Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Thursday 8 ENDANGERED SPECIES. Just like that other desert toad that raises a ruckus during the rainy season, local rockers Atomic Frog make a flying leap onto the Winsett Park stage to headline tonight's Monsoon Madness outdoor showcase. Unlike the desert toad, however, licking the band members does not (as far as we know) have any psychedelic side effects. So you'll know you're not hallucinating when a guy dressed in brightly colored clothing steps up to the mike and introduces himself as Spazz. The local band promises an explosive set of high-energy, retro-alternative rock and roll they like to call "frogadelic." "It's more than just listening to a band," Spazz intones. Space Hardware and Zed open the show at 7 p.m. with original, pop-oriented songs. Monsoon Madness happens every Thursday from 7 to 11 p.m. at Winsett Park, Fourth Avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets. Yeah, it's a big concrete slab with nothing to sit on--that's how they keep the cost down to nothing. Bring your own chair and enjoy the free show. Friday 9 THE PEOPLE WHO DO THAT. We can't begin to predict what might happen if you go see The People Who Do That. You might get a spot on your perfectly normal exterior, win a door prize you'd be embarrassed to take home to your parents, laugh embarrassingly loudly at someone else's misfortune, exceed the two-drink minimum (if there were beverage service, which there no longer is) and/or get lost on your way to the restroom and miss half the show. It's all a big mystery...not to be confused with one of the Big Mysteries. The latter will be tackled by the trained professionals on stage, as they leave the nightclub scene to return to the non-smoking environment of their spawning grounds at a.k.a. Theatre, 125 E. Congress St. The People Who Do That, the Old Pueblo's longest-running sketch comedy troupe (we mean they've been around the longest, not chased out of more places) performs at 8 and 10 p.m. tonight and Saturday, August 10. Tickets are $5 in advance, $7 at the door, with a $2 discount for students. Call 884-1238 or 623-7852 for information. Saturday 10 RESTORING THE SOUTHWEST. In a rare show of foresight, Pima County gave the cows the boot back in the late '70s, thereby giving Cienega Creek, one of the nicest riparian streams close to Tucson, a fighting chance. Dave Hogan, desert rivers program coordinator for the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity, explains: "They've let the grasses come back. They've removed non-native trees, replanting with native ones." That ongoing project, started by Julia Fonseca over at Pima County Flood Control, has been a boon to what was an ailing, endangered creek, and home to numerous imperiled species such as the leopard frog, Gila topminnow, and the Gila chub. But their work is not finished. Volunteers are needed to help re-plant native sacaton grass in a former farm field now included in the preserve. "The purpose of this weekend (work party) is to (further) restore the grassland," says Hogan, "to provide habitat for species like the whiptail and horned lizards, restore the watershed and aid in the overall recovery of Cienega Creek." Help bring a century of grazing and farming abuse to an end with a few short hours of work starting at 7 a.m. today and Sunday, August 11, with the Southwest Center staff and friends. Bring shovels, trowels, buckets and gloves, as well as at least a half-gallon of water per person, and food. Call Dave Hogan at 733-1391 for directions to the work site. WEEKEND JAM. Because all-ages shows aren't really for kids of all ages, and because even if they were, there still wouldn't be enough of them, Youth On Their Own, the Youth Volunteer Corps and Tucson Parks and Recreation have joined forces to form the third annual Jam Zone, a really cool way to blow out the summer with loud music, wide-open spaces to shake your groove thang, and lots and lots of food. From 8 to 11 p.m. at TPR headquarters, 900 S. Randolph Way (just south of Hi Corbett Field), all teens, ages 13 to 19, can hang out hassle-free, show off their cool cars and low-rider bicycles, enter the basketball shoot out, go for a spin on the gravity-defying Aerotrim, win cool stuff and generally revel in being young and out late. Admission and most activities are free. Call 791-5223 for more information. Sunday 11 THE LOWE DOWN. We're certain veteran postal worker and local suspense novelist Jonathan Lowe was using the term lightly when he said he was responding to the admonition to "write what you know" when he created Postmarked for Death, a mystery set in Tucson about a "so-called disgruntled postal clerk." Calvin Beach goes, well, postal and bombs the mail processing equipment at the Tucson Post Office in his own civil war against entitlement programs. Lowe's debut novel has received accolades from fellow fiction writers John Lutz and Clive Cussler, who called it "mystery at its best." Lowe signs copies of Postmarked for Death from 2 to 4 p.m. at Barnes and Noble Bookstore, 5480 E. Broadway. Call 745-9822 for information. Monday 12 TOE JAM. The color of blues seems to have sadly faded with the close of the Rialto Theater downtown; but over at Berky's Bar, 5769 E. Speedway, the blues are right on hue with Toe Jam, one of the longest-standing open jams in the city. Yeah, we know you thought it was just another local band you'd never heard. But it turns out this weekly blues-oriented jam is one of Monday night's best-kept secrets. "It's a complete jam," Berky says, and bar owners never lie. Really, never. It's been going on for two years now, and it just keeps getting better. Come and hear your favorite locals go toe-to-toe: Regulars include the well-dressed Bad Newz Blues players, Sam Taylor, a few of the Blue Lizards, Southwest Boulevard and various others who come out of their band shells for some non-stop, spontaneous musical sparring from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. There's no cover, so head over to this midtown roadhouse tavern and check it out. There's always an open table and a relatively mellow 25- to 40-year-old crowd from all walks of life. What else are you gonna do on a Monday night? Call 296-1981 for information. Tuesday 13 JOKERS WILD. Laffs Comedy Caffé, 2900 E. Broadway, will make you laugh until your summer doldrums do a disappearing act. Comedian and impressionist T.A. Burrows joins magician and illusionist Bill McCrea to present Jokers Wild, the first installment in a budding series of comedy/magic shows coming your way this fall. Burrows, a hot number at The Improv, Catch-A-Rising Star, The Aladdin Hotel and The Comic Strip, has more mugs than a Seattle city block; and McCrea, also a seasoned performer at The Aladdin, Caesar's Palace and the opening act for HBO comedian D.L. Hughley, needs no introduction to local fans of the fantastic. Check out the tricks of the trade when the curtain rises at 7 p.m. Tickets are $6 in advance, $7.50 at the door. Call 323-8669 or 881-3676 for tickets and information. Wednesday 14 ART CANVASS. Like all intelligent desert life, the Galvez Gallery has been keeping a low profile this summer. But there's nothing low-profile about their summer show New Arrivals, paintings and mixed-media pieces by nationally recognized Chicano and Chicana artists from Los Angeles. Along with the new faces, the gallery reintroduces local favorites Christina Cardenas, Leo Limon, Joseph Maruska and Tony de Carlo, with works ranging from small paintings to serigraphs and mixed-media pieces. New Arrivals continues through September 7 at José Galvez Gallery, next to Epic Café on the corner of Fourth Avenue and University Boulevard. Summer gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m. Downtown Saturday Night or by appointment. Call 624-6878 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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