The Skinny
SWEENEY AND WEENIES Perennial candidate Joe Sweeney has run for Congress 11 times from four different parties. Considered by most to be a harmless kook, he’s generally been either ignored or treated like any other candidate. He’s now locked onto the illegal immigrant issue as the root cause of all America’s problems, from health care…
Rhythm & Views
Polly Jean Harvey channels American folk music through her British, guttural vocal chords; her voice, wavering and powerful, her guitar, messy and tight–it’s exactly the emotional core of original American blues and folk. Harvey has even directly appropriated Huddie Ledbetter slave ballads, and her music echoes with the same sentiments of the songs men sang…
Best Local Performing Artist
The phrase “perennial box-office favorite” was made for Lisa Otey, a frequent star of both BOT and the TAMMIES. For the second year running, this singer-songwriter-pianist-a master of jazz, blues, boogie woogie, pop and folk-takes top billing in the hearts of Weekly readers. Cast Otey in anything musical in the Old Pueblo, and you’ve a…
Best Bagels
A crusty exterior and chewy interior are the mark of a real bagel, and Bruegger’s delivers. With 15 kinds of bagels ranging from asiago parmesan to cranberry orange, Bruegger’s provides noshers with enough choices to satisfy most bagel aficionados. Add 14 flavors of cream cheese spreads-which run the gamut from sweet (strawberry) to pungent (jalapeño)-and…
Best Contemporary Architecture
Godzilla may have terrorized Tokyo, but Simon Donovan’s slithering snake has been nothing but nice to Tucson. The glittering Diamondback Bridge has brought star presence to the Old Pueblo’s Broadway. Ingeniously combining art and engineering, it lights up the barren intersection at Broadway Boulevard and Aviation Parkway while offering safe passage to pedestrians and bicyclists.…
Best Dry Cleaner
As our readers know, Sparkle Cleaners provides for all of our dry-cleaning needs. Household items, everyday clothes and fancy party dresses are carefully cleaned. “The more formal a party is, the less you have to wear,” is what Gene Kelly allegedly said in American in Paris. If your outfit is not very much, it will…
Best Bowling Alley
Although it’s now a bit behind the curve of modernity-what with its pixelated monitor images celebrating strikes (“Bowlin’ ‘Em Over!”) and spares (“Roooom 2 Spare!”)-the Lucky Strike is the bowling equivalent of what Goldilocks seeks in porridge: just rightness. Having been to so-called “cutting-edge” bowling alleys, we prefer the appropriately tacky ambience of the LS-you…
Best Place for Teens on Autumn Friday Nights
OK, quick-best high school football movie ever? Varsity Blues? Good football scenes, but dreadful everything else. All the Right Moves? Young Tom Cruise and an athletic Chris Penn (before he swallowed his brother, Sean, whole), but too much of a downer. No, the answer is obviously Remember the Titans, which is uplifting, exciting, well-acted and…
Best Word and Music Mix
After a couple of successful decades in Connecticut, cellist Harry Clark and pianist Sanda Schuldmann transplanted their Chamber Music Plus series to Tucson, where Clark grew up. At each show, a noted veteran personality (Lynne Redgrave, Theodore Bikel, Michael Learned) portrays a figure close to a major classical musician (Bach’s second wife, Mendelssohn’s brother, Mozart’s…
Q&A with Rachel Sharp
Rachel Sharp runs Tucson’s Micro-Cinema, a group that gathers monthly to screen the work of local independent filmmakers. Sharp is also a filmmaker in her own right, as well as a teacher at Amphi Middle School. What’s the best movie of all time? It’s called The Sea of Grass, OK? First of all, it’s Spencer…
Best Nouvelle Cuisine
In the silent black-and-white classic Metropolis, the future was a joyless hell where workers toiled on subterranean machines. Pastiche offers a different vision of the future: fine gourmet dining with an inventive menu and casual décor. The restaurant is in an unpretentious space left intentionally sparse, down to the bare concrete floors, a cross between…
Best Bulk Tea Selection
The Food Conspiracy Co-op has a boffo selection of teas, along with its four-star collection of spices, herbs and coffees. The headliner is the increasingly popular green tea, featuring minimal caffeine and reputed health benefits from a barrage of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The co-op has more than 15 different green tea varieties to choose…
Best New Bookstore
While we might wish that the general public sought out independently owned bookstores with more frequency, we can’t blame readers for giving the nod to a giant like Barnes and Noble. It’s obvious, however, that it wasn’t chosen simply for its huge selection of books, as it isn’t simply a bookstore. There’s the music, the…
Best Place to Load Up on Produce and Garden Gnomes
The Food City on South Sixth Avenue isn’t just a supermarket; it’s a total, Sensurround AZ-Mex experience. From the carnival atmosphere of the parking lot, where you can buy freshly roasted green chiles or quesadillas from vendors, to the heavily loaded shelves, topped with one of the most extensive lawn-ornament displays of any supermarket, Food…
Best Place to Dance
The big-screen Thursday nights at Club Congress don’t show blockbusters-instead, this is the only place in town where you can play Tetris while guest DJs share their musical collections with you. The Optimist Club is just one of the dance revolutions you can find at Congress: There’s something goin’ on every night to help you…
The Range
A recap of last week’s news
Rhythm & Views
It’s not hard to imagine Giant Sand’s Howe Gelb sitting on the roof of his adobe in the old barrio in Tucson with a pair of homemade antenna on his head, grabbing random bits of ephemera out of the sonic stew of the universe. The murky line between the random/improvised and the tightly plotted has…
Best Dance Production
This Nut’s getting close to a Lifetime Achievement Award. Every year at Christmastime, Ballet Tucson pairs world-class visiting dancers with its superbly trained students in this holiday favorite. Choreographed by artistic director Mary-Beth Cabana, this year’s version held to the troupe’s high standards. Two dancers from American Ballet Theatre, Amanda McKerrow and John Gardner, provided…
Best Place to Pretend You’re in New York City
The B Line, with its simple furniture, jazzy soundtrack and well-dressed patrons, is just a little bit more serious, stylish and fast-paced than most other cafés in the Old Pueblo. If you squint, you just might think you’re in a funky lunch joint in the City-in Chelsea maybe, or Tribeca. The wait staff whizzes your…
Best Piece of Tucson History
It isn’t as internationally famous as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel depicted in The Agony and the Ecstasy, but the art of this Tohono O’odham church is phenomenal. Documented by anthropologist Bernard Fontana and photographer Edward McCain, the paintings, sculptures and other artwork of San Xavier are a true treasure. And since the pieces…
Best Swimming Pool
It does seem fitting that the best swimming hole in town is in one of the most fancy of our Parks and Recreation facilities. You certainly should be able to spot a few Million Dollar Mermaids, especially during one of their summer synchronized swimming classes. This is a swimming pool that offers instruction, which makes…
Best Late-Night Weekend Tradition
Catch Star Trek movies, beloved stinkers and even the immortal Blazing Saddles–shown on the big screen for only $3 at the ungodly hour of midnight on Fridays and Saturdays at the Catalina. We all know about Rocky Horror Picture Show, but some of us look too much like Tim Curry to begin to even think…
Best Educational Boost Disguised as Fun
Over the years, the local libraries have turned thousands of kids on to the joys of reading, and they have often done so in the least likely of times-during the summer. Reading rooms, storytime gatherings and extensive promotions involving incentives and prizes for young readers make for great fun and help young people realize that…
Best Indoor, Non-Smoking Concert Venue
Granted, mythological music lore posits that the dark, smoky nightclub-often with the requisite unknown fluid on the floor-is revered as the place to catch an up-and-coming alternative-rock act or the blues legend playing a series of small bar shows. But some of us are getting to be old farts, and we like a comfy seat…
Q&A with Herb Stratford
Herb Stratford is the heart and soul of the effort to restore downtown’s Fox Theater to its former glory as Tucson’s premiere movie palace. What’s the best movie of all time? Wow-loaded question. Depends on the genre. A few favorites include Brazil, Days of Heaven, Godfather I and II, Rivers and Tides, La Reine Margot,…
Best Casual Dining
If Godzilla ever visited the Old Pueblo, we imagine Yoshimatsu would be the first place he’d stop for a bite before beginning his city-destroying rampage. Enter this Japanese eatery–relocated not so long ago from smaller quarters down the street–and you might think you’ve somehow wandered into Tokyo. The menu features a wide range of Japanese…
Best Calamari
The tasty calamari appetizer from Argenziano’s is a class act. Unlike the heavily breaded and glutinous rings you get elsewhere, these are lightly coated, on site, with a delicate sprinkling of bread crumbs, herbs and spices that perfectly complements the flavor of the squid. You can actually see the tender and cooked-to-perfection flesh under the…
Q&A with Howard Allen
Howard Allen is a Tucson playwright, actor, founder of Scriptdoctor.com and entertainment columnist. What’s the best movie of all time? Cinema Paradiso, because it’s about the love of movies. And all the Fellini movies, because they are amazing, if I’m allowed to say two things. What movie makes you think most of Tucson? Revenge of…
Best Bookstore for Book Lovers
Friendly and quiet, Reader’s Oasis has no huge magazine rack and no café. Instead, there’s a carefully chosen selection of books and a helpful, amazingly well-read staff to help you find what you need. If you want to be able to go into a bookstore, pick something up off the rack and ask the person…
Best Margarita
When we sit down with our bowl of chips and salsa, we like to have variety of margaritas available depending on our mood. At the eastside Casa Molina, a Blue Agave margarita might fit a Treasure of Sierra Madre night, but a Cadillac margarita might be better for a Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend…
Media Watch
Radio Suffr’ing
Live
Electrelane, Solar Culture, Friday, Sept. 17
Best Theatrical Production
High concept: Glamorous young hero struggles with a corrupt leader, but personal flaws result in his falling splat on the stage at play’s end. That’s the short version of our readers’ two favorite theatrical productions this past season. Urinetown-the touring version of the recent, provocative Broadway musical-spilled black humor, an updated Brecht/Weill sensibility and the…
Best Tea Experience
Tucked into a little strip mall across the street from Rincon Market, Seven Cups is a charming Chinese teahouse that serves truly remarkable tea in a relaxed, elegant atmosphere. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and will happily explain the different leaves and growing regions of the wide variety of teas they carry, including green…
Best Local Activist/Advocacy Group
It’s 1959. Buttoned-down professor Vivian arrives in sweltering Las Vegas to get a divorce and, surprise, falls in love with the unabashed ranch lesbian. “How you get so much action without any equipment is beyoooond me.” It’s the best line in the sappy flick Desert Hearts. Go borrow it from Wingspan’s library-just one of many…
Best Alternative Sporting Event
If all the usual sports are getting really boring, try something with a little more pizzazz. Australian-rules football, known to its aficionados as “Footy,” will certainly perk up your day. First of all, it is definitely not rugby. Properly played on an oval cricket ground with 18 players, the desert version is sadly reduced to…
Best Local Sports Talk Show
We like Ryan Radtke, who was great back on KNST. But now he’s on 1290, The (ahem) Source, and we’re afraid to tune in for fear of hearing one of the Fox Sports Network’s ultra-annoying national hosts. We know we’re going to have to listen sooner or later, because 1290 now broadcasts the Arizona Wildcat…
Best Youth (New) Movie Tradition
The Loft, best known for being the only place in town to show the avant-garde and the indie films that are well worth seeing but have no chance of making it into the mallplex theaters, recently began showing low-priced kiddie matinees. This past summer, they showed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which was cool…
Best Local Chain of Second-Run Movie Theaters
Whether you’re looking to catch up on a 3-month-old blockbuster or simply see last month’s box-office bomb before it flees town, the locally owned and operated Grand Cinemas are da bomb when it comes to serving movie fans on a tight budget. The folks over there boast “the best movie value in town,” and it’s…
Q&A with Ray Carroll
Ray Carroll, a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, is a father of three and longtime Tucsonan. Carroll was formerly the chairman of the city of Tucson Housing Board and foundation manager of Casa de los Niños. What’s the best movie of all time? Raging Bull–a great black-and-white film on the sad but…
Best Outdoor Seating
The patio is a large piece of shade, a refuge from the inferno that is a Sonoran Desert summer. Cool bricks below, dark shade cloth overhead, lush greenery all around, and a fountain babbling off to the side make you feel like you’ve entered some earthly Zen food garden. For more than 20 years, Blue…
Best Jerk
Jerks may come and go in real life, on the ballot and at the cinema, but none with such degrading lasciviousness as Mickey Rourke in 9 1/2 Weeks. But enough perversion; we prefer our jerk on a plate where it belongs, reminding us of those lazy days strolling the pork pits along the tropical shores…
Best Used Books
Bookman’s exemplifies the “highest, best use” principle of property in that instead of rotting away in basements or attics or being thrown in the trash, the books, CDs, computer games, magazines, etc. stocked on its shelves find their way, in inexpensive fashion, to a new appreciator’s hands. Furthermore, the sheer volume of stuff at its…
Best Way to Avoid The Money Trap
Had Mr. Blandings (Cary Grant) or Walter and Anna (Tom Hanks and Shelly Long) known about Gerson’s, their home restorations might have gone a little smoother, but then the world would’ve been deprived of two very funny movies. Gerson’s is packed to the hilt with anything and everything you might need to renovate your house…
Best Noir Drink
How about a little film noir in a glass? Just thinking about that sultry, double-crossing dame Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity casts a shadow on our integrity. Don’t panic; it’s not arsenic and old lace. Leave it to those kinky Brits to deliver Blavod (black vodka) triple-distilled and double charcoal-filtered 80-proof vodka flavored with the…
T Q&A
Tucson Q&A with Myra Dinnerstein
Top Ten in Music
Hear’s Music top sales for the week ending Sept. 12, 2004 Israel Kamakawiwo’ole Facing Future (Big Boy) Mindy Smith One Moment More (Vanguard) Julia Fordham That’s Life (Vanguard) Bob Schneider I’m Good Now (Shockorama) Big Mama Thornton With the Muddy Waters Blues Band 1966 (Arhoolie) Luciana Souza Neruda (Sunnyside) Luciana Souza North and South (Sunnyside)…
Best Classical Music Performance
Think of it as a string of sequels: TSO I, TSO II, Bride of TSO, Son of TSO, TSO Meets Abbott and Costello (or at least Bob Bernhardt) … our readers couldn’t agree on the single most outstanding Tucson Symphony concert this year, so the whole season gets plaudits for best classical performance. It was…
Best Tortilla Soup
Tortilla soup, not just the movie, is good for both body and soul, and Romi’s serves up the best bowl in town. Any doubts to the quality or popularity of this tiny southside joint’s golden nectar can be squelched by a quick look around the dining room. Practically every table has at least one order…
Best Day Spa
OK. Put down that can of Hairspray and back away slowly. With six area Gadabout SalonSpa locations, there’s no reason to have a bad hair day. Let the salon professionals turn you into an American Beauty. Pamper yourself with hair, face, skin, hand and foot treatments, along with heavenly massages. There are so many fabulous…
Best Retreat From Urban Anxiety
City life can be stressful and chaotic. So when locals want to try Touching the Void in their lives, they don’t have to go mountain climbing in the literal sense. They can just take the quick drive up Mount Lemmon instead. Even after the fire, the mountaintop is a great place to go to listen…
Best Pilates Instructor
We were thinking of trying this Pilates stuff, but were afraid that it might make us look like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2. (Actually, we prefer looking at Linda Hamilton in Terminator 1, but that’s a different category.) We heard good things about Pilates (although at first we pronounced it Pie-L8s). We asked around and…
Best High School Athletes
In honor of Ocean’s Twelve, which, in the grand tradition of Hollywood, is a sequel to a remake, we give you this quick dozen of local kids who did great things this past year. In no particular order: · Brandon Lopez, Cienega. UA signee led the new school into the state football playoffs, where they…
Best Local Performer Departed for Greener Pastures
Last year, with nary a farewell concert or send-off fête, singer-songwriter, comic, social commentator and occasional Tucson Weekly contributor Fish Karma (aka Terry Owen) quit his elementary-school teaching job and slipped out of town with his new bride to sell textbooks in an exotic, faraway land-Texas. Once upon a time, the inspired author of ’80s…
Best Breakfast
In 1972, when The Godfather won an Oscar for Best Picture, Frank Basile opened a simple diner in midtown Tucson. Thirty-two years later, Frank’s is still making us an offer we can’t refuse. Ownership and staff have changed since its doors opened, but breakfast is as good as ever. Perfectly cooked eggs, fluffy pancakes, fast…
Best Late-Night Eats
“Service in a While” goes Grill’s latest slogan, and you can bet your sweet bippy they mean it! Obsequious pandering to the customer is not part of the Grill experience. Now shut up and like it! If you find that jaded urban swagger somehow upsetting, perhaps Grill is not for you. However, if you turn…
Best Pancake
Eating breakfast at Bobo’s is a long way from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and we like it that way. Bobo’s perfect pancake occupies a titanic plate that threatens the incredible lightness of being. You could be pedestrian and order the naked short stack, or go bananas and order our favorite: the bodacious banana pancake. Heads turn…
Best Retail Music Store
Shopping at Zia is like living in a phat soundtrack. Zia is the best place to buy and trade music, as well as snag the latest in pop, hip hop, trance, metal and reggae. The two Tucson locations (plus four more in Phoenix) stock everything you need, including magazines, accessories and DVDs. There’s the added…
Best Ferns
This winner is not really much of a Secret Garden, just a little hard to find. Located where Allen Road dead-ends into the Rillito (east of the river, west of Dodge Road, off River Road), this nursery has a loyal following of home gardeners. The outdoor plants are hardy and usually priced well below the…
Best New Wine Bar
It’s easy to imagine ingénue Audrey Hepburn incognito behind her sunglasses sipping a classic Italian red Nadaria Nero D’Avola (2001 Sicily) as the terminally handsome Gregory Peck looks over his horn-rimmed glasses bringing a taste of Roman holiday to the Old Pueblo. Rich with Tuscan charm and sexy drop lighting, EnotecA wine bar (and pizzeria)…
Police Dispatch
Poolside Exhibition East River Road and North First Avenue, Sept. 1, 11:06 a.m. Three people complained to deputies about a woman sunbathing in the nude at a community pool, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department report. A 60-year-old man accused Barbara Karmel of unhooking her top and rolling up her thong so that her…
American Dream Theater
Three just-opened productions show people who start jobs with nothing
Best Indoor Venue
This one’s sorta complicated at the moment. In 1995, Jeb Schoonover and Paul Barrington rescued the historic Rialto from dormancy, transforming it from nearly condemned status to one of Tucson’s most valued live music venues, while simultaneously giving thousands of folks a new reason to venture downtown. Hell, if you were a music fan, you…
Best Specialty Pizzas
This midtown Italian joint offers plenty of specialty pizzas, including an outstanding white pizza made with several cheeses, fresh tomatoes, scallions and oodles of garlic. But it is Fiorito’s traditional pizza that stands out. (Deep dish is also available.) The thin crust is the perfect balance of chewy and crispy. There’s just the right amount…
Best Public Servant
Throughout his various careers, Raúl Grijalva has always been the squeaky wheel. Now, as the U.S. representative for the relatively new Congressional District 7, Grijalva continues his noisy ways. Always the champion of the underdog, he has co-sponsored the Healthy Families Act of 2004, proposed serious immigration reform, served on the House education and workforce…
Best Movie Ever Filmed in Tucson
Purists will undoubtedly argue, saying it should be a Western instead, but we want to honor this fine flick on its 20th anniversary. It has everything we look for in a comedy: sophomoric humor, a little skin and a message that the geeks can win the girls, and the games, in the end. What this…
Q&A with Robert Loomis
Robert Loomis is a Tucson film director. His movies include Dog Years and Angry Young Man, which won Best Feature at the 2003 Arizona International Film Festival. What’s the best movie of all time? Amadeus, because it combines narrative and playing with the medium. What movie makes you think most of Tucson? Alice Doesn’t Live…
Q&A with Tamara Y. De Stefanis
Tamara Y. De Stefanis moved to Tucson three years ago to pursue her doctorate at the UA. She works for the Arizona Student Unions as director of Park Student Union, overseeing programs, activities and facilities. She also supervises the billiards and games rooms and Gallagher Theater. In her free time, DeStefanis collects 78s and is…
Best New Dance Theater
A star is born. The UA premiered the $9 million Eller last fall, opening a jewelry-box 300-seat theater colored in the copper and greens of its home state. Architects Donna Barry and José Pombo of Gould Evans, in Phoenix, used the idea of movement throughout. A wavy, rust-colored stage scrim undulates along the theater walls…
Best Chinese
P. F. Chang’s is a foothills favorite among those who want to see and be seen. The large, open dining area allows you to view everything, from boisterous fellow diners to the flaming woks in the kitchen. Despite the nouvelle décor, replete with faux statues and gigantic lily-pad lighting, the menu is a mix of…
Best Tucson Mexican
Café Poca Cosa is to taste what Disney’s Fantasia is to sight and sound. Unique, entertaining and highly innovative, Poca Cosa has set the standard for nouvelle Mexican, much as Fantasia did for animation. The menu changes daily with beef, chicken, seafood and vegetarian choices dressed in bright, flavorful sauces. Main dishes are supplemented by…
Best South Beach Diet-Friendly Italian Restaurant
Eat, drink, man, woman and anyone suffering through the low glycemic index regimen who never thought they would get to eat pizza and pasta with passion. Leave it to those two Goodfellas, owners Tom Firth and Robert Fink, and their stone-fired oven. Women on the verge of dumping their diets should first consider the possibilities…
Best Video Store
In the beginning, it was the size of a neighborhood candy store. Back in 1983, founders Raymond and Gala Mellenberndt built their inventory, stocking foreign, classics, documentaries, independent, cult, experimental and plain old hard-to-find flicks. When Blockbuster and Hollywood Video invaded, Casa didn’t cave. Instead, they closed their tiny Grant and Campbell store and expanded…
Best Place to Take The Out-of-Towners to Shop
Located in a row of adobe buildings in the heart of historic downtown, Old Town Artisans is definitely the place to take friends and family to find unique souvenirs. With its veritable treasure trove of imported and handcrafted items, Old Town Artisans will wow them. Plenty of the goodies are imported from Mexico and beyond,…
Best Bar in Which to Feel Grown-Up But Not Old
Perhaps it’s the downtown location and the friendly, hip staff. Or maybe it’s the young-skewing clientele. Somehow, Barrio Grill maintains a balance between urbane sophistication and casual élan that accommodates both flip-flops and three-button suits. Couple that with perhaps the broadest array of top-shelf and exotic spirits in downtown, as well as reliable domestic staples…
Best of Tucson™ 2004
The celebrities are all here. The red carpet’s been rolled out. After months of previews and “coming attractions” blurbs, the premiere is finally here. Welcome to Best of Tucson™ 18. This star-studded 80-page production has been many months in the making. Tucson’s true stars—you, the many hundreds of Weekly readers, who took the time in…
Pick
Bloodthirsty, Bisexual Girl Pirates in Love
Memories and Cogs
Two current MOCA exhibits both use multiple methods to explore their respective topics
Best Outdoor Venue
Casino shows were once synonymous with crappy would-be Vegas acts whose only charm was their ironic cachet. But that was before the proliferation of casinos outside of Vegas. (Does Atlantic City still count?) It took a few years for the rez casinos to realize the added value of building venues legit enough to lure decent…
Best Butcher
The aromas that hit you as you open the door to this tiny butcher shop will start your mouth watering. Specializing in sausages-you’ll find Italian, German, Mexican, Polish and more-this is a family-run business reminiscent of the old-time butcher shops long gone. It’s the kind of place the Goodfellas might buy some sausage. The guys…
Best Mischief Maker
If there’s somethin’ fishy in the ‘hood Who ya gonna call John Kromko! If there’s anything goofy and it don’t look good Who you gonna call John Kromko! He ain’t afraid of no pols He ain’t afraid of no polls If you’re seein’ taxes risin’ to the sky Who you gonna call John Kromko! An’…
Best Traffic Calming Devices
Fifteen years ago, they were controversial, but now circles, chicanes and islands dot many local roadways. Intended to slow traffic, they do it well, even if Steve McQueen driving a Mustang in Bullitt set a bad example on the streets of San Francisco. Our local favorite is Fourth Avenue cutting through South Tucson. Winding down…
Q&A with Thomas Evans
Thomas Evans, an Ohio native, flew his little plane through Arizona in 1965. He fell in love with Tucson and ultimately retired here in 1967. Now 86, Evans has no regrets about moving to a place famous for the “cowboys and Indians” he role-played in his youth. What’s the best movie of all time? Gone…
Q&A with Sarah Keel
Sarah Keel was born in India and raised in Mesa. An elementary education senior at the UA, Keel is also a member of the UATV staff. A Southern California fan, she laughingly describes herself: “I’m a single, Indian female with brown eyes and black hair who enjoys long walks on the beach and is looking…
Best Political Dance
Lewis, who won BOT honors last year for his comic Nixon impersonation in a dance, this year stunned audiences with a vivid anti-war piece. The brilliant Clash song “Straight to Hell” helped shape this searing look at war and its losses. Set in the Vietnam War, the nine-dancer work has obvious connections to the Iraq…
Best Diner
Can you visualize bad boy Mickey Rourke and his horny buddies holding court at 3 a.m. at the Grill? He looks like the kind of guy who makes meat a priority and so does the Grill. They make no apologies for serving meat (Boar’s Head premium) and even brag that the grill is part of…
South Tucson Mexican
All good things come to he who waits. Remember that if you are a first-time visitor to Mi Nidito Café (My Little Nest), voted by readers as the best Mexican restaurant in the 1 square mile we call South Tucson. Former President Bill Clinton loved it well enough to order nearly one of everything on…
Best Room With a View
The view alone is enough to sweep that certain someone off his or her proverbial feet. As the city lights sparkle, enjoy a bottle of wine as you romance your honey. The wine list is extensive and offers more than just one or two types of bubbly. The food is great here, too, with everything…
Best Men’s Fashions (locally owned)
This is a true story: Mr. R__l, a distinguished local columnist and reviewer of classical music and theater, recently needed a new pair of black dress shoes. (In his profession, good dress shoes are, of course, a necessity.) Having reached that stage of life at which quality begins to matter–a lot–he consulted a friend about…
Best Comic Book Store
Have you caught the adventures of Spider-Man, Daredevil and the X-Men at your local cineplex? Take a new look at the comic books where they got their start to discover some great talent at work these days, including Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on Astonishing X-Men. There’s no better place to pick…
Best Bar Food
Curiously omitted from the other restaurant categories up for vote in the readers’ picks is bar food, often a decisive factor in whether to go to one bar instead of another. There are several with quality offerings, but this Fourth Avenue destination is a standout. Zesty wings (which are surprisingly easy to f-up if an…
Danehy
Green Fields headmaster Rick Belding has been on the run every day for more than 14 years
City Week
Big doings in Tucson this week.
Less Is Moore
Tucson lawyer David Hardy tries to lambaste Michael Moore–and fails
Best Movie Theater
New lobby furniture, new 35mm projector, new sound system: The Loft’s spiffier, but it’s still, sometimes, il buono, il brutto, il cattivo. Like the 1966 spaghetti Western that also got a remake recently, the Loft sports some good, some bad and some ugly. We don’t care. We love the Loft’s dedication to independent cinema, foreign…
Best Non-Naked Lunch Special
This particular movie theme goes no further, as it would do a serious disservice to anyone who actually wants to eat. A “special” is serious business-its Webster’s definition includes phrases such as “distinguished from what is ordinary” and “of particular value.” The definition also implies rarity, so when you’re lucky enough to find a true…
Best Local TV Newscast
They lack the angst of Network and the twitchy humor of Broadcast News, but that’s OK. The KVOA news team is made up of real people, not characters in a film. Led by anchors Martha Vasquez, Patty Weiss, Tom McNamara and Frank Field, the station has built a reputation for reliable, substantial coverage. The Tucson…
Best Local Sports Value
This is the greatest: Pro basketball players, UA stars, prep standouts-all on the same court, hoopin’ it up, and it’s all gloriously, deliciously, amazingly FREE! If you’re No. 8,000 on the waiting list for UA season tickets, just head down to the JCC on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in June and July. You can see…
Q&A with Joan Lee
Joan Lee is KWBA’s “The Local Buzz” and weather reporter. Lee’s been in Tucson 11 years and at KWBA for almost five. Previously, she was a morning radio DJ with Alan Michaels at the old Cool 92.9. A big Minnesota Twins fan, she says her mood often has to do with their standings. What’s the…
Best Urban Landscaping
You probably ignore the landscaping as you walk from your parking place to a concert or game or class. Instead, get there a little early. Walk around, and enjoy the work of the gardeners. Everywhere, there are pockets of beauty. The funky boojums stand guard in front of the administration building. To the east of…
Best Painting Exhibitions
Nancy Tokar Miller, one of Tucson’s most accomplished painters, makes oils on canvas so loose and so thinly painted they’re almost transparent. She often conjures up far-flung places from Southeast Asia to Spain in her works, but this year, she turned her attention closer to home. Her lovely new paintings luxuriated in the play of…
Best Greek
Anthony Quinn’s ghost could easily stroll into Athens and start doing his jubilant, exuberant thing with the oh-so-British Alan Bates tagging right behind him. It matters not that a Mexican guy played that crazy Zorba. Like him, we can all be deeply passionate fans of Greek culture and particularly Athens’ garlicky eggplant spread smothered on…
Best Mexican Fast Food/Drive-Thru
Often imitated but never matched: Since the early 1990s, this long-running series of audience favorites has churned out sequels around town to offer cheap and quick tortas, tacos, burritos, combination plates and a thrilling roster of breakfast burritos-big and hearty, they prepare Sonoran Desert denizens for a grueling day under the sun. Almost everything on…
Best Southside Outdoor Dining
Each of these little establishments offers outdoor seating with a view of the unique street traffic. Birrieria Godoy is a small, white van that offers a bowl of Mexican birria. This is very tender beef in a broth. A small bowl contains the chopped cabbage and onions that you spoon into your soup with a…
Best Resale Clothing
Zero Stars (out of four)–Where the Buffalo Roam, with Bill Murray as Hunter S. Thompson. The unfunniest comedy EVER! One Star–Buffalo ’66. Starred Mickey Rourke and Christina Ricci and was as bad as that sounds. Two Stars–Buffalo Bill and the Indians, directed by Robert Altman and starring Paul Newman. Should have been much better. Three…
Best Place to Find Cheap CDs
When you want to Pump Up the Volume, CD City is home to the largest collection of bargain-priced CDs anywhere. The store has aisles and aisles of neatly arranged pop, hip-hop, jazz, world and country. They shine, however, as music salvagers, literally buying truckloads of music, much of which ends up in their amazing two-for-$5…
Q&A with Sean Murphy
Sean Murphy works at Bookman’s and is an all-around cool joey. What’s the best movie of all time? Sorry, can’t do it. There are too many films I love to name just one. I would suggest that everybody watch the Brainiac (a cheapo ’60s Mexican horror flick) at least once in their life, though. What…
Downing
After three serious hurricanes (and perhaps more on the way), how will Florida voters react?
A Less-Dirty Shame
While it received the dreaded NC-17 rating, John Waters’ latest is minor compared to his previous films
Top Ten in Books
Green Fire Bookshop’s best sellers for the week ending Sept. 19, 2004 Organ Pipe, Life on the Edge Carol Ann Bassett, Michael Hyatt (photographer), University of Arizona Press (new $13.95) The Monkey Wrench Gang Edward Abbey, Douglas Brinkley, Perennial (used $3) Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the UnitedStates on the Indians…
Best Book by a Local Author
Despite being published in 2002, Small Wonder won again, for the third year in a row (even though the ballot specifically said votes had to be for this ballot year; you rebel readers you!). It’s not that there aren’t any books by local authors that have been published since July of last year; perhaps it’s…
Best Christmas Baked Goods
There is magic in buying traditional cookies, cakes and pastries for holidays. Nobody produces more of this Christmas magic than La Baguette Bakery. What could be a better than finishing your Christmas dinner party with a traditional yule log filled with raspberry cream and frosted with a chocolate ganache? If you order in advance, you…
Best Radio Station for News
Button punchers have fewer and fewer options when it comes to local news, so stations that make an effort to do more than just carry network newscasts are favorably received. If you are public radio in Tucson and can offer the entire National Public Radio network news team-along with a local information crew-you win again…
Best Local Sports Ambassador
Conjure up any movie title you want: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Pretty Woman, The Player and on and on. This young woman has done more for Tucson, softball, blondes, tall people and the University of Arizona than anybody else, ever. Now with a gold medal from the Athens Olympics, she’s so spectacular that we even forgive…
Best-Run Youth Sports
Since the soccer players in Bend It Like Beckham were too grown up, especially (ahem) off the field, the only youth-soccer movie out there is Ladybugs, with Rodney Dangerfield as a harried wannabe corporate exec whose promotion and upcoming nuptials depend on his coaching a hapless girls’ soccer team to victory. He is aided in…
Best Public Garden
“And the winner is …” They’re all winners in this category, as any bit of greenery with flora and fauna in the middle of urbanity is highly prized. Top honors this year go to Tucson Botanical Gardens, a five-acre sanctuary. More than 1,200 different types of plants compete for space along paths that wind through…
Best New Gallery Idea
It’s the miracle on Congress Street: Landlords are opening up unrented space to artists and allowing them to set up temporary galleries. The Arts District Partnership pioneered the idea 15 years ago, persuading landlords to let Phantom Galleries alight in empty storefronts. The scheme helped landlords by making their buildings look better, and helped artists…
Best Indian
The food at Gandhi’s is so good, we wouldn’t be surprised if customers suddenly burst into song, as characters are so wont to do in Bollywood musicals. The cozy dining room, however, precludes any large-scale dance production numbers. There are no bad guys here, either, with an extensive menu that highlights Northern Indian Moghal recipes…
Best Salsa
Even if you’re a wimp about spicy foods (yo, what are you doing living in Tucson!?), you’ve got to appreciate the salsa here. The signage at the help-yourself bar warns about fire levels–there’s much to keep your face wet with tears. But it’s not just heat. There’s plenty of flavor–from the cilantro in the pico…
Best Place to Pretend You’re at Rocky Point
The aroma of grilled meats and chiles, the sounds of ranchero music, the brightly Mexican flag-colored signs and the down-home casual attitude on El Guero Canelo’s patio all add up to a great outdoor eating experience. You’d swear you were just blocks from la playa in Rocky Point. The claim to fame here are the…
Best Women’s Fashions (locally owned)
Why hello, Mrs. Gutierrez-Smith. For a second, I didn’t recognize you, because the sun glinted off all your turquoise and blinded me. I see you’ve been to Maya Palace, home of fashions and jewelry that cater to women of a certain age. What’s that? I know, I was just about to mention Maya Palace’s youngish…
Best Place to Find Ethnic Furnishings
Hollywood set designers know the value of authentic items to establish the look and feel of exotic locales. In Tucson, the Lost Barrio shops open up the world for your eclectic decorating ideas. Thinking of a Middle East motif? Try People’s Imports for art and an extensive collection of tapestries. Going for a South Seas…
Q&A with Petey Mesquitey
Petey Mesquitey’s five-minute community radio show, Growing Native, has celebrated the beauty of the Sonoran Desert for 12 years. Mesquitey spent 37 years living in Tucson before moving out to the Chiricahua Mountains. Still an honorary Tucsonan, he works at Desert Survivors Nursery and can be heard several times a week on KXCI FM 91.3.…
Guest Commentary
Confessions of a speeder: Some of us are just built to speed better
Tennis Tryst
If you don’t take ‘Wimbledon’ too seriously, you’ll enjoy it, thanks to Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany
Poultry Proliferation
Does Tucson really need another place that serves uninspired chicken?
Best Combination of Guts and Panache
Kevin Johnson’s musical-theater company has been averaging only one stage show per season, but that’s OK; we had to wait years between movies from the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles, and the wait was usually worth it. Like a Kubrick or Welles film, an Arizona Onstage Production can be counted on for excellent…
Best Chocolate-Chip Pancakes
Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Not while Millie’s is in business! This comfy eatery combines an upscale setting with diner pricing to create a very affordable and tasty breakfast. Our favorite is the chocolate-chip pancakes, which come with just enough chocolate chips to sweeten, but not overpower, that fine pancake magic. We also recommend the potato pancakes,…
Best Pop Music Station
Craving Light, Energetic American Radio? Can’t Hear Any New N*Sync-ish Entertainment Locally? Sure you can. Listen no further than KRQQ, 93.7, picked by you, the readers of the Tucson Weekly, as best pop music station. 93Q’s got the pop bases covered. By the numbers: No. 4 in the overall ratings … the No. 3 morning…
Best Local Fauna
As artist Michele Noách–a frequent visitor to Tucson from her home in London–knows, the javelina is easily the most pleasing creature on four legs in this Sonoran desert of ours, despite its awful stench. Noách, whose Hotel Congress gallery show this past spring exhibited her love for absurdist anthropomorphism of all kinds, is such a…
Best Toy Store
Don’t you just love that part where Buzz Lightyear says “To infinity and beyond?” And then when Randy Newman sings that song about friends … it’s just wonderful. No wait, this is Best Toy Store. What else could it be but Toys “R” Us? Sure, you might be able to save a buck or two…
Best Bike Riding
Life is beautiful on the Rillito River trail, which wins an Oscar for its miles of desert scenes. Indeed, the lounging reptiles and quarreling packrats are five-star material, while the calls and chirps of desert wildlife are a soundtrack in themselves. Best of all, the trail runs alongside a very mystic river (there’s never any…
Q&A with Charlie Scruggs
Charlie Scruggs is a professor of English at the UA and head of the International Arts Film Series. This fall, the series has a theme–“food,” says Scruggs. “Food and culture, food and human depravity, food and sex.” What’s the best movie of all time? Well, when you say “best” movie, you’re really saying, “What’s your…
Best Italian
Once again, you (collectively) have chosen Gavi as your favorite Italian restaurant. Gavi has four locations (three small trattoria types and one larger Piazza Gavi, which is the only one open for lunch and the only one that offers pizza). What a menu! Spaghettini, fettuccine, mostaccioli with an array of sauces (try the spaghettini with…
Best Vegetarian
Some people go to Govinda’s, the Hare Krishna compound, twice a year: on Thanksgiving, to sit elbow-to-elbow with other anti-conquistador and bird-loving types from the foothills and midtown; and on their birthday–you get a free meal. But others go more frequently just to slam gooey TVP and goulash mush onto a plastic plate and forget…
Best Place to Pretend You’re Scorcese
One of the best “diner” movies–Martin Scorcese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore–was filmed right here in Tucson. Mel’s Diner was home to greasy food, sassy waitresses and unusual regulars. Not so at Robert’s restaurant. At Robert’s–not where Alice was filmed, but similar–you’ll find great food served up by cheerful waitresses always ready to fill your…
Best Antiques/Kitsch/Collectibles
With two locations in Tucson, Annabell’s Attic is like stumbling across the best estate sale ever, without having to wake up early. Chances are that hard-to-find chaise lounge like Marlene Dietrich’s might even be sitting along the street in front of the store-just waiting for you to take it home. Venture through the aisles and…
Best-Tasting Local Brew
Imagine what a wonderful world Planet of the Apes would have been if only Charlton Heston and Dr. Zaius had shared a couple of pints at the Nimbus Brewing Company. Housed in a landscape of industrial warehouses where trains still make their passage known, Nimbus slakes the parched and fevered minds of Tucsonans with impeccable…
Best Martini
James Bond drinks them shaken, not stirred. Nick Charles (William Powell, as the Thin Man) always had one at the ready. It’s the only option for a throw-a-drink-in-someone’s-face-as-a-prelude-to-romance scene. The martini is the ultimate cinema drink: sophistication in a glass. And while the two aforementioned gentlemen might scoff at some of the options–Chocolate Diva, Lemon…
Winners
A note from the editor.
Top Ten in Movies
Casa Video’s top rentals for the week ending Sept. 19, 2004 Man on Fire 20th Century Fox The Ladykillers Touchstone Taking Lives Warner Brothers Angels in America HBO The Passion of the Christ Newmarket The Punisher Lions Gate Twisted Paramount Kill Bill Vol. 2 Miramax The Butterfly Effect New Line The Girl Next Door 20th…
Noshing Around
When Harvey Met Tom A meeting of musical minds–bass player Harvey Brooks and guitarist Tom Kusin–who also happen to own the 17th Street Farmers Market led to the joint venture www.treasureshidden.com . Brooks’ wife, Bonnie, added her online media skills to bring together the market’s vast variety of ethnic food products with treasured flea market…
Best Fresh-Baked Bread
If you’re familiar with Loaf, a short 1991 film that combines bread with John Hurt’s most memorable scene in Alien, then you’ll remember the tagline: “In the bakery, no one can hear you scream.” Well, there’s no reason to scream for anything other than joy when you enter Beyond Bread’s sleek interior. Not only will…
Best Tourist Attraction
Imagine a brightly lit marquee. A line of excited faces snakes its way through the doors of the theater. The scent of fresh-popped popcorn draws you in. Overhead, bold black letters sing out Sonoran Desert: The Movie. Imagine the movie has played to a full house for more than half a century. This “movie” is…
Best Rock Music Station
For the second year in a row, the biggest blockbuster of all Tucson’s rock music stations is KFMA. Whether you are punk, skater or headbanger, KFMA aims to please. Kicking off with The Frank Show, KFMA’s answer to Howard Stern, listeners are tuned into hours of hilarious on-air antics. Weeknights at 9 p.m., an hour…
Best Tucson Demeanor
Although it’s difficult for a casual observer to distinguish the difference, one is induced by inhaling the aromatic smoke that arises from burning the various parts of Cannibis sativa or indica; the other makes its onset rudely felt as an unwelcome stupor after too many hours in the punishing sun. Either way, the reputation of…
Best Clothing Store
The first Buffalo Exchange opened in 1974, right here in the Old Pueblo. Thirty years and 11 states later, the company has expanded to offer plus-size and kids’ clothing. It’s a good thing, because looking for decent kids’ clothes can be like the hunt for treasure in The Goonies–long and difficult. But instead of an…
Best Recreation Area in Southern Arizona
If you were going to make a movie about Tucson, the opening scene would have to be Sabino Canyon. Recreation comes in all shapes, sizes and colors across Southern Arizona, but Sabino is the place we all keep coming back to. If you’re a native, you probably went there as a small child to play…
Q&A with Steve Barancik
Steve Barancik is the screenwriter of The Last Seduction and a resident of the Monolog Cabin comedy troupe, which has been performing every Saturday in September at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Details available at hotcong.com, monologcabin@aol.com or by calling the Congress at 622-8848. What’s the best movie of…
Best Middle Eastern
A Middle Eastern menu can range from the fried lamb kebabs of Iran to the delicate flavors of the hummus from Lebanon. At Ali Baba, all of these exotic tastes are on display at very affordable prices. As an introduction to the region’s cuisine, ask your friendly server to bring you the sampler plate. Providing…
Best Veggie Burger
“Dude, where’s that veggie restaurant?” “What veggie restaurant?” “You know, man, the place with all the Grateful Dead stuff on the wall and the music.” “I don’t know, man; I’m just hungry.” “Yeah, me too; that’s why I wanna know where that veggie place is.” “I don’t know, man; it’s around here somewhere. Uh oh,…
Best When-Your-Kitchen-Turns-Panic Room Solution
“It was supposed to be the safest room in the house … ” or at least it was supposed to have something to eat in it. You’ve suddenly realized it’s 9:30 p.m., and worse–you’re starving. In your kitchen: a sack of whole-wheat flour, an overripe banana and a carton of rice noodles. Your knees get…
Best Art/Artisan Jewelry
You may not find the Maltese Falcon here, but you can scarf up all kinds of treasures, from handmade jewelry to ceramics to glass art. Elouise Rusk has presided over this St. Philip’s Plaza shop for years, stocking its cases with one-of-a-kind craft pieces by a whole tribe of artisans and craftspeople. Mother-daughter collaborators Betty…
Best Sports Bar
The advertisement we all know so well says it best: “Fun, food and spirits, Famous Sam’s.” No matter where you live in Tucson, there is bound to be a Famous Sam’s within a 10-minute drive. From burgers to wings to the occasional steak, Sam’s food blows away that of any Hooters. Aside from a kick-ass…
Best Beer Selection on Tap
There may not be any princes, but there are plenty of students who can drink, drink, drink at this restaurant north of the university. The menu lists 27 draught beers. Three are domestics. Fourteen are a nationwide selection of craft brews, including New Belgium Fat Tire Ale from Colorado, Tucson’s own Nimbus Oatmeal Stout and…
Mailbag
Howls of outrage and squeals of delight from our astonished fans.
Now Showing at Home
“THX 1138: The George Lucas Director’s Cut,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” and “Rounders”
Best Fine Art Gallery
Like Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford and other actors of a certain age, Etherton just keeps getting better as it gets older. Now entering its 24th season, Tucson’s favorite contemporary art gallery also has a national rep for photography. Proprietor Terry Etherton skillfully balances painting and sculpture exhibitions with shows of vintage and cutting-edge photography. In…
Best Burger
You have to admit: Fuddrucker’s makes one fine burger, with hamburger ground fresh daily. Actually, they make a whole lot of fine burgers. You can choose from four different sizes; the one-third pound makes a lot of sense these days. Take it over to the salad bar and top it with salsa, tomatoes, pickles, peppers,…
Best Annual Festival
After 34 years, the Fourth Avenue Street Fair is arguably the largest barbecue-scented gathering of hippies, yuppies and college kids in the Southwest. Of course, tons of other people also come to this twice-yearly festival, and it’s easy to see why. Where else can you down beer after beer while perusing fine jewelry, and then…
Best Radio Personality
For radio enthusiasts of a certain age, the sounds emanating from the transistor used to actually be wildly enjoyable and mind-expanding, miles away from the programmed pablum that multinational conglomerates spoonfeed the masses today. DJs used to have a say in what got played on the publicly owned (yeah, right) airwaves, which made sense, considering…
Best Side Effect of the Dearth of Street Lights
One of the more remarkable surprises when one first arrives in Tucson is how clearly visible the night sky is. There are several factors in this: more clear days than most metro areas, the perception-altering vastness of Western landscapes, and the street light regulations, designed to minimize light pollution in deference to the important work…
Best Catered-to-Kids Restaurant
Miz Scarlett, we don’t know nuttin’ about birthing’ babies, and we know even less about how to keep the Young Frankensteins entertained, which is why Chuck E. Cheese is your No. 1 choice for kid-friendly dining. Here reigns a raucous combo where Disneyland rules daily and kids can challenge dad to rockin’ bowling. Turn the…
Best Hike
Lovers of sappy romantic movies won’t find a better hike anywhere than one illuminated by a big, old, yellow Sonoran Desert full moon as you hoof it up Sabino Canyon’s paved road some evening. Grab a fanny pack, a water bottle, a flashlight, your date, and get out there. Weird plants and strange rock formations…
Best Local Grocer
Wake up, Tucsonans: The operative word here is local. Get out of the Twilight Zone. Trader Joe’s is a unique grocery store chain started by Joe Coloumbe in South Pasadena, Calif. Coloumbe, a merchandising wizard, parlayed his idea further by selling the company to two German billionaires. We know one writer who moved to Tucson…
Best Seafood
The kingfisher is a fast, decisive, independent bird, much admired in the South for its rakishness, brilliant color and, of course, its genius for catching fish in cinematic dives. It’s a bad bird and the perfect totem for Kingfisher, the superb, jazzy seafood joint on East Grant Road. The fish and shellfish are flown in…
Best Vegan
Vegetarian restaurant dies and reincarnates as a flesh-burning barbecue. The irony is lost on some, but Lars Von Trier would have appreciated it, given his greatly misunderstood Dogville: Yes, he made Nicole Kidman lug around that metal noose, then had her condone the killing of her town’s residents. Like the burg of Dogville, perhaps Oasis…
Best Latte
Trouble Every Day–that’s life without good coffee. Many of us coffee lovers live in fear of all these local coffee shop people who pull shots into stainless steel receptacles, keep their retail coffee in the fridge, coax four ounces of water through every single dose of espresso and think foamed milk should look like ocean…
Best Commercial Jewelry
Aside from the basic truisms of death and taxes, gentlemen still prefer blondes; and diamonds are a girl’s best friend. Family-owned Marshall’s Jewelers continues to wow the community with integrity and exemplary customer service, as it has since 1971. The well-manicured, professional staff will patiently answer your questions about gemstones and how to care for…
Best Gay/Lesbian Bar
“Wow, it takes a real man to let another man do a shot off his chest,” declared a drag queen after licking salt from a straight guy’s exposed torso, much to the delight of his girlfriend. We have it on good authority that the “body shot,” as it’s called, was typical of an evening at…
Best Place to Gorge on Fried Things While Drinking
Not only do they have just about every beer imaginable on tap; they have food, too, which, if you’re a serious drinker, you know is important. Beer and fried food pairings can enhance the flavor of both the beer and the fried food; for example, the Tutti-Fruiti fries (steeped in sour cream and spices) accent…
Fox Trot
The effort to rescue and restore a downtown movie palace continues
Bulletproof Monks
Antibalas spreads the Gospel according to Afrobeat
Best Art Museum
Right now, there’s a double feature at the TMA. William Keith’s lovely, old-fashioned paintings of the West fill the main spaces, while Kate Breakey’s challenging painted photos of dead birds and lizards occupy the Directions Gallery. That’s the beauty of this museum. TMA manages to satisfy lovers of cowboy art AND connoisseurs of contemporary art…
Best Barbecue
Dave’s pit barbecue, may, indeed, be the stuff of legend; the menu describes the more than 150 awards the place has received, and some of the trophies are on display in the entryway. The meat is smoked over a hickory fire for up to nine hours. Beef brisket, pork and double-smoked ham are served as…
Best Spectacle for Charity
It’s The Big Kahuna. The cops block traffic; there’s no place to park; and the path around Reid Park becomes a cheery, sweating, mostly female trail of pink that eventually carpets the whole west side of the park. The stats last time around, on April 18: nine months of organization, more than 700 volunteers, 10,094…
Best Radio Talk Show (Host)
We remember Amy when she was filing reports for Pacifica News back in their scratchy, phone-feed days. Now, she interviews the big wigs with unflappable grace. Bill Clinton, in one of his last interviews as president, called her questions belligerent (a true radio driveway moment). When Pacifica, in an uncharacteristic corporate flash, kicked out Democracy…
Best Double Feature
Here’s our favorite one-two shopping combo: Stop by Santa Barbara Ice Creamery, 2502 N. Campbell Ave. (323-1231), for a scrumptious ice cream cone (check out the new low-sugar offerings if you’re counting carbs) and then wander next door to the Book Stop, 2504 N. Campbell Ave. (326-6661), where we can always find something new to…
Best Playground
You won’t find just one playground at Reid Park. Your kids have the pleasure of running and skipping through four playgrounds at this green leisure land. One of our favorite features is the duck pond, where, if you look long enough, you might see Nemo floating by on his way back from school or Howard…
Best Backpacking Trail
There are movies about river rafting, mountain climbing and surfing; how come there aren’t any about backpacking? Does The Blair Witch Project count? Sabino Canyon would make a terrific setting for your own video thriller. Maybe a remake of the classic Lonely Are the Brave? One moment, you’re sitting at a downtown café; half an…
Best Caterer
If Feast were a film, it’d be Babette’s Feast, or Big Night, or, hey, here we go, Tampopo–a movie about great food and the people who live for it. Doug Levy-who’s neck-and-neck with Daniel Scordato for the title of Sweetest Food Genius in Tucson-opened his utterly lovable take-out/catering joint on a dowdy midtown block in…
Best Steakhouse
El Corral is a repeat winner in this category, sort of the Tom Hanks of steakhouses. And as in the case of Mr. Hanks, there’s good reason for the repeat awards. Year in and year out, El Corral serves up great food at reasonable prices, all wrapped up in a cozy, bunkhouse atmosphere. The steaks…
Best Baristas
These folks are flat out the best. They are fast and efficient with your order. They answer your questions accurately and honestly. They sometimes seem to know what is best for you. We walked in on the hottest day of the summer and ordered mocha java. “Would you prefer an iced mocha java?” Now that…
Best Waitress at a Casual Dining Venue
Everybody probably has a favorite in this category–somebody who hustles, smiles, remembers the regulars, and gets the orders right! We’ve always liked Willow. She’s a little like the title character in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and a little bit like the Bridget Fonda character in It Could Happen To You (which wasn’t filmed here).…
Best Home Furnishings
Runners up: 2. American Home, 4690 N. Oracle Road, 690-8411 3. Sam Levitz, Various locations
Best Upscale Bar Ambiance
Take a long curvaceous bar, sleek mahogany paneling, subtle lighting, live jazz, leggy servers clad in black, bartenders at the ready with cocktail shakers in hand and a crowd of young professionals. Put them all together in a foothills setting, and you’ve got Sullivan’s Steakhouse-a repeat winner in this category. Sullivan’s is the place to…
Best Bar Name
Just the images conjured up by the name “Surly Wench Pub” are good enough: rogue women, out to rule the world through their enormously engorged attitudes, able to throw a lousy drunken man out onto Fourth Avenue with the flick of a pinky. One imagines beer steins the size of turkeys, foamy and overflowing onto…
Justice Writing
A Tucson judge may have violated state code by using his position to encourage an insurance settlement for his mother
Deliciously Explosive
Japanese instrumental band Mono speaks to their American audience through their music
Best Mural
Call him the Frank Capra of public art. Equally well-known nowadays for his advocacy of light rail, Steve Farley won the enduring affection of Tucson with his Broadway mural, his first-ever public art commission. Fastened onto a wall in a downtown underpass, this populist mural in black-and-white tile celebrates the little guy. Farley began the…
Best Sandwich
Think big: Get ready to wrap your jaws around a Beyond Bread sandwich. Could it be that the management is awed by alliteration? Sandwich monikers are dubbed Ollie’s Original, Henry’s Ham, Zoe’s Zinger, Annie’s Addiction, Betty’s Brie and Rex’s Revenge, among a cast of others. Sometimes, the Plain Jane is what our appetite craves. Thoughtfully,…
Best Park
Gene Reid Park isn’t the most complete regional city park, but it’s the one Tucsonans like the best. Kennedy Park on the westside has more ramadas, barbecue pits and picnic sites, and Fort Lowell Park takes top honors for the number of lighted tennis courts, but Reid still wins the blue ribbon in reader voting.…
Best Local Web Site
Things found on a recent search for “birds” at www.tucsonweekly.com: “The blistering, never-changing weather and lack of trees made us leave Tucson; here’s why we came back.” “When walking through the homeowners’ association lands, beware the Suburban Commando.” “Storm Hymnal: Gems From the Vault of Grant Lee Buffalo by Grant Lee Buffalo.” “The Album Leaf…
Best Country Music Station
KIIM’s morning crew had a heavy dose of reality radio recently when host Max Morgan underwent emergency heart surgery. Trouper that he is, he returned quickly through the dual miracle of heart bypass techniques and electronic technology, seamlessly joining the studio broadcast from his home while recuperating. Morgan, Betsy Bruce and Brent “Pork Chop” Miller…
Best Birthday Party Place
More fun than a pirated Shrek 2 DVD, not that we would ever buy one of those or even know where to get one. We’ll wait for Thanksgiving, like everybody else. In the meantime, we’ll head over to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza, soda, games, party hats and a raucous good time. Runners up: 2.…
Best Campground
Play it again, Sam. The same actors keep showing up for the annual awards ceremony, and this year, Rose Canyon has the opportunity to place another trophy on its mountainside mantel. As many as 50,000 visitors stop at Rose Canyon Lake and its adjacent campsites each year despite the entire complex being hammered by wildfires…
Best Specialty Shop
If you feel content with your lot in life, or satisfied with your income level, you obviously haven’t been to AJ’s recently. This specialty supermarket is so lovely, so well-stocked with gorgeous delicacies and culinary temptations, that it could turn a Buddhist monk into a greedy pig. Why just buy regular food when you can…
Best Sushi
Celebrities and experts agree: Few meals are as satisfying and healthful as sushi, miso soup and a big bowl of lightly salted edamame. Sushi Ten’s unassuming looks might not seem like Hollywood material, but the service makes you feel like you’re walking down your own red carpet. The spicy tuna rolls come with bonus spicy…
Best House-Blend Coffee
At Raging Sage, only one house blend coffee is served; the recipe is a secret. It is commonly thought to be a blend of an Indonesian and a Central American coffee bean. Although the provenance of the coffee is not exactly known, the taste can certainly be described: It’s mellow and flavorful rather than heavy…
Q&A with Rick Gutierrez
Rick Gutierrez is a shift leader at Casa Video. A native of Tucson, Gutierrez has worked at Casa since March 2003. Previously, he worked in the telecommunications department at Pima Community College. Gutierrez is writing a book about his life experiences. What’s the best movie of all time? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. All…
Best Plant Nursery
Personally, we’ve never wandered through a nursery we didn’t like, but Mesquite Valley Growers is the biggest and best-stocked place in town. They have everything: Plants for water gardens and a zillion more for xeriscapes, begonias and ironwoods, turf and orchids. Pots. Heirloom seeds. Spigots with handles shaped like frogs. Help is knowledgeable, friendly and…
Best Lowbrow Bar Ambiance
There is a line in Barfly, Mickey Rourke’s (sole) masterpiece from the late 1980s, that goes something like this: “Anybody can be a non-drunk; but it takes something special to be a drunk. It takes endurance.” And if there is one thing that The Buffet has, it’s endurance. Opened in 1934 shortly after Prohibition was…
Q&A with Thom Lewis
Thom Lewis (shown here with Julie Miller performing “Now and Then”) is the artistic director of Funhouse Dance Theater. What’s the best movie of all time? Pulp Fiction and It’s a Wonderful Life–they’re really the same movie about the way different lives cross inadvertently, conflicting and influencing one another in profound ways. What movie makes…
Flight Fight
Frustrated residents feel powerless as Davis-Monthan nearly quadruples its noise corridor and brings in louder planes
Soundbites
MY HERO: STYX In the third grade, I was asked to write an essay about my hero. No further explanation given–just whomever I considered to be my hero. I’m sure that I, like the rest of my classmates, probably contemplated the accomplishments of Abraham Lincoln–who was, after all, buried in our hometown, had practiced law…
Best Public Art
Wait a minute. Didn’t this sneaky snake win in the architecture category, too? Can one public art piece be a contender in more than one division? Can Meryl Streep get more than one Oscar nomination in a single year? She can and she does, and so does the beloved Snake Bridge, deservedly so. Simon Donovan…
Best Pizza
This is no Mystic Pizza. It’s solid, Full Frontal soul food. Magpies’ selection of 20 different gourmet pizzas plus the “create your own” New York style options are Something to Talk About. Throw in calzones and salads, and you’ll understand why Magpies customers have a Mona Lisa Smile. The Hook is the fresh ingredients and…
Best Delicatessen
This is not an old-fashioned New York-style deli. Sally would not have met Harry here-it’s a family place; kids eat free all day on Sundays-but you can get a good assortment of wraps, sandwiches, muffalettas, po’ boys and salads. Two of the favorites are the California Club with guacamole served on a croissant, and the…
Best Auto Repair Shop
We’d like to think of auto mechanics as cruel torturers bent on extracting secrets from malfunctioning cars. If a Volkswagen could talk, it would say a trip to the shop is like a visit to the Nazi dentist in Marathon Man. Gives new meaning to the term “fahrvergnügen,” doesn’t it? The people at Jay Bee’s…
Best Yoga Studio
Tucson is awash in new yoga joints these days–at last count, there were four studios within a block of the Wild Oats on Speedway Boulevard. But ask a yoga teacher where she goes to class, and the answer is still likely to be “Yoga Oasis.” The style is mostly Anusara (some Hatha and Kundalini); the…
Best Fun for the Whole Family
Arcades and miniature golf places make for great movie fodder. There was the make-up (perchance to make out?) scene with Ralph Macchio overachieving with Elisabeth Shue in The Karate Kid, and Adam Sandler assaulting the Killer Clown in Happy Gilmore. And who can forget Lance Guest using his video game skills to save the universe…
Best Tree
At the east end of Reid Park on Alvernon Way, just across from the Doubletree’s parking lot, stands Tucson’s best tree. From a short main trunk, three graceful branches-actually more like secondary trunks-soar into the sky in a graceful arch over the road. An evergreen of undetermined species, the tree appears to have been lovingly…
Best Urban Hike
Heading off into the sunset is a grand old Western movie cliché. You can follow that rugged tradition right here at home-try walking across the city. You’ll need someone to drop you off and pick you up. Start at the crack of dawn sometime during the late fall, in winter or in early spring. (Only…
Best Thai
Thai theater is highly stratified, from Khon, classical masked dances for the royal court, and Lakhon Nai, stylized plays for the nobility, to the ancient Nang shadow puppets and the folk-art of Lakhon. The food at Char Thai is closer to Likae, the popular live theater enjoyed throughout the countryside. Char’s cozy neighborhood location, unpretentious…
Best Café Hangout
Maybe it was Brecht who coined the phrase “Cinema for the Ear.” He would have if he’d stepped into this café-a crossroads of scruffy and exposed butt dimples and Tucson casual. What wafts through the air are more than just the deafening wheeze of the espresso machine and the baristas screaming, “short soy latte!” There’s…
Q&A with Max Cannon
Max Cannon is the twisted genius behind “Red Meat,” which appears in the Tucson Weekly and some 80 other newspapers around the globe. What’s the best movie of all time? Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs. All I have to say is, “It puts the lotion on itself.” What movie makes you think most of…
Best Sporting Goods
If you ever need something sports- or outdoors-related, Big 5 Sporting Goods has it. From hatchet knives to basketballs to weight-training equipment, Big 5 handles all sorts of activities. After moving to a bigger location on Stone Avenue, Big 5 constantly proves that no sports store can match it. If you need running shoes or…
Best Nightclub
Um, shouldn’t there be some sort of award retirement rule in cases like this by now? The Club that is Congress wins this thing every year, dammit. I mean, you try coming up with something new to say every time the Best of Tucson™ issue rolls around. Still, there’s a reason CC wins this category…
Q&A with Shelli Hall
Shelli Hall is director of the Tucson Film Office, a division of the Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. She graduated from the UA with a degree in English literature and worked locally in television (in both “commercial and non-commercial ways”) in the ’80s. She describes her job as “marketing Tucson as a production location for…
Disaster in the Making
As FEMA weathers a storm of Bush administration policy and budget changes, protection from natural hazards may be trumped by ‘homeland security’
Nine Questions
Austin Counts
Best Patron of the Arts
Roll the end credits-look at the listings of donors toward the back of any major Tucson arts organization’s programs, and you’ll invariably find two names: Café Terra Cotta and its co-owner, Don Luria. This credit is easy, not like trying to figure out what a gaffer or best boy may be; Luria is, quite simply,…
Best Tortillas
Maybe it was our calling the building nondescript last year-when St. Mary’s won Best Tortilla honors-that inspired the owners to repaint their building. Today, St. Mary’s is a brightly colored edifice and impossible to miss on St. Mary’s Road. If you overlook this place, maybe you should surrender your driver’s license. The tortillas here are…
Best Desserts
For a late-night sugar fix, there’s no place like Something Sweet. Located next door to Live Theatre Workshop, this unique venue has more glucose than Willy Wonka’s warehouse. The menu is a cornucopia of chocolate, whipped cream and other delights in sinfully tempting cake and pie guises. Open until midnight during the week and 2…
Best Hair Salon
Gadabout could win this category on the sheer (pardon the pun) number of salons alone. There are six Gadabouts in town, including one devoted to the male of the species. You won’t find any Warren Beatty Shampoo Lotharios here, only people who are dedicated to making you look and feel good. The staff is regularly…
Best Local TV Show
Want something more exciting than Raiders of the Lost Ark? More educational than Free Willy? More desert-y than Lawrence of Arabia? Tune into KUAT-TV’s The Desert Speaks, the award-winning program that takes viewers to the world’s arid places with host David Yetman. This season, the crew is traveling through South America, delivering fascinating figures and…
Best Way to Comfort a Child Who’s Seen Cujo
Sometimes, parents-through no fault of their own-end up in a situation in which they and their child are held hostage in a car by a slavering, rabid St. Bernard, an experience that often leaves kids understandably skittish around the family dog. Taking both to your local dog park is an easy remedy, though small children…
Best Place to Root for Flooding
A water heater, mangled shopping carts, bright orange milk crates and old tires sit motionless on the river’s floor-a graveyard full of dust and ghosts and memories. Homeless people camp under the Congress Street bridge. Sentinel Peak stands majestically to the west. High-rises glare in the sun to the north. A couple of horses on…
Best Slightly Illegal Way to Head Off Into the Sunset
Have someone drop you off somewhere along Gates Pass Road. Hike off into the desert with your pack. Work your way along the Tucson Mountains, and find a spot looking out over Avra Valley to the west. Throw down the pack; lay out the sleeping bag; cook some dinner on the tiny gas stove; and…
Best Fast Casual
Pei Wei is a favorite of the university crowd. It’s a fast and tasty choice if you are trying to catch an old movie at the Gallagher, or an even older one at the International Arts Society series. It may be fast, but it doesn’t look it. The interior red-and-black minimalist décor creates a soothing…
Best Local Roaster
It’s easy to tell that coffee roasting is going on at Raging Sage: You can smell it in the air. The aroma brings in a clientele more diverse than in Coffee and Cigarettes. Shelby is the presiding master roaster. A variety of regular beans and a few decaffeinated are available for sale. The recipes for…
Q&A with Uta Campbell
Uta Campbell, a docent at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, is a native of Bavaria (the largest state in Germany) and claims to do “as little as possible.” Her warm personality and infectious laugh have made her well-known to weekend visitors during her eight years with the museum. What’s the best movie of all time? That…
Best Outdoor Recreation Store
Think Eastwood in The Eiger Sanction. Think Belushi in Continental Divide. Whether you fumble around in the woods like most of us or need the latest high-tech climbing gear, Summit Hut has been fulfilling Tucson’s need for high-quality outdoor gear since way back in 1967. There’s an old newspaper photo that shows the two grinning…
Best Cocktail Menu
Simply put: Historians have Tombstone; cocktail swillers have Kon Tiki. Bathed in pastel lights and safely housed behind monolithic, spear-like tiki torches that appear ready to ward off King Kong should he attack, Kon Tiki is a well-aged, slightly frayed time capsule of authentic Polynesian-hipster schmaltz. Saddle up to the bar and let your mind…
Hurry Up and Wait
Despite never-ending planning delays, an advisory committee has some warehouse district artists feeling encouraged
Rhythm & Views
One of the bands breaking new ground on the second stage of this summer’s Ozzfest was Virginia’s Lamb of God. After a decade of jamming and three independent releases, LoG simply pulverizes on their major-label debut, Ashes of the Wake. A major difference that separates Ashes of the Wake from Lamb of God’s previous efforts,…
Best Local Visual Artist
Like the understudy who makes it big in classic show-biz movies, artist Diana Madaras is an overnight sensation. In 1993, inspired by a watercolor painting trip to Greece, Madaras shuttered her marketing company and set herself up as a full-time artist. Before long, her trademark paintings-boldly colored desert watercolors-were everywhere, in the airport, in local…
Best Ice Cream
A surprising number of people actually voted for “Stone Cold Creamery”; so many, in fact, that the Official Best of Tucson™ Vote Counter actually thought there may be a separate ice cream place by that name. There isn’t: It’s just Cold Stone, folks, on behalf of the cold piece of stone, chilled to freezing, on…
Best Custom Cakes
There is a classic scene in Addams Family Values in which a woman jumps out of a cake at a bachelor party, and Gomez suavely inquires: “Was she in there before you baked it?” If Uncle Fester had gone to Maribelle Cakery, the question would never have arisen. Why? Because Maribelle cakes are confection perfection.…
Best Florist
Rosebud. When Citizen Kane uttered his last word, the entire film community and beyond dissected it for decades. But at the brightly colored Roses and More stores around town, vibrantly hued roses capture our hearts, and we feel practically giddy ordering and receiving them, especially when they arrive in the snow-white van painted with a…
Best Gym
Bodybuilder Joe Gold, founder of the Gold’s Gym franchise, died earlier this year without knowing that Tucson’s two workout locations had earned the 2004 Best Gym award. The 82-year-old was an early proponent of bodybuilding in America and mentor to an Austrian athlete who recently became governor of California. Concurrent with this year’s BOT cinematic…
Best Way to Spend a Summer Night With Your Kids
There’s a scene in The Rookie in which Dennis Quaid is warming up in the bullpen during a minor-league game, and he looks in the stands and sees a dad teaching his kid how to put on and use a baseball glove. It makes Quaid want to quit and go home, but then, in a…
Best Local Thespian
It’s been a tremendous season for that tall, slender Dane with the English accent. Sybille Bruun not only was a wry and delicate Heidi Holland in Live Theatre Workshop’s Heidi Chronicles, but she deftly portrayed a narcissistic nouvelle-riche socialite and baby killer in No Exit; breezed through five different cameo roles in Later Life, one…
Q&A with Peggy Johnson
Peggy Johnson is executive director of the Tucson Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit group that took over ownership and operations of the Loft Cinema-which specializes in foreign, independent and alternative films-two years ago. What’s the best movie of all time? I can’t choose one. 8 1/2–Fellini is so great. I think it’s the most interesting and…
Best Upscale Dining
In Tucson, there are two places that attest to your having achieved stardom: Sierra Tucson Rehab and Hacienda del Sol resort. Hacienda del Sol is the easier to get in and out of, and although we’ve heard the food is pretty good at Sierra Tucson (for $1,000 a day, we’d hope so), nothing locally compares…
Best Tea Service
Think Casablanca rather than A Room With a View. For having tea, Tucson Weekly readers gravitated more toward a Middle Eastern/North African vibe than the crumpets-and-finger-sandwiches of Anglo-centric afternoon “high tea.” This Fourth Avenue mainstay offers chai, coffee and various caffeinated and herbal leaf teas for your sipping pleasure. The interior décor comes on like…
Q&A with Erika O’Dowd
Erika O’Dowd is a fourth-generation Tucsonan, a graduate of University High School and Scripps College in Claremont, Calif. After a three-year stint in New York City, she returned to Tucson, where she spent the first three months just thawing in the sun. In 2000, she established the Cinema La Placita outdoor film series. O’Dowd has…
Best Bike Shop
Unlike the fine example of Italian Neorealism that is The Bicycle Thief, the Ordinary Bike Shop knows exactly where its bicycles are at all times. On most days, you’ll find Fuji road bikes; Diamondback mountain, trail and touring bikes; and Electra cruisers sparkling under the Arizona sun in Ordinary’s parking lot, while the retail space…
Best Happy Hour
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, you vote for this national chain! OK, the deals are good-half-price appetizers and drinks every day from 4 to 7 p.m. This being a chain, the menu is slick with mouth-altering photography. Obviously, hardcore bar flies didn’t vote, because Applebee’s is unlike…
