Thursday, May 26, 2016
I tell the same joke a lot during winter when people ask me what my favorite seasonal cocktail is. "Cup of scotch," I say, and everyone laughs (at least, in my head they do). Anyway, the thing is, if you're the type of person who enjoys just cups of booze, stirred and served up, summer can be kind of a downer. A parade of fruity ingredients, floral liqueurs and more can make and liquor lover hesitant to dive into cocktail bar menus. However, that's not all you'll find on Tough Luck Club's new summer menu.
Sure, the volume, which is illustrated by artist Veronica Stice, features bright drinks like the Summer Lovin'—a mix of basil vodka, Riesling, watermelon syrup and lemon juice—or the Every Morning Coming Down with white rum, spicy green chile vodka, lemongrass syrup and lime juice with a turmeric tincture. But, even some of those fruit-forward drinks have some deeper notes. Case in point, the Midnight Rodeo, which offers cognac, red wine, salt and a grilled blackberry syrup. Bartender Stephen Ott says the drink reminds him of "nighttime in the summer."
Of the 15 drinks on the menu, six are dubbed "stirred and boozy." The trick to making a stirred cocktail that doesn't become burdensome to sip in the Tucson summer heat is the simple method of substitution. You can take the structure of a drink like a Manhattan or a Vieux Carre and switch out some of the heavier components, like sweet vermouth, for brighter liqueurs or sherry. The San Patricios does both, mixing mezcal and Irish whiskey with elderflower liqueur, amontillado and orange bitters.
Tags: tough luck club , craft cocktails , summer cocktails , boozy , stirred , stephen ott , basement , bar , Image
Historians, skeptics and believers in the paranormal can all find something to love about the downtown Tucson ghost tours put on by Specter Tours.
The small Tucson-based tour company leads walking tours around downtown Tucson.
Tour guide and business owner Robert Owens is a dedicated historian and entertainer. Tour goers are taken around many Tucson landmarks such as the Rialto Theater, the Fox Theater and the Pioneer Hotel.
The Pioneer Hotel, the site of Arizona’s most deadly fire, has a rich history and spooky ghost stories to compliment it.
The tour also stops by 101 E. Pennington Street, an old mortuary that is now the home of Reilly Craft Pizza & Drink and Tough Luck Club. Owens recommends it as a place to relax with a drink while looking for apparitions after the tour.
Specter Tours is in the process of adding a new route, which is expected to open in early July. The new route will take tour guests around Fort Lowell Park with ghost hunting equipment similar to what you might see on television, like thermal imaging scanners.
Tickets can be purchased through Groupon for the Friday and Saturday tours. Tours start in front of the Rialto, loop around downtown, and end at Hotel Congress.
Tags: Ghosts , History , Tours , Tucson , Downtown , Entertainment
For the 2016 line-up, Downtown will offer up tastes of Parma, Italy (May 24-July 11); Rasht, Iran (July 11-August 22); Phuket, Thailand (August 23-October 3) and Ensenada, Mexico (October 4-November 14). All four cities were added to the list of recognized cities in 2015, as well as Tucson; Bergen, Norway; Belém, Brazil; Gaziantep, Turkey and Burgos and Dénia in Spain.
The first stop in Parma serves three appetizers, three entrées and two desserts that highlight the food of the region and, of course, Parmigiano Reggiano. Some of the highlights include grilled focaccia with prosciutto di Parma, an octopus terrine with olives and capers, lasagna bolonese and porchetta with creamy polenta. Dishes can be ordered a la carte ($8-$23) or as a three-course menu for $38 plus tax and gratuity. While $38 is a pretty smokin’ deal for a full meal, regardless, the unique opportunity to sample some of the cuisine from other UNESCO-recognized food cities, all while staying right here in Tucson, is one you’ll want to snatch up.
For more information on Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails and the current Around the Globe series, visit the restaurant's website. You can also make reservations by calling 623-7700.
Tags: downtown kitchen , around the globe , dining events , parma , italian , unesco , city of gastronomy , janos wilder , jerry alday
School is out, temperatures are rising and (finally!) public pools around Tucson are opening. Breakers Water Park is among those summer institutions preparing to open their doors this weekend.
Want to go? We're giving away tickets! Tell us how many you want (don't be greedy! Maximum 8.), give us your name and phone number and wait by the phone.
Planning to spend the entire summer in the wave pool? The park offers season passes.
Season Pass ($39.99)
Unlimited admission to the waterpark all summer
Early entrance: get into the park at 9:30 a.m., half an hour before the park opens to the public
VIP Wednesdays: perks change weekly
If you buy two or more Season Passes for the family, you get a complimentary Great American Savings coupon book
Gold Pass ($49.99)
All the benefits of the regular Season Pass, plus:
Four additional "bring a friend free" days
A Breakers collector cup with 99 cent refills
Two $10 cabana rental discounts
Two free inner tube rentals
Tags: breakers water park , summer in tucson , wave pool , water slides , free stuff , win tickets , Image , Video
Memorial day is the federal holiday dedicated to remembering those who have died while serving in our country's armed forces.
Looking for something to do this Memorial weekend? Here's a list to keep you busy in and around the Tucson area.
Hymns for Our Heroes
Santa Cruz Summer Winds and the Jazz Collective of Southern Arizona is hosting "Hymns for Our Heroes" a memorial day salute to those who have died. They will be performing at Community Performance & Art Center, 1250 W. Continental Road on Monday, May 30. For more information visit their website.
Blue Star Museums
Many museums in Tucson are offering free admission to the nation's active-duty military personnel and their families for Memorial Day through Labor day. Those museums are: Arizona History Museum, Arizona State Museum, Downtown History Museum, Fort Lowell Museum, Sosa-Carrillo- Frﾎmont House, The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures, Tohono Chul, Tucson Desert Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson and Tucson Museum of Art.
Swim Season Opens
All nine of Pima County's pools will open for Memorial Day weekend, Saturday May 28 through Labor Day. For more information on prices and specific locations visit their website.
Tags: Memorial Day , ceremony , pool , honor , America
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Tucson has a lot of unique places to check out, but one in particular is getting noticed this week.
The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures (4455 E. Camp Lowell Dr) here in Tucson was recognized by BuzzFeed this week as one of the 10 Quirky U.S. Destinations Every Wanderer Should Discover.
Calling it a place to find huge wonder in the smallest things, BuzzFeed placed our lovable local museum at number 3, for it's stunningly detailed miniature art.
Why should you visit the Museum of Miniatures?
More like why not? The Mini Time Museum of Miniatures has it all, hoping to transport visitors to different eras by viewing their wide variety of collections.
In one trip a visitor can see houses created by Agua Caliente Elementary School second graders, 26 custom miniature figures of Civil War soldiers created by Joe Seibold in their Exploring the World Gallery and fantasy themed miniatures in their Enchanted Realm Gallery.
In the spirit of having adults feel like kids again, the museum offers adults the youth admission price every Thursday, meaning a ticket to visit many magical realms and enchanting eras is only $6.
For more information visit the Tucson Museum of Miniatures website or visit the Facebook event page.
Tags: Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures , tucson quirks
The original acronym, of course, is NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard. It's when people agree that, sure, we may need a homeless women's shelter or a nursing home or a landfill or a chemical plant, just not anywhere near where I live. Put it in someone else's neighborhood, not mine.
I remember a moment in the presidential race between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter back in 1980. Reagan had just finished a stump speech and was taking questions from the press. A journalist asked Reagan, who was campaigning on lower taxes and smaller government, about his plan to lump federal funding to states into block grants which he said would give states the freedom to spend the money as they saw fit rather than having to comply with all kinds of federal rules and regulations. The journalist pointed out that the block grants Reagan proposed were smaller than the total funding they replaced. With a "Gotcha!" glint in his eye, the journalist asked how Reagan expected the states to fund the existing programs with less money.
Reagan answered simply, "They can raise taxes."
I was dumbfounded, amazed, awe struck. It was so simple. Reagan planned to make government smaller and lower taxes at the federal level, which is where he planned to live when he was elected. If that meant more money was needed at the state or local levels, well, that's their problem, not his. Let them raise taxes. It was classic NIMB. Not In My Budget.
Today's Star has a story about a judicial ruling that the state of Arizona illegally shifted
Tags: Education funding , Arizona state budget , Prop 123
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has plan to open a new detention center in Texas that will include a unit to specifically house transgender immigrants.
An article on Fusion says the Prairieland Detention Center will open in November in Alvarado, Texas—around 30 minutes south of Fort Worth—and "will operate with the agency's most advanced care guidelines for transgender detainees."
According to Fusion, an ICE spokesperson says each detainee will have an individualized detention plan, "covering items such as searchers, clothing options, hygiene practices, medical care, and housing assignments." The detention center will house about 700 people, with a 36-bed unit for transgender individuals, the article says.
The new facility will be operated and managed by Emerald Correctional Management, a private prison corporation that acknowledges on its website it is “ not the biggest” company in the private prison industry. The company, which manages a total of six facilities, distinguishes itself by saying it doesn’t “warehouse detainees” and that it’s changing the culture of privatization.There are concerns for how the community of Alvarado, a town with about 4,000 residents, will react.
No one knows how the local Alvarado community will respond to news of transgender detainees being detained in their city. But many of the elected officials in the city of Alvarado and in Johnson County pride themselves in their conservative values. More than 25,000 of the county’s votes went to Republican candidates in the latest election, with the majority of votes going to Ted Cruz, the former presidential hopeful who believes allowing young transgender girls to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity is “lunacy.” (Fewer than 4,000 votes in the county for the Democratic candidates, who support more civil rights for transgender individuals.)A six-month investigation by Fusion, a news outlet run by ABC and Univision, found that some 75 transgender people are detained by ICE at any given day, with about 90 percent of them being transgender women. Fusion refers to a report by the Government Accountability Office that shows one of 500 detainees is transgender, and they make up one of five victims of sexual assault in detention.
Tags: mariposas sin fronteras , immigration and customs enforcement , transgender , LGBT , nicoll hernández-polanco , alvarado texas , prairieland detention center , fusion , raúl grijalva , u.s. house of representatives
He gets by with help from his friend and companion, Fubu, who serves as Cheerio's eyes.
Fubu is a 7 year-old Labrador retriever mix, with a history of dental disease. Like Cheerio, he was a backyard dog surrendered to Pima Animal Control.
The two depend on each other and are completely inseparable. Their bond is so strong that Pima Animal Care Center has decided to make them a bonded pair, meaning the pups are looking for a home together.
As PACC put it in a press release, "Cheerio—literally—gets his sense of direction from Fubu; Fubu gets his strength and confidence from Cheerio."
Tempted? PACC has this to add: "Blind dogs can teach people about courage, joy and love: Imagine the loyalty and happiness these two will bring you!"
For more information on Fubu and Cheerio contact:
Pima Animal Care Center, 4000 North Silverbell Road, 724-5900
Call shelter manager Jose Ocano, 724-5908
Blind/Deaf Shelter Dogs Network, KAN-Networking@hotmail.com
Tags: Blind dog , seeing eye dog , Blind/Deaf Shelter Dogs Network , Companion , pima animal care center , pacc
Arizona has joined 10 other states in a federal lawsuit against President Barack Obama's mandate asking public K-12 schools and post-secondary schools to allow transgender children and youth use the locker room and bathroom of the gender they identify with.
The lawsuit calls Obama's mandate "federal overreach," and focuses on setting rules about who should enact these guidelines.
The lawsuit—which includes Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin—was presented by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas on behalf of the state's Department of Education. The Heber-Overgaard Unified School District is a plaintiff as well, according to a press release from the superintendent's office. The suit comes after Obama and the Departments of Justice and Education said schools have to protect the rights of transgender students. Schools that discriminate transgender students could face losing federal funding.
North Carolina recently issued an anti-LGBT law, House Bill 2, which forces transgender individuals into bathrooms that differ from their preferred gender and prohibits cities from creating laws protecting LGBT people. The law, which the DOJ says discriminates and violates civil rights, has fueled national debate about protection of transgender rights and alleged concerns from conservatives about people using the bathroom that doesn't match the sex they were assigned at birth.
The press release says,
Tags: barack obama , diane douglas , mark brnovich , lgbt , transgender , students , department of justice , department of education , arizona , bathroom bill
