Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2007 > December > 05
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Your A-List: Most Annoying Pseudo-Celeb
The unofficial mayor and the official mayor of Austin tied for a dubious honor: most Annoying Pseudo-Celeb in the Your A-List poll.
Leslie, the buttock-baring pseudo-homeless guy (he lives in a storage shed now), has been annoying civic leaders for a while, having racked up real votes against former Mayor Kirk Watson years ago (the state senator didn’t make the current list). Luckily, Will Wynn, who tied with Leslie in our fake poll, and Watson come with healthy senses of humor, and poke fun at themselves as much as anyone else.
The American-Statesman’s John Kelso and I shared a blast of laughter when our names appeared. Hey, it’s great to be noticed. And I’m sure the Austin Chronicle’s Stephen Moser, despite his discouraging health problems, will brighten on seeing that he made the roster.
Ex-KVET DJ Sammy Allred, who teed off a lot of people, was a natural for annoying status, while otherwise heroic Lance Armstrong might just be overexposed. Radio jocks ranked high in the vote: KISS-FM DJ Bobby Bones, KVET DJ Bob Cole, Mix 94.7’s J.B. and Sandy and KLBJ-AM’s Sgt. Sam Cox followed in Allred’s footsteps. (Did I miss an on-air anti-campaign?)
Otherwise uncontroversial philanthropist Susan Dell and bike promoter Jennifer Gale got votes, as did non-Austin gossip monger Perez Hilton. Public access host Alex Jones is surely proud to make the grade, as is Marc Katz, who turned an annoying marketing phrase (“I gotta tell ya”) into a deli empire.
What the heck is quarterback Peyton Manning doing here? And please, please leave KXAN’s Michelle Valles alone. She’s been through enough recently — and apologized for it.
Which I doubt any of our voters will do.
Photos by Ralph Barrera and Robert Godwin
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Your A-List: Chinese Restaurant
Familiarity breeds delight for Austin lovers of Chinese food. Winning the top three slots on the Your A-List poll for Best Chinese Restaurant were long-timers Suzi’s (32 percent), Chinatown (22 percent) and T & S Seafood (14 percent).
Wan Fu, probably the ones on Oltorf Street and Airport Boulevard, not the doomed Too on Barton Springs Road, came in No. 4 with 8 percent. Hunan Lion roared into the No. 5 spot with 7 percent. Pao’s took No. 6 with 6 percent. Ending with 5 percent or less were Mama Fu’s, China Cafe, Twin Lions and Hong Kong.
Plenty of write-ins for this category: Asia Cafe, Bamboo Garden, China Dragon, China Dynasty, China Wall, Din-Ho, Dragon Gate, Fire Bowl, First Chinese Barbecue, Great Wall, Hao Hao, Hunan, Imperia, Nanking, P.F. Chang’s, Peony, Shanghai, Snow Pea, Super China, Taiwan, Tien Hong and Wok on Fire.
A personal note: I could barely qualify to vote in this category. I have egregiously ignored Chinese food in this city and am still looking for a classic cookbook to learn this ancient cuisine — or rather, cuisines — at home. The experiences go hand in hand. This list will help me start. A good project for 2008.
Photo by Ha Lam
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Dame Edna mocks my tattoo
Just rung off with Dame Edna Everage. Yes, that Dame Edna, aka Barry Humphries. She’s in Switzerland, “visiting my money in a vault in Zurich,” she said. “I left it blinking like a possum or a mole.”
The first lady of Australian comedy is prepping for another American tour, this time with a Jan. 18-20 stop at the Paramount Theatre, a vaudeville house not unlike the ones where she’s performed on Broadway. “Some people say I’m a vaudeville person,” she said. “I see myself more as a therapist, a healer of the pain and hurt in America today.”
Frankly, she had me giggling and gasping for air during the entire conversation, which was more of a sustained monologue on her part. The Dame teased me about my recent tattoo: “What does Kip think about it?” I assured her that Kip had a matching one, which tickled her. (The performer’s team researches interviewers in advance.)
I reminded her that she once heckled me in a Broadway theater: “Left your same-sex partner behind, did we?” Now how did Edna know that? No amount of research…
She insists that, after 50 years on stage, she doesn’t need the profits from another tour: “I am not coming to Austin to rape the pocketbooks of the Austinians.” When not at the Paramount or her hotel, she says: “I’ll be in the malls and the shops and on campus and on that bridge watching the bats.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge Mexican free-tailed bat colony will be vacationing in Mexico when she arrives.
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