Gearing Up for More SxSW
I wisely picked up my wristband on Tues when I went to check out the SxSW Interactive, which I did on company time looking for new technology for enlivening our company's Web zone. The interactive event was winding down -- it seemed low energy. I know I, as an obviously searching individual, was glommed onto by several booth workers. Didn't really find much for the corporate world -- it seemed to have only social media software that seemed pertinent. Even then, my company in its stodgy old way filters us from viewing most blog sites. Really short-sighted especially when it comes to monitoring media mentions.
Let me wax nostalgic here. I remember in the early days of SxSW...I would help set up the booth for HerDomain (local women's tech group of which I'm still a member) and Apple would have a 30x30 foot booth and hire all these GenX tattooed and purple-haired actors for the day to sit at the stations and act fascinated. heh. The interactive and the movies seemed to have more energy and edginess too.
Another old-school SxSW thing was the Bruce Sterling party, which I did most years. Even at its final apotheosis, when the flash mob technology was over-used to cram over 300 people into one 3-bedroom house in Hyde Park. After that, Bruce declined to host anymore SxSW parties (partly, to be fair, because he divorced Nancy, let her keep the house, and was spending time in Serbia with the woman who was to become Wife No.2).
I also saw John Halcyon Styn (halcyonpink) at those early parties, back when he was more gushy and huggy (he hugged me though we barely knew each other) and less ripped and sexually explicit than he became. I think at the first party, he even had long brown hair, not the hot pink mohawk or dreads. I find him interesting as an example of what blogging (he was one of the pioneers, before there was even the word "blog") can do to the exhibitionistic personality; he's gone through several waves and trends. Jaylake also has this extreme extrovert condition, blogs compulsively sometimes 20x or more a day, and thank god he's not stripped down and added the p0rn sites to his postings (yet). Halcyon does seem to use his powers for good causes (HugNation) as often as attention getting.
But back to the present. The music stuff seems to be nicely spread out and there's lots of it this year. I keep seeing things I'm interested in and being too tired from long workdays or whatever to make it out there. Yesterday's concert at auditorium shores was fun, but a stomach bug from the day before drove me to loiter near the port-o-potties. I found those creepy, stinky and claustrophobic, so I only stayed through the BoDeans set and then walked back across the bridge to my office where there was indoor plumbing.
I might try Esther's tonight -- not music, but comedy. Including Janeanne Garofalo. Before I head out, a few notes about the Austin Music Awards.
I didn't know about Texas musician and songwriter Roy Head before. I mean, who doesn't know "Treat Her Like a Lady" ... and she'll be good to you. Turns out, he lives in Porter, Texas. What I saw at the awards was this old guy, with odd-looking dyed hair, who wiggled around and licked his fingers a lot. You really couldn't hear what he was singing that clearly, but I was intrigued enough to look him up. OMG, he was an incredible dancer and performer back in the 60's. In fact, he was a freaky contortionist, as this clip of him from a SHINDIG show demonstrates. And he was handsome back then too!
Then he introduced somebody as "my boy, Sundance." It was such a weird introduction, with lots of descriptions of how much he loved him, that I wondered if it was his gay lover. (!!) But turns out Sundance Head is his son, a chunky white kid who sings powerful blues. I mean, he hit some notes that rocked the house. This clip from American Idol shows how he can bring it. Friends who watch American Idol were impressed when I told them later: "You saw Sundance!" heh
The music awards show had a lot about Champ Hood and Walter Hyatt. I know they're beloved local musicians, but they were never to my taste, so all the songs that were covered in the event were "meh" to me. Even seeing Lyle Lovett in person (again) was only okay because he sang a Walter Hyatt song I didn't care for.
But the awards show in the new Austin Music Hall had a horrendous problem with the sound engineering. EVERY performer started off the first few bars with a dead lead mic. HOW do you not realize what you're doing and fix that? I know they were trotting the performers up there quickly and one right after the other. But surely the engineer at the boards knows something about live performance on the fly and doesn't keep turning off the front mic. IDIOTS. They also didn't know what the heck they were doing with the performances vs the awards giving. So people were ambling or scurrying on/off stage looking frantic and removing or replacing lecturns way too much. I left early out of frustration with the set-up, in fact.
Let me wax nostalgic here. I remember in the early days of SxSW...I would help set up the booth for HerDomain (local women's tech group of which I'm still a member) and Apple would have a 30x30 foot booth and hire all these GenX tattooed and purple-haired actors for the day to sit at the stations and act fascinated. heh. The interactive and the movies seemed to have more energy and edginess too.
Another old-school SxSW thing was the Bruce Sterling party, which I did most years. Even at its final apotheosis, when the flash mob technology was over-used to cram over 300 people into one 3-bedroom house in Hyde Park. After that, Bruce declined to host anymore SxSW parties (partly, to be fair, because he divorced Nancy, let her keep the house, and was spending time in Serbia with the woman who was to become Wife No.2).
I also saw John Halcyon Styn (halcyonpink) at those early parties, back when he was more gushy and huggy (he hugged me though we barely knew each other) and less ripped and sexually explicit than he became. I think at the first party, he even had long brown hair, not the hot pink mohawk or dreads. I find him interesting as an example of what blogging (he was one of the pioneers, before there was even the word "blog") can do to the exhibitionistic personality; he's gone through several waves and trends. Jaylake also has this extreme extrovert condition, blogs compulsively sometimes 20x or more a day, and thank god he's not stripped down and added the p0rn sites to his postings (yet). Halcyon does seem to use his powers for good causes (HugNation) as often as attention getting.
But back to the present. The music stuff seems to be nicely spread out and there's lots of it this year. I keep seeing things I'm interested in and being too tired from long workdays or whatever to make it out there. Yesterday's concert at auditorium shores was fun, but a stomach bug from the day before drove me to loiter near the port-o-potties. I found those creepy, stinky and claustrophobic, so I only stayed through the BoDeans set and then walked back across the bridge to my office where there was indoor plumbing.
I might try Esther's tonight -- not music, but comedy. Including Janeanne Garofalo. Before I head out, a few notes about the Austin Music Awards.
I didn't know about Texas musician and songwriter Roy Head before. I mean, who doesn't know "Treat Her Like a Lady" ... and she'll be good to you. Turns out, he lives in Porter, Texas. What I saw at the awards was this old guy, with odd-looking dyed hair, who wiggled around and licked his fingers a lot. You really couldn't hear what he was singing that clearly, but I was intrigued enough to look him up. OMG, he was an incredible dancer and performer back in the 60's. In fact, he was a freaky contortionist, as this clip of him from a SHINDIG show demonstrates. And he was handsome back then too!
Then he introduced somebody as "my boy, Sundance." It was such a weird introduction, with lots of descriptions of how much he loved him, that I wondered if it was his gay lover. (!!) But turns out Sundance Head is his son, a chunky white kid who sings powerful blues. I mean, he hit some notes that rocked the house. This clip from American Idol shows how he can bring it. Friends who watch American Idol were impressed when I told them later: "You saw Sundance!" heh
The music awards show had a lot about Champ Hood and Walter Hyatt. I know they're beloved local musicians, but they were never to my taste, so all the songs that were covered in the event were "meh" to me. Even seeing Lyle Lovett in person (again) was only okay because he sang a Walter Hyatt song I didn't care for.
But the awards show in the new Austin Music Hall had a horrendous problem with the sound engineering. EVERY performer started off the first few bars with a dead lead mic. HOW do you not realize what you're doing and fix that? I know they were trotting the performers up there quickly and one right after the other. But surely the engineer at the boards knows something about live performance on the fly and doesn't keep turning off the front mic. IDIOTS. They also didn't know what the heck they were doing with the performances vs the awards giving. So people were ambling or scurrying on/off stage looking frantic and removing or replacing lecturns way too much. I left early out of frustration with the set-up, in fact.