Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2010 > March
March 2010
Your A-List: Best Place to Hear Local Bands
This is a contentious category. Every music lover defines the best place to hear local bands by different standards. Some emphasize the size and feel of the house. Others the audio capacity. Still others, the kinds of bands that play there.
The Continental Club, SoCo’s musical anchor, nailed down 20 percent. Saxon Pub, which performs a similar function for SoLa, maintained 14 percent.
Mohawk and Emo’s, the bookends for the Red River district, tied at just under 10 percent. (Pretty cool, huh?) Momo’s, the musical mecca on West Sixth Street, got 6 percent, while Elephant Room on Congress Avenue tied with Red Eyed Fly, right at the midpoint on Red River.
The Parish, critics’ and artists’ darling for audio quality on East Sixth Street, made of with 4 percent, while campus-area Hole in the Wall took just under that.
Here’s what’s weird: All of these are are geographical markers, the best in their individual entertainment districts. Prediction: On next year’s list, West Fourth Street will be represented by the Ghost Room.
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Your A-List: Best Day Trip
Day trips mean momentary liberation. You escape routines. You clear the mind. Still, you aren’t trapped in a vehicle for hours on end. And you wake up in your own bed.
Gruene, with its tubing, shopping and dancing, came in third with 11 percent. Hamilton Pool, now practically subsumed into Austin, took 10 percent. Pedernales Falls, not far from that pool up the eponymous river, pulled 9 percent.
Privately owned Krause Springs near Spicewood just above Lake Travis managed 8 percent.
Also in the game: Lake LBJ, Shiner, Wimberley and Lockhart.
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Your A-List: Best Dance Floor
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it forever: “If music is god, dance is prayer.” There is no greater praise for music than human movement. And Austin hosts plenty of places to pray this way.
Oilcan Harry’s, the venerable gay bar, shook out 17 percent, while truly historic Gruene Hall near New Braunfels tied down 13 percent.
Latin-themed Copa, eclectic Barcelona and underground Prague tied at just under 9 percent. Graham Central Station, the Pflugerville-area club multi-plex, nabbed 8 percent. Rain, Oilcan Harry’s chief rival on West Fourth Street, boogie dup to 7 percent.
Dallas Nite Club and Midnight Rodeo settled for 4 percent or less.
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Your A-List: Best Bartenders
We asked our A List readers to pick the best battalion of bartenders in town. They chose the crew at Trudy’s, with its multiple locations and variations sharing 20 percent of the vote.
Brew mecca Gingerman, recently moved to Colorado Street, came in second with 18 percent. Lucky Lounge, which caters to a grown-up crowd, took 13 percent.
Rain, often the city’s busiest gay bar, tied exactly with Casino El Camino, both taking just over 9 percent. Oilcan Harry’s, another gay bar, supplied 8 percent, while Irish-themed Fado sparked 8 percent.
Club de Ville charmed 6 percent out of our readers. Red Fez and Dog and Duck tied at just under 5 percent.
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Taylor quietly takes the stage
To some extent, Taylor is the forgotten city of Central Texas.
Unlike its bustling, interwoven cousins over in western Williamson County, whose growth has matched each boom and bust, the easterly, self-contained Taylor has developed slowly, steadily, out of the limelight.
Even Hutto, very recently a wide curve on U.S. 79, has established its contemporary identity through modernized schools, proximity to Texas 130 and an aggressive infrastructure strategy.
Approaching Taylor from the west on U.S. 79, this small city maintains a rural feel, intended or not: A tiny barbecue joint sits opposite the modest God’s Way Christian Baptist Church. Even after 10 years in the Main Street revitalization program, and millions in investments, Taylor’s handsome downtown district still awaits uniform vibrancy and vigor.
It wasn’t always so. Bolstered by rich blackland prairies, its farms produced cotton, corn, wheat, oats and hay, while railroads encouraged commerce and industry. During World War II, Taylor attracted off-duty soldiers from Fort Hood to its lively entertainment district. Even as late as the 1970 U.S. Census, it claimed 25 percent of Williamson County’s total population, split among Czechs, Germans, Swedes, Latinos, African Americans and others.
Despite its historical importance, Taylor became comparatively isolated. Texas 130 has helped indirectly. CSC software developer John McDonald can telecommute and, if need be, join meetings in Austin easily; Taylor Chamber of Commerce director Thomas Martinez uses 130 often, saying: “I love the toll roads.”
I met McDonald, Martinez and city spokeswoman Jeanne Johnson for the grand opening of the Taylor Regional Park and Sports Complex. Containing multiple sports facilities, it is flanked directly by farms, located on the northern edge of a commercial zone that includes big box stores and strip centers that make devout urbanites cringe, but often delight those who might otherwise be forced to drive dozens of miles to shop for necessities.
I was there to report on the reclaimed prairie and wetlands for the Austin American-Statesman’s Lady Bird’s Legacy wildflower project, which raises money to seed areas throughout Central Texas, but I also couldn’t help noticing the alterations in Taylor’s culture — previously sampled on drives to and from Mexia, where my parents lived for 20 years — that now blends rural, suburban and urban influences.
Part of my fresh conclusions were based on old observations: Taylor sits, barely, on the side of Texas that is more Southern than Southwestern, culturally. Racial tensions linger. Anti-crime campaigns in the past decades targeted a dodgy area on the south side of the railroad tracks. More recently, Taylor has popped up in the news — and not in a good way — regarding an immigrant detention center and local opposition to a trauma center for female veterans.
Yet Taylor is being remade in many positive ways. I sensed in my conversations at the new park a renewed connection to the rest of Central Texas and a more-than-cosmetic attention to social diversity.
“As a small city, we don’t have a lot of muscle or resources,” says McDonald, also a City Council member and the primary force behind the park. The lack of local muscle is why he turned to multiple nonprofits, businesses and governmental groups to compete the regional park and its natural areas. His efforts reflect an association not only with Austin but with the state and its unconventional assets.
“I’ve lived here all my life — 49 years,” says Martinez, who also serves on the school board. “Everybody here works together now. We’re a tight-knit group.”
Perhaps most remarkable to those who have not been paying attention: Taylor joined Austin’s biggest cultural party recently. The city’s Armadillo Hall hosted 50 or so musical acts during the South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival. So much for isolation.
Still, leaders are convinced that Taylor’s slightly sleepy character comes with lasting benefit: “Slow as it goes” allows for reflection enviable to an Austinite whose head is spinning with developments.
“You have time to react to things,” says Martinez. “Rather than: ‘Oh my God, we need to do something about this now!’ ”
“Taylor is a city with an actual sense of place,” says McDonald, who returned to his native city from Austin when his daughter was born. “Everything was here already. We were left with a wonderful cultural heritage.”
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Wren Cottage Feast: Vegan Adventure
We must thank Steve Bercu. The BookPeople leader was our first vegan dinner guest. Ever.
Which made our most recent Wren Cottage Feast a delectable challenge. We are accustomed to vegetarians, for whom cheese, milk or even eggs are no problem. But what does a cook do without those crutches?
I started with her Beets, Apples and Cress with Walnuts and Curry Vinaigrette. The aim is to cook the beets just long enough so they retain some crispness to match the apples. I didn’t use enough curry or ginger when I doubled the recipe.
I moved on to Mexican Vegetable Soup with Lime and Avocado. The trick here is to be patient with the stock, which calls for 18 different vegetables and herbs, on top of the 13 additional ingredients in the final soup. Done right (the second time), the stock is pretty amazing.
Kip baked heavenly focaccia with generous sea salt, thanks to an Anne Burrell recipe. (We adore her!) He also attempted, for our non-vegan guests, Sea Bass Roasted with Bay Branches, Lemon and Capers from Marlena De Blasi’s “Regional Foods of Southern Italy.” But Central Market didn’t receive its sea bass delivery, so he went with halibut, and made sure to cut the roasting time. Turned out delicate, sweet.
To complement that, I made a White Bean and Eggplant Gratin from Madison, substituting cannellini, which made it a bit heartier. Could have peppered it just a tad more, especially for Bercu, who didn’t have the fish as a counterpoint. Kip finished off the evening with Poached Dried Apricots and Figs with Ginger (Madison), accompanied by creme anglaise.
We broke out some of the California stash of wines (a syrah from Cambria), plus a Carneros pinot gris and some white Burgundy. For early cocktails, I made my first Sazeracs. (I need some more practice. Each one came out differently.) Some sipped Balcones Rumble, a spirit made in Waco, of all places, with Texas wildflower honey, turbinado sugar and mission figs. Like mead on steroids.
Early in the evening, the non-vegans also savored Suzie Harriman’s mango ceviche. She substituted tilapia for red snapper, which she uses in her San Miguel kitchen, finding the snapper too expensive here.
Suzie was accompanied by Randy Harriman, now enjoying retirement every moment of the day. They had nominated Bill Spelman (LBJ School of Public Affairs, Austin City Council) and his wife Niyanta Spelman (Rainforest Partnership). They in turn had nominated Bercu and spouse Ginger Lowry (research analyst with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts ).
As you can imagine with this crew, much of the conversation centered on travel (Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar, India); politics (micro and macro); books (reading, collecting); food, wine and spirits. Of course, the virtual cone of silence descended, so it was all off the record.
I’m happy to say that half the guests were new to me. In other words, it was an ideal Wren Cottage Feast.
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Long Center Anniversary Party
I’m tempted to call it the Gala of the Season.
At least production-wise. Granting that the traditional social season is far from over.
Five words for fun: Bobbi Topfer and Patty Huffines. Together, these event chairwomen put together a purple-themed party that will be remembered years from now.
Judy Arnold and …
I shivered a bit when I saw the purple canopies leading guests up the center’s staircase and across the plaza to the VIP tent. Not just because the effect was so operatic, but also because the wind was blustering the human-held streams of purple fabric here and there.
Once snug inside the tent, the genius — I will use the word — of Topfer and Huffines was revealed. Deep purple carpets. Mod conversation nooks. Circulating servers. Glittering centerpieces and the pièce de résistance: Four gaudy purple chandeliers.
Lidia Agraz and …
You can’t do gaudy often in Austin, but this time it worked. Especially with the novel spatial arrangement in the tent: Only a few round tables gathered in two clusters, leaving most of the remaining expanses for social mingling and dancing to Ray Benson’s band (not many did during the early party, just warming up). Also for noshing on the substantial finger food.
I can’t overstate how liberating it was to abandon enforced seating. That way top connectors — and the place was saturated with them — could slip easily from one conversation to another. [At this point, I had planned to name the folks entertainment editor Sharon Chapman and I encountered Saturday evening, but the list would take up pages …]
Purple, purple, everywhere …
Outside, the plaza was mobbed with a younger generation desperate to see the once-again-cool Hall & Oates. They were not disappointed, but first, Long Center director Cliff Redd welcomed the newly conjoined crowds and recognized major supporters of the event (people actually applauded lustily for each — not a common practice, but people were in such a upbeat mood).
Then a coup de théâtre: The curtain slowly rose to reveal Austin soul singer Judy Arnold dressed in an enormous purple costume. As she sang “Purple Rain,” aerial dancers slipped up and down fabric fronds, then Arnold herself rose on wires and her dress was extended by long, deep purple fringe. Those humans who had hoisted the purple canopies outside now entered down the aisles to turn the fabric into giant purple waves.
Patty and Jim Huffines
Somebody has an eye.
Then Hall & Oates. My first impression was astonishment at the sheer number of their hits R&B-influenced songs, dating back to the early 1970s, that I’d forgotten were theirs that others covered, or songs they had covered (“She’s Gone,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” etc.) and their subtle progression into a pop corollary to New Wave (“Maneater,” “One on One,” etc.) Then I was a bit nervous as the volume rose and various young people around the auditorium rose to dance, but the VIPs in the orchestra seating merely swayed.
Eventually, however, everybody danced to the monster hits: “Private Eyes,” “Kiss on My List,” “Rich Girl” and, especially, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).” Smartly, Daryl Hall and John Oates expanded on their “rock and soul” roots by giving ample time to additional bluesy guitar and jazzy saxophone solos. They just about levitated the roof off Dell Hall.
Bobbi and Mort Topfer
The party was far from over. Everyone, not just VIPs, were invited to spread into all the center’s outer spaces, lounges, terraces and tents for comfort food, provided by food trailers (very Austin!), drinks and a half dozen local musical acts.
OK, I’m going to say this: Part of the rationale behind a gala is to go a bit gaga. To abandon care. To walk away from the world for a few moments. Huffines and Topfer achieved this as few other party organizers have in Austin.
Karen Landa and Dale Dewey
Sure, if you don’t like Hall & Oates, you were out of luck there, but surely the rest of the Purple Party made up for it.
Photos by Chuck Fazio Media
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Armstrong Community Music School Anniversary Party
This city bears so many small blessings. Ten years ago, the Armstrong Community Music School at the Mary Ann Heller Center for Austin Lyric Opera seemed like a unforeseeable godsend. Now, we assume it’s always been there.
Bob Dailey and Bill Dickson
As far as we can determine, it’s the only community music school attached to an opera company in North America, perhaps the world. Part of the credit goes to former Lyric Opera director Joe McClain. I wish he could have attended the anniversary party on Friday to hear the faculty — plus a couple of students — play in the generous-sized Ducloux rehearsal hall for the 10th birthday fete.
Andrew and Mary Ann Heller
We are lucky enough that some original and naming donors, such as James Armstrong and Larry Connelly, Andrew and Mary Ann Heller and Bill Dickson, could be honored alongside the school’s only director Margaret Perry.
Anita Price-Ashton, Jeannie Lozano and Lei-Lei Leon
Kind words were spoken by general director Ken Patterson, followed later in the evening by a witty, winding toast by theatrical producer Charles Duggan, who added an improvised prize that combined a bag of ping pong balls and a diamond ring. Cake and champagne followed.
BTW: Did you know the Austin Symphony Orchestra can use Austin Lyric Opera’s rehearsal room any time? That’s great: Millions of dollars less needed to raise for an additional rehearsal room at the Long Center.
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Thoughts on Patinkin / LuPone at the Long Center
To think, I almost skipped it.
Several key social events were on tap for Thursday night. I stopped by the early part of the Wilhelmina Brown Agency Party at the Ashton (see post below), but couldn’t decide if the rest of the evening should be devoted to the Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin concert at the Long Center, given other outstanding invitations.
While their novelty version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” charmed, Patinkin first hit stride with a manic “Everybody Says Don’t.” In fact, among the show’s biggest strengths were the selections from minor Sondheim shows (“Passion,” “Anyone Can Whistle,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Evening Primrose”) and Kander and Ebb flops (“Flora the Red Menace,” “70 Girls 70.”)
I’m sure some excitable fans in the packed house wondered “Where are the hits?” LuPone answered not soon after intermission with “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from her recent “Gypsy” revival; Patinkin with his searing “The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues” from “Follies,” which, I believe, he performed first in a Lincoln Center special event. Both received standing ovations, only to be topped with one selection each from “Evita.”
Another chunk of the show was devoted to a long dialogue-with-song sequence from “Carousel.” I’m not kidding, LuPone has never sounded better. How does that happen? Patinkin is peerless singing actor when he settles on register. Together they made the Long Center a mini-Broadway during its second anniversary week.
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Wilhelmina Brown Agency Party at the Ashton
Reserve this thought for a future column: Parties thrown at downtown pool decks. I’ve now tarried on these cool, elevated expanses at 360, Ashton, AMLI, Spring and 5 Fifty-Five. Not at the Monarch (which may not have one, at least not elevated), and not at the Shore, Milago, Legacy or the incomplete Austonian, Four Seasons or W. I’m almost positive that the Austin City Lofts is without such a deck.
Justin Brown and Roman Young, both of Wilhelmina Brown
Anyway, I was reminded of this idea by the stunning views from the Ashton pool deck overlooking Lady Bird Lake and South Austin, as well as the setting sun on Thursday. The occasion: The Wilhelmina Brown Agency Party introducing the powerhouse modeling company to Austin. I could only stay for the early social part, missing the Linda Asaf runway show.
Noor Al Sharif and Mariam Kahn
Yet I was there long enough to meet several key agency players, also to indulge in a long conversation with Austin Ventures and Texas Tribune’s John Thornton, looking refreshed and slipping into downtown Austin life, thanks in part to his new pal, Rare’s Taylor Perkins.
Wilhelmina LA’s Tara Intoci and designer Linda Asaf
As predicted in Marques Harper’s column on Thursday, this launch was a potential watershed for the Austin fashion scene. The city is packed with pretty people, everyone acknowledges that. And a few dozen of those make excellent models. But to make a living, as in so many other creative fields, they’ll need a nationwide if not worldwide presence in order to succeed. Groups like WB might help out there.
Hair stylist and reality star Giacomo Forbes, Melissa d’Attillo of Fly Productions and John Nelson
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Steve Hicks raises $1.6 million so far through Rise Across Texas
The 870-mile ride has already raised $1.6 million for Texas Rise Schools — which provide educational services to children with special needs in tandem with their more typically developing peers — and additional pledges are still out there, making it one of the largest single Austin-based charity events in history.
Eleven cyclists completed the entire challenge, including Capstar Partners’ Hicks, Rise School of Austin executive director Mandy Myers, state Rep. Carol Alvarado, state Sen. Rodney Ellis and Robert Hicks.
Among those completing part of the challenge were Gov. Rick Perry and gubernatorial candidate Bill White.
That’s Hicks pictured with daughter Kristen Hanson at the midway point in Austin.
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Grand Opening of Spring Condominium
Those who automatically dismiss the dozen or so new residence towers downtown should take a closer look. Each comes with its own character and culture. Spring Condominium, for instance, is closest to the design and feel of the slender prisms in Vancouver, B.C. and Hong Kong, as we discovered during the spire’s grand opening on Wednesday.
Thomas Urgento and Allison Macalik
Here, each floor contains no more than six units by my count. Four are corner spreads. The other two benefit from the articulated surface of the glass cladding. In other words, multiple views from almost every condo. The smallest — modeled on the 25th floor with human male and female models — is small indeed, but the largest two, including a three-bedroom option, come with plenty of elbow room.
Mike Cummins, Lisa Del Dotto and Daniel Mahoney
The party attracted a various assembly — dyed-in-the-wool downtowners, curious hipsters, urban politicians, out-of-town investors, some from Latin America, which suggests a hitherto unheralded use for Austin’s condos: Escape from conditions in other countries. That was a prime factor in Vancouver’s vertical growth, as Hong Kong’s elite fled in the face of the former British colony’s transfer to China. (Which turned out not as badly as feared.)
Larry Warshaw and Diana Zuniga
I talked to members of the Octopus Project about their “Hexadecacon” audio and visual experience during SXSW, a big hit with the critics; with Adam Garnier about the use of Super 8 film that is later digitized; with Danielle Thomas and others about the joys of SXSW Film and Interactive; also with several of the building’s backers and builders, including Diana Zuniga, whose residence high in Spring is a must-see, or so I hear.
Yvonne Lambert and Josh Lambert
And, oh, Spring provides another pool deck downtown ready for party purposes, folks. (Like the one at the Ashton for tonight’s Wilhelmina Brown party.)
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Your A-List: Best Toy Store
As a matter of course, Austin nurtures independent toy stores. Especially ones with bright decor and a sense of humor. Goofy? Yes. Dull? Never.
Emphasizing educational material is the No. 2 entry, Kaleidoscope Toys in Round Rock. It focused 25 percent of the tally.
Seriously silly Monkey See Monkey Do on South Congress Avenue horsed around for 16 percent.
Kid Genius, now on Bee Cave Road, figured in 12 percent, while Terra Toys secured 9 percent.
Three percent or less went to Whole Earth Provision Co., Over the Rainbow, Anna’s Toy Depot, Hog Wild and Great Hall Games.
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Your A-List: Best Disc Golf Course
According to a quick survey of DiscGolfDirectory.com, Austin ranks No. 3 among American cities for the number of courses. The spots that beat Austin? Houston and Charlotte, N.C. Not my first guesses.
Suburban areas did well, too. Old Settler’s Park (11 percent); Wells Branch Park (6 percent); Circle C Ranch Metropolitan Park (6 percent) and Slaughter Creek Metro Park (6 percent).
Four course need more voters — Our Savior Lutheran Church, Bartholomew District Park, Texas State University campus and Mary Moore Searight Metropolitan Park.
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Your A-List: Best Kid’s Menu
Since all 12 of my nieces and nephews have reached college age — or adjacent — I’m not usually concerned with quality of local kids’ menus. However, I couldn’t help wondering about the nature of those truncated food and drink offerings.
Waterloo Ice House might seem another strange choice for securing the Best Kids Menu award. (If memory serves, traditional ice houses were not really child-ready in my youth.) Yet Waterloo’s eight spiffy, latter-day locations serve a variety of food that would please any adult or younger tagalong. And the restaurant group’s online presence lists a specific kids menu. It took 21 percent of the vote.
Twin grocery and ready-to-eat pioneers Whole Foods and Central Market earned 11 percent and 7 percent respectively. Three spots — EZ’s, Zen and Tres Amigos — tied exactly at 7.14 percent.
Receiving 4 percent or less were Phil’s, Elsi’s and Mama Fu’s.
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Your A-List: Best Taco Stand
Restaurant or trailer? Which houses the best tacos in town? According to our readers, both.
No. 2 is a perennial favorite in this category, TacoDeli, with 24 percent of the tally. (TacoDeli is blessed with some of the city’s most fervent fans, as I discovered one year after misreporting the winner in this category.)
No. 3 is El Chilito, the on-the-go version of El Chile, with 10 percent. Tamale House devoured 8 percent, while Nuevo Leon made do with 4 percent.
Receiving 2 percent or less: Al Pastor, Amaya’s, Porfirio’s, Casa Garcia and El Taquito.
But that’s hardly it folks. There are so many taco stands in Austin, you could sample a different one every day. That would be a rewarding quest.
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Human Rights Campaign Dinner at Hyatt Regency Austin
As a gay man, who came out almost exactly three years after the 1969 Stonewall Riots; who remembers — like it was last weekend — when, doing so, threatened one’s career and family; when “gay panic” was a free pass in many courtrooms for assault or murder; when daily newspapers ran the names and mugshots of patrons snared in raids of gay bars, thereby putting their reputations in jeopardy; to someone of my age and memories, the Human Rights Campaign is something akin to a miracle.
Rick Payton, Linda Payton and Bishop Gene Robinson
(For those readers who think there’s already too much gay material in a column entitled “Out & About,” please page to another austin360.com blog today.)
Nevertheless, the national civil rights group — and correlated organizations such as Lambda Legal — have come under increased fire for their mainstream, incremental political approach, as they work closely with straight allies to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” promote marriage equality and other such still-divisive issues.
It reminds me of periodic criticism aimed at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a group explicitly compared to the Human Rights Campaign during a gala dinner at the Hyatt Regency Austin on Saturday.
Lara Deen, Samantha Barnes and Robyn Mabry
The ties among generations of civil rights activists was emphasized during a speech by national Campaign president Joe Solomonese, who informed the full house that, earlier in the day, Tea Party backers had slung racial and gay slurs at Congress members during healthcare reform protests in Washington D.C.
Other incisive speeches were given by Bishop Gene Robinson (whose very existence has split the Anglican communion) and soap opera actor Scott Evans (who plays a breakthrough gay character on “One Life to Live”), before jazz singer Kellye Gray scatted into the night.
(Partners Jill Wilcox and Karen Langsley, along with their children Zach and Kim, earned Bettie Naylor Lifetime Achievement Awards.)
Nathan Michaud and Justin Stephens
Despite the good will emanating from the dais, the Campaign dinner was not without glitches. The following tips apply, not just to this particular dignified and uplifting event, but, in ways, to dozens of other Austin galas this season. (So don’t take it personally, guys and gals.)
Don’t schedule during South by Southwest.
Post more than three volunteers at the sign-in table, otherwise a line stretches to the hotel door.
Don’t position two slow, poorly manned, expensive drink stations so close to the live-auction maze that social mingling is blocked.
And once that mingling comes to a virtual halt, don’t keep guests out on an atrium terrace while guarding the doors to the banquet hall.
Serving salad before the speeches is a good idea — hunger causes crankiness — but why deliver the main course while half the house is out on the terrace socializing, bidding on auction items or — again — waiting in an endless drink line?
This applies to virtually every gala in Austin: In the advice of fictional E! executive Jack, played by Alan Tudyk in the comedy “Knocked Up” — “Tighten … tighten.” I know this is a big moment, but longer than four hours. Really?
Repeat: Don’t schedule during South by Southwest.
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Mandy Patinkin: The Surprise Interview
“Out and About. Michael Barnes. How may I help you?”
“This is Mandy Patinkin calling for Susannah Jacob”
“I’m sorry, there’s no Susannah Jacob here.” (Pause.) “Are you by any chance calling about an interview?”
Due to a snafu among publicists — and, again, luck — I stole Jacob’s interview position. (The Daily Texan reporter earned a redo on Monday.) Otherwise, I also wouldn’t have this opportunity to spread the word about Patinkin’s double-headliner concert Thursday at the Long Center with another powerhouse performer, Patti LuPone.
“I’ve looked into her eyes for 30 years,” Patinkin says of LuPone. “And I see 30 years of trust.”
LuPone and Patinkin rocketed to stardom in the same show, “Evita,” which electrified Broadway audiences in 1979, and won Tony Awards for both of them. The actors — one playing the monumentally ambitious Eva Peron, the other a inflammatory narrator fictionalized as revolutionary leader Che — combined intense emotional presences with highly controlled, yet unfettered theatricality. It was if, in one show, an entirely new style of Broadway acting was invented.
LuPone went on to become one of the age’s great divas in hits such as “Les Miserables,” “Anything Goes,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Master Class,” “Sunset Boulevard” and “Gypsy.” Patinkin continued in “The Secret Garden,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Falsettos” and “The Wild Party” and other shows. Meanwhile, they interspersed stage appearances with memorable forays into film (“Princess Bride” for him, “Witness” for her) and television (“Chicago Hope” for him, “LBJ” for her).
Closer to Austin, both have delivered ecstatically received solo concerts at the Paramount Theatre — Patinkin on several occasions — when Paul Beutel was that venue’s managing director. Now at the Long Center, Beutel has booked the dynamos for what Patinkin calls their “The Patti and Mandy Show,” first conceived for the opening of a theater in Richardson two years ago.
“We didn’t want to do 20 minutes of her, 20 minutes of me,” Patinkin recalls. “So we got together with my longtime musical director, Paul Ford, to create a show with a story and a structure. It’s the figurative journey of two souls told in words and songs.”
Each star dipped into their repertoires — they are famous for investing familiar standards with new meaning — then searched for the connective tissues. Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim — not surprisingly — are among the main composers used for the show, which also includes songs by Vernon Duke and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Each song is crafted into an emotional scene, acted, not just sung in a cabaret style. Ann Reinking, herself a Broadway star, choreographed the show, and Ford accompanies the singers. The duo has toured the US., Canada, New Zealand and Australia with the act. “We have a blast,” Patinkin says. “And, if anything, we’ve gotten younger. It’s the gold of life to me.”
Listening to his voice over the phone, as he waited for a flight from Los Angeles to Albuquerque to visit his offspring, the New York-based Patinkin indeed sounded younger than in our previous conversations, spread out over 20 years. Earlier, he was wary, tense, perhaps concerned about conveying artistic integrity. Sunday, he had turned breezy, sweet, almost philosophical.
“When I get to Austin, we’ll go onstage and walk away from the world,” he says. “We invite audiences to walk away with us.” On his ongoing collaboration with LuPone, one of the few performers alive who could match his interpretive intensity, he says: “This is what we can do until we are dead.”
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Austin contingent to see Molly Ivins play
The Austin connection was crystal clear, so when Hollywood star Kathleen Turner planned to open her show, “Red-Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins,” about the late columnist at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, more than one local contingent scheduled a theater trip.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Inquirer are slated to join them at a reception hosted by the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Turner will be an honored guest at that party.
The Texas Observer is putting together another group to see the play in April.
Photo by Barbara Johnston for the Washington Post.
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SXSW 40: It’s a wrap
The final South by Southwest social tally: Number of parties: 41. Miles on foot: 53. Miles by cab: 5. Conversations: More than 350. Movies seen: 0. Bands heard: Maybe 15.
Speakers and panels witnessed: None, unless you count the speed-mentoring round I participated in for film industry bloggers.
Conclusion: My best SXSW ever.
Also, I traveled on foot. If you got into a car, or lived or worked near a cluster of festival venues, your experience was probably more stressful.
It helped that, except for two widely separated days of rain and cold, the weather remained Edenic. Plus, I simply avoided events with really long lines, knowing that, once inside an at-capacity room, I’d be knee-to-throat with unhappy socializers. And there were plenty of those.
Part of the blame for those bash-ups falls to the festival planners. One shouldn’t offer entry to every Interactive badge holder for an event held at the mid-sized Mohawk club, or to any Film fester at Speakeasy’s lovely but limited rooftop terrace. It just doesn’t work.
On the other hand, nobody is entitled to party. And I mean nobody. Including your social columnist.
I would no more insist on entering a prime event, such as Swagg Presents Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin, than stiff-arm a old lady with a walker. (Luckily, at that party, an alert organizer saw me from a distance, and slipped me into the cavernous warehouse so I could report on it for this publication’s Monday wrap-up story. I didn’t demand entry, mind you, and I left as soon as my social reporting was complete, missing the Snoop Dogg and Hole performances.)
In the past, SXSW leaders tried to suppress side-parties, concerts and mini-fests, especially those employing variations on their trademarked name. Now, unofficial events operate as a kind of social safety valve. People, especially locals, let off steam in East Austin, along South Congress and South Lamar Boulevard, in every available parking lot within the the downtown grid.
And that should be fine, because SXSW, though still a for-profit venture, now belongs to the whole city. And an enormous part of the city wants to celebrate this essential component of Austin culture.
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SXSW 39: Swagg Presents Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin
A-List photos: Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin
Hoping to bask in the reflected glow of the returning celebrity gossip blogger, guests braved icy blasts hours before the doors opened on Swagg Presents Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin.
Emily Grace and Hector Martelle
In what has become a must-do SXSW social event, the party spilled over three cavernous rooms in a former warehouse at Third and Brazos streets. Still, despite the interior space, which included several nested VIP zones, some were left in the cold when the party reached capacity after 10 p.m.
Samantha Davidson and Laura Aiden
Earlier in the evening, guests reported some pushing and shoving in the lines that wrapped around three streets and an alley, hoping to see, for free, such acts as Snoop Dogg and Hole.
“I don’t want to die in line!” mocked Austin model Laura Aiden, who was admitted into the party.
Danny Witte and Hawa Amani
Among the notables noted in the crowd: filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, members of the Canadian rock band Sum 41, electro-pop singer-songwriter Little Boots, Blues Traveler frontman John Popper, and Ryan Ross, who left Panic at the Disco last year.
Kate Tomich and Juan V. Perez
Musical acts played shorts sets on two stages inside the innermost cavern, as specialty drinks and photography stations dotted the other rooms. Guests wore solidly-constructed dark glasses that made projected images pop into 3D.
“This is the party where I see all of Austin,” said Chris Apollo Lynn, editor of the Republic of Austin social media site.
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SXSW 38: South by San Jose
Were I a lazy person. Or just one with less time. Or less curiosity. Or another job. I’d just settle in the parking lot of the Hotel San Jose for South by San Jose. Three blocks from the house. Fine food and drink from Jo’s. San Diego weather.
Karen Lederer and Ali Landorf
And some of the best music associated with SXSW. In the bad old days, the SXSW hierarchy would have trampled on shows like SXSJ. No need to do so when you’ve got people lining up for every official showcase, and huge sideshows going on all over the central city. (And I mean all over.)
Lori, Wayne and Roxy Dodd
Those who were just idly exercising the children or the dogs earned an extra-special treat when Amy Cook too the SXSJ stage (to be followed by the producer of her most recent album, none other than Alejandro Escovedo). Cook’s voice carries one over the horizon, sweet and salty, innocent yet knowing. Her songs are honeyed with recurrent imagery and personal insights. Bliss. Just bliss. It was enough for me that day.
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SXSW 37: Auditorium Shores
Compared to the kinetic energy charging through the streets of downtown at dusk, the atmosphere at Auditorium Shores was relaxed, congenial. Multi-generational tribes streamed from nearby streets to spread out over the tramped-down grass (surely a sea of mud this rainy morning, which is why SXSW organizers delayed performances for today).
Gina Recamier and Pambo
This free event helps sell SXSW to Austinites with no chance to earn a badge, wristband or VIP pass. They could attend some of the day parties — and they do — but here they can bring children and dogs. So the event is indistinguishable from other warm-weather outdoor fairs with craft booths, food stalls and beer galore. (Also, in this case, a very vocal campaign for a Texas lottery game.)
Because of the open meadow and the vast skyline as a backdrop, attention to the music on the shore-side stage ebbed and flowed. While I visited, a small group of music lovers swayed up front, but the vast majority hung back on blankets or chairs, or they roamed the booths. (I left before ’80s rockers Cheap Trick performed. Their fans reportedly have not lost their zeal.)
Kellie Solis and Justin Petition
I talked to Gina Recamier and Pambo from Mexico City. They said Austin was a party all over the city. Also with Kellie Solis and Justin Petition, who used the Auditorium Shores event to catch up on their San Antonio ties.
Remember: Everything is social.
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SXSW 36: Express Rocks at the Phoenix
With 700 SXSW sideparties out there, your social columnist didn’t need a Music badge or a wrist band to follow the buzz from event to event. Word spread quickly that the bigger traditional parties — Spin, Rachel Ray, Paste — were thoroughly subscribed and already covered by other Statesman reporters. So I tended to hit the smaller assemblies, which were sizable enough.
Ericka Jamarillo and Toree Roy
The Express Rocks Lounge Party at the Phoenix offered a line-up of five bands, along with various retail enticements that journalists firmly avoid. (The party was underwritten by the men and women’s clothing store by the same name.) A crowd of more than 100 mingled between sets, some of them super-social Austinites like Allen Beuershausen and Jen Shoemaker.
Natalie Bell and Steve Moakley
The one act I caught was Southern California’s idie rockers the Like. The four young women affected 1960s pop fashion and played in a snappy manner, but I couldn’t help thinking they would sound better in a studio. As their time onstage extended, my admiration grew for the fierce drumming of Tennessee Thomas and the sophisticated vocals of Elizabeth “Z” Berg from this former teen ban.
I left to explore the MTV video hideaway at the Seaholm Power Plant, which was closed to the public. But such a lovely day to trod across downtown once again …
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SXSW 35: Swagg Cafe at Moonshine
The music industry spends a good deal of time building fan bases for their artists. Then the industry types seek ways to escape those fans, if only for a little while. Thus, the proliferation of VIP sections, green rooms and rejuvenation zones during energy-sapping events like SXSW.
Jennifer Williams and Shannell
The Swagg Cafe at Moonshine provided several such opportunities to dine, drink, mingle and relax quietly during the afternoons — very near the Austin Convention Center. The refuge was underwritten by Swagg, a Web service that allows users to purchase, share and exchange gift cards, or receive and redeem personalized offers, etc.
Creigh Lyndon and Ryan Alexander
Here, journalists interviewed artists and bands recorded instant videos. I think the food is the big draw, but I liked catching musicians and their management off guard. “We plan to play as many shows possible,” said Ryan Alexander, young manager of Charleston, S.C.-based All Get Out. “And try not to get too trashed, since everything is free.” Alexander said the attention of SXSW audiences’ comes and goes, but that Austin is “more accepting” than most places on the band’s tour.
Malene Younglao and Yves C. Pierre
I also talked to Universal artist Shannel and her helpful publicist Jennifer Williams, as well as idie rocker Malen Younglao and her manager Yves C. Pierre. All these New Yorkers praised the spring weather (those words came before the Arctic blast that cleared the streets earlier this morning).
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Liz Carpenter dies at age 89
Please leave your thoughts and memories below.
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SXSW 34: Via Downtown
In reporting on the rapid expansion of traffic during SXSW Interactive and Film, I by no means want to suggest that SXSW Music has been superseded. Not with 1,900 official showcases, and those acts playing multiple additional gigs, and all the other bands tacking on their quickie concerts. That could mean 6,000 or so discreet sets of music.
One could feel the magnetic pull in each direction crossing through downtown, first northeast, then southwest on Thursday. People on the margins of the grid shimmered with energy. They strode toward events with a bounce in their steps. Their stage make-up and rocker outfits looked fresh. They gabbled tirelessly.
Cathy Wallace, Brandi Hale, Debbie Barrera and Catherine Daniels
Returning from East Austin, I noticed more hobbled fans taking pedicabs. (Did we import some for the weekend? Seems like they swarmed every street.) By the time I hit the blockaded Sixth Street west of Interstate 35, the masses resembled the disintegrating remains of a summer street fair. Exhausted folks lined the curbs. Faces faded pink-gray. Incompletely consumed street food joined the other detritus.
Lines into official SXSW venues crinkled, crackled with complaints. Meanwhile, other clubs simply blasted out their usual sounds. I even saw some completely new clubs: Just for SX?
Syztem 7 from Seattle
On Congress, visitors and locals spilled off the wide sidewalks. Still, the weather blessed this Thursday with a sort of glorious glow. Boulevardiers staked out their regular spots at sidewalk cafes and just watched the world go by …
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SXSW 33: East Side Story
The entire zone from East Seventh Street to the MetroRail tracks, east of Interstate 35 and west of Comal Street, was honeycombed with improvised outdoor music venues.
Brianna Bardhi, Ella Pala and Jen Shoemaker
The prime destination: Levi’s Fader Fort, a combination of retail outlet, secret fort and mini-Austin City Limits Music Festival, timed each year to South by Southwest.
“It’s warm and real,” said Austin’s Brianna Bardhi of the enclosure around an industrial structure. “Like a clubhouse.”
Although originally conceived partly as an artist’s retreat, the Fader Fort now attracts pods of locals looking for non-SXSW action — and tall Budweisers, consumed in abundance among the smokestacks and corrugated relics of East Austin.
Allen Reed and Carrie Back
Across East Fifth Street, the Texas RockFest occupied almost an entire vacant block. Music seekers circled it to visit open-air stages up and down East Sixth Street.
Although many pilgrims crossed under the freeway at Sixth, others swerved along the bikeway at East Fourth Street, the thoroughfare for pedicabs, who ranged from the Mean-Eyed Cat near MoPac to the Brixton east of the Texas RockFest.
When a MetroRail train barreled down toward the Austin Convention Center at Red River Street, pedicabs and pedestrians scattered, but not very quickly.
Nobody took the huge metal missile seriously. This is a disaster waiting to happen.
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SXSW 32: Official Austin Music Showcase at Ghost Room
One can become so jaded in Austin. Live music? Scores of options every night. Why bother? The acts come and go. Who could keep up with all of it?
Well I was introduced to two that took my reason away at the Ghost Room, an astonishingly sensitive room for various genres of thickly layered music. First was Monarchs, a band Austin shares with Birmingham, Ala. The players run the gamut from rootsy to indie, but it’s frontwoman Celeste’s supple voice that elicits the most awe from an appreciative throng.
I thought, OK, so far three good acts my first night of SXSW (see House of Song Showcase post). How long will my luck hold out? That’s when Charanga Cakewalk squeezed all their instruments onto the small corner stage. Lordy. All manner of Latin dance music ensued.
I danced with friends. I danced with strangers. I danced until the Cakewalk ended their too-short showcase set.
Well, I wanted to end the night on a high point, so I started to leave, then Reyes told me about the other celebrated local talent that night — Zeale, Danny Malone, the Black, Carrie Rodriguez — and I mentally noted their names. If they are anywhere as accomplished as Monarchs and Charanga Cakewalk, then I will ferret out their club dates.
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SXSW 31: House of Song Showcase at the Ginger Man
Blown by the winds of chance, I took refuge at the Ginger Man the first night of SXSW Music. Clearly, many in the crowd were still still indulging their St. Patrick’s Day itch. Yet out on the patio, a goodly number were primed for the House of Songs unofficial showcase.
So one more band, then on to the next showcase. This was an exceedingly charming Danish act called Leaving a Small Town. Their simple melodies proved contagious, especially one written with Austin’s Matt the Electrician. OK, so pop music is the universal language.
I’ve run across the House of Songs on occasion, but I must pay more attention.
[I’d credit the Leaving a Small Town photo, but my Danish is rusty.]
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SXSW 30: A Break in the Dark
We all need a little respite. My SXSW began Wednesday, March 10. By Wednesday, March 17, I was still on pace, not fatigued, but definitely slowing down.
And SXSW Music had only just begun. Five more days to go.
Anyway, after the Mayor’s Welcome, I toddled across the street with colleague Marcus Harper for appetizers at III Forks. Ideal respite. Key ingredient: The room was dark and seemed to grow darker, unlike the shiny, happy brightness outside. The happy-hour prices on the thick, juicy onion rings and blue-cheese steak chips also helped.
By the time we emerged, dusk had fallen and I was ready for music. My advice to you during SXSW: Find respite.
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SXSW 29: The Mayor’s Welcome
Mayor Lee Leffingwell welcomed the SXSW guests to Austin on Wednesday. I didn’t hear him do so. In fact, I’ve come to think of Leffingwell as our stealth mayor. He’s always on the job, always doing the city’s work, mind you. But I always just miss him, unlike his predecessor Will Wynn, who stuck around, soaking up the sunlight of Austin socializing.
Erin and Michael Portman
Just different styles, that’s all. The party — and the exchanges of vital SXSW information — still continued after Leffingwell slipped back into his no-nonsense office off the City Hall extension called the Mayor’s Balcony. Another SXSW Music, another ideal day for the Welcome — bright, dry, slightly breezy. Who could ask for anything more?
Jason Callahan, Melissa Rivers and Nathan Felix
New insights. I got ‘em. I spent the most time with Erin and Michael Portman of Birds Barber Shops. They confirmed an impression I’d heard all over town: Friends were skipping SXSW Music for SXSW Interactive or Film in increasing numbers. Not that anyone would undercut the blunt power of Music, which generated the whole East Austin colony over near the Birds outlet on East East Sixth Street.
It’s just that, perhaps the Mayor’s Welcome should come a week earlier.
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SXSW 28: Green at Fourth and Lavaca
Heading from the amicable Fleadh Austin at the Fourth Street Fort to the more established, roped-off St. Patrick’s Day festival at Fourth and Lavaca streets, I passed SXSW guests bemused by this improvised Green Circuit. While the Fleadh was free, the tented fest outside Fado’s cost $15. Costumes, beads and funny hats proliferated.
Erin Johnson and Caitlin Kuhn
I encountered something unexpected for Austin: The closest we come to Irish toughs. Here were a couple dozen guys, bulked up, wearing the green like a dare, horseplaying early in the afternoon, but looking entirely capable of scuffling as the hours and the beers passed. (I’ve carefully considered this report and I don’t think I’m stereotyping my own people. I was relieved to see a uniformed officer or two on alert in case of hormonal over exuberance.)
Imriel, Carrie and Elliot Ahr
Of course, the vast majority in the crowd proved gentle, laughing, hoisting children up for others to see, carefully sipping their libations. I left fairly early — after checking in with benevolent Saba owner Joe Reynolds — then looped back later during my SXSW evening. The mood was ecstatic.
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SXSW 27: Fleadh Austin
When legendary music manager Frank Murray (the Pogues, Thin Lizzy, etc.) announced he wanted to make Fleadh Austin a revel that would rival St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Boston, New York and other Irish-American metropolises, we smiled. That would be lovely, wouldn’t it, daydreamed the Irish half of my brain.
Frank Murray, Kay Gourley and Dara Murray
Pronounced “flah,” fleadh is Gaelic for festival. Murray lined up some of his Irish acts — Broken Records, the Lost Brothers, Julie Feeney, Villagers, the Minutes, the Mighty Stef and the Coronas for the St. Paddy’s party at the Fourth Street Fort (former Levi’s Fader Fort and, normally, American YouthWorks). Hey, maybe the intersection of SXSW and the “wearing of the green” would produce shamrocks and rainbows. (BTW: I learned the Irish don’t wear green on March 17. Americans do.)
Triona Kelly and Niamh Kelly
In the middle of the afternoon, the first fleadh in Austin felt awfully mellow. The Irish stood in the mild sun, the Texans in the deep shade, each seeking a different precious commodity.
Folks lined up for the Guinness, for sure. (That’s I bet I’ll always take.) But where were the masses? The carousing?
Later that night, the bands and the local banshees loosened up. A quick walk-by revealed a euphoric revelry my Celtic ancestors would have cheered.
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SXSW 26: Celebrity Sightings So Far
Form our various spies this week and compiled in Newsmakers …
On Monday morning, Ashton Kutcher wrote to his 4.6 million Twitter followers that he was “Headed to South by Southwest.” Later, he “checked in” at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on the social networking service Foursquare and tweeted that he was attending a panel at SXSW. Fest-goers reported sightings on Twitter and posted pictures with the actor, who’s increasingly known for his social media savvy. …
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, aka “McLovin” from Superbad, hung out at Star Bar. He was apparently nice but wouldn’t let anyone take pictures. Woody Harrelson was spotted at Barton Springs. Adrien Brody, who appeared at a news conference for the Robert Rodriguez-produced “Predator,” was spied shopping at Whole Foods. …
Rumors are going crazy, but our fave is Snoop Dogg performing with Gorillaz at the former Seaholm Power Plant. The band is the subject of a SXSW listening party. …
Edward Norton, John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill sat together for a long meal at La Condessa; Chloe Sevigny and Patrick Wilson joined a group at that innovative restaurant, then headed upstairs for drinks at Malverde.
Oscar winner Sissy Spacek attended Ray Benson’s birthday party and Fleadh St. Patrick’s Day Party. A.J. Buckley (“CSI: NY”) and Samantha Mathis (“Pump Up the Volume”) were out shopping the boutiques. Actor Robert Duvall dined at III Forks, while Neko Case tarried at the Carillon, UT’s hideaway gem of a restaurant.
Sean Lennon, Ashton Kutcher, Bill Murray and Adrien Brody were later seen all over town.
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SXSW 25: Floating with the Tide
The potential metaphors surge through my consciousness.
Walking the streets of Austin during SXSW, I’m a ship sailing through familiar yet unfamiliar seas. Or I’m flotsam surging with the tide, seeking a beachhead, a momentary haven from the pleasurable swells of sensation.
I’ve begun the SXSW portion of the past 8 days in the same way — sluicing down South Congress Avenue toward the river and the world. Shops, eateries, craft booths, trailers, pet matchmakers, buskers, lounging regulars and tourists, sing, siren-like, for this Odysseus to tarry.
Once downtown, past the cleansing bridge, the sidewalks, many still broken and bent, hoist tens of thousands on their broad shoulders. This is the Austin of my dreams, my visions. A city whose center is a vortex of creative energy without cessation.
What can we do to encourage that? More density in the right places. More affordability in the right doses. More diversity of all kinds. More amenities year-round. I won’t set down the virtual pen until we have them.
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SXSW 24: A List: Best Blogger
I swear I didn’t vote in this category. And I didn’t encourage any of my readers to do so. Still, I’m tickled to be included in the company of the obsessive writers in the Best Blogger category.
Our own little Out & About made it into a race with 22 percent of the tally.
Here’s an odd statistic: The next four bloggers tied exactly at just over 8 percent — In the Pink, Ain’t It Cool, Austin Tidbits and Grits for Breakfast.
MeanRachel.com, who does me the honor of commenting on my tweets periodically, linked to 6 percent. Pink Dome, Community Matters and Austinist’s Allen Y. Chen rounded out the list with 3 percent or less.
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SXSW 23: A List: Best Place to Catch a Sunset
I have sneaking suspicion that preferences in this category will change over the years, as more people move upward into those downtown towers.
Mount Bonnell, a scenic magnet for centuries, came in second with 18 percent. Iguana Grill managed a respectable 11 percent, while Hula Hut relaxed with 10 percent.
Lake Travis, the whole of it, merited 8 percent. The UT Tower, Zilker Park, Downtown skyscrapers, Loop 360 scenic overlook and Pennybacker Bridge all ended with less than three percent. I think the last two locations are the same.
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SXSW 22: A List: Best Latin Singer or Group
Del Castillo, the flamenco-guitar and family-based act, and Grupo Fantasma, the big-band blasters, both received exactly 25 percent of the vote in the A List poll for Best Latin Singer or Group.
Alejandro Escovedo, who continues to mature as an artist as life throws him more material, received 19 percent. David Garza, also evolving after decades in the local eye, won 13 percent.
Brownout led the rest of the pack with 8 percent. The Brew, Frenetica, Los Bad Apples, Maneja Beto and Patricia Vonne settled for 6 percent of less.
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SXSW 21: A List: Best Locally Produced Beer/Wine/Liquor
OK, so why am I organizing this week’s A List winners under the rubric of “SXSW” as well? Because everything is SXSW this week. And visitors to Our Town want to know these local preferences as well.
Real Ale Brewing and Live Oak Brewing came in second and third with 17 percent and 12 percent of the tally.
Dripping Springs Vodka and Paula’s Texas Orange tied at 8 percent.
Taking 5 percent or less were Independence Brewing, Uncle Billy’s, Draught House, Alamosa wines and Caprock wines. Too bad we can’t count the dozens of wineries in the Hill Country in this poll.
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SXSW 20: Ray Benson Birthday Party + Closings
Next year, I’ll loiter longer at this event: Ray Benson’s Birthday Party is a feel-good fiesta. Staged on Tuesday, the ligature night of SXSW, the event at La Zona Rosa, now in its 10th year, generated generous crowds to support the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians. It’s an ideal union of food, fun and top music in the Texas tradition.
Anika Kunik and Josh Watkins
Start with that music: Besides Benson and Asleep at the Wheel, audiences covered the dance floor to Texas Tornados, Raul Malo, J.D. Souther, Kat Edmonson, Tim Curry, Gary Nicholson, Carolyn Wonderland, Shelly King, Dale Watson, Band of Heathens and Radney Foster. (Thanks to music writer John T. Davis for the full list.)
Emily Brandt and Nick Albino
Meanwhile, over in the food bay, some of Austin’s top restaurants were dishing out the delicacies, including Frito pie from Ranch 616, short ribs from Carillon and mini-tacos from Garrido’s. Among the more amazing sights: super-chefs David Garrido, David Bull and Josh Watkins all in one place.
David Bull and David Garrido
In ran into so many people, including Shimmer and Bliss’s My-Cherie Haley, San Antonio friends of Ranch 616’s Kevin Williamson (who helps organize the food area), author/actress Anika Kunik (we spoke of Bud Shrake’s “Blessed McGill” and “The Borderland”), former Statesman know-it-all Jane Grieg, agent/promoter Clif Loftin, marketer Dave Shaw, magazine entrepreneur and writer Deborah Lynne-Hamilton.
Josh Coffee and Casey Ellis
I left too early to drop by an informal film festival at the Belmont (a chaotic event featuring Anthony Pedone’s woozy “The Why”), then I steered through the thick crowds on Sixth Street, veering left onto Red River Street, where the throngs did not dissipate. I was headed to the SXSW Interactive/Film Closing Party at Mohawk.
I knew better. Two blocks away I could see the sidewalk-thick line. I considered just hanging out with the standers, but headed home instead. One lesson from this year of vastly expanded Film and Interactive sections: If you are going to invite the entire SXSW badge list, book a place, like the MACC, that can hold them.
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SXSW 19: Rain Break
Sometimes, Mother Nature tells you to “stop.”
I had seriously considered hitting three more SXSW parties — Gowalla at the Belmont, Plutopia at MACC and Good Capitalist at Youthworks — but they were primarily outdoors. I’m sure the guests found a way to cope. They always do.
But I needed the time off anyway. So far: 24 parties, 26 miles on foot, 3 miles by cab, more than 200 people engaged in conversation. I revel in all this socializing, believe me, but this 55-year-old body just can’t order everything on the menu.
(True story: Last yesterday, I learned from Kip that I’m 55. I thought I was 56. Math was not my best subject. Which may be why I’m so obsessed with numbers.)
I still have 5 parties — Ray Benson Birthday Party, Belmont Film Festival, British Embassy at Latitude 30, Media Temple Closing Party at Mohawk and the Parish Party — on my event list for tonight.
After that, 5 more full days to go during SXSW. Don’t worry. I’ve followed all the rules. Rest. Hydrate. Eat. Moderate. Exercise. And I’m still having fun.
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SXSW 18: Locals Only Party at Star Bar
Overheard on the deck of Star Bar: “This is the cool kids’ party.” Indeed, it felt that way. While the visiting throngs headed to the Gowalla party at the Belmont, Thrillist party at Stubb’s, or always thrilling Plutopia at the MACC, a few dozen entertainment-oriented Austinites relaxed over delicious drinks at the annual Locals Only Party, thrown in part by Giant Noise.
David Kittredge and Ginger Roddick
Right away, I ran into Ginger Roddick, former publicist for brother-in-law Andy Roddick. She’s now living in Norman, Okla., where her husband, John Roddick, is head of men’s tennis at the University of Oklahoma. She confirmed that Andy’s bride, Brooklyn Decker, is very grounded and just the right gal for the tennis ace’s future.
Taylor Choi and Lyle Jackson
Any number of journalists, promoters, publicists, administrators, activists, networkers and creatives continued to mingle in the blank-ish spot between SXSW Interactive and Film and the subsequent SXSW Music. Rumors raced through the synod. All agreed that the festival’s younger siblings were showing Music how it’s done this year.
Matt Dy and David Gil
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SXSW 17: Food Bloggers Bash at the Cedar Door
What’s the tweetiest community in Austin? High tech? Politics? Music? Movies? I’d put my bets on the food nation. I see more activity on Twitter, more foodie blogs, more Yelp reviews, you name it, about restaurants, food trailers, gardening, recipes and sustainable cooking and eating than any other general topic.
Peter Tsai and Kristina Vallejo
Which reminds me of the focus groups we conducted in 1994 for the launch of the XL weekly entertainment magazine. The No. 1 entertainment choice for Austinites? Going out to eat. Hasn’t changed since then.
Vivian Chang and David Park
The Food Bloggers Bash at Cedar Door, timed to SXSW Interactive, saluted the networkers and thinkers in the field. (Merrily, there was more food in the back room than during the Texas Social Media Awards the night before.) Even though I rarely post here on food, my husband Kip and I are avid cooks and devout fans of Austin’s restaurant community.
So these, to some extent, are my people. Loved hanging out with them and Statesman foodie cicerone Addie Broyles.
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SXSW 16: AGLIFF’s Steers & Queers at Frank
Leaning over the rail at the upstairs bar of Frank on Colorado Street, I flashed to 25 years ago. That’s when the long, tall, narrow building was home to the Boathouse, then Austin’s premiere gay club. Near to where I now smiled at diners below, I had scanned the dance floor for my friends on particularly populated nights.
Susan Linn Ferris and Jake Gonzales
But this gathering belong to the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, which was welcoming guests to SXSW Film. The Steers & Queers Party assumed a jaunty Western flavor, without overplaying the theme. At the instigation of director Skot Tulk, filmmakers addressed the assembled, who could barely squeeze into the two-part upstairs space.
Maya Perez, Alissa Ziemianski, Rachel Hartsfield
I spent a bit of time with AGLIFF program director Jake Gonzales and Susan Linn Ferris, administrative director at California’s Outfest. I caught up some with Spec’s guru Carter Wilsford and his housemate Ian Carrico. Other creatives, like Maya Perez, exchanged words with me, but for the most part, it was about the SXSW movies.
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SXSW 15: A Flash of Color for the Invisible Man
I am the Invisible Man. That’s part of my social strategy. Play it against the wall. Greet. Listen. Ask questions. Divert. Tell stories at the appropriate junctures. Never call attention oneself. This is not the only — or even the most common — strategy for social columnists, but it works for me. People tell me things. For the most part, they trust me to use that information judiciously.
Heading to Jo’s on Second to post more on SXSW, drinking in the crowds and the good spirits on the street, I made a left turn into Kappie Bliss’s Beyond Tradition. I’ve always liked Kappie. She’s fashionable without being outrageous. She supports local artists and designers. She’s kind and — let’s just say it — closer to my age than the dominant style-makers in Austin.
I had my eye on some of My-Cherie Haley’s marvelously crinkly, light, highly hued scarves. They fit men or women. But could I pull them off? With confidence? I purchased one of the least peacocky ones ($50 for the long, very dark blue sample shown here). Two SXSW parties later, I begged inherently poised Christine Perrault Moline to style it for me in a couple of loops around my neck. There it rested for the remainder of the evening. Maybe for the remaining SXSW night parties.
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SXSW 14: Man on a Mission After-Party at the Marq
For somebody who began his adulthood behind the scenes, learning technology and building games, Richard Garriott has become accustomed to the limelight. For years, he has staged some of the most notorious parties in Austin — notorious for their sweet eccentricities, not bacchanalian excesses, by the way. And he has publicly backed the arts and sciences, particularly Zach Theatre and the nascent Austin Planetarium.
Nicole Whiteside, Lindsey Taylor and Stanley Roy Williamson of Tiny Stolen Moments
But once he spent some of those gaming dollars to train for a Russian space mission, Garriott’s public star, so to speak, has risen ever farther. Son of an astronaut himself, Garriott and his space flight was the subject of a documentary, “Man on a Mission,” which premiered at SXSW.
Steve Brudniak, Catarina Sigerfoos and Kevin Kettler
His After-Party staked out the Marq and Prague, two floors of the four-level bar complex at West Fifth Street and Congress Avenue. It was a pretty frisky affair with paid dancers on tiny trampolines and a space chair (don’t know what else to call it). I spent time with several prominent creative types, including sculptor Steve Brudniak (Garriott owns some of his pieces) and Austinist co-founder and sly conversationalist Ben Brown.
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SXSW 13: Tech Cocktail at the Palm Door
SXSW head honcho Roland Swenson said something wise to me during the Microsoft BizSpark and Volusion Tech Cocktail at the Palm Door. Speaking about social events during SXSW Interactive, Swenson pointed out that guests really talked to each other, in contrast to SXSW Music, when it’s “party, party, party.”
Matt Curtin and Chris Valentine
Indeed, besides the distractions of conversation-killing music and hipster posing, the 700 or so sideparties during SXSW Music are partly about getting trashed. (“Rebel, rebel, your face is a mess.) In contrast, over the past six days of the SXSW Interactive and Film portions, I’ve noticed maybe one or two folks had overdone, and then only pleasantly enhanced.
Roland Swenson and David Fox
This Cocktail Tech also did not attract those annoying sidewalk queues, meaning the venue was properly sized to the event. Just walk right in — and start conversing. Many of the folks I encountered here, I had already met at the convention center or attendant events. So no big revelations. (Other than how mellow Swenson could be mid-fest, and that Chris Valentine had turned from dance to tech — ran into him with SocialSmack co-founder and CEO Matt Curtin).
Gosh, I wish there were more events like this during the rest of the year.
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SXSW 12: Texas Social Media Awards at Cedar Door
The Austin American-Statesman is rightly proud of its pioneering efforts online. It operates among the first newsrooms nationally to erase the distance between its print and online efforts — everything is geared for online first. It also created the first newspaper social media editor, filled immediately by Rob Quigley.
Amy Grace Tharp, Doug Ulman, Lauren Willis and Katherine McLane
Rob dreamed up the Texas Social Media Awards. In keeping with the Statesman’s trailblazing efforts, it was, last year, the first of its kind in the state. In the second year, 25 winners from around Texas were recognized, and Gowalla Inc.’s Josh Williams won the overall honor. (His company is already among the buzziest at SXSW.)
Alan and Tricia Graham
As someone who has helped produce an awards ceremony for 20 years, I was impressed, first by the attendance of the winners, gathered from as far away as El Paso. Also, the ease with which the event slipped into the Cedar Door. Those most interested in the awards mingled on the patio, others ducked inside for some (spare) eats.
Ixchel Granada del Rayo and Monica Williams
I talked with some personal heroes, such as “Austin City Limits” producer Terry Lickona, Livestrong’s Doug Ulman and Mobile Loaves and Fishes’ Alan Graham. Others, such as Katherine McLane, (pregnant) Ixchel Granada del Rayo and Monica Williams were darling enough to spend considerable time with me.
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SXSW 11: Blogger Press Mentoring
No firm idea had formed in my mind about the SXSW Film Blogger/Press Mentoring session.
Before I arrived at the Austin Convention Center on Sunday morning, my only real clue was that I was engaging guests one-on-one, which is far superior to speeches or panels at such conferences. None of my colleagues — mostly bloggers — knew what to expect either. (One, Austin Kleon, “a writer who draws,” contributed the image for a hand-on workshop (today) that graces this page.)
No matter. We dug into the speed-dating-style conversations with the kind of missionary zeal that SXSW inspires. Each mentee (momentary protegee?) presented a different problem. One wanted to promote his indie movie. Another was developing a Web site to connect film industry types around particular projects, so, in essence a template waits for movie production in advance. Variations on those themes.
The aspirants came in all conditions. Some were already pretty adept at manipulating social media; others needed basic introduction. One piece of wisdom I repeated: The need for actual human contact. No matter whether we are talking about marketing, PR, journalism, social media or advanced technology, starting with trust between two people, looking into each other’s eyes, that’s what generates the waves of information emanating from social media.
Align goals. Attune personalities.
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SXSW 10: Frog Design Party at the MACC
Word is way out about the Frog Design Party for SXSW Interactive. The masses multiply each year. Happily, the Mexican American Cultural Center plaza can accommodate thousands. This time, familiar features returned: The insect-inspired bicycles, the photo sessions and drink tent. Expanded: Sensors worn around the neck, linked to projections on giant screens, that tracked drinks, meet-ups through manikins and — ew! — toilet data.
Brandy Nowlin and Dave Shaw
Marketer Dave Shaw and I talked about everything under the stars, joined by Brandy Nowlin, who is working on a state beautification program. Also talked trash with event planner Danielle Thomas, joined by the ever creative Adam Garnier. We predicted party photographer Annie Ray would be famous — really famous — one day.
Danielle Thomas and Adam Garner
The annual party is perfectly matched to the modernist-unto-futurist center’s architecture. And the ever-evolving skyline plays its inspirational part. And, oh yes, for all those who claim Austin is completely priced out for the creative class, almost everyone I talked to from California and other innovation centers cited our town’s affordability among its highest values. Just saying.
[Note: Live blogging is nearly impossible during SXSW. Live tweeting works. So for the latest, scan down this page to the black box with current tweets, or follow me @outandabout. The posts here will always summarize an earlier experience.]
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SXSW 9: Spiderwood Studios Party at Speakeasy Terrace
After passing on several parties because the lines moved like glaciers — before global warming — I decided to stick one out. It was a bash thrown by Bastrop’s Spiderwood Studios on the Speakeasy Terrace. I wanted to honor the local heroes and experience the rooftop lounge on an ideal night.
“314” and Michael Donlin
The queue snaked across the entrances to Sky and the Shiner Saloon, almost to the Marq. For long time, it didn’t move at all. Still, I met Michael Donlin, a SXSW registration volunteer, originally from Hawaii, who had done fishing time in Alaska before working for a dubious Austin business. He wore a Platinum badge, making my Gold look a little shabby.
We made friends with a clean-cut gentleman in nice threads who refused to give his name. He offered us, however, his number, 314, embossed on a card like the special passes earned by George Clooney in “Up in the Air.” Don’t know what it means, but it delivered him right into Speakeasy.
Ron Carter and Tommy G. Warren
On the rooftop, I exchanged news with Spiderwood owner, Tommy G. Warren, who brought me up to speed on filmmaking in the Lost Pines. (I still must get out there!) The mood was mellow, even with a live band, and I considered lingering even longer with other raconteurs I’d met, but Frog Design called me East.
[Note: Live blogging is nearly impossible during SXSW. Live tweeting works. So for the latest, scan down this page to the black box with current tweets, or follow me @outandabout. The posts here will always summarize an earlier experience.]
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SXSW 8: Super Meet-Up at Maggie Mae’s
The Super Meet-Up at Maggie Mae’s was smaller than expected, diffidently staffed and not quite up to the adjective “super.” Those small complaints out of the way, I enjoyed the talk more than the music video creations on the stage of MM’s upper lounge.
Jason DeLaPorte and Jose B. Sena and Tim Hayden
My longest conversation engaged Tim Hayden of Blue Clover, an on- and off-line branding company, joined by Jose B. Sena, also of Blue Clover, and Jason DeLaPorte of the Social Styles app for the iPhone and iTouch. Our main question: How are social and smart phones affecting cultural behavior? What will happen, for instance, when rural families and the disadvantaged adopt the technologies? It could be even more transformational than the first waves.
PJ Raval and Sandra Adair
Outside on the Sixth Street deck, cinematographer PJ Raval was caught up in a tight net of admirers. Still, I demanded a snap of him with film editor Sandra Adair. In this crowd, even a cinematographer with charisma, like PJ, stands out. Which recalls a recent published admonishment along lines of “you may be a star on the Internet, but at SXSW, the film folks are still the real celebrities.”
[Note: Live blogging is nearly impossible during SXSW. Live tweeting works. So for the latest, scan down this page to the black box with current tweets, or follow me @outandabout. The posts here will always summarize an earlier experience.]
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SXSW 7: Chill 3.0 at Fogo de Chao Roofftop
“If another 34-year-old man gives me his best elevator pitch …” So complained a knowing SXSW watcher on the first day. Everybody you meet, especially at Interactive and Film, keeps an elevator pitch — otherwise known as a Hollywood pitch — in their back pockets, the better to sell their visions to strangers. I’m perfecting the “party pitch,” which obeys the 15-to-30-second time stricture, but adds the excitement of sharing gossip with friends at a social event: “You wouldn’t believe …”
Andre Nader and Jared Golden
On Saturday, the Entrepreneur’s Lounge, aka Chill 3.0, wasn’t like that at all. The weather was to swoon for atop Fogo de Chao. I first spoke with Andre Nader with Build a Sign and Jared Golden of Apparel Media. One applies words and images to vinyl, the other to cloth. They seem to have struck up an instant SXSW alliance. (We also wondered if beers could send data from bottle to bottle when tapped together, like the Bump app on iPhone.)
I already knew Edward Cruz — a dead ringer for the Statesman’s Omar Gallaga — and met his GuruStorms colleague, James Werner, who was the Libertarian candidate for governor the last go-round. Together, they find ways to monetize expertise through online brainstorming sessions.
Edward Cruz and James Werner
Sam Higgins, online marketer at Aquire, encountered earlier on Trinity Street, and I talked most about his recent adventures with Cormac McCarthy (he loved “The Road,” the book, not the movie, but is finding the Border Trilogy thick. I recommended his earlier, spare Appalachian novels) and William Faulkner (he made the freshman mistake of starting out with “The Sound and the Fury,” only slightly less confusing that Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake.” I advised “As I Lay Dying,” which benefits from clarity and wicked humor).
[Note: Live blogging is nearly impossible during SXSW. Live tweeting works. So for the latest, scan down this page to the black box with current tweets, or follow me @outandabout. The posts here will always summarize an earlier experience.]
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SXSW 6: Follow the Capybara
How apt that my first significant SXSW encounter on Saturday was with a capybara. A nonchalant gentleman walked the giant South American rodent near the Austin Convention Center with a halter leash. According to Wikipedia, “capybaras are social animals, usually found in groups between 10 and 30, though larger groups of up to 100 sometimes can be formed.”
Capybara-like, SXSW Film and Interactive registrants, along with the general public, socialized in groups large and small, often along lines that wound around almost every downtown block. Long queues have always been the norm for movie premieres and music showcases. They have become customary for the social events staged for the interactive conference as well.
Tweets and texts reported waits of more than an hour at some parties. “One in, one out,” was the most overheard phrase. Festival-goers bonded over the advice shared through social media: “Avoid IFC at Karma” … “Pure Volume line around the block” … “Very long line at Cedar Door. Skipping that.”
Up Against the Wall: Sam Higgins, Cynthia Fedor, Jason Stoddard
With a 40 percent rise in registration at SXSW Interactive, the linage should come as no surprise. Networking works while waiting as well. (More on that later.)
[Note: Live blogging is nearly impossible during SXSW. Live tweeting works. So for the latest, scan down this page to the black box with current tweets, or follow me @outandabout. The posts here will always summarize an earlier experience.]
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SXSW 5: Voodoo Cowboy + Dart Music International at Mi Casa
Well, this is fresh: A small music event welcoming the SXSW film and interactive folks with an overseas twist. Not an entirely new concept, but this one links the worldwide web of nonprofit pioneers Dart Music International and local entertainment shape-shifter Voodoo Cowboy.
Just making it to Mi Casa for the event was a trip. Sixth Street was at its best. Happy. Energetic. Diverse. And some of those tribes — including a local prosecutor and a Houston visitor who kindly chatted me up — filtered into Mi Casa for the Dart/Voodoo welcome party.
Lisa Wood and Dave Dart
Dave Dart told me about the 40 or so international acts he’s helping at SXSW this week, including a contingent of Chinese acts. (I score a press copy of “The China Invasion Tour 2010: Featuring Bands from Maybe Mars.)
The act onstage while I was tapping away at my laptop was entirely local, including two sons of Voodoo Cowboy’s Mark Mueller — Max and Andy. They threw themselves into a pounding ’70s sound with enthusiasm.
Max Mueller, Mark “Lion King” Mueller and Andy Mueller
Later, I headed to the Peter Wenz / Gym Class Heroes party at the Phoenix, but the line was even longer than at the TechSet party at Speakeasy — and neither line was moving. So what to do? Take a break from SXSW by checking out Score, the new sports sidebar at Oilcan Harry’s. I liked it. Knowledgeable staff. Beer on tap. Four big screens. Watched Kansas State kick Baylor out of the Big 12 tourney, then walked home.
On Earth as it is in Austin.
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SXSW 4: Tocquigny Party in the Frost Tower + Parkside
This party comes with a following. The full-service advertising agency Tocquigny matches well with SXSW Interactive. Several folks who attended last year recommended it. But I didn’t commit until I’d been contacted directly by Craig Saper, and, later Mary Anne Connolly. (Good to have friends who know their parties. And human interaction counts.)
Craig Saper and Yvonne Tocquigny
Just about everybody who attended — and it looked like 500 to me — snapped shots of the sunset behind the Austin skyline for the offices on the Frost Tower’s 17th floor. The Austonian, Ashton, Monarch, Spring, 360 and W significantly alter that view. I think in a generally good way.
I met several interesting folks, including Mickey Ristroph and John Arrow, the minds behind MutualMobile, Inc. They create apps for the iPhone and shared funny stories about apps good and bad. But I spent the most time with Saper, a born storyteller. He’s in charge of entertainment branding for Tocquigny. I could see him as a movie or TV producer some day. But that’s just me.
John Arrow and Mickey Ristroph
I ingested merely a few corn chips at Tocquigny, so I headed down Congress, then Sixth Street, thick with tourists from basketball and SXSW, to try the rabbit terrine and marscapone ravioli at Parkside. Parkside is an oasis on Sixth and, partly because of its WiFi, but also for its superior food, it will be a regular posting stop for me during the fests.
I met a little group of California filmmakers there, crowding up to the bar. I recommended Parkside’s viognier, though making it clear that Texans can make the varietal almost as well as the French.
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SXSW 3: Convention Center Fun
By now, you’ve heard about the Great SXSW False Alarm of 2010. A few hours ago, when I sat down on the fourth floor of the Austin Convention Center to post this entry, sirens blared and lights flashed. The center was evacuated. (Follow the tweets; follow the tweets: @outandabout.)
Thousands of conventioneers exited calmly down the wide sets of stairs and poured onto Trinity Street. Nobody panicked. I talked to some volunteers, Austinites, and they couldn’t tell what to do right away, because of the horn sounds and their assignments. Eventually people figured it out. It appears that not the whole convention center was emptied. Hard to tell on the ground, but everybody on their electronic devices checking with the rest of the building.
I ran into several Austinites — including marketer Jason Stoddard and Austin Woman magazine executive editor Mary Anne Connolly — plus a playwright, Gavin Dahl, I somehow dissed back in the 1990s. He’s in community radio now. Doesn’t hold a grudge. Also met Cynthia McGrail, community outreach manager for Emmis Marketing, a friend of Connolly and a good sport, given our little fire-alarm trauma.
Cynthia McGrail and Mary Anne Connolly
The scene at the center is totally transformed this year. More like a carnival. Cafes and shops everywhere. Background rhythms and splashes of color. Registration is in a exhibition room, so more convenient, if still a bit confusing.
Now that the Hilton is being used for SXSW events, crowds amble back and forth from the center. Guests are soaking up the glorious weather, too, at outside seating areas. Then they head out, mostly west toward Congress, but some north to Sixth. I headed to the Tocquigny party in the Frost Tower.
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SXSW 2: Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony
If you followed my tweets last night (@outandabout), you know that the 10th anniversary Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards ceremony has lost none of its mojo. While the Pre-Party on Thursday was more muted than usual — the better to savor deep conversations, Shannon Moody — the big party at Austin Studios was as glamorous as ever, even without A-List Hollywood star power.
The outer tent and the inner studios looked classier, the outside decked in black and white, the inside shades of Technicolor. (Did anyone else perceive the color progression?) I counted more than 35 photographers and videographers on the red carpet (that’s where the Statesman’s Larry Kolvoord and Jenny Jones captured the accompanying images). I hung back, catching up with Austin celebs before they entered the dining area.
My table, titled “Marfa,” was cool, near the back where I could scan the human circus and tweet on my laptop without disturbing anyone. City of Austin maven Jim Butler — looking hale and hardy — and I caught up while we exchanged greetings to friends, old and new.
Surfer-phase Thomas Haden Church made a hilarious host, unless you are inflexibly Republican and objected to his calling Gov. Rick Perry a “gay robot.” (It’s a joke.) He was pretty bawdy all evening, saying to event co-founder Evan Smith, “Bring me those French vanilla buttocks!” Earlier, he called Smith and event co-founder Louis Black “tiny mole men.”
As always, the Austin Film Society videos amazed, including a long one about the event’s 10th anniversary. Appropriately, Smith and Black offered their memories. Mostly, Black congratulated his friends and colleagues, thereby congratulating himself. (No mention of the Statesman’s award-winning film writers, for instance.) Smith saluted a wider range of contributors, thereby congratulating the community.
The presenters and honorees entertained: Tim Matheson told of a brawl shared with Bruce McGill when they were researching frat parties. Watching McGill’s clips proved he really deserves the honor. McGill: “The hardest thing I had to do to become a professional actor is leave Austin.”
The live auction, on the other hand, was chaos. Grammy Award party package went for $12,500; walk-on role for “Entourage” for $11,500. Lyle Lovett gave the most dignified, touching presentation of the evening for Lukas Haas. During his acceptance speech, we learned Haas’ grandfather was an editor at the Statesman.
Looking and sounding spookily like LBJ, Michael Nesmith spoke philosophically, movingly, almost as if he was accepting the Nobel Prize. Richard Linklater introduced Quentin Tarantino as Honorary Texan after awesome clips. QT proved more than eloquent and gracious himself, thanking the “hometown away from my hometown.” I’m always on the fence about the eccentric filmmaker — I thought “Inglourious Basterds” was three good films searching for a great one — but he won my heart here.
Over all, a blast. On with SXSW!
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Live Chat with Parkside’s Shawn Cirkiel on the State of Austin Nightlife & SXSW
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SXSW 1: Texas Film Hall of Fame Pre-Party
Back in the 1980s, South By Southwest occupied a long weekend. By 1994, with film and interactive added to music, it grew into a split week, always spring break, then 10 linked days. During the 21st Century, the whole month of March is usually saturated with SXSW socializing, first online, then in person, then online again.
Tim Matheson and Richard Linklater
Since I must cover two solid weeks of charity galas before the advent of SXSW, the Texas Film Hall of Fame Pre-Party is my first festival-oriented live event. Many of the celebrities who grace this annual affair double up walking the red carpet at the Hall of Fame ceremony (always the Thursday before SXSW Film) with appearances at the festival. Works out for everybody.
Anne Ashmun, Kate Hersch and Jane Schweppe
The past two years, the Austin Film Society’s Pre-Parties were absolute blow-outs at the homes of Lance Armstrong, then John and Julie Thornton. This year’s even was more modest, at the dignified but cool Old Enfield home of Jane Schweppe (who counts in the Moodys of Galveston in her family’s orbit). The celebrities proved light on the ground. No Goldie Hawn, who would have been the “get” of the evening for any social columnist. No Quentin Tarantino, for reasons that left guests conjecturing. I must have missed Michael Nesmith.
Deborah Green and Chris Mattsson
That was fine with me. Instead of gawking, I engaged in deeper conversations, with Anne Ashmun on her and her sister’s Nature Conservancy easement in the Davis Mountains; with Catherine Robb, about wildflowers and the Johnson family; with Rick Linklater, about the powerful ‘Macbeth’ scenes in his “Me and Orson Welles”; with John Pierson, about his vinyl collection and Nesmith’s later careers (the PBS video-distribution legal battle was the most memorable account); with Tim Matheson, about “Burn Notice” — he plays psychopath Larry Sizemore — finding its voice. Bruce McGill and Gloria Lee McGill joked, posing with the stuffed-animal art.
If attendance at this year’s Pre-Party was down, it didn’t seem to make any difference to the assembled, who drifted from the hard-to-pass-up porch, to the art-laced rooms and the tented patio. Perfect SXSW weather for it, too.
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Not SXSW: Your A List: Best Statesman Columnist
I suppose I could have abstained from reporting the results of this week’s A List readers poll for Best Statesman Columnist. Conflict of interest, and all.
(What many people don’t know, he’s one of the kindest, most thoughtful reporters in the newsroom, too. Funny in person.)
The newspaper’s first certified digital star, Addie Broyles, who leads Austin’s food-blogging mob into the future, pulled in 13 percent.
Longtime sports columnist Kirk Bohls came in third with 12 percent. (I once said, almost 20 years ago, I wanted to grow up to be the Kirk Bohls of the arts.)
Marques Harper and I virtually tied at 8 percent, which is fitting, since we’re often at the same social events and we started our current columns around the same time.
Chris Garcia’s film column, Cedric Golden’s sports column, Ben Wear’s transportation column, Andrea Ball’s charity column and Jason Embry’s newly minted political column followed in descending order.
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Not SXSW: Your A List: Best Place to Score a Last-Minute Gift
I’ve labeled the headlines about this week’s A List winners “Not SXSW.” That’s not exactly accurate. Any visitor for the massive three-part festival and conference could use the information contained herein.
Thirty percent of the A List readers recommended Breed & Co., the Austin veteran that is demurely called a “hardware store.” Don’t be fooled. Some of the cleverest gifts in kitchenware, plants, novelties and other household needs can be purchased there.
Waterloo Records, never far from any A List poll, came in second with 14 percent, while Toy Joy and BookPeople split just above and just below 13 percent.
Emerald’s — yes, still on North Lamar Boulevard, minus the Coconuts — rang up 8 percent. Zinger buzzed in with 6 percent.
Tesoros Trading Co. — so perfect for SoCo, it’s hard to believe it didn’t start there — tied with Terra Toys, and just ahead Sue Patrick and Aviary.
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Not SXSW: Your A List: Best Locally Owned Business
A List voters are hungry. And they want fun. Plus some local color.
They ignored publicly-traded powerhouses like Dell, Inc., Whole Foods Market, Inc. or Temple-Inland, or cutting-edge capitalists like Austin Ventures.
Instead, they went with the adorable sweetness of Amy’s Ice Cream, which mixed up 28 percent of the vote.
Homeslice, the New York-style pizza joint that just expanded on South Congress Avenue in time for SXSW, sliced up 15 percent.
Waterloo, the iconic record shop, also a prime SXSW stop, came in third with 12 percent.
Magnolia Cafe and Guero’s — South Congress presences as well — virtually tied for fourth.
Schlotsky’s, Hoover’s and Top Notch did well, hovering around 7 percent. Hotel San Jose and Vulcan Video (again with the SoCo) rounded out the list.
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Not SXSW: Your A List: Best Steakhouse
Texans and our steaks. We can’t get enough of them.
The top six finalists for Best Steakhouse in the A List readers poll were so closely matched, they could have tied. Austin Land and Cattle clearly won, though, with 19 percent of the vote.
III Forks, one of the upscale downtown spots, came in second with with just over 15 percent, while laid-back Hoffbrau carved up just under 15 percent.
Ruth’s Chris — each one is separately owned and operated, so not really a chain — forked out 14 percent. Texas Land and Cattle and Fleming’s scored just under 12 percent.
Others making the tender grade were Truluck’s, Backstage, McCormick and Schmick’s, and Joe DiMaggio’s.
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Not SXSW: Steve Hicks-Rick Perry Birthday Party at the Four Seasons
The Rise Across Texas crew, raising money for the Rise Schools of Texas, is halfway across the state. Led by investor and philanthropist Steve Hicks, the cyclists hope for the highest take for a nonprofit in Austin fundraising history. They could just make that goal, when all is said and done.
Steve Hicks and daughter Kristen Hanson
Today, there’s a ceremonial ride from the Rise School of Austin’s southwestern campus to Wimberley. (Prepping for SXSW from dawn till midnight, we’re sending a photographer only. At one point, we agreed to ride. No.)
Andrea McWilliams and Anita Perry
Last night, however, the riders met up with celebrants for Hicks’ 60th birthday, shared with Gov. Rick Perry, also newly 60. Solidly Republican, the crowd at the Four Seasons Hotel dressed in Western touches, nothing too starchy or over the top.
Yvonne Shifrin and Donna Stockton-Hicks
First lady Anita Perry looked resplendent and relaxed after the tough primary. She said some kind things about my column. (I’d love to lunch.) During the cocktail mixer, the governor bounded around like a youngster, tickled to see Hicks, also coaching legends Darrell Royal and R.C. Slocum. (The Aggie and the Longhorn can be friends.)
R.C. Slocum, Darrell Royal and Gov. Rick Perry
How is the ride going? “Nobody badly injured,” Hicks says. “Mostly wind-burn and rain-burn.” He joked about the Texas hotspots — Motel 6 and such — where they’d stayed as they biked from the Louisiana border to Presidio. Radiant Donna Stockton-Hicks, who accompanies the Rise Challenge in the bus, said she was more nervous and stressed than her husband, especially when 18-wheelers rolled up toward his peloton.
Lorene Phillips and Michaelanne Hurst
Lobbyist and Glossy 8 style-maker Andrea McWilliams scanned the assembly at the Four Seasons, saying, “Welcome to my sandbox.” Just about every statewide official was there or was listed on the program. A few Democrats dotted the lists of honorary titles.
This is a subject that we’ll return to: Republicans rule the state; Democrats rule Austin. So when you gather bigwigs here, socially, outside of election-related events, there ought to be a bipartisan slate of guests. And that, I am happy to say, is often the case.
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AGLIFF Oscar Party at the Driskill Hotel
Oscar’s back. And AGLIFF’s got him.
Girard Roche and Scott Landry
Once an essential cultural event, the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival drifted bit during the past 10 years. Mainstream festivals programmed more gay material. Austin gay and lesbian social events multiplied. On the fundraising scene, a gay presence was spread across the city, not just at specialized events.
Jorge Rubalcava, Heath Riddles and Emmanuel Winston
So what to do? AGLIFF’s leaders, led by Scot Tulk, returned to an old gala idea: An Oscar party. Four rooms were decked out on the Driskill Hotel mezzanine, two for more formal seating with dinner, two for minglers with movie snacks. A secret green room served up mixed drinks for party staff.
Debra Davis, Kelly Crook and Tifffany Taylor
It was a monster hit. All the tables sold out. The mood was merry unto festive. The elongated Oscar ceremony was splayed across several walls. Commercials were replaced with comic interviews conducted by Austin drag star Rebecca Havemeyer. There were many, many distractions, so I’m glad Kip recorded the broadcast for later viewing.
Paul Arellanes and Kyle Golden
KOOP OutCast host Heath Riddles invited me to his table, where I sat next to Gary Cooper, who filled me in on several major donors in the room. Most interesting were Scott Landry and Girard Roche, who hosted their own Oscar party for 17 years (Scott, I think, took the lead), but joined forces with AGLIFF this year. At their behest, $3,000 of the money raised this night went to AIDS Services of Austin.
Joe Dickson and John Livingston
Nominate this party for Best Comeback!
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Heart Ball at the Long Center
Bless Allen Beuershausen and Colleen Cole. Tasked with hosting the 2010 Heart Ball for the American Heart Association, they chose the Long Center stage and its ever-evolving hospitality staff. They even scored the inspirational speaking services of Cliff Redd, the Long Center director, still recovering from a traumatic heart episode.
Allen Beuershausen and Loriana Hernandez
I didn’t make it to the center in time for his speech, but I’ve heard the story before, and it is harrowing. We all pray that Cliff has slowed down his hectic schedule, because the Long Center — and Austin — can’t do without him.
Justin Walker and Kristin Kayross
Social tour guide Kevin Smothers steered me around the assemblage. Many of the guests come from the world of health care, and therefore were not as familiar to me.
Kristen and Jason Williams
Jen Ohlson gave me a copy of her book, “Every Town Needs a Trail: Austin’s Crown Jewel,” 160 pages of inspiring stories complemented by photography by Russ Ohlson and Brenda Lindsfors. I adore this book, which was offered as table gifts at the gala.
Jacob Pechenik and Patty Jaynes
Erin Ivey sang standards, which I wished more guests noticed. One small fly in the ointment: The Heart Ball proved smaller than organizers had hoped. See previous posts — and today column — on the desperate need for a social calendar mediator.
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President’s Masked Ball at Sheraton Austin at the Capitol
Moving the President’s Masked Ball, the signature fundraiser for Huston-Tillotson University, to the Sheraton Austin at the Capitol made a lot of sense. The pink-clad hotel on Waller Creek is much closer to the university’s campus on East Seventh Street than the Renaissance Austin out at the Arboretum.
Brenda Benson-Grundy and TreeAndrea Grundy
Its size and decor fit the ball like Cinderella’s slipper. I’m surprised the Sheraton is not booked more often with galas like this one. (On a personal note, it helped my attend four social events on foot that Saturday.)
Cheryl and Jim George
I arrived after power broker Ben Barnes’ keynote address. Most masks had been removed at this point. Folks were finishing off their meals and gearing up for the contemporary jazz and R&B dance sounds of Will Downing.
Mahoganne Willis and Tierra Jones
Since the music was cranked up, I didn’t get a chance to engage in many conversations, though I met lawyer and university board member Jim George and his wife Cheryl, also recently elected homecoming queen TreeAndrea Grundy and her lovely mother Brenda Benson-Grundy. Brief chats with other guests were too short. Some year I’d like to spend the whole evening at the Masked Ball.
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AU40 Awards at AT&T Center
A burnished bunch gathered at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center on Saturday for the Austin Under 40 Awards, which rewards social leadership among the twenty- and thirtysomething set. Charismatic Clayton Christopher, founder and CEO of Sweet Leaf Tea Company, won in the Business & Entrepreneurship category, as well as the evening’s highest honor, 2010 Austinite of the Year.
Merav and Daniel Sternthal
Also laureled in various categories were Laura Donnelly, founder and CEO of Latinitas; James Dyess, CEO and president of Horizon Bank; Melanie Ridings, program officer for the Topfer Family Foundation; Amy Holloway, president and CEO of Avalanche Consulting; Kelli Kelley, director of Texas Parent to Parent; Linda Medina, Southwest regional consultant for McGraw-Hill Education; Tausha Carlson, founder and owner of Marathon Real Estate; Dennis Donley, Jr., partner with the firm of Naman, Howell, Smith & Lee, PLLC; and Lemuel Williams, director of business development, Uptime Devices, Inc.
Roland and Vivian Galang
I caught up with American Gladiator Ally Kelly Davidson, her vivacious sister, Amanda Kelly Webster, and mom Patricia Kelly. Ally was up for the Business & Entrepreneurship Award, but Christopher was a tough opponent. The family, always accomplished, looked fit as a fiddle. Check out Ally’s Camp Gladiator, her burgeoning boot-camp biz.
Ally Kelly Davidson, Patricia Kelly and Amanda Kelly Webster
I also spoke at some length with three Acton Entrepreneur MBA grads — JJ Cunningham, Donny Palmertree and Angela Griffiths — who discussed their post-graduate job searches. The Acton crowd is always a bit sharper than your average business student, perhaps because their program is so enriching. (And, Dirk, I draw that from attending Acton events since it opened. They also don’t seem to be so cynical.)
JJ Cunningham, Donny Palmertree and Angela Griffiths
Couldn’t stay for the actual awards ceremony, but soaked up several more conversations in the dusk-bathed courtyard. More events should start there.
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Crystal Ball Luncheon at Palmer Events Center
Peeling back the layers of Austin’s social scene, one finds the unexpected. Honestly, I’d never heard any details about the Helping Hand Home’s Gala, called the Crystal Ball. Yet the charity, which helps displaced and abused children, goes back 117 years and the first ball was staged in 1939. This is no small group, either. One leader put the attendance at the midday luncheon, fashion show and presentation preview at 1,500, with 1,700 expected for the formal debutante function later Saturday evening at the Palmer Events Center.
Ted Keyser and Jeanne Little
The luncheon portion itself is an epic enterprise. Start with two dozen or so identically dressed “princesses,” first-graders, each presented with biographical details. Then came the pristine, professional Julian Gold fashion show, which appropriately started out with ladies-who-lunch-hats, then proceeded to bold summer wear, cruise ship apparel, Miami-flavored cocktail attire, shinier dance dresses, ending with some tropical swing.
Anne Jarvis and Tracey Bury
After this, I turned back to my tablemates only to find the pre-ball was only halfway over. Next came presentations of the ninth-grade girls, then the official college-agers debs — some second or third generation debs — in day-wear. Their biographies were accompanied by descriptions of the evening’s escorts and junior escorts, who skipped this portion of the event.
Jenny Stokes and Stacie Keliehor
I was exhausted. I couldn’t imagine how the guests felt by the end of the evening (while I attended three other balls), much less the brave, funny event chairwomen, Francie Little and Susan Prickett. Valiant weatherman Jim Spencer spoke for at least two of the three hours at the luncheon alone.
Despite my exhaustion, the display was fascinating. One learns so much about Austin’s history at these ancient rituals, once meant as socially closed matchmaking affairs. (Does that still obtain?) Board President Jeanne Little and new executive director Ted Keyser helped educate me.
Just to give you an indication of the event’s scale: The 308-page catalog that lists all the debs, escorts and sponsors weighed in a 1.5 pounds.
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New Wave Ball at Hyatt Regency Austin
My expectations were low. I had agreed to judge costumes and dancing at the New Wave Ball, a modest-sized fundraiser for Austin Children’s Shelter at the Hyatt Regency Austin. I’d attended so many ’80s-themed parties lately, it seemed like a stale idea. Still, the cause is good and the night was open.
Chi Dinh and Ed Roman (Winners: Best Couple)
Turns out I had a delightful time. My fellow judges were media types, some, like Taylor Perkins, duded out for the event. We spent time posing for the good-souled Annie Ray. Then we wandered around with tiny clipboards noting memorable costumes or adept dance-floor work.
Rosa Scott and Chris Rodriguez
This was fun. Costumes — shades of Madonna, Robert Smith, Don Johnson — matched the music. Several guests talked about their memories of the ’80s, although clearly the youngest were still in diapers at the time. Since that decade was the last of my single years, the attire and behavior on the dance floor evoked mixed emotions.
Krysten Mejia, Kathy Schieffer, Selena Weiss and Heather Greenberg (“The Madonnas,” winners: Best Group; Sheiffer also won best costume)
But how would a committee of alpha types agree on the winners? A breeze. Stephen Moser added categories for “Best Couple” and “Best Group,” chosen instantly, unanimously. TV, radio, Internet and print personalities quickly agreed on the three costume and dancing winners.
Note: Best Couple, Chi Dinh and Ed Roman, “won” a mention in my column. Which they earned before we made up that honor on the spot. “The Madonnas” will appear in Moser’s column.
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Austin Cabaret Theater at the Kodosky Lounge
Established fact: There is an audience for cabaret in Austin. At the highest level. Austin Cabaret Theatre has proven that over the course of its first nine seasons. Almost every national marquee act has graced Stuart Moulton’s stage, now urbanely situated in the Kodosky Lounge with its panoramic skyline view.
Jackson Iffinger and Riley Britton
The crowd trends older, with inevitable sprinklings of musical queens (and I embrace that term enthusiastically for myself as well). The tables at Kodosky are a bit too large by cabaret standards, complicating any movement or conversation. Yet I wouldn’t trade it for any other Austin cabaret location.
Carmen Emiliani and Norb Johnson
The duo playing two nights this week were Klea Blackhurst, best known for her Ethel Merman takes, and Billy Stritch, famous, I suppose, for dating Liza Minnelli and an artist I’ve followed since his first trios — Montgomery, Plant and Stritch and Montgomery, Mayes and Stritch — played Houston clubs and theaters in the early 1980s.
Amy Shipherd, Sam Rieger and Mary Castilla
They collaborated on the ideal Hoagy Carmichael revue. Blackhurst reveled in the revealing historical patter and the singers shared tributes to the composer’s masterpieces (“Stardust,” “The Nearness of You,” “Georgia on my Mind,” etc.) as well as his minor side excursions (a shuffle, movie and theater material). Their interpretations were inventive (every tricky in “Heart and Soul”), never disrespectful. I was especially glad there was no ungainly medley.
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TAP’s Big Kids Party at the Allan House
It’s no secret that I’m a skeptic regarding groups like Theatre Action Project, which promotes creative arts and eduction for social change. All the testimonials in the world can’t convince me that something as culturally complex as theater can significantly alter social behavior in a predictable manner. There are too many variables.
Niyanta Spelman and Arlen Johnson
That doesn’t stop me from admiring the people who attempt it. And TAP is as thorough-going as a mixed arts/social service nonprofit can be. I’ve been impressed by their seriousness — and the seriousness of the fun they generate as a byproduct.
Southern Longoria, Carla Jackson and Leonardo Zornberg
Take the fundraiser Big Kids Party, a carnival for the grown-ups who support TAP at Allan House on Thursday. The distinguished, multi-story house in the Original Austin neighborhood lent a homey feel to the games and gimmicks that guests attacked with abandon.
Yajaira and Eric McGiver
I wish TAP and its allies well. They’ve attracted top-rate talent. And they care. That still counts.
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Tribeza Issue Launch at the Gibson
On Thursday, the new Tribeza hit the stands. Yes, despite the public and acrimonious split among the owners, the pioneering Austin lifestyle magazine launched its 103rd issue. Please don’t ask us to take sides. We like all the principals.
Graydon Parrish, Eddie Safady and Skeeter Miller
The launch party was held at Gibson Bar, the buzzy new bar across South Lamar Boulevard from Alamo Drafthouse and Highball. Master designer Joel Mozersky’s inspiration was the movie “There Will Be Blood,” and there’s a dark, leathery, California mining country feel to the unobtrusive space.
Joel Mozersky and Ben Brown
Making the rounds, I’m afraid I failed to express my condolences to Skeeter Miller about the accidental death of his County Line Barbecue business partner Randy “Rib King” Goss in February. Still, I did congratulate him on critic Mike Sutter’s glowing — and glowingly written — Restaurant Week review in 360.
Bennett and Lauren Ford
SoLa is throbbing with energy and new businesses like Gibson Bar are taking advantage of it. The only missing element: Pedestrian improvements. It would make sense, for instance, to meet for a cocktail at Gibson before dashing to a movie at Alamo. Don’t try it on foot. South Lamar is a traffic monster.
A final note on the name: Prior to attending the Tribeza event, I assumed the name Gibson came from “Gibson Girl” or the like. No, the bar sits on the corner of Lamar and Gibson Street, which stops and starts all through the Bouldin neighborhood.
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Very late report: Independence Day at Bullock Texas State History Museum
The Bob Bullock Texas History Museum is not like any other institution in town. And the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum Foundation is a charity unlike any other. So, no wonder the foundation’s Texas Independence Day Dinner is an event unto itself. Formal, in a nervous way, and earnest, in a winning way.
This year, the honorees were former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush. They were named History Making Texans, a rather awkward title, but not undeserved. Attending the ceremony on Tuesday in numbers were state’s Republican establishment, along with various bigwigs, ambassadors and other dignitaries.
This was the first event wherein a state trooper’s bomb dog sniffed my camera. Once that ritual was completed, I mingled with the non-VIPs in the museum’s rotunda, as the big shots slowly descended for dinner and formalities. I talked with the Texas Cultural Trust’s Amy Barbee about the Texas Medal of the Arts nominating process. If that group did nothing else (it does), it stirs up conversation about which Texans deserve eternal representation (yes, Marques, we talked about Tom Ford).
I also talked with Donna Stockton Hicks about growing up in the Mid-Cities (she attended the same high school as Kip) and about the upcoming Rise Across Texas fundraiser. Would she ride a bicycle across the state, like her husband, Steve Hicks? “I’ll be in the bus with the cupcakes,” she said. I met some other folks who made my mid-evening — between the Entrepreneurs Foundation’s Independence Day fun and “Fiddler on the Roof” — merry.
I couldn’t stay for the actual speeches, which the Statesman’s Isadora Vail faithfully recorded. Folks interested in 43’s state of mind during the ceremony should consult new video of the event. Telling.
Sorry, no photos. I cleared out my iPhoto during my otherwise accommodating Apple One to One session today. First time that’s happened.
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Close encounter with John Mayer?
So I’m running Nora the Explorer Lab this morning, circumnavigating the perimeter of the Texas School for the Deaf in South Austin.
As I near the bus stop on the school’s South Congress Avenue border, I catch, out of the corner of my eye, an unusual sight: A parked black SUV with deeply tinted windows.
Security? No lettering on the SUV. So, serious security?
Behind the SUV waits an elegant, white limo. And behind that, lumbers up a black, stretch Hummer.
Now this is odd. As I slow, the driver’s window slides down.
“Michael!”
“Uh, yeah,” I sputter, leaning over to see the driver.
“I read your columns!”
“Thanks.” Then, into his phone, the driver says: “I’m talking to Michael Barnes with the newspaper. If anyone knows, he will.”
Gulp. Are we playing celebrity Jeopardy with the people behind the tint?
“Where’s the nearest mansion in this neighborhood?”
“Mansion? This is not a fancy neighborhood …”
“I love this neighborhood!”
“I do, too. I live here. What about the Hotel St. Cecilia around the corner? It’s not big, but it’s nice …”
“Yeah, I drove Pearl Jam when they stayed there.”
“Or you could try Green Pastures on Live Oak Street. It looks like a mansion from a distance.”
“Great! We need it for a photo shoot. Thanks Michael.”
So who would need two limos and serious security for a photo shoot?
The former president was in town earlier this week. No, surely his people would nix the Hummer. Wynton Marsalis was seen eating breakfast here this morning, someone texts me. But he doesn’t need security.
John Mayer! It has to be John Mayer, who’s playing the Erwin Center on Monday. (But he has a tour date in Houston on Saturday.)
Later I call Green Pastures.
“Hey, I sent John Mayer over there for a photo shoot. Did he show up?”
“No. But too bad. The peacocks were out today. The albino ones were doing a mating dance.”
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The arrival of jazz trumpeter Jeff Lofton
Did jazz trumpeter Jeff Lofton really immigrate to Austin just three years ago?
It seems like he and his writer/publicist wife, Dean Lofton, along with collaborating artists, have permeated local jazz for ages. Without the benefit of multiple jazz clubs — the Elephant Room remains Austin’s mainstay — or dedicated radio stations — KAZI, KOOP and KUT do their parts — the Loftons make it seem like there’s an actual jazz scene out here.
At that West Austin artistic hub, he will again assay his grandest project— “Jeff Lofton’s 1950s Miles Davis Tribute” — on March 13. As he did earlier at the Victory Grill and Elephant Room, he and four other instrumentalists — and a singer — will attempt to replicate the sound from the jazz great’s cool and blue periods. The show will resurrect music pioneered by the Miles Davis Quintet, and will include selections from the multi-platinum album, “Kind of Blue,” which turned 50 last year.
Lofton hopes to tour the act extensively to museums and specialty venues in North America and Europe, then move on to Davis’ more radical 1960s evolutions.
Why has Austin embraced Lofton, 43, so thoroughly, that he can brave such a nervy self-assignment?
“There’s a culture of appreciation for musical artistry here,” says the native of Germany who grew up in a South Carolina military family. “Not just what sounds good and looks good, but: ‘Do you have the actual technique and are you saying something musically?’ ”
Loften has connected with local music critics and record buyers as well, though they might not know that his wind and control are amplified by a missing front tooth, the result of a front-yard accident at age 10 or 11 that left it shattered, but oddly not painful.
Lofton’s first gig after moving to Austin from Columbia, S.C. was the no-frills Club 40 on East 12th Street.
“They paid just enough for me to hire a drummer,” he says. “Someone else provided left-hand keyboard. But the audience was very receptive, as all Austin audiences have been.”
Despite monumental efforts over the years from folks like Tina Marsh, Harold McMillan, Pamela Hart, Alex Coke, Hannibal Lokumbe, Reed Clemons and even Marc Katz —who opened the ambitious but short-lived Top of the Marc in the 1990s — as well as the legions of Victory Grill revivalists, no musicians, promoters or club owners have managed to make jazz a pivotal Austin genre.
“Well, there’s so much of a deep-rooted connection with blues, country and, of course, rock, here,” Lofton says. “When you are blessed with so much of that, it’s hard for a different music to emerge.”
In one of those serendipitous Austin moments, as we spoke about the relative dearth of jazz, Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” came on over the speakers at Snack Bar on South Congress Avenue. The insinuating sound competed with a loud scrubbing from a service area. “She could at least do it on the one,” joked Lofton.
“Miles Davis has always been a big influence on me,” he says. “I’ve wondered if we could pull off a show that would really recreate his sound. For one thing, you have to get exactly the right piano: Bebop, Bud Powell-influenced, mixed with blocked chords and the harmonic bounce of stride, ragtime and earlier styles. So you’ll hear the Fats Waller, Art Tatum and Bud Powell.”
Lofton is not alone in thinking that Davis’ 1950s sound permanently affected the way we hear music in general, including standards like “Bye, Bye Blackbird,” “My Funny Valentine” and “I Thought about You.” But while jazz artists often dip into Davis’ later periods, including his fusion phase, they treat his earlier work as sacrosanct, not a subject for revival.
“He’s a sacred cow,” he says. “The truth is, the music is difficult to emulate, and musicians feel it’s set in stone.”
Before returning to the subject of Davis, Lofton and I detour into a routine complaint for Austin jazz lovers: Talking. We shared anecdotes about clueless clubgoers who chatter at the top of their lungs, even during hushed instrumental interludes.
“In Austin, people will go to a classical concert and won’t talk at all,” he says “They don’t realize jazz is another high art that takes a lot of concentration, especially with 13 conversations going on.”
Are Austin audiences just the worst at this kind of interference?
“It’s not so much worse here, it’s that clubs don’t (discourage) it,” he says. “In a New York club, they’d say: ‘You can hold it down, or pay your tab and never come back.’”
Lofton won’t have to worry about aural interruptions at One World, where audiences treat music with a reverence appropriate for Davis.
“If you don’t recreate his sound, it goes out of mainstream consciousness,” Lofton says. “And of any American music, this should be in the mainstream consciousness. Miles Davis should be as popular in this country as Michael Jackson.”
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Live Chat with Larry Davis on the State of Austin Nightlife
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Reflections on Fierstein’s “Fiddler”
Before it closes on Sunday, I should say a few words about the touring version of “Fiddler on the Roof” starring Harvey Fierstein at Bass Concert Hall.
Road show director Sammy Dallas Bayes clearly respects the essentials from the 1964 Broadway production, but in hundreds of small ways, he departs from holy writ. This is healthy and refreshing.
To be clear, there’s nothing radical in his interpretation, or that of his star, whose handprints are on every scene. Audiences are always watching Tevye to see how he’ll react to each new test to his character. And Fierstein takes full possession of the role from the second he opens his lips.
The performer’s character voice takes only a few minutes of adjustment. (Side note: The sound amplification at Bass was pitch perfect on opening night for once.) Fierstein’s comic inventions remained mostly on target, especially during the long dream sequence. A little camp at times? Sure, but that’s part of the human experience as well.
His most telling additions, however, delve into more serious emotions, making connections where none existed in previous “Fiddler” productions. The way he wipes his hand after touching Fyedka in the tailor shop, or envelopes Golde’s fingers for a moment before leaving Anatevka, these introduce unforeseen facets of humanity into the role and show.
I had waited a long time to see “Fiddler” again. I cherish memories of a University of Houston production in the early 1970s that made the material so vivid (and, similar to what Fierstein recountd in his interview here, was closer to a time when anti-Jewish feelings were still pervasive). Like Fierstein, I’m not a huge fan of the movie.
Over the years, I’ve seen a wide range of performances, though. (The one I wish I’d seen was former Statesman editor Jeff Salamon’s middle school Tevye. Picture it.) This one belongs among the most memorable, precisely because of what Fierstein embellishes.
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Your A-List: Best Place to Park Downtown
You’ve got to be kidding. No, I’m not going to reveal my secret downtown parking spots. Then they wouldn’t be secrets any more.
Readers agree. Street parking earned 32 percent of the vote in the A List readers poll on Best Place to Park Downtown. You must pay during the day, and you must negotiate those new-fangled meters, but given the alternatives, the cost is minimal. At night, look for streets on the ragged margins of popular entertainment districts — not in between them.
The City Hall garage remains popular — despite recent news-making incidents — driving away with 15 percent of the tally. Valet parking, a profession I deeply respect and use outside of downtown, especially for parties in the hills, came in third with 13 percent.
In descending order, the other voted locations were the Garage at Seventh and Lavaca street, the State garage at Fourth and San Antonio street, Under Interstate 35, Teachers Retirement System lot, U.S. Post Office lot, One American Center garage and Austin Convention Center garage.
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Your A-List: Best Comic Book Store
Who would have predicted that, in 2010, comic books, aka graphic novels, would be bigger than ever, far exceeding their reach to primarily preteen boys 50 or 60 years ago? Now they are an enduring, influential and even cutting-edge part of global culture. (Quick, list the number of movies and TV shows either based on or inspired by comics.)
Iconic Dragon’s Lair fired up 25 percent. Capstone Comics smacked down 12 percent. Half-Price Books — which carries everything printed — 10 percent.
Comics and More flipped 8 percent. Four percent or less went to Bee Cave Comics and Games and First Federal.
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Your A-List: Best Neighborhood Grocery
I grew up in grocery stores, so to speak. My family owned a small supermarket in the Westbury neighborhood of southwest Houston, then later a larger, more modern spot in Clear Lake City. I can recall the location of every item in the original Barnes Westbury Minimax, now a dollar store on West Airport Boulevard.
Newly renovated Wheatsville Food Co-op ran a close second to the IGA with 22 percent. Mandola’s, which is leagues above from our old Minimax in sophistication, carried out 15 percent
Fresh Plus, an Austin oldtimer, rang up 11 percent. Farm to Market, my current neighborhood mart, took 6 percent, to the 5 percent for Avenue B Grocery and Thom’s Market.
Royal Blue, the downtown pioneer, stocked 4 percent, followed by Cissi’s (now mostly a wine and coffee bar) and Bluebonnet Food Mart.
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Your A-List: Best Cocktail
Don’t mess with drinking traditions in Austin. Despite the new wave of top-shelf cocktails mixed at Péché, Perla, Fino, Cover 3, East Side Showroom and elsewhere, A List readers stuck by their longtime orders.
The Mexican martini at Trudy’s slurped up another 25 percent, meaning that species of cocktail — a cousin to the margarita — shook up a full 85 percent of the tally.
The only other drink to manage significant numbers was the precious, floral Prickly pear margarita at Vivo, decorated with 10 percent.
Serving up 1 percent or less were the Purple margarita at Baby A’s, Cucumber martini at Manuel’s, Chilango margarita at El Chile, Batini at Four Seasons, Mango margarita at Hula Hut, Pomegranate cosmopolitan at Belmont and the Caipirinha at Saba.
Cheers.
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Stars will converge for Nobelity Dinner
Gala veterans agreed Turk and Christy Pipkin’s 2008 Nobelity Dinner was the star-studliest social event of that season.
Sitting at tables with ordinary folks will be Texas movie types like Matthew McConaughey, Billy Bob Thornton, Camila Alves, Elizabeth Avellan, Connie Britton, Kyle Chandler, Brad Leland, Rick Linklater and Bill Paxton.
Nobel-winning physicist Steve Weinberg will join literary celebrities Sarah Bird, Steve Harrigan, Jaston Williams and Bill Wittliff. Other musical guests include Charlie Sexton, Eliza Gilkyson, Kat Edmonson, Charlie Sexton, Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Shawn Colvin.
Proceeds support education work in the U.S. and abroad, including construction of Mahiga Hope High School in Kenya. Top tables are going for $10,000, but more reasonable prices are still available; contact: christy@nobelity.com.
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Texas Independence Day Celebration at the Four Seasons
State patriots encountered no scarcity of Texas Independence Day events in Austin yesterday. One that I picked from the hamper was as small gathering hosted by the Entrepreneurs Foundation at the Four Seasons. One hundred or so people attired in “business casual” clustered around a buffet and a bar before hearing about the prime couple of the evening.
Donna Berber and Shane Berber
That would be Philip and Donna Berber. To remind readers, the Berbers sold CyberTrader.com to Charles Schwab, then parked $100 million in Schwab stock in their Glimmer of Hope Foundation. By concentrating on basic needs — clean water, education, etc. — for the world’s neediest in places, like Ethiopia, they were recently ranked by Barron’s Magazine ahead of Bill and Melinda Gates and other mega-philanthropists for the direct impact of their giving.
Animesh Kumar and Geetika Mahajan
Entrepreneurs generally make handy conversationalists. I talked with Nancy Giordano, principal with Purple Telescope, about predicting the future for clients like Del Monte. I compared notes with marketer Jason Stoddard, principal at Stagira Inc. about life balancing and the evolution of Out & About into a “city” column. I met Donna Berber, with Shane, briefly, but still haven’t spent quality time with her or Philip, two of Austin’s most interesting people.
Bill Bock and Eugene Sepulveda
[More later on two other events last night, the Bullock Texas History Museum celebration and “Fiddler on the Roof.”]
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Social Record 1
Twitter has replaced the shortest, most traditional blog posts, you might have noticed. Especially when one’s tweets are published on the same page as one’s blog (see the black box below the commentaries).
Every once in a while, however, it makes sense to aggregate those strands of observation. Hence this first, experimental Social Record of short items for Out & About. …
Ted Hibler, executive director of the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center, is a Renaissance man. Actor, writer, manager, world traveler, Hibler wears many hats. He gave me a comprehensive tour of the facilities before we sat down to lunch at chef Josh Watkins’ Carillon, best known as the center’s dinner spot. Ran into Paula Beihler who was meeting with Watkins, along with his and her staffs. …
Met with staff members from the Lady Bird Wildflower Center to consult about the upcoming articles in the Lady Bird Legacy Wildflower series. Learned a lot about the center as a gathering and distribution point for public information on sustainability, master gardening, indigenous plants and, conversely, invasive species. …
The Longhorns redeemed their home series with a win over the Sooners last night. It was pretty grim for three quarters of the game. Then the team roared back, and we roared with them. Even on the top row of the top seats of the Erwin Center, we felt like part of the action. …
Sean Martin, Helen Merino and Pam Christian were stand-outs in Austin Shakespeare’s “Mary Stuart.” … I kept thinking Susanne Abbott deserves a spot on Austin City Limits all through her recent concert at Zach Theatre, backed by top-shelf side men. Buy her new CD: “No History of Prevention.” … Sarah Gay and Andrew Cannata kept every minute of “John and Jen” real, ultimately moving at the Hideout. … Ballet Austin’s “Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project” reminded me how lucky we are to merit such creative and interpretive artists in Austin. Ravishing.
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Live Chat with Laura Garcia on the State of Austin Nightlife
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Harvey Fierstein: The Interview
Harvey Fierstein realizes almost everyone attending “Fiddler on the Roof” this week in Austin will arrive with at least one Tevye already inside their heads.
Fierstein, best known for writing and starring in “Torch Song Trilogy” — also for playing Edna Turnblad in Broadway’s “Hairspray” — analyzed almost every aspect of Tevye before playing him on Broadway five years ago. That spirit of artistic inquiry has extended through the tour that stops Tuesday through March 7 at Bass Concert Hall.
The Tevyes inside his head go way back. Fierstein, 58, distinctly remembers Zero Mostel’s 1964 performances, which introduced the musical about shtetl life in Russia written by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein. The Jewish boy from Brooklyn was already theater-astute by age 12.
“My mother would buy tickets on the first row of the balcony for two or three dollars,” he recalls. “We didn’t have any money. But those are the best seats in the house. Then somebody figured that out, changed the name to the ‘mezzanine,’ and started charging as much as for the orchestra seats.” Seeing Jewish life portrayed so openly and lovingly in the theater shocked him.
“I knew that, in show business, Jews had to change their names, get a nose job and pass for white,” he says. “And now the curtain comes up on a stage of full of Jews! They talked and prayed like Jews. They even looked like Jews with the prayer shawls hanging out.”
Zero Mostel’s inventive take on Tevye — sometimes more vaudeville than shtetl — reverberates in his memory, too.
“I can close my eyes and picture him on the cart and at Shabbat prayer,” he says, then joking: “Three-hundred-eighty years later, they asked me to do it.”
When the producers of the most recent — of many — Broadway revivals approached Fierstein to replace Alfred Molina, Fiestein had recently closed out his Tony Award-winning drag performances in “Hairspray.” He wondered if there would there be any question of his famously unusual voice carrying the role.
“I insisted on singing the whole musical score for Jerry, Sheldon and Joe in a tiny studio with folding chairs,” he says. “I didn’t want there to be any surprises. For them.”
He reports that they laughed through the performance. “I said: ‘You still think this is funny after 40 years?’ ” One of the creators even wept. Though some critics insist that an operatic baritone sing Tevye, Fierstein follows in the Broadway tradition of Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and other stars with character voices who made the transition from speaking to singing — the scariest moment in musicals — more credible. Which is important, given the emotional attachments audiences have made with this music.
“The songs in ‘Fiddler’ are practically folk music by now,” he says. “Everybody knows ‘Sunrise, Sunset,’ ‘Matchmaker,’ ‘Tradition.’ You hear them at every bar mitzvah and wedding.”
To prepare further, Fierstein read everything he could by Sholem Aleichem, who wrote the original Tevye tales. The actor listened to every recording of the musical, including one in Yiddish. He also watched the silent film version of “Tevye and His Daughters,” gaining more insight into his character’s pain when his daughter, Chava, decides to marry a Christian.
“I tore that script apart,” he says. “I talked to the boys (his term of endearment for Bock, Harnick and Stein, the eldest now 97) over and over. They came to the show every other week.”
Fierstein concentrated on what audiences would have perceived back in 1964. “They were still a lot of anti-Jewish feelings around them,” he says. “Jews were still not allowed in some hotels. Signs read: ‘No dogs or Jews.’ That’s hard for more modern audiences to understand.”
Especially those for whom the “Fiddler” experience rests on the 1971 film with Topol or a high-school production. (For the record, Fierstein doesn’t care for the movie adaptation, which he considers beautiful, but not true to the spirit of Aleichem.)
He says that the biggest mistake interpreting Tevye is making him an Everyman, just one of the people in the village.
“He’s a special person,” Fierstein says. “Because of his love for his girls, his love of life and his imagination. He’s bridging the world of shtetl life into modernity. Shtetl life is death. Many who left didn’t make it, either. Tevye survived somehow. He moved into modern life. You watch him bend and bend and bend. He embodies modernity.”
Fierstein thinks the world has taken a step back from modernity with the rise of rigid fundamentalism. Yet he’s still convinced of the positive effect of musicals. “A magic happens,” he says. “Three minutes into the show, you look out, and what used to be a mass of individuals are all now wearing the same goofy smiles. They are in Musical Comedy Land. They feel they are being taken care of.”
Soon after opening in “Fiddler” on Broadway, Fierstein exited through the stage door to find a Hasidic family — a mother, a father and three children — on the sidewalk, waiting to see the cast.
“There was this child with piercing eyes, just staring at me,” he remembers. “I said, ‘Cookie, are you OK?’ He replied in the most innocent way: ‘Are you really Jewish?’ Which took me right back to my first experience with ‘Fiddler.’ That made everything worthwhile. Or the (Jewish) phrase: ‘That has been enough.’ ”
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