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Best Use of Social Media to Promote Semi-Nudity

Second Annual No Pants Light Rail Ride

The call went out on Twitter, on iPhones, and in e-mail blasts. Meet at the light rail and prepare to take your pants off. In conjunction with the national improv organization known as Improv Everywhere, local boys Improv AZ hosted their second no-pants light-rail ride on January 10. The results were liberating. Pantsless participants stormed a downtown Starbucks to keep their energy up. It turns out you burn a lot of calories laughing very hard at the perplexed faces of the people you walk by. This momentary lapse of reason couldn't have worked without smart phones and various forms of Internet communication. Ah, technology! Where would we be without it?

Best Web Comic

Monster Commute

Daniel m. Davis needed a way to pass the time during his wicked work commute. He let his imagination loose and daydreamed the daily distraction we know and love as Monster Commute. Davis describes the comic as 1984 meets The Wizard of Oz. Chronicling the misadventures of Beastio (a small demon), Chadworth (a machine with a skull head floating in fluid), and Kip (a Halloween goblin) through the vector-art world of Monstru, Monster Commute's childlike creativity and beautiful illustrations keep us coming back to see how the commute is progressing.

Best Fiction Web Show

Probed Signals

Local cinematographer Webb Pickersgill takes a full-on pro approach to the Probed Signals web series, using state-of-the-art filming equipment and a professional crew and cast that includes actors Leslie Wall (the short film Appetite for Justice and Hale Centre Theatre's production of Lend Me a Tenor) and Hanna Leister (ASU productions of Frame by Frame and Autobahn). But the real hook of this short sci-fi series is screenwriter (and star) Kevin Herrmann's storyline: A mysterious, possibly extraterrestrial signal begins following a Phoenician named Carter Fox (Herrmann) everywhere — on his cell phone, on the radio, on TV — and he becomes convinced he's being singled out and watched by somebody or something. Of course, he is, and it all goes back to a paranormal event that happened in his past. Things get freakier as Fox and his friends begin to unravel the mystery. There's a detailed story behind the series, which is impressive, considering there are eight episodes, and each is three to five minutes long.

Best Public Affairs Web Show

CenPho.TV

Unabashed downtown boosterism can be grating to the large majority of Valley residents who don't live within walking distance of Roosevelt Row. Not when Dave Brookhouser and Jacqui Johnson do it. The pair hosts a now long-running (by Internet standards, anyway) weekly vidcast highlighting the best things happening in Central Phoenix. We love their enthusiasm and their willingness to take shots when they're deserved — like, for example, cracking on mispronounced words on the announcements blared over the light-rail train's speakers. It's a mid-fi broadcast with just enough production flair to feel semi-professional, and the upbeat pair are funny and never overbearing. Dave and Jacqui embody the very best sense of community building among the representatives of widely disparate socioeconomic classes present in Central Phoenix, and they manage to make us truly interested in their agenda, wherever we live.

Best Twitterer

Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods

It's not often that someone's tweet brings attention to a U.S. Senate candidate's fear of vampires. That is, unless you're former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods. Woods' tweets can be as poetic as they can be hilariously offensive. Take this one, for example: "Fat woman asking for extra cream cheese on her bagel. Really?" Our favorite of Woods' many hilarious tweets comes at the expense of former Congressman J.D. Hayworth. Hayworth interpreted comments by Woods (who said that a stake needed to be driven through the Senate candidate's heart) as a Dracula-inspired death threat and publicly demanded an apology. What he got was far from it. Here's what Woods tweeted in response: "OK. Enough with JD Hayworth and his Dracula wooden stake paranoia. I think we can put a fork in him. Oh no, did I do it again?"

Best Hangout for Anarchists, Revolutionaries, and Dreamers

Conspire

Conspire's the kind of java joint where you might overhear funky, patchouli-oil-smellin', dreadlocked dudes discussing the abolition of money, see some fella reading 19th-century Russian revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin, or find the latest anarchist pamphlet circulating. But don't let that scare you. The cooperatively owned establishment also makes a mean cup of cafe Americano and offers an array of boutique-style handmade gifts that're perfect for the last-minute, apolitical shopper: earrings from Sticker Club Girl, apparel by Arte Puro, insane buttons from Jason Davis, and art, jewelry, and fashions from all over Phoenix. All reasonably priced. And if you don't want to buy anything, they've got an anarchist library in the back, full of books that tell you how you can give the single-finger salute to the man. Whoever said anarchy and capitalism don't mix never paid a visit to Conspire.

Best Hangout for Lefties

Fair Trade Café

Lynn Trimble
Fair Trade is the most politically correct coffeehouse in town, where networking is on the bill of fare alongside homemade peanut butter cookies and iced soy-laden chai. Fair Trade makes killer sandwiches, too, and you can enjoy your double-shot latte smug in the knowledge that the coffee beans that went into making it didn't exploit any Central or South American peoples in the process. Meanwhile, you can interact aplenty with candidates in Democratic primaries, lefty activists, and the occasional lawyer fighting the good fight by suing the pants off Sheriff Joe Arpaio. It's got free Wi-Fi, too, which means that many of those same left-leaners, Rachel Maddow watchers, and Keith Olbermann fans set up shop and make the place their office when they can, as they scan Facebook for the latest snippet to bolster their points of view. Do right-wingers have spots like this? Not really, unless you count the latest tea party rally or cross-burnin'.

Best Way to Hang Out with Republicans

Politics on the Rocks

The truth is that it's the Democrats who could use a few stiff ones right about now, but the other truth is that Republicans are more fun to drink with. Dems are sloppy drunks — they get all mushy about saving the world — while the worst thing that might happen when you're drinking with a Republican is that he might try to leave you with the check. In any case, if you're looking to get down and dirty with some conservatives, we recommend Politics on the Rocks, a monthly GOP-ish confab started in Scottsdale. Beautiful young Republicans get together at tony spots like the Montelucia and Revolver Lounge to press flesh with candidates and engage in like-minded conversation. We hear they let Libertarians in, too. And we all know that they are the most fun of all.

Best Politician

Jan Brewer

We never thought we'd write this. And surely, you never thought you'd read it. (Not in this newspaper, anyway.) But our accidental governor, derided for her supposed lack of intellect and stuck with a bleak fiscal situation, has proved herself to be an enormously savvy politician. We don't agree with many things that she's done. We truly wish she had never signed the anti-Mexican Senate Bill 1070. But we have nothing but admiration for the way she forced the Legislature into letting the voters decide whether they wanted a tax increase — and, then, despite getting little to no help from cowardly Dems like Terry Goddard, actually won at the polls. Thanks to that, along with the odious 1070, she boxed all her Republican rivals into the narrowest of corners and made the Democrats here look useless, which (sadly) they pretty much are. We would never name her Best Leader, or Best Civil Rights Champion, and certainly not Best Public Speaker, after the Pause Heard 'Round the World. But Best Politician? You betcha.

Best Power Couple

Phil Gordon and Elissa Mullany

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and Elissa Mullany, the First Flame of Phoenix, earned power-couple status after they hired a public relations firm to formally announce to the Valley they were dating.Gordon, 58, has been a generous boyfriend, paying his 38-year-old love interest more than $300,000 to fill his various campaign kitties as his political fundraiser. He also raised her political profile by appointing her to notable city boards and commissions and making it possible for her to mingle with celebrities and dignitaries, including Willie Nelson and Vice President Joe Biden. And Gordon even offered advice to Veolia, the transportation company that employs Mullany, that helped it muscle nearly $30 million out of Phoenix.Befitting a power couple, the pair partied in suites during Super Bowls, traveled on private jets, and traveled around the world to places like Dubai, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.Unfortunately, Gordon and Mullany lately have been behaving more like defiant debutantes than belles of the ball. Flaunting their power-couple status, Gordon and Mullany shield themselves in their proverbial ivory tower by refusing to answer legitimate inquiries about how corporate contributions earmarked for city uses are being spent or about Mullany's professional ties with companies doing business with the city. Gordon, who has held the honor of being mayor of the fifth-largest city in the United States for nearly eight years, is apparently the strong silent type — he continues to refuse to release public records that might further shed light on the perks that come with being the first main squeeze of Phoenix.Ah, the perks of power.

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