It seems like anytime someone talks about Muslims on the Web, everyone is bundled together as one radical mass. According to the panelists this afternoon at Online Extremism – and the Muslims Who Fight It, people need to get smarter not just about who is radical and not, but what kind of radical.

So what should people really look for? "Violent radicalization, and that violent part is important," said Shaarik Zafar, senior policy adviser with the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Since so many people (including policy makers) have so little grasp of Islamic scholarship and its myriad, complicated theological strands, they miss the big difference between the ascetics of Sufism and a bomb-building terrorist, like there is between a Quaker and a white supremacist.

"You can't kill and capture a website," said Frank Cilluffo, director of Homeland Security Policy Institute. He called Al-Qaeda a brand more than an organization, and a brand name can be damaged like any other brand, by tackling and discrediting them. That meant not attacking Muslim religiosity on the web, but encouraging (without co-opting) Islamic scholars to highlight the intellectual bankruptcy and un-Islamic nature of some radicals: to find "a Tookie Williams of terrorism." They exist, he said: several former spiritual advisers to Osama bin-Laden have now renounced him. Read More | Comment »

Here's an easy prediction: The showing of Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay tonight at the Paramount Theatre will turn people away. A full house counting in the hundreds listened this afternoon as stars John Cho, Kal Penn and Neil Patrick Harris and writer/directing tag team Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg discussed the political ramifications of the sequel.

"I felt like it was a device to amp up the stakes," Cho said of any fun the film will have with the Bush administration's treatment of foreign prisoners. "I don't think the movie has anything to say politically. It just uses the current political climate to make vagina jokes.' Read More | Comment »

(Part one of this interview is now online)

Something is making gaming innovator and SXSW:IA panelist Tim Langdell scratch his head. "The biggest selling-game ever was The Sims 1. The biggest selling game for women was The Sims 1. Why is that the games industry didn't pick up on this?"

Big as it is, Langdell (appearing today at 3.30pm in room 6 at the Austin Convention Center at Redrum in the Rue Morgue': Collaboration in International Communities) thinks gaming as a business is missing out. "It's a $100 billion industry that's underperforming," he said. The trick is guessing what will work, and the problem has been that the industry has as bad a track record of spotting the next big thing as any other industry.

Take MMOs. "if you'd have asked people in the mainstream game industry five years ago, they would have said that if you got 100,000 on Everquest, that's good going." That meant that investors were wary of sinking cash into them. When it came to Blizzard and the monster that is World of Warcraft, according to Langdell. they struck a deal to basically operate under the radar, and "were able to develop it as a really-high-end independent developer." Read More | Comment »

What were the shittiest social networking campaigns in recent memory? That's what the panel and audience at the The Suxorz were trying to work out.

2007 was a fabulous year for suckage: the "big ad" (which ClickZ Network's Rebecca Lieb called a great little movie, but a terrible ad, because no-one remembers what the product is. Carlsberg? Carlton? Carleson? Molson?); and Agency.com's horrible effort to get Subway's ad contract with a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE attempt to bid a viral push for their business-to-business negotiations.

Everyone seemed to hate the idea of selling out blogging and other real networking sites for corporate. There was the horror of pay-per-post, where bloggers schill for corporations and sell out their souls in the name of spammage (Hewlett Packard won for doing this); Molson's desperate attempt to piggy-back off Facebook; the particular horror of the WalMarting across America blog; Whole Food's John Mackey posting on competitor's blogs and talk-back boards; and Cisco making their own Wikipedia entry about their "Human Network" brand (as Jeff Jarvis of Buzzmachine noted, the Wikipedia community corrected this "weeping sore.") Special props for Rudy Giuliani for not allowing friends on his MySpace page. Genius.

But wait: if this is a bunch of strangers sitting around and bonding over failed social networking strategies, isn't this panel social networking? Gah! Snake eating its own tail! Gah! Read More | Comment »

If you're feeling left out of the hardcore geekiness of the Interactive festival, don't forget, the Screenburn Arcade is open to the public 12-6pm, Saturday and Sunday, at the Convention Center. Last year, by the way, it was blag and swaggerific. Heading there right now. Read More | Comment »

Stars were not only on the red carpet last night at the Texas Film Hall of Fame dealy. Some were workin' it. We found this supernova selling candy (which had lottery tix affixed offering chances for fab prizes).

Austin's own red hot fashion designer and all around scene luminary/sweetie-pie Chia may very well find herself accepting an award or two in the near future, but this night amidst the blinding wash of look-alike pretty people, she was certainly one of the best dressed and most naturally stunning. Read More | Comment »

One of the funniest clips at last night's Experimental Shorts screening was Dynasty Handbag - The Quiet Storm. The nom de plume of performance artist Jibz Cameron, Dynasty is a frayed and acid-washed hot mess. She has all of the polyester-in-the-butt-crack desperation of Jerri Blank, but none of the inflated self-esteem.

While you should definitely check out The Quiet Storm (and the rest of the rewarding Experimental program when it airs again), until then, check out Dynasty's website. After the jump, a clip from The Quiet Storm. Read More | Comment »

Endless lines of people that wrap around the building, cyber geeks of every shape and form, and 30-pound bags full of marketing trash – the madness has begun.

I jump-started this year but hitting events back to back, wasting no time waiting in the halls, verbalizing my résumé to strangers or punching random buttons on my cell phone like I have someone important to call. The first event I attended was at 3pm, Book Reading: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design with Jason Beaird. I expected to pick up some new-age technology tips of designing our online commercialism, but it was nothing of the sort. Read More | Comment »

The strangest revelation at the Texas Film Hall of Fame was Morgan Fairchild at age 15 dated a drummer who ended up in a band called ZZ Top. Frank Beard offered a lame denial, but, hey, every girl's crazy about a sharp dressed drummer. Read More | Comment »

Poetry slams and rap battles are soooo OS9. All the cool kids are throwin' down with battledecks, the hardest version of a Powerpoint presentation ever. Competitors have five minutes to put together a presentation to a series of random slides. And random means screengrabs of Digg, scaleable horses, charts of pudding versus skin, and massive Amy Winehouses. The results are judged on conviction, jargon, interpretive dance, Husker Du references and how disgusting your fund is.

SXSW regional Battledecks champion Anil Dash of Six Apart Ltd. put his success down to "Passion. No, I like to have a good time and I'm pretty comfortable with crowds." He also, he admitted, got lucky with the slides, saying, "I thought there would be a Winehouse, and I was thinking a lot about what I would do if she turned up." But he puts his final victory down to a brief video clip of Rick Astley. This would have thrown a lesser battler, but not Dash. "Throw in a Rick Roll and you can't go wrong, that's just magic in a box." Read More | Comment »

Down at the Edit Me! How Gamers are Adopting the Wiki Way panel: The big question. Why do people wiki?

After all, for games this used to be the stuff of expensive printed game guides (official and unofficial) done for profit. Angelique Shelton of Wikia Inc. uses the basketball analogy: "Have you ever played ball in the street? Well, there's people in the NBA who get paid to do that."

NCSoft community manager April Burba has a pretty good idea who these volunteer encyclopedia builders are: "The users of wikis are people that are into producing documentation." They serve a double purpose for developers: not only do they keep the discussion going and get more people involved, they keep players playing. Read More | Comment »

"You have to collaborate in development." That's the simple message from Tim Langdell (appearing as a SXSW Interactive panelist at Redrum in the Rue Morgue': Collaboration in International Communities, Saturday at 3:30pm in room 6 at the Austin Convention Center). He should know. He's helped build the industry for three decades.

"I'm incredibly interested and excited by the direction the game industry is taking," said Langdell, "which is back to the vibe of the early 80s, for the independent game developer to have a voice." Co-founder in 1979 of UK-based EDGE Games (one of the world's oldest computer games firms and for many years effectively SEGA and EA's European divisions), Langdell also helped establish the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, and wrote and taught the first games entertainment curriculum for USC film school. He's now head of the videogaming department at National University in California, the first academic institution in the US to offer an MFA in videogame production. Increasingly, his interests have turned towards building collaboration into games and game development. Read More | Comment »

I've always been fascinated by the left-field ascent of a trend, a movement, even just a turn of phrase, as when snark … the word … went from non sequitur to ubiquity to backlash in the blink of an eye, or when that Hasidic reggae rapper starting popping up everywhere. And while we're at it … there's the increase in the arbitrary insertion of a period to create a sort of oh-so-clever stopgap, followed by a sentence fragment.

Which totally drives me crazy. Read More | 1 Comment »

Start the tally.

Not that it's a contest or anything, but put one notch on my party belt. Local video-game publisher Gamecock Media hosted their second annual EIEIO pre-SXSW party. Low temps and turnout made for a less than crazy party vibe, but it wasn't for lack of trying on Gamecock's part. Read More | Comment »

According to his giddy, thoroughly contagious, prescreening happyrant, Zack Carlson, mad genius programmer for the Alamo Ritz's free, weekly "Terror Thursdays" midnight shock-show screenings, "the best Japanese horror movie ever made, ever, period" screened last night to a packed house of curious, wind-whipped-but-pleasantly-blotto film fans. And wouldn't you know? You missed it! (Not to worry. It shows up on TCM at 4 in the morning from time to time.) Read More | Comment »

Here it comes! That beast of a music festival that invades, enlightens, and retreats as quickly as it came descends on our fair city next Wednesday, and with it comes a slew of acts from the Great White North. From Americana to hip-hop, those Canadians have a knack for doing it up and doing it well. I always recommend seeing as many international acts as possible during the week of, because who knows when you’ll get that opportunity again? Ladies and gentlemen, your delegates.

1) Chromeo, Saturday, March 15, 1am @ Volume
2) Holy Fuck , Thursday, March 13, 1am @ Wave Rooftop
3) Destroyer, Friday, March 14, 1am @ the Parish
4) Islands, Thursday, March 13, 8pm @ Cedar Street Courtyard & 12mid @ Emo’s Main
5) Cadence Weapon, Wednesday, March 12, 1am @ Habana Calle 6 Patio & Thursday, March 13, 2:30pm @ Austin Convention Center Day Stage
6) MSTRKRFT, Saturday, March 15, 1am @ Vice
7) Black Mountain, Thursday, March 13, 1am @ Mohawk Patio
8) Fucked Up, Thursday, March 13, 9:30pm @ Vice & Friday, March 14, 10:30pm @ Scoot Inn
9) Shout Out Out Out Out, Thursday, March 13, 11:30pm @ Beauty Bar Backyard
10) Jason Collett, Saturday, March 15, 11pm @ the Parish

Honorable mentions: A-Trak, Duchess Says, Crystal Castles, Nadja, Luke Doucet Read More | 2 Comments »

Gay Place is soooooooo sad to hear of Dolly having to cancel her SXSW visit for health reasons. Guess we're gonna have to plan that summer trip to Dollywood after all. Read More | Comment »

In conjunction with the SXSW screening of In a Dream, a doc about Philadelphia mosaic artists Isaiah and Julia Zagar directed by son Jeremiah, Isaiah will be building a free, large-scale mosaic piece in downtown Austin March 6-10. Isaiah's looking for 10 to 20 volunteers to assist with the project – no experience necessary. For more, go here. Read More | Comment »

With a name that includes two legendary Texas singer-songwriters, Justin Townes Earle has quite a legacy to live up to. Not that the 25-year-old hasn't already reflected on it. “I spent a lot of years trying to write the great American folk song, and I think that was me trying to live up to my name. That’s just ridiculous. If I spent my life trying to live up to Townes Van Zandt or my father [Steve], I’d have a really miserable life.”

Earle's set to release his full-length debut, The Good Life, March 25 on Bloodshot. While it echoes his namesakes, it’s obvious, in terms of songwriting, he’s his own man.

“I’m a good ol' boy from Nashville, Tennessee, and my music is kind of the way it comes out of me," he explains. "The only designs I had on this record was to make sure it wasn’t a strict hillbilly, country, blues, or singer-songwriter record. I did not want anybody to pigeon hole me. It’s more of an exploration of Southern music and I hope that’s something my records will always be. I’m really proud of Southern music and I think that people kind of forget that this is where it all started.” Read More | Comment »

Of the thousands of names on the South by Southwest 2008 band list, one was especially intriguing: Mingering Mike. The intrigue wasn’t just because I have no idea what “mingering” means, but rather that he isn’t a real performer. Or so I thought.

Mingering Mike is the greatest soul singer who never existed. He made more than 50 albums on dozens of record labels between 1968 and 1977, including his legendary 1968 performance Live at the Howard Theatre, political records like Boogie Down at the White House, the soundtrack to the kung-fu classic Brother of the Dragon, and a benefit album for sickle cell anemia.

But the albums were fakes, not pressed in wax but cut from cardboard with hand-painted grooves and intricately drawn homemade covers, the product of the elaborate imagination of a fictitious soul superstar. Read More | Comment »