Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Thursday 24 HIGH LIFE. Author Nancy Mairs' brutally honest, highly confessional books have tackled family relationships, infidelity and the pains of childhood. Mairs' latest work, Waist High in the World, is no less frank as she describes her battle with multiple sclerosis, a viciously progressive disease that's confined her to a wheelchair. But the illness has hardly muted her vision, or her constant thirst for piercing introspection. Today she presents a free reading of the work from 7 to 9 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, in the old Dillard's building at Foothills Mall, 7325 N. La Cholla Blvd. For details, call 742-6402. BIG APPLE BALLET. Ballet Hispanico de New York glides into town with several appearances sponsored by the UA Student Activities Board. The renowned troupe will give a free performance and answer questions from 7 to 8 p.m. in the UA Student Union Cellar. And they'll perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 26, and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 27, in UA Centennial Hall. Tickets range from $8 to $20, available at the Centennial Hall box office, or by calling 621-3341. Friday 25 GEEK LIFE. The Nerd had it all: stunning fart scenes, puking frat boys, sharp-tongued co-ed sluts and mammaries galore. In other words, brainstem cinema at its best. And better yet, it was conveniently shot in Tucson, where hordes of extras were already well in character. At the same time, the movie had more than a few solid yuks. That's where the Desert Players Community Theatre aims its sights. They've toned down the script, inserted some good taste, and traced the travails of a "fellow who can only be described as 'the house guest from hell,' " who "wears out his welcome five minutes after his arrival." Show times are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday through May 3, with 2 o'clock Sunday matinees April 27 and May 4, in the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts, 408 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $8, $7 for students and seniors, and available at the door, or by calling 579-3206 SIT TIGHT. "All is peaceful and still. Suddenly, you hear the strangest music and see these weird lights. Glancing at the stage you find a group of people swinging by their ankles on a trapeze. My God! It's OK, don't run away, you're only at an Orts concert." That's the setting, according to folks from the steadily innovative Orts Theatre of Dance. Indeed, tonight they'll combine eccentric music and dramatic lighting with the beautiful springtime eve, in their presentation of Orts In the Park After Dark. Topping the roster is "Trapeze God" Robert Davidson of Seattle, who'll be performing "Ave Maria" with Orts artistic director Anne Bunker. Also slated are "Totem" and "Windways," featuring music written especially for Orts by R. Carlos Nakai. Show times are 7:30 tonight, tomorrow and Sunday at the Reid Park DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, Broadway and Country Club Road. Admission is free. For details, call 624-3799. Saturday 26 GRATEFUL DREAD. He was the granddaddy of reggae music, or at least its first ambassador to mainstream consciousness. His enduring message of global peace and equality is celebrated today and tomorrow at the fourth-annual Bob Marley Festival. Sponsored by KXCI, the gathering will feature endless music by reggae and worldbeat bands from across the globe, including Arawak Jah, Irie Dawtars, Pacific Island and Tucson's own One Blood and Neon Prophet. Also featured are plenty of Caribbean, African and American arts, crafts and chow. Event runs from noon to 10 p.m. today, and noon to 8 p.m. tomorrow at Kennedy Park, 3700 S. La Cholla Blvd. Admission is free, with folks encouraged to bring two cans or a bag of non-perishable food for the Tucson Community Food Bank. Call 623-1000 for information. ROMANCE AFOOT. Hard to believe Giselle premiered at the Paris Opera in 1841. Seems like only yesterday. Now this tale of an innocent peasant girl who falls for a two-timing prince, considered a classic of the Romantic ballet period, gets a thorough dusting with a new production by Ballet Arizona. Performances are at 2 and 7:30 p.m. in the TCC Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets range from $13 to $41, available at Dillards, the Ballet Arizona box office, or by calling (800) 322-5538. SIGNS O' THE TIMES. When it comes to signposts of the pending millennium, UFO-toting Comet Hale Bopp may just be the tip of a revelatory iceberg that includes the Hopi Prophecy rock, the Mayan calendar, and that peskily mysterious crystal skull. Enter Dr. Chet Snow, tireless researcher of all things prophetic and a resident of Sedona, which is likewise home to both a very powerful cosmic vortex and an extremely spiffy McDonald's. Snow, author of Mass Dreams of the Future, will discuss his fascinating findings from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Zenith Center of Spiritual Arts, 330 E. Seventh St. Advance tickets are $50, available by calling 751-7958. Tickets are $65 at the door. Sunday 27 OBOE A-GO-GO. St. Philip's in the Hills wraps up this year's concert series with a performance by New York Philharmonic oboe wizard Thomas Stacy. Performing with Tucsonans Martha Salzman and Jeffri Sanders, Stacy tackles three members of the oboe family--the English horn, oboe d'amore and plain old oboe--with an expertise that's landed him raves from critics like American Record Guide's Donald Vroon. "Can there be more beautiful English horn playing than Thomas Stacy's?" Vroon asks. "I heard him recently...and melted." Performance is at 3 p.m. in St. Philip's in the Hills Episcopal Church, 4440 N. Campbell Ave. Tickets are $10, $5 for children ages 12 and under, available at the door. Call 299-6421 for details. IBERIAN SOJOURN. Marcia Gold-Planakis toured Spain exactly 500 years after the Jews were expelled from that country, and the result is Sephardic Journey, a poignant series of photographs documenting the journey. Harold A. Laynor's trip was a bit different. A rabbi in the Southwest, he found a unique way to blend regional culture with Judaism, embodied in a character named Reb Kachina. Laynor's Reb Kachina series joins Gold-Planakis in a new exhibit at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road. Exhibit runs through May 27, with an opening reception from 2 to 4 p.m. today. Regular gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Sunday. For information, call 299-3000. FLAUTED. All things reed-related will be on the block--against a backdrop of fine music--when the Tucson Flute Club presents a recital and silent auction. Club members will perform solo and in ensemble, as sheet music, books of solos, flute studies, and other music items are auctioned off. Free event begins at 3 p.m. in the Murphey Gallery, located in St. Philip's in the Hills, 4440 N. Campbell Ave. Call 321-4943 for details. Monday 28 FREE TRADE. Last summer, Bruce McGrew, alumnus of Oracle's Rancho Linda Vista art outpost, long-time UA art professor and nationally recognized watercolor painter, traveled to Toluca, Mexico, to visit the Museo de la Acuarela (Museum of Watercolors). That's where he ran into fellow painter Benito Negueira Ruiz, and the pair hatched an idea for an exchange exhibit including artists from the museum and the UA. Eventually, Ruiz, McGrew, Mexican artists Gabriela Abud, Ignacio Barrios and Beatriz Gaminde combined efforts with UA faculty members Jackson Boelts, Jerold Bishop and Bart Morse in Intercambio, now on display at the UA Union Gallery in the Student Union building. Completing the exchange, the exhibit returns to Toluca in mid-May. Take a gander through May 15. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For details, call 621-6142. Tuesday 29 SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH. You could say esteemed scientist Edward Keonjian has had a tough time of it. Witness to the Russian Revolution, he received his doctorate from the Leningrad Institute of Engineering in 1932, and later survived German WW II labor camps, before emigrating, penniless, to the United States. But it was on these shores that fate smiled upon him, with his 1954 invention of the first solar-powered radio, and later his work with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in the NASA program. Keonjian recalls his struggles and triumphs in his recently published autobiography, Survived to Tell. He'll read from the book from 7 to 9 p.m. in Barnes & Noble, 5480 E. Broadway. Call 745-9822 for details. GABFEST. The times, they are a changin'. And with them the national dialogue, with each segment of society angling to find its niche in the shifting tableau. Enter the Tucson-Pima Public Library and Tucson Writer's Project, sponsors of Finding a Place in America: A Collaborative Conversation. The series of gatherings explores the concept of community, with participants sharing their perspectives through discussion, readings and writing. The group will meet from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight at the River Center Library, 5605 E. River Road. Admission is free. For information, call 791-4391. Wednesday 30 LITERARY IDENTITIES. Every year undergrads at the UA pump out what's considered among the best student literary publications in the country. It's called Persona; and contributors to the latest issue will read from their work at 8 p.m. in the UA Modern Languages Building auditorium. Admission is free. For details, call 321-7760. WITH HONORS. Tender young talents take center stage with a performance by the Southwest School of Music's Middle-School Honor Jazz Band. Opening will be middle school combos, and the all-city high school honorees, Jazz Werx, sponsored by the Tucson Jazz Society. According to SWSM honor-band director Ed Ulman, "The kids have made tremendous progress in the past two years since the band program began. These youngsters and the Jazz Werx kids represent the best young jazz players in Tucson." Show time is 7 p.m. in the SWSM, 2175 N. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $3, available at the door. Call 884-0811 for information. City Week includes events selected by Calendar Editor Mari Wadsworth. Event information is accurate as of press time. The Weekly recommends calling event organizers to check for last-minute changes in location, time, price, etc.

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