Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2007 > August > 07
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Connecting the social dots
Fame: The term “Fortunates” has been retired, but we are still obsessed with connectors who get things done by transcending social boundaries. Here are a few, some familiar to over-familiar, others not, some lively, some deceased, who made crunchy Central Texas news during the weeks I was in France. (We’ll exempt the entire Johnson clan and attendant politicos, who remained in the spotlight a week after Lady Bird Johnson’s death.) Keep an eye on them.
Music: Lucinda Williams, Rachel Loy, John Pointer, Aaron Behrens, Thomas Turner
Tech: Richard Garriott, Scott Harmon, Omid Sojoodi, Aljosa Vrancic
Biz: John Mackey, John Howard, Kenneth Jastrow, Doyle Simons, Kenneth Debuque, James DeCosmo, Richard Kooris, Beau Armstrong, Freddy Fletcher, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Wally Scott III, Mac Pike, Kevin Rollins, Joe E. Harlan
Sports: John Ferguson, Adam Johnson, Colt McCoy, Henry Melton, Sergio Kindle, Mack Brown, Darrell Royal, Jamaal Charles
Food: Manny and Maria Farahani, Jeff Blank, Robert Rhoades, Kelly Casey, Melanie and Mark McAfee
TV: Gina McCauley, Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, Robert Hadlock, Michelle Valles, Tonya Keer, Chris Willis, Eric Lassberg, Skip Baldwin, Bob Ballou, and the whole “Friday Night Lights” crowd
Heritage: Myrtle Hornsby Callan, Katherine Berkley Cannon, Virginia Woodward Houghton
Part-timers: Alberto Contador
Out: Darren Wydermyer
Politics: Toby Futrell, Jason Stanford, Dan Gattis, Mike Martinez, Eric Bearse, Glen Maxey, Nelda Wells Spears, Kirk and Liz Watson, Michael Williams, Jeff Jack
Faith: Karen Thompson, Sara Hickman
Arts: Allison Orr, Zell Miller III
Crime: Charles Maynard Wyatt, Richard Hernandez, Michael Austin Presley, Art Acevedo, Andre Jones, Justin Allen Crabbe, Laura Ashley Hall
Health: Scott Cary, Paul Carrozza, Pat Crocker, Benjamin Sasse
Style: Allen Ruiz, Blake Mycoskie, Ross Baldwin
Fun: Charlie Gandy
Movies: Amber Heard
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‘Tripping Forward’ made me laugh
Movies: Despite some flat-footed dialogue and delivery, “Tripping Forward,” the first feature film from Austin-raised actor/director Marcus Nash is ultimately comical and endearing. It’s a guy-guy movie about an out-of-work Hollywood actor and his bum of a musician roomie, and how they raise rent money by re-selling cocaine to supermodels before one of them matures into a facsimile of an adult. Judd Apatow territory, of course, but with a spin all its own. Distribution? It’s all in the cards, isn’t it?
Screened for a private audience at the Alamo South on Monday, “Tripping” benefits from inventive cinematography in the early scenes and entertaining drug and slapstick sequences later in the movie. Frumpy Chip Fogleman, who has done a lot of TV work, is lovable as the actor, chiseled hunky William Gregory Lee, another TV regular, freaks out convincingly as the musician. Ed Begley Jr. makes the most of his turn as a (typically) mad acting teacher.
A stronger first impression from the actors and screenwriters would have given this sweet, if raunchy indie the boost it deserves. (I’d drop the fantasy interview sequence, for instance.) And, oh, Nash seemed well-healed from his emergency surgery at Seton, merrily sharing his scar with friends and family.
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