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Twelfth Night, Russian Christmas and Will Klemm
Twelfth Night was a pagan festival adapted by the Christian church to celebrate the Epiphany and, in the West, the visitation of the Magi. Though discouraged after the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, some Christians retained the feast day’s carnival atmosphere inherited from the Roman Saturnalia.
In this pagan tradition of social misrule, University of Texas English professor and Shakespeare scholar Bob Twombly and his wife, Sheila Twombly, threw a Twelfth Night party in their small Harris Park area home. When they moved a few blocks away to a big-boned 1934 house on Bellevue Place — it had belonged to the distinguished Cavness family — the party moved with them.
Sheila and Bob Twombly mock New Gingrich as newt phases
It attracted mostly UT faculty who relished the chance to dress up in elaborate costumes and tweak social and political conventions. That was at least 40 years ago (although Bob Twombly told me the party dates back 44 years).
Thomas Moe and Cass Grange
It continues under the aegis of the next generation, which includes son Thomas Twombly, president of Lucien, Stirling & Gray Advisory Group and a prominent St. Stephen’s Episcopal School alum, and his wife, Dana Twombly, a real estate agent with Turnquist Properties. They purchased the big house from his parents in 2002 and, at the insistence of neighbors, preserved the party tradition.
Paul Andries, Thomas Twombly and Kelly Twombly
The costuming and commentary have not flagged — Bob and Sheila Twombly came as different phases of an amphibious newt in mockery of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. The Saturnalian aspect has, however, evolved with the character of the next generation and their friends. One IBM employee, for instance, begged me not to photograph her as a French maid accompanied by a man portraying accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Wise.
Duncan Hopson and Aek Sommai Jekaram
Lovely to see such a tradition honored, nonetheless, just up the hill from the onetime site of Eeyore’s Birthday Party, started in 1963 by another UT English professor, Lloyd W. Birdwell, Jr.
While the Twelfth Night Party turned 40 (or more), the Russian Christmas Party hit its 10th anniversary, just blocks away in Hemphill Park at the home of the Austin Wine Guy Rob Moshein and website designer Bob Atchison. (Their Russian Easter Party is now 18 years old. Keep those traditions alive!)
Alex Andrawes and Graham Schmidt
For those who have not seen their collection of Russian Imperial art and memorabilia — inside the stucco house that once belonged to the Rather family — it’s an endless wonder. They serve traditional Russian food and the guests are always captivating.
Eileen Gill and Kevin Pruitt
Two in particular raised new conversational themes: Retired UT Press director Joanna Hitchcock and San Francisco visitor Albert Bartridge, who seemed to know everyone important in the city by the bay, but also some European royalty, which fit the party theme nicely.
Joanna Hitchcock and Albert Bartridge
Even earlier in the evening, I dropped by the Wally Workman Gallery to check in on Will Klemm’s opening. Klemm is the popular landscapist who refused to march in lockstep with his peers. He always injects a bit of mystery into his idealized views.
Catherine Mears and Will Klemm
He and his guests were in high spirits. We talked of his house over in the Guadalupe neighborhood down the way from architect Emily Little and also the French Legation (which is more important? I vote for Little).
Kathy Pong and Eve Norris
Also ran into the bewitching Sara Fox and her kits, Kate, Nick and Molly Fox.
Kate, Sara, Nick and Molly Fox
Never too early to expose the pups to good art.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the name Cavness was misspelled.
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By Bob Twombly
January 10, 2012 3:03 PM | Link to this
Thank you, Michael, for not suggesting that our green and orange faces are normal. My wife was actually beautiful before the poster-paint went on, and was so again after a vigorous shower. There have been costumes in the past that were fortunately never photographed!