SXSW has been over for 10 days now and I’m sure some people are still recovering from it. It sure took me a couple of days to emerge from the madness. If you haven’t yet, check out the first set of lessons I’ve learned from SXSW. I was so caught up in the festival that I didn’t have time to write about it. So now that my brain is functioning correctly I can pursue my teachings from the SXSW craziness. So without further a do, I give you the sequel to Lessons from SXSW.
- You will not recognize places that have been transformed into venues. I’ve lived in Austin for almost 13 years now. I ‘ve been what you’d call a downtown rat for a decade now. Clubs and bars have come and gone. I’ve walked or driven by all of downtown multiple times over. And here Pepsi decided to have their daytime party on the parking lot on the corner of 3rd and San Jacinto. As an Austinite, you think “oh yeah, this is usually a $5 parking lot at night“. They just added Pepsi stuff, a giant screen, ping pong tables, tacos, photobooths, and an open bar. Then the party moves across 3rd street at night to a spacious building with 4 chambers including one with a big stage where artists like Snoop Dogg and Pharoah Monch performed. And you think “I’ve never noticed that this building was even there, let alone that it had nothing in it“. Then you have the parking lot on 4th and Colorado that was turned into an outside stage welcoming DJ Jazzy Jeff, LL Cool J, Z-Trip, De La Soul, and more. But the one who takes the cake had to be the Seaholm Power Plant. I’ve driven by that landmark thousands of time on 1st street. I always thought “wow, thank god we have a power plant but how safe is it to have right downtown? Maybe it serves as a generator yet I’ve never seen it in action. Maybe if I touch one of those big wires, I’d get super powers. ” Then I walked in it, and wow! There’s no generators, no wires, no workers in space suits, no whatever it is you’d find in a power plant. The place is just a big empty warehouse with great acoustics. And the place was turned into a SXSW venue for Diplo, Kanye West, Jay-Z and more. Well, so much for super powers…Here’s what it looks like…
- Some volunteers are on a power trip. I do applaud them for sacrificing their free time to help with the festival. Having to deal with people all the time, sometimes drunk, is not an easy task. However, there’s no need to give people attitude over the littlest thing. The true nature of people comes out when you give them a little bit of power. Maybe being able to control other people by simply saying “you have to go. This area is for such and such only” is something to look forward to. I was chilling at Fuze enjoying the sounds of some of my favorite rappers. Then I was invited to go upstairs and hang out with the artists. I was not going to hang out with them but at least take a picture. Just as I was about to approach one of them, a volunteer came to me and told me to leave because I did not have an artist’s wristband. All I asked for was a couple of minutes to briefly praise an artist about his work in music and she gave me an attitude like I was going to cause trouble. Yes, “if she lets me stay there, then everybody will want to stay up there and it’ll be a mess“. To which I replied that I came for the shows, waiting for more than a minute for an artist to turn around and acknowledge me was never the plan. We went back and forth for a couple minutes. And when I finally gave up and complied to the rules anyway, her face basically told me “yeah. I put my foot down. I sure showed him!” You give them a finger-length of power and they take the whole arm. I was actually able her boss to give me a legit pass to be there and when she saw me upstairs I was happy to show it to her.
- I also noticed that there were a lot of drummers out this year. Crowd were gathering around many street drummers on 6th street. They were actually quite good. I’ve gotten to see quite few of them then there’s that homeless bearded old man who bangs on buckets with no rhythm whatsoever with 2 sticks. You can find him on Congress or different corners of the Warehouse District. When I saw him with his full bucket set, I thought “all this great music out there and here’s our local drummer! Reppin’ Austin, banging on buckets…Keep It Weird, old man!“. Here’s a video of some street drummer and a cipher on 6th street.
These stories are just things that I’ve noticed. I was not everywhere (although I wish I was!). Again, if you have more lessons you’d like to share and particular stories you’d want to write about, feel free. What did you learn or notice during SXSW 2011?