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South By Southwest is by far the most overwhelming festival/conference out there. But it involves everything I love – tech, games, music, and film over the course of nine crazy days in Austin. Since I went for the Platinum Badge this year, I tried to do everything. Literally.

I quickly realized that wasn’t possible, but I sure gave it my darndest. For posterity’s sake, I tried to jot down every film, panel, and music set that I saw (or caught a part of) over the week. Add on all the parties and meet-ups with friends both new and old and it adds up to an exhausting, but amazing week.

A few notable highlights/awards:

Best Movie – Short Term 12

I don’t have the words to describe this incredible, emotional film, but Film Critc Hulk does.

Funniest Movie – Don Jon’s Addiction

Most Thrilling Movie – The East

Best New Song That I Have Been Playing On Repeat Constantly Since SXSW – Bastille – Pompeii

Top Three New Bands – Bastille, The 1975, CHVRCHES

I swear I’m not biased towards UK bands, it just turned out this way.

Most Emotional Song Performance – Stevie Nicks/Dave Grohl – Landslide

I have to admit getting a bit teary-eyed and having chills the entire time. Stevie Nicks has an amazing voice.

Coolest Song Performance – Depeche Mode – Enjoy the Silence

Singing along in unison with a packed crowd to Depeche Mode’s arguably most iconic song in a venue that has less than 900 capacity was pretty damn cool.

Best Panel – Jeffrey Tambor’s Acting Workshop

Despite never acting (or having ambitions to act), I laughed and learned more with Jeffrey Tambor about life and career than anywhere else during the week.

Best Food – Rachael Ray’s Feedback Party @ Stubbs

The menu was not only delicious, it was free!

Here’s the master list of events I participated in:

Movies

Much Ado About Nothing
Drinking Buddies – Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson, Joe Swanberg
Downloaded – Alex Winter, Shawn Fanning, Sean Parker
Short Term 12 – Destin Daniel Cretton, Brie Larson, entire cast
Don Jon’s Addiction – Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brie Larson, Tony Danza
euphonia – Danny Madden
Some Girl(s)
Linsanity – Jeremy Lin’s Agent
The East – Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgard, Brit Marling, Zal Batmanglij

Shows

Andrew WK @ Viceland
Talib Kweli @ Samsung Galaxy Soundstage
Shakey Graves @ The Parish
Atlas Genius @ The Main
Tegan & Sara @ The Main
Lord Huron @ Clive Bar
Family of the Year @ ACL Moody Theatre
Lord Huron @ ACL Moody Theatre
Bastille @ Club de Ville
The Chevin @ Buffalo Billiards
Ash @ Buffalo Billiards
Bastille @ Cedar Street
CHVRCHES @ Hype Hotel
Pusha T @ MTV Woodies
Trinidad James @ MTV Woodies
Joey Bada$$ @ MTV Woodies
HAIM @ MTV Woodies
Meat Puppets @ Stubbs
Sound City Players @ Stubbs – Foo Fighters, Stevie Nicks, John Fogerty, Rick Springfield, Brad Wilk (Rage Against The Machine), Krist Novoselic, Chris Goss, Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Alain Johannes (Queens of the Stone Age), Lee Ving (Fear)
Local Natives @ Mohawk
Divine Fits @ Radio Day Stage Austin Convention Center
Alt-J @ Mohawk
Feathers @ Brazos Hall
The Neighbourhood @ Brazos Hall
Depeche Mode @ Brazos Hall
Fitz and the Tantrums @ Lustre Perl
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls @ Blackheart
Eagles of Death Metal @ Stubbs
The 1975 @ Stubbs
Frightened Rabbit @ Stubbs
Blue Sky Riders @ Stubbs
Kenny Loggins @ Stubbs
Talib Kweli @ Lustre Perl
Chuck Ragan @ Cedar Street
Matt Pryor (Get Up Kids) @ Cedar Street
Twin Falls (Chris Carrabba) @ Cedar Street
Frank Turner @ Cedar Street

Panels

Machinima & Rooster Teeth Present “Blood, Sweat, and Online Videos: How to Achieve the Digital Dream”
Virtual Reality: The Holy Grail of Gaming – Cliff Bleszinski (Gears of War), Paul Bettner (Words With Friends), Chris Roberts (Wing Commander), Nate Mitchell (Oculus Rift), Palmer Luckey (Oculus Rift)
A Conversation With Danny Boyle – Danny Boyle, Rick Smith (Underworld)
Much Ado About Much Ado – Joss Whedon, Amy Acker, Clark Gregg, Nathan Fillion
Innovation & Leadership in the Agile Age – Scott Cook (Intuit)
Jeffrey Tambor’s Acting Workshop
The Signal & the Noise – Nate Silver
The New Serendipity? – Joichi Ito (MIT Media Lab), Kevin Rose (Digg, Google Ventures), John Perry Barlow, Colin Raney (IDEO)
The Future of Google Search in a Mobile World – Guy Kawasaki, Amit Singhal
A Conversation With Steve Case
Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal) Keynote
You Are Not A Lottery Ticket – Peter Thiel
Deadmau5 & Richie Hawtin – Talk. Techno. Technology
The Anatomy of Amanda Fucking Palmer: An Inside Look
SXSW Keynote – Dave Grohl
Music Curation in 2013 – Ryan Scheiber (Pitchfork), Steve Blatter (Sirius XM)
SXSW Interview: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

9 movies, 17 panels, and 37 shows in 9 days? I think I can do better next year.

I don’t know if it’s a function of getting older with having less free time, but I find my music listening habits have made the transition from albums to almost completely track-based playlists. Part of it is due to the dearth of truly great albums by artists nowadays, and part of it is the simple fact that the best songs are often head and shoulders ahead of the other cuts on the LP.

So after being reminded by the Grammy’s last night that lists are fun to make and discuss, here’s my top 10 list of tracks from 2012 in no particular order. Some of these may look a little dated just by the nature of pop culture riding songs into the ground, but at the end of the day, my main criteria for a great song is the desire to hear it again after listening to it.

Walk The Moon – Anna Sun | Every time I hear this song, I just want to sing along – one of the most infectiously happy songs I’ve heard in a long time.
Usher – Climax | Next-level R&B by producer Diplo and Usher. Fun fact: there’s no actual climax or chorus in this song.
fun. – We Are Young | It’s an anthem perfectly made for graduating high-school seniors or those who wish they were there again.
Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks | Pop-folk from Iceland that always makes me envision life surrounded by rolling green hills.
Gossip – Perfect World | Imagine if Adele was in an indie-pop band and you might get something like this song.
Frank Ocean – Pyramids | Speaking of next-level R&B, this 9:33 long epic is so musically interesting and layered, that I rarely notice it being too long.
The Gaslight Anthem – Here Comes My Man | Maybe the video with Elisha Cuthbert is biasing me, but something about a good old-fashioned rock song with some “Shalalalas” appealed to me.
Japandroids – The House That Heaven Built | Just imagine hearing this song on a warm summer day outside rocking out alongside your best friends. This song was made for arenas.
PSY – Gangnam Style | I’m sure we’re all sick of this by now, but man, when I first saw the video for this song I literally had it on repeat for weeks. Frankly, I still get OP OP OP OPOP in my head randomly.
Cloud Nothings – Stay Useless | You don’t hear rock like this anymore, it’s got the raw energy of early 90’s alterna-grunge with the catchiness of a proto-Weezer. Yes, I just made up two hyphenated words.

Thanks to the magic of Spotify, sharing these lists got a whole lot easier. Check it out below:

best of Archive

SXSW 2013 Recap

Top 10 Songs of 2012

Quentin Tarantino’s Favorite Movies of 2010

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