North to South by for spring

Last year I learned that SXSW is how you write South by Southwest Music/Film/Interactive (if you're in the know).

This year I learned that, verbally, you refer to it as South by. Hence the otherwise confusing title you see above, referring to my trip north on IH-35 to get to spend 3+ days seeing really neat movies.

I wonder if I will become even cooler if I make it to the festival next year???

Regular readers of the blog might remember my quick trip last year, where I was here for only a day and saw 2 movies. I made plans then and there for a more extended visit in 2011 and was it ever worth it!

Getting to visit that much longer with the kids, getting to stay in Hal & Carey's great new "guest quarters," and getting to see that many more movies and partake of that much more of Austin's so cool vibes...what a great spring break!

In spite of the great cuisine (mostly of the east side—see photo on the right—and south side variety), a nice walking tour of the lakefront (see more about his on my London blog), and other family activities, the movies were the big attraction.

And since I used to write movie reviews somewhat semi-professionally, I thought I'd see if I could still do it. Here are some mini-reviews of the films I saw.

First up, Monday afternoon, Sally and I saw 4 medium-length shorts. A couple, the first two here, were pretty good:

Clear Blue. (Canada) A young man takes a job as a lifeguard and falls for an older woman/early morning swimmer/mermaid. Doesn't end well for him.

Scenes from the Suburbs. (US) An imaginative look at what happens when the gated community concept is taken to the next level. Definitely supported my prejudices against this kind of "neighborhood." Directed by Spike Jonze, this short was the main reason Sally wanted to see this program.

John's Gone. (US) Really didn't make any sense, although part of the reason might have been that we were in the very front row of the theatre, and there were a lot of close-ups.

Join the Dots. (UK) Made a little more sense. It was about a girl feeling alienated from the preppie crowd at college.

Things looked up on Tuesday (we tried to get into another film Monday night but were outflanked by the "stinking" badges).

Life in a Day. (very various) This was one of my favorites. It's the result of a YouTube project that solicited video from around the world, showing what people were doing on one day in July last summer. Although some of the juxtapositions were a little heavy-handed, for the most part it was very well stitched together and had some wonderful moments. I particularly liked the sequences of people getting up in the morning—such universal behaviors, no matter the setting!

We had to hoof it from our between-movies walk (read about it on my London blog) and yummy lunch to make the next film. Fortunately we found a couple of little cars-to-go (I'm in one taking the photo on the right) and were able to hop in and get to the theatre just in time for...

Caught Inside. (Australia) This creepy surfing/psycho-killer thriller was quite well-made and acted. Scenery was great, too. We spent a bit of time afterward discussing how we could have more effectively neutralized the psycho guy than the characters did. I think that's the mark of a successful film of this type.

Crowds started to thin at the movies Wednesday as the music section of the festival got underway, making it less stressful to make the screenings and requiring less waiting time. I went to both of these by myself, at the Drafthouse (where I also had some good eats—what a great concept!):

Press/Pause/Play. (Sweden) This was a very absorbing and well-made documentary about the perils and potential of easily-made and -distributed digital art. Focused on music and movies, it provided both an interesting look back and how difficult it used to be to make this kind of art, and a glimpse of a future where it's even easier than it is now. I understand the arguments of the "perils" people (a good line from one was that he feared people would become "comfortable with mediocrity" when everyone is an artist, no matter how un-talented). But I'm generally more on the side of those who find it exciting and encouraging that so many more people can express themselves widely now than in the old days.
The First Movie. (Canada) Another documentary about art, this movie provided good support for the "potentials" argument made in Press/Pause/Play. Set in a remote Iraqi Kurdish village, it was about the kids there and how they took to making movies when a Scottish filmmaker visited and started handing out little cameras. My only quibble was that I found the director/narrator's voice annoying. The kids were absolutely adorable, and although they weren't born when the village was gassed by Saddam Hussein, that period still shadows life there. Sounds like a downer but it wasn't.

Thursday I only had the time and eyeball strength left to see one film before heading home, at the State, but it was one of the best:

Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times. This documentary was fascinating: entertaining, educational, and provocative. It covered the hard times currently facing major news organizations in depth but also found time for discussions of WikiLeaks, Judith Miller, blogs, and more. A very smart move was to focus a lot on David Carr, a media columnist and reporter for the Times, who is a very engaging and entertaining character.

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Thanks again to my lovely hosts for providing a place to crash, so that I could see all this great stuff, and to Sally for getting me my only-those-in-the-know-can-get-one pass that you can't buy online.

The badges still got in ahead of us, but I'm not quite ready to pay that much, no matter how good the movies are.

Plus, I did have other things to do with my Austin time, like have meals at funky eateries with my kids, play shuffleboard with them, etc.

I'll leave the really hard-core festival going to the aspiring young filmmakers with the badges. But I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the future!

Cool for a day

Coolness is not one of my major attributes. I have even, on occasion, been forbidden by my children to use the word.

But, as the saying goes, even a blind pig, etc., etc., etc.

So, for one day last week I was personally at hip-cool central, Austin, Texas, during SXSW! Wooo! Not bad for someone who, just a year or so ago, didn't know what SXSW stood for. [Although I have a ways to go to reach the coolness level of the gentleman who accidentally got into my shot on the left.]

Historically, it was a week of music events in Austin, self-proclaimed live music capital of the world. It's evolved over the years into much more, with all kinds of tech events and game and device unveilings, and, what I went for, movies, too.

As you can tell from the picture below, taken during a 6th Street stroll between films, we had beautiful weather on Thursday. That, coupled with the congenial company of my young 'uns (who aren't as censorious about my vocabulary these days), made for a delightful day in A-town.

We saw a couple of interesting movies (one documentary, one feature), ate some yummy Tex-Mex at Jaime's Spanish Village, had our eardrums rung at The Jackalope (where I found a new beer to like), got some visiting and game-playing in, and—the somewhat un-cool high point for me—got to visit the house soon-to-be-owned by globetrotting son and daughter-in-law.

Of course, there was also some high-level people watching, too, in conjunction with that 6th Street stroll in particular. The street was closed to vehicles (except, as it appeared, for a fleet of beer trucks, which were needed to keep the suds flowing) so it was probably even more of a magnet for...shall we say...eccentric folks having a high time flaunting their eccentricities. Not to mention almost wall-to-wall street musicians like the ones on the right.

What's really weird about Austin, though, is that all this eccentricity happens in a city that's headquarters for one of the most embarrassingly conservative state governments in the country. Having to park quite a ways from 6th street necessitated a walk through the capitol grounds, which was quite pleasant, as long as you make an effort not to remember what goes on inside our handsome capitol buildings.

But I suppose it's a lesson in the dangers of generalization when you realize that the craziness of SXSW is just a few blocks from here.

I'm already looking forward to next year's festival, when, with more lodging options available, I'll be able to enjoy more than just one day of this coolness extravaganza. And maybe take in some uncool tourist attractions like museums and parks, too, while I'm there. Since it really is a multi-attraction city.