Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > April > 01
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
MC Hammer daughter, UT’s A’Keiba Burrell, on MTV series
So is Burrell, who sings in an R&B mode “with a neo-Soul vibe” and participates in UT choirs, playing with a band like every other young Austinite? “No! Crazy right?” she says. “One of my friends at school recently approached me, then I heard that MTV was going to fly me out for the show, so OK, no band.”
During preparations for the debut, Burrell has bonded with her competitors. “We have this weird connection,” she says. “You don’t have to offer any disclaimers. They look at yours as a normal childhood.” Burrell expects to be back in school, which she loves, when the series ends but “if the wave hits, you ride it,” something she learned from her father’s streaky career, which took off just as she was born in 1987. “Rock the Cradle” premieres 9 p.m. Thursday.
Photo by Denise Truscello.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Fame, Music, TV
Austin Music Memorial Induction rounds out Long Center weekend
Compared to the previous nights’ parties at the same spot, the mood at the Austin Music Memorial Induction on Sunday was muted. A pick-up band played. Leaders, including Terry Lickona, spoke. Family and friends, some dressed in club casual wear, others in their Sunday morning best, watched clips about the inductees. The temporary Long Center party tent — which cost upwards of half a million dollars, we hear — glowed with daylight despite the overcast skies.
Blanca Alvarado, former Austin City Council Member Raul Alvarez, Nora Comstock
The memorials themselves, which look a bit like the metal Texas Historical Markers, don’t really match the sleek, space-age look of the Long Center (part of that inherited from the 1950s-era Palmer Auditorium which preceded it).
Kassi Darakshan, David Lazaroff
City of Austin cultural manager Vince Kitch told us the memorials are aimed for the grounds below the smooth columns that skirt the plaza. That might actually work. Let’s hope lead Long Center designer Stan Haas has a say in it.
Brian Liau, Mindy Liau
Voted by Austinites into the first class of inductees were blues pianist Roosevelt T. Williams, big band leader Ignacio “Nash” Hernandez, rock crossover pioneer Douglas Wayne Sahm, composer and choir leader Virgie Mae Carrington DeWitty, jazz musician McKinley “Kenny” Dorham, record producer Tary K. Owens, orchestra leader Carl William Besserer , all-round entertainer and educator Rev. Albert Lavada Durst, folklorist Americo Paredes and orquestra player Roy Montelongo. May they never be forgotten.
Jason Martin, Margaret Shaw (who agree that my recent article about Marfa won’t increase accidental tourism — the town remains so isolated and looks shuttered to the casual visitor, they won’t poison the social and aesthetic experience for those deeply in love with the Davis Mountains)
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: City, Music, Out
