August 17 - August 23, 1995
Thursday 17
BULLY PULPIT. Yes, that sad day is upon us--the Tucson
Toros are playing their final games of the regular season. The
good news is the Toros have remained atop the Pacific Coast League
during the second half of the season, so we may have a chance
to see them again during post-season play. Given the Toros' victorious
PCL championships in '91 and '93, it only makes sense that they'll
take it all this year, too. Get out to meet these future champs
before they become legends. The Toros wrap up their series against
the Las Vegas Stars tonight and tomorrow, then take on the Albuquerque
Dukes Saturday through Tuesday. All games start at 7:30 p.m.
at Hi Corbett Field in Reid Park. Tickets range from $3 to $5.
For more information call 325-2621.
Friday 18
UNFINISHED BUSINESS. Poet/performance artist Dennis Williams
closes chapter four of his on-going work Big Time, Big Self
with a "one-man band half-time show" called "Unfinished
Business," the continuation of last week's "Double Image"
performance. Williams' musical interlude features washtub and
cookie-can foot drums, a "five-gallon homemade steel guitar
played with a bottle neck," harmonica, accordion and piple
(the lesser-known of Mexican mariachi instruments). His original
songs include stories about his grandfather's funeral and "a
relationship with a victim." "I don't know how you make
a humorous spectacle of a serious song, but that's what I usually
do," he says.
Additionally, new and returning audience members will continue
to work on the community mural started last Wednesday, which incorporates
holy drawings (as in, poked full of holes) and torn rags. "It's
impossible to describe," Williams tells us sympathetically.
So we implore you--go experience this for yourself. "That's
what performance art is all about--telling each other stories."
The beginning of the end starts at 9 p.m. at Café Luna
Loca (formerly the D.P.C. Café), 546 N. Stone Ave. Admission
is by donation at the door. Call 882-4488 for information.
HORSEPLAY IN THE HOUSE. Steer yourself over to the Tucson
Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave., tonight through Sunday
for a taste of cowboy fun at this summer's Desert Thunder pro-rodeo
championships. This first-time indoor Professional Rodeo Cowboys
Association-sanctioned hoo-ha will feature five-time world champion
calf roper Joe Beaver, three-time world champion bareback rider
Marvin Garrett and top barrel racer Sherry Potter-Cervi, from
Marana, among an estimated 350 top competitors on the pro-rodeo
circuit. Kids ages 4 to 6 will compete in a "Mutton Bustin'
Championship" at 7 o'clock tonight and Saturday, with the
rodeo proper cranking up at 7:30 p.m. Rodeo hours on Sunday are
3:30 p.m. Mutton Bustin', 4 p.m. rodeo start.
Tickets range from $9.50 to $17.50, available at Dillard's and
the TCC box office. To order by phone call (800) 638-4253. For
information on rodeo events call 795-5277.
Saturday 19
MONSOON MADNESS. The rains may not have come through for
us this summer, but there's a storm of activity over at Rillito
Park Race Track with the seventh-annual Monsoon Madness benefit
auction for the Tucson Centers for Women and Children. The event
features two live and three silent auctions, all in the comfort
of the second-floor clubhouse. Guest auctioneers Jimmy Stewart
(you got it, the weatherman from Channel 4 and Mix F.M.), political
cartoonist Dave Fitzsimmons and charismatic D.J. Alan Michaels
will warm up the crowd with silly celeb tricks before pro auctioneer
George Birger gets down to some serious fast-talking.
"People have been so generous," says event coordinator
Norma MacKenzie. She's not kidding. Auction items include a spa,
round-trip airfare for a weekend getaway, an evaporative cooler,
cellular phones, an original print by Fitz, tickets to Phantom
of the Opera, an ornamental steel security door, a handmade
dollhouse (complete with furniture and swimming pool), and a slew
of restaurant, theater and fitness certificates. "This concrete
plant even told us we could have 'anything we could carry,' "
says MacKenzie, who has yet to determine what that might be. The
center has amassed more than 500 gifts, and the donations are
still pouring in.
Auction opens at 6:30 p.m. and continues "until the madness
ends." Tickets are $12.50, available in advance by calling
795-8001. Proceeds benefit TCWC's ongoing shelter and support
services for women and children who are victims of domestic violence.
DOWNTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT. Don't let the summer heat beat
you into submission. Party with the Naked Pueblo at an Arts District
birthday bash to ring in Tucson's 220th year. The Viva Tucson
Caliente Festival leads off from 7 to 10 p.m. on Pennington
Street between Sixth and Scott avenues, with food booths from
area restaurants and hot salsa by Rafael Moreno & Descarga's
energized, eight-piece dance band. Performances at the Ronstadt
Transit Center, Sixth Avenue and Congress Street, include "multi-ethnic
folk music" by Chubasco from 7 to 10 p.m. and live music
and modern dance improvisation by Bob Steigert and John McNamara
at 8 p.m. Dance in the streets to blues rock by Jonquill from
7 to 10 p.m. on Scott Avenue between Congress and Pennington streets;
or ambush the Tragidiots between 8 and 10 p.m. in the Arizona
Alley, south of Congress Street.
For information on the Arts District and Downtown Saturday Night
events, call 624-9977.
Sunday 20
EB FLOWS. Eb Eberlein celebrates the release of his first
CD, Voice in the Wilderness, with a live performance at
7 p.m. at the Southwest Center for Music, 2175 N. Sixth Ave. Who
would've thunk it--a good ol' American folksinger with a voice
oddly reminiscent of Lou Reed. Musically, it's a comparison full
of holes: Far from the Velvet Underground's dark, claustrophobic
auditory hallucinations, Eb Eberlein's poetic lyrics resound of
wide-open spaces, canyon walls and crackling campfires. Proficient
strumming on acoustic guitar, the hollow wail of harmonica and
some off-beat sounds from the dobro have won us over with upbeat
tracks like "Raven on the Red Wall," "Long Road
Home" and "Get You A Stream." This is a guaranteed
good time for anyone who's ever had the urge to jump a box car
leaving the station.
Admission is $4, $3 for KXCI, TFTM and TKMA members. Call 884-1220
for information.
Monday 21
RURAL ART EXHIBIT. If you're looking for the Rural Arts
Traveling Exhibit, you missed it. But as a consolation prize,
the Tucson Pima Arts Council, that diligent local arts organization
committed to inundating the pueblo with public art projects, hosts
its first Rural Arts Exhibit in-house at the Community Gallery,
240 N. Stone Ave. The show they've put together has 94 pieces
in all, more than twice as large as the traveling exhibit, with
a wide assortment of western and southwestern canvases. Although
the cowboys-and-Indians shtick is sure to please a large segment
of gallery browsers, the show also polishes a few gems for more
contemporary tastes: like "Sunset Pizza," a surreal
desert landscape by Mary Lou Ray-Greer framed in unfinished, weathered
wood; a series of thickly-painted toreros by Bruno Valdez;
and "Aztec Calendar," wood sculpture by Louis Colucci.
And who knows what else they've made room for since our last visit.
Regular gallery hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through
Friday. Call 624-0595 for information.
Tuesday 22
HIDING IN THE LOFT. The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway,
is everything a movie theater should be: spacious, avant garde
and locally owned. What better venue for screening the latest
Roman Polanski film, directed by Cinema Paradiso's Giuseppe
Tornatore? This metaphysical murder mystery stars Gerard Depardieu
as an unlikely murder suspect with nothing to connect him to the
murder but his strange behavior. Roman Polanski plays the plodding,
even-minded inspector determined to ferret out the truth--which
will surprise everyone. A Pure Formality (PG-13) is in
French with English subtitles. Ticket prices are $5.50, $3.50
for children, seniors and students with ID. All shows before 5
p.m. are $3.75. Call 795-7777 for information.
Wednesday 23
VALLEY OF THE MOON. Tonight may be your last chance this
summer to idly wander the pathways of the George Phar Legler Society's
Valley of the Moon, "the magical land built of rock and imagination."
Nestled into the residential neighborhood north of Prince Road
and east of Tucson Boulevard, this Arizona historic site and fantasy
park has been a Tucson treasure for decades with its caves, pools
and gardens painting the backdrop for the adventures of kids of
all ages. The Valley of the Moon, 2544 E. Allen Road, is open
for a final "Moon Stroll" from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission
is free, though donations are gladly accepted. Call 323-1331 for
information.
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August 17 - August 23, 1995