Photo courtesy Flam-Chen A Flam-Chen performer eats fire during a recent high-energy performance in Tucson.

New to the UA and Tucson? We here at the Wildcat Arts desk have compiled a list of the best the Old Pueblo has to offer. These picks, which are indisputable, represent the opinions of the Arts staff.

Best pyrotechnic group: Flam-Chen

520 9th Ave

Living in Tucson can be a real pain around the Fourth of July, especially this year, since fireworks were banned. But there is something that makes up for the lack of fire and explosions in your life: Flam-Chen.

An elegant and enchanting group of performers eating and spinning fire, Flam-Chen provides its audience with theater and pyrotechnic art. If you are not interested in the story, at least come for the fire show, because it is awesome. The group has performers trained in Poi, which is the art of spinning a fire cube about like a fan, juggling fireballs, and twirling flaming balls on the end of chains. And, of course, every member can eat and spit fire.

Based in the heart of the arts district in Tucson, the group not only performs locally, but all over the United States. And if you are interested in learning the art of spinning Poi or are looking for a place to spin, the group hosts an ăOpen Spinä every Sunday night at their warehouse. For more information check out the troupeâs Web site at http://www.flam-chen.com.

Best ethnic food:

Ali Baba Restaurant & Market

2545 E. Speedway Blvd

Thai China Palace

4853 E. Speedway Blvd

This one has got to be a tie.

Both Ali Baba Restaurant and Market and Thai China Palace have some of the best food from all over the world. But both are different in many ways.

Ali Baba has the cafeteria line experience in which you get to pick and choose what you want on your plate. From the falafel to the chicken sandwiches, there is nothing that isnât worth trying ÷ and itâs healthy, too. If you feel like you might want to try and make some of this Eastern cuisine at home, the restaurant also has a small grocery area to fill your culinary needs.

If you are in the mood for a pleasant dining experience where you can take your parents or your boyfriend/girlfriend to, try Thai China Palace. The menu features Thai and Chinese foods (hence the name) that are better than most. The Pad Thai is the best thing on the menu, not to mention the hot and sour soup, which is great even when itâs 100 degrees outside.

So if you canât decide which one of these fine eateries to take in, go to both ÷ Ali Baba for lunch and Thai China Palace for dinner. And you will probably still have some money left over to go rent a movie afterward.

Best video store: Casa Video

2905 E. Speedway Blvd

If pornography is the first thing that comes to mind when someone says ălow budget independent film,ä maybe Casa Video isnât the right place for you. But for anyone looking for hard-to-find independent, foreign or classic films, Casa is king. Not only is Casa stocked with two floors of the movies you swore youâd never be able to find, but also the staff is helpful and the popcorn is free.

And just in case you somehow donât find what youâre looking for, you can put in a request for Casa to purchase it. Theyâll even call you when they do. If you and your companion (boyfriend, girlfriend, roommate or other) can never agree on what to watch, be sure to visit Casa on Tuesday and Wednesday nights when movies are two-for-one. In fact, Casa has a whole host of cool specials, like the ăship to your home deal,ä or their deal with Pizza Hut next door, where you can have a pizza and a movie delivered to your place. Also, if the obscure film isnât your taste, the new releases section (both video and DVD) is pretty impressive as well ÷ not to mention the video game section. And the talking book section. Oh yeah, and the porn section ÷ tucked away in a small room off their new releases section ÷ isnât too bad either. Visit http://www.casavideo.com.

Best late night dining: Waffle House

1380 W. Grant Road

Grill, 100 E. Congress St., has traditionally been the best place to eat late at night. But itâs becoming like that old Groucho Marx joke ÷ itâs so crowded, no one goes there anymore. On Friday and Saturday nights you can be stuck waiting for a table if the after-bars-close crowd has already staked their spots. So if youâre in no condition to drive home, and want time to sober up and eat some comfort food, Grill is still the place to go.

But if you can drive, then go find a Waffle House. The closest one, at Grant and I-10, is a bit of a drive from the downtown bar area, but itâs worth it. Sure, the jukebox has mostly songs about waffles, and the menus have a scary warning about undercooked meat, but nothing beats cheap breakfast food and jalapeno hash browns.

You should also have no trouble finding a table, even during peak post-bar hours. Nothing about Waffle House screams hip late night dining spot. It just doesnât have the fifties crime novel atmosphere of Grill, or the too-cool-to-smile-when-serving-you wait staff (Waffle House waitresses and cooks are usually scarily cheerful, even at 3 a.m.) But Waffle House is still hip, without trying too hard, or without trying at all.

Best club for shows: Solar Culture Gallery

31 E. Toole Ave.

The best club for seeing bands in Tucson really isnât much of a club at all; there are no bouncers, no ID checks, and no 2-for-1 drink specials. In fact, there are no drinks at all. At Solar Culture Gallery, itâs all about the music. The venueâs list of past shows, which pretty much features the best indie-rock bands around, proves it. Incidentally, Solar Culture is also all about the artwork as well, since the venue also doubles as an art gallery. The gallery takes submissions from anyone, so you can come to a show and see your artwork hanging along side the venueâs other show-going artists. Solar Culture also used to be a produce warehouse, and you can still hear and see trains chug by while the band is playing.

The owner, Steven Eye, has started booking shows for Club Congress as well, so many of the bigger acts that come through town end up playing at Congress instead, where the club venue atmosphere is a little more traditional. But hey, Solar Culture is all ages, so you donât have to worry about sneaking past a bouncer to see the bands. Also, if you are of age, Solar Culture lets you bring your own alcohol, and thatâs probably the cheapest drink special around.

Best pizza: Magpies Gourmet Pizza

605 N. Fourth Ave.

Working strictly off quality here, the winner is Magpies Gourmet Pizza. Of its five locations in Tucson, the Fourth Avenue location is closest to UA. Other people may argue about quantity over quality, but cheaper pizza equals less magnificent pizza. They have just about any topping you could possibly want on your pizza and will do any combination of items that will satisfy your hungry soul. With different types of specialty pizzas such as the Godfather, which incorporates mozzarella, provolone, swiss, cheddar and romano cheeses, Italian sausage, Canadian bacon and capocollo. The favorite, Chicken Picante, has a spicy tomato-pesto sauce, mozzarella and feta cheeses, chicken breast, cilantro and fresh tomatoes that make this pie to die for. They also have great calzones and salads.

Magâs employs a cool wait staff as well. This is the place to go if you have some change to blow from that student loan check. Since they have five different locations around the city, they are pretty accessible no matter where freshmen might be staying. Though not always the most price-friendly pizzeria, youâll be able to taste the difference. Plus they deliver beer. Beer good.

Best movie theater: El Con Century Theatres

3601 E. Broadway Blvd.

OK, so the ăcool and hipä people of Tucson may say that Catalina Cinema is the best theater in town because it has lower ticket prices and shows independent movies and oldies at midnights on the weekend. But they all come out of that place with a backache because the seats are just as old as the theater and do not recline enough, if at all. They get what they pay for.

No, opt for the newer corporate theater. Who cares? It has the movie you want, the seats are like easy chairs and itâs well air-conditioned. So what if a ticket costs a little more? Century will have the movie that you want to see, probably playing on many screens at once.

Itâs convenient and comfortable and enormous. Itâs also very close to UA, at El Con Mall. Donât let those ăTucson scenersä fool you. When it comes to movies theaters, the corporate monsters still do it best. Now, bow down and lick their almighty boots.

Best on-campus attraction: Music Concerts on the UA Mall

Besides ogling the opposite sex or whomever students may prefer as an on campus attraction, this is the only college Iâve heard of that has live bands performing on campus during the day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is usually a band performing on the Mall for the benefit of students who have time to kill between classes or those who want some entertainment while they eat their lunch or skip class.

The bands come from all over the country and actually list ăUA Campusä as one of their tour stops. Itâs a good way to find new music, as many of the bands sell their merchandise at the shows, and it contributes to the overall diversity of the university. The bands range from alt-rock to rap to bluegrass to country. There will be at least one band per semester that will make you stop and take notice. And maybe in four years you can say, ăYeah, (place name of famous band here) were playing my schoolâs lawn while I was eating my lunch my freshman year. I threw my burrito at them. They sucked back then.ä

Best getaway: Flagstaff

So, you have braved the oppressive heat and insurmountable workload of the fall semester. December arrives and, to your dismay, it is still 85 degrees in Tucson. This, coupled with the fact that finals will soon arrive, has you bouncing off the walls of your dorm room. There is one way to ease your overheated body and mind: drive to Flagstaff.

Located at the base of the San Francisco Mountains, Flagstaff offers visitors something Tucson usually cannot deliver: snow. The temperature is usually 20 degrees to 30 degrees cooler in Flagstaff than in Tucson, so be prepared to bring or buy winter clothes. Multiple ski runs offer fun for any skill level. But skiing and decreasing your body temperature isnât all Flagstaff has to offer.

Known as ăThe City of Seven Wonders,ä Flagstaff is surrounded by such sites as the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Monument Valley, and the San Francisco Peaks to name a few. If you play your cards right, you may be able to get your parents to pay for an ăeducationalä trip.

Leaving on a Friday ÷ after class, of course, because your education is more important than anything else ÷ will give you two days of unadulterated fun in the snow. Sure, youâll come back more sunburned than you have ever been, but sometimes the price you pay for enjoying yourself is worth it.

Best dessert: Cold Stone Creamery

1927 E. Speedway Blvd.

You can get ice cream nearly anywhere you go. Supermarkets, Baskin-Robbins and Dairy Queen all offer a variety of frozen treats. But, if you want to get something different, something your taste buds will thank you for, Cold Stone Creamery is the perfect destination.

The Speedway store is located next to the university and there are four other Tucson locations. Cold Stone gives more than just your normal scoop and cup treatment. The staff at Cold Stone offers ÷ or tries hard to, anyway ÷ entertainment for the line of customers that spills out the door on a nightly basis. They sing, dance and tell jokes, all while making the customers a unique blend of ice cream.

Cold Stone offers 32 choices of ice cream with such distinct flavors as Irish Cream, Italian Raspberry Sorbet and, for all you calorie conscious students, no-sugar added Sweet Cream. This would be enough for most people to want to visit the shop, but the next step is what sets Cold Stone apart from the rest. They set your selection on a chilled slab of stone (hence the name) and you, the customer, can choose from a huge variety of mix-ins and toppings to be expertly woven into your ice cream. With 40 different mix-ins to choose from, itâs possible to never have the same dessert twice.

Best on-campus oddity: Bible Thumpers on the UA Mall

Freshman, do not be alarmed, but this is a very quirky campus. No drug could ever prepare you for the oddities you will experience on this campus from semester to semester, like the occasional anti-sweatshop protesters chaining themselves to building doors and, of course, the drag queen shows on the Mall.

Case in point: About once a semester our lovely campus will get a visit from a Bible-thumping inbred robotic cult that will set up shop on the middle of the Mall and let you know that you and all your closest friends are going to hell, in no unspecific terms. Loudly and angrily these ăpreachersä will ridicule anyone and everyone who attempts to tell them and their followers otherwise. Think these are innocent, God-loving Christians? Think again. I actually heard one of these people say, ăIf women give oral sex they will get ovarian cancer.ä When I asked one of the followers what proof they had to back that claim up, he asked me, ăDo you have any proof that they wonât?ä It is like watching an episode of Jenny Jones. Keep your distance, observe for a few minutes to feel better about yourself knowing that you are not one of these people, and walk away. Too much time spent there and you will become as hateful as the ăpreachersä themselves.

Best off-campus oddity: The Airplane Graveyard

Davis Monthan Air Force Base

Tucson is a town full of oddities. Just looking around you can see a pedestrian overpass that looks like a diamondback rattlesnake, various chunks of metal trying to be passed off as art and large strips of dirt trying to be passed off as rivers. But, nothing defines ăoddityä in Tucson better than the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, better known as ăThe Airplane Graveyard.ä

Located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AMARC houses a huge number of airplanes, destined both for scrap and for future use. The graveyard currently holds mostly Vietnam-era planes. B-52 bombers and F-15 fighter jets are just two of the many types of airplanes the graveyard holds. When the Air Force receives a plane, they take out all ordinance and classified material, so all that can be seen is the hulls.

Unfortunately, you cannot just walk up to the planes to look at them. The only way to view the planes, other than peeking over the fence as you drive by, is through the Pima Air and Space Museum. They offer bus tours of the graveyard Monday through Friday. Being a tourist attraction, they also offer a gift shop dedicated to the graveyard.

Call 574-0462 for more information about one of Tucsonâs truly odd landmarks.

Best coffee shops:

CafŽ Paraiso

820 E. University Blvd

Hazy Dayz

187 N. Park Ave

Grill

100 E. Congress St

One vein of college fantasy has us all in black berets reading poetry in dark cafes. This doesnât really entirely exist ÷ not in Tucson, anyway. But if one is inclined to put on a beret and seek coffee shop ambience, they will be rewarded.

Cynics can sit at CafŽ Paraiso and scoff at the over-consumers at Starbucks Coffee. Even the quintessentially non-cynical canât help but enjoy Paraiso, with its indoor/outdoor seating, 1,000 kinds of tea and a few smart-looking books here and there for good form. Eggs and coffee before a morning class might take a clever edge off weak-spirited cynics, but a full stomach and wide eyes are worth the sacrifice.

Those who want to smoke watermelon tobacco out of a two foot tall hookah on a big velvet couch while drinking their coffee can visit Hazy Dayz, and an aged consumer can even opt to Irish-up that coffee at the bar. Some nights, bereted coffee-seekers might even find themselves in the midst of a poetry reading. Snap your fingers and groove on.

And of course, thereâs Grill. Everyone loves Grill. If youâre hip you go to Grill. There are at least 25 pictures of lit cigarettes and you can smoke in the smoking section; and if you try to stick a comfortable little ăTheä in front of ăGrillä everyone will snicker at you.

Best sandwiches: Bison Witches

326 N. 4th Ave

The French Quarter

3146 E. Grant Road

Sausage Deli

2334 N. First Ave

What full-hearted, red-blooded college student doesnât love a good sandwich? A true college patron can build their own in our very own Student Union Memorial Center; the indecisive will be overwhelmed at the front of the line by the bread choices alone.

But for those seeking some adventure, you can tromp off campus and find sandwiches in gluttonous proportions at Bison Witches. They also serve soup in bread bowls and have a handy bar in front of a window that gapes out at one of Tucsonâs most colorful streets.

Down the old Grant bayou, The French Quarter, serves up poâ boys thatâll make you weep, as well as crawfish ŽtoufŽe and Zydeco you have to yell over.

Thereâs the Sausage Deli, which has a suspiciously small amount of sausage on the actual menu. Every sandwich has a silly adjective underneath it like ăsumptuous,ä which might be of some help to a confused patron who comes in thinking, ăOh, I donât know what I want, but I know I want it to be Îdelectable.âä

And for the weight-conscious, thereâs Subway for breakfast, lunch and dinner, on 914 E. Speedway Blvd., right around the corner from the laundromat.

Best meal on campus: Brueggerâs Bagel Bakery

Park Student Union

On-Deck Deli

Student Union Memorial Center

While it may seem trite to choose a bagel/bread sandwich as the best meal on campus, for those looking to have a somewhat healthy diet during their college years, eating on campus is the best option.

Brueggerâs Bagel Bakery, with close locations both at Park Student Union and 1064 N. Campbell Ave., offers an array of bagel sandwiches ÷ including a vegetarian selection of mouth-watering hummus and egg salad, as well as several meaty choices for those carnivorous college students. The soups are also a tasty choice on those less-than-blazing-hot days.

On-Deck Deli, located in the Student Union Memorial Center, offers a bounteous selection of breads, meats, salads, soups and more. Students who enjoy building things will love the concept of On-Deck, as it requires diners to build their own sandwiches by choosing from an extensive spread of grub. For a filling meal full of quick-energy carbohydrates, both Brueggerâs and On-Deck are top-notch on-campus eateries.

Best art gallery: Rainbow Planet Coffee House

606 N. 4th Ave

Would you like some art with your coffee? What better time to observe art than when you have a caffeine boost to heighten your senses. In addition to having amazing coffee, Rainbow Planet Coffee House also shows amazing art. Throughout the year the cafe features local artists, including UA students. While the art currently featured in the coffee house is set to remain until fall, once September hits and the school year is in full swing, Rainbow Planet will change its featured artists once a month. It should also be mentioned that the coffee shop serves as a great post-dinner hang out. It is located only seconds away from the scrumptious Brooklyn Pizza, among other yummy restaurants on 4th Avenue. If you are interested in displaying artwork at the hip and tasty hot spot, call 620-1770 or stop by with a portfolio.

Best bookstore: Bookmanâs Used Books, Music and Software

1930 E. Grant Road

Without a doubt, the best bookstore in town is Bookmanâs Used Books, Music and Software (of three Tucson locations, its Grant Road location is the closest to campus). Stocked with used books, movies, CDs and more, the multi-purpose bookstore offers decently priced goodies for college consumers. Much like a Barnes & Noble or Borders Books and Music, Bookmanâs has comfy chairs and lounging accessories to increase customer satisfaction. Need a book for class but find it is outrageously overpriced in campus bookstores? Bookmanâs may be able to help out, especially when searching for novels, books of poetry or biographies. Bookmanâs also allows customers to sell back items for cash or trade value. So when that book you never ended up using for class begins to feel like unnecessary deadweight, head to Bookmanâs to trade it in!