I just left a party where I was talking to a beautiful movie star, so that I could blog for you, my readers. I must be crazy.
It's day one of the South by Southwest Festival, or SXSW, a gathering of interactive, film and music makers and lovers, down here in Austin, Texas. And so far, it is glorious.
I began the day at 1:08 pm, when I woke up. Good thing: I obtained my badge the day before. I've been on a variety of sleep schedules lately, and had slept almost 12 hours. I downed an energy drink, showered, and headed over to the Austin Convention Center, for my first conference: "Getting the Most out of SXSW Film." It was a primer for uninitiated attendees like myself. Very informative, but sparsely attended.
After that, I made my way to the place where they handed out goodie bags. These bags contain guides to the festival, party invitations, and loads of free magazines. As I have the Platinum badge (interactive, film, AND music), I got three canvas tote bags filled with stuff. Most of it will be garbage, but there was no time to sort. I ended up running around with those 3 bags, which weighed something like 20 pounds, most of the rest of the day.
Next was a conference on the Ecosystem of News. Steven Johnson of outside.in presented, and then led a discussion. The room was jam-packed. The session talked about the changes in the news industry, and unlike Chicago's recent Journalism Town Hall, was pretty hopeful for the future. He tried to stem the panic about newspapers shutting down and presented a model in which news is gathered by pro journalists, non-profit journalists, bloggers of both the amateur and professional variety, and public data. On top of that is a layer of commentary provided by pundits, bloggers, and scholars. Above that he listed curators consisting of social media, professional editors, aggregators and group filters, with distribution through traditional media, aggregators and viral word-of-mouth. But he did admit that, yes, many newspapers will close, and yes, many good journalists will lose their jobs.
I took the microphone at one point and talked about my friend Sally Duros, who until a year ago edited the Home section of the Chicago Sun-Times. She's now a Huffington Post blogger, which is great, except HuffPo doesn't pay. See her articles on how journalists can be paid.
The man behind the Chicago Tribune's ColonelTribune Twitter identity spotted me when I was up at the mic. He and I have communicated before via Twitter, it was good to meet up with him in person.
After that, I grabbed a sandwich and then headed off to a conference called "Social Engineering: How to Scam Yourself into Anything or From Anybody. Hosted by Brian Brushwood of the internet tv program "Scam School," this presentation was mostly entertainment, but did have some common sense tips. Best part of this was the recommendation of a book, How to Read a Person Like a Book. Could improve my poker playing.
Next up, I went to a movie called "The 2 Bobs," a hilarious film about game developers. The title characters discover that their latest software masterpiece has been stolen by unscrupulous Christians. I won't spoil the film by telling you what happened, but it is a complete delight. The film needs a distributor. If you are a distributor, buy this film now!! More about the cast below.
I tried to catch another film about beekeepers, but got lost and ate dinner, while dinner was looking back at me.
Last order of business: The film party. I don't do well at parties where I don't know at least a few people; and outside of a lovely person named Kana I met on the shuttle bus, I knew no one here. But I forced myself to interact, and had a great time! I met the one and only Wavy Gravy of Woodstock fame, and as you can see from the appropriately blurry photo, got a photo with the man. I also introduced myself to Jeffrey Tambor, who's leading an acting workshop that I plan to attend. Then I met one of the Bobs. Devin Ratray, best known for the Home Alone pictures, turned out to be a hell of a nice guy. We chatted for about ten minutes. He told me about a sci-fi film he'll be making soon with Bruce Willis. Sounds very good. I wandered around the party awhile, and spotted Cody Kasch, also in The 2 Bobs, who you may know from Desparate Housewives as Zach. And seated with him, the delightful and beautiful Tamara Jolaine, who is one of the love interests in the film. We had a very nice talk about the making of the film, Tamara's budding music career, and our backgrounds. Turns out we both love Wikipedia, and Tamara may want me to write her Wikipedia entry. She also mentioned Devin's other upcoming film, in which he stalks Condoleeza Rice.
Sooner or later, in my case sooner, I began to think I was running out of things to say, and excused myself. From talking with a beautiful movie star who seemed interested in conversing with me. I will never learn.
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