SXSW
Day 1 - Friday March 8, 2002
A couple of notices about SXSW that have come my way
since I worked on my "preview"
page:
Hobble, the best band in Austin, finally got a
SXSW showcase this year. It's at a cruddy venue at a
cruddy time, but, at least they're finally getting recognized
for their brilliance somewhat. They're playing at the
Hickory Street Grill on Wednesday night at 1am. Do not
miss this show. I probably will, cause I got a full
week, but you shouldn't!
Brandon Howe of "cicadas" fame is in a new featured
called "Dog's Bark" which is showing at the SoCo Fringe
Festival at Jo's on South Congress. Date and time is Monday
night around 8 or so. It's directed by Rebecca Fulton
but I don't know much more than that.
Finally, the Austin Chronicle has rocking SXSW coverage
in it this week including a great interview with Guillermo
del Toro; so check it out if you can!
Okay, Day One:
So on Friday, after work, I jetted down to the
Paramount for the 6:00pm showing of "The
Cat's Meow," the new Peter Bogdanovich film. I didn't
have to wait in line too long and the lines weren't
long either. A good crowd, but seating was a cinch.
Of course, the Paramount has 1400 seats or so, so I
didn't expect much trouble. Still, you never know.
Peter Bogdanovich
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On the way in to the theater, when the line
was being let in, a guy with a news camera stopped
me and interviewed me, presumably for some TV
news thing. It only took a second. It was fun.
Once inside the Paramount, I said howdy to
my friend Kelly who works there. I sat in the
third row or so and a few minutes later Harry
Knowles sat in the row behind me. Before the picture
started numerous minions and hangers-on gathered
to flutter around him. Harry is still on crutches.
I saw him at Hut's Hamburgers a couple months
ago and he was on them then. Harry's dad Jay was
there as well.
I just read an article about "The Show with
No Name," a cable access show here in Austin that
is hosted by Charlie Soto. "TSWNN" just aired
its 200th episode. In the article, they mentioned
that Soto works for SXSW. If I've ever seen him
at SXSW before, I don't remember that. Anyway,
the reason I bring this up is that Soto introduced
Bogdanovich, who gave a short intro to his film.
Even speaking for only 5 minutes, the director
invoked the names of John Huston and his mentor,
Orson Welles.
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The story was that Bogdanovich met Huston
and asked him about a scene in one of his films
and Huston said that something in that scene which
Bogdanovich liked was an accident. He told him
that accidents were always the best part of a
film.
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When Bogdanovich asked Welles about this theory
later, Welles purportedly replied, "You might
say a director presides over accidents!"
Bogdanovich bade us farewell saying he was
going to go introduce Cyd Charrisse or something
but he would be back for a Q&A. The lights dimmed
and the 2002 SXSW trailer came up and... no sound.
Not one second of sound. And it was obvious sound
was important. The whole thing is some guy talking
to a puppet. Thank God they got the sound fixed
by the time the feature started.
The film was good and Bogdanovich did a Q&A
afterwards. He mentioned Welles about 100 times
in this segment. But he told great stories and
was very complimentary of his cast in the film.
He talked about filming in Berlin and Greece ("The
Greeks are nice people but they quite haven't
got over the death of Homer yet.") He talked about
using B&W and color film in his new work. He was
a wonderful speaker. Knowles even asked a question.
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After the Paramount, my next stop was the Alamo. I
was going to check out a film called "By
Hook or by Crook," a competition film. The SXSW description
of the film featured the word "genderbender" and a picture
in the Chronicle looked like it had women dressed as men.
I wasn't in line for very long before I noticed I was
a in a sea of lesbians. There were a couple other guys
there, so I felt better not being the only one with a
"real" dick. At least, I think they were guys.
I ran into my friend Jan, who was coming out of
the Alamo from screening "Nothing So Strange." She had
also seen "Bang the Machine" and she liked both of them.
But, then again, Jan likes most films. She's not a harsh
critic like I am.
I met Jan at a the Austin Film Festival in 2000,
I believe. She is friends with Harry Knowles, so we
talked about his crutches and his new book, "Ain't it
Cool." (Has anyone made the Ain't it Stool joke?) She
told me that some of Harry's pals are afraid they might
be in the book. I'd like to read it to see what it's
all about. Anyway, Jan also told me that Harry recently
built a screening room in his house. He must have gotten
a nice advance. Or perhaps all that money from hyping
"Bullwinkle"
finally went to good use.
We also talked about del Toro and how awesome he
is. While we were doing this, I thought I noticed my
ex-friend Tim the Wonderhorse in the badges line. (I
only have a pass this year, which I paid for. I didn't
feel like trying to get press passes or volunteering
this year). I couldn't figure out what TTWH would be
doing in the badges line. I was freaking out silently,
when the guy turned his head to a new angle and I realized
it wasn't Tim. In fact, he barely looked like Tim from
the side. It was weird.
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Steak House,
Mocha Jean Harrup, and Harry Dodge.during the
screening of "lesbianfilm" and "By Hook or By
Crook" at the Alamo Drafthouse during SXSW2002
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Inside, the filmmakers of "By Hook or by Crook"
and a short film, "lesbianfilm" (no caps), were
introduced. They were all very boyish girls. I
thought this was rather wise counter programming
by SXSW to put a "gay" themed film opposite the
opening night festivities (where people are at
parties rather than at films). They should have
gotten Agliff involved, however.
The screening started and again the SXSW
intro film played for almost its entire runtime
without sound. I did catch a bit of dialogue and
also noticed that the credits mentioned that Charlie
Soto has something (if not everything) to do with
making the SXSW film.
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I'm not going to write a review of "lesbianfilm."
It's a short and it was full of technical problems.
The filmmaker blamed the Alamo in the Q&A for having
trouble with the masking and the sound sync. But the
truth was the film, which was video transferred to 16mm,
was of real poor quality and the sound design was non-existent.
It was a technically inept film to begin with, before
the Alamo screened it.
I ate a Blue Hawaii pizza and had a couple of Hard
Core Ciders and enjoyed the film. The filmmakers did
a Q&A at the end and I took their picture and went home.
My upstairs neighbor is having a crazy party. I'm bout
to call the cops so I better get off-line.
Tomorrow is a full day of films for me - wish me
luck.
Lodger @ SXSW 2002
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