Tucson Weekly: Cheap Thrills (September 18

Cheap Thrills HERE TODAY, GONE TAMALE: It's time to chomp tasty corn wonders and help celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, as the third-annual Tamale Fiesta gets underway. Benefiting the UA Hispanic Alumni Scholarship Fund, the free festival kicks off from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, September 19, with steaming green corn tamales dished up for lunch. But the real action happens from 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday, September 20, when the chowfest will include demonstrations for kids, colorful costumes, and a rich roster of performers. Mariachi Los Gallos, Ballet Folklorico's Del Sudoeste, and Amphi High School's El Sol De Mexico will set the stage for a major dance party featuring Los Solidades.
Event will be on the plaza of the Main Library, 101 N. Stone Ave. Call 629-9536 for details.
And on Thursday, Nicaragua Arte y Cultura opens their ongoing Cine Latino Festival with Danzon, a seductive film from Mexico that explores the feminine soul, and I Don't Want to Talk About It, a drama blending fairy tale, allegory, magic realism and black comedy.
Both films runs through Sunday, September 21, in The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St. Show times vary. Tickets are $4, $3 for matinees, or $16 for festival pass. Call 622-2262 for information.
On Saturday, the Tucson Arts District likewise roars to life with the Festival Latino Americano. This extravaganza will feature vibrant sounds from almost every Latin country on the map. The Caribe Latino dance troupe will perform salsa and meringue, while the high-steppers of Nicaragua Arte y Cultura will display traditional dances, accompanied by accordion and guitar music.
Also included are Panamanian Folklorico, the Columbian Dance Troupe, the Azalea Trio, and Tucson favorite Bwiya Toli. Performances run from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Ronstadt Transit Center and Arizona Alley.
Not missing a beat, on Saturday the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association will present another Tucson Musician's Showcase, featuring Sonny Peters and the Tipicã Adelante Salsa Band from 7 to 10 p.m. in Winsett Park, 316 N. Fourth Ave. For details, call 624-9977.
SUBTERRANEAN RED: William K. Hartmann is a world-renowned scientist who happens to call Tucson home. He's also a participant in the U.S. Global Surveyor mission to Mars, co-investigator of a Russian Mars mission, and now a crack interplanetary novelist. His new work, Mars Underground, claims to answer a few of those niggling little questions raised by the recent discovery of life on the Red Planet.
Life on Mars, you ask?
Come find out, when Hartmann discusses and signs copies of Mars Underground from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, September 18, at The Book Mark, 5001 E. Speedway. Call 881-6350 for information.
SOLAR SOJOURN: The UA Environmental Research Lab lets you get your hands on fast-breaking technology with their Solar and Renewable Resource Adventure Day. Geared to both kids and adults, the presentations will range from alternative building materials and new products based on solar and other renewable resources, to electric- and compressed gas-powered vehicles and organic vegetable gardening. Pliny Fisk, co-founder of the internationally acclaimed Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, will also be on hand to discuss sustainable planning and building practices.
If that sounds like a cutting-edge plateful, it is. It also accentuates the lab's continuing preeminence as a southwestern hotbed of environmental innovation.
Free event runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the ERL, 2601 E. Airport Drive. For information, call 741-1990.

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