 |
|
Gala veterans agreed Turk and Christy Pipkin’s 2008 Nobelity Dinner was the star-studliest social event of that season.
The luminaries will shine just as brightly April 11 at the Four Seasons for the event’s second edition. Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Joe Ely, Hannibal Lokumbe and Ray Benson will serenade guest of honor, Willie Nelson.
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 ...
Flag post 
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, ... Flag post 
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.
The Crestview IGA, a distant relation to that family Minimax, won the A List readers poll for best Austin neighborhood grocery, checking out 25 percent of the vote. (Some day, remind me to sing for you the Minimax jingle I wrote at age 12. I ... Flag post 
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.
But I will tell you that, in 25 years, I’ve almost never paid to park downtown after dusk. There’s always a place — safe, free and nearby. You just have to explore. And maybe walk a bit.
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 ... Flag post 
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.)
For local aficianados, the shopping, browsing or shipping choices are generous. Austin Books & Comics won the A List readers poll for Best Comic Book Store with 40 percent of the vote.
Iconic Dragon’s Lair fired up 25 percent. Capstone Comics smacked ... Flag post 
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. …
Last Saturday, five high-profile parties — Bluebonnet, Tulip, CASAblanca, Art City Austin and Red, Hot & Soul — bumped into one another. This Saturday, it’s the Heart Ball, Crystal Ball, Masked Ball, Austin Under 40 Awards and Changing Lives ... Flag post Flag post 
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.
“That’s the problem with doing a classic role,” Fierstein oozes in his pebble-grinder basso. “There are always expectations. Expectations lead to prejudice. And prejudice is the greatest enemy of art. One should come to art with an open heart and an open mind.”
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 ... Flag post Flag post 
Erin Lane does not want your pity. He doesn’t seek your help. The U.S. Army veteran, who struggles to find full employment in a post-jobs economy, doesn’t even demand your respect.
“I know respect is a lot to ask for in today’s society,” Lane says. “Still, I’m amazed by the staggering lack of compassion.”
Austin native Lane, 25, resembles many other young people I’ve met lately, especially people I’ve profiled in recent columns: Carlos Sosa, Jetté Momant, Sasha Stone Guttfreund, David Alan, Joe Eifler.
Their families aren’t rich or famous. One is working his way through school by capitalizing on his passion ... Flag post 
When power lawyer and power philanthropist Becky Beaver invites you to her “cottage” for the first time, you smile indulgently. Surely she means the term ironically. But no. Beaver and husband John Duncan moved into a modest, bungalow-like house on busy Bull Creek Road, just north of 45th Street, back in 1980, when the neighborhood was a bit dicier and she had just started her firm and her family.
Lynn Yeldell and Becky Beaver
They never left. The former dairy included a creamery and well house, once part of an 100-acre farm. It really is a cottage, though. Additions to ... Flag post 
Photographer of radiance Annie Ray set up shop near the door. At the far side of the Ranch’s rooftop terrace stood a Say Cheese photo booth. In between, at least six professional photographers prowled. And that doesn’t count all the guests who continuously snapped the social scene for digital posterity.
Ryan Tietz, Katy Dunlap and Adam Lewis
The Thursday night launch party for Seen, an online publication featuring user-generated words and images, brought out the forever young, the inveterate nightlifers and the just plain curious. They all seemed ready to indulge in the latest social media concept, while DJ Toddy ... Flag post 
It starts with the house. Everyone wants to visit Dr. John Hogg and David Garza’s prism-like jewel above Lake Austin. They gawk at the views, explore the puzzling floor plan, examine the charismatic art. If there’s a better place for a small-to-medium-sized fundraiser in Austin, I haven’t seen it.
The house is only the beginning. The hosts are almost ethereally gracious, gliding from one guest to another, making each everone as if they were the only ones that mattered. Need more munchies or a drink? Want to meet somebody with an interesting story? Garza and Hogg at your service.
The ... Flag post Flag post 
St. Davids Community Health Foundation is among Austin’s largest, its invested assets in the $150 million range, plus annual slices of profit from its hospitals’ managing partner. Its Toast of the Town fundraisers for the Neal Kocurek scholarships in health care studies are among the most revered in town. So it’s only natural that the series’ Prelude & Accolades reception was held at the dignified Bauer House.
Graciela Cigarroa, Eddie Safady, Charles Duggan and Sandy Silver
The official residence of the University of Texas System Chancellor, Bauer House rises majestically at the end of a short Tarrytown lane. Built in 1971 ... Flag post 
When writing about small, local clusters of restaurants or shops, I prefer the term “group” to “chain.” There’s something dehumanizing about the word “chain.” But our subject today is the A List readers poll results for Best Local Restaurant Chain, and there’s certainly no dishonor in that appellation.
The County Line, the Austin-based and Austin-branded barbecue feeder, indeed has expanded, chain-like, to other cities, including Albuquerque, San Antonio, Houston, Oklahoma City and Lake Conroe. Its local lovers resoundingly endorsed it with 36 percent of the A List vote.
Tex-Mex hacienda Chuy’s, which has expanded to the San Antonio, Houston, ... Flag post 
All Sundays should be lazy. And gorgeous. And mostly spent out of doors.
Readers agree. Winner of the A List poll for Best Place to Spend a Lazy Afternoon was Zilker Park, blissful with 32 percent of the vote.
Sacred Barton Springs swam into second place with just over 17 percent. Lake Travis floated into third with just under 17 percent.
Dark, delicious Alamo Drafthouse broke the outdoor rhythm with 12 percent.
More indoor and outdoor joints — Shady Grove, Half-Price Books, Mozart’s, BookPeople, Jo’s and Ruta Maya — followed with less than 8 percent. ... Flag post 
Doesn’t it just warm the cockles of your heart to know that there are so many opportunities for line dancing in Austin? In fact, serious competition queued up for the title of Best Place to Line Dance in the A List readers poll.
Topping the list were two ancient dance halls — Broken Spoke (36 percent of the vote) and Gruene Hall (27 percent) — where lines have been drawn with boots for decades
Midnight Rodeo on Ben White Boulevard and Dallas on North Lamar Boulevard nearly tied up with Rusty Spurs on East Seventh Street and Graham Central Station in ... Flag post 
We love the suburbs! And we love it when suburbanites vote en masse. As they did in the A List readers poll this week, answering the question, what’s the Best Recreation Center?
Clay Madsen in Round Rock, with its signature skate park, zipped to the No. 1 spot with 19 percent of the vote.
Bunched up in Places 2, 3, 4 and 5 were Austin, South Austin, Northwest and Hancock with 12 percent to 17 percent of the tally.
New Braunfels scored another win for the outliers with 7 percent for its Landa center. A.B. Cantu/Pan American edged out Dittmar, Parque ... Flag post Flag post
