Eight cool things to do in Tucson this weekend (Aug. 25-Aug. 27)
- Updated
Many big events to choose from this weekend.
- Updated
Jackson Pollock was an American artist and a dominating figure in the abstract expressionist movement.
So it makes sense that Tucson's own Museum of Contemporary Art would screen a biopic revolving around the legendary drip painter.
The 2000 film was directed by Ed Harris, who also starred as Pollock.
The film will screen on the COX Plaza at MOCA, 265 S. Church Ave.
Bella's Gelato food truck will be on-hand providing the sweets.
The movie runs from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
More information can be found on the Facebook event page.
- Updated
The Arizona Daily Star's own sports columnist Greg Hansen will be in the running for Tucson's best speller at the Sixth annual Celebrity Spelling Bee at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. downtown this Friday.
Proceeds from the event go toward classroom grants from the Educational Enrichment Foundation for supplies, projects and equipment.
The event begins at 7 p.m. and admission is $5-$20 through the Rialto box office, 740-1000.
Among the participants, as per the Rialto website:
AMBER ADIL, Angel Charity for Children
STEPHANIE BALZER, The Drawing Studio
RANDI DORMAN, R+R Develop
STEVE FARLEY, Arizona State Senate
DAVE FITZSIMMONS, Arizona Daily Star
SUE GILES, Tucson Lifestyle Magazine
MARYANN GREEN, University High School
GREG HANSEN, Arizona Daily Star
TODD HOLTHAUS, Pima Community College Women's Basketball
ANGIE JOHNSON-SMITH, Smith & Dale Philanthropic Counsel
CURTIS MCCRARY, The Rialto Theatre
PETER MICHAELS, Arizona Public Media
KADE MISLINSKI, Batch and Saguaro Corners
JIM NINTZEL, Tucson Weekly
JASON OTT, Citi
ADAM REX, Children's Book Author/Illustrator
JIM ROSBOROUGH, Pima Community College Women’s Basektball
MARK RUBIN, Law Office of Mark Rubin/Pima Medical Institute
DAVID SLUTES, Hotel Congress
DUSTIN WILLIAMS, Pima County School Superintendent's Office
BETTY VILLEGAS, Community Volunteer
MELISSA VITO, University of Arizona Office of the Provost
- Updated
Need some more life on your walls? Head to the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway, this Saturday and pick up some movie posters on the cheap.
More than 700 posters will be available, including current posters of films that are ending their runs and posters of films that the Loft didn't show.
All posters will be $5. Remaining posters will be donated to a local arts program.
More information can be found on the Loft Facebook event page.
- Updated
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum gives customers a glimpse at the evening lives of desert creatures during its cool summer nights series, happening this Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The popular destination, at 2021 N. Kinney Road, has special evening activities in store, and even a special "George the Lion" cocktail to try.
A desert survivors show runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Read more about this Saturday's activities on the Facebook event page.
- Updated
After two years of tiptoeing into the world of video game composing, Los Angeles-based chanteuse/songwriter/composer Jessica Fichot recently got her big break in the genre.
But she can’t talk about it.
When you land on the bigger scale of indie gaming as she has, there are certain rules of competitive etiquette that kick in, like not spilling the beans on what could be a hot new game on the market.
“I found out that a lot of projects, because they take so long to do, you can’t talk about them that much,” she said, citing possible changes in the game and marketing strategies as reasons for the prerelease silence.
Fichot, who returns to Tucson for a Rhythm & Roots concert on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Club Congress, is juggling a couple video game projects including “Growbot,” an adventure game about a robot who has to save her home from a dark crystalline force. The game is being developed by a woman in England and the storyline includes a space station with fantastic plants and aliens, according to the game’s Facebook description (facebook.com/pg/growbotgame).
Fichot, whose music is featured on two indie video games on the market and a third waiting to be released, said the “Growbot” designer asked for atmospheric music to create a soundscape. She likes to think of the music as cinematic, like a soundtrack for a movie.
“At times when there is cinematics, moments in the game when you achieve something, then I can go write something with a more present melody and something more ‘normal,’” she said.
Her video game music is a far cry from her singer-songwriter catalogue, which draws on her multilingual, multiethnic French/Chinese/American heritage. Her music is best summed up as a fusion of French chanson, 1940s Shanghai jazz, gypsy swing and international folk, most of it sung in French, English and Chinese.
Fichot, who plays accordion and toy piano, will be joined by her band — Sylvain Carton on clarinet and sax; guitarist Adrien Prévost; and PJ Wyderka on upright bass — for her Tucson show and a show Friday, Aug. 25, at the Chandler Center for the Arts. Saturday’s concert begins at 7 p.m. at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Tickets are $10 in advance at ticketfly.com or at the door. This is a 21-and-older show.
Saturday’s concert is something of an encore to her July 2016 Congress show.
“I like Tucson,” said Fichot, who has performed here almost yearly since 2010. “I like going there because I just like the vibe of the city and I’ve appreciated people coming out to see me. I have a small fan base in Tucson so it’s always nice to see people who have come to see me before.”
- Cathalena E. Burch
- Updated
The TCC is playing host to a whole lotta sangria and salsa this Saturday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Beat the Heat Sangria and Salsa Festival will feature 15 different sangrias, as well as paella, salsa, tequila, craft beer and live entertainment.
More information and ticket prices can be found here.
- Updated
A veritable who’s who of Tucson’s culinary leaders are once again joining spatulas and mixing bowls to host a pop-up dinner on Sunday, Aug. 27, as part of the Gastronomic Union of Tucson.
The third dinner in a series of collaborative efforts is dubbed “Snout-to-tail Tucson #3: El Tour de Tastebuds,” and it focuses its flavor profile on a journey of the palate. The five-course progressive dinner will take you through the taste-sensation spectrum, from salty to bitter to sour and umami — think savory — before ending on a sweet note with a focus throughout on pork.
Past GUT — that’s how they like to describe themselves — dinners have taken diners through the flavors of our own backyard and around the world, inspired in large part by Tucson’s recognition as the UNESCO World City of Gastronomy.
Sunday’s wine-paired dinner features petite pork osso bucco, sous-vide pork neck, pork offal crostini and hog trotter and BBQ devilfish.
Not sure what the last one entails, but we are sure that the cast of local chefs — Max Provost, Chef Chic’s Wendy Gauthier and Sarah Lamberth, Jackson Bar + Eatery’s Izaak Morhaim, Nohemi Montoya of Loews Ventana Canyon Resort & Spa, Lodge on the Desert’s David Solorzano, Pasco’s Sam Krajnak, Matt Kraiss of Ermanos, Travis Peters and Rica Rances of The Parish, Mountain Oyster Club’s Obadiah Hindman, Tucker Hartford of Culinary Ronin and Mat Cable from Fresco Pizzeria and Pastaria — will explain during the event, which begins at 6 p.m.
Also on the menu: pork crépinette with spicy Szechuan pickled peanut; dry-rubbed, pecan-smoked ribs with micro greens; and choice of dessert including a donut with pork floss cotton candy, bacon and ancho caramel.
The cost is $75 and seating at The Carriage House, 125 S. Arizona Ave., downtown, is limited.
Tickets and more information are available at gutucson.org
- Cathalena E. Burch
- Updated
We're going a little beyond the weekend again to give props to Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School, who will be the guest accompanists to touring band Pink Martini during their performance at Centennial Hall this Tuesday. The show starts at 8 p.m.
The Star's Cathalena E. Burch has the scoop:
Thomas Lauderdale doesn’t mince emotions when he talks about Tucson’s Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School.
He loves them.
So it was a no brainer whom he and his Pink Martini “little orchestra” would invite to open for them at Centennial Hall on Tuesday, Aug. 29.
“They are my favorites of any of our collaborations with young people,” Lauderdale said last week in a phone interview from home in Portland, Oregon. “They are authentic and earnest. They are fantastic.”
Pink Martini was first introduced to Mariachi Aztlán when the ensemble joined them on stage at Centennial Hall in January 2016 on the recommendation of Curtis McCrary, general manager of the Rialto Theatre. The Rialto presented the 2016 show and is presenting Tuesday’s concert.
“They loved us,” said Mariachi Aztlán music director John Contreras, a sentiment backed up by Lauderdale who last week said the group “totally blew us away.”
Within several days of that 2016 Tucson show, Pink Martini whisked the students off to Palm Beach, California, for a back-to-back pair of sold-out concerts. Months later, the group was back in Los Angeles joining Pink Martini for the group’s New Year’s Eve concert at Disney Hall.
Contreras, who has led Mariachi Aztlán for 16 years, said the group joined guest vocalist Rita Moreno on “America” from “West Side Story.”
“They are the most amazing band,” Lauderdale said.
Tuesday’s concert is Pink Martini’s first here since that one with the Pueblo mariachi. The group, which Lauderdale formed in 1994 to play mostly close to home shows in Portland, has made Tucson a regular stop since the early 2000s. In addition to Centennial Hall, the group has performed at Fox Tucson Theatre, the Rialto and with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall.
“I love Tucson,” Lauderdale said, naming University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music piano prof John Milbauer among his handful of Tucson friends. “I really like Tucson. I didn’t really realize that I would like Arizona so much and particularly Tucson.”
Lauderdale’s 10-piece band comes here after a whirlwind summer that saw it zigzag across the globe, starting at Red Rocks in Colorado, shooting through Canada and up to Martha’s Vineyard in New England, then off to Beirut, Lebanon, as well as Hungary and Spain and over to a couple outdoor festivals in France and Switzerland before circling back and ending up in Idaho.
“I never even imagined I would tour with the band outside of Portland,” Lauderdale said, reflecting on his busy summer. “It seemed from the beginning to be sort of unwieldy. It wasn’t even on the radar as a possibility.”
In addition to its diverse catalogue, Pink Martini’s appeal lies largely in its ability to transcend cultural and language barriers through its music. With rotating lead vocals from founding member China Forbes and Storm Large, they sing in 25 languages — we can expect to hear at least 10 of them on Tuesday night — and borrow from jazz, blues, classical and pop.
Lauderdale said the set list on Tuesday will pull from the band’s dozen albums including its 2016 record “Je Dis Oui!” which includes six songs co-written by Lauderdale. The album also includes covers of Cole Porter’s “Love For Sale” alongside traditional folk tunes sung in English, French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic and Turkish, and a turn at Franz Schubert’s “Serenade.”
On Tuesday, the group and Mariachi Aztlán will perform “¿Dónde Estás Yolanda?” a Pink Martini tune from 1997’s “Sympathique.”
Mariachi Aztlán’s Contreras said his group of student musicians are honored and tickled that Pink Martini sought them out. It’s a chance for the young musicians to share a stage and experience up close Pink Martini’s high level of musicianship.
Find out more on the Rialto website.
Jackson Pollock was an American artist and a dominating figure in the abstract expressionist movement.
So it makes sense that Tucson's own Museum of Contemporary Art would screen a biopic revolving around the legendary drip painter.
The 2000 film was directed by Ed Harris, who also starred as Pollock.
The film will screen on the COX Plaza at MOCA, 265 S. Church Ave.
Bella's Gelato food truck will be on-hand providing the sweets.
The movie runs from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
More information can be found on the Facebook event page.
The Arizona Daily Star's own sports columnist Greg Hansen will be in the running for Tucson's best speller at the Sixth annual Celebrity Spelling Bee at the Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. downtown this Friday.
Proceeds from the event go toward classroom grants from the Educational Enrichment Foundation for supplies, projects and equipment.
The event begins at 7 p.m. and admission is $5-$20 through the Rialto box office, 740-1000.
Among the participants, as per the Rialto website:
AMBER ADIL, Angel Charity for Children
STEPHANIE BALZER, The Drawing Studio
RANDI DORMAN, R+R Develop
STEVE FARLEY, Arizona State Senate
DAVE FITZSIMMONS, Arizona Daily Star
SUE GILES, Tucson Lifestyle Magazine
MARYANN GREEN, University High School
GREG HANSEN, Arizona Daily Star
TODD HOLTHAUS, Pima Community College Women's Basketball
ANGIE JOHNSON-SMITH, Smith & Dale Philanthropic Counsel
CURTIS MCCRARY, The Rialto Theatre
PETER MICHAELS, Arizona Public Media
KADE MISLINSKI, Batch and Saguaro Corners
JIM NINTZEL, Tucson Weekly
JASON OTT, Citi
ADAM REX, Children's Book Author/Illustrator
JIM ROSBOROUGH, Pima Community College Women’s Basektball
MARK RUBIN, Law Office of Mark Rubin/Pima Medical Institute
DAVID SLUTES, Hotel Congress
DUSTIN WILLIAMS, Pima County School Superintendent's Office
BETTY VILLEGAS, Community Volunteer
MELISSA VITO, University of Arizona Office of the Provost
Need some more life on your walls? Head to the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway, this Saturday and pick up some movie posters on the cheap.
More than 700 posters will be available, including current posters of films that are ending their runs and posters of films that the Loft didn't show.
All posters will be $5. Remaining posters will be donated to a local arts program.
More information can be found on the Loft Facebook event page.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum gives customers a glimpse at the evening lives of desert creatures during its cool summer nights series, happening this Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The popular destination, at 2021 N. Kinney Road, has special evening activities in store, and even a special "George the Lion" cocktail to try.
A desert survivors show runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Read more about this Saturday's activities on the Facebook event page.
After two years of tiptoeing into the world of video game composing, Los Angeles-based chanteuse/songwriter/composer Jessica Fichot recently got her big break in the genre.
But she can’t talk about it.
When you land on the bigger scale of indie gaming as she has, there are certain rules of competitive etiquette that kick in, like not spilling the beans on what could be a hot new game on the market.
“I found out that a lot of projects, because they take so long to do, you can’t talk about them that much,” she said, citing possible changes in the game and marketing strategies as reasons for the prerelease silence.
Fichot, who returns to Tucson for a Rhythm & Roots concert on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Club Congress, is juggling a couple video game projects including “Growbot,” an adventure game about a robot who has to save her home from a dark crystalline force. The game is being developed by a woman in England and the storyline includes a space station with fantastic plants and aliens, according to the game’s Facebook description (facebook.com/pg/growbotgame).
Fichot, whose music is featured on two indie video games on the market and a third waiting to be released, said the “Growbot” designer asked for atmospheric music to create a soundscape. She likes to think of the music as cinematic, like a soundtrack for a movie.
“At times when there is cinematics, moments in the game when you achieve something, then I can go write something with a more present melody and something more ‘normal,’” she said.
Her video game music is a far cry from her singer-songwriter catalogue, which draws on her multilingual, multiethnic French/Chinese/American heritage. Her music is best summed up as a fusion of French chanson, 1940s Shanghai jazz, gypsy swing and international folk, most of it sung in French, English and Chinese.
Fichot, who plays accordion and toy piano, will be joined by her band — Sylvain Carton on clarinet and sax; guitarist Adrien Prévost; and PJ Wyderka on upright bass — for her Tucson show and a show Friday, Aug. 25, at the Chandler Center for the Arts. Saturday’s concert begins at 7 p.m. at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Tickets are $10 in advance at ticketfly.com or at the door. This is a 21-and-older show.
Saturday’s concert is something of an encore to her July 2016 Congress show.
“I like Tucson,” said Fichot, who has performed here almost yearly since 2010. “I like going there because I just like the vibe of the city and I’ve appreciated people coming out to see me. I have a small fan base in Tucson so it’s always nice to see people who have come to see me before.”
- Cathalena E. Burch
The TCC is playing host to a whole lotta sangria and salsa this Saturday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Beat the Heat Sangria and Salsa Festival will feature 15 different sangrias, as well as paella, salsa, tequila, craft beer and live entertainment.
More information and ticket prices can be found here.
A veritable who’s who of Tucson’s culinary leaders are once again joining spatulas and mixing bowls to host a pop-up dinner on Sunday, Aug. 27, as part of the Gastronomic Union of Tucson.
The third dinner in a series of collaborative efforts is dubbed “Snout-to-tail Tucson #3: El Tour de Tastebuds,” and it focuses its flavor profile on a journey of the palate. The five-course progressive dinner will take you through the taste-sensation spectrum, from salty to bitter to sour and umami — think savory — before ending on a sweet note with a focus throughout on pork.
Past GUT — that’s how they like to describe themselves — dinners have taken diners through the flavors of our own backyard and around the world, inspired in large part by Tucson’s recognition as the UNESCO World City of Gastronomy.
Sunday’s wine-paired dinner features petite pork osso bucco, sous-vide pork neck, pork offal crostini and hog trotter and BBQ devilfish.
Not sure what the last one entails, but we are sure that the cast of local chefs — Max Provost, Chef Chic’s Wendy Gauthier and Sarah Lamberth, Jackson Bar + Eatery’s Izaak Morhaim, Nohemi Montoya of Loews Ventana Canyon Resort & Spa, Lodge on the Desert’s David Solorzano, Pasco’s Sam Krajnak, Matt Kraiss of Ermanos, Travis Peters and Rica Rances of The Parish, Mountain Oyster Club’s Obadiah Hindman, Tucker Hartford of Culinary Ronin and Mat Cable from Fresco Pizzeria and Pastaria — will explain during the event, which begins at 6 p.m.
Also on the menu: pork crépinette with spicy Szechuan pickled peanut; dry-rubbed, pecan-smoked ribs with micro greens; and choice of dessert including a donut with pork floss cotton candy, bacon and ancho caramel.
The cost is $75 and seating at The Carriage House, 125 S. Arizona Ave., downtown, is limited.
Tickets and more information are available at gutucson.org
- Cathalena E. Burch
We're going a little beyond the weekend again to give props to Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School, who will be the guest accompanists to touring band Pink Martini during their performance at Centennial Hall this Tuesday. The show starts at 8 p.m.
The Star's Cathalena E. Burch has the scoop:
Thomas Lauderdale doesn’t mince emotions when he talks about Tucson’s Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School.
He loves them.
So it was a no brainer whom he and his Pink Martini “little orchestra” would invite to open for them at Centennial Hall on Tuesday, Aug. 29.
“They are my favorites of any of our collaborations with young people,” Lauderdale said last week in a phone interview from home in Portland, Oregon. “They are authentic and earnest. They are fantastic.”
Pink Martini was first introduced to Mariachi Aztlán when the ensemble joined them on stage at Centennial Hall in January 2016 on the recommendation of Curtis McCrary, general manager of the Rialto Theatre. The Rialto presented the 2016 show and is presenting Tuesday’s concert.
“They loved us,” said Mariachi Aztlán music director John Contreras, a sentiment backed up by Lauderdale who last week said the group “totally blew us away.”
Within several days of that 2016 Tucson show, Pink Martini whisked the students off to Palm Beach, California, for a back-to-back pair of sold-out concerts. Months later, the group was back in Los Angeles joining Pink Martini for the group’s New Year’s Eve concert at Disney Hall.
Contreras, who has led Mariachi Aztlán for 16 years, said the group joined guest vocalist Rita Moreno on “America” from “West Side Story.”
“They are the most amazing band,” Lauderdale said.
Tuesday’s concert is Pink Martini’s first here since that one with the Pueblo mariachi. The group, which Lauderdale formed in 1994 to play mostly close to home shows in Portland, has made Tucson a regular stop since the early 2000s. In addition to Centennial Hall, the group has performed at Fox Tucson Theatre, the Rialto and with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra at Music Hall.
“I love Tucson,” Lauderdale said, naming University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music piano prof John Milbauer among his handful of Tucson friends. “I really like Tucson. I didn’t really realize that I would like Arizona so much and particularly Tucson.”
Lauderdale’s 10-piece band comes here after a whirlwind summer that saw it zigzag across the globe, starting at Red Rocks in Colorado, shooting through Canada and up to Martha’s Vineyard in New England, then off to Beirut, Lebanon, as well as Hungary and Spain and over to a couple outdoor festivals in France and Switzerland before circling back and ending up in Idaho.
“I never even imagined I would tour with the band outside of Portland,” Lauderdale said, reflecting on his busy summer. “It seemed from the beginning to be sort of unwieldy. It wasn’t even on the radar as a possibility.”
In addition to its diverse catalogue, Pink Martini’s appeal lies largely in its ability to transcend cultural and language barriers through its music. With rotating lead vocals from founding member China Forbes and Storm Large, they sing in 25 languages — we can expect to hear at least 10 of them on Tuesday night — and borrow from jazz, blues, classical and pop.
Lauderdale said the set list on Tuesday will pull from the band’s dozen albums including its 2016 record “Je Dis Oui!” which includes six songs co-written by Lauderdale. The album also includes covers of Cole Porter’s “Love For Sale” alongside traditional folk tunes sung in English, French, Farsi, Armenian, Portuguese, Arabic and Turkish, and a turn at Franz Schubert’s “Serenade.”
On Tuesday, the group and Mariachi Aztlán will perform “¿Dónde Estás Yolanda?” a Pink Martini tune from 1997’s “Sympathique.”
Mariachi Aztlán’s Contreras said his group of student musicians are honored and tickled that Pink Martini sought them out. It’s a chance for the young musicians to share a stage and experience up close Pink Martini’s high level of musicianship.
Find out more on the Rialto website.
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