Happy 237th Birthday Tucson

Celebrate Tucson’s 237th birthday on August 20 at the El Presidio Grounds, 133 W. Washington (between Church Ave. and Court Ave. downtown). There will be usual flag raising, birthday cake eating, plus tamales too this year. Troubadour Ted Ramirez will be entertaining.

Funding ran out to continue the Tucson’s Birthday website & the numerous listings from prior years, so District 5 Supervisor Richard Elias’ office took over to post events via his website (click here) & use the link on the top for “Birthday”.

And if you want earlier birthday cake, here’s an event for Saturday August 18:

Southern Arizona Transportation Museum Birthday Party at The Depot
When: Sat, August 18, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Southern Arizona Transportation Museum, 414 North Toole Ave., Tucson, AZ.
Description: We are proud participants in the Arizona Centennial Celebration. Celebrate at the Depot with cake, the Mayor, and engine 1673. The mayor will be speaking at 11:00, and cutting the Birthday cake !

Happy Birthday Tucson!

Dream about “Arizona Dream” coming to the Loft

Sunday, August 12th at 12:00 p.m.
Admission: $8.00 general; $6.00 Loft members
FREE RAFFLE and FREE BIRTHDAY CAKE
at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway.

The Loft celebrates Tucson’s birthday month with a special screening of the 1993 comedy/drama ARIZONA DREAM, starring Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway and Jerry Lewis, filmed right here in Southern Arizona (with locations in Douglas, AZ; Patagonia, AZ, etc.)! This offbeat tale of an innocent dreamer (played by Depp in his pre-Hollwood blockbuster days) trying to find his way in a small desert town near Tucson is a charming ode to the strangeness of the American West. Grab a slice of our free TUCSON BIRTHDAY CAKE (while supplies last), and enter our FREE PRIZE RAFFLE for a fabulous gift package which includes dvds of films made in Arizona, Tucson-centric books and other surprises!

This uniquely quirky comedy, the first English language movie by Bosnian-born director Emir Kusturica (When Father Was Away on Business), tells the highly entertaining tale of two highly dysfunctional families living, loving and dreaming in the vast expanses of the great American Southwest.

An orphan named Axel Blackmar (Johnny Depp, in one of his earliest starring roles), who works for the New York Department of Fish and Game (and who is obsessed with the dream life of fish), is asked to serve as best man at the wedding of his uncle (legendary comedian Jerry Lewis), a larger-than-life Arizona Cadillac dealer who’s marrying a Polish woman (model/actress Paulina Porizkova) less than half his age. Axel’s cousin (Vincent Gallo, Brown Bunny) is an aspiring actor given to obsessively performing lines and gestures in sync with such movies as Raging Bull, The Godfather and North by Northwest. Relocating to the small desert town that his family calls home, a lonely and confused Axel starts an affair with a widow nearly twice his age (Oscar-winner Faye Dunaway) who lives with her neurotic and disgruntled stepdaughter (Lili Taylor, I Shot Andy Warhol). As the lives of these oddball characters begin to intersect, it becomes clear they are all living in various stages of a dream: Axel dreams of moving to Alaska, his uncle dreams of climbing to the moon on a stack of Cadillacs, the widow dreams of flying via a homemade pair of wings and her stepdaughter dreams of being reincarnated as a turtle.
Gorgeously shot, endlessly fascinating and full of lyrical and surreal images, ARIZONA DREAM is a wildly audacious black comedy about the dreamer in all of us.

I’ve seen this 1993 movie and it is an odd & original story filmed here in Southern Arizona. Early in the movie the Johnny Depp character Axel says that “he doesn’t want to go to Arizona.” But he changes his mind (find out how by viewing this film). The movie is just perfect for you Johnny Depp fans. Dream on.

And Happy Early Birthday to Tucson (coming up on August 20). For more Tucson Birthdays events go to District 5 Supervisor Richard Elias’ webpage & click on Birthday on the top.

Happy Birthday Tucson, Chinese style

Tucson Chinese Cultural Center Celebrates Tucson’s Birthday

Thursday Aug 25, 2011

Time: 11:30-13:30 (11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.)
Admission: Non-members $5; members free
Contact Name: Patsy Lee/Robin Blackwood
Email: pleecoach@yahoo.com/larobinb@aol.com
Location: Tucson Chinese Cultural Center
Address: 1288 W. River Road Tucson, AZ 85704 (east of La Canada)
Phone: 520-292-6900
website: www.tucsonchinese.org

Tucson Chinese Cultural Center will celebrate Tucson’s birthday at its senior program lunch with a meal prepared from Tucson Chinese grocery store family heritage recipes. A birthday cake will be served. Public is invited to participate.

I’m a member and I’m not even Chinese.The Tucson Chinese Cultural Center is welcoming to all people to celebrate Tucson’s 236th birthday. Happy Birthday Tucson (again)!

Photos of Tucson’s 236th Birthday Celebrations

And what a birthday celebration it was yesterday (August 20)! Tucson’s Birthday photographer Jon Scanlon took the shots below of people celebrating all day: starting off with the downtown flag ceremony at Presidio San Agustin de Tucson, then at the “Birthday Express” locomotive 1673 at Tucson’s Historic Train depot, lovely art for sale at Old Town Artisans, creative quilts on display at Martha Cooper Branch Library, followed by a birthday cake by Nadine’s Bakery at the Hotel Congress, as well as live music at the Rialto Theater. My husband and I ate that cake & enjoyed it a lot, along with lots of other people. “Happy Birthday Tucson!” was heard throughout the day.

For lots more photos of yesterday’s birthday activities click here. There’s Flickr photos of most of the past events as well.

And it’s not over yet. For more events for Tucson’s Birthday month of August, log onto www.tucsonsbirthday.org.

Find your photo on the “Happy Birthday Tucson!” website (eating cake?)

Tucson’s Birthday photographer Jon Scalon shot lots and lots of photos during this birthday month of August. I even found myself in a few of them.

photographer Jon Scanlon in his aloha shirt at the Big Kahuna Tropical Bash, taken by Albrecht Classen

The community birthday events were quite diverse: from the kick off at Mission Gardens at the foot of “A” Mountain, to various Pima County library celebrations, to San Xavier Mission (where I ate birthday cake), to De Grazia Gallery of the Sun (more birthday cake), to the Big Kahuna Tropical Bash downtown (even more birthday cake).

What a terrific way to connect with fellow Tucsonans. And what a lot of birthday cake, even at La Fiesta de San Agustin this past Saturday night.

Here’s the online link (click here) to the Tucson Birthday website to view his photos via Flickr from Yahoo. You can also comment below them, identifying yourself and others. There are 30 sets of photos, each labeled with the event heading.

Otherwise, go online to www.tucsonsbirthday.org, link is “Follow/friend us” on the top right, then click on “Flickr” and you’re there!

Go to the website for the final listing of birthday celebrations today August 31. And attend tonight’s finale, Noche de Luz Flashlight Parade:

Time: 6:45 pm
Admission: Free
Contact Name: Linda Ray
Email: tucsonsbirthday@gmail.com
Location: Start on Mission Rd. (see directions below)
Phone: 520-327-7544

“Volunteers, event organizers and friends will gather to close out the Birthday month with the Noche de Luz flashlight parade honoring all our ancestors. A $20 prize will be awarded for the flashlight decorated to best represent an individual’s personal heritage.

The official route will be approximately one mile, round trip.The parade begins on Mission Road at the foot of “A” Mountain’s eastern face, south of the Mission Garden and north of 22nd Street. We will proceed along the Santa Cruz River trail, and the DeAnza Trail, between 22nd Street and Mission Lane. Energetic paraders can extend the route another mile.

Please bring water!
Please rsvp to tucsonsbirthday@gmail.com.

Thanks to Pima County for co-sponsoring this event!”

Happy Birthday Tucson, till next August, 2011.

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Feliz Cumpleaños (Happy Birthday) Tucson!

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On August 20, 1775 Captain Hugo O’Conor, an Irishman in the Spanish Army selected the site for the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson in what is now downtown Tucson. This was the beginning of the historic presidio here and thus the beginning of the city of Tucson. Incidentally I just saw the statue of O’Conor at the Manning House downtown (450 W. Redondo Drive).

Lots to do today in celebration of Tucson’s 235th birthday, by starting off at:

El Presidio de San Agustin flag ceremony, 8 to 10 a.m. SW corner of Church Ave. and Washington St. in downtown Tucson.

“The five flags that have flown over Tucson – American, Spanish, Mexican, Confederate, and the State of Arizona – will be presented in a ceremony to celebrate Tucson’s 235th birthday. The Tohono O’odham Nation and Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona flags will also be presented, as will a replica of the 28-star American flag that was brought by the Mormon Battalion and flown over Tucson on December 16, 1846.

The ceremony will include an invocation, signing of a proclamation by distinguished guests, the honor guard presentation, and music and dance. The flags will then be retired to close the ceremony.

Those attending are encouraged to dress in period costumes and sample a piece of the Tucson birthday cake.

El Presidio flag ceremony, from their website

The annual flag raising celebrating Tucson’s birthday was begun by Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission in 1975. The Presidio San Agustín del Tucson interpretive center is located on the site of Tucson’s original adobe-walled presidio.”

I’ve attended this ceremony in the past, and the period costumes truly help to re-enact Tucson’s varied history, especially the Spanish Army soldiers.

Also lots of FREE birthday stuff today:

— Doubletree Hotel: free chocolate chip cookie, 445 S. Alvernon Way, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
— Reid Park Zoo: free admission for children (up to age 14), 3400 E. Zoo Court, adults $7, 9 to 4 p.m.
—Chick Fil A: free spicy chicken sandwich, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., 3609 E. Broadway (near El Con Mall)
—DeGrazia Gallery of the Sun: free cake & ice cream, 10 to 4 p.m., 6300 N. Swan Rd. with a special exhibition of original drawings and paintings that tell the “Tucson Story” as seen through the eyes of famed Tucson artist Ted DeGrazia. “Tucson Story” is a collection of 17 sketches and six oil paintings of historical events and places in the Tucson area, including “Kino Building San Xavier”, “Wishing Shrine”, “Camp Fort Lowell”, “400 Apaches Raid Tucson”

and tomorrow, free birthday cake at the Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St., at 6 p.m., call 520- 622-8848. I hear there will also be an enormous sandcastle birthday cake across the street at Maynard’s Kitchen, as part of the Big Kahuna Tropical Bash (stay tuned for my blog on that event tomorrow).

For even more events for today and tomorrow, log onto the Tucson Birthday website (click here).

Plus a tribute today to Tucson’s “First Lady of Fashion” Cele Peterson who died on May 6, 2010 at age 101. Cele operated an upscale dress shop in Tucson since 1931 and was a benevolent, caring, community leader. The store is now at 4811 E. Grant Rd. in the Crossroads Festival Shopping Center.

Cele Peterson, courtesy of the Peterson family

This Annual Birthday celebration in August was Cele’s idea back in 2006 and we need to honor her memory today. We miss her, but her goal of “connecting” people has been happening all month all over Tucson. I attended her memorial service back in May, and hundreds of people dropped by to say “adios” to this grande dame.

Happy Birthday Tucson, con muchas gracias (with many thanks) to Cele.