It’s about the people, not the parties.
Zoltan and Patti David
Alert readers have learned that less than 20 percent of my articles follow the patterns of traditional social reporting. Even then, traditions fly out the window.
Austin gins up very little old money and virtually no high society. People of different ages, incomes and backgrounds mash it up.
Whenever somebody refers to me as the “society columnist,” I hear the gears of class resentment — or personal resentment — grinding.
Pay attention instead to the variety of profiles, local histories, scene reports and trend stories usefully mined from these party chronicles.
Darlene Byrne and Shanna Igo
During CASA of Travis County’s gala at the Hyatt Regency Austin, for instance, jeweler Zoltan David rhapsodized about a pendant necklace created for the effective child advocacy’s annual auction.
“I was driving home one night, thinking about what to make,” he says. “I looked up into the sky and saw the moon and stars. I thought: We are all made of stars.”
David fashioned a starburst of palladium around a perfect pearl surrounded by tiny flecks of gold and a flashes of diamonds. He made it sound like Keats.
Why did his family leave Hungary all those years ago? David, bluntly: “Communists.”
Caught up with Judge Darlene Byrne and lobbyist Shanna Igo. A ringer for dignified actress Jane Alexander, the Honorable Byrne commands respect from everyone in the family law community.
Yet’s she’s a hoot talking with Igo about their grown sons, who’ve been best friends since grade school and who ignore the advice of their learned mothers. (It was ever so.) Igo represents Texas municipalities at the State Legislature.
What’s the biggest challenge: “Texas tries to micromanage,” she says. “Now they want more transparency at the local level. Try starting with the state itself.”
Linda and Michael McCaul
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul briefed me on his efforts as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee to defend the borders and cyberspace. This during the otherwise featherlight benefit known as the Crystal Ball, which aids the fine folks at Helping Hand Home, one of the city’s oldest charities.
McCaul emphasized the role of the private sector in helping public entities go after invasive hackers who could take down huge swaths of our digital superstructure.
The congressman’s wife, Linda McCaul, talked of raising five children in their sprawling home above Lake Austin. We also shared our admiration for former American-Statesman editor and all-around mentor Rich Oppel and his super-sharp wife Carol Oppel.
Later, Hill Abell and Laura Agnew talked about how alien Austin’s five debutante balls seem, and yet, they turn out charming and sweet. I mean, who can fight America’s Princess Industrial Complex?
Plus, the Crystal Ball grosses about $1 million a year, while turning the vast Palmer Events Center into a Blue Danube dream this time out.
Berry Crowley and JoLynn Free
A few minutes later, over at Zach’s Topfer Theatre, we arrived in time to hear the angels of Conspirare sing as if announcing the coming of the Lord. Charismatic conductor Craig Hella Johnson has a way of embodying Austin’s core characteristics: Open, kind, smart, fun and fit, from the inside out.
Good twist this year at the Conspirare Gala: After appetizers, music. Right away. Unlike last year, when we slogged through ages of auctions and eating. This year, dinner followed in the Bobbi Pavilion.
In the tent, backers such as Berry Crowley, JoLynn Free and Nancy Scanlan (just back from weeks in New Zealand) attested that to love Conspirare is to cherish pure beauty.
Charisse Berry and Joshua Warner
The President’s Masked Ball is one of Austin’s essential galas. Wish it didn’t fall on the same night as four or five other big ones, but that’s Austin in the spring.
Huston-Tillotson University marketing student Yanelys and college trustee Leon Thompson chatted about the challenges faced by higher education during uncertain economic times. The ball raises several hundred thousand each year for HT scholarships.
The silkiest dance followed dinner at the Sheraton Austin Hotel at the Capitol. We bumped into Joan Khabele and Bertha Means from the indispensable Means-Khabele brood. They’ve been key backers of HT for decades.
Melissa Cha and Nicolas Nadeau
The next report is more about a place than the people inside it. The barn-like Shoal Creek Events Center is an eccentric space. Yet when AIDS Services of Austin lost the Austin Music Hall to stage its 20th anniversary Viva Las Vegas benefit, backers turned to the evolving venue on the MoPac Boulevard feeder.
Nailed it. Longtime party organizer Susan Campion and team filled all the nooks and crannies with entertainment, lounging, snacking, dancing and fake gambling. The crowd was big and various. Campion admitted, however, that she only hoped to break even. Changes in health spending and visibility have hampered ASA’s quest for bucks.
Like I said, the crowd was healthy and dressed for fun, none more so than Melissa Cha and Nicolas Nadeau, whose stylish flourishes matched the evening’s campy theme. Rarely have I chased a couple around a party, but I wanted that shot!
Denver and Jennie O’Neal
The pre-SXSW week is crammed with career honors, this year including Texas Medal of the Arts (Tuesday) and Texas Film Hall of Fame (Thursday). A third is not as well known, but should be: Texas Heritage Songwriters Awards.
At ACL Live, the ceremony rivaled any other celebrity fest in town. Recently deceased coach and songwriting champion Darrell K. Royal was honored, as was late HAAM backer Robin Shivers, who was given the first DKR Award posthumously.
The show included classy sets from Sonny Curtis (Cricket, “I Fought the Law,” “Mary Tyler Moore Show” theme song), Toby Keith (saluting Roger Miller) and, via video, Sir Paul McCartney (honoring Curtis). Now that’s a get!
Sky Cheung and CK Chin
I concluded my two-day, post-vacation social adventure by judging the finals of a beauty contest at Haven nightclub. I had no idea what to expect, but I trust owner Sky Cheung, who has turned the former Pangaea/Phoenix into a profitable and clearly much loved hotspot.
Austin has very few clubs where people dance with abandon. This is one. A failed contestant, in fact, turned dancing into bared-breast brawling by the morning hours and was forcibly ejected from the club.
Meanwhile, my fellow judges and I had plenty of time to get to know one another. Fascinating flock included Lindsey Dement (Brass Ovaries dance studio), Justin Brown (Wilhelmina Brown modeling agency), Erik Fink (Disco Donnie Presents electronic music production), Mickey Vo (Expo Salon), CK Chin (Swift’s Attic), Benjamin Sacks (film/TV producer), Adam Lyons (film/TV producer), Cole Dabney (music videos),JohnPaul Wilson (photography) and Matthew LoCoco (Do512).
Profile? Profile? Anyone smell a profile?