You can walk through the Trail of Lights once again.
Courtesy of the Trail of Lights Foundation
Here’s an early holiday gift for you: A beloved Austin tradition is returning to its normal pre-pandemic format.
The nonprofit Trail of Lights Foundation says this year’s Austin Trail of Lights will once again be a walk-through event rather than a drive-through event. In 2020 and 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trail of Lights let visitors drive along the trail but not walk along it.
“As we return to an in-person, interactive event, we cannot wait to share exciting new additions and Austin’s favorite longstanding traditions with the community at the trail,” says Nicholas Miller, the newly appointed board president of the Trail of Lights Foundation.
The 58th annual event, whose title sponsor is H-E-B, will be December 8-23 at Zilker Park. A sneak-peek party will be held December 2, while the Austin Trail of Lights Fun Run will happen December 3.
What began in 1965 as a small community gathering around a yule log now attracts more 400,000 guests a year. The Trail of Lights features more than 2 million lights illuminating Zilker Park, 90 lighted holiday trees, and more than 70 other holiday displays and lighted tunnels.
General admission will be free on seven of the event’s 14 nights; children under age 12 will be admitted every night at no charge.
In early October, the full calendar for the Trail of Lights, along with the ability to buy tickets online, will go live on the event’s website.
The reason that most biopics fail is because they try to do too much, telling a “cradle-to-grave” story or one taking place over a long period of time that only scratches the surface of understanding the full measure of a particular person. A better approach is the one taken in the new film Tony, which uses a formative period of time in the life of Anthony Bourdain to identify a larger truth about him.
The film finds Tony (Dominic Sessa), as he liked to be known at the time, in his early college years, trying to BS his way through life. He tells lies to professors, his parents (Dagmara Dominczyk and Rich Sommer), his old classmate Nancy (Emilia Jones), and even himself in an attempt to skate by without actually doing anything.
When one con falls through, he follows Nancy to Provincetown, Massachusetts to try to find her. A series of events result in him getting drunk in a restaurant owned by a chef (Antonio Banderas), who takes him in. Tony starts working as a dishwasher and hanging out with Sal (Leo Woodall), who barely has his own act together. With no other options, he spends his summer on Cape Cod, hoping something will happen to change his lot in life.
Written and directed by Matt Johnson (Blackberry) and co-written by three others, the film gives barely a hint of the man who would go on to become a celebrity chef and acclaimed author. It does indicate that his brashness was always there, but this Tony is aimless and too often rash in his decision-making. His biggest success in the film only comes when he finally recognizes that lying has brought him nothing but misery, and that telling the truth, even if it’s painful, sets him free.
The restaurant at which Tony works, the now-defunct The Flagship, is the heartbeat of the film, containing a motley crew of people who bond over slinging mostly mediocre seafood. Johnson evolves Tony’s relationship with the chef (who’s never given a proper name) into a strong one as Tony spends each night in a hammock on the chef’s porch, only to be woken up each morning with a pot of water thrown in his face.
Tony continues to pursue Nancy for most of the film, and even though their relationship is not fruitful in terms of storytelling, it serves to enforce the mindset of the young man. Nancy only exists as an object of desire for Tony, with just the barest touch of an interior life of her own. While the intent of including a romantic interest for Tony makes sense in a way, it ultimately is the weakest part of the film.
Sessa, who made a bold film debut in 2023’s The Holdovers, has turned into one of the industry’s bright young stars. He embodies the moodiness of Bourdain, stalking around the town with a scowl and lanky walk that tells the audience everything they need to know about the character. Banderas and Woodall (Tuner) bring different types of great energy, and while Jones’ part is not great, she proves that — following Coda — she’s going to be around for a long time, as well.
Fans of Bourdain may lament that Tony doesn’t show anything from the years in which he became famous, but the small and personal film makes a great case that the period it depicts is equally significant to his life. It demonstrates that Tony’s summer on Cape Cod gave him some direction, a reason for being that allowed him to become who he eventually became.
