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• Best Mariners Broadcaster

  Rick Rizzs

  Dave Niehaus is already in the Hall of Fame. But Rick Rizzs is actually better. Having ascended slowly but surely through the Midwestern minor-league broadcasting ranks, Rizzs loves Bull Durham and doesn't put much stock in the Moneyball-fueled statistical revolution. His calls are soothing and informative, as sunny as baseball should be, even on a gray day. True, he fled… More >>

• Best Po' Man's Tycoon

  Zack Bolotin

  Lots of recent college grads, not finding luck in their chosen fields, might work as a barista to keep rent money flowing. Zack Bolotin is working at a coffee shop, sure, but he also owns it. And has turned Porchlight Coffee into a new and used record shop. And this summer, Bolotin wrote on the Porchlight Twitter: "In the tradition… More >>

• Best Daily-Newspaper Columnist

  Danny Westneat

  Even with the demise of the print P-I, hard times in the newspaper business have led to cost-cutting everywhere, and The Seattle Times has been consolidated to the point that most of the local news worth printing appears in the front section, rendering the metro section a hodgepodge of local crime shorts and lifestyle tidbits. Thank goodness, then, for Danny… More >>

• Best Place to Find a Mind-Stimulating Lecture

  Even in a city as big as Seattle, sometimes it's a struggle to find new stuff to do. But what about catching a lecture on the "representations of the black market in postwar Japanese fiction," or delving into the surprisingly controversial world of Latin dance history? All that and more can be found at the University of Washington's Simpson Center… More >>

• Best Seattlepi.com Reader Blog

  Susan Powter

  The P-I reader blogs, while a good idea, have proven an unmitigated disaster, generally updated about as frequently as Kobayashi misses a meal. They're not edited—on purpose, so that the Hearst-owned website can wash its hands of responsibility for any opinions expressed by the likes of local quasi-celebrity Susan Powter. Her self-filmed video rants (which, true to reader-blog form, ceased… More >>

• Best Bar to Meet an Australian Bloke

  Kangaroo & Kiwi Pub

  Australian men are hot. (Behold Hugh Jackman.) But you needn't travel Down Under to nab a man with an awesome accent. Simply swing by the Kangaroo and Kiwi in Green Lake. Its owners proudly claim it's the only authentic Australian pub in the Pacific Northwest, and work hard to provide expats with a home away from home. Aussies gather here… More >>

• Best Neighborhood

  Georgetown

  It's been about 10 years since urban wonks started branding Georgetown with the "next [fill in name of hot new neighborhood]" tag. In response, Georgetown took its time. Oh, sure, a new restaurant would crop up here and a new gallery there, but nobody seemed in the mood to sprint, or tear things down to make way for new condos.… More >>

• Best Coffee-Shop Survivor

  Café Allegro

  Some assumed that the venerable Café Allegro would be eclipsed by the UW building that recently filled the parking lot a few feet away. It used to be that patrons of the U District's oldest espresso joint, founded in 1975, would follow the sun, taking their cups from the benches in the alley to the parking curbs, and sometimes all… More >>

• Best Bar to Meet a European Man

  Contour

  It can be hard for transplants (and tourists) from Europe, accustomed to their larger-than-life dance parties, to find suitable options in our shoegazing city. Contour is the exception. Every Saturday, it hosts Europa Night, spinning music from Germany, Serbia, Bulgaria, and the rest—meaning lots of cologne, tight black V-necks, and expensive haircuts. If you like that sort of guy, this… More >>

• Best Sports-Radio Duo

  Brock & Salk Show

  Back when KJR had a monopoly in the local sports-radio market, they dealt the very notion of on-air duos a tremendous blow when they scaled back the hours and salary of Dave Grosby, half of his long-running "Groz & Gas" show with Mike "Gas Man" Gastineau. But duos have bounced back. In April 2009, KIRO radio announced the debut of… More >>

• Best Off-Season Acquisition

  Cliff Lee

  Seattle's previous love affair with a tall, dominating lefty will likely end with a Mariners cap in Cooperstown. Cliff Lee didn't sling in Seattle anywhere near as long as Randy Johnson did, and he's already a Texas Ranger. But once every five days for the first few months this season, he managed to make local baseball fans forget that they… More >>

• Best Public-Radio Gabber

  Ross Reynolds

  As you can clearly discern by listening to some other KUOW hosts, it's no easy feat to deliver a smooth, polished, and brisk line of questioning. That's what makes Ross Reynolds so impressive. Every weekday at noon he steps up to the mike for "The Conversation," and with a minimum of bumbling and a maximum of crisp, thoughtful lines of… More >>

• Best Example of Giving by Those Who Have Next to Nothing

  Concerned Lifers

  Most inmates make no more than 55 cents an hour at their prison jobs. They save up their money to buy a TV or radio, or just the toiletries that are in short supply when you're doing time. Shortly before Christmas 2009, a group of prisoners at the Monroe Correctional Complex who call themselves Concerned Lifers came up with another… More >>

• Best Community Resource for the Handy

  West Seattle Tool Library

  Nothing sucks more than having to pony up for a tool you'll use, like, two or three times in your life. And renting a tool is like renting a tux; once you've done it a couple times, you realize you'd have been better off just buying one. Thank goodness, then, for the West Seattle Tool Library. Here, you pay what… More >>

• Best Hotel Lobby for Eavesdropping

  The Fairmont Olympic

  The Fairmont Olympic is where all the A-listers stay in Seattle. Its lobby is drenched in imported Italian decor, floral arrangements, and best of all, fascinating conversation. An evening spent eavesdropping here is equivalent to an anthropological crash course in the lives of rich people. Fiji-bound newlyweds gush over their love, silver foxes make back-to-back phone calls to their wives… More >>

• Best Organizers of "Spontaneous" Outbreaks

  Flash Mob Seattle

  Egan Orion conceptualizes and coordinates, Beth Meberg and Bobby Bonsey choreograph, and millions of YouTube viewers (not to mention confused onlookers) pay attention. Flash Mob Seattle, produced by One Degree Events, unofficially (unofficially, in true flash-mob fashion) started last summer with the Michael Jackson tribute dance: about 300 seemingly average passersby assembled for a massive Michael Jackson dance routine in… More >>

• Best Transit Idea

  Expand the Light Rail to West Seattle

  If you thought the condemnation of the South Park Bridge was a tragedy, wait until the Alaskan Way Viaduct crumbles to the ground. At that moment, you will hear the collective wails of tens of thousands of West Seattleites (and Burienites!) who've just witnessed the death of their earthbound commute as they know it. Yeah, there's the water taxi, but… More >>

• Best Twitter Parody

  Dino Rossi PR

  Faux-Twitter accounts went online almost as soon as the site launched. Fake Sarah Palins, Oprahs, and Steve Jobses started posting hilarious 140-character meditations to the collective joy of the Internet. Dino Rossi PR, operated by the state Democratic Party, has some obvious slams at Patty Murray’s opponent. But most are subtle japes at the expense of the man making his… More >>

• Best Guide to Homebrewing

  Alejandro Brown

  Anyone who's ever tried to make beer at home can tell you it isn't easy. There are precise temperature requirements, precise measurements for all ingredients, and strict rules about contamination; otherwise you end up with a bottle of sludge that tastes like rotten bread. But Alejandro Brown is here to help. Brown opened Big Al Brewing two years ago in… More >>

• Best Daily-Newspaper Reporter

  Mike Carter

  In this life, few things are certain. Death, yes (unfortunately). Taxes too. Crappy weather in July at least once every three years (in Seattle, anyway). And Mike Carter's byline on an important breaking news story in The Seattle Times. In a precarious journalistic age when aggregation, snark, and "added value" permeate the landscape, Carter still pumps sources and chases big… More >>

• Best Octogenarian Activist

  David Schermerhorn

  Is your idea of retirement taking a perilous journey across the sea to stand up to one of the world's best armies and help people you believe are oppressed? No? Well, apparently it's David Schermerhorn's. The 80-year-old Orcas Island resident, avid sailor, and former television producer was among those who in May defied Israeli warnings and set sail on a… More >>

• Best Excuse for Bailing Out of the McGinn Administration

  Shoulder Surgery

  "Hey, boss, got a second? OK, good. Um, well, this morning I had shoulder surgery. Yeah, it hurts a lot, and I can't really type with my right hand. What's that? You can get a typist for me? Oh, that's OK—you need that money to hire another consultant. I'll just quit, effective immediately. These couple months have been really awesome.… More >>