The big headline of 2004, from our little window on the world here on West 7th Street, is the same story Fort

Best of 2004 Arts Getting and Spending Good Grub On The Town Public Faces and Places When we decided to photograph real people for this year’s “Best of” issue, we didn’t know it would turn out to be more fun than shouting “whiplash” in a room full of lawyers. Still, the time and logistics were formidable. We couldn’t have put it all together without the grace, good humor, and patience of many people. Photographer Kes Gilhome asked these folks to stand, sit, lean, dance, sip, spin, sweat, change places, change shirts, hug, mug and pick up a mug, drink and mix a drink, frost a cake, and — in a potentially historic moment — to ride a skateboard. For the record, he did ask Melissa Frazier to hold her leg up over her head while posing on a motorcycle and — in a separate movement — to stand on her head. He did not ask Amber Daniels to do the splits, but it happened anyway. Fort Worth Weekly thanks Scott Lennox, Fort Worth City Council member Clyde Picht, Leroy Wilson, Henrietta Milan of Milan Gallery, Sonia Williams-Babers, Jon Bonnell, Randy Adams, TCU Coach Neil Dougherty, Jon Keeyes, Eula Boudreaux, Al Cavazos, Amber Diva Daniels, Marge Studebaker, Melissa Frazier, Linda “Lulu” Farris, Jennifer Hart, John Hartley, Janice McCall, Shaggy “Bridget” McCormack, Dave Mitchell, Noraia Dell, Evette Perry-Buchanan, Eleanor T. Threatt, Fort Worth Cats Manager Wayne Terwilliger, Terry Shanks, Mike Thomas, Joanne Webb, and Ironhorse of Texas. Good sports one and all.

Worth Weekly has been telling, in different ways, for at least the last year: This just ain’t your grandaddy’s Cowtown anymore — if it ever was. We’re not just talking about the increasing — and increasingly scary — sprawl of our suburbs, or the stall on our freeways (we think of them now as NAFTA jams), or the filthy-looking yellow-brown tinge that ruins our skies and attacks our lungs on so many mornings now. Actually, we’re talking mostly about good stuff. About the fresh ideas being applied in the redevelopment of areas in and around downtown. About our ever-more diverse population, and the ways in which the funky among us are adding spice to the big, messy enchilada (or is that the sushi roll or pho bowl or perhaps the samosa?) that is North Texas. We’re talking about a town where the Republicans on the city council are the staunchest opponents of corporate giveaways, and where even the chamber of commerce, it seems, has figured out that advertising Fort Worth only for its western heritage makes about as much sense as having all bulls and no cows back at the ranch.

Hence this “Best of” issue, dedicated to the proposition that mixing it up — mixing cultures, people, and musical styles, making good martinis and margaritas, stirring a little Hogtown into Cowtown — is the best recipe for the Fort’s future. We found some surprises for you, like the ranchers who advertise themselves as “beef artisans” and make home deliveries, and the friendly bar that dishes up not only beer and barbecue, but also drag shows and AIDS activism. The best t-shirt we’ve seen all year was the one that said “Make Fort Worth Weird,” and by God, we’re doing our part.

As always, readers provided some surprises for us as well. (Not the ballot-stuffing attempts, of course, or the inability to discern whether Mel Gibson qualifies as a local celebrity. Those things are as traditional as flies at a Fourth of July picnic.) Readers picked Ed Bass as their favorite “non-traditional cowboy” — certainly he owns a ranch or four, and does it up big in the stock show and rodeo, but we think it’s those tall, tall boots, with trousers tucked inside, that he wears when he helps with the calf scramble, that got him the “non-traditional” part of the title. Readers picked the forced departure of City Manager Gary Jackson as their favorite recent political decision, handed school trustees the “Hey Big (Bad) Spender” award, and, once again, waxed weary over the lack of public transit and the piles of trash that are, still, drawing vermin and invective all around town.

And, as is only appropriate in an election year, our Fearless (Noncombatant) Leader is much on readers’ minds. Not content to dub Dubya their favorite candidate for alien abduction and the front-runner to sell Grandma down the river, readers added another honor this year, to give President Bush the veritable Triple Crown of Questionable Bests. The true Sign of the Apocalypse, readers told us, would be George’s re-election. That’s right — not in New Hampshire or New York or Massachusetts, but in a major Texas city, people are scared of that prospect. Who says Fort Worth’s not already a little weird — in a good way?

— Gayle Reaves