sxsw

I had a thought the other day while watching Frontrunners, Caroline Suh’s documentary about the race for student-council president at New York’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School. The teacher in charge of the election, talking about what he thinks students look for in a candidate, argues for the primacy of personality over ideology. He believes that a particular politician’s take on an issue can change depending on circumstance, while his personality is likely to stay the same regardless. This kind of consistency, he says, is what voters look for when they mark their ballots, whether during a high school election or in a presidential primary. Take George W. Bush, he says. The fact that Bush changed his campaign-era position on nation-building after the events of Sept. 11 didn’t change most of his supporters’ belief that, personalitywise, he was still the candidate they’d most like to have a beer (or two)) with and, therefore, the guy they'd most likely vote for come Nov. 2004.

This personality/issues debate is at the heart of Frontrunners, not just in terms of the election it documents but in relation to the audience’s appreciation of the movie itself. The film’s “lead,” George, is only one of four main characters, but his personality is so enormous, so idiosyncratic, so sui generis, that – win or lose - he is the guy viewers walk away from the theatre thinking about, discussing, and rooting for. Consequently, he is, in essence, the movie. Read More | Comment »

Tom Brosseau's high trill seems otherworldly, simultaneously comforting in its gentleness and unsettling in its plaintive uniqueness. While 2006’s Grand Forks (Loveless) wove vignettes of Brosseau’s North Dakota hometown into an evocative, nostalgic exploration, for the recording of last year’s Cavalier (Fat Cat), he intentionally uprooted to untrodden terrain in Bristol, England.

“I was basically unfamiliar with the surroundings,” says the soft-voiced Brosseau. “Even though I’d been there several times before, it was always to play, so going to Bristol to record was a totally different thing. Everything, it seemed, even the places in Bristol I had been to, was unfamiliar. It was good, because there's no past, there was no memory. Things were familiar, but there was no memory so it was very easy to go in record and it kind of heightened the importance of what I felt I was doing. I can’t explain exactly why that is, but I felt that we're all in a place that had no memory, we were all just on new ground together.” Read More | Comment »

Trailers your favorite part of the festival experience? Now you don't even have to sit through the film – a couple of the always-funny Burger Hut trailers have popped up at YouTube here and here.

And wax nostalgic with Dan Brown, Mike Mitchell, and Kent Osborne's sextet of 2002 SXSW trailers here. It's hard to predict the shelf life of certain pop culture product, but turns out Three Men and a Little Lady jokes never grow stale. Prescient guys … Read More | Comment »

“R.E.M. was at the Hole in the Wall [last] night and two-thirds of them were onstage. Peter Buck played with Minus 5 and Mike Mills played with Syd Straw, while Michael Stipe held court on the sidewalk.”

That’s this morning’s report from down in the Hole man Paul Minor. While some of us rocked by candlelight to the Athens trio’s forthcoming floor-boarder for Warner Bros. – their 14th – the band itself “held court” here in the heart of cow town at UT’s most venerable watering Hole. Paradox, irony, synchronicity?

Irony dials up Law of Rock No. 12: veteran rock acts of even the most modest integrity never want to repeat themselves. Their longsuffering fans, on the other hand, yearn for the glory days. These opposing forces usually rendezvous at the point that a group strips back down to its roots. In R.E.M.’s case, that came to life as 1994’s Monster (and to a lesser extent 1996 follow-up New Adventures in Hi-Fi), stiff-legged guitar farewell in the face of diminishing returns Up (1998), Reveal (2001), and Around the Sun (2004). The new Accelerate: third stone rocker from the Sun. Read More | Comment »

Cook County debuted this week as part of the Lone Star States strand. This grim tale of rural meth users is so Texan it has a cameo by Houston Chronicle football journalist John McClain. But how did first-time writer/director David Pomes get that ultra-realistic effect of having every tweaker in the building sweating and looking like they're about to pass out?

Simple. He shot the movie in Dolen and Cleveland, TX, in mid-summer. "It was 110 degrees, 100 percent humidity, and we had 35 people in this one small room with only one air conditioner, which they had to turn off when they started filming" explained Polly Cole, who plays Lucy, quasi-girlfriend to chief meth cook Bump (played by her former Line of Fire co-star Anson Mount.)

Cook County screens at 4pm, Wednesday March 12 and 4pm, Saturday March 15, at the Alamo Lamar. Read More | Comment »

SXSW Interactive may end, but some bits keep going, like the Unnamed Exquisite Corpse Movie, which made its sorta, kinds debut.

Taking its inspiration from the old surrealist thought experiment, it brings a new meaning to film-making as a communal experience. Quick skinny: a cast and crew has two weeks to make five minutes of a film. When they're done, they send the last minute of their segment to another cast and crew, and one instruction ("Use something pink." "This actress is pivotal." "There needs to be a fake eyelash.") and see what they come up with. Confused yet? The film makers are betting you won't be by the time it's completed.

"We hope that there will be a through-line, and that there will be a wonderful, watchable movie," said moderator and executive producer Meghan Scibona of Small Media XL. "Actually, we've all watched the first 20 minutes and we're shocked about how well it works as a short."

"It's gone somewhere exciting and interesting," said projected innovator Jason Nunes of Adobe Consulting, "and it's not a mess yet." With four of a planned twenty segments in place, the group plans to send push the experiment as far as possible by getting international collaborators. Read More | Comment »

They're just wrapping things up at the SXSW Film Awards Ceremony, which means the embargo's lifted and it's time for us to drop some knowledge. See winners after the jump.

Be sure to check out the Chronicle’s daily issues (March 13-15) for reviews and interviews with Festival award winners. And, of course, keep checking here for continuing coverage of the film fest. Read More | Comment »

The SXSW Interactive party at Scholz Bier Garten brought together a disparate mix of people last night, among them artists, musicians, gamers, futurists, and various techno-friendly types, as well as a few robots, which made their way through the crowd like children who couldn't find the right grownup's leg to hug.

There was also music, free food, masked revelry (admission was free for anyone in costume), and a Maker Faire-esque contingent of groups showing off their pet projects, which included a machine that printed words on ping pong balls; a video game with a curvy, wrap-around monitor; and some of the miniature sets, props, and characters from John P. Funk's short, stop-motion film "Quest for the Dark Planet."

Such oddities are apparently par for the course at these parties, thrown annually by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which seems to have made a lot of friends in its 18 years of crusading for free speech, intellectual property, and privacy rights on the Web. Read More | Comment »

If there's a keeper image from this year's SXSW interactive festival, it may be Mark Cuban and Michael Eisner agreeing to pose for an on-stage photo with a Flat Eric (ask your six-year-old niece, she'll be able to explain it.)

It was a little bit of a double-act, and they knew what the crowd can be like (Cuban: "We've learned a lot from the Mark Zuckerberg interview." Eisner: "I'll just be saying yes and no." Cuban: "And I'll be talking about myself a lot.") The former Disney CEO was there nominally to talk about his new project, Tornante, but everyone really wanted to know the one thing that he knows better than most: how to make money off content. Which is good, because he admits he knows little about the tech (he even forget to turn off his Blackberry and had to be told nicely by the staff that he was causing the blbvlvlvlvlvlvlvl noise on the PA.)

But seriously. About that money. Read More | Comment »

There's emotional and creative burn-out to blogging. After a while, it's just hard work, but you're in the zone, and you keep doing it. Add being in a war zone onto that, and you never get to complain about updating MyBlueHamster at blogspot again.

Dr. Carlos Brown, now a surgeon at Austin's Brackenridge Hospital, choked up guiding SXSW attendees through Trapperlos M.D., his blog of his time as a U.S. Navy trauma surgeon in Ramadi in Iraq. There's something slightly surreal about the way he put music to images of life in the operating room: but it was the little things that made life bearable for his family, like letting his daughter know that he had a birthday cake; or when he and his family, separated as they were, could all wear Star Wars costumes at Halloween; and the less grisly memories (like drinking one of the two beers he was allowed during his tour.)

Brown (who has since resigned his commission) calls the blogging experience an essential part of his time there. But he did note that the military has now started cutting back on access to YouTube and MySpace. "People who came after me had a much harder time running a blog, and I guess I got lucky." Read More | Comment »

Remember Minority Report? Remember the uber-cool control gloves that Tom Cruise used? Remember thinking "I wish I had those?"

The guys at Cynergy Labs were displaying their prototype in the Interactive Trade Show of a real version of the technology. The great/scary thing? They actually work. Running Windows Vista on a Mac, the demonstrators digitally (pardon the pun) manipulated a series of images on a test grid, from a 3D map of the Louvre to a stack of snap shots. The shocker for everyone that was expecting some super-duper high tech solution is that the backbone of the sensor system is a WiiMote. That's exactly the kind of innovation that Enspire's Patrick Sanchez talked about in the interactive issue. Apparently, Microsoft are very, very interested in the results.

Now if we can juuuuuust get that funky projected display Cruise had as well … Read More | Comment »

One day at the festival, Rooftop Films founder Mark Rosenberg tells me all about Benh Zeitlin’s short film “Glory at Sea,” (partially funded through the Rooftop filmmakers’ fund), making sure I put it on my SXSW can’t-miss list; the next, he’s telling me that Benh and three others from the “Glory at Sea” crew had been in a terrible car accident on their way to the festival, and now Benh’s in surgery. It’s the sort of sudden turnaround one hopes never to happen at a film festival, potentially compounded by the fact that the 25-year-old filmmaker doesn’t have health insurance. Read More | 1 Comment »

Fanboy geek-out moment: Johnny Hicklenton is one of the greatest comic artists you have never heard of. The British artist introduced a vicious style to the staid world of British comics and split the fan base of top-selling UK comic 2000AD in half. He's also here in Austin, sketching in the Convention Center and promoting Here's Johnny, the film about the impact of his brittle, angular, anarchic style and his on-going battle with multiple sclerosis.

Hicklenton has also been a controversial figure in British comics, for his unrelenting portrayal of the iconic Judge Dredd (the real deal, not the Stallone monstrosity) as a vicious thug, rather than an anti-hero. He has his own explanation, as shared with him by Dredd writer Pat Mills: "He's a state sanctioned killer."

Here's Johnny screens at 11am, Thursday March 13 at the Alamo Lamar.

Hicklenton's also scheduled to do a signing of re-prints of his work on Nemesis the Warlock at Austin Books on Wednesday Read More | Comment »

If you happen to have access to the SXSW Interactive Trade Fair on the fourth floor of the Convention Center, don't forget to drop by the Austin Chronicle booth/chill-out zone. Yes, come meet some of the delightful people that bring you your favorite local publication (plug, plug.) And if that's not enough encouragement, we have free Snowballs and Ho Hos.

Remember, if you don't eat them, we have to. No, seriously, we have a Snowball-stuffing contest after SXSW. And it's not a pretty sight. Read More | Comment »

Here's a small sample of recommended day party revelry. Check out the print edition of this week's Chronicle for additional day parties and in-stores.

IN-STORES

Backspin Records
WEDNESDAY: Dr. Delay (2pm), Percee P (3), Bird Peterson & Tittsworth (4)
FRIDAY: The Little Bicycles (2pm), Ume (2:45), Xcella (3:30), the Fall Collection (4:15), El Paso Hot Button (5)
SATURDAY: Super Soul Saturday with Mingering Mike & Dori Hadar, Wiley & the Checkmates, Ralph "Soul" Jackson, Herman Hitson (1pm)

Opera House
WEDNESDAY: Oh, Pyramid (6pm), Diamondhead (7), Voodoo Economics (8), Ex-Cocaine (9)
THURSDAY: Slow/Dynamite (2:30pm), the Gang (3:15), Dana Falconberry (4), John Maus (4:45), Karl Blau (5)
FRIDAY: Douglas Ferguson (noon), Lisa Cameron (12:30), No Age (2), Mika Miko (2:30), Foot Village (3), Kevin Shields (3:30), Devon Williams (4), Ima Gymnist (4:30), Magic Johnson (5), Friends Forever (5:30), KIT (6), Mistress (6:30), Nero's Day at Disneyland (7), Anavan (7:30)
SATURDAY: Transmography (1pm), La Snacks (2), Binary Marketing Machine (3), Asleep Dream Audience (4), the Bill Jeffreys (5), Peachcake (6), Naught for 3 (7), Yatagarsu (8)

Cream Vintage
THURSDAY: Georgie James (12:10pm), Le Loup (1:05), These United States (2), Pash (2:55), Middle Distance Runner (3:50), Jukebox the Ghost (4:45), Exit Clov (5:40), Samantha Murphy (6:35)
FRIDAY: Balmorhea (noon), Deer Tick (1), David Karsten Daniels (2), Tall Firs (3), Panther (4), Hey Willpower (5)
SATURDAY: The Hymns (2pm), the Steps (3), Mr. & Mrs. Mays (4), the Teeth (5), the Mercers (6)

Trailer Space (1401 Rosewood Ave.)
SATURDAY: Gospel Truth (1pm), Vancougar (1:45), Thomas Function (2:30), Hibachi Stranglers (3:15), Brimstone Howl (4), Headache City (4:45), Johnny & the Limelites (5:30) Read More | Comment »

After weeks spent holed up with screeners and furiously editing copy for our SXSW Film issue, it was great to finally put names and films to faces at last night's Chronicle-sponsored SXSW Film Bash at La Zona Rosa. It was a packed house, and everybody seemed to be enjoying the hell out of themselves. (Those little blue drink tickets certainly helped grease the wheels, although I had to hit up the Luv Doc for replacements after I foolishly tossed mine, thinking, um, they were for a raffle or something.) Read More | Comment »

A gentle reminder to film festival attendees: there is life beyond the down-town nexus of the Convention Center, the gorgeous Paramount and the beloved Alamo Ritz. And it is more than worth the tiny effort to get to the other venues

Take a little trip (it's about a ten minute drive, or you can take CapMetro's no. 1 or 5 buses) to Dobie Landmark. The outside looks like an innocuous cinema in a mall, but inside is a true gem. Four screens, each with different design theme: Egyptian, French Tudor, Gargoyle Gothic and Space-Age Art Deco. There's murals and gargoyles and vintage glamor and, yes, SXSW films.

Also, if you feel like duplicating the Alamo "dinner and a movie" experience, don't forget there's also SXSW films showing at the Alamo South Lamar. If you need an extra incentive, they have the real Bone Shack sign from Grindhouse in the lobby. Read More | Comment »

Black Joe Lewis howled through a headlining set at La Zona Rosa last night, kicking off South by Southwest 08 in style. Click the image gallery for more. Read More | Comment »

Along with tenderness and empathy, there are moments of laughter in Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie. Not a surprise: two middle-aged guys standing in the Ohio woods, yelling for Sasquatch, is not the most strait-laced topic for a documentary. How did the film makers feel about maybe holding stars Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton up for potential ridicule for their obsession?

"I do feel guilty," said cameraman Shane Allen Davis. "These are people. They need something to hang on to."

"There's a beauty and inspiration to the passion they have in a place where some people have given up," said producer/director Jay Delaney. So are the subjects happy with the end product? "Dallas just wanted more Bigfoot. If it was 62 minutes of pictures of Bigfoot, he would have been happier. Wayne just wanted to be seen as a rebel." But the big question: Did the intrepid bigfoot researchers convince the filmmakers about their monster? "I came into this with an open mind, and I came out with an open mind," said Delaney.

"Jane Goodall believes in Bigfoot," added Davis.

Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie screens at 11.59pm, Friday March 14 at the Alamo Ritz. Read More | Comment »

What's the greatest thing about SXSW? The music? The films? The panel discussions? The mounds of free schwag that everyone ends up having to tote home?

NO! It's the huge pile of Lego that is the SXSW Interactive Playpen. Guests are invited to decompress from the strains and rigors of the festival (and trust us, one can only consume so many hors d'oeuvres before life becomes terribly tiresome) by playing with Lego. Lots and lots and lots of Lego. Builders can even take photos of their handiwork and upload them for the chance of winning a t-shirt.

Of course, it's not the same since they started making all these ultra-specialized shapes of blocks (the rot set in when they released the first oneXone block, I tell ye), but what engineer's heart does not soar at the sight of this much Lego?

Click on the image above for our own photo-gallery. Read More | 1 Comment »