Second 2nd Saturday is tomorrow downtown

Saturday, June 12 is the second installment of a new downtown Tucson entertainment event-- 2nd Saturdays.

Fashioned after the successful Downtown Saturday Nights from the late 1980s (but with more business influence), 2nd Saturdays is a collection of free arts and music opportunities scattered around downtown. The inaugural event in May 2010 drew an estimated 10,000 people to downtown, and the organizers hope the June event will be just as popular.

From 5:30-10 p.m., 16 musical acts will perform on multiple stages around downtown, and five popular Congress Street clubs also will feature live bands. In addition, the renovated Fox Theatre will offer free admission to Creedence Again, a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band.

Pop-up retail vendors like KXCI's CD store also will be located throughout downtown.

Who says there's nothing to do in Tucson in the summer? Bring the family and come downtown for some fun tomorrow.

This article originally appeared in my Baby Boomer Examiner column.

Put on Your Art Walkin' Shoes

Put on your art walkin' shoes for two major art walks this weekend-- The Glow in Oracle and The Big Picture in Tucson.

The Glow is a lighted art walk by the full moon. Artists primarily from Oracle and Tucson exhibited lighted sculpture for the walk. In addition to the art, there will be outdoor music venues. Check out the website like for photos from past years, including my La Mano Mas Poderosa mosaic shrine from last year. The Glow is Friday and Saturday night from 7 - 11 p.m. at the Triangle L Ranch. Two of my shrines-- Letting Go and Here Comes the Sun-- will be shown in the Adobe Gallery. I also have a number of pieces in the Triangle L Gift Shop.

The Big Picture is Saturday night from 6-10p.m. in downtown Tucson. More than a dozen Central Tucson Gallery Association member galleries will be open-- including Central Arts Gallery, where my work will be showing. Check out the CTGA website link for a list of member galleries. Now that the 4th Avenue underpass is open, it's much easier and safer to visit the galleries along 6th Street, as well as those along Congress Street.

Be aware that Club Crawl is also happening downtown on Saturday night. For those of you who like art and music-- this is a perfect. For people who want to bypass the music, some galleries on Congress may have their back doors, allowing access from the parking lots south of Congress.

Rock 'Ur Ass Off: Remembering Blues Man Sam Taylor

A week ago, the world-- and especially Tucson-- lost a blues great-- Sam Taylor.

I grew up listening to blues music back in northern Ohio. Chicago style blues was everywhere, since Cleveland is just down the street-- so to speak. In my teenage years, I was rockin' in my bedroom to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Koerner, Ray and Glover-- just as often as the Rolling Stones.

After I moved to Columbus, I frequented the blues clubs. The Dave Workman Blues Band with Willie Pooch was one of my favorite groups. These were my wild child days-- hanging around with musicians and other artists, staying up late, dancing with abandon, partying back stage. (Fond memories, for sure.)

When my significant other and I moved to Tucson 27 years ago, I thought we would never find blues in the Southwest as good as it was back east. Fortunately for us, KXCI, the local community radio station, started up not long after we arrived here. It continues to offer a variety of programming-- including great blues and updates on local bands and clubs. Through KXCI, we discovered Sam Taylor.

Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, we often heard Sam and his band at local clubs like the Chicago Bar and the Boondocks and regularly listened to his KXCI radio show. He electrified the room with his raw signing voice and down-home Chicago blues. Every night, he would start the gig by asking the crowded bar, "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK 'UR ASS OFF?" And, of course, we all enthusiastically replied, "YES!" and proceeded to do just that. It didn't matter if you had a partner or not. Everyone danced and boogied the night away.

Sam often played with Heather Hardy, an electric violinist. I always thought they seemed like as odd couple on stage-- the aging blues man dressed in black with a small leather cap on his head and the young, professionally trained violinist-- but musically they made a great duo.

Tonight at the Boondocks, Heather and other Tucson musicians will say "good-bye" to their soulman-- Sam Taylor. I'll be there rockin' my ass off-- along with many other fans.

See you on the other side, man.

Dancing in Ohio

For the past week I have been in Ohio visiting relatives. While in the Heartland, I've also have had a few dancing opportunities.

Early last week, I was in Columbus. First let me say, the weather SUCKED-- rain + snow + grey skies. Aaaahhhhhh, the memories of driving Interstate 71 under terrible conditions danced in my head as I carefully maneuvered my rental car through the snow flurries. Monday and Tuesday, the weather threatened to slide into freezing rain, but luckily, I was spared. Freezing rain is one of the main reasons I moved to Tucson in 1981.

Anyway, I digress. Monday night I went to the weekly dance of the Columbus West Coast Swing Club. It was a blast. My friend Maru (former roommate from the Phoenix 4th of July convention) and I made plans to see each other while I was in Columbus. She is such a sweetie. She called ahead and told the swing club organizers that I would be there. Everyone was very friendly and I had several great dances that night. The Columbus swing club dances in the Bowties lounge at the Ramada Inn on Sinclair Road. The dance floor was about 1/4 the size of the Women's Center where the Tucson Swing Dance Club holds its weekly dance, but there were plenty of dance partners. (That's the important part of any dance!)

The only dance that really sucked was with a very good dancer. Ironic, huh? I had seen him dance with others, so I asked him to dance the cha-cha. I love the cha-cha and believe that it is one of my best dances. He started to dance (and didn't do the started step-- which surprised me-- since he seemed to be sort of "ballroom"). Anyway, the problem arose at the very beginning because he was TOTALLY off the beat. Ok, I took music lessons from 3rd grade through my freshman year in college. Plus, I have always had natural rhythm. According to my Dad said, the Irish have natural rhythm.) Whatever. All I know is that is nearly impossible for me to dance off the beat. I naturally kept trying to get on the beat. (Sometimes guys will start off wrong and adjust.) This dork just said, "LET ME LEAD" and shook my arms. We struggled through the dance. I think he was impressed with my moves when we were apart, but when he was holding me it was... well... messy.

Today, I left my home town of Amherst, Ohio, for Twinsburg, Ohio, south of Cleveland. I registered for one day of the C.A.S.H. Bash (Cleveland Akron Swing Hustle) convention. You can tell how exciting this convention by the fact that I am in my room blogging!!!! It took me forever to pack this morning, so I got here aroun 10ish-- just in time for the tail end of breakfast. I took one workshop with John Lindo, who is a great dancer. (He actually won the champion contest at the 4th of July convention. For a very large man, he's an absolutely great dancer.) So, the workshop and the dancing beforehand were good. The afternoon dancing was slow, so I came back up to the hotel room. The dancing goes until 4a.m., so maybe people are napping. There are some really good leads here, so I'm looking forward to great dancing later. BTW, the off-beat cha-cha dancer is in Cleveland. (I saw him watching me shaking my booty earlier today.)

So, far my 2 complaints about this convention are:
1) The music is boring. (No blues. No country. And, although it's not my fav, no electronica. The music in Cleveland--- and also the music in Columbus-- is primarily slow disco. Yuck. The dancers are also very "ballroom". West coast swing is much wilder and free-form in the west. Hey there, dance partners, I miss you!)
2) They don't have enough place setting for all attendees to have dinner! How lame is that? Only the people who signed up for the whole weekend get dinner. So, I guess I'll do room service. I was looking forward to mingling during dinner, so I could strike up acquaintances with more dance partners.

Overall, I was underwhelmed with the C.A.S.H. The dinner dance was very "ballroom" and mostly couples. The music stunk-- mostly sort of old-fashioned disco swing (in there is such a thing). No country music and very little blues, which is perfect for swing dancing. I longed for the dance scene in Tucson!

NOTE: A general rule of the web is to search carefully. I searched for "Columbus swing club", so I could link the dancing venue to this blog. Note that I forgot to put the word "dancing" into this search string. This is what I came up with. They didnt' have THOSE types of clubs in Columbus when I lived there!

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?

I ran across this website full of little quizzes. I love these things. I guess it reminds me of the quizzes that the women's magazines used to have-- years ago when I used to read those magazines. Anyway, I took the "What Musical Instrument Should You Play?" quizz. The answer: accordion. Ironically, I learned to play the accordion when I was in the third grade.

You Should Play the Accordion

You are eccentric, funky, wacky... definitely one of a kind. People have trouble putting you in any one particular category. You definitely have your own thing going on. You are a born entertainer. No wonder you'd be perfect as an one man (or one woman) band. Your musical influences likely cross all genres - and blend together in a very unusual way. While you are definitely offbeat, you also enjoy tradition and influences from the past. It's just your style to take an old fashioned instrument like the accordion and make it uniquely yours. Your dominant personality characteristic: your total lack of inhibition Your secondary personality characteristic: your interest in obscure activities and subjects

What Musical Instrument Should You Play?