Following the music to Tucson

Most British 19-year-olds are either in the midst of their freshman year in university or have entered the work world. Few are in a band with their friends that is touring different continents, opening up for one of the biggest rock acts in the world to critical acclaim, playing David Letterman, plucking chords to arena-sized amounts of spectators and then talking to foreign college journalists about it all. Stuart Coleman of English band The Music is. [Read article]

Almost every type of performance group has a purpose, a mission, a goal that they set out to achieve. There are groups whose intent is to entertain and get the audience laughing. There are groups who hope to spark thought among the members of the audience and produce puzzled looks. And then there are those people who want to change the world.

Urban Bush Women, an African/African-American performance art troupe, wants to do it all. Founded in 1984 by Jowale Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women has a mission all its own and holds onto this mission for dear life. Fusing the arts of music, dance and storytelling, Urban Bush Women seeks to not only bring its culture and heritage to the public eye, but also to shout out a message. [Read article]

New Game Boy touts all the bells, whistles

Since I was a little kid, Nintendo has ruled my free time. From the beginning, Mario and Co. have held my attention ÷ until recent years when the company went through a slump trying to compete with Sony Playstation. It seems like every new idea that the company has can always be improved upon in some way or another. And now it has finally reinvented a classic that has me back into games more than ever. [Read article]

The war in Iraq started the day after I arrived in New York City. I had never been scared to ride the subway, scared to walk through Brooklyn at 3 a.m. or scared to ride in a taxi cab while it weaved through traffic, but I was pretty scared then. I had thought of my trip to New York (my third one in a year), as a way to forget about school, work, and all the things I have to worry about here in Tucson. But every place I visited reminded me of what was going on in Iraq. [Read article]

Chess is a game of strategy. But what happens when the pawns are life-size wire sculptures and the winner of the game gets to decide on the legality of abortions? "Wake-Up Little Suzie: Pregnancy and Power Before Roe V. Wade." The art exhibit put together by Kay Obering, Cathleen Meadows and Kathy Hutton is on display at the UA Fine Arts Complex. The chess game converts into an abstract work of art but more importantly, the installation serves as a reminder to women that our reproductive freedom is under attack. [Read article]

At the end of Alison Deming's literary nonfiction workshop Tuesday, she urged her students to use their talents to write some of their thoughts on the war. This was after an hour-long discussion on the topic. "Language has been the central event in human evolution" is a quote from the professor stapled all over Tucson on a flyer. So it is not surprising that she felt the necessity to open her workshop to critique of a different kind: war in Iraq. It is a story many of her students were not willing to claim. [Read article]

Everyone has a sinister side. There's a safe psycho within us all. Horrifying events and disturbing contemplation can safely unfold within the confines of the mind, without judgment or punishment from the outside world.

But of course there is always someone who crosses the mind's line, takes it too far and actually gives life to the sick thoughts that should have never left the realm of human imagination in the first place. While sometimes good imagination leads to good art, sometimes good imagination takes a turn for the worst in the real world. [Read article]