The good, bad and ugly of 2007
With all of the benefits that come with being a columnist (and I'm sure at some point, they'll come to light), the least I can do is play Father Christmas and hand out a few prizes to those who’ve made the Shanghai scene.

The initial award is the "Finally We Can Start Bragging about Our Town" honor, which goes out to the guys from Split Works. This crew brought acts like Sonic Youth, Ozamatli, Faithless, Killa Kella, Talib Kweli and more to Shanghai and helped us forget about the Go! Team gig. "From 20,000 [fans] rocking out in a stadium to a rave in a water park, we've still got our jazz here," says Split Works General Manager Archie Hamilton. Sure, big acts really don't help our tiny little local scene, but it gives new musicians a chance to dream and gives us an opportunity not to go to sleep.

Though it hurts me to say my next award, the "B.S. Promotion of The Year" goes to LOgO. If you're going to throw a "Detroit / Berlin" party you need to invite people from both. This town has DJs from both cities, yet it was the local pairing of Ben Huang (China) and Shanghai Ultra (Scotland) who were chosen to spin. We expected this from the fly-by-night Chinese clubs, but not our little hipster hangout.

Speaking of hipsters, what nightlife write-up would be complete without naming those who are, well, hipsters themselves? This "Man of the Year" is cool, has made a difference in the scene and wouldn't be caught dead on the Bund. It should come as no surprise that this accolade goes to the flask-holding, music-video-hosting, mustached-sporting hobo Dan Shapiro. Upon accepting this award, Shapiro told me, "If you wanna call me a hipster then at least make it 'Hipster Supreme.'" I'd personally rather go with the title "Greatest Living American," but we'll leave it at "Man of the Year" for now. When Shapiro's not manning lead vocals and guitar for his new band, The Rogue Transmission, he's at every live show possible in Shanghai. If you see him, buy him a drink or a motorcycle–or a parrot.

Lastly, to touch on where there's room for improvement, the "This Is Why Chinese-Run Businesses Have Bad Reputations" mention goes to Live Bar. The management made the unforgivable error of the year, if not the century, by not agreeing to Sonic Youth's few and reasonable demands in order to hold the after show there. Shame, since it's bad decisions like this that made it the place to catch a show LAST year and not this year. So there you are–more good this year than bad, and the same can be said for our scene.

• Aric Queen