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Archuleta brings holiday cheer to the Chandler Center

BY MADISON PERALES

GetOut Contributor

For “American Idol” alumnus David Archuleta, Christmas means spending time with family enjoying music.

He’ll bring that feeling to the Chandler Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 23, with “A Christmas with David Archuleta.”

“One thing I love is with my family, music was a big part of the holidays for us,” Archuleta said.

“Not just listening to it, but we would actually perform it and my mom would dress us up with the Santa Claus hats and go around and sing Christmas carols to the neighbors.”

Archuleta’s family is very musically inclined, so much so that Archuleta’s mother decided to teach the family a couple of the Jackson 5 Christmas songs.

“She taught us the choreography and everything,” Archuleta said. “We would perform those because there’s five of us siblings.”

Singing Christmas songs wasn’t Archuleta’s only fond memory. He recalled one of his favorite holiday traditions – one that’s a little unique.

“My mom carried out this tradition that my grandma started,” Archuleta said. “She would read ‘The Nativity’ with this fabric and she told little stories on it for kids.”

Archuleta has been in the public eye since he was 16 years old, when he appeared on season seven of “American Idol.” His angelic vocals garnered 44 million votes to make him the runner up behind David Cook. Soon thereafter, he released his first single, “Crush,” which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Three months later, Archuleta’s selftitled album went gold, selling more than 750,000 copies in the United States, and more than 900,000 copies worldwide.

After the COVID-19 restrictions, Archuleta is pleased to be back on stage, helping his fans celebrate the holidays. He admitAmerican Idol start David Archuleta will be presenting a special Christmas show at Chandler Arts Center this Thursday. (Special to GetOut)

ted the quarantine was hard on him. “At first I wondered, with pandemic life, what was going to happen,” Archuleta said. “It was kind of weird being home all the time, but because I live by myself, I felt like it was a needed time of introspection.

“I think I needed that time to look at myself and figure out what’s going on, particularly with all the therapy I was going through.”

Even though Archuleta now has a busy schedule, he found time to publish a children book based on one of his songs. “My Little Prayer.” It was released in October by Bushel & Peck Books.

“I always thought it would be cool to do a children’s book, I just never thought I would be able to do it,” Archuleta said. “But then my manager was like ‘Hey, why don’t you make ‘My Little Prayer’ a children’s book?’”

Excited about the prospect of it, Archuleta was ready to connect with a younger audience.

“I love reaching out to kids,” Archuleta said. “I love the way they see the world and their purity and curiosity. I thought it was a really cool opportunity to share that they can talk to God, be close with him and be able to teach them that with a visual like a book.”

Aside from that, he released the single “Beast,” which, he revealed, is about internal struggles. “I was finding that I didn’t have a healthy way of going about relationships,” Archuleta said. “It seems like every time I went through them, and got closer to someone, it felt like this monster would come out of me.”

On top of Archuleta’s new single and children’s book, he is looking forward to 2022 and his six-week, North American “OK, All Right” tour. It supports his album “Therapy Sessions.”

Although “OK, All Right” doesn’t hit Arizona, he’s looking forward to the holiday show.

“The liveliness that Arizonans tend to have makes it a really nice experience,” Archuleta said. “Some venues are really beautiful, but in the end, what makes the show is the connection you feel and that you feel like the audience is connecting to what you’re giving them. It’s always been a really wonderful connection with the Arizona audiences.” ■

If You Go...

What: “A Christmas with David Archuleta” Where: Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 23 Cost: Tickets start at $39.90 Info: chandlercenter.org

ACROSS

1 PC port 4 Roast VIPs 7 -- cheese dressing 8 Some tides 10 Coffee-break hr. 11 Mistakes in print 13 Mitch Hedberg and Margaret Cho, for two 16 Standard 17 Cybercommerce 18 To and -19 Greet 20 “Roots” author Haley 21 Racing shell 23 Red-tag events 25 Poker variety 26 $ dispensers 27 1040 org. 28 Mideast peninsula 30 Mimic 33 “Don’t slouch!” 36 Spud 37 Thin nails 38 Brick worker 39 Used car sites 40 Med. plan option 41 Away from WSW

DOWN

1 Of an arm bone 2 Writer O’Casey 3 Unfair treatment 4 “Thank you, Henri” 5 Yule tune 6 Pesky email 7 Alpha follower 8 Himalayan land 9 Repress 10 Recipe abbr. 12 Farm units 14 Gas co., for one 15 Boston team, for short 19 Paul Newman film 20 Gore and Franken 21 Vegas area 22 Convention 23 Luminary 24 Good-natured 25 Venus, to Serena 26 Playwright Chekhov 28 Tic 29 “Life -- short ...” 30 Marble type 31 Profs’ degrees 32 UFO crew 34 Hexagonal state 35 Press agent?

Sudoku

With JAN D’ATRI

GetOut Contributor

This chili has blazed its way to award status

Last weekend a host of local broadcasters came together for our annual Christmas concert to raise money for The House of Broadcasting. One year. our fundraising efforts helped to create the “House of Broadcasting Celebrity Media Cookbook.” It’s a treasure trove of great heirloom dishes by your local television and radio personalities.

One of the most delicious recipes in the book is an award-winning chili recipe from Jack Clifford, who created the iconic Food Network. (More than 20 years later, about 90 million people agree that Jack’s idea was a brilliant one and changed forever the way we view food.)

Jack’s scrumptious chili has won dozens of chili cookoff awards. It kicks you with five different spices and yet has a smooth-as-silk finish on your palate. This chili’s base is a combination of beef chunks, ground beef and pork with plenty of onions and garlic! So, grab a big pot and get cooking, just in time for “chili” evenings.

If you’d like a copy of the “House of Broadcasting Cookbook,” visit houseofbroadcasting.com

By the way, Jack used to say that the Department of Homeland Security had identified his chili as a WMID (weapon of mass indigestion). But I say Clifford’s chili is so good, it’s what the cowboys call MGS – mighty good sop! ■

Ingredients:

2 lbs stewing beef cut into half-inch cubes 2 lbs lean ground beef 1 lb ground pork 4 tablespoons vegetable oil Flour for coating meat 2 sweet yellow onions chopped 6 cloves of garlic finely chopped 6 tablespoons chili powder 3 tablespoons ground cumin 2 tablespoons red chili pepper flakes 1 tablespoon oregano flakes 1 tablespoons dried jalapeno, ground or flakes 6 beef bullion cubes dissolved in cup of hot water 1 (28 oz) can diced tomato 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste 28 ounces water 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1/2 cup sugar ½ cup corn flour mixed with water into a paste Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Dredge stewing beef in flour and brown all meat in large frying pan with oil. Sprinkle one half of the chili powder, cumin, oregano, pepper flakes and jalapeno powder over browning meat. In large Dutch oven or soup pot, add diced tomato, tomato paste, bullion, water, cider, sugar and remainder of spices.

Bring to boil then reduce heat to low. Sauté onions and garlic until soft and translucent and add to soup pot. Add spiced meat to pot. Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

Turn to simmer and cook for minimum 2 hours. Stir chili frequently so meat doesn’t stick to bottom of pot and burn. Add corn flour and water mixture to chili during the last thirty minutes if chili needs thickening.

Add salt and pepper to taste. (Stir pot especially during last half hour so flour doesn’t stick to bottom of pan.) Serve with heated beans, cheese, chopped green and red peppers, sour cream and flour tortillas. ■