Breakdown kindly requests your indulgence while we brag our faces off. Last week the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies--the industry association to which Santa Cruz Weekly, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Village Voice and 130 other weekly papers belong--announced the winners of its annual AltWeekly Awards contest. And who should bring home the goodies but our very own Curtis Cartier and Christina Waters. Waters took first place in the Food Writing category for her profile of ever-evolving Bonny Doon winemaker Randall Grahm ("The Jester's Quest," June 4, 2008), while staff writer Cartier won third place in the Arts Feature category for his story about rock bands priced out of garages and into storage units ("Unlock & Roll," Dec. 17, 2008). Both were in the 50,000-circulation-and-under division. This is Waters' second AAN award; in 1996 she won the gold in food writing for her Metro Santa Cruz article "Waiting for Merlot."

Not to be outdone, our sister paper, the North Bay Bohemian, won second place for its annual Arcadia issue. What can we say? We're on fire.

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