If you got to this point by googling "SXSW" or something along those lines, hoping to find some live, first-hand accounts about the bands and the scene and so forth... this isn't that place. Go ahead and resume downloading choice bootleg Government Mule tracks or whatever it is you do in your spare time.
No, this isn't that place indeed. Long time Affirmers (you three know who you are) should well know how I feel about South by Southwest. Now, brace yourself, but, shockingly, my views on the subject are negative. I think in all the years I've lived here, I've seen exactly one band during SXSW (New Orleans' own Dash Rip Rock, at Cheapo Records a couple of years ago, what up?).
But this isn't the time for me to bear that cross again. SXSW has done quite well without me, and I've done ok without it. Like most of my ex-girlfriends, I pretend it doesn't exist even as I wish that it were fundamentally different enough to enjoy.
No, caught up in the rapture of watching that merry band of future assistant coaches known as the Duke men's basketball team drop their first round game to the Lehigh Businessmen or Land Sharks or whatever the hell they are, I thought I'd update you about this year's festival from a non-participant's viewpoint.
It sucks.
Nuff said. I know the neck tattooed, nose pierced throngs may find this hard to believe, but Austin is filled with people who need to travel back and forth to their jobs every day. Even during SXSW. Oblivious to that economic fact, the rabble ooze across block after downtown block like an aimless, witless, drunken, unemployed Occupy gathering (or, an Occupy gathering), these people have pretty much succeeded in shutting down access to downtown and with it carrying on all that stuff that we do in offices every day.
So here's some observations about this year's fest versus prior years.
It seems like the pedestrians are much more aggressive and squirrel-like. For those who may not be familiar with the format, SXSW doesn't happen in just one centralized spot. Rather, bands appear in various clubs, bars, restaurants, parking lots, alleyways and open spaces all over the city. True, most of it centers in the downtown area, but the somewhat disparate locations require festival goers to spend a good part of their time getting from place to place to place. And they do so by any means necessary: walking, cabs, cars, "pedicabs," city bus, bikes, U-boats...you name it. The problem is that there's so many people on foot they can tend to spill out into the streets, and at the same time people in cars are trying to drive on said streets. I've noticed this year it seems especially like people aren't waiting for lights to change before crossing the street. They're just blithely walking in the streets like they were extensions of the sidewalk. They're darting in front of cars. You name it. Now, this is annoying as hell for people like me trying to drive to and from their offices. But the real problem here is the danger this poses for the festival goers. Its not always a certainty that every motorist will always see every pedestrian. The more chances these people take, the more likely that an accident will happen. It just seems like its getting more and more dangerous.
The complicating factor is that, thanks to the city's renowned urban planning and transportation plan, which is to say, zilch, most of downtown and the South Congress area resembles IH-10 out of Houston during the Hurricane Rita evacuation. A big sprawling line of cars idling, unable to do much of anything but inch along due to the traffic. Good job of planning for all these crowds, Austin. You people have really outdone yourself. SXSW is turning into one of those deals where its so crowded no one goes there anymore. Traffic can't move, parking is non-existent, buses are unreliable and get caught up in that mess...its just one gigantic cluster.... I'm all fine with having a big city festival that brings in lots of tourists who spend their money and have a good time, but SXSW really exposes the utter lack of any coherent local transportation infrastructure. We have a fantastically expensive train that runs, largely empty, between Cedar Park (the kind of place where you have a very full choice of taxidermists) and the Austin Convention Center (home to about 500 computer industry-related conventions a year...lots of guys in short sleeve dress shirts away from home for one weekend of the year, they like to eat BBQ and play golf, wild men). We have a huge bus fleet that runs mostly empty all day, everywhere in town. But unfortunately, much of Austin's office space and its bars and other hot spots finds itself in the same location. Austin has tried to create a kind of "livable downtown" area, promoting condo and loft development downtown. But it didn't think about how thousands of people would move in and around that area during events like SXSW, or the Republic of Texas motorcycle rally, which also brings downtown to a standstill.
It seems like there's a lot more people than previous years. So much for the recession. The whole enterprise also seems more commercialized. Every corner has some company that's established an advertising beachhead, luring in prospective customers. One company even brought a camel. That's right, an actual camel, from the desert, for people to sit on and have their picture made. Cars entirely covered with company logos ride all through the area, advertising for Chevrolet, or this or that computer company. Its fine by me, but its interesting that Politically Sensitive Austin sees this crass commercialism influx. Surprised not to have seen beer or Red Bull girls. I guess that would have been oppressive.
Oh, and I noticed Amanda Shaw isn't playing here. How can that be? Since, she's...so...awesome and everything.
I guess that's pretty much it. You folks have a good time. Try not to get run over by a camel.
No, this isn't that place indeed. Long time Affirmers (you three know who you are) should well know how I feel about South by Southwest. Now, brace yourself, but, shockingly, my views on the subject are negative. I think in all the years I've lived here, I've seen exactly one band during SXSW (New Orleans' own Dash Rip Rock, at Cheapo Records a couple of years ago, what up?).
But this isn't the time for me to bear that cross again. SXSW has done quite well without me, and I've done ok without it. Like most of my ex-girlfriends, I pretend it doesn't exist even as I wish that it were fundamentally different enough to enjoy.
No, caught up in the rapture of watching that merry band of future assistant coaches known as the Duke men's basketball team drop their first round game to the Lehigh Businessmen or Land Sharks or whatever the hell they are, I thought I'd update you about this year's festival from a non-participant's viewpoint.
It sucks.
Nuff said. I know the neck tattooed, nose pierced throngs may find this hard to believe, but Austin is filled with people who need to travel back and forth to their jobs every day. Even during SXSW. Oblivious to that economic fact, the rabble ooze across block after downtown block like an aimless, witless, drunken, unemployed Occupy gathering (or, an Occupy gathering), these people have pretty much succeeded in shutting down access to downtown and with it carrying on all that stuff that we do in offices every day.
So here's some observations about this year's fest versus prior years.
It seems like the pedestrians are much more aggressive and squirrel-like. For those who may not be familiar with the format, SXSW doesn't happen in just one centralized spot. Rather, bands appear in various clubs, bars, restaurants, parking lots, alleyways and open spaces all over the city. True, most of it centers in the downtown area, but the somewhat disparate locations require festival goers to spend a good part of their time getting from place to place to place. And they do so by any means necessary: walking, cabs, cars, "pedicabs," city bus, bikes, U-boats...you name it. The problem is that there's so many people on foot they can tend to spill out into the streets, and at the same time people in cars are trying to drive on said streets. I've noticed this year it seems especially like people aren't waiting for lights to change before crossing the street. They're just blithely walking in the streets like they were extensions of the sidewalk. They're darting in front of cars. You name it. Now, this is annoying as hell for people like me trying to drive to and from their offices. But the real problem here is the danger this poses for the festival goers. Its not always a certainty that every motorist will always see every pedestrian. The more chances these people take, the more likely that an accident will happen. It just seems like its getting more and more dangerous.
The complicating factor is that, thanks to the city's renowned urban planning and transportation plan, which is to say, zilch, most of downtown and the South Congress area resembles IH-10 out of Houston during the Hurricane Rita evacuation. A big sprawling line of cars idling, unable to do much of anything but inch along due to the traffic. Good job of planning for all these crowds, Austin. You people have really outdone yourself. SXSW is turning into one of those deals where its so crowded no one goes there anymore. Traffic can't move, parking is non-existent, buses are unreliable and get caught up in that mess...its just one gigantic cluster.... I'm all fine with having a big city festival that brings in lots of tourists who spend their money and have a good time, but SXSW really exposes the utter lack of any coherent local transportation infrastructure. We have a fantastically expensive train that runs, largely empty, between Cedar Park (the kind of place where you have a very full choice of taxidermists) and the Austin Convention Center (home to about 500 computer industry-related conventions a year...lots of guys in short sleeve dress shirts away from home for one weekend of the year, they like to eat BBQ and play golf, wild men). We have a huge bus fleet that runs mostly empty all day, everywhere in town. But unfortunately, much of Austin's office space and its bars and other hot spots finds itself in the same location. Austin has tried to create a kind of "livable downtown" area, promoting condo and loft development downtown. But it didn't think about how thousands of people would move in and around that area during events like SXSW, or the Republic of Texas motorcycle rally, which also brings downtown to a standstill.
It seems like there's a lot more people than previous years. So much for the recession. The whole enterprise also seems more commercialized. Every corner has some company that's established an advertising beachhead, luring in prospective customers. One company even brought a camel. That's right, an actual camel, from the desert, for people to sit on and have their picture made. Cars entirely covered with company logos ride all through the area, advertising for Chevrolet, or this or that computer company. Its fine by me, but its interesting that Politically Sensitive Austin sees this crass commercialism influx. Surprised not to have seen beer or Red Bull girls. I guess that would have been oppressive.
Oh, and I noticed Amanda Shaw isn't playing here. How can that be? Since, she's...so...awesome and everything.
I guess that's pretty much it. You folks have a good time. Try not to get run over by a camel.
1 comment:
For San Diego, the major event is Comic Con. Of course I'm yelling things like "Get out of my city!" since traffic gets unbearable during this time.
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