Best Casual Grace
Acia Gray
When rhythm tap master Acia Gray does her thing, it's clear that she's just doin' what comes naturally. We have no other explanation for her uncanny ease of movement, the effortlessness of her syncopation, and the unbridled joy she expresses in both feet and face. This co-founder of Tapestry Dance Company has the casual grace of the tap stars of old -- Charles "Honi" Coles, the Nicholas Brothers, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson -- and she appears as much at home in her dancing as those greats did. We've seen few artists who move as comfortably, as confidently, as naturally as Gray, or who radiate such jubilant fulfillment. She's as irresistible as they come. Long may she dance.
Tapestry Dance Company, 507 Rutland, 474-9846
www.tapestry.org
Best Way to Rock the Boat, Baby
Aquatica
Frustrated by the lack of originality in the local electronica scene these days, promoter Brent Bruning received a dream one night in which a wizened old DJ (possibly A Guy Called Gerald) urged him to "Go wet, young man, go wet." Inspirato, like persperato, can be a liquid affair, and before you could say "Avast ye scurvy candyflippers!" Bruning had launched Aquatica, a floating celebration of electronic music and bad hors d'oeuvres that's now in its third incarnation. Renting city-owned pleasure boats and filling them full of tipsy ravers might seem like a risky proposition to some, but Bruning has pulled this off with style and panache, and even tagged it as a benefit for the Austin Clean Water Action Fund. A fourth Aquatica outing is planned for the fall, and Bruning's companion CD compilation is now Tower's No. 1 local seller.
695-2534
www.aquaticaproductions.com
Best Place to Pick Up a Geek
High Tech Happy Hour
A friend of a friend sent around this e-mail one day. It was something about how a guy named Harry Pape was organizing a happy hour where you could meet fellow high tech professionals in a fun setting. Not being high tech professionals ourselves, we were intrigued by this e-mail, so we went to check it out. Five dollars gets you into the happy hour and buys your first drink. The proceeds from the door benefit various charities around town.There was lots of networking, a few business cards exchanged, and plenty of high tech hotties to go around.
Best Year 'Round Programming for the 'Geist
The Art School of the Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria
AMOA's got its finger on the pulse of what it takes to be a citizen of the world ... living in Aus,Tex. Wanna be more conversant about film theory at dinner parties? Jump-start a dormant right-brain hemisphere by tapping into your Creative Awareness? Learn how to design your own landscape? Tweak your home-videomaking skills? The offerings evolve with each catalog season. Great kids' stuff year 'round, as well.
3809 W. 35th, 323-6380
Best Two-Live-Music-Capitals- Fer-One
"Branson Nights" at Local Schools
For the past six years, the Georgetown Opry at Williams Elementary School has been offering "Branson Night" on the second Saturday of each month, with entertainment of the type seen in that other U.S. city that claims to be "The Live Music Capital of the World." Comic Dennis Miller has called the real Branson "Vegas for people without teeth," but it's known to this country's older and less cynical folks as a place for safe, old-fashioned entertainment. The Buda Opry at Hays High School has been known to jump on the bandwagon as well. It's the closest you'll get to Branson in Austin since Roasters closed.
Williams Elementary School, 834-2319
Best Real Country Music
Austin Celtic Association Celtic Festival
Three times was a charm for the Austin Celtic Association Celtic Festival, which was rained out the first two years. This year it was moved to the Dog & Duck Pub, where it drew respectable crowds with a diverse offering of Celtic music from Scottish bagpipes to Breton players. The in-town location was more accessible to passersby, who could also wander through tents sponsored by the Celtic Association and Gaelic League and check out a variety of Celtic arts, crafts, and books. Here's to a successful fourth!
443-5827
Best New Eastside Theatre Space
Blue Theater
Take this warehouse on the East Side, O ye Refraction Arts team! Take it and transform it into a wonderground of performance! Reconstruct the interior to allow theatre in all its spectacle and verve, build ye a big tech booth near the rafters, have your next-door pals -- Blue Genie Art Industries -- embellish the exterior with a design so bold and so blue it rivals the big Texas sky. And hurry ye the hell up, for though we do love the Off Center, yea verily, we crave more artspace on the sunrise side of I-35! ... And so they did. And it is good.
916 Springdale, 927-1118
Best Free Movie Series
Austin Film Society's Tuesday Night Movies
Now beginning its sixth year, the Austin Film Society's Tuesday Night Movie series is still going strong. Each season highlights a different theme or filmmaker. Last year's included Douglas Sirk and Shohei Imamura retrospectives, a Brazilian Cinema series, and another devoted to black filmmakers. Summers are reserved for their Free-for-All, when the society dusts off their favorite reels to play in a Tuesday Night Greatest Hits series. Knowledgeable introductions precede each film, providing insightful background for viewers to digest during the screening.
Film Society Office, 3109 N. I-35, 322-0145
Most Fabulous Way to Spend Happy Hour Thursdays
Bingo at the Continental Club with El Orbits
While some folks swear by the bingo card, claiming that getting that fifth in a row is the ultimate rush, others consider David Beebe to be the drawing card for Thursday Happy Hours. Beebe has evolved his latter-day lounge act from his renegade frat rock days in the Schlitz Quarts and then in the enormously popular Banana Blender Surprise. Along the way he's become a cross between a young Paul Ray and Dino Lee, updated for 2000. Not a bad trick.
1315 S. Congress, 441-2444
Coolest Recycling Project
AFS Meets Mueller
The airplanes no longer fly in and out of Mueller, but the big ol' empty hangars left behind by the move to Bergstrom have not lain idle for long. Re-purposed as movie soundstages, their hulking shells are perfect for housing all the big equipment and make-believe sets that major movie production requires. Although some projects, like Sandra Bullock's upcoming project Miss Congeniality and Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids, have already filmed there, we expect even bigger things to happen once the Austin Film Society and the city of Austin finalize all the management details that are currently in discussion.
Austin Film Society, 3109 N. I-35, 322-0145
Best Avant-Garde Fashion Designer
Brooks Coleman
Mr. Coleman, a former member of the experimental noise group Liquid Mice and mad-scientist creator of the Mechanical Pit Bull that once (dis)graced the stage of the Letterman show, has been holed up in his foresty Bastrop sanctum for years now, creating such mind-blowing lingerie from wires and LEDs and acid-etched metal plates that his work's been featured in Playboy and on SNL alongside somewhat tamer creations by Helmut Lang and Jean-Paul Gaultier. This designer's so ahead of his time, he's downright post-apocalyptic.
512/627-4737
www.hot-tool.com/splash.html
Best Theatre Den Mother
Cyndi Williams
This actor and playwright watches over the local theatre scene as if it were her own precious charge, gently urging us, often via the rather sinister-sounding e-moniker skeletono, to partake of an eye-catching variety of theatrical work which she helps nurture. When not rallying support for companies as diverse as the Dirigo Group, Refraction Arts Project, Austin Script Works, and the State Theater, she's probably tending to one of her own projects. This year, she'll offer her Harvest Festival winner, A Name for a Ghost to Mutter, at the State and her new play, Fish, at the Blue Theatre.
507 E. Mary, 443-3188
Most Nostalgic Phone Booth
Carousel Lounge
While it's hard to ignore the great bands the Carousel books on a regular basis to play beneath the huge papier mâché elephant, if you look to the other end of the club, you'll see a glass door through which sits a lovely relic from an age that could be called "B.C." (Before Cellular).
1110 E. 52nd, 452-6790
Nicest Late-Night Surprise Birthday Party
Capital Cruises on Town Lake
It's your honey's birthday, and you're looking for something special to do? Why not have a surprise party? Call the folks at Capital Cruises and arrange for a late-night cruise on Town Lake. Gather some friends (up to 70 people), grab some munchies and some CDs, then head down to the dock behind the Hyatt. The boat will pick you up at their slip and take your party out for a lovely evening gazing at the neon Austin skyline.
208 Barton Springs Rd., 480-9264
Best Classical Musical Productions
Austin Musical Theatre
How many times now have we seen the ad for a Gypsy or a Fiddler on the Roof or a Music Man and thought ... well, maybe not. The play was a dinosaur; how good could a local production of it be? Yada yada. But then we go, and time after time, we're blown away, socks knocked off. Every time, a Broadway-quality production. How do they do it? Longtime musical pros Richard Byron and Scott Thompson invest every show with top-notch talent, enthusiasm, old-school razzle-dazzle, and their deep love for the great old musicals.
2011 E. Riverside, 428-9696
Best Use of Ragga
Flamingo Cantina
In the early/mid-Eighties, you'd have thought Austin was as close to Jamaica as Cuba is to Miami, such was the pungent wave of chanka-chanka wafting through River City. A decade and a half later, Liberty Lunch is rubble and reggae's heyday just a memory -- or so you'd have thought until Sixth Street's Flamingo Cantina, one of the last bastions of live original music on shot-bar row, started booking the likes of Boukman Eksperyans, Justin Hinds, Toots & the Maytals, and the king himself, Lee "Scratch" Perry. All of them, packed to rafters seemingly made for reggae -- an upstairs balcony, lots of bleacher seats, and good stagefront space -- were great. Praise Jah. Welcome home, brethren.
515 E. Sixth, 494-9336
Best New Large-Scale Electronica Best Funky, Dark, Treacherous-While-Inebriated Club Space
Ritz Lounge
"Hey sweetcheeksh, wanna go back to my plashe and shee my eshings? Yeah, me too. Oops ... where'd the shtairs go? Aaaaiiieeee!!! Thud, thud, thud, etc." Don't even try to tell us you haven't seen this happen.
320 E. Sixth, 474-2270
Best Live Music Villa
One World Theater
Our original comparison is still the best: UT's Bass Concert Hall reconfigured as a 300-seat Tuscan-style villa out in the hill country of Bee Caves. Having already imported jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, George Benson, McCoy Tyner, and Ahmad Jamal, as well as such internationally renowned acts as Susana Baca, Jose Greco, and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, director/booker Hartt Sterns and his long-tressed partner Iluminada have been busy in the just-over-a-year period the two-story, 5,000-square-foot palace has been open. With the first-floor Celebration Hall available for private gatherings, and every seat in the upstairs room a front-row treat -- as well as a busy upcoming fall season (including Pat Metheny and Al DiMeola) -- Austin's One World Theatre is just the place for an exotic and romantic getaway.
7701 Bee Caves Rd., 330-9500
Best Place to Do the Hully Gully
The Fuzz Club
The last Saturday of every month we tease our hair, pull on our go-go boots, slick on some white lipstick, and shake it on over to Nasty's for our favorite Sixties dance party. Every month a different local or touring act takes the stage for a series of three 30-minute sets, punctuated by DJ Sue's blend of garage, R&B, surf, and bubblegum tunes. Dig it, kids.
606 Maiden, 453-4349
Best Place to Watch Too Many Men Compete for Too Few Women
Cedar Street Courtyard
The band ain't the only thing swingin' at Cedar Street. Not even the two indoor bars that sandwich the spacious courtyard of Cedar Street are enough to house the raging hormones of Austin's randiest singles. If the cloud of cigar smoke emanating from the patio is any indication, men are the favored gender in a dating game fueled by some serious competition. So grab a stogie, think of a line, and get swingin'. Results may vary.
208 W. Fourth, 495-9669
Best Biannual Fashion Event
Club DeVille Fashion Extravaganza
Every six months, this extravaganza offers Austin's most entertaining and eye-popping assortment of fashion and fun. CDV's outdoor venue is a perfect setting for the runway hijinks of this charity benefit, loaded with local celebrities and dazzling clothes from some of Austin's premier independent retailers. Such diverse themes as "Death to Pastels" and "The History of Cher" ensure an ever-changing cast of characters both on- and off-stage.
900 Red River, 457-0900
Best Interactive Art Exhibition
Dynamic Opposition
Tired of static, two-dimensional canvases that passively engage the audience? Then check out "Dynamic Opposition," a selection of constructive and kinetic art that actually demands viewers take an active role. In fact, much of the work needs a viewer's movement to "make it work." The result is a roomful of dynamic structures that dazzle the senses and leave your head swirling for more. The show runs until November 20.
At the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, 21st & Guadalupe, through Nov. 20, 471-7324
Sanest Place to Take Mom Clubbing
Elephant Room
Smooth, cool jazz, a mandolin quartet sometimes thrown into the mix, the Elephant Room offers all the lively vibe of Austin's music scene, without all the hype. Comfortably tucked away in a low-ceilinged basement just below Congress Avenue, dimly lit with a long bar, a healthy selection of draft beers, plenty of tables, a considerate crowd, and even a small area for dancing, this place offers just the right volume for a night on the town and reassures Mom that, see, you're not too old to hit the bars!
315 Congress, 473-2279
Best Voice of Authority
Janis Stinson
Some stage performers need time to develop that convincing sense of experience that grounds them in a character or a song. Not Janis Stinson. The instant this warm, funny actress/singer opens her mouth, whether it's to belt out "Blues in the Night," deliver the poetic musings of a grieving widow in The America Play, or take us "Way Over Yonder" via the music of Carole King, she convinces you that she Knows Whereof She Speaks, that she's Been There and Done That. For Stinson always draws her rich, ripe, husky voice from deep within, straight from her soul, and it gives her automatic authority. That voice, matched with an electric presence and priceless comic savvy, puts Stinson in the top rank of Austin stage artists.
1510 Toomey, 476-0594
www.zachscott.com
Most Welcome New Art Scene Addition
D. Berman Gallery
Walk into this smart small space downtown, now in the midst of its fourth exhibition, and you can feel the professionalism humming in mid air. David Berman, an affable former Brooklynite, runs a venue where elegantly minimal surroundings can hold all manner of visual wonders. We're still reeling from the site's "Pattern Language" debut, and the current show, featuring Ed Ruscha's "Sunliner" series of glass tumblers -- more like the ghosts of glass tumblers haunting their background's frames -- only makes us thirsty for more.
1701 Guadalupe, 477-8877
Best Classical Gas
Golden Arm Trio's Graham Reynolds/ Brown Whörnet's Peter Stopschinski
Adding strings to popular music has been the norm since they first started skinning kitty cats, but when Golden Arm Trio's Graham Reynolds and Brown Whörnet's Peter Stopschinski decided to flex their classical music training and write symphonies, they galvanized the entire Austin indie underground. It was a beautiful thing. Having gone on to bassoon quartets and a half-dozen other classical music set-ups (nose-flute duos!), both keyboardists continue to stimulate the previously dormant classical leanings in the music-loving capital of the world. Combined with the fact that both bands are also two of Austin's best, Golden Arm Trio an eclectic jazz improv troupe and Brown Whörnet the thinking man's punk riot, roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.
Golden Arm Trio, 443-4196; Brown Whörnet, 448-4914
Best Buena Vista Social Club
La Zona Rosa
While the room itself is still no Liberty Lunch, the lack of ambience has not stopped Direct Events from booking some of the hippest international acts touring. Cuban music in particular, one of the hottest musical trends at the turn of the century, has flourished at the venue: Promethean pianist Chucho Valdes, Buena Vista Social Club cowboy Eliades Ochoa, Cuba's answer to the Rolling Stones, Los Van Van, and hornman Jesus Alemany's all-star jazz/funk collective ¡Cubanismo! All have helped make La Zona Rosa the capital of local Latin bump 'n' grind, and considering the enthusiasm of the multiethnic crowds crowding these events, Austin wants más y más.
612 W. Fourth, 472-2293
Best Place to Witness Photographic History
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
To hell with the Gutenberg Bible, winning football teams, and Pulitzer Prizes. Other places have those. But only UT has the very first photograph ever taken. The first! Primo! In the 1820s, Frenchman Joseph Nicephore Niepce experimented with various forms of heliographs and with plates made of copper, zinc, and finally pewter. After successfully taking the world's first photograph (which turns out to be of his courtyard at Gras), Niepce reportedly remarked, "I have seized the light! I have captured its flight!" Of course, he had time to think during the eight hours it took to expose the film and develop it in oil of lavender.
21st & Guadalupe, 471-8944
Best Art Incubator
The Artplex
In these boom-happy times, people seem to be forgetting what brought most folks to Austin in the first place: our vibrant creative atmosphere. It seems that we've also forgotten that in order to create works of cultural significance, artists need affordable office and studio space. The Artplex houses a variety of low-budget, grassroots arts organizations, from the Cinemaker Co-op to the Salvage Vanguard Theater. We like to wander through the exhibition-lined hallways and check the bulletin boards to keep current on upcoming openings, screenings, and events.
1705 Guadalupe, 473-3775
www.austin.citysearch.com/E/V/AUSTX/0005/63/30/cs1.html
Best Low-Down, Texas Guitar Blues Club on Sixth Street
Joe's Generic Bar
Yeah, we know that other place has rightfully earned the title of Austin's Home of the Blues, but they haven't been the only game in town for a long time. For well over a decade, Joe's unpretentious, no-frills dive has never charged a cover and has been a much-needed venue for countless up-and-coming blues bands and musicians. The time-honored Texas guitar power trio reigns supreme here. On any given night you can fall by, grab a cheap beer, and check out the latest SRV wannabe blasting out a Texas shuffle or a gritty blues dirge. The vibe is low-down to be sure, but Joe's deserves our respect for giving a cozy home to the blues on Sixth Street.
315 E. Sixth, 480-0171
Best Team Player
Michael Stuart
There aren't many theatres that haven't had this omnipresent actor, director, designer, and producer working on their stages at some time since he first arrived on the scene in the late 1970s. Stuart has been the one to call on for last-minute casting, designing a set on the fly, or just lending a hand during a typical opening-week crisis. Now the dedicated veteran is creating his own theatre in Flatonia, but we still expect to see him hard at work on Austin stages for years to come.
1507 Murray, 320-0827
Best Rock & Roll Slugfest at a Very Expensive Restaurant
Primal Scream vs. An Ornery Texan, Friday, June 2
We weren't there, but we think it went a little like this:
"Howdy y'all. Mind if'n I crank up the ballgame a little bit? I like the sound of sweaty male athletics to accompany my fine dinner fare."
"F*ck you, ya daft c*nt!"
Pow!
Or something like that. British supergroup Primal Scream managed to turn the VIP room of Ruth's Chris Steak House, downtown Austin's finest restaurant, into a WWF Smackdown when "a guy with a cowboy hat and a big belt buckle" refused to turn down the sound on the TV overhanging the band's table. Punches were thrown, bottles were cracked on skulls, but ultimately no charges were pressed, and the following night's show at La Zona Rosa went on as scheduled. Rumors that former My Bloody Valentine wunderkind Kevin Shields continued to debate the pros and cons of digital vs. analog tape looping as magnums of champagne ricocheted inches from his head are unconfirmed but highly probable.
107 W. Sixth, 477-7884
Best Fashion Fantasist
Leslie Bonnell
An accomplished designer with an extensive understanding of fashion and fantasy, Bonnell takes what could be ordinary theatrical wear and transforms it into haute couture costumes of high style and soaring imagination. Her wizard's touch has graced such Zachary Scott Theatre Center productions as Tommy, The Santaland Diaries, and Schoolhouse Rock, but no show shows what she's best at better than Zach's 1999 take on The Rocky Horror Show, where she took the classic but now-hackneyed look of that gender-bent horror musical, added a touch of Thierry Mugler, a daub of Claude Montana, and a whole lot of Leslie Bonnell, and created visual magic.
1510 Toomey, 476-0594
www.zachscott.com
Best Reason to Miss ER
Dale Watson's Thursday Night Shows at the Little Longhorn Saloon
If it's 9pm on a Thursday, there are better things to be doing than watching TV. Git yerself on down to the only true honky-tonk in North Austin and catch the hard-core country stylings of Mr. Watson. And hey, with George Clooney gone, you need another ruggedly handsome hunk in your life, don't you?
5434 Burnet Rd., 458-1813
Best Promotion of One Woman's Art
Liz Guenthner/ Michelle Reeves
It takes a lot of work to get your client's creations into nearly every cafe-based space in town throughout the year and to drum up sufficient media coverage thereof. It takes organization and social engineering and a whole bunch of meetings with a plethora of people, it takes press-release generating on a scale normally attempted only by entire teams of PR wonks, and just that we're writing these words is testament to the Herculean efforts of Michelle Reeves in promoting the gloriously surreal ouvre of her partner Elizabeth Guenthner. All the better for us: Try not to see Guenthner's fabulous paintings somewhere. You'll fail happily.
326-8252
Best Theatre Staff
The Paramount Volunteers
These days, it seems like nothing at the movies is guaranteed. Spotty sound, blurred picture, thermostat failure -- it happens everywhere. At the Paramount, you can always count on the assistance of one the many smiling faces that comprise the theatre staff to help with any problem. And when things are running smoothly, there's always one around to talk cinema to anyone with a passion for the classics.
713 Congress, 472-5470
Best Venue
Pulse
Nature abhors a vacuum, and so, apparently, does Keith La Rosa, aka Luna, of System-7 Records, who realized some months back that Austin's rave community was sorely lacking in legitimate venues for the 24-hour party people to shake their groove thangs in. Enter Pulse, a massive warehouse-type space with mucho adjoining acreage located six miles out off Hwy. 183 past the new airport. Sure, it's a drive, but unlike the Austin Music Hall, this venue's sole function is in the service of the groove. Bonus points for looking like a feedlot during the daylight hours and thusly confusing The Man.
8510 Lava Hill, 481-9025
www.system-7.com/pulse/main1.html
Best Off-Broadway Live Music Venue
Scottish Rite Theatre
It's been standing there, just off MLK on Lavaca and 18th Street, since 1871, but most live-music-goers of Austin had no idea the former German opera house even existed before the Golden Arm Symphony packed its stately interior in spring 2000. Since then, South by Southwest used it for a raucous Asylum Street Spankers & Friends showcase, Cat Power sold it out, and the Laura Nyro-inspired musical Soul Picnic encamped there. Better yet, the scruffy DIY crowd has been on its best behavior when attending the thee-ta. Quite. All you junior promoters give a call.
207 W. 18th, 472-7247
Best Karaoke Con Queso
Pato's Good Tacos
A post-taco spectacle like no other, Thursdays and Saturdays at Pato's is the place to pay tribute to the art of the "empty orchestra" (English for "karaoke"). There's plenty of tribute to the art of beer drinking, too, but that's all part of the modern Americn karaoke experience, now isn't it? Teenage girls belt out Madonna songs, construction workers sing Hank Williams, twentysomethings do screeching versions of Guns N' Roses, and everyone has a rollicking good time.
1400 E. 381/2 476-4247
Best Dream Designer
Michael Raiford
A snow-haired woman in a canary yellow vinyl dress emerges from a giant white clamshell. Ethereal figures in white antique dress glide past white walls in which chairs are mysteriously fused. A man dressed as President Lincoln sits atop a mound of earth seeded with hundreds of pennies. In other cities, people have to wait till they're asleep to view such wonders. In Austin, all we have to do is see a show designed by the absolutely fabulous Michael Raiford. Possessed of a vaulting imagination and wicked wit, this scenic and costume designer creates luxuriant stage spectacles that rival the fantasy worlds of Slumberland. Mr. Sandman can wait; we want to drift off with the dreamy Mr. Raiford.
1510 Toomey, 476-0594
www.zachscott.com/
Best Defunct Eighties Band Name Etched in Concrete
Scratch Acid on Marathon Boulevard
Before moving to Austin in the late 1980s, we had an Austin Chronicle subscription. One band we'd find mentioned in every Chronicle was Scratch Acid, the prototype that eventually became the Jesus Lizard, one of the most influential, hard, edgy rockers of the Nineties. While dearly departed, Scratch Acid lives on in the hearts of many, as well on the sidewalks of Central Austin; the band's name was lovingly inscribed near Ramsey Park. It is surrounded by the small footprints of people now too old to need a fake ID.
4107 Marathon, outside Boatright Floors, one block west of 41st & Lamar
Cheapest Highbrow Date
Harry Ransom Center, Blanton Art Museum
You're a student ... or just about as tightly budgeted as one (well, one without a trust fund ... ). You meet hottie. You like hottie. You ask hottie on date, then realize you got no scratch to impress hottie. You hope hottie likes the same things you do. You hope hottie can converse him/herself out of a wet paper bag about art and/or culture or at least is open to learning how. Where better to take hottie than the low-pressure, highly acclaimed galleries on UT campus? The HRC has a Gutenberg Bible, the world's first photograph, and a Franz Kline painting. The Blanton always has something new and thought-provoking. Plus you can count on a 10-minute, tree-lined walk from one culture fount to the other: ample time to make hottie aware of your good intentions.
21st & Guadalupe, 471-8944; 2300 San Jacinto, 471-8944
Best Spellbinder
Ray Anderson
Just try to take your eyes off illusionist Ray Anderson when he's holding the stage at Esther's Pool. It's damn near a physical impossibility. If he doesn't transfix you with some of his "how did he do that" legerdemain, this slyly suave performer will entrance you with his dancer's grace and effortless charm. Whether he's sawing assistant Cindy Wood in half or doing a discofied disappearing act, Anderson's moves are so smooth and his enthusiasm for his artistry so infectious, he's like the Fred Astaire of stage magic. Like that master dancer, Anderson captivates so that you not only can't take your eyes off him, you don't even want to try.
Esther's Pool, 525 E. Sixth, 320-0553
Best Bar to Relax in Without Getting Hit On
Star Bar
You've seen it before -- floor-to-ceiling windows, relaxed patio environment just steps away from Sixth Street, the crimson lights of the omnipresent neon sign -- but have you stepped inside? Mercilessly trendy (Cosmos were so last century) but lacking the pretension of other Austin dives (throw on those sandals), Star Bar is the ideal setting for something that has gone missing from Sixth Street over the years -- tranquility.
600 W. Sixth, 477-8550
Best Return of 19th-Century Texas
TIE: Stephen Harrigan, Steven Saylor, Bud Shrake
In the span of about two months, three novels were published that all took place in 19th-century Texas: Stephen Harrigan's masterful reconstruction of the battle at the Alamo, The Gates of the Alamo; Bud Shrake's The Borderland, which picks up, as if on cue, several years after the close of Harrigan's novel; and A Twist at the End, detective novelist Steven Saylor's suspenseful account of Austin's Servant Girl Annihilator murders in the 1880s. The coincidence is a publishing fluke, perhaps, but one that kicked up the dust of old Texas trails and made them come alive.
The Gates of the Alamo, Alfred A. Knopf, $25; The Borderland: A Novel of Texas, Hyperion, $24.95; A Twist at the End: A Novel of O. Henry, Simon & Schuster, $25
Best Entertainment District
Red River Between Sixth & 10th
It used to be that for every live music venue that disappeared on Sixth Street, another would appear. That's still the case, except these days, nearly all of them appear on Red River. In a mere four blocks you can now choose from Room 710, Red Eyed Fly, Stubb's, Emo's, Atomic Cafe, Caucus Club, and Club DeVille (Flamingo Cantina around the corner gets an honorary slot). Also, there're dance clubs and various non-live-music havens in between where you can take a breather. And if your friends still insist on going to Sixth Street, you're already there!
Room 710, 710 Red River, 476-0997; Red Eyed Fly, 715 Red River, 473-2844; Stubb's, 801 Red River, 480-8341; Emo's, 603 Red River, 477-EMOS; Atomic Cafe, 705 Red River, 457-0644; Caucus Club, 912 Red River, 472-2873; Club DeVille, 900 Red River, 457-0900; Flamingo Cantina, 515 E. Sixth, 494-9336
Best Proof Drugs Don't Kill You
The Uranium Savages
The Band Too Dumb to Die turned 25 last year. That means for a quarter-century Kerry Awn, David Perkoff, Artly Snuff, and company have been skewering Austin's fabled hip factor with irreverent glee. Not a political trend or musical talent misses the Savages' scrutiny, and the addition of the Eddy Sisters a few years ago gave the act some much-needed sex appeal. Talk about still being crazy after all these years.
480-9980
Best Annual Fashion Event
UT Fashion Group's Erwin Center Show
High-end production values elevate this show above most student shows. Offering designs from all skill levels, it is a show that often gives young designers their first runway opportunity, which, from fittings to finale, is one of the most valuable learning experiences possible. The enormous crowds notwithstanding, the greatest asset is what it gives to the people of Austin.
471-4285
Best Dance Leader
Stephen Mills
Creating vibrant, innovative dance is one talent. Guiding a growing arts institution is another. Stephen Mills is gifted in both, as he proved repeatedly throughout the 1999-2000 season as interim artistic director of Ballet Austin. As the company moved out of the era of former artistic director Lambros Lambrou and through a yearlong search for his successor, Mills took what could have been a directionless, drifting corps of dancers and bound them together in a series of energetic, inventive, and frequently witty ballets of his original choreography. There was something fresh onstage, and by the time he was named Ballet Austin's permanent artistic director, it was clear that in any dance, he will take the lead.
Ballet Austin, 3002 Guadalupe, 476-9151
