(Credit:
Nicole Lee/CNET)
SXSW just launched its "panel picker," where the public is invited to vote (yes or no) on different panel ideas, as well as weigh in with comments.
Our Buzz Out Loud podcast is one of the panels up for your consideration. So head to the panel picker at panelpicker.sxsw.com, and search for Buzz Out Loud, or go right to this link to vote.
Of course while you're there, you can vote and comment on tons of other cool ideas for SXSW panels. And you should. There are some great proposals.
Even if you don't think you can make it to Austin in March, we'd still very much appreciate you telling the SXSW organizers you support us. Unless you hate us. In which case there's totally not a panel picker or anything. This was all a ruse.
Check out exclusive SXSW interviews with The Decemberists, The Avett Brothers, Drew Andrews, Miranda Lee Richards, Honey Claws, and the founder of I Can Has Cheeseburger, Ben Huh! I also met up with Vetiver, Meiko, and An Horse--so stay tuned to the page below for those interviews. My favorite shows (besides the artists above) with were Handsome Furs, Dirty Projectors, Michna, These Are Powers and Loney Dear. One observation about Austin is that everyone in Austin must listen to the same cool radio station because everywhere you go (at restaurants, hotels, in cabs, etc.) you hear indie music ringing throughout the airwaves. You know it's hip town when you hear Fleet Foxes in the elevator. Oh and everyone, young and old, is in a band.
Jeff, Wilson, and Justin recover from their hangovers with ace reporter Caroline McCarthy. We chat about Wilson's drunken debauchery and Caroline's bacon tattoo.
(Credit:
University of Wisconsin)
Some days on The 404, there isn't much news to report, so we do something we like to call "milking," and boy are we good at it! It's not for lacking of trying. We spend as much as 10 minutes every day looking for stuff on the Interwebs to riff on, and while we could talk about hackers taking apart Safari in seconds, it's really not that funny. And it's not 404-esque material. See how much text I've written, and really I haven't said anything!
In actual stories today, Caroline McCarthy tells us that there are bacon tattoos at SXSW. We think someone spammed our poll. President Obama makes a terrible, terrible 404-style joke about bowling and the Special Olympics. (We wish he would come on our show.) Google gives you an "Undo Send" feature in Gmail. We think it would be more effective if it had a five-hour, post-hangover undo-send feature. And we're really, really tired of Jason Seigel & Co. movies like "I Love You, Man." But it does bring up fond memories of Jennifer Love Hewitt in that teen classic "Can't Hardly Wait."
EPISODE 303
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Ben Huh - founder of I Can Has Cheezburger?
I've been in Austin for less than 24 hours and I'm already exhausted but Ben Huh the founder of I Can Has Cheezburger woke me up--I meet up with him for my first interview at SXSW. He was a speaker on a SXSW Interactive panel called "UR Blog Sux and Print is Dead." The panelists discussed the pros and cons of being Internet famous and gave advice on how to be an successful blogger. Speakers included Christian Lander from Stuff White People Like, Kerry Miller from Passiveaggressivenotes.com, Heather Armstrong from Blurbodoocery Inc, and Ana Marie Cox from Air America.
Watch: Interview with the I Can Has Cheezburger guy
Follow me on Twitter: petergavin
Stay tuned to Last.fm at SXSW for updates and interviews. Coming up, interviews with The Decemberists, Meiko, The Avett Brothers, Vetiver, Drew Andrews, The Golden Filter and more.
Back from the weekend, Justin watches "Watchmen" again, Wilson catches "Coraline" in 3D, and Jeff tries to kill himself when his parents and soon-to-be parents-in-law spend the weekend picking a place to get married and the font of the invitation envelopes.
Speaking of "Caroline" in 3D, it gave Wilson a massive headache. The film was incredibly imaginative and creative yet the story was a bit lacking. Reminds Wilson of "Alice in Wonderland."
In actual stories today, we talk mostly about Twitter. Jason Calacanis wants to pay the company $250,000 so that he can be at the top of suggested followers list. While we think suggested followers is a halfway decent idea (especially if they personalize the list), we don't especially think we want to follow Calacanis all day long. Also, Twitter may have caused a mistrial in a case where a juror tweeted the jury's finding. Twitter! Haven't you caused enough damage to people's lives!?!?
Tomorrow, we have Dr. Michael Breus, the Sleep Doctor, on the show. So please call into the show with all your questions about sleep. While it may sounds like a "snoozer"--Ha, get it?!?!--we promise the Sleep Doctor has never failed to entertain. Also, on the show on Wednesday is debbiefromtoronto, probably the hottest Canandian blonde fan of The 404. And ending the week is the composer of "Still Alive" from The Orange Box, Jonathan Coulton. As usually, the number is 1-866-404-CNET (2638). We need callbacks for the show. You know the part where we go, "Hey this is Jeff Bakalar from Hoboken, New Jersey, and you're listening to The 404, the show where [INSERT WITTY COMMENT]."
EPISODE 299
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As I reported here a few weeks ago, professional video gaming leagues and organizations are hoping that, over time, their industry can be seen as a sport on par with soccer, baseball, football, and so on.
The Championship Gaming Series says it will open a training center in Wuhan, China.
(Credit: Championship Gaming Series)Now, one of those leagues, the Championship Gaming Series, has decided to up the ante by creating a training facility and a dedicated game playing arena in the booming Chinese city of Wuhan.
I talked to Andy Reif, commissioner of the CGS, the other day, and he explained that the idea behind building the training center is essentially that you can't build a new sport without also having what amounts to an incubator for talent.
That's why the league is setting up its facility in Wuhan, a city that Reif told me has more than 50 universities and more than 1.5 million students. Truly.
The training center itself will be structured around bringing in potential players and testing them and training them on skills needed to compete at the highest levels of the nascent sport.
Really, that means looking for and developing players' hand-eye coordination, as well as training players on the games themselves.
In addition, the league is building a 1,000-seat arena that will be used exclusively for matches.
The CGS got started with an inaugural player draft at the Playboy Mansion in June 2007, and it did its second draft at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, earlier this month.
The Championship Gaming Series conducted its inaugural player draft at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on June 12, 2007.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News.com)And while the league has managed to pull off some high-profile events and has some big money behind it--Microsoft, DirecTV, and others--I'm a little skeptical of the idea of building an arena and a training center.
On the one hand, it's probably not that expensive to pursue such a venture in China, and it's a good place to look for new talent, given the high degree of interest in that country in video games.
On the other hand, I kind of think video gamers are the types of people who are self-taught and might not respond well to the kind of indoctrination of a training center.
For its part, Wuhan seems like it must be an interesting place these days. Not only is it the CGS' choice for setting up shop, it's also where Second Life land baroness Anshe Chung has set up headquarters for her growing business. Among other things, Chung is using her facilities to train people to create content for Second Life and other virtual worlds.
Disclaimer: My wife works for Second Life publisher Linden Lab.
Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
(Credit: Kurt Wolff)In case you haven't noticed, the Download Music crew is back in San Francisco after a massive week of music at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. We've been posting like crazy to Crossfade about some of our favorite shows; we picked a handful of top artists for our Best of SXSW playlist; and we cut a special SXSW episode of our weekly music show Crossfade TV as well, highlighting great performances by the likes of Duffy, Lou Reed, Ice Cube, Explorer's Club, These Are Powers, Enslaved, and Guilty Simpson.
Slide on over to CNET TV for the latest episode of Crossfade TV.
Enslaved
(Credit: Kurt Wolff)I have to admit, I know little about the current metal scene, black, death, or otherwise. Which is exactly why I was so blown away by the performances of two Norwegian metal bands during South By Southwest: Enslaved and 1349. They played back-to-back showcases at Red 7 last week, and while I didn't catch a full set of either band, it was enough to know I need to hear more.
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(Credit:
Kurt Wolff)
Every year at SXSW, you can hardly walk down Sixth Street without catching wind of some artist or another who's "the one" on the verge of a breakout. This year, though, one of the biggest buzz acts was definitely Duffy, a petite blond Welsh singer who's debut album, Rockferry, is currently No. 1 in the U.K. (it's scheduled to be released stateside in May). Because her first single, the hook-filled "Mercy," had just begun making the rounds, few in Austin had actually heard her music--but a lot had heard about her. Her showcase at Stubb's Saturday night was plenty full.
Duffy got an ear-catching 1960s pop-soul style that channels vintage singers such as Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, and Sammi Smith. Comparisons to Amy Winehouse (who made her U.S. debut at last year's SXSW) ran rampant, though truth is they're only vaguely justified: both artists have obvious love for a vintage '60s R&B sound, but Duffy's is big, wide, and lush--polished, even--while Winehouse keeps things funkier and more raw.
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AA Bondy live at SXSW
He's from upstate New York, but he fits right in here in Austin, Texas with his could-be-from-the-south songwriter style. This is a live shot of AA Bondy at the Creekside Lounge on Wednesday. There was a drunk heckler in the crowd who claimed he was "feelin' it" but his sincerity was questionable. Other fans (like myself) kept our comments to ourselves and quietly enjoyed his heartfelt performance, which was nice mellow break from all the chaos and "butt rock" blaring nearby on 6th street.
We've selected AA Bondy for our Best of SXSW feature, which will feature all of the best bands we see this week (coming soon). For now enjoy our free playlists and SXSW 2008 Pre-Party. Here's the Download Music review of AA Bondy:
"Bondy's "American Hearts" record is upstate alt-folk at its most wistful and, well, bighearted. Summoning the studio ghosts of the great '60s Dylan and Band sessions cut in those hills, Bondy winds up somewhere between the reedy Neil Young and the scuffed Jeff Tweedy."
