Sometimes people call Tucson the foot of Arizona because it's boring, because it's barren, because it's "no Phoenix," etc.

Locals, you know that's not true. If you need a reminder, the Tucson community offers up a LOT of cool, recurring weekly and monthly events. Not only are the events on this cool, though—they’re also free. I can’t think a better-sounding combination.

Tucsonans, don't let yourself waste away in this culturally vibrant, diverse town. Get out and explore with Tucson’s 15 coolest, free-est attractions, separated into categories for your ease of use.

MUSIC

The more I’ve lived here, the more I’ve realized that Tucson is kind of a small-scale Austin, Texas—and, yes, I’ve been to Austin. Its music scene is, from a non-local standpoint, actually pretty popping. Any given week, many downtown / 4th Ave. venues host shows ranging in genres from jazz to EDM.

1. 2nd Saturdays: 2nd Saturday is the Tucson equivalent of what is elsewhere known as First Friday. It’s one of Tucson’s many cultural affairs, mixing art, food, and music to create what 2nd Saturday organizer Sandy Mellor calls an urban block party. Though the art and food sometimes cost attendees, the music is always free, entertaining and oftentimes from local artists.
   
   

2. Hotel Congress: You can expect Congress to host a live show from a menagerie of touring artists at least a couple times a week. The historic hotel offers a pretty diverse range of shows, too—they’ve hosted groups including chillwave Hippie Sabotage, pop-punk Modern Baseball and new-wave Martha Davis and The Motels. Every week, though, catch DJ Sid the Kid’s ‘80s/’90s-themed Monday House Party, cumbia-inspired DJ DirtyVerbs Friday nights on the Plaza, and a bunch of local DJs at Saturdaze Dance Party every Saturday night, among many other weekly Congress events.
   
   

3. Cushing Street Cool Jazz: Every Saturday night from 7 to 10 p.m., Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant hosts a “cool” jazz showcase featuring the music of Jeff Lewis and pals. Jazzy.
   
   

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Looking for something to do on Friday night without hitting the bars? Head to lululemon’s Girl’s Night Out event at La Encantada on Friday, Jan. 29. This free event offers attendees aromatherapy, eyebrow advice, pastries, alcohol, and general wellness-centered endeavors. "#GNO" starts at 6 p.m. and promises raffle prizes along with marked-down and full-price lululemon apparel. Show up early, though, because according to lululemon's Facebook page, around 500 people plan on attending. Find more on lululemon athletica Tucson’s GNO event page.

Photos from the 22nd annual Dillinger Days event at Hotel Congress on Saturday, Jan. 23. The notorious bank robber John Dillinger—also known as Public Enemy No. 1—and his gang were captured in Tucson in 1934, 82 years ago. 

Check out these shots from Rialto Theatre and R Bar's New Year's Eve event featuring XIXA, Howe Gelb, DJ Dirtyverbs and a light show courtesy of local artist Daniel Martin Diaz.

 

Happy New Year! We're at home nursing hangovers and writing resolutions we won't keep, so we don't have time to keep you entertained on the Range today.

But never fear! There's plenty for you to read. We've got year-in-review articles aplenty. Take your pick from: Chow, Cinema, Music, Dubious Achievements, Danehy's thoughts and even our own Local Heroes.

Not enough? Well, here's a list of our 15 most read stories in 2015. 

15. Critics Call McCain's Oak Flat Tactics a New Low
There was lots of discussion in 2015 on Oak Flat, a lush woodland located about 100 miles north of Tucson which is considered a sacred site by the the San Carlos Apaches.

Something about Oak Flat just brings out the ornery in a politician. And of course that something is money and influence. Stir in a few long-simmering grudges, and you have a rancid stew that bares little resemblance to principled democracy or good policy.

Which brings us to Arizona Sen. John McCain. 

14. Standardized Test Scores and Family Income
David Safier has told us before and he'll tell us again: Family income and standardized test scores have a strong correlation.

This bears repeating whenever the subject of high stakes testing comes up. There’s a very strong correlation between standardized test scores and family income. Test scores are higher in areas with high family income and lower in areas with low family income. It’s true in Tucson. It’s true in Phoenix. It’s true across the United States. It’s true in developed countries around the world (and probably even more true in undeveloped countries).

13. The Folks at Amy's Baking Company In Scottsdale Have Gone Insane [Update: They Were 'Hacked']

This is a fun one: Remember back in 2013 when Scottsdale bakery Amy's Baking Company went on Kitchen Nightmares and then the owners lost their damn minds?

We now present a masterclass in how a business owner should not respond to criticism.

You might be familiar with Amy's Baking Company, up in Scottsdale — and likely, not for the reason that a restaurant would prefer to be known for.

12. 100 Essential Dishes: Brunch at Its Best

Blessed be the brunch revolution and its surge in the Old Pueblo. One of the best spots in town for the hybrid meal, Prep & Pastry, waxes the meal poetic on their chalkboard wall, which says, "brunch without booze is just a sad, late breakfast." Cheers to that and to spots like the Cup Café, which offer an extensive and very customizable bloody mary bar, but the truth is you don't have to feel excluded at all if you're a daytime (or all of the time) teetotaler.

 (Seriously, food lovers, also check out our 2015 Best Of food reviews)

11. Our Ink-Stained Heart: Welcome to the 27th Best of Tucson®
Ah, of course. Best of Tucson® continues to be one of our best read issues—both online and in print. If you haven't yet, we really recommend you look through the list—feel encouraged to leave us comments about who you believe should have won, which categories you can't be bothered with and what categories we need to add next year.

This is a Best of Tucson® with heart, but it also broke some wonderful records that surprised us—we broke voting records. Thank you readers, we really appreciate the time and support. We broke ad revenue records this year, too, and we thank our advertisers. Per usual, we will close with some sentimental words for you: treat this as your city road map for what makes Tucson special and the places we all love and support.

We spent the evening at @willyouescape, Tucson's first live escape room. We made it out with 25 seconds on the clock. Phew. #willyouescape #liveescaperooms #realtucson

A photo posted by Tucson Weekly (@tucsonweekly) on Dec 11, 2015 at 5:48pm PST

Last time we checked in with Nicolette Cusick, she had just opened Will You Escape?, Tucson's first live escape room.

Apparently that went pretty well because Cusick has since quit her day job, put together a new room for Tucson mystery-solvers and opened a second location in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Let's start with what's new here in the Old Pueblo: The Secret Agent Room. Cusick invited us back to try out the new mystery:

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE

THAT YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED FOR A TOP SECRET MISSION.

The devastating news of Donna Williams death came as a shock to the country. Our investigators have pinpointed the man behind the crime but we are in need of your services again.

Agent Q, our top secret agent at WYE, has disappeared after being suspected of the deadly crime in Hollywood. She has hidden her location somewhere in her office. It is up to your team of agents to pinpoint her location.

We must warn you though. Upon leaving her office, our agent set a bomb to go off in approximately 60 minutes from the time you enter. The code to defuse the bomb is on a hidden in the room.

The change in theme satisfies the one critique I offered last time: narrative.

In both renditions of the game, you're turning the room inside out to find the clues and keys that will help get through the (billions of) locks around the room. When we went through the Hollywood Room, the last lock we opened had the answer of the mystery we were trying to solve written on a piece of paper. Um, the dead lady didn't have time to hide that and I really doubt the murderer would want to. I understand why that was a more practical ending than trying to evaluate the suspects, motives and weapons, but it felt a little too artificial. Fun, but not like I was the next Monk. 

This challenge is entirely overcome in the Secret Agent room, where you can't claim victory until you pin point Agent Q's location, defuse the bomb and shred the information. The "bomb," which Cusick had built by a local computer guru, adds a satisfying ending (a true moment of triumph) to the detective work. 

Oh man, is it the weekend already? We've had a busy week with restaurant protests, restrictions on what we can offer Tucson's homeless and new local album releases. 

Get out and do something cool, finish up your holiday shopping (don't worry, we made a list for you) and then maybe pick up a recently released flick to help you come down from fighting those crowds. 

Editor Mari Herreras put it best in this week's gift guide:

Casa Video

2905 E. Speedway Blvd.

casavideo.com

Before you make some comment to your movie lover that it's time for Netflix or lament about the death of the video store, shut your mouth and head over to Casa Video. Are you a movie-watching family during the holiday? Go. Like to drink some good craft brew what you're watching a movie? Go. It's a Tucson institution made for movie lovers and one of the best places to stroll, with popcorn in hand, picking that special movie.

Enough small talk. Here's the list of movies you and everyone else want to pick up from Casa Video this weekend:

Time Magazine has a special treat for us today. Last year, in a photoshoot for the magazine Donald Trump posed with a bald eagle. It went very well.

The eagle's name is Uncle Sam, and I love him.

Break out the lightsabers, nerds, because it's almost time for the next Star Wars film. Can't squeeze in a seven movie marathon in the next few weeks? Don't want to get Star Warsed out before the new movie is released? Or perhaps you can't bring yourself to watch Episodes I, II and III? Well, Eclectic Method doesn't think you should have to. They've cut the whole series so far into a three minute clip. You're welcome. 

Holiday shopping is inherently bad for savings accounts. Sometimes it seems like you're blowing through your budget and basically getting nothing in return. Sometimes you're depleting your budget and actually getting nothing.  

Remember last Black Friday when 30,000 people bought actual poop from Cards Against Humanity for $6 a pop? This year, the card game team wasn't looking to sell anything—They were more excited about the idea of buying some things for themselves.

They say:

This year we offered our customers the ultimate Black Friday experience - the ability to buy nothing from us for $5. We took our entire store offline, and put up a simple payment form where people could give us $5.

11,248 people gave us $5, and 1,199 people gave us more than $5 by filling out the form more than once. One enthusiastic fan gave us $100. In the end, we made a windfall profit of $71,145.

Cards Against Humanity is known for our charitable fundraising - since 2012 we've raised nearly $4 million for organizations we love like Worldbuilders, the Sunlight Foundation, the EFF, DonorsChoose.org, the Wikimedia Foundation, and the Chicago Design Museum. We even started a $500,000 full-ride scholarship for women getting degrees in science.

There's been a lot of speculation about how we would spend the money from Black Friday, and we're happy to announce that this time, we kept it all.

 There's a (long) illustrated list of how the team spent the cash on their blog.