George Burns HARPO PRODUCTIONS David Blaine held his breath under water for 17 minutes and 4 seconds.

COMPILED BY ADRIANNA BROYLES

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Packwood packs up once again

Will Packwood is acquiring an unfortunate reputation for running superior restaurants that sadly can't draw a crowd. After closing Emilia's and 7 on South Congress in years past, the chef's Italian place at 918 Congress Ave., Cibo, closed over the weekend.

"The problem was, for the average customer in Austin, they wanted spaghetti and meatballs, fettucini alfredo, lasagne," the 2001 Food & Wine magazine "best new chef" said Wednesday as he was straightening up at the restaurant. "We had three tables walk out Saturday night because they wanted 'authentic' Italian food."

Packwood, known for being ahead of the curve, went well beyond that, with cuisine inspired from the region around Venice, with offerings such as potato gnocci with oxtail ragu and grilled whole sea bass. The place's failure to draw a crowd makes one wonder if Austin diners are as sophisticated as they'd like to think.

Packwood says he's not upset but "confused" that he couldn't turn his fistful of honors into a full house, and he's not sure he's going to stay in town.

"If you sell shoes and live somewhere where nobody has feet," he said, "it's time to go somewhere else."

— Patrick Beach

Blaine out of breath

As a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show on Wednesday, David Blaine broke the Guinness World Record of holding his breath on live television. Blaine was submerged in a water tank for 17 minutes and 4 seconds, which bested the previous record of 16 minutes and 32 seconds, set Feb. 10 by Switzerland's Peter Colat, according to Guinness World Records.
 

Before his attempt, Blaine was allowed to inhale pure oxygen for up to 30 minutes, although he inhaled for only 23 minutes. A Guinness World Records judge was on hand to certify the feat.

Within about a minute after emerging, he was able to hold a microphone and tell Winfrey, "I feel great." He later said that breaking the record was a fulfillment of "a lifelong dream."

Blaine said he plans to try to break the world record for staying awake. The current record is 11½ days, he said. However, Guinness said it no longer acknowledges such attempts because of health concerns.