I've been happy with Dreamhost for webhosting, but it's been years since I signed up with them, so I have no idea if there's a better show in town these days or not.
As far as tags, I'm not sure what you're asking. (Possibly because I am stupid with exhaustion.) You don't want to use built-in tagging systems? But you do want to use tags? I know Textpattern lets you put any given item in 2 "categories" and 1 "section," and you can then search by requiring that your results are a hit in all 3 things, which I think would work well for what you're talking about, but that's kind of what you're saying you're too lazy to use, I guess? I am just confused about what the easier way to do it would be.
I am kind of useless.
As far as tags, I'm not sure what you're asking. (Possibly because I am stupid with exhaustion.) You don't want to use built-in tagging systems? But you do want to use tags? I know Textpattern lets you put any given item in 2 "categories" and 1 "section," and you can then search by requiring that your results are a hit in all 3 things, which I think would work well for what you're talking about, but that's kind of what you're saying you're too lazy to use, I guess? I am just confused about what the easier way to do it would be.