We live at a specific place, often defining ourselves by address or “how far we are” from X. More broadly though, we live in the Rincon Valley, a bioregion of Saguaro Park summits and slopes, hills and homes, sharing landscapes and aquifers, valleys and washes, hamlets and schools, shopping clusters and roads to elsewhere. Nearby bioregions...
Imagine if you had the idea of exploring the meaning of democracy through the lens of a camera. Where would you go? What would you shoot? That was the dream of Joseph Sohm, a student and teacher of American history turned photo-journalist who set out in the 1980s to capture the story of America on film. Three decades later, he estimates that his...
When Renaissance scholars figured out that the other planets, like Earth, orbit the Sun, an immediate assumption was that they are inhabited worlds. But over the past 50 years, spacecraft have determined that life on the surfaces of planets and moons in the Solar System is rare – if it exists at all. However, there are places where a search for...
In his debut recital as newly appointed cello professor at the University of Arizona, cellist Theodore Buchholz presents “Kaleidoscope: Vignettes for Cello and Piano.” His 11:30 a.m. concert at the Arizona Senior Academy on Tuesday (April 7) features short pieces – vignettes – from a variety of composers from different nations, working in...
Written by Ted Hullar, Academy Village Volunteer Is the Antarctic helping cool Arizona? How does that work? What oceanic and atmospheric forces move “Antarctic cool” to hot Arizona? We know that summer rains come from the Gulf of Mexico and the Baja and winter rains come from the Pacific across California. But how does Antarctica get involved...
Written by Mike Maharry, Academy Village Volunteer Are We Alone in the Universe? That question rises above all others when it comes to our place in a vast and ancient Universe. With a billion habitable locations in the Milky Way galaxy alone, and more than 10 billion years for biological experiments to play out, a search for intelligent life...
Written by Leslie Nitzberg, Academy Village Volunteer The University of Arizona’s Collegium Musicum presents a choral concert at the Arizona Senior Academy on Monday (March 30), beginning at 7:30 p.m. Monday evening’s unique program will feature an all a cappella performance of the “Officium defunctorum” or Requiem Mass by Spain’s most famous...
Written by Ted Hullar, Academy Village Volunteer Does climate change really matter for us in Arizona and the desert Southwest? Is climate change really caused by human activity, or nature’s variability, or both? Is it really true that a “mega-drought” is coming to the Southwest? Or is it already here? Bottom line: What can we do about any of this...
Written by Fred Neidhardt, Academy Village Volunteer Imagine a sovereign country, a full voting member of the United Nations, whose citizens speak a dozen distinct languages, but which uses English as its official language and the U.S. dollar as its currency. Citizens of this nationality can enter the United States at any time, as often as they...
Written by Beverley Robertson, Academy Village Volunteer The Arizona Wind Quintet, longtime favorites of Arizona Senior Academy concert audiences, will return Tuesday (March 24) for an 11:30 a.m. concert. This group consists of five wind professors from the University of Arizona School of Music: Brian Luce, professor of flute; Jerry Kirkbride...
