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Best Graffiti Crew

MSG

More Stupid Graffiti? Whatever the name means, this posse's handle is not about food additives. MSG may be the best "writers" in the region because they've been at it the longest, persevering in one of the nation's most antigraffiti environments, South Florida. Fallen (literally, having tumbled from an overpass to his much-publicized death) spray-can artist Beano was an MSG member, as is South Florida's most prolific bomber, Crome. A co-production by Crome and MSG-er Kemo on the side of a warehouse at Broward Boulevard and I-95 was perhaps the longest "running" piece in the county's history, seen for more than a year by thousands of motorists. It may have been recently painted over, but MSG will no doubt continue their clandestine art wherever bare walls and clean trains exist.

Best Emerging Writer Couple

Jesse and Lyn Millner

She writes on a laptop at a spare, scratch-and-dent-sale desk in a walk-in closet filled with boots, blouses, and suits; he composes before an oversize screen in a separate study, surrounded by photographs, poetry books, and a cartoon starring Walt Whitman. She sets aside her muse from nine to five, shifting to accounting software; he is constantly crafting stanzas in his head and teaches composition at Nova Southeastern University and Florida International University. When they met three years ago as graduate students in FIU's creative writing program, Lyn and Jesse discovered they shared an affection for Wrigley Field, a Southern Baptist upbringing -- she in Mississippi, he in Virginia -- and a therapeutic preoccupation with their prior experiences. In a poetry manuscript, The Last Dance of the Once Wicked, Jesse is revisiting what he calls "the neighborhoods of my past sorrow," including the tin-roofed farmhouse where "the night rose up on grim haunches/And crickets raised their sharp and dry bodies." That same unflinching lyricism marks his memoir, A Temporary World of Light, a short version of which won the 1998 Alligator Juniper national competition for creative nonfiction and will be published in an Arizona literary journal this year. Lyn, whose nonfiction has appeared in the now-defunct Tropic and on Public Radio International's Marketplace, is also writing a memoir. In Accounting For Myself, the CPA connects money and identity with precise, vivid prose, evoking a child's guilt as her parents squabble over finances. On paper and in person, the Hollywood pair is paving a future with the painful lessons of the past.

Best Emerging Writer Couple

Jesse and Lyn Millner

She writes on a laptop at a spare, scratch-and-dent-sale desk in a walk-in closet filled with boots, blouses, and suits; he composes before an oversize screen in a separate study, surrounded by photographs, poetry books, and a cartoon starring Walt Whitman. She sets aside her muse from nine to five, shifting to accounting software; he is constantly crafting stanzas in his head and teaches composition at Nova Southeastern University and Florida International University. When they met three years ago as graduate students in FIU's creative writing program, Lyn and Jesse discovered they shared an affection for Wrigley Field, a Southern Baptist upbringing -- she in Mississippi, he in Virginia -- and a therapeutic preoccupation with their prior experiences. In a poetry manuscript, The Last Dance of the Once Wicked, Jesse is revisiting what he calls "the neighborhoods of my past sorrow," including the tin-roofed farmhouse where "the night rose up on grim haunches/And crickets raised their sharp and dry bodies." That same unflinching lyricism marks his memoir, A Temporary World of Light, a short version of which won the 1998 Alligator Juniper national competition for creative nonfiction and will be published in an Arizona literary journal this year. Lyn, whose nonfiction has appeared in the now-defunct Tropic and on Public Radio International's Marketplace, is also writing a memoir. In Accounting For Myself, the CPA connects money and identity with precise, vivid prose, evoking a child's guilt as her parents squabble over finances. On paper and in person, the Hollywood pair is paving a future with the painful lessons of the past.

Best Venue For Live Music

The Chili Pepper

The Chili Pepper offers the most flexibility of any midsize venue in Broward and Palm Beach. With two stages outside and one inside, the club can host as many bands as one could possibly want to see in a night. The indoor stage, with its front-and-center recessed dance floor, eye-level bars and tables, and catwalk around the perimeter, offers the best sightlines for catching your favorite local and national acts. The Chili Pepper also offers some of the best touring bands to hit South Florida -- everything from snot-punkers NOFX to glam-godfather David Bowie to pop-troubadour Matthew Sweet.

Best Venue for Live Music

The Chili Pepper

The Chili Pepper offers the most flexibility of any midsize venue in Broward and Palm Beach. With two stages outside and one inside, the club can host as many bands as one could possibly want to see in a night. The indoor stage, with its front-and-center recessed dance floor, eye-level bars and tables, and catwalk around the perimeter, offers the best sightlines for catching your favorite local and national acts. The Chili Pepper also offers some of the best touring bands to hit South Florida -- everything from snot-punkers NOFX to glam-godfather David Bowie to pop-troubadour Matthew Sweet.

Best Joke About Broward/Palm Beach

Public Transportation

Public Transportation

Best Joke About Broward/Palm Beach

Public Transportation

Best Blues Band

Iko-Iko

This South Florida institution is the area's best because they are, well, more than just a blues band. The group's founder and lead singer Graham Wood Drout helped pioneer this region's blues scene back in the early '80s with the Fat Chance Blues Band, and his knowledge and understanding of the form is uncontestable. But along the way he has crafted an original body of work incorporating a host of roots influences, not the least of which is the swampy Louisiana groove and imagery evoked by the band's name. The current version of Iko-Iko is the strongest yet, featuring multi-instrumentalists Ron Dizubla and Doug Leibinger on saxes, guitar, and keyboards, and the band's most recent CD, Protected by Voodoo," is as finely tuned a product as any yet-to-go-national band could hope for. Tight, experienced, Iko-Iko satisfies the blues purist while forging its own more unique path.

Best Blues Band

Iko-Iko

This South Florida institution is the area's best because they are, well, more than just a blues band. The group's founder and lead singer Graham Wood Drout helped pioneer this region's blues scene back in the early '80s with the Fat Chance Blues Band, and his knowledge and understanding of the form is uncontestable. But along the way he has crafted an original body of work incorporating a host of roots influences, not the least of which is the swampy Louisiana groove and imagery evoked by the band's name. The current version of Iko-Iko is the strongest yet, featuring multi-instrumentalists Ron Dizubla and Doug Leibinger on saxes, guitar, and keyboards, and the band's most recent CD, Protected by Voodoo," is as finely tuned a product as any yet-to-go-national band could hope for. Tight, experienced, Iko-Iko satisfies the blues purist while forging its own more unique path.

Best Diva

LaGaylia

Histrionic vocals, drop-dead good looks, the haughty grace of a queen: LaGaylia is pure diva and then some. Holding court for years at Coconuts in Fort Lauderdale with the understated backing of acoustic group Wooden Ships, LaGaylia has recently been hitting local stages with Nickel 'N' Dime frontman John Eatmon in a much louder R&B configuration. All peak and no valley, her performances start at the top and then go over it. (Think Patti Labelle.) Pressing all the right buttons for those who demand emotional exhaustion over subtlety, LaGaylia slays her fans, who shower her with bouquets of flowers like any true diva deserves.

Best Of Broward-Palm Beach®

Best Of

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