Very Smart Gals Salon

(Pictured, Nancy Coplin, Christy Pipkin, Gloria Black and Jan Soifer)

I knew that the Very Smart Gals Salon in the bar at the Driskill Hotel a couple of weeks ago would be a good one. I just didn’t realize how good.

It was great to see Christy Pipkin again, who arrived looking roguishly adorable in her leather jacket over a hooded, zipper-infested vest - imagine a Tinker Bell Amelia Earhart. As co-founder and executive director of the Nobelity Project, Christy is the backbone of this non-profit seeking to better the lives of children across the globe through filmmaking and action projects.  If you want to be inspired, be sure to check out the website, buy their movies and books, and contribute to their work. You’ll also learn everything you need to know about spitfire Christy. You won’t see her name much, that’s not her style, but you can read between the lines.

Usually when you ask someone what they’ve been up to lately, you get a canned response, “Oh you know, work, blah, blah, blah.” That never happens when I present that question to Very Smart Gals. Sure enough, when I asked Christy, after just a slight pause that clearly read, “Should I tell this?” she said, “Well, believe it or not, I flew to Las Vegas last night,” which is significantly different than saying, “I went to Las Vegas.” Then she went on as the moment demanded, obviously trying to downplay the whole thing. “One of our neighbors, who we’ve been friends with forever, has a jet, and they called to say that another friend of ours was playing a concert in Vegas that night, and asked if Turk and I wanted to go – so we did.” She added that it was totally out of character for her to do something so outrageously spontaneous. Said friends were John Paul and Eloise DeJoria (Paul Mitchell hair care) and Willie Nelson.

Heck of a fun story – however, that conversation didn’t go much further as I looked up to see Gloria Black careening around pods of people in the packed room, pedal to the metal in her mobility scooter. Just as I though she was going to ram our table for kicks, she threw on the brakes and reached up to give me a warm hug. Then, every bit like a seasoned truck driver, she popped the scooter into reverse and backed it into an adjacent nook, and moved smoothly into a chair at our table, never missing a beat in the flow of greetings. I met Gloria when she and I served on the Austin Commission for Women. During which time we compiled the history of Austin women into an exhibit presented to the City of Austin at a ceremony in the Capitol dome in celebration of the city’s 150th birthday. That history is sadly stashed away in the Austin History Center and needs to be excavated, updated and toured at each Austin school, but that’s another story. As a student at Huston-Tillotson College, Gloria worked as a volunteer for Barbara Jordan, and after working on many other democratic campaigns, went on to serve on the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women under Carter, Bush and Clinton. She also raised 16 children, all of which, she proudly and deservedly announced, had graduated from college.

Jan Soifer arrived next looking the very serious businesswoman she is. Although I hadn’t seen Jan in 20 years, we ran into each other recently at a fundraiser featuring Arianna Huffington, for The Texas Observer and the Texas Nature Project. Jan is the current Chair of the Travis County Democratic Party and is also a long-time political and legal-community mover and shaker, and an accomplished attorney at her firm O’Connell Soifer for a variety of intriguing causes (i.e., anti-fraud litigation, qui tam and whistle blowers). Jan was very excited about the Jan. 28, 2014, Travis County Democratic Party fundraiser at the Four Seasons honoring Cecile Richards, and at which Wendy Davis will be speaking. Be a good yeller dog and get your tickets here (yes, I did).

Jan mentioned that she had a very roundabout connection to Christy Pipkin through Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whose work on Christy’s Nobelity Project inspired Jan’s daughter to join the “Semester at Sea” program, in which Archbishop Tutu is also involved.

The history of the Driskill came up and each of us shared our most memorable “Driskill Hotel” stories. Jan recalled a court case early in her career in which she was trying to prove her client (a nearby builder igniting dynamite to build an underground parking garage) innocent of causing cracks in the top of the hotel facade. A trip to the Austin History Center to retrieve photos demonstrating the cracks were there long before the dynamiting, won Jan’s case and a good deal of admiration in the eyes of her, at the time, senior partners. Gloria recalled the story of Barbara Jordan, Ernestine Glossbrenner, and Irma Rangel crashing a caucus of male legislators in the “no women allowed” room at the Driskill, declaring the room would never again exclude women. My story wasn’t so lofty as it involved getting a big hug from and getting to hang out with Danny Glover during a promotional event at the Driskill for the then new “Lonesome Dove” movie.

A surprise guest then arrived, better late than never, and what an honor. Nancy Coplin has been in charge of the six live music venues at the Austin Airport for the last 14 years, presenting 23 shows a week. As the Chair of the Austin Commission for Music, Nancy helped build the Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial, and helped establish the Austin moniker, “live music capital of the world.” Nancy has also booked the music for the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar for the last 25 years. This is the short list of Nancy’s accomplishments. Everybody knows Nancy and Nancy knows everybody, including the musician who was playing that night at the Driskill, Tiffany Alana Dodgen, who came over and became an official member of the VSGs. Nancy’s next adventure is Public Space Music, “helping communities bring the finest in music and show to their civic endeavors.” Check it out!

It was a short, but explosive, night full of too much talk and not enough! Thanks to Nancy, Jan, Gloria and Christy for a Very Smart Gals Super Sassy Salon! 

Fosse by Sam Wasson

You would think a book whose time line is a countdown to the dirt nap – Bob Fosse’s death – would be destined for gloom and doom. However, I have to hand it to Sam Wasson, the biographer of famous (and infamous) choreographer and director Bob Fosse (pictured young), for making a death march feel more like a dance number – rhythmic and fun.

Fosse, best known for his unique style of dance choreography, seen most recently (2002) in the film revival of Chicago (staring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly and Queen Latifah), was also an actor, dancer, screenwriter, and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction. He was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning for his direction of Cabaret, in 1973, beating out Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather. Fosse is also the only person ever to win, in a single year (1973), a Tony, an Oscar, and an Emmy.

Fosse was also a very hard drinker, drugger and debaucher, bedding practically every woman he ever met. The story goes that Fosse was an incredible lover who learned his sexual skills from the strippers he grew up around. (His mom was in vaudeville.) From Wasson’s account, it is also clear that Fosse’s life was a bottomless pit of insecurity that drove his compulsion to prove himself over and over again in bed and on the stage. And it was that drive that made him so successful – at least until it killed him (he died of heart failure).

The reason I read this book goes back to when I was a child and saw the musical Damn Yankees, which was choreographed by Fosse. I was gaga over Gwen Verdon’s dancing in that movie, and even as a child, I knew I was seeing dancing done very differently. It wasn’t until I was much older that I learned that it was the Fosse-style choreography I was attracted to. Verdon (pictured) eventually became Fosse’s long-suffering wife - knowingly sharing him with a never-ending string of starry-eyed ingénues.

I also loved the movie Cabaret (staring Liza Minnelli, Joel Gray, Michael York) - another fun example of the Fosse dance style. And although I thought All That Jazz (staring Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer and Ann Reinking), Fosse’s semi-biographical film, was a bit too morose, I recommend you see both of these movies (as well as Chicago) to get a feel for the famous Fosse style.

And I recommend you read Fosse if you have any curiosity about the mechanics of Broadway and her disciples. The elaborate and detailed accounts of Fosse’s friendships with Paddy Chayefsky, E. L. Doctorow, Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli and many other Hollywood and New York notables is fascinating and exciting. Wasson’s writing made me feel like I was part of the Broadway lifestyle, sweating through marathon rehearsals, basking in the spotlight of dance perfection and rousing applause, dashing over to the Russian Tea Room to carouse with the stars de jour, staying up all night working on dance steps and scripts – it made me feel young and tired, which is definitely better than old and tired.