Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2007 > August > 20
Monday, August 20, 2007
Out & About goes legit, sort of …
Tuesday, Out & About will make its print debut, delving into personalities, socializing and gossip, plus the kind of things you have read here for three years. Here’s a sneak peek (and my new mug is pictured below):
Kick back for a few minutes with a reporter, and you will learn more about a news story than from all the published newspaper, magazine and Internet accounts.
That’s because, by nature, training and habit, mainstream journalists tend to leave the juiciest parts out of the official record. We’re not talking about libel bait, but rather the succulent details that readers long to know: What did the subjects really look like? How did they sound? How did they interact with others? What did they eat and drink? And, of course, who are they seeing later?
Though E!, Us or People can provide bland lists of celebrity attributes, we, the consumers of culture, want to know more about the names in the news — and presented in context.
Not the cellulite of the stars. Not high tea with high society. But fresh insights into personalities, socializing and a dash of gossip.
Frequently updated online, and once a week in print, Out & About, which has served as my blog for three years, will attempt to provide that service for Central Texas, connecting the social dots that make this corner of the universe click.
The effort is not modeled so much on Internet meat-grinders like TMZ or Gawker as on warmly dishy Liz Smith, who frequently drops a few lines about Austin into her New York Post column. Less like trash-monger Perez Hilton than inexhaustible humanist and humorist Herb Caen, fanning out over the streets of San Francisco.
For those of you who know me — currently entertainment editor with special emphasis on television and movies — as a deeply ingrained introvert, this assignment might seem counterintuitive. Yet Austin is such a casual, essentially amiable town, I’ve never had trouble meeting new friends and acquaintances wherever I wandered.
By way of explanation and introduction, I arrived in 1984 knowing exactly two people — and they moved here with me from Houston.
Through graduate school, downtown clubbing and minimum-wage jobs, I quickly got to know punkers and neo-hippies, frat men and film geeks, including Steve Wilson, my mild-mannered, prong-haired manager at the Varsity Theater on the Drag, and now head of the distinguished film program at the Ransom Center. (Director Richard Linklater, wearing almost identical T-shirt and cut-offs each time, was a regular customer at the since-departed Varsity. Hey, Rick, if you are reading this, can you confirm that Matthew McConaughey and Camilla Alves are engaged? No? Oh well, you have my number.)
When the American-Statesman unexpectedly asked me to write about the arts in 1989, I became acquainted with the theater, dance, art, architecture and classical-music communities. My social role model was Karen Kuykendall, a sultry stage diva, descended from an old Austin family, whose parties nevertheless represented the broadest possible cross-section of the city. (Knowing my shyness, she stood by me, asking, “Michael, do you know …” Every host should learn this trick.)
The arts boom of the 1990s meant rubbing elbow-patches with the leaders of business, government and philanthropy. Twinkle-eyed party-giver Mary Margaret Farabee, folksy builder Dick Rathgeber and elegant banker Eddie Safady were among those who schooled me in the hard truths of fundraising in a town without a history of expansive charity. Those heady days were also good for catching up with creative social connectors, such as Lisa Byrd, Ann Ciccolella and Amparo Garcia-Crow, who continue to pop up in new positions.
Contributing articles to the newspaper’s technology, style and books sections during the late 1990s allowed me access to some of the city’s brightest minds, including the quietly charismatic and strangely modest Steven Phenix, who straddled all three groups. Coming from a newspaper family, he was among the first to grasp the non-elitist goals behind this newspaper’s Fortunate 500 list of socially active citizens, which we inaugurated three years ago.
Accepting the position of XL editor in 2003 meant delving deeper into the music, film, food and recreation industries. Once again, I appreciated the patient, self-effacing, passionate work of people who laid down the networks of cooperation among the usually competitive artists, leaders such as the Austin Film Society’s Rebecca Campbell, Texas Music Commission’s Casey Monahan and the Austin Museum Partnership’s Heather Brand (sadly since moved to Houston). Meanwhile, fun foodies like Quincy Adams Erickson, who has single-handedly reintroduced the little black dress to galas, demonstrated the extraordinary good works contributed by area chefs and caterers.
Blind spots? The suburbs and exurbs (not for lack of interest, so help me out here), as well as heath care and crime. And although I’m a hard-bitten sports fan, and have taught or given workshops at six of the seven area colleges and universities, the region’s educational and athletic societies remain somewhat opaque to me.
Why would I take on such a thankless chore? After all, better writers, reporters or socializers — Michael Corcoran, Lee Kelly and Stephen Moser come to mind — have produced this type of column, with the scars to show for it.
I remain, however, insatiably curious about Austin and the way it operates. And watch out: Tell me I can’t do something, and I will. Or at least try. (One supervisor calls me a serial transgressor.)
I will continue to be the television and movies editor. And, despite going out almost every night of the week, I still spend the majority of my waking hours in the embrace of South Austin domestic bliss, with partner and pets, garden and kitchen, library and, yes, well-watched television. (Never underestimate my appetite for trash to temper the high art.)
Look for multiple daily Out & About updates on austin360.com. The print version will dabble in larger themes or personality profiles, and will break down some of the action from the previous weekend.
Your tips — and your digital photo submissions — are essential.
Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a gloriously bumpy ride.
Heavy hitters and other valuable players
City: After a seven-event weekend — whew! — I settled down with a good book on discussion teaching (the course I teach on entertainment journalism at St. Ed’s starts next week), gardening (chopping and transplanting competitors in the still-wet jungle) and some cooking: a creamy beef risotto capped Sunday’s kitchen tour of duty.
So it’s an ideal time to spot some names in the news. Ralph Haurwitz’s excellent explanation of the Brakenridge tract on Sunday revealed a stunning list of heavy hitters on the tract task force, including lawyer Larry Temple (Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation), UT VP Patricia Clubb (pictured), lawyer and philanthropist Frank Denius, Seton Family of Hospitals COO Jesus Garza, titan project manager Dealey Herndon, UT CFO Kevin Hegarty, UT System executive vice chancellor Scott Kelley, Motorola CFO Tom Meredith, Barshop and Oles prez and CEO C. Patrick Oles Jr. and former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein Pamela Willeford. Would be hard to find an Austin meeting room with more civic power. Any journalist worth their salt would give up a lot to witness those discussions!
People we are keeping an eye out for on the social circuits, after reading newspaper reports: Former UT Longhorn and current Chicago Bear Cedric Benson (pictured), who purchased a home out near the Loop 360 bridge; former Bush aides who are fleeing the wreckage in Washington, such as Karl Rove, who heads to Ingram in the Hill Country; anyone who was ever in the “Fabulous 14” who founded St. David’s thrift shop; Charles Akins and Albert Walker and others who broke the color barrier in the Lion’s Club.
You make news, you go on the list. And our readers help out with their digital images.
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