On our last day in DC, we visited the National American Indian Museum, the Air and Space Museum, and the Lincoln Monument. We tried to go to the African American Museum of History and Culture, but it seems impossible to get tickets.

At the National Indian Museum, we saw beautiful art and read about the culture of Native people from North American and South America. We saw exhibits about past times before colonizers invaded, all the way up to the current times.

In the fall, we both went to a rally at the U of A to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Both of us have strong feelings about that. Priscilla did a case study for school on the Standing Rock Tribe and the Pipeline. Ella is doing her science fair project on ways to clean up oil spills in water. So, the exhibit about all the Treaties between the US and the Native peoples was very interesting to us. There were many treaties between American Indian Nations and the US. The US broke most treaties/promises with the American Indian Nations. The DAPL relates to another treaty that was broken. We learned about a wampum belt that was given to the US as a symbol of the promises. The beaded belt has two ships going down two parallel rivers going down the river of life and not interfering with each.

Your Weekly guide to saying busy in the Old Pueblo.

Weekly Pick: Rethinking Reality

Rethinking Reality: The UA College of Science’s Spring Lecture Series will explore the strange world of physics this year with the theme of “Rethinking Reality.” The first of five lectures features UA physics prof Keith R. Dienes, who will lay the groundwork for the series with “Rethinking the Rules of Reality.” Get ready to blow your mind with a talk that will take you from the basic building blocks of our world all the way to “weirdness at the extremes” and the latest theories of a new “dark sector” populated by modern ghosts. The talk is 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, at UA Centennial Hall. Free, but get there early—Tucsonans like to expand their consciousness, so seats fill up fast for these science lectures. For more info, call 621-4090.

Cinema

The All Nite Scream O' Rama: If you love the goosebumps, cold sweats and yelps of terror scary movies incite, the Loft Cinema is the place to be. The theater will be showing 12 hours of horror, encompassing seven of the most hair-raising films ever made. The movie list includes: The Shining, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Fright Night, Green Room, Trick 'r Treat, Return of the Living Dead and Cat in the Brain. Tasty food and drinks will be ghoulishly themed. Enter ... if you dare. 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Jan. 28- Jan. 29. The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. $13 for members or in advance online or $15 at the door.

Aladdin and Other Tales: Grab the kids and enjoy some classic fairytales told to the music of Prokofiev, Ravel, Humperdinck and Nielsen played by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. 2 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28. Tucson Convention Center. 260 S. Church Ave. $12 for children under 18 and $18 for adults.

Movie Poster Sale: Want Voldemort staring down at you while you sleep, or The Rock watching over your workouts? Basically we're asking what's your favorite movie of all time and do you have a poster of it? There will be more than 1,300 movie posters for sale featuring over 750 different film titles today. The remaining posters left after the sale will be donated to a local arts program. 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 28. The Loft Cinema. 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. Posters will be $5 each.

Celebrate the Life of David Bowie: Come witness David Bowie in two of his finest forms, as Jareth the Goblin King and the iconic Ziggy Stardust. Taking place a little over one year after his death, this night celebrates Bowie’s many public personas. First on the lineup is Bowie’s family-favorite film Labyrinth. After that, bar-goers can enjoy a film documenting one of Bowie’s most famous concerts, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. We’re almost certain you’ll leave with the lyrics to “Magic Dance” or “Suffragette City” stuck in your head. 7 p.m.-11 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27. Casa Video and Casa Film Bar. 2905 E. Speedway Blvd. Free (but bring money for drinks and bar snacks).

Gilmore Girls Trivia: Oy with the poodles already! Put your pre-reboot Stars Hallow binge watching knowledge to good use. Come by and show everyone how well you know the show while munching on Fresco Pizza! There will be prizers, but we don't know what they are. So, go anyways and if the prizes aren't up to snuff, try to take home a wookie as a consolation prize. 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31. Casa Video and Casa Film Bar. 2905 E. Speedway Blvd. Free.

The Comedy Night: Variety Comedy Shows have taken over The Screening Room on Friday nights at 7 and 8 p.m. The shows feature all live-comedy genres; the format changes every half hour. Each show is $5; for $7 you can see both.

Comedy Night’s impresarios are Walter Temple, founder of the improv company Comedy Temple, and Gretchen Dingman Wirges of Musical Mayhem. Both are former members of the venerable Not Burnt Out Just Unscrewed improv company. Temple also has done stand-up and run several improv jams recently at The Screening Room.

“There’s great standup, improv, sketch, musical and storytelling,” Temple says. “The goal is a night where people may not know what they’re going to see, but they know that they’ll see quality entertainment that makes them laugh.”

Temple handles the stand-up bookings, and Wirges curates the improv and other acts for the series. She says she’s working out schedules with several Phoenix-based teams and others from throughout Arizona and the Southwest. Since the series began on Jan. 20, improvisers have included Tucson team Personal Space Invaders, and duos Hatch and Betchin from Comedy Temple and Time Travelers from Tucson Improv Movement. The veteran local musical comedy troupe Musical Mayhem is among bookings for a future date.

“I’m excited to see where it goes.” Temple says. “I’m excited to see the community aspect of it, because there are distinct comedy ‘crowds’, and a lot of us start to meet each other through different things because we’re all in entertainment. I’d like to get to a place where everyone knows each other and knows that they have a place to go to perform.”

The Screening Room, at 127 E Congress St., serves beer, wine, non-alcoholic beverages and theater snacks. Empire Pizza delivers from next door. The Screening Room also hosts a Tuesday night comedy series. Visit tsrdowntown.com for more information.
mary reed on the soap box

The recent weekend when, as executive director, Mary Reed hosted Tucson’s TEDx conference, also saw the completion of her national yarn-bombing project at Tucson Medical Center. The hospital offered tours to commemorate Tucson’s Jan. 8, 2011 shooting, of which Reed is a survivor. Friday, Jan. 27, at 9 p.m., she adds comedy to her quiver on Tucson Improv Movement’s weekly Soap Box show. She’ll tell short anecdotes and TIM’s best players will spin them into comedy scenes. TIM Theatre is at 329 E. 7th St.; $5 at the door.

Quick Atrophy backstory: These metal doomsdayers rose out of Tucson in the mid to late ’80s and their brand of mind-altering thrash was wholly ignored in the local press. Well, screw the press because like any music that truly matters, the kids understood it.

Atrophy’s blend of fist-jacking melodies, hardcore dirge, and speedy Judas Priest-ish riffs was too well wrought and too well executed for kids to ignore. The virulent quintet was soon blowing roofs off packed venues, pissing off parents and popping eardrums. Rock ’n’ roll! They signed with the prestigious Roadrunner Records and issued a pair of killer albums (for the uninitiated, we suggest you pick up 1990’s Violent by Nature first), toured Europe (once with bruising Phoenix thrashers Sacred Reich) and earned a cult-sized European following.

Then, like any spirited act worth its weight in skunkweed and Carlsberg Lager, they split up, and way too soon. Of course the split didn’t last because everyone knows that great rock outfits are bros for life. So Atrophy is back and louder than fuck, and have a new album due any day now.

Those kid-fans may have gotten older but they’re still obsessed. See why and at this rare hometown show (which will sellout) with The Sindicate, Eyes Go Black, Khaos Rule, and Flying Donky Punch. Friday, Jan. 27 at The Rock, 136 N. Park Ave. 6 p.m. $15. 21+.

We're giving away a pair of tickets to the show. Enter here, and we'll be in touch at noon the day of the show:

Trump went after "sanctuary cities" with an executive order threatening to take away federal funds if they refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities in deporting undocumented immigrants. Mayors in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and New York, among others, came right back at him, along with some governors. And they may have the constitution on their side.

“Let me be clear,” California's Governor Jerry Brown said. “We will defend everybody—every man, woman and child who has come here for a better life and has contributed to the well-being of our state.”

"Our city is still a sanctuary city and we are going to remain a sanctuary city," said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.

“We will not be intimidated by the threat to federal funding,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said. “We have each other’s backs. And we have the Constitution of the United States of America on our side. . . . I will use all of my power within lawful means to protect all Boston residents—even if that means using City Hall itself as a last resort.”

During chilly days like this, there is a phenomenon at my house we like to call "Winter Time Cats." When the outside temperatures dip below 65 degrees, our antisocial little fuzzballs forego their usual scampering to climb onto our laps (and chests, heads and shoulders) for warmth and cuddles. It is the damn best.

Don't have a cat? Go get one. Don't have anything to watch while you cuddle? Here's your weekly look at the most popular rentals from Casa Video:

The Accountant

Marches, "alternative facts" and avalanches, oh my! This year has been quite the roller coaster so far, and it's only been about three weeks. If the commotion of this unpredictable world is making you feel overwhelmed or stressed, here's a list of seven random acts of kindness you could do today and one day for the rest of a week to make someone else a little less stressed. Chances are, you'll feel a little happier too.


1. Pay for the person behind you in a drive-thru. It may be a cliche, but it's probably one for a reason. So pay it forward. Maybe that person will too, and then everyone in that Starbucks drive-thru will just start his or her day infinitely better.

2. Buy your mom flowers for no apparent reason. Moms are the life forces of this planet; she deserves flowers.


3.  Cook your roommates (or your significant other, or even just yourself) a nice dinner. It will brighten another person's day that you put in the effort, even if that just means boiling noodles. I know Chick-Fil-A always beckons, but take a walk on the slightly more nutritious side.

4. Make your best friends a playlist for their next road trip or work commute. They'll embarrass themselves during the 60 seconds of red-light dance parties to songs you hand-picked for them. True friendship.

Everything was soaked that morning of the march, and then made clean again. I rifled through my records and pulled out Patti Smith Group's Peace and Noise LP, mostly recorded lean, terse, no tricks. Songs find their way to the listener through a seasoned rock 'n'  roll band whose leader is a minstrel, a teacher rich in myth, magic, danger and grace. I turned to the silenced TV beaming image upon image of women, a sea of energy, impossible. No one could have seen this coming. And I turn up the foreboding "Waiting Underground," the piano in descending chords, the band pushing the tempo, electric guitars banging out grit ... but it's in her voice where you find the power. There by the ridge be a gathering/There we shall await/The beat of your feet/Hammering the earth/Where the great ones tremble/in their snow white shrouds/Waiting underground. The bridge moves up, comes down harder, with the same piano cutting a path to the voice, calling to all who hear it. Short bursts of feedback pushing, charging the song into strength, and it's in the action of each face I see. It is hard to turn away and Patti Smith shouts one more time that we are more than here, appeased, we are alive.

I admit I'm a layman when it comes to economics. I studied a little Econ in college, though not enough to hurt me. Now and then I read newspaper and magazine columns by economists. So I don't claim any expertise in the field. But isn't the idea of Supply and Demand pretty basic? If the supply of a good or service is low and the demand is high, don't you need to raise the price so supply equals demand? Sure, there are other factors to consider, but that's where the discussion begins, right?

So if the supply of teachers in Arizona is far lower than the demand, if there are more classrooms than there are teachers to fill them, isn't it just economic common sense to admit we have to raise the price—the salaries—of teachers to meet the demand?

I guess we could try other strategies. We could lower the demand for teachers by cramming a few more kids into every classroom. Give six teachers five or six more kids each, and that would empty a classroom and eliminate the need for one teacher. The problem is, Arizona is already near the top in class size nationally—that's what happens when your education spending is at the bottom—so adding more students only bends our numbers further from the national average. Not to mention, it would drive some of our already over-stretched and over-stressed teachers around the bend, driving them out of the profession. That would make the problem worse, not better.

I guess everyone could try Governor Ducey's strategy of saying how much we all respect teachers. To be honest, that would help a little. When teachers work their asses off and are told what a lousy job they're doing, it doesn't make for a happy, healthy work environment. Who needs that kind of abuse to go along with a miserably low salary? The problem is, conservatives have spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars trashing teachers—especially what they like to call "failing teachers" in "failing government schools." It's part of their campaign to lower school spending, demonize teacher unions and push school privatization. And it's worked. I've never seen a time when teachers get less respect from the public. So I doubt they're about to change their ways and mount a massive "love your local teacher" campaign. And even if they did, it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference so long as teachers are having trouble paying for food, housing and other basic living expenses. Giving them a gold star won't stop teachers from leaving or encourage new teachers to join the fold—not even if we include Ducey's other strategy of adding a dollar a day to show teachers how much we value them.

Arizona Theatre Company almost defaulted on its 50th anniversary season, and from what we've seen so far, that would have been a gigantic loss. This season their shows have represented a global reach of place and history and sensibility (and with An Act of God, even a universal reach.)

Their most recent offering, La Esquinita, USA, by Rubén C. González, fits right into this theme and sense, and offers an unusual sort of piece for ATC. It features in both subject and style what perhaps a large share of us are familiar with, but lack experience of, in an up close and personal way.
And this is personal. That's part of the reason the show is so successful.

Comprised of many characters, all played by González, the show gives us an intimate look at the destruction felt by the mostly black and brown denizens of a once-thriving community, in physical ruins after the tire factory, the area's source of economic stability, relocated out of the country, leaving workers, friends and neighbors, most of whom restricted in their choices, in ruins as well.

We meet a narrator, Lencho, who helps direct us in our visit to the bus stop 40A Red Line and beyond. (La Esquinita translates to "little corner.") The story is mostly represented by the high school student Daniel, a very messed up homie who tries to cope with his current life by using crystal meth and dreaming of when he can join the military. Although he has seen three brothers killed when they served, this is his greatest source of hope. As the play's moments unfold, he is crashing from his high, has no money to pay his lurking supplier and struggles with making sense of anything. Other characters appear, each quite different from the others, each bringing a slice of their individual story to the larger one. The progression of characters is not merely a linear one, but a weaving together of the various personalities resulting in an intriguing and powerful impression.

González the actor transforms from one to another with seeming ease. Sometimes it may take a moment for us to catch up with who's who, or not comprehend an accent or Spanish phrases, but it's not really a problem. The result is a mesmerizing, kaleidoscopic and penetrating moment.

González was inspired to develop the piece after he worked for a while as a substitute teacher in a Los Angeles. He experienced a sense of helplessness, he reveals in his writer's notes, but knew there was a story he needed to tell. Part of the power of this piece is the compassion revealed, not only González' heartfelt energy with which he creates and shares his characters, but also within himself. For this is certainly himself revealed, not in the sense of "look at me," but in his desire to distill the humanness of these characters with full heart and land them safely, and with hope, in our hearts.