On my way to work, I heard a radio ad for the Austin Chronicle (our little artsy weekly rag) saying they are going to have daily coverage from March 15-18th of SXSW. They called this "the most comprehensive insider coverage" to be found... or something like that.

Hey if you want the most comprehensive OUTSIDER coverage of SXSW, then you want filethirteen.com!

Of course, that's not entirely true. I do know some of the SXSW people but I am certainly no "insider." If I was an insider, someone would have invited me to the fucking "Waking Life" premiere! I did screen films for SXSW for a couple months, mainly to help them weed out bad shorts from the festival. So, I did work for SXSW as a volunteer for a bit, but that was as much for the free badge as for the experience. It certainly doesn't make me an insider in my book.

Anyway, Wednesday was a full day at my real gig, so I only got to go see "Ginger Snaps" at the Convention Center at 9pm. Of course, the minute I got there, I snapped that the screening wasn't until 9:30. I'm so disorganized sometimes. But at least I can blame it on a day job. What really sucked was I planned on being home by 11pm to watch my own cable access show Lube TV. I missed it again this week and did not tape it. Jeez.

Anyway, waiting for the film I saw Hall Hood, a scripter I met previewing films for the Austin Film Festival. Hall is a super nice guy and even though our tastes are different, I respect his opinions. When I told him that I was going to "Ginger Snaps" but didn't really know anything about it and had chosen it by the title, he asked me if I liked "gore." This gave me pause, of course, because I don't really like it too much. After talking to Hall, I thought about skipping over to the 10pm screening of "Tillsammans" but opted instead to stick it out and see what "Ginger Snaps" was like. Sometimes it's fun to write about movies you hate! And, then again, you can sometimes be pleasantly surprised.

There was a long line for the screening and standing in it I eavesdroped on two guys behind me who were talking about going to Telluride and camping out during the festival. One of them must have been a "crew" type person because he kept bitching about the bad job done by the "focus puller" and DP on "Never Again." I think he's full of shit because I saw the film and it looked fine to me. The fanboys ahead of me were talking about going to panels and seeing Rodriguez and Linklater and Tarantino and blah blah blah...

After the screening I went to the ballroom, a lot of music people were registering, and finally picked up my SXSW Film Program book. They weren't ready last Friday when I got my badge and I'd kinda blown it off. (My name is on page 7 and page 94). Then to Wan Fu on Oltorf for some kick ass Chinese and then home to bed.

Tomorrow (Thursday), Hobble and Kissinger are playing an afternoon show at the Red Eyed Fly. Maybe I should call in sick...

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