Best Combo Gallery/Coffee ShopIn days past, to show your art in a coffee shop was just a little declasse—a career dead end for washed-up painters and the occasional travel photographer. But no more—Seattle’s coffee shops (and even the occasional barbershop) are the equivalent of minor-league ballparks for up-and-coming stars on the local art scene. Standing above the rest are the walls at JOE BAR in the lovely Loveless Building on Capitol Hill. Tireless curator Jess Van Nostrand stages consistently high-quality shows of painting, photography, and other work by talented young artists. (Nostrand requires that all artists shown don’t yet have gallery representation.) Oh, and the crepes and cappuccinos are pretty darn good here, too.—Andrew Engelson 810 E. Roy St., 206-324-0407, www.joebar.org.Best Place to See a Blockbuster Without Standing in LineWe know we recommended COLUMBIA CITY CINEMA to you last year, but obviously you weren’t listening. Because you can still waltz in there most evenings and see a first-run movie (like Batman Begins or War of the Worlds) without having to buy your ticket ahead of time or cool your heels outside. Bonuses: cheap popcorn, free on-street parking, friendly staff, and one of the coolest waiting rooms in the city—just in case you can’t bring yourself to show up at the last minute. —Lynn Jacobson 4816 Rainier Ave. S., 206-721-3156, www.columbiacitycinema.com.Best Record StoreMark Sullo and Eric Hoffmann opened WALL OF SOUND in Belltown in 1990, and after moving up to Capitol Hill, the store, now owned by Jeffery Taylor and Michael Ohlenroth, recently celebrated its 15-year anniversary. Having passed through and defied one and a half decades of cliches and trends, the small, fastidiously maintained record and book store continues to focus on adventurous sounds and quality ideas. (But you can almost always find whatever’s getting heavy rotation on KEXP, too, if that’s what you’re looking for.) In addition to disseminating static material, on the fourth Thursday of every month, the store hosts live shows at the Rendezvous—and those are always sonically forward and conceptually apropos, too.—Laura Cassidy 315 E. Pine St., 206-441-9880.Best Gallery You’ve Never Been ToMaybe it’s because it’s hidden in SoDo between a train-car diner and a sheet-metal fabricator, but the city’s best gallery doesn’t get a whole lot of walk-in traffic. If you’re looking for thought-provoking exhibits of contemporary art, WESTERN BRIDGE is worth the drive among the diesel trucks and fast-food joints. Nearly all the art is from Bill and Ruth True’s formidable collection of international contemporary works. The Trues have a particular fondness for video, and a huge, padded screening room offers one of the city’s best venues to see important work by artists such as Steve McQueen, Trisha Donnelly, and Seattle’s own Gary Hill. Photography, installations, huge electronic sculptures, and even an occasional painting are all part of the mix here. We’relucky to have it—don’t let the industrial setting scare you off. —Andrew Engelson 3412 Fourth Ave. S., 206-838-7444, www.westernbridge.org.Best Contract RenewalWe should all be happy that Bartlett Sher signed on for three more seasons as artistic director of Intiman Theatre. What has he given us so far? A multiple Tony- winning musical (Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel’s shimmering The Light in the Piazza), an award-winning play (the ambitious Holocaust farce Singing Forest, also by Lucas), and the sense that when we sit down for one of his productions, we’ll be seeing something familiar in a completely new way (witness the disquieting undertow of his humane but deeply unsettled Our Town). His vision has made the theater across from the Rep feel like Seattle’s real giant.—Steve Wiecking Seattle Center, 206-269-1900, www.intiman.org.Best Alternative VenueThe use of the word “gallery” in GALLERY 1412’s name is perfect. It’s a music venue that hosts everything from impressive free-jazz improv to butoh to politico post-punk noise, but the shows have an element of exhibition, too. It isn’t that they’re showy or conspicuous, or that the visual element is necessarily as important as the sonic one. In fact, the space is small and plain; it’s the ultimate little black box. But the music here is presented purposefully and artfully, and you’re meant to interact with it. “Curated” by a group of 14 local artists who, in exchange for helping to generate rent money, also get to rehearse their projects there, the gallery’s programming includes workshops and art openings. —Laura Cassidy 1412 18th Ave., 206-322-1533, www.gallery1412.org.Best Aisle at ScarecrowOh, sure, you’ve got your porno section, your anime area, your unclassifiable comedies, and nation-by-nation sections, but for my money, it’s the HITCHCOCK SHELVES that are most impressive. They’ve got some 127 titles (several of them duplicates) in all your major formats, including Laserdisc for you first-edition Criterion Collection purists. There are also compendiums from his 1950s Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series and some of his silent-era rarities. Look a little further, and there are many documentaries about the famed director, too. Given enough rainy evenings, you could practically assemble your own Ph.D. course on the guy, then perhaps write a dissertation on why his Mr. & Mrs. Smith is superior to the Brad and Angelina flick.—Brian Miller 5030 Roosevelt Way N.E., 206-524-8554, www.scarecrow.com.Best Local Band NameLike the Smashing Pumpkins, the best band names are typically of the inside-joke variety. Behold: HUNK PARADE, a trio of masculine “wayward sailors on extended shore leave from the rigors of the ship” (notes their Myspace band profile). The handsomely outfitted squids include Capt. Brian Fantasy, 1st Mate Mikey Galaxy, and Cmdr. Craig T. Comet, who also moonlights solo as Slowdanse and with Galaxy as Black Japan. More listenable than either of those, Hunk Parade get people dancing to “What it Feels Like for a Girl (Who Used to Be a Man)” and “Trouser Snake Shake,” elevating a silly name into a surprisingly cohesive concept.—Rachel Shimp www.hunkparade.com.Best Tango DuoPATRICIO TOUCEDA shakes his head like a young Paul McCartney when he demonstrates what he feels is a common caricature of Argentine tango dancing. “The tango is passionate, and so you see ‘ah, ah, ah,'” he says. But the intense connection between Touceda and his partner, EVA LUCERO, is far from a silly stereotype and is one of the elements that draws people to their work. Both in classes all over the city and in their ongoing gig Fridays and Saturdays at the Buenos Aires Grill, they are masters of proximity. —Sandra Kurtz www.tangonetwork.com.Best (Classical) ComposerWhenever I complain about the highly tenuous relationship between Seattle’s most visible music performance organizations and its local composers, I wait for someone to ask, “OK, smart-ass, just whose music really would be worthy of the S. Mark Taper Auditorium or Lakeside School?” (Or, Speight forbid, McCaw Hall?) My nomination for the composer producing the most consistently impressive work in mainstream genres: BERN HERBOLSHEIMER. He creates music of uncommon craft, sensitivity, imagination, enjoyability, and beauty, as many smaller and more adventurous ensembles (Seattle Pro Musica, Opus 7, the Esoterics, Sorelle, the Northwest Symphony, and others) already know. This spring alone, Herbolsheimer triumphed with the fresh and engaging Childsworld for piano quintet and a stirring Te Deum for orchestra and chorus. He’s a faculty member at both UW and Cornish College, and it’s heartening, for the sake of Seattle’s musical future, to know he’s passing on his ideals to young musicians. Would that an even broader concertgoing public got to know his work.—Gavin BorchertBest (Classical?) ImproviserAnother tough call, but no Seattle musician makes it up as he goes along more compellingly and inspiringly than trombonist (among other things) STUART DEMPSTER. As a participant in the 1968 Columbia recording of Terry Riley’s In C, minimalism’s first big hit, he helped make music history. That year he came to UW, where he’s now a professor emeritus, continuing his sonic explorations (bringing the didgeridoo, for example, from the outback and the drum circle to the concert hall) and collaborating with a who’s who of Seattle musicians in many genres. His most notable recording is the 1995 gotta- hear-it-to-believe-it CD Underground Overlays in the Cistern Chapel, made in a Fort Worden underground cistern with a 45-second reverb time, which expands each trombone note and layers them into a heavenly choir. Dempster’s recent—and typical—performance at Jack Straw Studios in June involved a guitarist and a vocalist, a pile of sound-producing toys, an audience delighted to tap and rustle along when invited, and music of both embracing serenity and puckish irreverence.—Gavin Borchert faculty.washington.edu/dempster.Best In-Store Music StageGo to the back of the store at EASY STREET RECORDS in Lower Queen Anne, and you’ll see a nicely proportioned assortment of vinyl. This is there to distract you from the very tall wall covered by a curtain; the curtain is there to distract you from the fact that the store has a stage—a pretty terrific one, in fact, better than those of some full-time music venues in town. Considering the quality of Easy Street’s selection, this is another boon, as is the caliber of the artists they get to perform at the shop. Recently, the stage has hosted performances by Kinski, Laura Cantrell, the Knitters, Kings of Leon, and U.K. up-and-comers Maximo Park. —Michaelangelo Matos 20 Mercer St., 206-691-3279, www.easystreetonline.com.Best Inexplicable Museum TransformationThe FRYE ART MUSEUM was conceived as a bastion of art conservatism amid a flood of 20th-century abstract expressionism. Well, the canvas has flipped. Abstract art is now safe enough to decorate bank lobbies, and representational art is where much of the revolutionary, difficult stuff is happening today. Following the letter if not the spirit of Charles Frye’s will (which demands the museum avoid all abstraction), curator Robin Held is quickly transforming the institution from a grandmother-friendly art salon into one of the city’s hottest venues for groundbreaking art. Large exhibits of work by Mark Ryden, Seattle painter Joseph Park, and the Slovenian avant-garde movement NSK are just a few signs of the Frye’s extreme makeover—and it’s never looked better.—Andrew Engelson 704 Terry Ave., 206-622-9250, www.fryeart.org.Best Local SingleBlue Scholars have gotten crazy love in the last year with prime-time KEXP spins, crowds that routinely reach capacity, and so much ink from us it would be obscene if it wasn’t so well-deserved. Humble dudes MC Geologic and turntablist Sabzi aim to illuminate people on Seattle’s hip-hop massive, but it’s clear that to many they’re the guiding light. Always shouting out the city, “THE AVE,” a new track on the band’s self-titled June rerelease, is no different in its celebration of the people that inhabit it. Also rocking me were the Ruby Doe’s “Red Letters,” IQU’s limited-edition “Dirty Boy” 12-inch, and Visqueen’s “Manhattan.” —Rachel Shimp www.bluescholars.com.Best Indie Dance StudioSo much of a dancer’s life occurs in groups—classes, rehearsals, and performances are all community events, and the most effective studios nurture that sense of belonging. VELOCITY DANCE CENTER takes that responsibility seriously. Its programming—from ongoing classes and guest-artist workshops, through commissioning and presenting local choreographers and visiting luminaries—is all part of a grand design by co-founders Michelle Miller and KT Niehoff to make the Seattle dance community a nationally recognized hub and a welcoming home for dance artists. It’s one-stop shopping for the kinetically inclined, dancers and audience alike.—Sandra Kurtz 915 E. Pine St., #200, 206-325-8773, www.velocitydancecenter.org.Best U District HoldOut CinemaThe neighborhood is changing, rezoning may be coming, and the future of art-house cinema may be very dark indeed. So credit goes to Guerren Marter and his crew for keeping the GRAND ILLUSION CINEMA alive since they purchased it from the Northwest Film Forum last year. Marter and company, many of them colleagues at nearby Scarecrow Video, are determined to keep the creaky old 35mm projector running, programming an eclectic calendar of repertory fare, new Asian cinema, and some downright psychotronic late-night oddities. With only a few dozen seats, the 35-year-old institution is smaller than some home-entertainment rooms. But the DVD boom is cresting, and movie lovers may be tiring of their couch-potato isolation. The GI provides an intimate, friendly alternative that the U District ought to preserve. —Brian Miller 1403 N.E. 50th St., 206-523-3935, www.grandillusioncinema.org.Best EP Disguised as an AlbumOf course it’s an album, you think the first time you pick up THE MARINA ALBUM, the first issue in five years by local duo Sick Bees, on Up Records. It has to be—it’s got 13 songs on it. Then you notice the times after each title—specifically, that the longest of these tracks is the three-minute, three-second “Prepare to Be Dazzled.” That’s no big deal; what’s jarring is that three of the songs’ lengths begin with a zero followed by a colon, and seven of them begin with a one. Then you play it, and it all sounds like one song—a 13-partite suite that bangs around moodwise from goofball to searing but feels all of a piece, and is over in just over a quarter of an hour. —Michaelangelo MatosBest Scenic DesignerIt’s about time someone recognized Jennifer Zeyl, whose fringe work has helped define the world of some good shows and has often been the saving grace of productions otherwise lost in their own universes. Her see-through apartment walls let us peek into the urban angst of the protagonists of last season’s stellar [sic]; the grassy, peek-a-boo fun-house hill she created for Washington Ensemble Theatre’s Handcuff Girl Saves the World was the only thing the show had to offer. Her piece de resistance, however, has to be the instantly familiar hovel constructed for the slacker twentysomething speed freaks of WET’s Finer Noble Gasses—you could practically smell the manic disarray of the place. If Zeyl’s name is in the program, you’ll at least be safe in knowing exactly where you are. —Steve Wiecking www.jenniferzeyl.org.Best Obscure Specialty BookstoreYou might need a map to find the SEATTLE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKSTORE, since it’s located off Elliott Avenue West on lower Queen Anne Hill, but it’s also an excellent place to get a map—or a guidebook or a hiking guide or even software for your topographic GPS system. Titles and subjects range from avalanche awareness to climbing Alaska’s Mount McKinley (aka Denali) to the nuts and bolts of placing nuts and cams while rock climbing. Clientele isn’t limited to members of the Mountaineers (who get a store discount), but a visit may inspire you to join the 99-year-old organization and perhaps sign up for one of its many outdoor courses. —Brian Miller 300 Third Ave. W., 206-284-6310, www.mountaineers.org.