New Times' Best of Broward/Palm Beach 2011 is live! This week and next, County Grind will bring some more information about winners relevant to our audience.
Only a quarter-century old, Ryan Alexander has proven himself worthy of the Best Young Guy title.
Between his work running Brew Urban Cafe in Victoria Park, fronting his own band, having a hand in local venue creation, and including his many charity efforts, as was written in the entry, "This fair-haired son of a preacher man seems determined to save Fort Lauderdale from itself."
Frequent New Times contributor Courtney Hambright might deserve recognition for Best Local Music Article Not in Our Paper for her illuminating portrait of Alexander recently in City Link.
Although the story spends a good amount of time describing his current music trajectory -- the band name Alexander will probably get dropped because it's the same as Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros' frontman Alex Ebert's new project -- but there's also a marvelous narrative about Ryan hosting a homeless man in his own home, a practice that has become common for him over the past few years.
"Back before I'd been involved with things that were messy," he says,Check out the rest of New Times' Best of Broward/Palm Beach 2011!"before I loved someone other than someone who was exactly like myself,
life was clean and convenient. I hung out with people exactly like me.
I'd pat them on the arm and they'd say, 'You're good,' and I'd say,
'You're good for saying that.' As soon as I met a crack addict or a
prostitute or someone who was pro-choice, I saw that my capacity to love
was very small."
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