It All Started With a Mailbox

2509 N. Campbell Ave., #335
Tucson, AZ 8571

That looks like a normal address, right? Well, if you put it in your Tom Tom, that little annoying voice will lead you straight to this:



That, ladies and gentlemen, is Calexico's mailbox. And Louise and Alicia touched it.

So begins Louise and Alicia's long and tiresome adventure to Tucson. Most of which involved buying clothes from Buffalo Exchange, stopping by Zia Records to find, well, records, and seeing Wolf Parade live.

While the sights and sounds of Tuscon were unforgettable (and oh-my-goodness the food!), nothing could replace the lessons Louise and Alicia learned.

~*~ When you're stuck in a city with complicated one-way streets, no freeways, and hardly any easily accessible parking, it's always nice to ask the construction worker nearest your window (who is also laughing at you) for directions.

~*~ Alicia yells at inanimate objects. For example, the road (You stupid jerk!) and the Tom Tom (Shut up! I know! Shut uuuuuuppppp!!!).

~*~ There is no pattern to the floor of the Cup Cafe in the Hotel Congress. It's just made of pennies. If you stare at it too long, your waiter will stare at you.

~*~Eating chocolate pudding with your lunch and then walking around in the heat is not fun. No matter how amazing the chocolate pudding was.

~*~Wolf Parade has two lead singers. Both of which sound almost exactly the same. Who knew? (Apparently not Louise, who, having no idea who he was, made fun of David Boeckner's skinny legs when she saw him standing outside of the Rialto Theatre.)

~*~Bookmans has the cleanest bathrooms ever. When you go to Tucson, don't use the Circle K bathrooms, use Bookmans. You will always be near one. Trust us.

~*~There are really only two good stores near Hotel Congress, a neo-gothic shop with amazingly weird shoes, but hardly any a/c; and Preen. Preen is definitely worth checking out. The girl who owns it sews all day right there in the shop and she sells cute antique purses.

(That shoe was completely hollow.)

~*~Wolf Parade fans are boring. And unimaginative. No explanation here. They just are. (Except the drunk ones, who jump up on stage and dance like maniacs until the keyboardist pushes them off.)

~*~Tucson likes big things. Like dresses. And sandals.