Having passed the halfway point of 2008, it's time to look at the early contenders for this column's year-end, best-of feature:

Special to the AJC (ENLARGE)
The opening gala for Straits _ the Midtown eatery founded by rapper/actor Ludacris and chef Chris Yeo ranks high among moments to remember at this midway point of 2008.
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BEST PARTY

Because the past six months included another visit to the Grammys, it's hard not to, again, qualify some of these nods. In Los Angeles, it would have to be a tie between Content's first Chairman's Luncheon for Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. and producer-artist Jimmy Jam — there were real music powers everywhere you turned — and Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid's Grammy night party. Best music, period!

In Atlanta, thus far, that distinction would actually go to an event that was very loosely music-related: the W Hotel Midtown's opening, in large part because of the beautiful space, the service, the eats, and, yes, the sounds provided by DJ Ruckus.

BEST INVITE

Hmmm ... next category.

BEST PARTY VENUE

Again, with the Grammys in the mix, it would have to be Los Angeles' Chateau Marmont, where Vanity Fair magazine and Louis Vuitton threw a poolside party attended by entertainment legend Quincy Jones, Atlanta's own Grammy winners Ludacris and Ne-Yo, pop singer Nelly Furtado and actress Taraji Henson.

In Atlanta, again, the W Midtown. (Though skirt! magazine's anniversary party on the rooftop of MidCity Lofts was pretty amazingly scenic).

BEST HOST

Surely anybody handing out $100 bills as you walk in qualifies, right? (Never mind that the hundreds I'na Saulsberry tossed at her "MTV Stunna 16" viewing party at Justin's were only good for a glass of wine at the restaurant).

BEST DJ

DJ Ruckus — an obvious choice as he was spinning wonderfully at two (W Midtown, skirt!) of the aforementioned happenings.

BEST PARTING GIFT

Or at the least the most memorable, was the turkey-sized aluminum foil pan full of "goodies" (vanilla-scented trash bags? Cheetos? toilet paper?) Frank and Wanda Morning Show's Miss Sophia gave the judges after the V-103 personality's Uptown Comedy Corner competition.

(And it's always nice — much less rare — to get free books at these things. But such was the case at the THUG Awards at the Rialto, where copies of rapper-businessman Troy "Lil Troy" Birklett's indie artist guide, "Heat in the Kitchen," were on tables throughout the lobby).

BEST QUOTABLE — OVERHEARD

"I wrote the check and I still can't get in?!" (That from a woman kept behind the barricade at Ne-Yo's midnight brunch at Los Angeles' Hollywood 86. She was claiming she was with Microsoft, whose Zune was one of the party's sponsors.)

BEST QUOTABLE — THAT'S QUOTABLE

"Isn't that the guy who was caught with weed at the airport?" (Hot-107.9 A-Team Morning Show personality Griff acknowledging former state Sen. Ralph David Abernathy III from the stage at the THUG Awards. Actually, Griff, he went to prison for theft by taking, forgery and other charges.)

BEST "INSIDER" MOMENT

Besides the prime seat at the Content luncheon mentioned earlier, it's got to be April 24. Granted, that isn't a moment — but what a night! That one evening included the AID Atlanta fund-raiser/opening of Ludacris' Straits restaurant in Midtown (rapper Rich Boy, B98.5's Vikki Locke and Tony winner Jennifer Holliday were spotted); his and his manager-business partner Chaka Zulu's star-studded (Grammy winners Fergie, Ciara and India Arie, Atlanta Dream Ivory Latta, Dap Rugget's Cedric King, 95.5 the Beat's CJ) Ludacris Foundation fund-raiser at the Ralph Lauren store at Lenox Square; followed by the even more celeb-heavy (Grammy winners Usher, Lil Jon and Johnta Austin, execs Shakir Stewart, Christopher Hicks, Ryan Glover and Ethiopia Habtemariam, Hot-107.9's Rashan Ali, Emperor Searcy and Beyoncé) BMI Unsigned Urban Showcase, headlined by the only artist to sell more than a million copies of an album its first week in stores this year, rapper Lil Wayne.