Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > February > 21
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Viva Las Vegas-Monte Carlo at the Austin Music Hall
Let’s get to the business at hand: The fashion show. Last year, I judged Sue Webber’s sleek, sexy, cool, confident parade of bedecked models for Viva Las Vegas the best fashion show of the year. In fact, the best I’d seen. In Austin. Ever.
Misti Poppitt and Troy Cormier
This year, the show earned lots of creativity points, as Webber explored the formal wear, casino couture and Mediterranean colors for a Monte Carlo edition of the gala for AIDS Services of Austin. Props — such as umbrellas in the opening number — were numerous, and humor often reigned. So did men. Last year, older, more macho models outranked the thin, willowy regulars. So Webber returned to that theme and amplified it, tweaked it.
Lorri French and Susan Burton
What she lost was consistency and development, and in some cases, class. Some models towered above their cohorts (My-Cherie Haley), while others broke the Austin mold (one fierce tattooed dude named Phoenix triumphantly broke with the macho mode). Uncharacteristically, technical glitches interrupted the flow of action. Still, at moments, the music, lighting, models and apparel came together in an exhilarating manner.
Yvonne and Trevor Schwartz
What about the rest of the night? No need to worry about the hardiness of these Austin partiers, even with Carnaval Brasileiro right across the river and competing fundraisers at the MACC, Four Seasons Hotel and elsewhere. Here, the assemblage cast around the charity gambling tables, wandered among the silent-auction items or lined up for cocktails and high-intensity grub.
Brittany Prejean, Brittany Brunson and Patrick Brunson
A beaming ASA board chairman Robert Dailey estimated the head count at the Austin Music Hall at nearly 1,000. We dallied with Austin Chronicle’s Stephen Moser, grandly positioned in a commanding chair at the end of the runway; Mint Owl’s Chris Cantoya and model-perfect Laura Aidan, 34th Street Cafe’s Cameron Lockley with friends Drew Wilson and Joe Pierce, adorable charity triplets Dr. John Hogg, David Garza and Joanna Linden (remember: Hispanic Scholarship Consortium fundraiser is Thursday!), Dell Children’s Armando Zambrano, and a wide-eyed Texas Rep. Donna Howard.
Drew Wilson, Cameron Lockley and Joe Pierce
Social footnote: I had every intention to round out the evening at Carnaval. I don’t know whether it was the transition from beach vacation, the clogged streets around the Palmer Events Center, or uncertainty whether I’d gain entry among the glittered masses (didn’t receive my OK until too late). For whatever reason, I instead headed home after just two social events my first night back in the saddle. There’s always next year …
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Charity, Style
Guitars Under the Stars at the Mexican American Cultural Center
Socially and organizationally, the Austin Classical Guitar Society belongs in a class with Conspirare and Austin Chamber Music Center. Each group has taken a sometimes ignored subset of the classical repertoire and made it essential for Austin audiences. The growing groups have been rewarded with a deeper, broader impact on the city’s social life.
Rachel Feit and Heather McKissick
ACGS’s Matthew Hinsley thus joins earthshakers such as Craig Hella Johnson and Michelle Schumann, the leaders of Conspirare and ACMC. I recall when Matthew was but a University of Texas student, a fresh-faced guitarist and singer with a promising, self-promoted CD.
Leah Nelson and Thomas Echols
Now, his group stages a summer festival that crams 60 events into six days. It books the finest classical guitar artists from around the world and commissions new pieces, such as Graham Reynolds’ “Power Man,” which will be performed by hundreds of guitarists at the fest.
Amy Houghton and Trevor Hunt
Saturday’s mini-gala, Guitars Under the Stars, at the Mexican American Cultural Center raised money and awareness for ACGS’s student programs, which reach hundreds of aspiring artists in dozens of schools. After nibbling and chatting with the likes of Leadership Austin’s Heather McKissick, Alamo Drafthouse’s Karrie and Tim League, Austin Chronicle’s Rachel Feit, West Austin News’ Alana Mallard, former Austin City Council Member Louise Epstein, returning Austin musicians Leah Nelson and Thomas Echols (back from a Southern California sojourn), Hinsley and others, I heard two of the sampled pieces.
Alana Mallard and Zach Mallard
Young virtuoso Vincent Turner cascaded through the gigue from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2. Then eight students from McCallum High School performed a preview of Reynold’s insistent “Power Man.” The music and the socializing suggested that ACGS is headed to the stars.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Arts
