THESE BOOTS… While poring over DListed.com, I came across a lovely mention of a local company, Helm Handmade (www.helmhandmade.com). The mention, which included a link to the original source at www.justjared.com, stated that, “Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling attend the 2011 MTV Movie Awards held at Universal Studios’ Gibson Amphitheatre on Sunday [June 5] in Universal City, Calif.” Describing their clothes, the item went on to note that the 29-year-old Evans (Fantastic Four, Sunshine, The Nanny Diaries, and Captain America) wore jeans and brown leather Timmy Bob boots by Helm Handmade to present an award. Helm Handmade, owned by Progress Coffee‘s Joshua Bingaman, manufactures boots and accessories for men. Designed here in Austin and using the finest materials and handwork from around the globe, Helm Handmade boots are gorgeously updated renderings of classic styles. An extensive background in shoes inspired Bingaman’s love for his products – some of the very best to come out of Austin. With lots of coverage by the fashion trade papers and appearances by celebrities wearing Helm boots, Helm Handmade is no longer the best-kept secret in Austin.
GENERATION TXT Surely you’ve heard about the big stink the Alamo Drafthouse has caused by playing an actual customer’s voice mail as a warning to the audience against talking and texting during shows. If not, you can get up to speed via the Drafthouse’s blog: www.drafthouse.com/she_texted_we_kicked_her_out2.html. I suspect that the texter in question will try to sue the Alamo for emotional distress (hopefully she’ll be so distressed, she’ll be unable to text ever again). I particularly love the part where the poor, victimized young woman, who may or may not have been drunk, proclaims that she’s texted in every theatre in Austin, and that her texting wasn’t bothering anyone. But at least she did say she would be taking her texting elsewhere, “where people are polite.” The subtitles the Alamo uses spells her words phonetically, as when she says she’s texting in theatres in the “Magnited States of America.” At the end of her gasbag monologue, she states confusingly, “And I’m pretty sure you guys are being assholes on purpose. So thanks for making me feel like a customer.” Uh-oh. An overwhelming amount of the commenters from across the Internet love that the Alamo did this. On CNN, Anderson Cooper proclaimed Alamo Drafthouse owner Tim League worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions. And then, after a story about it in the Austin American-Statesman, a reader commented, “I hope they tear down that stupid Alamo. Those a-holes kicked me out for using my cell phone to find my seat cause it was so dark in that the-a-ter.”
FRIENDS OF FOX Words fail me when it comes to that vile, repulsive Khloe Kardashian and her totally contrived “nip slip” on Fox & Friends last week – at least we know who her friends are now. Showing up to tape a morning show wearing a see-through blouse (as she did) just wasn’t enough for the oafish Kardashian. She wanted to make sure the world got to see her nipple unfettered by a filmy piece of cloth. She tweeted to her “fans”: “I had a nip slip and I loved it!” She added, “Thank God! I fucking love nipples!!!!” She told TMZ she wasn’t embarrassed at all. “At least it’s not my vagina; who wants to see that?” Apparently not her husband.
BIRTHDAY BELLE Though my ravings about her faaabulous art collection led her to increase her home security drastically, Charlotte Herzele still invites me to her home. And I pretty much hang out with Charlotte as much as she lets me. But this time it was her birthday party – on a Monday. Having a party on a Monday pretty much guarantees that it will be short and sweet, so it was clever planning on Charlotte’s part. But I still arrived late because I had to wear the shirt that I had been making. I sewed the last button on at 6:30pm; the party started at 5:30pm. Fortunately when I was through, my trusty Haunted ATX hearse limo was already waiting for me. Upon seeing a hearse in my driveway, one very alarmed neighbor ran over to see if anything was wrong. Arriving at Charlotte’s, I was aglow with all the compliments about my new shirt. But it was Charlotte’s houseful of friends that took the cake, as it were – a fascinating blend of art and commerce, business and pleasure, traditional and nontraditional, young and old. Happy birthday, Charlotte! Thanks for adding so much to the richness of my life.
This article appears in June 17 • 2011.