I keep trying to write something about the Bloch Cancer Memorial Park, about how sometimes less is
more, how one of the best things about Austin is that it says no so
intelligently (though this is frequently portrayed as one of its most puzzling
idiosyncratic characteristics). But I know I’ll end up saying something along
the lines of there being many millionaires, and, unfortunately, lots of
terrible diseases and worthy causes. There really is very limited urban green
space and it is foolish, not honorable, to give that over for any reason.
I believe that is not very diplomatic and that it would have to take a whole
lot of time and space to explain exactly what I mean. I’d also have to drag out
the same old arguments and prop up the same unsightly stories. This just
doesn’t seem right as we approach the Thanksgiving season. You know — more
turkeys on the table and less discussed in conversation.
And if the current pace wasn’t frenetic enough around here, this year for the
first time the Chronicle will publish both during Christmas week and
New Year’s week. Since both holidays fall on a Wednesday, we are still
working out the exact details of the schedule. Still, this year there will be
52 issues of the Chronicle instead of 51, as has been the tradition
since we went weekly. Since the paper is free, in effect, we are extending all
your subscriptions by one issue. Call it the staff’s holiday season present to
you.
As I mentioned last week, South by Southwest season is upon us. The SXSW
offices, just across the field from the Chronicle (though the two are
separate corporations) is overflowing with stacks of mail, with CDs and tapes
in the Music Festival Office and stacks of videos in the Film and
Multimedia/Interactive Festival office. For all three events (occurring March
7-16, 1997) the next registration deadline is Monday, December 2 (for more
information, call 467-7979. There is much excitement at SXSW, which should
offer a wide variety of pleasant surprises and fun this March.
The Film Conference and Festival, which I work most closely on, is coming
along exceedingly well, with such independent filmmakers as Kevin Smith
(Clerks, Chasing Amy), Richard Linklater (subUrbia), Joe
Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (Brothers Keeper, Paradise Lost: Child Murders
at Robin Hood Hills), and George Ratliff (Purgatory County, Plutonium
Circus). Joining such distribution/exhibition/industry legends as Michael
Barker (Sony Picture Classics co-president), author John Pierson (Spike,
Mike, Slackers & Dykes), producer John Sloss (John Sayles, Richard
Linklater, Whit Stillman), and Eamonn Bowles (Miramax). More importantly, the
conference has become a gathering place for independent filmmakers from around
the country committed to making their own films on their own terms. (A note:
Nick Barbaro and I are actively involved with SXSW).
As we go into this holiday season, our family here at the Chronicle wishes your family, our
readers, well. The paper has been growing, thanks to an extraordinary effort by
the staff, and I think we’ll all enjoy a few days off.
This article appears in November 29 • 1996 and November 29 • 1996 (Cover).