Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Thursday 6 VIDEO TENSIONS. "Mapping the Spirit of Youth" is what they're calling it, and it may be the best VideoTENSIONS series to date, with seven weeks of independent- and youth-produced progressive video countering the stereotypes of mainstream media. MTV, experimental, narrative and documentary strategies have been used to create vibrant and interesting videos that probe, prod and provoke audience response to issues faced by youth. The series aims to "empower (young people's) voices and validate them as artists/media makers who are active and positive forces in our communities." The fifth annual VideoTENSIONS series, a highlight of the UA Summer Arts Program, opens tonight with "VideoGRRRLS," a 90-minute excursion into the raw, edgy environment of "angry young women grabbing life by the balls and being LOUD about it." It opens with Sadie Benning's evocative and experimental Girl Power (Part 1), a radical Gen Xer's vision of the '90s as seen through the eye of a Pixelvision Fisher-Price toy camera, Benning's tool of the trade since she turned 15. Other videotapes in this show include Jennifer Reeder's Clit-o-Matic: Adventures of White Trash Girl, a day in the life of a superheroine like none other; and Leah Gilliam's Sapphire and the Slave Girl, which investigates how racial passing, cross-dressing and taboo sexuality are constructed, negotiated and performed within urban spaces. All screenings are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. on campus in the UA Modern Languages Building auditorium, Second Street east of Mountain Avenue. Call 621-7352 for information. ROCK BLOCK PARTY. Here's an alternative approach to treating cancer: Head over to The Rock, 136 N. Park Ave., any Thursday night this summer for the Battle of the Bands. That's right, that ever-evolving venue on the corner of Park Avenue and Ninth Street is promoting local musical talent with one hand and collecting money for the American Cancer Society with the other with a weekly line-up featuring the best of alternative, rap, hard-core, rock, pop, techno, country, trip-hop, punk and more, culminating in a winner-take-all ACS "Rally for Life" benefit in September. Grand prize is $1,000 cash and $1,500-worth of recording time. Here in the present tense, the Battle heads into its third week starting at 7 tonight with Zeb, Percolator, Funky Bonz and 13 Flock Scrolls. Admission is $3 to $5 at the door and shows are 18-and-over only. Call 629-9211 for information. Friday 7 STORYBOOK BALLET. When dancer Jane Matty Willett returned to Tucson after performing professionally as a company dancer in Europe, she brought with her the idea of uniting professionals with young dancers in a performance setting. Thus the Southern Arizona Dance Theatre was born four seasons ago, with an impressive roster including resident choreographer Richard Holden, a standing presence in the Tucson dance world who's danced with the Joffrey Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. Encouraged by full houses at their Nutcracker and A Christmas Carol productions last November, they've added a first-ever Friday evening performance for their season finale tonight. Join them for an unconventional evening of family-oriented classical ballet performed by a mixed company of amateur and professional dancers of all ages. The program of children's favorites including adaptations of Peter and the Wolf, Kaleidoscope and Sleeping Beauty, along with a collage of storybook dances spinning off Red Ridinghood and the Wolf, Cinderella and the Three Ugly Step-sisters and Puss 'N' Boots, begins at 7 tonight and Saturday, June 8, with 2 o'clock weekend matinees June 8 and 9, at the PCC Proscenium Theater, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Tickets are $8 at the door, $5 for children and seniors. There is no reserved seating, so early arrival is recommended. Call 325-0463 for information and group discounts for 10 or more. Saturday 8 BLUE MOON BASH. "We call it the Blue Moon Bash because it's just something we do every now and then," says TMA event coordinator Laurie Swanson of tonight's not-so-regularly scheduled fundraising event. She emphasizes that it's a good opportunity for people who've never been to the museum, or who rarely go--"people who might be intimidated." The only stuffed shirts in the Plaza of the Pioneers tonight will be those of the revelers themselves, filling up on hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and the like, with beer, wine and soft drinks available. Live music continues well past the midnight hour with The Blue Lizards and The Molly's alternating 45-minute sets on two outdoor stages. Shhh, don't tell the neighbors. And to top it all off, the museum will be open until 10 p.m. at no additional cost. The Once In A Blue Moon Bash, the second annual Tucson Museum of Art block party, starts at 7 p.m. in the TMA courtyard, located at Main Avenue and Alameda Street across from City Hall. Tickets are $6 at the door. Call 624-2333 for information. LOW Y COOL. Independent French filmmaker Marianne Dissard has been reeling, literally, ever since her arrival in this dusty corner of the universe. Dissard, who's fresh from the fray of Drunken Bees, a documentary of local desert rockers Giant Sand, is now peddling a project on lowrider bikes. Co-produced with Tucson's own activist video producers Pan Left Productions, this second documentary chronicles the adventures of the local lowrider bike club Camaradas. Count yourself among the first to discover Low y Cool at an avant-premiere screening at 7:30 p.m. at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Event includes the 15-minute trailer/demo tape footage, bike raffle, demonstrations and an intriguing glimpse into counter-culture on wheels. Admission is a $3 donation at the door. Call 622-8848 for information. Sunday 9 THE LOW DOWN. If last night's Low y Cool whetted your appetite for more bipedal adventures, spin your wheels at the Camaradas-sponsored Tucson Mega Lowrider Show from noon to 8 p.m. in the TCC Exhibition Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Call 791-4266 for information. Part exhibition and part demonstration, this first-time experience is sure to propel you headlong into sights unseen. Throw your name in the hat for an award-winning lowriding cruiser bike, t-shirts, autographed CDs from Howe Gelb and more. Tickets are $10.75 adults, $5.75 for children ages 8 to 11 on the day of the show. Call 791-4266 for information. Monday 10 GRAND ADVENTURE. If you have your heart set on kayaking on your own through the newly revitalized Grand Canyon, better put your name on that two-year waiting list. Those pristine beaches, ancient rock art remains and running waters aren't accessible on short notice. But there at a stone's throw is The Dive Shop, 1702 E. Prince Road, where the next best thing awaits: Meg Weesner presents Kayaking The Grand Canyon, slides and tales of adventure from her recent trip, at 7 p.m. at the monthly meeting of the Paddlers' Club. This is a prime opportunity to get inspired for summer and shore up tips from the experts. Call 544-3720 for club information; or contact The Dive Shop at 326-2424. Tuesday 11 TOUCHING BASE. It's a quiet night everywhere in the Old Pueblo except Reid Park Hi Corbett field, where the Tucson Toros head into the penultimate round of a four-game series against the Edmonton Trappers. Root for the home team when the first pitch flies at 7:30 p.m. Tonight, oh lucky eaters-of-the-dog, is 25-cent hot-dog night. "Usually it's Wednesday," said a Toros spokesperson, "but we moved it because the chicken is on Wednesday." Twenty-five-cent chicken? we ask innocently. "No, The Chicken's a person." The chicken's a person? "You've never seen The Chicken? The Chicken came first, you know." Before the egg? "No, before the bull." If any of this conversation makes sense to you, you're definitely a Toros fan. Tickets are the usual $3 to $6 at the gate, and include nine innings, the Dizzy Izzy bat race, the Dash for Cash, a chance to chase Tuffy Toro through the bleachers and free public gawking at the half-naked fans watching the game poolside from the new dugout spa. As our Toros friend said, "This is a happenin' place." Call 325-2621 for tickets and information. Wednesday 12 CRIME SCENE. When Officer Michael McGarrity sent an unsolicited manuscript to a publisher, he had no idea it would turn out to be a 10-year project. But that it did, and now McGarrity, who already has two more works in progress, has plans to retire from his distinguished career as an investigator for the Public Defender's office and founder of the sex crimes unit of the Santa Fe Sheriff's Department to devote himself full-time to writing detective novels. His debut novel, Tularosa, is a gritty, Southwestern tale about a retired policeman who sets out to find his former partner's son, who's disappeared from the White Sands missile site somewhere in the New Mexican desert. The plot, of course, thickens. Indulge in some summer reading and meet author McGarrity at a signing from 5 to 7 p.m. at Clues Unlimited, 123 S. Eastbourne, in the Broadway Village center. Call 326-8533 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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