Tucson Weekly, Dec. 16, 2021

CURRENTS: SPACE TELESCOPE SET TO LAUNCH

TUCSON

WEEKLY DECEMBER 16 - 22, 2021 • TUCSONWEEKLY.COM • FREE

SOUND CHECK

The Best Local Albums of the Year

By Jeff Gardner

TUCSON SALVAGE: Battling the Holiday Blues

MUSIC: Celebrating the Season with The Jons

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DECEMBER 16, 2021 | VOL. 36, NO. 50

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STAFF

CONTENTS

CURRENTS

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UA astronomers help NASA space telescope explore our universe’s past

TUCSON SALVAGE

Death, hope and happy holidays

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MUSIC

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Our 10 favorite albums out of Tucson this year

CHOW

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ADMINISTRATION Steve T. Strickbine, Publisher Michael Hiatt, Vice President

EDITOR’S NOTE

Jaime Hood, General Manager, jaime@tucsonlocalmedia.com

Do you hear what I hear?

THIS TOWN IS FULL OF TALENTED musicians, even if COVID has made it challenging for them to find a spot to perform and limited the number of people who are willing to go out and see a show. Still, many of them have taken advantage of the downtime of record new albums. This week, managing editor Jeff Gardner rounds up 10 terrific albums across a range of genres that were released in 2021. If you’re still looking for a present for the music lover in your life, consider supporting a local artist and checking another box on your gift-giving list.

Jeff does double duty this week. Besides sounding off on local music, he catches up to the UA astronomers who are working on the James E. Webb Space Telescope, which is set to launch next week. It’s another major milestone for the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Lab, which has been in the space biz from the birth of NASA. Elsewhere in the book this week: Staff reporter Alexandra Pere informs us that hospitals continue to fill up with COVID patients (so if you haven’t been vaccinated or gotten a booster, now’s the time); columnist Tom Danehy explains why

Tyler Vondrak, Associate Publisher, tyler@tucsonlocalmedia.com Claudine Sowards, Accounting, claudine@tucsonlocalmedia.com

Attorney General Mark Brnovich has disgraced himself so thoroughly that he no longer deserves your vote; Tucson Salvage columnist Brian Smith fights off the holiday blues; Chow contributor Matt Russell gets a taste of some holiday cocktails downtown; music writer Matthew Singer catches up with The Jons ahead of their holiday show this weekend at downtown’s Rialto Theatre; XOXO columnist Xavier Omar Otero fills you in on the various live acts you can catch this week; Tucson Weedly columnist David Abbott tells you about how one local dispensary is going solar (and the crazy amount of energy involved in cannabis farming nationwide); calendar editor Emily Dieckman is full of ways to celebrate the season; and there are more fun diversions scattered throughout the book for your reading pleasure.

Jim Nintzel Executive Editor Hear Nintz talk about all things Tucson Weekly at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday mornings during the world-famous Frank Show on KLPX, 96.1 FM.

RANDOM SHOTS By Rand Carlson

Downtown cocktail lounges aim to make the season bright

Sheryl Kocher, Receptionist, sheryl@tucsonlocalmedia.com EDITORIAL Jim Nintzel, Executive Editor, jimn@tucsonlocalmedia.com Jeff Gardner, Managing Editor, jeff@tucsonlocalmedia.com Mike Truelsen, Web Editor, mike@tucsonlocalmedia.com Alexandra Pere, Staff Reporter, apere@timespublications.com Contributors: David Abbott, Rob Brezsny, Max Cannon, Rand Carlson, Tom Danehy, Emily Dieckman, Bob Grimm, Andy Mosier, Linda Ray, Margaret Regan, Will Shortz, Jen Sorensen, Clay Jones, Dan Savage PRODUCTION Courtney Oldham, Production Manager, tucsonproduction@timespublications.com Ryan Dyson, Graphic Designer, ryand@tucsonlocalmedia.com Emily Filener, Graphic Designer, emilyf@tucsonlocalmedia.com CIRCULATION Alex Carrasco, Circulation, alexc@tucsonlocalmedia.com ADVERTISING TLMSales@TucsonLocalMedia.com Kristin Chester, Account Executive, kristin@tucsonlocalmedia.com Candace Murray, Account Executive, candace@tucsonlocalmedia.com Lisa Hopper, Account Executive, lisa@tucsonlocalmedia.com NATIONAL ADVERTISING Zac Reynolds Director of National Advertising Zac@TimesPublications.com Tucson Weekly® is published every Thursday by Times Media Group at 7225 N. Mona Lisa Rd., Ste. 125, Tucson, Arizona. Address all editorial, business and production correspondence to: Tucson Weekly, 7225 N. Mona Lisa Rd., Ste. 125, Tucson, Arizona 85741. Phone: (520) 797-4384, FAX (520) 575-8891. Member of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN). The Tucson Weekly® and Best of Tucson® are registered trademarks of Times Media Group. Publisher has the right to refuse any advertisement at his or her discretion.

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CURRENTS

TAKE A GANDER UP THERE UA Astronomers Help NASA Space Telescope Explore Universe’s Past

By Jeff Gardner jeff@tucsonlocalmedia.com

missions for decades.

For the JWST, each will work with hightech infrared imaging devices: Marcia on the telescope’s near-infrared camera, and A HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM OF George on the telescope’s mid-infrared University of Arizona professors and their camera. Both instruments observe infrared research group are part of an international radiation to collect data on planets in distant group of scientists working on NASA’s new solar systems.

James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch “This will provide by far the sharpest on Dec. 22. and deepest view of the infrared universe,” The JWST is planned to succeed the George said. “In terms of astronomy, this Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship really is a big benchmark.” astrophysics mission, and will be able to The JWST, with initial development observe some of the oldest and most remote dating back to 1996, stretches roughly 70 objects in the universe. George Rieke, UA feet and 45 feet with an estimated cost of $10 Regents Professor of Astronomy, describes billion. It is planned to launch from French the mission as “perhaps the most ambitious Guiana in South America on Dec. 22. astronomy project human beings have Because of its focus on visible and done.” infrared light, as well as wielding a far larger George and Marcia Rieke, both UA mirror, the JWST will be able to observe Regents Professors of Astronomy, have objects too distant for Hubble to detect. worked with infrared astronomy and NASA

ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF NASA / UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

An artist’s impression of what the James Webb Space Telescope will look like in space.

The telescope’s massive mirror is seen on top made out of 18 hexagonal sections.

Tucson’s involvement on the project is only natural, as the field of infrared astronomy more-or-less began in the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, according to George. Some infrared astronomy observations were conducted in the 1920s, but

he explains the field of research didn’t fully kick in until the 1960s with researchers in Tucson.

“The university really led the whole world in infrared astronomy. We’ve had a central role in all kinds of things,” George said.

DECEMBER 16, 2021

“Infrared astronomy started here with Gerard Kuiper’s 61-inch telescope on Mount Lemmon. The problem with doing it from the ground is the telescope is warm, so it’s pouring out infrared photons and you can’t cool it down because water would condense on it. So going to space is really critical because it’s a vacuum where you can cool the telescope down.”

Over George’s career, infrared telescopes have advanced from containing single sensors to millions of sensors. He also previously worked on NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, which launched in 2003 and retired last year.

“Space infrared telescopes have always been small, less than a yard in aperture.

And that has to do with what was thought to be constraints on how to get them cold,” George said. “But the big advancement with JWST, as demonstrated by Spitzer, is you can let it cool down by radiating its heat into space. JWST is taking advantage of that by giving us a telescope that is 21 feet, instead of less than three feet. That’s why it’s such a technical marvel.”

This will allow JWST to be far more sensitive than previous space telescopes, with imaging capabilities six to seven times sharper than Spitzer’s.

“The Hubble and Spitzer Space Tele-

scopes revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos,” Marcia said in a UA press release. “But with Webb, we’ll be able to probe galaxies much closer to the Big Bang than ever before. We can currently see galaxies back to 500 to 600 million years post-Big Bang, nearly 13 billion years ago. And even though the universe was so young at that time, the things we see still look pretty familiar—lots of stars have formed, there are supermassive black holes, quasars and so on. However, logic dictates that at some point during the first few hundred million years, these familiar-looking objects must have come from somewhere and evolved…

After all, galaxies don’t spring up from nothing, virtually overnight.”

Although both of the Riekes are working on the project, George says there is no sense of competition between the two. After submitting their proposals for the project, he can recall Marcia receiving a phone call of acceptance and shouting joyously down the hall. Then his phone rang with similar news.

“These projects are so big and complicated that competition is generally destructive,” George said.

The telescope’s massive 21-foot diameter presents a unique problem for space launch, as it is too wide to fit into the nose

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PHOTO BY ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE ON FLICKR

James Webb Space Telescope being driven to Guiana Space Centre from the port. It was shipped from California, through the Panama Canal, to French Guiana, where it will launch.

cone of a rocket. To account for this, the JWST will fold up like an umbrella to fit inside the rocket. According to UA, once in space, the telescope will unfold and its instruments will be checked and calibrated, with the telescope’s mirror adjusted to optical perfection. This will happen during a six-month period, after which the telescope will be a million miles from Earth. This

point in space will allow the JWST to fly effortlessly with the Earth around the sun, making it possible for the telescope to radio its huge amount of data back to Earth.

“The history of real scientific discoveries is that you can’t predict what they’ll be,” George said. “So I hope the astronomical community uses JWST to discover things we’ve never dreamt of.” ■

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to avoid more shutdowns and more pressure on hospitals, according to Cullen, who said people who are vaccinated protect themselves, their families and their communities.

Omicron found in Arizona as health officials again urge people to get vaccinated “While it is not the only way out of this pandemic, it is an essential component for us to be able to move forward and to start recovering,” Cullen said.

By Alexandra Pere to receive vaccinations or booster shots The Arizona Department of Helath apere@tucsonlocalmedia.com if they have already gotten vaccinated.

Services (ADHS) recently released a Pfizer-BioNTech released preliminary study showing that unvaccinated Arizoresults from a non-peer reviewed study nans from July to October were 3.9 times THE LATEST COVID VARIANT, showing the Pfizer COVID-19 two-dose more likely to test positive for COVID-19 Omicron, was detected in Arizona last vaccination series will somewhat neutral- and were 15.2 times more likely to die week and health care experts predict it’s ize the Omicron variant, but three doses from COVID-19 compared to fully vaccijust a matter of time before the more con- is most effective. nated people. tagious coronavirus strain is widespread.

“I think that this finding from Pfizer Vaccinations reduce the need for hosThe Arizona Department of Health should be reassuring and should reaffirm pitalizations by reducing the likelihood Services and Yavapai County Communi- to people how important it is for them to of severe COVID symptoms, something ty Health Services confirmed Arizona’s get a booster and if they are not vaccithat is desperately needed as intensive first known case of the COVID-19 Ominated to please seek vaccination as soon care unit beds decrease in availability. cron variant on Dec. 8. as possible, especially with the holiCullen said last week that only 2% of Although some initial data from the days coming up,” Pima County Health ICU beds were available in Pima County.

South African Medical Research Council Department Director Dr. Theresa Cullen “We had the most ICU beds in use by indicates the Omicron variant may have said during a Dec. 8 press conference.

COVID positive patients yesterday since less severe symptoms than previous muAs scientists race to understand Omi- Feb. 7,” Cullen said. tations, health officials advise the public cron, the vaccines are the best option She said the county’s ongoing free

CURRENTS

OH MY CRON

vaccine clinics at the Tucson Convention Center had large turnouts for vaccinations, including long waiting lines. She added that more people were looking for vaccine shots at the Abrams Health Center.

DELTA WAVE CONTINUES WHILE OMICRON IS ON THE horizon, Arizona continues to wrestle with the ongoing Delta wave. The virus remains widespread in Arizona.

Epidemiologist Dr. Joe Gerald, a professor in the UA Zuckerman School of Public Health who has been tracking COVID cases since the virus first arrived in Arizona, reported that as of the week ending Dec. 5, Arizona saw a rate of 404 new COVID cases per 100,000, “the highest level since late January 2021.”

Gerald noted that cases are increasing among older, highly vaccinated groups, suggesting that as people continue to let down their guard against the coronavirus and immunity wanes among those who do not get a booster shot, more

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DECEMBER 16, 2021

cases and hospitalizations could be on the horizon.

“In general, transmission will likely increase in fits-and-starts through the holidays before gradually subsiding in early 2022,” Gerald predicted. “However, the Omicron variant may cause cases to rise late January 2022.”

Statewide, Gerald noted that as of Dec. 9, 2,770 of Arizona’s 8,812 general ward beds were occupied by COVID patients, a 2% jump from the previous week. Only 392 beds remained available statewide. Likewise, the number of COVID patients in ICU beds continued to climb. A full 40% of Arizona’s 1,770 ICU beds were occupied by COVID patients, a jump of 9% from the previous week. Only 86 ICU beds were available statewide.

A total of 23,040 Arizonans have died after contracting COVID, including 2,984 people in Pima County.

TESTING THE PIMA COUNTY BOARD OF Supervisors unanimously voted to di-

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vert $3 million from the American Rescue Plan Act Fund on Dec. 7 to fund the county’s COVID-19 testing program.

“We expect our Liberty site that Paradigm supports to open up, so it will be available Monday through Saturday,” Cullen said. “We also expect our downtown site supported by Paradigm to expand.”

Pima County offers free COVID-19 antigen rapid tests and PCR tests at the Ellie Towne Center, Tucson Electric Power’s downtown office, and Liberty Plaza. County officials plan to extend hours at all locations.

The county will also continue to provide free BinaxNOW at-home self-test kits at all Pima County public libraries. Kits will also be provided at the Abrams Public Health Center, 3950 S. County Club Road, on Dec. 17 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. ■ Find out details about the public library and their hours: pima.bibliocommons.com/locations

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DANEHY

HERE ARE A FEW REASONS TO VOTE AGAINST MARK BRNOVICH FOR U.S. SENATE— OR ANY OTHER OFFICE

By Tom Danehy, tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com

A FEW WEEKS BACK, THIS publication did its civic duty by letting everyone know why voting for Mark Finchem for Arizona Secretary of State would be dumber than wearing gasoline underwear to a bonfire. Equally stupid (if, admittedly, slightly less dangerous to Arizonans and democracy) would be allowing Mark Brnovich to hold any elected position whatsoever.

Arizona’s Attorney General Brnovich is, if anything, even more vile and craven than Finchem. He recently tried to give people a Get Out of Jail Free card. Brno (as his campaign website refers to him) has the warm, trembling thighs for Mark Kelly’s Senate seat and he is willing to shed his last bits of decency and ethics in his pursuit thereof.

Just in the past year, he has been on the wrong side of America too many times to count. He wants to help keep people who don’t look like him from voting. He tried to lend legal aid and support for the ridiculously embarrassing (and probably criminal) “audit.” And then he asked the Arizona Supreme Court if it was OK to break the law…but just that one time.

CLAYTOONZ By Clay Jones

During this past legislative session, the Arizona House and Senate were so busy trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to make sure that darkskinned people don’t get to have such a robust electoral voice in the future, they ran out of the time they needed to stick their noses into the way municipalities and school districts choose to protect their respective constituencies.

The We Hate Democracy Caucus of the Arizona State Legislature, their collective chonies in a bunch, decided that they wanted to partner with the virus that will have killed a million Americans before it’s done.

But they were unable to get an anti-mandate bill through the legislative session in time, so they tacked it onto a spending bill. This, of course, is illegal. They knew it and they knew the courts knew it. They just hoped that, with so much other nonsense going on, nobody in the real world would notice.

Well, somebody did, they took it to court and it was quickly determined to be unconstitutional. It then went before the Arizona Supreme Court, where the uncon-

stitutionality would be chiseled in stone.

But Brnovich, seeing an opportunity to do a little political grandstanding, jumped into the fray anyway. His “argument” was two pronged. First, he argued—with all the bluster of a fourth-grade bully—that, despite whatever the Constitution says, the attempt to ban all local mask mandates is not unconstitutional because it fits into a particular political narrative.

Let’s assume that at one time in his life, Brnovich was both able and willing to read and he knows what is in the Arizona Constitution he has sworn to uphold. So he throws out the BS to appeal to the School Board Meeting screamers, knowing full well that what he is spewing is, indeed, S of B. (And don’t you just love those aforementioned screamers? They’re too busy to help their poor kids with their homework but have all the time in the world to disrupt school board meetings with vulgar displays of scientific illiteracy and boneheaded selfishness.)

Anyway, so after the Court tells Brnovich what he already knows, he comes with Phase Two of his asinine argument, that being, “Sure, we all know that it’s unconstitutional, but why don’t you let the Legislature break the law this one time if they promise that they’ll never do it again?”

Yes Folks, this from the top law-enforcement official in the entire state!

Just imagine how this could become part of the fabric of Arizona. Yes Officer, I know I was going 55 in a school zone, but it’s the first and only time I’ve ever done it. So just

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let me go and I’ll never, ever do it again.

Or: Yes, I knew that robbing a bank was against the law, but I want to exercise my Brnovich Exception rights.

Every chance he gets, Brnovich talks about how his parents were immigrants to America. That’s cool, I guess, (mine were, too) but then he turns around and pisses all over the rights of people whose ancestors were here 1,000 years before Brno’s folks found their way to the Valley of the Sun. Consider: Only 18% of Native Americans in rural Arizona counties have home mail delivery (compared to 86% of white residents in those same counties). For many Natives, it can be up to a two-hour drive to the nearest post office to pick up and send mail. Compounding things further is the fact that as many as 40% of all households on the reservation don’t have access to a vehicle. Having someone pick up the ballots and deliver them to a polling place was a practice that went back almost to the first time Natives were allowed to vote, in 1948.

(Yes, nearly 100 years after African-Americans and 30 years after women won the right to vote.)

And yet, with absolutely no evidence of any voting irregularities whatsoever, Brnovich and his Caucasian Cabal convinced the Trump Supreme Court to take the vote away from Indians.

This is not who we want in the United States Senate (which, admittedly, has become an embarrassing and useless institution).

I don’t even want him in Arizona. ■

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DECEMBER 16, 2021

Story & photos by Brian Smith

Death, Hope and Happy Holidays A FEW HOURS EARLIER THEY walked slowly through our neighborhood, Mama pushing Rickie in a stroller while clutching baby Zuzu tight to her breast, humming a tender lullaby, a canciones de cuna. The song drifts, I hear it almost a block away before they come into my view. Eight-year-old Reece astride, stepping aimlessly in flip-flops, a kid of curious disruption now quiet, I can almost see his mind gathering steam off things around him, the spiky rock formations and winter blooms of desert flora, a dead lizard.

A few hours later, the children and the Mama are asleep in the house, the four heartbeats and tender exhales. It is a

dead quiet, dark December night out on our patio and, whatever little orchestrations of the evening get clouded in sadness. Those moments when fragility of being here at all haunts, and soon bites you on the ass. The moments keep you frozen, nice and chilly and about dead, the slab next to the one of your dreams of dying. Some recalled euphoria lifts for a moment, the flicker of woolly Christmas lights camouflaged by palo verde trees in the distance, my daughter’s red Radio Flyer trike parked at my knees, gentle pings of the wind chime and swish of the giant eucalyptus tree in the moon-cast shadows.

The old bluebird of depression, my

cohort since early childhood, hangs around in the back of the head lifting weights in all the sweet, tender and good moments, always there, keeping strong, threatening the sickening squawks and flaps. When he comes alive, he inevitably cancels out whole days and even weeks, a formidable inertia. You can have everything but the bluebird tricks you into thinking it’s nothing.

I know well the couches of mind scholars, the prescribed pills, have considered electroconvulsive (shock) therapy, but can never go back to the liquor stores and street scores. Children push worst options off the table, as an old soul brother with kids would always tell me, before he died too young around this time last year of an

unexpected ailment.

What better lazy, temporary remedy than a phone screen, so easy to indulge the magnetic circular sadness or the ugliness of the cultural milieu. It all curves in on itself. I’d been following Tucson news reports of a 6-year-old girl, Emory Conway, who got hit by a pickup truck crossing Fort Lowell Road. She died shortly after in the hospital. It was one of those heart-free, hastily pieced together news items offering nothing of the essence of the girl. Just her name and that she was dead. There was nothing to decipher, yet everything left to imagine, the between-the-lines: Did she have a mother and father who loved her, did she dance, do her favorite songs live in worlds involving panda bears and unicorns, did she collect dead

DECEMBER 16, 2021

butterflies in a wooden box? What about her friends at school and the other little lives growing beside her. I choose to believe she was loved, and somewhere folks are devastated.

I imagine the girl estimating her time to dart across the street, her little growing bones crushed against rushing metal. I know too well how children fly at unexpected moments, foreshadowing, or initiating, horrific accidents, and I don’t know any of the circumstances with this young girl, but for the love of whatever God, couldn’t an older person have piloted her across a busy street?

This all on the heels of the highschool shooting outside Detroit, teen Ethan Crumbley murdering kids. I lived walking distance from that old Albert Kahn building in Detroit where the parents, Jennifer and James Crumbley, were captured hiding from cops. It’s a block or two from the Detroit River, the other side of which is Windsor, Canada.

I had a friend who once rowed the few hundred yards to the Canadian shore in a small boat. So, mom and dad wouldn’t have been allowed in Canada legally without proof of vaccination, or if wanted by police. They would have been

forced to enter—as one Facebook friend points out—as undocumented immigrants; what a right-wing-nationalist karma bitch.

Those wretched Crumbley parents.

The deadbeat dad and Karen mom (read the worshipful gun-loving valentines to her personal messiah Trump) and their macho social-media swagger, which involved the semiautomatic murder weapon Christmas gift they purchased for their son. They ran and hid, showed no remorse for the dead children, crying instead for their own culpability.

Along the lines of Crumbley-class parenting, I scroll further and see “congresswoman” Lauren Boebert revealing her patented outhouse-quality humanity in a holiday pic depicting her children as posable MAGA action figures, wielding assault rifles around a Christmas tree. Yeah, kinda what Jesus had in mind for a B-day celebration.

Is it any wonder? And I can only wish well one of those like-minded true patriots for recently infecting my family with COVID. The bluebird flaps to the surface. In this moment, I’m overwhelmed, guts hiccup indecipherable sadnesses, and all

I can do is weep. I want to head in and hug my children, and dream of them flying into better worlds where they can forever remain immune to any desolate suspensions of their impending selves.

The little bluebird does not live in Mama’s head. She does not move in what can feel like a dispirited twilight of pharmaceutical waketime, as if she lived a whole life minus the great abstract aloneness and the terrors,

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which is not at all the case. She’ll goes lengths to address specific kindnesses this month, which feels more and more like a bubble in the world. She’ll pull from other beliefs between us for the holidays, a Hanukkah menorah and nights of games and gifts and little teachings, Kwanzaa and winter solstice, leanings toward a Bodhisattva, and a live Christmas tree, alongside Alvin & the Chipmunks Christmas tunes and “I Have a Little Dreidel,” which log into my brain; kitsch and a kind of spirituality meet to simply celebrate light in darkness, and acceptance, and how grateful she is that we are alive and well. How kindness doesn’t belong in a bubble.

My work now is to hang the Christmas lights and finish assembling and plug in the light-up Minnie Mouse with the tilted green stocking, which still sticks headless out of its box in our driveway, bemusing the children. I will force myself to love every second of it, that light, because I know these are the days and the nights. And two-year-old Rickie Rose will see her lighted world and run and yelp, “papa, papa!” ■

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songs. As the album title implies, it’s a spacey and hushed collection of music, with bright points keeping the album from being too brooding. Although it is technically a break-up album, Asphalt Astronaut sidesteps conventional topics by singing about mythological creatures and the night sky. Andromeda is heavy on atmosphere, with most songs soaked in reverb and floating instrumentals, but it never gets in the way of storytelling or Asphalt Astronaut’s gentle vocal delivery.

MUSIC

DESERT DISCS

Our 10 Favorite Tucson Albums from 2021

By Jeff Gardner jeff@tucsonlocalmedia.com ELECTRONIC. HIP-HOP. AMBIENT. Metal. Tucson artists always manage to explore beyond the dusty musical confines listeners may expect from “the Old Pueblo.” And this year is no exception. If any artistic good did come from the pandemic, it’s that creators had plenty of time to focus on and explore their craft. The albums out of Tucson this year certainly reflect that, with songs about isolation and uncertainty. But for every one of those, there was another song demanding perseverance and collaboration. Our favorite albums to come out of Tucson this year (ranked in no particular order) reminded us just how intertwined music is with community—and got us excited to see some of these musicians performing live once again.

XIXA Genesis Psychedelic desert rock group XIXA doubled down on their style for Genesis, mixing cumbia and tejano and Gothic aesthetics for a unique borderlands blend. With philosophical and alchemical references throughout, Genesis attempts to distill the mystery and power of the Sonoran Desert, but never loses any of the fun or energy that made XIXA’s previous music so engaging. Tracks like “Soma” and “Eve of Agnes” are further bolstered thanks to guest appearances from an international roster of musicians. Combine their hypnotic percussion and guitars with Brian Lopez and Gabriel Sullivan’s smoky vocals, and you have a wonderful replication of dancing in the dark desert.

Karima Walker Waking the Dreaming Body Recorded in a makeshift home studio, Karima Walker’s delicate combination of ambient and folk is a warm kind of lonely.

The aptly named Waking the Dreaming Body sees Walker spilling out her heart over sparse guitar and piano, with tender poetry in her lyrics. The songs often give way to vast ambient stretches that manage to feel equally important, as if Walker is ruminating on how to continue the album’s thread. She explained that during recording sessions, she found herself “thinking about the mirroring that happens when you seek connection to others and to the natural world—when you try to bring the outside in.” Rarely does something so touching feel so ready to come apart in your hands, granting credence to that old study claiming the human soul weighs less than a pound.

Mute Swan Only Ever

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Mute Swan is the kind of band that makes you wonder why you don’t go out to more live music. Their heavy yet dreamy style of rock certainly has stage presence, but their new album Only Ever also manages to capture that massive sound. The album opens with steady drums and shimmering guitar, which slowly builds into a mellow jam that still manages to feel all-encompassing. The distant, airy vocals and layers of guitar pedals add a surreal backdrop for the central melodies to billow on top of. Only Ever wins this year’s award for sounding like you’re afloat in a silver cloud, with the occasional lightning bolt.

Asphalt Astronaut Andromeda For her second album, Asphalt Astronaut moves away from folk in exchange for a collection of dark, ambient pop

Glacier.WAV Glacier.WAV Yes, there is more music coming out of Tucson than that particular strain of desert folk-rock we know so well. Electronic duo Glacier.WAV debuted this year with an entrancing blend of 80s synth and dreamy indie vocals. However, their debut album is more than an exercise in nostalgia. The entire project is built around modern anxieties, and examines how issues like social isolation and climate change can compound each other. The punchy production reflects the diverse lyrical subjects, with songs where whirling analog synthesizers give way to ominous post-rock passages. Frank Anzaldua and Jaime J. Soto created one of Tucson’s most danceable yet thoughtful musical projects of the year.

Desert Fantasy Donde Duermes This playful collection of tributes to the Tucson landscape atones for the countless sterile beat tapes to be found online.

Yes, the songs are instrumental and built around percussion, but there’s not a moment where they feel lacking or underdeveloped. Donde Duermes is a dense yet groovy series of compositions inspired by desert sights, with songs like “Dark Side of the Dune,” “Ocotillo Wand,” and “Arroyo Seco.” The songs may start with a new-agey drum foundation, but they mix in swirling synthesizers, acoustic strings, marimba and more. This makes for a rich sonic palette that jumps everywhere from cumbia to funk to EDM to ambient as gorgeous as the desert sunrise.

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Editor’s Note: While we are delighted to see Tucsonans once again gathering for fun events, we are also aware that the Delta variant is in widespread circulation. Please consider getting vaccinated against COVID if you haven’t yet.

Holiday Bazaar in the Mercado District.

We don’t want to say it’s time to start panicking, but it is definitely time to start prioritizing your holiday shopping if you have people to get Christmas gifts for. But even if you don’t have shopping to do, a day in the Mercado District is always pleasantly spent. Wander aisles of more than 60 local makers, artists and collectors, get a snack from Churos Inzunza, and even watch Compañia de Danza Folklorica Arizona perform at 2 p.m. on Sunday. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17, and Saturday, Dec. 18. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19. 100 S. Avenida Del Convento. Free.

The Old Pueblo Holiday Radio Show.

Oh, talk about a classic. This old-fashioned variety show is taped to broadcast on 89.1 on Christmas Eve, but you get the chance to see it in person. Produced and hosted by David Fitzsimmons, the show also features Brian Lopez, Marty Bishop, Crystal Stark, Katherine Byrnes and more. Your tickets benefit a dozen different local nonprofits, including the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, AZPM & Emerge Domestic Violence Shelter—which the Arroyo Café Players have dubbed “The 12 Causes of Christmas.” God bless ’em, every one! Doors at noon and show at 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19.

Rialto Theatre, 318 E. Congress St. $20.

Wilde Meyer Gallery Holiday Party. If you’ve got the type of budget where you’re considering buying your loved ones original pieces of fine artwork as holiday gifts, this event really isn’t to be missed.

It’s a great chance to see works by artists like Sue Goldsand, Peggy McGivern, Lance Green, Pamela Ambrosio and Kate Dardine in person. But even if that’s not you—if you’re, for example, someone who just likes being around art—you’ll still enjoy this lovely reception with good cheer and live harp music by Vanessa Myers. 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18. Wilde Meyer Gallery, 2890 E. Skyline Drive, suite 170.

Sim Shalom, Grant Peace. If you missed the music of the Arizona Repertory Singers last weekend, you can still catch them this weekend! They’ll be singing in Hebrew, Norwegian, Spanish, Irish, Latin, Italian and English, with every song embodying the sense of serenity and celebration we all need right now. You’ll hear everything from contemplative Renaissance-era music to compositions by 20th century composers. You’ll also hear two renditions, back to back, of “Quem vidistis, pastores.” One was arranged in the 16th century, and one in the 20th! 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 17, at St. Albans Episcopal Church, 3738 N. Sabino Canyon Road. 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 19, at Christ Church United Methodist, 655 N. Craycroft Road.

by Emily Dieckman 16th Annual Holiday Express. There’s something kind of festive about trains, right? Or maybe there’s just something festive about old-fashioned looking trains, which remind us of a simpler time. Or, maybe, like anything else, a train just looks festive when it’s covered in twinkly Christmas lights. All this to say, the Historic Depot is hosting Santa Claus himself this weekend, so you can get a photo with him in front of Locomotive 1673. You can also browse the museum’s bilingual exhibits, write a letter to Santa at the North Pole, hear a reading of the Polar Express and sing some holiday songs. You can even climb into the cab of the train! Be sure to check out the gift shop and arts and craft show while you’re there. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18. Historic AMTRAK Tucson Train Depot, 414 N. Toole. Free.

ZUZI! Dance Solstice Showcase Performance. It’s hard to believe it’s already the Winter Solstice when it feels like just yesterday it was still January. Of 2020. From here on out, the days will get longer and lighter, and if that doesn’t make you feel a little bit hopeful for what’s to come, then what will? In this show, ZUZI! Dancers of all ages (7 to 72) and abilities will be moving and growing together, building on the company’s creating community via a multitude of perspectives. This year’s theme is focused on the role movement artists play in restoring harmony in their own lives and the lives of others. 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 21. Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre, 738 N. Fifth Ave. $20 GA $15 senior/student/military.

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Jane Hamilton Fine Art Holiday Party.

You can’t spell “party” without “ART!” So head over to this lovely local gallery to hang out with artists and their work in an atmosphere full of holiday cheer. Artist and musician Doug Shelton will be providing live music, and there will be plenty to sip and nibble on. Perhaps best of all is that they’ll be celebrating the season with their wall of miniatures, which make wonderfully unique gifts for your loved ones. 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18. Jane Hamilton Fine Art, 2890 E. Skyline Drive, suite 180.

Midnight at MOCA. Come celebrate the winter solstice a little bit early at MOCA this weekend, because Saturdays are for staying up late. There will be an interactive lecture by astronomer Amy Oliver, a poetry reading by Javier Zamora and an ambient music set by Karima Walker. Plus, the galleries will be open until midnight, so you can get a special after-hours experience with the exhibits.

Come celebrate art in its many forms and look ahead to longer, brighter days.

6 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, Dec. 18.

Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art, 265 S. Church Ave. $15 GA, $10 MOCA members and Clifton guests.

Zoo Lights. If you’ve seen the Zoo Lights, you love the Zoo Lights. And if you haven’t seen ’em yet, you will! These evenings at Reid Park Zoo feature falling snow, visits with Santa, yummy treats, and hot chocolate with or without spirit.

You can stroll through the grounds to see thousands of glowing lights and lighted animal displays. Plus, new entertainment each week that makes it a different experience each time. Here are some of this week’s special offerings: Tucson High Magnet Schools A Capella Group on Thursday, Desert Dance Collective on Friday, a holiday shopping bazaar on Saturday and Sunday, Desert Harmony on Monday, Tucson Twist-Its on Tuesday, and the bazaar again on Wednesday. 6 to 8 p.m. nightly through Dec. 23, then Dec. 26-30 (though Santa’s last day is Dec. 23). Reid Park Zoo, 3400 Zoo Court. $11 GA, $9 seniors, $7 kids 2 to 14.

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Santa’s Peanut Butter Cookies is a cocktail whipped up with peanut butter whiskey, a chocolate liqueur, and cream.

It’s shaken with enthusiasm to produce a festive froth and poured over ice in a rocks glass.

Downtown cocktail lounges aim to make the season bright “We see a lot of cream-based cocktails during the holidays, like eggnog and White Russians, and we just wanted to be a little different with ours,” he said.

By Matt Russell said Gonzales, manager of HUB, 266 E. A short sleighride up the street from tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com Congress Street.

HUB, the Good Oak Bar is also celebratHis Winter Sangria is a reimagined ing the holidays in a spirituous way with GETTING INTO THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT version of the popular Spanish sipper, two cocktails exhibiting the fragrance is something that the managers of two using the warming spices of mulled wine and flavors of winter. downtown lounges have done quite as a new twist.

“I’m always trying to tap into the idea literally with the holly jolly season now in He starts by making a warm mulled of showcasing the seasons, whether it’s full swing. wine with cinnamon, orange peel, sugar, spring, summer, fall, or winter, and incorThe weather certainly doesn’t have to and cloves. It’s then chilled and poured porating flavors that connect our guests be frightful to enjoy a delightful seasonal over ice, with a splash of Port wine, in a with those seasons,” said Tim Walsh, bar drink, and at HUB Restaurant and Ice wine glass with a sugared rim. manager at the Good Oak Bar, 316 E. Creamery, manager Armando Gonzales “The Port brings a little raison flavor Congress Street. “At the same time, I’m says his new holiday-inspired libations to this cocktail which adds even more of also trying to do something different and were based on his team’s desire to bring a holiday flavor profile,” he said. be as original as possible.” some festivity to downtown.

Another one of HUB’s holiday drinks An example of this approach with the “These cocktails are built on the is a nutty variation on the creamy cockholidays as a backdrop is Walsh’s Gin season’s traditions of getting together tail theme inspired by two of Gonzales’ Toddy, with the botanical spirit infused with family and friends and the warm favorite things, whiskey and peanut with cranberries, pears, and orange peel. feeling that we get from festive flavors,” butter cookies.

After a month-long steep, it’s mixed with a viscous blend of local honey, lemons, and sugar, poured into a glass mug with hot water, and garnished with an orange peel-wrapped cinnamon stick.

Because gin is most definitely in at the Good Oak, it got Walsh’s nod for another cocktail that makes the season bright: the North Star.

In this recipe, the gin is infused with turmeric, lemon, ginger, and apple and combined with cinnamon-infused coconut milk and a citrus juice preserve. It’s then shaken over ice and strained into an Old Fashioned glass housing a large ice

CHOW

HOLIDAY, CHEERS!

COURTESY PHOTO

“These cocktails are built on the season’s traditions of getting together with family and friends and the warm feeling that we get from festive flavors,” said Armando Gonzales, manager of HUB.

cube and garnished with lemon peel and a sprinkle of curry powder.

“I’m a big fan of gin, with its Douglas Fir botanical feel, which is why these cocktails are a great fit for the holidays,” said Walsh, though softening the gin’s pine notes with the flavor infusions maximizes its approachability and “makes it more friendly,” he noted.

While I certainly don’t condone sipping and sleighing, Santa might consider wetting his whiskers with these cocktails as he maps out his global travels. His drinks will be on me, though. I need to make sure I’m not on the naughty list this year. ■ Contact Matt Russell, whose day job is CEO of Russell Public Communications, at mrussell@russellpublic.com. Russell is also the publisher of OnTheMenuLive. com as well as the host of the Friday Weekend Watch segment on the “Buckmaster Show” on KVOI 1030 AM.

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MUSIC

A HOLLY JONNY CHRISTMAS The Jons celebrate the season at the Rialto Theater this weekend

hasn’t played a headlining gig in Tucson since its last Christmas show in 2019.

“We were like, ‘All right, it’s time to try to book something in Tucson again,’ and that’s WHEN THE WORLD WENT INTO when the Christmas show came up,” says lockdown last year, the presumed silver singer-trumpeter Jon Villa. “Why not come lining was that we’d all have enough free back with one of the happiest shows ever?” time to complete those personal projects In fairness, “happiest show ever” could that life’s daily obligations previously kept getting in the way of. That’s not quite how it describe most of the shows the Jons play. played out for everyone, of course, but some Spreading good vibes is pretty much the band’s whole mission. Growing up together people did manage to peel themselves off in Nogales, Arizona, Villa, Peters and the the couch and away from their seventh since-departed Sergio Mendoza started the rewatch of The Office long enough to get Jons in 2000 after reconnecting in Tucsomething done. son. (Villa insists the name was a mutual In the case of veteran Tucson Latin decision.) Initially, the idea was to sound rockers the Jons, it was finally realizing an idea the band had been kicking around for like “a Latin version of the Beatles,” but as nearly half its existence: recording a Christ- the lineup expanded, the approach became much more eclectic, leaping from salsa mas album. and cumbia rhythms to ska, punk and pop, “We’d been talking about it for so long.

I’m talking maybe 10 years,” says drummer all while keeping the party energy high.

Members have come and gone, and in some James Peters. “Everybody does it. All the big bands do it. We thought we should do it cases come back, but the Jons have stayed a because it’d be funny for a Tucson band to Tucson music institution for 20 years, even as other commitments have made homedo a Christmas record.”

For fans of the band, which formed two town gigs increasingly rare. (Villa, Peters and bassist Javier “Escubi” Gamez tour decades ago when its founding members with Phoenix cult favorites Roger Clyne and were just out of high school, the project the Peacemakers, while Peters also drums must’ve also seemed long overdue: The Jons’ holiday shows at Club Congress have in ex-member Mendoza’s “indie mambo” become an annual tradition. Capturing the project Orkesta Mendoza.)

So yeah, if anyone in the city is equipped spirit on record just made sense. So, in the to wring fresh fun out of some hoary old not-so-holly-jolly month of May 2020, the septet convened at Peters’ home studio and chestnuts, it’s probably these guys.

A Very Jons Christmas is, indeed, a attempted to conjure some Yuletide cheer, revamping 10 holiday classics in the band’s very Jons-style Christmas album. While energetic, horn-heavy, genre-jumping style. the band’s holiday live sets have consisted of covers and covers-of-covers, for the A Very Jons Christmas arrived on Bandrecording, the band set out to create all-new camp and CD last November—a gift for arrangements of traditional classics. True to fans at the end of an exceedingly difficult form, the album takes several stylistic zigyear. zags. “White Christmas” and “Winter WonBut with the pandemic surging, there was no possibility to do a show to celebrate derland” both get slinky, uptempo makeovers, bringing to mind images of spending it. The band livestreamed a few performances to push the album, but it didn’t feel the holiday at a Mexican resort rather than a nearly the same. That makes the upcoming snowed-in cabin. The instrumental take on “Little Drummer Boy” is similarly swelterreturn of the A Very Jons Christmas coning, propelled by twangy surf guitars, while cert—which this year graduates from Club Congress to the larger Rialto Theatre—both “Here Comes Santa Claus” starts with something of a delayed album release show CONTINUED ON PAGE 19 and a homecoming for the band, which

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LOCAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

RND1 Brain Clustrs Not a rap album in the classic sense, Brain Clustrs is still a noteworthy release in the local hip-hop scene for its scope and diversity. One of multiple releases associated with local alternative hip-hop collective 1202 this year, Brain Clustrs maintains a sense of childlike wonder. Many of the songs are instrumentals, but the imaginative use of sampling (video game music, psychedelic sounds, pop culture) keeps the sound plenty interesting. The songs with vocals work as a kind of cherry on top of the abstract, humorous, mellow and sometimes absurd pie.

The cover art fits the album well: a colorful mish-mash of 2000s aesthetics, space imagery, stereo equipment and seemingly anything else that interests RND1. We’d label this one under: Hip-Hop Nostalgia Odyssey.

Various Artists Al Foul: A Tribute to the One and Only Not a traditional album, but this collection from more than a dozen Tucson musicians saw plenty of play time around the Weekly offices this year—and all for a good cause. Local troubadours like Calexico, Leila Lopez, Howe Gelb, Naim Amor, Katie Haverly, Golden Boots and more lent their time and talent to raise medical funds for local rockabilly rebel Al Foul. At more than an hour, this tribute album jumps everywhere from blues to rock to pop, but maintains an uplifting atmosphere. But the fact the project is a result of local artists and their camaraderie probably represents Tucson more than any one song can.

David Huckfelt Room Enough, Time Enough On the pleasantly subversive Room Enough, Time Enough, folk singer David Huckfelt sought to “deconstruct the cowboy myth.” The album is still rooted in the singer/songwriter tradition, but reinvents folk standards with multiple vocal lines and the occasional electronic instrument. Huckfelt’s smooth singing and poetry mix surprisingly well with his efforts to avoid any and all limitations or thematic constraints. It’s an album hell-bent on common-ground after years of division.

Accompanied by a fleet of Tucson musicians and indigenous artists, Huckfelt lays out the roadmap for a new kind of Americana music, one that stretches across the lonesome prairie into the mountains and woods beyond.

Various Artists Luz de Vida II We figure we might as well use this space to spread the love and fit in one more great collection of local music going to a good cause. The original Luz de Vida, released in 2011, saw Tucson musicians gather and record music to raise funds for victims of the mass shooting at Gabby Giffords’ Congress on Your Corner. For the 10th anniversary, Luz de Vida II raises funds for the local nonprofit Homicide Survivors Inc. This collection of conscious and inspired folk and rock includes Tucson-affiliated artists like Calexico, The Resonars, XIXA, Dr. Dog, Hannah Yeun and more. Kudos to Tucson musicians for making damn-near everything better this year. ■

By Xavier Omar Otero tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com Where we watch a unicorn catch a falling star. This week: Pokey LaFarge, Mary Lattimore, Béla Fleck, Jack Russell’s Great White, Fayuca, The Exbats, The Jons, Slow Waves, and holiday extravaganzas galore can be found playing theaters, clubs, and joints about town. Read more.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS… THURSDAY, DEC. 16 We can watch as a “Unicorn Catches A Falling Star In Heaven.” Seemingly in constant flux, classically-trained harpist Mary Lattimore is an instrumental storyteller who rarely pauses. She became an in-demand hired gun—working on film and musical projects with Sharon Van Etten, Kurt Vile, Thurston Moore, Jeff Zeigler and others—before releasing The Withdrawing Room (2013), her debut album. Adding to the intrinsic tonality of her Lyon & Healy Concert Grand harp with electronic effects, Lattimore adds nuanced layers of ethereality to her improvisations. On her latest compilation, Collected Pieces II (2021), Lattimore’s capacity as an observer is brought to the fore, capturing suspended moments in time that evince beauty, sorrow, sunbeams, and darkness obscured within shadowy confines with filmic detail. Los Angeles-based composer Mary Lattimore climbs ghostly Silver Ladders. At Club Congress. With Ana Roxanne and Karima Walker… Recorded over the course of “like 40 Saturdays in a row,” The Exbats’ ambitious fourth album, Now Where Were We (2021), “kinda like sugar, kinda like spice,” was drawn through the filter of pandemia. Having endured many trials to surface with “One Foot In The Light,” traveling full circle, Kenny McClain describes their new album. “It’s oblique. It’s about taking a breath and figuring out where you are in your life, coming back to what feels important.” Bisbee garage rockers The Exbats contemplate the next move on the chessboard. At Habitation Speakeasy… Genre hopping, Mexi-Americana singer-songwriters FebboFuentes perform for the betterment of the human soul. At Tap + Bottle…

FRIDAY, DEC. 17 Andrew Heissler (aka Pokey LaFarge) is gifted with the ability to fuse deep-fried Mississippi Delta blues, washboard-scrubbed country and western, old-time mountain music, and all manner of historical Americana. Heissler delivers it all with a retro sartorial style that still seems like something new. On “Get It ’Fore It’s Gone,” a song written in the air of malaise that permeated 2020, Heissler searches for optimism, “I gonna live life just like a butterfly. It’s key today and kiss the world abide.” The Illinois-based troubadour says his brand new album “is a culmination of my pandemic experience, the efforts of talented co-writers, session musicians, and the joy and love I strive to put forth into the world. This

DECEMBER 16, 2021

album is a result of grace, healing, and redemption.” And in that Pokey LaFarge finds peace In the Blossom of Their Shade (2021).

At Fox Tucson Theatre… ’Tis the season for cheer and, perhaps, a shot of tequila or three. KOLD anchorman Dan Marries will attempt to oversee the festivities as borderland ballers The Jons present A Very Jons Christmas. With Roger Cline (performing solo) and Paul Jenkins. At Rialto Theater.

With appearances by special guests: Caleb Michel (Los Esplifs, Afro Cuban Allstars) on percussion, Ricky Shimo (Lenguas Largas, Anchorbaby) on guitar, Olivia Reardon (Miss Olivia & the Interlopers) on vocals, and other surprises… Promoting Latino culture, good vibes, and self-identification, these Phoenix Latin-tinged reggae rockers’ music has played on MTV, Univision and FOX Sports. Their instrumental track “La Venganza” was selected by director Robert Rodriguez as the title theme to El Rey Network’s Matador. Fayuca turn a Barrio Sideshow into a spectacle. At 191 Toole.

With Dubbest and Rilen’ Out… Adding a piquant sabor to the recurrent dance party sin fronteras that is El Tambó, resident DJ Humblelianess spins Latin-infused platters to set the night en fuego. At Hotel Congress (plaza)... During the 1960s, deep soul blues legend Johnny Rawls began his professional career at age 15 backing ZZ Hill, Little Johnny Taylor, Joe Tex and The Sweet Inspirations and touring throughout the Southeast.

In the mid-1970s, Rawls became the band director for Southern soul/R&B singer O.V. Wright’s back-up band until his death; he continued touring with the band for another 13 years as the Ace of Spades. Johnny Rawls presents selections from Best Of Johnny Rawls Vol. I (2021). At Monterey Court. With Bad News Blues… With songs about “Stripper Poles” and “Cherry Pop Tarts,” Funky Bonz have been “making it funky” since 1993. At The Hut. With Sections…

SATURDAY, DEC. 18 “Once Bitten, Twice Shy?” Well, maybe not.

Formed in Los Angeles (1977), Great White peaked during the late 1980s with singles “Rock Me” and the Ian Hunter penned gem, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” moving over 10 million copies worldwide. Fast-forward to 2011: Following a series of accidents, legal entanglements, tragedies and addictions, a now sober Jack Russell wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. Tucson guitar legend Robby Lochner recalls: “Jack decided he was firing his old band and asked if I wanted to join. I was reluctant, but said, ‘Yes.’” Since then Lochner has become an integral part of the band. “It’s a powerful band,” Russell

proclaims. “The music is dynamic and gone where I’ve never gone before.” Recognizing his talent early on, Russell credits Lochner’s as being a catalyst for moving forward. “He’s my co-pilot and one of my best friends.”

Jack Russell’s Great White is still on a feeding frenzy. At Rialto Theater. With The Jack... Remember the holiday television specials of the 1960s and ’70s, when families would gather around the television to watch Bing Crosby, Andy Williams and The Osmonds sing the songs of the season? In The Christmas Mood, hosted by 94.9 MIX-FM’s morning team Greg & Mere and starring Katherine Byrnes, Brian Levario, Chach Snook, and Crystal Stark, brings the spirit of the classic holiday special back to life. At Fox Tucson Theatre… Slow Waves—a new project by Jimmy Teyechea (Free Machines) and Levi Reyes (Lenguas Largas)—celebrates the release of their self-titled album, which was produced by fellow Nogales native Sergio Mendoza (Orkesta Mendoza) and features contributions from John Convertino (Calexico), John Hagerman (DeVotchKa), Pearl Charles, Connor Gallaher and more.

Moving in different directions from any surface current, Slow Waves open their “Soul Window” for all to bear witness. At 191 Toole. With La Cerca… The DeGrazia Spanish Guitar Band brings together delicate threads of Spanish, flamenco, and classical motifs with passion and heart. At The Sea of Glass–Center For The Arts… Led by a force of nature, vocalist/percussionist Connie Brannock, the Funky Xmas Version of Little House of Funk invites all to come get “boogie oogie oogie till you just can’t boogie no more.” At Monterey Court…

Maestro José Luis Gomez conducts the orchestra and a quartet of soloists—Kathryn Mueller (soprano), Helen Karloski (mezzo-soprano), Paul D’Arcy (tenor) and Paul Max Tipton (baritone)—through a holiday program of beloved choral work and seasonal music. Tucson Symphony Orchestra presents Messiah, Carols and Songs. At Catalina Foothills High School…

SUNDAY, DEC. 19 “Have I mentioned that this band is off the hook?” Béla Fleck recently tweeted, after 14 shows into a West Coast tour. “Something shifted and it’s on the next level.” The band— featuring mandolinist Sam Bush, dobro player Jerry Douglas, fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and guitarist Bryan Sutton—is out on the high road performing music from Fleck’s latest release My Bluegrass Heart (2021). This album, his 14th-solo recording, recently received a Grammy nomination for Best Bluegrass Album.

Boldly going where no banjo player has gone before—this virtuoso has embarked on forays into classical, world, folk rock, jazz-fusion— Fleck returns with his first bluegrass tour in 24 years. “I’m thrilled to be reunited with my brothers and lifelong collaborators. They are the heart of the album.” Fleck reveals, “My dirty little secret is that I don’t play that differently from genre to genre. Bluegrass, though, is central to everything I do.” At Fox Tucson Theatre… Hosted by Dave Fitzsimmons, this year’s annual fundraiser features The Arroyo Cafe Players, musical artist Brian Lopez, The Cadillacs, Marty Bishop, American Idol finalist Crystal Stark, Katherine Byrnes, The Grandsons of the Pioneers and more. The Old Pueblo Radio Show embraces the spirit of giving. At Rialto Theater. Proceeds to benefit the Community Food Bank, the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, Emerge Domestic Violence Shelter, the Tucson Diaper Bank, Tu Nidito, No Mas Muertes, Casa Alitas, Homicide Survivors, Casa de los Niños, Youth On Their Own, American Cancer Society and Arizona Public Media… On a mission to prove that rock & roll is not dead, The Coolers (an eight-piece R&B/soul horn band) stoke the fire. Congress Cookout. At Hotel Congress (plaza)…

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THE JONS

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department-store piano before exploding into a chugging, almost snarling punk interpretation. (In between, there are a few partially improvised skits, made up mostly of band in-jokes—and some bleeped curse words.) But it never sounds like 10 different bands playing 10 different songs. Held together by the vibrant horn section and Villa’s velvety croon, it only sounds like the Jons.

The songs will make their live debut this week at the Rialto, a show that’ll also feature cameos from other Tucson musicians, as well as solo sets from Roger Clyne and Jons keyboardist Paul Jenkins. It’s another small gift for what was once again an exhausting year—but this time around, it’s not just for the fans, but the band, too.

“The people that are going out to shows, they just want to let loose. They want to forget about all the restrictions we’ve had for the past two years or whatever, and they just want to go out and have fun and listen to music and have a good time,” Villa says.

“And, well, us as a band kind of want the Until next week, XOXO… same thing.” ■

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DECEMBER 16, 2021

SOLAR SYSTEM Prime Leaf 2 Is the First Solar-Powered Dispensary in Tucson

By David Abbott tucsoneditor@tucsonlocalmedia.com THE PRIME LEAF’S PARK Avenue location is about to flick the switch on a new solar array, making it the first dispensary in Tucson, and possibly the state of Arizona, to go solar.

“We designed the building to do this and figured doing it from conception would be a better way,” Prime Leaf co-owner Michael Crawford said. “It’s also another way we’re supporting local business.”

Technicians for Sustainability, a Tucson based, employee-owned company, took on the project for the 4,000-square-foot building. TFS has specialized in solar energy and sustainable technologies for residential and commercial settings since 2003, and was purchased by 23 of its employees in 2017.

“We’ve been around for 18 years, so we’re not some fly-by-night company,” TFS co-owner Brian Park said. “We’ve done residential and commercial installations throughout Tucson, but this is our first cannabis business.”

Prime Leaf 2 was built with solar in mind, and Crawford hopes to get the

business that celebrated its one-year anniversary in September “as close to 100% energy efficiency as possible.”

“We’re an environmentally conscious organization that is rooted in community,” he said. “Globally, we’re dealing with a climate crisis, so we’re doing what we can to help address it.”

Crawford added that they also looked at going solar with the Speedway location, but the building did not have sufficient square-footage to make it practicable.

As it is, according to Park, the system will not only utilize the ample Arizona sun to produce its own electricity, but will also conserve about 36,000 gallons of water annually.

“One kilowatt hour equals about a half gallon of water and that’s also 152,000 lbs of CO2 annually (that won’t be produced),” Park said. “And this is a small installation.”

Crawford had been in talks with TFS for a while before the company signed up for the installation in April.

The City of Tucson gave the okay on the system in early November, and as soon as Tucson Electric Power installs its new meters, the system will start producing.

The total cost of the system was $82,764 before a 26% federal tax credit of $21,519, bringing the net price to $61,245, according to Park.

The cannabis industry, now legal in some form in 37 states, has become one of the largest energy users in the

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Prime Leaf’s Park Ave. location soaking up some rays.

U.S. thanks in part to the patchwork way it has been legalized.

Eighty percent of commercial weed is grown indoors, according to a recent report in Politico, which raises the carbon footprint of the crop. Additionally, marijuana business owners are not eligible for financial incentives offered to other types of businesses and therefore the cost of investment in renewable energy falls on the individual business.

A study titled, “Energy Use by the Indoor Cannabis Industry: Inconvenient Truths for Producers, Consumers, and Policymakers,” in June 2020 estimated that 1% of energy use in the U.S. is for growing and distributing weed.

Study author Evan Mills stated that “The practice of indoor cultivation is driven by criminalization, pursuit of security, pest and disease management, and the desire for greater process control and yields. ... While criminalization has contributed to the substantial energy intensity, legalization would not change the situation materially without ancillary efforts to manage energy use, provide consumer information via labeling, and other measures.”

Another recent study on greenhouse gas emissions by Colorado State University found that in Colorado, the cannabis industry creates more carbon

emissions than the coal industry in that state.

That same study found that growing an ounce of weed can consume the equivalent of seven to 16 gallons of gas, depending on where it is grown.

While the economics of reducing the carbon footprint on the growing side remain elusive, everything marijuana business owners can do to embrace solutions is a step in the right direction.

Prime Leaf co-owner Brian Warde says that going solar is another way his company is “acting globally” to take a small step towards reducing Prime Leaf’s carbon footprint.

“Social and environmental responsibility is a value that’s paramount to us as an organization,” he said “Reducing our carbon footprint by going solar was a great opportunity to demonstrate that.”

Prime Leaf 2 is located at 1525 N. Park Ave. More information at theprimeleaf.com.

TFS is located at 1050 E 19th Street.

More information at www.tfssolar.com.

DECEMBER 16, 2021

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM 21

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DECEMBER 16, 2021

NEWS NUGGETS GREAT GANJA GIG: In addition to leading the way with solar, Prime Leaf was also recently named by cannabis trade publication mg Magazine as one of the 37 best cannabis companies to work for in the U.S. According to mg: “The Prime Leaf provides paid bereavement leave, bonuses, education reimbursement, and paid volunteer hours. The company also hosts monthly lunches and quarterly special events and provides tickets to local concerts and other goings-on. A community investment fund supports employee-driven initiatives and nonprofit partnerships. DEI policies include support for social justice programs and designation as an LGBTQ safe space.

A particularly interesting twist: Annual performance reviews ask workers to rate their employer, not the other way around.”

With revenues from weed sales increasing exponentially in the state, the cannabis industry is a fast-growing job creator that is not showing any signs of slowing.

The medical and recreational programs combined for more than $1.1 billion in sales through October, with nearly $58 million in estimated sales of recreational cannabis for the month. That number topped the previous record of $54.5 million in sales that began at the end of January.

The Arizona Department of Revenue reported nearly $4.9 million in sales taxes collected in October for adult-use recreational weed, adding another $9.7 million in tax revenues, via the 16% excise tax on product.

With the increase in economic activity, comes an increase in employment opportunities. A recent report from Vangst, a professional network for the

cannabis industry, estimates that 25,000 jobs will be created in Arizona in the next five years.

“We are incredibly proud of the company we’ve built and because our company values and ethos were employee-driven and developed through ongoing staff input and feedback, it is not surprising that we have been named a top cannabis company to work for,” Prime Leaf co-owner Brian Warde said. “Good services come naturally from inspired employees who embrace an organization’s culture.

Ours is based on continually evolving, always being open to new ideas and innovations.”

Phoenix edibles company Baked Bros was the other Arizona cannabis company to receive a mention as a highly appreciated employer in Arizona. ■

$1.1 billion in cannabis sales in Arizona in the first 10 months of the year; about $641 million in medical marijuana and $466 million in recreational.

That has added more than $175 million in tax revenue to state coffers, Nearly $41 million of that has gone to the state’s general fund, while $23 million has gone to cities where the sales were made. Another $6.6 million has gone directly to fund public schools. ■ This article originally appeared on azmirror.com, a nonprofit online news agency.

CANDY CRUSH

Arizona Adults Spent $58 million on recreational marijuana in October

By Jim Small Arizona Mirror FOR THE MONTH, THE ARIZONA DEPARTMENT reported that nearly $4.9 million in sales taxes—known officially as transaction privilege taxes—were collected in October for adult-use recreational marijuana. And when the 16% excise tax on cannabis is applied, Arizonans paid another $9.7 million to purchase marijuana, edibles, resins and more.

Arizona voters in 2020 approved Proposition 207, which legalized recreational marijuana use for adults, and sales began in January of this year.

The previous record for adult-use marijuana sales was in July, when dispensaries sold $54.5 million of cannabis.

Arizona also has a medical marijuana program and collects sales taxes for that, as well—and it remains a larger market than the adult-use program. For October, ADOR officials estimate there were $63 million in medical marijuana sales.

In all, both programs have combined to more than 1

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The Best of Tucson, and Everything That Matters!

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DECEMBER 16, 2021

SAVAGE LOVE QUICKIES

By Dan Savage, mail@savagelove.net

My wife and I are in a great ENM marriage. We have two couples that we are friends with and get together regularly for sex, and we each pursue solo FWB relationships. During COVID, we started posting pictures on Reddit, which were well received. This morphed into my wife starting an OnlyFans account because why not? So, at what point do we spill the beans to our FWBs? We don’t show our faces on OnlyFans, we use fake names, and we only post content made with people that know it’s going up on OnlyFans.

Is this just “our secret” and doesn’t hurt anyone, so, who cares? Or do our FWBs have a right to know?

—Posting Intimate Content You’re under no obligation to tell your casual sex partners that you have an OnlyFans account where you share photos and videos you make with your other casual sex partners. OnlyFans seems like something you should be able to share with your FWBs, but “you should be able to” ≠ “you are obliged to.”

Cis-het black woman. I have been working on myself for a while and a side effect of that is now I have standards and I am unwilling to settle for mediocre partners. For me a quality partner is a cis or trans man (a penis haver) who is an ally to equality movements (sex, gender, race, etc.), emotionally healthy, kink-positive, and can afford their own life. Where does one find a person who meets these criteria?

I’ve tried Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, and FetLife, etc., with no luck.

—Never Gonna Settle There is no settling down without some settling for. If you’re lucky, you’ll meet someone who comes close enough to what you want—an employed penis-having person, for instance, who’s an ally to equality movements everywhere but isn’t exactly kink-positive but has an open mind and could get there. Or an emotionally healthy, kink-positive penis-having student who isn’t rolling in dough right now but has a realistic career plan.

And where do you find that guy? Well, you might get lucky and find him on one of the sites you’re already on—keep those profiles up and updated—or you might get lucky and meet him through friends, at work, in a bar, etc. Keep at it, NGS, because you never know when your bad luck is going to run out.

I’m a 34-year-old female and my husband (of only two years!) blindsided me by asking for a separation on my birthday in June and a divorce via text message a month later. We owned a home and ran a business together. Needless to say… this all sucks. I’ve had to start my entire life over again. I’ve settled into a new home with a new job and I’m trying to be a badass about the whole situation. But it’s been a lot. I’ve gone back and forth on when to start dating again. I feel mounting pressure to “get back out there” and I’m on the apps again but I bail about a week into every new flirtation. Why am I hesitating?

—Balking At Love, Knowing I’m Nervous, Gah! Hmm… my guess is you might be hesitating, BALKING, because your soonto-be-ex-husband stomped on your heart and turned your life upside down LESS THAN SIX MONTHS AGO. And you’re doing great: you got a new place to live, you got a new job, and you recently got back on the apps.

Maybe you’re not ready to start dating again right this minute but getting back on the apps is a sign you will be soon.

Lowering the temperature with the guys you’re connecting with online might help (be chatty, not flirty), as will keeping the stakes low on those first dates when you are ready (a quick coffee, not a dinner).

You can do this!

I recently read this in your column: “PIV or PIT or PIB.” Ok, I know PIV (“penis in vagina”). But the other two? I’ve been reading you for years and I’m stumped on this!

—Creative Acronyms Totally Confound Him Hmm… you probably could’ve worked this one out on your own, CATCH, if you’d given it a moment’s thought.

Besides vaginas (PIV)… where else do penises go? PIT stands for “penis in throat” and PIB stands for “penis in butt.”

I could’ve gone with PIM (“penis in mouth”) and PIA (“penis in ass”), I guess, but why not go for the rhyme? (Oh, and ENM means “ethical non-monogamy.”)

I just discovered your column. I’ve been reading you for a month. Four weeks, four disgusting columns. I do not give a rat’s ass about the sex lives of strangers. If you do not reevaluate your content, I shall not continue to read.

—Disgusted If you just finished reading your letter, D, and you’re reading my response now… you’re gonna want to stop reading now.

Because you’re really not gonna like the next couple of letters.

I am a 24-year-old woman in a mostly happy marriage. My husband is not interested in oral sex. At all. Not giving it, not receiving it. In previous relationships this was the way I most consistently achieved orgasm. I miss this type of intimacy so much I’m now curious about the legality of putting peanut butter on myself in hopes that my dog would come up to me on his own—unforced—and lick it off. I imagine this to be no different legally than a dog eating something out of your hand. I haven’t done it. But I am curious about your opinion. If you have other recommendations on how to get the specific sensation of oral sex when you don’t have a willing partner, I welcome your advice.

—Disgusting Obsession Grosses Girl Out You’re 24 years old and your sex life with your husband is so miserably unsatisfying that you’re seriously thinking about tricking your dog into eating you out, which is illegal in lots of places. (Since I don’t know where you live, DOGGO, you’ll have to google it yourself.) My advice: put down the peanut butter down and back away from it. Then get a divorce, get a lover (a human one), or get yourself one of those new clit-sucking sex toys that—according to the reviews I’ve read by clit-having people—do a pretty amazing job of simulating the specific sensations of oral sex. Hell, get all three!

I have a question about urethral sounding. My husband wanted me to do this to him for two years and I finally did. It was interesting! But I’m wondering what kind of harmful effects this could if we were to do it long-term.

—Making Enquiries About Taking Urethral Sounds Urethral sounding—sliding a well-lubed stainless-steel rod into someone’s urethra—is an actual medical procedure with legit medical purposes (also easily googled!), but some people enjoy recreational sounding, both for how it feels (good, I’m told) and what it symbolizes (penetrating a penetrator’s penetrator).

So long as you’re using sterilized sounds and sterile lube, you and your husband should be able to safely enjoy sounding on the regular. Besides upping his risk for the occasional UTIs, there’s not much risk of harm—so long as you don’t force it, you stop if there’s pain or blood, and you have access to an autoclave.

Someone assigned male at birth, with male genitalia, but on estrogen to feminize their appearance and identifies as trans-agender. Curious how to identify their sexuality. They are only attracted to people who identify as women or femme-nonbinary. So how does someone without gender define their sexuality if they are only attracted to one gender identity?

—Narrow Attractions Complicate Multifaceted Identity “It’s complicated.”

Also, I’m pretty sure lumping all “women or femme-nonbinary” people into a single “gender identity” is incorrect.

(And would lead to a Title 9 complaint at Oberlin.) I mean, I’ve personally and biblically known gay men who identify as femmes and there are lots of femme-nonbinary people out there—AMAB, AFAB, ACAB—who would object to being lumped into a single category with mere women. It’s all so very, very complicated.

Which is great, of course, because we can’t talk about climate change and the growing threat of authoritarianism all the time, right? questions@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

Dan’s columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at www.savage.love.

DECEMBER 16, 2021

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

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

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Key questions for you, beginning now and throughout 2022: 1. What do you need to say, but have not yet said? 2. What is crucial for you to do, but you have not yet done? 3. What dream have you neglected and shouldn’t neglect any longer? 4. What sanctuary is essential for you to visit, but you have not yet visited? 5. What “sin” is it important for you to forgive yourself for, but you have not yet forgiven yourself? 6. What promise have you not yet fulfilled, even though it’s getting late (but not too late!) to fulfill? 7.

What secret have you hidden so well that you have mostly concealed it even from yourself?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus novelist Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) took one of his manuscripts to a publishing company, hoping it would be made into a book and sold to the public. A few weeks later, he got word by mail that his masterpiece had been rejected. He took a train to the publisher’s office and retrieved it. On the train ride home, he turned the manuscript over and began writing a new story on the back of each page. He spent no time moping.

That’s the spirit I recommend you embody in the coming weeks, dear Taurus.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “John Coltrane was an addict,” wrote author Cornel West about the renowned jazz saxophonist and composer. “Billie Holiday was an addict.

[Nobel Prize-winning author] Eugene O’Neill was an addict. What would America be without addicts and post-addicts who make such grand contributions to our society?” I welcome West’s sympathetic views toward addicts. Many of us who aren’t addicts understand how lucky we are not to have the genetic predisposition or the traumatic experiences that addicts often struggle with. We unaddicted people may also have been spared the bigotry and abuse that have contributed to and aggravated some addicts’ addictions.

Having acknowledged these truths, I nevertheless hope to do whatever I can to help you convert any addictive tendencies you might have into passionate obsessions.

Now is an excellent time to launch a new phase of such work. Invitation: Make a list of three things you can do in the coming months to nurture the process.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Actor and model Kate Beckinsale unleashed a cryptic boast: “My best feature is unfortunately a private matter, although I’m told it is spectacular.

But you can’t really walk it down the red carpet. What can I say?” Are you imagining what I’m imagining? I bring this oddity to your attention in the hope that I can convince you to be more forthright and expres-

sive about your own wonderful qualities.

It’s time to be less shy about your beauty, less secretive about your deep assets. Show the world why you’re so lovable.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo-born Edna Ferber (1885–1968) was a celebrated author who won a Pulitzer Prize. She was witty and outspoken. Her stories featured strong women and characters struggling against discrimination. “I never would just open a door and walk through,” she said about her career. “I had to bust it down for the hell of it. I just naturally liked doing things the hard way.” At least in the coming weeks, Leo, I urge you NOT to adopt Ferber’s attitude. In my view, you’ll be wise to do everything possible to open doors rather than bust them down. And the best way to do that is to solicit help. Cultivate your ability to ask for what you need. Refine your practice of the arts of collaboration, synergy, and interweaving.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built, or invented except literally to get out of hell,” wrote Virgo dramatist Antonin Artaud. That’s a ridiculous generalization, in my opinion. For example, I occasionally generate songs, stories, and horoscopes to help me escape from a momentary hell.

But most of my creations are inspired by my love of life and a desire to inspire others. I’m very sure that in the coming weeks, your own motivations to produce good things will be far closer to mine than to Artaud’s. You’re in a phase when your quest for joy, generosity, blessings, and fun could be fierce and productive.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Author Barbara Sher offered this wise counsel: “Imaginary obstacles are insurmountable. Real ones aren’t.” I bring this to your attention because I believe the coming weeks will be an excellent time to identify the imaginary obstacles you’ve erected in your inner world—and then smash them or burn them or dispose of them. Once you’re free of the illusory interference, I think you’ll find you have at least twice as much power to neutralize the real obstacles.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Prolific author Ray Bradbury liked to give advice to those with a strong need to express their imaginative originality. Since I expect you will be a person like that in 2022, I’ll convey to you one of his exhortations. He wrote, “If you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.” Keep in mind

that Bradbury was referring to constructive craziness, wise foolishness, and divine madness.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The coming months will be a favorable time for you to redefine the meaning of the term “sacred” and to deepen your relationship with sacredness. To spur your imagination, I offer four quotes: 1. “Recognizing the sacred begins when we are interested in every detail of our lives.” —Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa 2. “When you notice something clearly and see it vividly, it then becomes sacred.” —poet Allen Ginsberg 3.

“Holiness begins in recognizing the face of the other.” —philosopher Marc-Alain Ouaknin 4. “Modern culture, in its advertising of sex, is in a misguided fashion advertising its longing for the sacred.” —teacher Sobonfu Somé CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author E. M. Forster wrote, “The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.” I propose we universalize that statement: “The only people, information, and experiences that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.”

I believe this principle will be especially fruitful for you to embrace during the next three months. Prepare yourself for lessons that are vital for you to learn—and on the frontier of your understanding

Comics

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM 25

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Among America’s Founding Fathers was Aquarian William Whipple (1730-1785). He was one of 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, instigating war with Great Britain. Unlike many of his colleagues, however, Whipple believed it was hypocritical to enslave human beings while fighting for freedom. That’s why he emancipated the person who had been in bondage to him. The coming months will be a favorable time to make comparable corrections, Aquarius. If there are discrepancies between your ideals and your actions, fix the problem.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): According to Piscean author Ryunosuke Akutagawa, “People sometimes devote their lives to a desire that they are not sure will ever be fulfilled.” So true! I can personally attest to that behavior. Is such a quest misguided?

Delusional? Naive? Not in my view. I see it as glorious, brave, and heroic. Akutagawa did too. He said that those who refrain from having inspirational desires are “no more than mere spectators of life.” In any case, I recommend you think big in 2022, Pisces.

From an astrological angle, this could be the year you home in on and refine and upgrade the single most important desire you will ever have. ■ Homework. Tell me your most important lesson of the year. https://Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology

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MOTORCYCLES/ SCOOTERS

520-425-0845

EMPLOYMENT GENERAL TRAIN ONLINE TO DO MEDICAL BILLING! Become a Medical Office Professional online at CTI! Get Trained, Certified & ready to work in months! Call 866-459-5480. The Mission, Program Information and Tuition is located at CareerTechnical.edu/consumer-information. (M-F 8am-6pm ET) (AzCAN)

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C A S H C A B

A Q U A R I A

P U P T E N T

G E T A T I P

A T H L E T E

S T A P L E D

T E E S W T A S H A W S E R A

C O R N S A L O N S C A N

H U G H E S N A G S E L O T T

A B I S I M S G U E A T S N D OW T E P S N L W E A S T C O P E L B OW O S E R N T I E I C S C O

T E E N S A T I N S T E M

C A S S E A S S E T E C A R P

O N S T A G E

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N O O D L E S

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EMPLOYMENT GENERAL

Join our experienced inside sales team!

Do you have print media/digital advertising selling experience? We may be looking for you! Lots of outbound calls selling advertising! Our 20 Arizona publications, newspapers, magazines and digital solutions fit pretty much every need!

Great team environment Our small team wants to grow with you! Do you get excited when you sell? Do you talk louder when you are selling something you believe in? We get it - it's exciting to sell!

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I Buy Record Collections Large or Small. Rock, Jazz, Blues, Soundtracks etc. $Cash$ and I will come to you.

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Wait, did I mention we are a FUN team?

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CLASSIFIEDS

Edited by Will Shortz

520.797.4384 Classifieds@tucsonlocalmedia.com AUTO SERVICES

$CASH$

For ALL unwanted Cars, Trucks & SUVs Call or text anytime for quote FREE PROFESSIONAL REMOVAL

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Know Us, Know Your Community AUTO PARTS/ACCESSORIES

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We buy Propane Tanks All Auto Parts, All Aluminum Metal and Automotive Parts Complete Cars, Trucks & Metal Catalytic Converters from LICENSED sellers only

520-999-0804 Se Habla Español

TUCSONWEEKLY.COM 27

DECEMBER 16, 2021

ACROSS

A test of one’s humanity?

8 Holding in a cryptocurrency wallet 15 Watery 16 Emphatic refusal 17 Winter Olympics events since 1988 18 “I suppose” 19 Cartwheels and such 20 Intensifies, with “up” 22 It might be on the nose 23 Staff 24 Back in college?

25 Noble title 26 Fats Domino’s “___ That a Shame” 28 There are 5,164 along the Great Wall of China 30 “A Death in the Family” writer 31 Philippines battle site of W.W. II 33 Hard-hit line drives, in slang 35 KFC side dish 36 Grub 37 Hardly a green vehicle 41 Land: Sp. 45 “___, Red-Hot & Live” (1982 soul album) 46 Extent 49 Exactly right 50 Change states, perhaps?

51 Jostle 52 Send out 53 They go to great heights 55 Second or third person?

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___ Grande, city south of Phoenix 58 Phone meeting, briefly 60 Colossal 62 Repeat 63 Place to perform figure eights 64 Nitpickers 65 Provider of directions … or a hint to the four “+” shapes in this puzzle’s grid 57

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Bygone game show with a mobile set 2 School houses?

3 Accommodations on a scouting trip 4 Driving needs 5 It covers 90+ million acres of the U.S. 6 ___ Jass, subject of one of Bart Simpson’s prank calls 7 OK 8 Circus venue 9 Onetime radio host Don 10 Many a TikToker 11 Mama of pop 12 Making a scene, say 13 It’s got you covered 14 Chinese restaurant fare 21 Arabian gulf port 27 ___ Smith, star of Tyler Perry’s “For Better or Worse” 28 Issues while fishing 29 Put on the schedule 30 It’s on the plus side

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Business that makes cuts in order to turn a profit?

34 Smooth, lustrous material 37 Be informed, perhaps 38 Olympian, e.g.

39 Like many paper handouts 40 Breaks down 42 Homeland of gymnast Nadia Comaneci 43 California ___ 32

57 61

44 Paroxysms 47

Double figures?

48 Kind of justice or license 54 Red Cross fluids 55 Former senator Trent 56 Puerto ___ 57

Complaining fish?

59 Car radio button 61

Acronym in academics

WORSHIP GUIDE Classifieds@tucsonlocalmedia.com 520.797.4384 NEW THOUGHT

Christmas Eve Services

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Christmas Services or onlin Please join Eve us in-person

Casas Adobes Congregational Church An Open and Affirming Congregation of the UCC

Please join usyouin-person No matter who are or whereor youonline are

Dec. 24 journey, at 3:30you pm 7:00 pm on life’s areand welcome here!

Dec. 24 at 3:30 pm and 7:00 pmEve Services Casas Adobes Christmas

Casas Adobes Congregational Church

Join Congregational UsPlease forjoin Church Casas Adobes Congregational Church us in-person or online United Church of Christ United Church of Christ In-Person and Dec. 24 at 3:30 pm and 7:00 pm United Church of Christ6801 North Oracle Rd., Tucson Casas Adobes Congregational Church 6801 North Oracle Rd., Tucson 6801 North OracleWorship Rd.,www.caucc.org/christmas Tucson United Church of Christ Online Services 6801 North Oracle Rd., Tucson www.caucc.org/christmas www.caucc.org/christmas www.caucc.org/christmas www.caucc.org/welcome/worship 520.297.1181 | info@caucc.org | 6801 N. Oracle Road

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