Topic 47 of 64: SXSW South by Southwest
Tue, Mar 6, 2001 (09:32) |
(sprin5)
I can't believe we dont' have a South by Soutwest topic here, it's the music, movie, film, and multimedia event of the year in Austin. And it's coming here this month, I believe. The site is http://www.sxsw.com
31 responses total.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 1 of 31: austin spring (sprin5) * Tue, Mar 6, 2001 (09:32) * 5 lines
Will Kreth is the topic of an article in this weks Chronicle, it talks about
his lifeset.com venture and his struggle to get his dot com funding. He's
got a great idea, pushing out news of new CD releases and music events to
users who otherwise wouldn't be aware of them. He's a great marketing guy,
and, as usual, he's way ahead of the curve with his creativity and vision.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 2 of 31: austin spring (sprin5) * Wed, Mar 14, 2001 (08:46) * 26 lines
There were some other "x" events that failed, but I can't dig up that
article where I read all this stuff, I don't even remember if it was in
print or on the web, and I coudn't find it by searching the Chron or the
Snakeskin.
Attendance at the Interactive fest was "light" yesterday, I got an
invitation to work the KGSR booth and promote an upcoming UT ebusiness
seminaar.
I got some rockin', incredible footage of some impromptu singing at the
booth that had the awesome fisheye video camera adapter. It was of an
Austin singer who looks like Rebecca Demournay.
Apple had an impressive booth and Canon had their cool XL1 stuff at a nearby
booth.
What were other folks impressions? I know Jeff K was there, we spoke for a
bit. Being boothbound, I didn't get much chance to roam around.
Some good third party coverage sites:
http://www.sxsw.com/2001/interactive/marketing/press.shtml
Real media or
realaudio clip of sxsw interactive
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 3 of 31: (sprin5) * Thu, Mar 15, 2001 (08:39) * 1 lines
There's lotsa "ex" sx's but Autin keeps on going onward through the fog.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 4 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Apr 30, 2001 (00:16) * 4 lines
It was a great SXSW!
http://www.wholetech.com/sxsw
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 5 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Mar 13, 2002 (12:51) * 1 lines
Stay tuned!
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 6 of 31: Marcia (MarciaH) * Wed, Mar 13, 2002 (14:54) * 1 lines
I 'm listeing!
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 7 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Mar 15, 2002 (07:45) * 66 lines
OK! Here it is!
The South by South Interactive Show video.
http://www.well.com/~terry/sxsw01.wmv
http://www.well.com/~terry/sxsw02.wmv
Here's the playlist for the above to wmv's. What's good, for fast
forwarders: mirror girl shot, Harry Knowles interview!, Slashdot, Halcyon
at the Earl Awards and his panel. This is all unedited and unexpurgated
(whatever that means).
Friday 3/8/02
sx0201.dv 00:00 07:06 Interview with Director of Ran B Side
sx0202.dv 00:00 02:55 B Side Bar
Saturday 3/9/02
02:55 08:12 random shots outside panels
08:12 10:32 game show panel Microsoft gal
10:32 11:06 random Conv Ctr
11:06 19:54 GSD&M party
sx0203.dv 00:00 19:54 GSD&M party
sx0204.dv 00:00 07:15 GSD&M party
07:15 15:26 poetry party So New Media
Sunday 3/10/02
sx0205.dv 00:00 10:00 finck kaub panel Building Buzz
10:00 10:10 mirror girl shot
10:10 19:54 trade show
sx0206.dv 00:00 04:04 trade show
sx0207.dv 04:04 08:02 Earl Awards start
08:02 19:54 start of Earls to Tongsville
sx0208.dv 00:00 02:52 Earl Awards up to North Pole
sx0209.dv 00:00 19:54 Earl Awards up to Brand Called Me
sx0210.dv 00:00 18:15 Earl Awards up to Cam Chat site
Monday 3/11/02
sx0211.dv 00:00 01:16 Peter Merholtz MultiDisciplinary
01:24 07:58 Slashdot Collaboration Tools
07:58 19:54 Knowles book signing
sx0212.dv 00:00 04:02 Knowles book signing
sx0213.dv 00:00 19:54 Knowles book signing
sx0214.dv 00:00 19:54 Knowles book signing
sx0215.dv 00:00 05:05 Knowles book signing
sx0216.dv 00:00 04:48 Knowles book signing end
04:48 15:35 EFF Party at El Sol y La Luna
Tuesday 3/12/02
sx0217.dv 00:00 00:25 Thrasher, Wilson panel Sm Biz Survival
sx0218.dv 00:00 01:45 Thrasher, Wilson panel
sx0219.dv 00:00 09:59 Thrasher, Wilson panel
09:59 10:40 circle of wireless notebook users
10:40 19:54 Self Publishing Jennifer Niedherst
sx0220.dv 00:00 13:36 self publishing
13:36 19:46 Design for Community - Halcyon
sx0221.dv 00:00 19:22 Halcyon, Haughey, Powazek, Clark
Thursday 3/14/02
sx0222.dv 00:00 19:22 Adam's dinner party on Sixth Street
. . . the last entry will be posted later today at
http://www.well.com/~terry/rocket.wmv
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 8 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Mar 30, 2002 (18:04) * 47 lines
I missed this panel:
The night before, I tried to pick my panels for Sunday based on titles,
and there wasn't much to go on. I spent the first panel time waking up and
getting breakfast. Cameron from blogdex told me the Steve Mann panel at
noon would be worth seeing so I checked that out after spending a few
minutes in the unrevolutionary "the revolution isn't over" panel.
In short, this presentation was mind-blowing and would be the highlight of
the trip. Steve Mann is a bit of freak, a gadget hound gone off the deep
end towards cyborg, but he spent the time bringing the attendees into his
world and above all explained how much we had in common instead of how
different he was from us. He wears a head mounted display, we might wear a
baseball cap. He uses the technology to record his field of view
throughout the day while you might use your hat for warmth or shade. Both
are applications of technology that adorn our bodies and enrich our lives.
The above is from Matt Haughey of http://metafilter.com
and so is this:
Steve's delivery was every bit as unconventional as his subject. He gave
the talk from what appeared to be his home office, streaming video from
his head mounted display with environmental audio captured with a mic.
While it seemed weird at first, after a few minutes it seemed downright
natural, and as a viewer, I could see the world literally from his
perspective. My notes from the panel are here. He spent the time
discussing issues raised in his research and books, drawing figures on a
pad of paper with marker while describing the figures. He covered his art
projects and then brought the discussion to current events and described
his hassles at the airport. He mentioned how after his latest ordeal, he
probably wouldn't be flying again anytime soon. A couple days after this
panel, the New York Times did an article about his recent adventures. I
don't know if anyone from the NYT was in the audience, as near the end,
there was only a handful of people left watching, which was unfortunate
given the interesting subject and delivery. I've got a couple movies of
the proceedings: here's him showing off his wearable computing gear (6.2
Mb, mov), and this what it looked like to watch him leaf through a book
looking for a figure (4 Mb, mov).
The detailed panel notes are here:
http://www.sxswblog.com/note.asp?id=13
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 9 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (20:05) * 21 lines
SXSW Day 1
The drive to Austin yesterday wasn't bad until I actually got into town. Then traffic got bad. But it's completely expected for this town. Hung out with Journalism Josh for about 80 minuites. I know the specific time frame because I was charging the battery to my new camera. Yes, I broke down and bought a digital camera. I haven't really had a chance to play with it yet nor read the manual. But that's one of the things to do while I'm on vacation. Anyhow, back to yesterday...
So then Cindy called and we met for dinner. Cindy is a friend that I met through Autumn. She is one of the most incredible women I know and it was certainly instantaneous friendship as soon as we met. She's so cool that she's letting me crash at her place for the week. We met at Romeo's which is some of the best Italian in Austin from our experience. It was a great chance to catch up with each other.
After dinner we headed off to Iron Cactus for "Breaking Bread with Brad." I was kinda out of the loop on that one and didn't connect that it was dinner. I know, I know...breaking bread should have clued me in. I just wasn't on top of my game yesterday. So Cindy and I sat at the bar for a few drinks while a huge group of people had dinner. Throughout dinner plenty of people came by the bar to talk. And after dinner we did mingle with everyone. The highlight was meeting Mena who I was really looking forward to being here. And of course it was great to meet Brad, who is so nice and made everyone feel welcome.
Eventually we moved migrated towards Polyesters where everyone was discussing doing karaoke. I went along for the walk and was not at all disappointed when plans changed. Everyone went over to B-side where an official sxsw party was happening. Dave and I decided to skip it and found a table at Fado, an Irish bar just down the street. It was good to get away from the group since I was tired. Plus I hadn't really talked to Dave in weeks, which meant we had plenty to catch up on. Around 12:30, I headed back to Cindy's and went to bed. Just woke up a few minutes ago with a headache which reminds me that I probably shouldn't make habit of drinking as much as I did last night.
Now I'm off to check my schedule, get ready, run a few errands, and head off to the conference. Oh yeah, and here are the other people I met yesterday. Rebecca Blood, Jish, Sarah, Kevin.
Oh, and Jon called! Looking forward to seeing him and catching up later this week. He's apparently playing with a new band, Abra Moore. They're opening for Six Pence None the Richer tonight but I can't remember where. Very exciting for him. AND he has a girlfriend. Too bad for me but I'm super happy for him. And for her for that matter.
posted by Erica Lucci at 10:29 AM :: Comment (1)
http://www.ericalucci.com/archives/2002_03_01_old.html#10559694
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 10 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (20:06) * 1 lines
Abra Moore rocks
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 11 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (20:09) * 30 lines
Sunday, March 10, 2002
SXSW Day 2
Yesterday the best thing that happened to me was meeting Blogdex creator, Cameron. The worst thing that happened to me yesterday was missing KickBall.
I slept in late, goofed off around Cindy's house before heading down to the convention center. I registered and got my badge. Sat in on a panel about wearable technology called "Nowear and Everywhere." It was definitely geared towards designers but the whole subject fascinates me. I love technology and want to incoorporate it into life my more. It's hard to believe just a couple years ago I didn't want to get a cell phone because I thought they were prissy. I had no idea who much a cell phone would change my life and keep me connected! So now I want a cell phone that is on my wrist or is a piece of jewelry so I don't have to carry around such a big thing. And you know, it's not really THAT big! I really enjoyed Francine Gemperle's presentation which was an overview of wearable technology. I hadn't thought about things like scuba gear or eyeball implants as being wearable technology. Great presentation.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed Elliott Hsu and Greg Holderfield from Herbst LAZar Bell Inc in Chicago. The presentation started off rough in that the Ibook didn't work well with the Dell projector. Elliot handled it quite well, "It seems like everytime you come to a technology conference, the technology doesn't work." They work as industrial designers and showed us some conceptual pieces their group worked on stricktly as in house projects. They were fascinating. From a backpack which holds a student's flat panel monitor and computer which also connects him to his teacher and parents to a skirt whose length can be changed electronically. Their vision for these pieces was that products didn't have to be hard, cold, molded plastic. My favorite is the shirt with sleeves that can expand and contract based on your body temperature.
After being tempted with all these amazing products that don't exist yet and even if they do exist will be too expensive for me, I headed off to meet Josh and some people for lunch. Lunch was when I figured out Kickball was Saturday and not Sunday. Silly me. We had lunch with Jane, Jessica, Jish, Cameron (who has a blog in addition to Blogdex but I just can't remember what it is now), and Kristin (to who I was like you're booboolina! oh my gosh, that is so cool!). It was a great lunch getting to talk to everyone and hearing about jobs and blogs.
Then we headed back to the conference where I ran into a bunch of the DFW Bloggers. The last panel of the day was "Simplicity in Interface Design" by Ernest Kim and Jason Fried of 37signals.com. They made their point about good and bad design through a game show which was really quite entertaining. I commend their presentation creativity!
After the presentation, I could have headed off to a party but I was really too tired. So Josh and I took a nap before heading off to any parties. We showed up too late to the first one. But the second one totally made up for it. "Electricity and Me" at the Gallery Lombardi was an incredible art show. Most of it was interactive art which is my favorite kind and it all had something to do with technology. I got some great pictures (which I'll post when I get home). I had so much fun, playing and watching and listening. It was truely a mulitsensory experience in art. I commend all the artists in that show!
Instead of heading off to a bar and staying out too late, Josh and I decided to get ice cream and call it a night early. So I took him to the oh-so-famous Amy's Ice Cream. Good stuff! So around 11:30pm, I got back to Cindy's and surfed a little bit before bed. It's fun to see the pages of all the people I've met. I only wish I had more time to do it!
Speaking of which, I've got to get going today. Panels start in about an hour and a half. I still need to download pictures from my camera to my laptop for safe keeping. Then I need to grab a cup of coffee and head off to the convention center. Tonight is Fray Cafe and I might catch Ben Folds at La Zona Rosa.
posted by Erica Lucci at 9:13 AM :: Comment (5)
http://www.ericalucci.com/archives/2002_03_01_old.html#10559694
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 12 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (20:09) * 1 lines
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 13 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (20:25) * 8 lines
http://www.jish.nu/vox/audio/20020313sxswwrapup.mp3
That's jish speaking.
I had an awesome time also, jish. I didn't get to meet you but I met some great folks.
I didn't sit next to Steven Spielberg, but I got some great video footage of Harry Knowles, ain't that cool.
Sorry you didn't win a web award, that Canadian guy got it. I couldn't get in fray cafe, but I heard your audio on the web.
I had a tough time with the panels also. The parties were the highlights and the chance meetings with folks.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 14 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (20:48) * 14 lines
Brief bits from sxsw...
This year was definitely different. Not quite as giddy and electric, but more intimate and relaxed and just as nice in its own way. I felt more like I had a niche, or a rapport, of whateverthefuck, instead of the introverted need to cling to the few people I knew already of the first time around. Renewed some old friendships and made a few promising new ones. I won't namedrop, y'all know who you are, and if you weren't already on my portal you will be soon, and I hope to get some email out to some people here eventually as well, thought I'm notoriously horrible about that, so we'll see how it goes. Thanks to all of you for making my early spring break one to remember.
Panels this time around were better by far, at least in terms of their relevance to shit that I give a damn about. I didn't hear any bullshit about leveraging synergistic P2P market potentialities, a silence which was music to my independent-content-producing ears. Lawrence Lessig pretty much convinced me to never copyright anything I write again. Ok, so not quite(I'm certainly not totally ruling out making money off of my words if the opportunity to do so arises, and I also don't appreciate seeing other people steal them and claim them as their own), but it certainly opened my eyes to the suppressive role of copyright in relation to the creative process. I'll keep that in mind on the off chance that I ever luck out and end up as a well-known writerly type of some sort. Also, the weblogs as journalism deal was a highlight, and it got a lot of ideas a brewing, which might become an attempt at a Kuro5hin article, or at least a good essay somewhere or other.
The Independents' Day panels were fun, if rather uninformative, since I was already among the converted. Fray Cafe was even more excellent than expected, with nearly every story, even all of the open mic people, being top notch. But, for me, the highlight event of the week was definitely Kick! I haven't played kickball since probably junior high, and it was just an absolute joy to get to do so again, and in that kind of an environment. Great childlike, totally non-self-conscious fun. Thank you to Anil for having such a brilliant idea, and then making it happen. And thanks also to all of the other people who had the inspiration and the wherewithal to organize independent and smart extracurricular stuff. Sxsw would be much poorer without all of your efforts. Thanks also to my man Ryan for letting me accompany him for a goodly chunk of his journey. I'll tell a couple of the stories from that over on his page in due time.
Another highlight? Sitting down in the middle of the pseudo-corporate schmoozefest opening party and playing fucking Boggle for two hours, much to the amusement and befuddlement of the drunken suits. It doesn't get any more punk rock or geek chic than that.
Otherwise... just too much great food and drink and conversation and inspiration to really quantify or explicate. I'm still exhausted from it all, but in a warm, fuzzy contented sort of way, and renewed in my fervor and zest and for this wonderful medium and the even better people who make it what it is.
http://suspensionofdisbelief.org/entropy/archives/archive-03102002-03162002.html#151
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 15 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (20:55) * 5 lines
March 18, 2002 | (Austin, Texas) This year's South by Southwest Interactive conference was lean and mean - attended mainly by the core group of edgy 'net whackadistas, the conference had an interesting vibe, like "Wow, glad the goddam dotcom splurge is over, let's get back to what we were doin'…" And what we were doin' had real depth, it was way more compelling than ecommerce or net.publishing, the kinds of projects MBAs brought to the table when they started calling the Internet an 'industry' and creating the concept of the IPO casino. Before all that stuff happened we were thinking about open and free paradigms for software development, technologies for community, new and better ways to tell our stories. We were re-inventing ourselves as cyborgs, humans enhanced by accelerated technologies, looking for ways to nurture each other and share ideas over faster, increasingly accessible networks
more at
http://www.mindjack.com/events/sxsw2002.html
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 16 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (21:00) * 44 lines
SXSW 2002
March 13th, '02
So, what did I do on my SXSW vacation?
The opening key note by Lawrence Lessig was great. I've read a lot of the things he's written but hearing him rant in person was great. Frankly he scared the crap out of me. The case he made for the corporate/global media's stifling of creativity, and control and productization of art was very chilling.
The arguments he's making are some of the most interesting and thought provoking I've encountered in years.
The distributed nature of the network, the virtual nature of on-line identity, the massive production and sharing of free, independent content. These things will change our world.
I like that.
But there are too many big companies out there whose business is based on control and homogenization. These companies have a tremendous incentive to shut down the new emerging paradigms. Too many artists are also motivated to support and perpetuate central control and filtering.
Etc etc. I whine about that too much don't I?
I tried to go to Fray Cafe, but they sold out before I got there so this is as close as I got to it. Something about fire regulations. The guy that wouldn't let me in (even with a ticket) was the same short, rude little Nazi that wouldn't let me take my camera into the panel discussions. Note - four check points, 8 security screeners, 500 people with cameras, and one sawed off little puke telling everyone they can't take in cameras.
It worked out like this - If you took the escalator to the panel rooms, you couldn't bring through a camera. But if you went up the stairs, cameras were fine.
Whatever. I got to see lots of cool people talk. Learned a few things.
The Iron Webmaster competition did a good job of illustrating why the tech geeks and not investor hysteria led to the dot com crash. Given an hour and a half to create a web site from a pile of graphics and text documents, two teams of five webmasters failed to come up with anything. I'm not making this up. Neither team even got a real website posted to the server.
Fucking pathetic. And yes, I *have* built sites in less than an hour. It's only tough if you decide to do something that will obviously take too long. Like wacky Flash animations and wild DHTML.
I went to a web services discussion which was very good. I've been thinking about this sort of programming for a while, but it was nice to chat about it with people who were actually using it and thinking about how to integrate it into real applications.
Hopefully I'll have all of the "of the day" items available as an XML-RPC service sometime in the future.
It did make me even more frightened of Microsoft's Hailstorm idea. With Hailstorm comes centralized control and monitoring. Anyone who would trust Microsoft with something like Hailstorm is either ill informed or very foolish. If you've signed up with Passport in Windows XP you are already linked into Hailstorm. Be very afraid.
So, who did I meet on my SXSW vacation?
Let me say first that I didn't do any pressing the flesh at this event. So in a sense I didn't meet anyone. For whatever reason I just wasn't into wandering around and introducing myself.
But I did get to hear some great speakers. Here's a panel on the confluence of weblogging and journalism featuring Meg of megnut.com, Rusty Foster of Kuro5hin, Doc Searls of Linux Journal and his own weblog, and Cameron Marlow of the MIT media lab and Blogdex. Not bad.
more at
http://www.jonsullivan.com/stories/sxsw2002.php
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 17 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (21:04) * 75 lines
Kevin Smokler is smokin'
Friday, March 15, 2002
Ten Things I Learned at South By Southwest 2002
1. The web is alive and well, thank you. No one si getting rich but that's like saying all the gold is gone from Sutter's Mill so therefore the shovel is now obsolete.
Hogwash. The web is a tool--powerful, complicated, and highly capable of enabling wonder and mystery. I spent the week around hundreds of people whose creativity hasn't been limited by lack of funding or a short attention span media but simply by how big they can dream and how quickly they can type.
2. Passion is contagious. Excitment feeds off itself. Every third conversation I had this week sparked another idea. Every other got me all electric about someone else's project. I landed back home completely high on web juice, ready to write, conceptualize and pitch in all around the place.
3. You often have more impact than you think. I began going to SXSW in 1999 when Central Booking was a cut-rate hobby site I dabbled in while trying to finish graduate school. During that first conference, I took in a panel on online journaling which, years later, resulted in CB becoming a community of readers. On that panel, I had a very pleasent chat with a woman named Sarah who introduced me to Blogger and the medium of weblogging. Three years and as many redesigns later, I run into Sarah at the festival's opening event and she recognized me instantly. It took me a little bit longer and a lot of stammering but soon we were talking like old friends. Or maybe brand new ones.
4. I should buy a digital camera. Everybody's doing it.
5. People relish the opportunity to act silly, especially in the loose embrace of new friends. Sounds a little clinical but it's the best way I can explain why I spent a substantial part of this conference playing kickball, singing karaoke, and trying to sober up a drunken monkey.
6. You can go back to where you once lived and it may not have changed all that much. You almost certainly have.
7. A perfect airline flight resembles a short trip on a bus: You board, read a newspaper and have arrived when you look up. Exiting should be as painless as entry and effortless like hopping to the curb. It helps if no one's sitting within six rows of you.
8. What is real is your story. Tell it.
9. Webheads read. Lots. They dig books. Some of them had even heard of Central Booking. Now more have.
10. Community is a rare and precious gift today. When used with grace, the web is a tremendous community builder, uniting rather than locking us apart. I experienced that more than I thought I could this last week where hundreds of strangers were instantly kind, thoughtful and intrigued by one another. If you've found a place like that, real or virtual, stick around. It's very a special thing.
Thanks everyone.
P.S. I did a similar essay for SXSW 2001. What a difference a year makes.
posted by Kevin Smokler | 3:30 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
South by Southwest: The Morning After...
I'm a little surprised I can still walk erect because I've lived harder and fuller the last 4 days than probably in the rest of my adult life. I've spend the last week immersed in smart, creative people 18 hours a day with everyone talking new projects, wild ideas and being generally electrified by each other's company. I'll throw down my annual 10 Things I Learned at South by Southwest when I get home tomorrow. For now, let me say I feel honored and blessed to have participated in all of this.
Thanks everyone.
posted by Kevin Smokler | 2:44 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
A couple dozen new friends met, hundreds of thrilling conversations, millions of laughs a few hours too little of sleep and a day left to go. South by Southwest 2002. I feel so lucky to be here, to have met everyone I have, to be building and participating in something called community when so little of it exists in today. I've returned in celebration to a city I where I spent three difficult years at a stumble.
I am so alive now I may fly.
posted by Kevin Smokler | 1:54 AM
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 18 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Apr 3, 2002 (21:08) * 16 lines
attended the South by Southwest Festival last week where I came away with an epiphany:
Everyone is cooler than I am.
I have a little Web site (which will be plugged without shame shortly). I put up little stories and little illustrations and little quips that may or may not be entertaining to those who happen across them. I was pretty darn proud of my Web site. I mean, just having a Web site is cool, right?
Then I showed up at SXSW. Apparently, there is a breed of interactive designer that strives to offer more to the virtual public than a mundane cataloging of their days and a link to their CafePress store. The people who attend the SXSW Interactive Festival are the kind of designers who have been there, done that. They’re the ones who are looking toward the future to extend the Web’s possibilities. They’re the ones who scoff at boundaries and push the capabilities of their tools. They’re the ones who went through the dot-com implosion and came out the other side unscathed (if not a little poorer), still enthusiastic about their craft. They’re the ones who leave the rest of us shaking our heads musing, “How did they do that?”
In short, they’re incredibly cool.
more at
http://campus.mediaschool.com/news/ear/ctc_keri/keri_1.html
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 19 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Apr 4, 2002 (17:13) * 73 lines
So, now my mighty SXSW update is due, huh? Well, hmmm, besides the snark & the bad pirate jokes, I'm not sure where to begin. Let's see, where did I leave off?
Ah yes.
Sunday afternoon/evening: I did indeed catch a couple of miniscule moments in the sessions. The awards ceremony started off on rocky footing due to our late arrival. We apparently missed the opportunity for free drink tickets and Bertie nearly went ballistic, opening up a can of fierce Brooklyn Woopass on various conference volunteers. It. was.not.pretty. Treatment of awards finalists was not the best, true, but I felt pretty sorry for anyone who had to be on the recipient end of that particular pointy toed boot up their ass. The rest of the awards ceremony was charming for the effusive glee by some of the winners. Bertie didn't win and we were all sad for her. Booo.
Our crew got to Fray late and couldn't get in. Boooo.
We then struck out to a lousy party hosted by Blastro. DJ was cool. *REALLY* good 2 step (the Basement Jaxx kind, not the texan kind) but when we started playing around with my blue photon lights. Leonard and Ernie kick much glowstick ass. Alas our self made entertainment was cut short.
Bartender to moi: Hey, you have to turn those off"
Moi: Why?
Bartender: Well, they're considered drug paraphernalia and we're not allowed to have them here in the establishment
Moi: That sucks.... Buy me a beer.
Bartender: Uh....the bar won't...but cuz I'm a nice guy, I'll buy you a shot.
Ernie & I were cutting it up on the dance floor to the rad 2 step and as I was jumping up and down with the beat pumping through me, one of the buffet of boys from the Friday evening "Breaking Bread with Brad" tried to pick up on me. Gotta love them cute cowboys.
Then back to Fray. Amazingly enough, we were actually able to sneak in and catch the last 6 performers. 5/6 bloggers will tell you that it was a painless experience. The last one will be me who will tell you that an awkward, whiny, and self congratulatory voice do *not*, a story make. Oy. "But that's not why *I* left austin". Man, you should have heard the peanut gallery in the back row. Wooo. I must say though, that it was lovely to sit with John & Miss M & chat with them. At the least, I could sneak a stroke through their various furry and fuzzy apparel. They are trully incredibly sweet individuals and I smooch them with big pink hearts glowing in luminescent pulsating big wuvving.
Hmmm... I forget the exact details, one too many vodka cranberries or shiners, apparently, but I think there was another party/cafe thing in there too before the monster snark fest at the Omni commenced. I just remember shooting the shit with Derek Powazek about how everyone there, ourselves included, was just a dork with a keyboard, and thinking to myself that Dan has got the absolute greatest grin ever.
Omni Snarkfest
Ohhh I know I missed out on stuff but I'll share with you my particular snark which I've already shared with a few folks. So a bunch of bloggers are standing in a circle at the Omni Hotel...it's around 3:30 am...Some are saying it's over, they're pooped, and that they must leave... Alison quips "No, it's not over...it isn't over until..." and is interrupted by Ev. who says "what? until you sing?" To which we are all agasp with the unexpected snarkitude. (Ref: Ev's post about accidentally calling Alison fat) To which *I* in response say "Dude, I wouldn't talk... 1984 called and they want their jeans back." (He was wearing faded jeans with a rip through the *knee*. Let's go footloose now, shall we?) Brad started crying he was laughing so hard. This was followed by Anil poking fun at Ernie for knowing and demonstrating all the choreography of "Hit Me Baby, One More Time".
(*Man, I feel bad for snarking that hard on Evan. Heaven's knows the man is adorable and sweet and stressed out enough without having little snarky girls beat up on him over his jeans. Sheesh. Sorry Ev, don't hate me forever, pretty please?)
Other highlights from that day?
* Chatting with Kristin & Jessica about how totally exhausted we are and how good life is. Also how it's not really SXSW unless you leave with at least a half dozen new crushes. Puah!
* Talking with Amit about why sane, normal, good guys date really insane women ("it's the great sex")
* Hmmm Anil made me feel like a princess for kissing my hand.
* Listening to James do a filipino nanny impression that rivals Ritchie which startled a group of us so much that a woop was heard echoing through the atrium of the Omni
* The three north african men at the bar who asked me if my lips were real or if I paid for them. I told them they were 100% original issue. One grabbed my hand and asked me "But can it kiss". Latent hapkido skills kicked in and squirmed out from that circle and I replied "Voted best in the Bay Area".
Um, K.
And then there was Monday & Tuesday, weren't there?
Oy Brief braindump highlight of Monday:
* Needed more sleep
* Some of the panels were intriguing though could have been a bit better rounded, out, I think.
* PF Chang's has mean waitresses
* Rice Bowl meeting with the lovely & charming Deborah
* 20X2 was an excellent and concise presentation with a variety of perspectives that were really quite good. Mad props to David, Jish, Ryan, Alison, and Heather
* DFW happy hour with lovely Leia
* The LiveJournal party which was supposed to be at a goth/industrial/fetish bar. I'm sorry, I'm from detroit, the birthplace of industrial.This was rather pathetic as far as indistrial goes. And pardon me, fetish bar? um, if the only chains visible are in the bathroom holding up charmin, then this is weak. San Francisco has more leather and chains visible just from walking down castro street. Playing the Cure and Depeche Mode do not make you goth. They make you 80s. You want to talk goth, go talk to Monte.
* Still, when we meandered to the EFF party and then later to the bar across the street for real style texan 2 step music, it was fun to lie to folks and say that we saw pierced divas wearing all black or parochial uniforms and doing a live ritual piercing excercise with lesbians licking the blood off each other's navels.
* Got to munch at the Magnolia (oh, my favorite last year... I got my icecream on my applie pie for free).
* Alison has *really* cool pants to touch when you're a little drunk. Plus she tells really funny pirate jokes.
* And then more snarking at the Omni to the wee hours of the morning.
Tuesday?
Not much, just lunch & hugs & long rides on the plane. Delighted to be home now, and I think fairly caught up. K? You happy now?
Sheesh.
Really, all I can say is that I miss the brilliant people that I met while there. And that I broke my brain from trying to manage too much snark & great conversations such that I don't want to talk to anything or anyone at all for a day or so until my tongue and my brain can recover. Luckily I'm just getting drunk tomorrow for St. Patties.
My gratitude goes out to Pamela & VJ who took very good care of Ernie & Bertie & I. And to Leonard who let us crash in his room the last night. Big kisses to everyone I met. Sorry but my brain's a little zonked and I can't remember, nor link everyone.
from
http://www.minjungkim.com/2002_03_10_braindumpv3archive.php#75015998
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 20 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Apr 5, 2002 (21:44) * 5 lines
http://www.jenville.com/adventures/sxsw02/index.html
A nicely done 13 picture essay on the cool jenville.com site.
That's Jen on the right. She did a great little panel where she talked about her site, which was purely personal. One of the women on that panel made some comments about the austen.com site, she'd been there!
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 21 of 31: Stacey (stacey) * Tue, Jul 15, 2003 (22:49) * 1 lines
Where's the 2003 report??? *grin*
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 22 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Jul 16, 2003 (08:42) * 2 lines
It's coming! I was there. See http://spring.net/sxsw
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 23 of 31: Admin Guy 2004 (admin) * Thu, Feb 12, 2004 (12:17) * 5 lines
It will be soon. I need a "perk".
The new server is up and a backup server is being built.
The Spring will have two servers, and a backup server in Austin which could be launched as another server. It's a 5U 9 drive box.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 24 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Tue, Feb 17, 2004 (08:49) * 1 lines
My perk is the "Gold Badge".
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 25 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Mar 12, 2004 (06:47) * 14 lines
I did the documentary on the bag stuffing last night. Crunching it into a
Windows Media File and Quicktime movie now and trying to figure out what's
coming up that's important and interesting enough to videotape is my
morning exercise.
They played lot's of upbeat rock 'n roll (Rolling Stones, etc.) at the bag
stuffing to keep every one pumped up and I got some good shots of folks
rocking out, dancing and acting weird and goofy. I'm glad I got to take
pictures and didn't have to walk around with a bag while people threw
literature in to it.
I still have my SXSW bags from last year that I haven't looked at yet!
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 26 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Mar 13, 2004 (15:34) * 49 lines
Hooked up via Free Internet at sxsw
This is my notebook for the event.
Need to hook up with Matt Denther, Film guy.
Zack Exley is a must contact.
konscious.com - Scott Beibin had loads of useful tips
Scott's with Lost Film Fest ->
He's actually Festival Directory
mailto://scottb@lostfilmfest.com
267.258.4195
4434 Luldow St Phila PA 19104 usa
http://www.lostfilmfest.com
He turned me on to
http://psprint.com
http://jakprints.com
http://fiendorfaux.com
http://rncnotwelcome.org
Among other things he recommended I catch
the film Bushs Brain
Ran in to Jay Dooling
Webmaster mailto://stone@obscurity.com
214.354.4635 cell
Richard Sampson and Pamela Peacock gave me a
dvd:
white bitch down
http://www.shadowlightpictures.com
mailto://pamelapeacock@yahool.com
Atttended a break out session on film websites
with Ian Schafer and Caroline Rustigan
Richard Sampson with http://filmthread.com did a good review on them
Karl Brown is encouraging Ghanaian entrepreneurship
He has a community portal
http://gnvc.com
I'm at http://craiglist.org Craig Newmark's presentation.
http://cnewmark.com/craigslist.challenges.ppt
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 27 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Mar 13, 2004 (15:42) * 21 lines
I ran in to Marc Halperin from last year.
Others I talked to at the Websites for Films breakout:
Ian Schafer - speaker
Peter Jacobsen - red
Sandy McRory
Carole Guerin
David Whitman http://bloodyboy.com
Lourann Francicech
Mike Hathaway
Caroline Rustigan - speaker
Pamela Peacock
Kevin Roush
Tim Graze
Cathy R. Fischer in the black coat
Jayce Mitchell - plaid Spry Marketing
Richard Sampson
Eric Hellweg
I'll look these folks up later in my guidebook and send some emails.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 28 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Mar 13, 2004 (17:36) * 26 lines
How to get the most out of sxsw. A panel I'm in now.
The distinction between business and personal networking is blurring,
well, first the panelists:
Carole Guevin http://netdiver.net
Seabrook Jones http://seabrooktv.com
Thomas Scoville moderator and author
Michael Alex Wasylk Lawyer
Carole - just goes up to people and says "Who are you?"
Seabrook - Introduce yourself to 5 new people after every panel, introduce
yourself to people sitting next to you.
Browsing Strategies -
Jones - Pick out things on calendar and meet 5 new people.
Carole - stay fluid and skip conferences.
Mike - big topic is wifi and wireless
Carole - grassroot politics, community based efforts crossing in to
mainstream, wifi is incredible. "convergence factor" Australia is SMSing
for the last 5 years. film, tv, web interaction. "We have a future,
babies".
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 29 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Mar 13, 2004 (17:42) * 20 lines
Thomas Scoville - tivo hackers, device that takes you out of realtime,
linux. Every teenage
geek hacker gets to add their own content. Network with other survivor
viewers. watch graphs rise and fall, nic card taking to 802.11g router,
can't believe it hasn't gone further.
Seabrook, Reingold and moveon talking about collective action.
Carole - In scientific network 25 years ago. Saw potentiality. 35 groups
were swapping abstracts, borders opened once a year. With internet, it
went ballistic. Summarized this in simple sentence.
Putting in common of problems generates exponential results.
Organized Amnesty International took 2 1/2 years.
Dean got money with hours. If people are rallying around a cause, we can
really change this world.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 30 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Mar 13, 2004 (17:49) * 13 lines
Mike - Make and build contacts. Meet 5 people every 10 minutes. Overcome
shyness. Anyone wearing a badge is fair game. He was on elevator, met
web designer. He knew the guy before and has read his weblog. Doug
Bogen? We have the capacity though the net to keep interacting. Last
year, compiled a list of cell phone numbers. Jish.
Drop someone an email before you get here and tell them you want to meet
up.
Make a target list. Ask around if they've seen that person. They won't
know if you know that person or not.
Topic 47 of 64 [austin]: SXSW South by Southwest
Response 31 of 31: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Sat, Mar 13, 2004 (17:54) * 17 lines
AFter party at the Copa.
Michael Pusateria, works for Disney, asked "Which hotel bar?" Carole says
Omni Bar is the place. Hilton Bar is no good.
Unofficial websites, collab.
http://sxswblog.com
Two gallery parties
Gallery Lombardi, rock art show
Eclectic Books
Kevin Smokler, SXSW wrapup. From Michigan. Like Abba. It's a waste of
time to be intimidated.
austin conference 
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