Clik here to view.
Profile: Chi Dinh of the Austin Intercultural Network
She pauses. Takes a sip of water. Puts down the glass. Tries again to talk. Yet words end at her lips. Recalling her escape from Vietnam at age 7 with her mother and brother, Chi Dinh wavers on the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Austin Food & Wine Festival Luncheon at Malverde
The Austin Food and Wine Festival is set for April 26-28, 2013 at a rejuvenated Auditorium Shores. Our own Addie Broyles broke the news of the fest line-up. I was deputized to cover the lunch that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dell Children's Surgical Global Outreach at SoundCheck Austin
You can learn a lot even if you don’t stay for the party. Friday, I arrived early for the affair benefiting Dell Children’s Surgical Global Outreach at SoundCheck Austin. It was the first of four...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hendrick's Gin Literary Chat at the Parish Underground
I met Damian Barr in a coffee shop while reporting a story on the Drag in 1996. When I told the student from Scotland with a dazed look in his eyes that I was a reporter, he said he was, too. Turned...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Citizen Generation Auction at Ballet Austin Studios
My friend from the United Kingdom was bemused. “You are auctioning off people?” he smiled. “After your country’s recent history?” Nathan Schroder and Sandra De Leon attend Citizen Generation Auction at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Austin Lyric Opera Opening Night Dinner and Show
We talked of opera. But oh so much more. Food. Nightlife. Formula One. Indeed, there was much to be said about the United States Grand Prix during the Opening Night Dinner for Austin Lyric Opera....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Hospice Austin Fashion Show at the Driskill Hotel
He teetered on the edge of the stage, greeting every model with a bejeweled grasp. Thin, animated, dressed as if for an updated edition of Studio 54, Stephen Moser ruled the runway. He looked older...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What hath Formula One wrought? Nobody knows
Nobody knows what will happen downtown this weekend. Nobody. And if anyone tells you they can predict the impact of the United States Grand Prix on Austin’s premier entertainment district, they are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The sign of the cross for Formula One downtown visitors
To explore the core of Austin culture, divide the downtown map into a Cross of Lorraine. That’s the two-barred French cross that consists of a vertical line crossed by two smaller horizontal bars....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Formula One: Behind the Scenes at Circuit of the Americas
The scale is almost unimaginable. One approaches the Circuit of the Americas through some of the most neglected and abused brush land in eastern Travis County. All at once, the Formula One track...
View ArticleFormula One: They Arrive
Ils sont arrivés. They have arrived. The Formula One visitors. Wearing narrow clothes and toting tiny cameras. Congregating in small numbers at this point, but all over downtown. Smoking. Which draws...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Formula One Downtown: So Far, So Good
So far so good, downtown at least. Formula One visitors have not snarled traffic or jangled nerves on a day of party prep, pre-parties, concerts and one film premiere. “I had no trouble getting her or...
View ArticleFormula One: Early Friday Downtown
Absurdly quiet downtown for the first official day of Formula One. Guess most of the visitors are out at the track soaking up the ambrosial weather. Most of the locals skipped work to relax as well....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Formula One: Later Friday
Best rumor of the Formula One week so far: A guest threatened to buy the Driskill Hotel. A few of our reported visitors, such as Mexican mogul Carlos Slim, aka the world’s richest man, could probably...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Formula One: Even Later Friday
One thing Austin party planner must plan around: The diurnal cycles of the typical Formula One fan. Madison Ashpitz and Rusty Irons The Race Ball at the Four Seasons Hotel and the Sapphire Room at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Formula One: Saturday Downtown
Got my first cold shoulder of the Formula One weekend. Told a couple I was a reporter. Wanted to ask a few questions. They breezed past me. Stunned, I turned into a European by thinking: “Germans!”...
View ArticleFormula One: The Fans at the Main Event on Sunday
They ran the gamut from the upper crust to the just plain crusty. Some fans for the first United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas munched on lobster salad and sipped champagne at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Formula One: Random Thoughts
After four days of round-the-clock Formula One reporting, my social sensibility has come somewhat loose at the moorings. No, it wasn’t the piercing, alien whine of the viper-quick F1 cars. Neither was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Land, People, Food, Drink: 'The Salt Lick Cookbook'
“My father had no idea what he was creating when he dug his boot heel into the ground, drew a circle in the dirt around him with a barbecue fork and outlined a barbecue pit,” writes Scott Roberts in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Taking the fear out of Formula One
Face it, Formula One frightened Austinites. Some feared traffic, crowds, costs and noise. Others suspected politicians, business leaders and sports fans who backed the Circuit of the Americas. Even...
View Article