ART GALLERY
Second Street Gallery
Runner-up: McGuffey Art Center
Second Street Gallery came in first this year, just edging out its former landlord (and numero uno in this category last year) McGuffey Arts Center. What sets Second Street apart from the others is its focus on a variety of contemporary artists. Its location in the first floor of the City Center for Contemporary Arts has proved a perfect match for the gallery’s wide variety of avant-garde offerings. We would like for them to tweak the acoustics in the beautifully spartan space, however—especially for shows that feature live music alongside the gallery gabbing. No matter what, though, it’ll be exciting to see what they display this year as they try to retain the coveted Best of C-VILLE title.
OUTDOOR RECREATION
Walnut Creek
Runner-up: Rivanna Trail
Walnut Creek’s lush 480-acre park, open year-round, is one of Albemarle County’s loveliest open spaces. The responsibly designed 13 miles of biking trails is the favorite spot of the Charlottesville Albe-marle Mountain Bike Club’s events (and C-VILLE voters), but there are also places for swimming, boating, fishing, as well as a beach for showing off that itsy bitsy bikini. If you’re looking for a trail in the city, however, the runner-up can’t be beat. The 20-mile long Rivanna Trail runs along the Rivanna River and Moores and Meadow creeks, and forms a loose loop around the entire city. Happy trails!
OUTDOOR EVENT OR FESTIVAL
Fridays After 5
Runner-up: The Vegetarian Festival
Thousands of people can’t be wrong. When you think outdoor events and Charlottesville, it’s hard to ignore free admission to the musical festivities at the big white baby bonnet at the east end of the Downtown Mall every Friday around 5. And you have to admit: The price is right (and the cheap beer’s not bad, either). In a surprising come-from-behind near-victory, The Vegetarian Festival came in a solid second, proving that there are almost as many
C-VILLE readers out there who prefer green tea, chi g’ong and music of the more acoustic flavor to the Pavilion’s week-ending rockfest. Long live diversity!
PLACE TO SWIM
ACAC
Runner-up: Fry’s Spring Beach Club
One is sleek, modern and ably outfitted in the shading department by man-made features, such as sun umbrellas. The other is old and old-fashioned, lined with a canopy of giant, cooling trees. But what ACAC and Fry’s Spring have in common is sparkling cool water, and plenty of it! Come summer, Charlottesville apparently likes a pool that combines kiddie delights (water slides! wading areas for little tykes!) with ample lap lanes and lots of space in which to splash about or play water basketball. ACAC and Fry’s Spring are your leading choices. Now that you know where to go, everybody get in the pool!
PLACE TO DANCE
R2
Runner-up: Club 216
We admit it: We were actually pulling for perennial write-in “my bedroom” to win—but we’re perfectly satisfied with these results, as well. And the best thing about this one-two disco-dancing punch is that the top vote-getters’ schedules are complementary. After you’ve sweated out the day’s frustrations at Rapture’s bass-pounding techno and electro palace, R2, you can head across Water Street at closing time and continue to shake your booty until dawn at runner-up Club 216. Ride the pony, people. Ride the pony.
LIVE MUSIC VENUE
Charlottesville Pavilion
Runner-up: Starr Hill Music Hall
It’s good to be the king. We wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how developer and music-hall monarch Coran Capshaw feels with both the winner and the runner-up live music venues among his holdings. After installing baffling (a term we find, frankly, puzzling) to absorb sound, the Pavilion is subject to a lot less neighborhood criticism these days. Either that, or people have finally figured out that it’s very cool to have Willie Nelson, Wilco and Ween play in your backyard, and it’s high time they stopped bitching.
As for Starr Hill, the comparatively intimate venue on W. Main Street has obviously not been cowed by the mystique of the Pavilion’s high-drawing acts, responding with such memorable shows as Neko Case, The Yard Dogs and Ghostface Killah.
PERFORMING ARTS EVENT
Live Arts
Runner-up: The Paramount Theater
Event, venue—what’s the diff? As far as
C-VILLE readers are concerned, everything Live Arts does is so wonderful that there’s no point distinguishing among productions. You just love the whole organization, and everything coming out of it! For the record, Charlottesville’s long-running community arts organization put on some real winners last season, including Noises Off, Macbeth, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the icky-to-say-but-fun-to-watch Urinetown. No wonder you couldn’t chose just one!
Meanwhile, the Paramount, now in its second full year, brought the indescribable Yo-Yo Ma, the elegant Miami City Ballet and the desperate Kathy Griffin to town, among many others. So much excellence, so little time!
Next year, maybe we’ll ask you to pick the best “Performing Arts Moment,” and see if that helps you to get more specific!
ROCK MUSICIAN/BAND, OTHER THAN DMB
American Dumpster
Runner-up: Monticello Road
Yes, we had to exclude the destined-to-win Dave Matthews Band from the running this year, if only to give local up-and-comers a fighting chance. And fight they did, with Christian Breeden’s ubiquitous rasp-rock outfit American Dumpster emerging victorious. The sloppy, energetic, arena-ready quintet Monticello Road marshaled enough votes to snag second place. Keep rocking, boys—there’s always next year!
FOLK MUSICIAN/BAND
Terri Allard
Runner-up: Devon Sproule
Women sweep this category again this year, with singer/songwriter/supermom Terri Allard retaining the top spot. Allard just released her fifth CD, Live From Char-lottesville, recorded at The Paramount Theater, and shows no sign of relinquishing her crown to indie/folk chanteuse Devon Sproule (who also came in second last year). On the other hand, Sproule’s album Upstate Songs was dubbed one of Rolling Stone’s Top Albums of 2003, and the precocious 23-year-old will release her fourth CD, Keep Your Silver Shined, this summer. Looks like the 2007 “Best Of” race is officially on.
BLUEGRASS MUSICIAN/BAND
Hackensaw Boys
Runner-up: Old School Freight Train
Sorry, bluegrass purists—seems like the high-octane (and ever-evolving) Hackensaw Boys continue to dominate this category. Famous for fusing the borders between rock, old-time and country, these six guys have a staunch and growing following. Since their humble beginnings as a 12-piece old-time band on the streets of Charlottesville, the Hackensaws now boast four CDs, have toured from Amsterdam to San Francisco, and have appeared alongside the likes of The Flaming Lips, Cheap Trick and Modest Mouse. Similarly rockin’ new-grassy upstarts Old School Freight Train, who opened for Merle
Haggard at the Pavilion in May, fiddled their way into second place.
JAZZ MUSICIAN/BAND
John D’earth
Runners-up: George Melvin
and Robert Jospé
Even though he’s regularly playing the Smithsonian these days, local jazz fans can still catch the high-energy improvisations of trumpeter John D’earth each Thursday night at Miller’s, where he’s played for the last 15 years. His work excites both hardcore jazz aficionados and jam band junkies. In addition to appearing with his six-piece band, D’earth also acts as the Director of Jazz Performance at UVA, where he directs the UVA Jazz Ensemble. No wonder the kids love him! Keyboard king George Melvin and drummer Robert Jospé (who, ironically, plays in the Free Bridge Quintet with D’earth) tied for second.
DJ
DJ Lem
Runner-up: DJ XSV
When it’s time to sway, dub genius DJ Lem—known by day as Lem Oppenheimer—is your No. 1 choice. Lem puts a ton of time into perfecting those reggae and dub tones, and his efforts have obviously paid off. His other job is managing the Easy Star record label, which brought all you stoners that crazy dub version of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. You can check out DJ Lem at regular gigs at Atomic Burrito.
DJ XSV, who often mans the ones and twos at “Place to Dance” winner R2, specializes in mashups and remixes—an obsession that began when he heard his first mashup seven years ago. (Or at least that’s what he says on his myspace profile.) Scratch on, my brothers.
ARTIST
Laura Lee Gulledge
Runner-up: Sharon Shapiro
Manassas native Laura Lee Gulledge held her first (ever) art show this year at Fellini’s #9 in March. Three art showings later, she’s taken Charlottesville by storm with her introspective, emotive and sometimes hilarious paper, ink, gouache and pencil drawings. Her off-kilter, self-referential portraits—which often depict hauntingly hip, thin, bewildered characters—scored top marks from our readers.
As for runner-up Sharon Shapiro—well, it seemed like her acrylic visions of ’40s-style beauties were everywhere this year, from the sensuous nude (sporting only a martini glass) on an arresting Artini flyer to the bathing beauty that graced C-VILLE Weekly’s most recent Independence Day flag cover. Great work, indeed.
AUTHOR, OTHER THAN JOHN GRISHAM
Rita Mae Brown
Runner-up: Barbara Ehrenreich
Never underestimate the power of felines. Charlottesville has, of course, its share of Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners—yet the majority of the votes went to Rita Mae Brown, best known these days for her “Sneaky Pie Brown” mystery novels (which feature a cat who can solve crimes as naturally as she can cough up fur balls). In the background, you can just hear everyone who voted for runner-up Barbara Ehren-reich—author of Nickel and Dimed, an exploration of welfare reform’s impact on the “working poor”—chanting, “We got robbed!”
TV STATION
NBC 29
Runner-up: CBS 19
The “most powerful station” in the state, NBC 29, takes home the prize once again for your favorite TV channel, having ruled the market for three decades now. Up-and-comer CBS 19, the flagship station of the tri-station Charlottesville Newsplex, was hot on their heels, however. Let the broadcast wars begin.
RADIO STATION
WNRN
Runner-up: WTJU
Local radio listeners are apparently of two minds when it comes to what they like. WNRN’s commercial-free cavalcade of crunchy nü metal, indie pop and “modern rock” (with occasional blocks of hip-hop, ‘80s rarities, local music and bluegrass) is the clear favorite. But the always-eclectic college station WTJU placed a strong second, showing that—for a sizable number of Charlottesville radio heads—musical variety remains the spice of life.
