Jeff's Tumblelog
SXSW 2008
Although I’m very delinquent in writing this entry, I did, in fact, attend SXSW 2008. I went with my friend Jason from college and had a great time.
Had a great time in Austin, that is. Getting there and back was another story. I ended up spending unplanned nights in Memphis on my way to and from SXSW. One of those nights was in a roach motel, literally. And I had to rent a car and drive from San Antonio just to get there a day late. (I strongly recommend avoiding Pinnacle Airlines, a.k.a. Northwest Connection.) But enough grumbling.
When I did finally reach Austin, I was itching to make up for lost time, so Jason and I picked up my badge and proceeded immediately to a screening of Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. I didn’t realize that it was produced by HDNet Films (the same people that did Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room), otherwise I would have been even more excited to see it. It was extremely well done. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has been bumped to the top of my reading list. After Gonzo we headed to the Frog Design party. This was one of the few SXSW parties that was at a venue that was actually large enough to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. The free green beer was vile, though. We finished off the night at a cafe in downtown Austin that offered smores. Yum.
Sunday was the Mark Zuckerberg keynote, which was supposed to be the highlight of the Interactive festival. It was a complete train wreck and one of the worst interviews I have ever witnessed. The only thing good about it was that the sheer awfulness of it provided good conversation fodder. Kathy Sierra’s talk about “Creating Passionate Users” followed and was much better. In the evening, Jason and I headed to the Alamo Drafthouse (this would become a theme during the trip) for a screening of Nerdcore Rising. I love documentary films, and was very impressed with the depth and character of what could have easily been a gimmick film (it was about nerdcore hip-hop, after all). Despite heading for the after party promptly following the end of the screening, we had to wait a long time to get into the club. MC Frontalot performed a few songs, but we missed him. We did get to see Prince Paul, who was featured in the film, perform, though.
Monday was the PostSecret keynote, which was interesting, if a little fluffy. After that Jason and I went to the Bootstrapping 101 panel, which was crap. So we bailed and decided to see a screening of The Matador, a documentary about an up-and-coming bullfighter in Spain. Now I really want to go to Spain and a corrida up close and personal. We went straight from that screening to the Alamo Drafthouse for the regional premiere of Morgan Spurlock’s film Where in the World is Osama bin Laden? Good stuff, and I hope lots of people go see it. I’d sum up the film in the words of an Afghani man-on-the-street when asked about Osama bin Laden: “Fuck him and fuck America too.”
On Tuesday, we got up and met with Isaac from Pittsburgh for lunch at Stubb’s BBQ. Fried okra for the win. The keynote for that day was Jane McGonigal, who gave an interesting talk that boiled down to applying the principles of “positive psychology” to software development. After that we hit a film panel with members of Troublemaker Studios, Robert Rodriguez’s company. That was more interesting for Jason than me, but it was alright. That evening we went to see two films: Second Skin and Dreams with Sharp Teeth. Second Skin was a documentary about people who play online RPGs (although, curiously enough, given the title, it said very little about Second Life). Dreams with Sharp Teeth was a documentary about Harlan Ellison, the sci-fi author. Both were very well done, and I’m pleased to say that of the six films I saw at SXSW, I wouldn’t rate any of them below a high ‘B’.
On Wednesday we met Jason’s friend Buzz for lunch at Iron Works, another BBQ joint. That, on top of a trip to a bratwurst cart named “The Best Wurst” the previous evening, meant that we ended up eating quite a bit of beef brisket and sausage during our trip. No regrets about that, since you can’t find BBQ one-tenth as good anywhere in Pittsburgh. After lunch it was time to head to the airport and bid SXSW adieu.
At least, until next year…
