At this morning's Downloaded: The Digital Revolution roundtable, Alex Winter discussed digital media with Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow and Napster co-founders Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning.

With South by Southwest in full swing, all eyes are on Austin. I saw a window of opportunity in the crush of local events and took off SXSW Interactive weekend, heading north for 35 Denton.

“Don’t be afraid to tell your story.” That was the message Eddie Huang delivered on Monday at a South by Southwest Interactive panel. Perched at the podium, Huang rattled off self-help one-liners from the Tao Te Ching and held forth about his favorite topic, Eddie Huang, and his journey from unemployed lawyer to celebrity chef.

Last year, Witch Cross cast a spell on Decibel magazine by pulling a nine rating out of 10 for a reissue of the Danish metallers’ only LP, 1984’s howling Fit for Fight, the insidious spawn of Mercyful Fate and the Runaways. That’s a fitting description of Atlanta’s Royal Thunder, showcasing twice this week at SXSW.

Some people are jerks in life, and they’re jerks in death.

South by Southwest confirms that Prince makes his festival debut Saturday at La Zona Rosa. News broke Sunday that he’ll bring a big band with horns as opposed to the female threepiece he’s toured recently. SXSW promises an official statement tomorrow, with tickets sorted by lottery like Green Day and Depeche Mode.

The parallels of love stories defy generational gaps.

As I headed to Clive Bar for the Austin Smoke Experiment, an amateur cooking event that was part of the Brooklyn Brewery Mash on Sunday, I grew exited about the plethora of smoked dishes and culinary exploration awaiting me. But when I reached the man with the tickets and the power, I was told to hit the road.

“This was my first mumblecore movie,” Austin filmmaker Andrew Bujalski joked yesterday, after a screening of his latest movie, Computer Chess.