CHUCK ON ERIC RICE'S PODCAST

I lost my podcast virginity to Garrick Van Buren's First Crack Podcast in Jan. 2005. It was a long, in-depth discovery of my latest thinking on geekery and politics. An experience I shant soon forget.

That's not to say you need candles, roses, and a credit card to get me on your podcast. No, all you need is a cellphone and an audioblog.com account for me to be your mobile podcast quickie. My SXSW roomie (and audioblog.com mogul) Eric Rice interviewed me at Bruce Sterling's lovely SXSW party.

MP3 File

*** CHECK OUT ERIC RICE HOSTING THE NEWLY REVIVED ENGADGET PODCAST! ***

SHOUTOUTS TO MATT CLAYFIELD

Here's a little impromptu video I shot after the Future of Film Blogging panel, where I first met David Lowery (Deadroom) and David Hudson (Green Cine Daily). First order of business: shoutouts to our man down under, Matthew Clayfield.

David Lowery + David Hudson [Quicktime, 2.6 MB]

LOTS MORE SHORT VIDEO CLIPS ON THE SXSW Vlog!
Amanda Congdon talking about her reality TV experience, exclusive Homestar action, and more.

[thanks to Michael Verdi]

CALEXICO COVERING GUIDED BY VOICES

What a hoot! Calexico was one of many GBV cover highlights.

We didn't see much music at South By Southwest – and yet we did. The 7th Annual Guided By Voices Hoot Night was a sampling of 30 acts playing SXSW, all playing GBV covers. That's like a festival within a festival. Several bands I'd never heard of blew me away. Bands I was familiar with delivered beyond what I expected, namely Jason Faulkner, The Silos, Apollos of Sunshine and Calexico. Here, resplendent with horns and bad sound, is Calexico covering "Non-Absorbing."

Calexico plays GBV [Quicktime, 32 MB]
Calexico plays GBV [Quicktime, 12 MB]
Calexico plays GBV [Flash, 26 MB]

Here's a couple pics of THE BOB. He came out with two different bands and sang, "I Am a Scientist," "Chasing Heather Crazy," and a couple of other songs I forget.

Let's not forget DOUG GILLARD playing bass:

SXSW HOTEL WEIRDNESS

Heavy metal Japanese kids in our hotel, smoking by the elevator

Download hotel-surrealism.mov [Quicktime, 1 MB]

WE TOTALLY MET HOMESTAR!

Rocketboom Amanda + Rocketboom cadet Michael Verdi + me + the Homestar Runner(s)

OMG you guys. What a day. I taped the Bloggies, the Wonkette and the Al Franken. I even gave them Blogumentary DVDs. But those celebs pale in comparison to meeting him. The Legend. He of Undiagnosed Impediment, Twirly Hat and No Arms. Yes, it's the Homestar Runner.

Download homestarkisses.mov [Quicktime, 3 MB]

PROPS AT THE FILM BLOGGING PANEL

I always wanted my blog to be projected by light

Oh golly gee! So much to blog about, so much video, and no time. A big highlight for me yesterday was the Future of Film Blogging panel. Mostly because I got to meet two of my very favorite film/blog people: David Hudson of GreenCine Daily and David Lowery, whose film Deadroom I'm seeing Thursday. Take note Matt Clayfield - video greetings coming soon!

I also saw Todd Solondz' premiere of Palindromes - I'll post a review and video of Solondz when I find time. Seriously. Also DanceFlash!

Right now: Blogging While Black panel. "How white is your blogroll?" I feel terrible because I just realized my terribly neglected blogroll is missing a very cool man: All About George Kelly. My man Tony Pierce in the hizzouse! I've always wanted to meet him. Unfortuantely I have to leave early to setup fliming the 2005 Weblog Awards.

AHH, TEXAS.

Download chuck_sundrink.mov [Quicktime, 2 MB]

HODER ON IRANIAN BLOGS

Here are my notes from the Blogs and Blockades: Forging a True Global Internet panel - specifically Hossein Derakhshan talk on Iranian Blogs. There are over 70,000 Iranian blogs in Persian and they've become an amazing cultural and political force in Iran.

70,000 Iranian weblogs in Persian
most are censored/filtered
started weblog 2 weeks after 9/11

3 metaphors for weblogs in Iran

1) blogs as windows -- raw and (unfiltered?) view of iranians to outside world and themsleves? iranians have new values, shows in weblogs. no activism to metaphor, just showing. like journalism. that's why foreign journalists feel threatened by foreign weblogs - weblogs in local language are important and western journos are behind.

2) bridges. cultural bridges. because of rapid social change in iranian society, there are several islands - social groups getting far from each other because of rapid change. weblogs & internet are bridging between different island. eg - between genders. there are a lot of women blogging in Perisan in Iran - showing how they see the world. Very important, historically Iranian men haven't had the ability to know exactly how Iranian women think and how they see the world.

Between generations. Parent can read their teenagers weblogs to see what's going on, they rarely talk about issues in real life.

Political bridges between leaders/politicians and common citizens. Iranian former VP has a weblog in Persian and English. Webnevesht. Consciously trying to break some taboos; pictures behind the scenes of Iranian politics. "Best way for Iranian politicians to see what's going on in Iranian society is to read weblogs." Esp. reformist - next elected reformist will probably have a weblog.

Iranian expatriots and Iranians inside Iran. 4 million expatriots outside Iran, many in U.S. Without going back to Iran (which many connot) this is the best way to stay in touch with what's going on in their home country. And many of them have weblogs as well.

3) Weblogs as cafes. Habermas idea of "public sphere" in which people have equal access to information and can all contribute to political debate. Iranian nuclear program - why are they supporting this even though they have oil, etc. for energy? Why no concern about environmental impact of nuclear energy? The government has monopoly on this issue so the public doesn't know about the downsides of nuclear energy. Weblogs are they only place where this debate can happen.

** "Hundreds of Iranian webloggers were fired because they were (openly) gay."

** "We're talking about censorship in Iran, but we're also talking about censorship in the U.S. - It's very sad." (in response to a question from Andrew about political linking possibly being censored.)

** "Godaddy.com doesn't allow Iran, Iraq, N Korea to register domains. Very stupid because -- who are you limiting? This is limiting IRANIANS, not the Iranian government."

** "These bloggers are called bridge bloggers. People blogging in two languages, or trying to get the ideas and topics from one language sphere to another one. The best thing American bloggers can do to help these movements and other blogospheres is to LINK to them. Link to their interesting topics, summarize what they've said, promote them. If they don't have enough readers they can't do much because nobody will notice them."

** "Unicode. Imagine if Google had a search translation option. If you could type in 'urban life transition' in English but get results from Chinese blogs, that's be very cool."

** Somebody is working on a Technorati-like tool for (Chinese?) weblogs. Thermasphere - trying to build comprehensive link to Iranian weblogs. It would be nice if someone who built automatic tracking tools to allow them to use it and track Iranian weblogs.

SXSW: DAY 0

Here's me in planes and airports, and at last hanging out with Eric Rice, Andrew Baron and Michael Verdi [pic]. It's warm! Good things ahead.

Chuck on the way to SXSW, Day 0 Quicktime, 7 MB

DANCE FLASH @ SXSW!

IF YOU'RE GOING TO AUSTIN, PREPARE TO DANCE FLASH.

Austin Chronice's SXSW coverage including goodies such as this Al Franken interview. I'm totally going to see Al Franken!

EFF-Austin's David Nuñez, who made me feel very welcome last year, has some great advice for SXSW Interactive-goers. dANAH bOYD has a predictably pissy response.

If you have a lot of bandwidth on your hands, why not use it up by downloading a BitTorrent of 750 SXSW Artist MP3s?

Hot SXSW rumor of the week: the Arcade Fire and Spoon as special guests at Merge Records' March 17 showcase. Spooge.

I can't f-ing believe I have to miss Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks talking about Smile. Maybe I can get Rex to bootleg it for me.

My documentary guru and #1 cheerleader Melody Gilbert premieres A Life Without Pain. It's about three little girls who literally cannot feel pain, and have the injuries to prove it. Visit the web site. Congrats, girlfriend!

I could relate to this snippet from Melody's e-filmcritic interview: I don't watch any movies when I'm in pre-production. They just make me depressed because I wish I had made them.

Last but not least: Deadroom, the much-anticipated film from my man David Lowery & Co., has its world premiere at SXSW. Excelsior!

March 9, 2005 at 12:42 AM in SXSW 2005 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack