I've been really frazzled lately and the stress of doing the website and a cable access show and a full time job has really been overwhelming. My New Year's Resolution for 2006 was to try and live a simpler, more organized life and to try and keep my self cool and going with the flow. A film festival can really wreck a resolution like that. SXSW especially makes it hard to remain cool and collected and organized because it is ten days of cinematic magic and madness and there is so much to see and do (even if you avoid the music and interactive parts of the festival and concentrate on film.)

Last year SXSW seemed to grow exponentially. I think many people in the industry would consider it one of the Top 5 Film Festivals in North America. After Sundance, Toronto, and Cannes, it just might very well be one of the Top 5 Film Festivals in the world. Much of the growth of the film section of the festival seems to be squarely rooted in the promotion of Matt Dentler to Conference and Festival producer. His work with the festival seems to have catapulted SXSW to being one of the premiere film festivals in the world. (Not that there probably aren't many others who have done much for the festival, Dentler just seems to be the most obvious and omnipresent).

I took Friday off from my real job so I could go the festival full time during the first three days. I slept later on Friday and when I got up to take a shower, I flipped on the TV and noticed that a couple local channels were already running features about the festival in the local news. Victor Diaz, News 8 Austin's resident hottie, was interviewing the filmmaker behind "The Last Western" live in front of the Paramount.

I'd already heard about this film because SXSW had already established an enormous networking system a month or two prior to the film festival. I had received a ton of e-mails from the filmmakers behind a lot of the films in the festival, including studio films, and the guy who made "The Last Western" had already sent me a few. His documentary looked interesting but I just couldn't make time for it with all the movies I want to see this year.

I headed down to the Austin Convention Center to get my badge and goodie bag at a little after 4pm. This went really fast. I was hoping it would. This gave me time to go to Wiki Wiki Teryaki on Congress before the 6pm screening of "Fuck" at the Paramount, That's right; I said "Fuck." The movie has been referred to in many places with little symbols representing the U or the U and the C but here at filethirteen, we get to say it like it is. The film is a documentary about the F word. As I was eating my Teryaki bowl, I looked through my bag and the SXSW Directory.

There were several Austin filmmakers on the cover of the Austin Chronicle in my bag including Kat Candler, who made the wonder film "Cicades" a few years ago and Korey Coleman, host of cable access movie review show "The Reel Deal." Candler has a film in the festival called "Jumping Off Bridges" and Coleman, who has done some animation and cartoon work in the past, has a live action feature in the festival called "2am."

Also in the Chronicle was a bit on Jacob Vaughn and Brian Poyser who made "Dear Pillow" last year. They have a new film, this time directed by Vaughn called "The Cassidy Kids." I hadn't put that one on my preliminary schedule, so I may have to go back and figure out a way to see it. There's so many films this year that I want to see that it's really tough. And most of the films I am going to see are not the big studio things. I've pretty much decided to miss "American Dreamz," "Slit her" and "The Notorious Betty Page" so that I can see other films.

I went over to the Paramount and got into line. It wasn't extremely long. My friend Johnny Oh! wanted to come see "Fuck" with me and just buy a ticket to get in. The Paramount seats over a thousand people and I didn't think he would have any trouble getting in.

I called my friend Mark Brauner, we had just shot an episode of our cable access show "Lube TV" the night before, and told him about some films he might want to see. Mark is a big fan of Charles Nelson Reilly and he does a perfect imitation of the 70 's icon's trademark laugh. I was pretty sure he would want to check out "The Life of Reilly" about the man's one man stage show. I thought Mark might also want to see "2am."

When Mark was over Thursday night and we were shooting "Lube," we spent about 90 minutes wasting time while I was showing him my new DVD of "Tom Snyder's 'Tomorrow' Show - Punk and New Wave." This is really an awesome DVD. Not only are there performances by The Jam, Elvis Costello, and Iggy Pop (with interviews) but there are also interviews with Patti Smith and Joan Jett and John Lydon. The interview with Lydon is right around the time when PIL formed and it is a beautiful and glorious train wreck where Snyder nearly kicks him off the set. It's edgy, punk and uncomfortable and just about the most amazing punk moment to grace a television screen of all time. It's a must see for any punk rock fan.

The DVD is made up of 8 shows and, wonderfully, the entire show is available here. So when you watch Iggy Pop, you also get a very odd interview with Ricky Schroder from when he is about 10 years old. On the episode with Patti Smith, there is an interesting interview with a man named Donald Rickles who was an NBC announcer for over 30 years and at the end of it Snyder whips out this new electronic game called "Simon" and has Rickles play it. It's amazing television. The first show on the DVD is an hour long roundtable discussion about the emergence of punk and new wave from 1978 that features concert promoter Bill Graham, a rock journalist, record producer Kim Fowley (he wears make-up and Snyder tells him, "you look ridiculous"), as well as a very young and fresh faced Joan Jett and a very young and articular Paul Weller. This discussion is mind-boggling as neither Graham not the rock journalist seem to have any idea at all about just how a teenager relates to punk and new wave music. Like Snyder, they don't get it and their inability to understand it speaks volumes about just how vital the music was to dethroning arena rock and hard rock as the predominant music of the era. It really is amazing how little these guys understand. B ut that is what makes the Snyder interviews so astoundingly good. He didn't get it so he asked the most basic and yet interesting questions. He wasn't a hipster or a critic or a rock impresario, so he just asked basic questions and allowed the musicians to expound upon them. When he found someone articulate like Iggy (who speaks on the Dionysic art) or Smith (who is goofy and charming but also explains how she learned to roll with the flow in performances by watching Johnny Carson), Snyder seems as captivated as we are. He offers these performers a platform not so much to hype albums or performances, but a opportunity to explain their art to a layman. His ignorance is a blessing in this way.

Anyway... where was I? Oh yes, waiting in line for "Fuck." There were a lot of cute rocker boys hanging about and waiting in line. That's the nice thing about SXSW. Since it's also a music festival, there are always lots of cute young alt_rock guys bouncing around.

A nice lady from Houston opened up a conversation with me. I overheard her asking a guy where the Alamo Drafthouse was and just as he was about to answer, he got a call on his cell, so I took over. She was nice and we chatted a bit. She was there to see celebrities. As we were finally going in, pretty late at 5:40pm, she thought she saw Larry McMurtry. (It was actually an older Paramount usher on his way into the theater and obviously late for work).

Johnny called me and told me he was running late (surprise, surprise) because traffic was bad. He didn't get there until after the movie had been on for a minute or two. Matt Dentler got up and introduced the film and told an hilarious story. He was telling about being in L.A. at another film festival where SXSW had went to throw a party and hype their own festival. This is pretty common. Matt said that people kept coming in the building where they were set up but going to the other side. When Matt asked someone where they weren't coming to the SXSW get-together, they said, "I'm going to the fuck party." Matt quipped, "I was thinking, what in the hell is the fuck party and why wasn't I invited." Of course, the party was for the film "Fuck" which was also showing at the festival. It may be a made-up story, but it was funny. Dentler does an awesome job of introducing movies. The director, Steve Anderson, came out and said he would do a Q&A after the film.

The SXSW 2006 trailer showed before the film and it was a cute and humorous animated thing about the rules for seeing movies. (A hot dog smokes a cigarette and text tells us "No Smoking... Seriously, when was the last time someone smoked in a movie theater? Maybe in France...")

After the film Anderson did a Q&A and hyped that he had t-shirts for sale in the lobby. The t-shirts say "Fuck" but the "U" is replaced by a solid star. He also said that they (presumably he and the producers) had considered several titles for the film and decided to go with "Fuck" in order to see how different media organizations would deal with such a title. The filmmaker's own marketing material replaces the "U" with a solid star just as his t-shirts do. SXSW's material all refers to the title completely. Fandango.com (the nation's largest movie ticket selling website) referred to it in its full title on the showtimes for Austin for 3/10/06. The Paramount marquee used two punctuation letters to replace the "UC" in the middle of the word. We here at Filethirteen are, of course, unafraid to use such a word on our site (it's contained in many of my reviews as a matter of fact). We went outside so I could line up for "A Prairie Home Companion" and Johnny and I talked and ogled cute guys. I rambled on and on about how much I liked "Beauty and the Geek 2" and the second season of "Project Runway."

I was glad they had ended last week so I wouldn't have to worry about taping them this week. I wish Daniel ("It's a motherfucking walk-off") Vosovich had won "Project Runway," but his final runway show was very lame. When I re-watched the three finalists runway show s, Daniel's Chloe's and Santino's (who I fucking hate), I realized that Chloe's was the best and she deserved to win.

The line started moving and we parted company. John was on his way out and about while I was staying for more and more movies. I went inside and saw my friend Jett who runs the Paramount box office and said hello. Jett has let his hair grow out and get shaggy and it really looks cute on him.

I sat in the third row, as usual, and a cute young man with a shaved head sat down in the row before me as the theater filled up. He looked like Andre from "Project Runway" and every time I looked at him I could hear Santino imitating Tim Gunn and saying, "Andre." I smiled to myself.

I called my fag hag Lauralee, who wanted to see some films with me. And John called and talked about something or the other. I saw a guy I know who used to and may still write under the name Ravkill. (He hates me because he is a part of the Harry Knowles crowd and I think they are all a bunch of sycophants).

The place got pretty packed and some attractive young men came and sat down beside me. I glanced over and noticed the one next to me, who had a moustache and a suit jacket on, had a one-inch pin that said "Dance Party USA," which is one of the film showing at the festival this year. Eventually he asked me if he could give me "a postcard for our film." I said, "Is it 'Dance Party USA.?" We talked for a bit and he invited me to see the film. I told him about the website but I didn't have a card an d forgot to bring some of the one-inch pins I have to promote Filethirteen. They told me it was their first feature (he was with two or three other guys involved with the film), and I told him how prestigious it was to be accepted into SXSW. We talked about the Alamo and they said they had been to the one on South Lamar to see "Old Joy," which they compared to Gus Van Sant's "Gerry." I told them that the one downtown was older but just as cool. Their film was premiering at the Alamo Downtown on Sunday morning.

Matt Dentler returned to the stage and introduced the guests for "A Prairie Home Companion," a co-scripter, a producer and actor John C. Reilly, and the crowd went wild. He did a nice introduction and mentioned that he had been in Austin to film a couple movies in the past. The men also did a Q&A after the film. Afterwards, I walked over to the Alamo Downtown to see "This Film is Not Yet Rated" at midnight. There was a pretty decent line down the sidewalk along Lavaca, but I was pretty sure I would get in. I stood next to some young pretentious guy named Garth or Graham or Garrett of something who had worked on the editing for the slam poetry doc that was showing at SXSW.

Right after we started talking, a guy he hadn't seen for quite a while showed up and they began to converse. The young editor told us that the poetry film had been in danger when the building they were housed in had a fire. This wasn't one of the recent fires down around 6th street in the building that houses KUT but the one at the Guadalupe Arts Center over a year ago. He said that they had to take some of their hard drives, which was holding the film, and clean them in a solution of lye and water to clean the smoke damage off of them, but they didn't lose anything.

I tried to amuse him by saying he should write a script about a guy who goes insane editing a documentary about slam poetry (because I know I would) and he could even include the fire in the script but he didn't seem too inspired by this.

We finally went inside and eventually a older guy sat near me and struck up a conversation. He was some sort of rock journalist from Chicago who has written what he calls "a book of rock'n'roll fables" called "The Boy who Cried Freebird." He said it would be coming out soon. He was an interesting guy but didn't seem to open about discussing where he wrote (he claimed to be freelance) and he didn't even tell me his name. Of course, I didn't tell him mine either.

I wrote my order down for a Hard Core Cider, and when the waitress came by she told me that didn't have Hard Core any more but they had Woodchuck. "Is it apple?" I asked and she said it was, so I had one.

Matt Dentler was at this screening as well and got up to introduce the film and also took off his tie. He had been dressed quite nicely this evening but wanted to get into a "midnight movie" frame of mind, I guess. Matt introduced the director of the film, Kirby Dick, and also reminded us that "Entertainment Weekly" had recently named The Alamo Drafthouse as the #1 theater in America.

Dick (named appropriately) did a Q&A after the film. Harry Knowles was there and mentioned his book when he asked a question and the minute he did someone in the audience yelled "PLUG" really loud and everyone broke up laughing. The house manager tried to end the Q&A at 2am but Dick told her they were shooting the session for a piece to be on the DVD so he was allowed to continue. (There are so many cameras and newspeople at SXSW that you begin not to see them.) Dick yammered on and on for another 20 minutes or so. I was so grateful when he shut up and we got to go home.

Lodger @ SXSW2006