South By SouthWest Diary Day Three - 3/13/2010

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Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Tuesday, 16 March 2010 17:03

Written by Eric Lurio

Day Three

Another day, more movies. I saw three today and four yesterday. This was due mostly to luck, and I haven't actually seen the beginnings of a majority of them.

Take this morning, for example. The country's clock had changed from Standard to Daylight Saving Time, and while it was certainly mentioned in the papers, the hotel didn't bother to turn their clocks forward! Very nice. So, I was about half an hour late to a screening of Clay Liford's Earthling at the Alamo Drafthouse. The director was there, as were several volunteers telling me I was too late and the place was full anyway. But there was another film showing in the multi-screen venue at the same time, which had only been playing for 15 minutes, they said they had "a seat or two left."

I went in to that, or so I thought... But I made a wrong turn and did wind up seeing Earthling, or at least the last three-quarters of it. And by the way, despite what the volunteers had arrogantly sniffed at me, the room wasn't full. Assholes.

Then I had to run all the way to the Paramount Theatre, where I only missed two minutes pre-credits of Mike Woolf's Richard Garriot: Man on a Mission. I did see the IMAX masterpiece Hubble 3D from end to end, but I had to use my SXPpress ticket to bypass the huge line at the History Museum.

And that was good (for me at least) because the line was very long. Hubble 3D was the kind of thing IMAX was made for: Huge vistas filled up your mind, with some of the footage animated directly from data sent by Hubble after the mission to repair it. The IMAX people also had film shot during a couple of the previous missions, so the narrative was able to tell the entire history of the telescope from before the launch.

While seeing this as a documentary on television isn't a horrible idea, I wouldn't recommended because it won't blow your mind like it does viewing through the full effect of IMAX 3-D. Harry Knowles did the Q&A with director Toni Myers, which was all gushy, as one would expect from him. The hors d'oeuvres were decent afterward.

But as much as it was about movies, the day was also about food. For what I expect may be the only time for the festival, I got all my meals free at receptions along Sixth Street by people touting projects. Basically, they're for everyone who can get in. I walked in, ate and left. And had a good time.

South By SouthWest Diary Day Two - 3/12/2010

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Parent Category: Blogs

Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:12

Written by Eric Lurio

Day Two

The day started with a massive disappointment. The press lounge didn't open until noon, and pretty much nothing was open at the Convention Center except the check-in. The advance-passes booth, which also wasn't open, had a line going at least a block. The opening night extravaganza, Predators, had sold out long before, and there were only 15 SXPRESS passes for it, which get you to the front of the line.

The line for those passes had about 20 people, so I waited with everyone else and got a couple of tickets, one for a film that had a press screening I'd missed in New York, The Red Chapel, and one picked at random. I was was lucky to get those with the crush of people. Then I headed off to find a bus to the reception/brunch at the U. of Texas' Henry Ransom Center on 20th Street.

They had an exhibit about movie-making that was actually pretty interesting although the brunch part wasn't all that impressive. What was truly interesting was the ¡Viva! Mexico exhibit, which was there becuase of the bicentennial of Mexican independence. What was most important was that the curators completely ignored the event the exhibit was supposed to be celebrating.

They had the actual document appointing Hernando Cortez Captain General of New Spain, letters from Emperor Maximilian to his wife, and photos of Emilio Zapata and Poncho Villa. But as to the war of independence that started in 1810 -- nada. They didn't even mention it in the timeline! I found that to be even more offensive than the monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the state capitol grounds. Why have an exhibition celebrating something if you don't mention it?

I then went to the history museum (more on that later) and spent a couple of hours looking around before heading back to the convention center, which was totally packed -- at least for a while, because when I finally got to the fourth floor and was heading to the press lounge, some moron decided it would be funny to press the fire alarm, and they had to clear the building.

It was here that I noticed that SxSW was all about corporate sponsorship. There were tents across the street in the park on Fourth Street, and they were giving out free drinks. Naturally the place was packed, and it gave me something to do while waiting for my very first screening, which was held at the convention center.

Unfortunately, The Red Chapel sucked big time. It was a documentary about this Danish comedian who brought two of his compatriots to North Korea in order to do expose the evil regime of Kim Jong Il. The theater wasn't packed at all, as most people were at the Kick-Ass premiere at Paramount Theatre, on Congress Street.

After that, I rushed up to the Alamo Drafthouse at the Ritz, on trendy Sixth Street, where I saw a thing called The Good Heart that starred Brian Cox as an unlovable curmudgeon. He was great, more on both later….

South By SouthWest Diary Day One - 3/11/2010

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Parent Category: Blogs

Category: Eric Lurio

Published on Friday, 12 March 2010 03:49

Written by Eric Lurio

Day One

I'm here in Austin, Texas, at the annual South by Southwest Conferences & Festival, better know as S x SW. Now in its 24th year, it's actually three things at once: an interactive-media show from March 12 to 16, 2010, a film festival from March 12 to 20, and a music fest from March 17 to 21.
It's freakin' huge. And it gets your mind to wandering --mine, for instance, wandered to the Santa Fe Plaza in the capitol of New Mexico.

Now, you may wonder what the Santa Fe Plaza has to do with South by Southwest's film festival. Nothing, really, but I was thinking about it when I was headed up the walkway leading to the Texas Capitol building in Austin this morning.

You see, there are Civil War memorials in each place, and the one in Santa Fe has an apology for its, which refers to the Confederates as "rebels." Conversely, the statue of Jeff Davis in Texas' memorial has no such apology on the pedestal. When I mentioned this to another tourist, he said, "Texans don't apologize for anything."

Aside from that, Austin, Texas is a thoroughly modern city. During the 20th century, most of the original buildings were torn down and replaced by post-modernist architecture; the few old ones that remain are almost all stately hotels or seedy bars on the famous Sixth Street, which, for some reason, the people are all very proud of. While it's not the heart of the city, it sure seems that way.

North of the capitol complex is the University of Texas, which is partly why this is the only place where liberals are allowed to thrive in the entire state. The college contains a huge football stadium and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Museum, which was considered a monstrosity when it was first built, back when the old man was still alive, and now looks almost quaint.

Being a fan of LBJ, I spent much of my time there, looking at the exhibits, which are nice but not thrilling. But then I had to return to the convention center, where they were giving us our badges for the days to come. The place is pretty much like every other convention center I've been to, and so the sense of déjà vu was overwhelming. The lines were long, and the swag they gave us pretty junky, but then again, this isn't the Oscars.

Each part of SxSW's three sections has to be paid for separately. The film festival is an actual film festival, while the interactive section is a conference/trade show. People with a badge for one cannot go to the other, although I’m going to make an attempt.

There's not really much time for that, though. I've barely gotten my bearings and I don't know how to find where the first event of the day is.

There may be a shuttle bus or there may not be. We'll just have to see.