Time Market: Good pizza, decent beer specials, random selection of other stuff. All things considered, an awesome place. University at 4th Ave.

After 2 months in St. Louis, I didn’t find nearly as much weird stuff as I find in Tucson. For instance, here’s a bus with a baby bus welded to the top of it. Crazy.

The corner of Broadway & Highland is home to one of the greatest restaurants ever. The subtly named Taco Shop is the #1 place for amazing Mexican fast food at an amazing price. Plus, it’s open 24 hours! Buyer beware: it’s made fresh, so the secret ingredient is hot lava.

Tucson soil is perfect for growing anything, but it’s so hot & dry that everything dies. You have 2 options: fill your lawn with assorted rocks or water the shit out of it. But be forewarned: where the sprinklers stop, the grass stops.

Do it I guess.

If you want some cola at a restaurant in Tucson, you only have a few options. If you’re at a Mexican place, you’ll find Mexican Coke and Mexican Pepsi (which are way better than the US versions, trust me). But if you’re anywhere else, you’re likely to find RC Cola. We’re kickin it old school down here.

While Tucson slowly progresses as a liberal university town, the rest of Arizona is busy making internet trolling illegal, legalizing guns at schools, trying to require women to only take birth control for health reasons, and other schizophrenic episodes of legislative authoritarianism. Many non-crazy Arizonians (mostly residing in Tucson or surrounding municipalities) have had enough and wish to opt out. Thus was born Baja, a proposed new state that would divide AZ between North and South, leaving the northern half to continue whatever cockeyed legal schemes they’ve got up their sleeves without dragging the rest down with them. Admittedly, most proponents of the “Free Baja” movement argue for this separation in a “tongue-in-cheek” manner, but some people are pretty serious about it. Can’t say I necessarily blame them.

No plant goes unnoticed in Tucson’s mission of labeling all of its native flora at points of interest. Even the elusive Stealth Cactus (rarely spotted in the wild) is on display outside of the Air & Space Museum.

South Tucson (affectionately & officially dubbed The Barrio) is home to some amazing architecture, as well as some awesome Mexican-style and -inspired art. Murals like this decorate most of the city streets in that part of town.

The Boneyard Project #3

(Photos by J. Lampe)

The Pima Air & Space Museum is currently hosting an exhibit called The Boneyard Project, in which artists (graffiti, painting, graphic, etc.) decorate everything from torpedoes to entire jets with pieces of their art. Definitely worth the museum admission price.

The Boneyard Project #2

(Photos by J. Lampe)