Spent this last weekend in Austin for the beginning of South by Southwest. Several of the Film Threat guys flew in as well, and I spent most of the two days in question either drinking with them or drinking with some friends living in town. The common thread, of course, being drinking, and the inescapable realization that I now require almost a full day of recovery for sessions of this magnitude. Getting old rules.
Unlike Sundance, FT doesn't pay my transportation (I drive) or lodging (assorted couches). As a result, I have less guilt when it comes to spending an entire afternoon sitting in the back of the Ginger Man, drinking Anchor Steam and reading magazines instead of watching movies. I have several screeners that I'll review in the next few days, but this weekend especially was way too nice to lurk in darkened theaters.
Had my requisite celebrity sighting, exchanging pleasantries with Henry Rollins on the escalator at the Convention Center, so the trip wasn't a total waste of time.
Some of you are probably wondering how SXSW differs from Sundance, so I'll offer a few of my observations that I came up with while avoiding eye contact with people at the Film Threat booth during Mark's interviews.
1. SXSW features a lot more rockabilly types. Whether this is a function of movies like Jam and Tales of the Rat Fink playing this year or not, I don't know, but there was a definite glut of guys with flame tattoos on their arms and girls in pigtails sporting wife beaters.
2. Sun. It was 86 degress on Saturday, and I took great pleasure in watching my California brethren struggling to find something comfortable amidst their predominantly black wardrobes.
3. Cheaper and stronger beer, and - by an order of magnitude - more places to drink it. Then again, Austin is a college town with a population of almost 700,000 people, making it nearly 100 times larger than Park City. On a related note, if you get drunk and accidentally pass out in front of your hotel, you're unlikely to die of exposure.
4. SXSW takes itself less seriously than Sundance, which is evident in the kind of films screened. Personally, I think movies like Air Guitar Heroes or Darkon would've killed at Sundance, but there's always an underlying sense that they should stick with more "serious" fare. Their loss.
5. The fact that you can drink in two of the Austin venues (both Alamo Drafthouses) scores a thumbs-up from most of the assembled festival goers, with the flipside being that the seats in the Austin Convention Center are more uncomfortable than even the dread ass manglers of the Yarrow Hotel press rooms.
6. Austin traffic may suck, but I can usually find a place to park within a few blocks of the Convention Center if I hunt around for 10 or 15 minutes (and, unlike some, I don't mind parking near the homeless shelter). I wouldn't even bother bringing a car to Sundance.
7. I used to live in Austin, so the comfort level is understandably greater. I know my way around town, and if I want to disengage myself from all the BS going on, I can just walk a mile or two and be pretty much free of my fellow laminate-wearers.
8. Waterloo Records
That was about as far as I got before I actually had to start answering questions.
Nothing enlightening to add .. just wanted to say I enjoy your blog