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Ken’s Hardwood Barbecue Two-Year Anniversary. Southern Tucson’s smokiest restaurant and food truck combo is celebrating its second year in business, and for the occasion, there will be meal deal of brisket, ribs, cornbread and more. Get out there and celebrate with a local meal “backed by tradition and legacy.” 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 30. 5250 E. 22nd Street. Details here.


Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal Dinner at Elvira’s. Four courses of food and mezcal for $50? Only at Elvira’s. This downtown spot is pairing Del Maguey mezcal with dishes inspired by Oaxaca, including a special mole. 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 30. 256 E. Congress St. $50. Details here.

Quilts in the Gardens. Quilts for a Cause auctions and sells handmade quilts and patterns donated by quilters to support breast and gynecological cancer research. This summer, they’re partnering with Tucson Botanical Gardens to exhibit nature-themed quilts in Porter Hall and the Friends House Gallery at the gardens. Quilts will also be for sale in the gift shop. Come support a good cause, brighten up your home and remind yourself that when the colder days ahead finally do get here, you’ll be warm and wrapped up in a quilt. On display through September 29. Garden hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday through Wednesday and 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday. Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way. $15 GA, $13 students/seniors/military, $8 kids 4 to 17, free for members and kids under 4. Details here.

Borderlands Residential Solar Expo. Okay, we get it: A residential solar expo doesn't sound super fun. But you know what is fun? Saving money on electricity! Reducing your carbon footprint! And having solar panels! So take your chance to meet a couple of local solar providers, ask whatever questions you need to, and learn more about tax credits and financing. And you know what else? The event's at a brewery with great food. So if worse comes to worst, you spent your Thursday night eating, drinking and deciding solar panels aren't for you. Still a major success. 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 30. Borderlands Brewing Company, 119 E. Toole Ave. Free. Details here.

Beginners Belly Dancing. Never belly danced before? There's no time like the present to start! Na-il has 16 years of experience dancing, and nine in belly dance. He specializes in belly dance fusion, weaving the dance form into other styles, both traditional and modern. In this class, you'll explore how to move your pelvis and ribcage to upbeat music ranging from Middle Eastern to modern. You can't tell us you've never thought belly dancing looks super cool, so why not try it for yourself? Be sure to bring plenty of water, because—special bonus!—belly dancing is a full-body workout. 6 to 7:15 p.m. Thursday, May 30. Circus Sanctuary, 3113 E. Columbia St. $18 for a drop-in session. Details here.

Tucson Saguaros. Our local baseball team has its first two home games of the season this week! And it's our hometown cacti vs. the High Desert Yardbirds, in from Adelanto, CA. All their home games will be on Cherry Field this season, which is centrally located and well-lit... hooray! Come root, root, root for the home team in its fourth season, and pick up one of their really cool hats while you're at it—it's got a saguaro holding a baseball bat on it, and what more could you want in a hat? 7 p.m. Thursday, May 30, and Friday, May 31. Cherry Field, 425 S. Cherry Ave. $7.50. Details here.

Events compiled by Tirion Morris, Emily Dieckman, B.S. Eliot and Jeff Gardner.

Luring listeners in with dark, hard-hitting rhythms and belting vocals, on "Forgive Me, Karma," these Atlanta hard rockers "walk with fire." Royal Thunder are at Club Congress. With fellow Atlanteans, hard rock/metalists. Details here.

Brash and hard hitting, on Annihilator (Evacuate Records, 2018) these Austin punks crank it out bullet fast. Sniper 66 utterly obliterate at Ward6. Flanked by THUGxRIOT and Mad World. Details here.

The Joe Peña Trio shed magical droplets of sorrow. At Agustin Kitchen. Details here.

Deeper: DJs Atom Energy and Lunarfox spin house at Passé. Details here.

El Paso indie rockers If We Were Turtles ponder reptilian thoughts and other things at Sky Bar. In Lessons and Noise Field provide needed support. Details here.

On "Because I Can" this folksy crooner issues a caveat. "And you can take any part of me/Just know you are also leaving with this heart of mine." Leila Lopez stirs the senses at Tap + Bottle-Downtown. Details here.

Andy Andrist redux, Bruce Jingles, Amy Miller, Caitlin Weierhauser at the O

Bruce Jingles brings his smart observations, eloquent storytelling and pitch-perfect comedic timing to The O on June 1. He’s the second half of a weekend double-header doubling down on The O’s commitment to creating an uptown jazz and comedy club.

The Unbookables’s Andy Andrist headlines at 8 p.m. on May 31. Tickets for his show, a free-associative trip through his kaleidoscopic mind with side-trips to the floor, may still be available for $8 via Eventbrite.com, or you can pay $10 at the door.

It’s Jingles’ first visit to Tucson, and he performs at both 7 pm and 9 pm on June 1. Tickets are $10 via Eventbrite and $15 at the door. A favorite in Southern California’s stand-up comedy stomping grounds, Jingles plies relatable tales of everyday life with, for example, law enforcement, stereotyping, and weed. He drives them cheerily home with impersonations of people audience members may recognize from their own lives.

Jingles is a popular podcast guest and a fixture on USO tours. He’s been seen on ABC, VH1, TMZ, NUVOTV, and two Showtime specials, and he appeared in the 2008 dark comedy Driving Bill Crazy. His live comedy album, Bruce Jingles: Comic, released by RBC Records, can be found on iTunes, Pandora and Spotify.

The O keeps rolling on Wednesday, June 5 with Amy Miller, Caitlin Weierhauser and Steve Hernandez. According to her bio, headliner Miller was one of Comedy Central’s Up Next comics for 2018, and was a breakout favorite in Season 9 of Last Comic Standing. She’s also appeared on the Adam Carolla Show, Viceland and the Doug Loves Movies comedy podcast. Most recently she guested on the Stephen Colbert Show.

Miller describes her comedy as “personal, political, and 100 percent authentic.” She earned her comedy stripes in the Bay Area, but began attracting more widespread attention when she moved to Portland’s rich and even more diverse comedy scene.

She won the title Portland’s Funniest in a 2015 competition sponsored by Helium Comedy Club and was voted Portland’s Funniest Comedian in both 2013 and 2015 by readers of the independent Willamette Week. She was the first woman to top either, let alone both, of those contests.

Her album, Solid Gold, is available on the prestigious Kill Rock Stars label. Her podcast, Who’s Your God, with fellow O linep member Steve Hernandez, is at libsyn.com. She’s performed at numerous comedy festivals, including SXSW, Bridgetown, Big Sky and the San Francisco Sketchfest.

L.A.-based Weierhauser describes her comedy as social commentary with “coach vibes and … unhinged enthusiasm, often political, frequently personal and entirely too tantrum-prone.” Naturally she was cast in a Disney movie. It’s Timmy Failure, being readied for the 2020 debut of the new Disney streaming service, Disney +.

Weierhauser was voted one of the top three performers at Big Sky Comedy Fest and has performed for Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Bumbershoot, and the All Jane Comedy Fest.

Also from L.A., Steve Hernandez founded the popular LA bar show, Chatterbox Comedy Night. He was featured as a Field Correspondent on I Love You, America! With Sarah Silverman and appeared in Comedy Central’s Corporate.


Local First Arizona kind of spells LAF

Tucson’s favorite cartoonist and raconteur David Fitzsimmons hosts a comedy show at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 5 at Borderlands Brewery. Admission is $5 at the door or in advance via squareup.com.

The event wraps up a Local First Arizona Roadshow hosted from 4 to 7 pm by the Rialto Theatre at its offshoot entertainment venue 191 Toole. It’s at the other end of the block from Borderlands.

LFA-member the Comedy Alliance of Tucson (full disclosure: I am its founder) organized the comedy show to include, besides Fitzsimmons: Roxy Merrari, host of Comedy at the (Surly) Wench; Monte Benjamin, known for clean comedy rooted in his experiences as a black American; Matt Ziemak, co-host of the monthly Brew Ha Ha comedy show at Borderlands; Mo Urban, stand-up comedy coach at Tucson Improv Movement, founder of a half-dozen local comedy shows and frequent guest in Arizona comedy festivals; Alex Kack, a leader in CAT, producer of this show and host of several local comedy shows, and Josiah Osego, a popular guest in comedy shows in Phoenix and all over Southern Arizona.

Ever the joker, Borderlands Brewing Company co-owner Michael Mallozzi says, “Running a business is no joke! But that doesn’t mean we can’t laugh! Join us for the Local First Arizona Roadshow to support your local businesses because you can’t spell laugh without LFA.” (Just don’t overthink it.)

Michael Peel, Southern Arizona Director of Local First Arizona, says the LFA Roadshows, which are free to the public, are a new program to get business members out in the community, like farmers’ markets promoting products and services. Peel says, “We create fun and engaging ways to connect local businesses to the community on a regular basis and keep more dollars in our local economy. 

Peel and Mallozzi have been advisers in the formation of the Comedy Alliance of Tucson (CAT), seeing it as a means to expand the local business sector using comedy as a draw. Since it was established last year, CAT has worked with local businesses to create more opportunities for comedy in Tucson, promoting existing shows and venues while encouraging new ones. The organization promoted its first CATcomedy520 LOL crawl last January and currently is networking and pursuing initiatives with FEATS-AZ, the Marana Chamber of Commerce, Visit Tucson and TEN WEST as well as Local First.

Peel says, “Expect different themes and a rotating cast of LFA members and partners each month spotlighting and celebrating what makes our community so unique.” 

Four years ago when Republican Diane Douglas was the new Superintendent of Public instruction, I'd written four posts about her by the end of May, much of it positive. I'm a bit ashamed to admit I've gone this long without writing about our current superintendent, Democrat Kathy Hoffman. It's time to correct that.

My posts about Douglas were sighs of relief that she wasn't acting like the fire-breathing ultraconservative she played on the campaign trail. In the early going, Douglas was making reasonable, inclusive statements about Arizona's schools and students. She was doing no harm, which was the best I could hope for. To my surprise, she even did some good. So I offered her praise and encouragement during the early going. When Trump came into the picture, Douglas reverted to wingnut type, but that was years later.

Hoffman, meanwhile, began doing the kind of job I hoped she would from her first days in office. I've been waiting to see if the trend would continue, and it has. Almost halfway through her first year, Hoffman has created enough of a track record for me to say, I'm impressed.

It's important to understand the nature of the superintendent' job to put Hoffman's accomplishments in perspective. She administers a multi-billion dollar budget but has no direct impact on legislators or legislation. Any political clout Hoffman has comes from the way she uses her bully pulpit. Thus far, she's used it effectively. She continues to emphasize her perspective as an educator, which is a welcome relief after three decades of non-educators running the Department of Education. Hoffman makes it clear, she knows teachers, she knows students, she knows public schools.

Hoffman took her oath of office with her hand on a children's book. That could be called gimmicky, I suppose, but I appreciated the symbolism. She was swearing an oath to serve the students, to put their needs foremost. Most teachers make a similar oath to themselves every year before the first day of school. It was a promising start.

There was no symbolism involved in Hoffman's strong stance against the Arizona law stating that sex education courses can't say anything positive about what the law calls "a homosexual life-style." Referring to it as the "no promo homo law" in her State of Education speech, Hoffman said the policy is "outdated . . . harmful and wrong."

The law may have been on the way out regardless. The board of education was facing a suit over the statute, and Attorney General Mark Brnovich said he wouldn't come to its defense. The board of education voted unanimously against it, then in April the legislature repealed the law. Whether or not Hoffman's aggressive stance on the topic moved votes, her full-throated condemnation of the old law helped clarify the issue and boost it into statewide prominence.

The day before graduation, best friends and academic overachievers Molly and Amy are struck by the devastating regret that they never partied during high school. Not once. With the same focus and follow-through that allowed them to ace their AP courses, they set out to make for all that lost time in just one epic night.

Directed by Olivia Wilde from a script penned by female screenwriters, Booksmart is stylish, colorful, playful, funny and fresher than fresh in its cultural references. It was a thrill for this female viewer to see girls in all the main roles, handling with aplomb the traditional responsibilities of the teen movie’s protagonist: taking the risk, making the first move, standing up and saving the day. The fact that one of the main characters (Amy) is a lesbian makes the film’s big step forward in diverse representation even bigger.

It’s true that Booksmart sometimes lingers in the shallows when you’d prefer it to dive deep. And some directorial flights of fancy fell flat for me. But in exploring the female friendship that is the heart of the story, this movie tracks satisfyingly. Molly and Amy’s relationship is the story’s engine, moving the two characters ever forward—sometimes very much against their wishes—into their dreams, fears, and futures.

All the actors, from newcomers Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein to pros veterans Lisa Kudrow, Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte, turn in wonderful performances. Grab your BFF and go see it.

There was great wisdom in the prescription by Greek physician Hippocrates when he said, “Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.” Though he spoke these words thousands of years ago, their relevance remains at the newest restaurant to come from the Flores Concepts family, Charrovida.

I sat down with Ray Flores, the Chief of the Charrosphere himself, at a pre-open dinner last night. And just seconds into his story about this new concept, it was clear to me what he and his team were collectively embracing.

This is a place where love lives.

This love story weaves its way from the spirit of Salamanca, Spain, where family and cultural traditions were forged by Old Spain’s proud charros, to the soul of Sonora, Mexico, where inspiration was drawn from the blessings of the land. Food was life. Food was love. And food was the connection to health.

You might say that Charrovida’s thoughtful menu is a modern-day prelude to this love story. Its Food Por Vida (Food for Life) promise allows us the opportunity to love on ourselves, and our families and friends, just a little bit more. The chapters of this story highlight the benefits of plant-based eating, the ideal and sustainable proteins and their intentional preparations, the natural fats that our hearts crave, the most suitable of sweeteners, and other examples of foods that maximize the body’s inherent potential for self-healing.

The chapters of this love story are conveniently organized by category, including:

Viva Vegetales tapas (try the chile-charred cauliflower al pastor with grilled pineapple)

Comerjuntos for sharing (try the tableside avocado hummus with plantain tostones)

Bowls y Mas (try the frida salad with arugula, watermelon, and quesa frida)

Entrees (try the salmon de la costa with charred Brussels, hummus, pepitas, and chimichurri)

Dulces y Cafe (try the yes we did with vegan and gluten-free chocolate chip, peanut butter, and sugar cookies with ice cold almond milk)

Joining this loving lineup are a host of side dishes, organic and biodynamic wines, beers, cocktails, and a colorful array of alcohol-free refrescos.

You can take great comfort knowing that a group hug awaits you at the place where love lives.

Located in Casas Adobes Plaza on Ina and Oracle Roads, Charrovida opens its doors to the public today and will serve guests daily from 10:00 am – 9:00 pm.

Viva Vida!

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MOCA ArtNow! screening and lecture. The Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting a lecture from their Artist-in-Residence, David Fenster. Fenster will screen and discuss multiple of his films, as well as discuss his work during a Q&A session. Fenster is a filmmaker based in Marfa, Texas, whose work has screened at museums and festivals around the world. 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 29. 265 S. Church Ave. $10 admission, free for MOCA members and students. Details here.

Phantom of the Opera. The Loft Cinema is screening this 1925 silent horror classic, but are upping the volume level with a live performance by Austin rock band The Invincible Czars as the film’s score. Although it’s only May, they encourage attendees to dress for the Halloween season at this “scarifying screening!” 7:30 to 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 29. 3233 E. Speedway Blvd. $12. Details here.


Samuel Ace Double Book Launch & Celebration with TC Tolbert. Samuel Ace is a trans/queergender poet and sound artist behind books like Our Weather Our Sea and Stealth (that second one with Maureen Seaton), and the winner of awards like the Astraea Lesbian Writer Award and the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in Poetry. Recently, he brought together and republished two poetry collections first issued in the mid-’90s by poet Linda Smukler, adding an introduction and a collection of essays by writers impacted by Smukler’s and his own work. Come hear him present work from the book, “Meet Me There: Normal Sex & Home in three days. Don’t wash.” And from his own collection of poems, “Our Weather Our Sea.” Tucson Poet Laureate TC Tolbert joins him. Bring something for the potluck! 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 29. Kore Press, 325 W. Second St., Room 201. $5, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Details here.

Infusion Release at 1912 Brewing. For the summer season, 1912 Brewing is bringing infusions back! Every Wednesday, they’re releasing a new “out of the box” infusion, ranging from sweet to sour to hoppy. They’ll also have a rotating cast of local food trucks to pair with the new and crazy beer of the day. 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 29. 2045 N. Forbes Blvd. Details here.

Events compiled by Tirion Morris, Emily Dieckman, B.S. Eliot and Jeff Gardner.

Bewitching brujas, girl group/garage rockers Taco Sauce lead the blurred crusade. Crooked Saints and More Freaks are in tow. At Club Congress. Details here.

“I got a noose/I got a noose/I got a noose around my neck.” With themes focusing on nihilism, occultism, depression and death, Purveyor in “D(r)ead,” Ghostemane blurs the lines between the moshpit and rapping. At the Rialto Theatre. Details here.