>>> BEST THEATER UPGRADE

The Midnight Sun

I have an obscure spinal condition that both shortens and limits the mobility of my neck. It also renders me vulnerable to screaming back and shoulder aches. I reveal this personal weakness, not merely to explain why I look like a Chicago Bears Superfan, but by way of justifying my perpetual fixation on theater seating. Not so very long ago, both Capital Playhouse and the Midnight Sun Performance Space could be reliably counted on to compress my lower back into a Gordian knot of throbbing agony. CP cleaned up its act in 2009. This year, it was the Midnight Sun's turn. Thanks to the efforts of Elizabeth Lord and many others, the Sun now boasts 40 luxurious (and matching!) chairs, plus a spanking new toilet. - Christian Carvajal

[113 N. Columbia St., Olympia, 360.250.2721]

>>> BEST USE OF A LAPTOP, A BLOOD-SOAKED SHEET AND WTF?

Reid Urban

Last year I was privy to two performances from Reid Urban, an Olympia-based video artist. The first consisted of him chugging a six-pack of beer while the song "If I Had A Hammer" looped about a dozen times in the background. Urban did interpretive dance to the song between beers. He then donned a blood-stained sheet, collapsed over a guitar and effects pedals and produced a haunting noise wall that went perfectly with his slow-mo exploration of a surfer catching a huge tube, a tap dancer and rapidly expanding geometric patterns all inter-mingled to stroboscopic effect. Urban's second performance was a well-choreographed live action 3-D dance number that combined so eerily with looped puppet images reminiscent of childhood fever dreams inside a Chuck E. Cheese's house of horrors. - Owen Taylor

>>> BEST BENCH

Owl Bench By Sarah Utter

As public art projects go, decorated benches make a lot more sense than decorated cows or salmon. The 10 benches in Olympia are a project of the Parking & Business Improvement Area, which plans to add four more benches this spring, including one funded by the Olympia Downtown Association. The most eye-catching bench of the bunch, the work of Sarah Utter, beautifully exhibits the artist's distinctive style. It's painted red, with some wood left unpainted to show the grain, and decorated with friendly-looking owls plus leaves and bull's-eyes. The idea behind the project is to attract more people to downtown, but three of the benches, including Utter's, attracted so many people and so much activity that business owners asked to have them moved. Utter's bench is currently at the corner of Legion and Cherry. - Molly Gilmore

>>> SECOND BEST PARADE

The Procession Of The Species

First created to celebrate the 25th annual Earth Day celebration, the Procession of the Species has grown into Olympia's premier destination for plushies, furries and other assorted animal fetishists. Hey, did you know the Procession costs the City of Olympia exactly nothing? That's right, it's paid for by donations through a 501(c)(3) organization called Earthbound Productions. Did you know it beat over 50,000 competitors to win Readers Digest's 2009 "Best of America" parade category? No, you were too busy talking up your "fursona" on alt.fan.furry. That's okay. It's not our place to judge. Volcano editor Matt Driscoll wakes up in drainage ditches wearing nothing but a foam "We're #1" finger about three times a year, and we're pretty sure the new Meat Market guy is a looner. Anyway, look forward to an even bigger, better 17th Procession April 23. - CC

[4:30 p.m., April 23, Legion Way, Olympia, 360.705.1087]

>>> BEST REDEFINITION OF SHOW TUNES

Saul Tannenbaum

In the hands of venerable vaudevillian Saul Tannenbaum, anything can be a show tune. I'm talking "Don't Fear the Reaper" and an autumn-in-the-Northwest medley that ranges from "Here Comes the Rain Again" to "MacArthur Park" by way of "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" and "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" (Suggestion for next year: Eddie Rabbit's "I Love a Rainy Night.") Tannenbaum (aka pianist/composer/theatrical Josh-of-all-trades Anderson) makes seasonal appearances in Olympia with his oh-so-cute and oh-so-retro backup singers and a smoldering German vamp by the name of Mona von Horne (Christina Collins). - MG

>>> THE CARVY WINNER FOR BEST PLAY

End Days

What I loved most about End Days was that it never stopped surprising. You got the feeling all the planets had aligned. Here was Robert McConkey coming into the full measure of his talent, just nailing the roles of both Jesus and Stephen Hawking. The entire cast was really very strong throughout. Meanwhile, Harlequin's reliable technical proficiency had a cosmically grand playground to depict, and boy, did Jill Carter and friends rise to the occasion. - CC

>>> BEST USE OF ARTISTIC VISION DOWNTOWN

Ira Coyne

Ira Coyne has nearly single-handedly changed the look of downtown Olympia with his paintbrush, although credit is also due to the many visionary business owners who have opened up their minds to Coyne's creative genius. Coyne has done several dozen storefronts, windows and overhangs, and has had enough custom-carved and -painted sandwich boards stolen to give up on the notion of "insurance." When you combine all of this with Coyne's immense volunteer work, his curating of the Mezzanine Gallery inside the Olympia Film Society's Capitol Theater and his love of throwing roller skating jams at Skateland, it becomes apparent that Coyne isn't just making work for himself, he's re-defining what his city can be through his action rather than rhetoric. - OT

>>> BEST POPCORN

The Olympia Film Society

Plop down an hour's wages on movie concessions at the chain theater and you'll be weighted down with an oozing bucket of glorified packing peanuts slathered in corn oil and salt. Life's too short to shorten it further with lousy, microwave-quality popcorn. Instead, check out the spread at the Olympia Film Society. Not only is the OFS a locally-run showcase for handpicked modern classics, it also serves up the best variety of popcorn seasonings in town - and for considerably less. To the usual salt and garlic powder, OFS adds wheat-free tamari, Cajun seasoning sans MSG, black pepper, lemon pepper and brewer's yeast. Yum, brewer's yeast! Also, congrats to the OFS for purchasing its historic Capitol Theater last September. - CC

[206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia, 360.754.6670]

>>> THE CARVY WINNERS FOR BEST ACTOR AND ACTRESS

Jason Haws and Megan Kappler, Rabbit Hole

I saw Rabbit Hole opening night, when the play was calibrated exactly the way director Brian Tyrrell intended it. I'm a fan of playwright David Lindsay-Abaire, having directed his tragicomedy Fuddy Meers a few years ago, so I'd already read the script; but this is not a script best experienced by reading. You have to be in the room with that grief-stricken couple as they wrestle with the death of their little boy. What I remember best about those performances was their absolute split-second control. I know friends and fans of these actors, even fellow teachers of actors, who were in awe. I was, too. - CC

>>> BEST OUTDOOR FILM SERIES

Movies At The Mansion

OK, if you want to get technical about it, Movies at the Mansion is the only outdoor film series in Olympia. But that's not why I'm giving the series, which has happened for the past three summers at the State Capital Museum, an Editor's pick award. No, I'm giving it a writer's choice award because: (a) it's a different kind of series, with classic films aimed at mature audiences instead of the usual family-friendly blockbusters, (b) the State Capital Museum, in the elegant and historic Lord Mansion, is a beautiful museum with a beautiful garden, (c) the governor's proposed budget has the museum slated for closure as early as July, so the series, like the films it presents, might soon be relegated to history and (d) I like Katharine Hepburn, and I like coffee and hot chocolate, favorite beverages at the films, which are shown on often-chilly August nights. - MG

[211 21st Ave. SW, Olympia, 360.753.2580]

>>> BEST POST-PLAY COMMENTARY

Ben Moore's Café

For true aficionados of the thespian arts, it's not enough to just see a play. No, live theater was meant to be analyzed, debated, dissected, perhaps even demolished. The only pastime actors and theater technicians love more than extolling the virtues of a show they've just seen is huddling in a dark corner over cheap drinks and ripping it to shreds. The gossip and good-natured backstabbing fly fast and furious at Ben Moore's in the hours after a show. The Whitneys of Harlequin are frequent visitors, as are the TAO punks. Want the scoop on Jeff Kingsbury's latest exploits? Care to know what went wrong on Blood Relations? Then Ben Moore's is your schadenfreudian huckleberry. - CC

[112 Fourth Ave. W., 360.357.7527]

>>> BEST COMMUNITY ART EVENT

Arts Walk

What's the wildest community event in the South Sound? Olympia's twice-a-year Arts Walk, that's what. It's huge. So OK, the crowds are unbearable and the art ranges from amateurish and really, really bad to highly professional and mind blowing, but there's still nothing like it, and the Procession of the Species, the culminating event of spring Arts Walk, is the second most outstanding parade in Washington right behind the Freemont Solstice Parade in Seattle. - Alec Clayton