FRQNC


Thursday, March 29, 2007 Iggy Pop @ Stubb's during SXSW, in the midst of a clinic (for all those well-behaved youngsters in bands these days), on how rock n' roll is done properly. And yes, I was there. You are now permitted to vent your envy. j.s. [Thanks be to Jake for the link]



Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Thank you to everyone who sent emails/texts wishing me speedily recovered health. They worked. Or, they're working anyway. I'm still operating at about 55% of normalcy, but that's plenty enough for me to make it up off the couch and get back out into the world. Hell, I even made it to Poison Girl last night to hang out for an hour or so with Danny & Luis. And tonight I have a writers' meeting to cover May and June's issues. The laptop is still sickly however. It's fading fast and there seems to be nothing I can do to save it. (Alienware stopped supporting my particular model, and the motherboard manufacturer isn't offering any help since I'm not a reseller.) My last hope is to take it to Fry's and pray that they have access to a "Sentia-M" motherboard. Yeah, longshot... I've no idea what I'm going to do without that thing. Not only do I use it to update here, I also write all my magzine articles on it. And that doesn't even cover the general internet usage at home for random Googling. The only other machine I have access to is in my office, which isn't exactly an environment that lends itself well to the creative process. (Not to mention I'm typically rather busy when I'm there.) The whole thing is starting to make me a little nervous. j.s.



Friday, March 23, 2007 So this particular illness has mined new depths into the meaning "DeathSick." I actually cannot get up off this couch without becoming dizzy and weak. And lemme tell you, after 48 hours of watching "The Wedding Singer," "Wedding Crashers" and "The Wedding Planner," I am really fucking tired of just laying here. Unfortunately, I don't have much of an option right now. But you'd better believe that the moment I start to feel like I'm pulling out of this dive and levelling out again? I'm not coming anywhere near this couch for weeks... j.s.



Wednesday, March 21, 2007 I know that you're patiently awaiting my last SXSW post about Day Nine, as well as an overall recap. And I also know that, so far, my coverage has been mostly of the "I went here, then here, then here" variety. I hope to address both of these soon by adding a post-script with my thoughts about the whole thing, and perhaps an anecdote or two about random odd experiences... But today I'm sicker than I can recall being in quite a long time. I've vertigo, a sore throat, a dry, metallic tasting cough, my lungs feel like someone replaced them with dry sea sponges, and I want nothing more than to go home and float in and out of what is an unpleasant consciousness for the next 48 hours. I've been gone for 10 days though, and there's work to be done here, so I'm putting my head down and flailing my way through it. Unfortunately, this translates to little in the way of updating here. Sorry. I will get to it eventually, but I wanted to let you know why I haven't yet. I'm not slacking. I'm just ill. Which should come as no surprise to most of you given that I drank away the majority of last week, and my immune system is eclipsed only by that of the "Bubble Boy." Will write more soon. Home. Bed. Rest. j.s.



Monday, March 19, 2007 SXSW Day Eight I awoke to a delightfully beautiful afternoon. Birds sang in the trees, squirrels flitted from branch to branch, gauzy clouds somnambulated aimlessly across an azure sky... And in the grey light of my bedroom, my entire soul frothed with pure hungover hatred. All because a troupe of hammer-wielding troglodytes had been banging on a roof directly outside my window for 3 hours. The hate eventually faded however, and we headed in to the convention center to catch The Stooges keynote discussion, presided over by David "Perfect Teeth" Fricke who knows more about music than you, me, and everyone we know, put together. Ended up being a decent enough interview, although it felt like it ran kinda long. Apparently Iggy Pop had written "an opera about a bucolic man who lived with a mouse" prior to forming The Stooges. And Jake, Beth and I all agreed that we really wanted to hear such a thing. They also had what I believe to be a very sound recommendation for aspiring musicians: Buy a house and live together. Because not only will you know if you're able to cohabitate while traveling on long road trips, you'll also be surrounded by music creation all the time. And when the creative muse strikes, you want to be around people who can build off of what you're doing. Granted, I know next to nothing about making music. But that sounded like some pretty sage advice to me. After Iggy I headed over to Bryan's house to shower and change, and then met back at Jake & Beth's place to walk to the Dan Deacon show at The Tap Room. (Someone I'm guessing my Charm City peeps will have something to say about?) Which was lo-fi fun for the whole family, though slightly askew since there seemed to be quite a few furries in attendance. (What is it about Baltimore and furries anyway?) Anyway, good show. Check him out. After this I split up with Jake and Beth and went to The Parish II for the Tullycraft show. Now I know I've tortured many of you with my endless "twee" obsession, but I really do like this band. (I'm listening to them right now as a matter of fact.) And apparently I'm not the only one, since it was pretty heavily attended...and not just by people who couldn't get in the "Apples in Stereo" show. (Which I really wanted to see, but there was no way I was going to miss T-craft again.) Caught up with J & B afterward and we dropped by Opal Divine's for their late-night brunch...which in actuality wasn't much of a "brunch." They just had the same menu, but were open until 4am. Meh. Okay, "Day Nine: The Final 24 Hours" coming soon... j.s.



Back off man, I'll get to the SXSW recap soon. But first I want to share a link with you that, from what I've heard anyway, none of you know a thing about. Ze Frank basically created a new show every weekday for a year, beginning on March 17th 2006 and ending on the same day in 2007. (I.e. this past Saturday.) Some of them were moderately to exceptionally amusing, while others seemed a little contrived and banal. But it was a monumental undertaking to pull something like that off and I have to tip my hat respectfully to the guy and his team. And HERE is his last episode, which aired the day before yesterday. Kinda makes you feel like you missed something doesn't it? Perhaps you might go check out his "Popular Shows" link... j.s.



Yes. I survived. (Although I currently feel like hell.) Yes. A recap of the last 2 days of the event, along with an overall wrap-up post, will be forthcoming very soon. And yes. I'm so damn tired right now that the thought of writing anything more than this little blurb makes my stomach pirouette. Will talk to you more about things tomm- er, later today. If it helps, just pretend that I'm still back in there somewhere... j.s.



Friday, March 16, 2007 SXSW Day Seven: Post Two Sorta "post two" anyway. Hi. I'm not sure how much longer my laptop is going to work, but I'm doing what I can to keep the faith. So let's talk about yesterday. After the David Byrne keynote, which I found to be rather garbled and incoherent but Jake and Beth seemed to be able to follow along just fine, I dropped in on a very strange panel called "Idiots Unite!" which consisted of some record label CEO's and one guy who (apparently) created Lotus 1-2-3. Not a whole lot of new/interesting information there to be honest...but hey, it's a music panel. Can't expect too much from those. =] What was interesting/utterly terrifying was about it however, was hearing the words Big Champagne for the first time. That's a creepy little program there folks. If you're too busy/lazy to click on that link, basically Big Champagne tracks EVERY SINGLE FILE that gets transferred over ANY filesharing network. Pick up an album from iTunes? Tracked. Download "Copa Cabana" from LimeWire? Yep, you just pinged their server. Get a haxxored version of Diablo II over Bittorrent? 'Plink' goes the server at Big Champagne as it tracks you. Now, as if this couldn't get any more insidious, they actually sell this information back to the entertainment publishing companies. The mind reels... And I could go on about this for quite a while, but I don't have a lot of time/battery life, so we'll press on. After that panel we went over to Opal Divine's for a late lunch...but which ended up as a pretty serious booze session. Several ales later, and we're all buzzing happily and heading over to catch Kid Beyond at Elysium. Rather quick set from him, but I did get to hear "Wandering Star" and "Mothership," so I left happy. From there we caught a band called "O' Death" that, while they were all talented musicians, were absolutely awful lyrically. Each and every member of the band sang the lines of their songs at the audience, which in theory seems interesting, but the end result of which sounds like a team of Muppets screaming "YAH-YAH-YAH-YAH-BAH-YAHHH!" No, I didn't care for them. So I took off early and headed over to see Architecture in Helsinki at La Zona Rosa. And as bad as "O'Death" was, A in H. were at the absolute opposite spectrum, well into the realm of pure awesomeness. Happy bouncing rhythms, grinning musicians, catchy adorable songs... Good stuff. Caught up with a very drunk Jake there, and after the show we wandered over to see some friends of his play at Jaime's Mexican Restaurant. String trio from Houston... And despite the acoustics sounding like they were playing on the patio of a Mexican restaurant, they were pretty good. After hanging out with them for a bit we decided we were too drunk and tired to attempt another show, so we headed back to his place. (With another quick stop at Roppolo's Pizza for a slice to go.) And now I'm running behind to meet back up with them and head out to tonight's round of shows, so I'm going to take off. Talk to you soon. j.s.



SXSW Day Seven This one is coming, I promise. And yes, I'm aware that my earlier posts are kinda garbled and jacked up. As the week wears on, writing here becomes more and more difficult. I shall push through however...keep dropping by. j.s.



SXSW Day Six: Post Two Things are begininng to become slightly more surreal, and are much blurrier now. We went to Emo's after the aforementioned bands as I was adamant about seeing The Mountain Goats while I was here. Unfortunately, very few people in the audience seemed to be all that interested in seeing them, as the people on all sides of me talked through the entire goddamn performance. (And if you know TMG, you know how quiet John Darnielle can be during his songs.) Anyway, they were...okay I guess. To be honest, the best bit was when they brought out "Pony Up" and covered "The Boys Are Back in Town." That was pretty amazing. And then Blonde Redhead came on, whom I hadn't heard much of prior, but whom I really enjoyed. And you should definitely, at the very least, check out their website. If not for the excellent music, then for the overall aeshtetic since it's exceptionally well-designed. After Blonde Redhead we called it a night and headed back to Jake and Beth's place to crash and await today's festivities. All of which I will be happy to relate to you tomorrow, once I've sobered up a bit and slept for no less than 8 hours. G'night. j.s.



SXSW Day Six I'm using up some of preciously valuable battery time to post for you. You totally owe me for this. Let's play catch up. After we left Brush square Park we wandered over to the Lifehacker party at Sidebar where we met the guy who codes all the teledildonics for Second Life as well as the person who created the "podcast" ability for iTunes. (Both pretty amazing in their own right.) Then, for reasons I'm still not sure about, we left the Lifehacker party and headed over to Iron Cactus for the "North by Northwest" event...which was basically the same free drinks, but in an infinitely more sterile and thereby much less cool venue. A couple Jager shots later, and I was sufficiently sauced to the point where driving back to Bryan's place was an impossibility, so I walked back to Jake and Beth's place and crashed out there. Tuesday was, obviously, kind of a late morning. In fact we got moving just about in time to catch Wil Wright's keynote at the Hyatt which was as interesting as it was sporadic. I mean, he talked about a ludicrous amount of topics, all in the span of roughly 30 minutes. Brilliant stuff, but hard to follow even when you're not nursing a serious hangover. Fortunately, he eventually launched into a demo of Spore, which was something my addled mind could wrap itself around in that state. And dear God people, that game is going to be unbelievable. I'm convinced it will easily change how we think about video games as a whole. (If you happen to be one of those people who does think about video games.) No, that isn't hyperbole. It's that good. From there we wandered back over to the convention center, and while I was on my way to my next panel I somehow became convinced that I had left my camera at the Will Wright keynote. So, rather than attending some interesting presentation on "political activism for geeks," I instead spent the next 45 minutes wandering around the Hyatt ballroom on a fruitless search for a camera that was, in actuality, inside the messenger bag that I was carrying around on my shoulder the entire time. (I told you I was hungover.) After I'd calmed down, we hit the very last panel of the Interactive fest, the Bruce Sterling Closing Rant...which had a kind of a meta-rant vibe that carried over from last year, specifically in his ending poem which was the direct opposite of the drudging and dreary, but utterly brilliant, "The People, Yes." This one was rather idyllic, serene, and dare I say, hopeful. So, after having what little was left of my functioning cognitive mind devolved into a primordial ooze by these two extraordinarily brilliant men, I decided that was enough for one day and that it was time to head back to Bryan's place and chill out for a bit and regain my composure. Which is what I did, and ended up skipping over the Media Temple Closing Party in the process...which was an unfortunate occurrance, but nonetheless an imperative so as to retain what is, on a good day, my tenuous grip on relative sanity. Now to yesterday. Caught up with Jake and Beth in the afternoon and went to see a documentary about truckers called "Big Rig." An interesting enough topic, but the editing and characterization was so awful that it felt more like watching a two-hour version of "MTV: Road Rules." Slightly disappointed, we tried another movie, the title of which escapes me at the moment but it had something to do with a "hummingbird." And this could've been one of the most sucktastic things I've ever seen put to celluloid. A bunch of goddamn hippies hanging out in the Mexican jungle, defecating in a hole in the ground, and then wondering why it is they're suffering from diptheria a few days later. (Turns out the flies that were hanging around their "lavatory" would also swing by the kitchen afterward for a post-poo snack.) Seriously, I spent the whole film hoping their little utopian society would implode on itself and their "we all share in our equality" guru guy would compltely freak out and start ordering them around. And for the most part I wasn't disappointed. Aside from this, the film had absolutely no redeeming merit whatsoever and should be avoided as if it too carried diptheria just beneath its plastic shrink-wrapping. Once these were over, we went to the Pete Townshend keynote, which I was pleasantly surprised to be more interesting than first expected. He discussed his "The Method" project (which I may try to do a piece on for May's issue), and talked a lot about how rock-n-roll is different nowadays. Perhaps most poignant to me however, was when the interviewer asked him why it was he was so honest about his life, and whether he wished he'd cultivated more of a mystique around himself, a la Bob Dylan or Mick Jagger. To which he answered that he hadn't been so forthright on purpose, it was just that he believed journalists were his "friends." As you might guess, this elicited quite the groan from all the musicians in the audience. He quickly recovered though, and said that he felt journaists were writers, and therefore artists too. (Thanks Pete.) And that we're down there in the trenches just like aspiring musicians are, and are trying to get our stuff heard. "No, it's the editors that should be shot." grin (It should be noted here that I do not wish any harm to befall my editor; I just thought that was funny.) Anyway, we wrapped that up and I caught up with Bryan over at Lovejoy's for a beer, and then we headed to Fuel for a Jager Bomb. Funny, "here we go again" was my thought about what was happening as well. We caught a band upstairs that looked like they might just become talented once they hit puberty, and then headed over to Soho Lounge to catch "Scissors for Lefty." Who, if you haven't heard them before, were quite good. But more importantly, they looked like they were having a really, really good time just playing music, which was enough to sell me on picking up their CD. From there Bryan headed home and I headed to Emo's for The Mountain Goats. On the way to which I bumped into a pit bull wearing sunglasses on a leash made of lightsaber materials, as well as a Japanese contortionist in an obi who played the accordion while doing some most impressive poses. I took pictures of both of these anomalies, and will post them as soon as I get around to resizing them to fit here. Okay, that's it for now. Tune in next time when I talk about seeing The Mountain Goats open for Blonde Redhead at Emo's. j.s.



Wednesday, March 14, 2007 SXSW Day Five Halfway through the event, and tragedy strikes. My laptop is becoming increasingly fussy about being charged, and it takes me nearly 20 minutes of twisting the connector around in the socket before it decides to start pulling juice from the wall rather than the battery. This is not good. Hopefully it will continue to take a charge for the next 5 days so I can continue to do this, and I'll fix it when I get home. Fingers crossed. So after the Warren Spector panel Jake, Beth and I headed across the street to Brush Square Park to eat some BBQ and drink several beers on Firefox's dime. Wonderful people those... We ended up meeting a few cool folks there (from various web-related companies), and ended up bouncing along with them for the remainder of the evening. Goddammit...I'm out of time again. So I'll have to regale you with tales of free tankards of Tanqueray and upload the party pictures in a bit. j.s.



Monday, March 12, 2007 SXSW Day Four Nnnghhh... Hung...over... After I left you I went over to the "Future of the Online Magazine" panel, and while I won't bore you with babble about user-generated content vs. editorials, or the different kinds of profit models, I will say that the guys who work over at The Onion are as funny and sharp in person as they are in print. From there I caught up with Jake and Beth, and we all sallied over to the Dan Rather Keynote. This one started rather uneasily, as the interviewer seemed shaky and read the entirety of her opening speech (badly), from cue cards. But the moment she introduced Mr. Rather, the room erupted into a standing ovation as he took the stage. And I couldn't help but think how amazing must that be for him. An entire room full of new media types (bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, etc), and every one of them sent a clear signal of respect to a guy who's dedicated his life to the dissemination of information. And man, is he good at it. Dan Rather has the ability to speak in outline form, sometimes with subheadings, footnotes and reference points, and yet he always comes around to fully answer the questions he's been asked. In other words, he speaks in nested XML code. Anyway, despite some minor-to-moderate sound problems, the keynote was pretty good. Some of the more moving parts were when he discussed trying to always be an "honest broker of information, who acts as the surrogate for the guy who works all day and doesn't have the time to seek out information on his own." And how he feels that these days "go along to get along" mentality is traded for increased access to important people. And truth is taking a backseat to access as the currency that matters most to journalists. "American journalism has lost its guts...it needs a spine transplant. Reporters need to stop playing it safe and worrying about whether they'll pay a price for the truth their speaking, and simply speak it." "We're not 'attack dogs.' We don't respond to 'sic em!' And we're not 'lapdogs' that curl up and wait to hear 'good boy.' We're watchdogs. And watchdogs bark at everything that looks suspicious. They aren't always right. And they aren't always gentle. But they're always barking the alert at something" [[How amazing is that?]] And finally, "do we still believe that the most important thing in America is an informed citizenry? Just give us the information we need to know. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And let us decide what to do with it. That's the American way." Goddammit that's beautiful... After hearing him speak, just about anything would've been a letdown, but actually the Warren Spector conversation I went to afterward was pretty damn good as well. (For those who don't know, Warren Spector is a game designer who worked on the Wing Commanders, Ultimas, Thief, and Deus Ex.) He had some interesting stuff about creating "virtual dungeonmasters" for games that can respond to whatever tangent players are taking the game in...which is an interesting thought. But I think the answer he's looking for isn't necessarily in better code, but in creating easy-to-use tools to allow people to actually become a DM in a game, handling the interactions and dialogue and enemies and such. And before I descend any farther into geekery, I'm going to end this one and head to the Bruce Sterling SXSW Interactive Closing Rant. Back in a bit. j.s.



SXSW Day Three Morning. I've about 20 minutes before the next panel starts, which is just enough time to bang out the list of winners from the SXSW Web Awards last night. But before I do, I want to retract some of earlier statements you might've overheard me saying about Ze Frank. He is, in fact, a very funny man. Okay, Web Awards. AMUSEMENT Exopolis Valentine's Day Mixtape ART Smithsonian Photography Initiative BLOG Twitter (Not exactly a blog...but whatever.) BUSINESS FOR PROFIT Resn GREEN/NON-PROFIT Own Your C CSS The Horizontal Way COMMUNITY Squidoo CLASSIC Computer Love EDUCATIONAL/RESOURCE Vitamin EXPERIMENTAL The Fallen Alternate Reality Game FILM/TV Time Trumpet MOTION/GRAPHICS Hungry Suitcase MUSIC Just For the F of It PERSONAL PORTFOLIO Jonathan Yuen STUDENT How Do I Say This? TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT Stikkit PEOPLE'S CHOICE Social Saga And finally, BEST OF SHOW Own Your C There you have it...click away at your leisure. Back soon. j.s.



SXSW Day Two: Post Three Hi there. Despite the fact that I'm writing this in the bar of a Bennigan's, I've decided to call it an early night so I can update you on the rest of the day's shenanigans, skip over having to drive home in the pouring rain that's closing in on Austin, and to maybe, just maybe, get one decent night's sleep during SXSW. But first! Let's go back to the part where I was running from meeting room to meeting room... So after the Limor Fried/Phil Torrone keynote, I hurried over to the "Building an Online Fanbase" panel. Mostly because, while you're all the loves of my life, and I would shrivel up and die without all the adoring attention that you give me here... Ahem. I have an infinite capacity for adoring attention...and could always use more. But, as it turned out, I should've read the panel descriptions more clearly. Because it was primarily focused on building an online fanbase...for filmmakers. Granted, that is empirically interesting. Just not to me. So I bailed out in the middle of their "Make Clerks II your MySpace friend and be included in the DVD credits!" and walked across the hall to the "10 Ways to Run a Start-Up Like Genghis Khan." Which was more a Mongolian history lesson than 48 Laws of Power, but it wasn't bad. For reference, or if there are any aspiring venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, or barbarian horde resource management specialists out there, the 10 ways are as follows: 1. Be a Nomad 2. Expose Yourself to Harsh Conditions 3. Loot Efficently 4. Say No to Infantry 5. Get the People Talking 6. Don't Fight the Enemy By Their Rules 7. Appropriate the Best People and Skills for Your War Machine 8. Build Bridges 9. Inspire Fierce Loyalty 10. Remember the Lesson of the Many-Headed Snake (The gist of that last one is that a "many-headed snake" gets pulled in many different directions and ends up confused and starving, while the "many-tailed snake" is led by just one thinker and pulls all its "tails" to safety. shrug Interesting, but again not really my thing. So I head to my last stop of the day, "The Rise of the Blogebrity." And I'll tell you people one incredibly important thing about that panel... Amanda Congdon looks even better in person than she does on Quicktime. No, so that isn't all I took away from it... I really liked that they brought up how ridiculous it is that someone can only become a 'blogebrity' after being talked about in old media channels for example. But yes... I will admit to being a little smitten with Ms. Congdon. I mean, a smart, funny, beautiful, and web savvy girl? Does it even get any better than that? Scientists say, "not a chance." Okay, next post will be about the SXSW Web Award Winners. But for now, it's bedtime. j.s.



Sunday, March 11, 2007 SXSW Day Two: Post Two Hiya. So I'm totally cheating now, since I just finished that last post and I'm now starting on another... But it's my blog. My rules. This counts as post two. Deal with it. (Post three if you count the apology for FRQNC being down earlier. Recursivity ftw!) So since I missed my first panel today, we'll start with the one I actually made it to, "Blogging Where Speech Isn't Free" instead. And I wish that one had happened later in the day, since I was still kinda dull and bleary-eyed while I sat through it. Interesting stuff though. Basically covered the ways governments combat the blogging voice of dissent: Content Restrictions Licensing Requirements Blogger Registration ISP/ICP Liability and through Self Monitoring. And if those don't work, and those pesky bloggers keep saying what's on their mind and voicing what they feel is wrong with their country/religion/etc? They: Block the site. Block the tools to create the site. (Blogger, WordPress, etc.) Register every blogger's URL with their personal information. (creepy.) Or, as in the case of Abdel Kareem, they simply go the headlong route and simply knock on their door in the middle of the night to arrest them. This sort of totalitarianism is being combatted with programs like the EFF-offshoot called Tor which (if you didn't happen to know about it) allows people to surf the web anonymously through proxy servers run by volunteers and through advocacy groups like Freedom House. But perhaps the most interesting part of this is that it seems China's government is well aware that people are cirumventing their "Great Firewall," but seem content to allow them to do so. For example, two weeks before the Tiananmen Square anniversary, members of the Chinese government arrived at a server housing facility that allowed people unfettered net access, and shut it down. Then, a week after the celebration, they unexpectedly came back to the server site and told them they could turn their machines back on. Who saw that coming? Another interesting part of the panel involved the desire for moderate Muslims to argue and combat the extremist Muslim sites... One panelist claimed that they truly want to be able to do this, since freer discussion between all Muslims would create a more moderate Islam. However! They have stayed away out of fear the NSC will show up at their house and harass them mercilessly if it's known they go to that particular site. (Yes, they track that information. Yet another reason to use and help out Tor in their efforts.) I'm not completely sold on that particular point, but I am very interested in finding out more about it... Give me a shout if you have any thoughts/info, or if you'd like to know ways in which you can help bloggers kick the doors of discourse open in some of these places. Next stop was the Limor Fried and Phil Torrone discussion, which I thoroughly enjoyed...even if I had absolutely no idea what the hell they were talking about through the majority of it. I am SO not technologically inclined in the arena of building hardware and electronics, but I really do like the idea that there are people out there that are pushing the limits of current technology through reverse engineering and old-fashioned tinkering. Cool stuff. And I'd really love to continue this discussion, but my Jeep is about to get soaking wet from the massive thunderstorm that is bearing down on the city of Austin, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut it short and pick up later. Uh...and it looks like I'd better run... j.s.



SXSW Day Two Ahoy. Jumpin bejeezus this has been a busy day... Okay, so when we last left off, I was on my way to the Dorkbot party...which was pretty damn awesome actually. One of the 'bots. These little guys beeped happily as they rolled about. Unsettling. Yes, that's a collection of metal bras. Nice hat... It was in essence a horde of, well, dorks... Showing off their homemade robots, playing strange bleeping instruments, all while getting sauced on free light beer. Good times... But drinking their free beer made me feel bad for every geek I'd ever harassed or made fun of in high school. So...uh...sorry guys. j.s.



So my two-a-day regimen was thwarted this morning by both the time change, and my hosting server going down during lunchtime, right in the middle of a post. It's mostly saved however, and I'll post it after I've finished with this panel here. Sorry...more to come. j.s.



Saturday, March 10, 2007 SXSW Day One: Part II So last year it was 'Web 2.0' that was the vogue and trendy thing to banter about. Alas, I've been to several panels today that have all asked for a moratorium on the use of the words "Web 2.0,' citing that when corporate marketing people get a hold of such a buzzword, and start asking web designers to create it for them? Well that marks the official death of the true artistic creativity behind any emerging trend. So, in its stead has arisen the term, "Social Media." Now sure that moniker is probably more descriptive when discussing particular applications like Flickr, Twitter or even MySpace. And okay, "Web 2.0" was beginning to lose all of its signal to noise...much like "alternative music" in the mid-90's. And so much of the web has embraced the "2.0" mindset that it's kind of tautological to continue to call it "2.0." I guess now it's just "the web." But you've got to admit...it was a helluva lot sexier than "Social Media." Bleh. Oh, and I've run into another new word this year. (New to me anyway.) Mash. From what I can tell, "Mash" is a verb that means to take existing web content and tweak and/or combine it with other content (code for example) to create new combo-applications. [ex. I mashed these JSON and RSS feeds and used Pipes to publish.] This has probably been around for quite some time and I've just somehow missed it up to now...but it's interesting. But the rest of the panels today were just kinda...meh. I was utterly unimpressed with Kathy Siera's "Opening Remarks," about creating passionate application users via friendly documentation. (Yes...pretty boring stuff.) The only bright spot was the "How to Bluff Your Way in Web 2.0" (which, coincidentally, was the very panel where the above moratorium was discussed), where the speakers cast such pearls as "the problem with Flash is that people know how to use it..." and my personal favorite, "the Mac reflective surface monitor is great. It makes every webpage look like me...which is a win-win situation." Very funny, very light, and yet concurrently a quite informative panel. It was the epitome of SXSW Interactive done right. Unfortunately, that was almost the only example of truly interesting topics with proper delivery. The rest have been pretty unremarkable. In fact, the one I just left spent a good 15 minutes proclaiming that "Copyright is Dead." (In huge bold letters projected on the wall.) Which, as you might imagine, I found to be more than a little depressing. To their credit, they tried to end it on an upbeat note and twist their true meaning into a statement about the dynamics of web publishing. ("Authors want to be recognized for the work they've already done. Writers want to be recognized for the work their doing. The web hates authors. It loves writers. So just keep writing." was a good quote.) But they countered that statement by describing how easy it's become to republish the work done by bloggers on an entirely different site, with no reference to the original author...thus reaping monetary benefits through web ads. Which is a phenomenon that has happened on this very site on more than one occasion, but has also been quickly snubbed (so far) by sending an amicable but firm email to the site owner, citing my Creative Commons license prohibiting unlicensed commercial use of my writing. But, according to these guys, even that is a losing battle... Sigh. Okay, moving on... The Dorkbot party starts in about 15 minutes in the park across the street, and I'm very curious to see what happens when "people doing strange things with electricity" and copious amounts of free booze collide. Yes, I'm bringing the camera. Later is the Frog Design Kickoff Party which promises to be brilliant, and will also most likely be the cause of yet another painful awakening tomorrow. Talk to you later. j.s.



SXSW Day One Good morning from my little hungover corner of the Austin Convention Center. So Bryan, Kim and I went on an ill-advised drinking bout last night at Maggie Mae's (ick), and didn't end up getting home until around 2:30...which made getting up for my first panel this morning slightly painful. I made it of course, and on my way to the meeting room (after passing Bruce Sterling having breakfast with his wife), I began glancing around at the people around me. And caught myself wondering just what in the hell I'm doing here, and what I could possibly have in common with all of them. And then the presenters begin to compare Milton's "Paradise Lost" to a massive "mixtape" of writing styles, or claim that classical writers bit and riffed off each other like warring gangsta rappers... Then without missing a beat, launch into the brilliance of Alan Moore's The Watchmen, and wax rhapsodic about how amazing Mike Doughty's "Screenwriter's Blues" is. And I remember. There are lots of other people out there that, while they aren't exactly like me, are similar...a good portion of which happen to be in this very building right now. And that's reassuring. So my first panel this morning was called "Writing, Better." And while I can't say that I'm an improved writer after listening to it, it was novel to hear other writers' and editors' opinions on "how to write," and the suggestions they bandied about for people who are terrified by the blank page. I am, obviously, not one of those people... However what did terrify me was the mention of a program that disallows any kind of editorial changes as you write. No backspace. No delete. Just "forward ho!" style word processing. The fact that such a thing even exists makes me uncomfortable, nevermind that poor misguided people might actually attempt to use such a thing. Okay, I'm late for "Bluffing Your Way in Web 2.0," so I need to wrap this one up. Talk to you later. j.s.



Friday, March 09, 2007 Three large cups of hot caffeinated beverage later, and the drafts for April's stuff are done. The side-effect of this is that I'm vibrating like some kind of pleasure device. Hey...sacrifices must be made. Actually I'm about to meet Jake & Beth here at Halcyon and then head over to the convention center with them to pick up their badges and our Big Bags o' Schwag. After which we'll hopefully grab something to eat before I head out to catch up with Bryan for some boozery. You know, I've no idea what I'm even talking about right now. To be honest I'm only here typing because I'm amazed at how quickly my fingers are stuttering along on the keyboard... whirrrrr Okay, that's it. No more coffee today. On a different note, I absolutely love having all day to sit around and write... A guy could get spoiled with all this free bloggy time. And speaking of love, (and I'm sure I say this everytime I come to Austin), there are some simply amazing women in this town. Seriously, there's been an non-stop parade of beautiful coming through here for the past 2 hours... It's mindblowing. Okay! I can't sit still anymore, so I'm off to footrace SUV's on I-35 for a bit. zing j.s.



Thursday, March 08, 2007 So, are we ready to do this? I'm obviously ready... I've all day tomorrow to finish my regular column before the April deadline (which I will wrap up whilst sipping coffee at Halcyon), my laptop/camera/phone/iPod are all doing preparatory charging in their respective outlets, and Bryan has taken the time to create an utterly perfect 10-day homebase for me in his spare bedroom. I can't help but think that this time seems ever-so-slightly more planned than the last... You know, when I pulled into downtown Austin without a dime, a place to stay, or any semblance of a plan? Funny the difference a year makes. Okay it's bedtime. Talk to you tomorrow, après articles. j.s.



"The Cat Lady" from down the street had a stroke last night and is in the hospital. She has apparently regained movement in her arms and legs, but still isn't talking. So, for those who believe in the power of such, please keep some positive juju headed her way. Thanks. j.s.



Monday, March 05, 2007 Hi there Bleuxpee! So now that End-of-Monthiness is over, we turn the page to March...and come to the shocking realization that SXSW, a.k.a. Nexus of Awesome, commences this Friday. And, just in time, the fine folks in their Festival Registration Department have upgraded my badge to Platinum just as they'd promised. Which means we're now smack dab in the middle of "ramp-up time," both physically and cognitively, to prepare for the forthcoming 10 days. A process that includes, but is not limited to: Obsessing, and eventually making a choice about which event to attend. For example, do I go to the "Every Breath You Take: Identity, Attention, Presence and Reputation" panel? Or the "Game Perverts: A Robot, a DS, and a Dot Matrix Menage a Trois" instead? (Both of which are at 10am on Sunday?) And what about choosing between "Au Revoir Simone," "Tokyo Police Club," and "+/-", all of whom are playing at midnight on Friday? These are the questions that keep me up nights. Performing enough maintenance/system checks on my laptop as to make a shuttle launch look like a comedic improv troupe by comparison. Constant iPod updates with this year's Full Artist Torrent, and the preparation of the perfect CD's for the 3 hour drive up. Words cannot properly convey how important a step this is. Ad nauseum checks with Austinite friends to make sure that "I'm not going to put you out by crashing at your place am I? Really? You're sure?" Washing every stitch of raiment I own, and wondering how exactly I'm going to fit 10-days worth of attire, toiletries, and electronic equipment into a 2' duffel bag. ("You can take the boy out of fashion...") Contacting all the friends and acquaintances I met last year to see if they're attending again and, if so, find an open hour or two to catch up with them. Review all the nominees for the 2007 Web Awards and compile a list of personal favorites. Thus I can "w00t!" appropriately when the winners are announced or, if I feel someone's been robbed, I have a reason to pelt them with complimentary "Earbud Munchers." Add to all this a column deadline on Friday, a birthday present to procure for my upstairs neighbor, and a dire need for an eyebrow wax, and you can see how extraordinarily busy I am right now. So I'm off then. Talk to you soon. j.s. [selfpromotion] Oh. This barely merits mention, but I'll be blogging during SXSW again this year. And I expect to update at least twice a day this time around. (An endeavor fueled by, and undertaken between, rounds of coffee and Lone Stars.) So, if you're interested in one guy's drunken tale of what Austin is like next week, drop in with...erm...frequency. (Ugh. Okay that was awful.) Thanks. [/selfpromotion]



Friday, March 02, 2007 End-of-monthiness... Back when I can. j.s.