Tucson Weekly: Cheap Thrills (February 12

Cheap Thrills TIME TRAVELING: There was a day, not so long ago, when Fort Lowell was actually far out in the desert, and being stationed there was the 19th-century equivalent of being shipped off to clean bathrooms in Eloy or thereabouts.
Boy, how times change. Today, Fort Lowell has become a lush park with a great little museum, and the surrounding historic neighborhood exudes a lovely, slightly rumpled charm in the heart of the east side's hustle-bustle.
And those fine aesthetics don't go without notice, as residents annually roll out the dusty red carpet for La Reunion de La Fuerte. This year's event unfolds on Saturday, February 14, and includes ongoing, self-guided neighborhood tours running from 1 to 4 p.m. The tours start at the park, located at the intersection of Fort Lowell and Craycroft roads, or at various points within the neighborhood. And from 1 to 3 p.m. in the park, the Fourth Calvary Regimental Band dons its period uniforms, pulls out its brass, and strikes up inspiring melodies. From 2 to 3:30 p.m., Fort Huachuca's Troop B Calvary will conduct drills, and Mariachi de San Cristo Rey and the Southern Arizona Old Time Fiddlers perform between 1 and 3:30 p.m., all in Fort Lowell Park. There will also be plenty of food and drink.
For information on these and other activities, call 318-0219.
SOLID GROUND: Poet Thomas Centolella, author of the award-winning books of verse Terra Firma and Lights and Mysteries, will read from his work as part of the UA Poetry Center's spring series. Centolella displays a power that Denise Levertov of the National Poetry Series describes as rich with "so much passion, compassion, humor, zest for living, sadness, and big questions...a rare synthesis of meditative discourse and lyrical sensibility."
Free reading is 8 tonight in the UA Modern Languages Auditorium, located on campus north of the main mall. Call 321-7760 for details.
GEM OF A GATHERING: Millions of bucks in the form of shiny baubles, minerals and anything else even remotely related to the terra firma roll into to town this week, when the grandaddy of local events called the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show gets underway.
This year's theme is fluorite minerals and minerals of alpine regions. Fluorite comes in a rainbow of brilliant colors, from cubes of yellow and purple in Illinois and Kentucky, to chunks of effervescent green in China, and balls of purple in Mexico. And the alpine minerals are tremendous crystal formations coming from the Alps in Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Some weigh nearly a ton.
And those are just a sampling of the rocks. This year's show also includes more than 300 exhibitors from around the world, collections from more than 25 museums and universities, a Mars meteorite on loan from NASA, and the fossilized remains of an 18-foot sea creature dating back 65 million years.
The main part of the show runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, February 12 and 13; 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, February 14; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, February 15, in the TCC, 260 S. Church Ave. Admission is $5.50, free for children ages 14 and under. In addition, vendors and displays will be scattered along Congress Street west of Interstate 10. Hours vary. For information, call 322-5773.

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