PEACE OF MIND LIVING AT ALBUM MARANA
55+ Active Adult Community
Greystar is excited to bring their newest Album community to Tucson. The Album lifestyle is highly sought after by young at heart, 55+ active adults. It’s perfect for those looking for more in life, style, community, and activities.
Welcome to a carefree, maintenance-free living in a controlled-access community designed to be empowering as well as peaceful. Lead your life, as you see fit, and with time to spare, in a place where the feeling is one of excitement for what the future holds.
At Album Marana, you’ll find sophisticated residences with modern features in
addition to stimulating onsite offerings and beautiful social spaces to enjoy. They’ll be conveniently just outside your door; no need to drive anywhere! Your day might begin with coffee with new friends and then to the activities calendar to decide how your day will take shape. There is so much to do here. Each day will be full of variety and fun.
Album is the perfect place to share your passions, find new ones, and make friends easily along the way. What truly sets Album apart is the opportunity to have a real say in the active lifestyle clubs and events. Residents will create, contribute their talents, and run the clubs/events
they want. Examples include teaching a cooking class, meeting up for happy hour (and yappy hours), walking club, flower arranging, movie/game night, and seasonally inspired events. The only limit is your imagination.
The Album Marana leasing center is now open and located at 7620 N Hartman Lane, Suite 172 Tucson, AZ 85743. Our team will be happy to provide you with more information on available apartment homes that will be move-in ready Summer 2023. Whether you are considering downsizing yourself or have a loved one far away that you want close, Album is an exciting option right here in Tucson!
• Valuable promotions for a limited time*
AlbumMaranaEntry
ADMINISTRATION
Steve T. Strickbine, Publisher
Michael Hiatt, Vice President
Tyler Vondrak, Associate Publisher, tyler@tucsonlocalmedia.com
Claudine Sowards, Accounting, claudine@tucsonlocalmedia.com
EDITORIAL
Christina Fuoco-Karasinski, Executive Editor, christina@tucsonlocalmedia.com
Jack Miessner, Staff Reporter, jmiessner@tucsonlocalmedia.com
Karen Schaffner, Staff Reporter, kschaffner@tucsonlocalmedia.com
CONTRIBUTORS
Brian Box Brown, Rob Brezsny, Eva Halvax, Laura Latzko, Anya Lotun, Andy Mosier, Linda Ray, Aari Ruben, Brian Smith, Jen Sorensen
PRODUCTION
Courtney Oldham, Production/Design Supervisor, production@timeslocalmedia.com
Amber Johnson, Graphic Designer, ajohnson@timeslocalmedia.com
CIRCULATION
Aaron Kolodny, Circulation Director, aaron@timeslocalmedia.com
ADVERTISING
TLMSales@TucsonLocalMedia.com
Kristin Chester, Account Executive, kristin@tucsonlocalmedia.com
Candace Murray, Account Executive, candace@tucsonlocalmedia.com
Leah Pittman, Account Executive, lpittman@tucsonlocalmedia.com
NATIONAL ADVERTISING
Zac Reynolds, Director of National Advertising zac@timeslocalmedia.com
-
TWO COUNTRIES, ONE CITY
It is one of those desolate but inviting fireworks tents that pop up around this city in the days leading up to the Fourth of July. Red circus stripes on white canvas propped up on poles. This one sits on a lot with a distant ranch house, surrounded by a little mesquite forest, just south of the dry Rillito River on Craycroft Road. It is the night before the Fourth.
The tent houses all manner of fireworks, displayed on portable tables erected on dirt. Folks arrive in the couple hours I am here, moms and dads, kids, lovers, one guy with a holstered weapon and regrettable face tattoo. Most spend large amounts of cash on the noisy parapher-
nalia in, I suppose, honor of the Declaration of Independence.
“Scan the barcode with your phone and see the fireworks in action,” said 18-yearold Clifford Moton, star soccer player and recent Catalina Foothills High grad. He’s sitting behind a point-of-sale computer, talking to a dad with two young sons in tow.
Moton is lanky, cropped hair bleached on top. “I’m ready for the hair to be gone,” he said. “Me and my four friends cut off and bleached our hair together.”
Sitting beside him eating Taco Bell are his close cousin Uriah Verril and their friend Grace Shoemaker.
“Some say I sing like Lil’ Baby.” They all laugh.
Moton works for Buckelew Fireworks seasonally, a part-time gig he’s had for two years. He works weekly at a Tucson barber supply store. Moton plans to attend Pima Community College to study finance. He is close to his parents who, he tells me, met in high school — dad a high school football star and mom a cheerleader. Sometimes one parent or the other comes and keeps him company while he works the tent. It gets damn hot here during the day.
I see “Let’s Go, Brandon” fireworks featuring President Joe Biden’s face on the package. I bring this up to the kids, who shrug-laugh. “Yeah,” Moton said, “I don’t order ’em. I just got ’em to sell.”
They talk of the Fourth of July, getting together with family, eating, celebrating. American kids on an American night.
It is the Fourth of July, midday, the sun burns mercilessly from a cloudless sky and the hot wind does little but thicken the parched desert air. At least the cicadas sing, their natural predators disabled by the heat.
There isn’t a single customer around, and Carolyn sits alone in the 104-degree shade. The little air conditioner perched behind her is shut off. She prefers it outdoors. She grins and brings me a bottle of cold water from an ice chest. A beautiful accordion-and-waltz walia tune — a kind of Sonoran dance music — plays on her radio, tuned to Tohono O’odham community station KHON. Her face is heartshaped and welcoming, eyes sky blue, skin a robust brown.
Carolyn is not selling fireworks. She’s selling jewelry created by her ex-husband, the esteemed Joe Begay, an 83-year-old gentleman whose business card reads, “Navajo Silversmith, Actor, Singer.”
Now this isn’t really a store, more of a portico of red-painted wood, set into a corner of the San Xavier Plaza market-
place where the few indoor shops and eatery are shuttered for the holiday. It is located across a parking lot, south from the stunning Mission San Xavier del Bac, on Tohono O’odham Nation land.
Begay’s pieces sit inside glass encasement, beautiful inlaid heartlines on pendants and cuff bracelets, silver feathers on earrings, silver-and-leather bolos with “man in a maze” designs, and heishi turquoise and silver necklaces. Others represent animals, desert landscapes and mountains. Lovely, earned creations, pregnant with connotation.
The 65-year-old Carolyn looks younger than her years (“I feel like I’m 24”). She is reticent but shares fragments of her life as an O’odham, expressing the ups and downs with hand gestures, saying, “I have been up here, and I have been down here. Friends tell me I should write a book.”
She is a very private person, dislikes seeing photos of herself (“if you look at my Facebook page, you won’t find a single picture of me”), asks me not to use a
Story & photos by Brian Smith
THE FIREWORKS STAND ON CRAYCROFT ROAD. (BRIAN SMITH/CONTRIBUTOR)
CLIFFORD MOTON WORKING HIS PART-TIME GIG. (BRIAN SMITH/CONTRIBUTOR)
photo or her last name for this story. She smiles, said, “I don’t like a lot of people knowing me.”
At any rate, Begay is not here today at his store, and Carolyn said she’s here instead a couple times a week. “It seems I cover him more and more,” she laughs. Conversation drifts around. We talk Christopher Columbus, human trafficker, rapist and murderer, and how there is, finally, an Indigenous Day. How O’odham shed Papago, the derogatory name bestowed upon them by colonizers (“We are ‘the desert people’”).
A roadrunner appears beneath a tall decorated saguaro skeleton, peeks at the two of us, hangs a moment waiting for a scrap of food that doesn’t arrive and vanishes.
Carolyn adds Begay has beaten cancer three times and explains how he learned Diné silversmithing as a boy.
She then produces a thick, weathered scrapbook, crammed with yellowing photos of Joe in film costume. Images of him alongside screen stars of yore, Kris Kristofferson, Michael Landon, Ann Margaret, Kevin Costner and sundry others from sets in Arizona, many taken at the Old Tucson studios. Joe’s been in many films, playing a Mexican or a Native, Carolyn said. He played Geronimo in “The Buffalo Soldiers,” he sings in 1979’s “The Frisco Kid,” appeared in “Tin Cup.” TV too, “Little House on the Prairie.” The list goes on.
She talks of her mother, a diminutive
and spoken by 10,000 to 14,000 people, mostly in Southern Arizona and parts of Sonora, Mexico. It is tenseless, and therefore downplays significance to time. She is the only sibling who did not get shipped off the reservation to a boarding school; instead, she lived with an aunt and attended high school in Casa Grande, after which she attended Pima Community College, Chaparral College and got hired white-collar at IBM in Tucson, the only Tohono in her department, she recalls, and she “became a workaholic” for ten years.
She met Begay at 18, and her parents loved him. They married and had three daughters, half-Navajo, half O’odham. Her one son is adopted. She stops to count her grandchildren, 19 total, one daughter mothers nine of those, and one great-grandchild.
woman who birthed 13 children. Three of those remain. The others? She shakes her head, “sicknesses, drugs. Those were different times.
“My mom lost a lot of babies, three total.” A set of twins died of pneumonia. There was no medical in San Miquel, Arizona, a tiny village near the Mexican border in the Tohono O’odham Nation where the family lived. You had to take a bus out. “That’s why we had to move to the main reservation.”
She tells a story from in her teens: A brother had drowned in a party area near Kitt Peak, got his pant leg stuck underwater and never came back up. Sun went down, the police arrived with searchlights and pulled him out.
The daughter of a road-maintenance man, she was born in the middle of her 12 siblings, near where we are. Her English is clear, breezy even; her endangered native tongue is O’odham, an Uto-Aztecan language dating back thousands of years
After IBM, she kicked off her heels and followed her spirit of adventure. She got into drink and trouble, smuggling from Mexico, which she doesn’t want to talk about. But she said, “It was so easy before 9/11, everyone was doing it.” She pauses, “I would never do that now. We could cross freely until 9/11. We had people whose children had died, we would hand a casket over the fence so the dead baby could be buried on the homeland, sneaking it across to the other side.”
She continues, “I grew up helping immigrants. They weren’t called immigrants then — just people. Now you get in trouble just putting water out there.”
MEGAMANIA
OFFERS COSPLAY, WORKSHOPS FOR ALL AGES
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Tucson Weekly Staff
Pima County Public Library will bring together a plethora of its programs for MegaMania, a 10-year-old all-ages, free summer festival of cosplay, gaming, crafts, local authors and artists.
The event comes to the Pima Community College Downtown Campus from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 15.
“It’s a comic-con-style event,” said Kendra Davey, Pima County Public Library’s literacy initiatives program manager.
“We’re trying to recreate the fun and excitement of sharing the fandom of whatever you’re interested in — comics, anime, video games, books, really anything.”
Davey stressed this is an all-ages event with kids’ crafts, games, video games, Dungeons & Dragons games, a variety of board games and two escape rooms.
Artist and comic book authors will host workshops, and the writer-in-residence, Gene Twaronite, will lead a po-
etry open mic from 2 to 3 p.m.
Cosplay workshops will teach guests how to make a simple costume. Groups in attendance include the Arizona Ghostbusters, a nonprofit whose members volunteer around the state — all with a Ghostbusters theme.
“We encourage people to come dressed up,” Davey said. “We have a cosplay showcase. It’s not a costume
competition. You get to show off your cosplay. They really get into it and spend a lot of time on their cosplay.”
MegaMania was founded in 2010 as a teen program for manga and anime fans.
The festival, which took a break during the pandemic, had such a rabid response it expanded.
“We had a lot of adults asking if they could go,” she said. “So, we opened it to
phone keys wallet bag
There is a pride lurking behind her laughs and eye rolls, an “is-what-it-is” resignation, during the couple hours I hang with Carolyn. There is suspicion too, and she considers things she figures beyond my comprehension or maybe she’s too exhausted or jaded to lay them out to whites like me. How Tohono O’odham traditions and sacred beliefs involve water, earth and it all working together, and of life itself; the plants and animals of the Sonoran Desert play roles in their cultural narratives and teachings passed down by their elders and ancestors. She speaks of O’odham New Year celebrated this time of year with the harvesting of baidaj (saguaro fruit) and holds life force in their traditions, rain and dance ceremonies.
“When you are offered the wine from the fruit, you are supposed to drink it, cleanses you for the new year.” She pauses, “It tastes awful.”
She is an American Native in 2023. The Tohono people I have known seemed to embody a fierce sense of dignity and honor in preserving their personal narrative histories, the centuries of antecedents. Is it any wonder? The nation suffered through coercive assimilationist policies. It makes me keenly aware of my own shallow whiteness.
A couple, mid-40s, dressed in lots of red, white and blue, scans the glass-encased silver and turquoise work, in awe
over it. They’re from Reno, Nevada, they say, as a point of some kind of odd pride. They purchase from her a little carved coyote for $6, and move off to cross the empty parking lot to the Mission San Xavier del Bac.
The stunning 227-year-old mission always feels both majestic and haunted to me. Its eccentricity and dramatic strangeness, its Moorish, Byzantine and Mexican Baroque cross-pollination, and disquieting histories of Spaniards spreading Christianity to indigenous people.
Carolyn teaches catechism for young children there. “Kids love my class,” she said, “they don’t want to leave.”
Carolyn remembers growing up and thinking magic lived at the top of the 7,000-foot Kitt Peak in the Quinlan Mountains, in the observatory. Her father helped maintain the mountain road up. “I really thought Santa Claus lived there.” As for tonight, she won’t be celebrating; for one thing, fireworks upset animals.
Though her ex-husband Begay served, a U.S. Army Special Forces paratrooper in Vietnam with the 82nd Airborne Division, and his grandfather was a code talker in WWII.
“[Joe] doesn’t celebrate any holidays,” she laughs, “I used to celebrate his birthdays for him!”
Soon Carolyn will go home alone, an American Native on a hot summer night.
all ages.
“It quickly outgrew any of our library branches, so we moved the event to Pima Community College, and they’ve been really great partners on the event. It’s pretty exciting. It’s a fun event. People have tons of fun.”
Most of the events are drop-in, except for the escape room, for which admittance is on a first-come, first-served basis.
“A lot of the things we’re doing at MegaMania are programs at the libraries throughout the year,” Davey said.
“If you miss the escape room, keep an eye on the library calendar. These are things that we do periodically.”
MegaMania
WHEN: 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 15
WHERE: Pima Community College Downtown Campus, 1255 N. Stone
Avenue, Tucson
COST: Free
INFO: bit.ly/TucsonMegaMania
By Linda Ray Tucson Weekly Columnist
LOS TUCANES DE TIJUANA WITH RAMON AYALA
There won’t be much sitting as fans dance in the aisles through this night of norteño music, played and sung by the sinaloense masters of the genre. Narcorridos have been their trademark, but their sound has also evolved over 60plus albums and 75 singles. As their sales have passed the 15 million mark, they’ve covered their walls with multiplatinum records. Ramón Ayala is more than the cherry on top here. He pioneered the accordion sound that all but defines norteño music.
AVA Amphitheater, Casino del Sol, 5655 W. Valencia Road, tickets start at $40, 8 p.m. Friday, July 14, etix.com
MOVIES ON THE LAWN
Pack up some kids, a blanket and a bundle of good snacks for an evening of fun, fresh air and a movie. “The Bad Guys” is this Saturday’s feature in Oro Valley’s summer long outdoor series, featuring films made from popular children’s books. “The Bad Guys,” the movie, features scary cartoon creatures doing good deeds. The last two films of the summer will be “The Mitchells vs. the Machines” on Aug. 19 and “The Little Rascals” on Sept. 16.
Oro Valley Community and Recreation Center, 10555 N. La Cañada Drive, Oro Valley, free, 7:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 15, orovalleyaz.gov
STEAM CAMP: “DINOSAUR & UNICORN MADNESS”
The STEAM in STEAM camp stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. This n’ That Creative Studio is offering a week-by-week STEAM Camp series they call “Summer Shenanigans.” It’s designed to let kids explore art and science materials in ways they could never access (and you might never clean up) at home. Next week’s art play is devoted to fantastical creatures, real and imagined.
This n’ That Creative Studio, 1066 S. Pantano Road, Tucson, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mon-
MOUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER “SUMMER SKYNIGHTS”
With temperatures in three digits, we hardly need an excuse to go to Mount Lemmon. Hike on great trails, have all the fudg and view the valley from the ski lift. Now, with more options for overnight stays, there’s more reason to visit the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter. The tour includes an astronomy lecture, sunset and guided navigation of the night sky through two of the largest telescopes in the southwest. You’ll see neighboring planets, distant galaxies and nebulae, star clusters and more. Reservations are required. Mount Lemmon Sky Center, 9800 Ski Run Road, $30, two for $50, 7 to 9:30 p.m. Fridays July 14 and July 21, and Saturdays July 15 and July 22, skycenter.arizona.edu
ARTISTS INTERPRET OVERLAPPING ENVIRONMENTS IN “ECOTONE ART.” SHOWN HERE IS R. PARA’S “ORGAN PIPE CACTUS.” (R. PARA/SUBMITTED)
ARIZONA SONORA DESERT MUSEUM: “ECOTONE ART”
Where ecosystems converge and evolve into each other, an ecotone is created. The overlapping of environments creates tension between species as they compete for resources. For some, the ecotone also offers new opportunities. Because density and diversity of species is heightened in “ecotonal systems,” new life forms can evolve. This new exhibit of works, made in a range and combinations of media, explores current ecotonal dynamics in contemporary human culture. Ironwood Gallery, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, Tucson, $29.95, less for children under 12, rentals available for strollers, wheelchairs and scooters, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through Wednesday, Aug. 13 desertmuseumarts.com/ecotone-2023Drive and North Campbell Avenue, foothillsartdistrict.com, free
THE OUTLAW MARIACHI
Had Sid Vicious grown up Mexican, he might have fit right in with these caliphs of punk mariachi, but he’d have had to have a cooler sense of humor. The Outlaws’ charro outfits are a hodgepodge of thrift store tributes to the more commonly unifying conformity of mariachi bands. Respect for their forbears runs through their sense of humor and punk posturing, though, and their music is brilliantly played. These ersatz cowboys, and their sound, could only have arisen from a mash up of charro and cholo culture. Club Congress, 311 E. Congress Street, Tucson, $23.18, 8 p.m. Friday, July 14, dice.fm
day, July 17, to Thursday, July 20, $260, thisnthatcreativestudio.com/events
THESE POEMS AREN’T GOING TO READ THEMSELVES!
Poetry in the Park encourages Tucsonans to get outside and let their poetry out, too. Almost all writing is a solitary
Madera Park, 2700 E. La Madera Drive, Tucson, free, 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, July 15, and every other Saturday; Chuck Ford Lakeside Park, 8201 E. Stella Road, free, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 19, and every other Wednesday, changex.org/us/poetryinthepark/tucson-az-usa
TUCSON KITCHEN MUSICIANS SONG CIRCLE SOCIAL
The folks who bring us the sprawling, spectacular annual Tucson Folk Festival stay in tune year ‘round with semi-monthly, social song circles. All skill levels are welcome. Bring your instrument, your voice or just your goodwill and enjoy the sounds of music, tall tales, fellowship and a hearty “Hello Stranger,” Carter Family style. Kevin Pakulis and his large folk-rock band preside.
Borderlands Brewing Company, 119 E. Toole Avenue, Tucson, free, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Sunday, July 16, the first and third Thursday every month, borderlandsbrewing.com
FAMILY SATURDAY AT NIGHT/NOCHE DE SÁBADO FAMILIAR
Bring a flashlight for this family fun night of monsoon-inspired activities. You and yours will learn about the nocturnal animals of the Sonoran Desert, and beavers in the Santa Cruz River. Song and story time will be in Spanish and English, and here’s a must for modern kiddos: There will be code writing training using Scratch with CoderDojo. Watershed Management Group, 1137 N. Dodge Boulevard, free, 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 15, watershedmg.org
COMMUNITY CLOTHING SWAP
enterprise, but poetry can be even more so, often probing our deeply personal thoughts and experiences. These events encourage fellowship, but attendees also discuss writing styles and ways to get “unstuck” when you need to. Bring a folding chair or blanket. Water and light snacks are provided.
Spark Project Collective is coordinating a next-level conservation event, a clothing swap. This writer has dressed in thrift since the ’80s, and much as we like supporting thrift businesses, in person and online, we love the idea of exchanging fresh stuff with real people. It’s a “drop ‘n shop” affair, clean and tidy only, and everything that remains at the end will be donated. The project is part of Spark Project Collective’s ongoing support for Tucson’s homeless community.. Four of Wands, 4349 E. Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, free admission, 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 15, fourofwandstucson. com
PUNK MARIACHI OR MARIACHI PUNK? YOU BE THE JUDGE WITH THE OUTLAW MARIACHI. (CHARROS OF ROCK LLC/SUBMITTED)
SEE THE SUMMER SKY THROUGH THE SOUTHWEST’S TWO LARGEST TELESCOPES IN THE SOUTHWEST. (MOUNT LEMMON SKY CENTER/SUBMITTED)
LAUGHING STOCK
TRENTON DAVIS IS WINNING THE NEW WORLD OF COMEDY
By Linda Ray Tucson Weekly Columnist
Trenton Davis is a smart comic. In the couple of decades he’s been on the road, he’s always had a day job. He’s now also co-parenting an 11-year-old daughter. Last week, he was midway through an all-expense paid, twoweek comedy gig in the Bahamas. Next week, he starts a new day job as a global business development manager for HP.
He’s also a smart comic. His jokes are smart, never obvious, but never tricky, either. They’re tied to universal happenstances that trip us up in everyday life. He shines a light on the humor in things we all take for granted, and, maybe most importantly to his fans, he lifts us up from wherever we’ve metaphorically dragged ourselves in from.
least 10,000 hours, he figures.
It’s obvious, and relevant, that he’s done so much stage work, because when we talked about recent developments in the comedy scene — the new, YouTube-to-stage model — he noted that folks who build their fan base online often falter onstage.
LAUGHINGSTOC K
Never mind the professional writers and management they may attract, or the thousands of online fans who turn out for their shows; he’s seen them fail to sustain a quality show for live audiences. The reason, he thinks, is they haven’t done their “10,000 hours.”
Traveling for work has opened doors to opportunities he might not have scored if the clubs had to pay for travel. That, he figures, is one source of his success. It’s given him the privilege of putting in a lot of time — at
The book “10,000 Hours” was among a torrent he read in the wake of a devastating life event — divorce. He was determined to become more self-aware and a better person in general. The result, in addition to greater maturity and stability, was a different outlook on life that added depth and new dimensions to his comedy.
“10,000 Hours” extrapolates on a revolutionary 50-year-old paper about the development of expertise. From scientists to chess players to sports stars, the top performers had spent around 10,000 hours at their craft.
“When I started 16 or 17 years ago, you’d go to a club, start out at an open mic, you’d move to hosting, from hosting to featuring and from featuring to headlining,” he said. “And hopefully you go from there.”
To oversimplify, Davis said he feels every hour
on the stage makes for a better comedian. By contrast, some of the current crop of digital darlings, live and in their Netflix and YouTube specials, are shy of some hours.
But does that mean they have nothing to say? What accounts for their popularity? He said YouTube and other streaming phenomena have led to greater diversity among comedians, material and audiences. At the same time, it’s creating something like echo chambers.
New shooting stars have attracted hordes of colleagues from their profession or their lifestyle cohorts. Examples are Nurse Blake in the medical field, Joe Dombrowski in education, Fortune Feimster among lesbians and #IMomSoHard in motherhood. (The #IMomSoHard duo comes to the Fox
Tucson Theatre on Monday, Aug. 11.)
Can we think of it as “identity comedy?” Do we exempt the newcomers from “reading the room” standards? Their audiences have known them on social media, sometimes for years. They are followers because they have so much in common.
“The good and bad of identity and algorithms is they give you exactly what you want,” Davis said.
“The bad thing is it gives you exactly what you want. There’s no space for growth.
“The beauty of getting what you don’t want and hearing voices that you wouldn’t normally listen to is you get information that you’re not used to. The problem is comedians
KENNY SHADE’S COMEDY IN CATALINA IS NOW MONTHLY. (MELINDA ONTIVEROS/CONTRIBUTOR)
TRENTON DAVIS SURFS THROUGH CHANGES IN COMEDY CULTURE. (FRANKIE LEAL/CONTRIBUTOR)
THE NEW AGE OF ATMOSPHERE AND ITS ‘SAD FACE RAP’
By Jack Miessner Tucson Weekly Staff
For a few moments, rapper Sean (Slug) Daley of Atmosphere searched for a better self description than “founder.”
“We’re definitely one of the Indiana Jones’ of ‘sad face rap,’” Daley decided during a recent Zoom call.
“I don’t think Drake’s ever heard of Atmosphere, so please take what I’m going to say with a grain of salt. But I do think that, when he first came into the scene and started making these kinds of sad boy songs, I’m a part of that. I was one of the ones that was kind of carving that out.”
Together with DJ/producer Anthony (Ant) Davis, Minneapolis’ Atmosphere has been pumping out a steady stream of underground emo rap since the ’90s, building a formidable and influential repertoire of projects along the way.
Throughout Atmosphere’s hip-hop tenure, fans have beheld the duo’s various ages.
“Emo rap, sad-face rap, dad rap,” Daley listed. “F--- it. Put it down, it’s on record.
“But now I think we’re ‘dad joke rap.’ Because when Jay-Z stole ‘dad rap,’ I had to go somewhere. I’m wearing cargo shorts right now.”
Along with Atmosphere’s sound, the duo’s structure has evolved since the early days. In the group’s infancy, and under the name “Urban Atmosphere,” Slug was the DJ, backing up rapper and high school friend Derek (D-Spawn) Turner.
“I never got super good at it, but I was good enough to back up a decent rapper,” Daley said. “It made sense for me to do that while still trying to get better, but at least trying to get better as part of a group.
“And in that group, I used to see that word ‘woodshedding’ thrown around, and I don’t know if I’ve ever said it, but I was woodshedding as a DJ and he was
woodshedding as a rapper, and we were kind of doing it together.”
But when it came time to hit the stage, Spawn, who was used to performing in rap groups, called on Daley to pick up the mic. And once he did, he hit the ground running.
“That was when he tapped me to be more than just a DJ,” Daley said.
“I basically went from being a hype man with some bars to being half of the group, to eventually kind of becoming more than half of the group because, once I turned the switch on, I couldn’t stop. I started writing songs, and writing songs, and writing songs, and never stopped.
“And at that point, I think we all knew that I was going to eventually become a solo rapper.”
Daley’s prophecy would soon come to fruition. After enlisting Davis as producer and DJ, and releasing their 1997 breakout album “Overcast!” Turner left the group, and Daley and Davis became the dynamic duo that would make up Atmosphere for the next handful of decades.
The two flip through the ’80s songbook for their trademark sound. Slug “stole swagger” from emcees like Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, KRS-One, and LL Cool J, but is equally influenced by Prince, John Carpenter and the DJs of the time. One of
the rapper’s biggest inspirations, though, is his own producer.
“It all starts with Anthony, because he’s making those beats without me looking over his shoulder,” Daley said.
“And then he invites me to come look at what he’s been working on, and I start to go ‘Oh that’s interesting, what can we do here?
“The inception tends to happen without me in the room, just like the inception of the words happens without him in the room. I usually take the music he gives me, and I bring it here by myself, and then spend time staring at it trying to make something out of it.”
But Davis’ influence on Daley’s songwriting transcends the beats he brings to the rapper, and, as a result of their close friendship, the latter has begun to represent the both of them through his lyrics.
“When I write, I’ve unintentionally started to try to put some of his perspective in the writing, in a weird way,” Daley said.
“Not even adapting his perspective and making it my own, but trying to make sure to either acknowledge, reference or contextualize some of his perspective through some of the bars I write.
“I enjoy talking to this man, he’s one of my favorite people in the world. So, when
he says things, whether or not I agree with them, I appreciate his perspective. So that’s something I’ve learned over the last few projects.”
Daley’s newfound art of perspective-taking reaches its peak on Atmosphere’s most recent effort, 2023’s “So Many Other Realities Exist Simultaneously.” On the record, the rapper spins a narrative that, according to Daley, is “super nonlinear and fun and interesting, but also really dark.
“It’s not so much that it’s this straight through narrative, but more that it’s a story of the summer of 2020 through the winter of 2021,” Daley said.
“So, the story I hear on this album is what we were going through together, as a group that couldn’t tour at the time, but also as individuals, our own individual trajectories.”
From track one, Daley knew the album would be a period of experimentation for the group. According to the rapper, Atmosphere’s records always begin on a dark, melancholic note, so when Davis brought him a sanguine beat, and asked him to write something optimistic, he was shocked.
“It was during the lockdown, and the
ATMOSPHERE TO PERFORM NEW ALBUM AT THE RIALTO ON TUESDAY, JULY 18. (DAN MONICK/CONTRIBUTOR)
furthest thing from my mind was to be optimistic, because we were all doing bad,” Daley said.
“But he was like, ‘What if we started this project with something that might be lighter, like a yellow or a bright orange.’ So I wrote this optimistic thing because of the beat, and it became the song ‘Okay.’”
But Davis’ exercise in innovation didn’t end there, and when Daley returned with the finished track, the producer gave him the instructions that would transform Atmosphere’s entire songwriting process.
“He was like, ‘I like it, and I want this to be the first song. Here’s song two.’ So, I wrote it and gave it back, and he was like ‘here’s three.’ He literally chose the sequence of the album by what order he gave me the beats in.
“It ended up being this amazing process, which was such a simple way to change it up. We didn’t reinvent the wheel or anything, we just approached the way we make a project a little differently.”
The result: a deeply personal and revealing 20-track time capsule of the precarious times of its production, though,
at times, Daley said he feels as though he might have “said too much” on the record, and that he could have held back some of his thoughts.
“You can always look back on your painting once you’ve sold it to somebody, like ‘Ah, if only I’d made the house purple,’ and you can’t change it.
“But I do believe that this project was the best thing we could’ve possibly made in this time, with who we are as people and where we are as people, et cetera. This was super fun to do, super enjoyable, one of my favorites, for now.
“But I’m always supposed to say that,” Daley admitted. “New album, it’s my favorite!”
Atmosphere w/HEBL + ZooDeVille
WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 18
WHERE: Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $27, all ages
INFO: atmospheresucks.com, rialtotheatre.com
MUSIC
VAI TO TAME ‘EXCESSIVE’ GUITAR AT TOUR KICKOFF AT RIALTO
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski Tucson Local Media Staff
Virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai proudly says he just hit the 2 million mark on American Airlines.
“I’m stunned,” he said with a laugh. “It all crept upon me. My cup runneth over.”
It’s no surprise, looking at his tour itinerary after he plays the Rialto Theatre on Sunday, July 16. Following his short North American run, he’ll perform nine shows in mainland China, and then head to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand. He’s looking at Middle Eastern dates, too.
“My biggest fanbase is in Indonesia, Malaysia and South America,” he said.
“In America, I do nice little theaters and big clubs, sometimes good-sized theaters. Outside of America, it’s a little more robust.”
Vai has been promoting the album “Inviolate” since last summer. He noticed that, with each gig, the band becomes more powerful and connected.
“It’s an instrumental guitar show,” he added. “I think the ones who do come, they’re not just attracted to the way I play, but the melodies and the connection as well. It’s a very engaging experience.
“We’re a tight band and we’re playing powerful music. There are ebbs and flows, soft energies and intensities. I like to build the show the way I would like to see it when I’m in the audience. We’re celebrating live music as an escape from the world for a little bit.”
This time around, his band features bassist Philip Bynoe, drummer Jeremy Colson and fellow guitarist Dante Frisiello.
At the shows, he plays The Hydra, an Ibanez, multinecked guitar that’s been called the “most excessive guitar ever made.” The three necks host 7- and 12-string guitars.
“It’s quite an interesting performance,” he said. “I play all three necks.”
Vai said there was an “unlearning” curve when he picked up The Hydra, after 50 years of playing somewhat traditional guitars.
“With The Hydra, one hand is completely independent of the other,” he said. “It was this weird jump to get over. You’re picking something on one string, but your other hand has to do something completely different. You have to split your attention.”
It’s a good thing, he added, that he’s in
the zone when he’s playing any guitar.
“My attention has to be fully on it,” he said. “I’m like a tightrope walker. One wrong move and my life isn’t at stake, but it’s bad. When you’re playing The Hydra and you mess up one thing, it can be a real challenge to recover. I’ve gotten it down so strong now. I feel like I’m floating when I’m playing it. It’s a state of grace I’m in.”
In his 40 years in the industry, Vai has sold more than 15 million records, received three Grammy Awards, and recorded with music legends like Frank Zappa, David Lee Roth and Whitesnake.
Vai has also toured extensively and recorded live projects with G3 (collaborating with different touring lineups including Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Lukather) and Generation Axe, a supergroup Vai formed with Zakk Wylde, Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt and Tosin Abasi.
Recently, he released the album “Vai/ Gash” as a tribute to his late friend, Johnny “Gash” Sombrotto. The two recorded the music in the 1990s and it was shelved in 1998 when Gash, a vocalist, died in a motorcycle crash. The two shared a love of motorcycles.
“I wanted to create music that shared the way we felt,” Vai said.
“It is just a really straight-ahead ’70s, ’80s rock record. We recorded it in about a week. I didn’t know Johnny could sing. He wasn’t a professional singer.
“He just stunned me — stunned all of us. He was so authentic and had so much swag, chutzpah and rock star DNA. He had a great sense of humor, too. I wanted to finish the record, but I was in the middle of another project.”
When Sombrotto died, Vai said he was so distraught he shelved the eight songs for 30 years. He decided to release it this year for “a couple of fans who buy everything I release.”
“But it was so well received with press and fans and radio who played it,” said Vai, 63.
“To know him was to really love him,” he continued about Sombrotto. “It’s a very uplifting, empowering, good feeling kind of rock record.”
An Evening with Steve Vai
WHEN: 8 p.m. Sunday, July 16
WHERE: Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress Street, Tucson
COST: Tickets start at $39.50 INFO: rialtotheatre.com, vai.com
By Alex Gallagher Tucson Weekly Contributor
It’s been nearly seven years since Old Crow Medicine Show visited
the mandolin, harmonica, keyboards and sings.
“We’re really all about keeping the show moving and keeping it full of entertainment that just never stops.”
Music is continually playing, and the musicians sing or tell jokes.
“Our show has a lot of humor,” Younts said. “Some of it might be a little cheesy but as long as we’re having fun, the audience is having fun.”
Younts said he and the band encourage an exchange of energy with the audience.
“When they’re smiling and clapping it makes our job a lot easier,” he said. “It’s a give-and-take thing and as the audience is showing us that they’re enjoying it, it makes our job a lot easier.”
The band needs all the
encouragement it can get as it rotates through myriad instruments, including fiddlesticks, washboard, accordion, jaw harp, fiddles, piano and as many as five banjos, which are played in unison during one part of the set.
“It’s quite an entourage,” Younts said with a laugh.
Adding to the ensemble is an expansive discography of nine fulllength studio albums. The latest release was 2022’s “Paint This Town.”
Younts admits having a 25-year broad discography has made creating a set list a tall task.
“It is pretty hard,” Younts admits. “Over the years it does get a little bit more difficult to try and keep playing something from every album, but we try and stick to at least one song from everything.”
Younts confessed he has felt a strong affinity for playing some of the band’s more contemporary tunes and unreleased material.
“I’m really enjoying playing songs off ‘Paint This Town,’ our most recent
LAUGHING STOCK FROM PAGE 11
are now afraid to bring (uncomfortable) voices. It comes off as a safe space. Or it comes off ‘Oh, were you offended?’ or ‘You offended me because I heard something I did not want to hear.’
“Reality is, if we’re going grow at some point in time, we need to hear things we don’t want to hear. There’s not just one truth, but that’s the space we play in. You can either be upset and take your ball and go home and no longer participate in comedy, or you can try and change with the times and try to adapt.
“And that’s where I’m at,” he said. “I’m in the space of trying to adapt.”
Davis is excited about taping his show at Laff’s Comedy Cafe this weekend. “I recorded my first album at Laff’s in 2013 and I recorded my second on March
OLD CROW FROM PAGE 15
album,” he said. “We have another album coming out in September that we’re looking forward to. We haven’t started playing too many of those songs yet, but they’ll be out soon.”
Because Old Crow Medicine Show covers a range of music and plays a bigger mix of instruments at its shows, Younts said he enjoys playing in intimate theaters like the Chandler Center for the Arts.
14, 2020. It was the Friday before the world shut down,” he said.
Davis said fans can expect all-new material.
“I actually think our biggest growth happens when we’re in times of turmoil.”
Trenton Davis, Laff’s Comedy Cafe, 2900 E. Broadway Boulevard. 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, July 14, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, July 15, laffstucson.com, $15, $20 preferred seating.
OTHER SHOWS
Catalina Craft Pizza, 15930 N. Oracle Road, Suite 178, 9 p.m. Saturday, July 15, “Comedy in Catalina,” $8 or free with a donation of food or clothing. Allana Erickson-Lopez opens for Boulder-based comic Billi Jo Gillispie. Kenny Shade hosts. Reservations recommended, 520-825-0140.
Coyote Trail Stage, 8000 N. Silverbell Road, 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 14, maranalaughs.com, tickets start at $10, Marana Laughs Clean Comedy, Danielle Williams featuring Leigh Cummings, open mic opens.
Corbett Brewing, 309 E. Seventh Street, 7 p.m. Friday, July 14, free, “Deep Enough Comedy,” with headliner Magghie O’Shea featuring Keeley
“We still stick to the same rule of no dead air, but I sometimes feel that our storytelling is a little bit better and our stories get a little bit more detailed when we’re playing in an intimate environment like that,” Younts said.
These types of shows allow the band to forge a deeper connection with prospective musicians in the audience as well.
“It’s a great thing to see a child’s face light up, especially when we try and give away a harmonica during our set, which we always try to do,” he said. “I also hope that someone will go, ‘I’m going to go buy me a banjo or go buy me a harmonica after this is over.’”
But above all, Younts hopes to give fans a stellar show.
“We want the audience to leave
Wolf with support from Kenny Shade, Morgan Kuehn, Leo Skrzypczak and Tyler B. Cory Lytle hosts.
Vail Theatre of the Arts, 10701 E. Mary Ann Cleveland Way, 7 p.m. Saturday, July 14, vaillaughs.com, tickets start at $10, Vail Laughs Clean Comedy, Danielle Williams featuring Leigh Cummings, show starts with an open mic.
Tucson Improv Movement/TIM Comedy Theatre, 414 E. Ninth Street, tucsonimprov.com, $7 each show, $10 for both shows, same night, free jam and open mic. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 13, “Harold Eta” and “Soapbox Harold”; 6:30 p.m. Friday, July 14, Improv Jam, Jessica Hill hosts; 7:30 p.m. “The Soapbox”; 9 p.m. Improv vs. Stand Up; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 15, “Your Favorite Movie Improvised” and “The Meeting”; 9 p.m. “The Dirty Ts.”
Unscrewed Theater, 4500 E. Speedway Boulevard, unscrewedtheatre.org, $8, live or remote, $5 kids. 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 14, Family-Friendly Improv; 9 p.m. Unscrewed Fridays After Dark (uncensored, pay what you will); 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 15, Family Friendly Improv; 9 p.m. “The Backyard” Improv Playground.
with a good smile on their faces,” he said. “We want to keep country music alive. We truly believe in the traditional spirit of country music, and that’s what we hope people will still remember, what good country music is.”
Old Crow Medicine Show w/Pillbox Patti
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 19
WHERE: Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress Street, Tucson COST: Tickets start at $22 INFO: crowmedicine.com and foxtucson.com
IN THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY, THE NAME MEANS EVERYTHING
By Eva Halvax Tucson Weekly Columnist
Complete with cheeky nods to childhood nostalgia, it’s no secret that cannabis strain names tend to teeter on a sly boundary of familiarity.
The playful nature of cannabis strain names is at the apex of cannabis policy. As the cannabis industry is an ever-changing giant, the bill’s language that legalized recreational cannabis, Prop 207, continues to be left up to interpretation. And because recreational
marijuana is entering its third year, the roll out of policies has been unpredictable and subject to change.
I’ve seen this firsthand at the dispensary that employs me. A couple months ago, we faced a confusing new dilemma: Strains such as Candyland, Runtz and Gushers were now noncompliant in the eyes of the state. Anything with a connection to a brand that would be familiar to a child was now o limits within the recreational market.
This is because Prop 207 prohibits the manufacturing of marijuana products that “resemble the form of a human, animal, insect, fruit, toy or cartoon. The names of marijuana products cannot resemble or imitate food and drink of brands marketed to children.”
This language had always been codified in the bill, but the change was sparked simply by a lapse in time. Within the two years marijuana has been recreationally legalized in Arizona, the state has struggled to decide how it wants to enforce Prop 207.
For a while, the focus seemed to fall on the designs of packaging and presentations of a specific edible — no cartoons, no imitations of popular candies and a requirement of opaque packaging with clear THC warning labels. For
the most part, the names of cannabis strains seem to slide under the rug.
Three years later, the recreational cannabis industry has found its groove within Arizona, allowing the subtext of Prop 207 to come to fruition. As a plethora of strain names were classified as being too appealing to children, cannabis brands had to be quick on their feet, mainly by omitting letters from the name of strains or abbreviating them altogether. Abbreviating names or removing certain vowels altogether was seen as an adequate fix. Runtz is now also known as RNTZ and Candyland is labeled as Cndyland.
From a legal standpoint, the counterculture that exists within the industry
has resulted in a mangled few years of lawsuits.
In 2021, Wrigley, the makers of Skittles, sued the cannabis brand known as Zkittlez for copyright infringement, serving the brand with a cease-anddesist order. Any strain associated with Zkittlez may now be simply seen as the letter Z. For example, watermelon Zkittlez is commonly labeled as ZKZ. Similarly, the growers of the strain Girl Scout Cookies avoided legal trouble by
abbreviating the name of the strain to GSC.
When paired alongside a market that thrives on medicated candies, brightly colored packaging and whimsical names, it oftentimes seems the industry is in constant opposition with itself. A once-lowkey community has now transitioned into something much larger; a moment in cannabis that signals the way in which an underground market must pivot when it reaches the public eye.
DEALER’S CHOICE
THIS WEEK'S INDICA: Gorilla Glue No. 4, referred to as GG No. 4, is an indica-dominant hybrid strain; getting its name from its sticky, resin-coated buds. Interestingly, the Nevada-based seed company that created GG No. 4 faced a six-month lawsuit with Gorilla Glue Co., the glue company of the same name, resulting in the permanent abbreviation of the strain name. GG No. 4 is known for its relaxing and calming effects that may leave you stuck to the couch. In other words, it’s the perfect strain for the end of a long day.
THIS WEEK'S HYBRID: Oracle is a rare, evenly balanced hybrid strain, one that is not short of a mysterious history. Rumors of a mega-potent THC strain began circulating online in 2009, with some claiming levels of 45%. This has led to a costly price increase in Oracle’s seeds. However, the rumors were simply that — rumors. Nevertheless, Oracle is a strain that can stimulate creativity and energy. Oracle is rich in limonene, a citrus-scented terpene known for its uplifting and euphoric effects.
THIS WEEK'S SATIVA: Prism is a sativa-hybrid that is hard to pass up, as it is a rare and delectable cross between pineapple express and huckleberry soda. Like the name suggests, Prism’s light green nugs contain a rainbow of purple, pink, orange and red. Prism’s hefty cerebral high means it is a strain best used during the daytime and can be helpful in treating chronic fatigue and pain. If you love sativas, this is a strain you can’t pass up.
NAME FROM PAGE 17
TUCSON AREA DISPENSARIES
BLOOM TUCSON
4695 N. Oracle Road, Suite 117
520-293-3315; bloomdispensary.com
Open: 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
BOTANICA
6205 N. Travel Center Drive
520-395-0230; botanica.us
Open: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
DESERT BLOOM
RE-LEAF CENTER
8060 E. 22nd Street, Suite 108
520-886-1760; dbloomtucson.com
Open: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily O ering delivery
DOWNTOWN DISPENSARY
221 E. Sixth Street, Suite 105
520-838-0492; thedowntowndispensary.com
Open: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
D2 DISPENSARY
7139 E. 22nd Street
520-214-3232; d2dispensary.com
Open: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
EARTH’S HEALING
Two locations: North: 78 W. River Road 520-253-7198
South: 2075 E. Benson Highway 520-373-5779 earthshealing.org
Open: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sundays
O ering delivery
GREEN MED
WELLNESS CENTER
6464 E. Tanque Verde Road
520-886-2484
greenmedwellness.com
Open: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday
HALO CANNABIS
7710 S. Wilmot Road
520-664-2251; thegreenhalo.org
Open: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
HANA GREEN VALLEY
1732 W. Duval Commerce Point Place
520-289-8030
Open: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday
HARVEST OF TUCSON
2734 E. Grant Road
520-314-9420; askme@harvestinc.com; harvestofaz.com
Open: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
NATURE MED
5390 W. Ina Road
520-620-9123; naturemedaz.com
Open: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
THE PRIME LEAF
Two locations:
• 4220 E. Speedway Boulevard
• 1525 N. Park Avenue
520-44-PRIME; theprimeleaf.com
Open: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sundays
TUCSON SAINTS
112 S. Kolb Road
520-886-1003; medicalmarijuanaoftucson.com
Open: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily
COMICS
SORENSEN
THIS MODERN WORLD by Tom Tomorrow
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES
By Rob Brezsny. Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY HOROSCOPE 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700
$1.99 per minute. 18 and over. Touchtone phone required.
(MARCH 21-APRIL 19)
Many astrologers enjoy meditating on the heavenly body Chiron. With an orbit between Saturn and Uranus, it is an anomalous object that has qualities of both a comet and a minor planet. Its name is derived from a character in ancient Greek myth: the wisest teacher and healer of all the centaurs. Chiron is now in the sign of Aries and will be there for a while. Let’s invoke its symbolic power to inspire two quests in the coming months: 1. Seek a teacher who excites your love of life. 2. Seek a healer who alleviates any hurts that interfere with your love of life.
TAURUS
(APRIL 20-MAY 20)
It’s high time for some high culture! You are in a phase to get rich benefits from reading Shakespeare, listening to Beethoven and enjoying paintings by Matisse and Picasso. You’d also benefit lavishly from communing with the work of virtuosos like Mozart, Michelangelo and novelist Haruki Murakami. However, I think you would garner even greater emotional treasures from reading Virginia Woolf, listening to Janelle Monáe’s music and enjoying Georgia O’Kee e’s paintings. For extra credit, get cozy with the books of Simone Weil, listen to Patti Smith’s music and see Frida Kahlo’s art. If you read between the lines here, you understand I’m telling you that the most excellent thing to do for your mental and spiritual health is to commune with brilliant women artists, writers and musicians.
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20)
The French phrase j'ajoute (translated as “I adjust”) is a chess term used when a player is about to adjust their pieces but does not yet intend to make a move. J'ajoute might be an apt motto for you to invoke in the coming days. You are not ready to make major shifts in the way you play the games you’re involved in, but it’s an excellent time to meditate on that prospect. You will gain clarity and refine your perspective if you tinker with and rearrange the overall look and feel of things.
CANCER
(JUNE 21-JULY 22)
“The Simpsons” animated show has been on TV for 34 seasons. Ten-year-old Bart Simpson is one of the stars. He is a mischievous rascal who’s ingenious in defying authority. Sometimes teachers catch him in his rebellious acts and punish him by making him write apologetic affirmations on the classroom blackboard. For example: “I will not strut around like I own the place. I will not obey the voices in my head. I will not express my feelings through chaos. I will not trade pants with others. I will not instigate revolution. I am not deliciously saucy. I cannot absolve sins. Hot dogs are not bookmarks.” In accordance with your unruly astrological omens, Cancerian, I authorize you to do things Bart said he wouldn’t do. You have a license to be deliciously saucy.
LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22)
Early in her career, Leo actor Lisa Kudrow endured disappointments. She auditioned for the TV show “Saturday Night Live” but wasn't chosen. She was cast as a main character in the TV show “Frasier” but was replaced during the filming of the pilot episode. A few months later, though, she landed a key role in the new TV show “Friends.” In retrospect, she was glad she got fired from “Frasier” so she could be available for “Friends.” “Frasier” was popular, but “Friends” was a super hit. Kudrow won numerous awards for her work on the show and rode her fame to a successful film career. Will there be a “Frasier” moment for you in the coming months, dear Leo? That's what I suspect. So, keep the faith.
VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22)
The coming weeks will be a good time to seek helpful clues and guidance from your nightly dreams. Take steps to remember them — maybe keep a pen and notebook next to your bed. Here are a few possible dream scenes and their meanings: 1. A dream of planting a tree means you're primed to begin a project that will grow for years; 2. A dream of riding in a spaceship suggests you yearn to make your future come more alive in your life; 3. A dream of taking a long trip
or standing on a mountaintop may signify you're ready to come to new conclusions about your life story. (PS: Even if you don’t have these specific dreams, the interpretations I o ered are still apt.)
LIBRA
(SEPT. 23-OCT. 22)
In reviewing the life work of neurologist and author Oliver Sacks, critic Patricia Holt said he marveled at how “average people not only adapt to injury and disease but also create something transcendent out of a condition others call disability.” Sacks specialized in collaborating with neurological patients who used their seeming debilitations “to uncover otherwise unknown resources and create lives of originality and innovation.” I bring this up, Libra, because I suspect that in the coming months, you will have extra power to turn your apparent weaknesses or liabilities into assets.
SCORPIO
(OCT. 23-NOV. 21)
It’s a mistake to believe we must ration our love as if we only have so much to o er. The fact is, the more love we give, the more we have available to give. As we tap into our deepest source of generosity, we discover we have greater reserves of it than we imagined. What I’ve just said is always true, but it’s especially apropos for you right now. You are in a phase when you can dramatically expand your understanding of how many blessings you have to dole out.
SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC.
21)
Home computers didn’t become common until the 1980s. During the previous decade, small start-up companies with adventurous experimenters did the grunt work that made the digital revolution possible. Many early adapters worked out of garages in the Silicon Valley area of Northern California. They preferred to devote their modest resources to the actual work rather than to fancy labs. I suspect the coming months will invite you to do something similar, Sagittarius: to be discerning about how you allocate your resources as you plan and implement your vigorous transformations.
CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN.
19)
I'm tempted to call this upcoming chapter of your life story "The Partial Conquest of Loneliness." Other good titles might be “Restoration of Degraded Treasure” or “Turning a Confusing Triumph into a Gratifying One” or “Replacing a Mediocre Kind of Strength with the Right Kind.” Can you guess I foresee an exciting and productive time for you in the coming weeks? To best prepare, drop as many expectations and assumptions as you can so you will be fully available for the novel and sometimes surprising opportunities. Life will o er you fresh perspectives.
AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18)
By 1582, the inexact old Julian calendar used by the Western world for 13 centuries was out of whack because it had no leap years. The spring equinox was occurring too early, on March 10. Pope Gregory commissioned scientists who devised a more accurate way to account for the passage of time. The problem was the new calendar needed a modification that required the day after Oct. 4 to be Oct. 15. Eleven days went missing — permanently. People were resentful and resistant, though eventually all of Europe made the conversion. In that spirit, Aquarius, I ask you to consider an adjustment that requires a shift in habits. It may be inconvenient at first, but will ultimately be good for you.
PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20)
Piscean novelist Peter De Vries wrote, "Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation — the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline." In the coming weeks, you Pisces folks will be skilled at weaving these modes as you practice what you love to do. You'll be a master of cultivating dynamic balance; a wizard of blending creativity and organization; a productive change-maker who fosters both structure and morale.
1926 W. Price St. Tucson AZ 85745
Hours: Mon - Fri 7:30am - 5:00pm Closed Sat & Sat *Any Questions Please Call All Metals, Scrap Cars, Clean Aluminum 35¢-60¢, Old Water Heaters, Dryers, Refrigerators, All Circuit Boards & All Computers/Parts. Also Non-Working Tablets, Laptops, Cell Phones & Home Electronics
Edited by Will Shortz
1 “Out!”
6 Area of a room, e.g.
10 Characters in the “Iliad”?
56 1995 alternative rock album by 59-Across that is one of the bestselling albums of all time 59 See 56-Across
15 2010 biodrama co-starring 18-Across
18 See 15-Across
19 Frustrated and be ing emotionally, in poker lingo
20 Skaggs of bluegrass fame
21 Trailblazing astronaut Jemison
22 Make, with “out”
23 Some daring ascents
Where orders come from 61 Actress Taylor-Joy of “The Queen’s Gambit” 62 “Peace”
25 1970s-‘80s TV character to whom the phrase “jumped the shark” originally referred
26 Barre who co-founded Pink Floyd
27 Floats
29 No good at all
30 Deems proper 32 Greek peak
33 Cousin of “Skol!”
35 Inspiration for van Gogh
37 Upset
41 Glowing signs
“I never knew!”
Existential question
Moriar ty who wrote “Nine Per fect Strangers”
38 Big source for entertainment news
Match points?
TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE
1 The Hawks of the N.C.A.A., familiarly 2 Alternative to smooth, at the grocer y 3 Back from vacation, say 4 Sweet Italian bubbly
5 Does drudger y, old-style 6 Go for a lap? 7 Form couples 8 Active volcano near Peru’s dormant Pichu Pichu 9 “Squawk on the Street” airer 10 “Just doing my job”
One that gives a hoot
Burns poem that opens “Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie”
Home of the only active diamond mine in the U.S.
Morally repulsive, in slang
Tallest freestanding structure in the Western Hemisphere
42 Ran over
PUZZLE
43 Not over the Internet, to a texter
46 Cardboard recycling unit
in the U.S.
14 Morally repulsive, in slang
47 Get slick, in a way
49 “I never knew!”
17 Star tled cr y 24 Misses
50 Existential question
16 Tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere
17 Startled cry 24 Misses
51 Moriarty who wrote “Nine Perfect Strangers”
25 Choreographer Bob
54 Match points?
28 “___ Nacht” (Christmas carol)
56 1995 alternative rock album by 59-Across that is one of the bestselling albums of all time
59 See 56-Across
29 Cut next to the ribs
60 Where orders come from
62 “Peace”
30 River spanned by the Pont Alexandre III
DOWN
25 Choreographer Bob
28 “___ Nacht” (Christmas carol)
That’s what you think!
29 Cut next to the ribs
30 River spanned by the Pont Alexandre III
“It was wor th a shot”
61 Actress Taylor-Joy of “The Queen’s Gambit”
31 Slipper y swimmers
31 Slippery swimmers
33 Genesee Brewery o ering
34 Ru ian
Classic arcade game in which players can be “on fire”
1 The Hawks of the N.C.A.A., familiarly
2 Alternative to smooth, at the grocery
Set on fire
3 Back from vacation, say
4 Sweet Italian bubbly
33 Genesee Brewer y offering
5 Does drudgery, old-style
Ruffian 36 Lighting of the Olympic flame, and others
6 Go for a lap?
7 Form couples
36 Lighting of the Olympic flame, and
That’s what you think!
“It was worth a shot”
Classic arcade game in which players can be “on fire”
Set on
Industry with lots to o er
___ Newman, author of “Heather Has Two Mommies”
Aunt, in Arequipa
Industr y with lots to offer 45 ___ Newman, author of “Heather Has Two Mommies”
8 Active volcano near Peru’s dormant Pichu Pichu
9 “Squawk on the Street” airer
10 “Just doing my job”
11 One that gives a hoot
12 Burns poem that opens “Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie”
13 Home of the only active diamond mine
BY JOE DEENEY
