Other documentaries of note to watch out for include; Harlem Street Singer about a mostly forgotten ragtime, blues and American gospel singer and American Wine Story about a fledgling family winery. Also of note is the narrative feature film Hotel Congress, about a couple trying not to have an affair. This title was filmed entirely in our own Hotel Congress and on a budget of $1,000.

The Cuban film series, entitled Cine Cubano features six documentaries, four features and three short films will give viewers an inside look at contemporary Cuban life. Focusing on the conflicts due to scarcity of products, social injustice and inequality, the program promises to be an honest and sobering look at our island neighbor. Beginning with the recent high-profile film Juan of the Dead, a zombie/horror comedy, and the rise in prominence of the countries own film festival which is drawing tourists from the rest of the world every spring; Cuban films are making serious waves in the international film world. n The 23rd annual Arizona International Film Festival takes place April 1127 at The Screening Room, 125 E. Congress St., Grand Cinemas Crossroads 6, 4811 E. Grant Rd. and Elliott’s On Congress, 135 E. Congress St. Tickets are $6-$8 per screening and an all access pass is $100. To purchase tickets/passes and for film information visit: FilmFestivalArizona.com.

April 2014 | ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com 59

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photo: Amber Merchant

Z garden Sunflowers make great summer garden plants as they provide a source of shade for plants growing beneath them.

Summertime Companion Planting

by Brandon Merchant

Spring has officially arrived in Tucson! Warmer than usual temperatures made for an interesting winter growing season. Those that chose to protect last year's warm season perennials during the few frosty nights we had early in the winter were rewarded with continued harvests into the new year, while many cold-loving crops bolted early due to the above average temperatures. Be sure to take notes in your garden journal about what performed best in your garden this past season, as warmer winter weather is likely in our near future.

One thing we can count on when it comes to Southern Arizona weather is hot summers. Our brutal summer heat is the main barrier for those looking to get started in vegetable gardening and the main culprit responsible for the failures that our region's gardeners experience. If either of these descriptions fit you, then you may be interested to know that there are many edible crops that actually thrive in our desert heat while at the same time providing a beneficial service to the plants around them.

Organic gardeners know that certain crops benefit when they are grown in close proximity to other plants, a concept known as companion planting—and it comes in many forms. Some plants, such as beans and peas, can actually take nitrogen out of the atmosphere and fix it into the soil into a form that plants can utilize. Other plants, such as aromatic herbs, work well at repelling unwanted pests and attracting beneficial pollinators and predatory wasps that help to keep insect populations in check.

One of the all-around best companions for our desert garden happens to be one of the easiest to grow. So easy, in fact, that it will often sprout up in your garden without you even planting it! I'm speaking, of course, of the fabulous amaranth. Amaranth, sometimes referred to as "pigweed," is an extremely nutritious crop that is cultivated all over the world as nearly every part of the plant can be put to use. Amaranth is one of the best plants for breaking up tough soil and for pulling nutrients from deep in the soil to the surface, where they can be used by other plants. It's also an excellent companion to nightshades and it will increase insect resistance 60 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

in tomatoes. It grows exceptionally well in our desert heat and if allowed to go to seed, you'll never have to plant it in your garden again.

Okra gets a bad rap as a slimy vegetable that can only taste good when deep fried. This could not be further from the truth. Aside from being an essential ingredient to gumbo, okra is popular in Middle Eastern, African and Caribbean cuisine, and is also used extensively in Mediterranean, Eastern European, and South Asian cooking. As far as heat-lovers go, this relative of the hibiscus is one of the most drought-tolerant crops around and can easily be grown by even the most novice of gardeners. Okra can grow to a height of over six feet in our area so consider planting a few on the south or western sides of your garden to take advantage of the natural shade they'll create as they grow. Their beautiful trumpet-shaped flowers also work well at attracting pollinators to your garden.

Another heat lover that also works well as a companion to desert vegetable gardens is the majestic sunflower. Native to the Americas, sunflowers provide a valuable food source for birds and pollinators, as well as a source of shade for the plants growing beneath them. While sunflowers can inhibit the growth of some plants, they actually do quite well when grown with cucumbers and work well when planted densely and used as a wind break. Sunflowers are also traditionally included in the "three sisters" garden, sometimes being referred to as the "fourth sister." Like okra and amaranth, sunflowers planted on the south and west sides of your garden will provide afternoon shade just when your plants will need it the most.

If you're interested in planting some of these heat lovers in your summer garden, be sure to check out Native Seeds/SEARCH, NativeSeeds. org, as they have an excellent selection of heirloom varieties of the crops discussed above, as well as many other drought tolerant, heat-loving crops that are sure to perform well in your garden this summer. n Brandon Merchant is the proprietor of Southwest Victory Gardens. Visit his website at SouthwestVictoryGardens.com.

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photo via DanCrary.com/press-kit

Dan Crary, a flat-picking dynamo, is the national headliner at the Marana Bluegrass Festival.

Marana's Bluegrass Festival

by Stuart Oliver

There's never been a more ideal opportunity for Tucsonans to escape from urban sprawl to the friendly, welcoming arms of the quaint, pastoral satellite of Marana than the Marana Bluegrass Festival, taking place in the center of Marana at the Ora Mae Harn Park (13250 N. Lon Adams Rd.) on Saturday, April 12 and Sunday, April 13. The event will combine some of the best traditional bluegrass in Southern Arizona with a feel-good, family friendly atmosphere. Vendors will be offering a variety of food, beverages, and an array of arts and crafts. Throw in free tent and R.V. camping, with the $12/day or $20/two-day pass, and a guitar workshop led by national headliner Dan Crary, and you’ll find the Marana Bluegrass Festival is an event too good to pass up.

Following the success of last year's festival, the Marana Bluegrass Festival has garnered its place as an annual event. Truly a community effort, the festival would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of its many volunteers, the Town of Marana, the Desert Bluegrass Association (DBA of Tucson) and the Arizona Bluegrass Association (ABA of Phoenix).

Marana promotes itself as a town “committed to our future, inspired by our past,” and certainly honors its folksy roots with an impeccable lineup of ten euphonious, topnotch Arizona bands, including Run Boy Run and the Sonoran Dogs, augmented by National Headliner Dan Crary, a flatpicking dynamo who Guitar Player magazine declares “…must be heard to be believed.”

Dan Crary is a consummate entertainer who transcends the boundaries of style and genre, ranging from Mozart to traditional American fiddle tunes to evocative original compositions. Known for his endearing stage persona, he weaves anecdotes and observations from his 40-year career into his show with tongue in cheek humor. In 1994, Crary released the record Jammed If I Do (Sugar Hill), which features duets and charming spoken introductions with legends Doc Watson, Tony Rice, Norman Blake and

Beppe Gambetta. The album was hailed as one of the decade’s great gathering of guitarists and received rave reviews. Festival attendees will have an opportunity to get up-close and personal with Crary at his guitar workshop from 1:45-3:45 p.m. on Saturday in the Marana Community Center, adjacent to the park. He will also give four performances over the course of the weekend: playing solo at 5 p.m. on Saturday, and as part of the “Guitar Summit,” featuring Tucsonans Greg Morton and Peter McLaughlin at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, and 12:15 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Winning the hearts of traditional music fans across the land with their enchanting female vocal harmony, Tucson’s own Run Boy Run was born in 2009, won the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Contest in 2011, and was a featured guest on Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion in 2013. The evocative pairing of brother and sister Matt and Grace Rolland, combined with sisters Bekah and Jen Sandoval and bassist Jesse Allen, adds subtle expressions of classical, jazz, and folk to a core influence of Appalachian traditional music. Don’t miss this exciting new act, showcasing at 4 p.m. on Saturday and 1:45 p.m. on Sunday.

Other highlights of the festival include the Sonoran Dogs, combining the talents of Peter McLaughlin and other seasoned veterans of the Arizona Bluegrass scene; Crucial County, featuring 2 time Four Corner State Banjo Champion Rudy Cortese; and the Jam Pak Blues N’ Grass Band, a heartwarming ensemble of 2 dozen children from a neighborhood in Chandler, Arizona. If you’re looking for a change of pace and some wholesome inspiration this spring, the Marana Bluegrass Festival awaits you with open arms. n Events run from 9:45 a.m.-5:45 pm. both days. Find more information at MaranaFestival.com.

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Z tunes

Ryanhood’s Return

by Jamie Manser "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty..." —Theodore Roosevelt After a couple of years of lying low due to music business and touring burn out, Tucson’s power-pop duo Ryanhood released a gorgeously melodic, folksy, acoustic guitar-driven 12-track disk at the end of 2013.

The two 32-year-olds, Ryan Green and Cameron Hood, have scribed lilting songs on Start Somewhere that show a Zen growth, themes that arise from experiencing deep disappointments and coming out the other side spiritually as a Phoenix rising. The album’s song Sickbed Symphony recently garnered the band recognition from the 2014 International Acoustic Music Awards as the “Best Group/Duo.” Recorded locally at Super Pro Studios, the sound is beautifully clean and clear, wonderfully rendering the acoustic tracks that convey positive messages of hope, acceptance, change, growth, and a better understanding of life’s lessons. Highlights of those motifs are in How to Let it Go—a soaring, upbeat account of the struggle to release jealousy and fear; Sickbed Symphony—a sweet, heart-wrenching tune about facing death and finding the best in life: “don’t bother with complaint ‘cause life ain’t the way it ain’t… make your lives a song, a simple symphony, may your melodies be soft and strong… train your eyes to see all the beauty that is inbetween, train your lips to make a joyful noise.”

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

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

There are also poignant instrumentals—Red Line Reel, Dillinger Days, and Motels—plus some really tender love songs: Summer Rain, Say It So and All About You. Overall, the album is powerfully genuine, and Ryanhood should be applauded for having the courage and sense of self to be so open-hearted in a hard, cruel world. n Ryanhood performs at Harlow Gardens, 5620 E. Pima St., on Saturday, April 12. Tickets are $25, which includes appetizers and drinks at 6 p.m.

Concert starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at Harlow Gardens or by phone (520) 298-3303 option 4.Visit Ryanhood.com or HarlowGardens.com for more information. See ZocaloMagazine.com for an extended review.

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photo: Taylor Noel Photography

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Sweet Ghosts’ “Certain Truths”

by Jamie Manser Transcendent and ethereal are not adjectives to be taken lightly, but such descriptions of this gloriously heart-wrenching debut release are more than apropos. The 10-track album features poetic storytelling, presenting evocative slices of life that put the listener into the thick of alternately uncomfortable and uplifting tales. The lulling songs are reflective, haunting; there’s lightness to the depth, a deft touch that features spaces between the notes and musical interplay that are as compelling as the vocals and lyrics.

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

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

by Ryan Green (Ryanhood). n Get the full review at ZocaloMagazine.com. The CD release happens at Plush, 340 E. Sixth St., on Saturday, April 19. Check out SweetGhosts. com for information on the band’s April tour and also look for updates on Facebook.com.

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Z tunes

Saint Cecilia Studios

Steven Lee Tracy at Saint Cecilia Studios, under construction.

If You Build It, They Will Rock by James J. Jeffries Downtown Tucson's robust music scene is one aspect the area has long been known for, both in terms of fantastic local acts and national touring bands. Though it's not a destination for arena-size mega-tours that feature the overexposed likes of Beyoncé, it is a destination for many established and up-and-comers who find it difficult to pass upon the thriving scene and electric atmosphere that comes with playing Club Congress or The Rialto. It’s an energy incredibly conducive to musicians looking to hone their skills and take it to that next level as touring professionals, not to mention having a hell of a time. This is rock 'n' roll after all.

Steven Lee Tracy has a vision for a studio complex, right in the heart of this burgeoning environment, that will not only serve as a recording facility, but also as a potential way point for smaller bands not quite as well known to link with other artists whose talents could benefit their work. That vision has resulted in Saint Cecilia Studios, which begins operation in earnest in April at 128 E. Congress St., next to Chicago Store.

The very front of the building will still have the large-windowed retailstyle façade, but it will serve as a terrific vantage point for visiting artists to mellow out or people-watch. “The front area is going to be a coffee bar, so clients that are here can just relax, check their email, take a break between sessions,” said Tracy. “We’d really like this entire place to be a spot where different kinds of musicians, writers, and artists can connect.”

The recording rooms are simple and sparse, but each one is adorned with a specifically-chosen chandelier. “The chandeliers are just kind of a 66 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014

theme throughout the whole place,” said Tracy. Tracy and his cohorts rummaged through old antique stores in Bisbee to find some cool pieces that would fit their old-time motif.

While only some of the recording gear has actually arrived, the building will not stay silent for long. “We’re actually scheduled to begin recording sessions in April,” said Tracy. There’s also a planned kitchen/dining and bathroom area that will occupy the back of the first floor, and second floor apartment of sorts, which will come in handy for acts that plan to crash there overnight. “I used to tour myself, and I can remember setting up our merchandise table, with a little sign that would say, ‘Need a place to stay.'

It can be really dodgy on the road, and I’d love to be able to help people out,” said Tracy.

The historic location required quite a bit of elbow grease to get it where it is today. “This used to be the sheet music department for Chicago Store for a long, long time,” said Tracy. As we walked through the lower floor in March, a great deal of work to be done remained, but things are definitely taking shape, and there is exposed brick and beautifully ornate light fixtures in the walls, which evokes an old-performance hall-vibe, especially with the newly-installed, lightly stained wooden floors. “There were no existing electric lights or anything on this side, so we had to build everything from the ground up.” said Tracy. “I spent a lot of time on YouTube figuring out how to do different things!”

In terms of lining up the lease, the timing just happened to work in-

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Z tunes

LIVE MUSIC Shows listed were available as of press time. See the web sites for current info.

2ND SATURDAYS DOWNTOWN Congress Street, 2ndSaturdaysDowntown.com Sat 12: Cadillac Mountain, The Carnivaleros, Michael P. & The Gully Washers

ARMITAGE WINE LOUNGE AND CAFE 2905 E. Skyline Dr #168. 6829740, ArmitageWine.com Sun 6: Steff Koeppen and the Articles Tue 8: Ashbury Sun 13: Tommy Tucker Tue 15: Bryan Dean Trio Sun 20: R & P Music Factory Tue 22: Naim Amor Sun 27: Cameron Hood and Carlie Alderink Tue 29: Ian Carstensen

AVA AMPHITHEATER at Casino Del Sol 5655 W. Valencia Rd. CasinoDelSol.com Fri 25: Tejano Shootout 2014 Sat 26: Gabriel Iglesias Wed 30-Sat, May 3: Tucson Mariachi Conference

BORDERLANDS BREWING 119 E. Toole Ave. 261-8773, BorderlandsBrewing.com Thu 3: Rey Fri 4: The Determined Luddites Sat 5: Mustang Corners Thu 10: Andrew Colberg Sat 12: The Tortolita Gutpluckers Fri 18: The Bennu Sat 19: Guilty Bystanders Thu 24: Borderline South Fri 25: Aztral Folk Sat 26: Bob Elinweck & Amos Hopkins

BOONDOCKS LOUNGE 3306 N. 1st Ave. 690-0991, BoondocksLounge.com Sundays/Tuesdays: Lonny’s Lucky Poker Mondays: The Bryan Dean Trio

Wednesdays: Titan Valley Warheads Thu 3: Genevieve & The LPs Fri 4: Angel Diamon & The Blue Disciples Sat 5: Equinox Thu 10: Cochise County AllStars with special guest Amy Langley Fri 11: The Amazing Anna Warr & The Giant Blue Band Sat 12: Wayback Machine Tue 15: Mr. Boogie Woogie Thu 17: Jimmy After Dark Fri 18: Jacques Taylor & The Real Deal Sat 19: Heather Hardy & Lil Mama Band Sun 20: Last Call Girls Thu 24: Genevieve & The LPs Fri 25: In The Zone Sat 26: The Coolers

CAFE PASSE 415 N. 4th Ave. 624-4411, CafePasse.com See website for details.

CLUB CONGRESS 311 E. Congress St. 622-8848, HotelCongress.com/club Tue 1: Pavlo Sat 5: Tucson Hulabaloo After Party Sun 6: The Coathangers Mon 7: Snow Tha Product Tue 8: The War on Drugs Sat 12: Dick Dale Wed 16: Joe Ely, T. Mills Fri 18: Bombay Bicycle Club Sat 19: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Mon 20: Off! Wed 23: Cunninlynguists Thu 24: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra Sat 26: Daley Sun 27: Old Man Markley

LA COCINA 201 N. Court Ave. 622-0351, LaCocinaTucson.com Saturdays: DJ Herm, Harpist Wednesdays, except Wed 2: Miss Lana Rebel and Kevin Michael Mayfield Thursdays: Stefan George Fridays: The Greg Morton Band

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CUSHING STREET BAR & RESTAURANT

Tones Wed 30: Neil & Lisa McCallion

198 W. Cushing St. 622-7984, CushingStreet.com Saturdays: Jazz

PLUSH

DELECTABLES RESTAURANT & CATERING 533 N. 4th Ave. 884-9289, Delectables.com Fridays & Saturdays: Live music

FOX TUCSON THEATRE 17 W. Congress St. 624-1515, FoxTucsonTheatre.org Wed 2: John Anderson & Tracy Lawrence Fri 11: Nat King Cole Tribute Wed 16: Kathy Mattea Sat 26: Laurie Berkner

HACIENDA DEL SOL 5501 N. Hacienda Del Sol. 2991501, HaciendaDelSol.com Sun 6: Don Scott, with Steve Grams & Hurricane Carla Browniee Sun 13: Mr. Boogie Woogie Sun 20: The Kings of Pleasure Sun 27: Ed Delucia Trio

MONTEREY COURT 505 W. Miracle Mile, MontereyCourtAZ.com Tue 1: Stefan George Wed 2: Peter McLaughlin & Alvin Blaine Thu 3: Red Eyed Djinn Fri 4: LeeAnne Savage and the Curveball Cowboys Sat 5: Wayback Machine Sun 6: Key Ingredients of African Soul Thu 10: Borderland Fri 11: Spirit Familia Sat 12: Kevin Pakulis Band Sun 13: Swingset Wed 16: Sherry Finzer Duo Thu 17: Tucsonics Fri 18: Bluz Nite Sat 19: TKMA Presents Show Sun 20: Cana Brava Wed 23: Jim Jones Thu 24: Still Life Telescope Fri 25: Bob Corritore & Dave Riley Sat 26: WallyLawder & Acoustic Sky Sun 27: Kathy Davis & The Groove

340 E. 6th St. 798-1298, PlushTucson.com Tue 1: The Appleseed Cast Mon 21: Bear Hands Tue 29: Mono, Helen Money

PLAYGROUND TUCSON 278 E. Congress. 396-3691, PlaygroundTucson.com See website for details

RIALTO THEATRE 318 E. Congress St. 740-1000, RialtoTheatre.com Wed 2: Lacuna Coil Fri 4: Reverend Horton Heat Tue 8: Jarabe De Palo Wed 9: Makj- Peyote North American Tour Thu 10: All Time Low Fri 11: White Lies Sat 12: Neko Case Sun 13: Broken Bells Mon 14: Waka Flocka Flame Wed 16: Foster The People Thu 17: Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls Fri 18: Neutral Milk Hotel Sat 19: Citizen Cope Mon 21: Cage the Elephant Wed 23: Beck W/ Special Guests Thu 24: Grouplove Fri 25: Los Lobos

SOLAR CULTURE 31 E. Toole Ave. 884-0874, SolarCulture.org Sat 5: Tatsuya Nakatani

SURLY WENCH PUB 424 N. 4th Ave., 882-0009, SurlyWenchPub.com Sat 1: Swinging Jamboree/ Rattle Rockin’ Boys Fri 4: Black Cherry Burlesque Sat 5: Last Call Brawlers, Hollywood Hate, Sterling 202’s Sat 12: Haymarket Squares Fri 25: Dead Retina

TOPAZ TUNDRA 657 W. St. Mary’s Rd. TempleOfCairo.com/Topaz/ Tue 8: Holy Wave Wed 9: Weed

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credibly well for Tracy, who had just returned to his native Tucson after more than ten years elsewhere. “I was actually looking at this other property, which just happened to fall through when this spot came available,” said Tracy. It still took more than two months to simply get the place ready for any kind of renovation. “Chicago Store had used this for all of their broken or unwanted gear, and (the second floor) was floor-to-ceiling with all kinds of decaying instruments and junk,” said Tracy. “That was part of the agreement, was that we had to deal with whatever they left.”

Tracy allowed interested parties to sift through whatever instruments might have been salvageable, but there were still eleven rolling dumpsters full of stuff that had to be hauled off. While the lower floor has a very specific layout with the recording booths and lounge area, the plan for the upper floor is a bit more nebulous at this point, beyond the idea for band lodging. “I’d really like for this area to be flexible,” said Tracy. “It would be great if it could double as a recording spot for a really large orchestra, string section or something along those lines.”

Tracy is quite bullish on the prospects for Downtown. “I came back to Tucson about a year ago, and was just completely floored by the fact that things were actually happening here," said Tracy. Given the number of other like-minded passionate people taking action to make their dreams a reality on Congress, Steven Lee Tracy's new venture definitely comes along as a welcome new addition to the neighborhood, and for musicians either based in the Old Pueblo or just passing through, a potentially excellent new fixture in an already thriving Downtown music scene. n Saint Cecilia Studios can be found online at SaintCeciliaStudios.com. This article is courtesy of the Downtown Tucson Partnership.

Consciousness continued from page 55

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

The conference—from Monday, April 21 to Saturday, April 26—is expected to draw 800 scientists, philosophers, experientialists, artists and students from more than 60 countries to the University Park Marriott Hotel, 880 E. 2nd St. Seating is limited and registration is required. In addition to the keynote, Penrose will also give a public talk on astrophysics on April 21 at the UA’s Steward Observtory, 933 N. Cherry Ave. The conference will feature presenters on both sides of the quantumcomputational divide, as well as discussions of subjectivity and objectivity, near-death and out-of-body experiences, Eastern spiritual approaches, mind uploading and a revisiting of Chalmers’ “hard problem.”

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

“What the future will bring, we don’t know,” Hameroff says. “Certainly in an interdisciplinary way, the conference and our center did put the University of Arizona on the map in terms of consciousness studies around the world. Ironically on campus we’re not all that well appreciated. But worldwide, we’re very well known.” n Registration fees run from $450-$550, with additional costs for workshops and other activities. For more information, visit Consciousness.arizona.edu.

The Carnivaleros: Western Swing to Tasty Americana

by Eric Johns Front man Gary Mackender and his all-star team of musicians bring eleven tunes—five instrumentals and six with lyrics—to life on The Carnivaleros' latest offering, “Strictly Tabu.” The album's musical styles are varied and each track is truthful to its particular genre; from western swing, waltzes and polka to just flat tasty Americana and more. Replete with virtuoso performers, the recording features Mitzi Cowell on some spine-tingling slide electric guitar, Greg Mackender on banjo, saw, and that oddball instrument the theremin, and Karl Hoffmann on bass.

The horn section (Dante and Marco Rosano, Karla Brownlee, Rick Peron) particularly shines on the instrumental tracks. The clarinet lead by Marco Rosano on Supper Club Musician is as achingly and beautifully sad as the the song's lyrics about a down-and-out magician headed for a dark end in the gutter.

Maricopa County's own Joe Arpaio comes in for some epic treatment in the cut Sheriff Joe. Skip it if you are apolitical or an Arpaio fan. Otherwise, it is a hoot!

The Carnivaleros are slated for seven dates in April and May, with a new line-up that includes: Karl Hoffmann on bass, Les Merrihew on drums, Brett Knickerbocker on vocals and acoustic guitar, Joe Fanning on electric guitar and Jeff Grubic on saxophone.

Catch the band's radio performance on KXCI 91.3FM on Thursday, April 10 at 5 p.m. with "The Home Stretch" host Cathy Rivers. They also play at 2nd Saturdays on April 12, starting at 7:30 p..m., at Boondocks Lounge, 3306 N. 1st Ave., on Sunday, April 13 and at the Folk Festival on Sunday, May 4.

There's many ways to see them, and many ways to enjoy them. Bring your dancing shows, as these tunes will move the feet. n More information is available at Carnivaleros.com.

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Z lifeintucson

by Andrew Brown / @aemerybrown

Left to right top to bottom: Crowd at the Think Tank Block Party; Carne and Queso at the Think Tank Block Party; Leann Cornelius at the Think Tank Block Party; Crowd at The Pizza Underground; A Slice on a Bike at The Pizza Underground; Cory and Rebecca Dillon at the Think Tank Block Party; Glitter Beard at the Think Tank Block Party;

70 ZOCALOMAGAZINE.com | April 2014