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Monday, December 8, 2008
Dancing with the Stars-Austin, Part 2
See Part 1 in a post below
After previous contestants husband-and-wife team Venus and Bill Strawn cha-cha-ed their way into the hearts of the crowd, the real competition began. Cha cha was the preferred form — besides Acevedo, Meghan Danahey and Mitch Jacobson chose that style, while Larry Connelly mixed it in with foxtrot and the hustle. Former “Apprentice” competitor Roxanne Wilson executed a cunning paso doble, a strategy second-runner up Wally DeRoeck blended with tango after a recent trip to Argentina.
Sam Santmyer, Tim Sittler
Amy Simmons of Amy’s Ice Cream attempted the deceptively difficult quickstep, while slinky Karen Hawkins paired mambo with quickstep. In easily the best outfit of the evening, Maria Groten hustled as the white fringe on her tiny athletic figure shimmied. Plastic surgeon to the Austin stars, Dr. Robert Clement, went regional with a two-step swing combo.
Raquel Hill, Brandon Coleman III
The winner was Ronda Gray, a former middle-school teacher and camp leader, who was cheered by a gang of begowned young women. Gray could teach dancing, not just follow her professional partner in the swing mode.
Vaughn Brock, Mark Williams
Congratulations to her and to event organizers Mary Tally, Stacee Bell, and professional ballroom dancer Sabrina Barker-Truscott. What a dinner and show at the Hilton Austin — 900 people bidding on auction items and helping the center even in tough economic times.
Blake Byram, Monica Byram
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Dancing with the Stars-Austin swings to the top
Austin hosts some 120 galas a year. That’s one every third day.
Some, like the Ballet Austin Fete, have earned a reputation for enduring glamor. Others, such as the Nobelity Project benefit, attracted unprecedented numbers of celebrities earlier this year. The Long Center opening weekend staged unmatched grandeur in 2008, partly because of pent-up expectations for the new performing arts center.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, philanthropist and planner Bobbi Topfer, and former Mayor Roy Butler
Add a newcomer to the gala big leagues. In only its second year, Dancing with the Stars-Austin not only grossed well over $400,000 — results and net are still being tallied — to benefit the Center for Child Protection, it attracted an unusual mix of socialites and the rarely social. Among the attending politicians who are not seen out that often — Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul.
Texas A&M System Board of Regents Chairman Bill Jones and his wife Johnita
Law enforcement and education were well represented. Chairman of the UT System Board of Regents and banker James Huffines, with his wife Patty, one of last year’s contestants, sat at our table. Chairman of the A&M System Board Bill Jones and his wife Johnita sat nearby (Chairman Jones, also partner with the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., competed last year and joked his way through judging this time). Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo not only performed the cha cha briskly with a professional dancer, he won second place in the audience vote (the judges agreed to give all 11 competitors perfect 10s).
UT System Board of Regents Chairman James Huffines and his wife Patty
More to come in Part 2.
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Why I flog the blog
With gratifying regularity, readers approach your correspondent at public events to announce: “I read your column every week!”
After offering thanks, I ask: “Do you read Out & About online, too?”
If the print edition, which runs twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, provides brief pleasure and edification, why not scan the blog, which is updated five to 10 times a day? Wouldn’t you like 20 times the reporting and repartee each week?
I feel no shame flogging the blog like this. Everyone who lives by one, does it.
Yes, I use Twitter, Facebook, (discreet) mass e-mails, signatures, targeted photos, and every known strategy of “search engine optimization” to draw readers to the online edition. To date, only one reader, a dear friend, has complained.
That way, fleeting bits of the whole are always streaming through the Internet. Essentially, that’s how blog readership grows. Not through marketing. Not through publicity. But through retail, guerrilla journalism, one community member, one link at a time.
But you know that. You’re reading the blog.
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