The best of 2011: Another banner year of entertainment

Bill Cosby played the Capitol Theatre, Blitzen Trapper played The Seasons Performance Hall, Miranda Lambert played the Yakima Valley SunDome, and The Indoorsman played pingpong; it's been quite a year here at On magazine.

I've spent the past few days going back through a year's worth of issues, remembering the art exhibits and noisy barroom rock shows, the interviews and the deadline stress -- all so I can hand out the annual "best of" awards. Inevitably there will be areas where you and I disagree, and there will probably be things I overlook. This is, after all, one person's recollection of an entire year. But I'll stand by my picks, because I've watched the local entertainment scene all year long. And what a year it's been.

* Best big deal visitor

I've got to go with Cosby on this one. Lambert is huge, sure. So are Avenged Sevenfold, Los Lobos and even Bryan Adams. All of them came through the Yakima Valley this year. But Cosby, who played the Capitol in October, has a half-century as an entertainment icon under his belt, and he's still a compelling stand-up comic. He is a singular presence on the national entertainment landscape. And he's an incredibly engaging, thoughtful interview subject.

Here's his take on the dynamics at play while he's on stage doing stand-up: "They give you the brick, this piece of clay. And you use your hands to make it warmer, because they always give it to you cold. And as you're working with it you kind of disappear from the room. ... From the time the music stops and I walk out, I have that block of clay. I sit down and I start with my hands to mold this funny time that we're going to have together. ... With the clay, I'm talking about walking out there and having this idea. But when I'm working with the clay, pinching things, the whole of the set changes. The whole of the clay changes. Because I've decided to change it."

* Best concert (concert hall division)

My favorite local show this year by far was the July 30 Blitzen Trapper gig at The Seasons. It wasn't the first rock 'n' roll show at the venue, but it was the first one featuring an honest-to-god important band at the height of its powers. Blitzen Trapper, to me, is everything that's right with the Northwest indie scene these days. That they played The Seasons gave lie to the old canard about "nothing cool going on in Yakima." Plus, the success of that show paved the way for The Cave Singers at The Seasons in early December.

* Best concert (barroom division)

There were plenty of good smaller shows in the Yakima area this year, including strong sets from regular visitors Head Like a Kite at the Yakima Sports Center and Star Anna at Ellensburg's Raw Space. The one that sticks with me, though, is the show Priory played at the Sports Center in February. It's a Portland band with a couple of guys from Yakima in it, so it was kind of a homecoming. The place was packed and crackling with energy as though we collectively knew we were seeing a band just before it hit big. Turns out we were right; Priory spent the rest of the year touring and releasing their first full-length album. A couple of weeks ago they opened for Foster The People at Portland's Crystal Ballroom. Not bad for a band I paid a $5 cover to see just down the street from my apartment.

* Best local musician

This is a tough one, and it largely depends on how you define "local." Blitzen Trapper and Priory both have members from Yakima, Star Anna is from Ellensburg, Cody Beebe is from Selah. But they've all moved on to either Portland or Seattle. More power to them, and we at On magazine cheer their success. But that means they're not really local so much anymore, for purposes of this award at least. Katy Reichlin, of Katy Lin and The Moonlight Riders, is not from Yakima, but she lives here now. So I'm going with her. She's played a couple of smaller gigs around town this year, but its the country-blues sound on the band's release "Birds on a Wire" that has stayed with me since I first heard it in April.

* Best addition to the local scene

With the Sports Center scaling back its music offerings, at least for the time being, the new place to go for live music on a regular basis is Bill's Place. The small club, which has been around for years but started hosting bands last winter, has provided a stage for local singer-songwriters such as Navid Eliot and Chad Bault as well as up-and-coming local hip-hop and rock bands. But plenty of joints do that; what sets Bill's apart is that it has also pulled national touring acts on occasion. Poison Control Center out of Iowa played Bill's, as did Fight the Quiet out of Arizona. Those are legit bands with record deals, and they played at a little hole-in-the-wall bar in Yakima. That's good work from the folks over at Bill's.

* Best celebrity interview

Eric Earley from Blitzen Trapper comes to mind, as does local-boy-made-good actor Garret Dillahunt, whose show "Raising Hope" is better than ever in its second season. (Also, his mom sent me just the sweetest thank-you note after that story came out.) But I think the very best interviews this year were all with comedians. Paula Poundstone, who played The Seasons in April, was smart and self-effacing. Shock comedian Lisa Lampanelli, who played Yakama Nation Legends Casino in July, completely defied her on-stage persona. On the phone, she was thoughtful and considerate and surprisingly self-analytical. But I have to go back to Cosby for this one. I was supposed to call him at 8 a.m. the week before his show. My phone rang at 7:40, "Hello, this is Bill Cosby." He gave me an hour that morning, saying goodbye only when his assistant reminded him it was time to pick up his grandson. It was the second time I've spent an hour on the phone with Cosby, and both times I came away marveling at the man's wit and depth of substance.

* Best art exhibit

I love our local galleries, but there's nothing better to me than seeing art butt its way into the real world where it can better surprise you. The Art7 project in what was an empty storefront on Third Street did that this spring. The mural project, a collaboration among local artists and nonprofit organizations, made the entire start-to-finish artistic process a spectator sport. Passing by each day and noting the progress or even stopping to watch one of the artists at work was revelatory. The finished products, sold to benefit the nonprofits, were interesting. But the peek inside the process was the project's real reward.

* Best play or musical (community theater division)

The Warehouse Theatre company did a lot of interesting things this year -- there was anachronism for dramatic effect in its production of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," there was an original play ("Dinner/Music") that demanded intellectual engagement and there was a set made to look like a television for "A Christmas Story." But the production of Neil Simon's "Rumors" way back in February still sticks out in my mind. The ensemble was perfectly cast by director Michael Liddicoat, and it showed in the collective comic timing of the group.

* Best play or musical (touring troupe division)

Comedy films adapted into musicals ruled the Capitol Theatre's Best of Broadway series this year, with "Shrek The Musical," "The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein" and "Spamalot" all coming through town. I'm going to give the nod to "Spamalot," based on its high ratio of laughs per minute. Most of the credit goes to the source material, but the actors were game enough to pull it off and the crowd definitely responded.

* Bests in brief

Best shows of 1984 (too bad they came in 2011): Bryan Adams at the Capitol Theatre in April, Gallagher at Yakima County Stadium in August, The Amazing Kreskin at the Fourth Street Theatre in August.

Best wizard-rock performance: Harry and The Potters, sponsored by Yakima Valley Libraries in June.

Best follow-up to a strong start: Lawrence Golan, conductor of the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, whose concerts set attendance records in his first season and who may well eclipse those marks before his second is over.

Best lineup of free music: For quantity, the Yakima Folklife Festival in July; for quality the Moxee Hop Festival in August, which had The Dusty 45s as well as Zoe Muth and others.

Best locally published book: Poet Elizabeth Austen's "Every Dress a Decision" published in April by Yakima's Blue Begonia Press.

Best museum exhibit: "Head Over Heels Over Heels," David Childs' expansive collection of high heels at the Yakima Valley Museum. Opened in February, still on display now.

Best effort in a losing cause: Carmen's Comedy Club, which opened in January 2009 and closed earlier this month -- and in between brought dozens of the top touring comedians from the Northwest and beyond to little ol' Selah.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.