Tucson Weekly: Cheap Thrills (January 29

Cheap Thrills MOVEABLE FEAST: They pop, they twirl and they sparkle, all between colorful covers at the UA Main Library's 10th-annual Pop-Up and Moveable Book Exhibit.
"This year's exhibit contains 200 books, and all of them are contemporary," says curator Jim Sinski. "That means they can also be purchased."
The latest foray into this fascinating publishing subculture consists of miniature books, with most measuring around two to three inches, and most are geared towards adults, Sinski says. Among his favorites is Cookie Count, by New York professor Robert Sabuda. "It includes the numbers one to 10, but the pages are in the shape of cookies," Sinski says, "and the cookies are made by little mice. Number 10 has them making a gingerbread house, and the page pops up and the cookie even twirls."
Exhibit runs through February in the Special Collections Annex of the UA Main Library, located on campus at the south side of the main mall. Viewing is during regular library hours. For times, call 621-6441.
WELL-COVERED: Gay performance artist and activist Tim Miller will read from his new book, Shirts and Skin, the companion work to his current performance piece of the same title.
He's known for his riveting, solo theater works, most of them provocative commentaries about gay life and culture, and the AIDS crisis. And if you missed Miller's performance show at the UA, now's the chance to get a taste of his biting examination of a vibrant subculture.
Free reading is 7 p.m. Thursday, January 29, in Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave. For information, call 792-3715.
ANCIENT REMEDIES: With doctors' offices crammed by an army of sneezers and snifflers, now just might be the time to try a different method of beating back the winter epidemic. Luckily, Tucson Botanical Gardens is brewing up healthy alternatives with a lecture titled Medicinal Tea Making.
Teas have a long history of use in most cultures, and are still a common form of healing. Beth Elstein of Peaceable Kingdom Botanicals demonstrates how to prepare a few of these comforting beverages, and the use of particular herbs for specific ailments.
Lecture runs from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, January 31, in the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Cost is $8, $6 for TBG members, and pre-registration is required. For information, call 326-9686.
LYRICAL SPELL: Eleanor Wilner totes a curriculum vitae that's the War and Peace of written verse. Her five books of poetry include the visionary Gathering the Winds, a translation of Euripedes' Medea, and most recently, Reversing the Spell: New and Selected Poems.
And her awards include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Juniper and Pushcart prizes, and grants from the NEA. Currently a faculty member at Warren Wilson College, and writer-in-residence at Northwestern University, Wilner brings a dose of her powerful lyrical style to Tucson as part of the UA Poetry Center's spring reading series.
Free reading is 8 p.m. Wednesday, February 4, in the UA Modern Languages Building auditorium, located on campus at the north end of the main mall. For details, call 321-7760.

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