End of Silence

I was lucky enough to get a day pass for Monday’s panels at SXSW Interactive. I’ve been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks, but both of my kids picked up some sort of stomach flu and then I came down with the SXSW Plague, aka SXSARS. I attended five panels that day:

• Scalability Boot Camp
• A Critical Look at OpenID 
• Browser Wars: Deja Vu All Over Again?
• Transforming Hospital Systems: The Digital Future of Health Care
• Building Portable Social Networks

Before I get to the recap of the panels that I attended, I thought I’d highlight some general things about SXSWi this year. The big news that’s already been hashed to death was the audience revolt during the Mark Zuckerberg interview. Apparently, the Frank Warren (PostSecret) keynote was pretty good. Zappos gets the marketing genius award for being prescient enough to hand out ponchos during a downpour around lunch time. At one point as I walked to Taco Shack for a quick lunch, nearly every single person within sight downtown was a walking advertisement for Zappos. Sorry, didn’t get a shot of it, but there are plenty of photos on Flickr.

Oh, the parties. I did manage to make one or two of the insane number of parties. I went to the Laughing Squid / blip.tv thing on Friday night. It was completely packed with people overflowing into the Tap Room (formerly B Side). I attended the Frog Design Party on Saturday night. There was plenty of space there with the outdoor bars and performances. I caught a couple of songs with Groupo Fantasma. The bar lines were long throughout the night with people throwing down mixed drinks and green beer. I’m assuming the green was for frog and not an early nod to St. Patrick’s Day. I was turned away like many others by the massive line at the 16bit party at Scoot Inn. Apparently, the capacity had shrunk since booking the event. I returned to the Scoot Inn later in the week for the music festival and thoroughly enjoyed myself however (more on that later). We had the Metroblogging Meetup at Rio Rita on Sunday.

I brought my 9 year old to ScreenBurn Arcade on Sunday as well. It was all Guitar Hero and Rock Band this year . Dell had a bunch of real guitars modded to play guitar hero. The Boy also got a chance to play Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii which had just been released that day.

Check out the panel notes with photos after the jump.

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Willie Nelson’s daughter, Paula, apparently is a also a musician and plays gigs at the Saxon Pub. She also doesn’t like it when drunks get on her stage, so watch the f–k out!

h/t to Matt Dentler where I saw this first of several places today.

Update (2008.03.26 17:09 CDT): According to The Statesman’s Michael Corcoran, the whole incident was staged.

Would that the rest of the House Democrats were like my man Lloyd Doggett. He consistently makes me feel like I still have some representation in the Federal government, unlike my two rubber stamping senators. Go Lloyd!

Via Burnt Orange Report 

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We had a SXSW meetup of Metbloggers from Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Austin today at Rio Rita. The main topic of conversation was the trainwreck Mark Zuckerberg interview that had just taken place. In fact, a website to commemorate the occasion was conceived and implemented during the meetup. I just took pictures.

 

Richard Ault, Metroblogger in from San Francisco, asked about more music options after my last post, so here’s some more.

• Faceless Werewolves CD release continues at Beerland (“The happiest place on earth”) – A note of trivia, Randal and Donya, the owners of Beerland also own Rio Rita, the spot of tomorrow’s meetup
• Dale Watson at Broken Spoke – I already plugged Dale Watson, but the Broken Spoke is a legendary country music venue. You’ll have to take a cab from downtown.
• Horse + Donkey and others at Mohawk
• Psych Fest at Red Barn
• Long Center Preview Weekend – 10am to midnight – Join The Long Center for the Performing Arts as we officially open our doors and welcome the community to its new performing arts home. Special guest artists include, MASS Ensemble, The Brewery Troupe’s Crowtations and the Tami Wolfe Duo. Enjoy free programming for the entire family all weekend and catch a glimpse of some of the artists who will take part in The Long Center’s inaugural season. Patrons will have an unprecedented opportunity to experience the behind-the-scenes work that goes into this magnificent facility.