NEWS & FEATURES

It's our annual Best issue, where we reveal the results of our Readers' Poll and give some opinions of our own as well.

David Bernstein continues his in-depth look at the failures of the Boston Police Department's homicide squad by listing off the names of the murdered.

Camille Dodero speaks with Janaka Stuckey, a poet who moonlights as an undertaker. Or is it the other way around?

Mark Jurkowitz was going to write about the Boston edition of the Metro and how it might just wind up being the future of the daily newspaper. But then a funny thing happened: nobody would talk to him. Is there more than meets the eye here? Jurkowitz tries to find out.

Adam Reilly checks in on Matt O'Malley, the candidate who should be attracting more attention and more votes.

Mike Miliard visits with the minds behind Worcester's Participatory Culture Foundation in search of the future of television.

Dan Savage on sex.

ID Check: Véronique d’Entremont

In the Phoenix editorial: the big questions about Bush and company, and a remembrance of Rosa Parks.

Letters to the editor

Plus, this just in:

MUSIC

Wayne Marshall makes his debut as a Phoenix scribe by weighing in on reggae's two most significant crossovers since who-knows-when: Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley and Sean Paul.

Lloyd Schwarz takes in some opera, specifically Opera Boston’s The Consul, Boston Baroque’s Agrippina, and Cecilia Bartoli.

Ted Drozdowski on the reinvention of Joe Henry.

Simon W. Vozick-Levinson on the mutation of Jamie Lidell, who has gone from glitch mad-scientist to neo soulman.

Jeff Miller talks to Tim DeLaughter of the Polyphonic Spree on his work on the soundtrack to the film Thumbsucker. Matt Ashare also has thoughts on the soundtrack-as-marketing-apparatus trend.

In Cellars By Starlight, Brett Milano talks to the Coffin Lids who at press time are still scheduled to play a show at the Abbey Lounge on October 29. Here's hoping the necessary repairs have been made by then so the place can re-open.

In Out: Camille Dodero on BunnyBrians and Broken Social Scene.

Sarah Tomlinson has notes on Lizzie Borden and the Axes.

In Circuits, David Day finds Life on Marz with Randy Deshaies.

In Download: Carly Carioli clicks on the latest from Madonna. But are you better off saving your 99 cents?

Live reviews of: Jello Biafra and the Melvins, Dave Douglas, and Josh Ritter.

Also, short reviews of: