After viewing his peers' films in a campus installation project last year, Chris de Barros, a media arts senior, decided to initiate a student film festival in order to showcase more student work to the public.

Last year, the film festival took place at the UA. Tomorrow night, the UA's second student film festival, OneNightFilmFest, will happen at the Loft Cinema.

De Barros said the film festival, which begins at 9 p.m., will last approximately two hours, including a 10-minute intermission and prize distribution. [Read article]

Israeli disco! Hook. Gotcha.

Following a Holocaust memorial and the formation of a human Israeli flag, the Hillel Foundation will finish a week of program events tonight with an Israeli discotheque party, "Keep On Dancing," at Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St.

The party, open to all, comes as a belated extension and celebration of this year's Yom Ha'Atzmaut, Israel's 56th Independence Day.

Visual communications junior Jason Leach said he is going to the disco to party with his friends for something he believes in. He said he'd do the same for the United States. [Read article]

As semesters end, presidents flounder and felines begin to mate in the spring sun, one question remains: "What to do this weekend?"

Local bicycle shop, BICAS, has answered the question with vigor.

A "dance explosion" will detonate tonight in the Bicycle Inter-Community Art and Salvage warehouse, with reverberations sure to be felt at least a block away. Billed as a Deconstructive Dance Party, the Tucson independent music scene finds a new way to assert itself. While Jacques Derrida is not promised to be in attendance, the bands Sugarbush, No Bunny, The Galactic Federation of Love and Old Time Relijun will be stirring up deconstructive dance sentiment. [Read article]

The Sounds have a lot in common with fellow Swedish countrymen ABBA. They have that trademark blond hair (well, mostly just their lead singer). And they're also a band that makes dance music (although they count disco's antithesis - new wave - as their primary influence). OK, so The Sounds have nothing in common with ABBA. But that's a good thing.

And seeing The Sounds will be about a million times easier - and more enjoyable - than trying to catch an ABBA show. After finishing up a tour with The Strokes, The Sounds are bringing their own tour to City Limits tonight at 7. [Read article]

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the tour manager for Southern rockers The Black Crowes was a little frantic.

Not only did he have to worry about assholes like me calling and asking if the band's Sept. 12 show at Centennial Hall was still on, he had members of the band he couldn't reach either still up in the air, grounded in some mystery town, or worse. Thankfully everyone was OK, but it made for a very eerie concert experience the following night. [Read article]

Ahh, the First Amendment. God bless its reliable and unquestionable iron-cast authority, its sweeping wing that protects the smallest and frailest voice. This sacred and anointed decree, treasured by Republicans, Democrats and third parties alike, protects without prejudice every American's right to practice whichever religion he or she chooses; and in a truly broad and ironic stroke, it also protects my right to make fun of those people. [Read article]

I heard somewhere that Denzel Washington has the most symmetrical face in Hollywood. I wish I heard it from Trivial Pursuit or something, but the truth is I saw a special on it on E! News live. You caught me. Regardless, in "Man on Fire," Denzel's beautiful face seems more crooked than usual. Perhaps it's the fact that he's perma-drunk, full of secrets and has a knack for torturing corrupt cops. Or maybe he's just getting old. [Read article]

The imported British sitcom "The Office" is probably the best thing that's happened to depressing situation comedy since sliced bread happened to bread. What I mean to say is you can make delicious avocado sandwiches without "The Office."

But you can never really laugh at the awkwardness and pathetic ineptness of sliced bread.

"The Office," a faux documentary, centers around David Brent, played by co-writer/director Ricky Gervais. Brent is a boss at a paper manufacturing business in the city of Slough (UK). He embodies the most annoying qualities a human can possess: He's insecure, inept, inappropriate, insensitive and generally unattractive. Yet he fancies himself a terrific boss and stellar entertainer. [Read article]

With seven albums under its belt, The Offspring hit the road again this year to promote its latest album Splinter, stopping at Mesa Amphitheater, Tuesday night. The small crowd showed The Offspring's old age, but for The Offspring, size didn't seem to matter.

The newest addition to the band, drummer Atom Willard, got the crowd going with some hard bass hits when The Offspring broke out onto the stage playing "Neocon" and "The Noose" from its newest album, [Read article]

In my early teens, my Dad drove me and a friend an hour to Worcester, Mass., to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers play with Silverchair and some other band I can't remember. It was my first real rock concert (excluding a John Denver live set I was dragged to before I hit 10 years old) and it was awesome.

Sure I didn't know the Chili's were near-implosion because of heavy heroin habits, but that damn music put a mile-wide smile on my face and had me head-banging so hard, my neck was sore for days. [Read article]

There are very few movies that capture what it's like to be in high school. "Donnie Darko," "American Beauty" and "Ghost World" admittedly come close. But they aren't funny. When in search for a comedy about teen life that doesn't completely rely on ridiculous stereotypes and circumstances, look no further than "Mean Girls."

"Mean Girls" appears to be a clichŽ teen movie. I assure you it is not. While the stereotypes we see in all teen movies are present, they are part of the movie only to poke fun at them. And while you and I know these people do exist, they have been taken to a ridiculous extreme in recent teen movies. [Read article]

Sushi in Tucson once meant a drunken night at Yuki's karaoke on Friday night, but now that Ra Sushi is open, sharing a cul-de-sac with North in the new La Encantada mall, Japanese food can once again be added into our chic list of places to take our parents when they're in town. In my case, it was a lovely place to dine out on a Tuesday night with my boyfriend.

Ra has a designated happy hour (or rather happy three hours) from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, where they offer food and drink specials. If you want to try some of their appetizers and sushi while having a few drinks with some friends, it's not a bad place to go. I went at 8:30 p.m., and the place was pretty empty. More importantly, the food and service were both wonderful. [Read article]

Disclaimer: This is a bad review of a book. But it's more a bad review of the book's publisher. "Shoofly Pie" could have been better, but it also could have been worse. However, Howard Fiction did some unforgivable things with "Shoofly Pie." Things I have to talk about.

A man is dead in North Carolina, and maybe it isn't a suicide. Forensic entomologist Nick Polchak is enlisted to ... solve the case. But ... [Read article]

Desoto Reds

Sounds Like: The music your parents wish you listened to.

See Also: They Might Be Giants, Built to Spill.

Hanglide Thru Yer Window

Listening to Desoto Reds' peppy Hanglide Thru Yer Window as I grumpily walked to school the other day, I couldn't help but be in a good mood.

The super-poppy opening track, "Allowed Loud," opens with a chorus of bike bells and synthesizer that made me feel like shouting out friendly hellos to the irate homeless men and tanning frat boys I passed along the way. And when the bouncy, polka-esque drums of "College Love" came on, I half expected Muppets to start popping out from alleyways to give me friendly reminders to always look before I cross. [Read article]

Today

Lecture - Center for Creative Photography auditorium. Photographer and associate art professor Kenneth Shorr presents "Discoveries from the Archives." 5:30 p.m. 621-7992

One-Act Play Fest - Marroney Theatre. Opening night of festival featuring one-act plays directed, designed and performed by UA theater students. 8 p.m. $3.50. $2.50 per ticket if you purchase all three nights. Through Saturday. 621-1162 [Read article]