2006 Index of Winners
Best Restaurant When Someone Else is Paying BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Best Restaurant When Someone Else is Paying BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Place to Hear Local Music BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Best Place to Hear Local Music BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Place to Hear Music For Free BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Place to Play Pool BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Bands in ATL BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Live Band/Act BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
If you pick up a classic console, you can infinitely replay the eight-bit jams performed live by CONTRABAND, the alter ego of Athens’ post-hardcore math-rock quartet Cinemechanica. Additionally, you can train to be a featured player in one of the group’s shows: Contraband performs the soundtrack to the classic NES game Contra while lucky participants attempt to beat the game live. There’s even an official “dance”: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start. Even though you can’t use the secret 30-lives code during a performance, turn it into an interpretive dance and you’ll be invincible on the dancefloor. It’s hipper than the Lean Back or even the Cha-Cha Slide. Not since Mario laid his first pipe has Nintendo Classic been this energizing.
www.myspace.com/nintendorock2.
Best Dive Bar BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Rock Club BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Best Rock Club BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Local Experimental Music Act BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Some will rightfully argue over who pioneered the snap music sound, but DEM FRANCHIZE BOYZ — Buddie, Jizzal Man, Parlae and Pimpin — are the group making a lasting impression. Their pair of hits, “I Think They Like Me” and “Lean Wit It, Rock Wit It,” exemplifies snap’s kinetic yet quiet energy, even as its debut album, On Top of Our Game, incorporates other hardcore rap styles to create a sonically balanced listening experience. Of course, superstar producer Jermaine Dupri’s patronage certainly didn’t hurt the group in becoming more than just a Bankhead sensation.
www.demfranchizeboyz.com.
Best Sports Bar BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Best Sports Bar BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Neighborhood Bar BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Best Neighborhood Bar BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Strip Club BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Stripper Other Than Blondie BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Urban Music Club BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Best Urban Music Club BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Local Songwriter BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Many rockers are heavily inked with colorful tattoos, but look closely at the Swear’s intense but beguilingly beautiful ELIZABETH ELKINS. You’ll notice self-inflicted graffiti, scrawled in punky black ink on her arm or chest. Yep, right there on her otherwise creamy skin, you’ll find an intriguing array of cryptic or self-referential words or phrases. An hour or so before each show, the roaring rocker takes Sharpie in hand and scribbles an impromptu message: “I draw from various song lyrics of my own and from my favorite writers, books, poetry or anything tongue-in-cheek, vaguely self-depreciating or whatever fits my state of mind that night.”
www.theswear.com.
Best Weekly Club Night BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
Best Weekly Club Night BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Readers Pick
Best Local R&B/Soul Act BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » After Dark » Critics Pick
It took damn-near forever, but local soul vocalist ALGEBRA finally broke onto the national scene. Born and raised in Atlanta, Algebra has been kicking around locally for years. She signed to Dallas Austin’s Rowdy Records while still a student at North Atlanta High School, then spent a year on Motown Records — all without releasing an album. But check VH1 Soul or BET-J and you’ll see her video, “U Do It for Me,” in heavy rotation — and that’s a rare feat for A-town soul folks. Expect to hear much more of her Southern rap-meets-soul stylings after her debut album drops sometime this fall on Kedar Entertainment.
www.myspace.com/algebrablessett.
Best Free Annual Event BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Atlanta is a city of festivals. There’s the Dogwood Festival at Piedmont Park, Pride Week, the return of the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Downtown Festival and on and on. Our favorite is the NATIONAL BLACK ARTS FESTIVAL, which transforms the city for 10 days each July into a cultural haven, where dance troupes, musicians and artists pay homage to the African diaspora. This year’s highlights included performances by Grammy-nominated composer and trumpeter Hannibal Lokumbe and the Forces of Nature Dance Theater Company. In addition, there was the Pan-African Film Festival and an eclectic artists’ market.
www.nbaf.org.
Best Free Annual Event BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Local Athlete BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Georgia Beach Retreat BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
With rapid construction overtaking Atlanta’s already jammed streets, there’s no better way to escape than to cruise down to CUMBERLAND ISLAND. It’s Georgia’s biggest barrier island, and it can only be reached by ferry, making it a subtropical oasis for a plethora of animals, including egrets, pelicans and wild horses. Walk along the secluded beach, with its backdrop of smooth, white dunes, and you might catch a glimpse of loggerhead turtles laying eggs. Or venture under the island’s canopy of massive live oaks to spot anything from painted buntings to armadillos. Be sure to check out Plum Orchard, the remnants of the Carnegie family’s Tara-esque mansion, built in the 1890s. The island’s serenity is constantly threatened by politician-led schemes to turn it into a tourist trap. For now, however, it remains the crown jewel of Georgia’s “Golden Isles.” If you visit, go between now and April, because the island’s wildlife also includes sand gnats and mosquitoes.
912-882-4336. www.nps.gov/cuis
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Best Georgia Beach Retreat BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Bizarro Local News Story BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Bizarro Local News Story BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Local Celebrity BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Rock Climbing Wall BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Columnist/Journalist BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Ever the fair-minded, we excluded CL’s own columnists for critics’ consideration in this category. But that shouldn’t detract from our admiration for AJC Editorial Page Editor CYNTHIA TUCKER. Tucker sometimes is dismissively tagged as the daily’s liberal columnist (which anyone might be, compared to GOP shill Jim Wooten). But those who’ve read her with an open mind over the past 20 years knows her as a remarkably independent voice of reason. She produces timely and often courageous columns that dare to expose the clay feet of such local idols as Cynthia McKinney and the King family. Yet she’s no bomb-thrower; she chooses her words carefully, her tone is moderate, her arguments are persuasive and her positions have been remarkably consistent. She was among the first to publicly call out Bill Campbell; she never wavered from that opinion and darned if she wasn’t proven to be right on the money. We are a stronger community on account of her.
www.ajc.com.
Best Columnist/Journalist BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Country Music Station BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Country Music Station BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Tift Merritt, Del McCoury, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, Alison Krauss — don’t you wish there was a great country station in town that had artists like those on its playlist? One of the best examples of how disconnected country radio is from its fan base came a few years back when the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack was the No. 1 album on the country charts with virtually no airplay from country stations. Although it doesn’t entirely overcome that shortcoming, our favorite local station is EAGLE 106.7 (WYAY-FM) because of Hall of Fame disc jockey Rhubarb Jones and because of the station’s willingness to dip into the past and play such artists as Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard on weekends.
www.wyay.com.
Best Hope for the Braves BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Columnist/Journalist BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Golf Course BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Golf Course BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Golf Course BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Golf Course BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Festivals BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Intown Park BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Intown Park BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Jazz Station BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Jogging Path BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Critics Pick
Best Local Athlete BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
Best Local Blogger BOA Award Winner
Section » Print Features » Special Issue » Best of Atlanta » 2006 » Cityscape » Readers Pick
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