Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > August > 27
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Grounded in Music and Strata TX at J. Black’s
So many social connections surged at J. Black’s on Tuesday, it was hard to keep track. First, Strata TX held a happy hour, which makes sense, because the young professionals club for the Texas Cultural Trust significantly brings down the average age for the trust’s statewide supporters and helps spread the word about what this trust does (primarily backs the Texas Commission on the Arts and educational programs about the arts, as well as some individual young artsts).
Erin Ivey, Marc Fort
Second, another group, Grounded in Music, held a simultaneous happy hour. This is another collection of twenty- and thirtysomethings putting their shoulders to the fundraising grindstone, this time for extracurricular music programs in schools not lucky enough to have well-heeled PTAs to pay for teachers. And they hire top musicians, too, keeping their operating budget to $40,000 by doing all the rest of the work with volunteers.
Jacquelyn Sorcic, Jeff Kreinik
But the best part was that the two groups met together in the narrow raised lounge behind the main U-shaped bar (where nightlife prince Brad Womack held court that dusk). Collaborating on the event meant their supporters cross-pollinated, something every charitable group in town should do. (I’ve seen it work for the Catalyst 8 folks on several occasions, for instance.)
Huey Houston, Leah Smith
Then it was off to dinner with the ever-gracious Stephen Rice and Mark Erwin and our instantaneous friends, Oliver Everette and Craig Rancourt at Eastside Cafe. We all left pleasantly stuffed and content.
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Your A-List: Best 24-hour Restaurant
Both local restaurant groups have garnered support for decades with bountiful breakfasts, quickie lunches and unconventional dinners. (In recent news, KL announced it would move its Northwest location to the Anderson Arbor Shopping Center at U.S. 183 and Anderson Mill Road).
Another well-trod Old Austin haunt, Katz’s, with it signature martinis, over-stuffed deli sandwiches and constantly burbling atmosphere on West Sixth Street, came in third with a respectable 14 percent, although that’s a big come-down from last year’s 40 percent. (What happened, Marc?)
IHOP, a corporate behemoth that has felt the sting of competition from fast-food breakfasting, hit the fourth spot with 5 percent. Star Seeds, the completely singular diner with decidedly eclectic clientele on Interstate 35 North, pulled in 5 percent, while two chains, Waffle House and Denny’s, settled for less than 3 percent.
Write-in: Jim’s
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Your A-List: Best Vintage Store
Buffalo Exchange, a mere write-in candidate last year, zoomed up to second place with 20 percent of the vote. Goodwill, also a previous write-in, got a full 15 percent. South Congress veteran New Bohemia dropped from 21 percent to 7 percent (where are my SoCo homies?), while another longtimer, Room Service, nabbed 6 percent, closely followed by Amelia’s Retro-Vogue & Relics.
Taking less than 5 percent were Salvation Army, Flashback, Feathers and Big Bertha’s. A few more workouts and I’ll hit the resale ranks hard again.
Write-ins: Assistance League of Austin Thrift Store, Let’s Dish, Roadhouse Rags
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Skip ‘Rome 1960’
“Rome 1960” disappointed me terribly. David Maraniss’ reputation as a journalist who can handle book-length material led me to choose this treatment of the Rome Olympics as my games-side reading. Maraniss begins promisingly with taut, suspenseful accounts of women’s track coach Edward Temple, would-be spy David Sime and other leading characters — a young, brash Cassius Clay, a classically chiseled Rafer Johnson, long, limber Wilma Rudloph, and especially self-styled aristocrat and IOC president Avery Brundage, who couldn’t foresee that the Olympics were going truly global, thanks, in part, to commercial television.
That may work for NBC today, with hundreds of specially mounted cameras and instant editing, but not for a 400-page history that heaves in too many directions to tell any one story well. The biggest let-down arises from the expectations laid out by the subtitle: “The Olympics That Changed the World.” How? Even on page 423, we’re not quite sure. Yes, the USSR and it allies triumphed, forcing the US to initiate a “space race” in sports to match its efforts in other areas of achievement and propaganda. Yes, the club of Europe was fading while the newly independent Third World countries marched onto the Olympic stage. But really? Change the world? Nah.
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Meet the new bloggers
Fresh. Lively. Sometimes a little raw.
Meet the entertainment bloggers from St. Edward’s University journalism program. We met for our first three hours on Monday night, discussing the potential roles of the entertainment journalist (see their comments on an earlier post featuring Perez Hilton), the framing questions for crunchy writing about the arts (relating the “Mad Men” opening credits to observation, description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation).
A day later, we launched their blogs. Find the early links below. Read ‘em. Comment on ‘em.
