Citizen Staff Writer
RealFAST TIPS AND MORE

Dinnerware Artspace has a 45-foot runway in it. This is not the norm.

“I kept running into these designers here and asking them, ‘Where do you show? What are your opportunities?’ ” Dinnerware executive director David Aguirre says. He also asked himself a question: “Why aren’t we providing a platform for designers?”

Saturday the gallery, 264 E. Congress St., is doing just that with the Thunder and Lightning fashion show. Proceeds benefit Dinnerware.

About 17 locals are lined up to exhibit, their works ranging from wearable fashions to pieces more suited for display and intellectual dissection. Designers include couturier Danell Lynn, sculptor-inventor Mat Bevel and Preen co-owners Erin Bradley and Emilie Marchand.

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

• Read the full story, tucsoncitizen.com/calendar

Citizen Staff Writer
Byline

Inside the purple building on East Sixth Street that has housed Toxic Ranch Records since the summer of 1991, three teenagers are flipping through CDs and vinyl.

“Customers – a rarity,” owner Bill Sassenberger says while The Jesus and Mary Chain play over the speakers. He laughs – he’s a good-natured guy – but business has been far from easy for this independent record purveyor.

Which is why his celebration of 20 years in Tucson deserves two nights of music, with Sassenberger’s longtime friends in Italy’s Raw Power playing Sunday at Vaudeville Cabaret and Monday at Dry River Collective. (It also shows Sassenberger’s commitment to the kids – Dry River is all ages.)

Ebbs and flows seem built into the life of a place like Toxic Ranch, even though its owners (it’s co-owned by Julianna Towns, Sassenberger’s wife) have infused it with personality. Rock and political T-shirts fight for space on the walls – everything from Johnny Rotten’s mug to a “Bush hates me” tee – as do Misfits and Rancid posters. The selection of books and magazines/ zines is dense and focused, and CDs for locals are right on the counter. The indie rock stock ranges from a Captain Beefheart vinyl reissue to the newest Wolf Parade, which later plays in the store.

The life of independent record stores is dependent largely upon the genres in vogue, and recent years have seen the closings of CD City and Hear’s Music. It was partly a shift in tastes that brought Sassenberger and Towns to Tucson in 1988. They’d had a store in Pomona, Calif., since 1980, a time when Sassenberger’s favorite punk bands, such as the Dead Kennedys, were at their peak.

But later in the ’80s, he recalls, the Dead Kennedys broke up. Black Flag broke up. “Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction were the big things. And I didn’t like that,” he says, adding that the fatigue brought on by L.A.’s freeways didn’t help keep him in the area, either. So they moved their mail-order business and label Toxic Shock and it wasn’t long before the indie rock lover in Sassenberger embraced Tucson’s music scene, putting out records by Feast Upon Cactus Thorns, The Fells, Mondo Guano, Doo Rag, Al Perry. The label spanned about 1983 to 1998, Sassenberger says.

The current recession and the closing of the Fourth Avenue underpass certainly haven’t helped the business, but, “We’re managing,” says Sassenberger, who balances his store with a part-time job as an airline reservationist.

One bright spot, he notes, is a resurgence in vinyl over the past two years. “It’s not just old people getting their records back. It’s younger folks, too.” Sassenberger estimates that he sells two vinyl LPs for every one CD, and that includes everything from reissues to such currents as The Shins. (He sells used records, too.) Toxic Ranch will be at the second Hotel Congress Record Show, Aug. 30.

“This is just kind of a labor of love,” he says.

It’s the same for customers, who will hopefully continue to head to 424 E. Sixth St. for years to come.

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

IF YOU GO

What: Raw Power, Feast Upon Cactus Thorns, Swing Ding Amigos, Limbless Torso

When: 9 p.m. Sunday

Where: Vaudeville Cabaret

Price: $10

What: Raw Power, Terezodu, Skull Stomp, Prosthetics, Walrus, Dahmer Effect, Bloodied Up Knuckles

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Dry River Collective, 740 N. Main Ave.

Price: $7

Info: Contact Toxic Ranch at 623-2008 or visit its Web site, ToxicRanchRecords.com

Citizen Staff Writer
Visual Arts

Stories by POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

Leave it to the artists to revitalize downtown. Even as construction confusion continues and the summer heat encourages vacations, the concentration of creative types in the city core remains inspired.

Thursday through Sunday sees the debut of four diverse art events: Artists embrace PowerPoint with Ignite Tucson, create a one-night-only exhibition called Air Traffic: Control, showcase an array of fashion designs in Thunder and Lightning and present people as works of art during Night of the Living Art.

(A fifth event, Sound of Paint, is ongoing through Saturday. For a story on this melding of music and art, go to tucsoncitizen.com/ calendar.)

The artists are incredibly varied, with the events collectively offering a sampler platter of the hundreds of painters, photographers, sculptors, et al who call Tucson home.

Ignite Tucson turns PowerPoint presentation into art

It’s hard to think of something less artistic than a PowerPoint presentation. That’s why Ignite Tucson, with more than 15 local artists giving 5-minute talks aided by PowerPoint, is so intriguing.

Organizer David Aguirre, executive director of Dinnerware Artspace, says he first saw Ignite Portland online – Portland has now held three Ignites – and wanted to try the concept in Tucson. The experiment is Thursday at The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St.

Each artist gets five minutes, with 20 images cycling through at 15 second intervals. But the topics themselves have no parameters.

Graphic designer Julie Ray is using Ignite to explore her relationship with fake food, her love of synthetic sushi, crocheted carrots and all their brethren.

“It started when I was a kid and I loved reading the descriptions of food in books,” Ray says.

She then shotguns through some favorites: the food in Pee Wee’s refrigerator that was always playing, the plastic sushi in Yoshimatsu’s gift area, a Japanese cartoon character named Kogepan who is a sad little piece of burnt bread.

Ray will show images from a variety of sources, including her own photographs of fake food and, yes, at least one image of Kogepan.

Architect Bill Mackey’s exploration of transportation also stems from a personal interest, though he’ll fill his five minutes with images likely to provoke discussions that are more sociopolitical.

Mackey says he will show slides of maps, such as an imagine of downtown overlaid with the boundaries of Tucson Mall.

“You see that downtown isn’t that big,” Mackey says, pointing out that we seem to be more comfortable with the amount of walking we do in a parking lot than strolling Congress Street.

Mackey attended a preview of Ignite Tucson with four presenters at Dinnerware about a month ago and is excited about the fast-paced format.

“You give a lecture and no one asks questions. It’s a little dry, but a five-minute thing . . . I think it probably promotes conversation.”

Tucson’s noisy skies the focus of Air Traffic: Control

When Tomiko Jones moved to Tucson about three years ago, she was surprised by how loud it is here.

After living in Seattle, New York and Toyko, she says, “I expected Tucson to be this quiet town in the West. And it’s noisy.”

The noise she refers to is in our skies, a cacophonic collage generated by the airport, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and police helicopters.

Jones and fellow University of Arizona MFA graduate Chris Dacre have had many conversations about air traffic. So, when the two were presented with the opportunity to collaborate for the first time, “it was pretty easy to choose the topic,” Jones says.

“Air Traffic: Control” can be experienced for just one night, four hours on Friday, at the new Rocket Gallery, 270 E. Congress St.

Dacre had approached David Aguirre, who runs Dinnerware Artspace and Rocket Gallery, looking for a place to stay for a couple of weeks, Aguirre recalls.

“I said you can stay at Rocket Gallery but you have to hold an exhibit,” he says.

Late last week, Dacre was busy working on a helicopter made of mostly found objects – the fan on the tail was found in a dumpster – hanging in the narrow space.

Sitting on a paint can in the sparse gallery, Jones points to the door, noting that a dark tunnel will guide visitors inside, where they will be confronted by the sounds that many of us barely notice after years of conditioning. A mural painted by Dacre fills one long wall. Videos by Jones will be part of the installation as well, and a projector will be mounted inside the helicopter.

Very much on Jones’ mind are the social and political connections between the noisy skies and the humans below.

“Being that we are so close to an Air Force, I am in constant reminder about the U.S. military presence both here and abroad,” she writes in an e-mail. Police helicopters bring to mind crime and economic disparity for her.

Though the exhibit may be visible as a window display for a while, Jones says she likes the notion that it won’t last.

“It’s so ephemeral. This painting will be painted over, the helicopter will go in the trash. There’s nothing to sell, which, as an artist, is pretty liberating,” she says. “Maybe people get a little tired of the commercial application of art.”

Jones and Dacre will travel to Seattle next to create separate, two-month window displays in vacant buildings in Seattle, and then Jones heads to France for a four-month residency.

Designers to make noise, flash their clothes in Thunder and Lightning

Dinnerware Artspace has a 45-foot runway in it. This is not the norm.

“I kept running into these designers here and asking them, ‘Where do you show? What are your opportunities?’ ” Dinnerware executive director David Aguirre says. He also asked himself a question: “Why aren’t we providing a platform for designers?”

On Saturday, the gallery, 264 E. Congress St., is doing just that with Thunder and Lightning. Proceeds benefit Dinnerware.

About 17 designers are lined up to exhibit, and they offer the gamut from wearable pieces to creations more for display and intellectual dissection.

Artist Eleonor Leon falls into the latter category. One of her halter tops is fashioned of linked eyelash curlers, in part a reaction to her using them for years without really questioning the routine or her relationship with the technology.

“A lot of my work has to do with femininity, how assumptions are made based on the way you look,” Leon says.

Her current collection, she says, uses keyboard keys. Leon notes that the designs are fed by her long history of secretarial work. Keyboard letters make sense, she says, because most of us touch them for hours a day.

On the wearable end of the spectrum is Danell Lynn, though the one-of-a-kind fashions she creates as dl-couture are certainly within the realm of art.

In the fashion business for about six years, Lynn says that she will exhibit several works including three custom-created gowns.

“I can spend a month on a dress,” she says, adding that this is her first Tucson show.

Lynn uses fabrics found around the world, helped along by the fact that she travels consistently to meet clients.

The show will feature some green fashions, Aguirre says, and a couple displays will incorporate performance poetry.

Additional participants include Preen owners Erin Bradley and Emilie Marchand (showing hats), sculptor-inventor Mat Bevel and politically minded designer Oscar Jimenez.

M.S. drives the Night of the Living Art

When Jessica Vining was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in March, she didn’t dwell on the negative impact the disease would certainly have on her life.

And, as the 30-year-old notes, “I am someone who likes to take action.”

Taking action for the local hair stylist and photographer meant conceiving a way to help others with the disease while she helped herself. She formed aHEAD, a group geared toward 20- and 30-year-olds who have M.S. Any age is welcome, Vining says, with the age range really just an indication that the mindset of aHEAD will be different.

Vining has found some group meetings discussing disease too depressing. So aHEAD will focus on the positive, with discussions of how to live well with the disease through proper nutrition, exercise, etc.

Night of the Living Art is her first fundraiser for the group, and she hopes to continue them annually. Proceeds will be split between aHEAD and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The Sunday event begins at 5 p.m. with a silent art auction. Twenty-some works have been donated by local artists.

Then, at 6, comes the fun twist: the living art. Five models will be dressed and coiffed by Vining and two co-stylists from A Head of Style salon. Vining plans to decorate two models with body paint, with local artist Eliane Paulino providing an outfit of plastic bottles for one.

Vining will host, and food and beverages will be available.

IF YOU GO

What: Ignite Tucson

When: 6:30 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. presentations, Thursday

Where: The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St.

Price: $5 donation

Info: 792-4503

What: Air Traffic: Control

When: 6-10 p.m. Friday

Where: Rocket Gallery, 270 E. Congress St.

Price: free

Info: 792-4503

What: Thunder and Lightning fashion benefit

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Price: $10 donation

Where: Dinnerware Artspace, 264 E. Congress St.

Info: 792-4503

What: Night of the Living Art

When: 5-9 p.m. Sunday

Where: Blum & Amesquita, 445 N. Third Ave.

Price: $5

Info: 401-6795

Citizen Staff Writer
Tucson International Children’s Film Festival

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

When the manager of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle’s Toys heard that a “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” singalong was screening at the Loft Cinema, the accompanying activity was a “no-brainer.”

“It just kind of screamed burping contest,” David Correa says.

Well, we all hear different voices in our heads.

Lucky for local kids, the adult minds in charge of the Tucson International Children’s Film Festival at Loft Cinema have all sorts of fun things zipping through them.

The second-annual fest, which starts Saturday and runs through Aug. 2, offers free, daily screenings of kid-friendly flicks, five of them foreign. The Loft again pairs with the forever-young folks of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle’s, who will head activities in conjunction with every screening. Adults are welcome at all movies, too.

Following the successful model of the inaugural kids film festival, which started with a “Muppet Movie” singalong, Saturday’s film is “Willy Wonka,” with text to the songs included in case you’ve forgotten the words to “The Candyman,” “Pure Imagination” or all those lessons the Oompa Loompas teach through song.

Last year’s opening attracted some 350 theatergoers, who helped give Correa his favorite moment from the festival.

“This is going to sound kind of sappy,” he says. “Everybody had these glow-in-the-dark bracelets that we’d given out, and they were supposed to snap them as ‘Rainbow Connection’ started.” Correa looked into the audience – singing “Why are there so many songs about rainbows/And what’s on the other side?” in unison with a plaintive Jim Henson/Kermit – and was overwhelmed. “It was wonderful.”

The lineup of films offers plenty of variety, from foreign to domestic, animation to live action, wordless to musical. Shorts from The Three Stooges, The Little Rascals and others will precede some screenings.

Introducing kids to foreign films is very much a part of the festival, says Loft Program Director Jeff Yanc. Still, it can be challenging to find dubbed films that will capture children’s attention. This year’s selections are the French shorts “The Red Balloon” and “The White Mane,” the ever-popular South African “The Gods Must Be Crazy,” Hong Kong comedian Stephen Chow’s “Shaolin Soccer” and Japanese animated fantasy “My Neighbor Totoro.”

Correa is especially looking forward to “Totoro,” as his staff has a dance-off planned, “with the kids doing their best interpretation of the midnight dance the Totoro does with the two girls.” (Dakota Fanning lent her voice to the dubbed Disney reissue of the 1988 film.)

Last year’s robot parade was a big hit, so this time around, in conjunction with the 3-D screening of “It Came from Outer Space,” Tiggy-Winkle’s employees will lead kids dressed as space aliens. Yes, cute will happen, if the photos of robot children draped in silver spray-painted boxes and random metallic items is any indication. (Yanc fondly recalls kids with strainers on their heads.)

Two screenings will see book giveaways: “The Secret Garden” with the film of the same name and Dr. Seuss titles with the Theodore Geisel-penned “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.”

In addition to that “Willy Wonka” burping contest, attendees will receive goodie bags stuffed with items to pull out at various points during the film. They’ll include bubbles “for the scene when they’re floating up in the air,” glowsticks, kazoos for the golden goose scene “so they can quack” and more, packet maker Yanc says.

On top of all this: free popcorn.

The Glassman Foundation is again the major financial support behind the event, giving the Loft a bit more than $5,000, Loft Executive Director Peggy Johnson says.

So if you’re tempted to the monsterplexes for screenings of “Space Chimps” or other summer fodder, remember an alternative.

“They’re not going to the mall to see these kinds of movies,” Johnson says. “We wanted to offer them something different.”

IF YOU GO

What: The Tucson International Children’s Film Festival

When: Starts 10 a.m. daily Saturday through Aug. 2

Where: Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

Price: free

Info: 795-0844, loftcinema.com

Citizen Staff Writer
Byline

The Tucson Museum of Art has an Andy Warhol in its archives, unlikely to be put on display because of the condition it arrived in: severely water marked.

On exhibit in the Palice Pavilion, a Virgin Mary statue stands 7 feet tall and is in need of repair; museum staff is afraid to move it, because pieces of the work, circa 1650-1750, will flake to the floor.

TMA has numerous examples of artworks desperately in need of conservation. And the institution is far from being alone.

According to a national study conducted by the D.C.-based nonprofit Heritage Preservation and the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, artifacts at risk in this country include:

• 4.7 million works of art

• 13.5 million historic objects (flags, quilts, presidential china, Pueblo pottery)

• 153 million photographs

• 189 million natural science specimens

• 270 million rare and unique books, periodicals and scrapbooks

On a 1 to 10 scale, IMLS Executive Director Anne-Imelda M. Radice puts the U.S. at a 5 or 6 for overall conservation. But she’s hopeful: “We’re moving toward an 8.”

To help move things forward, IMLS held its second conservation forum for collecting institutions in Denver last month. TMA’s collections manager-registrar, Susan Dolan, was among the 50 out of more than 200 attendees who received funding – $1,000 in her case – from IMLS for travel and hotel costs, based in part on the photos she sent of the above-mentioned “The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.”

Dolan says she would not have been able to attend the two-day conference otherwise. And, she says, she found it “inspirational.”

The “Collaboration in the Digital Age” forum stressed the importance of digitizing a collection, for archiving and research. A primary issue for IMLS, Radice says, is standardization.

“We use PDFs now, but in 20 years, who knows?”

The forum also afforded networking opportunities, with representatives from a number of grant-providing agencies present, Dolan says.

Grants are crucial, and the process is multilayered. For instance, documentation, with the help of conservation consultants, was necessary for TMA to receive a $66,000 grant from IMLS in 2006 for much-needed storage, Dolan says. That money went, in part, to rolling storage cases that contain Mexican folk art, masks, furniture, pre-Columbian textiles and much more.

“Storage is a big problem, because you want to keep growing,” Dolan says. And without a proper, temperature- and humidity-controlled environment, works will be compromised.

Dolan is hopeful that, since IMLS already responded to the Virgin, she’ll receive a grant to restore the statue, which “will require a lot of research.” She points to places on the work that were painted over before the museum received it in 1975.

“She’s so big and she’s so fragile . . . you try to move her and pieces fall off her,” Dolan says. “It might be able to be done locally.”

Another priority is the Warhol cow wallpaper, which, Dolan says, will cost $3,000 to $5,000 to conserve.

The TMA has “hundreds and hundreds” of Mayan and Bolivian textiles in need of help – from conservation to expensive Plexiglass display cases – before they can be exhibited.

It’s ongoing, of course. Dolan says about 100 works have been conserved since 1991.

Donations are always welcomed, and gifts can be earmarked specifically for conservation. Contact Leslie Schellie at 624-2333 (then hit 0). Also, Dolan works with just one assistant registrar, so student internships are invaluable. Call her at the same number if interested.

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

Citizen Staff Writer
Culture

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

Artists may be limited by the tools they choose, but certainly not the inspirations. Usually.

Maxed Art, a local collective that dates to September, is challenging artists to find inspiration in music, and participants have to produce on the spot.

Called Sound of Paint, the seven-session event sees visual artists creating as bands perform jazz, hip-hop, rock, experimental and more – all live, in front of an audience. Sound of Paint takes place Tuesday-Aug. 2 at Arts Incubator Gallery, 108 E. Congress St., where the same painters will return night after night to evolve their works with the changing live bands. Aug. 1-2 at Art Terrain, 276 E. Congress St., sees the same concept across just those two sessions.

This is the first such event for Maxed Art, curator and organizer Molly McClintock says. Sound of Paint is not, however, the first melding of artists Maxed Art has concocted: In May, Write and React saw the results of 14 painters responding to works of prose and poetry by 14 writers.

The live aspect of Sound of Paint offers a twist for both artist and audience, though video artist Adam Cooper-Terán is undaunted. He’s edited visual clips live as bands have played before, he says, though he’s never created a finished work of the nature he’s planning for his slot on Aug. 2.

The only nonpainter of the bunch, Cooper-Terán describes his process as akin to “digital Lego building.”

“The plan is more or less to take photos of the space, remix them live using the (photo editing) software and put it all together to create a massive, site-specific portrait,” says Cooper-Terán, who has created digital works for nearly a decade.

Cooper-Terán, McClintock says, will work differently in that he’ll perform just that one night. He’ll create alongside experimental trio Flagrante Delicto, who he’s not familiar with beyond the four songs on their MySpace page.

Flagrante Delicto bassist Erik Scott Ketchup (nee Brown) says he expects his band will keep its music more abstract and ambient. F.D. has a new album, “Piss and Ink,” though “what we tend to do is we use the recording as simply a reference. Live, we switch how the songs sound, what style they’re played in. . . . I don’t like to be restricted.”

Much about Sound of Paint is loose on purpose, with about the only set thing the timeframe: Bands will have 45-minute slots. (Though, even then, McClintock says some bands will go a bit shorter or longer.) The painters stationed at Arts Incubator Gallery likely will work on sections of a wall mural that will fuse together by night seven. Art Terrain will see a different set of artists, who may work on their own individual pieces. Or not. Live truly means live.

Brown is entering these nights of experimentation with no expectations beyond a fun time for all.

“I like the idea of abstract art,” he says. “Something that downtown has needed for a while is a new way to approach the arts.”

IF YOU GO

What: Sound of Paint

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Aug. 2

Where: Arts Incubator Gallery, 108 E. Congress St. (July 29-Aug. 2) and Art Terrain, 276 E. Congress St. (Aug. 1-2)

Price: free

Info: www.maxedart.com

THE LINEUP

Artists

Ana-Elisa Arredondo, Adan Banuelos, Carly Cutrone, Adam Cooper-Terán, Roberta Gentry, Rocky Martinez, Danny Martin, Matt Dobbyn Meko, Modernus, Pop Futura, Andrew Shuta, Andy Steinbeck, Shazar

Bands

Tuesday: Naim Amor, Chris Black, La Cerca

Wednesday: flutist Sierra Norris, violinist Christine Scheer

July 31: guitarist Nick Quiller, RCougar

Aug. 1: Cathy Rivers, guitarist Steven Soloway (Arts Incubator) • l eye, SAERONE, VJs (Art Terrain)

Aug 2: Zach Bloom, l Eye, West (Arts Incubator) • Flagrante Delicto, more TBA (Art Terrain)

Citizen Staff Writer
Music

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

A typical meal for Mostly Bears as they tour the West Coast is peanut butter and bread. We’re guessing their parents are at home tsk-tsk-tsking, but the twentysomething trio has a fourth mouth to feed: the very hungry gas tank of their ’96 Ford Club Wagon.

In the midst of a three-week jaunt to Washington state and back, Mostly Bears singer and guitarist Brian Lopez says that he and his bandmates have to be as resourceful as possible.

“We’re learning how to deal with it by cutting other costs,” Lopez says via cell phone as the 35-gallon-tank van chugs its way along Interstate 5 toward Sacramento, Calif.

With gas prices topping the $4.50 mark in many parts of the country, smaller bands are hit hard. Locals are adapting in a variety of ways, including, in some cases, choosing not to tour.

Money, money, money

Bands at Mostly Bears’ level already have economic concerns. If they even get a show guarantee at all, it tends to be small – about $50, Lopez says. Or an arrangement might include a percentage of the door, which makes budgeting difficult.

Often the best hope is to break even, and rising gas prices make that increasingly harder to do.

Booking bands for Club Congress, entertainment director David Slutes says that “gas is part of every conversation.” Acts that do get guarantees, he says, are asking for at least $50 more to offset fuel prices.

Because topping off their gas tank would cost $150 and up, Mostly Bears have “never actually filled it up,” Lopez says. “We’d have to take out a small loan to do so.”

Nick Luca looked at the numbers and decided he and his band, Luca, shouldn’t tour this summer at all because of the pain at the pump.

“This was kind of a business decision. I said, ‘Let’s sit this one out,’ ” the songwriter says, reached in Los Angeles where he’s doing some production work.

Instead, Luca has opted for flying to one-offs, such as the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in early August. These days flying, he says, is pretty comparable to driving.

“To go across the country was maybe $600 in gas two, three years ago, and now it’s like $1,000,” Luca says, which can be devastating to a smaller band.

“That’s what can destroy a band, the financial aspect.”

The long and winding road

Folkie Leila Lopez (no relation to Brian) has no financial guarantees for the monthlong stint she’s currently on, so one strategy she has employed is booking more shows, closer together. Since cities on the West Coast are so spread out, that means she’s playing everywhere from Seattle to Sebastopol, Calif.

Sebasta-huh?

“We actually played tiny towns in northern California that I didn’t even know about,” she says, calling from Seattle the day after her traveling partner Courtney Robbins’ Toyota Matrix was burglarized. (No guitars taken, though a laptop, iPod and digital camera were among the casualties.)

“We definitely have stretches where we’ll play six days in a row,” says Lopez, who is playing solo on bills with Robbins. “Unfortunately we had a couple of places cancel for various reasons,” and the two are now looking at a gap of about a week.

“We’re like, ‘Gosh, what are we going to do?’ ”

So far they’ve been able to make it moneywise – that Toyota gets about 32 miles to the gallon on the highway, she says – but still, “we have a long way to go.”

Jennifer Herold, general manager of Tucson-based Funzalo Records (home to Mostly Bears and Luca), says that the booking agents she works with now schedule bands to stop in smaller towns as well as spend multiple days in the same metropolis. A performance in Los Angeles proper can be bookended with shows in Santa Monica and Long Beach, for instance.

“You just try to find gigs in towns you normally don’t hit,” Herold says.

Anything, anytime, anywhere

Some musicians find themselves becoming salespeople. Selling T-shirts and CDs is always important – it’s nice to leave something of yourself behind – but it also helps to pad low payments.

“We’re better salesmen now. We’ve been educating ourselves” with books and by talking with other bands, Brian Lopez says.

A show in Oakland, Calif., Lopez says in a later phone interview, yielded his group exactly zero dollars. That’s an extreme case, he says, but fortunately the threesome was able to sell $50 worth of merchandise.

“I find myself being more focused on money than I’d like,” Leila Lopez says. She mimics herself onstage: ” ‘We have a tip jar over there! We have CDs!’ . . . I feel like a broken record.”

But the bands that do make it out recognize what sacrifices need to be made. Lopez says she would love to tour with her band but “at this point I can’t ask my drummer and bass player to take time off work if we don’t know we’re making money.”

Mostly Bears had a harsh reality check in Las Vegas – their first tour stop – when their van needed a new transmission. Funzalo was able to help a bit with the $2,000 replacement, Brian Lopez says, but the band did have to make a decision about whether to drive on or cancel the tour. Even though the repair put them in the hole, they decided to continue, and they’ll also head out on their first East Coast tour at the end of the month.

While pump prices have made things extremely difficult, Brian Lopez says, “it’s kind of survival of the fittest. How much do you want it?”

Citizen Staff Writer
Byline

The comedy genre has a history of political incorrectness. From Lenny Bruce to the Monty Python gang, Sacha Baron Cohen to Dave Chappelle, wrapping cultural taboos and tragedies in humor is guaranteed to offend some of the people all of the time. But the results can also be cathartic, help us to understand an issue from a different perspective, make us think about why we hold a particular belief to be true or add levity to an event that makes no sense.

As Lester (Alan Alda) so eloquently says in Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Comedy is tragedy plus time,” and it’s true. It’s all about context.

When Bill Maher criticized the U.S. government less than a week after 9/11, not enough time had passed for some people to be able to handle the joke. Plus, “Politically Incorrect” was on a major network (ABC) with huge advertisers and no other comic with that kind of forum (David Letterman, Jay Leno) went there. Support him or hate him, Maher’s comments spawned discussions and reflection about the right to question The Deciders.

Often, of course, a joke doesn’t work. Regardless of how well it’s crafted – even the thinnest fart gag can be funny – results are dependent upon the recipient. Artist intent gets kicked to the curb.

A recent local screening highlights the range of interpretations possible from one short comedy film: “Planet of the Rapes,” which was made for the Loft Cinema’s fourth 48-Hour Shootout. It was shown June 12 along with 18 other films created over the weekend of May 23-25.

The time constraints for the shootout are rough, with filmmakers receiving their instructions – a genre and a character name, prop and line of dialogue they have to use – at the beginning of the two-day period.

The films are not censored in any way – the same goes for the theater’s monthly First Friday Shorts – and an announcement was made at the beginning of the screening saying as much, says Loft Cinema operations director J.J. Giddings.

John Tullar was part of the four-person team that entered “Planet of the Rapes,” and, he says in a phone conversation, he “didn’t know it was going to have this backlash.”

Well, it sure did. While it won the judges’ prize for best film – garnering Tullar’s team a prize of $500 – not everyone found the short charming.

One of the attendees was so offended that she sent a mass e-mail to local anti-violence groups, says Audrey Ching, director of community prevention, education and outreach with the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault. Ching received the message, which included a link to the film. (To watch it, search for the title on YouTube.) SACASA executive director Virginia Yrun responded with a guest opinion column co-penned with Sarah Jones, chief executive of Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse, which ran in the Citizen July 2.

“Planet of the Rapes” follows a young female who lives in a future world where women are relegated to stereotypical tasks – laundry, cooking. She fashions a time machine, travels in it and lands in the past on the planet of the title. No actual rape is shown, though at one point a line of men wait for their opportunity to, um, follow the planetary mission. In the end, she’s right back where she started, just like Charlton Heston in “Planet of the Apes.”

Is rape a taboo topic for comedy? Should anything be? It’s impossible to have absolutes here, because, again, it’s all about context. Sarah Silverman used a fictional rape in her segment in “The Aristocrats,” but it was just one of many potentially offensive jokes that included incest, murder and (thanks, George Carlin) corn kernels in poo. The latter was the one that made me feel the oogiest – such detail the late Carlin provided – though I still laughed. Shock can do that.

The votes for “Planet” were not unanimous. Two judges on a panel that included the Citizen’s Chuck Graham, the Arizona Daily Star’s Phil Villarreal, Tucson Weekly’s James DiGiovanna, Access Tucson’s Vikki Dempsey and KRQQ-FM’s Tic Tac and Sherm of “The Frank Show” wrote how offended they were by the short, Giddings says.

But majority ruled, with three of the judges voting for “Planet of the Rapes.” The judges were a primary focus of the guest opinion. “What was lost here was an opportunity for the judges to take a principled stand against perpetuating violence and rape,” Yrun and Jones wrote.

Members of both groups met with Tullar on Tuesday at his invitation. Dempsey and Loft program director Jeff Yanc were there as well. The film was not screened at the gathering, unfortunately, but, still, a conversation occurred.

“I’m just a filmmaker and a comedian,” Tullar said at the meeting in a SACASA conference room. “I didn’t have an agenda.”

Tullar fielded a host of comments and concerns: What exactly laughter is and when it’s appropriate, statistics on rape, why a film such as his might have “triggered” an emotional response in a victim of sexual assault, that popular culture is filled with violence against women, filmmaker responsibility.

The issue of responsibility is especially pertinent and tricky and moves well beyond the comedy genre. Certainly entertainment is never just entertainment – artists are products of their cultures. But to put any kind of limits on a creative endeavor is censorship. There are just too many examples of filmmakers (and painters, musicians, et al.) who could and have been called unaccountable while creating important works. From Ozzy Osbourne to Robert Mapplethorpe, Todd Solondz to Annie Sprinkle, all have been criticized for pushing too far, but all have articulated important issues as only they could.

It’s one thing if Tullar was the only one with a megaphone, but he’s not. He made the cheapest kind of film possible. I hope one of those offended has a creative bent and makes a film of his or her own. The next shootout films Oct. 17-19.

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

IF YOU WATCH

To watch “Planet of the Rapes,” head to www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Ie3xRufLUdo

Citizen Staff Writer

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne is shown with his shirt off just once in “The Dark Knight,” and he certainly isn’t überbuff for the role. Opposed to the muscle-enhancing Batsuit, Bale’s Wayne looks as if he needs some sun and a home-cooked meal.

That’s because the world of the Batman in this cycle is created to look like our own. This is key to the psychological underpinnings of the film, and it’s also a main difference between the Christopher Nolan-directed films and the four Batman movies that launched with Tim Burton’s in 1989. Those Michael Keaton-fronted films (followed again by Keaton, then by Val Kilmer and George Clooney) were insular, keeping the title character flying in a snowglobe Gotham decorated with flip one-liners and star power. The moral ambiguities in “The Dark Knight” ooze off the screen, implicating everyone from audience members to politicians.

Most notably is the focus on authority, how We the People put our trust in folks that are often questionable at best. District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is called the “White Night” of Gotham, though he’ll eventually give in to his evil side, Two-Face. But until Dent reaches the fork in Right Way, he’s positioned – even by the Winged One himself – as the true hero of the city, the one official who can sweep the streets of criminal waste. This widespread idolization neatly parallels the Democratic hyperbole surrounding Barack Obama, the desire to believe that one man can be so clean and effective.

Gotham, a stand-in for any metropolis, is under attack by – Dent’s word – a “terrorist,” the Joker. The opening sequence takes us high above the city, following an aerial shot that goes right into the blasted upper window of a skyscraper. That cultural touchstone connects with the Joker’s bank robbery, a heist that sees our anti-hero escape by disappearing into a row of school buses, dissipating into the streets as the cops head the wrong way. The script, by Nolan and brother Jonathan Nolan, presents a police force unequipped to derail this terrorist who cripples citizens with fear.

Batman presents hope, and nothing says a guy is serious about change like technology. This Batman still doesn’t use a gun, but he might as well. His tech guy (Morgan Freeman) fashions him a new suit with X-Ray vision and Bat blades, and his lowrider Batcycle has tires fat enough to crush a gaggle of political egos. The Bat-tech is so over-the-top, so testosterone-fueled, at times it seems as if Wayne’s alter ego is only as good as his manufactured muscle. The Joker, crazy but wily, knows that psychology trumps technology, so the relative Luddite’s weapon of choice is a knife.

Director Nolan (“Memento”) continues his fascination with identity, and the majority of the film’s characters are split into twos, if not threes and fours. The Batman – as he’s called throughout, a nod to the original comic – is Bruce Wayne, a playboy, a good guy, a vigilante. The Joker (Heath Ledger) slips into a number of identities, even passing for a nurse (amazing what a wig and slender physique can do) and a cop. Dent is Two-Face. Rachel is Dent’s girlfriend while she still loves Wayne. Good cops are really bad cops.

While identity confusion propels the narrative forward, it all builds a structure to hold the overlap between the Joker and Batman. A positive to his negative, Batman chases Joker like a smitten teenager. Like the Bush administration to Osama bin Laden, Bale’s Batman needs the hunt to define his being. When the city at one point seems solid under Dent’s moral compass, the Batman considers putting the Batmobile in park for good. Realities of a successful franchise aside, as long as this Batman drives through streets like our own, he’ll have plenty of fuel.

Citizen Staff Writer
Music

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

Mustaches are good. Mustaches plus short shorts, even better.

Sure, only three members of Tucson’s Digital Leather are mustachioed (and, frankly, drummer Sean Ruse’s is a bit on the light side) and, yes, the Daisy Dukes the band sported at two recent shows could be tinier (that’s always the case), but these are mere side notes. We applaud the effort, the cheeky embrace of a guaranteed crowd pleaser, the potential middle finger to a recent past that has found bands perhaps a bit too focused on uniforms.

“It felt good,” singer and songwriter Shawn Foree says of taking it partly off at a June show at Che’s Lounge. “We’re going beyond metrosexual to straight-out homosexual.”

Not to let the denim overshadow the music, Digital Leather has a new CD – its fifth, “Sorcerer” – due July 22 on Goner, with the tracks split between home recordings and a live set in Memphis. Foree’s hard sell:

“This album is really old,” the UA grad offers during an interview with Ruse and Reyes on the Tap Room patio. “The label waited two years.”

Digital Leather began as an electronic duo in 2002, but personnel changes and equipment issues have seen Foree foster the current lineup – including Foree on guitar and Phoenician Jason Baker on keys – into a more guitar-heavy hold. So the gently aged CD offers the opportunity to contrast how the more keyboard-driven songs hold up live translated into a different format. A testament to Foree’s songwriting abilities, it works. A song such as “Simulator,” which leads “Sorcerer” and already draws on punk energy and conventions, just gets more rocked out. The results are something unique in Tucson, an integration of punk and new wave à la Devo with – clearly – a sense of humor.

While the four have been a band only about a year, when Foree returned to Tucson after living in Phoenix, Digital Leather has had plenty of opportunities to get cozy on stage both locally and on a stint in Europe in May.

Touring is the plan for now, Foree says, until a larger label takes notice. That will see D.L. swooping through the Midwest, East Coast and South in August. (As far as the tour van soundtrack goes, the singer says, “On the road, it’s Ray Parker Jr., Sylvester, El DeBarge.”)

A two-week set of shows is in the works for the end of the year in Australia, thanks to a label there offering four plane tickets in exchange for a CD, Foree says, and he has a backlog of some 600 songs to dip into for the album. That jaw-dropping number is balanced by the actual songs in rotation on the setlist – about 16, Ruse says.

Don’t imagine D.L. in hot pants addressing envelopes to labels and stuffing them with CDs and one-sheets proclaiming something or other about them being the hottest band from the hottest place on Earth. Plan B for garnering attention is drawing on any and all connections. Foree’s is a good one, Jay Reatard, a former Goner who has signed with major minor Matador and has the mastering credit on “Sorcerer.”

For as in flux as Digital Leather has been – the D.L. MySpace counts 11 past and present members, plus Foree – the current incarnation acts and performs like a band, like people who actually enjoy one another’s company. While Foree met Ruse just a year ago – “A match made in MySpace,” he says – and Baker two, he and Reyes have roots extending to 2001. They played together, Foree writes in an e-mail, in “a (poop)y punk band” called (Penis)less Torso.

Regardless, time can’t replace chemistry, and the four’s ease on stage together is apparent. And, really, you can’t rock teeny denim shorts with just anyone.

‘Sorcerer’

What: Digital Leather’s new CD

When: Due in stores July 22

Where: Locally at Toxic Ranch, plus all the usual digital and online sites

On the web: myspace. com/digitalleather

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

A monument can be big and noble (the Statue of Liberty) or just plain big (the “World’s Largest Jack Rabbit” in Odessa, Texas). Such tributes can be urban or rural, maintained or forgotten, presidential or pious. In front of Lee Friedlander’s lens, the great leveler is context.

Even the Washington Monument cannot escape its environment. So in “Washington, D.C.” (1976), camera placement finds the great white memorial growing out of a telephone booth, which stands next to a trash can.

This isn’t commentary so much as recognition that such signs of history and pride share space with a messy world. Everything from graffiti to unkempt nature distract, overtaking monuments that at some point were a big deal – to a family, an artist, a government. Still, it’s not the plaque on a large rock that centers “Hartford, Connecticut” (1975) but, instead, the man sleeping on his back behind it.

Friedlander has explored the results of money meeting memory throughout much of his career and “Lee Friedlander: American Monuments,” at the Center for Creative Photography through Aug. 3, culls dozens of such works, the bulk from the 1970s. Friedlander is a fan of the road trip, and on his travels he captured it all, from a Tucson fountain to Mount Rushmore.

Friedlander coined the term “social landscape” to describe his approach, his “intention to capture everyday life,” says CCP Director and Chief Curator Britt Salvesen.

In a sense, it’s a postmodern approach to the snapshot, a recognition of the parts of the human landscape we know we’re supposed to record. But instead of waiting for the perfect shot, of framing an object just so, Friedlander purposely allows time to sneak in.

Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted a Friedlander solo exhibit, which focused on 40 works the artist shot in outdoor spaces designed in the 19th century by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. For the CCP’s exhibit of the still-working artist, Salvesen was able to pull from some 400 photos in the archives that fell under the American Monuments umbrella. (The CCP holds more than 750 Friedlander works total, she says.)

Another reason for mounting the exhibit is, Salvesen determines, more “frivolous”: the works “really evoke this summer road trip that many of us take,” she says. Friedlander has spent quite a bit of time in the Southwest, she notes, and so several photos from Tucson and Phoenix are included.

“Also I was thinking this was an election year, and that prompts so much thinking about national identity,” Salvesen says.

Likely such thoughts were on Friedlander’s mind when he took many of these images, especially the ones included in “The American Monument,” his collection of monument photos published by Eakins in 1976 – a time of Bicentennial mania.

“I love the nonjudgmental aspect of the work. It doesn’t have an in-your-face patriotic lesson or critique,” Salvesen says. Friedlander managed to sidestep the fervor of the time, she says, without offering up a completely opposite view.

Nonjudgmental does not, however, equal unprovocative, and a central question of the exhibit is what exactly constitutes a monument. Certainly we’re surrounded by statues and plaques in honor of those who came before, but those memorials share space with monuments to capitalism (billboards, telephone wires, etc.), structure (street signs, stoplights) and on.

A statue in New York City’s Times’ Square is dwarfed by a giant “Enjoy Coca-Cola” sign (“Father Duffy, Times Square, New York City, New York,” 1974). The soldier taking aim in “Doughboy, Stamford, Connecticut” (1973) becomes just another body on a city street busied with a Thom McAn storefront, a parking sign and several pedestrians.

With plenty of compositional variety, some of Friedlander’s works allow for contemplation of the monuments’ poor conditions. A weather-worn Lady Liberty bust (“Indiana,” 1975) sits, severed, on top of a painted concrete block. A seated figure (19th-century poet and journalist William Cullen Bryant, in “New York City,” 1974) is adorned with graffiti both traditional (“Harry -N- Amy”) and creative (a stenciled “FLOAT THE SCROTUM”).

It’s rare to laugh out loud in a museum space, but a wit permeates “American Monuments.” The giant jack rabbit of “Texas” (1973) isn’t the punchline – rather, it’s the woman walking beside it, facing the same direction and seemingly unaware of the huge hare. In “Phoenix” (1974), a pyramid atop a dirt hill is surrounded by an iron fence; it looks to be in jail.

Interwoven throughout the exhibit are works by other monument-minded photographers – Friedlander influences Walker Evans and Eugène Atget, contemporary Garry Winogrand. Also included are photogs with a more subjective approach, such as Tseng Kwong Chi. And while the majority of Friedlander’s works are from the bicentennial era, Salvesen notes that the four 2006 photographs by the artist were a gift to the CCP just last year.

Savlesen points to the circular nature of our awareness of these plaques and statues, dependent upon so many factors – a town’s prosperity, a government’s priority and simply what individuals choose to register or ignore. Tucson is no exception – it’s filled with monuments prominent and hidden, notable and forgotten.

“It’s fun to pay attention to those pictures (in the exhibit) and then go outside and see these Friedlanders everywhere,” Salvesen says.

IF YOU GO

What: “Lee Friedlander: American Monuments” exhibit

When: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and noon-5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays through Aug. 3

Where: Center for Creative Photography, 1030 N. Olive Road

Price: free, donations welcome

Info: 621-7968, creativephotography.org

Citizen Staff Writer
RealFAST TIPS AND MORE

Tucson’s Salud Spa Bar garnered a nice endorsement last month on Martha Stewart’s wedding Web site.
Under the header “Perfumes with Personality,” the entry at blogs1.marthastewart.com/ weddings notes that, “Not only do they create custom scents, but also do bridesmaids gifts, favors and in-store spa parties. Very cute idea for a bridal shower …”
Owned and operated by Kelly Podorsek, Salud in Main Gate Square offers more than 100 essential and perfume oils from which to blend a custom scent. Mixing up to four oils, the customized perfumes are available as a 1/3-ounce rollette ($24), a 2-ounce spray bottle ($36) or in a glass hummingbird bottle that holds 1 ounce ($50).
Opened by Podorsek in November 2006 with the concept of making spa treatments affordable, Salud also offers in-store facial masks and foot soaks, which customers blend with the help of staffers. Also available are several retail bath and body products, including Pangea Organics, Nuxe and the man-friendly Billy Jealousy.
Visit Salud at 943 E. University Blvd. (396-3298) or online at saludspabar.com. Hours are 10 a.m.- 6 p.m. Mondays-Fridays and 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. Sundays.

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

She’s a favorite at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Hard-working by all accounts, including during a recent deployment to Saudi Arabia, she has all the traits of a good soldier: obedience, aptitude, eagerness, assertiveness, loyalty and selflessness.

And when she does a good job, please, give Diesel her favorite toy, a Kong.

The Dutch shepherd is among the approximately 1,750 working dogs currently serving the U.S. Department of Defense worldwide, Lackland Air Force Base spokesman Oscar Balladares writes in an e-mail. Dogs have been employed for service since World War I.

“That’s my favorite dog in the kennel,” Sgt. Raymond Cota, a dog handler at DM, says of Diesel. “We clicked right away.”

Military working dogs are trained in Texas at Lackland, where Diesel was dual-certified in patrol and detection, says Davis-Monthan Kennel Tech Sgt. Jeffrey Wheelis.

“She’s really a good dog,” Wheelis says of Diesel. “They’re an outstanding team.”

The human half of Diesel’s team is Senior Airman Matthew Byrnes. The two will head to Qatar later this month for their second deployment together.

Squatting behind the 60-pound shepherd, Byrnes strokes Diesel’s back as she scans the obstacle course where she trains.

“Right now, she’s looking around, watching my back,” Byrnes says. “That’s why I’m petting her,” as a reward.

Four-year-old Diesel, he says, is “always actively detecting.”

Military working dogs, just like the service men and women they support, give up quite a bit for their country.

They don’t have the perks of many civilian dogs – no days spent sleeping on the couch, no playtime with their canine buddies.

When Diesel is home – and she’ll remain at Davis-Monthan until retirement – she lives in a kennel, beige to match most other buildings on the base. She shares her bunker with several other dogs – German shepherds and Belgian Malinois among them – when they aren’t deployed, but the dogs are not allowed to interact.

“We usually try to keep the dogs away from one another,” Byrnes says, because of fears that their aggression levels could lead to fights.

“I don’t treat her like a household pet,” he says.

They train daily, Byrnes notes, for at least three hours.

Diesel is eager to learn. Byrnes, who trained at Lackland to become a handler, has taught her new skills, including how to extract a person from a vehicle. Making that addition to her repertoire took less than a week.

“She’s still young, so she has the desire to pick up new things,” Byrnes says.

In Saudi Arabia from July through January, Byrnes says, Diesel was right there with him patrolling, sniffing vehicles for bad guys packing bad stuff. She even discovered explosives in one vehicle.

The two will likely not be a team forever. When she became a Tucsonan in September 2005, Diesel was assigned to Cota.

“It’s very rare in the Air Force to work with (the same) dog for more than a year,” Byrnes says, adding that one of the reasons he volunteered for re-deployment was to keep strengthening his bond with Diesel.

“I wanted to give it more time,” he says.

Because she has arthritis, Byrnes says, Diesel will probably retire at age 7 or 8, rather than the more typical age of 10.

Military working dogs are put up for adoption when they retire, and when asked if he would take Diesel, Byrnes says yes without hesitation.

According to Cota, he’ll have some competition for the beloved dog.

BY THE NUMBERS

• 1,750 – Military working dogs currently serving the Department of Defense

• 4,000 – How many employed during Vietnam

• 1,500 – Dogs used during the Korean War

• 436 – Number of dogs on combat patrol overseas during WWII

• 1942 – Year MWDs first entered the service

Source: Department of Defense (defenselink.mil) and Lackland Air Force Base

Citizen Staff Writer
Cover story

In TV world, a holiday seems to beget lots of marathons of “Project Runway” and “The Hills.” And while we support staying out of the heat, we aren’t concerned with Heidi Klum and Lauren Conrad here. What we have listed are fireworks specials and shows Friday that have more than a little bit of American flavor.

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com

Note: All times and channels are for Cox cable.

“Food Paradise” shows

When: beginning at 10 a.m.

Where: Travel, Channel 65

Why watch: This marathon sees a full day of episodes of “Food Paradise” that focus on American favorites. Learn about top places around the country for barbecue, steak, hot dogs, ice cream, fried food, doughnuts and pizza, as well as the best all-you-can-eat restaurants and diners.

“American Muscle Car”

When: 5-8 p.m.

Where: Speed, Channel 27

Why watch: This series centers around American-made cars, and July 4 it’s all about the Corvette Sting Ray, with six 30-minute episodes looking at various aspects of the gorgeous car that the U.S. first saw in 1963.

“4th of July Live”

When: 6-6:30 p.m.

Where: Travel

Why watch: This is a condensed, fireworks-focused version of the festivities in D.C. To watch the full program, see “Capitol Fourth.”

“Born on the Fourth of July”

When: 8 p.m.

Where: HBO2, Channel 201

Why watch: Part of being American is having the freedom to question the system, and this 1989 Oliver Stone flick does just that. Based on Ron Kovic’s biography, Tom Cruise stars as Kovic, a paralyzed Vietnam vet who became an ardent activist against the war.

“Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular”

When: 8-9 p.m.

Where: ABC, Channel 9

Why watch: Natalie Morales and Tiki Barber host as Manhattan’s annual fireworks display bursts in the background. There’s also a full lineup of performers including Natasha Bedingfield, Gavin DeGraw, Kenny Chesney and “American Idol” alum Katharine McPhee and Jordin Sparks. The New York Pops offers up patriotic and classic dance songs.

“Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular”

When: 9-10 p.m.

Where: CBS, Channel 13

Why watch: Holidays are all about tradition, right? And Friday marks the 35th year for this program.

It’s also getting a little bit country, with Rascal Flatts performing some of their better-known songs along with The Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. The orchestra will also perform favorites such as Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”

CBS dips into its roster to schedule Craig Ferguson (“The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”) as host for the second year in a row.

Expect the final 23 minutes of the special to be commercial-free.

“Capitol Fourth”

When: 9-10:30 p.m.

Where: KUAT, Channel 6

Why watch: A fireworks display can take on a much more patriotic tone when the Washington Monument is part of the scenery.

Hosted by Jimmy Smits, this celebration of the country’s 232nd birthday is broadcast from the West Lawn of the Capitol. The National Symphony Orchestra performs, as do Huey Lewis and The News, Taylor Hicks (“American Idol”) and stars of the classical world, Hayley Westenra and Vittorio Grigolo.

As “1812 Overture” is performed, the U.S. Army Presidential Salute Battery will fire canons.

“Mabe in America”

When: 10 p.m.

Where: CMT, Channel 52

Why watch: What’s more American than a hidden-camera show? Likely lots of things, but we do love updates of “Candid Camera,” don’t we?

Hosted by Tom Mabe, the season opener includes a bit where he gets back at telemarketers. Could be cathartic.

“George Lopez: America’s Mexican”

When: 11 p.m.

Where: Comedy Central, Channel 46

Why watch: Lopez filmed his HBO special in Phoenix’s Dodge Theatre and even though it’s available on DVD, you can watch it on Comedy Central for free. Lopez riffs on being Mexican-American, with some of the material decidedly not kid-friendly.

Citizen Staff Writer
RealFAST TIPS AND MORE

KFC is getting political. And fashionable.

Call it the power of the message T.

KFC has three T-shirt designs for an array of voters this election.

If you’re a wingman for the Republicans, there’s the red shirt reading “RIGHT WING.” For proud Democrats, the blue version sports “LEFT WING” (and, yes, Colonel Sanders’ head dots the “I”).

Undecided? Well, that Colonel thinks of everything. You’ll look smashing in the white T emblazoned with “RIGHT WING, LEFT WING, TASTES THE SAME TO ME.”

The shirts are being sold at shopkfc.com and in boutiques only in the presidential candidates’ home states. Thanks to John McCain being one of our own, Arizonans can purchase the top of their choice at Grand Central Clothing, 922 E. University Blvd.

Proceeds benefit Colonel’s Scholars, which grants college scholarships to graduating high school seniors who demonstrate financial need.

Available for a limited time, the short-sleeve shirts retail for $15. Grand Central currently has all three styles in stock.

POLLY HIGGINS

phiggins@tucsoncitizen.com