Famous Choice Awards -- Our Endorsements
A week into this year's Famous Choice Awards and it's turned into a bizarre affair. At one point, Fresno State was winning in the category of Best Thing About Fresno, which I wouldn't question were this not Fresno Famous, hipster central.
Furthermore, a blog about Fresno State sports got like 30 votes overnight in the Best Blog category. And the Fresno Grizzlies have sure seen a sharp increase in votes lately, as have many of the people involved in the category of Best Mayoral Candidate. OK, I'll just come out and say it: I'm 99% sure there's some ballot-stuffing going on. Ahem, Bistro Rustico.
We at The Beehive have no greased palms. So keeping with the spirit of the awards, H-Mac and I are going to offer our official Famous Choice Awards Endorsements. Voting is open through Sunday. Winners will be announced on April 3.
Best Art Hop Stop
Mike Oz: Broadway Studios all the way! I saw fire dancers in the alley once. $2 Buck Chuck can't beat that. R.I.P. to Club Jinnaka.
Heather: Agreed. Special shout to Gallery 25 for being a great anchor in the Mono/Van Ness area, though.
Best Band or Musician
Mike Oz: This is a tough one, because there are a lot of worthy local artists, but for the sake of this contest, I'll go with Rademacher because they are the quintessential Fresno Famous band.
Heather: Rademacher gets enough love, so I'm throwing my endorsement toward Patrick Contreras. He might not need the attention, either, but the kid is a whiz with the violin, and quite the showman, too.
Best Blog (or blogger)
Mike Oz: I'm not going to campaign like a bunch of the others blogs out there. Do what you feel. If not us, I say The Fresnan is most deserving.
Heather: Donald Munro is the best blogger, hands down. The Fresnan deserves attention for its passion for all things Fresno.
Best Celebrity (or pseudo-celebrity as the case may be)
Mike Oz: Well, H-Mac has the same amount of votes as Mayor Bubba, which is fitting because they go to the same Starbucks. My endorsement goes to neither of them, though. I pick Bobby Salazar, who I just wrote in.
Heather: Kevin Federline, because you know it couldn't be anyone else.
Best Coffee (your votes for Starbucks won't be counted)
Mike Oz: Not a coffee drinker, but I'll go with Cafe Corazon because I like the spot and I like Fulton Mall.
Heather: Cafe Corazon for sure. Good coffee, friendly staff, cute as hell inside.
Best Downtown Building
Mike Oz: I love the Bank of Italy Building. I've always wanted to put a club on the very top of it.
Heather: The Security Bank building is the most Fresno-iconic.
Best Drinking Spot
Mike Oz: The Brig, it's cheap, comfy, fun and you can always hear the conversations you're having. Runner up: Veni Vidi Vici.
Heather: I also agree with the Brig. Bartenders with mullets, that's all I'm saying.
Best Eco-Friendly Business
Mike Oz: Tokyo Garden. Having "Garden" in its name is enough for me.
Heather: Ummmmmm....
Best Famous User
Mike Oz: Edluv is my pick. He contributes restaurant reviews, leaves knowledgeable comments and always has something to say. To me, he's what all Famous users should be like.
Heather: Romeovoid/Out of the Void/Wet Towel. Because no matter how many times people tell him to STFU, he keeps on coming back.
Best Mayoral Candidate
Mike Oz: Your Mom.
Heather: You stole my answer.
Best Podcast
Mike Oz: Dorktown. It's consistent, it's entertaining and it's certainly the most Fresno.
Heather: Dorktown. I wish Mike Oz had more time to podcast, though. Just throwing that out there.
Best Place to take your north-ender friends
Mike Oz: Full Circle Brewing Co., it's a fun spot in an area where a lot of North-enders are afraid to have fun.
Heather: I'm from the north end, so obviously I'm too scared to go any farther south than Bullard Ave. But if I wasn't, I'd take other terrified north-enders to Richard's, a Grizzlies game and then to the Brig, in that order.
Best Promoter
Mike Oz: Visalia's Aaron Gomes is winning, but I won't pick him because this is Fresno Famous. I'll go with Numbskull, who is consistently bringing cool shows to Fresno.
Heather: Your mom. Dammit! That one's been used.
Best Thing about Fresno
Mike Oz: This is the only one I'm passionate about. Tacos deserve to win! Tacos need to win! Vote Tacos!
Heather: I have to admit, the tacos are plentiful and amazing. Second choice: the abundance of wildflowers this time of year.
Best Thrift / Vintage store
Mike Oz: Yoshi Now! all the way.
Heather: I don't shop vintage because I'm a snob (north-ender, remember?).
Mike Oz: ... Is hella carnivore. So in the interest of humor, I'll pick "Bistro Rustico is NOT VEGITARIAN!" from the nominees.
Heather: Meat-eater. Sorry. The best place to buy vegetables was Avocado Corner, which appears to have gone out of business.
The Wish List
Mike Oz: Ikea -- I've been saying it for years, I'm not stopping now.
Heather: You also say Dave and Busters, which I agree with.
Comments:
...heather, I'm speechless... (rare thing, very rare.)
very sweet of you,,, I think.
;)
-E.
Posted by: wet, er, well at March 26, 2008 10:37 PM
That was a kickass post. You guys took a halfbaked idea I had in my head and made it ten times better than I could have.
Thanks for the Dorktown and Fresnan shouts!
We're no Beehive, but we try.
[Bells for Fresno Celeb!]
Posted by: The Fresnan at March 26, 2008 10:57 PM
AMEN to that Ikea wish. Maybe we should launch an I *heart* Sweden campaign and send the photos to the corporate office...
That plus a Crate and Barrel and my life would be complete.
Posted by: Ashley at March 27, 2008 4:14 AM
WT: that was a backwards compliment, I know, but really, I'm impressed by your ability to shake it off whenever someone like me tells you that your comments run a little long.
The Fresnan: Rock on.
Ashley: You have brought up an idea I threw at Mike Oz a couple of months ago. I suggested we "assault" the businesses we want to have here in Fresno (like Ikea and Dave and Busters) with a letter a week, like Andy DuFresne did when he wanted the library built in "The Shawshank Redemption."
Whoa - DuFresne is a few letters away from Fresno. I never noticed that before. That's a good sign.
Posted by: Heather at March 27, 2008 7:59 AM
Yes! Dave & Buster's!! That would be hot....
Posted by: Ernie at March 27, 2008 8:18 AM
Oooh! We could find out who to send a letter a week to in order to get LIBRARIES built! I have NO Problem with copying something from a great movie...especially if it gets us that BEAUTIFUL downtown Library from the picture in the Bee...
Posted by: Nancy at March 27, 2008 8:44 AM
LOL... I love your picks! Well most of them... but of course I'm partial... and that's why this is SO much fun... can't we have an awards ceremony?? Fresno Famous style?? LOL... it would be fun!
Posted by: Renee N at March 27, 2008 9:30 AM
hey, i'll tell to stfu and keep coming back. love me dammit!
Posted by: ed at March 27, 2008 10:23 AM
@ ed:
What, ed? My love is not enough.
@ Renee:
I concur about the ceremony. Get on that, Famous.
@ Ashley:
Back when I was on a big Ikea campaign in my column, a guy made a Web site about bringing Ikea to Fresno. The remnants are here.
Posted by: Mike Oz at March 27, 2008 10:30 AM
Kudos to you two for taking the FF blog and making it WAYYYY cooler! and thumbs down to anyone who says, kudos...uuuhhh
By the way, i am way cooler than Bobby Salazar, so 1) im pissed and 2) i am the queen of self promotion so i should win best promoter but only in my head i suppose.
GREAT BLOG MIKE!
GO TACOS!
Posted by: Ms Joey at March 27, 2008 11:07 AM
Heather..(sigh)..oh Heather. You know the Irish and the Mexicans fought wars together.
Posted by: patrick contreras at March 27, 2008 2:51 PM
mike,
your love is more than enough. but i still want more (i'm only a little self-obsessed right now).
Posted by: ed at March 27, 2008 6:25 PM
Speaking of tacos, have you tried the fish tacos at Oaxaca Restaurant on Belmont and Chestnut?? To die for! Pretty much the whole menu is YUM. Good place to take north-enders, too.
A blog I like is Cakeypal's. She's a Fresno foodie.
Favorite vintage store for me is Vintage Voola, on Van Ness.
Yay for Broadway Studios.
Musician: Kevin Hill. The guy is a world-class bassist, it's just ridiculous.
Wish list: Parks for kids, parks for skaters, parks for lovers, parks for hikers and bikers, parks for gardens and ponds, and parks for elderly bench-sitters watching sunsets.
Posted by: Karen at March 27, 2008 8:03 PM
Big up to Ed, who is a damn fine blogger, and a friendly guy who doesn't believe that the main component of a blog post is snark.
Posted by: Heather at March 27, 2008 8:22 PM
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