Gawker: Sxsw

Four Out of Five Screeching Weasels Agree: Hitting Chicks Ain't Cool

Seth Abramovitch — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:15:37 EDT

Anarchy! Within reason. All four backing members of punk rock outfit Screeching Weasel have left the band, after a disastrous show at South by Southwest in which longtime frontman Ben "Weasel" Foster taunted the crowd, then struck two women, before spending the rest of the show bitching about The SXSW Man, man. (Shaky footage of the Gig From Hell embedded above.) More »

Do Not Take a Picture of This Guy's Hair

Max Read — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 04:07:00 EDT

If you are picture-shy—as Texas resident Johnathan Washburn is—you are advised not to assault people who photograph you—as Mr. Washburn did—because then the police are required by law to take a picture of you, and give it to anyone who asks. Which is why you are loooking at a picture of Mr. Johnathan Washburn, courtesy the Austin Statesman and the Austin Police Department. (Washburn allegedly grew angry with a fellow who took a photo of his "mohawk" and demanded that the photograph be erased; the situation escalated to the point where Washburn hit the guy with his skateboard. It's unclear whether or not the offending photograph survived the assault, but Washburn's mug shot more than makes up for it.) [Austin Statesman via The Daily What] More »

The 11 Buzziest Bands at SXSW 2011

Jason Richards — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:39:39 EDT

The music festival component of South by Southwest kicks off this Wednesday in Austin, where record company people, media, sponsors, and probably Bill Murray will spend the following four days in delirious pursuit of the event's hottest commodity: buzz.

Of the 2,000 or so bands scheduled to perform, a handful have spent the past few months steadily accumulating blog and word-of-mouth hype. Making a good impression here will be an important early step in their ascent (after that, it goes: song placement in Virgin Mobile commercial, appearance on next Twilight soundtrack, Kanye West sample/collaboration). So in honor of the year—but really because it was so hard to narrow it down to ten—here are 11 essential buzz bands playing at SXSW 2011. More »

Media A-Listers Flock to Futuristic Hellscape

Hamilton Nolan — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 14:32:13 EDT

In your interactive Tuesday media column: anywhere is better than "South by," the NYT vs HuffPo feud continues, the Tribune bankruptcy is predictably troublesome, Carl Paladino hates the press, and your mandatory Katie Couric rumor of the day. More »

SXSW Hates Your Blog

Maureen O'Connor — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:04:33 EDT

[An Austin bar says good-bye and good riddance to South by Southwest, the indie tech/rock/movie festival that ended today. Pic: ekai's Flickr via cmd] More »

Deadline Panic at AOL Over Hipster Contributors

Ryan Tate — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:01:07 EDT

AOL hired an army of underemployed music lovers to interview bands at South by Southwest. But the citizen journalists, paid $50 per story, are missing their deadlines, so AOL sent a panicked mass email (below). More »

Vicious Techies Devour Another Victim

Ryan Tate — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:50:38 EDT

The geeks at South by Southwest look docile, but online they turn against mutual enemies with ruthless efficiency. This year's victim: Umair Haque, the Harvard wonk whose interview with Twitter's CEO just turned into a virtual stoning. More »

Just When South By Southwest Couldn't Get Any More Obnoxious

Mike Byhoff — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:51:03 EDT

They go and get more obnoxious. OK Go's (of course OK Go's) Damian Kulash re-enacted the "surprised kitty" with an audience of 700 people on a "how to create viral content" panel. Hopefully what followed was a re-enacment of this. More »

Spotted! Edward Norton Plays the 'Celebrity' Card to Blow Off a Bill

Maureen O'Connor — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:28:24 EST

In Leaves of Grass Edward Norton plays twins, one of whom deals pot. At last night's snack-accompanied SxSW screening, Edward's mellow went up in smoke when he thought he received a bill for his munchies. A witness writes in. More »

Next 3-D Movie Extravaganza: The Bible

Maureen O'Connor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:51:30 EST

It'll be so real, you'll want to reach out the touch Jesus' stigmata. Posthumous John Hughes movie makes the rounds; Miss America's still homeless but Miss USA's safe; Hurt Locker's banned director gives speech. Your daily update on show business. More »

New York Times Writer Learns about 'Internets' at SXSW

Owen Thomas — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:46:16 EDT

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In the '90s, the Web cognoscenti joked about doing crack. But New York Times columnist David Carr actually did crack! Which might explain his befuddlement in this clip from the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin. More »

The Twitterati Head South, not to Mention Southwest

Owen Thomas — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:18:21 EDT

Can you destroy — or cement — your professional reputation in 140 characters or less? On Twitter, it's easy! Watch and learn from ABC's Jake Tapper, ex-Wonkette Ana Marie Cox, VentureBeat's Eric Eldon and others: More »

South By Southwest Is a Pointless Party

Owen Thomas — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 16:45:53 EDT

Why does the tech world get a throwdown in Austin when the banks have had to cancel their bashes? The news out of South By Southwest shows that Web hipsters are every bit as bankrupt. More »

Is the New Foursquare Too Much Like the Old Dodgeball for Google?

Owen Thomas — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:01:31 EDT

Even though Google killed Dodgeball, Dennis Crowley reassured the socially inept that they'd still be able to find their friends at bars with his newly launched Foursquare. One problem: it may not be his. More »

SXSW, the Conference for Julia Allison and Other People Lacking Real Jobs

Scott Kidder — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EDT

What recession? More than 10,000 revelers are expected for this year's SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas this week. With no real work at hand, they're hitting the parties hard — especially the unofficial ones. More »

Digg Founder Kevin Rose Meets Platonic Ideal of Digg User

James Del — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 17:20:38 EDT

Kevin Rose, founder of the Web headline-voting service Digg, meets a fan Saturday after a live Diggnation taping at the South By Southwest conference in Austin, Texas. More »

Hipsters Are Ruining Twitter, Say Hipsters on Twitter

Owen Thomas — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 15:22:36 EDT

Dear Facebook employee: If you're going to do something obvious and cliché like wearing cowboy boots to SXSW's geek spring break, please have the decency not to tell Twitter about it. Other Twitter idiocies today: More »

Web Developer Fantasizes About SXSW's 'South By Girls'

Owen Thomas — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:08:19 EDT

Every year, instead of heading to the beaches, geeks flock to Austin, Texas, to engage in a rite of spring called "South By Southwest." There's a conference, but who goes to that? More »

SXSW hangover joint closes

Melissa Gira Grant — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:40:00 EDT

It's the end of an era, they'll all Twitter: Austin's Las Manitas Avenue Cafe has closed. Las Manitas, if you were too passed out to recall, is where the rest of us nursed our South By Southwest hangovers while uploading photos from the events that caused them to Flickr. If you didn't spill salsa verde on yourself there at least once while attending the warm-weather Web 2.0 junket, then why did you pay $400 to get into SXSW in the first place? (Photo by wordridden) More »

Scoble spots a "fun shirt at SXSW"

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:00:02 EDT

Back in Austin, egoblogger Robert Scoble spotted Internet marketing consultant Stephanie Agresta at BlogHaus. He took one photo, then a second, close-up shot. Anyone want to take bets on Maryam Scoble attending SXSW next year? (Photo by Robert Scoble) More »

Abstruse 3D chart shows just how much engineers dislike Sarah Lacy

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:40:54 EDT

When techies get mad, as they did when Sarah Lacy interviewed Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW, they Twitter furiously. When they're still seething later, it seems, they put those Twitters in a spreadsheet and analyze them. Hence, Somewhere Inc. CEO Kee Hinckley's Anatomy of a Mob, which charts the frequency of the top 50 words Twittered over the hour Lacy and Zuckerberg spoke. Hinckley's conclusion: "The Twitter transcript makes it clear that there was an early and constant stream of negative comments flowing from a large number of senders." Lacy has cited live blog coverage as evidence that the mood stayed positive until the last 15 minutes of the interview; Hinckley's analysis — though relying on Twitter — would seem to argue against that. Even so, Hinckley is sympathetic: "She didn't deserve the abuse that was dished out on Twitter, let alone what happened in the auditorium." After the jump, an annotated video showing the Twitter reaction in sync with the interview. More »

Scoble promises to get his kid off World of Warcraft

Jordan Golson — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:41:00 EDT

Robert Scoble found Make Magazine's Phil Torrone at SXSW. After exchanging pleasantries, Phil made Robert promise to get his kid to do projects and get him off World of Warcraft. "Do you think the world's problems will be solved with World of Warcraft or by engineers?" More »

Mark Zuckerberg In The Presence

Nick Denton — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:16:26 EDT

Admit it: Julia Allison is irrepressible. The Star magazine talking head abandoned her personal blog because it was ruining her life; and broke up with her webtard boyfriend, Jakob Lodwick, because he slept with her "adopted" little sister and was crushed commercially by Youtube. But she's merely moved up the internet food chain. On photo sharing service Flickr, Allison shows her act is still fresh outside New York. Here, at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, she pushes out her chest into friending distance of the alpha geek of the moment, Mark Zuckerberg. Coincidentally, the Facebook founder was recently named by Forbes as the world's youngest billionaire. More »

Average SXSW partier blows a 0.097

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:20:00 EDT

"What are you blowing?" Wired's Megan McCarthy asked blip.tv's Charles Hope the other night, offering him the chance to take a breathalyser test. His slightly puzzling answer: "HOT." Natalie Villalobos, a community manager from the Bay area answered: "Mostly boys." McCarthy polled five others as well, who actually blew into the damn thing. Their levels ranged from sober-dober (0.00) to "heyyyyI'm in Aushtin?hokeedohkee" (0.25). More »

Sarah Lacy speaks out about Zuckerberg interview

Jordan Golson — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:20:28 EDT

Honestly, as painful as it was, I think it's ultimately a net positive for me. All most people hear is the vocal minority. I went to four parties Sunday night, was mobbed, and no one said a bad word. I haven't even gotten a single negative email. No one sees the hundreds of notes that have poured in supporting me, saying they were there and embarrassed, or the messages I've received from other Valley CEOs telling me they enjoyed the keynote and that we all get attacked at some point in our careers. It's just part of the job. Can't take the good without the bad.

Sarah Lacy shares her view on her SXSW Mark Zuckerberg interview. Hold on, let me fix that for you. "I me I I me I me." There, that's better. [I Want Media] More »

Mark Zuckerberg meets the black internet...

Anthony De Rosa — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:16:00 EDT

Mark Zuckerberg meets the black internet widow. More »

Kevin Rose's parties bid SXSW goodbye

Owen Thomas — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 07:36:55 EDT

I've always loved to watch Mark Cuban dance — but Tuesday night I got to see the billionaire booty-shaker up close. The venue: PureVolume Ranch in Austin, Texas. The occasion: The Bigg Digg Shindigg, South by Southwest Interactive's closing party. "You guys always picked the worst photos of me," Cuban said. Mark, as I said at Sunday's panel on gossip, I live to serve. Digg packed PureVolume's dance floor and backyard tents with hundreds of partygoers. Besides Cuban, Moby was there, as were Digg CEO Jay Adelson and cofounder Kevin Rose, iLike CEO Ali Partovi, StumbleUpon's Garrett Camp, and Automattic's Matt Mullenweg. RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser had just flown in from Florida on a private jet. But for me the most interesting person was newly hired Digger Aubrey Sabala, who put the party together in three days — after Digg had given up on the idea. More »

The art of the SXSW orgy

Melissa Gira Grant — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:31:26 EDT

The key to getting some after-hours action on the last night of SXSW: Have a plan after the party ends. Three steps simple enough for you to follow on your iPhone:

Choose a diner near your hotel. After 2 a.m., your options are Magnolia's Cafe, Katz's Deli, IHOP, or Denny's.

Drunkr You know how you're at the...

Anthony De Rosa — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:52:45 EDT

Drunkr

Nerds battle rockers as SXSW turns to music

Melissa Gira Grant — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:40:22 EDT

Tonight's Bigg Digg Shindigg will be our last dance, nerd promsters. The real guitar heroes are here in Austin now, skinny pants and all. The star closing panel of the day, The Futurists Sandbox, featured slides from P. T. Anderson's lovesong to '70s porn, Boogie Nights, played to a series of monologues to eulogize Dirk Diggler as if he were a real person who died in 2025. Not even dropping Larry Lessig's name roused the crowd from Twittering. Or maybe they mistook the packed-to-capacity conference room for PureVolume. More »

We don't need your Internet marketing, say music labels

Scott Kidder — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:15:17 EDT

"I need more marketing and promotion on the Internet like I need a root canal without anesthetic," Capitol Records' Ted Mico told an audience at the "Ad-Supported Music, a New Hope for the Industry?" panel today at the South by Southwest conference in Austin. Fledging music startups seeking licenses from major labels frequently try to offer "marketing and promotion" in exchange for concessions on deal points. But as Beggars' Group's Simon Wheeler said, "Promotion is great, but only when it's built on a sound commercial base." The song remains the same: Show them the money. More »

"Don't pitch me, bro" T-shirt maker Andrew Hyde

Owen Thomas — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:00:17 EDT

There I was minding my own business, and up pops Andrew Hyde, creator of VCWear.com, the VC-mocking apparel maker we wrote about recently. More »

Wired reminds you the good-looking people in Austin are actors

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:20:44 EDT

Including portaits and thumbnail sketches, Wired's Megan McCarthy posted on the "Faces of SXSW: Geeks and Film Freaks." Read it and you'll discover that venture capitalist David Hornik uses both Twitter and Pownce. You'll learn that MyToons founder Jessica Beers's dream job is being the MyToons founder. And, taking a close look at the portraits, you'll remember why you stayed home. More »

True confessions of the world's busiest websites

Owen Thomas — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:21:53 EDT

Do not want fail? Why then, can has win, say the folks behind the curtains at Flickr, Digg, Media Temple, and StumbleUpon. Six of them showed up at a panel organized by Kevin Rose to explain how to make websites that stay online, more or less. Being a not very clever gossip, I just listened in for the quips. Oh, and the drama. Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg almost didn't make it. Check out how his fellow panelists updated the lineup right before he showed up. More »

"Is there any way Web 2.0 can somehow not...

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:19:15 EDT

"Is there any way Web 2.0 can somehow not make its flight back to San Francisco? Please. I'm begging" — commenter KyleShank More »

Blogging for Mashable: so easy a caveman can do it

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins wasn't cutting it, so Mashable founder Pete Cashmore found his replacement at Rana Sobhany's Crush Party at Six Lounge Monday night. A disclaimer: as far as we know, Hopkins still has a job and that isn't a real caveman. As far as we know. More »

The cure for the common hangover

Owen Thomas — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 16:20:54 EDT

AUSTIN, TX — I almost didn't sleep last night. At 4 a.m., after posting party reports for ~~you ungrateful bastards~~ my gorgeous, intelligent readers, I considered just powering through until my breakfast meeting with the boss, who was flying back to New York in the morning. Instead, I caught a disco nap. Even so, I arrived at the PureVolume ranch looking more rested than the weary souls shuffling in for free breakfast tacos. If you haven't had an Austin-style breakfast taco — soft tortilla with eggs and bacon or chorizo — then you should reflect on the direction your life is taking and what you can do to amend your ways. More »

Scoble promises to catch caveman up on the very latest

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:00:34 EDT

Expect Robert Scoble's 1,535-word post on this encounter any minute. (Photo by Caroline McCarthy) More »

Friends don't let friends get tattoos at SXSW

Owen Thomas — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:20:54 EDT

As I stumbled around the streets of Austin, a girl lurched out of an RV and accosted me, insisting that I photograph her freshly acquired tattoo. Do you <3 it as much as she does? More »

At SXSW, even the cavemen are getting action

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Wishing you were in Austin? This video won't help. In it, a caveman — some say he's a Microsoft employee — attempts to pick up fanboy favorite iJustine at a SXSW party held Monday night at Six Lounge. "I'm not into technology," he tells her. "I'm into human connection." And she doesn't even pull a Lacy-to-Arrington on him. More »