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Saturday,
March 16, 2002
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fungus?
chalow's series continues
west Austin mural
street games
"It is a good thing for an
uneducated man to read books of quotations."
a good reason to dress up...
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keep Austin weird I stumble out of bed in a kind of fog. I am thinking of just sitting in front of my computer, whaling at my journal and sorting pictures and watching whatever digital cable turns up. But I should move. Walk. The coffee brightens me up and I call SuRu. We agree that we will be on our way at 8:30. And we are. FFP goes, too, and so we are the urban adventurers. We go to Highland Park West. It's close to us but we have never done that area. Hilly and a little dangerous. We survive it though. And see the weirdest fungus. And a house with piles of things outside (I was afraid to start snapping because I could see someone inside). We see (and critique) lots of expensive homes and some modest ones. Some of these homes have some stunning views. This is an area that there isn't much excuse to even drive through unless you are visiting someone there. FFP points out the house of a certain magazine editor. He attended a party there when I was out of town. Back home, I fool around with my projects. But then we decide to go to Mother's Cafe and have some brunch. We haven't been there in ages. I have artichoke heart enhiladas. Pretty good really, odd as it sounds. With black beans and rice and a few chips. FFP and I go to Gardens later so he can get some 'fill in' plants. Gardens is so cool it's scary. It's not like they are really selling anything although of course they are. The plants are in neat rows, all labeled with common and scientific names and characteristics like perennial or annual and how they like the sun and tolerate the cold and how big they might get. There are beautiful pots piled in clever ways. A young employee makes a cactus garden. Next to him is a miniature English garden. I admire it and he says he made it. Inside, they are offering free teas or coffees or Pellegrinos while you spend money. Select antiques, soaps, candles, furniture. It's like you are in someone's home who is hopelessly stylish. They even have the latest and most stylish magazines and a few stylish books. We have some Nil Rouge tea from some tea shop in Paris and wander about. Finally FFP pays for his plants and a couple of small things including a gift for a friend of ours. We get back and unload. My parents have called. They came by while we were gone to see about the gardening project next door. FFP's mom calls because they need a 9V battery for their smoke detector. I go over there with one and install it for them. FFP starts picking out what accessories he is going to wear with his tux tonight to the benefit. He finds a bow tie and is searching all over for the cummerbund that matches it. Then he finds a vest that matches it and that clears up that mystery. But the tie is not pre-tied. Hmmm...I used to know how to do it. I look it up on the Internet. It's just like tying your shoe. That's what you have to remember. So...I don't get much done, really. Soon it's time to shower up for the event. But I feel somehow that the day is perfectly wrought. Weird how that works.
The event. We get there early which is probably a mistake. The lobby and bar of the Four Seasons is packed with the SXSW crowd. The cocktail time is an hour and we are some of the first ones there. We get drink tickets and look at the silent auction. Some good restaurant certificates, a few art things. Not much of an auction, compared to what the opera or some of those groups get. I guess times are hard, too. I have two martinis and greet a bunch of our friends. Finally, it is time to eat. The mike seems to not work too well. There is a comic whose comedy makes cultural references that largely escape me. One of the big deals about this dinner is to make awards. They give one to Sheriff Margo Fraiser and she gives a darn good speech and I can hear her. Our friend Allan Baker gets an award. His intro by Betty Naylor is hard to hear. His brief acceptance is fine. Aids Services Austin is honored. We are sharing a table with the folks from ASA and Lee Manford is brief and humble after a showing of a little film about fighting AIDS. That is all OK although accompanying it we have what has to be the cheapest Four Seasons dinner you can get for a banquet. Plain salad, chicken dish (it's fine but not exciting), dessert. An very inexpensive wine unexpansively poured. We should have thought to special order a decent wine and just paid for it. It's fine to try to get a good return for the organization but if there isn't going to be any better reason than this to put on black tie then just ask for donations. They have no band, only piano you couldn't really hear earlier in the reception. And now. They preach. Yes, they have invited a preacher, albeit a radical gay one. Oh, before that they had a pol who was not that well-spoken herself and seemed to try to grab the good parts of Margo's acceptance speech. But the preaching is what makes it too much. If I am suddenly hit with a bolt of religion, I'll go to church. Sure, the guy is lecturing about getting churches to accept gays and lesbians. That's all fine but surely that is a fight for people who believe in those organizations. Surely the purpose of HRC is to represent the community in legal and political situations. Anyway, FFP and I decide that this event is no longer worth the money. And I have to question the organization that put it together, too. But that's just us. A lot of our friends will always be in this group and that's fine. We are cutting back on the number of such events we do although we have agreed to a couple of St. David's fundraisers soon and a black tie auction for the Wine and Food Festival. And the opera ball, of course. OK, so we go to lots of charity events so that we both give and have a good time. But we want to have a good time.
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177
JUST
TYPING