City Week

Thursday 3

UP A CREEK. The author of The Wilder Sisters, Loving Chloe, Shadow Ranch and Blue Rodeo is down from her home in Alaska to push a new book.

Bad Girl Creek is Jo-Ann Mapson's bittersweet story about four dramatically different women who redefine home and family as they work and live together on a flower farm. The power of friendship shines through in this book as Mapson weaves together the voices of the four, capturing their laughter, tears, anger and fears.

Publisher's Weekly said Mapson is an author whose "compassionate understanding of human nature distinguishes her narratives."

Mapson, who lives in south-central Alaska, will speak and sign copies of her latest novel at 7 p.m. today at Reader's Oasis, 3400 E. Speedway Blvd., #114. For more information, please call Charlene Taylor at 319-7887.


Friday 4

IT WAS WRITTEN IN STONE. Guggenheim winner Ralph Gibson's lifelong fascination with language made visible has never been more apparent.

Ex Libris, Gibson's latest exhibition, presents an artist's vision of linguistic history--from ancient Roman stone carvings and the earliest surviving wedding contract written in cuneiform, to hand-inscribed documents by Balzac and Bach, to the revolutionary printing of the Guttenberg Bible.

The University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography has acquired all of the photographer's textured black-and-white prints for a major addition to the Ralph Gibson Archive.

An opening reception for the artist is 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. today at the center, on the UA campus in the Fine Arts Complex at 1030 N. Olive Road. The exhibition runs through July 8. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, please call 621-7968 or visit www.creativephotography.org.

BOOK THIS EVENT. Bargain basement prices and a selection of more than 125,000 books.

If you want books, don't miss the Friends of the Tucson-Pima Public Library's May Book Sale, a 12-day deal that offers everything from romance to sci-fi.

The event begins tomorrow, May 4, for Friends of the Tucson-Pima Public Library members (or you can buy a $10 membership), from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. It's open to the public from Saturday, May 5, through Tuesday, May 15. Times are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, closed Wednesday, May 9. Head for Friends Book Barn, 2230 N. Country Club Road. For more information, please call 795-3763.

ALL KEYED UP. Bach, Beethoven and Mussourgsky share the evening in tonight's installment of the St. Philip's Friends of Music Series.

South African-born pianist Sean Schulze, a recent University of Arizona graduate and winner of the residency award from Chamber Music America, will perform in a solo recital at St. Philip's in the Hills Parish.

The concert includes a performance of the original piano version of Mussourgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

The music starts at 8 p.m. at St. Philip's, 4440 N. Campbell Ave., at the northeast corner of River Road and Campbell Avenue. For more information, please call 299-6421, ext. 32.


Saturday 5

HEARTFELT JOURNEYS. Ram Dass, author of Be Here Now and Still Here, is among more than a dozen well-known writers and speakers lined up for a spiritual healing event in Tucson.

Beverly Rubic, founder and director of Frontier Science, and Lesis Mehl-Madrona, author of Coyote Medicine, also are on the slate for the Conference on Spirituality, Healing and Health.

The conference is designed in response to growing interest in spirituality, healing and health and the so-called spiritual journey.

The talks don't come cheap--conference registration is $325, plus $25 for each pre- or post-conference workshop. Non-conference participants may attend the workshops at $35 a pop. The event is today through May 9 at Double Tree Resort, 445 S. Alvernon Way. For more information, please call Lanny Lewis at 529-2686 or visit www.fcm.arizona.edu.


Sunday 6

STARGAZING AND STORYTELLING. Get the kids out this afternoon and plan to spend the evening at an event that includes trail walks, storytelling and stargazing.

The second annual Ironwood Festival is really a celebration of the Sonoran Desert's "Tree of Life," the ironwood tree, whose lilac blossoms fill the air in May.

Live animal presentations, hands-on educational booths, food and musicians are on tap for the festival.

The event is 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Mason Audubon Center, 8751 N. Thornydale Road. Tickets are $2 at the entrance, children 12 and under are free. For a free shuttle ride, park your car at Tortolita Middle School, 4101 W. Hardy Road. For information, please call 572-9881 or visit www.tucsonaudubon.org.

THE BOYS' POPS. An energetic show full of catchy tunes and quick-stepping choreography are promised in a special performance tonight.

Highlights of the Tucson Boys Chorus Annual Pops Concert also include the group's signature western songs and trick rodeo roping and all-new choreographed medley, American Bandstand, a tribute to boy bands.

All three chorus groups--the Touring Chorus, Townesingers and the Training Chorus--will perform a medley spanning the music of the Everly Brothers, Beatles, Beach Boys, Jackson Five and the Backstreet Boys.

The Alumni Chorus of performers from the past 61 years will make a special appearance.

The Tucson Boys Chorus has entertained audiences throughout the world.

The show is scheduled for 3 p.m. and again at 7:30 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall. Tickets are $8.75-$10.75 and are available at all TCC Outlets and the Boys Chorus office, 5770 E. Pima St. For more information, please call 296-6277.

SEE THE SEA OF GALILEE. Luxuriate in a mud mask from the Dead Sea, visit the Western Wall or dip your pole in the Sea of Galilee.

Make plans to stay right here in the Old Pueblo for a vicarious trip halfway around the world during a wonderful learning experience on the 53rd Yom Ha'atzmut of the State of Israel.

The annual Israel Independence Day celebration is an opportunity to experience the country with virtual travel by train from Jerusalem to Beersheba, a simulated kibbutz where the kids can pet animals, and dancing to live music by an Israeli Defense Forces Band.

Skydivers will drop in at 5:30 p.m. sharp today in the event that runs from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, 3800 E. River Road. The community is invited and admission is free. For more information, please call Yizhar Hess at 299-3000, ext. 191.


Monday 7

BACK IN THE OLD COUNTRY. If Irish jigs, reels and hornpipes are your idea of a night on the town, lend me an ear.

Round the House offers versatile mix of mandolin, fiddle and guitar, sprinkled with a bit of tenor banjo. Get a glimpse of Ireland and England through the band's ballads and songs.

The group also is a great dance band, playing for Irish ceili dances and New England-style contra dances with driving energy.

Round the House, part of The Gaslight Theatre's Monday Night Family Concert Series, plays at 7 p.m. tonight at Gaslight, 7010 E. Broadway. Tickets are $8 adults, $6 students, seniors over 60 and active duty military, and $5 children 12 and under. For reservations, please call 886-9428.

When Books Burn. On May 10, 1933, Nazi SS troops and student groups in Berlin burned more than 20,000 "unwanted" books.

As books by Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Karl Marx and H.G. Wells went up in flames, torch-bearing Nazis parade, chanting the 12 "theses," a manifesto for the purification of German literature and thought.

Across Germany, public and private book concerns were advised to empty their shelves of books deemed by the Nazi government to be "un-German."

When Books Burn, a new exhibition at University of Arizona, features editions in the UA library collection that were published before and during the era of the book burnings. The majority of the books displayed were written by authors who were blacklisted in Germany between 1932 and 1939. The display also includes photos of the Nazi book burnings obtained from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives in Washington, D.C.

"To eliminate specific forms of expression, language, ideas and the books that contained them, was part of the Nazis' deliberate attempt to remake Germany in their own image," said the exhibit's co-curator Lisa Bunker.

The exhibition, which starts today and runs through June 8, is located on the third floor of the UA main library. Due to construction in the area, library hours are subject to change. For more information about hours, please call 621-6441. On the web, please check out www.dizzy.library.arizona.edu /images/burnedbooks.


Tuesday 8

GIVE YOUR EARS A WORKOUT. Tonight's your last chance to listen to some hot jazz at Pima Community College.

Jazz at Pima! Presents the PCC Jazz Band in Concert, with its guest Pima Jazz Combo, in the last show of a series that began April 23.

Tonight's show offers up an energetic variety of feels, grooves and tempos from the great world of jazz that will give your ears a workout they deserve.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. today at PCC's Center for the Arts Proscenium Theatre, 2202 W. Anklam Road. Tickets are $4 general admission, $3 students and seniors. Tickets are available at the Center for the Arts Box Office and at the door. For more information, please call 206-6988.


Wednesday 9

SOUTHERN ROCK. Who could forget these guys? Who wants to remember?

Molly Hatchet's still around, cranking out the same mix of blues, country, gospel and rock and roll that emerged in 1970. It was called Southern Rock, and bands like Hatchet and Lynyrd Skynyrd took it to the top.

Molly Hatchet (named after a famous 17th-century axe killer named Lizzy Borden), made Southern Rock history, if there is such a thing, in 1979 with Flirtin with Disaster.

The band's had its share of upheaval, but has endured through the years. In 1996, Molly Hatchet' Devil's Canyon--the band's first studio album in six years--was voted the top rock album in Europe.

To hear what Hatchet's been up to over the past couple of decades, check out the band tonight at Backstage Sports Grill, 6350 E. Tanque Verde Road. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 advance at Backstage, Zip's on University and by phone, 800-965-4827; $20 at the door. Order online at www.ticketweb.com.