The South Congress Hotel is a decent spot in Austin. In normal times their restaurants are overall excellent. Central Standard is a place I’ve brunched at often. I’m less fond of Café No Sé but it’s very popular. Japanese omakase restaurant Otoko is very good, though I wasn’t impressed by their sushi nights. Otoko does have an absolutely beautiful bar.
I’ve never stayed there as a guest, however, nor swam in their pool. And I’ve never had a run in with any of their guests. Anthony Michael Hall can’t say the same thing, though.
Hall was Rusty in Vacation. He starred in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Weird Science – a John Hughes trifecta. When 2001’s Not Another Teen Movie sought to honor him, all the characters in high school ate at the Anthony Michael Dining Hall. The man is a legend.
Now though he’s having to apologize for obnoxious behavior at the South Congress Hotel pool: blasting loud music, cursing in front of children, and absolutely losing it when called out.
A woman started filming him, and he called her Rosie O’Donnell and splashed water at her. Hotel security was called, but since Hall left on his own police never entered the equation.
The oddest insult he aimed at another guest, though, I’m still perplexed by (44 seconds in): “Democratic Party. Kiss my a$%.” The whole video, naturally, is ‘NSFW’ so it’s good that many of us are working from home.
According to Hall,
As a result of a misunderstanding and miscommunication between myself and some hotel guests, the situation needlessly and regrettably escalated. “I am deeply sorry for my words and actions and ask for forgiveness from anyone who I may have offended.
The 1980s teen star has had temper issues in the past, serving probation for an altercation with a neighbor in his L.A. condo community in 2016.
Give him a break. He was just mad because Wally World was closed.
He’s had anger type issues before and been on probation for some kind of assault involving a neighbor. I guess any white person getting called out for bad behavior has to blame it on democrats. Reminds me of a mid-upper tier Italian restaurant where a customer was told they couldn’t smoke and say “What is this communism?” As if that had anything to do with smoking.
With an idiot in charge the loonies are out in full force. I’d like to see more hotel guests get the beat down like the hotel guy in Brazil. There is a penalty for behaving like this or like the female in AZ (which has tons of entitled folks).
So this is the third story in 24 hours which has nothing to do with travel.
We’ve had Vegas hookers, tasings and now this.
Is it really the future of this site to debase itself like this?
@Tom K from Seattle – how do your figure incidents at hotels in various cities are unrelated to travel?
@Tom K. Why is that necessary? Just don’t visit or read if you don’t like the content. Sheesh. It’s pointless attacks like this that are making everyone shut down their comment sections.
@gary This guys a legend? For what, appearing in stupid teenage movies?
He’s a disgusting, disrespectful fool, just like chump.
@rich Obviously this behavior was all caused by his inherent and immutable characteristics as a “white” person — since non-“white” people behave perfectly in every instance since they don’t have those troublesome “white” genes — but you’ll have to explain what this has to do with Democrats.
The video was only a small snippet of what happened. Here’s another scenario. Perhaps he was having private time in the pool and this woman started filming him. Maybe he asked her to stop and she wouldn’t. Or perhaps she used an excuse that she was filming her family when in actuality she was filming him. There are 2 sides to every story so don’t judge him but a 1 minute 19 second video!
Gary
This has nothing to do with travel. How does a hooker stealing money in a hotel relate to my travel plans? Whether Anthony Michael Hall throws a tantrum in n a hotel pool or a shopping mall is irrelevant to my travel planning.
This is just salacious click bait and you know it.
Rob. Seems to me the purpose in raising concerns about a shift in the site is to try and improve same. If you don’t care about the content then why go after me just because I would prefer the site to deal with actual travel issues as it generally has n the past.
So you’re saying , “Eh, I don’t know about No Se?”
@Rob – Yes, Tom K’s remarks are completely uncalled for but unless you have information to the contrary, the only major site closing down comments is TPG and that was anecdotally because they wanted to make money off comments. Unlike TPG, Gary has standards and ethics so it would be very surprising for Gary to do the same.
@Tom K- it is Gary’s site – he can write about what he wants! He does not need you to “try and improve same“. I would encourage you to create your own blog rather trying to “improve” Gary’s!
@Christian – evidently I do have information to the contrary as TPG is not the only major site closing down comments. Unless you don’t count Yahoo as major.
Another political slanted non-travel article. Honestly, the reason I stopped using your links. I actually like your travel articles.
@Sven – I have to ask because your comment surprises me, what is the political slant of this article?
Ajay
Comments are intended to provide feedback. That’s what I am doing.
Yes of course it’s Gary’s site. Perhaps he cares what his readers think. Perhaps not.
I guess we’ll know the answer when the next story is about an orgy that tool place in some hotel. That would meet Gary’s current standard for relevance
@Tom K who gives a s**t about your travel plans? I don’t. I’m pretty sure Gary doesn’t either, but far be it from me to speak on his behalf. Hotel stories are useful, because hotels are run by and populated by humans who can make or break the experience.
@Rob – We’re in travel blog territory, bud. Making worldwide generalizations has limited application as they’re a bit different, although it’s wonderful that you’re putting this site and Yahoo side by side for comparison.
Lets not seriously pretend this story is really connected to travel. That is just disingenuous. If someone wants to run second rate TMZ type stories then by all means. The headline made clear what it was so people can decide whether or not to click on it, but don’t try to pretend its some kinda article educating us about travel. ROFL
I would really like to know what the non-edited video looks like and what started this. I highly doubt that he was just minding his own business, even if blasting music or whatever, and just started yelling at these people. I’d speculate that they knew he was famous and goated him into getting mad or maybe they are just jerks and he became a jerk back. Anthony Michael Hall has had a long movie and TV career so I think it’s a bit biased to say that he is a washed up ex-teen star. B actor might be more appropriate. He has appologised for this since but what choice did he really have.
Love it. Have @Tim K who thinks Hotel violence is NOT travel news. Then @Sven who thinks there is political parts to the news since the RUDE GUEST can not keep his low class mouth shut.
@Robert Hofmann says he was having some private time in the pool! Get a room. The pool is a public place.
Just another Daren (male Karen) who needs to be banned from all hotels.
Gary has voiced plenty opinions I’ve taken issue with in the past, but come on, give the guy a break. He’s finding stuff to write about related to travel everyday even though travel has been shut down for months and likely going to remain shut down for many more months. Nit picking over what was clearly meant to be a comic relief type of article is just unnecessary. And the whole “feedback to help him improve” is too. It’s not like he made the editorial choice to scrap an article about a recent trip he took or hotel he stayed in, there isn’t any content like that right now because nobody is or should be travelling right now.