CODY'S BEEF AND BEANS - TUCSON, AZ

yep, this ain't a vegan gluten-free calorie conscious restaurant. but oh, it is GOOD. its located on Fort Lowell between Country Club and Tucson.

We've been eating here since Tucson #1 and the food is always of great quality, the service is exemplary, the prices are reasonable and the atmosphere (dated cowboy) is soothing and never noisy.

Bill had baby back ribs and french fries and coleslaw and a salad. All the portions are big and this cost $14. I had my usual; a codyburger (the meat comes from Dickman's Butcher shop. We used to get all our beef needs met at Dickman's when we lived on the NW side but now it's too far away.) which is absolutely delicious; moist and flavorful inspite of my "real well done" request.

And they have the best Thousand Island dressing; even better than Beyond Bread. I always order a side salad because of the awesome dressing but there is a choice of beans or soup or coleslaw or fries or - i forget what else. And this meal is only $8.

SCORE.

PIONIC PIZZA & PIZZA - TUCSON, AZ

a great addition to the Campbell avenue restaurant row.

You go up to the counter and order your pizza or pasta or salad and you can pick any ingredients you want including the type of sauce on your pizza. this is like the subway of pizza.  This also includes fresh basil options and different cheeses and the type of thin crust; traditional or whole wheat. All the pizzas are 13 inches which is a great size for 2 people to share. The choices of salad dressing is limited to balsamic viniagrette, ranch or poppyseed.

and the price for anything you order no matter how many ingredients is $7.45.

and the food was delicious. The pizza crust was crispily tasteful without being dry like a saltine cracker and the ingredients were fresh - if not particularly plentiful. The salad was great. Though it was served in those over large bowls that have a walrus sized rim that's slanted upwards and the base is tiny so to me, it always seemed like the bowl was ready to tip over.

The salad was also big enough for 2 people to share which is what Bill and I did.

We will be back.

B.K.'S - TUCSON, AZ

First time back at this fabulously delicious Mexican restaurant since the end of our road trip (or is it REALLY the end?). Its on 1st between Grant and Glenn. The service has always been excellent and friendly and their prices are incredibly low. they have a great salsa bar; several different kinds of both chunky and 'liquidy'; cheeses, radishes, cucumbers, limes, coleslaw, cut up olives, onions, cilantro, and then about 8 dishes which i don't know the name of but are wonderful. The heat quotient of these out of the norm salsa's differ from visit to visit so i always taste judiciously and with caution. Oh, they also have a huge warmer of grilled peppers and large white onions (chives)?

We are stick- in- the- mud orderers at this place. Bill always gets a bowl of their charro beans (more like chili) and 2 carne asada tacos. I get a sonoran hot dog and 2 shrimp tacos. But the next time here, i'm going to be "adventurous" and not get the hot dog but instead get the beans.

Dare I be that culinarily risky?

PAPPOULE'S - TUCSON, AZ

A good pick  for dinner after our Sportsman Warehouse stop to get Bill some hiking clothes and then to Walmart Supercenter for some groceries. (going into this Walmart which is where we - well, bill - shopped regularly during Tucson #1 made us even more aware of what a sad store the "new" super center is that was built on Broadway after years of wrangling and legal fights and lawsuits started by the residents of the surrounding area. That store is small and doesn't really have a  good variety of either clothes, appliances, pharmacy items OR food. a real disappointment. like a supercenter wannabe.)

Ok, back to dinner. This restaurant is located in the Foothills Mall but not part of the food court. Excellent food that you order at the counter; friendly staff and reasonable prices.

We shared a starter appetizer plate with warm delicious pita bread (some pita is too doughy and thick and once those triangles get cold, forget about it; its like chewing flour.) and 3 kinds of hummus and grape leaves and a big greek salad with delicious dressing and lots of feta cheese.

The other entree we had was a chicken platter. the tzatziki sauce was incredible; very thick and smooth and overcomingly garlic. This also came with pita bread and a large salad.

Too bad this restaurant is so far away from where we are living now.

INTERSTELLAR

What an unholy cosmic stew of a movie! From the very first trailer we saw with Matthew McConaughey in his serious mumbling profound prophetic  observation mode, we looked at each other and with spousal wordless communication shook our heads NO. but we became victims of the mass media onslaught praising this piece of solar system garbage as the best movie of the CENTURY.

The plot involves finding a place in outer space where all the people on a rapidly deteriorating earth can live. and that's it. The only tension in the movie was when the spaceship landed on one of Saturn's moons and a tidal wave came close to destroying the ship. Other than that, it was a plodding exercise in space related jargon and slow movements. The movie was almost 3 hours long and i felt like it was over 6 hours!!

I took several lengthy bathroom breaks and  each time came back to find the same nonsense on the screen as when i left; a lot of equipment fiddling and instrument panel prodding and intense stares among the astronauts  and shots of the sky and endless chatter about black holes and worm holes and relativity and perception and gravity and time warps.

Nolan, the director, seemed to want to put everything he ever knew in one movie; space exploration,  a thwarted romance, a widowed parent, a coming of age tale, Einstein's theory of relativity, supernatural goings-on, wise old grandparents and the importance of NASA to our continued prosperity.

I gave this movie a 2 and Bill gave it a 6.

FRANCISCO'S AND FRANKIE'S - TUCSON, AZ

We love this restaurant and have been eating here since the beginning of Tucson #2. Its a small hole in the wall place with all that description entails. Everything is slightly dirty and no one knows the word updated, the tablecloths are worn, there is no decoration to speak of except for family photos on the wall and a list of their specials. But my oh my their food is good and very reasonably priced and the service is always excellent.

There's a few counter seats but mostly tables in the L shaped room. The salsa bar is good and there's always a big pot of charro beans.

My usual order is the tacos dorados plate. very good rice and beans with queso fresca on top, lettuce and tomato and avocado and 3 of the best crispy tacos with sour cream, chicken and potatoes. The flavor is incredible.

Bill's usual order is 2 soft tacos Francisco's style (which means the meat is grilled with peppers and spices and onions) with carne asada.

During the day, this restaurant goes by the name of Frankie's and the atmosphere is so very different than the evenings when it transforms to Francisco's. When we go for dinner, there are always other patrons but it is quiet and laid back and everyone moves at a leisurely pace. but during the day (i've been here twice for breakfast and once bill and alicia and i came during one of her visits) it is bustling!!!! it is packed and there is usually a wait.

There is a small outdoor seating area and that is full also. The waitresses are moving at a rapid clip and the noise can be overwhelming but the food is just as good as the evening. Usual breakfast fare with Mexican dishes too. They bake their own raisin cinnamon bread and for a QUARTER extra you can get that toast instead of the usual white or wheat.

A great place. Its located on Pima and Alvernon.

NIGHTCRAWLER

wow what a movie; a resounding 10 from both of us and a 26 for Jake Gyllenhaal's acting.

He is Lou a petty thief with deep sunken unfeeling dead eyes and a ready smile to go along with his super overpoliteness. Coming home from a robbery, he happens upon an accident and meets Bill Paxton who is a stringer providing sensational footage for TV news; i.e., accidents, stabbings, burned houses, car wrecks, dead bodies, screaming women and lots of blood.

So Lou decides he's going to do the same thing so he buys a cheap video camera and a police scanner and starts. The woman who is head of the news department and who enters into this parasitic relationship  when she starts buying what he brings in  is Nina, played by Rene Russo.

Since Lou has no morality or conscience, he goes farther and farther afield to get the best shots. And the movie expertly and with much tension and suspense,  shows Lou's ever more manipulative ways to get better and better footage.

His "relationship" with Nina is very interesting because as she becomes more and more dependent on Lou's video and the TV station - her boss- gets more and more of a viewer's share and her value to the station increases, Lou also uses that for his own ends of bizarre and twisted  ideas of 'teamwork'. because his goal is to own his own widely known and popular video business.

His "relationship" with Ric, his assistant, is also very interesting because Ric keeps wanting a regular job and a normal relationship with an employer and Lou is sociopathically unable to connect with people on that level.

I love movies with a great story, with ever building tension, with superb acting, with complex characters and a jab and comment at society and its voracious appetite for disasters.