As any world-changing Austin activist can attest, world-changing is a pretty tough task – especially when no one even knows you're trying to do it. See, for years now, the problem has been that only the activist community knew about their activism. No more! Along came the Web site ThirdCoastActivist.org, a shining beacon of thoughtful news and essays on international, national, and local issues from fearless reporters like Dar Jamahl and important thinkers like Dr. Robert Jensen and Raul Mahajan. Not to mention the up-to-the-minute event postings for all manner of progressive actions that are happening right under our noses, actions that truly could change the world, if we only knew they were happening. So, get on the NOWAR listserve! Bookmark ThirdCoastActivist.org! Don't let one more potential world-changing moment consist of three weird dudes with signs and hackysacks. Third Coast activists, unite!

www.thirdcoastactivist.org

view this award on its own page ›

InThePinkTexas.com or "Politics on the Lege of Reason," gives an insider's view to the goings-on at the state Capitol and beyond. Eileen Smith's blog is controversial, often offensive, mostly nonpartisan, and totally thought-provoking. The photos and text are updated many times a day, and a loyal group of commentators keeps the conversation going beyond the daily installments.

www.inthepinktexas.com

view this award on its own page ›

No snide comments about FEMA here. This award is to acknowledge our peeps manning the keyboards during the Gulf Coast's time of need, battling Katrina's waves with the communication wave of the future. Responding quicker than most print or televised media and in considerably more detail, the Austin Web – once it learned of our role in taking in thousands of hurricane evacuees – put the information out almost as quickly as it was available. Now, we don't have space to acknowledge all the cool Web wonders, but we'll name a few. Whether it was specific needs like African-American hair care products (ShugsHairAustin.blogspot.com, katrina.mayfirst.org), notices of benefits and cultural concerns (UnknownCity.com, SoulCiti.com), or general postings of local services (AustinHelpingNewOrleans.org, FromAustin.org, AustinHelpsKatrina.org, AustinBloggers.org, etc.), it is comforting to know that the tech kids had our backs covered. Now if only George W. paid more attention to online sources. Okay okay, just one comment.

view this award on its own page ›

Wiring the community: Regulation. Deregulation. Franchising. Monopolies. Red-lining. Sometimes the insidious nature of corporate telecommunications in Texas makes a citizen just want to hang up and unplug. Well, we'd like to shine a light on two efforts that make it a bit easier to forget, if for one moment, that most American media is held in the maws of greedy bottom-feeding bottom-line entities, and remember that sometimes corporations can use their muscle for good: Grande Communications, the li'l upstart Texas-based communications company providing telephone, high-speed internet, cable TV, and home security, has donated internet connectivity to serve three local public libraries; Advanced Micro Devices stepped in during Austin's Katrina crisis and donated 50 "personal internet communicators" (minicomputers) to the city, with a priority given to organizations conducting Katrina relief services. Kudos, Grande and AMD, for reminding us that communication can still be a noble cause.

Grande Communications
13505 Burnet
512/220-4880
www.grandecom.com

Advanced Micro Devices
5204 E. Ben White
512/602-1000
www.amd.com

view this award on its own page ›

The brainchild of the Downtown Austin Alliance, design firm Action Figure, and local PBS affiliate KLRU, Downtown is a love letter to the city's urban core. In each episode, top-notch production values help highlight three different aspects of the city's throbbing heart. Informative and amazing to look at (and accompanied by a well-selected soundtrack), Downtown shows the city at its best and dreams of the triumphs lying ahead.

KLRU
6101 Highland Campus Drive, Building 3000
512/471-4811
klru.org

view this award on its own page ›

Founded in 1997, this venerable magazine covering all things fitness-related made the leap from a tabloid format to a sleek and clean glossy in March of this year. Transcending the advertainment trappings of other freebie glossies, AFM offers information on health, fitness, and diet, while turning an eye toward sport, style, and life.

Austin Fit Magazine
PO Box 49220
512/407-8383
www.austinfitmagazine.com

view this award on its own page ›

"You will need to be patient and a good listener. Sometimes the good listener part is the most important part of this work..." So began the job description for Austin Free-Net's call up to good citizens to come help offer our Katrina guests a virtual hookup with the outside world ... with their families, with their pasts, with their futures. "Assist evacuees with little or no computer experience in registering on the Red Cross Family Links database so their friends and family can find out where they are..." This year, Austin Free-Net, a nonprofit corporation driven by the mission to bridge digital divides, celebrated 10 years of service to our community. Their presence at the Austin Convention Center during the aftermath of the evacuation of New Orleans helped to create lifelines for countless folks, some passing through, some now calling Austin home. Thank you, Austin Free-Net.

Austin Free-Net
2209 Rosewood
512/236-8225
www.austinfree.net

view this award on its own page ›

We let you down, Austin Music Network. After enjoying 11 years of your faithful service, we let a true light on Austin television go dim. After more than a decade's struggle through the morass of dumbfounding city and telecommunications hoo-haw, you muddled through, always presenting quirky, offbeat visuals to accompany the soundtrack to Austin life. And then, just when you finally got it right, when your budgets sustained and your programming was the most community-focused and innovative thing seen on local airwaves in ages, we let the powers that be come in and pull the plug. To the peeps at the Losers Lounge Show, you will never know how many Fridays you kept us rapt with your teenage kicks, your goofball antics, and your sheer adoration for all things musical. Nadia, what can we say? You've come and gone on that frequency with a frequency that tells us you'll be back and bigger than ever. Clay, we watched as you held your tongue and your dignity at all those ridonkulous city meetings in front of so many clueless bureaucrats who just didn't get it. And we, the press, let you down the hardest. Not rising to our role as the advocate of cool, and you were the coolest. We are so sorry. But we take comfort knowing you'll be back. Somewhere, somehow. And when you are, we promise, we'll be watching, and more importantly, we'll have your back. Lastly, a message to Louis: Hang onto those tapes, buddy, hang onto those tapes.

R.I.P. Austin Music Network, 4209 Airport, 974-1800, www.austinmusicnetwork.org, www.bynadia.moonfruit.com

view this award on its own page ›

Want to become a socialite? Dying to find out about philanthropic balls? Holly's Hot Happenings weekly e-mails and Web site provide the skinny on what Austin's elite are doing, as well as events for the rest of us. It is a great resource for those who are new in town or for sixth generation Austinites, like Holly. To join the thousands of others who are in the know, go to www.hollyshothappenings.com.

www.hollyshothappenings.com

view this award on its own page ›

The insidious threat to Austin's music community is not AIDS but Hepatitis C. The virus has already taken three figures near and dear to Austin's musical heart this year - Chet Helms, Biscuit Turner, and T.J. McFarland. Hope and help, however are on the way: Karen Mueller of Travis County Health & Human Services, along with Jean Brender and Suzanne Anderson, put together a 41-page document so well-informed and complete, it is used as a model by other organizations. It not only educates about the disease but offers assistance and resources to those with it. The printable document is available at: www.ci.austin.tx.us/health/downloads/resmanual.pdf.

Travis County Health and Human Services Building
4614 N. I-35
512/972-4900

view this award on its own page ›

For every waiter you almost gave your number to, every barista you were almost overfriendly with, every hook-up that almost happened - there's hope. Why self-flagellate over the little moment that could've? Our very own Chronicle "A Shot in the Dark" section or its distant online cousin in matchmaking crime, Craigslist's "Missed Connections," are ready to help. Why leave it up to fickle fate? If your intended is looking for you looking for them, these are the resources to find out. And the most popular place to garner your own Desperately Seeking moment? Dolled up and shopping produce at the grocery store, baby.

www.austinchronicle.com; austin.craigslist.com

view this award on its own page ›

For many in Central Texas, "back home" means someplace where it rained so much even rolling stones gathered moss. If Austin’s your adopted hometown – or you simply need a primer for our region’s best photosynthetic bets – get the just-sprouted third edition of the TCMGA Garden Guide, with monthly planting schedules custom-tailored to our region’s finicky climate, proven variety lists, and frankly an overabundance of other resources for the inquisitive local gardener. If it’s roses in February and your tomatoes peak by June, you know you’re in Austin – now just watch out for that first frost Nov. 28.

Travis County Master Gardener Association
512/854-9600
www.tcmastergardener.org

view this award on its own page ›

Armadillo World Headquarters is gone but not forgotten. Townes Van Zandt and the 13th Floor Elevators and Liberty Lunch and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Raul's and Doug Sahm and the Dicks and Les Amis: all very much gone and all very much not forgotten. Welcome to Austin, where every day is slightly worse than the day before it, leading a trail back to some golden past you weren't lucky enough to be here for. The good news? That trail goes in both directions; you just have to know where to find it. When night falls and 91.7FM becomes KVRX, the student deejays at UT throw on the lights and – by way of fuzzed-out guitars, glitchy laptops, or whatever else they get their hands on – shine new music into the darkest corners of our nostalgic city and show the way forward. Every night, KVRX plays the bands the bands you’ve never heard of have never heard of, dragging Austin reluctantly out of its past and into the bright light of day, come hell or the high swell of "Whiskey River."

KVRX 91.7FM
PO Box D
512/471-5106
www.kvrx.org

view this award on its own page ›