Arts & Culture >>

• Best Actor
  Mike Martin ('Reefer Madness,' Maverick Theater)
  This bong-water-addled send-up of the notoriously bad anti-marijuana propaganda film was a complete ensemble effort, so singling out one actor in the highly talented cast might seem suspect. But Mike Martin, as Reefer Madness's narrator and oh-so-guilty conscience, was so funny and... More >>
• Best Actress
  Jennifer Lyon ('Noises Off,' South Coast Repertory)
  Another ensemble effort, and another example of one cast member shining so brightly she nearly eclipsed the rest of the cast. Many an actress salivates over the chance to play Noises Off's blond, myopic, dumb-as-a-post bombshell. Jennifer Lyon looked the part, and she certainly possessed a... More >>
• Best Art Gallery
  Hibbleton Gallery
  A gallery is as much a work of art as the pieces it displays, and the Hibbleton Gallery's glass and black-trimmed storefront, red door, blond-wood flooring, and clean white walls are a rigorous contrast to the stimulating underground art it exhibits. Swing by to see a show, attend poetry... More >>
• Best Play of the Past 12 Months
  'Noises Off,' South Coast Repertory
  Perhaps it was a bit lowbrow for a theater that has long prided itself on producing literate, sophisticated fare, but anyone who doubted that South Coast Rep (SCR) couldn't wallow in adrenalin-infused farce was schooled by this production. Directed by Art Manke and graced with a phenomenally... More >>
• Best Cutting-Edge Theater
  Garage Theatre
  The unfortunate demise of the Rude Guerrilla Theater Co. leaves a gaping hole in terms of alternative theater programming. Thankfully, there's a fitting surrogate up the road in this gritty troupe, which launched in 2001. Formed by several products of Orange Coast College's theater... More >>
• Best Theatrical Use of a Landmark Building
  'Hollywood In Fullerton,' Fox Theatre
  Opened in 1925 and closed in 1987, the Fox Theatre had been nearly destroyed by the wrecking ball numerous times before a bunch of community activists convinced the city several years ago to help them to try to preserve the hulking beauty. It has been a long road, with the tarnished gem many... More >>
• Best Theater Programming
  Chance Theater
  The Chance Theater's 2009 season began with a show called Jesus Hates Me, set at the Blood of the Lamb miniature-golf course, and it'll end with the perennial alternative-Christmas show The Eight: Reindeer Monologues. In between, there was the premiere of a new musical, a revival of that... More >>
• Best Visual Artist (1 Comment)
  Steve Elkins
  On his Facebook page, Elkins lists as one of his activities "drinking absurd amounts of coffee," which goes a long way toward explaining how he appears to be creating art of some kind or other 24/7. He drums for the band the Autumns, is finishing a documentary about avant-garde music,... More >>
• Best Art Show
  'Allegedly: The Hugh Brown Chainsaw Collection'
  In an ink-stained freelancer's cluttered home office far, far away, there was a critic who thought he knew everything there was to know about art. He'd studied Inside the White Cube: The Idealogy of the Gallery Space, subscribed to Artforum, knew the difference between an installation... More >>
• Best Public Art
  Hammer Clock, Anaheim
  Anaheim's public art is the coolest in Orange County, with several peculiar and marvelous pieces, but our favorite for so many reasons is artist Daniel Martinez's 12-foot-tall tool near the corner of Clementine and Center Street Promenade. There's some blather about the... More >>
• Best Art Museum
  Orange County Museum of Art
  Our unspoken art-nerd fantasy is to spend the better part of a weekend playing Indiana Jones and do an excavation of the video-art storage facilities at the Orange County Museum of Art. The museum was there at the beginning of the video-art movement, and despite the (presumed) dearth of... More >>
• Best Museum (Non-Art)
  Blas Aguilar Adobe Museum
  Art museums are often housed in unusually shaped buildings with intriguing architecture that are considered works of art themselves. So a historical museum in a historical structure makes as much sense. In 1794, Mission San Juan Capistrano built adobes outside its walls to house soldiers and the... More >>
• Best Movie Theater (3 Comments)
  Art Theatre of Long Beach
  As far as the movie-theater-going experience is concerned, there's little that beats watching Purple Rain or Ferris Bueller's Day Off or Nosferatu (with a live score) on a big screen inside an Art Deco theater at midnight on a Friday. For those of us out there feeling a wee-bit jaded by... More >>
• Best Cheap Movie Theater (1 Comment)
  Starplex Cinemas Woodbridge Movies 5
  The place is often messy because patrons are required to throw away their own trash (come on, people!), it's a little run-down, and the movies are usually a bit outdated, but you can't really complain too much about a $1 (on Tuesdays) or $2 (all other days) moviegoing experience.... More >>
• Best Independent Film Theater
  Yost Theater
  Since Koos Arts Cafe folks started booking events at the historic downtown Santa Ana theater in October 2008, regular live-music shows have been presented there, and keeping with the bent of the nonprofit, the all-ages venue's owner, Dennis Lluy, houses acts that gravitate toward the... More >>
• Best Free Foreign-Film Rental
  Newport Beach Public Library
  Sometimes rich people really come in handy. This state-of-the-art facility isn't just the most aesthetically appealing library in the county, but it also has an extensive, eclectic collection of foreign films available for anyone with a membership card. Whether you're in the mood for... More >>
• Best After-School Education Program for the College-Bound (1 Comment)
  St. Joseph Ballet Academy
  Since 1983, Santa Ana's St. Joseph Ballet Academy has been turning its mostly underprivileged 400 annual enrollees—ages 8 through high school—on to dance. Many have gone on to pursue careers in the highly competitive field. But less publicized are the academy's services that... More >>
• Best Classical Music Producer
  Pacific Symphony Orchestra
  Weathering funding challenges, the turbulent national economy and the perpetual crisis of the performing arts, this Orange County-based entity headed into its 31st season as one of the nation's most respected contemporary-classical symphonies. For 20 years, director Carl St. Clair has not... More >>
• Best Live Band
  The New Limb
  Being in a rock band is supposed to be fun, and few local bands seem to be having as much fun as Costa Mesa's the New Limb, who imbue their sets with a sense of genuine passion and pleasure that an audience really has no choice but to appreciate. Whether it's filling the stage with... More >>
• Best Rock Band (1 Comment)
  Melanoid
  In the early days of 2009, Melanoid—the musical vehicle of Irvine's John Hanson—released a shockingly good album called Asleep In the Wake. Songs such as early-Radiohead-esque "Try to Hide" and the mournful, piano-based "Right" arrive fully realized,... More >>
• Best Hip-Hop Act
  BLOK
  Gather 'round, folks and witness heavy-hitting club rap for hip-hop's new Day-Glo generation. Don't be alarmed; we know that watching a sweaty white kid screaming ferocious rhymes from between a leggy, blond backup dancer and a mohawk-sporting hype man isn't something you see... More >>
• Best Cover Band (12 Comments)
  SPRINGSTEEN! The Premier Tribute to the Boss
  Cover bands are ubiquitous in the clubs and bars of our not-so-humble backwater, and there are more than a few excellent tribute bands, including the Rolling Stones' homage, Jumpin' Jack Flash, and the godfather of them all, Wild Child, who have been around far longer than the band... More >>
• Best New Band
  The Colourist
  Orange County is home to a lot of promising young bands seemingly poised to make the ever-elusive next step in their careers, but none has developed so much promise and poise in such a short time as the Colourist. Though they've only been together for about a year, their self-titled EP... More >>
• Best Barbershop Quartet
  The Dapper Dans
  You might not know them by name, but you'll recognize this group as the guys with the Great Gatsby-style straw hats, immaculately combed hair, pearly white teeth and impeccably pressed candy-striped suits who stroll up and down Disneyland's Main Street every afternoon, singing old-timey... More >>
• Best Album of the Past 12 Months
  'All the Colors,' Greater California
  Greater California took almost five years between sophomore release Somber Wurlitzer and this year's All the Colors, and the result was a lush record that paid tribute to the best of power-pop and Byrds-y psychedelic rock, all while establishing its own distinct voice. Produced by Long Beach... More >>
• Best Record Label
  Burger Records
  The lovable goofballs at Anaheim's Burger Records know how to make their releases stand out: by putting them on outdated media. It's quite possible they've put out more cassettes in the past couple of years than any other label, giving fans of such artists as LA's Devon Williams... More >>
• Best Music Festival
  Summer and Music
  Most folks would be happy with putting on one awesome festival. This past summer, Justin Hectus and Rand Foster, co-founders of Summer and Music, made the rest of us look silly by putting on a bunch in downtown Long Beach, many of which highlighted under-represented genres. They showed funk love... More >>
• Best Sneak-Attack Concerts
  Will Crum
  It's always a struggle for young local artists to get noticed—even the most talented, well-connected of bands can have trouble getting people to come to a show. But Costa Mesa garage-y/folk-y rocker Will Crum and manager Geoff Shively figured the best way to get attention was to play... More >>
• Best Race Riot
  Mosh Pit at Manic Hispanic Cinco de Mayo Show, House of Blues
  It's a county springtime event that's now as iconic in its perennial frequency as San Juan Capistrano's swallows: the Manic Hispanic Cinco de Mayo show at the House of Blues, a night when la naranja's boiling ethnic tension between white and brown disappears for an evening,... More >>
• Best Non-Educational Use of a Classroom
  Acrobatics Everyday
  Not only does Acrobatics Everyday, a concert series at various locations on the campus of UC Irvine, bring unconventional entertainment choices to the university's students, but it also brings obscure artists to Orange County that would otherwise have nowhere else to play. It's as simple... More >>