SXSW Interactive Keynote Dan Rather:

Transcription

SXSWorld
T h e O f f i c i a l M ag a z i n e o f t h e S o u t h b y S o u t h w e s t C o n f e r e n c e s & F e s t i va l s
R e v i e w I s s u e / N ov e m b e r 2 0 0 6
SXSW Interactive
Keynote Dan Rather:
Afloat in the new media stream
Page 8
Record Retail: Niche or Chasm?
Indie stores swim against the tide
Page 26
Beyond the Cineplex:
Hip flix’ new bag of trix
Page 19
SXSW: Where Are They Now?
Checking up on the Class of ‘06
Pages 21 & 31
Power to Create.
Freedom to Express.
Music. Art. Images. Entertainment. Alive and digital and
powered by Seagate. The soul inside the machine.
©2006 Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved. Seagate, Seagate technology and the Seagate logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC.
As the SXSWorld turns...
Contents
W
Taking care of business
to business............................................ 3
elcome to the inaugural issue of SXSWorld, a quarterly magazine devoted
to coverage of the people and companies who collectively make up
SXSW. Over the years, we have often thought about starting a magazine
that covered music, film and interactive media, but we always ended up saying that
that wasn’t the business that we have chosen.
Then after launching the annual SXSW Preview Guide magazine in February 2004, we
quickly learned how providing more in-depth information about our events in advance
strengthened the SXSW experience of both our clients and attendees. As a result, we
began to think about creating a new model of publication.
News & Notes....................................... 7
Dan Rather............................................ 8
A lot of us at SXSW come from a background rooted in the world of free alternative
weekly newspapers, and we began to discuss whether or not a trade publication mailed
out free to 10,000 people in the entertainment industries could support itself with
advertising. We’re hoping that it will and are willing to run in the red until we find out
if enough advertisers will support it. So far, we’re not doing too badly and offer our
sincere thanks to the companies that are advertising with us in this first issue.
Live Frogger on Sixth Street.............. 10
Kathy Sierra........................................ 11
danah boyd......................................... 13
Gina Trapani....................................... 15
If we do this right, SXSWorld will take on a life of its own and become a tool for our
worldwide community to share news and ideas. Enjoy this first issue, and we’ll be back
again in February.
Sincerely,
News & Notes..................................... 17
Roland Swenson
SXSW Managing Director
Co-Founder
Alternative Indie film outlets............ 19
Film, Class of 2006
Before the Music Dies.................... 21
Al Franken: God Spoke.................. 21
SXSWorld Magazine
The Refugee All Stars..................... 22
Volume 1 Issue 1
Publishers
Roland Swenson, Nick Barbaro, Louis Black
Editor
Andy Smith
Art Director
Jamie Miller
SXSW Contributors
Matt Dentler, Andy Flynn, Hugh Forrest,
Cathy Ricks, Cathy Ross, Craig Stewart,
Ron Suman
Contributors
Roseana Auten, Jonathan Balthaser,
Tim Basham, Shermakaye Bass,
Michael Bergeron, Amanda Congdon,
RW Deutsch, Tara Hunt, Anthony Kaufman,
Jon Lebkowsky, Jeff McCord, John Ratliff,
Scott Schinder, Larry Schooler, Leah Selvidge,
Leah Shafer, Jenny Smith, Dana Somoza,
Eric Vespe
Advertising
Wendy Cummings, Una Johnston, Katie King,
Luann Williams
SXSWorld is published by SXSW, Inc. four times per year at 1000 East 40th Street, Austin Texas,
78751. © 2006 SXSW, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Subscriptions are provided annually with paid
registrations to the SXSW Conferences. “SXSW” and “South By Southwest” are registered
trademarks owned by SXSW, Inc. For inquiries, email [email protected].
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to SXSWorld PO Box 4999, Austin TX 78765
Fired!............................................... 23
Behind the Mask............................ 23
News & Notes..................................... 25
Record retailers facing challenges.... 26
MySpace & the future of A&R........... 29
Music, Class of 2006
H-town Hip-Hop............................. 31
Dir en Grey...................................... 31
José González................................. 33
Art Brut........................................... 33
Corinne Bailey Rae......................... 33
Tapes ‘n Tapes................................. 33
Our Cover
Photographed by Will van Overbeek, Interactive Keynote Speaker
Dan Rather takes a dip in Barton Springs, Austin’s landmark swimming hole. Located in the city’s Zilker Park, this spring-fed pool has
a year-round temperature of 68 degrees, although Rather, ever the
intrepid investigative reporter, had to make sure that was accurate.
2007 Quick Guide
Essential info for registrants......... 35
SXSWorld Review / November 2006
Taking care of business to business
A look at companies who are part of the SXSWorld
Firewheel Design
LightScribe
By Larry Schooler
By Larry Schooler
Picture this. You, the small
business owner, perform
work for an out-of-town
client, who then needs an
invoice from you. Ordinarily,
you’d wait to get back to
your office computer, pull the
necessary files and process
the charges.
Whether you are sending music
to record producers or interactive
home tours to real estate clients,
the CDs you use need to look
good. And let’s face it, a permanent
marker and ink-jet printer do not
always produce the best results.
Now, some business owners are bypassing financial management software
they have to install and run from their computer in favor of online programs,
often called “on-demand” software. Texas-based Firewheel Design has
begun selling membership to Blinksale, a website where business owners
log in with a password to generate invoices. Other on-demand software
products like Yahoo Calendar have attracted millions of users.
Is it safe to store all that personal data online? Firewheel’s Josh Williams
believes so, as do the customers using on-demand software to the tune of
more than four billion dollars in sales each year. Williams predicts: “If you’re
looking for easy-to-use solutions to life problems, there’s gonna be a lot of
room for those solutions to run on today’s web.”
By RW Deutsch
With the rise in awareness of the positive
impact film production can have on both
the prestige and economy of a state or
geographic area, a number of regional film
commissions have been actively seeking to
attract independent filmmakers who want to
shoot their movies
outside of the typical
Southern California
locales. Film Florida
and the Western
North Carolina Film
Commission are two
such commissions that
have been especially
active at SXSW.
“We like to bring
a taste of Florida’s
hospitality with us,”
notes Film Florida PR
“You can be riding in a cab and, if you’re on a client visit, you can print the
details onto a CD and have it beautifully labeled and ready when you arrive,”
suggests HP’s Kent Henscheid. Musicians have often used disc production
services for their CDs in the past, but products like LightScribe are introducing a do-it-yourself solution that is both easier on the pocketbook and
ready almost immediately.
Representative Liz Morgan about her contingent’s networking approach. “Last year, we
had three ‘homegrown’ films (Cocaine Angel,
Things that Hang From Trees and The Hawk is
Dying) on the SXSW program.”
“We have seen a lot of growth in independent
filmmaking in North Carolina,” says WNC Film
Commissioner Mary Trimarco. In particular,
Asheville, in Western North Carolina.
two independent productions shot in the state
garnered significant attention this year: Junebug
(which earned an Oscar nomination for supporting actress Amy Adams) and Loggerheads
(nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the
Sundance Film Festival).
Trimarco and Morgan said they are both planning
to return to SXSW in 2007 to meet with potential filmmakers and to
spread word on such
production incentives
available to independent filmmakers as
fifteen percent cash
reimbursements.
C o u r t e sy o f H o o t P r o d uct i o ns , LL C
Report to the Commissioner
For a more professional presentation, musicians, filmmakers and
even wedding photographers
and videographers are turning to laser-based programs like LightScribe.
LightScribe (which is owned by HP) uses computer CD/DVD burners to
print your words and images right onto the disc, so you do not need
additional supplies.
The family movie Hoot is shot on a South Florida beach.
Summing up the
SXSW experience,
Trimarco says that
the event provides
the “ideal balance
of quality, access
and fun.”
Taking care of business to business
SAGIndie
Seagate
Jakprints
By RW Deutsch
By Larry Schooler
By Larry Schooler
Since forming in 1997, the Screen Actors Guild
Indie division (SAGIndie) has worked to make it
easier for independent and low-budget filmmakers to use SAG member actors. SAGIndie
director Paul Bales credits his exchanges with
filmmakers at SXSW for helping to result in
“a more than
Paul Bales
50 percent
increase in
the number
of features
signed that
paid SAG
actors a salary.”
Once upon a time, before Ronald Reagan left
office, computer users used floppy, and not-sofloppy, disks to store what little data we could fit
on them. Later, the hard drive made it possible
to store more. Now, everyone from filmmakers
to garage band musicians wants to store much
greater volumes of data, so they are turning to
external hard drives to do just that.
Bands always need merchandise to sell. Not long
ago, you would go to an assortment of vendors
for stickers, T-shirts and posters but would never
know whether you would get exactly what you
wanted or not.
“I think it was two years ago that I saw one of my
favorite indie films at SXSW, The Puffy Chair. The
[filmmakers] Duplass Brothers promised me that
their next film would be done under a SAG contract,” says Bales. “I didn’t actually think they were
serious, but just last week they contacted me about
starting the paperwork for their new film.”
Besides enjoying drinking beer while watching
films at the Alamo Drafthouse theaters, Bales
finds the casual, laid back atmosphere at SXSW
conducive to meeting and talking to filmmakers:
“Everyone involved in the event is super cool.”
“More and more people are realizing they’ve got
a lot of personal content on a PC or notebook
computer that is more valuable than the device
actually storing it,” says Brian Ziel of Seagate
Technology, which manufactures external hard
drives. “And whether it’s home movies or photos
or music, external storage solutions provide a
safety net for them to back it up and sync it with
other computers.”
Tivo and DVRs (digital video recorders) as well as
Xbox gaming boxes are also integrating external
storage devices. As appetites for data and computing speed continue to rise, the external storage
market is racing to keep pace.
Former musician Dameon Guess was so annoyed
by this that he set up Ohio-based Jakprints
to handle bands’ merchandise needs online.
Bands upload images onto Jakprints websites,
and T-shirts can be ready later in the day. “The
technology has pushed us to the point where you
have these one-stop solutions no matter where
they (the bands) are, from the Dakotas to LA and
New York,” says Guess.
Of course, music merchandising is still a competitive industry. Guess concedes he and other
American merchandise manufacturers will
continue to face competition from overseas companies who can spend less on labor. But for bands
with tight deadlines and limited help from labels,
American companies like Jakprints will continue to
provide quick, real-time results.
Topix.net
By Larry Schooler
When it comes to news these days, to quote 90s
hip-hop artist Young MC, “You want it, baby,
you got it.” And there’s the rub: so many sites,
so little time.
Enter news aggregators, sites like Google News,
MSN and Topix, where one can get lots of news
in one place. These sites are both international
and very local, in Topix’s case, down to the zip
code. “Lots of people live in suburbs where several
news sources each give them a slice of what’s
happening,” says Topix’s Chris Tolles. “We find
everyone publishing and blogging about your town
and tag it with local information so you can find it,
and then give people a chance to talk back to it,
which they really seem to want to do online.”
Tolles sees more and more blogs and “wiki”
content on the horizon, where individual users
post their own news. But he says people would
rather edit the news, helping decide the top stories
instead of letting an editor do that for them.
UKTI
By Andy Smith
Phil Patterson
The international profile of SXSW’s Music
Conference continues to rise. One of the
keys to bringing so many artists from all
over the world to Austin each March is the recognition by governmental trade organizations
that the conference offers a tremendous opportunity for a nation’s artists and music industry
professionals to broaden their global horizons.
One of the most active of these groups is UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), which aids British
companies looking to trade abroad. Since 2003, through its partnerships with labels and various other U.K. music industry organizations and businesses, UKTI has actively promoted British
artists and companies at SXSW through such efforts as providing travel grants and setting up
showcase and networking opportunities after its program participants arrive in Austin.
According to Phil Patterson, UKTI’s Export Promoter: “UKTI helps put the wants and needs of
the U.K. music industry into perspective and to work out the best way to export U.K. music.
Everyone wants to access the U.S. market, and SXSW is the best showcasing opportunity to
dip a toe into the U.S., and thus, the world market.”
south by southwest ® ConferenCes + festivals
“overall, the sxsW Festival/convention offers one of the best
opportunities to learn about the future of the digital world, make
contacts in the independent film world, meet with the alternative
label world, and listen to the best music from around the world.”
– Radio & Records.com, March 27, 2006
check sxsw.com for sxsW 2007 announcements and information.
Register and book your hotel online at sxsw.com/register.
Next discouNt RegistRatioN deadliNe: NoveRmbeR 17, 2006
Music showcase DeaDline: November 10, 2006
FilM subMission DeaDline: december 8, 2006
interactive web awarDs subMission DeaDline: december 15, 2006
sxsw.com
SxSw USA
HeAdqUArterS
PO Box 4999
Austin TX 78765
USA
Tel 512/467-7979
Fax 512/451-0754
[email protected]
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SxSw MUSic
UK & irelAnd
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SxSw MUSic ASiA
Hiroshi Asada
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3F eBISU-WeST, 1-16-15
ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo 150-0021 JAPAn
Tel +81-3-5428-3923
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SxSw MUSic, FilM + interActive
AUStrAliA, new ZeAlAnd
& HAwAii
Phil Tripp
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Tel +61-2-9557-7766
Fax +61-2-9557-7788
[email protected]
News
and Notes
Will Wright and ScreenBurn
highlight increased gaming emphasis
Deadlines
Who do you think was the
best speaker at the 2006
SXSW Interactive Festival?
What are you most excited
about for the 2007 event?
When is the best day to
arrive in Austin for the event,
Thursday, March 8 or Friday,
March 9?
Where is the best place to
get breakfast tacos before
heading to the 10:00 am
panel sessions?
Gaming visionary Will
Wright to keynote on
March 13
Ze Frank to emcee
2007 Web Awards
Ceremony
Legendary video game pioneer Will Wright will serve
as the keynote speaker on
Tuesday, March 13. Wright is
probably best known for creating the critically acclaimed
series, The Sims, which has
sold more than 70 million
games around the world and
generated more than $1.6 billion in sales (by comparison,
Hollywood’s all-time blockbuster Titanic grossed $1.8 billion worldwide). He is now working on his newest game,
SPORE. As noted the New York Times Magazine, “No one
doubts that this game will be the most ambitious work in
the history of this new medium, whenever it is released.
But for it to succeed as a game, it can’t just be complex.
It also has to be fun. If anyone can pull it off, it’s Will
Wright …There is probably no one alive who has a
comparable track record of combining arcane scientific
theories and compulsively addictive entertainment.”
S
e l e ct r o n i c a r ts
Talk it all out
at the SXSW
Interactive
Community
Blog
cheduled for the
evening of Sunday,
March 11, 2007, at the
Downtown Hilton Hotel,
the Web Awards
Ceremony serves as the
signature evening event of the SXSW Interactive
Festival. The 2007 edition of this fast-moving,
fun-filled gala promises to be the best yet.
Once the pre-party buffet has concluded,
emcee Ze Frank, of the popular video blog
The Show, will deliver a dessert course of
amusing commentary. Be a part of this
incredible evening by entering your cuttingedge, trend-setting online creation in the SXSW
Web Awards. For more information (including
rules, entry form and the list of 2006 winners),
see sxsw.com/web_awards. Hurry! Final
entry deadline is Friday, December 15.
How should you pace yourself
so that you can experience all
the evening events that make
SXSW so extraordinary?
These are but a few of the
questions that you might
find the answers to at the
SXSW Interactive Community
Blog, which is your discussion
space for all things directly
and indirectly related to the
event. Get in on the action at:
sxsw.com/
community_blog
ScreenBurn brings video games to the SXSW fold
Now in its second year, ScreenBurn brings the creativity and innovation of video games to the SXSW
Interactive Festival audience. The agenda for this year’s event will include panel programming (Saturday,
March 10 through Tuesday, March 13), as well as the first-ever ScreenBurn Arcade (Saturday, March 10 and
Sunday, March 11). ScreenBurn 2007 is sponsored by Seagate Technology, a leading provider of technology
and products that enable people to store, access and manage information. Admission to all this gamingrelated fun comes with your SXSW Interactive, Gold or Platinum Badge, so there is no need to buy anything
extra. Find out even more at www.screenburnfest.com.
Dan Rather: Learning to
love new media
By Amanda Congdon
The SXSW Interactive Festival Keynote Interview for Monday, March 12
will feature esteemed television journalist Dan Rather, who will discuss how
emerging technology is reshaping the broadcast news media. Who better then
to profile Rather than Amanda Congdon, one of the best-known personalities in the fast-growing world of video blogs? From October 2004 through
June 2006, Congdon anchored Rocketboom, a fast-paced online news and
entertainment program that eventually reached 300,000 page views per day.
Congdon currently presides over amandaacrossamerica.com, a site that posts
daily videos from her ongoing cross-country quest to discover the real USA.
T
he first thing Dan Rather
does when he wakes up
in the morning is check
Google News, Yahoo News
and AOL. Then he reads the morning
paper, “glances” at the television and
goes back to his computer and surfs
through blogs. He won’t tell me
which blogs he reads. “Just one! Just
one!” I plead. He won’t budge.
movement and Dr. Martin Luther
King, Watergate, the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, the 9/11 attacks
and his two interviews with Saddam
Hussein. As he wraps up his list of
achievements from his sixty years as a
journalist, he pauses and says, “And I
suppose those would be some of the
highlights. I can give you a longer list
of low lights.” We both chuckle.
After spending an hour on the phone
with Rather, I understand why his
selection of words and phrases has
earned its own legacy. “Ratherisms”
come at you hard and fast. For
instance, when I ask him to compare
the broadcast technology used in the
early part of his career to that used
today, without skipping a beat, he
retorts, “It would be like comparing
the Napoleonic campaigns to the Gulf
War.” He’s a soundbite machine with
a warm, sophisticated Texan inflection
that comes across more softly in conversation than it does on television.
Rather believes Texans are explorers
of what he calls “the new” and have
a special quality that makes them
pioneers: “At its core, Texas has a
frontier attitude and mentality ...
What SXSW represents is a continuation of that – moving toward new
frontiers – which is very much in
Dan Rather is no stranger to irony.
When he speaks about the highlights
of his career, he seems, more or less,
to concur with those mentioned in
his Wikipedia entry: his coverage
of Hurricane Karla, the civil rights
keeping with the soul of Texas.” It
is clear from the timbre of his voice
that he takes pride in his home state
and its envelope-pushing culture.
After all, let us not forget how Dan
Rather became Dan Rather, when
like the storm that made him famous,
he tore onto the scene of television
journalism. His fearless and innovative coverage of 1961’s Hurricane
Karla in Galveston put him on the
map. Karla was the largest hurricane
ever to hit the Gulf of Mexico and
was the first weather phenomenon
ever to be televised using live radar
technology, which was arranged by
Rather himself. He (and CBS) were
later credited in the Congressional
“At its core, Texas has a frontier
attitude and mentality ... What SXSW
represents is a continuation of that –
moving toward new frontiers – which
is very much in keeping with the
soul of Texas.”
Record and elsewhere as among those
responsible for the massive storm’s
low death toll.
Those were days when reporters like
Rather were more or less one man
bands and in charge of producing
all of their own material (not unlike
today’s independent video bloggers). Things got complicated when
network news started following the
Hollywood model of hiring multiple producers. The work became
increasingly spread out, and it became
customary, and even expected, for
television journalists to rely heavily on
others to do their jobs.
When I question him about where
news is going, he replies with another
Ratherism: “When it comes to predicting the future, my crystal ball is
permanently in the hockshop.”
But after that charming disclaimer
he allows, in regard to the networks:
“No, they are not the national heart
that they once were; [the] place where
people sort of gathered around.
And you won’t have 90 to 95% of
the people who have television sets
viewing such programs. Those days
are gone forever.”
Rather does, however, believe it is
premature to cast aside network
news. He stresses that news can be
both profitable and perform the very
valuable service of keeping the public
informed of world affairs. He seems
genuinely upset about the growing
trend in news to “sleaze it up, tart it
up, dumb it down” and hopes that
people come to understand how dangerous it is for our democratic system
of government to sensationalize news
and to turn it into entertainment,
something it has never dared to be
in the history of our nation.
Then we talk bias. “Can any journalist
truly be unbiased about anything?”
I challenge.
He strenuously believes one can practice journalism in an unbiased way.
Anyone, online or off, who “aspires
to” conduct journalism based on the
“bedrock” of fairness and accuracy,
with an undercurrent of responsibility
and accountability, is a journalist in
Dan Rather’s eyes. But he keeps using
phrases like “aspire to” or “attempt
to be,” so I’m not exactly sold. He
believes a public journal, electronic
or in print, is a “public trust.” And he
most “desperately wants us to have a
public trust.”
It’s a perfectly wonderful ideal, but
the question is: Can our country trust
a public figure in the way Rather
describes? Are we capable of that kind
of emotional investment? And if so, can
we trust him? At the very least, we’ll
have the opportunity to test the waters.
Now, Rather is going back to the
basics as he is gearing up for the
launch of his new show on HDNet,
the new high-definition television
network owned by Mark Cuban.
This time he has full editorial and
creative control. That’s right, it’ll
be 100% pure, unadulterated Dan
Rather. His only instructions from
Cuban are to “be fearless” or to be as
fearless as he can “humanly, possibly
be.” Considering the name of his new
company is News and Guts Media, it
sounds like he’s up to the task.
P H O T O S B Y W ILL VA N OVERBEE K
And the title of his show couldn’t
be more fitting: Dan Rather Reports.
When I asked him what his favorite
part of the job was, he simply said,
“reporting.” He’s a “hard news” kind
of guy. As for Dan Rather’s definition of news: “What’s important for
people to know, that they need to
know, that somebody somewhere
doesn’t want them to know, is news.
Everything else is just advertising.”
Last, I asked him whether or not he
planned to start a videoblog. It would
be one heck of a trust building tool.
He was non-committal, but there
seemed to be a boyish excitement in
his voice when he spoke about the
possibilities. I told him I hoped to
be among the first to know if he ever
made the leap. He said he’d keep that
in mind.
Grandfather Rather joins
grandson Andy at Barton
Springs Pool in Austin.
Mr. Rather, I dare you. The new media
community has started walking in
your direction. Will you start walking
in ours? n
Heard the one about the robot on Sixth Street?
By John Ratliff
I
ronically, the idea started in the Second Life Herald hospitality
suite on the second floor of Austin’s venerable Driskill Hotel. The
online newspaper’s publisher, University of Michigan professor
Peter Ludlow, had come to the 2006 SXSW Interactive Festival to talk
about the hugely popular online multiplayer game Second Life, in which
thousands of people do almost everything online that they do offline.
But that night, interactivity was flowing in the opposite direction, toward
what Ludlow now refers to as a “game instantiation event.” Which is
another way of saying that instead of taking “real life” online, guests took
a computer game out into the world.
In other words, they played Frogger. On a real street. Against real cars.
Though not with a real frog.
Make magazine editor Phil Torrone was conveniently packing a number
of Roomba vacuum cleaners that he had tricked out with Bluetooth
remote control technology for some illegal Roomba cockfights in San
Diego. After using some of them to play a form of pool, Torrone landed
on the idea of Frogger, prompting the by-now-legendary response from
Eyebeam fellow Limor Fried: “This is a really bad idea. Let’s do that.”
After being fitted with a frog costume cut out of a hastily procured
green T-shirt, the Roomba was deployed across Austin’s Sixth Street,
a four-lane one-way running in front of the hotel. Because Torrone’s
laptop didn’t have the Bluetooth range, he went down to street level
to operate the Roomba. A crowd of revelers stayed on the balcony
upstairs from where Ludlow says that “it looked exactly like the angle
you see it from in the game.”
One of them was Kyle Machulis, a self-described teledildonics expert.
“We were trying to stay quiet so as not to attract attention,” he recalls.
“But the second the ‘bot hit the street, we were all screaming.”
Despite, or perhaps because of, the deranged crowd demanding its
destruction, the plucky frogbot managed to cross the street ten or so
times, abetted by baffled drivers who slowed down to determine what
was crossing their paths. Pedestrian passersby got it immediately, even after
hitting the bars on Sixth Street. “[Frogger is] something that’s universally
recognized no matter how cognition-impaired you are,” observes Ludlow.
The Roombot finally met its match in a white Toyota 4Runner and was
retired with dignity, but its brief appearance left a strong impression.
“There’s a certain something about a car running over a Roomba,” says
Machulis. “It seems very much a prank that could only have happened
at this conference.”
Torrone concurred via email, writing that “there are only a few examples
and opportunities to do an art project like this.”
Fortunately for everyone, according to Ludlow, another game instantiation event is likely at this year’s festival: “Something like this will
definitely happen in 2007.” n
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10
Kathy Sierra
Boulder-based author and researcher teaches developers
how to ignite the passion of their audience
By Tara Hunt
Opening Remarks for the 2007 SXSW Interactive Festival will be
delivered by Kathy Sierra on Saturday afternoon, March 10. Her
skills at public speaking and motivation have generated rave reviews
from both technical and non-technical audiences. Sierra’s “How to
Create Passionate Users” presentation at the 2006 SXSW Interactive
Festival was one of the event’s most highly-rated sessions.
E
veryone attending SXSW
Interactive this year is in
for a treat. Kathy Sierra has
made it her personal goal to get the
world focused on creating passionate
users, a skill she calls “helping them
drink the Koolaid.” By the end of
her presentation, you surely will be
drinking it yourself.
Sierra certainly knows what she is
talking about, having been converting
her own passionate fans for years.
In her 15 years as a game developer,
she worked for such companies as
MGM, Virgin and Amblin, where
she discovered the power of “FLOW,”
the ecstatic state in which someone
doing an activity gets so carried away
with it that time and space lapses.
We suspect that Sierra has much to
do with the current level of addictiveness in video games.
Her other accomplishments include
co-creating the Head First series of
Java developer books, being a finalist
for a Jolt Software Development
award in 2003, and being named to
the Amazon.com Top Ten Editor’s
Choice computer books for 2003 and
2004. She also started the passionate
community at javaranch.com, known
as the “friendly java site” in 1997,
which now has three to four million
unique visitors per month.
She is also quite renowned for her
the consistently excellent words
of wisdom on her blog, Creating
Passionate Users, which is in the list
of Technorati’s top 100 blogs. It
seems that everything Sierra works
on ignites fervor in communities.
One of the most unique things
about Sierra’s work is the science
behind it. Not merely conjecture,
her work combines experience,
learning and metacognition theory.
Her deep understanding of the work
that has been done to uncover the
behavior of the legacy brain goes a
long way towards explaining the keys
to unlocking end-user flow, and her
interest in the subject of the brain
and learning has been strongly influenced by her diagnosis as an epilectic
at age four.
Sierra also keeps her presentations
accessible and fun. Don’t be surprised
to find phrases such as “Less suck,
more kicking ass,” in her lessons. Her
approachable presentations make
her that much more of a pleasure to
watch. Don’t think that her lessons
will be easy, though. First she will
J a m e s Duncan Dav i d s o n
take you out of your comfort zone
and challenge your ego. Once she
breaks down your former beliefs,
she will start rebuilding your
notions of development.
In addition to SXSW Interactive,
Sierra has spoken at other such prestigious events as ETech, OSCON,
GUADEC, Emerging Technologies,
Webstock, RailsConf and Blogher.
She currently lives in Boulder,
Colorado and spends any free time
she can find skiing, running, tending
to her Icelandic horse, discovering
gravity and playing her latest obsession, the Dance Dance Revolution
video game.
Whether you build software or
run a charitable organization,
Sierra’s lessons in helping people
“kick ass” are invaluable for all.
Learn how to bring more passion
to your projects by attending her
SXSW Opening Remarks. n
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danah boyd
SXSW panelist emerges as one of the world’s top
experts on MySpace and other social networking sites
By Jon Lebkowsky
H
ow did danah boyd
become the world’s
foremost (and coolest)
authority on MySpace? It helps that
she really gets the web as a social as
well as technical construct. “I was part
of a generation that grew up online,”
she explains.
First, boyd studied computer science
at Brown University and sociable
media at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology’s Media Lab. Then she
moved to the San Francisco Bay Area,
where she discovered Friendster, an
online service that gives visibility to
social networks of friends and friends
of friends.
Fascinated with the site, she
started blogging informally about
it, although while on hiatus from
academia, she was just acting as an
interested user. However, her inner
researcher was evident in her blog
posts and live analysis of the site.
She came to represent Web 2.0’s
most valuable commodity, the
active participant with an everyday
user’s grasp of the experience of
online interaction.
After Friendster, she studied bloggers.
“I was interested in the kind of public
life people, especially young people,
created for themselves online,” she
says. It was ultimately this interest
that led her to MySpace, the popular
online community where people,
many of them very young, can hang
out and express themselves freely.
She then joined an academic team
that applied for a McArthur Grant
to study the MySpace system.
Originally she was not going to
blog about the research because
the public conversation might affect
the site and interfere with the study.
Still, there is often a tension between
her academic pursuits and her public
persona. “My research is making
me an activist and an advocate
for better products through social
media design,” she says, referring
specifically to products that can
improve teens’ lives as they find
new modes of socialization online.
In this context, it’s hard to avoid
visibility, boyd says, “While doing
the kind of research, writing and
framing that academics typically do,
I’m also attempting to make my work
radically accessible. My blog has a
relaxed voice that communicates well
with diverse audiences.” Since this
isn’t the way most academics operate
and her mission is broader than being
purely academic, this can get her into
trouble with her peers: “They sometimes feel that my work is too broad,
and doesn’t go deep enough.”
But boyd does not shy away from
controversy. In February 2006,
she gave a talk to the American
Association for the Advancement of
Science called “Identity Production
in a Networked Culture: Why Youth
Heart MySpace,” which she says was
“partly a response to moral panic
brought on by the media’s coverage
of the potential predators and bullying
at MySpace.” She says her concern
was that the “sexual predator” panic
could have a significant negative
impact on kids’ access to online social
spaces that support public interaction.
It is in these spaces where she says that
“My research is making me
an activist and an advocate
for better products through
social media design.”
“all sorts of chaos is bound to happen,”
and she feels strongly that there is far
more to be gained from letting youth
engage in these public spaces than
from restricting them: “I want to
serve as a voice of reason contrary to
the paranoia about predators, which
is getting out of control.” n
At the 2007 SXSW Interactive Festival,
boyd will participate on the “Under 18:
Blogs, Wikis, and Online Social Networks
for Youth” panel.
13
music & singing
auditions
2007
Auditions are by invitation only, based on video demo submission.
SEND YOUR DEMO MATERIAL NOW!
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HigH Beam events
the Official Party Planner of sXsW 2007
Gain additional exposure during SXSW by hosting a networking event.
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and unique party spaces to provide the best venue for your event.
Over 25,000 people attended the SXSW 2006 parties planned and
promoted by High Beam Events.
Filmmakers/Production comPanies – Celebrate at a nightclub after your premiere
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Now in its second year as part of
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magazines – Showcase your favorite acts and get exposure for your sponsors
music exPort oFFices – Introduce new fans to your country’s finest music exports
manuFacturers/comPanies – Launch your latest product in style
Admission to ScreenBurn Panels and the Arcade is
included with your SXSW Interactive, Gold or Platinum
registration. For more info, see www.screenburnfest.com
or email [email protected].
Contact [email protected] for more information or call
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14
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Gina Trapani
Award-wining editor of popular Lifehacker blog
enables geeks to gain more efficiency
By Leah Shafer
F
or Gina Trapani, Boom 2.0
is a land of both hope and
hype: “People are smarter
this time around, but there’s a little
foaming about the mouth and that
makes me nervous. I think there are
amazing things happening on the
web. I also think that there is a lot of
money and a lot of hype; it’s not as
founded as I would like it to be.”
The Lifehacker founding editor, frequent SXSW panelist and “freelance
geek” should know. She’s a veteran
of the pink-slip days during the first
boom, working as a programmer and
web developer at bolt.com until 2003.
She quit the nine-to-five routine to
write English instead of code, first as
a freelancer, and then at Lifehacker,
a blog that reviews, uses and recommends software downloads and web
sites that make life easier for users.
Three years after her decision to cease
coding, Trapani’s considerable talents
have earned her wide respect in the
interactive industry. In June, Wired
magazine gave her their “Rave Award”
as top blogger. In the accompanying
profile, Brian Lam points out that
among other things: “Her blog posts
– 18 a day, on average – offer advice
on how to manage a bursting inbox,
improve sleep with special algorithms
and vanquish viruses in both your
computer and your nasal passages.”
“My crystal ball is not that great,”
says Trapani, humbly. “But I think
the technologies that bring value to
the user in the end are the ones that
will stick around. It’s great to do
things just because you can, but I
prefer super useful.”
When she started Lifehacker in
January 2005, the 12 updates a day
made “super useful” a key phrase
in her search for ways to keep up
with power blogging: “I had to
find different ways to get the site
updated without going nuts.
After nine months, I was
pretty tired. I really love
the material, but the
expectation for the sites
was so high.”
compelling about the last few years.
“All the Boom 2.0 technologies are
really neat, like Google maps and
Flickr letting people map out their
photos,” she enthuses. “I love seeing
Ajax, tagging and syndication that
actually translates into something
really neat for the user in the end.”
“The biggest challenge is finding
the most compelling stories,”
she says. “One person’s really neat
trick is another person’s ‘well duh.’“
She’s not alone at
Lifehacker anymore:
“We brought on a few
more editors who work
with me and we do an
original article every
day, but I think that there is still
more demand for content and more
original content.”
She’s also looking to make the site
richer in terms of video, audio
content and photo galleries. “The
biggest challenge is finding the most
compelling stories,” she says. “One
person’s really neat trick is another
person’s ‘well duh.’ It’s hard with a
jaded, geeky crowd like we have.”
But that crowd has the experience
to appreciate the Boom 2.0 developments, and Trapani likes to rattle
off a list of the things she finds most
Another change for her in Boom
2.0? Leaning the art of self-marketing. “Self-promotion is a really
big part of it, and it does not come
easily to geeks,” she believes. “We’re
not so good at branding ourselves,
but it’s something that absolutely
has to be done. I’ve been trying to
figure out ways to do that less
painlessly recently.”
In the end, she has a positive
outlook. “I was one of the lucky ones
the first time around, and I am cautiously optimistic about Boom 2.0,”
she concludes. “More optimistic
than cautious, really. It’s good.” n
15
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MARY ESTHER
News
and Notes
SXSW Film
submission
deadline
approaching
French fries, shorts, non-profits and porn:
SXSW Film 2007 speakers cover the bases
Morgan Spurlock
The submission deadlines for
the 2007 SXSW Film Festival
are just around the corner.
The early submission deadline
is November 17, 2006, and
the late submission deadline
is December 8, 2006. For
more information on how
to submit, visit:
sxsw.com/film/
submit
SXSW Presents
in its third
season on
PBS
SXSW is proud to announce
the return of its hit PBS
program, SXSW Presents, for
a third season. The show will
air every Tuesday at 9 pm on
KLRU-TV in Austin. For more
information about Season 3,
visit:
klru.org/
sxswpresents
HM
organ Spurlock will be at SXSW 2007 for “A
Conversation with Morgan Spurlock.” The director
and subject of Oscar-nominated documentary Super
Size Me (as well as the award-winning TV series,
30 Days) will sit down with Eugene Hernandez
of indieWIRE to discuss his impressive growth in the
industry since that popular debut feature.
H Want to take a ride through a recent history in popular shorts filmmaking? At SXSW 2007, check out
“Zellner Vs. Duplass: a Sibling Rivalry in Short Form”
and see a retrospective of popular short films made
by two filmmaking duos: the Zellner Brothers and
the Duplass Brothers. The celebrated, award-winning
films will screen in one program, for a combined
celebration of the power of short filmmaking.
H “Sex Scenes Stay Hard” is the title of a panel at
SXSW 2007, and its focus will be the unpredictable
nature of sex in (independent) cinema. Onscreen sex
has been a combustible topic for decades, and in the
changing landscape of independent film, is it any
different? Can a filmmaker be frank about sex and
still find an audience? For this panel, filmmakers and
experts will gather to debate the pros and cons of
taking it all off for the camera. Scheduled speakers
include: Bryan Poyser (director, Dear Pillow), Joe
Swanberg (director, LOL), Lisa Vandever (Cofounder, CineKink NYC) and more.
H“
The State of Non-Profit
Film” should be a very
informative and timely
panel during SXSW
2007. It’s a changing
climate these days for
non-profit film organizations, as some fold
and some stand firm.
Michelle Byrd
Several of the leaders
of this national arena will share their thoughts
on the current attitudes and future prospects of
non-profit initiatives for filmmakers. Scheduled
speakers include: Michelle Byrd (Executive
Director, Independent Feature Project), Rebecca
Campbell (Executive Director, Austin Film Society),
Brian Newman (Executive Director, National Video
Resources) and more.
H Other scheduled SXSW 2007 speakers thus far
include: Jeffrey Abramson (Gen Art), Paul
Bales (SAGIndie), Steven Beer (entertainment attorney),
Eamonn Bowles
(Magnolia Pictures),
Michael Burns (The
Documentary Channel),
Anne del Castillo
(POV), Sean Farnel
(Hot Docs), Chris
Gore (Film Threat),
Eugene Hernandez
Katie Speight
(indieWIRE), Gill
Holland (producer, Loggerheads), David Hudson
(GreenCine), Roger Kass (entertainment attorney),
Tom Koch (WGBH), Ron Mann (director, Tales
of the Rat Fink), Sejin Park (New Line Cinema),
Greg Rhem (HBO), David Poland (Movie City
News), Tom Quinn (Magnolia Pictures), Kay
Schaber (Writers Guild of America), Dustin
Smith (Roadside Attractions), Katie Speight
(More4), Genna Terranova (The Weinsten
Company), Mary Ann Thyken (ITVS) and Diane
Weyermann (Participant Productions).
17
18
Indie films find
21st century outlets
Festival films challenged by new horizons
By Michael Bergeron
“G
etting a distribution deal
that includes a theatrical
release is kind of like
winning the lottery,” acknowledges
filmmaker Kat Candler. “Filmmakers
are finding more creative and
inspired methods of getting their
films to audiences.”
Candler has shown her feature
Jumping Off Bridges, which premiered
at SXSW 2006, at a series of film
festivals along with several college
bookings. Another SXSW alumnus,
The Puffy Chair, got a brief theatrical
distribution on the heels of a Netflix
DVD deal.
“As the DVD market has reached
maturity, the days where everything
sells have reached a plateau. Other
ancillary markets are now being
added to the bottom line with most
distributors,” observes Joseph Amodei
of Hart Sharp Video. “These markets
combined with the DVD sales will be
a film’s main revenue source once it
leaves theaters. It is important to find
distributors that offer these revenue
streams and not just one or the other.”
Hart Sharp Video markets special
interest titles for the home market,
and its catalog includes several films
that first attracted attention on the
film festival circuit.
“Given the increasingly overcrowded
theatrical marketplace and ever
increasing expense of a theatrical
release, ancillaries like home video,
video-on-demand and cable TV are
where most independent films find
their audience and make their money,”
notes Ian Bricke of The Sundance
Channel. Specifically, Bricke utilizes
events such as SXSW to find “the
smaller gems that get overlooked at
bigger, busier festivals. It’s a great
place to track new talent.”
Capturing that indie spirit certainly
yields market value at a time when
constant changes are defining contemporary filmmaking. Broadcasters
such as Great Britain’s Channel 4
The Duplass brothers, Mark and Jay, of The Puffy Chair, who’s
distribution deal included a theatrical release.
for productive feedback from buyers
dependent on independent films.
Most of the festival congregates over
a small area, allowing participants to
“...ancillaries like home video, video-on-demand,
and cable TV are where most independent films
find their audience, and make their money.”
recognize this progressive inclination.
“We wanted to find a link between the
limited distribution offered by television, and the anything-goes publishing
capability of the web,” says Katie
Speight of Channel 4. “This is where
Fourdocs [Channel 4 website] stepped
in for the short documentary film.”
Fourdocs is a broadband documentary channel with a vibrant
community covering the whole area
of documentaries. “Users can upload
and download their own films, get
practical advice from experienced
filmmakers and share views about
films they or others have made,”
explains Speight. “Crucially, it’s free
and easy to use.”
Ergonomic viral schmoozing is a
fancy way of saying that SXSW offers
an easy fit for filmmakers looking
spend more time together, if only by
constantly bumping into each other
on Sixth Street.
“Premiering our film at SXSW gave
us legitimacy. It brought us press,
reviews, sold out audiences, waived
fees at other festivals and got the
attention of distributors, festival
programmers and production
companies,” remarks Candler.
New technologies for film production
and reimagined distribution models
will always baffle struggling filmmakers. SXSW covers the important
points and provides plenty of inspiration for the novice and professional. n
Websites
www.hartsharpvideo.com/
www.channel4.com/fourdocs
www.sundancechannel.com/home/
19
Custom photography by fotovitamina.com
Easy to get to.
Hard to find.
Daily nonstop flights
from LA and NYC.
www.filmTucson.com 877.311.2489
Division of Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau
Motion Pictures Filmed
in Western North Carolina
All the Real Girls
Being There
The Boneyard
Bull Durham
The Clearing
The Conquest of Canaan
D.A.R.Y.L.
Digging to China
Dirty Dancing
Firestarter
Fluke
Forces of Nature
Forrest Gump
The Fugitive
The Green Mile
Hannibal
The Hunt for Red October
In Dreams
The Last of the Mohicans
Loggerheads
Loose Cannons
Mr. Destiny
My Fellow Americans
Nell
Paradise Falls
Patch Adams
Private Eyes
Return to Secret Garden
Richie Rich
Songcatcher
SouthernBelles
The Swan
Thunder Road
Trapper County
28 Days
The Winter People
Western North Carolina Film Commission
AdvantageWest
Mary Trimarco, Film Commissioner
3 General Aviation Drive, Fletcher, NC 28732
[email protected]
828.687.7234 • www.awnc.org
20
After the lights come up
ga r y m i l l e r
Checking in on some of the killer films screened at SXSW 2006
Before the Music Dies
Al Franken: God Spoke
By Tim Basham
By Jonathan Balthaser
The standing ovation that the premiere screening of Before the Music Dies
received from the sold-out Paramount Theater audience during SXSW
this past March was a sure sign that people would be inspired by this
documentary’s message. Interestingly, two of those people inspired were
the filmmakers themselves, director Andrew Shapter and producer Joel
Rasmussen. “The message we had been trying to deliver from musicians
was being heard by us,” Shapter explains.
After a successful world premiere at SXSW 2006, Al Franken: God Spoke
has been touring the film festival circuit and is now being released in theaters across America by Balcony Releasing. Executive produced by legendary
documentary director D.A. Pennebaker, the documentary profiles the former
Saturday Night Live writer and best-selling author’s spirited and often hilarious battle against right wing conservatives.
With exclusive interviews and concert performances, Before the Music Dies
features an impressive assortment of musicians and industry insiders such as
Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello and Bonnie Raitt, all giving their personal assessments of the current state of American music. Dave Matthews, for example,
opines about record labels and his decision to start a label of his own, ATO
Records. In that spirit, Shapter and Rasmussen spurned major film distributors and allied themselves and the documentary with Bside Entertainment,
an independent distribution company that allows filmmakers to retain all
rights to their projects.
“Bside was in lockstep with the message of the film,” says Shapter. He also
explains that instead of being released over one week and then having the
film pulled from theaters if it doesn’t perform to expectations, Before the
Music Dies will be released nationally in November with a continuing release
over a longer period of time.
The filmmakers have also aligned forces with numerous media, music
organizations and influential fans throughout the country, including the
National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), which oversees the Grammy Awards. A soundtrack from the film, featuring such
artists as Matthews, Raitt, Erykah Badu, Calexico, The Roots and others,
will also be released.
Equipped with a fiercely intelligent wit, Al Franken spars with political
heavyweights such as Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and his arch-nemesis Bill
O’Reilly. In the film, Franken emerges as a formidable player in the political
arena as he helps launch liberal talk radio station Air America and campaigns across the country against Bush’s presidential reelection in 2004.
Boosted by critical praise at its SXSW premiere, Al Franken: God Spoke
moved on to several other major festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival,
the San Francisco Film Festival, the Seattle Film Festival, the Nantucket Film
Festival and the Edinburgh Film Festival. After its opening at the IFC Center
in New York on September 13th, the film debuted in Franken’s hometown
of Minneapolis and has since opened at over 40 theaters coast to coast.
Filmmakers Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus planned for a fall release in time
for the midterm elections in November and are ecstatic with the response
thus far. “Chris and I have done a lot of traveling with the film, showing it
to a wide range of audiences, and what we’re seeing is that though people
enjoy Al’s comedy, he’s also hitting a nerve,” Doob says. “People identify
with his passion for change and his anger at the present administration and
invariably ask at the Q&As after our screenings, ‘What can we do to move
this country in a better direction?’”
Whatever happens with the film’s release, Shapter will always fondly
remember his first SXSW premiere: “Pulling up to the theater and seeing
that line around the block was something unforgettable.”
21
After the lights come up
The Refugee All Stars
Japan and Canada, while the film has
earned endorsements from the likes of
Ice Cube, Paul McCartney and Angelina
Jolie, received the moral support of MTV
executive Troy Poon, and landed a deal to
be shown on PBS. “The cool thing about
SXSW is that a lot of industry people
came,” says Niles. “And the difference
between Sundance and Toronto is that
you can actually get to meet and talk
to those industry people.”
By Anthony Kaufman
Few films can claim to have drastically changed
the lives of their subjects, but Zach Niles and
Banker White’s debut feature documentary
The Refugee All Stars accomplished just that.
After screenings at film festivals in the U.S.,
particularly SXSW 2006, the attention given to
the film transformed six Sierra Leonean musicians, who once suffered through the horrors
of civil war and the frustrations of living as
refugees, into international stars. “Because we
are a band and a film, SXSW was a natural fit,”
explains Niles. “And the success of the band
helped the success of the film.”
During the festival, The Refugee All Stars played sold-out shows and picked
up both a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music and a record deal
with ANTI Records (home to such luminaries as Tom Waits and Nick Cave).
The band has since toured North America and played music festivals in
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22
But the most memorable experience for
the filmmakers and the band was a random
encounter on the streets of Austin with
Liberian refugees. According to Niles, there was also a strong connection to
audiences who had the Hurricane Katrina disaster still fresh in their minds:
“That was really powerful. It’s one thing to have the people on the screen
and feel something for these guys, but then to introduce these people who
lived through the very same thing, and there were a lot of displaced people
from Katrina, that really struck a chord. We had a lot of tears.”
G A R Y MILLER
“There wasn’t a better festival to premiere
Behind the Mask. I was on the phone negotiating
before our second screening. SXSW was the perfect
launching pad for our film.” - Scott Glosserman
Fired!
JENN SOTO
Actress Annabelle Gurwitch
(former host of TBS’
“Dinner and A Movie”
show and co-star of Melvin
Goes To Dinner) took the
humiliating experience of
being fired from a Woody
Allen play by the man
himself and spun it off
into three projects: a stage
production, a book and a
documentary. Gurwitch’s
film, Fired!, premiered at
SXSW 2006 to enthusiastic
and receptive audiences
who reveled in tales of
bad jobs, bad bosses and
the mercurial mood of
corporate America.
Fired! will have its theatrical release in January 2007 and will air on
Showtime in March, with DVD sales following in the spring. Gurwitch says
the experience at SXSW, which she says had a young, hip, “film fanatic”
vibe about it, energized her and helped keep her project rolling forward:
“I really feel like SXSW getting behind this gave me a lot of confidence. At
SXSW, you meet filmmakers and ‘real’ people who want to go eat barbecue
with you. Talk of film and fatty meat? I’m there!”
Since the premiere of Fired!, Gurwitch has scrambled to keep some of
the information in it up-to-date, such as the recent upswing in layoffs and
buyouts of Ford Motor Company workers. Gurwitch’s social conscience
emerges here, and her voice rises as she rattles off facts about the decline
of support for skilled labor in America. Things are changing, Gurwitch says,
“but unfortunately not for the better. Real wages are not rising at all, but
corporate profits are at their highest level since the 1960s. We need to
examine as a nation what we value, and ask how much workers should
share in these profits.”
Gurwitch plans to take the same comedic-but-with-social-questions tack she
did in Fired! with her next project, tentatively titled Going, Going, Gone.
Originally a native of Mobile, Alabama, Gurwitch discovered after Hurricane
Katrina that she had inherited a portion of Dauphin Island off the Alabama
Gulf coast, but that her piece of heaven is rapidly eroding because of global
warming and rising sea levels. “Once more, my little story meets global
implications,” Gurwitch says with a laugh.
S A R A H K ERVER
By Roseana Auten
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
By Eric Vespe
Scott Glosserman’s Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon made its
world premiere in the midnight line-up slot at SXSW 2006 and ended up
being one of the biggest critical and popular successes of the conference.
This unique film follows a serial killer in training, one who lives in the same
universe where famous cinema slashers run amok. The young, charming
man then invites a small group of college journalists to chronicle his
preparations for his first appearance.
The critical response, as well as the presence of film acquisitions representatives at SXSW, gave Glosserman the boost he needed. “We premiered
at the cathedral of all theaters, the Alamo Drafthouse, and it was just an
unbelievable way to have the first public screening of my first film ever,”
Glosserman says. “There [was] a ton of press there. There were a lot of
acquisitions executives, but that wasn’t the feeling of the screening.
It felt like it was just genre film fans.”
Since the film’s premiere, Glosserman has signed with an agent, met with
studios about his next project, and traveled the world with Behind the
Mask, taking it from festival to festival. Audiences have welcomed the film
at such festivals as Gen-Art in New York and Fantasia in Montreal. “There
wasn’t a better festival to premiere Behind the Mask,” Glosserman says.
“I was on the phone negotiating before our second screening. SXSW was
the perfect launching pad for our film.”
Glosserman is currently in final negotiations for theatrical distribution of
his film: “SXSW was essentially the lighted fuse to what has become this
incredible journey towards our explosion, which is our theatrical release.”
23
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News
and Notes
Look Who’s
Talking ...
at the SXSW 2007 Music
Conference
New Releases
H Polyvinyl has Of Montreal’s Hissing Fauna,
Are You The Destroyer? coming out on
January 23.
Charlie Robison, The Greencards,
Roger Creager and a tribute record to
June Carter Cash.
H Beggars Banquet has a new Calla LP for
spring release, while the Playlouder/Beggars
Group will soon drop two releases from
Austin’s Voxtrot.
H Yep Roc’s newest from Billy Bragg is
out now, and on the schedule for January
are releases from Southern Culture on
the Skids, Apples in Stereo, Doyle
Bramhall, Nick Lowe, Marah, Heavy
Trash and more.
H On the Matador front, new LPs from
Chicago’s The Ponys and Australia’s Love of
Diagrams are anticipated for spring releases.
Rickie Lee Jones
From her stunning debut in 1979
through her current recordings
and concerts, Ms. Jones has
created music with a wide range
of influences and her singular
voice. In advance of her first
album for New West Records,
she will sit down for a SXSW
Interview to discuss her work.
H This spring, Kill Rock Stars will be putting
out new releases from Deerhoof (Friend
Opportunity), Xiu Xiu, Elliott Smith,
Mary Timony and a Decemberists DVD.
H Semisonic front man Dan Wilson will
release his American Records debut soon,
and American is also preparing a DVD of
highlights from the Unholy Alliance tour
which featured Slayer, Lamb of God,
Mastodon and more.
H Three new Rhymesayers releases hit stores
in early 2007: Brother Ali’s The Undisputed
Truth, Mac Lethal’s 11:11 and Abstract
Rude’s Dear Abby.
H The legendary Charlie Louvin drops his
Tompkins Square debut in February, surely the
only album to feature guest spots from Tom
T. Hall and Will Oldham together. Also
on the Tompkins Square front is a February
release from James Blackshaw.
H Dim Mak has two new releases from Icarus
Line lined up for November and February.
H Touch and Go Records’s spring schedule
includes new full lengths from Mekons,
Shellac, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists,
!!!, Cocorosie and Pinback.
H Vagrant Records has releases coming up
from Reggie and the Full Effect, From
Autumn to Ashes and The Bled.
Joe Boyd
The founder of Hannibal Records,
manager/producer of Nick Drake,
producer of soundtracks of
Deliverance and A Clockwork
Orange, and author of White
Bicycles – Making Music In
The 1960s.
Booker T
Perhaps best-known for the
million-selling instrumental,
“Green Onions,” recorded by
Booker T. and the MGs, he has
recorded with a who’s who of
artists, including Otis Redding,
Ray Charles and Bob Dylan. He will
be recording this fall and winter
for the first time since 1994.
Here are some notable new independent label
releases scheduled for the next few months.
H Montreal’s influential Ninja Tune label has a
busy schedule, with releases from Kid Koala,
Coldcut, Amon Tobin, TTC and more.
H Nashville’s Dualtone also has a lot of records
coming out this winter and spring, including
H Memphis’ fabulous Goner Records is putting out brand new ones from Carbonas,
Digital Leather and Final Solutions.
H New West has a series of Live From Austin
CDs and DVDs from Neko Case, Johnny
Cash, Guy Clark and Asleep at the
Wheel scheduled for early 2007 release.
Pictured top to bottom: Of Montreal, Nick Lowe, Billy Bragg: Volume 2, Charlie Louvin, Neko Case.
SXSW and Blaze TV announce SXTV venture
to offer televised performances from SXSW 2007
In early October, SXSW announced the launch of
South By TV (SXTV), a new joint venture with London
and Los Angeles-based Blaze TV, a highly regarded
international producer of music and entertainment
television programming. SXTV is scheduled to deliver
televised performances from the March 2007 SXSW
music festival to viewers worldwide.
Artists performing on SXTV will be filmed in a
custom-built soundstage located in downtown Austin
using HD cameras with 5.1 surround sound. American
audiences will be able to see the best of these performances on CD USA, the weekly show that Blaze TV
produces for DirecTV. London and Miami-based Zeal
TV will handle international sales.
Blaze TV has
been especially
well-regarded for
its highly popular
CD UK program, a
weekly live music show which has aired close to 400
episodes. Blaze opened a Los Angeles office in 2005
and has produced CD USA, the American version of
CD UK, for DirecTV since January 2006.
In addition to television, SXTV also plans to distribute
SXSW band content through online, mobile phone
and digital cinema outlets. A “Best of SXSW 2007”
DVD is also planned through Blaze TV’s parent
company Shout! Factory.
25
Record retailers chart courses through
daunting waters
By Shermakaye Bass
T
he news of the indie store’s
demise has been greatly exaggerated. Well, perhaps a tad.
In the past few months, mainstream
media and trade publications alike
have run sky-is-falling stories with
depressing stats and even more
depressing rumblings about the
David-Goliath bout between bigbox’ers and indie record retailers, not
to mention the world of hurt that
digital sales are putting to real-time,
real-world record stores.
DO U G L A S BE N J A MI N
music megastore, announced on
September 30 that it is filing for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Earlier this year, iTunes announced its
one-billionth download. Ouch.
There’s no question that some of indie
store sky is falling. The good news
is that the U.S. still claims close to
2600 independents, and those stores
are developing new strategies to keep
music aficionados happy, such as
expanding in-store performances and
local promotional events, countering
with their own online
stores and download programs, and organizing their
own renegade “empires”
to strike back. California’s
Amoeba Music, with
locations in Los Angeles
and the San Francisco Bay
Area, is even preparing to
launch its own record
label, hopefully in the
coming spring.
More than anything,
though, stores like Amoeba,
Waterloo Records in Austin,
and The Electric Fetus in
Minneapolis are finding
new ways to “super-serve
the customer,” as Waterloo’s
John Kunz calls it.
John Kunz, owner of Waterloo Records in Austin, Texas.
The numbers are scary. More than
900 American independents have
folded in the past three years, and
one-time colossus Tower Records,
not exactly an indie but a pioneering
26
“Our philosophy is probably best summed up by
our slogan ‘Where Music
Still Matters’,” observes
Kunz, whose store will celebrate its 25th anniversary
in 2007. “From the very
beginning we tried creating a haven,
a lounge if you will, for music lovers.
And we did that by providing free live
music in the store, an easy way to find
stuff arranged alphabetically and not
by category, and by letting customers
listen to music before buying it
and then having a no-strings
return policy.”
But Kunz admits that last year, for
the first time in many moons, his
store saw a drop in sales: mid-single
digits, he says. At Electric Fetus,
whose venerable Minneapolis flagship opened in 1968, overall sales
are down around ten percent. And
though Amoeba Music’s numbers
have held steady over the past year,
marketing manager Kara Lane
acknowledges the shaky state of affairs
in the independent realm.
In these troubled times, all three of
these stores have found increasing
fondness for the buy/sell/trade aspect
of their business, which lures the rare
and obscure-music seeker and boosts
overall sales. “With our three stores,
we have been able to give people a
kind of treasure hunt feel,” Lane says.
“Where in addition to finding the
new things they want, there’s a depth
and richness, almost an archival
element, with music freaks selling
back their stuff.”
The Electric Fetus’ retail music
manager, Bob Fuchs, says part of his
stores’ enduring success lies in the fact
that “just about everyone who works
here is either a collector, a musician,
a DJ or a music journalist.” Still, he
admits, “It’s harder now than it has
ever been. We have to work harder to
remind people what we have, whether
that is through advertising to ‘up’ our
presence or offering digital burning
right in the store.”
Kunz, who employs 70 people at his
downtown Austin store, says he’s not
running scared, but he is very aware
of the dangers he and his peers face
in the brave new digi/download/big-
box world: “Usually, Waterloo has
been able to eke out a small gain in
sales over the years, but this year we’ve
been caught in the tide that seems to
be sweeping the record retail business. According to all the statistics out
there, independent record stores are
down by about 25 percent, but the
industry itself is off by seven or eight
percent. So I believe many of the
(indie figures) reflect the closures of
a lot of independent stores. Most of
the people I’ve talked to this year are
looking at even sales, or they’re down
slightly by single digits. Nothing to
the order of 25 percent.”
More than ten years ago, while
looking down the road and seeing
ominous clouds on the horizon,
Kunz and a handful of other national
indie owners created the Coalition of
Independent Music Stores (CIMS)
to deal with everything from megamusic stores like the once mighty
Tower to MP3 competition to
Internet exclusives, and, now, the
big-box retailers. Currently, the CIMS
group is working feverishly to counter
the onslaught from online and discount-store competitors.
As for Kunz’ own store: “Waterloo has
had a fully transactional website in
effect for about four years. We’ve got a
real informative email blast that goes
out to about 6000 subscribers weekly,
telling about that week’s releases,
in-store performances and special
offers … More recently, Waterloo has
been working with CIMS and other
coalitions, putting together a digital
download store.” That store should
launch next year.
Kunz says that in the past couple
of years, CIMS has fought a losing
battle over exclusive content on CDs
and DVDs, the biggest example
being when the Rolling Stones
released 2003’s Four Flicks DVD set
and sold it exclusively at Best Buy:
“That means that Target goes and
tries to find something exclusive to
them, and then Wal-Mart tries to
find something exclusive to them. It
created a trend. We’re
a small record store.
It’s not like Waterloo
could negotiate that
sort of agreement
with someone like the
Rolling Stones.”
MI K E ELI A S
“... the ones that survive are
the ones that are able to
adapt to the changes.”
Above: Minneapolis’s Electric Fetus. Below: Amoeba Music in Hollywood.
Kunz and Lane both
note the strangeness of
some of the industry’s
newer bedfellows. “I
don’t think we (indies)
need any additional
bells and whistles,”
Lane observes. “But
keeping the playing
field level is key.
Things have shifted
a lot in terms of the
label’s knowledge
and interactions with
retail, and I think
retail ends up being
sort of an afterthought
in the grand marketing
scheme, especially the
smaller and independent retailers. It
becomes more about
the industry than
the music itself …
But the weirdest thing is the online
exclusives,” she adds. “Recently we
were planning an in-store with an
artist, and I thought her performance
was on the release date. It turned out
the album had been available for two
weeks prior to that on iTunes!”
According to Kunz, perhaps the best
insurance in this rapidly changing
world is for indie stores to compete
when and where they can in ways
such as launching their own digital
music stores and/or working out
exclusive-release agreements, such
as Waterloo has done with Texasbased artists like Marcia Ball and
Alejandro Escovedo. Maintaining
a strong bond with musicians is
essential, most independents will
tell you, and that bond is tied
tightly to promotions, awareness
and general camaraderie within a
musical community.
K EVI N H A N LE Y
But maybe more than anything, the
mom-and-pop record shops have to
put their customers and immediate
community first. Because, as Kunz,
Fuchs and Lane see it, a record store
is no longer simply a place that sells
music or music-related merchandise.
“I think ten years from now there
will still be a few independent music
stores, but unfortunately there won’t
be nearly as many,” predicts Kunz.
“And the ones that survive are the ones
that are able to adapt to the changes.
It also seems critical for independent
music stores, and bookstores and other
purveyors of culture, for that matter,
to band together in their communities
so that we don’t end up with a sort of
chain-store/fast-food mindset, where
no city is different from any other
city … I guess it’s what we’ve always
done; we just didn’t realize that role
was part of some cultural mandate,
which is what it’s becoming.” n
27
28
MySpace and the changing business of A&R
By Leah Selvidge
Times have changed, and leading
the pack in revolutionizing that whole
process is MySpace, the most popular
social networking site of all time
(or at least since 2003). With literally
millions of artists promoting themselves, the trick is knowing how to
use the site effectively to find what
you think you are looking for.
Michelle Oakes, Director of A&R at
TVT Records, knows the MySpace
and search for people who look
interesting. From there, I look at
their friends,” she explains. “If I see
something I like, I make a note and
come back a few times. In the case
of Le Meu Le Pur, I happened to get
a call from their manager, who’s a
friend, shortly after I discovered them
on MySpace. That really reinforced
my interest.”
Oakes also appreciates MySpace as
a way to judge a band’s work ethic
and savvy: “A band’s MySpace page
really gives me a sense of how they
act and treat their fans, just a sense
of their overall dedication.” Activities
such as regularly adding songs, fan
interaction and touring and fanbase
development provide insights that
give A&R scouts a sense of what their
labels would be getting into if they
were to sign the band.
As brand development becomes part
and parcel of band development,
and promotion budgets dwindle,
MySpace becomes even more valuable to a resourceful A&R person.
Vaeda, currently signed to Playtyme
“A band’s MySpace page really gives
me a sense of how they act and
treat their fans, just a sense of
their overall dedication.”
drill. She spends about three hours
daily surfing the site looking for new
talent and checking on how her bands
(such as The Blue Van and Le Meu Le
Purr) are faring. In fact, Oakes discovered Le Meu Le Purr on MySpace.
Records, was the most popular band
(based on song plays on the band’s
MySpace page) in September and
October 2005, and Playtyme’s Chris
Hower sees that value as stretching far
beyond listeners’ hard drives.
“I generally avoid the top ten bands
and head straight to random pages
“Their [MySpace] statistics were great.
Before I signed them, they had over
T o d d W e stpha l
N
ot long ago, you, too, could
be a King or Queen of
A&R (that nebulous term
meaning the scouting, signing and,
most importantly, developing bands
for a record label) if you were willing
to suffer torturously long-winded
phone calls from overly enthusiastic
managers shilling pap and excruciating bi-coastal flights for a one
night hit-or-miss showcase in a dingy
club in Los Angeles or New York to
see “the next Nirvana.” You just had
to constantly keep your ear to the
ground and move just a little more
swiftly than your counterparts at
other labels.
Vaeda, discovered on MySpace and signed to Playtyme Records.
100,000 friends and that grew to
over 105,000 in a month; it was
pretty staggering,” explains Hower.
“But really, what it means to the band
is that even if those people don’t buy
an album, they’ve all seen the name
‘Vaeda,’ and that translates into
recognition across the board.”
While MySpace will never take
the place of good old-fashioned gut
instinct, golden ears and hard work,
it’s changing the face of A&R more
than anything we have seen since
music really started being a business.
The future of rock & roll will always
be out there just as it was in 1974,
but now “out there” is nowhere if
not in cyberspace. n
29
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Class of SXSW ‘06 steps up
Showcasing bands find post-festival success
Space City hip-hop lights up
SXSW 2006
With fewer than 200 miles separating Houston from
Austin, it is fitting that SXSW showcases rising stars from
the currently white-hot center of the hip-hop world. During
SXSW 2006, four Houston artists used their festival appearances to broaden their audiences and make further inroads
in the music industry.
The biggest breakout hip-hop artist from SXSW 2006 is
Chamillionaire. After headlining the Wednesday night
showcase at the Back Room, this Houston native saw his
song “Ridin’” (featuring Krayzie Bone) top the Billboard
Hot 100 charts for two weeks in early June, while his
major label debut on Universal, The Sound of Revenge,
has achieved Platinum status. In addition, Chamillionaire
won the “Best Rap Video” category at the 2006 MTV
Video Music Awards, has been nominated as “Favorite
Breakthrough Artist” at the American Music Awards, and
reportedly has the highest selling ringtone in history.
Fellow Houston rhymer Kiotti appeared earlier on the
General Chamillionaire has had no trouble recruiting for the Chamillitary.
same Wednesday night showcase and has gone on to have
an impressive year in his own right. Kiotti inked a deal with
members of the Screwed Up Clique, rappers who appeared on the late DJ
Asylum to release his major label debut, which is due out in 2007.
Screw’s mixtapes during the 1990s. Screw (who died in 2000) practically
invented the slowed-down style of music that helped put Houston on the
“Tamale Kingpin” Chingo Bling lit up the Back Room stage the night after
map, and many fans and colleagues showed up to pay tribute, including
Chamillionaire and Kiotti’s showcases and built upon his already impressive
Lil’ Keke (whose Swishahouse debut drops soon) and H.A.W.K. (in his last
reputation as both a rapper and head of Big Chile Entertainment. Leveraging
Austin show before his untimely death in early May).
the considerable buzz about his show, this star in the burgeoning Latino rap
scene signed a deal with Asylum Records that enables him to use that label’s
For much of its 21-year history, SXSW has been viewed as primarily a rockresources while still maintaining his independent status.
oriented music event, but with hip-hop continuing to be a powerful force
in the entertainment world, the continuing presence of Houston’s legions
Trae, whose Rap-A-Lot debut, Losing Composure, has been a regional hit,
of great DJs and MCs in Austin each March is all but assured. - Andy Smith
performed the final night of SXSW 2006 at a show featuring all original
Dir En Grey
H e d e m i Ogata
After their first EP release in 1998, Japanese shock-rockers Dir en Grey became
their country’s first home-grown indie band to hit the Top 10 on the coveted
Oricon charts. Since then, they’ve grown their audience continent-by-continent
using no more promotion than a grassroots fan buzz which eventually led to soldout shows in Asia and Europe. But after playing arenas abroad, it was like starting
all over again when the band came to Austin to try to break into the American
market. “JRock is more or less a completely untapped market here and we were
starting from scratch,” says Warcon Records A&R chief, Mike Kaminsky.
But once again, word-of-mouth hype brought lines around the block for Dir en
Grey’s SXSW showcase. The band’s intense performance, in which lead singer
Tooru ‘Kyo’ Nishimura wound up hospitalized after bashing his face open with
his microphone, led to them performing sold-out shows in New York and Los
Angeles soon after. Kaminsky credits their SXSW appearance with earning them
a coveted spot on Korn’s Family Values tour: “The atmosphere of SXSW helped
generate a lot of excitement and early initial buzz.” - RW Deutsch
31
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AFE-SxSw06.indd 1
10/6/06 5:26:52 PM
d av i d h i l l
José Gonzalez
Tim Soter
Art Brut
While some speak of globalization in abstract
terms, José González is its musical poster boy.
Born in Sweden but of Argentinean descent, he
grew up listening to the music of both South and
North Americas.
After adding classical guitar to his repétoire,
González quickly became a star in Sweden in
2004. Then, he descended on Great Britain and
after a successful tour he was the subject of a
Channel 4 documentary and leant vocals to the
new Zero 7 release.
During his SXSW visit this past March, González
hit the ground playing and seemingly did not
stop until almost everyone had heard him. “I’ve
always wanted to play seven shows in four days,”
González said with genuine enthusiasm.
Variety ranked him third among SXSW showcases
that left them “with the loudest buzz.” That
“buzz” translated into sold-out shows during the
following week in Los Angeles, New York and
San Francisco. Still, the most memorable thing
about Austin for González, (as if he had to tell us)
“fantastic Mexican food.” - RW Deutsch
Art Brut
Art Brut’s packed-to-the-rafters showcase
was one of SXSW 2006’s most buzzed-about
performances. In the months since, the London
quintet has lived up to the raves by establishing
itself as one of the year’s most exciting new
transatlantic imports.
The band’s widely-acclaimed debut longplayer
Bang Bang Rock And Roll, released in the U.S.
in June, has made good on the promise shown
at SXSW. The album features 15 riff-intensive,
lovably grandiose rock anthems that showcase the
suavely flamboyant vocals and dry-humored lyrics
of frontman Eddie Argos, who counts Jonathan
Richman and Vincent Van Gogh among his idols.
Art Brut, which now includes guitarists Ian
Catskilkin and Jasper Future, bassist Freddy
Feedback and drummer Mikey B, has been one
of Britain’s most celebrated new bands since
the release of their instant-classic debut single,
“Formed A Band.” Now, having taken the U.K.
scene by storm, they are poised to do the same in
America. - Scott Schinder
Corinne Bailey Rae
Since sharing an Austin Music Hall bill with
Morrissey during SXSW 2006, British jazz-soul
diva Corinne Bailey Rae has become the subject of
a massive stateside buzz that has enabled her to
live up to the title of her song “Like A Star,” the
opening track from her self-titled Capitol debut.
Corinne Bailey Rae
showcases the
27-year-old singer/
songwriter/guitarist’s
smooth, emotioncharged compositions
and her sultry, lilting
vocals. Already a charttopping smash in the
U.K., the album made
its American debut in
the Billboard Top 20,
and the warm reception
from pop, R&B and jazz
listeners has led many
to note parallels with
Norah Jones’ recent
crossover breakthrough.
Tapes ‘n Tapes
Minneapolis’ playfully experimental, effortlessly accessible Tapes ‘n Tapes maximized their
SXSW exposure by playing no fewer than nine
gigs during the 2006 music festival’s four days.
The enterprising D.I.Y. quartet’s SXSW exploits
generated substantial word-of-mouth music
business attention, winning them coverage on
MTV as well as raves from Rolling Stone, The
New York Times and New Musical Express. The
exposure also helped them to earn a deal with
XL Recordings, which reissued the band’s selfreleased first album, The Loon, in July.
Tapes ‘n Tapes was launched in 2003 by singer/
guitarist Josh Grier and keyboardist Matt
Corinne Bailey Rae
Emma Hardy
José González
Bailey Rae got her
start singing hymns in church in her hometown
of Leeds before her youthful obsession with
Led Zeppelin led her to form an all-female teen
grunge combo known as Helen. But a job as
coat-check girl at a Leeds jazz club led her to
embrace a subtler, more introspective approach,
and her current success attests to the wisdom of
that decision. - Scott Schinder
Kretzmann, who first performed using precorded
beats and samples. Now a full-strength quartet
that includes bassist Erik Appelwick and drummer
Jeremy Hanson, Tapes ‘n Tapes has emerged as one
the underground’s hottest properties, continuing to
bewitch new fans with their distinctive mix of arty
idiosyncrasy, catchy hooks and infectious energy.
- Scott Schinder
33
For complete, up-to-date
information on SXSW 2007
go to sxsw.com
SXSW 2007 Quick Guide
An overview of Austin and the SXSWorld
SXSW 2007 Registration Information
SXSW 2007 Badge Types
SXSW has a quick and easy online registration and hotel reservation process. For 2007, all
registrants paying with credit cards must register and book their hotel room online
at sxsw.com/register. SXSW accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and
Diners Club.
Attend the event of your choice by purchasing a Music,
Interactive or Film Badge. A Platinum Badge gets you
access throughout SXSWeek and includes all three SXSW
Events – Interactive, Film and Music. A Gold Badge gets
you access to all Interactive and Film Events.
If you must pay by check, wire transfer or purchase order, a form is available at
sxsw.com/pdf. The form will contain instructions for mailing your check to SXSW. If you
need an invoice, please email [email protected] or fax your request to 512/452-4775.
Register early for the best rate. The next registration discount deadline is November 17, 2006.
To view all rates and deadlines for all events, see sxsw.com/register. SXSW Registration
fees are non-refundable.
sxsweek
Interactive
Film
SXSW 2007 Dates
SXSWeek: March 9-18, 2007*
SXSW Interactive:March 9-13, 2007
SXSW Film: March 9-17, 2007**
SXSW Music: March 14-18, 2007
* Platinum Badge Dates ** Gold Badge Dates
gold
music
Saturday
March 10
Interactive Panels & Party
Screenburn Panels & Arcade
Film Panels
Film Festival
Sunday
March 11 Interactive Panels & Trade Show Film Panels & Trade Show
Screenburn Panels & Arcade Film Festival
Web Awards Ceremony & Party
Monday
March 12
Interactive Panels & Trade Show Film Panels & Trade Show
Screenburn Panels
Film Festival
Tuesday March 13
Interactive Panels & Trade Show Film Panels & Trade ShowMusic Registration
Screenburn Panels Film Festival
Interactive Closing Party
Film Awards & Party
Wednesday
Film Festival
Golf Tournament*
March 14Music Registration
Music Panels
Music Welcome Dinner*
Music Festival
Thursday
Film FestivalMusic Panels & Trade Show
March 15
Flatstock Poster Show
Music Festival
Friday
Film FestivalMusic Panels & Trade Show
March 16
Music Festival
Saturday Film FestivalMusic Panels & Trade Show
March 17
Music Festival
Sunday
Barbecue & Softball Tournament
March 18Music Festival
*Additional Charge
34
Platinum Badge = Interactive + Film + Music
Film Registration
Film Opening Party Film Festival
GOLD Badge = Interactive + Film
Friday
Interactive Registration
March 9
Interactive Pre Party
platinum
L i n d a Pa r k
SXSW Hotels
Rental Car Info
Public Bus Service
You can book rooms at Austin’s best hotels in
downtown and central Austin when you register
at sxsw.com/register. We have blocked more
quality hotels than ever before to satisfy a wide
range of budgets and tastes. See a comprehensive list of available hotels and amenites online
at sxsw.com/hotels.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is our preferred rental
car vendor for SXSW 2007. Enterprise offers
the best rates with convenient locations at the
Austin airport and around the city, including a
downtown office at the Omni Hotel.
Book at www.enterprise.com or call
800-RENT-A-CAR. Use discount code
SXSW2007 (3-digit PIN: SXS)
Capital Metro Bus Routes
Serving the Airport: 512-474-1200
Route Information 1-800-474-1201
Trip Planner: www.capmetro.org
Travel to SXSW
American Airlines
American Airlines is offering a 5% airfare
discount to SXSW registrants, available from
North America, Latin America, Mexico, Japan,
Europe and select Caribbean cities. (Some
deeply discounted fares are not eligible for this
additional discount.)
Flights can be booked online at www.aa.com.
Use discount code #A0737AE.
TransAtlantic Air
Media Travel LTD (formerly Music Travel)
of London is our preferred travel vendor from
the U.K. and Europe. Air travel packages will be
available soon at their website.
Contact Sara Manzano
[email protected]
Phone: 44-20-7627-2200
www.mediatravel.com
D u s t i n D o wn i n g
Australia / New Zealand Air
The Travel Bureau of Sydney is our preferred
travel vendor from Australia and New Zealand.
Contact Brad Thomas
[email protected]
Phone: 61-02-9267-4661
www.travelbureau.com.au
Hertz Rent-A-Car
SXSW has negotiated discount rates with Hertz
Rent-A-Car. Rates from $40/day and $144/week.
Book at www.hertz.com or 800-654-2240
(CV#01140011 )
Airport Shuttle
SuperShuttle from/to Austin Bergstrom
International Airport
Austin direct number 512-258-3826
National Number 1-800-BLUE-VAN
Use discount code 3WMSV.
www.supershuttle.com
Chauffeured Vehicle Service
ETS Global Chauffeured Services provides town
cars, limos, luxury SUVs, executive vans and
motorcoaches.
Book at www.ets-global.com
or [email protected] or (866) 681-5466.
Austin Taxis
American Yellow Checker Cab
512-452-9999
www.yellowcabaustin.com
Austin Cab
512-478-2222
www.austincab.com
Event & Party Services
High Beam Events is the preferred party
and event planner for SXSW 2007.
For quotes and info: 512-419-9401
or [email protected].
www.highbeamevents.com
Austin Convention Center
All SXSW daytime events – Conference, Trade
Show, Registration, Day Stage Café, Email
Center, Platinum Lounge and more – take place
in the Austin Convention Center, 500 E. Cesar
Chavez. www.austinconventioncenter.com
Austin, Texas
Legendary as an oasis of liberalism in a desert of
Texas conservatism, Austin has become a mecca
for the creative class as well as fun lovers of all
stripes. Scores of pros and aspiring creators in
the fields of music, film and interactive media
have made it their home base, while thousands
more of their colleagues and peers flock here
each year to schmooze with their brethren and
sistren while they recharge their batteries in one
of America’s great cities. Although the film and
interactive scenes are relatively young, Austin’s
eclectic music scene has deep roots in the
state’s blues, country, jazz, conjunto and polka
practitioners who laid the groundwork for later
rockers, folksters, popsters and hip-hopsters.
The self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the
World” lays claim to a higher concentration of
original music clubs than any other city on the
planet. Over the last decade, the entertainment
scene has been augmented by hotels, bars and
restaurants (purportedly more dining places
per capita than any other city in America) truly
worthy of the world’s attention.
Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau
Visitor Center: 209 E. Sixth St. Austin TX 78701
866-G0-AUSTIN
Visit www.austintexas.org for useful information about Austin, including local weather
and maps as well as music and film resources.
35
SXSWorld
T h e O f f i c i a l M ag a z i n e o f t h e S o u t h b y S o u t h w e st Co n f e r e n c e s & F e st i va l s
Be a part of SXSWorld Magazine!
If you missed advertising in this issue, SXSWorld Review Edition,
you can still take advantage of the upcoming issues. The next
issue, SXSWorld Preview Edition, will come out in February,
one month before the conferences begin. Catch registrants
during the peak of SXSW Week with the conference-distributed
SXSWorld View Edition. The SXSWorld Rearview Edition will be
mailed in May following the SXSW Conferences.
Subscription and delivery is provided free of charge to over
10,000 SXSW Music, Film and Interactive registrants.
SXSWorld Edition / Date
SPACE RESERVATION
Deadline
SXSWorld Preview Edition / Feb 07
SXSWorld View Edition / March 07 SXSWorld Rearview Edition / May 07
January 5, 2007
February 19, 2007
April 6, 2007
For inquiries, email [email protected].
Visit sxsw.com/sales and sxsworld.com for more information.
Contact Us
SXSW Headquarters
PO Box 4999, Austin TX 78746 US,
Tel 512/467-7979, Fax: 512/451-0754
Email [email protected] www.sxsw.com
SXSW Headquarters Sales Department
MUSIC: Luann Williams, [email protected]
FILM: Wendy Cummings, [email protected]
INTERACTIVE: Katie King, [email protected]
SPONSORSHIPS: Scott McNearney, [email protected]
Sales: www.sxsw.com/sales
SXSW Music, UK & Ireland
Una Johnston, Cill Ruan, 7 Ard na Croise Thurles,
Co. Tipperary Ireland
Tel & Fax +353-504-26488, [email protected]
SXSW Music & Film, European Continent
Mirko Whitfield, Einsiedlerweg 6
Tuebingen-Pforndorf 72074 Germany
Tel & Fax +49-7071-885-604, [email protected]
SXSW Music, Asia
Hiroshi Asada, c/o Rightsscale Inc, 3F EBISU-WEST, 1-16-15 Ebisu-Nishi
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0021 Japan
Tel +81-3-5428-3923, Fax +81-3-5428-3962, [email protected]
SXSW Music, film & Interactive, Australia,
New Zealand & Hawaii
Phil Tripp, 20 Hordern St, Newtown
NSW 2042 Australia
Tel +61-2-9557-7766, Fax +61-2-9557-7788, [email protected]
Advertisers’ Index
Associated Content.................................................................................. 2
Alpha Female Booking........................................................................... 22
Armed Forces Entertainment................................................................ 32
bizboxseries.com.................................................................................... 22
Bluhammock Music................................................................................ 30
Cirque du Soleil...................................................................................... 14
The Dering Corporation......................................................................... 12
Firewheel Design...................................................................................... 4
High Beam Events.................................................................................. 14
indie911.................................................................................................. 28
IndiePix dot Net...................................................................................... 18
J2 Music................................................................................................... 36
Jakprints Inc............................................................................................ 24
The Mansion at Judges Hill.................................................................... 10
MIDEM...................................................................................... Back Cover
Nail.......................................................................................................... 30
Nevada Film Office................................................................................. 18
Radisson.................................................................................................. 12
Seagate Technology..................................................... Inside Front Cover
Screenburn.............................................................................................. 14
SXSW......................................................................................................... 6
TicketWeb............................................................................................... 32
Tucson Film Office.................................................................................. 20
Ultrashort Media Inc.................................................. Outside Back Cover
Will Van Overbeek................................................................................... 6
Western N Carolina Film........................................................................ 20
Zimmerman Agency/Florida.................................................................. 16
36
Register now and
save up to
€330*
I’ve got the music in me, come to the source
Music now offers incredible opportunities.
And if you have anything to do with the business
of music, MIDEM is the source.
Only the world's definitive music market brings
together so many key international players under one
roof – with 10,000 professionals from the recording,
publishing, digital & mobile, audio/video and the live
sectors, MIDEM is an invaluable source of new business
for the year to come.
Register before December 19 and save up to €330
on the regular rate participation fee for MIDEM and
MidemNet Forum. To find out more and to register now
go to www.midem.com
Alternatively, contact JP Bommel or Jane Rodriguez
Tel: (1) 212 284 5130
email: [email protected]
*Valid for all participants without a stand. MIDEM® is a registered trademark of Reed MIDEM. All rights reserved.
MIDEM : 21 - 25 January 2007 • MidemNet Forum : 20 - 21 January 2007
Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France • www.midem.com
Back Cover:
Ultrashort
Media

SXSW Interactive Keynote Dan Rather:

Transcription

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