Join Tucson’s rising star brewing company, 1912, for a second anniversary party on Saturday, July 1.

Following a “Starry Night” theme, the brewery (2045 N. Forbes Blvd.) will donate a portion of the evening’s proceeds to the Make-a-Wish Arizona. For every pint purchased, 1912 will work toward granting wishes.

The party will feature games, raffle prizes, live music, food trucks on-site, and new beer releases. Enjoy Ana Gonzalez, who will be playing the piano inside, and the band Ocotillo Rain outside. The Blacktop Grill will be on-site from noon to 5 p.m., followed by Dickeys Barbecue Pit from 4 to 8 p.m. Drink, eat, and be merry at this birthday bash.

Lee, an aging movie star (Sam Elliot) gets some bad news from his doctor and tries to make good on some mistakes in the face of some big decisions. If that sounds like a done-to-death story for you, it kind of is, but director and co-screenwriter Brett Haley makes things intriguing with large thanks to a great performance from Elliot and an excellent supporting cast.

Elliot is basically playing himself, a western star known for his big voice and iconic moustache, and the part was tailor made for him. His Lee is sort of a jerk, but the kind of jerk you have to like (The way that moustache arches with his smile is magical!). Nick Offerman is stellar as Lee’s drug dealer and best buddy, while Laura Prepon has never been better as “the love interest” (Yes, it’s a cliché role, but she takes it to great heights). Elliot’s real-life wife, the great Katharine Ross, even has a role as Lee’s ex-wife, which must’ve been a little awkward to pull off on set.

The film looks great, especially during Lee’s dreams, which have him acting out a final movie in his head. Elliot and Haley take a familiar story and imbibe it with a lot of heart and good humor. In a summer of blockbusters and blockbuster wannabes, this stands as one of its fine sleepers.

In this kind of heat, is there a better escape than a dark movie theater? Look at all these great indie film options you have this week!

The Loft Cinema:

Cult Classics Series (every Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m.): On Friday, June 23, and Saturday, June 24, The Loft shows Dope. In this quirky teen caper, three friends find themselves deftly navigating life in Inglewood, California. With big dreams of leaving his hometown, protagonist Malcolm (Shameik Moore) dreams up a dope-slinging scheme that hopes to land him in Harvard.

Social Justice Summer (every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.): This series aims to pair hard-hitting social justice issues with cinema. Audiences are invited to explore important social issues through film, with community experts present after every showing to hold community talkbacks. This Wednesday, June 28, the Global Justice Center, in conjunction with The Loft, will air a free showing of Jackson. Director Maisie Crow, making her feature debut, provides a detailed glimpse into the women's healthcare movement in Mississippi.

Mondo Mondays (every Monday at 8 p.m.): Diving directly into the strange and unorthodox realms of Mondo movies, this series is sure to deliver your doctor-prescribed dose of weird. This Monday, June 26, The Loft will air Maniac Cop, a farcical horror flick, which follows the killings of a killer donning a police uniform. Who will save the day when the killer wears a badge?

Outdoor Moving Party! (June 29 through July 8): Though Tucson days simmer on, the nights offer cool reprieve from the intense heat. Join The Loft in their Outdoor Movie Party! screenings, where audiences are invited to enjoy the cooler side of summer cinema. At 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29, truffle shuffle on down to The Loft for a showing of The Goonies. This adventure comedy is a timeless classic, which is sure to satisfy your inner pre-teen misfit.

LandSpeaks: Honoring our Protectors—Past, Present, Future: This series is geared toward celebrating Native American lands, languages, and identity. On Tuesday, June 27, take a trip down to the San Xavier Cooperative Farm—8100 Oidak Wog—to experience a day of live performances, panel discussions and a culture/information fair. At 8 p.m., LandSpeaks will air a free outdoor showing (bring your own seating arrangements) of Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock, which follows the Native-led demonstration in North Dakota concerning the Dakota Access Pipeline and Native water rights. loftcinema.org

Cactus Drive-In Theatre: Indulge in the iconic drive-in experience at the Tanque Verde Swap Meet this Thursday, June 29. Audiences are invited to enjoy the latest J.K. Rowling blockbuster: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This book-turned-movie is a companion narrative to the Harry Potter series, as it follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Radmayne) and his trials and tribulations in New York's early 20th century, underground community of witches and wizards. cactusdriveintheatre.com

Cinema La Placita

Cinema La Placita Summer Series (every Thursday at 7:30 p.m.): Take a trip downtown and enjoy the Cinema La Placita's continuing outdoor summer film series. On Thursday, June 29, enjoy a showing of The Manchurian Candidate (1962), a political and psychological thriller which follows the transformation of an American prisoner of war (Frank Sinatra) turned unwitting Communist assassin. In addition to the showing, audiences are invited to enjoy the cash bar and food truck on site. cinemalaplacita.com

Summer Classic Films at the Temple: This week, the Arizona Theatre Company launches into its third week of a new summer film series at the Temple of Music and Art. This Sunday, June 25, check out the monster movie classic, Creature from the Black Lagoon. Watch as a scientific crew expediting through the Amazon discovers a prehistoric creature from the legendary Black Lagoon. The price of a ticket ($10) includes a free popcorn and a drink. arizonatheatre.org

Nothing quenches summer thirst like a cold margarita, and this summer, Blanco Taco & Tequila, 2905 E. Skyline Drive, is offering rotating monthly margarita specials through August.

Kick back and enjoy a new, handcrafted margarita each month. June’s margarita features fresh watermelon, rhubard bitters and silver tequila; July’s features muddled watermelon, mint, fresh lime and silver tequila; and finally, August’s margarita features muddled yellow watermelon, fresh lime, poblano spice and silver tequila.

Time to find your lost shaker of salt, because happy hour runs daily from 3 to 6 p.m. through August.

After an eight-month hiatus, The Resonars return to the stage, stoked. The Weekly caught up with tunesmith and knob-twirler Matt Rendon over fish tacos.

The Resonars performed last in Tucson at The Night of the Living Fest back in October where the band rocked a set of trademark ’60s-influenced psych and beautifully calibrated pop, to a raucous crowd.

The Resonars are playing “Che’s and Bar Passé to get gas money,” along with comrades Flight Thirteen (yes, named after the old Dearly Beloved song), before embarking on a whirlwind tour with gigs in L.A., San Pedro and Oakland, California. They’ll be performing tunes from their ear-bending Burger Records releases Crummy Desert Sound and That Evil Drone. This time out The Resonars lineup includes mainstay drummer Johnnie Rinehart and two pistols from Flight Thirteen: Guitarist Andy Puig and bassist Nate Gutierrez. Rendon says of the shows enthusiastically between bites, “It’s going to be super cool. A stripped down, more punk rock Resonars.”

Catch The Return of The Resonars with Flight Thirteen this Saturday June 24 at Che’s Lounge, 350 N. 4th Avenue, 10 p.m. 21+. Free. And Monday June 26 at Bar Passé, 417 N. 4th Avenue, 10 p.m. 21+. Free.

The numbers aren't in, so we don't know how much the Senate "repeal and replace" healthcare bill plans to cut from Medicaid, but the bill passed by the House takes an $880 billion bite out of the program over ten years, and indications are the Senate bill bites down even harder. Both bills cut health care for our most vulnerable citizens while giving the richest Americans huge tax cuts. (For the first million you make, you get a tax cut the size of the median U.S. income.) Most Democrats are alarmed, and some Republicans, especially governors in states that went with the Medicaid program, like Arizona, are concerned as well. If Ducey is urging caution, you know there's something to worry about.

Schools would be affected by the cuts. Medicaid is used to cover some special education costs to schools which are above and beyond funds states supply to take care of those students' needs. It also covers some of the costs of vision and hearing screening for children, along with part of the salaries for nurses, psychologists and other health care professionals. If Medicaid funding is cut and schools have to compete for limited funds with services for children provided outside of school in hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices, children will inevitably lose vital services at the expense of their health and their educations.

Here is how it's explained on the Arizona Department of Education website.

Medicaid School-Based Claiming (MSBC) is a joint federal and state program that offers reimbursement for both the provision of covered medically necessary school-based services and for the costs of administrative activities, such as outreach activities to identify eligible students and enroll them in the program, that support the Medicaid school-based program. . . .

Many children receive covered Medicaid services through their schools. Medicaid will reimburse schools for documented medically necessary services that are provided to children who are both Medicaid eligible and who have been identified as eligible under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 34 CFR §300.306. Currently, schools can receive reimbursement for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, nursing services, health aides, certain transportation, and behavioral health services. . . .

Schools are often involved in informing families of their potential eligibility for Medicaid or in helping them arrange medical appointments for children. These activities are considered Medicaid outreach and are administrative costs.

There's no money in  the state budget to pick up the tab for services the Republican bill will cut. Children will go without health care, but lots of millionaires and billionaires will get healthy tax cuts amounting to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars. Somehow in the conservative mindset, that's a good trade-off.

Ever thought to sample a cacti? This Monday, June 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. is your chance to find out what some of your favorite succulents actually taste like!

Take a trip downtown to the Food Conspiracy Co-op, 412 N. Fourth Ave., and experience a hands-on demonstration with Jill Lorenzini of Desert Harvest that examines “cool cacti” and their nutritional value. Learn about cactus fruit, pad nutrition, harvesting seasons, identification and best tools and practices. Sample fruit from our Arizona state flower and gnosh on pickled cholla buds.

Pre-registration is required in advance of the class and tickets are $10. For more information, contact Food Conspiracy Co-op at 624-4821.

In 2008, Ed Supe Tom Horne had a great idea to get more science and math teachers in the classroom. Why not have businesses let some of their STEM-based employees teach one high school class a year as part of their job? Brilliant! After Horne's announcement, did you see the stampede of people rushing from the private sector to be volunteer teachers? No, neither did I. I never heard of anyone taking him up on his offer.

The legislature this year had a better idea: let anyone with a bachelor's degree in a subject taught in middle or high school teach, no training, no education classes, no subject matter testing required. And if they've spent time working in a STEM field or teaching in a post-high school institution, the college degree isn't even a requirement.

So how's that working out? It's a little early to tell, but at this point, it looks like people aren't beating down school districts' administration building doors demanding teaching applications.

A highly-touted law passed by the legislature earlier this year was supposed to help add candidates to the teaching pool. It loosens credentials needed to become a teacher and paves the way for qualified professionals in certain fields to get easier access to classrooms.

Wing said the impact of the law appears minimal so far.

“The Washington Elementary School District has received just a few contacts from some of those related to those certification changes,” said [Justin] Wing, who is now the human resources director for the Washington Elementary School. “From what I hear from other human resource professionals in other school systems, they have not received waves of candidates because of that new law. In my opinion, it didn’t address the root cause of the teacher shortage.”

It's early yet. The word may not have gotten out, and when it does, school districts may still have the opportunity to fill some of their empty classrooms with unqualified, unprepared teachers. But wouldn't it be something if the legislature threw the teacher certification doors open wide and nobody showed up? Teaching in Arizona may be so underpaid and undervalued, broadening the applicant pool won't be much help. Maybe, if the legislators really care about addressing the state's crisis-level teacher shortage, they'll have to try some other ideas, like, say, increasing salaries and improving working conditions . . . if—and it's a big "if"—they really care about addressing the state's crisis-level teacher shortage,.

In the last few months, Tucson has lost three important comedy “workshops.” These were not open mics, per se, but sessions in which comedians and aspiring comedians write together, try out new material, and get feedback from other, usually more experienced comics.

Two of the former workshops’ venues are or were closing. The third, at the Screening Room, lost out as part of a nightly comedy idea that ultimately failed to meet the venue’s needs. (The Screening room now hosts one comedy night a month on the first Friday.)

Fortunately for the Tucson comedy community, its longest-standing supporter, Laff’s Comedy Caffe, began a year ago to host its own workshop. Laff’s is Tucson’s only comedy venue that can offer a new comedian a paid hosting gig or an unpaid guest slot in front of a large audience, with nationally known comedians who can potentially give their careers a boost. With the workshop, the club expanded its commitment from encouraging local comedians to also helping to develop them.

In the wake of other workshops’ closing, Laff’s staffer and professional comedian Michael Celi says Laffs is stepping up this commitment with a new program, Comedy Outreach. Whereas the original workshops were for anyone who showed up with new ideas to hone or jokes to practice, Comedy Outreach will have more structure and include a schedule of experienced comics charged with giving feedback. Comedy Outreach starts June 22 and continues at 6 p.m. every Thursday, ending just as open-mic signups begin at 7 p.m.

Celi says, “The main difference between what I'm doing and what (the other workshops) were doing is that this is not for an audience. I wouldn't turn an audience away, but I’ll be working to have an audience composed entirely of other comics.”

Laff’s longstanding 8 p.m. open mic continues to attract as many as 40 comics every week. No one would dispute that it’s the most popular free comedy show in town, although your mileage will vary from comic to comic. Laff’s Comedy Caffe is at 2900 E. Broadway Blvd. Find info about upcoming shows at laffstucson.com.

Summer Movie

Tucson Improv Movement’s summer feature, “The Movie,” continues at 9 p.m. Saturdays until further notice. Based on an audience suggestion, the TIM cast creates scenes and populates a script-less improv “movie” with plots, subplots and characters. Hilarity ensues. TIM Theatre, 329 E. 7th St.; $5.

Throw down at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 25 as Rincon Market, 2513 E. Sixth St., invites Tucson locals to reap the rewards of an inaugural Summer Slugfest Food Competition.

With six of Tucson’s finest eateries going head-to-head, the competition is sure to heat up. The first round in this summer’s series includes chicken wings and a $20 cover charge allows for wing samplings from all competitors and your choice of craft beer. All participants are encouraged to vote on their favorite eatery, granting the winning competitor the chance to make a cash donation to their favorite local charity.