Best of Austin 2002Critics PicksMediaBest Austin Booster Campaign: AbsolutelyAustin.com Taking the “Keep Austin Weird” campaign and running with it, full tilt, AbsolutelyAustin.com offers the very best of our wonderfully weird city, both past and present. Reproducing some of Austin’s legendary T-shirt designs and posters, as well as creating new renditions (check out the "Keep Austin Weird" shirts at your favorite local bars and restaurants), AbsolutelyAustin.com is the true Austinphile’s dream Web site. 448-2336 www.absolutelyaustin.com Best Day Trip Without Leaving the House: Tourin' Texas Monthly You might remember Ira Kennedy from when he worked at such magazines as Enchanted Rock Magazine and True West, now the intrepid day tripper has started a webzine called Tourin' Texas Monthly, following Texas backroads looking for adventure and love. Winner of a Golden Web Award, the site leads to Texas-sized adventures to places like Praha, Bartlett, and Dublin. "With a car, a map, and an adventurous spirit, you can learn more about the real Texas in one afternoon than a towsack full of couch potatoes with the Library of Congress at their fingertips can pass along in a year," he says. www.tourintexas.com Best In-Studio: KGSR 107.1FM The ulterior motive may be material for their annual Broadcasts release, 10 volumes of mostly acoustic b-sides from heaven - an enormous fundraiser for Austin's nonprofit musician's health service SIMS -- but KGSR's track record of in-studio live performances from singer-songwriters of legend large and small, Austin-bound and international, is music to our ears. Program Director Jody Denberg deserves no small amount of applause for his ability to sweet talk even the most shrinking violet musicians into KGSR's studio for off-the-cuff performances that'll make you pull the car over and bask in the moment. 8309 N. I-35, 832-4000 www.kgsr.com Best Local Music Boosters: KLBJ-FM It's a photo finish with LBJ-S sister station KGSR, and with all due respect to the yeoman's work the UT noncommercials (KUT, KVRX) provide local acts, but finally, it's KLBJ FM (93.7) that wins the local music scene booster BOA by a nose for its continued, round-the-years support of Austin's storied music scene. For every stripper morning tag-team yucksters Dudley & Bob have on the show, they guest two local acts, and are directly responsible for the headlining status of some of Austin's biggest names, such as the Arc Angels, Double Trouble, and Vallejo. For those about to rock, we salute KLBJ. KLBJ 93.7FM, 8309 N. I-35, 832-4000 www.klbjfm.com Best Queer Dance Music: Queerwaves
Where did Meg Hentges debut her solo CD Brompton's Cocktail? Where can you hear Austin acts like Daniel Link and Deb Norris? How about GLBT musicians like Mark Weigle and Tret Fure? Our beloved Dusty Springfield? Queerwaves!! Every Saturday afternoon from 4:30 to 6pm, Taylor Cage and Matt Korn bring Austin the best in queer music. Queerwaves will have even the least footloose among us chair-dancing if nothing else. Queerwaves, Saturday, 4:30pm-6pm, www.koop.org Best Sunday Brunch Listening: Band Stand Sunday With the Old Memory Maker, KNCT 91.3 FM Nothing complements the smell of flapjacks on the griddle on a lazy Sunday like the timeless tunes of Benny Goodman, Harry James, and other Big Band heavyweights from the Forties. From noon to 6pm each Sunday, Charlie St. George's Band Stand Sunday on KNCT 91.3 FM (Killeen's NPR affiliate) captures the rose-colored nostalgia of postwar America in a manner that's positively soothing to frazzled 21st-century ears. Band Stand Sunday With the Old Memory Maker, Sunday noon-5pm, KNCT 91.3 FM Best Texacana Journalist: Anne Dingus Who has traveled deep in the heart of Texas and returned alive to tell the tall tale? That would be none other than Texas Monthly’s resident Texacana specialist and renegade historian Anne Dingus. Why is everything, including state pride, bigger in Texas? Her Lone Star-spangled articles provide tantalizing clues to the mystery that is Texas history. From down-home jokes and sayings to Fess Parker and cowgirl biographies, she has hog-tied our imagination and made us proud to call this wild west our home. Texas Monthly, 701 Brazos, #1600, 320-6900 Best Traffic Tracker: Jabari Warfield
He's something of a miracle, this one: A good number of us participating in the passé pastimes known as driving cars and watching TV couldn't do either without him. Always optimistic but never naive, Warfield is a magician who knows the rules of the road better than anyone, and lucky for us, he shares them. Sure, he has TxDOT cameras and interactive graphics to help his cause, but he's also helping ours ? every afternoon ? and News 8 wouldn't be the same without him. Neither would I-35 or MoPac or 290 or 183. Rumor has it that he also teaches a cardiofunk class, ladies. News 8 Austin, 1708 Colorado, 531-8000 www.news8austin.com Best Underutilized Online Resource: Craigslist Austin Craigslist Austin is a mere shadow of the hugely popular Craigslist San Francisco, or Craigslist New York, which is a damn shame. It's free, searchable, and includes a public discussion forum, which many SF and NY expats seem to use upon relocation to Austin. This essential online guide is a comprehensive list of cool events, job listings, rentals, services and so on and is an invaluable resource. (There are also Craigslist listings for Chicago, Atlanta, Boston … ) Unlike the big corporate online city guides, only the real insiders know about Craigslist; so it's an automatic unwanted-freak filter – until now … http://www.austin.craigslist.org Best Use of Your Dulcet Tones: Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
Thousands of sightless and learning-disabled Americans rely upon RFB&D for textbooks and other printed materials. Last year, the Austin office logged hundreds of volunteer hours -- every minute of which was well spent. It's difficult to remember when we felt more appreciated, better utilized, and more productive than at RFB&D Texas. What a fun and easy way to make a difference in someone's life. Special props to Rose Imperato and her fabulous Saturday morning crew. 1314 W. 45th, 323-9390 www.rfbdtexas.org Best, Hardest-Working Soul at KUT: Betsy Pilkington When KUT-FM won the Station Development Award at the Public Radio Development & Marketing conference this year, manager of membership services Betsy Pilkington was much of the reason. It's not just that she's put in more than 20 years at KUT, it's that she genuinely loves her job, a palpable part of the station's appeal. No job is too big or small for her, and she may well be the one who answers your phone call during the pledge drives. May her next 20 years be as good as the first! KUT 90.5FM, 2504 Whitis, 471-1631 www.kut.org Most Glamorous Deejay: Miss Kitty
The mega-nificent Miss Kitty is the fiercest kitty in town, attracting a major following in the short year that Mega 93.3 has been on the air. She is smart, sassy, and smooth as silk. In addition to her wildly popular regular evening show, this fashionable feline makes the scene with her live broadcasts from the most stylish dance palaces in town. Her innovations such as "Fashion Friday" (with weekly guest call-in from our own Style Avatar, Stephen Moser) and "TRK" (Total Request Kitty) have elevated her to true celebrity status -- and she never even had to use her claws to get there. Meee-ow! Mega 93.3 FM, 8309 I-35 N., 390-5933 www.kxmg.com Reason to Scream 'All Aboard!': www.poopoochoochoo.com Austin based poopoochoochoo.com remains lively, funny, and well ... they boast the longest, most memorable name on the Net that sounds like it should be a porn site but isn't. The chooch takes on national news and personal crises with wit, sincerity, and a cynicism that puts most blog-like sites to shame. poopoochoochoo.com is also a proud founder of the Partnership for a Jessica Simpson-Free America. Please send your donations now! www.poopoochoochoo.com, chris@poopoochoochoo.com Smartest Alternative to Those Hyperadrenalined Potty-Mouthers at 'Talk Back': Mobius Home Video Forum Having received two thumbs up, way up, from no less than the venerable French publication Cahiers du Cinema, Todd Harbour's local Web site Mobius Home Video Forum is a welcome antidote to all those mean nasties over at that other local Web site (…ain't it?). Smart, sharp, always informed, Mobius and its packed message boards deliver intelligent commentary on all things filmic without all the back talk. www.mhvf.net |
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