Out & About

Note: Be sure to read the rave review of the Blanton Museum of Art in the Feb. 18 issue of The New Republic. Jed Perl brackets it with the Kimbell and the Menil. That’s the highest praise I could ever summon.

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Winter Reading Week 2010, Post No. 2

By Michael Barnes | Tuesday, February 16, 2010, 04:17 PM

As often happens in social groups, the first night of the 2010 Winter Reading Week was spent talking about the invited who did not come — and why — as much as embracing friends old and new. Yet by the next morning, that topic had dissipated with night’s storms.

The guest most familiar to Statesman readers is Dale Rice. The former restaurant critic is teaching journalism at Texas A&M University and doing good works in the College Station community, such as serving as the symphony’s board president. His partner, Antonio La Pastina teaches international communications at A&M and is preparing for long instructional gigs in China and Brazil, plus a short lecture in Logan, Utah, which he finds even more exotic. They included humorously named Butch, a loving long-haired chihuahua, in their party.

Carol Cosenza was in from Boston. The social scientist’s boyfriend, Sal Di Cecca, did not join us this year, but we talked about some of their travels and cruises. Sean Massey, social psychology professor at SUNY-Binghamton and a city councilman there, was stuck with school work. His partner, Loren Couch, took time off from their successful bistro, Tranquil, to visit with our godson, Alfie, in tow.

Alfie loves playing with Isabella, the only other child with a regular Reading Week pass (they are pictured below, splashing in our little lagoon). She calls Alfie her “best friend who she hardly ever sees.” Isabella’s Houston parents are John Haba, an architect with a cycling passion (he did 85 miles from the Galveston ship channel to the Freeport channel while here) and Maureen McNamara, an art therapist and former housemate of mine, and perhaps the more tranquil soul in the tribe. Charles Dove, who teaches film at Rice University, brought along Floyd the Wonder Aussie.

Paul Talley, fresh from his extensive world travels, journeyed from outside San Francisco, and this year was joined by his paramour, Doug Sparke, an airline steward who is now a valued part of our social family. Robert Mayott and Nick Shumway, both employed by the University of Texas, slipped into their usual comfortable niches in our group. As did Lawrence Morgan, a frequent companion of mine in Austin, who teaches at the Griffin School, and Shannon, one of our more quiet but most valued regular guests.

Joan and Rick Penders flew in late from Cincinnati by way of Denver. Joan consults on civic projects in that Ohio city and Rick writes reviews when he is not raising money for the opera company. One of our dearest friends, Joe Starr, missed Friday, but brightened the rest of the weekend. He was joined by Rose Mary Schouten, who also teaches English as a second language, still bearing a totally charming Dutch accent.

New this year were Michael Pungello and Kevin Smothers from Austin, also Jeff Kirk. The sound designer, the public relations expert and the art dealer are well known to readers of our city’s social columns. Today, Eugene Sepulveda and Tana Christie join the remaining six of us. The weekdays, as opposed to the weekend, is blessedly calm. Still, it was gratifying that more than 20 guests stayed over Sunday night, making for many three-day weekends.

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Winter Reading Week 2010, Post No. 1

By Michael Barnes | Monday, February 15, 2010, 11:45 AM

The sun skitters across the little post-Hurricane Ike lagoon in front of our house. Following the light’s fractured patterns is the most effort I’ve made in the past three days.

For readers coming late to this tradition, in the winter, Kip and I take a big beach house at Surfside, the island just down from Galveston.

We invite 25 or so friends. They bring books, magazines, CDs, MP3s, games, cards and plenty of conversational ammunition.

They also cook and clean, bless them. Four teams compete for the most imaginative meals. Saturday brunch this week consisted of tangy breakfast pizzas. Saturday’s dinner, five ways to prepare beef tenderloin, plus a mousse molded to look like tenderloin (this fabulous feast took all evening to consume). Sunday’s brunch turned Mexican (with wicked bloody Marys) and Sunday’s dinner served up Southern comfort food (incredible deviled eggs with pickled okra, mac and cheese with a hint of nutmeg, collard greens, ham, carrots and Parker rolls).

Drinks to match, of course. Killer croquet in the afternoon. So far, three sunny days and two windy, rainy nights, one middling night. All nights made for blazes on the hearth.

For me, one book, a dozen or so magazines, three walks with the Labs, Nick and Nora, and catching up with friends from New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Houston, California and Austin.

More reports to come.

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Catching up with the Tipsy Texans

By Michael Barnes | Sunday, February 14, 2010, 09:57 AM

If New York’s Dale DeGroff wrote the gospel on the modern cocktail, and Fino’s Bill Norris planted the sacred seeds in Austin, then the Tipsy Texans are surely that cult’s most devout local disciples. The Texans — personal and professional partners David Alan and Joe Eifler who created their own “Tipsy” brand — are spreading the good word through blogs, tweets, classes, coaching, parties, demonstrations and home entertaining.

Inquisitive, gregarious Alan, 32, a lifelong Austinite and alumnus of Austin Community College’s culinary program, entered the food service industry right out of high school. He bussed tables at Katz’s Deli & Bar on West Sixth Street, then followed Barry Katz (son of founder and candidate for the Democratic nomination in the Texas lieutenant governor’s race, Marc Katz) to Houston to open and operate the restaurant group’s Montrose outlet.

The quieter, almost sacramental Eifler, 36, born in Louisville, Ken., attended Catholic schools, and drifted down to Austin after stops in Kansas and North Texas. His mother teaches; his father is a sales manager for Welch’s Foods, Inc., the grape juice folks. His studied English and theater, but he discovered a propensity for data-base and software management, which led him to his job at Advantage.

Together, the couple shares a restless Hurricane Ike rescue dog, Jigger, likely a Belgian Shepherd mix.

Coffee actually brought the Texans together. Alan tended the cafe at the weekly farmer’s market downtown. Eifler, who lived nearby, made it his custom to pick up a coffee each Saturday.

“I’d get the one cup,” Eifler says. Alan wondered if Eifler might be gay, but he talked about a girlfriend. So when the market took a weekend off, he suggested they just get together to talk. That’s when Eifler confessed he didn’t really like coffee.

That should have been a big hint, but Alan didn’t really absorb its meaning until Eifler followed him down to his car to announced, belatedly, “I came by every Saturday just to talk to you …”

A fan of Julie Powell, the Austin ex-pat who wrote “Julie and Julia,” Alan decided maybe he’d try a blog (www.tipsytexan.com ), with plans to make all of DeGroff’s 500 or so cocktails.

“We just started amassing data,” Alan says. “But we didn’t want a ‘me-too’ blog, so we asked, ‘What do we really want to do?’ Well, write about drinks, entertainment and food: The hospitality life. I had a career. Now I have a logo!”

The Dale/David Project, Alan’s online record of duplicating beverages in DeGroff’s “Craft of the Cocktail” and “The Essential Cocktail,” generated plenty of national buzz. (That’s DeGroff pictured.) That particular series is now up to 120 posts, most recently detailing the intricacies of making Navy Grog (Dark rum, añejo rum, Demerara rum, falernum, simple syrup, pimento dram, cinnamon syrup, grapefruit juice and lime juice go into this scary drink).

This spring, the Texans are teaching Tipsy Tech, a 12-week series of classes on the history and practice of mixology, further proselytizing the cocktail cult.

“What the ‘movement’ is really about is education,” Alan says. “Bartenders have to keep learning, studying books and blogs and conferences and other pros in the industry. … Most of the people who signed up for my class have been home bartenders, a real surprise to me.”

The pair also offer personal, at-home cocktail training, one on one, and extravagantly praise their fellow cocktail disciples at East Side Showroom, Péché, Perla, Fino and elsewhere. Simultaneously, they’ve raised the profile of cocktail-making through the charity party circuit.

“The fact that we’re working a lot of parties is a trend in itself — hiring pro bartenders who make craft cocktails, instead of letting caterers just pour wine, beer or simple ‘1+1’ drinks,” Alan says. “The public is demanding more, or at least they are enjoying more.”

What about the daunting number of supplies that go into their elevated version home bartending?

“When we started the Dale/David Project, we had to go on a massive shopping safari to find all the ingredients to make every drink in the book,” Alan says. “We literally have hundreds of bottles. For most things, they don’t go bad. So stock up and have fun! Don’t let them sit there, get busy making variations. Start with a classic base, add some of this or that and see what you come up with. That’s how new cocktails are born.”

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The Diahann Carroll Interview

By Michael Barnes | Friday, February 12, 2010, 11:21 PM

On January 8, 2002, Austin theatrical producer Charles Duggan hosted a birthday dinner for his friend, Nolan Miller, costume designer for the 1980s evening soap, “Dynasty,” among other TV series and films.

Held at the stylish L’Orangerie restaurant in Beverly Hills, the party’s guest list included celebrities Nolan had dressed: Sophia Loren, Joan Collins, Joanna Carson, Phyllis Diller and Diahann Carroll. (Pause to imagine that pride of lionesses around one table.)

“One smile melted any tension about her late arrival,” Duggan remembers. “She was, hands down, the most glamorous that evening — and certainly the most glamorous star I have ever met.”

Carroll will lend Austin some of that magnetism this week, appearing with the Austin Symphony Orchestra during its pops concert Feb. 20 at the Long Center.

She balks when asked the nature of glamour by phone: “What does the word even mean?” Carroll says in an courtly but playful tone. “It doesn’t mean well-groomed. It doesn’t mean well put-together. It doesn’t mean well-behaved. Maybe it’s all of the above.”

Carroll, who has mastered Broadway, Hollywood, Las Vegas — and just about every glamour spot in between — would rather be known for her singing and acting talents.

“Glamour is not that fascinating to me in the end,” she says. Raised in Harlem, Carroll watched her star rise steadily in the 1950s in movies such as “Carmen Jones” and “Porgy and Bess,” but especially, at age 29, on Broadway in “Little House of Flowers,” the island musical written by Truman Capote and Harold Arlen.

“It was a beautiful experience,” she says. “You want to make sure you give your best effort working with people that extraordinary.” She didn’t land the part of young Violet, however, right away.

“Truman felt I was too innocent to play the ingenue,” she says. “I went off to do the film of ‘Carmen Jones’ (the rambunctious, all-black version of the opera ‘Carmen’), then auditioned again. He felt I was a little more seasoned — to play a 15-year-old!”

For just her second Broadway role, legendary composer Richard Rodgers wrote “No Strings” with her in mind for the leading lady.

“It was a surprise,” she says of the part for which she won a Tony Award. “I had no idea in advance. He saw me on ‘The Tonight Show’ … Jack Paar must have been the host then.”

The story of two free spirits in chic postwar France, it featured — de facto through its casting, though it’s not explicit in the script — one of modern Broadway’s first interracial relationships. Carroll broke another color barrier in 1968 when she starred in “Julia.” Playing a widowed mother and a nurse, she was the first African American actress to carry a hit television series virtually on her own.

Given her own historical breakthroughs, how does she feel now, with the Obamas in the White House?

“Naturally, I’m thrilled,” she says. “They are holding up a mirror to their lives through their high standards. He’s a wonderful representative of the many faces of the United States of America.”

She’s doesn’t know the president personally, but met Michelle Obama, whom she found “an intelligent young woman with a quite lovely feminine side.”

If “Julia” showed Carroll as competent, professional and nurturing, “Dynasty” gloried in post-”Dallas” excess, turning up the jets on the gaudy glam factor.

“We had wonderful clothes!” she says. “Nobody remembers the stories or plots, but they remember the wonderful clothes.”

She remains friends with co-star Joan Collins and looks forward to catching up with Duggan when she visits Austin.

Two later projects— “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years ” and “Sunset Boulevard” — stretched Carroll’s range, the first about black women who lived to be 100; the second an extravagant musical version of the 1950 movie about a faded silent film star.

“I was aware of the Delanys for many years before their story was developed for Broadway,” she says. “When I learned of the television version, I wanted to be a part of it. So I auditioned …”

Wait. Diahann Carroll had to audition?

“Meryl Streep auditions!” she corrects me. “And I really wanted the part. People don’t understand how you see yourself doing a certain part.”

As for “Sunset Boulevard,” she tweaked part of Norma Desmond during its long, high-profile Toronto run.

“What happens to Norma happens to many females in our industry,” she says. “Which is a rather a frightening thought. But that’s how things are dealt with in this thing called show biz. Aging is not a allowed.”

And yet … Carroll has worked consistently, often in Vegas, Reno or Florida when TV, Broadway and film parts were not available. (Don’t forget she was nominated for an Oscar for “Claudine” in 1974.) How does she keep going — and looking so good — well into her (cough) seventies?

“I don’t think there’s anything unusual about my routine,” she says. “You watch what you eat. I’m pretty good about that.” She pauses. “And it’s important to keep everything ‘up!’” With that, Carroll roars with laughter. Maybe that’s one of the secrets to everlasting glamour.

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A Walk through Original Austin Neighborhood with Chris Riley

By Michael Barnes | Thursday, February 11, 2010, 02:03 PM

Their extended families, some with servants, lived here, roughly between West Avenue, San Antonio, West Seventh and West 15th streets in the 19th century, back when Little Shoal Creek cut a ravine through the lowlands where Nueces Street — now a proposed bicycle avenue — streaks.

Few live here today. The proud homes of this Old Austin neighborhood, recently re-branded “Original Austin,” were colonized by austere, sometimes depersonalized law firms and lobbyists’ headquarters during the postwar period. The descendants of Austin’s merchants, lawyers, manufacturers and bankers moved out to the suburbs, leaving behind the neatly platted, tree-lined properties around Austin Community College, once Austin High School, to morph into a checkerboard of offices and surface parking lots.

Riley was my guide during the most recent Out & About neighborhood walking tour. (For previously published columns on walks around the Guadalupe, East Cesar Chavez, East Riverside, Zilker, Barton and Bouldin neighborhoods, go to austin360.com/outandabout.)

Riley, who co-founded the Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association in 1997, composed a miraculous Web site for the Original Austin Neighborhood Association (www.originalaustin.org). There, one can make a block-by-block virtual tour of the area, clicking through images of Victorian houses, Queen Anne cottages and Gulf Coast colonials to read histories of many properties.

Riley, his bicyclist’s lean frame slightly stooped, met me at his home on San Antonio Street, shared with girlfriend Denise Brady, lawyer and coordinator of early childhood programs at Texas Health and Human Services Commission. In 2002 and 2003, Riley had rescued the sturdy, two-story Burke-Henricks House, built in 1890, from a possible wrecking ball or commercialization. Yet that was only part of the challenge.

“There’s almost no way to do it without charging outrageous rents,” sighs Riley, who admits he paid more for the renovation than he did for the house. He and Brady now occupy stylistically attuned, connected downstairs apartments; while two upstairs units provide some rental income. But if Riley can’t retrofit an old house for residency on a strict budget, it explains why more residents haven’t returned to renovate the surrounding properties. Our tour started with the 1887 birds-eye-view map of Austin. In fact, versions of this essential resource hung on the walls of every house I visited during our tour.

Clearly, Original Austin — I’m not fond of the name — was something of an upscale neighborhood, although later upstaged by Judge’s Hill just to the north. The bigger houses perch on two low ridges above the Little Shoal Creek ravine. Where’s the creek, you ask? Completely below street level, bricked over, flowing from a West Campus spring to an open outlet onto Shoal Creek near West Fourth Street.

(Riley is among the spelunkers who have traced this clear, underground stream; the 1873 map, found at www.birdseyeviews.org, shows the lost creek best.)

Some of the highland structures on San Antonio Street, to the east, are decidedly eccentric, such as the Austin Woman’s Club castle, recently placed on a list of Austin’s most endangered historic buildings. The matching geographic height — even more gentle — to the west is Rio Grande Street, actually the grandest avenue of the neighborhood, and not West, which is labeled an avenue (twinned in Edwin Waller’s symmetrical grid plan with East Avenue, which Interstate 35 plowed under).

Riley told me marvelous stories about dozens of houses. Here, Indians gathered regularly around a spring late into the 19th Century. There, short-story-writer O. Henry inscribed his name in a window sill. On that hill, a banking family built homes for their married children. On this corner, industrial leaders occupied a bifurcated, Italianate mansion reputedly haunted by ghosts.

A nest of tales is embedded in a house on West 11th Street, occupied by publisher Ted Siff, his actress wife Janelle Buchanan and their daughters. The core of the house — plain, but dignified in scale and execution — was built in the 1850s for Lt. Governor Edward Clark. A working well remains out front. Additions made by the current owners in the past decade were designed at angles and jogs in order to preserve century-old oaks.

Nearby rises Pease Elementary, the state’s oldest continually operating school, itself a tidy gem.

Although statewide associations and smaller law firms are the main — and perfectly understandable — intrusions into this formerly residential zone so near the Capitol and the courthouse, Austin Community College is the institutional Goliath still buying up land and recently erecting a huge parking garage on the western edge of campus At least it has fixed up the former high school’s graceful old gymnasium. And its students help populate the sidewalks on school days.

I could have spent six Sunday mornings with Riley, soaking up anecdotes about Old Austin/Original Austin and meeting its residents. I’ve often daydreamed about living here, but always assumed the cost threshold for residential rescue was too high. Riley showed me the underlying reasons, but also the rewards for persevering in this cultivated corner of Austin.

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Your A List: Best Place Where You Can Still Smoke

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 06:51 PM

Here’s a dirty little secret: Almost every single establishment that threatened to shut its doors when the City of Austin enacted an indoor smoking ban did not. They are open and, given that we are deep into our second recession since then, most are not doing so badly. So sending smokers outside didn’t, as adverstised, kill Austin nightlife or live music.

Opal Divine’s did divinely with 11 percent, tying with Cedar Street Courtyard.

Crown and Anchor, a pub crossed with a dive married to a student hangout, held down 9 percent.

Shoal Creek Saloon and Lovejoy’s tied at 8 percent. Ruta Maya and Ego’s tied at 5 percent. (That’s a lot of ties.)

G&S Lounge grouched into 4 percent, while Flamingo Cantina emerged with 1 percent.

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Your A List: Best Newscast

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 06:39 PM

What constitutes an ideal local newscast? I’m not sure I can enumerate the elements. At the very least, I want to be engaged. I’d also like to be informed. I’d rather not be irritated. Ideally, I suppose, I’d like to be compelled by the newscast to watch and listen.

Fox 7 followed not so far behind with 27 percent. KXAN (NBC) didn’t do too shabbily with 10 percent. KEYE (CBS) managed more than half that with 11 percent.

Finishing with 5 percent or less were News 8 Austin (Time Warner Cable); Telemundo Austin (2 percent) and KAKW (Univision) at less than 1 percent.

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Your A List: Best Open Mic Night

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 06:33 PM

To the professional critic, the words “open mic” spell trouble. Happily, I am no longer a critic. So I can sample from the unsorted and assorted talent at Austin’s coffee houses, bars and clubs just like anyone else, without worrying about how to couch my ego-sparing phrases.

Velveeta Room, the oft-neglected comic shop on Sixth Street, stoked some votes at 10 percent.

Down-home Hill’s and Cheatham Street Warehouse tied at just under 7 percent.

Making 5 percent or less were Ego’s, Artz Rib House, Trophy’s and Flipnotics.

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Your A List: Best Romantic Meal

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 06:24 PM

A bottle of red. A bottle of white. It all depends on your appetite …

Just plain reporting the results of the Best Romantic Meal contest, as voted by the readers of A List.

The top winners went neck and neck (not necking): old-fashioned Italian purveyor Carmelo’s with just over 16 percent; and higher-end Jeffrey’s with just under.

The next six were closely bunched, too: The Oasis (12 percent); Eddie V’s (11 percent); Vivo (10 percent); Vespaio (9 percent); Eastside Cafe (8 percent) and Hudson’s on the Best (just under 8 percent).

Green Pastures and Wink rounded out the list with 6 and 4 percent.

Notice anything? I don’t think any of these places feature prominently placed television screens.

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Publicists in the Making: Practice Pitches in the PR Bullpen

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 10, 2010, 12:46 PM

Tuesday, I made a trip to the University of Texas as a guest speaker for Tamara Bell’s entertainment public relations course. I broke the class up into seven groups who created fictional companies, and these companies pitched real potential entertainment clients to me.

They pitched me in the classroom — live — through Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, by “fake” phone and in person. After reviewing these pitches, a select team of students helped choose the most promising pitch, which is headed, in some form, to my column.

Jamilla Wright, Melissa Gomez, Danielle Urban, Brian Jeon, Britney Sauer, Lauren Kahn, Gabriel Gibaldi, Jessi Nap

Group 1 - Front Row Communications: In true Austin style, raising money and food for Capital Area Food Bank is being led by an Austin Music Showcase sponsored by M&S Music. This concert is open to the public and entrance is given to those donating non-perishable food items to the Capital Area Food Bank.

Keegan O’Connell, Kristin Brown, Sarah Barnes, Lauren Minton, Yolanda Borrego, Liz Kelley, Nina Kadjar

Group 2 - Premiere PR: Looking for a truly exciting Valentine’s date for you and your sweetie? The House of Torment, one of the nation’s scariest haunted houses is open over Valentine’s Day weekend for couples looking for a startling night out.

Garrett Brown, Ashten Rivet, Jeniffer Corcora, Abby Vanuum, Shehrina Sunesara, Lauren Wong, Soli Choy, Courtney Young, Tyler Bergin

Group 3 - Spark PR: Westlake High School was touched by New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees’ efforts and had a desire to contribute as well. In supporting his Brees Dream Foundation, which backs research aimed at curing cancer and providing opportunities for kids, students and teachers made T shirts with the No. 9 and the fleur-de-lis symbol on them.

Christopher Hong, Laura Fidelman, Lindsay McCallum, Kathryn Kostohryz, Eileen Griffith, Amanda Fox, Carrie Woo, Sarah Arvizo, Amanda Crowley, Jill Dunn

Group 4 - Plus One PR: Students can make waves even before graduation, as is evident by Mousetrap, a start-up company that pitches creative ideas to advertising agencies throughout Austin. These students are putting themselves out there, and finding success in their path.

Stephen Guo, Brisa Silva , Carolina Palmero, Brianna Mynar, Viridiana Ramirez, Kate Carroll, Ryan Graney, Georgia Latcham, Nicole B

Group 5 - Dynamic Communications: The Make-A-Wish Foundation is holding a Cinderella’s Ball to celebrate 25 years of making dreams come true. The foundation has a lot to celebrate, and some pretty impressive guests to boast.

Ramona Adame, Amy Bryant, Chelcie Irby, Sydnie Robertson, Matt Martin, Sasha Talbot, Kristine Rheinboldt, Wendy Leu, Shane Crawford, Weini Tsai, Jeffery Wang

Group 6 - Spotlight PR: Bands from all over the world will flood the streets of Austin for Six stages Over Texas, a block party to benefit Yele Haiti on March 20-21. This grassroots effort is led by 6 local businesses on the drag, an area that isn’t as well known for live music.

Michael Sedillo, Jessica Bradley, Max Kruemcke, Natalia Urbanowicz, Christina Brooks, (Laura) Lindsay Tonore, Elizabeth Bula, Charlotte Nichols, Courntey Mays

Group 7 - Kookie PR: With mentions of closing the Cactus Cafe in the Texas Union, student groups are looking for a larger voice within the University of Texas community. UT Student Affairs has listened and have backed off on their intention to close the Cactus Cafe until further discussion with student groups.

I also personally had a group of six students who got to wear one of my many hats for a short period of time. They had the opportunity to experience PR from the journalist’s perspective and they did a fantastic job.

Brittany Ochoa - Photography Blake Perkins - Technology Wiz Allison Miller - Facebook Guru Jordan Langdon - Email Checker Amy West - Twitter Maven Gloria Walker - Wordsmith

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A burst of Austin celebrity news

By Michael Barnes | Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 02:16 PM

On the streets of our fair town, our spotters spied Jake Gyllenhaal at Enoteca, Home Slice, the trail around Lady Bird Lake and Lance Armstrong’s Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop. He was in town to celebrate filmmaker David Modigliani’s 30th birthday.

Eyed at Uchi were Molly Sims and Matthew McConaughey (separately).

Over at Iron Works Barbecue was celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. “He went back for seconds on the beef ribs,” said Roland Cantu. “His wife loved the chicken.”

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Anika Kunik Reading & Reception at Ranch 616

By Michael Barnes | Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 11:55 AM

Originally from Belgium, Anika Kunik is an actress, author, producer, activist and mother. Her comic, semi-fictional memoir/novel, “Forty-five-1/2 Lovers: The Tragic Sex Chronicles of Amanda Buffington,” is the talk of certain social circles.

Pam Blanton and Anika Kunik

“I know at least three of the lovers,” said one guest at the Kunik reading and reception at Ranch 616 on Monday. Another interjected: “I don’t know him, but I’d sure like to meet the personal trainer.”

Mary Elizabeth Parr and Elizabeth Parr

The slim book is brisk, light and funny, condensed into romantic — or not so romantic — episodes. Reading through it, I thought something was missing. That something turns out to be Kunik. Her reading from the Ranch 616 bar was just the sort of dramatic interpretation one would expect from an accomplished actress.

Anika Kunik, Turk Pipkin and Christy Pipkin

Turk Pipkin, one of my tablemates, suggested she contract a screenwriter for an adaptation. My other table conspirators, fueled by signature drinks inspired by the characters, threw out names of stars who could play Amanda/Anika — Meg Ryan, Jennifer Aniston, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cameron Diaz.

Charla wood and Jane Wu

I met the thoroughly fascinating Elizabeth Parr, mother of event planner and public relations ace Pam Blanton, and also of sweet Mary Elizabeth Parr. Yes, they are related to the famous Parrs of South Texas, but I’m not sure about connections to the Blantons of Houston.

Judy Marquez and Cathy Waks

Others at my table included Cash Edwards (furious about the Cactus Cafe crisis); Sara Fox (a blessing whenever I see her across a crowded room); Christy Pipkin (forever under-credited in her endeavors with husband Turk); as well as Judy Marquez and Cathy Waks. On my way out, greeting my Marfa playmate Gail Papermaster, she introduced my to Jane Sibley’s son and his Alpine wife. Must get to know them better!

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HomeAway Super Bowl Party at Molotov

By Michael Barnes | Monday, February 8, 2010, 11:42 PM

While 200 or so guests pushed into the Molotov club on West Sixth Street for HomeAway’s Super Bowl Party, 25 employees held down the office fort. That’s because a commercial during the third quarter — HomeAway’s first of a kind — could have jammed their Web site if not carefully monitored.

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Steve Moreno and Jaime Dito

At Molotov, the mood was exultant. Guests dressed in costumes from the “National Lampoon’s Vacation” series. You see, the HomeAway ad was filmed like a trailer for a Vacation iteration — with Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo — sending TV watchers to the vacation rental listing’s site for a more complete mini-movie.

Emma, Brian and Chloe Sharples

I was forced to make a terrible confession: I’d never seen a “Vacation” comedy. Not one. I’m pretty sure I know the basic set-up. But even liking Chase and D’Angelo a lot, I never bothered. (I think I was deep into graduate studies back then.) So, a cultural Achilles Heel.

Toni Houghton and Amber Cope

That didn’t ruin the fun at Molotov. “It’s been stressful,” said HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples, cutting cake with his family. “But the media buzz alone is worth it.”

Stephanie Gutierrez and Patricia de la Garza

I’d guess the HomeAway crowd went 90 percent for the Saints. But they also were behind the ad and waited with just as much anticipation for the short commercial. Even though they grew comparatively hushed during the rip on bad hotel experiences, I couldn’t hear the dialog. So I’ll look it up online.

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Valentine’s Gala Presentation at Hilton Austin

By Michael Barnes | Monday, February 8, 2010, 04:30 PM

I have not yet penetrated the inner sanctums of the tradition-encrusted Symphony Ball and its aristocratic presentations of princess debutantes. Nor have I journeyed into the heart of Old Austin’s Bachelor’s Club, which has presented available bluebloods to private audiences for decades.

Katie Jones and Henry Kittredge

Saturday, however, I delved into the much more democratic Valentine’s Gala Presentation benefiting Hospice Austin. This dignified event was launched in a private home, moved to the Renaissance Austin Hotel, then, this year, headed downtown to Hilton Austin.

Joanne Kemper and Laura Deskins

More than 100 high school seniors were slated for group presentations. Slender young women wore sleek red gowns. Upright young men looked dashing in tuxedos. Proud parents, siblings and friends also got gussied up, some mothers in demure versions of haute couture.

Kayla Kopp and Ryan Orton

Before entering the candlelit banquet room, the guests lingered in the sixth floor lobby. (Mostly) men gravitated to the HD screens to watch the Colts dominate the first quarter of the Super Bowl, then cheered when the Saints roared back in the second quarter.

Rick and Elise Schram

Why book a gala during the Super Bowl? One male guest said: “I didn’t make the connection until last week. But my daughter looks great and who would miss this?”

Elizabeth Lowrey and Patrick Brinkmann

Indeed, how many times does your son or daughter walk the stage to be presented to polite society? Some may think I’m being sarcastic, but I’m fascinated by these threads of tradition borrowed from European and East Coast culture. In our Open City, I’m rarely worried these rituals will be taken too seriously.

Ann Bauer and Marjorie Mulanax

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Rodeo Gala at Palmer Events Center

By Michael Barnes | Monday, February 8, 2010, 09:42 AM

Rodeo is big in Austin. As proof, the Rodeo Gala is Austin’s biggest such charity event. “We expect to see 2,500 guests when all is said and done,” said grateful gala chairman and former Rodeo Austin president Gilbert Turrieta on Saturday.

EJ Lawless and Claire Vo

Wow. That’s two and one half times the size of the biggest meals I’ve joined lately — for Dell’s Children’s and Philanthropy Day, each in the 1,000-guest attendance range. One draw: Pricing is democratic. Only $700,000 gross was expected, however, compared to Dell Children’s $1 million mark.

Nicole Alberda and Tiffany Greer

Lots of black hats, plus a few white ones at the Palmer Events Center for the 2010 Rodeo Gala. Denim was OK. So were gowns and abbreviated tuxes. Just handling 2,500 people would challenge any event planner, but Rodeo Austin comes with some experience moving people — and livestock. Drink stations flanked the silent auction tables on the south side. Ten or more buffet lines, laden with barbecue and other delicacies, were set at angles against the north wall.

Kyle Ballarta and Allison Huth

One curiosity: The corral-style fencing used to designate the VIP sections. Guards with sensitive people skills were stationed to keep those from the other 200-plus tables from dancing in this area. (I guess you can only be so democratic.)

Stacy Looney and Christy Bowen

County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt sat at our table (No. 20), but we could only shout over the country sounds of Walt Wilkins & The Mystiqueros, warmups for headliner Dwight Yoakum. I heard, however, from my left-hand companions, Kurt and Kelly Bender, about the Tequila Club, the all-male group that historically built the rodeo’s leadership.

My right-hand companions were Jeff and Liz Carmack. Liz, a former journalist and author of “Historic Hotels of Texas: A Traveler’s Guide,” has been commissioned to write a history of Rodeo Austin. What a delicious task! I hope rodeo leaders allow her to chronicle some of the road bumps along the way as well as the glories.

Mark Harrington, Megan Felker and Don Eckols

OK, yes, I’m a wuss. I left before Yoakum sang. I’m just not one for waiting and waiting and waiting. I’m sure he blew the roof off of Palmer. Remember, the rodeo is coming soon!

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Fashion Freakout at Mohawk

By Michael Barnes | Sunday, February 7, 2010, 08:43 PM

In terms of audience loyalty, the Fashion Freakout ranks up there with Austin’s top annual runway shows. But one must be patient. I arrived at Mohawk almost an hour after the announced start time. A few folks batched up inside, or near the patio stage, or on one of two terraces. Cocktails and a few magnificently dressed guests occupied the time.

Stephanie Villalobos and Tammy Grumberg

No fashion show yet. The event, staged mostly by Prototype Vintage Design, had attracted some fervent devotees of the 1970s and ’80s, reeking of disco, glitz and the urban street. Memories … scattered pictures … of the smiles we left behind …

Chris Lyons and Lauren Robertson

I engaged in a particularly long conversation with Lauren Robertson, who moved away from Austin in the late ’90s and had just relocated here from San Francisco. She rightly observed that, while in the Bay Area, things seemed “set,” here, everything feels wide open. Anything could happen. We recounted how, just 10 years ago, runway shows were rarer than expertly made cocktails. Now …

CJ Anderson and Richard Orr

I also enjoyed a chat with Grace Rogers, a journalism student at the University of Texas, who looked as if she just left the Zach Theatre stage in one of Dave Steakley’s classy pop shows. Her friend, Karma Stewart, was the belle of the upper terrace, though, in her grandmother’s flashy threads. She ruled.

Grace Rogers an Karma Stewart

OK, regular readers are tired of this trope, but there I was, almost 2 hours after I had arrived, and still no show. Fashion Freakout was running on club time. Which is no time for me. The rest of the guests — now filling all the spaces — remained loyal, however, pushing toward the runway. I’ll return to this hipster jewel next season, but with a better notion in advance about the actual walk time.

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B Scene for ‘Desire’ at Blanton Museum of Art

By Michael Barnes | Sunday, February 7, 2010, 02:31 PM

Had I departed earlier, my conclusions would have been dead wrong. Arriving at the B Scene party for the exhibition, “Desire,” at the Blanton Museum of Art, I encountered a tweedy, older set. Not the young, hip tribe targeted by the museum’s social campaign, which includes monthly B Scene events.

Laura Moliter and Elizabeth Moliter

I mingled with art lovers, music lovers (Suzanna Choffel headlined) and party lovers (including bristle-haired copywriter JJ McLaughlin, who is always sniffing out a new scene). I spoke with “Desire” curator Annette Carlozzi and her still-new hubby Dan Bullock.

Meg and Adam Hulse

‘Desire’ accumulates pieces and performances from dozens of media. I’ll let the critics describe it, but I was happy to discover that Women & Their Work director Chris Cowden and I singled out the same dark, flower-strewn sculpture. I also snuck upstairs to see the Veronese altarpiece exhibit in its final days.

My visit to the main galleries contrasted sharply with my experiences at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts the previous week. The older, more traditional museum — located in a city twice our size with a long history of arts collecting — impressed me with its masses of exquisite Asian art. The Blanton, however, did not pale in comparison. In fact, for the quality of individual works and their vivid presentation, I’d give the UT museum the upper hand.

Ryan Masters and Teal Stamm

Back to the social observations: I had planned on cutting out early to make a fashion show, but was frozen by a dozen or so conversations. By then, the place was packed, filled with eccentric beards, odd club-wear, zany haircuts and other accessories of youthful vogue. The target demographic had arrived!

Kimberly Lewis and Albert Yeung

In fact, I watched as older museum members gravitated to the administration building across the plaza, muttering about the pack in the blue atrium. Would have loved to attend the Director’s Circle party the night before, when, according to more than one report, Denise Prince arrived in a costume so sheer, she might as well have been naked. A performance?

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Sascha Stone Guttfreund: Music Promoter Comes into His Own

By Michael Barnes | Saturday, February 6, 2010, 05:00 PM

They grow up so fast.

Less than two years ago, Sascha Stone Guttfreund was a round-faced boy with a fast lip and exactly one concert promotion under his belt. Yet he was so confident of his slapdash team of volunteer University of Texas students, Guttfreund was ready to turn Austin nightlife upside down.

Some of that wisdom was hard won, promoting more than two dozen full-fledged concerts, along with parties and nightclub events, courting burnout and controversy, and learning that he didn’t know quite as much as he thought he did.

“Stuff has definitely happened,” Guttfreund admits. “A lot I never would have expected.”

Guttfreund — self-described “Jewish Latin American” on his father’s side, with Canadian and Russian Jewish roots on his mother’s — comes from a Los Angeles show biz family. Yet one alert to the potential traps awaiting youngsters who stray into the Hollywood entertainment minefield.

“The kids drive Mercedes and BMWs,” Guttfreund says. “There’s a skewed concept there of what people deserve as kids. Nobody wanted to cruise off in our ‘89 minivan.”

Although his father, André Guttfreund, won an Oscar (shared with Peter Werner for the 1976 short “In the Region of Ice”), and his mother, Andrea Stone-Brokaw, is a successful casting director, Guttfreund has insisted on making his own way. When it came time for high school, it was off, at age 16, to small, international Verde Valley School in Sedona, Ariz., exactly where his father had boarded as boy, protected by his prominent family from civil unrest in El Salvador.

“My first-year roommate spoke no English,” says Guttfreund, whose family name, in German, means “good friend.” “The students were from everywhere you could imagine.”

Mediating between his parents, divorced when was he was 7, and establishing new friendships across international lines helped Guttfreund pick up priceless communications skills.

Guttfreund arrived in Austin in 2007, right out of Verde Valley, a year before he registered at UT, so he could work and qualify for in-state tuition. Why a university 1,500 miles from Southern California?

“A counselor told me I couldn’t possibly get in,” Guttfreund says with a sly smile. “Well, if somebody tells me I can’t do something …”

He now studies corporate communications, with an eye on law school.

Music continues to captivate him. His first and entirely accidental exposure to promotion came when rapper Shwayze was booked for the Monday after the 2008 Austin City Limits — a terrible time slot. That didn’t daunt Guttfreund, who jumped at the chance to spread the word.

“I utilized the tools at my fingertips,” he says. “Which was the university.”

Guttfruend went around to social clubs, fraternities and even his classes, announcing he was promoting the show, “who wants to help?” He assembled a team of 13 who sold 900 tickets in three weeks.

For a few months after that, Guttfreund marketed local nightclub events, but found the nightly grind a challenge to his health.

“I figured out a formula, though: A lot of boys go where the girls go; girls go where their friends go; so if you can get the girls and their friends on board …”

Eventually, he turned back to concerts, promoting in May 2008 Afroman at Aces Lounge, the former Hard Rock Cafe on East Sixth Street that Brendan Puthoff had opened with a novelty burlesque theme. Puthoff was so impressed, he asked Guttfreund to skip a summer job on a New Mexico movie set to book Aces on a regular basis.

“Sascha’s been a tremendous asset,” says Puthoff, who also owns the Third Base Sports Bar group. “The best way I can describe it is that he’s always on. He lives and breathes live music every hour of every day.”

What about the challenges of employing somebody who’s also a college student?

“There have been times that I know for a fact he’s in class, but I’m getting text messages or e-mails from him about the next show he’s booking for me, or ideas for an open night,” Puthoff says. “I’ve worked with a ton of promoters and talent buyers in the past — and none of them were also full time students — but Sascha is by far the most prolific in his ability to connect with the college demographic and draw great crowds for shows, week in and week out.”

One stumble gave Guttfreund the lesson of his life. A third-party promoter came to him with a deal too good to be true, a reggae headliner that, supposedly, Emo’s, downtown’s leading live-music club, had wanted. The promoter offered Guttfreund Buju Banton, who made a name in the 1990s with extreme anti-homosexual lyrics and pronouncements.

“I had heard the name,” Guttfreund says. “But I was born in 1989. I didn’t know this other stuff. Well kid, you should probably do your research! I when I heard what he’d said, I was disgusted.”

The act was moved to reggae-centric Flamingo Cantina, and Guttfruend received credit for canceling it, but also hate mail from those accusing him of insensitivity to Jamaican culture.

Guttfreund typically books mixed-genre acts — techno, dub, the “indie intellectual end of hip hop.” His artists attract, in his words, “hippies, frats, ‘sneaker heads,’ the clothing demographic, Texas State students. We love mixed crowds”

There’s also the homebody side of Guttfreund who likes nothing better than kicking back with old friends for Los Angeles, catching up with family, meeting with acquaintances at UT. He can do all that because his first career — an extremely social one — is well in hand.

“I finally have my tools in order,” he says. “I know what I’m doing when I book an artist.”

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Austin Under 40 Finalists for 2010

By Michael Barnes | Friday, February 5, 2010, 11:20 AM

The list is out. Actually, it came out yesterday. But better late than never. The Austin Under 40 group has released the names of 50 finalists for awards to be presented March 6 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. Watch these names. Just being nominated here is like being nominated for Out & About’s 500. Some of these guys are already regulars in the columns.

FINANCIAL SERVICES: W. Eric Hehman, CEO - Austin Asset Management Company; Jason C. Qunell, Senior V.P. Commercial Banking - Capitol One Bank; Carrie Arsenault, President - Accountability Resources; James Edward Dyess, CEO and President - Horizon Bank; Kathleen Denise Hausenfluck, Accounting Manager - Cooper Graci & Company

BUSINESS & ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Julie Kemp Jumonville, Co-Founder and CIO - UpSpring Baby; Rochelle Rae, CEO - Rae Cosmetics; Tiffany Laine Taylor, Owner - Tiff’s Treats; Clayton Craig Christopher, Founder and CEO - Sweet Leaf Tea Co.; J. Todd Coleman, V.P. and Creative Director - KingsIsle Entertainment

GOVERNMENT & PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Amy Nicole Holloway, President and CEO - Avalanche Consulting; Jennifer Ransom Rice, Director of Development - Texas Cultural Trust; Karin Rene Crump, Attorney/Mediator - Law Office of Karen R. Crump, P.C.; Ryan David Clinton, Attorney - Hankinson Levinger, LLP; Royce Pabst Poinsett, Of Counsel - McGinnis, Lochridge and Kilgore, LLP

MEDICAL & HEALTHCARE: Kelli Dudley Kelley, Director - Texas Parent to Parent; Marilyn Maguire Orr Wilson, Development Director - AIDS Services of Austin; Daniel Z. Sternthal, Associate - Brown McCarroll, LLP; Terri Renee’ Broussard Affiliate V.P. Govt. Relations and Advocacy - Amer. Heart Association; Anthony J. Maneul, Staff Anesthesiologist - Capitol Anesthesiology

REAL ESTATE: Roland L. Galang, Senior Agent - Urbanspace Realtors, LLP; Alex Charfen, Co-Founder and CEO - Distressed Property Institute, LLP; Derek Andrew Land, Co-Managing Partner - Stream Realty Partners; Tausha Carlson, Founder and Owner - Marathon Real Estate; Kathryn Scarborough Bechtol, Co-Owner and Realtor - Turnquist Partners Realtors

TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCES: Scott Thomas, President - Intelechy Group; Roman Daniel Grijalva, Senior Project Manager - Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.; Lemuel Curly Williams, Director of Business Development - Uptime Media; Tria Brindley, Senior Director of Relationship Management - Blue Fish Development Group; Sarah Neil Evans, President - Well Aware

LEGAL: Dennis William Donley, Jr., Partner - Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee, PLLC; Amy Catherine Wilson, Senior Counsel - Kelly Hart and Hallman; Lee Potts, Partner - Brown McCarroll, LLP; Howard Daniel Nirken, Partner - Dubois, Bryant & Campbell, LLP; Ben De Leon, Attorney - De Leon & Washburn

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Live Chat with David Alan on the State of Austin Nightlife

By Michael Barnes | Thursday, February 4, 2010, 03:09 PM

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Your A List: Best Jukebox

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 07:19 PM

My personal test for Best Jukebox: It must include the movie theme from “Valley of the Dolls.” If a dive is wise enough to include that ode to dissolution on its play list, then I promise to recreate Neelie’s hysterical Shubert Alley scene, personally, histrionically, every time I visit.

Other imbibing establishments were not far behind: Deep Eddy Cabaret (15 percent); Casino El Camino (13 percent); Ginger Man (12 percent) and Side Bar (11 percent).

Then we move on to the real dives, not the pretend variety (I like ‘em both): G&S Lounge (9 percent); Poodle Dog (8 percent).

The final three gin joints are good, too: Club de Ville (5 percent); Barfly’s (4 percent) and Longbranch Inn (2 percent).

If I weren’t suffering from a horrible, mean, nasty cold right this very minute, I’d be out testing each spot for their “Valley of the Dolls” credentials. And I’d bring along my sister in crime, Stephen Macmillan Moser.

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Your A List: Best Bakery

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 06:57 PM

Some are traditional all-purpose bakeries, such as Upper Crust (which rose to 21 percent of the vote), Sweetish Hill (18 percent); Texas French Bread (8 percent); Quack’s (6 percent) and Russell’s Bakery (5 percent).

Others emphasize a particular baking tradition: La Mexicana (10 percent) and Phoenicia (3 percent).

Still others are newer, kicky creations that are as much about style and entertainment as baking. They include Hey Cupcake (13 percent); Tiff’s Treats (11 percent) and Lucy’s Cakes (4 percent).

I could eat my way through all three varieties.

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Winston Bode 1925-2010

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 05:35 PM

Winston Bode, Austin journalist, broadcaster and biographer, died of in a nursing home on Monday. He was 84.

Born on April 29, 1925 in Kerrville, Bode was best known for “Capital Eye,” an interview program featuring political reporters that aired on various local channels for 17 years from 1969 to 1986.

“In that day and time, it was significant,” said journalist Ernie Stromberger of Bode’s show, comparing it to “Meet the Press.”

Bode, who also appeared on radio and wrote newspaper stories, interviewed Nelson Rockefeller, Marilyn Monroe, Katherine Anne Porter and Elvis Presley during his long career after graduating from the University of Texas with a degree in English.

He also published a biography of legendary Texas folklorist and teacher J. Frank Dobie entitled “A Portrait of Pancho.” The two, who shared a background in Texas ranching culture, remained friends for years.

“He was a pioneer,” said public relations expert Eric Webber. “As a journalist, he had more of a literary style.”

“He was a guy who loved every kind of journalism,” said his son, Todd Bode. “His favorites were the personal-interest stories.”

Bode was married to Mary Jane Bode, a reporter who later served as state representative from Austin from 1977 to 1980. They had divorced in 1968; she died from cancer in 1998.

In later years, Bode put out a political newsletter, contributed freelance columns to various media - using his trusted manual typewriter - and delivered commentaries on News8Austin.

“Actually, he was a wonderful man with a lot of knowledge of people,” said Charmaine Bode, his daughter-in-law.

Besides Todd and Charmaine, Bode is survived by daughter Georgianne Bode Harms of Barrington, Ill., five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A family memorial service is planned.

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Your A List: Best Vietnamese Restaurant

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 03:15 PM

There’s no such thing as a great American city without superior, preferably inexpensive Vietnamese food. There, I said it.

The race for the top Vietnamese spot on the A List readers poll this year pitted Kim Phung (just over 16 percent of the vote) against Pho Hoang (just under 16 percent).

Four others — Sunflower, Hai Ky, 888 and Tam Cafe and Deli — bunched together at 10 to 12 percent of the tally.

Mekong River and Pho Van tied exactly at just under 8 percent. Saigon Kitchen and Triumph Cafe rounded out the list at 5 percent.

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Your A List: Best Newcomer to Austin’s Music Scene

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 02:27 PM

Ooooo. I love this sort of A List contest category. Asking readers to name the Best Newcomer to Austin’s Music Scene means exposing me, along with everybody else, to some fresh talent. And more social options built around live music in the coming weeks.

Jazz sweetheart Kat Edmonson led the rest of the pack with 6 percent of the tally. The followers — Neon Indian, the Trishas, League of Extraordinary Gz, Downtown Rulers Club, LAX, TV Torso and Shurman — managed 3 percent or less.

Still, I’m up for sampling them all. Kat’s the only one I already listen to obsessively. In fact, she’s on the Bose right now.

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Building an Austin Social Library (2)

By Michael Barnes | Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 06:52 PM

This entry adapts — and builds upon — material from an earlier post.

Like many people, my curiosity about books spans a world of interests. Yet a subset of my reading list specifically informs my reporting on Austin’s social scene. The following titles, read in the past few months, feed that function.

Roy Bedichek’s precise observations on natural life in “Adventures with a Texas Naturalist” remind us that today’s debates about the environment started well before any of us were born. Walter Prescott Webb’s prose is as flat, arid and challenging as the High Plains, but his library-bound research can’t be beat. Like virtually all general histories of the region, “The Great Plains” generously credits Native American, Mexican and Tejano contributions. J. Frank Dobie’s intellectual journey was recently chronicled in Steven Davis’ “J Frank Dobie: A Liberated Mind.” The folklorist’s style might seem a bit stilted, boyish by today’s standards, but his once popular subject matter can be easily sampled in the anthology “I’ll Tell You a Tale.”

Texas and beyond — Although Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and the Valley have cultivated social scenes distinct from Austin’s, many if not most locals came from somewhere else in Texas. So it never hurts to read about the families and stories that helped shape those regions.

On the surface, Robert Rivard’s “Trail of Feathers” is a spellbinding story about the San Antonio editor’s search for his missing reporter, Philip True, and his fight for justice in the labyrinth of Mexico’s legal system. But it also reveals minute ruptures in the social strata of Texas, the Border, Guadalajara and Mexico City, as well as along the Huichol sierra. Thomas Thompson’s “Blood and Money” is an older true-crime story worthy of a second read, stripping away the blinders from Houston’s River Oaks society in the 1970s. Bryan Burrough’s “The Big Rich,” which follows the families who made the first fortunes in the Texas oilfields, then turned them into political power, deserves whatever sustained attention it can receive. I spread copies of it around my Houston family as holiday conversation fodder.

Pure Austin, yesterday and today — Billy Lee Brammers “The Gay Place” is often cited as the Austin novel. It is novelistic. And it gets political Austin in the late 1950s dead to rights. One must swim through a lot of existential partying to get there. But that’s Austin, too. Sarah Bird’s “How Perfect Is That” uses a lighter touch to contrast Bush-era Pemberton with everlasting, funky co-op lifestyle in West Campus (returning to land of “Alamo House”). Bird’s picaresque grasp of comic characters and plot is up there with Armistead Maupin and John Kennedy Toole’s. (Why wasn’t this serialized? Or was it?) The title is silly, but Joe B. Frantz’s “The Forty Acre Follies” is the most complete, entertaining — and satisfying — history of the University of Texas. The fact that UT boss Frank Erwin’s allies tried to suppress it, only makes the volume more valuable.

Ending this short list with David Humphrey’s “Austin: An Illustrated History” seems like a cop-out. Still, this picture book that I formerly used only as a reference work hangs together pretty well as history.

Recently, Danny Camacho, who hails from a distinguished Austin family and has been named an outstanding volunteer at the Austin History Center, suggested that the city name its own official historian. I’d say the first person to best Humphrey’s honorable, but incomplete work — in book form — deserves a nomination.

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Live Chat with Margie Coyle about the State of Austin Nightlife

By Michael Barnes | Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 03:02 PM

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Long Weekend in Minnesota

By Michael Barnes | Monday, February 1, 2010, 10:19 AM

Yes, I know. Traveling to Minnesota in deepest winter makes little sense. Yet my dear friend Rob Kendrick transferred here to teach at Gustavus Adolphus University in St. Peter, about an hour south of Minneapolis. It was time for a visit.

My first concern was the subzero temps. Friends and colleagues had warned me about pained lungs, stinging ears and 15-minute frostbite. Well, I suppose if you are snowmobiling or cross-country skiing, these might be legitimate concerns, but most people here are just passing to and from their cars to get somewhere.

Everything is white, as advertised, but this is December snow. It just doesn’t go away. And out here in the country, it stays white. Most roads are pretty darn safe, too, as long as there is no new precipitation.

We toured some of the towns here in southern MN, eating hearty German fare in New Ulm and shopping for organic groceries in St. Peter. Rob lives in Le Center, which locals pronounces LEE Center. Nearby is Le Sueur, home to Green Giant Le Sueur peas. The giant himself pokes out from various hillsides.

The land is rolling prairie plains, leading down to deep rivers, like the frozen Minnesota River nearby. German and Swedish settlers survived the winters. Their descendants grow mostly corn and soy beans — or whatever else is subsidized and turned into corporate food — on land that looks a lot like nearby Iowa. The farms — even the trailer parks — are neat and tidy.

We spent one day in the big city. The Minneapolis Institute of Art is a traditional big-city museum in a palatial structure opposite an urban park. On a previous visit, I had lunched and seen a play at the attached children’s theater, one of the country’s best. We spent our afternoon in the vast Asian galleries, clearly a local emphasis, including several full rooms transported from China and Japan.

A mile or so away is Hennepin Avenue, an exploded version of our South Congress, with low-lying local businesses packed with character. (Minneapolis-St. Paul is home to 3.5 million people, or almost twice Austin’s total.) We ate hot Vietnamese food and headed downtown for a cool cocktail joint called Jet Set, but it was closed.

That trip allowed us to see the city’s preserved theater district, however, virtually the only one of its kind in the country. We headed back to the Loring Park area, where we located the first of two neighborhood gay bars. Nineteen is the definition of laid back, with an older crowd fondly stoking friendships. Not much here for strangers.

Gladius, however, was more open. Developed on a modernized Roman theme, this narrow, deep bar is centered on an elegant well. We met not only the owner and bartender, but all the lively patrons. I have a feeling it would be my base club in MN.

Other than that, I’ve been sacked out on the couch, dealing with a cold or allergies (pine? spruce?) and eating Rob’s fine cooking. Finishing up Robert Rivard’s “Trail of Feathers,” a suspenseful tale of a San Antonio newspaper editor searching for his reporter, Philip True, lost and murdered in Mexico. Also re-watched the latest “Star Trek” movie (holds up); “Invictus” (formulaic to its teeth, but beautifully done); and a Bruce La Bruce flick (John Waters meets Fassbinder, Pasolini and Warhol. Not for the faint of heart.).

Now, back to Austin, where it’s just cold.

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