Wine: A tasting at Austin Wine Merchant staged by the Freestyle Language Center turned talky. The group, headed by Elizabeth Mack, encourages fluency through activities like dinners, movies and museum visits.
“The social nature of the program connects people and gets them going on language,” Mack says.
Our wine expert was Joshua Marcoux, who looked and sounded like the sharp economics graduate student that he is. Our Spanish expert was Lorna Torrado, also a graduate student but in the Spanish-Portuguese program, whose loose, animated style and exact pronunciation marks her as a popular teacher.
Lorna Torrado and Joshua Marcoux at Austin Wine Merchant
More on this novel program later.
Women: Three women in particular. Angelina Eberly, cannon-weilding hero of the Archives War, is the namesake for the Austin History Center’s annual luncheon.
Ann Butler is the widow of late Mayor Roy Butler, aka “Mayor Wonderful.” I was unaware of the long list of his major accomplishments until several speakers at the luncheon saluted him. His widow and family sat at the Driskill Hotel’s table of honor.
Former Mayors Frank Cooksey and Gus Garcia at the Driskill Hotel
The third woman would be Carole Keeton Strayhorn, whom I hope to interview at length and profile in a major series on former Austin mayors and their times. Strayhorn served from 1977 to 1983. The list would include Ron Mullen (‘83-‘85), Frank Cooksey (‘85-‘88), Lee Cooke (‘88-‘91), Bruce Todd (‘91-‘97), Kirk Waston (‘97-‘01), Gus Garcia (‘01-‘03) and Will Wynn (‘03-‘09).
We lost a lot of potential oral history when three former mayors — Butler, Lester Palmer and Jeff Friedman — died in quick succession.
Song: Just a brief word or two on “33 Variations” at Zach.
Someone must have mistaken me for director Dave Steakley. They shouted “Good show!” to me at intermission of the show about Beethoven.
Also, one audience member said after the thundering curtain call: “Austin finally earned a regional theater. This has the polish of anything in Dallas or Houston.”
Theatrical Mozart and Beethoven in one week. Zion!