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BEST MIMING/JUMP ROPING/ SINGING/STAND-UP COMEDYING/ DANCING EVENT THAT DRAWS EVERYBODY
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BOISE CURB CUP boisecurbcup.com
It’s weird. We still don’t know for sure how many people attended the inaugural Boise Curb Cup last year: reports quote somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 (organizers expected less than 1,000). That’s a huge gap and one that would make planning for the next one daunting. But that didn’t stop organizer Mark Rivers from doing it all over again this year and making it even bigger. On Aug. 29, the rain stopped and the clouds parted as hundreds of performers and thousands of spectators descended on downtown Boise like a mob of brides-to-be at a Vera Wang 70-percent-off sale. Music, performers, dogs, strollers, chatter and laughter filled BODO, the Grove and Eighth Street for three hours straight, after which the Summerwind Skippers walked away with a $1,000 prize and the big silver Curb Cup. And even if reports come back listing this year’s attendees at somewhere between eleventeen and dodecahundred, you can bet it will happen all over again next year.
BEST FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
CLASSIC ROCK CONCERTS
Aural memories live in a drawer in the same cabinet where your brain stores scent memories. Just like the smell of lilacs can trigger a memory of your grandmother, a song can transport you to the halcyon days of youth. And Boise has been a veritable time machine this year. The Psychedelic Furs turned the Egyptian Theatre all pretty in pink. Idaho Botanical Garden let people stay with Jackson Browne and shone some light on rainy day women with Bob Dylan. The Eagle River Pavilion filled the air with the ubiquitous stylings of the joker Steve Miller and also took a ride on the Marrakesh Express with the harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash. At the Idaho Center, The Eagles acted like the new kid in town. And at each concert, hundreds—or thousands—of middle-aged people acted like the hormonal kids they were when they first heard these bands.
18 | BEST OF BOISE: STAFF PICKS | SEPTEMBER 22–28, 2010 | BOISEweekly
BEST WHAT IS ART?
PIE HOLE’S GRAFFITI
205 N. Eighth St., 208-344-7783; 1016 Broadway Ave., 208-424-2255; 726 N. Main St., Meridian, 208-888-2842, pieholeusa.com From the time Pie Hole opened its first location, co-owner Jason Crawforth knew he wanted it to attract all kinds of people. Ultimately, he wanted his restaurants to be cool, even the ones outside of the hip downtown Boise corridor. Pocatello-based graffiti artists Drae and Toenail helped in that regard. Their big, bright murals both inside and outside Pie Hole locations in Pocatello and Meridian transformed otherwise dull buildings into swirling scapes that you’d expect to see in much larger cities. It’s a brilliant way to give a business an edge that combines an urban art form with one of the simplest foods on Earth.
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