Month: February 2019

The sound of the woodwinds comes to Pima
Arts & Entertainment

The sound of the woodwinds comes to Pima

By KYLE KERSEY Mark Nelson isn’t just the acting dean of Arts at Pima Community College, he’s also an accomplished tuba player, teacher, band director and musical historian. Nelson’s office, located near the entrance of the Center for the Arts building at West Campus, is adorned with stacks of CDs, old recording equipment and assorted instrument artifacts.  On his wall, posters hang from every musical for which Nelson has conducted live music with a group of student performers. It’s a tradition that will continue this year, when Nelson conducts a student group for the theater production of “Mamma Mia!” which runs from Feb. 21 to March 3. Five days later, Nelson will be conducting the PCC Wind Ensemble. The ensemble includes an assortment of flute, oboe, piccolo, saxophone, trumpet, Fre...
Five great albums snubbed at the Grammys
Arts & Entertainment, Opinion

Five great albums snubbed at the Grammys

By KYLE KERSEY February’s no fun. Football season is over. Arizona has yet to reach peak surfing weather. There isn’t much new music. Oh, and the Grammys happened. That’s bad, too.  1. Pusha T – “Daytona” (Hip-hop) Boomers will deride it as everything that’s wrong with hip-hop culture. I’ll praise it as a pugnacious poem to sinning that’s no different than the excess of ’80s hair metal except it’s actually good.  Pusha’s latest record isn’t going to blow anyone away with an ambitious concept or deep themes. It’s as straightforward as it gets.  “Hello,” he says. “My name is Pusha T.  I deal drugs and hate Drake.  Here’s some songs about me dealing drugs and hating Drake.” Simple, yet effective. Kanye provides some of his grittiest production to date to back the pugnacious Pusha T. It’...
Helping Tucson to hear the music
Features

Helping Tucson to hear the music

By JOSH GRAY Carol Carder is Pima College’s Marketing and PR Coordinator for the Center for the Arts and Pima Arts. Carder moved here, from the Midwest where she worked in the marketing department for another college, to be close to her daughter. She has been with Pima for 14 years now. Q: What do you do at Pima? A: What I do is promote the Pima Arts. I work very closely with the Pima Art’s faculty and performance directors and promote their events that are held at the Center for the Arts. I also work with the Center for the Arts to promote what they do for the college. So, I work for two aspects; I work for the Pima Arts and the Center for the Arts. Q: Why Center for the Arts? A: I am an Arts major myself, both digital arts and visual arts. I’m very passionate about the arts I love ...
The Designated Hitter is dumb and stupid and I hate it
Athletic Voice, Opinion

The Designated Hitter is dumb and stupid and I hate it

By KYLE KERSEY For the uninitiated, here’s scripture: “The designated hitter rule allows teams to use another player to bat in place of the pitcher. Because the pitcher is still part of the team’s nine defensive players, the designated hitter -- or “DH” -- does not take the field on defense.” This is the official MLB glossary definition. The DH is a rule exclusive to the American League, adopted in 1973, a time of national confusion due to the unpopularity of the Vietnam War and a burgeoning oil crisis. Baseball is a fundamentally ridiculous game, a game filled with unbalanced rules - sometimes unwritten rules - that are treated as the word of god by fundamentalists. Like many religions, it’s the fundamentalists who care the most, those who scoff at the idea of pitch clocks and mound v...
Sports

Nakai dunks on up, breaking two more records

By: Henry Robichaud   Jacqulynn Nakai has another Pima Women’s Basketball record with her 9th ACCAC player of the week honors. During the week her averages were 30 points eight rebounds and five assists. She has been on fire this year leading the ACCAC in scoring averaging a monstrous 24.1 points per game. On Feb. 23, The No. 16 ranked Aztecs defeated the Phoenix College Bears and swept the regular season meetings between the two teams after a 90-79 win. It was their seventh win in the last nine games. The Aztecs beat the Bears 105-95 last month in Phoenix. The Aztecs started the game fast opening on a 19-4 run, and then led 30-13 at the end of the first quarter. Pima 10-14 from the field in the quarter. The Aztecs maintained a double digit advantage throughout the second and t...
Clouded judgment: raising the vaping age
Opinion

Clouded judgment: raising the vaping age

By COSTA B. PAPPAS With the Food and Drug Agencies crackdown on Juus to lower the amount of underage vapers in late 2018, many were shocked to find that their beloved mango-, fruit- and crembrulet-flavored pods were no longer sold in stores. The motive behind this decision was to eliminate young audiences from being attracted to these flavors. “Our intent was never to have youth use Juul products,” Juul CEO Kevin Burns said, taking responsibility for the underage crowd getting hooked on vaping. “But intent is not enough, the numbers are what matters, and the numbers tell us underage use of e-cigarette products is a problem.” But the change doesn’t stop there. With California, Maine, New York and Hawaii among the states that have raised the minimum age to purchasing vape products to 2...
Pima College set to close Community Campus
Arizona News, News, Pima News

Pima College set to close Community Campus

By AMARIS ENCINASPima Post The six Pima Community College campuses in Tucson will soon be down to five. PCC came to the conclusion that it would be best to close Community Campus, 401 N. Bonita Ave. Community Campus currently offers Pima Online, Workforce Development, Adult Education for College and Career, Workforce Development and PCC-TV. Community Campus was established in 1975 to provide educational services in alternative time formats and frames in non-traditional forms to give access to people that live and work in the community, said David Dore, Northwest, Downtown and Community campus president, in a recent email. The sale of Community Campus was discussed on Nov. 14 at a Board of Governors meeting. “As a result of the education and facilities master planning pro...
Sports

Four more qualifying marks by fourth track meet.

By ANGEL CANEZ   The Pima Community College Aztecs track and field team is getting some time to rest up before the NJCAA Indoor National Championships. As they had only one meet in the last week. The Aztecs hosted the Jim Mielke Indoor Invitational at Pimas West Campus on Feb.16. Freshmans Raelynn Fair and Mary Simi both took first in their respective events. Fair leaped into first in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet 3 inches, improving her national qualifying mark. Fair is currently ranked ninth in the nation in the women's long jump event. Simi took first place in the 1000 meter race crossing the finish line at 3 minutes 10 seconds. Simi improved her qualifying time by almost 2 seconds since her last event. The Aztecs will have 11 athletes particpating at the NJCAA Nat...
Let’s get metaphysical: a look beyond
Stomping Grounds

Let’s get metaphysical: a look beyond

By COSTA B. PAPPAS   The Ninth House is tucked away in Downtown Tucson on South Scott Avenue. A white minimalistic-styled room filled with spiritual objects ranging from crystals to essential oils is filled with the smell incense as soon as you enter. You’ll be met by Melisa Cole, a young woman with a calming demeanor. She has long black hair with playful dangling earrings with crab claws on the ends. Cole said that she had been giving tarot readings for over a decade. However, she did add that the store didn’t open until last April. The Ninth House offers tarot readings from three-question readings to a 90-minute reading. I chose to get a New Year’s reading, a 45-minute tarot card session at the cost of $45, that would tell me the course of my year through a series of cards...
Sports

Four more qualifying marks by the fourth track meet.

By ANGEL CANEZ   The Pima Community College Aztecs track and field team is getting some time to rest up before the NJCAA Indoor National Championships. As they had only one meet in the last week. The Aztecs hosted the Jim Mielke Indoor Invitational at Pimas West Campus on Feb.16. Freshmans Raelynn Fair and Mary Simi both took first in their respective events. Fair leaped into first in the long jump with a distance of 18 feet 3 inches, improving her national qualifying mark. Fair is currently ranked ninth in the nation in the women's long jump event. Simi took first place in the 1000 meter race crossing the finish line at 3 minutes 10 seconds. Simi improved her qualifying time by almost 2 seconds since her last event. The Aztecs will have 11 athletes particpating at the NJCAA Nat...