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Best Brain

Justin Cronin

Justin Cronin's bestselling novel The Passage was released in paperback earlier this summer, winning the Rice University professor a new legion of fans. The book, inspired by his daughter's suggestion for a story about a girl who saves the world, earned Cronin some $5.5 million in film and domestic publishing rights — before it was even finished. Obviously he's über-talented, but he's also über-smart because, from day one of his whirlwind dance with big publishing, he understood the difference between literature, which is what he used to write, and popular fiction, which is what he's writing now: one is appreciated, the other is sold.

Best Historic Art Show

"Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage" at The Menil Collection

Kurt Schwitters's early 20th-century collages were packed with the detritus of urban German life, and those collages were the focus of this stunning show, "Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage." Schwitters turned things like bus tickets, cigarette packs and chocolate wrappers into evocative gems that would influence artists for generations to come — including Texans like Robert Rauschenberg. In addition to the collages and small sculptures, the Menil brought in a painstaking replica of Schwitters's most famous work, the Merzbau. Created before WWI, the epic Merzbau filled the artist's studio; it wasn't a sculpture, it was a sculptural environment. Schwitters, who is considered by many to be the father of installation art, didn't even have a word to describe the work. The original Merzbau was destroyed by Allied bombers in 1943, and the replica was created for the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, making it a kind of pilgrimage for art lovers. "Kurt Schwitters: Color and Collage" was the first time the Merzbau was shown in the United States.

Best Bar Bathroom

Fitzgerald's

There are a lot of things to like about the "new" Fitzgerald's: better sound, better bookings, not feeling like the floor upstairs could give way at any minute. Oddly, though, one of the things we like best is something the Heights club's new owners haven't changed at all. Walk into Fitz's downstairs men's room and it's like Emo's in Austin or the late CBGB in New York — you know you're in a real rock club, and you can feel every bit of Fitz's three-decade-plus history in the chipped paint, utilitarian fixtures and scattered graffiti, even if most of that history is probably better left unsaid. But the toilets work, and you usually don't have to wade through puddles of piss and puke. This bathroom offers no reason whatsoever to linger, so you can take care of business and get back out to the show.

Best Curator

Claudia Schmuckli at Blaffer Art Museum

Members of the local art community are frequently saying that Claudia Schmuckli needs to get more love for Blaffer Art Museum's top-notch exhibitions. In January 2009, Schmuckli became Blaffer's director and chief curator following a nine-month nationwide search (which, by the way, wasn't really necessary since Schmuckli has been under Blaffer's nose, in varying capacities, since 2004). Since then, the former Museum of Modern Art assistant curator has pumped more left-of-field life into the venue, including the "Museum of Broken Relationships" show, which featured symbols of failed partnerships from the Broken Relationships' permanent collection. Beginning early next year, her curatorial work will shine even more when Blaffer's $2 million renovation is unveiled.

Most Innovative Promoter

Pegstar

What makes Pegstar an "innovative" promoter? A few years ago, founder Jagi Katial didn't buy into the conventional wisdom that Houston was a terrible town for indie-rock, and has reaped the benefits ever since. Katial kept making offer after offer to bands whose first instinct may have been to bypass Houston in favor of Dallas, Austin or New Orleans, and enough accepted that now a different kind of word of mouth is going around — that Houston had some of the most enthusiastic crowds on their tours. Things really went into overdrive when Pegstar partnered with Free Press Houston to start Free Press Summer Fest and then take over Fitzgerald's. This year Summer Fest was stacked with headliners like Weezer, Ween and Cut Copy who weren't even on tour — flown in specially for the festival — and Fitz's rarely if ever has an off night, with capacity crowds upstairs and down. Another promising trend Pegstar is bringing to Houston is that several recent shows have been free for patrons 21 and up.

Best Bar Food

Royal Oak Bar & Grill

Royal Oak came on the scene towards the end of 2010, a newly minted addition to the Montrose bar scene and the next venture from the owners of the hipster-Valhalla watering hole Boondocks just a block away. Royal Oak is shinier and brighter than Boons, and it has one killer food and appetizer menu that can go up against any of the so-called gastropubs in town. Start with a pint of Fireman's #4 and a plate of truffle fries, soaked to perfection in truffle oil, Parmesan cheese and fresh-cut herbs. Bring a friend, because unless you haven't eaten in a few days or you just ran a marathon, you will not be seeing the bottom of the pile on your own. As for entrées, you can't go wrong with a burger or the Gulf shrimp & grits. More than likely, Royal Oak will be the only stop on your nightly crawl once you have seen the menu. Food comas aren't a joke, kid.

Best Public Art Project

Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance and the Museum of Cultural Arts Houston Mural

The Rice University Boniuk Center for Religious Studies and Tolerance turned to the Museum of Cultural Arts Houston (a past Houston Press MasterMinds Award winner) to add a visual arts aspect to the 2011 Sacred Sites Quests program. The program hosts high school students on an annual tour of churches, temples, mosques and other places of worship. This year, the students visited 16 sites, after which they designed and created a four-piece mural reflecting both the unity and diversity among the various traditions they observed. The four panels, which include a tree topped by a globe instead of leaves and a couple staring at a star-shaped sun, were installed on the Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston headquarters in May, becoming the first public art project of its kind.

Best Juke Joint

Farrah's Pub

A couple of things need to be on point for a juke joint to be dubbed as such. For one, it can't boast any mainstream online presence (e.g., Facebook, Twitter or even a business Web site) whatsoever. For two, absolutely, under no circumstances, can the place be an ironic sort of hang that's all hipster'd out. Third Ward BYOB bar Farrah's Pub passes both criteria and instead showcases, without even trying, an authentic juke-joint experience. (If there was any question, try ordering a Lone Star or Pabst Blue Ribbon and see what type of look you get in return.) Pay $2 on a Monday night, gaze at the palm frond decor reminiscent of an African chop bar (Motherland slang for a cheap roadside bar), bring a decanter of your favorite liquor and kick back to the sounds of the house band playing a mixture of some of the best soul jams, blues joints and love dusties ever created.
  • 6334 St. Augustine, Houston, 77021 Map

Best Renovation

Leon's Lounge

As Houston's oldest continuously-operating bar (not including icehouses), Leon's always had its stained-glass and crystalline charms. There was even a level of elegance remaining beneath the nicotine grit and spilled Busch residue of the past 60-plus years. Last year, Pete and Vera Mitchell of Under the Volcano fame bought the bar and at last revealed their months-long facelift, and what a job they did polishing this dustiest of gems. While the bar still feels old and funky, they've removed the naugahyde and other synthetics, replaced the carpets, scrubbed up and installed new tiles, varnished the wood on the bar and restored the bar's overhanging chandelier to its ancient glory. While it might not rival the Julia Ideson Library's renovation in scale, it does do so in execution. And that's a good thing, because for some people, a town's oldest bar says more about it than its oldest library.

Best Dance Company

Dominic Walsh Dance Theater

Dominic Walsh Dance Theater isn't yet ten years old, but it's already a fixture as one of the great contemporary dance companies of our time. The cadre of eight dancers master new ways of moving under the tutelage of Walsh, a longtime principal with the Houston Ballet and 2008 winner of the prestigious Princess Grace Award for choreography. Walsh pushes the notion of "classical ballet" to its breaking point in his own choreography, blending matchless technical precision with distinct and unashamed sensuality. Costumes are often unembellished, accenting and celebrating the human form. This is truly ballet for the twenty-first century.

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