Arts and Entertainment

FILM

BEST FIGHTER OF THE GOOD FIGHT, LOCAL FILM SCENE
Annie Miller

As bizarre feuds go, the long-running battle between the Bay area's two Jewish Film Festivals was one of the wackiest (and messiest), but it appears that it's now all over but the shouting. On the heels of a series of protracted problems with sponsors, funding and other financial matters, the Florida Gulf Coast Jewish Film Festival finally made the decision to throw in the towel. Annie Miller, on the other hand — FGCJFF's founder, director and chief bottle washer — is still very much with us, a fact for which the Bay area's community of movie lovers (Jewish and otherwise) should be eternally grateful. Miller is a dynamo, a one-woman committee who sought out and secured some of the best and most challenging Jewish-theme films available anywhere in the world, and then made the whole festival happen, virtually single-handedly. Don't fret too much, though, about the passing of Miller's event (by many accounts a more interesting and professionally run operation than Tampa's surviving Jewish Film Festival). Miller has been tossing around ideas with the forward-thinking folks at Channelside Cinemas, where she is currently developing any number of exciting projects that, with any luck, we'll be seeing materialize over the coming year. We can't really tell you much more at the moment, but keep your eyes peeled and prepare to be wowed.

BEST INDEPENDENT VIDEO STORE
Video Mayhem
1803 N. 22nd St.
Ybor City 813-248-4666

Video Mayhem is not just Tampa Bay's best independent video store — at this point, it's practically our only independent video store. As Blockbuster/Hollywood tightens its stranglehold on the marketplace and little mom and pop stores continue to bite the dust all over the Bay area (as with the rest of the country) Video Mayhem is looking more and more like an alternative that's as crucial as it is refreshing. Open barely half a year, owner Stephen Biro's tiny Ybor City store stocks an assortment of videos and DVDs from all over the world, with an emphasis on the rare, the unusual and, from time to time, the shocking. "Our store is rated R," explains Biro, by which he means that no one under 17 will even be allowed through the door unless accompanied by an adult. But don't assume from the "R"-rated policy that Video Mayhem carries nothing but gritty horror and verite trauma-flicks: Biro has suppliers in Europe and Asia who keep his store stocked with the very latest goodies from all over the world — everything from adrenaline-soaked Hong Kong action flicks to rare Italian giallos (sexy thrillers) to Japanese ghost stories to intriguing items that just can't be categorized. And if it's all just too exotic and overwhelming, Video Mayhem even stocks a smattering of reassuringly familiar Hollywood blockbusters, so you can always just pick up a copy of Miss Congeniality and say you had the Video Mayhem experience. Everything in the store is available for sale or for rent and, yes, they definitely do take special requests. If you don't see it, ask. Store hours are 1-10 p.m.

BEST REASON FOR MOVIE LOVERS TO PISS OR GET OFF THE POT
Channelside Cinemas
615 Channelside Drive
Tampa 813-221-0700

These are momentous times for movie lovers fortunate enough to be living in the Bay area. The recent addition of the nine–screen, non-mainstream oriented Channelside Cinemas has virtually transformed the local movie scene, magically converting sleepy little Tampa Bay into a movie mecca that, in some ways, rivals cities like Boston, Chicago and even New York. That's the good news. The bad news is that just because more fascinating films are finally available to us doesn't necessarily mean that Bay area viewers are taking full advantage of that fact. The beauty of Channelside, in theory, is that with nine, smaller screens at their disposal (as well as a kick-ass 3-D IMAX theater), they can afford to take chances by reserving at least one or two theaters for the sort of seriously adventurous exotica that has become increasingly risky for Tampa Theatre and Beach Theatre (independent, one-screen venues whose livelihoods depend upon a constant compromise between artistic integrity and commercial profitability). For the past half-year or so that's meant some healthy competition (and some heated words) between our local art film venues, and a steady flow of rare pleasures streaming into Channelside, from the Scottish masterpiece Ratcatcher to the African-American tone poem George Washington, and from the Australian splatter comedy Chopper to the Israeli slice-of-life Kadosh, to the Hong Kong gems Time and Tide and In the Mood for Love, with all sorts of intriguing American indies in between. The kink in this pretty little picture is that these incredible films are often playing to houses that are half-full, at best. Here's the irony of it all: after so much righteous whining about the lack of real choices for local moviegoers, we've finally got more choices than we know how to handle — and the sad truth is that most of us are choosing to do nothing. We can already hear the weeping and wailing that will undoubtedly ensue if and when Channelside goes down the tubes — much of it issuing from some of the worst offenders, our daily papers and other local media (almost all of whom have given sporadic and perfunctory lip service to Channelside, but who have basically ignored or actively resisted the excellent movies they continue to offer). Forgive the bluntness, movie lovers, but it's time to piss or get off the pot. If this remarkable cinematic experiment fails, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

BEST REASON TO STAY OUT LATE
Main Street Cinema's Midnight Movies
Main Street Cinema
27928 U.S. 19 N.
Clearwater 727-725-0394

Although they book less first-run art flicks and do things in a less splashy, high profile sort of way than our other local venues for alternative films, Clearwater's Main Street Cinema continues to quietly plug away with its program of interesting and basically non-mainstream movies. Or at least as non-mainstream as they can get away with in what is generally considered a fairly conservative neck of the woods. Main Street's latest good idea is a series of midnight movies which, incredibly enough, actually begin at midnight, as opposed to the traditional 11:15 p.m. starting time of so many so-called midnight movie shows around the Bay area. The series kicked off a few months ago with Stanley Kubrick's still-crazy-after-all-these-years A Clockwork Orange, then moved into high gear by serving up a double helping of Quentin Tarantino's groundbreaking films Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, followed by Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

BEST PLACE TO SEE A BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE
AMC Veterans 24
9302 Anderson Road (at Veterans Expressway)
Tampa 813-243-4955

OK, so all megaplexes are pretty much the same. Not that there's anything wrong with that. You got your big padded seats, you got your big Dolby sound, you got your big buttered popcorn, and you got your big, overpaid movie stars blasting or slinking their ways across that big silver screen. The technology's pretty much uniform in all of these places these days, as are the amenities. And you don't need us to tell you that the movies are all basically the same from one mega to the next (unless you're talking about Channelside, of course, but that's a different story). What distinguishes Veterans from the rest of the pack and makes it our choice for taking in the biggest of Hollywood's big products, is the fact that the venue isn't just an appendage of some series of mall chain stores — in fact, it isn't even located in a mall of any sort, which means the crowds are there (theoretically, anyway) solely to see the movies. Combine that with the fact that the place is amazingly easy to get to (about 20 seconds right off the Veterans Expressway), always has tons of convenient parking, and boasts one of the nicest and most efficient managerial staffs around, makes for about the closest approximation of a human face we can imagine attaching to a megaplex experience.

BEST FILM PROGRAMMING ON TV
The Education Channel
Time Warner Channels 18 and 21 in Hillsborough County
813-254-2253

If only on the basis of its annual Independents Film Festival, the Education Channel would be the hands-down winner in this category. A rare and much-needed burst of creativity in the vast wasteland of local television programming, The Education Channel has consistently shown a commitment not just to local talent, but to the art of film in general, refusing to shy away from the "A" word ("Art" being an increasingly unpopular description for movies or anything else these days), and demonstrating time and again that film can be interesting, enlightening and even uplifting, as well as simply fun. The Education Channel features regular blocks of programming devoted to classic foreign films by the likes of Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky and Eisenstein, as well segments featuring the best in animation and other forms of children's films from around the world. The gem in the station's programming, though, is the annual Independent's Film Festival, an ambitious and eclectic showcase of short films that the Education Channel puts together every year. The only hitch here is that the station is not currently available outside of Hillsborough County, but, hopefully, relief for Pinellas won't be denied forever.

BEST MOVIE THEATER
Tampa Theatre
711 Franklin St.
Tampa 813-274-8286

It's been a tough year for Tampa Theatre, what with the emergence of Channelside and all. No longer the only game in town, Tampa Theatre now faces some extremely stiff competition from a technologically superior, multiscreen venue that can afford to be more flexible and, frankly, often more daring with its programming. On top of this, independent and art films are no longer the draw they were even a few years ago, putting a major monetary crunch on specialty venues like Tampa Theatre. (And when it comes to foreign films, forget it — it's as if viewers, along with losing the ability to walk and chew gum simultaneously, have simply forgotten how to read subtitles and watch a film at the same time). Oddly enough, though, the competition and tough economic times seem to have had something of an energizing effect on Tampa Theatre. Against all odds, The Little Theatre That Could has risen to the occasion and, over the past year, has graced us with a sprinkling of films as beautiful and challenging as anything it has ever showcased — wonderful stuff like Girl on the Bridge, Amores Perros, the restored revival print of Rififi and Sexy Beast. We won't lie and tell you that everything's copascetic here: as with almost every other independent theatre in the country, Tampa Theatre's general booking policies continue on an ever more conservative and predictable path — but, still, when push comes to shove, we'd much rather be watching a boring Merchant-Ivory film at gorgeous, atmospheric, historically vital Tampa Theatre than watching a boring Jerry Bruckheimer movie at some faceless, airport hangar cum megaplex. Bottom line is there's no place like Tampa Theatre. It's everyone's favorite local landmark for any number of very good reasons, and, despite all the complications and compromises, it's still the very best setting in which to see a memorable film. Or even a forgettable one.

BEST FILM FESTIVAL
The Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Oct. 4-14 2001 at Tampa Theatre
711 Franklin St.
Tampa 813-274-8286

Endlessly fascinating and always one step ahead of the rest of the world (well, at least one step ahead of Tampa), the ever-evolving Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival goes into year No. 12 with some interesting changes afoot. Margaret Murray, prime mover of the Best of Bay-winning Movies That Move series, will be signing on as the festival's new film programmer, joining forces with Kelly Frye, who herself just last year replaced the festival's outgoing and darned near irreplaceable longtime director, Dorothy Abbott. Frye will reportedly continue to primarily book the shorter (and often more experimental) films, while Murray will tackle the longer, more high-profile feature bookings that will hopefully take the festival to even higher heights. TIGLFF (somehow doesn't have the same ring as PrideFest, does it?) has consistently been a beacon to other events, not just in the Bay area but across the country, serving as a finely honed example of how to run a film festival. For almost every one of the past 12 years, the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival has managed to achieve a delicate balance between crowd-pleasing narratives (from Bound to Jeffrey to Beautiful Thing to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert) and ambitious, edgy works of fire and vision (Butterfly Kiss, The Living End, assorted offerings from Derek Jarman, Chantal Akerman, et. al). The mix of guts, artistic credibility and commercial success continues to amaze us, and all the signs point to that critical and popular momentum only increasing.

BEST FILM SERIES
Movies That Move
Locations throughout the Bay Area

The mixed bag here, as with most things that seem too good to be true, is that the immediate future of this always-intriguing film series may be just a bit uncertain. Series curator and behind-the-scenes big cheese Margaret Murray recently found herself with a fuller-than-full plate — having been selected as the new chief programmer for the Tampa Gay and Lesbian Film Festival — which could turn out to mean that Movies That Move might have to be put on hold for a while. With other interesting, semi-regular film events popping up around the Bay area — most notably, the movie nights put on by the St. Pete outfit known by the slightly scary moniker of the Center for Radical Empowerment — a hiatus for Movies That Move will be somewhat easier to bear. But there's still no real substitution for this wonderful series. Over the past few years, Murray's floating festival (it moves around from venue to venue) has introduced Tampa Bay movie hounds to all manner of rarely seen and/or elaborately reconstructed cinematic insanity, from a multimedia performance of the original Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to hilarious and shocking exposes of familial dysfunction like Alma, to the button-pushing work of guerrilla filmmakers like Sarah Jacobson, Jeff Kurlik and, weirdest of all, Jon Moritsugu (Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore, Neil Diamond Parking Lot and Terminal U.S.A., respectively). Movies That Move is an irreplaceable local treasure and we can only hope to see it surfacing as frequently as possible over the coming year.

MUSIC

BEST RADIO PERSONALITY
Mad Linx
WMNF-88.5 FM

The "Infamous" Mad Linx is the ringleader of The Underground Railroad, 88.5's weekly hip-hop show, playing the best in hip-hop and R&B Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. The set lists vary from mainstream hits to the new underground artists. The non-commercial format is freeform, much like New York's Hot 97. Occasional contests feature fans calling in to freestyle for prizes, such as studio time or having their demo tape played on air. But bottom line, if you want to hear great hip-hop that top 40 stations don't even know about, check out the show. Mad Linx has played such hits as the '96 single "Foundation," by Big Jaz and Jay-Z, before Jigga's rise to prominence, and now he's playing Pete Rock's collaboration with The UN, "Nothin' Lesser." So if you don't know, now you know.

BEST RADIO STATION
WMNF-88.5 FM

With the increasing corporate blandness of commercial radio — punctuated with the just plain dumb and disgusting antics of the area's biggest (literally) publicity seeking DJ — WMNF is even more of a standout than in previous years. Its eclectic menu of music is a relief compared to the repetitive and moronic playlists of most stations. Much more important, however, is WMNF's unflinching dedication to providing alternative news — the side of the story you don't read in the dailies or see on the tube.

BEST COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION
WFJO-101.5 FM

It is impossible to write an entry for this category without the following caveat: All commercial radio blows. Jo 101.5 blows a little less. The rhythmic oldies station plays dance music from the '70s and '80s, which of course means a fair helping of disco. Funny, though: '70s disco taken in one- or two-song helpings without having to wear tight polyester clothes and stack-heel shoes, and without the strobe lights, is not actually that bad. Of course, a lot of it is really, really awful, but some — like Chic and Donna Summer — sounds pretty good in the car. And then Jo mixes in stuff by Prince, Marvin Gaye, Rufus, Brothers Johnson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha and the like to make it funky y'all. Jo's chief failing, like all other commercial outlets, is that its playlist is mere drippings from the musical iceberg they call "jammin' oldies." The programmers become fixated on bad tunes like Ready for the World's "Oh Sheila," or they turn an agreeable song like the Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster" into the equivalent of a spent crack whore. We know: Station "research" says that listeners like this familiarity, but find us one Jo-phile pining to hear "Le Freak" just one more time and maybe we'll start buying that the collective taste is really so lame that people don't want some "new" oldies sprinkled in with the tried-and-true.

BEST ACOUSTIC ACT
Halcyon

When a band makes music without the contrivances of image or trend, they don't really have to worry about falling out of step or passing their prime. As long as they didn't suck horribly to begin with, they can only get better at what they do. Perennial Tampa favorites Halcyon have been around for quite a while, in various incarnations, but founding members/mainstays Stephanie Callahan and Deb Hunseder always seem to come back around to a stripped-down, acoustic format. With a little percussion, that's always been the way their music sounds its best — strong and natural. A lot of acoustic performers come off like bandleaders whose combo ducked out the back door right before showtime, but Steph and Deb are always right on — loose, comfortable and confident, covers or originals, small bar or folk festival. And they keep getting better.

BEST ALTERNATIVE BAND
Ashes of Grisum

Alternative, you say? Alternative to what? Lines have been blurred, barriers obliterated. These days, you could make a fairly rational case for something like, say, Samoan bluegrass or operatic funkcore as truly "alternative" genres. So for the sake of argument, we'll stick with the most familiar and widely held context — namely, an ensemble that holds true to the spirit and soul of rock 'n' roll without sacrificing its singular vision on the altar of formula. Singer/guitarist Chris Temple, keyboardist Vincent Saletto, cellist/bassist "Evil" Bob Moore, guitarist Pete Adams and drummer Ant Reckart do just that, creating an intimately volatile last-call environment imbued with more heart, heat and swagger than any number of poppy speed-freaks or down-tuned howlers. Temple's liquor-blossom philosophy is visceral and compelling, revealing radio heartbreak for the caricature it is, and the band is as ready for a black-eyed waltz as it is a bluesy stomp. And, somehow, all of it rocks. Alternative, indeed. www.ashesofgrisum.com

BEST CHEESY COVER BAND
The Paper Stanleys

The fireworks. The outfits. The Elvis suit. The months on end without rehearsing, or possibly even talking to one another. The Paper Stanleys could take your average working band's three-set, all-cover gig, and turn it into something that careened wildly between competent nightlife entertainment and spectacle-grade mayhem. For JD, Dawson, Marcus and Brett (and occasionally a few others, including one John McNicholas) playing covers was never really a job, just a fun way to make a few bucks and get drunk for free. As their careers, original bands and other interests took off, Stanley gigs became increasingly infrequent, though each one was made that much more of an event because of it. Over the past year, the band came together only to play some holiday shows at St. Pete's The Big Catch. But every gig was a memorable one — sets that made you wonder simultaneously why more cover bands don't put some personality into their trade, and how these guys ever got booked in the first place.

BEST COMEBACK
Barely Pink

After its American contract with doomed indie label New Deal went south, songwriter/vocalist Brian Merrill's pop-gem machine spent a listless couple of years shifting the lineup around and gigging sporadically. The boisterous, hook-laden discs Numberonefan and Elli's Suitcase saw release and acclaim in Japan (courtesy of RCA/Victor) and the band played at the International Pop Overthrow festival in Los Angeles each year, but local performances seemed less-than-enthusiastic, and a drop in Barely Pink's promotional ethic led many to believe they'd broken up. The past several months, however, have seen the solidified lineup of Merrill, guitarist Mark Warren, bassist Michael Hoag and drummer Stan Arthur attack venues statewide, as well as their mailing list, with renewed vigor. Their set at a Ramones tribute show in May was jaw-dropping enough to convince anybody that they're back, and a new deal (heh, heh) with noted pop imprint Not Lame Records serves to insure that their third effort, currently in production, will find a home in store bins nationwide. www.barelypink.com

BEST CORPORATE SPONSOR BULLY ACT
'St. Petersburg Times'
at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival

Last year, the Tampa Bay Blues Festival came a-knockin' at the Weekly Planet, looking for corporate sponsorship in the form of advertising support. Sure, our publisher said. So we ran a bunch of ad space for the fest. The big event came. A Planeteer noticed that during set breaks the MCs rattled off lists of sponsors, but never mentioned dear old WP. Turns out the St. Petersburg Times, upon discovering that the Planet was also a sponsor, threw a shit fit and barred any of our signs from appearing and any mentions of us from the stage. When they discovered a tiny Planet logo had made it into one of their ads for the fest, they made the organizers pay cash for it — to the tune of several thousand dollars. Bad, bad festival. Don't misbehave like that to the Times. You'll get spanked. This might be a stretch, but doesn't muscling out a legitimate sponsor from receiving exposure sound a little like suppression of free speech? Does free speech, a supposed hallmark at the Times, extend to corporate sponsorship arrangements? It's an interesting debate. Either way, "Florida's Best Newspaper" came off as extremely petty during the episode.

BEST EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC
Handshake Squad

Rob Constable, David Rogers, Devon Brady and Joel Brown know A LOT about music. That's why they're able to fuck it up with such consistent success. The members of Handshake Squad seem to indulge in what might be described as musical reverse-engineering. They look at everyone else's music, take it apart, strip it down to its most fundamental parts. Then they walk away from it, and build their own, applying those concepts to their own fundamentals to produce their own result. Or maybe they just get off on making weird-ass music. Broken keyboards, toys, hollow pieces of metal — if it produces a tone, it has probably been fooled around with by one of these guys, and that fooling around has probably led to something surprisingly listenable.

BEST HANGOUT FOR MUSICIANS
State Theatre
687 Central Ave.
St. Petersburg 727-895-3045

In the current, somewhat polarized climate between the Hillsborough and Pinellas scenes, it's tough to settle on one place as the location of choice. There are always those die-hards from Tampa who will trek down to Goldstar for an obscure bill, and plenty of Clearwater and St. Pete schmoozers can be found at the New World on any given weekend night. Still, in terms of sheer volume, with regard to familiar faces, number exchanges and the phrase, "So when are you guys playing out again?" nothing beats a big, buzzy show at the State. It doesn't happen quite as often as it used to, and it often takes a proven national act (Superchunk or Stereolab, for instance) to kick things into full swing nowadays, but 687 Central remains the place where you're most likely to run into that guy you jammed with in '97 and get that side-project rolling.

BEST HIP-HOP ACT
Red Tide

We're sure there are plenty of talented MCs and DJ/producers doing their thing around the Bay area. The trouble is, we don't know who the hell they are. Rap-oriented open-mic nights and competitions are on the rise locally, giving unknowns an opportunity to step up and show their stuff. But no one has really crashed the local scene to drop jaws and build a name since Red Tide's organic blend of live instrumentation and science began to do just that. Not that they get it by default this year — it's gonna take some real skills to outshine such an eclectic, soulful and engaging group. Besides being an excellent live act, The Tide also gains favor through their involvement in the scene, setting up genre-busting shows and pulling new pedestrian fans into the fray.

BEST INSTRUMENTALIST
Gregg Moore

He's not a schooled cellist. He's not a jazz drummer, or a conservatory-trained pianist, or a flamenco guitar prodigy. Gregg Moore is a rock 'n' roll bass player, and he plays with as much natural talent, technical ability, heart and soul as could possibly fit into any body of any size. A veteran of the Bay Area punk scene, Gregg's gigged most recently with Psycho Tribe, No Fraud, The Spills and 50/50, and that's just in the last year-and-a-half or so. He's just one of those musicians who make it appear effortless, as if they're just the transceiver — the tunes come out of the ether, and somewhere inside the guy it gets converted into a series of physical motions. He's so good that watching him doesn't even make you feel envious, only inspired. An entertaining performer as well as a true talent, he's raised the stock of every band he's played with simply by lending his efforts and having fun. After all, there have to be some other bassists out there who can play that well, that fast and that tastefully. But can they do it upside-down, while humping the singer's leg?

BEST JAZZ BAND
Michael Ross Quartet

In light of The Gita's sweep of the readers' poll categories — including, rather preposterously, Best Jazz Band — we felt the need to offer a more legit alternative. First, the MRQ is indeed a jazz band. They play acoustic music in the post-bebop mold. And they play it very, very well. And they write it, too. Acoustic bassist Ross and guitarist LaRue Nickelson penned the group's entire repertoire (although if you wave a bill of sizeable enough denomination, they'll probably play Coltrane's "Mr. PC."). Saxophonist David Pate is a mind-blowing improviser and drummer Walt Hubbard (the newest member) is a seasoned swingmeister. The band's most frequent gigs are at King Corona Cigars in Ybor City.

BEST PLACE FOR ILLITERATE KNUCKLEHEADS TO OPINE
The Coffeestain.com Message Board

Joe Coffeestain and his cohorts have crafted a good-looking, informative and fairly comprehensive online presence for local bands and fans alike. You've got your monthly features, streaming radio, concert dates and links. But the real attraction here, in a very roadside-accident sort of way, is the message board. The usual show announcements, "bass player wanted" posts, scene-related queries and band-to-band networking are drowning in a torrent of misspelled epithets and barely comprehensible instigation. As entertaining as it is disheartening, the page can't really be taken as an accurate barometer of the scene. But then again, it can't really be dismissed entirely either — the moronic opinions and illiterate rumor mongering are too many, and varied in their idiocy, to be the work of one or two bored 13-year-olds. It's been theorized that a thousand monkeys banging on a thousand typewriters for a thousand years would somehow produce Shakespeare; anyone wondering what 30 monkeys banging on 30 PCs for 30 minutes might turn out is encouraged to check out this guestbook. www.coffeestain.com/guestbook.html

BEST LAME-O BAND NAME
Jamm Tracks

We hope Bay area bands sing and play better than they name themselves. The competition in this category was especially brutal. Where to turn? The witty-use-of-oxymoron band name (Concrete Kite, Third Story Basement, Local Tourists, Black Honkeys)? The coyly-misspelled band name (Streetwize, Dysfunktion, Tomkat)? The what-the-fuck-does-that-mean band name (Passthamic — wait, sorry, "pass the mic" oooooh; Fang Shooey, Bombed Out Cat, Vascular Symphony)? The embarrassingly bad pun band name (Lazy Boy & the Rockers, The Wanna Bees, Knight Sounds)? The simply-makes-your-flesh-crawl band name (Cheeky Monkey, Tommy G & Highseas, Naked People Band, Baby Huey)? In the end, we turned to the ubiquitous we're-a-cover-band-so-who-gives-a-shit band name. Man, did we have choices: High Tide, NuSoul, Simple Soul, Impulse, Big Picture, Feedback, Sensation, Intention, Sequel and others. A tough call. The name that inched the other's out, based on the pure lowest-common-denominator cheese factor, was Jamm Tracks. We wondered, though: Why not go all the way? Jamm Traxx.

BEST LEFT FIELD STARTER
Jack Spatafora, Promoter
Aestheticized

Bet you thought you were underground-literate until Jack started bringing the best and newest in indie obscurity to venues like Ybor City's Orpheum and New World Brewery. From established faves Low and The Mercury Program to lesser-known (but equally worthwhile) treats, such as The Faint and Aspera, he's helped to widen the Bay area's musical vocabulary and rarely fails to stick a local or two on the bill as well. Sure, words like "hipster" and "snob" have been bandied about, and you're probably not gonna see any household names on any of the Aestheticized e-mailouts in the forseeable future. But those adventurous, open-minded music fans who actually still go to shows in the hope of hearing some killer new shit have come to trust the man. Besides, he brought Grade to town, and it doesn't get much more rock 'n' roll than that. If you're not familiar with most of the names on the flier, well, whose fault is that, really? aestheticized@hotmail.com

BEST LOCAL CD
Thinking Day Rally: 'Into The Blue Room'

A lot of local bands are chasing trends — a LOT of them. With the price of music-reproducing technology dropping into the realm of about what we used to pay for Star Wars action figures, anybody with ears and more than one friend can afford to put out a disc. In the broader sense of universal expressionism, it's beautiful and encouraging; in the narrower sense of music journalism, it's a pain in the butt. Anyhoo, locals Thinking Day Rally — vocalist/pianist John Allen, guitarist/vocalist Spencer Wilson, bassist Christopher Deininger, and drummer Ken Karg — resonate by back-lighting familiar personal themes with subdued, clever piano-driven pop. Both melodic and strangely austere, Into The Blue Room ignores outside influence in favor of introspective inspiration and execution. But, personal as the themes may be, everyone's had a crush, everyone's been crushed, everyone's wondered why certain small things loom so large; in short, everyone can relate. www.newgranada.com/thinkingdayrally

BEST PLACE TO LOUNGE
The Globe Coffeehouse & Lounge
532 First Ave. N.
St. Petersburg 727-898-5282

Stop in before 3 p.m. and it's a bright little coffee shop with an eccentric and tasty menu. Drop by after 10 on a weekend night when none of the usual stuff is thrilling, and there's really no telling what could be going on. It could be a darkened chill-out grotto, with a DJ spinning slow-funk grooves. It could be a rock dive, with somebody mixing X and Hanoi Rocks CDs. It could be an acoustic venue, with WMNF aficionados sitting around strumming guitars. Or, it could just be a way-station for mohawked kids too pissed at their parents to go back to Carrollwood. It's always laid-back, and owner JoEllen Schilke is always happy to see you, unless you're panhandling. Plus, there's always the chance that local activist/underground cartoonist Josh Sullivan may find you diverting enough to qualify as subject fodder.

BEST MISMATCHED ACT AND VENUE
Low at The Orpheum

This show proved once and for all that Tampa Bay crowds are made up of nothing but boorish louts with the most tenuous grasp of aesthetics. Nah, not really. Low is a Minnesota band that plays music in still-life — hushed, subtle, slow, languid. The idea when you go to a Low show is to sit quietly and let all the nuances and pensive atmosphere ooze over you. So what does the sizeable turnout in Tampa do? They pile into the cramped Ybor bar, get all beered up, and get to yakkin'. At first it was an embarrassing buzz in the back of the room. Amid the pastoral interplay of Low, though, it started to sound like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The shame. The shame. Low probably went back to Duluth and told everyone about the heathens in Tampa. On the other hand, maybe Low missed the point. Maybe their show was altogether boring and not worthy of our rapt attention. This was a show that should've been held in a library; no, make that a bank vault.

BEST NEW BAND
The Bliss

From the ashes of the late, lamented Althea (whose demise, fairly or not, was widely attributed to the actions of a certain bespectacled scenester — you know who we're talking about, and no, it wasn't Kalem) rises The Bliss. They stretch the posthardcore thing to its breaking point, taking Althea's compelling tension even further. Cacophonous climaxes and screamy vocals define the heavy side, but there's plenty of quiet meandering, as well. However, it's the feeling the band creates, rather than the noise it makes, that really sets it apart; The Bliss adeptly builds and destroys those moods so resonantly that they're very nearly physically tangible things. Ominously, the group a) hasn't been making too much noise since its debut and b) is really, really good. Yep, they've probably broken up by now.

BEST OBNOXIOUS OVER-THE-BAND CHATTER
The Neptune Lounge
13 S. Safford Ave.
Tarpon Springs 727-943-5713

Let's face it; there aren't a whole lot of places to hang out in Tarpon Springs after, say, 9 p.m. So the Neptune is packed nearly every Friday and Saturday night, no matter who's playing. Even better, the marvelous gents who run the place book original bands almost exclusively. What's the catch, right? The catch is, if you're a band of sensitive types, imparting the knowledge of your singular anguish as a favor to the lowly masses, you're gonna be miffed when the chatter is louder than the applause — which it sometimes is. Then again, if you are one of the aforementioned, you're probably an asshole anyway and justly deserve the sting of relative indifference. Most of the Neptune's regulars aren't interested in supporting local music; they're interested in partying. That they end up doing both is more than enough for most musicians who realize that a roomful of people who've never seen them is also a roomful of opportunity.

BEST OPEN JAM
Ringside Cafe
2742 Fourth St. N.
St. Petersburg 727-894-8465

There are as many different reasons to take in an open jam as there are venues that host 'em. The Ringside took top honors in this category on the strength of the talent usually showcased at its Monday Night Blues Jam, which means the club's open-jam sensibilities fall into the "somewhat serious" category. Local professionals, seasoned hobbyists, veterans and the occasional luminary can be seen blowing off some musical steam while you gorge yourself on some very tasty grub. This isn't the place to make a liquor-assisted live debut with that song you wrote about the bitch or bastard who broke your heart, tore it apart, cause you decided to fart, let's make a new start, etc. If you want to share a drunken laugh with your friends before lurching onstage to become giggle-fodder yourself, try the Brass Mug on Monday night. Or perhaps you're in the mood to play a little aural Russian Roulette; in that case, stop by Dave's Bar & Grill (on the St. Pete side of the Gandy Bridge) where the entertainment can careen wildly between awesome and abysmal in the space of a few hours, and the regulars are always noteworthy.

BEST OUTDOOR VENUE
Jannus Landing
16 Second St. N.
St. Petersburg 727-896-1244

No contest here. Big enough to book some serious names, small enough to provide decent sound and a sense of intimacy, and always general admission, there may not be a better outdoor venue anywhere, much less in the Bay area. Jannus has been plagued with rumors of imminent shutdown for about as long as it's been open; while those rumblings have grown more articulate since the latest sale of the Detroit Hotel, no concrete facts have come to light, so for now, it's business as usual in the courtyard. Which means everything from hardcore to world beat, trance to glam rock, with a full bar, albeit a pricey one, a new food service and a uniquely populist atmosphere.

BEST SINGER/SONGWRITER
Chris Temple

Some of these are simply unfair. A buttload of talented, evocative singer/songwriter types haunt the area, each with a unique style, vision, nuances of expression. Sure, the vast majority of open-mic practitioners, tiki-deck crooners and party strummers are capable only of inspiring within us the yearning for a world without sound. Still, there are a bunch of good ones out there. After months of research, weeks of consideration, days of contemplation, hours of torturous indecision, and the flipping of a coin just now, the award goes to Ashes of Grisum singer Chris Temple. He's reverent with regard to tradition, but brash (or is it cocky?) enough to pursue his individual style. He's also got a quick wit, an engaging presence, and a great voice. Chris is never gonna get rich giving guitar lessons, but who cares? His balance of craft and compulsion rings true.

BEST PUNK BAND
Car Bomb Driver

What could possibly be more punk? Four guys well past the age of your average Blink-182 fan, getting together after work to swill beer and blast out smart, brash, uncompromising tuneage, serving up a sonic bitch-slap to the Xeroxed new-school and the extreme-lifestyle trendsuckers. Ya got Steve's tight-yet-frenzied backbeat. Ya got Joe's TSOL-meets-The-Ramones riffing. Ya got Todd's loopy pentatonic bass runs. And ya got Dave, spewing some of the brightest dumb irony available whilst careening like a methed-up dervish disguised as a pedophiliac marriage counselor from Hungary. That the kids like 'em as much as the grizzled old bastids shows not only that theirs is a great band, but also that there may be hope for the Fenix TX/Manic Panic set as well. "I'm a beer drinker/ baby, yeah!" — profound words for a generation at risk. Here's hoping the quartet gets enough paid-vacation time built up to take their act on the road someday.

BEST PERFORMER — tie
Dave Reeder/Car Bomb Driver
and
Izzo/Crossbreed

This one's a split decision: Two guys coming at the idea of rocking the crowd from two completely different perspectives, and each going above and beyond the call of duty in the name of entertainment. A typical Car Bomb Dave performance resembles nothing so much as an instructional video on rock god-dom, hosted by a demented shop-clerk who probably shouldn't have been attempting the moves even a decade ago, when they were supposed to be cool. It's just like the Dokken home video says: "You'll learn windmills! Spins! Deep knee bends and heavy-metal faces!" His 360 airs are the stuff of immortality, and his commitment to the live spectacle is matched only by that of Crossbreed's programmer/keyboardist/DJ. Izzo has always pushed the stage-presence envelope, since way back when his name was Dan and he was Blak's frontman, then the horror-flick scratcher for Puddin' Hogs. Now he realizes his full visual potential as the grooving, grinding, spark-throwing linchpin of the sense-assaulting concert experience that is Pinellas County's Great Cyborg Hope.

BEST PLACE TO WATCH OLD HIPPIES SHAKE IT
Skipper's Smokehouse
910 Skipper Road
Tampa 813-971-0666

The patchouli kids have their Widespread Panic and Rusted Root tours. What about the boomer hippies who aren't inclined to ditch their computer gigs and join a caravan where they can sleep in a tent and run around muddy and nude? Thank you, Skipper's — a place where the music is good, and often jammy, and old hippies can keep their paunches nicely covered with natural fabrics. Year after year, week after week, this ramshackle joint that looks as if it just washed up with the tide presents national and local blues, R&B, reggae, world music, alt-country and folk acts in its tropical courtyard, which has a floor of sand so that old hippies can kick off their Birks and move those toes around. The sound is natural and not ear-splitting; the vibe is friendly and ever-so-laid-back. And the geezer freaks don't seem to mind, man, if straights join the fun.

BEST RECORDING STUDIO
Your Computer

Listen: you suck. We're sorry to be the ones to tell you so, but it's true. You are just one of the hundreds of thousands of musicians who make up the 89 percent of hopefuls who will never land the record deal, never be heard on the radio, never snort a monster line of coke off of an enthusiastic stripper's ass. And contributing $3,000 to Morrisound Studios' new-equipment fund is not going to make your songs good, it's only going to provide you with a crisp, professional, well-defined collection of sonic turds. Still, we know you won't take our word for it; in your heart of hearts, you know we're wrong (we aren't). So, in the name of pity, we're going to provide you with a couple of saving-grace syllables: ProTools. For what you might spend on that one album that nobody but your dealer and your succession of significant others are going to hear, you can waste the rest of your life producing airplay-quality renditions of whatever regrettable crap your sarcastic, prankster muse sees fit to catalyze. Flood the Net, and call it revenge.

BEST WRONG PLACE TO DO THE RIGHT THING
Thinking Day Rally
Camel Promotional Party
The Orpheum

An RJ Reynolds-sponsored shindig down in Ybor City would be a good place to stage a protest if you work for TRUTH. However, if you're a local band who knew exactly what the gig was all about, took the tobacco company's money and agreed to keep your personal opinions to yourself before taking the stage, amplified anti-smoking banter doesn't come off as righteous so much as a cheap shot. Thinking Day Rally is a great band, and its beliefs are certainly as valid as those of the marketing conglomerate hired to push a product that kills people. But once you accept that cash, any soapboxing automatically rings hollow. They probably looked very cool and indie to the handful of friends in front of the stage; to everybody else (particularly those savvy enough to suspect that the group was paid considerably more than they'd make at the average Orpheum show) they just looked like hypocrites.

BEST ROCK 'N' ROLL BAND
The Gotohells

What is rock 'n' roll, anyway? It doesn't even have hyphens (jam-rock, indie-rock). Rather than trying to explain, suffice to say that you know it when you hear it. And to hear Pinellas County's The Gotohells is to know it. Some folks might actually want to hyphenate the band into punk-rock, but there's too much of a blues undercurrent, too much Stones influence, too much reverence for the '50s founding fathers, to ghetto-ize the quartet like that. They do, however, play with the kind of fire and abandon often associated with punk groups. The music brims with big, corrosive guitars, stompin' beats, primal hooks and attitude to burn. The Gotohells are a national band of a fashion. They van-tour about half the year, either as openers for the likes of The Reverend Horton Heat or as small-venue headliners; they record for the California-based Vagrant label. They don't play around here that much, which in the end is probably a good thing. The few shows they do in these parts can be actual occasions, with no worries about the anvil of overexposure.

BEST SAME-NIGHT ROAD TRIP
The Sapphire Supper Club
54 N. Orange Ave.
Orlando 407-246-1419

It's possibly the coolest place in the state to see a show, now that Gainesville's Covered Dish is history, and it's only an hour and change up the road. Loads of great acts (Alkaline Trio, At The Drive-In, Guided By Voices, Grandaddy, Sloan, Yo La Tengo and that's just in the last year or so) often bypass Tampa Bay when they tour, but most of 'em swing through Disney's turf. Wondering why there's nothing good to do tonight? The Sapphire's less than half a tank of gas from where you sit. Tickets are always reasonable, though you gotta get yours posthaste — the club is small enough to lend that invaluable in-crowd vibe, while the bands that play there are generally of the ilk that could sell out a substantially larger place with ease.

BEST PROOF THAT ROCK 'N' ROLL IS DEAD
Nu-Metal

Rave-culture enthusiasts can be forgiven; they're just looking for an exciting new sound and feeling. Players and fans of the dense, angular, deconstructive or otherwise avant-garde are likewise off the hook; they're just trying to push the envelope. Even those many, many souls who flock to Ybor's various cover-band dens and halls of watered-down techno are more sympathetic than reprehensible; they just want to get drunk and laid. But what does it say about the culture of rebellion that rock 'n' roll's darkest form has seemingly been reduced to funny hair and an inarticulate, repetitive whine? Nu-metal's corporate-sanctioned misanthropy and manufactured image are the very antithesis of rock's visceral compulsion and celebration of miscreant fun. By the way, those are exactly the same qualities that eventually killed glam-metal. Why do you think some Limp Bizkit fans act like violent, misogynist lunkheads? Because somewhere deep down, they know they're listening to this decade's Poison. The music doesn't convey any real sense of those outrageous emotions which lend rock 'n' roll its true danger. It's loud and it's heavy, but it doesn't, you know, burn. So if rock 'n' roll has indeed expired (yeah, right), it's possible that the genre took a look at the family's supposed black sheep, saw what it was wearing and died of embarrassment.

BEST RELIGIOUS MUSIC
Denison Marrs

It used to be easy to dismiss Christian rock — you didn't have to hate it because it was spiritual, you could hate it because it was horrible. But over the last few years, Christian music has become a major force in underground music, and pop-punk in particular, thanks in large part to national labels like Tooth & Nail, and venues like St. Pete's Refuge, that give the "rock" at least as much billing as the "Christian." Several noteworthy Bay area acts are currently plying spiritually-minded riffage that also happens to be very, very good, but as far as originality, talent and overall listenability go, Lakeland's Denison Marrs continues to be the best thing going. The band's blend of posthardcore and swirling shoegaze is simply mesmerizing, and 2000's Holding Hands (@ 30,000 Feet) still sounds fresher than what most local bands, Christian or otherwise, are doing nearly two years later. Rumors of both a recording contract and breaking up are constantly circulating about the band, but, God willing, you'll still be able to experience their positive, engaging and inimitable style at gigs around town when this runs. fly.to/denisonmarrs

BEST SELF-PROMOTING BAND
The Gita

Quite possibly the first local band anywhere, ever, to seriously consider the idea of commercially releasing a DVD, The Gita — a funk/jazz/folk/rock conglomerate — have single-handedly rewritten, or at least ignored, the rules as they apply to local original acts. Instead of selling beer coozies, buttons, panties or whatever else emblazoned with a logo, they release live and studio CDs with a startling frequency. Instead of e-mailing their subscribers with one show date two days before it happens, they send out contests with links to stuff they like, at least once a week. And most important, instead of only gigging showcase-style at clubs known for three-act original bills, they play anywhere and everywhere, often taking over unsuspecting restaurants and cover bars for four or more hours of jams, jokes and ass-inspiring tunes. Their eclectic style has found them branded as everything from hippies to a cruise ship-style R&B revue, and their irreverence for standard operating procedure has made theirs perhaps the best-known name outside the original-scene microcosm. www.thegitaband.com

BEST SHOW
Los Lobos at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival
March 30, Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg

The hardcore bluesheads strewn about the muddy grounds of the fest — there to soak up as much in the way of shuffle grooves and guitar solos as they could — probably didn't know what to make of the Chicano band from East L.A. Some of them split early. Some of them got it and their minds opened up a little. The non-purists appeared to be blown away. The quintet started out a little shaky; sound problems seemed to impede them. Then they found their stride with the Allman Brothers' "One Way Out," which perked up the throng. Los Lobos then went on to play one of the most extemporaneous sets seen in these parts — not in jam-band fashion, but in the sense that they might play any song at any time and reconfigure it in a hundred different ways; and even the guys in the band didn't really know what was coming next. The show was split pretty evenly between key Lobos songs and covers: spirited renderings of the Dead's "Bertha," a Bob Marley tune, some old '50s rock 'n' roll. They blended in a long zydeco workout (with guest Chubby Carrier on accordion and a guy from his band on rubboard). When they closed with Hendrix's "Are You Experienced," the show reached the out-of-body-experience level, sending the crowd away spent and amazed.

BEST SOUND SYSTEM
Club More
703 Franklin St.
Clearwater 727-466-6673

House soundman Roxx may not exactly be mirth personified, but he never whined about the guitarist's stage volume, either. Every band that plays, from a new local auditioning on a Tuesday night to seasoned road-dogs like Slobberbone or Agent Orange, got the same treatment — clean, well-defined room sound as loud or quiet as they liked. A few disenfranchised souls deigned to bitch about the aural quality of their set, but one might be tempted to suspect that it probably had something to do with their showing up at 9:30 (as opposed to the recommended 7 p.m.), thus waiving the right to a decent soundcheck. Club More also boasted what may be the best in-house lighting rig in town, and while some bands could give a shit about such things, the non-musicians in the crowd (you know, the people who actually want to be entertained?) certainly seemed to dig it.

BEST SMALL VENUE
The Orpheum
1902 N. Republica de Cuba Ave.
Ybor City 813-248-9500

Nobody's exactly thrilled about its location; the fact that the New World Brewery (which must settle for runner-up status here solely because of the iffy PA situation) is only a stumble around the corner may be its one redeeming quality on that count. But, come on, locals play the same stage as buzzworthy nationals, and the club books everything from hip-hop to rock-steady to singer/songwriters to grindcore. And it's not like pundits have to subject themselves directly to Seventh Avenue's cultural purgatory (or its Eyes In The Sky, for that matter). Suck it up, walk a couple of extra blocks, and feel a little better when the bucks you save on parking go toward something sinful, like cigarettes or meat. The sound is always decent, though one never knows who might be twiddling the knobs on any given night, and the staff, if not strictly the epitome of service-industry professionalism, is actually into the idea of hosting live music, as opposed to tolerating the hassle of it.

BEST UGLY LOCAL-SCENE WEB SITE
Focus Magazine
www.eatmag.com

St. Pete-based music 'zine Focus has always provided thorough local scene coverage, and its Web site is a mother lode of back-issue information. National and local features, old "Localized" columns (ever try to remember the date of that one Spiller show where you got into it with that chick?), DIY release reviews and other assorted arcana abound. And if you can't find the current issue in your neighborhood, publisher Dave Hundley diligently posts the up-to-date content. The only problem, then, would be the site's look, which conjures notions of a first-semester ITT student with a serious visual-creativity impairment, hunched over a keyboard mere minutes before his Web-design aptitude project is due. Such a supportive and informative outlet would do well to invest a bit and find a style equal to its substance.

BEST MUSIC SERIES
Emit

From skronked-out horns to electronic experimentation to deconstructed classical values, the forces behind Emit strove to shove new sonic ideas into the faces of Tampa's original-music scene. And while most of the stuff was, to understate things massively, not for everyone, neither was it weird for weirdness' sake — anyone open-minded enough to be intrigued by the shows came away with something to chew on. Staging the shows at the Dali Museum was a masterstroke, but when that privilege was revoked, the series persevered, finding alternate venues such as Budious Maximus. However, Emit deserves more than an "E for effort" — that makes it sound like a nice try. If Emit intended to expose Bay Area music fans to more avant garde and cutting-edge artists, it succeeded.

BEST Y'ALLTERNATIVE BAND
Pagan Saints

Another extremely tight race. Ronny Elliott's got the stories and the wry viewpoint; Hangtown's got the players. But Will Quinlan and company have the reputation, the vibe, and, most importantly, the songs. Nobody around here infuses four chords with whiskey, hope and heartbreak like Quinlan does, bringing to mind an enthralling amalgam of porch and gutter that speaks for generations of Americans more concerned with their own myopic dramas than the world at large. The latest lineup of Quinlan, guitarist Mark Bustin, bassist Jimmy Rice and longtime drummer Paul Moroz is the most solid in years, forgoing the previous incorporations of mandolin and pedal-steel in favor of a stripped-down, rocking ensemble. The quality of songcraft isn't their only draw — when it comes to the live show, the Pagan Saints have long been the subject of a Replacements-ish morbid curiosity regarding how alcohol consumption will affect any given performance. Seriously, though, do you want your insurgent country tight and snappy, or screaming like a fire in the throat, warts and all? www.pagansaints.com PERFORMING ARTS

BEST ACTOR
Steven Clark Pachosa

In two very different plays at Gorilla Theatre last season, Steven Clark Pachosa demonstrated a formidable, flexible, first-class talent. In George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, he played the Devil as a pleasure-loving rogue with a Dali moustache and an adamant disdain for human destructiveness. There was nothing familiar about this Head Demon; instead of the usual sociopath, he was merely a hedonist and aesthete, an Epicurean who winced to hear Don Juan speak in favor of a heaven where "masters of reality … live and work instead of playing and pretending." Watching Pachosa play the Devil, you couldn't help but admire Shaw's conception of God as an evolutionist and hell as a museum of the meaningless and ephemeral. And watching Pachosa in Craig Alpaugh's Theatre Hell (mere coincidence?) you couldn't help but admire this actor's range and comic skill. Pachosa had two roles in Alpaugh's play: a mild-mannered associate artistic director of a small town's community theater and a menacing, merciless thug called in to replace an injured actor. In the former part, he was quiet, self-deprecating, charming; in the latter, he was dangerous, paranoid, unpredictable. In all cases — and in both plays — he was utterly professional.

BEST ACTRESS
Monica Bishop Steele

Thanks to the inspired acting of Monica Bishop Steele, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center production of Margaret Edson's Wit was a gut-wrenching, emotionally transforming experience that had audience members in tears. As Dr. Vivian Bearing, the cancer-stricken expert on the holy sonnets of John Donne, Steele made the transition from cold antisocial professor to desperately needy sufferer, and was totally convincing every step of the way. With shaved head and wearing a hospital gown — now walking with an IV pole, now sitting in a wheelchair — Steele evoked the pity and terror that, according to Aristotle, is the ultimate aim of great tragedy. When Steele/Bearing lectured on Donne, you instantly felt her intelligence; when she told a nurse that she was in pain, you felt that too, and you held your breath till medication was administered and sleep blessedly arrived. This was acting that resonated with truth; those who witnessed it will remember it for years.

BEST ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Judith Lisi
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

OK, supposedly Judy Lisi is the president, not the artistic director, of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. But in actuality, Lisi makes the decisions about what plays manage to get to TBPAC's four stages — and thanks to her, TBPAC is a multifaceted jewel of a theater, without which we'd all be the poorer. So let's ignore the touring companies and just mention some of Lisi's homegrown productions from last season: Wit, Zora Neale Hurston: A Theatrical Biography, Lysistrata, The World of Jacques Brel, Monica Bishop Steele's Women's Work series (including Shakespeare Had a Sister and Through Men's Eyes), Jobsite Theater's The Ruins, Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), and Laughing Wild, and the world premiere of Anton Coppola's opera Sacco & Vanzetti. Admittedly, not all the local work is first class, and the "Center Theater Company" is still (curiously) far from presenting a top regional theater's series of important plays. But thanks to Lisi, TBPAC is the unrivalled center of Bay area dramatic activity. She deserves recognition — and applause.

BEST CHOREOGRAPHER
John Vincent Leggio

Once again, John Vincent Leggio demonstrated this past season — in Christmas Carol Cabaret and TeleVisions as well as in the reprise of The World of Jacques Brel, all at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center — that he is the area's best choreographer, with more styles at his disposal than Fred Astaire had films. True, nothing that he did in any of these shows was quite as spectacular as his work in Swing! Swing! Swing! the year before. And it's also a fact that Claude McNeal's idealization of kitschy TV shows in TeleVisions was hardly the right context for a powerful display of Leggio's art. But Leggio danced on anyway, finding the joy in everything from holiday cheer to French cynicism to 1950s commercials, and making it all look delightfully easy. One can only be glad that he's chosen to work in the Bay area; and one can only wonder what this genuine talent will do next.

BEST COMMUNITY THEATER
St. Petersburg Little Theatre
4025 31st St. S.
St. Petersburg 727-866-1973

Florida's oldest community theater showed in its 76th season that it still aspires to be more than the ordinary amateur playhouse. So in February of this year, SPLT's Lobby Theatre honored Black History Month with A Tribute to Black History that included a one-act play about the Underground Railroad, a reading about inventors called A World Without Black People, African and gospel songs, and dances and displays depicting various aspects of the African experience in America. Then in June, the Lobby Theatre reprised A. Paul Johnson's Fractured Folk Tales, in which classic tales were musically told in such styles as '50s rock 'n' roll, country, and even opera. Of course, the regular season included the usual musicals and thrillers like Fiddler on the Roof and Tim Kelly's The Uninvited. But SPLT, under Dan Khoury's guidance, tends to always to go a few steps further. And that makes it the best.

BEST CORPORATE SPONSOR
Raymond James & Associates

Raymond James CEO Tom James is a passionate lover of the arts, as a visit to the company's corporate campus in St. Petersburg clearly demonstrates. How many corporations are so well-stocked with visual art objects that they give tours to interested groups? And the Raymond James commitment extends to the performing arts also: The company has become indispensable to American Stage's mainstage season, and regularly sends a buyer — who really buys — to that theater's yearly art auction. Further, Raymond James presents the "Best of Tampa Bay" fundraiser annually at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, makes significant gifts to The Florida Orchestra, Ruth Eckerd Hall, the Mahaffey Theater and even little Stageworks. In fact, Tom James' longtime love of the arts has, in a relatively quiet way, benefited this whole area for years. It deserves to be recognized.

BEST COSTUME DESIGNER
Rick Criswell

Rick Criswell once again showed himself to be the best costumer in the area by designing four vastly different sets of clothes for four vastly different plays: Don Juan in Hell at Gorilla Theatre, and Zora Neale Hurston, A Christmas Carol Cabaret and Televisions at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Highlights of each: for Don Juan, an operatic ensemble dominated by the marble-ized Statue, played by Dan Khoury and looking like he'd just stepped out of a hill of phosphate; for Zora Neale Hurston, the elegant black, white and red outfits matching the same colors in the set, and establishing a stylish visual unity; for Christmas Carol Cabaret, the utterly persuasive 19th century clothes worn by Scrooge and the Cratchit family in Act I; and from Televisions, the many colorful and witty costumes including Davy Crockett's leather coat, Bishop Sheen's black robe, Wonder Woman's patriotic postage stamp and Stevie Wonder's signature cap and coat. In short, there seems to be no fashion that Criswell can't fabricate, no threads he can't throw together. This guy's a pro — and an artist.

BEST OPERA
Sacco & Vanzetti'
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

This was a tough one — because Anton Coppola's original opera, world-premiered at TBPAC, was too long and slow, and seriously lacking in dramatic suspense. But it was also lush and expansive, featuring orchestrations so sumptuous, one could be forgiven for occasionally preferring them to the songs they supported. As for the leads, they all evidenced wonderful voices — tenor Jeffrey Springer as Nicola Sacco and baritone Emile Fath as Bartolomeo Vanzetti couldn't have been better, and also outstanding were tenor Raul Melo as Ermanno Bianchini and the stunning Hallie Neill as Luigia Vanzetti. The opera was visually spectacular from first moment to last: John Farrell's many sets, including a Boston church, an Anarchists Club and a two-cage prison, were sharply imagined and powerfully suggestive, while Matthew Lata's staging, though rooted in 19th century realism, was always capable and pleasing. In fact, there were more than enough elements here to make the opera a great success — if only Coppola would add one more element: a pair of scissors.

BEST DANCE EVENT
Diavolo Dance Theater
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

For anyone who saw the strange figures descending and re-descending the staircase at the open of Diavolo's performance last March, stairs will never be the same. The dancers and gymnasts of the Diavolo troupe, whether curled up in balls or encased in sacks, treated these steps as they later did doorways and rolling platforms — not as objects with a fixed purpose, but as strange presences, inexplicable sculptures to which no approach could possibly be foreign. Amazingly agile, and using their bodies with surrealist logic, the Diavolo performers turned these most familiar objects in unfamiliar directions, redefining the commonplace in ways that were haunting, discomfiting, comic, baffling. In fact, "dance" seems too limiting a word to describe this extraordinary, stunning exercise in consciousness.

BEST DIRECTOR
Bob Devin Jones

American Stage's production of Dr. Endesha Mae Holland's play From the Mississippi Delta had an especially challenging structure. Three actresses — Sharon E. Scott, Melanna Gray and Khanya Mkhize — played not only the narrator "Phelia" and her mother "Aint Baby" but about 20 other roles as well, everyone from white employers and overexcited men at a strip show to fellow townfolk Miss Rosebud Dupree, Son Boy Brown and Bro Pastor, the minister who talked to God. Furthermore, not all the story was dramatized; sometimes the actors spoke directly to the audience, telling rather than showing. Nevertheless, the play made wonderful theater, thanks in no small part to Bob Devin Jones' skillful direction. With Jones' help, Holland's tale became utterly plausible, and the quick changes from one character to the next worked as a testament to memory and the overarching strength of Phelia's mind. This was intelligent direction, fluid and expressive, that made for a satisfying, emotional theatrical experience.

BEST PERFORMANCE EVENT
Dancing With the Wheel of Ever Returning
University of South Florida Dance Department

USF Dance Professor Gretchen Ward Warren's production was an original combination of political theater, modern dance, and traditional Native American and Australian Aboriginal dances. The piece began at the USF Contemporary Art Museum as modern dancers came alive and slowly writhed within and around a mysterious pod. Then the performance moved outdoors and into USF Theater 2, where several top local actors combined with the dancers to convey a complex message about the maintenance of native cultures, the preservation of the earth, and the costs of political and social oppression. Finally, audience members were asked to join in the dance; and the performance became a testament to inclusiveness and crossculturalism. True, the production went on too long; but this was nevertheless a highly ambitious and often successful attempt to make a major statement about the needs of all humans to respect one another — and our planet.

BEST PERFORMING ARTS HALL
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
1010 N. MacInnes Place
Tampa 813-229-STAR

With its four stages and with President Judith Lisi's commitment to providing everything from performance art to cabaret to regional theater fare to Broadway extravaganzas, TBPAC easily wins (again) the competition with Ruth Eckerd Hall and the Mahaffey Theater. Just a few of the productions that made last season another special one: the premiere of Anton Coppola's opera Sacco & Vanzetti, the cabaret The World of Jacques Brel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit, the theatrical biography Zora Neale Hurston (featuring the return of director Wendy Leigh), the hilarious Late Nite Catechism, performance artist Spalding Gray's Morning, Noon and Night (even with the fire alarm), dance troupes Donald Byrd/The Group, Diavolo Dance Theater and Dance Theatre of Harlem, the entire Take the "A" Train: Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance festival, Leonard Crofoot's Nijinsky Speaks and Annie Korzen's Yenta Unplugged, the better-than-Phantom Sam Mendes version of Cabaret, Monica Bishop Steele's continuing series Women's Work. … What did we ever do to deserve TBPAC? Whatever it is, let's keep doing it!

BEST PLAY
'Wit'
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center

Margaret Edson's play Wit is about the last months of Dr. Vivian Bearing, a 50-year-old English professor who specializes in the Holy Sonnets of 17th century poet John Donne. As memorably portrayed by Monica Bishop Steele, Bearing is no ideal teacher: she's cold, antisocial, narrowly focused, and somewhat vain. When she discovers that she has advanced ovarian cancer, she begins several months of debilitating chemotherapy, an ordeal that she partly narrates, partly enacts with the help of her physician (John Huls), his research fellow (Aaron Berger), nurse Susie Monahan (Andrea Llano) and several hospital residents and technicians. As we watch the maturing of a new Vivian Bearing, we discover that she never had an understanding of the religious significance of Donne's verse, that she exulted in Donne's complexities only because they allowed her to exercise her own mental "toughness," and that the one thing she needs most now — human kindness — is the quality she knows least about. As directed by Christopher Steele, Wit was a powerful meditation on mortality and higher meaning; this was truly great theater on the most momentous of subjects.

BEST PLAYWRIGHT
Craig Alpaugh

The late Craig Alpaugh delighted audiences last season with his often hilarious rhapsody on the subject of the theater world, Theatre Hell. At the center of this comedy, as performed at Gorilla Theatre, is Dickie Fennsworth (David A. McElroy), an out-of-work British director who's persuaded to go to the boondocks — Pleasant Valley, Kansas, to be exact — and direct a new play. Once he gets to Pleasant Valley, Fennsworth discovers a menagerie right out of his worst nightmares. There's the growling, barking playwright (Sean Sanczel) who believes that his script is utterly sacrosanct, the imperious producer (Carolyn Zaput) who's sure that the future of Western drama rests on her shoulders, and the self-infatuated prima donna (Jon Van Middlesworth) who insists on challenging the director at every turn. Then there's the starstruck slut (Jessica Alexander) who has slept with, or will sleep with, anyone who vaguely might advance her career; and the amateur actors (Billy Martinez and Janet C. Stanley) who suffer, respectively, from stage paralysis and hysterical crying. As Fennsworth desperately attempts to make a show out of this farrago, everything goes wrong, everyone gets injured, and someone sings an ode to Death of a Salesman called "Having a Tiff with Biff." This is cogent satire, and further proof that Alpaugh, who died soon after the production opened, was a uniquely important part of our theater community.

BEST SET DESIGNERS
Danah and Barton Lee

That every theater set need not be strictly realistic — or expediently minimalistic — is a truth not often admitted on Tampa Bay area stages. Again and again, set designers here ignore a century of metaphorical, symbolic and allusive set designs in favor of the same old literal living rooms, dining rooms and kitchens. Then, occasionally, someone comes along — in this case, two people, Danah and Barton Lee — and demonstrates that imagination can actually enhance a play's physical presence. So, in the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's production of Wit, the set included not only the pieces necessary to suggest a hospital room, classroom and office, but also tall, "non-realistic" panels inscribed with quotes in Latin and antique English. The combination of the two types of design was eloquent; while the conventional pieces localized the physical world of protagonist Dr. Vivian Bearing, the language-panels suggested her preferred mindscape, the world of John Donne and of the academy. The set, like the play, was dynamic, suggesting the interplay of the physical world and the mental, the too-exposed present and the sheltering past. Kudos to the Lees for going beyond the obvious to the essential — and the artistic.

BEST PLACE TO SEE A PERFORMANCE
Gorilla Theatre
4419 N. Hubert Ave.
Tampa 813-879-2914

You can't get much more intimate than Gorilla Theatre. With only three rows of seats facing a stage that begins where your shoes end, you find yourself getting to know the actors and set personally, whether or not you intended to. When the play is a good one, like last season's The Designated Mourner, the effect can be riveting. When the play is less than successful, you find yourself noticing, much more microscopically than you ever wanted to, every defect and unpleasantness. This is also a great place to experience special effects, like the fascinating electrical undulations of the Tesla coil in War of the Currents. And, finally, this is a stage that tests the training of every actor who steps on it. There's no room for error here, no hiding an incomplete grasp of one's character. This performance space is unforgiving — or, on a good night, utterly illuminating.

BEST THEATER COMPANY
Gorilla Theatre
4419 N. Hubert Ave.
Tampa 813-879-2914

Well, in the 2000-01 season, they finally did it. Producers Aubrey Hampton and Susan Hussey moved their theater far beyond being merely a showcase for their own works and squarely into the realm of serious, even precious, producing organizations. In this last season, Gorilla brought us two top-quality winners — the Shaw Double Header and Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner; and two impressive, if imperfect, next-bests — the late Craig Alpaugh's Theatre Hell and David Marshall Grant's Snakebit. Then there was one tolerable musical revue, Gil Perlroth's Sex and Sensibility (humble request: enough with the musical revues already. Do what others don't.). True, Hampton's The War of the Currents and David A. McElroy's Isadora were problematic. But add Gorilla's Monday night reading series and the brand new Young Dramatists Project, and what you've got is a genuine force in local theater, where you just might get to see that Off-Broadway newsmaker that no other theater thought to schedule (for example, next season's Side Man). Kudos to the only theater that knows Wallace Shawn's value, and that dared stage Don Juan in Hell. Do Bay area theater a favor: become indispensable.

BEST THEATRICAL COMPOSER
Bob McDowell

Composer Bob McDowell had quite a task ahead of him when he set out to write music to this year's American Stage Shakespeare in the Park production, Love's Labour's Lost. Somehow he had to find an idiom that fit director Kenneth Noel Mitchell's 1930s concept; and, perhaps more daunting, he had to make us all forget the bland, slipped-disco sound that he penned for last year's regrettable Twelfth Night Fever. Well, he did it. McDowell's music for Love's Labour's was catchy and memorable, appropriately reminiscent of Cole Porter and George Gershwin, and a fitting feature for this Shakespeare update. It's a pity the singers in the Shakespeare cast weren't always up to the songs' demands; but that's about casting, and not about McDowell's lovely melodies. So congratulations, Mr. Mac: In Love's Labour's Lost, you showed yourself to be a composer of imagination and distinction.

VISUAL ARTS

BEST EGREGIOUS ANTI-ART ACT IN THE NAME OF CULTURE
Mayor Greco & Gang's Plans to Eradicate Kiley Garden

Once upon a time an exquisite garden appeared beside the infamous "Beer Can" building along the Hillsborough River. Designed by renowned landscape architect Daniel Urban Kiley, this magical garden had shade trees and an intriguing schematic plan based on the Fibonacci square (12th century Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci invented a really clever numerical sequence). Astute in the aesthetic ways of the world, not only did the building developers gift us with the work of a world-class artist, they finessed a sweet deal whereby the city got stuck for all future garden maintenance. Voila! Poor Mayor Greco inherits a neglected, overgrown, and leaky garden that few have even seen. So the garden leaks into the parking garage below, which means fix it or kiss it goodbye. Guess which wins? So we obliterate a major work of art to make room for a cultural arts district. Can you say "irony"? How about "clueless city officials"? They could figure out a way to integrate the garden if they really wanted to. They don't Who cares? It's only art.

BEST BOOSTERS OF FEMALE ARTISTS
Cassandra Gordon-Harris/Marilyn Armstrong

The Galleries at Salt Creek and the Marly Group of the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts recently celebrated the 2nd Annual Fairly Lilith Celebration of Women in the Arts, which was open to women over 18. The brainchild of artist Cassandra Gordon-Harris, she and Marly prez Marilyn Armstrong helped organize and curate this collaborative juried competition for visual and performing artists, poets, songwriters, storytellers, classical and modern musicians, and dancers. Visual arts media included watercolor, fiber, metal etching, sculpture and photography. From more than 300 Florida artists, 85 visual and performing artists were selected and $1,500 in prizes awarded. The Museum hosted the performing artists presentation. The visual artist component was exhibited at the Galleries at Salt Creek where 400-plus attended the awards ceremony. WP salutes Gordon-Harris and Armstrong for their inspiration and commitment to women in all areas of the arts.

BEST CLASSY VISUAL ARTISTS PROGRAM
Graphicstudio Lectures With Free Buffet
Graphicstudio
University of South Florida
3702 Spectrum Blvd., Suite 100
Tampa 813-974-3503

Kudos to folks at Graphicstudio for their secret lecture series that brings renowned artists, printmakers and curators to this internationally-known USF campus facility. Like a Six Degrees of Separation spinoff, some of us lowly folk get to break bread with the likes of a Lesley Dill, Pat Steir or other famous artists, and without so much as an RSVP. Actually, it's more like dip that Dorito, slurp those beans, and sip your sangria before the lights go down and the projector does its thing. We always knew that art was just a matter of good taste. Literally. All kidding aside, Director Hank Hine (preparing to say bye-bye to Graphicstudio and hello, Dali) and his crew have done a fine job of mixing short slide lectures by visiting artists with informal mini-suppers. To be sure, Graphicstudio remains a Tampa treasure known mostly by the art crowd. Until now.

BEST WAY TO UNDERMINE UNIVERSITY ART FACULTY
USF's Ridiculous Settlement Payoff Heralds the Age of Qvetch Rebates

Just when you think you've seen everything, here come the "Qvetch Rebates," a.k.a. how to complain, lose your legal dispute, and walk away with $25,000. Derek Washington is a University of South Florida fine arts graduate student who has consistently sought out controversy. Two years ago Professor Diane Elmeer (assistant chair of the USF Art Department) asked Washington to show artwork for a class about controversial art. She told students that if they were uncomfortable with any of the images shown in the class, they could leave at any time, without being penalized. Sounds reasonable enough. But one young student, Nicole L. Ferry, was highly disturbed after the African-American Washington showed an image of himself in a sexual position with a white woman, though private parts were completely out of view. Ferry filed a sexual harassment lawsuit in Federal Court against Washington (who had never met the student), Elmeer (who was accused of retaliating against Ferry) and USF. The lawsuit identified Washington's race, but not Elmeer's (she's white). After two years of investigation and litigation and a no-fault decision, some genius muckety-muck USF official plans to hand over a huge chunk of your taxpayer money anyway. Qvetch Rebates 101 anyone?

BEST PLACE TO SEE ART AND ENJOY NATURE
Gulf Coast Museum of Art/Pinewood Cultural Park
12211 Walsingham Road
Largo 727-518-6833

Situated within a huge area called Pinewood Cultural Park, this metamorphosing complex is a boon for both the cultural and environmental landscape. It's a veritable mini-environmental wonder, and you can see a fine collection of Florida art and get a little Florida cracker history at the same time. The art is essentially empire-builder Ken Rollins' domain. Wooed to Pinellas after masterminding Lakeland's Polk Museum, he directs the 2-year-old museum with a focus on post-1960 Florida art and Southeastern fine craft. In addition to satisfying your aesthetic cravings, the land, directly across from beautiful Lake Walsingham, features footpaths traversing gardens and pavilions. Seating areas along the way add a dash of color and comfort. Cross the walking bridge to visit Heritage Village, with its turn-of-the-century homes and stores.

BEST ENVIRONMENTALLY SAVVY ARTIST
John Costin

Amid all the hoopla about emerging contemporary artists in our midst, John Costin quietly emerged some time ago. He conveys passionate artistry in his bird prints, and he's thoroughly respectful of the environment in general. To be sure, Ybor's longtime working resident artist is not exactly Mr. Contemporary, but, mark our words: He's definitely someone to notice. John is one savvy dude on the whole subject of ornithology, all resulting from his proclivity to commune with the birdies in the swamps. When he's back in Tampa, he's typically sequestered in his studio hideaway, a wee bit off Seventh Avenue. That's where he translates birding into first class bird portraiture. Even if you can't tell a blue heron from a blue jay, you'll marvel at John's hand-colored etchings, all sporting phenomenal attention to detail. You can see his work at Dunedin's The Painted Fish gallery and Tampa's Clayton Gallery and The Florida Aquarium.

BEST ARTIST ON A FAST TRACK TO NATIONAL RECOGNITION
Rocky Bridges

Tarpon Springs mixed-media artist Rocky Bridges — as nice a fella as can be found in the local art scene — is at it again. A veritable boy wonder since his retrospective at the ripe old age of 34, Bridges has a day job teaching art to talented teenagers at the Polk Museum. But this chap is no shrinking violet — his aesthetic eye is sharply focused on the big time. This summer, Bridges once again loaded his Conestoga wagon with wife and kiddies and headed south of the border (I-4 that is). His destination? The cool arty Miami, where he is absorbing the sizzling color palette, tidbits of that fabulous multicultural mix, not to mention the to-die-for Art Deco style. No, he's not there by chance — our Rocky was awarded a prestigious art residency fellowship that funds his living expenses for three consecutive summers. This is the second year. A Merrick Gallery regular with a penchant for recycling rusty stuff in a charming, illogical fashion, Bridges has a fellowship that will culminate with an exhibition at Washington's Corcoran Museum. Meanwhile, watch for notice of Rocky's Garage Sale next summer. Take our word for it: You can get beaucoup bargains before the rest of the country snatches a peek at him.

BEST NEW IDEA FOR VIEWING PHOTOGRAPHY
Tampa Gallery of Photographic Arts
Old Hyde Park Village
746 S. Village Circle
Tampa 813-251-1800

As Martha "You-Know-Who" would say, the new Tampa Gallery of Photographic Arts is "a good thing." It seemed to pop up out of nowhere last spring when four intelligent souls with a passionate love of great photography started a museum in a Hyde Park Village storefront. Yeah, a bona fide not-for-profit museum that looks like a gallery has free admission and nothing for sale. Its first exhibition, "Masters of Black & White," featured quality photography by first-rate national and/or international photographers. Eager to educate the community from the ground up, the gallery also offers programs for children and adults. Outdoor slide shows began with big-gun Florida photographer Clyde Butcher, followed by renowned local photojournalist Bud Lee, who has longtime connections to major national and international publications (as well as the Planet). Congrats to the four movers-and-shakers: attorney Charles J. Levin; Cynthia Flowers (past president North Tampa Chamber of Commerce and owner of the luxury boarding hotel Kitty City Inc.); art dealer Vincent Sorrentino; and UT communications professor Tim Kennedy. Check their exhibition schedule at www.tgpa.org.

BEST WAY TO SHOW ART SO NO ONE KNOWS WHO DID IT
USF'S Arthouse
USF Art Department
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Tampa 813-974-2360

What's wrong with this picture? It's the annual USF art student exhibition and awards night. Speeches are made, prizes are announced and family photos are snapped. And then the public is invited into the inner sanctum art studios. Grad students, also eager to have adoring crowds lapping at their temple of talent, open their studios where all are invited to worship at the feet of the next generation of cultural elitists. So the public mingles and beer flows lavishly, and a delicious aura of aesthetic expectation lingers in the spring-night air like foaming froth on a keg. What's the big deal? Down here at Planetville, we hear rumors (OK, it's our kvetching critic) that the chosen ones — we're talking graduate students with dreams of metapmorphosing into wunderkind art stars — have not a trace of an identifying name on their work or studios. Shame shame. Get thee to a signmaker.

BEST POLITICAL PERFORMANCE TO PROMOTE THE TAMPA CULTURAL ARTS DISTRICT
Mayor Dick Greco & Co.

See Dick. See Dick run with Renee. See Dick run with Linda, et al. (as in Greco, Williams, Saul-Sena, etc.). See them all run with the big boys from Chicago (as in the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill). Not surprisingly, Mr. Warm and Fuzzy Mayor's repertory company is generating whispers of "Oscar." What's the scoop? Long story, short form: Tampa's Mr. Mayor-meister lusted after cultural Nirvana in the land of orange blossoms and lightning strikes. Think Renaissance on the river. Think new art museum. Paving the way to his own cultural legacy, Mayor Dickie enlisted General Renee. So what if she's not a bona fide art maven. Not to worry, this gal is armed with plenty of the right stuff (think bright smile and classy earrings). So the two Pied Pipers go forth, gathering support for Emily's Louvre on the Hillsborough, plus beaucoup de cultural goodies. Despite those bothersome civic association folk — the ones complaining about no sewers or rec centers — and a few sweet promises to City Council members, Dickie's dream has come to pass. Months of suspenseful drama have generated a stunning win opposed only by Mr. Bob "I'm running for Mayor" Buckhorn. Rest easy cultural aficionados. Riverfront refinement is on its way.

BEST MUSEUM TO BRING IMPORTANT TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS
USF Contemporary Art Museum
CAM 101
4202 E. Fowler Ave.
Tampa 813-974-4133

Though we are fortunate to have numerous traveling exhibitions in our back yard, some are more engaging or more critically important for local enlightenment. This year, if you took the opportunity (and shame on you if you didn't), you could have seen Tampa Museum of Art's fine Transatlantic Dialogues and St. Pete's Museum of Fine Art's The Fantastical World of Croation Naive Art presenting seldom-seen art. Still, special kudos go to the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) and longtime director Margaret Miller. For many reasons, two of CAM's traveling exhibitions were especially noteworthy. First, the Ed Ruscha show provided a rare overview of one of the most acclaimed, influential American artists of the late 20th century. It was also one of the most beautifully mounted and sophisticated exhibitions to be seen here, the result of CAM's intelligent decision to construct a maze of intimate gallery areas within their larger gallery. It was highly suitable for viewing small art works. Also noteworthy was CAM's recent Contemporary Cuban Art: Survival and Irony, a well-traveled survey of Cuban artists who remain on the island. Despite continuing dialogues stressing differences between whose who stayed and those who left, the didactic component is critical to those awaiting democracy in the land of stogies, aromatic coffee and a dictator who just won't quit.

BEST UNDERGROUND ART PROMOTERS
The Vitale Brothers

Unless you've been skinny-dipping in Saskatchewan or hallucinating in Hanoi, odds are, especially if you're under 40, the words "Vitale Brothers" are creeping into your consciousness. These art-promoting sibs are spinning multi-media events, kind of like updated versions of '60s happenings. Think Warhol's factory, where art wannabes shook their tushes to music while mingling with the emerged and emerging. Under the moniker Vitale Brothers Artworks, the chameleon-like Brothers 3 (John, Paul, and Joe) create murals for home and businesses. That's their day job. Under cover of night they stage happenings at their 1800- square-foot Pinellas Park warehouse. John's a serious dude who understands the potential of a captive art audience, like expose 'em to art and then immerse 'em in an extravaganza of music, experimental film and Courtney Kessel fashions. Eureka! This means the brothers get to show their own pop-flavored work plus that of colleagues like wunderkind pop artist Bask and Mr. Graffiti, Mark Taylor Michaels. WP salutes the Vitales as promoters extraordinaire!

BEST EXHIBITION
Disarming Beauty, The Venus de Milo in 20th-Century Art
Salvador Dali Museum
1000 Third St. S.
St. Pete 727-823-3767

Our congrats to "Disarming Beauty, The Venus de Milo in 20th-Century Art," initiated by New York curator/Venus scholar, Suzanne Ramljak, in collaboration with St. Pete's Salvador Dali Museum. Bouquets to outgoing director T. Marshall Rousseau for a memorably didactic experience with fascinating catalogue essays by Ramljak and William Jeffetts, Curator of Special Exhibitions. What brings this exhibition to award-winning status are its incredibly far-reaching educational components, ranging from new art world dialogues about "beauty" to fascinating snippets of art history trivia: like the discovery of the Venus statue in the early 19th century; and reverence for the image as that century's premier art and beauty icon; that after fading from view in the early 20th century, the Surrealists adopted its seductive and symbolic virtues as their own, thus reintroducing the armless beauty to later artists. The exhibition (which should have won an award for its great title) includes stylistic representations by some of the last century's prominent artists. Sal's Venus with strategically placed fur. Kusama's Polka-dots. Arman's sliced and sculpted figure.

BEST BAD ART EXHIBITION
Best Shots: Great Moments in NFL Photography
Tampa Museum of Art
600 N. Ashley Drive
Tampa 813-274-8130

Remember this misguided show with NFL football photos designed to bridge the gap between art, culture and the Super Bowl pigskin crowd? For all their fashionable posturing and nifty uniforms, this batch of photos remained symptomatic of trendy, no-brainer national exhibitions fostered by commercially connected art gurus or curators with a penchant for promoting minor league art. If Tampa desires major league status for the new art museum muscled into being by Mayor Dick Grego, quality and curatorial restraint is the only name of the game, particularly in main floor galleries. Gratefully, all was not lost. TMA saved the day by countering the football glossies with the fine traveling exhibition, Transatlantic Dialogue. And recent months have brought out a bevy of decent permanent-collection paintings — just enough to make us salivate for a worthy museum future.

This article appears in Sep 20-26, 2001.