Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > August > 10
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Voodoo Cowboy at The Belmont
If the Ice Ball at the Monarch Center represented a grassroots fundraising and socializing effort come of age, the Voodoo Cowboy party at The Belmont the same evening had the feel of a top shelf event that just gets more glamorous at each turn. Voodoo Cowboy Entertainment manages musicians, athletes and moviemakers, while its party-giving colleagues at Mueller Law Offices work in a myriad of specialties. Their annual shindig Saturday — overseen by Mark Mueller himself — lured the brightest and the most beautiful from a multitude of Austin professions into the spotlight.
Zach Hadley, Angela Torres
In our first sweep through the party, we encountered filmmaker and activist Turk Pipkin, U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Style Avatar Stephen Moser, SXSW Film’s Janet Pierson, Austin Film Society’s Agnes Varnum, UT Performing Arts Center’s Tim Neece (or was it?), lawyer and Fortunate 500 stand-out Becky Beaver, bountiful benefactor Melanie Barnes, open-hearted publicist Patricia Paredes, and writer and social connector Anne Elizabeth Wynn, among many others.
Amy Hillin, Paul Molanphy, LZ Love
The whole event, blessed by late-night winds, was filmed and, given the bands loosening the guests’ joints and the flowing liquids loosening them even more, there should be some interesting footage out there.
Haylee Faggard, Mark Faggard, Cassandra LeBlanc
We spent the most time with David Sullivan, the new head of First Night and one of the national proponents of art-sated New Years Eves. “He’ll be the Cliff Redd of First Night,” predicted Wynn, referring to the Long Center savior, who swept aside local bickerers to build the city’s first municipal performing arts center.
David Sullivan, Patricia Paredes, David Johnson
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Ice Ball at the Monarch Center
It never ceases to amaze me that, in Austin, a simple grassroots gathering at a private home or small business can blossom into a major fundraising event with just a little tender loving care. Amy Stanley and friends started Helping Austin with a get-together four years ago in her Keystaff Inc. headquarters on Anderson Lane. The money they raised went to Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Texas. People had fun. They did good.
Carol Cain, Eric Stumberg, Amy Stanley
Stanley’s gang moved downtown for the next parties, then chose the Monarch Event Center near Highland Mall for its Ice Ball on Saturday, partly for ready parking, a relatively central location and “good deal,” says Stanley. The former Lincoln Theater multiplex in what was once an upscale center has been lightly renovated to include a flat floor for a sizable banquet room.
Keri Anthony, Bryan Clark
What’s so neat about a group like Helping Austin is that almost nobody at the festive event, cooled with icy concoctions, was recognizable from the gala circuit. Dressed eclectically from frayed jeans and cowboy hats to metallic gowns, they had made their own community of socializing and benevolence, raising approximately $30,000 for Big Brothers, Big Sisters, while extending good will beyond the traditional Austin circle of philanthropy.
Rebecca Kan, Russell Lubojacky
