The day begins with radio. As with every weekday morning, today began about 7am with Morning Edition on KUT-FM. It clicked on; we woke up. They were talking about the earthquake. In the car, I turned the radio on immediately. I waited for Eli to swallow one more bite of egg and down his vitamin with orange juice as I sat listening to Kevin Connor & Kevin Phinney on KGSR-FM. Eli got in, and we drove off bopping to the music. Unfortunately, our timing is such that “Soundbite Cinema,” a regular morning feature, usually comes on just after I drop off Eli. This is where Kevin & Kevin play a short bit off the soundtrack of a film (dialogue, not music), and you have to guess what it is. This drives the child wild. As much as he likes (some of) the music, nothing sets him off like a taste of film.
After I dropped him off at school, I began my radio-channel hopping. First it was a brief taste of Sammy Allred & Bob Cole on KVET-FM, but I turned on in the middle of a commercial block, so I kept going. On KLBJ-FM, Dale Dudley & Bob Fonseca were talking about Dale’s failed effort to get on Oprah. There was the usual KLBJ morning gang as well as Etta May, a guest comedian; Red, a fan Dudley was talking about a few days ago; and some guy listening from a seat in the corner.
I dipped in on Howard Stern on KJFK-FM, and I was stuck. Howard and Robin Quivers were talking to Harry Shearer about the great, lost Jerry Lewis masterpiece The Day the Clown Cried. In 1970, after a surprisingly long run of successful movies, many of which he directed, Lewis made Which Way to the Front? (co-written by the legendary Dick Miller). An antiwar movie, this profoundly awful film finds millionaire 4-F playboy Lewis recruiting other 4-Fs (including Jan Murray and Paul Winchell) to go fight Hitler. It’s as jaw-droppingly awful as it sounds. Lewis’ next project, The Day the Clown Cried, which was shot in Europe, was never released (leaving Which Way as Lewis’ last commercially released movie until 1981’s Hardly Working). The Day the Clown Cried, long tangled up in litigation over financing, stars Lewis as a clown in a concentration camp forced by the guards to put on his clown garb and lead the Jewish children into the ovens. A film that’s been legendary for almost three decades, I can honestly say I’ve never once wanted to see even a little bit of it. It sounds that scary. But here was Shearer, who had actually seen it, talking about it. Stern’s been obsessing on it recently. He would love to see it.
As I pulled into the office, Mike Younger was playing live on KGSR-FM, as Kevin & Kevin’s show wound down. I caught the tail end in the office, before Brian Beck started in on our morning together.
The office is crazed. We’re working on the “Best of Austin” issue — the biggest issue we’ve ever done. Flats are everywhere. Appropriately, the machine that waxes copy so we can put it down on the flats broke at the beginning of production. Fortunately, the Statesman graciously lent us one of theirs, which saved our ass.
Listening to the radio on the way in, I was thinking about “Best of Austin”; I’ve been thinking about it for days. A few years ago, I stopped contributing to BOA as either an editor or a writer. Kate Messer handles the reins on this issue, coordinating the counting, assigning the writers to annotate readers poll winners, supervising the critics choice contributors, editing all the copy and, in her spare time, writing “Public Notice” and editing features for future issues as well as Stephen MacMillan Moser’s new “After a Fashion …” column in the Personals. (We’re looking for a few more things for her to do during her downtime.) Prominent among the reasons I stopped writing BOAs was the thought that even though I knew so many people, had so many relationships in the community, and appreciated so many local businesses, my life had shrunk to include only my family and work. BOAs should come out of daily life, untainted by political consideration. So I observe, encourage, and chide — but Kate and her army of interns and legion of writers do all the work.
But driving in, I kept thinking how great Austin radio was in the morning. Later in the day, it would be hard to find more than one or two interesting choices at any given hour. But in the morning, great radio is always in abundance. I figure the appeal of Sammy & Bob and Kevin & Kevin should be obvious to the Chronicle audiences. After all, where else on the radio can you find intelligent political discussion of what’s going on with Austin? But I’d really like to write on the wonders of Howard Stern and the fascination of Dale Dudley. Not here. Not now. But I thought the least I could do was give a “Best of Austin.” This isn’t official, but I’m bestowing it anyway:
�Best Time to Listen to the Radio in Austin: The Morning.
This lead me to another conclusion. I’ve been a comic book collector since 1963, when my Uncle Harry gave me a quarter and sent me to the corner drugstore, where I bought Fantastic Four # 3, in which they discover the Sub-mariner in a flop house. Somewhere in there, they acknowledged that there had been comic books during WWII. I had always read comic books, but now I was hooked (The Fantastic Four and the rest of the new Marvel line helped). Over the years my collecting tapered off (though I probably have 1,500-2,000 comic books), but lately I’ve gotten more interested in reading new titles. This lead to more regular trips to comic stores.
Then Pokémon hit. My son became a collector. He liked comic books, especially Mads, but he could really take them or leave them. But not Pokémon cards. A regular Saturday odyssey was mapped out. Thus The Austin Chronicle “Best of Austin” Pokémon awards are now bestowed: � Most Consistent Supply of Pokémon Cards at Reasonable Prices: Dragon’s Lair.
� Most Unusual Pokémon Items: Momoko (which is also a swell tea room but a bit overwhelmed by the Pokémon explosion).
� Best Price for Individual Pokémon Packs: Austin Books (but I would have worked them in anyway because they have long been the mainstay of any comic-book-store trip, even before Pokémon. We chat with the gang and pick up the latest comic books while admiring the newest stack of Daniel Johnston drawings).
� Best Sunday Comic and Pokémon Shopping: Comics and More (It’s great the rest of the week, too, but we tend to go on Sundays, because it’s open. While Eli entertains futile offers for his Charizards — holographic American and Japanese — I browse the comic books).
That’s it. My “Best of Austin”s. I would include Comic Castle for their open Sunday Pokémon games, but we haven’t made it there yet. I promise I won’t make this an annual tradition.
Now, of course, you have an issue full of “Best of Austin”s from both critics and readers. A lot of the content of this issue was provided by your votes and comes from your directions. The rest involved our huge extended family, thinking about what makes Austin special. We, of course, welcome any letters.
Finally: a “Best of Austin” to the Chronicle staff for this incredible issue and the last 10 years of “Best of Austin.” 
This article appears in September 24 • 1999.