The End of the Whine

The common whine in Tucson is that there's nothing to do during the summer. (I know, I know--the calendar says summer doesn't start officially until next week. But when temps are approaching 108, it's summertime, whatever the damn calendar says.)

A glance at this issue of the Weekly reveals that whine is about as baseless as your average Ann Coulter column.

The cover story's on a big-deal music-recording conference coming to town this weekend--and bringing with it some pretty big-name performers. City Week is chock full of previews, including a concert by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. The arts sections feature a preview of Sizzling Summer Sounds (Invisible Theatre's summer cabaret series), a preview of a new play at Live Theatre Workshop and stories about two fascinating art exhibits--and this represents just a fraction of the ongoing performing and visual arts events.

Moving right along through the paper ... of course, there are plenty of movies--including both big-budget and indie fare--to check out, and finally, there's a whole heck of a lot of music beyond TapeOpCon for your consideration.

And if that's not enough music for you, mark your calendars ... the 2006 Tucson Area Music Awards (brought to you by the very newspaper you're reading right now), aka the TAMMIES, are on deck Wednesday, June 28, at the Rialto Theatre. The awards are given out between performances by well-known local musicians (including The Deludes, The Drakes, Bad News Blues Band, Se Salen, George Howard and Nick Luca)--and the event's free.

So stop whining, and get out and do something!