Antone's Nightclub
Music-Making and Pickle-Making All the Same
RECEIVED Sat., March 8, 2008
Dear Editor,
Every year, poor Louis has to write several editorials before and after SXSW defending it from all the complainers [“Page Two,” March 7].
Do you think people would be so upset about a pickle-making convention that rolled into town every year and there weren't enough free pickles given out to the locals?
People keep mistaking SXSW for some kind of party/festival when it is a convention/conference. It just happens to be about the entertainment business. Any entertainment locals or outsiders get from it is a byproduct – the main purpose of SXSW is for musicians and filmmakers to network and make money.
Every year people get upset because it's so expensive to go or because their band didn't get in or whatever, but really, it's just a glossy plumbers' convention of hungry, mostly barely talented people trying to huckster their wares and egos to the industry. And a place for the industry to profess all the self-love it can, as well as see new gadgets, hear about what to do and what not to do to get rich and famous, and for those who actually love what they do for a living, to celebrate that love.
Only the fools go rushing to see a movie that will open next week in the theatres at SXSW or the band that's already had a hit.
This is not about the audience. It never has been. Stop thinking it is. It's about show business. Emphasis on business … without the business, there is no show, baby.
For example, from the Wall Street Journal: online.wsj.com/article/SB120492085441720169.html.
Every year, poor Louis has to write several editorials before and after SXSW defending it from all the complainers [“Page Two,” March 7].
Do you think people would be so upset about a pickle-making convention that rolled into town every year and there weren't enough free pickles given out to the locals?
People keep mistaking SXSW for some kind of party/festival when it is a convention/conference. It just happens to be about the entertainment business. Any entertainment locals or outsiders get from it is a byproduct – the main purpose of SXSW is for musicians and filmmakers to network and make money.
Every year people get upset because it's so expensive to go or because their band didn't get in or whatever, but really, it's just a glossy plumbers' convention of hungry, mostly barely talented people trying to huckster their wares and egos to the industry. And a place for the industry to profess all the self-love it can, as well as see new gadgets, hear about what to do and what not to do to get rich and famous, and for those who actually love what they do for a living, to celebrate that love.
Only the fools go rushing to see a movie that will open next week in the theatres at SXSW or the band that's already had a hit.
This is not about the audience. It never has been. Stop thinking it is. It's about show business. Emphasis on business … without the business, there is no show, baby.
For example, from the Wall Street Journal: online.wsj.com/article/SB120492085441720169.html.
Ron Deutsch