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 Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday Thursday 5
PERFECT PAST. Ever have a Rockwell moment? You know, the one where kindly old granny shuffles over to serve you tea before a crackling fire, your cocker spaniel curled contentedly around your feet, and the rich aroma of fine stew wafting from the kitchen? Neither have we.
He portrays Rockwell chatting up an audience in his Stockbridge, Massachusetts studio, and recalling his start with the Saturday Evening Post, among other nostalgic vignettes. A Visit plays at 7:30 tonight, and at 2 and 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Tucson Center for the Performing Arts, 408 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $15, $13 for seniors, and are available by calling 622-2823. VISUAL TREK. Pull on those Rockports and head downtown for another Thursday night Art Walk. This week's hike will take in the work of Jim Waid, described as a "neon jungle lighted by fireflies and bioluminescent fungi," on display through January 19. The Arizona Repertory Singers will provide a musical backdrop to tonight's tour, which runs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the museum, 140 N. Main Ave. Call 624-9977 for information.
Friday 6
This version is adapted by Lyn Stevens, and directed and scored by Emil Lamanda. The hall will be decked in Christmas cheer for the dinner theater event, with carolers also on hand. Dinnertime is at 6 p.m., with curtain times at 7:30 tonight, tomorrow night, and December 12 through 14, at 2700 E. Speedway. Tickets are $17.50 for the dinner theater, $10 for performance only, available by calling 721-9640. SIX EASY PIECES. "There ain't no cure for my blues today, except when the paper says Beausoleil is coming into town," sang Mary Chapin Carpenter in "Twist and Shout." Well, that's what we're saying too: Now's the time to twist right on up outta your own doldrums as Beausoleil, what Garrison Keillor calls "the best Cajun band in the world," visits the Southwest Center for Music. Featuring Michael Doucet on lead vocals and fiddle, six-member Beausoleil embodies the infectious Louisiana passion for life, and a rhythm that simply makes all-too-hip bystanding out of the question. Doucet sums it up thusly: "To me, Cajun music really is the heart of our culture. It's not the stomach--we know that's the food. It's music that's the heart. Everybody sings their own way down here, and that's what keeps us going." Not to say exotic gastronomy is completely ignored--Chef Tommy DiMaggio will be serving up chow spicy enough to raise your dander, including Big Easy staples like chicken and sausage gumbo. And you can brush up on your own steps with Cajun dance lessons beginning at 7 p.m. Beausoleil performs at 8 p.m. at the Southwest Center for Music, 2175 N. Sixth Ave. Past performances have sold out, so reserve your spot early. Advance tickets are $18, available at Antigone Books, Hear's Music, Loco Music and Video, and Zip's Music and Video, or by calling 881-3947. Tickets will be $20 at the door and KXCI members can receive a discount at the radio station, 220 S. Fourth Ave. For general information, call 881-3947. TIMELESS TOMES. The Arizona Historical Society hosts its 21st annual Holiday Book Fair, providing an opportunity to jaw with the writers whose works will be up for grabs, along with books for kids--and all for 20 percent below publishers' prices. Titles on sale will include Bernard L. Fontana's Before Rebellion, Gregory McNamee's A Desert Bestiary and Named in Stone and Sky, and Tom Sheridan and Nancy Parezo's Paths of Life: American Indians of the Southwest and Northern Mexico. All proceeds benefit the society's publications division. The sale runs from 5 to 7 p.m. at AHS headquarters, 949 E. Second St. For details, call 628-5775.
Saturday 7
But the boy is nothing if not a trooper, and he keeps their spirits propped up by describing what a kick begging food from town to town really is. Enter one massive star illuminating three mounted royals, and you have the story of Christmas in Giancarlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera to hit TV when it appeared in 1951, and now presented at the PCC Center for the Arts. This revival performance includes the PCC Chorale, Tucson High School Troubadours and Cholla High School Singers as the shepherds' chorus. Amahl opens at 7 tonight and shows tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Tickets are $8, $4 for students, $5 for seniors, and are available at Hear's Music, Antigone Books, Jeff's Classical Records, and the PCC West Campus student center. For information, call 884-6988. BENEATH THE NAILS. Quentin Branch simply loves dirt. As a kid he rollicked in his family's Bremerton, Washington, vegetable patch; as a young adult he tapped it to raise organic produce in St. David. In the next logical step, he learned that humble soil can also be used to build energy efficient and extremely durable shelters. Twenty years later, Branch has helped create more than 200 rammed earth homes that keep their residents wonderfully cool in the summer and cozy in the winter. Now the Meliora Architectural Gallery is displaying a photographic exhibit of Branch's work, along with representations of finished homes and the rammed earth building process. The exhibit runs through January, with an opening reception from 7 to 10 tonight. Regular hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Meliora Architectural Gallery is at 178 E. Broadway. For information, call 792-9544. YULETIDE TOTS. The Tucson Symphony Orchestra's Brass Quintet presents December Around the World, billed as "just for kids." Tykes in the audience will be busy dancing, singing and making music with the band, as they celebrate Hanukkah, La Posada, Christmas, Kwanzaa and a host of other seasonal delights. Students from St. Cyril School will also perform on classics like "O Christmas Tree" and "Good King Wenceslas." The free performances are at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. For information, call 792-9155.
Sunday 8
Solarium Restaurant will cater the chow, a gourmet spread of spinach soup, game hen with bread and sausage stuffing and rum cake, among other offerings. The feast begins at 6:30 p.m. on the Green Fields campus, 6000 N. Camino de la Tierra. Tickets are $24 per person, and they are limited, so get yours early. For information, call 297-2288. SPEAK, SILENCE. You're invited to take off the personal lens cap and peek inside, at the Center for Creative Photography's Talking Pictures: People Speak about the Photographs that Speak to Them exhibit. Curators Marvin Heiferman and Carole Kismaric asked 54 prominent people of our times to pick the picture that "has seduced, inspired, taught, frightened, amused, offended, obsessed, informed or provoked you." And the result is stunning, from family snapshots to devastating portraits of the Holocaust, each accompanied by commentaries. The exhibit runs through February 16 at the center, south of the pedestrian underpass on Speedway, east of Park Avenue. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call 621-7968 for information.
Monday 9
CREATIVE SPACE. Science and art enjoy multi-disciplinary union with Tohono Chul Park's Views of the Universe exhibit. Daniel D. Durda, James V. Scotti and William K. Hartmann--all members of Tucson's scientific community--flesh out that commingling through fantastic planetary landscapes, uncommon views of space, and asteroids up close and personal. The exhibit continues through February 2 in Tohono Chul Park's Main Gallery, 7366 N. Paseo del Norte. Hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, with a requested $2 donation. DYNAMIC DUO. The UA School of Music and Dance presents Jeffrey Showell on viola and Paula Fan on piano as part of its Faculty Artist Series. The pair will perform "Sonata No. 1 for Viola and Piano" by Martinu, "Fantasy for Viola and Piano" by Jacoby, and other selections. Performance begins at 8 p.m. in UA Crowder Hall, in the Fine Arts Complex on Speedway east of Park Avenue. Tickets are $10, $8 for faculty and staff, and $5 for seniors and students. Call 621-2998 for information.
Tuesday 10
ORIGAMI SWAMI. Make groovy gifts, ornaments, or just a little old origami original for yourself in this class taught by "M" Craig at the River Center Library. She'll demonstrate folding techniques, and assist learners with their own projects. And just what, you ask, is origami anyway? Well, noodle soup it ain't. Origami is the timeless Japanese art of folding paper into decorative or representative forms such as animals or flowers. The class begins at 6 p.m. at the library, 5605 E. River Road. Reservations are required; call 791-4979. PUNCTURED PRETENSIONS. Jeff Leedy's art is a "sharp-witted view of the crazy, funny, weird experience we call life," says Bernice Singleton of the Art Company. Even if your existence is mundane, boring and bleak, you'll probably still relate to Leedy's whimsy, on display at the gallery, 3400 E. Speedway, through December 30. There will be an opening reception for the artist from 4 to 8 tonight. Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For information, call 881-1311.
Wednesday 11
Written by Max Branscomb and directed by Chris Wilken, this drama takes a chuckling look at her pending bouts with temptation, distraction and downright moral peril, all within the ancient pastorela art form. Piñata parties follow each performance. In fact, more than 2,500 unique versions of the shepherds' journey to witness the birth of Christ are annually produced in Mexico, with nearly every city or village boasting its own particular take on the world-shaking event. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday through December 21, with select 2 o'clock weekend matinees. Performances are at the PCC Center for the Arts Black Box Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Tickets are available at Antigone Books, Jeff's Classical Records and the PCC West Campus cashier's office. Call 884-6988 for reservations and 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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For the Americana deprived, actor Dennis Seibel revives those
idealized glory days with A Christmas Visit With Norman Rockwell.
Seibel has exclusive rights to play the late, witty illustrator,
and comes to Tucson as part of a national tour.
HUMBUGGERY. Just when you were hoping little Timmy would
hobble on home and leave old Scrooge to the bitter ravages of
senility, Dickens' A Christmas Carol reappears in the
Old Pueblo, performed by the Catalina Players.
GOOD TIMING. Amahl is a crippled shepherd kid who shares
a smallish, mid-eastern shack with his mum, both teetering along
the gaping maw of starvation.
MEDIEVAL GRUB. Green Fields Country Day School hosts its
eighth annual Madrigal Christmas Feast. Noted as "a beloved
Green Fields tradition," the gathering promises a great night
of fine food, holiday tunes and medieval entertainment including
jugglers, drama and bagpipes, with all performances by students.
LATINA LITE. Finally, one hot enchilada of a