I wrote a movie review of this inspiring film before it won the Oscar (click here) after I saw it at the Crossroads Festival Theater (where it is still playing once a day). And last week the Loft Theater, which had originally shown this movie, brought it back for one night on April 11.

Seeing this movie the 2nd time brought to reality the role that Rodriguez’s existential, anti-establishment lyrics had on the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

The star of the film, Sixto Rodriguez is now on tour, and coming to Tucson on April 19, at the AVA Amphitheater, 5655 W. Valencia Road. Online tickets at tickets.solcasino.com, or call 1-800-344-9435. More info:http://www.rialtotheatre.com/news/archives/2013/02/rodriguez_at_av.html. Originally he was supposed to perform at the Rialto Theater downtown on Congress St, but due to his recent popularity, the venue was changed to the AVA Amphitheater at Casino del Sol, to accommodate the thousands of new fans.

All ages welcome, doors open at 7 p.m., for the 8 p.m. live show. Giant Sand will also be performing, and tickets are $20 and up.

Listen to new phenomenon Rodriguez perform this week, then see the film (or vice versa). DVDs of the film are also already available at Casa Video and at the Pima County Public Library.

Rodriguez’s nationwide tour starts off in Mesa, Arizona on April 18, comes here, then goes on to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Salt Lake City, Broomfield (CO), Dallas, Austin, New Orleans, Tampa, Atlanta, Nashville, St. Paul (MN), Chicago, and ends up in his hometown of Detroit, MI, all in a month! Some of his songs are also on youtube.com. I especially like the haunting lyrics of “I Wonder”.

I’ve been blogging about this monthly event every month before the 2nd Saturday of the month. There’s been free outdoor movies to see hosted by Cinema La Placita and even often free films (or live performances) at The Screening Room (127 E. Congress St.). This Saturday the Cinema La Placita showing is at a new location: the Old Pueblo parking lot, 43 E. Congress St. between Scott & Stone Ave.

There’s been live music bands on the streets of E. Congress and close by, on the large Scott Avenue Stage (between Congress and Broadway), and at both the Fox and Rialto Theaters.

Performing along E. Congress are usually the 7 Pipers Band (Scottish bagpipes), and sometimes the mute or singing/dancing living statues from the Parasol Project. Tucson Circus Artists on stilts are usually entertaining downtown.

Food vendors and art & craft merchants are often selling their wares somewhere near the Scott Avenue Stage (there’s been some changes due to the modern streetcar construction). And eclectic art receptions have been held at Sacred Machine (245 E. Congress), The Drawing Studio (33 S. 6th Ave.), Dragonfly Gallery (146 E. Broadway), and Etherton Gallery (135 S. 6th Ave.)

Check out the event schedule every month at www.2ndsaturdaysdowntown.com.

There’s even entertainment now (or so I hear) on the top of the somewhat new green Pennington Street Garage (110. E. Pennington). This venue is being abbreviated as T.O.P. (Top Of Pennington) with jazz, rock & roll music, etc. Check it out.

And if you’re new to Tucson, or rarely go downtown, here’s your chance to enjoy downtown Tucson, mostly for free at this urban street fest. Just find Congress Street and roam around that area between the Hotel Congress & Rialto Theater on the east end, to the Fox Theater on the west end.

The City of Tucson Planning and Development Services Department (PDSD) will be conducting a design charrette for individuals and groups with an interest in the quarter mile focus area of the Tucson Modern Streetcar line (Sun Link). Interested neighbors, business owners, developers and all interested parties are encouraged to attend. The public process will begin with an opening reception on Monday, January 14, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.

A design charrette is a collaborative and open planning process conducted over multiple days. The goal of the Tucson Modern Streetcar Design Charrette is to listen to the community and stakeholders and to develop recommendations based on stakeholders input. A multidisciplinary team, consisting of stakeholders, community, support staff and consultants, will collaborate as part of this effort.

The Tucson Modern Streetcar Design Charrette will offer a variety of opportunities for public input including:

• Initial Visioning public meeting

• Strategy Meetings for identified areas within the Quarter Mile Focus Area of the Sun Link line

• One-on-one meetings for individuals or groups that prefer privacy

• A Public Open House

• A Final Presentation

A detailed schedule, map of the focus area and additional information is available at www.tucsonaz.gov/planning/streetcar_design_charette or by calling Planning and Development Services at 837-4996.

For info contact:

Jim Mazzocco
Planning & Development Services
Jim.Mazzocco@tucsonaz.gov
520-837-6964

The opening reception on January 14 will be at the Rialto Theater, 318 E. Congress St. in downtown Tucson, 6 to 9 p.m.
Go to the online schedule to see the planning process for 6 days, till the final presentation on January 19, 10 a.m. again at the Rialto Theater. See the map below of the Sun Link streetcar line.

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A day before the 10th anniversary of 9/11/11 is this month’s 2nd Saturday Downtown, Tucson’s large urban street fest downtown on E. Congress Street. September is Hispanic Heritage Month so 2nd Saturdays will be featuring Teodoro “Ted” Ramirez, A Son y Sol, and then Suerte on the Scott Avenue Stage, starting at 6:30 p.m. And Latin jazz Descarga performs (for free!) over at the Fox Tucson Theatre at 7 p.m.

A Son y Sol, courtesy of Chris Zukowski and 2nd Saturdays Downtown

This urban event started off on May 8, 2010 and has been continuing every 2nd Saturday since then (despite some inclement weather and despite the tragic shooting on January 8, 2011). And lots of us have been regularly attending, enjoying the street vendors or restaurant food, the lively music at the Rialto, Fox, or Scott Avenue Stage, the wandering minstrels, the arts & crafts, car shows, free movies by Cinema La Placita, etc. etc. The movie this Saturday is the 2006 animated “Cars”, featuring voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and Bonnie Hunt.

movie poster

Each month I encourage our readers to check it out downtown…and enjoy this family friendly monthly fest.

For the event schedule, log onto www.2ndsaturdaysdowntown.com.

For lots more photos of yesterday’s birthday activities click here. There’s Flickr photos of most of the past events as well.

And it’s not over yet. For more events for Tucson’s Birthday month of August, log onto www.tucsonsbirthday.org.

Then I got an email reminding me that my home state of Hawaii had banned this exhibit due to troubling questions of the origin of these allegedly “unclaimed” Chinese bodies. See June, 2009 article (click here). “Lawmakers in the island state said the possibility of profiting off executed prisoners from China would not be tolerated in a state where many residents come from Asian backgrounds.” (Chinese immigrants to Hawaii came in the mid 1800′s and intermarried with the Hawaiians, and other races.) Then I realized that some people in Tucson are boycotting this current exhibit for humanitarian concerns.

ABC’s 20/20 has done two investigations in China (click here for videos) of this exhibit, and raised “troubling” questions about these exhibits, such as where do these bodies come from, is there “informed consent” and are they voluntary donations, or bodies of unclaimed, executed prisoners in China? View these 20/20 news reports, but I warn you, the videos are not suitable for children.

Commercial profit is being made off these real life bodies exhibits all over America. And religious leaders and others are saying that this type of exhibit may also be disrespectful to the persons and families of these deceased individuals (especially so if these were not “voluntary” decisions to release these bodies to Premier Exhibiitions, an Atlanta based company.)

How are these bodies prepared? “The human body specimens in the exhibition are preserved through a revolutionary technique called polymer preservation. In this process, human tissue is permanently preserved using liquid silicone rubber that is treated and hardened. The end result is a rubberized specimen, preserved to the cellular level, showcasing the complexity of the body’s many bones, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and organs. The full-body specimens can take over a year to prepare and after undergoing the polymer preservation process, they become impervious to decomposition.” (from press release)

Have any of you seen this exhibit in Tucson or elsewhere? Did you find them educational or ghoulish? Are you troubled by the alleged source of these bodies?

Jamie O’Brien was playing his uplifting Irish music at One North Fifth (with Sharon Goldwasser on violin & mandolin), then I rambled over to the lovely Fox Tucson Theatre to hear the renowned Portland Cello Project (five cello musicians) on stage with a drummer. They played a haunting “Godfather Theme” in the first hour and even a rousing singalong “Hey ya”, followed by several lively songs with Weinland (a vocal guitarist).

Then I ran into fellow TC.com blogger Charles Spillar (“Artistic Tucson”) and we set off to explore two fabulous L.A. themed bars– Sapphire Lounge (rooftop bar, with several floors of ultra elegant dance/lounge areas) at 61 E. Congress, then Zen Rock, an equally elegant dance/lounge with a basement at 121 E. Congress. Wow, neither of us could believe these two high scale bars existed on Congress Street.

Then we checked out “Catacoustic Groove” a men’s cappella rock/soul/R & B group of six fellows including Dr. Bruce Bayly, an old friend of mine. They were drawing a large crowd at the Ronstadt Transit Center.

Also happening: a rock sound stage on Scott Avenue with The Modeens, The Mission Creeps, and Greyhound Soul, and nearby the Tucson Circus Arts with people on stilts, who teach juggling, clowning & taiko drumming. A local pie maker (Big Skye) sold me a delicious strawberry/rhubard pie. It seems street musicians were everywhere, along with mimes/human statues with grey faces & costumes, and a good mix of food and craft vendors. Most of the restaurants on E. Congress were open and doing good business as well. Stefan George was performing over at the Hotel Congress for free.

Cinema La Placita showed Beatles’ movies on a large screen projected on the wall of the large empty lot on E. Congress between Scott and Stone, and Ultimate Electronics encouraged youth to participate in karaoke/musical instrument participatory singalongs, also Beatles’ music. I loved hearing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” again. Cinema La Placita organizer Erika O’Dowd was passing out flyers for their upcoming Beatles movie on May 13, “A Hard Day’s Night.”

Need I say more? It was a fantastic “Urban Street Fest.” Kudos to former TC.com blogger Donovan Durband and his new boss Ward 6 Councilmember Steve Kozachik who apparently had a big hand in pulling this event together. Both men were present as well, enjoying themselves.

And as Everett, the guy with a humorous “Free advice for 5 cents” stand on the corner of Congress/6th Avenue said “my advice is to come back” for another 2nd Saturday. I recommend we all take his advice.

The second 2nd Saturdays Downtown is slated for June 12. Don’t miss it.

5/9/10 UPDATE: Photo gallery of shots taken by Donovan click here.