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 ...

The magazines of the 2010 Winter Reading Week, a partial list, and a peek into our collective interests. The New Yorker The Economist The Atlantic Harper’s The New Republic New York Texas Monthly GQ Esquire People Travel + Leisure Harper’s Bazaar Car & Driver Automobile Austin Monthly News China The American Scholar The Globe National Enquirer Art Lies Art + Auction Architectural Digest Metropolitan Home Dwell Out The Advocate Details The New York Review of Books The Times Literary Supplement Miller-McCune Wallpaper Town & Country Brilliant LifeExtension Magazine Note: Be sure to read the rave review of the Blanton Museum of Art in the Feb. 18 issue of The New Republic. Jed Perl brackets it with the Kimbell and the Menil. That’s the highest praise I could ever ...

Had I departed earlier, my conclusions would have been dead wrong. Arriving at the B Scene party for the exhibition, “Desire,” at the Blanton Museum of Art, I encountered a tweedy, older set. Not the young, hip tribe targeted by the museum’s social campaign, which includes monthly B Scene events. Laura Moliter and Elizabeth Moliter I mingled with art lovers, music lovers (Suzanna Choffel headlined) and party lovers (including bristle-haired copywriter JJ McLaughlin, who is always sniffing out a new scene). I spoke with “Desire” curator Annette Carlozzi and her still-new hubby Dan Bullock. Meg and Adam Hulse ‘Desire’ accumulates pieces and ...

Blind dates are notoriously tricky. Should you meet at someplace romantic? Serious? Silly? Social? Judging from the A-List readers poll, many Austinites take a coltish view of blind dates. Landing in first place, seriously playful Hula Hut with 21 percent of the tally. In second, retro Shady Grove with 17 percent. In third, a Texas Rollergirls match with 14 percent, just ahead of Peter Pan Mini-Golf with just under 14 percent. Socializing meets high art at the B Scene at the Blanton Museum of Art, which earned 8 percent. Dave and Busters and Dart Bowl virtually tied at ...

This is not a recession-inspired A-List category. We’d ask Austin readers where to go when you’re broke whether the economy soared or soured. There’s an eternal slacker/survivor in all of us. Naturally, we start with basics, like food and shelter. Those needs send 27 percent of our voters to Central Market for free samples; 13 percent to Whole Foods for more free samples; and 11 percent to the Austin Public Library for respite from the elements. OK, OK, the library also offers books, recordings and Internet access as well. For entertainment — and Austinites quickly turn to entertainment — we hang ...