We received more than 2,000 attempts at ballots in or Best of Buffalo poll this year. Of those, more than 1,100 ballots were deemed valid and tallied. The finalists in each category are enumerated on the following pages—listed in no particular order—and the winners will be announced at our annual Best of Buffalo Bash on Monday, April 30 at Town Ballroom.

Overwhelming response as usual to this category, more evidence of what our readers do when given lots of choices. (Perhaps this is why the local politics categories get less traffic?)

Let us now praise famous men and women—such convenient, and often willing, receptacles in which to pour our expectations and frustrations.

Based on the voting in this category, you could creat a composite of the typical Artvoice reader. She looks for love in late-night bars; she steals wireless from her neighbors; she loves the Albright-Knox, inside and out; she rides her bike to the Japanese Gardens in Delaware Park on weekends; she frequents a triangle defined by Allentown, Chippewa and Bidwell Parkway, straying occasionally into the East and West Sides to take stock of the city’s declining neighborhoods. She likes her restrooms glitzy and Italianate, but she appreciates the Old Pink vibe too. She attends a lot of fundraisers and festivals, but she’s kind of a homebody.

By today’s pedestrian music fan, Buffalo is often referred to as the hometown of the Goo Goo Dolls, Ani DiFranco, 10,000 Maniacs (sort of) and the late Rick James. While these great talents serve as handy ambassadors due to their widespread popular success and fame, they represent only a sliver of the rich musical heritage of a city that’s been home to songwriters ranging back from Harold Arlen (“Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” sung by Judy Garland) to “Dyke” Arlester Christian (“Funky Broadway,” sung by Wilson Pickett). The cultural and musical variety is rich here, and the roots run very deep.

With all the stores that come and go, it’s a wonder the number of retail establishments that have been around for ages, and that keep winning our Best of Buffalo polls year after year.

Buffalo, the animals, or American bison as they are more properly called, are a little like Buffalonians, the people, in at least two ways: They conquer harsh winter storms by facing them head-on, and they like to gather in groups around cool watering holes.

For a city its size, Buffalo has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the arts. Apart from 800-pound gorillas like the Albright-Knox, Shea’s, Studio Arena and the Philharmonic, we’re blessed with many smaller galleries, theaters and performance spaces where local visual, literary, musical and performance artists can share their work.