Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > June
June 2008
Altar Boyz poze with fanz
Zachary Scott Theatre Center director Dave Steakley must have made a pact with the devil. He can take C-material like “Altar Boyz” and tutor the camp-lite Catholic musical into a solid A production.
Taylor Elliott, James La Rosa, Nicole Elliott
The Sunday matinee performance was populated by settled couples who looked as if they had just enjoyed a post-Mass brunch, tweens captivated by the faux “boy group” of the title and — who else? — gay men who like musicals.
Joshua Cruz, Josh Finto
Dario Nolfi, Christopher Hartman, Mark Christine, Joshua Cruz and James La Rosa also elevated the material with their spot-on performances, complemented by expert, goofy choreography, sets, costumes, lighting, music direction and — rare for Zach — an immaculate sound mix.
Christopher Hartman, Mary Beth Burnside, Mark Christine
Maybe Steakley’s deal is with Archangel Gabriel instead.
Sue Mason, Dario Nolfi
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Action figure Richard Norton at Master Yi’s
A long stretch of Burnet Road north of Research Boulevard has not yet benefited from the advent of the nearby Domain shopping Babylon. Strip centers look like dowdy afterthoughts from the 1970s and one can’t help but express curiosity about what goes on behind the miniblinds of these businesses. Master Yi Academy, for instance, has taken advantage of the relatively affordable real estate by operating a spacious, well-tended martial arts headquarters, including two well-lit, popular studios.
Jason Montgomery, Richard Norton, Rick Galione
Friday, one gym-like space was given over to movie star Richard Norton, who shared insights from his fake fighting on shows such as “Ironheart,” “Rage and Honor” and his friend Chuck Norris’ “Walker, Texas Ranger.” He demonstrated the camera-frame-filling “John Wayne” swing pnch and gave advice on keeping other fighters in one’s peripheral vision or falling to the floor without “breaking” (using one’s arm or hand to cushion the fall).
Janell Vela-Smith, Christian Ramirez
Among the participants in all shapes and sizes were members of the Janell Vela-Smith’s Fighting Stunts Association, as well as representatives from her Innovative Renderworks, an independent film company that plans to shoot “Templar: Honor among Thieves” at Spiderwood Studios, still under construction near Bastrop.
Jason Montgomery, Rick Galione
So quite a bit of action behind those miniblinds.
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The latest on the Chain Drive
Christopher Carbone files this report, which will appear in print on Tuesday:
“We’re still getting calls,” says Donald Jatho, owner of Chain Drive, laughing off the speculation about the imminent death of the longtime Austin gay bar. “They say: ‘I’ve heard this is your last weekend. Are y’all still open?’ ”
For the record, Chain Drive is open for business, and its management has no plan to close the beloved institution. The 21C Museum and Hotel/Condominium complex is slated for groundbreaking next year at the southwest corner of Cesar Chavez and Red River streets, the same block as Chain Drive, which fronts Willow Street. But Jatho’s laid-back attitude regarding the watering hole’s uncertain future is befitting for a guy who opened this friendly outpost on a lark with buddies on April 24, 1986.
Chain Drive — known alternately as a Levi’s-and-leather bar, a come-as-you-are neighborhood spot where the drinks are cheap and a dive bar with live music — was originally near the corner East Seventh and Red River streets, near a cluster of other gay bars, all since closed or moved.
Jatho, 49, takes the latest possible change in stride.
“I’ve gotten no official word that I have to leave right now,” he says of his contract with landowner and developer Perry Lorenz. “When Perry is ready for me to move, he’ll let me know.”
The businessmen have left Chain Drive’s lease on a month-to-month basis, but Lorenz hopes Jatho sticks around for the next year.
“Donald and the Chain Drive have been the perfect tenant,” Lorenz says, “honorable folks who always lived up to their end of the deal. I wish them all the luck and good fortune in the world. I would love for them to stick around a bit longer.”
Moved to its current location on the edge of Waller Creek in April 1989, Chain Drive sometimes intimidates newcomers, with its the darkly lit, concrete-clad décor. Yet the staff is known as friendly and welcoming, and patrons are fiercely loyal.
Ken Earnest and Rusty Salazar, partners for 13 years, persuaded a friend to perform their civil ceremony on the bar’s back patio, long before the gay marriage debate began in earnest.
“This will forever be my little spot,” Earnest says on a recent Saturday night. “It’s a dive, but it’s our little piece of history.”
Plans for big developments have been scuttled in the past, too. During the tech boom of the late 1990s, Vignette Corp. planned an office complex for the site. The 21C project — yoking together a 16-story hotel and a 44-story condominium tower — itself has been rescheduled and moved a few blocks east.
Yet, to Chain Drive fans, the pace of gentrification seems unstoppable.
“I’d love to squat out here and drink forever, but sooner or later someone’s going to come and develop it,” Earnest says.
As for possibly moving the Chain Drive, Jatho says that getting the proper zoning is oftentimes the rub. “There are lots of good locations. You have to have (specific) zoning for a night club.”
Buddy Allen, a patron for almost 20 years, says he would be sad to see it close altogether. “Austin has a need for this type of establishment,” Allen says. “Everyone’s friendly. Once you’re inside these walls, you’re safe.”
The backyard, with its ivy-covered walls, donated plants and landscaped pond, well-worn wooden tables and benches and numerous trees framing a skyline view, is dedicated in memory of John Araujo, a former bar manager who died in 1993 of AIDS-related illnesses.
David McGill, 30, has tended bar at Chain Drive for four years, met his boyfriend there, and clearly enjoys serving the bar’s customers. “I’ve only seen one fight here — and it was girls.”
Chain Drive’s bad-boy reputation — it’s the closest thing to a true leather bar in Austin and formerly housed a shop for sex toys — is also what draws some. Several organizations, including the Boys of Leather, Heart of Texas Bears and the Capital City Riders — a gay motorcycling group formed at the bar — hold monthly cookouts and parties at the bar.
“I think if Donald doesn’t move it, somebody will,” says Steve Ryerson, a longtime patron. “It’s a bunch of people who have to be serviced.”
“We’re keeping the options open,” says Jatho, who has lived in Austin all his life. “If I can find a great location, I just might move.”
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Kent Rathbun dazzles at Tribeza dinner party
I can think of no more pleasant way to become acquainted with people than breaking bread at a dinner party. The folks behind Tribeza magazine have figured this out. After years of throwing cocktail parties which mingled their advertisers, subjects, sources and readers, they hit on the idea of the Tribeza Experience — dinner parties with a dozen or so conversationalists from divergent backgrounds.
Eddy Dean, Burton Baldridge
Thursday’s dinner — the second in the series — at the ideally proportioned glass house of Burton Baldridge leaned heavily in favor of architects and such, but also included representatives from the worlds of fashion design, art direction, music, public relations, journalism, construction, and, of course, wine and food. The big draw was Dallas-based Kent Rathbun, owner chef of Jasper’s restaurants, including the recently opened installation at the Domain.
Chef Kent Rathbun heavily spicing his flat iron steaks
Rathbun dazzled with demonstrations of his “gourmet backyard cuisine,” like his barbecue rub, hot-cooking methods in a Green Egg, and breezy preparations for several other dishes. (Much of the meal was executed by Aaron Staudenmaier, who heads up the kitchen at the Domain.)
Lindsay McManus, TJ Tucker
The delectibles started with pass-around Maytag Blue Cheese Potato Chips, Crab Cakes with Truffle with Chive Aioli and Barbeque Pork Rib Nachos, accompanied by a light, slightly sweet 2007 Chenin Blanc from Fall Creek Vineyards. (FC owner Susan Auler provided all the wines and proved a glowing presence at my table, recalling dishes and dinners around the world.)
Dick Clark, Susan Auler
Course 1 was Prosciutto Wrapped “Shrimp ‘n’ Grits” with Grilled Corn Grits and Lemon and Thyme Butter Sauce, the grits fairly melting on blue corn chips, washed down with 2007 Charnonnay.
Course No. 2: Pecan Crusted Rainbow Trout with Molasses Sweet Potatoes and Jim Beam Butter Sauce, and, oh yes, the bourbony potatoes made this tiny dish particularly memorable. It went divinely with FC’s Viogner (a flavorful white varietal and a hot Texas success story).
Pat Stark, Scott Stark
Course 3: Texas Peach Barbecued Pork Tenderloin with Bourbon Cream Corn and Scallion with Twice-Baked Potato, with, again, the vegetable outstripping the meat, but not the Merlot.
Mark Gibson, Ginger Roddick
That was not the case the with tour de force No. 4: Hickory Grilled Flat Iron Steak with Wilted Spinach and Herb Roasted Mushrooms. Oh. My. Gosh. Never tasted flat iron steak so tender and voluptuous, and the Granite Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon made it even more heavenely. The dinner ended with a small tower of almost-frozen Cherry Limeade Pie and my fave wine of the evening, the delicate, tangy Muscat Canelli, which I will now seek out at every chance.
The conversations were as stirring as the meal and the Tribeza folks can be sure this would be among the most memorable experiences this year for each diner.
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Bye Bye Betty Dunkerley
Speaker after speaker ribbed Dunkerley for her absent-mindedness, or perhaps I should say fierceness of focus solving the city’s problems. She appears to have missed all sorts of shenanigans in her peripheral vision while taking care of the citizens’ business. The aura of genuine respect and affection was palpable.
Some of the politicos present, in order of my running into them: Developer and philanthropist Dick Rathgeber, State Sen. Kirk Watson, developer Perry Lorenz, former Mayor Gus Garcia, Council Member Mike Martinez, Police Chief Art Acevedo, lawyer and lobbyist Richard Suttle, Council Member Shade, activist Bettie Naylor, Council Member Morrison, former City Manager Jesus Garza, former Council Member Bill Spellman, lawyer and power broker Pike Powers, Rep. Mark Strama, longtime city staffer Betty Baker, former Council Member Daryl Slusher, Council Member Sheryl Cole, philanthropist Jo Anne Christian and Council Member Brewster McCracken. Of course, running the show was Dunkerley aide Suzie Harriman, who leaves with classical music writer and husband Randy for their Mexico paradise next week.
Hey Betty, let’s go birdwatching sometime!
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Austin’s Sean Maddox and Kelli Schultz in ‘High School Musical’ reality show
The pair broke out as drama siblings Ryan and Sharpay in Zach Theatre’s runaway hit version of “High School Musical,” which played last summer at the Texas School for the Deaf. Of course, we won’t know how far Maddox and Schultz made it into the Los Angeles phase of the competition because Disney has sworn them — as well as their families, friends, teachers and pets — to absolute secrecy.
Photo by Sung Park
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Heading Out & About
Thursday: Quittin’ Time Reception for Betty Dunkerley at Austin City Hall; Tribeza Experience with Kent Rathbun at a private home; “Mystic Cab” premieres during the Bootstrap Film Fest at Arbor Theatre
Friday: Fighting Stunts Association Presents Richard Norton at Master Yi’s Tukong Martial Arts
Saturday: “Texas Tales” Fundraiser for Austin Public Library at Mexican American Cultural Center; Linda Dumont Studio Opening at 815 E. 52nd St. “Jan Heaton: Full Bloom” Opening at Wally Workman Gallery; Lounge 34 Opening at 34th Street Cafe; “The Finishing Touch” at Bo Salon; “The Mountain Is Alive!” Fundraiser at Okay Mountain
Sunday: “Altar Boyz” at Zach Theatre
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Your A-List: Best View
Indeed, ours is a mound-stippled topography. Those tourists expecting steep urban hills in the manner of San Francisco will be disappointed. Conversely, for someone from the griddle-flatness of Houston, it might was well be the Rockies.
The grandest Austin mound of all is Mount Bonnell, which affords and almost 360-degree view of all the other 9,999 hillocks from its peak at 780 feet above sea level (200 above the city’s median elevation, thus the view). It won the A-List vote for Best View with 29 percent of the vote.
Two views that come with food and drink — The Oasis and County Line — virtually tied for second place with 22 percent. One view favored by daredevil photographers is the Capitol as seen in perspective from South Congress Avenue. It got 11 percent of the tally. The Loop 360 Bridge, which is more of a subject than a place from which to view scenery, took 8 percent. Barton Creek Square — unfortunately turned inward, wasting its fantastic view — earned four percent, while the recently re-opened UT Tower copped 2 percent and lakeside Hula Hut less than 1 percent.
Photo by Larry Kolvoord
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Your A-List: Best Access Show
The ubiquitous Alex Jones and his “Infowars” — how does he maintain outrage 24/7 without popping a vein? — came in second with just under 29 percent of the tally. (For the skeptical out there, he lost by 2 votes.)
Everybody else trailed way behind: “Trailer Park Show” (9 percent); “Up Late Austin” (6 percent); “The Atheist Experience” (6 percent); “Indie Live Austin” (5 percent); Democracy Now!” (4 percent); “Fiesta Musical” (4 percent); “Perry Logan Show” (2 percent); “The Monkey Speaks Further” (2 percent); “The Simple Truth” (2 percent).
Write-ins: “Confessions,” “The Late Night Lunch Show”
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The Air Force Academy Cadet Dance recalled
Watching the straight guys dance, often alone, often frenetically, on the floor of Sky to DJs Jesse Brede and Chris Fortier last week reminded me of perhaps my favorite YouTube post of all times.
Virtually all of you have seen it, but it’s worth watching again: The Air Force Acadamy Cadet Dance. I know, there are a lot of other YouTube dance clips, but this really speaks to the absolute joy of dancing, even far away from a dance floor. Enjoy.
In the category of What I Couldn’t Believe the Most, after watching it dozens of times: 1) The subject doesn’t remove his uniform jacket. 2) He glances furtively to see if his roommate has returned. 3) He can’t help moving to the house, even when he’s done. 4) He’s such a good sport when he discovers the secret taping.
I understand the two cadets were honored for raising morale in the Air Force Academy, which needs it right now.
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New York Times tuts at Lance Armstrong
I tend to agree, however, with his former coach, Chris Carmichael, who was quoted as saying: “His foundation, the fight against cancer and his kids: I see those as the most important three things in his life. I mean he has girlfriends and things like that — why not?”
After all, when you are single, you date, right? Discuss.
Photo: INFphoto.com/Newscom
Footnote on the photo: Despite countless paparazzi surrounding the couple during their NYC stay, mainstream media stayed away. Which meant there was no AP photo, no wire photo, no publishable photo of the duo, despite being among the top celebrity topics of the week.
So what’s Out & About to do? We certainly don’t want to encourage the paparazzi phenomenon, but there were those readers who doubted Armstrong-Hudson connection without photographic evidence.
Well, we weren’t going to pop the video of them kissing on the austin360.com screen, but we needed something classy to go with the Tuesday print column and this follow-up. So we shopped around the weird world of celebrity photo dealers and found one that was not too usurious or sleazy, and so purchased it from INFphoto.com/Newscom. It makes them look a little harried, but still glowing. Aw.
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Is it me? Or the suburbs?
Back in November, I listed a number of things about Austin for which I am thankful. Because I live in the city, most of them recounted the charms of urban life. T.D. Bryan, who identified himself as a suburban Austinite, responding with his own list.
Instead of contradicting him — my Bouldin neighborhood is astonishingly airy, green and safe, for instance — I requested permission to post his response on my blog. Bryan seemed surprised, “considering that, I thought, you and I differed on living preferences.” I assured him that I got the suburbs and was no stranger to their attractions. My 2007 Thanksgiving list reflected my current urban existence without canceling out his suburban one.
The exchange redoubled my resolve to cover the Central Texas suburbs and exurbs more rigorously. Yes, a good deal of social life is concentrated in 100 easily trod blocks of downtown Austin, but what’s happening in Lockhart and Liberty Hill is just as fascinating, if not as densely packed. Previously, in major XL cover stories about area coffeehouses and music venues, my reporting had ranged from La Grange to Johnson City, Gruene to Granger.
That resolve, however, has not produced much recent social pay dirt. I wondered why on Friday, as I wrestled Interstate 35 traffic, headed to La Frontera for a report on the community coalescing at the Tilted Kilt, a franchise pub there with a distinct social climate. (See previous post.)
My visit to La Frontera provides an example. The manager of the Tilted Kilt, Susan Mais, and her staff were flawlessly gracious during my two hours there, but when I approached patrons to inquire about the sense of community generated by the pub — which includes abbreviated kilts worn by the female servers — many were aghast.
No, they didn’t want to talk. No, they would not share their names. No, absolutely no way could I take their pictures.
Now, usually, in the course of reporting this column, I encounter this response once a month at most. But four separate tables of customers shut me down without appeal. One cited the possibility that appearing my column would lead to identity theft. Another, rising from a table of co-workers, suggested that I would have received a different response if I’d “asked them at Chili’s.”
Did they feel exposed at a PG-13 establishment that was, at the same time, serving food to kids younger than five and diners older than 50?
Perhaps my approach was too brazen. I am always quick to fault my own people skills before concluding that subjects would rather not participate, even off the record, in a harmless report on community-building.
At the other end of the media spectrum, workers in digital industries are reluctant to trust a stranger with a camera. I discovered this during South by Southwest Interactive Conference, where registrants sometimes greeted my interest in their social participation with looks of abject horror. Every one of them warmed to the idea of a short interview and snapshot, but I remained curious. Why the reluctance?
“You have no idea how that image might be manipulated on the Internet,” one SXSWer said.
Never thought of that.
Some readers will think I’m hectoring these folks who only wish to preserve their privacy. No, I see their points. Yet, as always, I’m drawn to a mystery.
And it won’t keep me from reporting outside the urban core.
Laura Skelding photo of Regina Sagen’s backyard in Round Rock
Laura Skelding photo of Debbie Young, a volunteer driver for Meals on Wheels, with Billie Ferguson in Round Rock
Ralph Barrera photo of the Round Rock Skate Park on Gattis School Road
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Social transgression during Conspirare transcendence
Critics will provide the detailed description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation. Yet as a 24-year witness to the Austin scene, I cannot recall a more transcendent large-scale performing arts event than Conspirare’s staging of Verdi’s Requiem on Saturday. The 200-voice choir, along with orchestra and four soloists, looked majestic against the undulating woods of the Long Center’s sound shell. And they sounded, well, angelic. By an order of magnitude, the acoustical quality was far better anything I ever heard at Bass Concert Hall, every voice and instrument vibrating as if I were inches away instead of in the lower mezzanine, now my absolute favorite spot in the house.
Which brings us to the social commentary part of this column. The magnificent concert was almost soured by two clowns on Row D of the mezzanine who fidgeted, whispered, giggled and chacked gum all the way through the show. These were guys in their 30s or 40s, at least, and they behaved more childishly than the 6-year-old who sat in front of them. Did nobody warn them that they were in for almost two uninterrupted hours of funereal music instead of a “Gossip Girls” marathon?
What people may not realize — and I’ll give these miscreants the benefit of the doubt — is that the Long Center was designed with seating arranged in socially sensitive arcs across the width of the hall, meaning that you can be seen and heard by those around you. This increases the sense of community in the audience, but it also demands more appropriate deportment. In fact, every time I tried to concentrate on conductor Craig Hella Johnson or his host of musicians, these bozos erupted in my line of sight.
Out & About has been reporting on the Austin social scene for the print edition of the American-Statesman for almost a year (much longer online). It’s sad to say that the worst social behavior observed during those 11 months took place within the recently hallowed halls of the Long Center and during such a glorious performance.
Virginia Rangel, Luis Rangel
Jerry Kelly, Nancy Kelly
Stephen Fernandez, Christina Fernadez
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Tilted Kilt imports Irish sociability to Round Rock
A community is just as likely to develop in a nearly anonymous corner of a Round Rock retail cluster as in a North Austin coffeehouse or a Central Austin lounge. The Tilted Kilt, a franchise pub, opened in La Frontera three years ago and almost immediately fulfilled a suburban longing for intense brews, localized versions of Irish food and hearty company.
This, the third installment of Out & About’s Cafe Society series, took us beyond our usual comfort zone to the commercial core of Round Rock. There, behind a bland exterior, we found a warm, welcoming environment and customers from toddlers to oldsters basking in an airy, scrubbed-up version of an Irish pub, with soccer on the big screens, 27 beer taps lining the walls, a wide scotch selection and a menu that includes shepherd’s pie, but also Texanized pasta diablo, a specially mixed ranch dressing and locally made Ana’s Salsa.
Stephanie Seamon, Samantha Meyer, Danielle Wilson
Almost immediately, though, we were distracted by the abbreviated kilts worn by the female servers in the main room (men work the bar during evening). The swallow-tail decolletage, bare midriffs and mini-tartans suggested a PG-13 version of Hooters, which might explain the 80 percent male to 20 percent female breakdown among clientele. “We try to keep it tactful,” says General Manager Susan Mais. “It’s never raunchy or sleazy. Our staff stays kinda cute and friendly.”
Mais would like to push the gender balance closer to 70/30, which is why she has instituted a ladies’ night and encouraged the hiring of males in visible positions. (Mais reminded me of Jane Lynch in “40-Year Old Virgin,” the manager of the fictional electronics store who appeared to be the only grown-up in sight, although Tilted Kilt night manager Carlos Romayor also earns a strapping version of respect from the young pub staff.) Mais spent 8 years with Applebee’s and 10 years with the Olive Garden/Red Lobster firm, so she knows her corporate franchises, but she also realized the Tilted Kilt comes with more character than her previous charges.
Carlos Romayor, Susan Mais
Her customers agree. “It’s not one of those homogenous places like Chili’s or TGIF Friday,” says Lester Saucier, an Austinite who works in Round Rock. He and friend John Russell were waiting out the commute, hoping to replays of a Euro Game over frosty pints.
Lester Saucier, John Russell
Whatever Mais is doing, it works. She reports a steady flow of regulars, mostly in their 20s to 50s, who live or work in the area and return two or three times a week. She also introduced me to a University of Texas doctoral student hunched over research at the food bar. (“The food is good, but the service is great,” the nursing student said, refusing to share his name — something that happened an unusual number of times at the Kilt, as recorded in my Tuesday column.)
Small ones are welcome at lunch, but Mais says that, after happy hour, the Tilted Kilt is not so kid-friendly. (In fact, it gets pretty loud in that throaty Man Way fairly early.)
Raul Guerra, Chelsea Engle
A more recent addition are the patio beer tastings with experts from Grapevine Market, and, like many pubs, the Kilt throws regular trivia contests and gets into the spirit of standard European festivals.
The pub seems to have broken past the barriers that sometimes keep suburban dining and drinking confined to discrete social units, even in the same establishment. “It’s easy to take people here,” says Chelsea Engle, who first discovered the Tilted Kilt in December. “Whereas at a lot a places, people are not very sociable.”
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DJs Chris Fortier ad Jesse Brede at Sky
Let me revise my outdated impressions of Sky, the vertical dance club on Congress Avenue. Its atrium-style space, with its rectangular configuration and celestial decor, is perhaps the best dance floor in town, at least for soaking up the sounds of DJs like Chris Fortier and warm-up Jesse Brede. Friday, their underground strands had a multivaried crowd locked into movement, facing the turntable as if theirs were live acts. Once again, I am astounded by the cosmopolitan look and sound of New Austin and look forward to another Sky run.
Lori, Paul, Gabriel
Jean Kim, Craig Hargis
Loria Frigillana, Jerome Frigillana, Denise Robinson, Ron Wetzel
DJ Jesse Brede
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Meridianwest at Lucky Lounge
Their first CD had me right away. Then I met Meridianwest, the three-piece Austin epic rock band. Next I heard them live at Stubb’s. Friday, I followed up with a listen at Lucky Lounge. A few observations: Perhaps I was wrong about vocalist/guitarist Mark Gibson’s lack of eye contact with the audience. Cap brim firmly pulled over his eyes, Gibson still fueled slow-burn volcanics on Friday. Bassist Ryan Magnani makes up for the front man’s hooded persona with elastic, open-faced theatrics, while drummer David Kittredge blisses out in the back. Also, I had underestimated Magnani and Kittredge’s contributions the first time out — they provide a lot of the superstructure and the crackle for Meridianwest, which, from the sound of front-row screams, is attracting a sizeable female following. Following the “Sex and the City” line about cool magnets — “first the gays, then the girls.” Now, if only the traditional music critics would take them more seriously. Or is that required for success these days? Everybody I talked to at the Lounge has already signed on.
Elijah Rosenfeld, Lizza Coffey
Titha Oden, David Guzik
Allison Freeman, Amada Olsen
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Holland Taylor on Ann Richards, Part 2
(Part 2 of interview with Holland Taylor, who plans a one-woman show about Ann Richards.)
At first, Taylor thought someone should make a biographical movie. Even then, she toyed with the idea of playing Richards in her prime. (The governor was born in 1933; the actor in 1943.)
After settling on the idea of a solo show, Taylor determined it should not attempt full biography, but rather showcase Richards’ rhetoric and personality, with 90 percent of the words derived from recorded speeches and interviews.
“One doesn’t need permission to write about a public figure, but she’s such a loved person,” she says. “Reading about her and thinking about her, I feel I’m almost trespassing on their land. So I should let them know I was there.”
She secured introductions to family and staff, who, she says, have been welcoming. The bigger problem: Trimming hours and hours of Richardania into a 90-minute play. “There are so many wonderful one-liners and jokes, making a simmering pot, you just dump in the grain of something worthy from her great, passionate themes and cook it up,” she says. “I have enough for 10 plays over.”
Taylor returns to Austin in September for more research and won’t meet with directors over a draft script until the winter. The play would likely be developed at regional theaters over the course of months before any possible New York run, but not in Austin right away. “The last thing you need is some damn Yankee coming in to be Ann Richards,” she joked, insisting that her performance will not be a heavy-handed impersonation. “She spoke in a number of different styles, and sometimes the twang was used to extra effect. I’m not ‘replicating’ her … I hope to echo her.”
Taylor makes clear that the last thing she envisions for this one-woman show is a crass career move.
“I had this extremely heartfelt, soulful response,” she says about Richards’ passing. “I took it into acting, because I’m an actress.”
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Holland Taylor on Ann Richards, Part 1
“I threw the car into park and sat there wide eyed,” Taylor said by phone from her Los Angeles home. “The idea came to me full blown: This is a person who lived on the podium, and whose impact was through her extraordinary gifts of public speaking — and what she said. She was not anonymous in any of her great deeds, including being in recovery. If ever there was a stage persona, a live, talking stage persona, she was it.”
So the veteran actor, who visited Austin earlier this month to discuss the project with Richards’ family, friends and colleagues, obsessively watched tapes of public appearances, seeking the advice of her own close friends, such as Liz Smith, who introduced Taylor to Richards years ago.
“At the time, I was just a garden variety fan,” she remembers of Richards’ post-gubernatorial days as a New York-based marketing consultant and on-air commentator. “She was the bomb, a rock star.”
One day, Smith invited Taylor to come along to a formal luncheon.
“Well, I didn’t want to dress up and go uptown to Le Cirque, but I did, and when I arrived, there was this empty seat next to me. When she told me it was for Gov. Richards, I said ‘Don’t put her next to me! I won’t have anything smart to say!’ When she entered, my eyes went out on stalks. She could have been Mick Jagger. I don’t remember anything about the luncheon.”
Even after meeting Richards, her relationship with the wisecracking speaker of the 1988 Democratic National Convention keynote address was distant, awe-struck. “I wasn’t a groupie or anything,” Taylor says. “Yet she was always there — a mighty figure in my universe. It was only when she died I realized what an important figure she was. I was unreasonably sorrowful, even though I didn’t really know her.”
After re-watching that keynote address, she got it: “Oh, I see. I’m not just sad for me, I was sad for America. We cannot afford to lose this voice and heroic personality, for whom we had such affection and expected to have with us for a decade or more at least.”
(Part 2 later today.)
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Lance Armstrong and Kate Hudson, from a distance
From a distance, both look glowing, but act grounded. (No couch hopping here.) Armstrong charmed on “The Late Show with David Letterman,” while Hudson cooed on “The View.” Our own Speed Racer is pushing a for-profit wellness Web site, Livestrong.com, but soon we expect the pair to repair to Austin and California for the rest of the summer.
Meanwhile, one of those Austin Hollywood Boys, Matthew McConaughey has been goofing around Central America while his girlfriend, Camila Alves, waits patiently for their gorgeous love child to be born. Surely she knows what she’s getting into.
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Fino and Momo’s with Dan Dyer
All are gone. Bitter End burned. Mezzaluna become Imperia after a brief history as Capital Brasserie. The Granite mutated several times before Emmett and Lisa Fox opened it as Fino, giving the upstairs eatery a cosmopolitan look and taste, introducing small and large plates, served hot and cold. I met Texas Book Festival’s Clay Smith there for signature drinks during their happy hour, mine an herbal concoction called a Garden Party.
Later, I lingered behind the sun-battling screens to dine with my sister, Kathleen Klingshirn, in town for her daughter’s UT orientation. Our waiter, also the wine steward, was extraordinarily helpful and steered us to a magnificent Spanish white, and my risotto, layered with crisp discs of veggies, was equally satisfying.
Later Kathy and I shuttled down to Momo’s to hear Dan Dyer, the voice of the moment, whose soulful singing (post-Breedlove) is making critics prick up their ears. My sister, a lifelong musician, critiqued the sound mix, but even some mushiness from the board couldn’t detract from Dyer’s soaring sound. He’s been added to my local favorites.
Photo courtesy of dandyer.com
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Up next for Out & About
A slower weekend than usual. One, then, to savor.
Thursday: Wilde Party for Altar Boyz at Zach Theatre
Saturday: Conspirare sings Verdi’s Requiem at the Long Center; Viva Las Vegas for AIDS Services of Austin at La Zona Rosa
Sunday: Cool Homes Tour, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” at the Paramount
Monday: Tom McDermott Memorial Golf Classic at Balcones Country Club; Aurora Plastics Company at Plush
Tuesday: Girlyman at the Cactus Cafe
Wednesday: Austin.com reception with Bob Schneider at the Kodozky Lounge; Symphony Bats Happy Hour at Casa Chapala
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Texans Ally and Jeff Davidson honeymooned on ‘American Gladiators’
What a way to spend your honeymoon: Ally Davidson, who auditioned for “American Gladiators” on her wedding day four months ago, spent her honeymoon with new husband Jeff battling with the bruisers on the NBC reality show. In yet another twist, Jeff also competed — and the Texas couple will be featured when the episode airs 7 p.m. Monday.
“I wanted to do one last crazy thing before I got married,” Ally says. “So my bridesmaids and brothers took me to the tryouts.”
No dummies, the producers realized they had stumbled a marketable angle, so they asked about Jeff’s athletic skills — in a previous life, he served as a Amateur Athletic Union coach — then flew them both out to Los Angeles for the final auditions.
“All this happened just a couple of weeks after we got married,” she says. “We literally had a ‘Gladiator Honeymoon.’”
Not every bride imagines their happiest day bashing stuffed obstacles and wrangling muscle-bound menaces. But for Ally, it was a dream come true.
“Jeff was a great sport through it all,” she says. “I kinda felt bad when he was being tackled by 300-pound men though … ha ha … he weighs about 158.”
Sports-loving Ally, 25, who sells advertisements for Valpak, competed in basketball, softball, volleyball and cross country Westwood High School, then played college basketball for Ole Miss and Texas State University. She moved back to Austin after college, and recently joined Jeff in Dallas. Jeff, 29, a financial advisor, grew up in Irving, but lived in Austin for five years while attending UT. They met the summer after her senior year in high school and then dated for six years long-distance.
“The whole experience is the coolest and most fun thing either of us have ever done,” Ally says. “And a great way to start a marriage!”
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Your A-List, Best Singles Hangout: The Belmont
I’m pleased to say I’ve enjoyed every visit to The Belmont, the retro-Hollywood lounge, restaurant and patio that attracts young professionals, celebrities and the just plain curious on West Sixth Street. It took 19 percent of the A-List vote. In fact, The Belmont pretty much made West Sixth Street cool, paving the way for Union Park, which took over the spot next to Katz’s that has housed so many failed restaurants. The Park’s biggest attraction: Its rooftop lounge with a bristling view of the skyline.
Union Park tied exactly with Fado, a chain pub that has charmed Warehouse District denizens, while Gingerman, a beloved beer joint a block away, was one vote behind the two at 7 percent. Clustered around 6 percent were 219 West, Lucky Lounge and Brown Bar, all three classy joints for adults. Grouped around 5 percent were Beauty Bar, Six and Peacock Lounge, which are trend a tad younger and more casual than the previous three.
Lavaca Street Bar, Whisky Bar and Star Bar — all longtime faves — came in around 4 percent, leaving Red Fez and Apple Bar to bring up the rear. There’s not a loser on the list. And I’d add quite a few more sterling examples. Bet you would, too.
Deborah Cannon took the above image at The Belmont for our XL Ultra-Lounge issue. Left to right Mark Mayfield, Aaron Metzinger, Ashlynn Russey.
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Your A-List: Best Neighborhood
The winner? One of those cool mid-century districts that has roared back during the past 10 years: Brentwood. Properly outlined by Burnet Road, Lamar Boulevard, 45th Street and Justin Lane, it extends beyond those boundaries in the minds of those who want that Brentwood vibe. Twenty-five percent of the voters expressed their Brentwood patriotism in our survey.
Travis Heights, long a leafy reserve of South Austin culture, but now also claiming million-dollar homes, came in second with 11 percent. Tarrytown, the upscale western zone embraced by a crook of Lake Austin, was No. 3 with 7 percent, while Hyde Park, the city’s garden of Victoriana, took No. 4 with just under 7 percent. French Place, the East Austin preserve just south of the Mueller redevelopment, got 6 percent.
Brentwood’s near sibling, Allendale, took 5 percent, as did Far South Austin. South Congress, split between Travis Heights and Bouldin on its northern end, took 4 percent, as did Zilker, Circle C, and Northwest Hills. Suburban Cedar Park accrued 3 percent, as did Barton Creek. That means Bouldin Creek, East Cesar Chavez, Pemerton Heights, Windsor Park, Cat Hollow, Far West, West Campus, Judges’ Hill and Berdoll Farms all claimed less than 3 percent.
Let’s see, that means I’ve lived in four of the winning neighborhoods, plus two that didn’t make the list.
Write-ins: Avery Ranch, Belterra, Brentwood, Bryker Woods, Cherrywood, Clarksville, Crestview, North Shoal Creek, Rosedale, Turtle Creek Estates, Wells Branch
Nick Simonite took the image of the Wall of Welcome made by Brentwood and Crestview residents
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Gypsy and Sazon neighborly refuges for fine dining
Sazon, perched on a South Lamar Boulevard curve near the Hether/Mary intersection, is among the most underrated Mexican restaurants in town. True, Dale Rice has praised it to the skies, and other publications have joined the chorus. Yet while lesser Tex-Mex spots in SoLa pull in the masses, Sazon has been just half full every time I’ve visited. A shame, because its interior cuisine and causal atmosphere could not make a better match, even when, as Tuesday, a pack of small children romped around one end of the dining area. My dish of pork tips bathed in a hot, red sauce was divine, as were the refried black beans and simple, unadorned white rice. Even the frozen margarita was superior.
A note: Don’t judge Parkside, the creative restaurant set amid the shot bars on East Sixth Street, during a busy event like the Republic of Texas Rally party. Usually, I find this spot an urbane retreat, but Saturday, an appetizer break between events proved only slightly less chaotic than the streets outside.
Sazon photo by Laura Skelding
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Band of Heathens, Guy Forsyth, Alejandro Escovedo
Smooth-faced pop deals in the thrill of first sentience — often romantic — without the danger of permanent failure. Scraggly rock is eternal late adolescence, a revolution of the Id more permanent that Trotsky’s or Mao’s. Craggy country, by and large, trades in adult responsibilities, disappointments, temptations, tellingly the only one that acknowledges the artists have children and jobs.
You can hear it in their voices. Pop is often sung in prepubescent falsetto; rock in lower tenor, rarely baritone. Some of the greatest male country artists were basses — Johnny Cash, George Jones, for instance — but not multi-registered slider Hank Williams or the agelessly reedy Willie Nelson.
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Black and White Years plus fashion at The Parish
You never know when a fashion show will just pop up in Austin. Late Saturday, I ducked into the Parish an hour before the Black and White Years were scheduled to play. Really, I just wanted to soak up the AC after hours at the Austin Pride Parade, Republic of Texas Biker Rally and a peek at Sally Jacques’ “Constellation” over at the federal complex. (One must commit entirely to her meditative dances on architecture, otherwise one is easily distracted on the sidewalk.)
Almost instantly, I ran into Randy and Diane Miller. The former New Yorkers — he was with Virgin Records — now live in Tarrytown and manage the very up-and-coming Years. Randy mistook me for Michael Corcoran, not an uncommon occurrence, but once we got past that, we were launching into New York real estate gossip, just as I had earlier in the evening with Austin techster Steven Phenix and his out-of-town guest.
Anyway, a few minutes later, a runway show began with sassy styles from Model Citizen, Knoxy and Loves, Mariessa (designers go by such creative names). Although clearly imagined for very different occasions from the least to the most formal, the women’s and men’s wear could work for any club night.
Then, the band played on. The Years have updated and honed a distinctive 1970s sound, and they even wear moustaches. They’ve earned a devout following and I now count myself among them. I look forward to their progress under Miller’s wise hand.
Heather Walton, Jen Sutor
Jordan Dudley, Lindsey Case, Joshua Clark
Shannon Rodgers, Shaun Avants, Knoxy
Tammy Harden, Sheryl Jones
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Austin connection: Holland Taylor, Ann Richards, Madison Davenport and Deanna Dunagan
Madison Davenport, who spent part of her youth in Austin, plays Ruthie Smithens, best friend to the title character in “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,” which opens Friday nationwide. The 11-year-old launched her prodigious movie career in 2005 with Helena Bonham Carter in “Conversations with Other Women.”
Deanna Dunagan, who gave a touching speech after winning Best Actress in a Play on Sunday’s Tony Awards broadcast, graduated from the University of Texas, having studied music there. Her win for her role as the addicted mother in Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer and Tony-winning “August: Osage County” rewarded her long-delayed Broadway debut.
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Austin’s Biker / Gay Weekend, Part 3
It is useful, from time to time, to confront one’s prejudices. So here goes: From the earliest age, I never quite got biker culture.
I understand and share a longing for the open road. The outlaw thing is harder to brook, but, in my small way, I’ve transgressed against social norms, so some empathy is in order.
As objects of beauty, motorcycles are streaking masterpieces of chrome and color, and the thrill of riding one of those shuddering monsters is undeniable. (Once. Like jumping off a cliff, riding a full-scale bike was a one-time-only transgression for me.)
So I get it. What perplexes me is the habitually unfriendly look. It starts with the disheveled, sometimes rotund features that have become biker stereotypes. But there’s also the furrowed scowl, the warrior stance, the I’m-ready-for-a-barroom-brawl posture.
This, even from the doctors and lawyers who make up a major subset of the Republic of Texas Biker Rally horde. Saturday night, gawkers like myself traipsed gingerly up and down East Sixth Street, as outrageously costumed bikers hung from every rooftop and balcony, creating a riotous people-watching scene matched only by Halloween, New Year’s Eve and UT winning the Rose Bowl along the city’s Rialto.
There appeared to be no danger of actual riot. A few cops on bikes looked no more concerned than on any other wilting, hot Saturday night. So, eventually, I worked up the nerve to talk to some of the revelers, who turned out to be — no surprise — as sweet as kittens. They came from as far as Austria and Switzerland and were eager to share their stories.
Let me confess one more post-dumb prejudice: I had always associated bikers with whites and Latinos, but not African Americans. Perhaps I just didn’t pay close attention when they passed me along the highway. Yet a good third of the Sixth Street revelers were black, several of them from Dallas and Houston, but also others from East Texas and distant states.
One more prejudice bites the dust.
Doug Jones, Latricia Cooper
Ulrich Ellison, Silvie Rider
Scott Fulde, Tamara Martinez
Miguel Buenerosto, Kayla Lopez
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Austin’s Biker / Gay Weekend, Part 2
The theme at the Austin Pride Parade this year was youth. And I mean kids. Kindergarteners. Toddlers.
They came Saturday with gay parents and with friends of gay parents, from big cities and small towns, from suburbs and exurbs. Some — and this is new — actually live in the residences that lined the parade route from Austin City Hall around the Warehouse District.
Kids dangled from the slow-moving floats. Kids scrambled for Mardis Gras beads and radio-station stickers. Kids lined the sidewalks for several dozen small coveys of paraders, some gliding by in antique cars, many decked out in rainbow-colored balloons.
Many had trekked over the South First Street Bridge — also known as the Drake Bridge, named for an Austin mayor from the 1950s, we learn — from the Pride Texas Festival on Auditorium Shores (another naming opportunity). The most popular sticker of the evening was a pride version of the familiar Obama medallion.
The crowd of spectators around City Hall was pretty thin, if you are accustomed to bigger-city parades, but the welcome was loud and the route grew more populated on West Fourth Street near three of Austin’s surviving gay bars. And yes, a division of women on motorcycles added their resounding roar.
As the parade petered out around Congress Avenue, some watchers headed into the nearby watering holes, but others wandered over to East Sixth Street, where the biker rally Saturday party was in full swing.
Abraham Wall and Tony Mata with Lilly and Emily
Yobany Martinez, Marcella Lopez
Jackline Trinh, Dawnica Mathis, Michael Sandhu
Justin Broce, Anthony Poe
Brittany Daniel and Laura Bishop with Baloo
Catherine Bautista, John Speakman
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Austin’s Biker / Gay Weekend, Part 1
The narrow but durable social bond between the biker world and the gay community is so longstanding that it predates my generation. (Yes, reaching into historical memory.) Recall the famed Dykes on Bikes — a nonprofit organization promoting women motorcyclists — that traditionally leads off the annual San Francisco gay pride parade.
Still, whenever the Republic of Texas Biker Rally and the Austin Pride Parade descend on downtown Austin during the same June weekend, some wonder aloud if the two groups can share the streets. Indeed, they did this year, in part because both have become such inclusive family affairs, blending tourists and locals seamlessly.
The first evidence was the annual ROT Party given by Dennis Karbach and Robert Brown in their high-end townhouse on Congress Avenue, two doors down from Eddie Safady’s better-known modern-tucked-inside-traditional wonder. Their guests, drawn from arts, media and politics, trended gay and lesbian, but not exclusively so, and they inhaled the spectacle of the Friday street party, with its steely rows of Harleys. That, when they were not downing the official drink of the residence — Tito’s and Fresca — surprisingly refreshing on a windy, hot night.
Another passing show
Dave McCurley, Dennis Karbach, Julia McCurley
Karen Jantsch, Michelle Jantsch
Laura Villagran, Chris Johnson
Christina Fail, John Cruz, Deirdre Anderson
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Dennis Quaid moving to Austin
“The train is going down the tracks. We have a lot of family there and we have a really nice plot of land,” he told Extra television magazine at the Maui Film Festival. “We have 30 or 40 friends and family members within two miles of us. It’s kind of a no-brainer.” Quaid purchased the land on Lake Austin after meeting and marrying Buffington, a real estate agent, three years.
“I’ve always loved Austin,” Quaid told us in 2005. “It has a sense of community you can’t get anywhere else.”
A sidebar on media ignorance of Texas geography: Many online news sources report the family is moving to Quaid’s native Houston, assuming that’s what he meant when he said he was going back to Texas.
Photo by Sung Park at Hoover’s
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Dan Rather booms at Molly Ivins namesake awards
Texas liberals, Democrats and journalists banged pots and pans in approval of the Molly National Journalism Prize winner and the concept of an independent press at the Four Seasons Hotel on Thursday. The rarified crowd, which included philanthropists Bernard and Audrey Rappaport, former U.S. Sen. Bob and Kathleen Krueger, Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, historic gubernatorial candidate Sissy Farenthold, Rep. Elliott Naishtat, Rep. Mark Strama, Houston City Council Member Melissa Noriega, the Houston Endowment’s Melissa Jones and former State Sen. Ray Farabee, applauded as newsman Dan Rather railed against corporate news poisoned by a climate of fear and rooted for journalism in the public trust.
Jean Rather, Dan Rather
Sissy Farenthold, Cecile Keeper
“A fiercely independent press is a patriotic press,” Rather said as keynote speaker for the event which raised more than $100,000 for the Texas Observer. He quoted former Press Secretary and “What Happened” author Scott McClellan as saying that news gatherers in the run-up to the Iraq War were “complicit enablers” and “overly deferential.” “He’s right and we didn’t need Scott McClellan to tell us that,” Rather boomed.
Rep. Elliott Naishtat, Sandie McClellan, Karen Lundquist
Stewart Vanderwilt, Becky Beaver
After Rather spoke, the top prize for investigative journalism, named for the late Molly Ivins, went to Diane Suchetka for her series “Bernard’s Story,” which ran in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Honorable mentions went to Jennifer Gonnerman for “School of Shock,” published in Mother Jones, and Ellen Schultz for “The Debt Collector vs. The Widow” from the Wall Street Journal.
Valerie Phillips, Kathleen Krueger, former Sen. Bob Krueger
Terri Burke (former American-Statesman managing editor, now executive director of the ACLU in Texas), Ellen Sweets
Much discussion of Barack Obama at our table, headed by Marc and Suzanne Winkelman, including $2 million being raised by Alexa Wesner for the Turn Texas Blue campaign and intense lobbying to get the presidential candidate to Texas, in part to boost Rick Noriega’s senatorial chances (his wife Melissa is a Houston City Council Member.)
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‘In Plain Sight’ adds crackle to summer TV
Returning to USA, “In Plain Sight” is the “Burn Notice” of Summer 2008. Like its Miami-based coeval, it’s filmed in a photogenic location, this time Albuquerque, N.M. Both revolve around a smart-mouthing rogue government agent, a federal marshal for the witness protection program in the first case, a blacklisted CIA agent in the second (the more successful “Burn Notice” comes back soon on USA; “In Plain Sight” premiered last year, but only played 6 episodes). The leads are filled out by sexy, flinty, B-List stars, Mary McCormack for “In Plain Sight” and Jeffrey Donovan for “Burn Notice.”
A note on the location: Albuquerque is isolated enough to be considered a good place for protected witnesses, but the real reason it’s shot there is the New Mexico film incentive program. (There it goes again!) We see way too much of the same few distinctive local buildings, some from Antoine Predock, also designer of the Austin City Hall.
One budget problem: Even when the fictional location is supposed to be someplace else, like Indianapolis, it looks a lot like New Mexico. A credibility problem: The Albuquerque train station was never that busy. A talent problem: The cameos and bit parts are played by borderline actors, unlike the uncannily cast performers in small “Friday Night Lights” roles. (Score that one for Austin.)
One more summer TV note: “Dirt,” one of my guilty pleasures, has been canceled. Guess the real-life scandals from Hollywood aired on TMZ and other outlets made Courtney Cox’s fictional ones wilt. Can we say this now? She was never right for the role of the b-word sleaze editor.
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Out & About again
Light weekend. It’s June.
Friday: Tilted Kilt Party in Round Rock; Republic of Texas Harley Rally Party at private home on Congress Avenue; Ryan Bingham at Threadgill’s
Saturday:Milonga del Angelito: A Tango Event Benefiting Casa Marianella at EsquinaTango, 209 Pedernales St.; Republic of Texas Rally Party on Sixth Street; Pride Texas 2008 Festival and Parade downtown; KOOP 91.7 FM Benefit at Jovita’s; Black and White Years at the Parish
Sunday: Tony Awards Party at private home
Monday: Iron Cactus / Carlos N Charlies Open at the Grey Rock Golf Club; Eric Hutchinson at the Parish
Wednesday: “Wanted” preview; Dan Dyer at Momo’s; The Warlocks at Emo’s
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Your A-List: Best Country/Western Bar
Poodie’s Hilltop Bar & Grill, a good-time stop-off on Texas 71 near Lake Travis, came in second with 20 percent of the vote. Gruene Hall, which goes back even further than the Spoke, shook with 14 percent, even though it’s arguably in San Antonio’s orbit rather than Austin’s. Ginny’s Little Longhorn, shoehorned into a Burnet Road slot, got 10 percent and Rainbow Cattle Company, the Fifth Street gay-and-more bar, earned 6 percent.
Grouped at 4 percent and lower were a varied bunch of dance clubs, restaurants, outdoor venues and historical halls: Dallas Nightclub, Midnight Rodeo, Nutty Brown Cafe, Luckenbach Dance Hall, Boomerz, Patsy’s Cowgirl Cafe, Ropers and Saengerhalle.
Write-ins: Cotton Club, Coupland, Pacha
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Your A-List: Best Coffeehouse
Longtimer Ruta Maya, which occupies a capacious cavern at Penn Field off South Congress, came in a distant second with 9 percent of the tally. Mozart’s, which roasts up divine beans on Lake Austin, got 8 percent. Irie Bean Coffee Bar, which has brightened up South Lamar Boulevard, took 6 percent, while Austin Java, which serves major food at multiple locations trailed Irie Bean by just a couple of votes.
Spider House and Jo’s virtually tied at the next spot, while Caffe Medici drew the No. 9 slot. Taking 2 percent or less were Flipnotics, Bouldin Creek, Thunderbird Coffee, Little City, Quack’s, Flightpath, Dominican Joe, JP’s Java, Green Muse, Cafe Mundi, Halcyon, La Dolce Vita, Progress Coffee and Clementine Coffee Bar — but lots and lots of people voted.
(Out & About note: The only one I’ve never visited is Thunderbird. Guess where my next meeting will be.)
Write-ins: Bobalu’s, Enoteca, Epoch, Mandola’s, Sodade’s, Starbucks, Summermoon, Trianon, Wake the Dead
Photo: Bob Khosravi at Kick Butt Coffee.
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William Finn and ‘La Boheme’
Two recent double-disc releases offer arguments for the dying practice. The off-Broadway cast album of “Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn” makes available the music of a composer virtually unknown to the general public, but cherished by musical queens for “Falsettos” and his free-floating, conversational songwriting. As a writer, Finn is all knees and elbows, which makes his work all the more endearing, especially performed by a micro-cast and single piano.
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Spice Boys go Luau (Vegans beware)
For 11 years, the Spice Boys — three longtime couples — have traversed the culinary map through almost monthly dinner parties, often in the company of willing guests. Sunday, two Austin couples took that short journey with us to a Polynesian luau, a new experience for the cooks that combined tropical fruits, rice, crab, arrowroot for thickening and, for the first and last time, a suckling pig. Central Market carries the 26-pounders, which are defrosted, stuffed, trussed and grilled on banana leaves for four hours, then served on a bed of pineapple, star fruit, papaya, sweet onions, etc. It was a mess, but a theatrical success. Cooking and serving complete animals always brings out the latent vegetarian in me.
Dale Rice, Mark Erwin, Clay Smith, Kip Keller, Matthew Mielcarek, Robert Mayott, Stephen Rice
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Jets Under Fire, The Alice Rose, Alpha Rev at Antone’s
One detects remnants of U2 and Radiohead in Alpha Rev’s daedalian mesh of sound, but honestly, I haven’t enjoyed an Austin club concert more than the Rev’s set at Antone’s on Saturday. Employing a capacious touring mix, the fivesome could not be more charismatic and their combination of voltaic guitar, undergirding rhythms and electronicized strings had a full house pulsating with social connection. (It helps that the Rev’s lyrics often deal with the way that people cohere, socially.) Warm-up sets by Jets Under Fire and The Alice Rose further kindled my interest in these promising popsters. Antone’s really is becoming an anchor for the New Austin Sound, and a young, beaming crowd is there to witness it.
Allie Chapman, Ellen Daly, Dillon Lewis, Breck Lewis, Chris Copeland
Samantha Hatcher, Wesley Smith
Brian Batch, Kate Douglas
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‘The Bat’ and ‘Hamilton Township’
More evidence of innovative twists from Austinites:
Austin Lyric Opera’s “The Bat” has been lauded by critics for putting a local spin on Johann Strauss’ “Die Fledermaus,” thanks to playful concepts, lyrics and other inspirations from the Esther’s Follies gang. (I was relieved that my name-check in the first act generated laughter rather than cat-calls.) Purists have not been so kind to the adaptation. My minor observations: It was ironic seeing so many Apple products placed on the Dell Hall stage; and, to me, the only character who represented contemporary Austin society was played by the character himself — Stephen Macmillan Moser — during the trippy second act.
Meanwhile, over at the Salvage Vanguard Theater on Manor Road, the company broadens the rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic established by founder and former artistic director Jason Neulander some 15 years ago. Early on, “theater for club kids” sometimes resulted in onstage garage-band-feedback; now, under interim artistic director Jenny Larson, that has been refined to include expertly pitched, if muted performances; and especially stunning apocalyptic video designs by Lee Webster. The social set? The same club kids, who are now graduate students in various humanities, from the look and sound of them.
And now more photos from that social mega-hit: The Long Center plaza.
Michael Helferich, Laura Martin, Joe Chauncey, JJ Muniz
Julie Delgado, Maru Cueto
Soon Cho, Chad Hall
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Vivid / Neon Jungle Relaunch Party
Austinites like to put an inventive twist into every endeavor. Take Gail Chovan and Evan Voyles, the fashion designer and neon artist whose triple endeavor, Blackmail, Neon Jungle and Vivid, serve as the northern gateway to SoCo along the western lateral. The partners relaunched the complex Saturday with a small party that introduced Chovan’s new on-public-view sewing workspace at the back of Vivid and more walls devoted to Voyles’ cool creations. They called the party “A Century of Style,” since they both turned 50 this year.
Lara Nixon (Box Car Bar), Teagean Farmer (Blackmail), Stephanie Lindsey
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Art Ball at the Long Center
One guest leaned in to whisper: “I said this all along: The lobby is too small.” My reply: “That was deliberate. And I’m sure the planners would stick by their decision today.”
Faced with a devastating bust just when they were making fundraising headway in the first years of this century, the backers of the Long Center for the Performing Arts were forced to make some hard choices. They delayed a planned mid-size auditorium (a prescient decision, given the early parking problems and race to fill the Dell Hall’s calendar with books-balancing touring shows) and a rehearsal facility (the ballet and opera already operate dedicated spaces, so that leaves the symphony without a first-class place to rehearse).
And, besides scrapping an overly ambitious Skidmore Owings and Merrill design, they opted for the “indoor-outdoor” approach to a grand lobby. Most new performing arts centers apply more space to their lobbies than to the stage and auditorium combined, but the Long Center’s seers understood that a plaza defined by the old Palmer ring would make an irresistible magnet for intermissioners and partiers, especially if, as at Austin Museum of Art’s Art Ball on Friday, one staged special acts like light shows out there, and you kept the patrons well refreshed with food and/or drink.
So while the initial silent auction and cocktail gathering felt a bit crowded inside the first floor lobby, there was the donor lounge upstairs for dining and the plaza for everything else. It’s a social hit. We spoke at some length with AMOA’s new development director, Tom Jackson, just in from Reno, who seemed to understand the challenges and rewards ahead of his organization as they raise money for a downtown museum, that, like the Long Center is fiscally responsible and can be expanded in stages.
Jay Menna and event chairwoman Collen Cole
AMOA’s Director of Marketing & Public Relations Shilpa Bakre with Jon Hamlin
Mary Sledd, Scott Owens
Robin Bagley, Elisa Botello
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Texas Swing for Project Transitions
Project Transitions, the longtime hospice service, hosts two of the most cherished events on the Austin charity calendar: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and Texas Swing. For the first, Austinites simultaneously serve dinners in their own homes, for the second, gay, lesbian and straight couples don their boots and hats to two-step across the floor of the historic Saengerrunde Hall, slipping outside to the Sholtz Garten patio for some barbecue and more country sounds.
I was shocked to learn, however, that Friday’s Texas Swing was expected to raise just $40,000, despite a full guest list of 700 people. Development director Mark Jackson assured me that, even in these parlous times, donations of items to the silent auction had increased significantly.
Now, Project Transitions’ leaders run a tight ship. All the money is going to the services promised, so why so low a fundraising goal for clearly a blow-out event? Perhaps $35 in advance and $40 at the door is too low a barrier. But then you’d discourage small donors who can’t afford a stiffer entry.
“Something that always makes me beam with pride and excitement at Texas Swing is seeing all walks of life congregating on the dance floor celebrating together,” Jackson agrees.
I’d buy into the social investment, were I staying the evening rather than just swooping in to take pictures and gathering social stories. After all, it’s hard to argue with the organization’s value to the community.
Amanda Rodriguez, David Rojas
Tanya White, Lisa Olmeda
Lance Thanqwa, Eric Heeded
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Leadership Austin Party at Austin Music Hall
For effectiveness, Leadership Austin can’t be beat. Like the Austin Under 40 operation, it promotes social networking and civic achievements, but it does so mostly through a series of classes and parties. Thursday, its annual Best Party Ever filled up the Austin Music Hall as the group saluted three outstanding contributors to Austin’s good life: marketing wiz and community cementer Kerry Tate along with educator and former lawmaker Wilhelmina and her husband, educator Exalton Delco. I don’t know whether it was the best party ever, but it was fun while it lasted …
Linda Medina, Christine Perrault, Olga Pechnenko-Kopp
Karen Frost (deliriously happy with manfriend Charles Levy, not shown) and Josh Allen (content, but available)
Reis Sweet, Terri Broussard, Dewayne Lofton (future City Council member? It could happen.)
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Marker 10 Party at Hyatt Regency Austin
As former Mayor Lee Cooke recalls it, most people snickered when he helped OK a new downtown hotel almost 30 years ago. Who would want to visit downtown Austin? That hotel was the Hyatt Regency Austin, and it has been long overdue for a makeover. Its bar, with its water elements and cramped niches, just would not do. Thursday, clean-lined Marker 10 opened, officially sporting high-backed, upholstered chairs and banquettes in vibrant, modern colors; scored and stained concrete floors with sail-like screens outside; and an updated menu from an Australian food and beverage manager whose name I’ll remember soon. The hotel hopes to attract a fairly hip set, but the launch party included a much more diverse set of guests because participants in events for the Texas Democratic Party, World War II veterans and a Securities and Exchange Commission seminar also packed the building.
Andrew Johnston, Jacqueline Wing, Ryan Scheer
Will Brown, Jenna Blashek
Josh Newborn, Eric Treiz, Jackie Doss
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Brad Womack at Teva Mountain Games
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Lance Armstrong at Mellow Johnny’s
No, Kate Hudson did not attend. But an extraordinarily gracious Lance Armstrong spoke to just about every guest during Tribeza’s soothing party at Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop on Thursday. Once again, I was impressed with the uncluttered, unpretentious look of the huge space, which includes a bike repair shop downstairs. Learned, for instance, that they can’t keep the Mellow Johnny shirts in stock. I purchased a kicky Timbuks pedestrian satchel — hard to come by — narrower and lighter than most bike satchels. Sported around downtown the rest of the night as if I looked like the lookers who attended the party for the handsome-looking magazine.
The Lance and The Stephen
Catherine Mahon, Jon Landua, Jessa Landua
Matt Butterfield, Erick Smart
Nicole Rodriguez, Matt McCoy
Lance right and left hands Mark Higgins and Bart Knaggs
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Cattle Baron’s Ball at the TDS Exotic Ranch
As previously mentioned, we missed the Cattle Baron’s Ball for the American Cancer Society at the TDS Exotic Ranch just south of Austin. We love the ranch’s array of ungulates and other exotica, plus the hunting lodge theme of the main pavilion. And who can argue with the value of the American Cancer Society? But we dawdled on the Pedernales River that Saturday, so we begged Jessica Hendrick — who we know from both the theater and our neighborhood — to send us some images from the ball, taken by Jerry Hughes. Looks like we missed a swingin’ party (not a veiled reference to the CBS series “Swingtown”).
David Melichar, Irene Allen
Lauree Moffett, Edith Royal, Darrell Royal, Jim Bob Moffett (a rare sighting for the former Longhorn, mining company leader, Barton Creek developer and frequent Austin Chronicle punching bag)
Peter Curran, Jennifer Curran
Todd Phelps, Linda Ginac
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Where do the famous eat in Austin?
Lambert’s is becoming another regular stopover. Jack White and his Raconteurs, Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, the gang from Foxboro Hot Tubs (Green Day), William H. Macy, James Spader and Luke Wilson all passed through Lou Lambert’s celebration of carnivorous pleasure in the past few weeks.
We’re never going gaga about celebrity sightings, but social observations can be made about the kinds of places the famous congregate. All these places are Austin authentics. All combine unusual food with (comparatively) casual surroundings. They certainly don’t got there to be seen, so remember to keep your distance, smile in their direction and, if you are so inclined, enjoy the little moment.
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Rethinking ‘Sex and the City’
That thought passed through my mind at about Minute No. 120 during the “Sex and the City” film adaptation, as we witnessed the show’s fantastically frivolous characters undergo emotional challenges even more daunting than those introduced late in the TV series. It’s still a romantic comedy, no doubt, but “Sex” veers so persistently into romantic disappointment, we wonder how much empathy we can spare for Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda.
You’ve read the reviews. There’s no question that “Sex” is worth seeing. It’s a cultural phenomenon that reveals a great deal more about our times than some of the most probing PBS documentary specials. Yet the movie stretches the TV premise to the limits. Were it not for the nuanced acting from the four leads and their some of their male counterparts, we’d dismiss their trials and tribulations among the designer labels, penthouses, bubbly, diamonds and beach pads long before the final — narratively satisfying — minute.
Photo courtesy Craig Blankenhorn/New Line Cinema
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Take me Out & About
Thursday: Marker 10 Opening Party at Hyatt Regency Austin; Tribeza Party at Lance Armstrong’s Mellow Johnny’s; The Best Party Ever for Leadership Austin at the Austin Music Hall; Texans for Obama at Club de Ville; Meridianwest at Lucky Lounge
Friday: NFL Wives Getaway at Saks Fifth Avenue, “Hamilton Township” at Salvage Vanguard Theater, Rick Noriega’s Pachanga at Hilton Austin, Austin Museum of Art Ball at the Long Center; Texas Swing for Project Transitions at Austin Saengerrunde Hall;
Saturday: Summer Soiree for the Wright House Wellness Center at private home, Vivid/Neon Jungle relaunch at 1200 S. Congress Ave., last chance to see Austin Lyric Opera’s “The Bat,” with its onstage mention of your correspondent, at the Long Center, Alpha Rev and Jets Under Fire at Antone’s; Old Coupland Inn and Dancehall Anniversary Party
Sunday: Spice Boys South Pacific Party at private home; The Austin Babtist Women at Oilcan Harry’s, Farewell Tree Party, Z’Tejas
Jets Under Fire photo by Tammy Perez
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Andy Roddick makes cover of Outside
The same month his hero, Lance Armstrong, makes the cover of two local magazines simultaneously — Austin Monthly and Tribeza — Andy Roddick relaxes on the front of the nationally distributed Outside magazine. The cover story chronicles the tennis ace’s return to form and includes one reason why he retreats to his Austin home: “I have to have windows every couple of months where I can put my body back together.” Roddick explained his sometimes volatile behavior on the court: “”I don’t ever think I am going to be one of those guys who can just mute it.”
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Your A-List: Best Place to Drink Alone
If you are in the mood to sin in such a manner, the A-List voters recommend some quiet spots: The Top 4 slots went to the Driskill Hotel, Gingerman, Spider House and Deep Eddy, all with around the same number of endorsements. The rest of the votes were fairly evenly divided among the Horseshoe Lounge, Hotel San Jose, Mother Egan’s, Stephen F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel, Barfly’s, Casino El Camino, Flipnotics and B.D. Riley’s.
In fact, this one of the most closely bunched results we’ve witnessed so far in A-List history. Guess there are others who take an occasional drink alone.
Write-ins: Mean Eyed Cat, Twin Peaks, Zax
Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez
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Your A-List: Best Dog-Friendly Restaurant
Nick and Nora do not accompany us to dinner on the town. A stocky, slow 10-year-old short-muzzle Lab, Nick is usually sweet and docile, but can get spooked and gruff, especially if children or other dogs ambush him. Nora, a leggy 3-year-old chocolate field Lab, is still puppyish, curious about everything, a general and persistent nuisance, when not totally adorable.
Freddie’s Place, close enough to our house that we take its spillover parking at our curb, is a natural for dogs, with its sprawling creekside patio, and it won the A-List vote for best dog-friendly restaurant with 29 percent of the vote. The casual-unto-carefree Crown and Anchor Pub came in second with 18 percent, while its cross-campus rival, Dog and Duck Pub, reeled in 11 percent.
Austin Java’s multiple locations earned 9 percent, and Jo’s on South Congress and Second Street got 7 percent. Uncle Billy’s, the still-new barbecue and beer joint on Restaurant Row, took 6 percent; and coming in with less than 5 percent were Green Mesquite, Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse and Cafe, P. Terry’s, Moonshine and Romeo’s.
Write-ins: BB Rovers, Opal Divine’s, Wake the Dead
Photo by Ricardo B. Brazziell
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Augie Garrido, Richard Linklater at ‘Inning’ premiere
Baseball coaching legend Augie Garrido looked sharp in a dark blazer, accompanied by companion Jeannie Grass, herself smartly turned out in a slim, black outfit for the premiere of “Inning by Inning” at the Paramount Theatre. Garrido appeared humbled by Richard Linklater’s biographical documentary, which showed the University of Texas baseball coach as a sort of philosopher/teacher whose passion is bringing out the best in each student/player.
Jeannie Grass, Augie Garrido
The doc is terrific and will show soon on ESPN. Garrido gave Linklater unprecedented access to the dugout and locker rooms, where the coach’s motivational diction includes strong language. An afternoon showing of “Inning by Inning” — dubbed a “director’s cut” — included the expletives in full, but the evening premiere was a double benefit for the Austin Film Society and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Austin, so we got family version. Of course, you could always read his lips, and the audience got a kick out of his spray of traditional sports wording.
Richard Linklater with Will Crouch, part of the 2005 College World Series championship team, now into commercial insurance after a career in pro ball
Linklater was in high spirits, given that he had just completed two films. He spoke about his own interest in sports, literature, theater and movies, then we caught up on our shared experiences at the River Oaks and Varsity theaters during the golden years of arthouses. Linklater graduated from Bellaire High School — down the road from where I grew up — and says he sometimes reminds Dennis Quaid of their shared alma mater. He’d like to work with Quaid. Do it, Dennis, do it!
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River Tracing: Pedernales River Photo Blog
Readers sometimes wonder why a blog devoted mostly to socializing in Austin, along with some dollops of celebrity gossip and entertainment news, would also feature photos and reports from the blogger’s travels. Think of it kind of like “The View from Your Window” feature on Andrew Sullivan’s “The Daily Dish.” Just a visual break from all the party madness.
Saturday, Joe Starr and I traced the relatively short Pedernales River, only 100 miles or so long. It rises in spring-fed pools and dry hollows in southeast Kimble County.
Between Harper and Fredericksburg, it begins to take regular shape. (“It’s not a river until you can hear it,” Joe says.) The country here is hilly, but not spectacularly so. Pastures sometimes drop right down to the riverbed. Eventually one can find green scoops deep enough for a cooling dip.
Man has tamed the Pedernales — at least somewhat — at Stonewall and Johnson City. Below, a couple enjoys the peace of a weir at the foot of the LBJ Ranch.
The river turns more rugged at Pedernales Falls State Park, downstream from Johnson City. Here, flash floods put vacationers in constant danger, and playing on the huge boulders by the falls, even when almost dry like this week, is carefully policed.
Perhaps the loveliest section of the Pedernales, or at least the easily accessible part, can be found near Hamilton Pool Road, where people hike, kayak or fish in summer splendor.
The Pedernales empties into the Colorado River. During the recent drought, one could see the rivers connect, but now the Pedernales branch of Lake Travis is full — and full of lake enthusiasts, including a little knot of boaters, bathers and jetskiiers at Camp Pedernales, an old tourist camp that must date back to the earliest days of the Highland Lakes.
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Weekend: More parties, no ‘Sex’
Even attending 18 events over a long, hot weekend, I missed a few giant social affairs, such as the Pachanga Festival (cool in the Waterloo Park shade?) and the Cattle Baron’s Ball for the American Cancer Society (we dawdled during a Pedernales River day trip).
Two publications threw lavish issue parties: Brilliant at Pangaea and Rare at the Monarch. The first included a birthday salute to publisher Lance Avery Morgan featuring a cavalcade of cupcakes. Cover lady Diana Ross was not in attendance, but the magazine landed a juicy interview with the superstar.
Pangaea owner Michael Ault and baby-bump wife, model Sabrina Randall
Suzie Wright, Suzanna Albright at Pangaea
Ben Ross, Ana Knevevic, Jake Roeschley at Pangaea
Greg Boyd, Susan Platt, Parker Elliott at Pangaea
The Rare party shook the top of the Monarch’s garage. As the sun set behind the wing-topped apartment tower, guests streamed between the ready-to-rent lower floors and the parking structure. Alpha Rev, a band helping to redefine the New Austin sound, headlined, competing with jugglers, belly dancers, personal beautifiers and purveyors of food and drink. Felice Partita, Amy Bonneau, Linda Matthews, Kristin Larsen, Rachel Mann, Linda Husjord from Frenchy’s salon on Mary Street Rochelle Miller, Christopher Anderson at the Monarch
We took a tour of Paul Oveisi’s corner unit. The Momo’s owner, who is now managing Dan Dyer’s post-Breedlove act, reserved early, copping splendid views of lower downtown and the Shoal Creek greenery. Paul Oveisi, Jessie Corrine at the Monarch
Oveisi’s pad at the Monarch, looking northeast Mayor Will Wynn, looking tan and fit in season-appropriate shorts, joked that he was just checking if anyone could peek into his window across the way at the Austin Lofts. Rare’s Matt Swinney, Carrie Crowe at the Monarch
Recent UT grads Cliff Waters, Liz Richmond at the Monarch
Tammy Harding, Mindy Cordell at the Monarch
Earlier, we stopped by Breakaway Records, nestled next to Cafe Mundi on East Fifth Street. Serious DJs flipped through LPs and 45s while blissed-out music lovers sipped beer from cans and listened to Monty McCarter’s reggae rippling through the un-air-conditioned shop. Nadia Shea, Tim Murphy at Breakaway Records
John Hall, Scott Landfried at Breakaway Records
OwnersGabe Vaughn, Mike Hooker with Chelsea Wine at Breakaway Records
Later, at Antone’s, we checked in with another band forging that New Austin sound, Pompeii, which has not played in a while (working on a new album). Then bopped back and forth between there and Red Fez, where nimble DJ Kurupt was celebrating his Sunday successes with friends and a blindingly attractive crowd. Erik Johnson, Julie Booker, Rob Davidson at Antone’s Connor Kiel, Glory Ancheta at Antone’s Michael Swimelar, Thao Doan at Antone’s DD, CK at the Red Fez. (Sometime we’ll have that talk about why some people are shy about giving their name to journalists Andre Breton, Shy Salinas, Jamaal Skeete, Cornelius Sirls at the Red Fez Monday brought the Austin Critics Table Awards at Cap City Comedy Club. Always an irreverent event, with artists, patrons and journalists trading sweetened jabs. But way too long: Revelers staked out tables at 6:30 p.m. and some didn’t leave until 10:30 p.m. The informal critics group — I’m still a member — is already discussing a tighter program for next year. Buzz Moran, winner for Sound Design, and the funniest speaker of the evening
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Alamo Drafthouse booked at least eight large-scale “Sex” parties for opening week, while fielding requests from hundreds of small groups of (mostly) women for tickets or reservations. Shannon Hollsten, Katie Chabannes at Rain “Sex” Party “I am shocked to say that ‘Sex and the City’ has generated more interest … than any movie before it,” says Samantha Cox, who has wrangled such events for the Ritz, South and Village iterations of the Alamo for five years.
Rob Faubion, Saffire at Rain “Sex” Party “All shows of ‘Sex and the City’ are completely sold out all weekend and have been sold out for almost two weeks,” says the chain’s Mike Sherrill. “This is seriously bigger than ‘Star Wars’ in regard to advance ticket sales.” It helps that the Alamo recently landed its full liquor license and is therefore capable of supplying those promised cosmos. Nicholas Brown, Saul Ramirez, Danny Flores, Javier Anchondo, Ramon Olivas at Rain “Sex” Party As of Thursday, the Belmont had arranged five “Sex” parties. Gabon Donovan, David Sidney, James Waldrip, Chelsea Antoniono, Laura Hamilton at Buzios “Sex” Party We attended a “Sex” happy hour at Rain that combined powerful cosmos with soothing treatments from Milk and Honey Day Spa. Later, we witnessed post-premiere parties at the Copa and Buzios Room, which included the requisite wedding dresses and funny hats.
Carrie Clayton, Chad Stevens at at Buzios “Sex” Party The Buzios Room is quickly becoming one of my preferred downtown lounges. Even with a party crowd, the dark, cool space radiates calm. Anita Gonzales, Lacy Anderson
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Looks like we’re going to see a lot of Kate Hudson in Austin. She and romantic magnet Lance Armstrong are back from the Mediterranean, dining at Uchi over the weekend. We hear that their kids get along well and Hudson loves our town. And while we’re at it, let’s settle a score: Armstrong and Hudson-ex Owen Wilson were never buddies. Not even close. All you gossip bloggers who think you’ve smelled a girlfriend-stealing rat: Try to find a candid picture of Wilson and Armstrong together on the Internet. Not easy is it? A good exercise fact-checking.
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And they say performance art is dead. Instead, it’s moved back to the clubs where it was spawned, leaving behind warehouse theaters and inhabiting instead online and up-close-and-live spaces at the same time. The Lipstick Pages party at the effortlessly ironic Beauty Bar on Friday linked outrageous fashions with novelty video and outer-space-ready performances. The online magazine has been touting “creative feminism” — love the term — since 2003. Webzines continue to redefine journalism, and this one lives mostly on MySpace and Facebook. We adored everyone we met at this shakin’ shindig. Heather Coffey, Carmen Knight
Lisa Killbuck, Anson L.
Melanie Moore, Jennifer Harrison
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How would Austin audiences respond to the marriage of opera and Esther’s Follies? We’ll wait to see what the critics think — Statesman correspondent David Mead was in attendance on opening night, as was the Chronicle’s Robert Faires — of “The Bat,” but I caught the fashion parade outside the Long Center on Friday. (Although I was sorely tempted to cover the impromptu bike gathering atop the Doug Sahm Hill nearby instead.) Meredith Dunning, Cary Cocke Some arrived in cool evening wear, couture but not overdressed. It was late May after all. (Opera first-nighters are often drawn to winter looks, even in Austin and the indoor-outdoor conditions of the Long Center.) Tamsen Cohagan, Fred Cohagan Joe Grubb, Julia Langenberg One man ascended the exterior staircase — not grand, but formal, processional, place to view people who know they are being viewed — in ultra-cool seersucker and flipflops. Now, flipflops work on .001 percent of the population, then only within a 100-yard perimeter around swimming opportunities, but this guy worked the whole look. (Alas, even in flip-flops, he slipped past my camera.) Many others looked sharp, crisp in summery suits. And once again, the Long Center patio was the place to gather and sigh at the skyline on a dry, warm evening. I’ll catch the opera on a less frenzied social night.
Awww … austin360.com editor Gary Dinges on his way to the opera. It must be a hot event if the inventor of the A-List is there.
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Followers of innovative sculpture resemble certain subsets of indie rockers. It’s a scruffy, but intellectual breed — well-muscled and sun-burned, many of them, from shaping mountains of stuff outdoors or in sweaty workshops. They appear to belong on punkish Red River Street as much as shady, laid-back Barton Springs Road. Rose Saenz, Steve Brudniak, Belinda Casey, Jimmy Jalapeeno So an opening for long-absent Steve Brudniak, who twists industrial and mechanical materials into whimsical, provocative forms, is bound to attract the cut-offs crowd as well as heavy hitters from the Old Guard of Austin arts, such as Jimmy Jalapeeno and Bob “Daddy-O” Wade. Allison Kramer, Nellie Moore, Danielle Tierney, Ed Salanga Friday’s reception, the first of eight social events we attended that evening, took place at the Julia Butridge Gallery in the Dougherty Arts Center, a community gathering as it were, since his highly refined, vaguely elephantine pieces can go for many thousands of dollars, thus out of reach for the red-wine-in-paper-cups tribe. The good thing is that the rented gallery is supremely accessible, so while the exhibit runs, drop by to see these wonders without the attendant crowd. And maybe there are some serious collectors among Brudniak’s staunchly loyal following.
Weekend: ‘Sex’ Parties at Rain and Buzios
Lance Armstrong and Kate Hudson settle into Austin
Weekend: Lipstick Pages Party at Beauty Bar
Weekend: ALO’s ‘The Bat’ at the Long Center
Weekend: Steve Brudniak Reception at Butridge Gallery
