Arizona Opera Book Club
Say it’s the mid-18th century and you take issue with Gottfried Leibniz’ Monadology. You’re Voltaire, so you write Candide, a novel satirizing Leibnizian optimism. Leibniz has been dead only 43 years by the time it’s done. Way to ignite that very long fuse! But it was all worth it to stamp out the creeping plague of pretty much any kind of philosophy whatsoever.
Thanks largely to Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 English-language Candide operetta, people still talk more about Voltaire than about Leibniz, Spinoza, or even the Cartesians. The Arizona Opera Book Club tears into the charming, violent original, in advance of next month’s live performances. Bring your discussion points to Changing Hands Bookstore, 300 West Camelback Road, at 7 p.m. on Monday, January 22. It’s free. Call 602-274-0067 or visit the Changing Hands website. Julie Peterson
Trivia and Taps Tuesday
You’re smarter than all your friends, right? Prove it at DeSoto Central Market’s Trivia and Taps Tuesday.
Every Tuesday at 7 p.m., you can put your drinking and your thinking to the test with a quiz by Front Row Trivia Live. Arrive a little early for happy hour, which runs from 3 to 7, when DeSoto offers $5 pitchers of Blue Moon.
The questioning goes down at 915 North Central Avenue. For more information (or to challenge your friends to an intellectual beat-down), visit the Facebook event page. Lindsay Roberts
Ready for the rooftop?
Courtesy of the Clarendon Hotel and Spa
Are you dying to win a plastic toy dinosaur while taking in the view from the rooftop of the Clarendon Hotel? You’re in luck.
On Wednesday, January 24, Arizona history enthusiast Marshall Shore and ball-girl Jenny Kuller will host rooftop bingo at 401 West Clarendon Avenue. Expect a couple of rousing rounds of bingo mixed with interesting tidbits about Arizona’s checkered past. Winners at previous bingo nights have gone home with prizes like pot holders, nut trays, and, yes, reptile replicas.
The family-friendly event will begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit the Facebook event page. Lindsay Roberts
