Click on a category or scroll down the page to read about this year's winners for Seattle's best arts and entertainment...
(Item 30, Best place to spend New Year's Eve, can be found in the best of the millennium .)
What's great about the refurbished Cinerama (2100 Fourth, 441-3080) is the same thing that was great about the pre-refurbished Cinerama: that Great Big Screen. We're sure that all kinds of wonderful technological miracles have been worked on the sound and projection systems, but what we like most about these improvements is that they don't distract you from the glory of that Great Big Screen. If only Paul Allen spent all his money this well! The fancy new accoutrements—the digital movie posters, the retro-future lobby design, the speckles on the outside that change color in waves—are all very nice; the seats might be a little roomier than they were before, we can't remember; but all that really matters is that the Cinerama still exists. The only other screen to compare is the UA 150, which is rotting just a few blocks away; too bad it's not in some other neighborhood, where someone might be motivated to rescue it as well. But at least there's still one movie palace to give Seattle the horizon-filling, submit-to-the-celluloid-dream, Great-Big-Screen experience that a movie should be. (Of course, finding new movies that deserve that kind of power is whole other question. . . .) The Harvard Exit, that snug neighborhood hangout, came in second, with the Crest pulling into third (a strong showing this year).
THINGS THEY LIKE
Pat Cashman
Former KIRO radio personality, Almost Live cast member
 There are lots of fancy places around with snooty waiters and high prices, but for my money, and there's not a lot of it, the Old Spaghetti Factory is still the best place to go: a lot of food, good stiff drinks, and the help are young people eager to serve and enthusiastic about their jobs, and you come out with almost as much money as you went in with. The Kingdome: It's not going to be there much longer, so go look at it now so that someday you can remember that maybe it wasn't so bad after all. Ye Olde Curiosity Shop has a whale penis over the door, the saw off a sawfish, the hammer off a hammerhead shark for all I know, but where else can you go and not even pay an admission and see at least two dead people on display?
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Though it's part of a chain, Sacramento-based Tower Records has become something of a Seattle institution with its Mercer Street and U District stores (500 Mercer; 4321 University Wy NE; 800-ASK-TOWER). Music fans flock to both locations to hunt down the latest CD or simply come by to browse through the massive selection in hopes of stumbling on an overlooked gem. Now the famed record chain has added a shiny new store in Bellevue (550 106th NE), allowing high-tech workers to pick up something for their hi-fis and giving suburbanites a new place to spend an afternoon or evening. And while Tower's a great place to buy CDs, it also remains the supplier of the handiest and most fashionable of all plastic shopping bags; everyone will know where you've been as soon as they see you walking down the sidewalk with your bright gold sack. Silver Platters, that shiny palace of discs, came in second, and Amazon.com ranked third.
Seattleites passed over Golden Oldies (second place) and Bud's Jazz (third) in favor of that old indie standby Cellophane Square, which has graduated from a rinky-dink shop in the U District (4538 University Wy NE, 634-2280) into a mini-indie empire, with stores on Capitol Hill (130 Broadway, 329-2202), in the U District, and near Bellevue Square (322 Bellevue Wy NE, 425-454-5059) as well as one in Bellingham. Readers liked the shops' quirky array of vinyl, where you can find everything from rock-'n'-roll rarities to the latest dance domestic 12-inch, as well as some recycled vinyl from folks who've since moved on to CDs.
"Big, loud, and fresh—that's all you need to know." That's how co-owner Jared Harler described the sound system at ARO.space (925 E Pike, 860-7322) in the week before the club opened in March 1998. But it's not just the sound system that won the club a spot in the hearts of Weekly readers. After ironing out some scheduling snafus, ARO.space launched an ambitious program of live music and dance nights, regular weekly events and touring acts, art exhibits and multimedia affairs, and even the occasional lecture (not to mention a killer vegetarian cafeteria). Along the way, they've hosted gay, straight, and mixed crowds, coming close to being all things to all people—and that's quite a feat. Dimitriou's Jazz Alley and the Fenix scored second and third, respectively.
