Husband and wife duo Greg Fishman and Judy Roberts will perform at a Tucson Jazz Society concert on Sunday.

One of the things we know for sure, if more musicians had as much fun as Judy Roberts does playing for an audience, jazz would be a lot more popular. This energetic Chicago pianist, vocalist and singer of scat is a bundle of irrepressible energy with a big Tucson fan base.

Roberts’ musical chops and decades in the business have earned her several Grammy nominations, as well as first-place awards, in jazz polls by Downbeat and Playboy magazines. Her discography lists more than 20 albums.

She had a popular jazz hit with “Señor Blues,” based on the Horace Silver tune. Her rapid-fire delivery of the lyrics to Dave Frishberg’s “My Attorney Bernie” is a total hoot.

But most amazing is how it is impossible not to like this straight-ahead jazz entertainer. Even a world-class grump would finally have to lighten up in her presence because Roberts would just keep on playing her sunny songs filled with dazzling virtuosity until she got a grin.

The Los Angeles Times said it more simply. “At the piano (Roberts) smiles and her joy is obvious. She is simply a woman in love with her work.”

This weekend Roberts returns to the Baked Apple in company with her tenor sax-playing husband Greg Fishman, for a full-blown concert in St. Philip’s Plaza, presented by the Tucson Jazz Society. They will be joined onstage by Tucson’s own tenor colossus, Brice Winston. The possibility of some saxophone shoot-outs are ample.

For Roberts’ many fans here, the concert has been a long time coming.

“Back in the ’80s I played a lot in Tucson, at the Doubletree Inn,” says Roberts on the phone from Phoenix. “That’s where I met Yvonne (Ervin, former executive director of the Tucson Jazz Society) who invited me to be in the first TJS Prima Vera celebration of women in jazz.

“After Yvonne left TJS, it just wasn’t the same there anymore. But I’ve always loved Tucson. My sister Hallie Loewy lives there. She’s a massage therapist.

“Greg loves it there. He has some students there and always says we picked the wrong city to move to.”

Last year Roberts and Fishman moved permanently from Chicago to Phoenix, where she has wintered now and then over the years. It was during those Phoenix winters that she would jump down Interstate10 for sisterly visits here and a string of very hot club dates, which were always packed.

“We had some incredibly successful shows at the Old Pueblo Grille,” Roberts remembers. Those were in more recent times. What kept eluding Roberts was a return to TJS’ big stage events like the Prima Vera showcase. Now she is coming back to town and expectations are high.

Roberts simply has the knack for engaging an audience and holding everyone’s attention. She says it all begins with the musicians.

“Communication is all about sharing. So the first thing I do is catch the eye of the other band members. When that happens and we are all communicating with each other, the audience instantly feels that, which makes the audience light up.” Roberts makes it sound so easy.

Choosing the right songs is also important. She begins with the Great American Songbook.

“That’s where the good stuff is,” Roberts insists. From there she adds bebop tunes (often with a scat line), Latin, blues and soulful ballads, stringing together play lists that stretch from “Route 66″ to “Take the A Train,” from “A Night In Tunisia” to “What A Difference A Day Makes.”

For sure, Roberts will spend her evening in Tucson slinging notes in all directions. But the one thing you can count on, she will be loving every minute of it.

Judy Roberts

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IF YOU GO

What: Judy Roberts and Greg Fishman in concert with Brice Winston

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

Where: St. Philip’s Plaza, 4280 N. Campbell Ave., at East River Road

Price: $20 general admission, $15 members, $10 students

Info: 903-1265, www.tucsonjazz.org

Indie rockers Cloud Cult will bring their unique live show to Plush on Saturday.

A year after Cloud Cult’s indie folk-rock release “Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-partying through Tornadoes),” the Minnesota-based band continues to tour nationally, playing sold-out show after sold-out show.

But the band has announced it will take a break from touring after its string of spring and summer dates, including a Saturday show in Tucson.

On his time off, band founder Craig Minowa plans to bury his hands deep in the dirt on his organic farm between Hinckley and Sandstone.

“We really aren’t big-city people. We’re kind of quiet, rural people, so touring really takes its toll on us,” Minowa says the morning after Cloud Cult’s recent sold-out concert in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The band’s unique live show features two live painters, including Minowa’s wife, Connie.

The national successes of Cloud Cult throughout the past seven years are gratifying, Minowa says, but the limelight can sometimes be too glaring.

“On the positive side, it’s really great to see how the positive message is coming across. There’s a lot of people sharing really touching stories about how the music has helped them through tough times,” Minowa says. “That’s where I’m really able to find the purpose behind this.”

Cloud Cult has been around since 1995, but it wasn’t until 2002 that the band really broke out of its shell.

Minowa and company’s first taste of national fame was “They Live on the Sun,” an album written after the unexpected death of Minowa’s 2-year-old son. The disc went to No. 1 on the college radio charts by 2003.

At the rate of about an album a year, Cloud Cult continued to pick up steam and in 2007, The Denver Post ranked “The Meaning of 8″ one of the top 10 best albums of the past decade, alongside bands like Modest Mouse and Radiohead.

By the time “Feel Good Ghosts” came around, the band gained the attention of Rolling Stone magazine, which dubbed Cloud Cult a “breaking band.”

“It takes a lot of energy to be … in the public eye when we prefer to have our hands in the soil and be quietly weeding away in the gardens,” Minowa says.

Cloud Cult is one of the pioneering “green bands” of the indie rock scene.

“The entire Cloud Cult process has been really developed along organic premises from the songwriting to the actual production of the products to our stage shows,” Minowa says.

Cloud Cult’s products are 100 percent postconsumer recycled and all but one of Cloud Cult’s CDs have been recorded and produced at Minowa’s environmentally friendly farm studio.

Minowa’s Earthology Records has been an eco-consultant to national acts and music industry heavies such as Universal, MTV and ASCAP.

Even while the band is touring, Minowa works from the road with the Organic Consumers Association doing nonprofit work.

“The big trick is touring around the farming operation. We’ve got chickens that require care while we’re away,” Minowa says. “We typically try to schedule the tours so we’re home for the first planting of the year and build the fall tours around the first frost.”

While the group takes a touring break, Minowa will write, with plans to release another CD in 2010.

“I feel like there might be some closure coming in on the live show level,” Minowa says. “Connie and I really are just going to focus on family and the farm and our Earthology Institute.”

This year’s big project was releasing the feature-length documentary “No One Said It Would Be Easy,” a film that follows Cloud Cult’s rise to fame. The movie hit stores in April.

Even though Cloud Cult has become a prominent name in the indie music scene, Minowa has no intention to hang up his farm life to be a full-time musician.

“When we’re back at the farm, that’s really the true joy,” Minowa says.

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IF YOU GO

What: Cloud Cult in concert

When: 11:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Plush, 340 E. Sixth St.

Price: $10

Info: 798-1298, www.plushtucson.com

Fast-paced Calle Debauche drives you to move, but curves slam brakes on dancing

Calle Debauche is Dave LeGendre, tuba; Chris Halvorsen, marimba; Mohadev, guitar; Fred Malter, drums; and Guillem Sarlé, tenor sax.

Local instrumental band Calle Debauche – listing such influences as Frank Zappa, ’70s avant-garde rock and eastern European folk – plays music that is impossible to squeeze into any one genre. It’s also impossible to dance to.

“You want to dance, but you can’t,” says guitarist Mohadev. “Sometimes, people dance because it has danceable elements, but then it’s constantly changing. As soon as you start dancing we’ll go into a noise thing where it’s unclear how to dance.”

“But if somebody is up for the challenge . . . ,” marimba player Chris Halvorsen dares.

Calle Debauche was formed in 2006 as a guitar, bass and drum trio but has since replaced bass with tuba, saxophone and marimba. Mixing horns with rock influences, Mohadev found tuba player Dave LeGendre and sax player Guillem Sarle through their listings on craigslist. LeGendre was looking to play in a small classical band while Sarle was trying to start a funk band of his own. Instead, they both wound up contributing to the eclectic stylings of Calle Debauche.

Mixing horns with rock influences, Calle Debauche – translated as “street debauchery” or “debauchery street” – sounds a bit like an orchestra gone wild.

“We combine a lot of elements that the connection between them is not very obvious,” Mohadev says. “A lot of the stuff we play is really heavy, and I’ve never heard a band playing heavy music with a tuba instead of a bass player or with a marimba player.”

Based on the types of music each musician in the band prefers, this eclectic result is no surprise. According to Mohadev, drummer Fred Malter listens to Latin jazz, tuba player LeGendre prefers metal, Sarle favors funk while Halvorsen jams to folk music and ’70s rock. As for Mohadev, his eclectic tastes include Bulgarian wedding music, death metal and post punk among countless others.

Calle Debauche fuses this elaborate combination into one big genre-bending medley.

“A lot of our music is instrumentation and the blending of different styles in a very seamless way instead of just genre-hopping,” he says. “We combine different styles into the same songs or the same compositions.”

Calle creates these intricate songs using a composing program called Mozart. The program allows the musicians to write arrangements and then play the result back on their computer.

“It sounds like video game music,” Mohadev says.

From there, the musicians print sheet music and pass it to the rest of the band to learn how to play the songs.

“We don’t really know exactly what it’s going to sound like until we start playing it and interpreting what’s been written,” Mohadev says. “We make a lot of stylistic decisions on how to play the parts.”

May 21, Calle Debauche will have a party at Plush to celebrate the release of its first CD. The self-titled disc is a vast departure from the band’s 2007 EP “Potemkin Carnival,” Mohadev says.

“The EP was all over the place. Each song was in a different style,” Mohadev says. “The new one is a lot more focused.”

While audiences at the CD release party may have difficult time dancing to the music, they probably will never be bored, Halvorsen says.

“We try to keep the intensity up so the show is pretty fast paced. Just song after song, we jump from one to another.”

———

IF YOU GO

What: Calle Debauche CD release party with Flagrante Delicto and Chris Black

When: 9 p.m. May 21

Where: Plush, 240 E. Sixth St.

Price: $5

Info: 798-1298, www.plushtucson.com

Students graduating from The University of Arizona School of Media Arts bachelor of fine arts program will screen their senior thesis films at the annual “I Dream in Widescreen.”

Students in film and video production will present what is being slated as an unusually diverse and ambitious array of films. The students wrote, directed and crewed their own films, which often feature local talent.

The lineup includes a teen genre musical, a meditation on Jewish identity, a fantasy epic about a fiddler turned dragonslayer and a comedic series of commercial spots. A Q&A session with all of the graduating filmmakers follows the presentation.

Local newspaper columnist and KXCI Community Radio program host Ernesto Portillo Jr. will host the screening.

When: Doors open at 6 p.m. with the screenings beginning at 7:30 Friday Where: Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Price: free Info: 626-1405, www.uanews.org

UA film students to screen works

Being able to afford designer clothes is among the perks Miguel (Algeniz Perez Soto) discovers in his new life in America.

LOS ANGELES – With “Sugar,” writing-directing partners Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck have pulled off the kind of miraculous trick Darren Aronofsky did last year with “The Wrestler.”

They’ve taken an overly familiar, potentially cliched sports story, stripped it down and, in doing so, completely reinvented it. Rather than focusing on an athlete past his prime, Boden and Fleck tell the tale of a baseball player on the rise — a subgenre with all its own formulas and expectations.

“Sugar” defies them every time.

No score swells to a crescendo when Dominican pitcher Miguel “Sugar” Santos experiences his first triumph on the mound in the United States. There’s no slo-mo of the ball leaving his hand on a magical summer night and landing with an amplified thud in the catcher’s mitt. Even the obligatory training montage feels different, accompanied by a song from TV on the Radio.

Instead, you get pure, intimate and – above all – honest storytelling, the same approach they took with their outstanding 2006 debut, “Half Nelson.” It’s so fundamental and compelling, it makes you wonder why more filmmakers don’t jettison the gimmickry and pursue such a powerful path. (“Sugar” might seem too slow at times; then again, some complain that baseball itself is too slow. They’re the ones on whom the intricacies of throwing a knuckle curve, Sugar’s toughest pitch, will be lost.)

It’s also surprising that, given the tremendous influence of Latin players – and especially superstars from the Dominican Republic like David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez – we’ve seen very little of this element of the game depicted on screen before. “Sugar” is a baseball story but it’s also about the hardships of immigration and, more universally, about finding your place in the world.

As the title character, Algenis Perez Soto lets us feel all the enthusiasm and nerves that go along with that journey; being a non-actor, his performance always seems natural and realistic.

Sugar is an assured 19-year-old from a poor village. His talent and hard work take him from a local baseball academy to a Single-A team in Iowa. (“Donde esta I-A?” he asks when he sees his name next to the state’s postal code.) It’s not Yankee Stadium, where he dreams of pitching someday – his favorite player is the team’s second baseman, fellow Dominican Robinson Cano – but it’s a start.

There he lives on a farm with Helen and Earl Higgins (Anne Whitney and Richard Bull), elderly baseball junkies who’ve been opening their home to minor leaguers for years. And this is one of the loveliest parts of “Sugar”: the way Boden and Fleck treat the Midwest, and its residents, without any camp or condescension. The people who surround Sugar are warm and decent. They love the sport and they want to see him succeed – even the Higgins’ teenage granddaughter, who invites him to her Christian youth group but gives him mixed signals about her true intentions.

A fish out of water, he struggles to assimilate and learn English, even with the help of a stud shortstop from Stanford (the charismatic Andre Holland) who guides him through American pop culture. Still, Sugar’s seemingly unshakable faith in himself – like his pitching ability – slowly fades.

To tell you what happens to him from here would be a tremendous disservice. We’ll just say that, refreshingly, nothing about it is sickly sweet.

———

‘SUGAR’

Rating: R for language, some sexuality and brief drug use. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Length: 114 minutes

Playing at: Opens Friday at the Loft Cinema

Grade: B+

Gael Garcia Bernal (left) and Diego Luna play a pair of competitive brothers who, while opposites, both enjoy soccer. When they are discovered by a talent scout, the two find themselves pitted against each other.

LOS ANGELES – “Rudo y Cursi” is enormously hackneyed in concept yet surprisingly enjoyable in execution, thanks to some amusing, surreal details and the genuine camaraderie of Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal.

You think you know where it’s going, this story about the rise and fall of a couple of aspiring soccer players (who happen to be competitive brothers, another familiar theme). But the naturalism of writer-director Carlos Cuaron’s approach is too compelling, as is, conversely, the liveliness of co-stars Luna and Garcia Bernal, longtime friends reunited for the first time on the big screen since the 2002 hit “Y Tu Mama Tambien.”

Cuaron, who co-wrote that movie, makes his feature debut here; it’s also the first film from brother Alfonso Cuaron and fellow Mexican directors Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro through their new company, Cha Cha Cha. So it’s all very comfortable and chummy.

Alfonso Cuaron has said that the relationship between the main characters isn’t necessarily a reflection of his own childhood with his younger brother, but Carlos Cuaron has a clear affection for the way these guys tease, torment and ultimately stick by each other.

Beto (Luna) and Tato (Garcia Bernal) work on a banana plantation and spend their free time playing soccer on the neighborhood team in Jalisco. They barely make enough money to get by, which is even tougher for Beto, who has a wife and two young kids as well as a serious gambling problem. Tato, meanwhile, wants to move to Texas and become a singer. Beto is the serious one, Tato is the dreamer.

Both of their lives change when traveling talent scout Batuta (Guillermo Francella) notices their skills on the field and offers to take them under his wing – trouble is, he can only take one at a time. (We probably could have done without Batuta’s frequent narration, which is heavy on the soccer-as-life metaphors.)

Tato gets to go first and, after adjusting to life in Mexico City with its luxuries like Cup O’Noodles (with freeze-dried shrimp!), he eventually comes off the bench and becomes a star on his team, even earning the nickname “Cursi,” or corny, for his passionate style of play. (He also finagles a recording contract out of Batuta, which includes a fabulously cheesy video for his Spanish cover of Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me.”) Beto eventually joins him and ends up on a different team; as a goalie back home, he’d already gone by the nickname “Rudo,” or tough, which follows him to the big time.

While it may seem obvious which brother is responsible and which is the flake, both Rudo and Cursi are equally flawed, one of the film’s realistic charms. Both indulge in their newfound fame but through differing methods: Rudo with even higher-stakes betting and eventually cocaine, Cursi with expensive tastes and a sexy, scheming TV-star girlfriend (the leggy Jessica Mas).

Even the climactic Rudo vs. Cursi showdown – which is de rigeuer for any sports movie – doesn’t exactly turn out the way you might expect. Then again, “Rudo y Cursi” isn’t really a sports movie; in retrospect, Cuaron doesn’t depict that much soccer. Rather, it’s about relationships, and how they’re imperfect, but how they can also evolve and thrive.

———

‘RUDO Y CURSI’

Rating: R for pervasive language, sexual content and brief drug use. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Length: 103 minutes

Playing at: Opens Friday at Century 20 El Con Mall, Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18

Grade: B

Many students in the digital arts department collaborated on "Estaban's Ride" (above) and "Todas Almas" (right), drawing upon their individual areas of interest and specialties. The two feature films will be shown with about 30 student-produced shorts over the weekend.

It’s Friday at the Pima Community College digital arts department. Post production is down to the wire. Technically, films should be finished today.

One student sits in front of a computer, modifying sound for the film “Todas Almas” while director Jesse Powell watches over his shoulder. As the film begins to play on the screen the sound man clarifies there is still work to be done.

“Just keep in mind the audio’s not done on it,” he says.

Powell jokingly shouts at him.

“You got 20 minutes, 15!” Then with an air of resignation, he says, “We’re coming in on Sunday.”

Over the weekend Powell, as well as Grant Hunker, the director of “Estaban’s Ride,” will put the final touches on their films, preparing for Pima’s screening this Saturday and Sunday. The screening is the culmination of a semester’s work for Pima’s digital arts students. About 30 short films will be showcased alongside the features “Estaban’s Ride” and “Todas Almas.”

“Estaban’s Ride” follows the struggle of a son coming to terms with his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In “Todas Almas,” a woman is reunited with her dead husband through an All Soul’s Day tradition of writing letters to the dead. While the films’ plots are very different, they share a common thread.

“They are (companion films) in the sense that they encapsulate different feelings of the Southwest,” Powell says. “We brought the culture that we experience here in Tucson and southern Arizona and put those feelings into the films.”

Both films are collaborative works of the 2008-09 Pima digital arts program. At the beginning of the school year, the scripts for “Estaban’s Ride” and “Todas Almas” were presented to students and they were allowed to apply for positions on the production team.

“They gave us two scripts that were workable, within our means of making a film and set the task for us to take over,” Powell says. “We were basically given a script. Then they said, ‘Go for it!’ ”

Both Hunker and Powell were eager to have the opportunity to direct their respective films.

“Estaban’s (story) I knew right away,” Hunker says. “When I grew up my grandfather had Alzheimer’s. It’s sad to lose that connection with someone you love. You’re not sure what’s going on with that person, and it’s hard to imagine what they’re going through.”

For Powell, it was a love of tradition that connected him to “Todas Almas.”

“I grew up in between Arizona and Mexico so I have ties to that culture,” he says. “I felt that I could communicate the ideas of the (All Souls Day) holiday through this film.”

After filling out applications and essays, Hunker and Powell were chosen as the directors of the films.

Together with the rest of the students, the directors spent the first semester focusing on aspects of pre-production such as casting and shooting. In the fall, their focus shifted to post-production aspects of film such as editing and cutting. Students from the entire department participated according to their area of interest or specialty.

“The whole department is intertwined in this production and that’s what’s really cool,” Powell says. “You’re working with your friends. You know what to expect from people. It turns into a family with this program.”

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IF YOU GO

What: Pima Community College Digital Video and Film Arts Screening

When: 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: PCC Center for the Arts Proscenium Theatre, West Campus, 2202 W. Anklam Road

Price: free

Info: www.pima.edu

Mink Stole has been a staple in John Waters' films.

Mink Stole is the Philip Seymour Hoffman of John Waters’ world. The actress has played leads (“Desperate Living”), supporting (“Pink Flamingoes”) and smaller roles (“Serial Mom”), creating compelling characters no matter what their prominence.

Even if she’d appeared only in Waters’ films, Stole would still be a cult film queen. (Maybe wearing the crown she attempted to share with Queen Carlotta in “Desperate Living”?) But in addition to the high trash of Waters, Stole has appeared in dozens of films. In an e-mail interview after shooting her latest, a women’s prison movie called “Stuck,” Stole talks about her many “mother of the gay” roles and her best buddy on the “Female Trouble” set. That film is the reason – well, today, anyway – for thinkin’ Mink: Stole will attend a special screening of the Waters classic Saturday at the Loft Cinema.

What are you doing right now? Where are you?

It’s about 7 p.m. and I just got home from Macon, Ga. I was there working on a new film by Steve Balderson called “Stuck.” It’s a black-and-white women-in-prison movie about a young woman mistakenly accused of killing her mother and sentenced to be hanged. It has all the good stuff you’d expect from a death-row film noir: the innocent one, tough-on-the-outside-cream puff-on the-inside lesbians, vicious prison guards and the religious fanatic – that’s me. We filmed all the cell block scenes on a soundstage, but used the local jail for the prison yard stuff, and a beautiful, real antebellum mansion for a dream scene. Macon is absolutely gorgeous, so pretty that (Gen. William) Sherman decided to spare it on his horrific destructive march through Georgia during the War Between the States, and we, the cast and crew, were treated with true Southern hospitality. Many of us stayed in private homes and by the time we left we all felt like we had become members of the family. I stayed with Kim and Terrell Sandefur and their 10-year-old twins, Nina and Wyatt, and I already miss them.

We’ve read that Taffy Davenport, your woman-child role in “Female Trouble” – is your favorite of the many fabulous characters you’ve played in John Waters’ films. What is it about her that you so love?

I’ve always felt a really strong connection to Taffy, probably because as a kid most of the time I felt misunderstood and unappreciated. I’m the fifth of 10 kids – hardly an only child like Taffy was – and I deeply resented being “the problem child,” so of course I acted out, which made things worse. I’ve always felt that Taffy was just like that, just trying to be good, but nobody wanted to believe her, so she got attention however she could. And from an actor’s POV, it’s always fun to play extreme characters, so Taffy was a blast. We shopped the children’s departments of the local thrift shops for her wardrobe. It was also great to be able to film so much inside – a real change from the bitterly cold exteriors of “Pink Flamingos.”

Who of the rich cast of folks from “Female Trouble” were you most comfortable with, most likely to grab a cup of coffee with?

Probably my best friend on the set was David Lochary. We spent a lot of off-camera time together, but this was the fifth movie I’d worked on with John and most of the same cast members and crew, so we were all good friends by then. Vincent Peranio, our production designer, and Van Smith, our costume/ makeup designer, and Pat Moran, the production chief, were just like family, too. We all socialized together off set.

What has been your favorite non-John Waters film and/or role?

I really enjoyed playing Natasha Lyonne’s mom in “But I’m a Cheerleader” a few years ago, and Robin Greenspan’s mom in “Girl Play” in 2004. Both of those were “mother of the gay” roles, another of which I did in “Eating Out 2″ in 2006. My favorite role is usually the one I’m either working on at the moment or have just completed, so right now I’m totally in love with Esther, the devout death-row inmate in “Stuck,” and Evelyn the librarian in “All About Evil,” the Joshua Grannell film just wrapped in San Francisco. This was the first horror movie I’ve been in where I’ve actually been tortured, and it has an amazing cast, including Natasha Lyonne. I loved working with her again, as well as Thomas Dekker, Cassandra Peterson and Patrick Bristow. It’s really funny and really bloody. I don’t know when “All About Evil” will be released, but we expect “Stuck” to premiere at MAGA, the Macon, Ga., film festival in February 2010.

How does your filmography reflect who you are (your politics, beliefs, etc.)?

Hmmmmm. I’m a yellow-dog Democrat and a tolerant atheist. I believe in human rights (including gay marriage) and animal rights. I’ve never chosen films because of any of these beliefs, but the way I think and live have definitely had an influence on the roles I’m offered.

The only recording we’ve heard of Mink and Her Wonderful Band is “Sometimes I Wish I Had a Gun.” Are there other recordings out there? How active is the band?

When I moved from Los Angeles back to Baltimore in 2007, I had to leave my band behind, which broke my heart. I’ve put together a great group here in Baltimore, and we’ve done one concert so far, but are hoping to do more. What I’d really love is to be the house band in some supper club for a while, but I have been out of town way too much to put that together. “Gun” is the only tune that’s been released but, although I have no specific dates or plans, I will do an album as soon as I can. I’ve been very lucky to work with some wonderful musicians, and I want to record with them all.

———

IF YOU GO

What: actress Mink Stole screens “Female Trouble”

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

Price: $8 general, $6 Loft members

Info: 795-7777, www.loftcinema.com

Gay- and lesbian-themed movies at the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival were just too fabulous for their own good. The flicks were so creative, piercing and abundant that TIJFF organizers decided to give them a festival all their own. In an e-mail interview, TIJFF co-chairs and life partners Bob Nichol and Bob Polinsky discuss the genesis of the event.

Question: How did the Fabulous Faygeleh LGBT Film Festival come about?

Answer: Traditionally the Tucson International Jewish Film Festival has included at least one LGBT film in the main festival program in January. However, while our film jury was vetting films for the 2009 festival, we found that there were several excellent LGBT films with universal LGBT themes and that were either from Israeli filmmakers or addressed LGBT interests from the Jewish perspective. We wanted to have more time available to show more of these excellent films. Since there was not room in the January festival schedule for more films, we decided to launch a new program dedicated entirely to LGBT films that spoke to universal LGBT themes and that had some Jewish content or connection.

What do you hope to accomplish through the festival?

Entertainment, together with information about universal LGBT themes. We want our audiences to have a great time at the movies, but also to leave the auditorium with increased understanding of the universal themes of tolerance and the struggles of LGBT persons, regardless of the country in which they live their daily lives.

How did the folks from the local International Jewish Film Festival and the JCC react to your idea?

When we introduced the idea of a new festival event to our committee, they were nothing short of enthusiastic about the idea. Consistent with its policy of support for the LGBT community, the management of the Tucson Jewish Community Center did not hesitate to provide the venue for the festival. We were on our way.

How did you select the films? What were you looking for?

Our film jury is constantly searching for new films and previews potential films every week. In the course of vetting dozens of films for the annual festival program, we find many high quality LGBT films that meet our criteria for high production value and universal LGBT themes. We work very hard to find films that provide quality entertainment while encouraging cultural diversity, intellectual growth and dialogue within our audience. We look for films that challenge long-held assumptions and stereotypes.

It seems that more gay- and lesbian-themed movies are coming from Israel. Why do you think that is?

Israel has a very vibrant new film industry, with young, innovative and creative filmmakers. They are finding their voice in world cinema and it is only natural that LGBT themes would find a powerful voice in the universal language of film.

Besides the screenings, what other activities are planned for the festival?

Our Sunday afternoon program is devoted to education and participation by our community partners, Southern Arizona Aids Foundation (SAAF), TIHAN (Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network), Wingspan (Tucson’s LGBT Community Center) and the Jewish LGBT Inclusion Project (Jewish Community Relations Council). The first film on Sunday, “Mom, I Didn’t Kill Your Daughter,” is a powerful and touching film that follows the personal odyssey of a F2M transgender person in Israel. The film will be followed with a panel discussion on transgender concerns and an audience Q&A. The second film, “Darling: The Story of Pieter Dirk Uys,” tells the story of the controversial South African activist, Pieter Dirk Uys, and documents his efforts to bring accurate AIDS prevention education to South Africa’s schoolchildren. That film will be followed with a panel discussion on AIDS education and prevention with participation by SAAF and TIHAN. AIDS infections are once again on the rise in Arizona and we believe that this film has an important message for everyone. A single ticket purchase on Sunday afternoon will be good for both of the afternoon shows.

How did you come with the name for the festival?

It practically created itself. The word “faygeleh” is old Yiddish and means “little bird.” Over the years the word has been used as a euphemism when referring to a homosexual person. Now, the word is losing its negative connotation and when used in the name of the festival, the alliteration of the words was too much fun to pass up.

How hopeful are you that the festival will become an annual event here?

We are already vetting films for the 2nd annual Fabulous Faygeleh Film Festival in May of 2010. The Tucson International Film Festival volunteer team and the management at the Tucson Jewish Community Center are very pleased and gratified by the enthusiastic reaction to the new festival from the greater Tucson and Pima County community. We are confident that the Fabulous Faygeleh Film Festival is destined to be a permanent part of the Tucson arts scene. Also, we hope that people will keep in mind that you don’t have to be Jewish to come to the festival and enjoy the films. These movies are for everyone.

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IF YOU GO

What: Fabulous Faygeleh LGBT Film Festival

When: Various times Thursday-Sunday

Where: Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road

Price: $6

Info: 299-3000, www.tucsonjewishfilmfestival.org

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MOVIE SCHEDULE

• 7 p.m. Thursday: “Jerusalem is Proud to Present,” a compelling documentary from director Nitzan Gilady reveals the events of the summer 2006, when Jerusalem was host to the World Pride events. The events spurred turmoil in the politically charged city, where Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders banded together in opposition to the gay festivities.

• 7 p.m. Saturday: “Antarctica” – Is love dead, or are we all just looking in the wrong places? That’s the question posed in writer/director Yair Hochner’s film, the first Israeli queer romantic comedy. In this sexy romp, Omer is about to turn 30. He works in a library, where he is happy to spend his time reading books and avoiding life.

• 1 p.m. Sunday: “Mom, I Didn’t Kill Your Daughter,” from director Orna Ben Dor. An Israeli F2M transgender couple struggle to find their identity in a world that doesn’t understand them.

• 3 p.m. Sunday: “Darling: The Pieter Dirk Uys Story” – When he was 15, Julian Shaw witnessed a one-man show by the controversial and brilliant South African political satirist Pieter Dirk Uys. A half-Jewish, half-Afrikaaner, anti-apartheid activist and entertainer, Uys was renowned for his drag alter ego, and passionate critique of South Africa’s failure to educate children about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Both of the afternoon movies are included with the purchase of one ticket.

• 7 p.m. Sunday: “The Secrets,” a dramatic religious mystery from director Avi Nesher where women search for their own voice in an ultraorthodox, patriarchal world. The film is set in Safed, the site where the mystical texts of the Kabala were first received, and focuses on a vibrant community of scholars.

Question-and-answer sessions about issues of AIDS education and prevention, and the struggle for gender identity follow each screening May 17. The Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation (SAAF), Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (TIHAN) and Wingspan are community partners for this Sunday afternoon program.

"Angels & Demons" has traded in the dense, dreary tone of "The Da Vinci Code" for more action, complete with dialogue such as, "Can you deactivate the device?" Tom Hanks (left) returns in the sequel and is joined by Ayelet Zurer (center) and Ewan McGregor (right).

LOS ANGELES – Blessedly, “Angels & Demons” is more entertaining and less self-serious than its predecessor, the dense and dreary yet enormously successful “The Da Vinci Code.”

In adapting another of author Dan Brown’s religious-mystery page turners, director Ron Howard wisely gave in to its beat-the-clock thriller elements, which makes for a more enjoyable summer movie experience. The brouhaha has long since abated among Catholics, albinos, “Da Vinci Code” purists, what have you, and all that’s left is air-conditioned escapism.

But its twists, turns and revelations are just as ridiculous as those in the first film – perhaps even more so – and it breezes through arcane details with just as much dizzying speed.

Besides Howard, the key players are back from that 2006 international hit, including Tom Hanks as Harvard professor and symbologist Robert Langdon and Akiva Goldsman as screenwriter (with David Koepp collaborating on the script). Joining them are Ewan McGregor, Stellan Skarsgaard and Armin Mueller-Stahl among the estimable supporting cast, all of whom have enjoyed the benefits of stronger material but manage to supply gravitas nonetheless.

Although “Angels & Demons” preceded “The Da Vinci Code” in book form, the film is positioned as a sequel to take advantage of the strained relationship between Langdon and the Vatican – only this time, it’s his expertise the folks there reluctantly need.

With the pope dead and the College of Cardinals about to meet in conclave to choose a replacement, a secret society known as the Illuminati has kidnapped the four likeliest candidates. Howard and cinematographer Salvatore Totino, who also shot “The Da Vinci Code,” cloak all these proceedings in dark, ominous shadows, and Hans Zimmer’s score rather obviously adds to the feeling of foreboding.

Langdon is brought in to decipher clues at various churches and historical sites throughout Rome to prevent the killing of the cardinals, one every hour, leading to a bomb explosion at the Vatican. He gets help along the way from Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer), an Italian scientist who worked at the lab where the combustible vial of anti-matter was stolen for the planned attack. Her arrival also allows for such standard action-picture dialogue as, “Can you deactivate the device?”

Never mind that Vittoria is sexy and mysterious, not middle-aged and frumpy. (And we gotta say, Hanks is looking pretty good here, too. The first time we see him, he’s tanned and trim, swimming laps in a Speedo in the Harvard pool.) Never mind that the time frame is impossible – that they must dash across the city at night, with its narrow streets and tourist traps packed with visitors, in time to stop each killing. And never mind that one person appears to be responsible for orchestrating these elaborate and very public deaths.

But wait, we haven’t even gotten to the most laughable part of the story yet! We won’t give it away entirely for those who haven’t read the book. We’ll just say it involves an exploding helicopter and a crucial character parachuting out of it just in time. Because it is summer, after all, despite the aura of religious solemnity.

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‘ANGELS & DEMONS’

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence, disturbing images and thematic material

Length: 138 minutes

Playing at: Opens Friday at Century 20 Park Place, Century 20 El Con Mall, Century Park 16, Foothills, DeAnza Drive-in, Tower Theatres at Arizona Pavilions, Harkins Tucson Spectrum 18, Century Theatres at the Oro Valley Marketplace

Grade: C

Credit Erika O’Dowd with inexpensive fun for the family – dogs, too

Cinema La Placita draws veterans and newcomers week after week.

You would think Erika O’Dowd dreams in black and white.

O’Dowd is the driving force behind Cinema La Placita, where black-and-white movies dominate each Thursday evening from early May through October.

Oh, O’Dowd loves movies, had parents who woke her up in the middle of the night because a movie with “the most beautiful woman in the world” (Audrey Hepburn, “Sabrina”) or a Ray Milland murder mystery was on TV.

But, curiously, showing movies is not the primary motivation for her weekly outdoor movie screenings on the plaza at La Placita Village, 110 S. Church Ave. Generally, she doesn’t even see much of the movies because she’s busy doling out popcorn or doing whatever needs to be done.

“My focus is more just finding a reason to get people together,” O’Dowd said. “I enjoy movies but I’m not the most well-versed person. My real interest was to create an event, a reason not to go home after work.”

This month launched the 10th season for O’Dowd’s nostalgic and quirky creation, which has created a firm subculture that averages 200 spectators and has drawn as many as 350, she says.

These Thursday night movies – “Cool Hand Luke” with Paul Newman at 7:30 p.m. May 14 – draw Cinema La Placita veterans and newcomers week after week.

“On any given night, 10 percent of the people are here for the first time,” O’Dowd said. “I can tell because they ask where’s the bathroom and how much is the popcorn. Ten percent say they’ve been coming since the beginning.”

Barbara McCale has been to a few Cinema La Placita screenings the past two seasons and last week brought Bill Palser for his first movie under the stars.

“I think it’s great that you can sit outside,” Palser says. “We went and got something to eat and then she said, ‘Let’s go see a movie.’ ”

Cinema La Placita offers plastic chairs, table seating and the lawn around the gazebo. McCale and Palser chose the chairs, but otherwise she’s been on the lawn.

“When I don’t bring him, I bring my dogs,” McCale says.

Palser delivered newspapers in the 1940s and remembers Speedway Boulevard and Swan Road as dirt roads. Black-and-white movies are fine by him.

“At least there is no computerized crap” Palser says.

Couples that started coming to the movies here as twosomes now bring elementary school children. Singles have met here and married – O’Dowd among them.

O’Dowd met Josh Pope at Cinema La Placita in the second season; they later married. Their daughter, Tulla, who is 2 1/2 years old, has been part of the La Placita scene since the cradle

O’Dowd describes Ken and Christi Friskey as the poster family for Cinema La Placita. They’ve been coming for nine seasons – before kids Dean, 8; Justin, 6; and Sagan, 5, were born.

“Even when we had newborn infants, we’d come with a stroller,” Ken Friskey says. “They’ve been coming here since they were days old.”

Christi Friskey says that sometimes her parents and grandparents join the family at La Placita Village to make a four-generation movie outing.

“Once you have kids, it’s hard to go to movie theaters,” Ken Friskey says. “This is a perfect venue for us.”

O’Dowd reveals the schedule only one month at a time because flexibility is both a necessity and a benefit. She needs to make sure chosen movies, mostly inexpensive rentals (hence the many B&W movies), are available. Rainouts can be rescheduled more easily and the open calendar allows her to schedule movies to coincide with current events.

“I did ‘Manchurian Candidate’ (Sinatra version) the same day Bush addressed the (Republican) convention in 2004,” she says. “We were able to show ’3:10 to Yuma’ (Glenn Ford version) the day before the remake came out.”

For a woman who largely shows black-and-white movies, O’Dowd’s favorites list is slightly more contemporary and mostly color: “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Notorious,” “Manhattan,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance.”

If you see “Rosemary’s Baby” in the lineup, know that you’re getting an O’Dowd personal favorite.

“I have a huge crush on Cary Grant,” she says. “I have a big crush on Audrey Hepburn. I get a lot of input from the audience. If it’s available and not too expensive, I try to fit that in.”

Scheduling only one month ahead also allows people willing to donate $500 to sponsor a movie screening of their choice.

“If somebody calls me and says, ‘Our anniversary is June 28,’ great,” says O’Dowd, adding that for $500 that couple can choose the movie to celebrate with.

O’Dowd tries to fit a theme or two in each year. This season she plans to show a Paul Newman movie each month and perhaps a movie from 1929, 1939, 1949, 1959, 1969, 1979 “but not 1989.” “China Syndrome” and “Kramer vs. Kramer” are the 1979 candidates.

Cinema La Placita started in 2000 while O’Dowd was marketing director at La Placita and her boss, La Placita director Jane McCollum (now the force behind Main Gate Square) told O’Dowd to come up with a weekly event.

The first two seasons were funded with a $24,000 city Downtown Projects grant. Since then, funding has been a challenge, but O’Dowd never gave up: “I guess I’m a little stubborn.”

Admission is free, but the suggested $3 donation to see a movie bridges the gap between the roughly $10,000 this season will cost and the $4,000 in sponsorships from Bourn Partners (owners of La Placita Village), Betts Printing, Twice as Nice and individual movie sponsors.

“I need everybody to give me $3,” she says. “If everybody gave me $3, we’d be set. The event costs about $650 a night.”

The sponsorships in the past were as high as $6,500. O’Dowd reined in the budget from $12,000 and pared down the paid staff to the projectionist. Paid staff in the past set up and put away chairs, but this year O’Dowd is calling on movie attendees to show up early and stick around to help with chairs and cleanup.

Larger donations count as going to a nonprofit because Cinema La Placita is a program of the Cultural Exchange Council.

From 2004 to 2008, the movies were a program of the Loft Cinema.

Seating - and pre-movie picnic space - is available on the lawn.

Barbara McCale usually brings her dogs, but was accompanied by first-timer Bill Palser last week on opening night.

Christi and Ken Friskey have regularly attended screenings for nine seasons, and often make it a family affair, bringing four generations together.

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CINEMA LA PLACITA

La Placita Village, 110 S. Church Ave.

Showtime: 7:30 p.m. every Thursday

May 14: “Cool Hand Luke”with Paul Newman

May 21: “Topper” with Cary Grant

May 28: “We’re No Angels” with Humphrey Bogart

May 30: a special 8 p.m. Saturday screening of “The Wizard of Oz” in conjunction with the Meet Me Downtown run.

Friday is National Pizza Party Day, as if you needed a reason to go for pizza on Friday. Honor the day by supporting these fine local purveyors of pie:

ANGELINA’S

12152 N. Rancho Vistoso Blvd., Suite 170, 742-9595, 11 a.m.-midnight Sundays -Thursdays, 11 a.m.-2 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays

BROOKLYN PIZZA COMPANY

534 N. Fourth Ave., 622-6868, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-2:30 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays, noon-10 p.m Sundays

GRANDMA TONY’S PIZZA

7878 E. Wrightstown Road (886-4461), 9040 E. Valencia Road (663-1936), 7010 E. Broadway (885-7117), 2451 S. Harrison Road (721-6600), 11 a.m.-9 p.m Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays

MAGPIES GOURMET PIZZA

4654 E. Speedway Blvd. (795-5977), 105 S. Houghton Road (751-9949), 605 N. Fourth Ave. (628-1661), 8295 N. Cortaro Road (572-4300), 7315 N. Oracle Road (297-2712), hours vary

MAMA’S FAMOUS PIZZA & HEROES

7965 N. Oracle Road (297-3993), 4500 E. Speedway Blvd. (319-2537), 696 E. 22nd St. (750-1919), 50 S. Houghton Road (751-4600), 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays

MARIO’S PIZZA

3157 N. First Ave., 622-3668, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays

PIZZAZZ! PIZZA BISTRO

1763 E. Prince Road, 325-9040, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays

ROCCO’S LITTLE CHICAGO PIZZERIA

2707 E. Broadway, 321-1860, 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays

SAUCE

5285 E. Broadway (514-1122), 7117 N. Oracle Road (297-8575), 2990 N. Campbell Ave. (795-0344), 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays

VERO AMORE

3305 N. Swan Road (325-4122), 12130 N. Dove Mountain Blvd. (579-2292), 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays

ZACHARY’S PIZZA

1028 E. Sixth St., 623-6323, 4-10 p.m. Mondays, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2-10 p.m Sundays

ZONA 78

78 W. River Road (888-7878), 7301 E. Tanque Verde Road (296-7878), 11 a.m.-10 p.m daily

The Houston rap scene made a big splash in 2005, pushing out numerous acts from Slim Thug to Paul Wall to Chamillionare. But the one who arguably led the uprising was Mike Jones, known for his repetitive boast “Who? Mike Jones.”

His popular phrase and knack for catchy hooks on songs like “Back Then” and “Still Tippin” helped him surge to platinum status on his debut “Who is Mike Jones?” And his strategic marketing scheme of giving out his personal phone number to the public also played a part in his claim to fame.

That worked four years ago. Now with his new album “The Voice,” Mike Jones returns with some premiere guests (Lil Wayne, T-Pain and Trey Songz) and producers (J.R. Rotem and Mannie Fresh), but his new disc falls short with subpar wordplay by the Houston emcee.

Though there’s decent production, Jones barely shows any growth since his last outing, displaying very simple rhymes and unappealing hooks on “Happy Birthday” and “Swagg Thru Da Roof.” He even brags during almost every song about selling 2 million records on his last CD. With material like this, it’s doubtful he’ll be able to make such boasts on his next record.

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Mike Jones

“The Voice” (Swishahouse/Asylum Records)

Genre: rap

Grade: C-

Ciara’s latest album has all the right elements: good producers, catchy hooks and beats that bump with dance, pop and R&B flavors. But for some reason, “Fantasy Ride” isn’t as fun as the title suggests.

The 13-track set is mediocre at best, though it boasts production work by Polow Da Don, Danja, Dr. Luke and The-Dream, and has guest appearances from Chris Brown and Ludacris.

It’s not that the songs on the CD sound bad – tracks like “Ciara to the Stage” and “Tell Me What Your Name Is” show the singer at the top of her game. But the majority of the disc sounds just like what we’ve heard from the 23-year-old sensation before – and that’s not fulfilling.

The energy-charged “Work” featuring Missy Elliott sounds just like the 2005 hit “Lose Control,” Elliott’s song on which Ciara appeared. Most of the other tunes – “Like a Surgeon,” “Pucker Up” and “Never Ever,” for example – are enjoyable but show she hasn’t grown much as a singer since her last release.

Ciara shines, however, on the Janet Jackson-esque “Love, Sex, Magic” with Justin Timberlake and on “Keep Dancin’ On Me.”

With her 2004 debut CD “Goodies” and 2006′s “The Evolution,” Ciara had lots of hits but few songs that stood the test of time; “Fantasy Ride” is no different.

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Ciara

“Fantasy Ride” (Jive Label Group)

Genre: R&B

Grade: C

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s homage to Cab Calloway, “How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway,” comes off accordingly upbeat, but the drama of the Cotton Club’s quintessential showmanship is nowhere in sight.

The band’s eighth album instead proffers musicianship over moxie. This approach is fine in some respects, since no one could imitate Calloway – the man. But Calloway was so acutely ingrained in his signature songs, comparisons are hard to escape.

Lead singer Scotty Morris tries in vain to summon the Calloway growls and wails on songs such as “The Old Man of the Mountain” and “Minnie the Moocher.” Morris’ lack of range renders him helpless when the vocals should have soared.

Where’s the volume? Was Morris afraid to wake the neighbors?

The band recorded the material at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles on vintage microphones and equipment. That’s a nice nod to the music’s era, but the recording sounds flat, lacking thrilling highs, barrelhouse lows and the requisite “oomph” that such a talented group of musicians should have delivered.

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Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

“How Big Can You Get?: The Music of Cab Calloway” (Vanguard)

Genre: swing jazz

Grade: C