I’ve deliberately not posted about the event I am helping to put on tonight, Austin Film Society’s Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards. It’s a celebrity party for a good cause, but largely outside of what I usually blog about, and certainly, since I’m one of the organizers, well, the whole conflict of interest thing… But I just read Melanie Haupt’s wonderful write-up about this year’s honorees, Mike Judge, Jayne Mansfield, ZZ Top, Morgan Fairchild and URBAN COWBOY, in The Chronicle and I’m inspired.

This year’s honorees cohere precisely in that they all represent, in one way or another, various iterations of class mobility in Texas, from the ambitious young woman who juggled motherhood and college in the Fifties to the white-collar death of hope in the age of the cubicle farm. They are stories as big as Texas but still only hint at the diversity of experiences contained within the Lone Star. Read the article>>

It is hard work putting on a party for 800 people, and it’s easy to lose the forest for the trees, as they say. It might be a Texan thing to pat the back of film stars from the state, but it is also a show of appreciation for her sons and daughters who go out and do great things or those who bring the movie industry to Texas and help her out economically and culturally. I never thought I’d ever say, “I live in Texas” and I’m pretty sure I won’t ever say, “I’m from Texas” but I’m happy and excited to be a part of celebrating Texas film tonight.

Thanks Melanie for the insight and last jolt I needed to get me through the big event!