SxSW 2013 - Day 6

Panel: Top Ten Web Music Companies of 2013

This was my first music panel of 2013. I wanted to hear about something fresh and new. Unfortunately, I really didn't. The Music Industry is still lost and wondering in the desert.

Finding the Funk

Another great music documentary. It has Sly, George Clinton, Bootsie Collins, and Bernie Worrell. Parliament, Funkadelic, and the Ohio Players all in one movie! Need I say more?

I defy anyone to go see this movie, and try to not tap their feet. It isn't possible.

Finding the Funk Trailer

Canadian Music Party

After the movie, I made my way back to the Convention Center area, and checked out the Canadian Music Party in the Brush Creek park.

Nick Lowe Panel

Heading inside, I caught a panel with included Ron Sexsmith, Kathy Valentine, and Chris Stamey about the music of Nick Lowe. What made this extra special, was that each artist got up and played their favorite Nick Lowe song. Just heavenly.

In the photo below, you can see Ron Sexsmith taking his shot, at the mic.

Depeche Mode Interview

I had pencilled this interview in, on my schedule in advance. It was what I expected. I was hoping I would have a stroke of luck, and also win the lottery for the small show they were putting on in the Brazos theater, on Friday.

I found the band to be surprisingly unpretentious and very accessible, as did the rest of the crowd, I'm fairly sure.

Sound City

Another fantastic documentary, about another legendary recording studio. This time it was Sound City, in Van Nuys, CA with its legendary Neve Console.

I'll be honest, I was never a Nirvana fan. However, after seeing Dave Grohl multiple times, I have a new found respect for him. He gets it, and only someone who got it would have been able to produce a film like this. I would love to have a beer or two with him some time.

Let me just say that all of these documentaries about recording studios has really gotten my creative juices flowing again.

Sound City Trailer

Olafur Arnalds

After leaving the Paramount for the Sound City screening, I headed towards my favorite showcase venue, St. David's Bethel Hall, a fantastic listening room. When I arrived, there was a 3 piece ensemble (piano, violin, and cello). Their original compositions mixed chamber music with some atmospheric electronic music

I found the harmonic rhythm of this music to be painfully slow. Given my sleep deprived state, had some difficulty, staying awake during their performance.

A.J. Croce

The next act at Bethel was fantastic, it was Jim Croce's son. A.J. Croce is a singer songwriter par excellence, with an outstanding voice, and impressive chops on both piano and guitar.

They say the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Well, in this case, the apple is right next to the trunk. During the set A.J. performed his father's song, Operator. As A.J. performed, it seemed as though Jim had crawled out of the grave, and was standing there. My friends all commented that the experience gave them goosebumps.

Summing this showcase up in one word, it would be, Wow!

Chris Stamey and Tosca Strings

Former Alex Chilton collaborator and Southern alt-pop, godfather, Chris Stamey, had the last set at the Bethel, with the Tosca String quartet. This was a very enjoyable set of music, and was the perfect material for this room.

SxSW 2013 - Day 5

Muscle Shoals

This documentary was one of the best of the festival. It was about the now legendary music town of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The film covers recording pioneer, Rick Hall and his FAME Studios, along with the house band, the Swampers, who eventually split to form the rival, Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. I was already aware of the significance of the place, but had no idea, how many bands, hits songs, and Gold and Platinum albums, had been recorded at these two studios. It was staggering.

Having watched several of these documentaries, I am convinced that I need a bucket list item, to go on a pilgrimage and try to visit the original sites of Motown Records in Detroit, Sun Records and Stax in Memphis, Buddy Holly's place in Lubbock, TX, and of course these two studios in Muscle Shoals.

Muscle Shoals Trailer

Seeing my brother off

Since Tuesday is the last day of Interactive, I spent some time having a final lunch with my brother and some of his co-workers from Ohio, before seeing him off to the airport.

Medora

Medora, Indiana, was once a booming rural town, with a thriving middle class, and an independent, high school. Things have changed recently, and economic conditions have decimated this town.

This film picks up, with Medora's once formidable, high school basketball team in the middle of a multiple year, losing streak. They follow several of the team members through an entire season, where against all odds, they actually managed to turn things around, and win two games.

What was really nice, is that the directors brought one of the team members with them to SxSW, and they were available afterwards, for Q&A. Anyone who manages to see this movie, will be affected by it, in a positive way.

We Cause Scenes

The last film of the day for me, was about Improv Everywhere, a small gang of comedians and pranksters, who became an internationally recognized prank collective. The documentary covers their history, and shows some of their more recent flash mob style stunts.

My favorite stunt was them setting up as a 4 piece band and impersonating the band U2, from a rooftop across the street from Madison Square Garden (where U2 was playing that night). A casual listen to band, quickly revealed that it was not really U2, however, many of the people on the street went along with the gag, finding it funny. Not everyone in NYC is so light hearted, so someone eventually called NYPD to shut it down.

SxSW 2013 - Day 4

Stephen Wolfram

Wolfram gave a talk on the future of Computation. It was similar in content to one of his TED talks. I find him to be a very engaging speaker, and felt he did a good job of holding the audiences attention, unlike the NASA presentation.

Rewind This

This was an outstanding documentary about the history of Video Tape. It's hard to believe that several decades have passed, since video tape's heyday.

I found it particularly humorous to realize that very little has changed. The MPAA and their affiliated content producers were as afraid of the video tape back then, as they are the Internet, today.

Computer Chess

The next film of the day was Computer Chess. It was a local effort, made here in Austin. I really didn't enjoy the film, its low budget charm was not able to compensate for a multitude of problems.

Hawking

The next film on my schedule was an exceptional, biographical, documentary about world renown physicist, Stephen Hawking. This was a remarkable film about a remarkable man.

The Infamous Grumpy Cat

Unbeknownst to me, Grumpy Cat was one of the big stories from SxSW in the press. As I was walking down 6th Street, I noticed this rear projection in a two story bay window, above what used to be the SoHo.

Snap

The main character in this movie, is a musical savant, named Jim, who had experience severe abuse and trama as a child. Now an adult, he appears to have his mental health issues under control, but becomes obsessed with a young social worker, Wendy.

Things slowly begin to spin out of control, but there are several unexpected plot twists before it is all over. Snap is a dark, but interesting film, and is well made.

SxSW 2013 - Day 3

Sixth Street in the Morning

As walked over to the Paramount from the Convention Center, I took this picture of Sixth Street. I am always amazed to see it cleaned up every morning, given the condition I had witnessed it in, the previous night.

Mud

The first film of the day was Mud. A narrative set in the Ozarks, starring Matthew McConaughey as the main protagonist, Mud, a murderer who is on the lam and hiding from bounty hunters, on a small river island. He is discovered by two local teenage boys, who are drawn into to his problems. I can't say too much more, without giving away the whole movie.

I felt the film did a good job of bringing the viewer in this Ozark culture, and surroundings, and the acting was very good. I wasn't as sold on the actual story, and felt that some aspects of the plot seemed somewhat unbelievable.

None the less, I would recommend this film to others.

Mud Trailer

Awful Nice

In hindsight, I could have skipped this movie. It was bad! It was supposed be about sibling rivalry between two brothers, with a healthy dose of physical comedy. I didn't find it very funny, and didn't take away anything from the viewing.

There was no trailer available, so that why I didn't post one. Just as well.

Downloaded

At last year's SxSW, I saw Alex Winter, Sean Parker, and Shawn Fanning discuss the production of this documentary about Napster. It was nice to see the finished product, and equally cool that all 3 returned this year.

This film was fantastic, and I could easily watch it again. You should go see it, if you can.

Downloaded Trailer

The Punk Singer

This was another excellent music documentary, about Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the band Bikini Kill, a seminal band in the Riot Girl movement. It was funded by Kickstarter, which I was happy to see.

This was a well made documentary, and succeeds in drawing you into Kathleen's life, even if you don't enjoy her music or agree with her politics.

Kickstarter Preview

SxSW 2013 - Day 2

Conversations with Danny Boyle

The first session of the day was the interview of Danny Boyle. Danny was very open, and spent the entire time discussing his late start in life directing (he was in his 40's), his previous movies, and plans for the future.

He also discussed and shows some clips from his latest picture, Trance. However, he was unable to show Trance at SxSW because the European Distributor had exclusive rights to its global premier.

As a teaser, here's the trailer for Trance.

Value 4 Value: Just Getting by in New Media

At the completion of the Boyle session, I hoped on the shuttle to the Long Center, to go see my buddy, Adam Curry. As a arrived, I ran into several fellow No Agenda Show listeners, and Adam's wife, Ms. Micky.

Adam discussed his career, and leading into how came upon the Value for Value model, now employed by the No Agenda Show. It was well executed talk, it's too bad that SxSW chose to have it at the Long Center, and Adam didn't have more time to promote it.

Documentary Shorts 1

Since I was already in the neighborhood, I decided to stay for the first half of the Documentary Shorts. Of the four, I liked the Village, the best. Unfortunately, I had to cut out early, in order to make the Nixon film, back at the Ritz.

After

This film captures a complete day (dusk to dawn) at Auschwitz, in current times, as it is visited by tourists.

The Village

A short film about a Leper Colony in Southern Brazil established in the 1940's, that is slowly vanishing, since all of the residents are now in their 80's and 90's.

Endless Day

A short narrative about a typical night in the life of a chronic insomniac.

In Hanford

An exploration of the environmental disaster that occurred in Hanford, Washington, as the result of Nuclear Arms Manufacturing.

Our Nixon

During Richard Nixon's administration, 3 of his staff members, H. R. Haldeman, Richard Ehrlichman and Dwight Chapin obsessively filmed their daily experiences with Super 8 cameras. The films were seized by the FBI, as part of the Watergate Investigation, and were subsequently placed in the National Archives, where they sat.

This documentary team went through those archives after 40 years, edited them, and produced an amazing documentary.

Our Nixon Trailer

Hey Bartender

This was an interesting documentary on the resurgence of the cocktail, in the wake of the gourmet approach, pioneered by people like Dale DeGoff (who appears in the film). I was surprised at how good this documentary was. It was interesting and entertaining.

Before Midnight

The last film of the day was the premier of Richard Linklater's latest, Before Midnight. It the the third in series of movies, preceded by, Before Sunrise, and Before Sunset. The movies involve encounters between the same two characters (who are played by the same two actors, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy), but are spaced 9-10 years apart in chronology.

One thing struck me as somewhat funny. Earlier in the day, Danny Boyle, had said that when he went back and looked at his films, he like most other directors, had essentially remade the same film over and over again. I had to laugh, because Before Midnight includes long sequences of the two main characters on a leisurely stroll around a Mediterranean Island, discussing their philosophy of life. Watching it, you can't help but think of Slacker.

I had originally gone, because my friend, Graham Reynolds, had done Richard's music, once again. The music however, plays a very subtle, background role. The exact opposite of something like Richard's film, Bernie.

Even though I had not seen the previous two films, Richard's style of storytelling eases you into the story, slowly. I have made a promise to myself, to watch the other two films now.

SxSW 2013 - Day 0 and 1

Day 0

Like the previous 3 years, I spent the day before the start of SxSW at work. Leaving early, I picked up my brother at the airport late in the afternoon, and then headed downtown to get our badges, and bags of shit.

Much to my great annoyance, they did not have sufficient supply of the SxSW Film Books, so I was forced to return for my bag of film shit, on the first day.

After the badge pickup, we met up with some of my brother's current and former co-workers for some beers, followed by dinner the Chuys on Barton Springs Road. I had a fried Avocado, a very interesting dish.

Day 1

James Webb NASA Telescope

Initially, this seemed like a great idea. Even though it was raining, I had come prepared with an umbrella. The presentation was over at the Long Center, however, and I had to take a shuttle to get there.

When I finally saw the display and demos, I must say I was underwhelmed. The entire presentation was dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, and the speaker did not appear to have done any preparation for the talk. He spent the entire time zooming in and out a multiple display setup, with very little explanation.

Bre Pettis Keynote

I headed back to the Convention Center to hear Bre Pettis talk about his 3D Printer company, Makerbot. I had actually met Bre at a Barcamp in Austin about 5 years ago. He was very active in the Maker community. It appears he still is.

I may have to look into buying a 3D printer of my own, in the near future.

Toward the Unification of Physics

University of Texas Physic professor, Steven Weinberg, gave a talk on the recent discoveries of a heavy particle at CERN, that completes the Standard Model. He then went on to discuss what else remains to be done, in order for us to have unified theory of all matter and force.

I found this talk to be interesting, but then again, I was an Engineering Physics major in college. I will say that unlike the NASA presenter earlier in the morning, Professor Weinberg was very comfortable speaking in front of crowds, and his lecture was clearly thought out beforehand, and executed flawlessly.

Awe Inspiring Web Typography You Can Do

I decided to attend this talk with my brother. It was interesting to go to something that was Design oriented, rather than technical.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

Although it was a major feature release, and would be in the theaters shortly after SxSW, I decided to see the Incredible Burt Wonderstone, anyway. The film starred Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey, and Olivia Wilder, with everyone but Buscemi present for the screening.

The basic story line features a pair of aging Vegas magicians, played by Carell and Buscemi, and patterned after Zigfried and Roy, defending their turf against an upstart, street magician, played by Jim Carrey. Carrey's character is an composite of Criss Angel and David Blaine.

Although I found some laughs and chuckles, I recognize that I have a quirky sense of humor, and as a result, don't expect this film to do well, when it is released.

The Burt Wonderstone Trailer

You can watch the trailer here:

TPB AFK - Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard

My second film of the night was a documentary about the 3 Pirate Bay co-founders, in the days before their trial started. An engaging and interesting story for sure.

The Pirate Bay Trailer

Cheap Thrills

The last film of the night was a narrative about a new dad, facing eviction and a layoff. Drowning his worries in booze, he inadvertently crosses the paths of some psychopaths, looking for some dark and sick entertainment.

Cheap Thrills Trailer

Dave Douglas and Joe Lovano Sound Prints Quintet at the Bass Concert Hall

Good thing I read the Chronicle

Living in Austin, I have a weekly ritual where I make sure to obtain an Austin Chronicle on Thursday, and check the local music listings. Fortunately, I just happened to spot a Jazz show at the Bass Concert Hall, for the Dave Douglas and Joe Lovano quintet, on Friday night.

I had to go to this show, because I know Dave. He was in fact, indirectly responsible for helping me find my Jazz piano teacher and mentor, John Esposito back in 1987. I worked with one of his trumpet students, and Dave and John were working together in the band, Second Sight.

Over the remaining 5 years that I lived in the Mid-Hudson Valley, I saw Dave perform with multiple bands, and as part of the FM Artists Coalition in Woodstock, NY. (The FM Coalition was primarily a series of multi-medium, House Shows long before anyone had conceived of the term, House Concert).

I arrived at the Bass about an hour early, and had to wait to enter the hall. They are pretty strict about not allowing photos during the show, so I took this one of the empty stage beforehand.

The members of the band included:

• Joe Lovano - Saxophone
• Dave Douglas - Trumpet
• Lawrence Fields - Piano
• Linda Oh - Bass
• Joey Baron - Drums

The musicianship of this quintet was exceptional. It was a real treat to hear a group playing Jazz at this level.

They played a single set, which lasted about 90 minutes, and at one point of the show, Joe and Dave did share the mic and announce the first group of songs. They neglected or forgot to repeat this later for the remainder of the program. My understanding is that the music selected was inspired by Wayne Shorter, and I heard various homages to Shorter's work hidden within these original compositions.

The following list is an incomplete set list of what they played:

• Sounds Prints (Lovano)
• Sprints (Douglas)
• Dream State (Douglas)
• Weather Man (Lovano)
• Ups and Downs (Douglas)
• Mystic
• High Noon
• Power Ranger (Douglas)
• Be Breath (?)

After the show, I was able to track down Dave, say hello, and get a CD signed. I also discovered that he has played Austin quite often, so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for future shows.

Samples

Although not from this show, I found this link on the NPR site of the quintet playing at the Village Vanguard, in NYC.

The Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII

Several years ago, I stopped writing about the Ravens (and the Orioles and Spurs) in this blog, for fear of jinxing them. People that know me however, know that I follow all 3 teams religiously, particularly the Ravens. Prior to this year, I had seen the Orioles win the World Series in 1983, and the Spurs win the NBA Finals in 2003, in person. There's something very fun about being there when the confetti drops. Obviously, seeing the Ravens win a Super Bowl was on my Bucket List.

This year, the Ravens made it to the Super Bowl. Normally, I would have watched this game at Upper Decks in Austin, with the rest of Nest 512, my weekly ritual during Football season. However, when my lifelong friend called and said he wanted to go to the game, and asked if I was interested, I immediately said yes.

After watching tickets services for days, and exploring every option for airfare, and hotels, we settled on a plan. My friend would fly into Houston, I would pick him up in a rental car, and we would drive to Baton Rouge, which is about an hour outside of New Orleans. After waiting a week, the ticket prices started to come back down, we got ours on the Tuesday before game day. Game on!

Saturday

Getting up early, I left Austin and drove to Houston, where I picked up my buddy at Bush airport around 11AM. It was a great 4.5 hour trip to Baton Rouge. Fortunately, the weather was fantastic.

After checking in to our hotel, we drove into New Orleans, went to the French Quarter, had some excellent Cajun food, and then walked Bourbon Street. There was a surprisingly large contingent of fans for both teams.

Super Bowl Sunday

We got up fairly early Sunday, had breakfast at our hotel and then headed into New Orleans, where we had prepaid for parking all day. On the way in, we stopped at the Marriott near the Convention Center, to pick up our tickets from PrimeSport. I must say, PrimeSport has quite the operation. There was a continual stream of people coming in and picking up tickets.

Tickets in hand, we parked our car. Surprisingly, some people from Baltimore had the space next to us, and were tailgating in the parking garage. This made sense, since there really isn't much space for this at the Super Dome, making me wonder what they do during the regular season.

After a couple of hours, I was able to text some other friends from Nest 512 in Austin, and set up a rendezvous at Cafe du Monde. The Cafe is one of my favorite places in New Orleans. Of course, we had some delicious Beignets, and coffee.

Leaving the Cafe, we then headed over to water front where Nestor Aparicio and WNST were have pre-game party for the Ravens, in Woldenberg Park.

After a 90 minutes or so, all of the Ravens fans present got in a line and walked from the Park to the Super Dome. It was an impressive sight. The line easily extended for more than 9 blocks or so. The entire street was filled with purple jerseys.

The Super Dome and the Big Game

There's no need to recap the game. I must say, the security checkpoints getting into the Super Dome left a little to be desired.

I did manage to get a few shots of myself with the field behind me. Here's one.

Although the game almost looked like a blowout until the power outage, it ended up being quite close. None the less, the Ravens prevailed and won 34 - 31. We spent about a hour or so afterwards down at field level, looking at the aftermath.

Without a doubt, this was an unforgettable weekend.

Update

I found this really cool panoramic picture of the Superdome, two minutes into the first quarter at this site. I have tagged myself in the picture.

A double dose of MGT and CGT at the One World Theater

For several years, I have been trying to persuade Bert Lams to bring the sextet of the Montreal Guitar Trio and the California Guitar Trio, to Austin, via Facebook posts.
Well my nagging payed off, it finally happened. I of course, took advantage of this opportunity, to get tickets to both shows, last night.

Both sets lasted somewhere between 90 - 100 minutes. When both trios played together, as a sextet, the sound was amazingly powerful. It was interesting to hear the mix of nylon and steel string guitars, and watch the differences in hand positions brought about the different tunings used by both trios. MGT comes from a traditional, classical guitar background, whereas CGT is heavily influenced by Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft. Many of compositions featured interlocking layers of polyrhythm and polyphony.

This tour also featured a first, a song specifically written for the sextet, Magneto. Here's to hoping for more touring, and more material like this.

Early Show

For the first show, both trios played a bit tense for their intro segment, but quickly settled down for the sextet. None the less, they reached the crowd, who was very pleased, and responded with a rousing demand for an encore.

Set List

MGT

• El Paso
• Garam Masala

CGT

• Walk Don't Run
• Melrose Avenue
• Beethoven's Fifth

Sextet

• Blockhead
• Breizh Tango - a piece based upon a melody, from the traditional music of Brittany
• Chacarera
• Magneto - specifically composed for the sextet
• While My Guitar Gently Weeps
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Encore

• Bohemian Rhapdsody

Late Show

I would say that for the 2nd show, both trios were more relaxed. This was to be expected. I also noticed that CGT carefully changed the setlist, for two of the songs.

Set List

MGT

• El Paso
• Garam Masala

CGT

• Walk Don't Run
• Melrose Avenue
• Train to Lamy

Sextet

• Blockhead
• Breizh Tango
• Perpetuum Mobile
• Magneto
• While My Guitar Gently Weeps
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Encore

• Bohemian Rhapdsody

There were many magical moments during this show, and it was a great night of music.
I am anxiously hoping that I will get to see the sextet again, in the next few years, as they develop more compositions specifically for the combined ensemble.

RIP: John Braheny

As a result of my involvement with the Austin Music Foundation, and then later, Capitol View Arts, I have been fortunate to have attended multiple songwriting workshops by Pat Pattison, and John and Joanne Braheny. The song writing community here in Austin is very close knit, and feels like a second family. Although 2 years have passed, I remember having an outstanding weekend with the Brahenys, back in July of 2010.

I was very sad to hear via this facebook group, this morning that John Braheny has passed away, from prostate cancer. He will be missed.

RIP: Earl Weaver

Hall of Fame manager, Earl Weaver, passed away today at age 82. He will always be remembered as the greatest manager in the history of the Orioles franchise, and arguably one of the greatest in MLB History.

I went to my first O's game in 1968, I don't recall whether Earl had taken the managerial reigns then or not. But, I did him manage plenty of times from 1969 through 1982.

Apparently, Earl passed away on a baseball fantasy cruise. More info here.

He will be missed.

A double dose of Bert Lams and Tom Griesgraber

History

I am fortunate enough to have gotten to know Bert Lams and Tom Griesgraber over the past few years. During August of 2009, I had blogged about seeing them perform 3 house concerts here, here, and here.

Since they have strong ties to the Austin, they frequently use it as a regional basecamp, performing multiple house concerts in the area. As a result, I had the pleasure of seeing them perform twice this weekend.

FEFC - Friday, January 4th

My friend, Bruce Stoft, set up a concert once again at the First Evangelical Free Church. The room provided had exceptional acoustics.

I estimate that they performed for about 70 minutes. They are now performing a lot of material from their latest CD project, Unamed Lands. Most importantly, they sounded wonderful.

Setlist

I noted the following songs during their set:

• Where the Trail Divides
• Don't Look Back
• Prairie Suite
• A Letter Home
• War Dance
• Rebecca
• Bert Solo: Nascent - Prelude from Bach's First Cello Suite
• Victors Chase
• Unearthly Screams Shattered
• Pacific

Encore

• Train to Lamy Suite

House Concert - Saturday, January 5th

The next night was a little more intimate, since it was in house, located on scenic Mount Bonnell. Once again, Bert and Tom delivered an outstanding set of music, to a crowd which included several Guitar Craft alumni.

Setlist

• Where the Trail Divides
• Don't Look Back
• Prairie Suite
• A Letter Home
• War Dance
• Rebecca
• Unearthly Screams Shattered
• Pacific

Encore

• Train to Lamy Suite
• Suzanne Oleson joined Tom and Bert for a song she had written for her band, Chasing Blue.
  

Before the end of the month

These shows were also a warmup, of sorts. I will be seeing Bert perform again on the 27th of this month in Austin, with the California Guitar Trio, along with the Montreal Guitar Trio, at the One World Theater. I can't wait.

RIP: Ravi Shankar

Sitar virtuoso and famed Indian musician, Ravi Shankar, passed away yesterday. Like many others my age, I was introduced to Ravi and all Indian music, through the Beatles. Hopefully, this is last of these events for the holiday season.