Tucson Lifestyle Blog

Jessy J and ArcoIris Sandoval Concert
May 30, Loews Ventana Canyon

Jessy J showed why she's one of the most in-demand young sax players today at a Tucson Jazz Society event last Sunday night.
Part concert, part dance party and all love-fest, Jessy blew the roof off the resort with a mix of originals from her two CDs (Tequila Moon and True Love), and covers of everyone from Sergio Mendes to Stevie Wonder.
From early on, she got the crowd involved with sing-alongs, and danced in the aisles while she played. Looking stunning in an-off-the-shoulder black top and shimmery skin-tight capris, she had the audience enraptured as she and her virtuoso band performed songs like "Mr. Prince," "Baila!", and a wonderful version of "Besame Mucho," that provided her the opportunity to joke about the kissing prowess of sax players.
Be sure to check out her out on jessyj.com.
Opening the show was Tucson's own ArcoIris Sandoval. A recent graduate of the University of Arizona's School of Music, Arco is well known to local audiences from her gigs playing keyboards with Orquesta La Unica, Soulero, et al. Working with a percussionist and bass player, she laid down amazingly expressive jazz that incorporated be-bop and straight-ahead elements to magical effect. Her engaging presence transfixed the ballroom (not easy to do for an opening act!), and she could easily have been headlining the show.
By the way, Arco jets off for the Manhattan School of Music to pursue her graduate degree his fall, so catch her while you can. You can hear some of her original songs on myspace.com/arcoirissandoval.

To read more about the Old Pueblo's music scene, click here for Lyrical Lifestyle

Over 50 and Fabulous

Thanks to all of our readers the Tucson Lifestyle Cover Model Search has received a lot of attention and hundreds of votes for the ten finalists!

Amid all this hype, one reader wrote to us stating she would love for Tucson Lifestyle to have a "Over 50 and Fabulous" cover. Maybe next year? What do you think?

The Skinny on Skin

In the May 2010 issue Tucson Lifestyle featured a story on skin care treatments and procedures to keep the skin looking its best as well as advice from local experts on how to care for your skin at any age and what products are the most recommended. Not surprisingly we received some feedback from readers. One reader felt, "I think this article sends a poor message. To encourage young women of 20/30/40 to start taking/ hyping botox and other invasive treatments is irresponsible. There is a lot of money in the spa skin industry (procedures and products) and this is a perfect example of encouraging the public to feed into all of this. As far as products go, many can be purchased in drugstores for considerably less money with the same important ingredients. Although touched on, why not spend more time on prevention of sun damage at that age with sun avoidance/sunscreen, etc.? I realize you need to promote your advertisers, yet the Dermatologists should not be selling/ promoting products but, talking about the basic important ingredients to look for and then give detailed generic /drugstore products as examples"

So what do you think? What would you have liked to see in the article?

Reader or Reviewer?

As always, our annual Culinary Awards issue got people talking. Some were pleased with the results while others had some issues with the winners — who were voted on by our readers through online and mail-in ballots.

One reader suggested Tucson Lifestyle should follow the lead of other city magazines and hire a panel of experts to do the annual best restaurants issue. This would mean that professional food reviewers, not our readers, would choose the winners. What do you think?

Country Thunder: April 14-17

The thunder may roll, but come rain or shine Florence, Arizona, will welcome some of today’s hottest country bands this week at the annual gathering known as Country Thunder.Spend four days camping, eating and relaxing to the tunes of Willie Nelson, Gary Allan, Kevin Costner & Modern West, Chris Young, Miranda Lambert and Keith Urban (who has not only won three Grammys, but was voted Favorite Male Artist at the 2010 People’s Choice Awards). Get back to nature by requesting a campsite purchase at one of the five locations near the main stage.Events include: mechanical bull rides; sling shot machines (where guests are propelled as high as 240 feet up in the air); karaoke bars and various game shows (don’t miss Saturday’s Willie Neilson look-alike contest)! Fans can purchase a 1-day pass or a 4-day general adult admission.Tickets are on sale at www.countrythunder.com/az/lineupaz.html.  Or call 866-802-6418 (international customers should dial: 1-877-569-7767).
April 14-17
Country Thunder USA
20585 E. Price (Station) Rd.
Florence, AZ 85232