City Week
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Thursday 16

LEGENDARY LIE. Leon Russell sparked his reign as rock's gravel-voiced veteran by lying about his age. The fib got him into Tulsa's nightclubs, and by age 17 he was in L.A., where he became a member of Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" sessions brigade.

City Week From there, the distinctively white-maned singer went on to record a string of classic albums, ranging from Leon Russell and the Shelter People and Leon Live to Carney. But his legendary status also came from working with a roster of folks including the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Bob Dylan.

In 1973, Russell first invoked the spirit of his "alter-ego," Hank Wilson, with the recording Hank Wilson's Back and its critically acclaimed 1984 follow-up, Hank Wilson, Volume II.

Now Leon/Hank rolls into Tucson's Rialto Theatre hot on the heels of Legend in My Time: Hank Wilson, Volume III. The tremendous CD features country classics like "Sweet Dreams," "Sixteen Tons" and "Daddy Sang Bass." Russell says he chose such standards "because, at a certain point, these songs became a part of history."

Show time is 8 p.m. in the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. Advance tickets are $10, available at Hear's Music, Yikes Toy Store and Guitars, Etc. Tickets are $12 at the door. For details, call 740-0126.

BARNEY BLARNEY. That purple pillow called Barney gets a run for his prehistoric money today. Dinosaur dynamo Rob Meyer visits the Tucson Children's Museum with his own robotic recreations of large critters roaming the earth before the advent of polystyrene. Arts and crafts activities will accompany his display.

Presentation runs from 1 to 4 p.m. at the TCM, 200 S. Sixth Ave. Admission is $5, $4 for seniors, $3 for kids. For details, call 792-9985.

Friday 17

PLANETARY PARTNERS. Was your last boy from Eloy, your last gal from Globe? Now's the chance to widen your intergalactic horizons--via plenty of yuks--in Michael Najarian's Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus--Life on Earth.

Najarian's hilarious performances are based on John Gray's mega-successful book, and they inundate audiences with humor and insight about Martians and Venutians. Through this entertaining look at modern relationships, couples and singles can "learn the secrets of great communication, romance and lasting passion."

Tomorrow, Najarian will follow up with a separate, day-long workshop at Westin La Paloma entitled the Mars/Venus Experience.

Tonight's performance is at 7:30 p.m. in the Westin La Paloma, 3800 E. Sunrise Drive. Tickets for the performance only are $31. For tickets and workshop information, call 1-888-MARSVENUS.

MAKE TRACKS. Lope on down to the southside, where everything from simulcast horse racing to live human wrasslin' happens every week at Tucson Greyhound Park.

This funky track with the castle out front has long been big with Tucson old-timers and other guys who smoke Swisher Sweets. But now there's fun for the whole family--as long as Skip and Buffy can play the odds. Live greyhound racing happens at 7:30 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, with matinee racing at 2 p.m. Saturday. Simulcast horse racing begins daily at 11:30 a.m. From 6 to 7 p.m. on Friday, the park offers happy hour with free admission, $1 drafts and free snacks. And at 5:30 p.m. Friday, July 24, a human juggernaut of bottled anger lets loose with "Rage in the Ring" wrestling.

Tucson Greyhound Park is at 2601 S. Third Ave. Admission is $1.25, free for kids under age 12. Seniors get in for free during Saturday matinees. For details, call 884-7576.

HOW SWEET IT IS. The tinkle of fine glassware, sophisticated chatter, the sensual rollicking of spirited jazz. You pause to puff your Gitáne. Where are we, you ponder. Paris? Rome? Milan?

Yeah, right.

Actually, we're smack dab in the old Baked Apple, at another Fourth Avenue happy hour complete with cheap drinks, chow specials and prime lip-flappin'. Specifically, we're talking about Café Sweetwater--the kinda place where the ferns come and go, but good wine, great dining and good conversation flow eternally.

Tonight also marks another outing by the recently revamped Larry Redhouse Quartet. And the name is apropos: This tight, contemporary jazz band features a small army of Redhouses, with Larry on keyboards, Lenny on drums and Mary on bass. Jesse Tovar rounds out the sound on saxophone.

Happy hour runs from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. The Larry Redhouse Quartet plays from 9 p.m. to
1 a.m. Friday in the Café Sweetwater, 340 E. Sixth St. There's no cover charge. For details, call 622-6464.

Saturday 18

LYRICAL LOVE. After a long break, Benjamin Audia is back on the literary scene. You may remember him from the '80s, when he published several philosophical and transformational papers in Eugene and Portland, Ore., and contributed paintings to the SciFi/Fantasy exhibition in Eugene. Then again, you may not.

Either way, this erstwhile carpenter, tile-layer and potter is known to turn out some fine verse when the muse comes a-calling. Celebrating that reprise, the Make a Date With a Poet series hosts tonight's free appearance at 7 p.m. in The Book Mark, 5001 E. Speedway. An open reading will follow. For information, call 881-5180.

DIGGER FOR A DAY. Learn your way around a trowel's business-end at one of the Old Pueblo Archaeological Center's amateur digs in Sabino Canyon. Professional archaeologists will teach you how to identify and excavate prehistoric architectural ruins; to clean, catalogue and label ancient artifacts; how to make scientific interpretations; and just get a little dirt under your nails.

Between A.D. 1000 and 1350, the Sabino site was a vibrant village of Hohokam Indians, considered probable ancestors of the modern Pima and Tohono O'odham peoples. Already, the OPAC's work has uncovered thousands of artifacts, from pottery, stone and bone to seashells. And they've unearthed prehistoric pit houses, ancient canals, even a dog burial.

Amateur digs are by pre-registration only, and meet Saturdays. Cost is $50 for two days, with lunch included. Call 798-1201 for reservations, directions and other details.

Sunday 19

SCALES OF SUMMER. The Tucson Jazz Society continues its summer series of great Sunday jams at the Cottonwood Café. These informal affairs provide jazz heads of all stripes--from contemporary and avant-garde to bebop and Dixieland--with a chance to rub shoulders and escape the sweltering skies.

Tonight's jam will feature the smooth, saxophone-laced sounds of Jesse Tovar and his band. They'll perform the first and last sets. The other sets will be open jams, with all musicians invited to join in.

Event runs from 7 to 11 p.m. in the Cottonwood Club, 60 N. Alvernon Way. Admission is $4, $2 for TJS members, and free for musicians who come to play. Call 743-3399 for details.

FELINE ATTRACTIONS. The Live Theatre Workshop folks focus their creative gaze on house pets in funky footwear, as they present Bruce Bieski's classic fairy tale, Puss 'N' Boots, part of the ongoing Sunday Afternoon Theatre for Children series. Each installment features the troupe's talented regulars in timeless adaptations.

Puss 'N' Boots leaps onto the boards at 1 p.m. Sundays through August 30, in the Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway. Admission is $5. For information, call 327-4242.

TED ONSCREEN. Master marketer--and highly talented artist--Ted DeGrazia had another side, revealed in a string of short movies he made over several decades. Now the DeGrazia Gallery in the Sun makes the most of the these fascinating vintage works with a summer film series.

This week's offerings are collectively titled DeGrazia in the Superstition Mountains. They feature "Elisha M. Reavis--Madman of the Superstitions," "The Lucky Buck Shaft," and "Superstition Mountains, Fiction and Fact."

Admission to the screenings and ongoing gallery exhibits is free. Gallery in the Sun is located at 6300 N. Swan Road. Due to the series' overwhelming popularity and the gallery's limited space, reservations are required. For details, call 299-9191.

Monday 20

BUCKING FATE. It's a tragic, all-too-common scenario: A prehistoric pueblo is ravaged by scavengers, greedily rounding up artifacts to make a quick buck. Such was the case at Old Town, a site nestled along the lower Mimbres River near Silver City, N.M., where fine black-on-white Mimbres pottery regularly disappeared before researchers could study it.

Luckily, archaeologists are now getting a chance to investigate the site and recover valuable information about the pots' makers.

Sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Dr. Darrell Creel, of the University of Texas at Austin, has been involved in that recovery. His work reveals the site to be even larger and more complex than formerly thought, and to include stunning examples of coursed adobe masonry. And in case you were wondering, Creel's research also shows that most Mimbres pottery was not made at Old Town.

Creel will discuss his work in Investigating an Old Mimbres Town: Excavations at the Old Town Site Near Silver City, New Mexico, a free lecture sponsored by the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society, at 7:30 p.m. in the UMC DuVal Auditorium, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. For details, call 298-5167.

Tuesday 21

TERMINAL TICKETS. Summer screens are awash with big rocks hurtling toward us at startling speeds from God knows where. All of which raises the query: Are we truly doomed to perish under a cascade of intergalactic rubble?

To clarify this spatial conundrum, the UA Flandrau Science Center and planetary astronomer/comet chaser James Scotti have placed a display called Comets and Asteroids--A Threat to Earth in the lobby of the Century Park 16 theater, 1055 W. Grant Road.

Scotti's painting, Callisto Crater Chains, will be featured. It depicts the effects created by the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet when it crashed into Jupiter in 1994. The display also discusses the actual odds for astral disaster, describing the likelihood and effects of an impact within the next 100 years. Included are images of comets and asteroids in flight, plus photos of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 crash.

In addition, a Century Park ticket stub from either Armageddon or Deep Impact will get you one free admission to the Flandrau Science Center with every paid admission, and a 10 percent discount in the center's gift shop. Regular center admission is $5, $4.50 for seniors, students, military, UA faculty and staff, $4 for children ages 3 to 12. The center is on campus at Cherry Avenue and University Boulevard, and features ongoing exhibits and planetarium light shows. For more information, call 621-7827.

Wednesday 22

FRAGILE VISIONS. Philabaum Contemporary Art Glass continues its fine summer roster with Esprit de Corps, an exhibit featuring members of the Glass Artists of Tucson. This show is held in conjunction with an exhibit by master blower Tom Philabaum, winner of the 1998 Governor's Artist of the Year award.

The exhibit also includes work by Tucson talents Steve Hansen, Roger Dale, Dan Enwright, Matt Gagliardi and Louis Via.

This delicate display continues through August 15 in Philabaum Contemporary Art Glass, 711 S. Sixth Ave. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For information, call 884-7404.

COTTON TO THIS. To mark its place as a rising musical outpost, the Cottonwood Café is hosting The Cottonwood Masters of Swing from 8:30 p.m. to midnight every Wednesday. Led by acclaimed bassist Ed Friedland, the band also includes a bevy of local players--trombonist Tom Ervin, pianist Jeff Haskell, saxophonist Mike Kuhn, and drummer Fred Hayes. With vocals by Friedland, the band tips its hat to faithful standards and jump blues.

From 8:30 p.m. to midnight on Thursday, the café features Ed Friedland's New School. This quintet plays contemporary jazz with Friedland on electric bass, Greg Armstrong on saxophone, Rob Boone on keyboards, Ed Delucia on guitar, and Robin Horn on drums.

Admission is $3. The Cottonwood Café is at 60 N. Alvernon Way. For details, call 326-6000. TW


City Week includes events selected by Calendar Editor Tim Vanderpool. 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. To have material considered, please send complete information at least 11 days prior to the Thursday issue date to: Tucson Weekly, P.O. Box 2429, Tucson, Arizona 85702, or fax information to 792-2096, or email us at listings@tucsonweekly.com.


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