I woke up around noon, wrote for a while and hopped in the shower at about 2. I had penciled in "The Education of Shelby Knox" at 11am but even I knew that there was no way I was going to get up early enough to see that. I got dressed and headed toward the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar. I figured I could eat lunch during the movie presuming they had food service up and running. But traffic was horrible and even though the new Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar locale is quite near to Lodgopolis, it was taking a long time to get there. At a traffic light I looked at my schedule and realized that "Shelby Knox" was at 11 at South Lamar but the film I wanted to see at 3, "Mutual Appreciation" was Downtown. I flipped a U and headed towards the city.

I parked fairly close but it was 2:59. I was jogging to the Alamo on Colorado and saw a few people milling about outside. I went up to the door person and flashed my badge and he said, "We're full up." And I said the stupidest fucking thing that people always say when a movie is sold out: "You're kidding."

I felt like an idiot but this older volunteer didn't notice. He treated me like an idiot anyway. "No, I'm not kidding."

"But it's a competition film" I stated.

He shrugged his shoulders and as I turned to walk away he added a smug, "You've got to get here early."

"It's getting to be not even worth the trouble of coming to this venue." I said as I walked away. To be turned down to see a competition film at a festival in Austin! Well, it's unheard of! I looked at the schedule and a film called "Pucker Up" was playing at the Paramount at 3:45. Probably some sort of narrative feature shot on DV about young 20- something couples made by some film student. I decided to see if I could get a bite to eat, after all, with the film screening at the Paramount, which has 1,400 seats, there was no reason to worry about being early.

But Sunday in downtown Austin near the capitol is usually very dead and not a single food business was open but Hickory Cafe, which is kind of expensive and not very good. Subway was closed. The pizza place was closed. Maybe SXSW should contact these businesses and remind them that people will be coming to the Paramount on the Sunday of the festival and they might do some business if they stay open.

There were also some people behind me acting like industry morons. On of them had a badge on that said something about a Documentary company or TV series or something of that nature from Canada. A friend was asking him if he had seen anything worthwhile and he shook his head no. I knew how he felt. The people in front of me were talking about seeing the "Enron" documentary and how good it was. The older couple with them were saying that they liked "Drop Dead Sexy" the night before. I wanted to butt-in and say, "I'm not even a woman, but I was offended for all women by the film" but decided to keep my opinions to myself.

Note to self: Don't ever go see a documentary about whistling unless you enjoy hanging out with white trash intellectuals.

For some reason there seemed to be an inordinate amount of homeless people out on this day. Maybe because the weather was so lovely. The always mingle in front of the Paramount in the afternoon when there's a crowd gathering for a show. When I was walking looking for a place to have lunch, a large, black woman with socks but no shoes on yelled at some elderly man who was passing by her ahead of me with absolutely no provocation. It was weird.

The staff took forever getting the screening open for us. At least a volunteer came back and let us know that they were having a technical difficulty. But some older lady usher came by and told us that they wouldn't allow outside food and drink inside and even picked up the empties around us. I kept thinking that if they paid as much attention to the technical details as they do to their "no outside food and drink" policy, I would be sitting down by now!

We finally got in and I got a Coke and popcorn. It was still some time before the film started and the people behind me were having the most inane conversation about vegetables and one woman kept talking about how she preferred pickles and okra as a kid to candy.

There was going to be a Q&A after the film, but I went straight outside after the movie and walked to get in line for Todd Solondz's "Palindromes." I saw my friend Paul and his girlfriend standing in line and stood and talked with them, eventually just cutting in line with them.

While we were talking, I saw Wiley Wiggins and my friend Kyle Henry walk by to get in line. I told Paul about how I used to cyber-stalk Wiley but made sure he knew I was just kidding.

While Paul was away getting some snacks, I had to listen to some idiot behind me talking about Lynch, Solondz, Daniel Johnston and Roseanna Arquette, who has a film in the festival. When they were talking about Lynch, the idiot's "friend" said, "I know him and he says, 'it is what it is.'" Lynch was somewhat an appropriate matter of discussion with this Solondz film, although I didn't know it at the time. Just as Lynch used two actors to play one character (Bill Pullman and Balthezar Getty) in "Lost Highway," Solondz actually uses eight different actresses, ranging in age from teens to 40's, to play his main character in "Palindromes," Aviva, a thirteen-year-old girl.

Matt Dentler introduced Solondz before the film and the director came out and spoke briefly. He was a really odd little guy with balding head, gray sweater, green trousers and yellow tennis shoes. He told us, "If you feel like laughing, that's okay; and if you don't, that's okay too." Neither he nor Dentler said that there would be a Q&A after the film, but most of the audience stayed and Solondz came out and answered several questions.

I stayed until the end of the Q&A even though I had to drive up to the Arbor for the next film I wanted to see, "Layer Cake." The Solondz thing had started at 6, so even after the Q&A it was only about 8:20, and the "Layer Cake" wasn't scheduled to start for over an hour. As I was walking out Wiley Wiggins was just ahead of me in line. I better be careful or he will get a restraining order.

I sat down and eventually a big group of colleged age folks asked me to move over one so they could all sit together. There was a cute guy sitting next to me but he was talking to all his friends. (I really should talk my friend Johnny Oh! into going to SXSW next year, the amount of hot, young guys at this year's fest has been inordinate). Some guys behind me were talking about "film guru" and new member of UT Film Department staff, John Pierson and the doc about him playing at SXSW this year, "Reel Paradise." One of the guys seemed to be in Pierson's class and UT and was none too impressed.

Eventually the theater filled up and the opportunity for eavesdroping became non existent as the room sort of filtered into a low hum of numerous conversations going on at once. Then some hotshot wannabee volunteer gets up on the mic and does a quick intro to the film saying something like, "let's get it goingggggg!!!!" Then we waited another five minutes for the film to begin.

Sunday night is a memory now. I had to get up the next day at 7:45am to go back to my day job. But there are still a lot of films left to see: "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" with Michael Pitt, "Murderball," Lukas Moodysson's "A Hole in My Heart," and a ton of others. I need a nap.

Lodger at SXSW2005