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A burst of Austin celebrity news
On the streets of our fair town, our spotters spied Jake Gyllenhaal at Enoteca, Home Slice, the trail around Lady Bird Lake and Lance Armstrong’s Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop. He was in town to celebrate filmmaker David Modigliani’s 30th birthday.
Eyed at Uchi were Molly Sims and Matthew McConaughey (separately).
Over at Iron Works Barbecue was celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. “He went back for seconds on the beef ribs,” said Roland Cantu. “His wife loved the chicken.”
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Anika Kunik Reading & Reception at Ranch 616
Originally from Belgium, Anika Kunik is an actress, author, producer, activist and mother. Her comic, semi-fictional memoir/novel, “Forty-five-1/2 Lovers: The Tragic Sex Chronicles of Amanda Buffington,” is the talk of certain social circles.
Pam Blanton and Anika Kunik
“I know at least three of the lovers,” said one guest at the Kunik reading and reception at Ranch 616 on Monday. Another interjected: “I don’t know him, but I’d sure like to meet the personal trainer.”
Mary Elizabeth Parr and Elizabeth Parr
The slim book is brisk, light and funny, condensed into romantic — or not so romantic — episodes. Reading through it, I thought something was missing. That something turns out to be Kunik. Her reading from the Ranch 616 bar was just the sort of dramatic interpretation one would expect from an accomplished actress.
Anika Kunik, Turk Pipkin and Christy Pipkin
Turk Pipkin, one of my tablemates, suggested she contract a screenwriter for an adaptation. My other table conspirators, fueled by signature drinks inspired by the characters, threw out names of stars who could play Amanda/Anika — Meg Ryan, Jennifer Aniston, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cameron Diaz.
Charla wood and Jane Wu
I met the thoroughly fascinating Elizabeth Parr, mother of event planner and public relations ace Pam Blanton, and also of sweet Mary Elizabeth Parr. Yes, they are related to the famous Parrs of South Texas, but I’m not sure about connections to the Blantons of Houston.
Judy Marquez and Cathy Waks
Others at my table included Cash Edwards (furious about the Cactus Cafe crisis); Sara Fox (a blessing whenever I see her across a crowded room); Christy Pipkin (forever under-credited in her endeavors with husband Turk); as well as Judy Marquez and Cathy Waks. On my way out, greeting my Marfa playmate Gail Papermaster, she introduced my to Jane Sibley’s son and his Alpine wife. Must get to know them better!
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HomeAway Super Bowl Party at Molotov
While 200 or so guests pushed into the Molotov club on West Sixth Street for HomeAway’s Super Bowl Party, 25 employees held down the office fort. That’s because a commercial during the third quarter — HomeAway’s first of a kind — could have jammed their Web site if not carefully monitored.
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Steve Moreno and Jaime Dito
At Molotov, the mood was exultant. Guests dressed in costumes from the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series. You see, the HomeAway ad was filmed like a trailer for a Vacation iteration — with Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo — sending TV watchers to the vacation rental listing’s site for a more complete mini-movie.
Emma, Brian and Chloe Sharples
I was forced to make a terrible confession: I’d never seen a “Vacation” comedy. Not one. I’m pretty sure I know the basic set-up. But even liking Chase and D’Angelo a lot, I never bothered. (I think I was deep into graduate studies back then.) So, a cultural Achilles Heel.
Toni Houghton and Amber Cope
That didn’t ruin the fun at Molotov. “It’s been stressful,” said HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples, cutting cake with his family. “But the media buzz alone is worth it.”
Stephanie Gutierrez and Patricia de la Garza
I’d guess the HomeAway crowd went 90 percent for the Saints. But they also were behind the ad and waited with just as much anticipation for the short commercial. Even though they grew comparatively hushed during the rip on bad hotel experiences, I couldn’t hear the dialog. So I’ll look it up online.
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Valentine’s Gala Presentation at Hilton Austin
I have not yet penetrated the inner sanctums of the tradition-encrusted Symphony Ball and its aristocratic presentations of princess debutantes. Nor have I journeyed into the heart of Old Austin’s Bachelor’s Club, which has presented available bluebloods to private audiences for decades.
Katie Jones and Henry Kittredge
Saturday, however, I delved into the much more democratic Valentine’s Gala Presentation benefiting Hospice Austin. This dignified event was launched in a private home, moved to the Renaissance Austin Hotel, then, this year, headed downtown to Hilton Austin.
Joanne Kemper and Laura Deskins
More than 100 high school seniors were slated for group presentations. Slender young women wore sleek red gowns. Upright young men looked dashing in tuxedos. Proud parents, siblings and friends also got gussied up, some mothers in demure versions of haute couture.
Kayla Kopp and Ryan Orton
Before entering the candlelit banquet room, the guests lingered in the sixth floor lobby. (Mostly) men gravitated to the HD screens to watch the Colts dominate the first quarter of the Super Bowl, then cheered when the Saints roared back in the second quarter.
Rick and Elise Schram
Why book a gala during the Super Bowl? One male guest said: “I didn’t make the connection until last week. But my daughter looks great and who would miss this?”
Elizabeth Lowrey and Patrick Brinkmann
Indeed, how many times does your son or daughter walk the stage to be presented to polite society? Some may think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m fascinated by these threads of tradition borrowed from European and East Coast culture. In our Open City, I’m rarely worried these rituals will be taken too seriously.
Ann Bauer and Marjorie Mulanax
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Rodeo Gala at Palmer Events Center
Rodeo is big in Austin. As proof, the Rodeo Gala is Austin’s biggest such charity event. “We expect to see 2,500 guests when all is said and done,” said grateful gala chairman and former Rodeo Austin president Gilbert Turrieta on Saturday.
EJ Lawless and Claire Vo
Wow. That’s two and one half times the size of the biggest meals I’ve joined lately — for Dell’s Children’s and Philanthropy Day, each in the 1,000-guest attendance range. One draw: Pricing is democratic. Only $700,000 gross was expected, however, compared to Dell Children’s $1 million mark.
Nicole Alberda and Tiffany Greer
Lots of black hats, plus a few white ones at the Palmer Events Center for the 2010 Rodeo Gala. Denim was OK. So were gowns and abbreviated tuxes. Just handling 2,500 people would challenge any event planner, but Rodeo Austin comes with some experience moving people — and livestock. Drink stations flanked the silent auction tables on the south side. Ten or more buffet lines, laden with barbecue and other delicacies, were set at angles against the north wall.
Kyle Ballarta and Allison Huth
One curiosity: The corral-style fencing used to designate the VIP sections. Guards with sensitive people skills were stationed to keep those from the other 200-plus tables from dancing in this area. (I guess you can only be so democratic.)
Stacy Looney and Christy Bowen
County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt sat at our table (No. 20), but we could only shout over the country sounds of Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros, warmups for headliner Dwight Yoakum. I heard, however, from my left-hand companions, Kurt and Kelly Bender, about the Tequila Club, the all-male group that historically built the rodeo’s leadership.
My right-hand companions were Jeff and Liz Carmack. Liz, a former journalist and author of “Historic Hotels of Texas: A Traveler’s Guide,” has been commissioned to write a history of Rodeo Austin. What a delicious task! I hope rodeo leaders allow her to chronicle some of the road bumps along the way as well as the glories.
Mark Harrington, Megan Felker and Don Eckols
OK, yes, I’m a wuss. I left before Yoakum sang. I’m just not one for waiting and waiting and waiting. I’m sure he blew the roof off of Palmer. Remember, the rodeo is coming soon!
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Fashion Freakout at Mohawk
In terms of audience loyalty, the Fashion Freakout ranks up there with Austin’s top annual runway shows. But one must be patient. I arrived at Mohawk almost an hour after the announced start time. A few folks batched up inside, or near the patio stage, or on one of two terraces. Cocktails and a few magnificently dressed guests occupied the time.
Stephanie Villalobos and Tammy Grumberg
No fashion show yet. The event, staged mostly by Prototype Vintage Design, had attracted some fervent devotees of the 1970s and ’80s, reeking of disco, glitz and the urban street. Memories … scattered pictures … of the smiles we left behind …
Chris Lyons and Lauren Robertson
I engaged in a particularly long conversation with Lauren Robertson, who moved away from Austin in the late ’90s and had just relocated here from San Francisco. She rightly observed that, while in the Bay Area, things seemed “set,” here, everything feels wide open. Anything could happen. We recounted how, just 10 years ago, runway shows were rarer than expertly made cocktails. Now …
CJ Anderson and Richard Orr
I also enjoyed a chat with Grace Rogers, a journalism student at the University of Texas, who looked as if she just left the Zach Theatre stage in one of Dave Steakley’s classy pop shows. Her friend, Karma Stewart, was the belle of the upper terrace, though, in her grandmother’s flashy threads. She ruled.
Grace Rogers an Karma Stewart
OK, regular readers are tired of this trope, but there I was, almost 2 hours after I had arrived, and still no show. Fashion Freakout was running on club time. Which is no time for me. The rest of the guests — now filling all the spaces — remained loyal, however, pushing toward the runway. I’ll return to this hipster jewel next season, but with a better notion in advance about the actual walk time.
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B Scene for ‘Desire’ at Blanton Museum of Art
Had I departed earlier, my conclusions would have been dead wrong. Arriving at the B Scene party for the exhibition, “Desire,” at the Blanton Museum of Art, I encountered a tweedy, older set. Not the young, hip tribe targeted by the museum’s social campaign, which includes monthly B Scene events.
Laura Moliter and Elizabeth Moliter
I mingled with art lovers, music lovers (Suzanna Choffel headlined) and party lovers (including bristle-haired copywriter JJ McLaughlin, who is always sniffing out a new scene). I spoke with “Desire” curator Annette Carlozzi and her still-new hubby Dan Bullock.
Meg and Adam Hulse
‘Desire’ accumulates pieces and performances from dozens of media. I’ll let the critics describe it, but I was happy to discover that Women & Their Work director Chris Cowden and I singled out the same dark, flower-strewn sculpture. I also snuck upstairs to see the Veronese altarpiece exhibit in its final days.
My visit to the main galleries contrasted sharply with my experiences at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts the previous week. The older, more traditional museum — located in a city twice our size with a long history of arts collecting — impressed me with its masses of exquisite Asian art. The Blanton, however, did not pale in comparison. In fact, for the quality of individual works and their vivid presentation, I’d give the UT museum the upper hand.
Ryan Masters and Teal Stamm
Back to the social observations: I had planned on cutting out early to make a fashion show, but was frozen by a dozen or so conversations. By then, the place was packed, filled with eccentric beards, odd club-wear, zany haircuts and other accessories of youthful vogue. The target demographic had arrived!
Kimberly Lewis and Albert Yeung
In fact, I watched as older museum members gravitated to the administration building across the plaza, muttering about the pack in the blue atrium. Would have loved to attend the Director’s Circle party the night before, when, according to more than one report, Denise Prince arrived in a costume so sheer, she might as well have been naked. A performance?
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Sascha Stone Guttfreund: Music Promoter Comes into His Own
They grow up so fast.
Less than two years ago, Sascha Stone Guttfreund was a round-faced boy with a fast lip and exactly one concert promotion under his belt. Yet he was so confident of his slapdash team of volunteer University of Texas students, Guttfreund was ready to turn Austin nightlife upside down.
Some of that wisdom was hard won, promoting more than two dozen full-fledged concerts, along with parties and nightclub events, courting burnout and controversy, and learning that he didn’t know quite as much as he thought he did.
“Stuff has definitely happened,” Guttfreund admits. “A lot I never would have expected.”
Guttfreund — self-described “Jewish Latin American” on his father’s side, with Canadian and Russian Jewish roots on his mother’s — comes from a Los Angeles show biz family. Yet one alert to the potential traps awaiting youngsters who stray into the Hollywood entertainment minefield.
“The kids drive Mercedes and BMWs,” Guttfreund says. “There’s a skewed concept there of what people deserve as kids. Nobody wanted to cruise off in our ‘89 minivan.”
Although his father, André Guttfreund, won an Oscar (shared with Peter Werner for the 1976 short “In the Region of Ice”), and his mother, Andrea Stone-Brokaw, is a successful casting director, Guttfreund has insisted on making his own way. When it came time for high school, it was off, at age 16, to small, international Verde Valley School in Sedona, Ariz., exactly where his father had boarded as boy, protected by his prominent family from civil unrest in El Salvador.
“My first-year roommate spoke no English,” says Guttfreund, whose family name, in German, means “good friend.” “The students were from everywhere you could imagine.”
Mediating between his parents, divorced when was he was 7, and establishing new friendships across international lines helped Guttfreund pick up priceless communications skills.
Guttfreund arrived in Austin in 2007, right out of Verde Valley, a year before he registered at UT, so he could work and qualify for in-state tuition. Why a university 1,500 miles from Southern California?
“A counselor told me I couldn’t possibly get in,” Guttfreund says with a sly smile. “Well, if somebody tells me I can’t do something …”
He now studies corporate communications, with an eye on law school.
Music continues to captivate him. His first and entirely accidental exposure to promotion came when rapper Shwayze was booked for the Monday after the 2008 Austin City Limits — a terrible time slot. That didn’t daunt Guttfreund, who jumped at the chance to spread the word.
“I utilized the tools at my fingertips,” he says. “Which was the university.”
Guttfruend went around to social clubs, fraternities and even his classes, announcing he was promoting the show, “who wants to help?” He assembled a team of 13 who sold 900 tickets in three weeks.
For a few months after that, Guttfreund marketed local nightclub events, but found the nightly grind a challenge to his health.
“I figured out a formula, though: A lot of boys go where the girls go; girls go where their friends go; so if you can get the girls and their friends on board …”
Eventually, he turned back to concerts, promoting in May 2008 Afroman at Aces Lounge, the former Hard Rock Cafe on East Sixth Street that Brendan Puthoff had opened with a novelty burlesque theme. Puthoff was so impressed, he asked Guttfreund to skip a summer job on a New Mexico movie set to book Aces on a regular basis.
“Sascha’s been a tremendous asset,” says Puthoff, who also owns the Third Base Sports Bar group. “The best way I can describe it is that he’s always on. He lives and breathes live music every hour of every day.”
What about the challenges of employing somebody who’s also a college student?
“There have been times that I know for a fact he’s in class, but I’m getting text messages or e-mails from him about the next show he’s booking for me, or ideas for an open night,” Puthoff says. “I’ve worked with a ton of promoters and talent buyers in the past — and none of them were also full time students — but Sascha is by far the most prolific in his ability to connect with the college demographic and draw great crowds for shows, week in and week out.”
One stumble gave Guttfreund the lesson of his life. A third-party promoter came to him with a deal too good to be true, a reggae headliner that, supposedly, Emo’s, downtown’s leading live-music club, had wanted. The promoter offered Guttfreund Buju Banton, who made a name in the 1990s with extreme anti-homosexual lyrics and pronouncements.
“I had heard the name,” Guttfreund says. “But I was born in 1989. I didn’t know this other stuff. Well kid, you should probably do your research! I when I heard what he’d said, I was disgusted.”
The act was moved to reggae-centric Flamingo Cantina, and Guttfruend received credit for canceling it, but also hate mail from those accusing him of insensitivity to Jamaican culture.
Guttfreund typically books mixed-genre acts — techno, dub, the “indie intellectual end of hip hop.” His artists attract, in his words, “hippies, frats, ‘sneaker heads,’ the clothing demographic, Texas State students. We love mixed crowds”
There’s also the homebody side of Guttfreund who likes nothing better than kicking back with old friends for Los Angeles, catching up with family, meeting with acquaintances at UT. He can do all that because his first career — an extremely social one — is well in hand.
“I finally have my tools in order,” he says. “I know what I’m doing when I book an artist.”
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Austin Under 40 Finalists for 2010
The list is out. Actually, it came out yesterday. But better late than never. The Austin Under 40 group has released the names of 50 finalists for awards to be presented March 6 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. Watch these names. Just being nominated here is like being nominated for Out & About’s 500. Some of these guys are already regulars in the columns.
FINANCIAL SERVICES: W. Eric Hehman, CEO - Austin Asset Management Company; Jason C. Qunell, Senior V.P. Commercial Banking - Capitol One Bank; Carrie Arsenault, President - Accountability Resources; James Edward Dyess, CEO and President - Horizon Bank; Kathleen Denise Hausenfluck, Accounting Manager - Cooper Graci & Company
BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Julie Kemp Jumonville, Co-Founder and CIO - UpSpring Baby; Rochelle Rae, CEO - Rae Cosmetics; Tiffany Laine Taylor, Owner - Tiff’s Treats; Clayton Craig Christopher, Founder and CEO - Sweet Leaf Tea Co.; J. Todd Coleman, V.P. and Creative Director - KingsIsle Entertainment
GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Amy Nicole Holloway, President and CEO - Avalanche Consulting; Jennifer Ransom Rice, Director of Development - Texas Cultural Trust; Karin Rene Crump, Attorney/Mediator - Law Office of Karen R. Crump, P.C.; Ryan David Clinton, Attorney - Hankinson Levinger, LLP; Royce Pabst Poinsett, Of Counsel - McGinnis, Lochridge and Kilgore, LLP
MEDICAL & HEALTHCARE: Kelli Dudley Kelley, Director - Texas Parent to Parent; Marilyn Maguire Orr Wilson, Development Director - AIDS Services of Austin; Daniel Z. Sternthal, Associate - Brown McCarroll, LLP; Terri Renee’ Broussard Affiliate V.P. Govt. Relations and Advocacy - Amer. Heart Association; Anthony J. Maneul, Staff Anesthesiologist - Capitol Anesthesiology
REAL ESTATE: Roland L. Galang, Senior Agent - Urbanspace Realtors, LLP; Alex Charfen, Co-Founder and CEO - Distressed Property Institute, LLP; Derek Andrew Land, Co-Managing Partner - Stream Realty Partners; Tausha Carlson, Founder and Owner - Marathon Real Estate; Kathryn Scarborough Bechtol, Co-Owner and Realtor - Turnquist Partners Realtors
TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCES: Scott Thomas, President - Intelechy Group; Roman Daniel Grijalva, Senior Project Manager - Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.; Lemuel Curly Williams, Director of Business Development - Uptime Media; Tria Brindley, Senior Director of Relationship Management - Blue Fish Development Group; Sarah Neil Evans, President - Well Aware
LEGAL: Dennis William Donley, Jr., Partner - Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee, PLLC; Amy Catherine Wilson, Senior Counsel - Kelly Hart and Hallman; Lee Potts, Partner - Brown McCarroll, LLP; Howard Daniel Nirken, Partner - Dubois, Bryant & Campbell, LLP; Ben De Leon, Attorney - De Leon & Washburn
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Live Chat with David Alan on the State of Austin Nightlife
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Your A List: Best Jukebox
My personal test for Best Jukebox: It must include the movie theme from “Valley of the Dolls.” If a dive is wise enough to include that ode to dissolution on its play list, then I promise to recreate Neelie’s hysterical Shubert Alley scene, personally, histrionically, every time I visit.
Other imbibing establishments were not far behind: Deep Eddy Cabaret (15 percent); Casino El Camino (13 percent); Ginger Man (12 percent) and Side Bar (11 percent).
Then we move on to the real dives, not the pretend variety (I like ‘em both): G&S Lounge (9 percent); Poodle Dog (8 percent).
The final three gin joints are good, too: Club de Ville (5 percent); Barfly’s (4 percent) and Longbranch Inn (2 percent).
If I weren’t suffering from a horrible, mean, nasty cold right this very minute, I’d be out testing each spot for their “Valley of the Dolls” credentials. And I’d bring along my sister in crime, Stephen Macmillan Moser.
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Your A List: Best Bakery
Some are traditional all-purpose bakeries, such as Upper Crust (which rose to 21 percent of the vote), Sweetish Hill (18 percent); Texas French Bread (8 percent); Quack’s (6 percent) and Russell’s Bakery (5 percent).
Others emphasize a particular baking tradition: La Mexicana (10 percent) and Phoenicia (3 percent).
Still others are newer, kicky creations that are as much about style and entertainment as baking. They include Hey Cupcake (13 percent); Tiff’s Treats (11 percent) and Lucy’s Cakes (4 percent).
I could eat my way through all three varieties.
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Winston Bode 1925-2010
Winston Bode, Austin journalist, broadcaster and biographer, died of in a nursing home on Monday. He was 84.
Born on April 29, 1925 in Kerrville, Bode was best known for “Capital Eye,” an interview program featuring political reporters that aired on various local channels for 17 years from 1969 to 1986.
“In that day and time, it was significant,” said journalist Ernie Stromberger of Bode’s show, comparing it to “Meet the Press.”
Bode, who also appeared on radio and wrote newspaper stories, interviewed Nelson Rockefeller, Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Anne Porter and Elvis Presley during his long career after graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in English.
He also published a biography of legendary Texas folklorist and teacher J. Frank Dobie entitled “A Portrait of Pancho.” The two, who shared a background in Texas ranching culture, remained friends for years.
“He was a pioneer,” said public relations expert Eric Webber. “As a journalist, he had more of a literary style.”
“He was a guy who loved every kind of journalism,” said his son, Todd Bode. “His favorites were the personal-interest stories.”
Bode was married to Mary Jane Bode, a reporter who later served as state representative from Austin from 1977 to 1980. They had divorced in 1968; she died from cancer in 1998.
In later years, Bode put out a political newsletter, contributed freelance columns to various media - using his trusted manual typewriter - and delivered commentaries on News8Austin.
“Actually, he was a wonderful man with a lot of knowledge of people,” said Charmaine Bode, his daughter-in-law.
Besides Todd and Charmaine, Bode is survived by daughter Georgianne Bode Harms of Barrington, Ill., five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A family memorial service is planned.
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Your A List: Best Vietnamese Restaurant
There’s no such thing as a great American city without superior, preferably inexpensive Vietnamese food. There, I said it.
The race for the top Vietnamese spot on the A List readers poll this year pitted Kim Phung (just over 16 percent of the vote) against Pho Hoang (just under 16 percent).
Four others — Sunflower, Hai Ky, 888 and Tam Cafe and Deli — bunched together at 10 to 12 percent of the tally.
Mekong River and Pho Van tied exactly at just under 8 percent. Saigon Kitchen and Triumph Cafe rounded out the list at 5 percent.
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Your A List: Best Newcomer to Austin’s Music Scene
Ooooo. I love this sort of A List contest category. Asking readers to name the Best Newcomer to Austin’s Music Scene means exposing me, along with everybody else, to some fresh talent. And more social options built around live music in the coming weeks.
Jazz sweetheart Kat Edmonson led the rest of the pack with 6 percent of the tally. The followers — Neon Indian, the Trishas, League of Extraordinary Gz, Downtown Rulers Club, LAX, TV Torso and Shurman — managed 3 percent or less.
Still, I’m up for sampling them all. Kat’s the only one I already listen to obsessively. In fact, she’s on the Bose right now.
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Building an Austin Social Library (2)
This entry adapts — and builds upon — material from an earlier post.
Like many people, my curiosity about books spans a world of interests. Yet a subset of my reading list specifically informs my reporting on Austin’s social scene. The following titles, read in the past few months, feed that function.
Roy Bedichek’s precise observations on natural life in “Adventures with a Texas Naturalist” remind us that today’s debates about the environment started well before any of us were born. Walter Prescott Webb’s prose is as flat, arid and challenging as the High Plains, but his library-bound research can’t be beat. Like virtually all general histories of the region, “The Great Plains” generously credits Native American, Mexican and Tejano contributions. J. Frank Dobie’s intellectual journey was recently chronicled in Steven Davis’ “J Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind.” The folklorist’s style might seem a bit stilted, boyish by today’s standards, but his once popular subject matter can be easily sampled in the anthology “I’ll Tell You a Tale.”
Texas and beyond — Although Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and the Valley have cultivated social scenes distinct from Austin’s, many if not most locals came from somewhere else in Texas. So it never hurts to read about the families and stories that helped shape those regions.
On the surface, Robert Rivard’s “Trail of Feathers” is a spellbinding story about the San Antonio editor’s search for his missing reporter, Philip True, and his fight for justice in the labyrinth of Mexico’s legal system. But it also reveals minute ruptures in the social strata of Texas, the Border, Guadalajara and Mexico City, as well as along the Huichol sierra. Thomas Thompson’s “Blood and Money” is an older true-crime story worthy of a second read, stripping away the blinders from Houston’s River Oaks society in the 1970s. Bryan Burrough’s “The Big Rich,” which follows the families who made the first fortunes in the Texas oilfields, then turned them into political power, deserves whatever sustained attention it can receive. I spread copies of it around my Houston family as holiday conversation fodder.
Pure Austin, yesterday and today — Billy Lee Brammers “The Gay Place” is often cited as the Austin novel. It is novelistic. And it gets political Austin in the late 1950s dead to rights. One must swim through a lot of existential partying to get there. But that’s Austin, too. Sarah Bird’s “How Perfect Is That” uses a lighter touch to contrast Bush-era Pemberton with everlasting, funky co-op lifestyle in West Campus (returning to land of “Alamo House”). Bird’s picaresque grasp of comic characters and plot is up there with Armistead Maupin and John Kennedy Toole’s. (Why wasn’t this serialized? Or was it?) The title is silly, but Joe B. Frantz’s “The Forty Acre Follies” is the most complete, entertaining — and satisfying — history of the University of Texas. The fact that UT boss Frank Erwin’s allies tried to suppress it, only makes the volume more valuable.
Ending this short list with David Humphrey’s “Austin: An Illustrated History” seems like a cop-out. Still, this picture book that I formerly used only as a reference work hangs together pretty well as history.
Recently, Danny Camacho, who hails from a distinguished Austin family and has been named an outstanding volunteer at the Austin History Center, suggested that the city name its own official historian. I’d say the first person to best Humphrey’s honorable, but incomplete work — in book form — deserves a nomination.
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Live Chat with Margie Coyle about the State of Austin Nightlife
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Long Weekend in Minnesota
Yes, I know. Traveling to Minnesota in deepest winter makes little sense. Yet my dear friend Rob Kendrick transferred here to teach at Gustavus Adolphus University in St. Peter, about an hour south of Minneapolis. It was time for a visit.
My first concern was the subzero temps. Friends and colleagues had warned me about pained lungs, stinging ears and 15-minute frostbite. Well, I suppose if you are snowmobiling or cross-country skiing, these might be legitimate concerns, but most people here are just passing to and from their cars to get somewhere.
Everything is white, as advertised, but this is December snow. It just doesn’t go away. And out here in the country, it stays white. Most roads are pretty darn safe, too, as long as there is no new precipitation.
We toured some of the towns here in southern MN, eating hearty German fare in New Ulm and shopping for organic groceries in St. Peter. Rob lives in Le Center, which locals pronounces LEE Center. Nearby is Le Sueur, home to Green Giant Le Sueur peas. The giant himself pokes out from various hillsides.
The land is rolling prairie plains, leading down to deep rivers, like the frozen Minnesota River nearby. German and Swedish settlers survived the winters. Their descendants grow mostly corn and soy beans — or whatever else is subsidized and turned into corporate food — on land that looks a lot like nearby Iowa. The farms — even the trailer parks — are neat and tidy.
We spent one day in the big city. The Minneapolis Institute of Art is a traditional big-city museum in a palatial structure opposite an urban park. On a previous visit, I had lunched and seen a play at the attached children’s theater, one of the country’s best. We spent our afternoon in the vast Asian galleries, clearly a local emphasis, including several full rooms transported from China and Japan.
A mile or so away is Hennepin Avenue, an exploded version of our South Congress, with low-lying local businesses packed with character. (Minneapolis-St. Paul is home to 3.5 million people, or almost twice Austin’s total.) We ate hot Vietnamese food and headed downtown for a cool cocktail joint called Jet Set, but it was closed.
That trip allowed us to see the city’s preserved theater district, however, virtually the only one of its kind in the country. We headed back to the Loring Park area, where we located the first of two neighborhood gay bars. Nineteen is the definition of laid back, with an older crowd fondly stoking friendships. Not much here for strangers.
Gladius, however, was more open. Developed on a modernized Roman theme, this narrow, deep bar is centered on an elegant well. We met not only the owner and bartender, but all the lively patrons. I have a feeling it would be my base club in MN.
Other than that, I’ve been sacked out on the couch, dealing with a cold or allergies (pine? spruce?) and eating Rob’s fine cooking. Finishing up Robert Rivard’s “Trail of Feathers,” a suspenseful tale of a San Antonio newspaper editor searching for his reporter, Philip True, lost and murdered in Mexico. Also re-watched the latest “Star Trek” movie (holds up); “Invictus” (formulaic to its teeth, but beautifully done); and a Bruce La Bruce flick (John Waters meets Fassbinder, Pasolini and Warhol. Not for the faint of heart.).
Now, back to Austin, where it’s just cold.
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That voice: The arrival of Andrew Cannata
Within the relatively cozy world of Austin musical theater, a male voice like Andrew Cannata’s comes along once in a generation or so. Joe York’s warm, booming baritone made its first mark in the 1980s. Stephen Michael Miller’s delicate tenor glided onto the scene in the 1990s.
Yet it was his performance last season as the romantic lead in the classic musical, “The Pajama Game,” that elicited unprecedented raves and an Austin Critics Table nomination for Outstanding Singer. Under the tutelage of music and stage director Michael McKelvey, Cannata has smoothed out the breaks in his blooming tenor and has relaxed into a natural acting style.”
“McKelvey breaks down your boundaries,” Cannata says. “He urges you to do what comes naturally.”
As for musical theater’s third required skill, dancing, Cannata says: “I can follow choreography.”
Thursday, Cannata opens in “John and Jen,” a two-actor, vestpocket musical produced by newborn Penfold Theatre, which presented the award-winning “The Last Five Years,” also directed by McKelvey, in 2009. He plays four people, two of them children, in a family story told from the mid-1950s to mid-90s. “I had to distinguish between the children, so I concentrated on props,” he says. “It’s tough show to make work.”
So far, Cannata has assayed several characters younger than his biological age. His succinct features and wonder-infused looks aid in credibility.
Cannata, who remembers attending his first musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” almost as soon as he could walk, comes by his artistic bona fides familially. His father, a particle physics expert who delved into computers, played piano in the theater; his sister and brother performed on the musical stage. The seventh of nine siblings in an Irish/Italian Catholic family, Cannata, an almost-lifelong Austinite, comes to theater with a built-in fan club.
“It’s in our blood,” he says. “The family sang three masses a week. A lot of my musical skills were developed there.”
A professional services engineer for LifeSize video conferencing service by day, Cannata dreams of taking his computer and theatrical skills to a bigger, tougher market, say, Chicago maybe.
“I go back and forth,” he says. “It would be hard giving up such a good job and theater community.”
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ADL Torch of Liberty Awards at the Four Seasons
After the Anti-Defamation League Torch of Liberty awards dinner Thursday at the Four Seasons, I wondered, if only for moment, why it went so well, why the introductions and acceptance speeches, the videos and testimonials, even the lighting combined for a profound emotional and intellectual impact.
Kirk and Amy Rudy
Once again, Steven Tomlinson, playwright, performer and business coach was ready with the answer. “Because the speakers hold the audience to account,” he said. “It’s the only gala where that happens. There’s a confessional element, then they make sure the listeners understand they are personally responsible for fighting bigotry.”
Kirk and Alicia Golinghorst
Larry Connelly and James Armstrong, who won the Raymond and Audrey Maislin Humanitarian Award, spoke modestly about their philanthropic efforts in the community. Yet everyone choked up when Connelly thanked Austin for accepting the pair’s life partnership for the past 26 years.
Shawna and Eric Hills
Amy and Kirk Rudy, the Torch of Liberty honorees, were more loquacious. Amy talked with utmost sincerity and humor about growing up a sensitive child, “a crier,” having that quality squeezed out of her, then finding, later in life, that sensitivity aligned her with compassion. Rudy, almost Latinate in his oratory, cited examples from his own life, but also form the larger sphere, of attitude changes, if only people stand up to intolerance.
Alisa Weldon, Aliza Orent and Austin City Council Member Randi Shade
So many leaders attended — starting with Luci Johnson and extending across the city’s social spectrum — it was hard not to chat with everyone who passed by. My immediate tablemates, Carolyn Seriff and Jane Stetson, were special delights. To my left, Seriff talked about life in Horseshoe Bay, which she won’t give up even as she establishes a pied-à-terre at the Austonian.
Tom Spencer and Simone Talma Flowers
To my right, Stetson, the National Finance Chairwoman for the Democratic Party, was curious about everybody and everything Austin. She’s a rising star in her own right, if only behind the scenes.
What an eye-opening, and, I understand, also a record-setting event, thanks in part to organizers Eugene Sepulveda and Shelley Zausmer.
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This is the Jetté Momant Moment
If Jetté Momant hasn’t reached you through social media, chances are, she will.
The Austin event planner and public relations expert tends her Facebook, Twitter and blogosphere networks like an avid gardener in spring. Palm Pre at the ready, she knows where you are, who you are seeing and why you should stray in her direction — if you have the time.
“He’s been out of the picture since I was four.”) For her part, Momant never considered signing up with the military.
“I don’t like other people telling me what to do,” admits the entrepreneurial Momant.
Her mother and stepfather settled in Indianapolis, Ind., to which she returns regularly. Yet Momant, who attended elementary school in Austin with actor Mechad Brooks, keeps gravitating back to Texas. She followed a friend to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, thought she’d made a mistake, then blossomed socially as a resource for other students.
“It’s a small big school,” she says. “Like Austin is a small big city.”Sitting outside at Snack Bar on South Congress Avenue, Momant claims she’s nervous talking about herself, as opposed to her normally tenacious championship of clients. Yet she appears as calm and collected as she does at nightly openings, parties and clubs. Pools of turquoise circle her neck and her curled hair deftly complements her prism-like features as we speak at length.
The human personality, you see, is an endless fascination for Momant, which might explain her degree in psychology. “I was always interested in what people do, what they like, and how to best communicate with them,” she says.
After college, she “ping-ponged” around. The Jennifer Lopez movie, “The Wedding Planner,” made a particular impression. Back in Indianpolis, she got involved in a ”lifestyle marketing” firm. She then connected with Denise Silverman at Soirée (now Clink), an Austin event-planning firm. Later, she worked with Vivian Miller, now of Austin Wedding Planners. Event design — the decor, arrangements, fabrics, etc. — became her specialty. So, at age 25, she opened her own firm, Decor Jetté, to provide those services to established planners. To entice customers, she’d charge only $500 for what she now bills $3,000.
“I kinda fell out of love with weddings,” she says. The relationships Momant developed during those years served her, however, when she started Manna, a broader promotional outfit. Soon, all her efforts will be consolidated under Jetté Momant PR and Event Productions.
Her first “cool” client was East Austin bar the Peacock, which instantly swept up the hipsters with its parties and retro atmosphere. Her major breaththough, however, came when owner Victoria Lynden transformed a gourmet grocery store on South Congress into chic Cissi’s Wine Bar. Asked to organize the opening festivities, Moment did so well — and gracefully — Lynden brought her in on other business ventures.
Since then, Momant has been the toast of the town. Or at least, the younger, connected part of it. A lot of her success can be traced back to that digital revolution.
“I’m on social media 24 hours a day,” she says. “It’s a great way to find out what’s going on in the city. To take its pulse. And, eventually, to direct that pulse.”
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