Page Two

There is very little like the still of Monday morning after the SXSW Film, Multimedia, and Music conferences end. The city is just back to normal -- which seems slow, at least for a few days. It was like the time I saw The Wild Bunch in Times Square the week it was released. (I remember this because at the end of that week, nine minutes were cut from the film, including one crucial scene.)

By the accident of being in the city and looking for something to do in the middle of the day, we ended up watching The Wild Bunch. It wasn't just that it was on the big screen, it was that nothing before has been seen like it. To see it on TV or even in the theatre today is to miss the impact of one of the most beautifully edited of all American films -- its slow-motion violence has become so common as to become a television commercial staple. Back then, it was startling cinematic poetry. Walking out of the theatre, into the glare of the sun upon Times Square, the city seemed still, so quiet and calm compared to what we had just been through. New York City is never quiet.

Driving to work after the ten days of SXSW, I feel trapped in a color TV commercial from the Sixties, everything so clean and smooth and slick. More a sliding than a driving, waiting for the collapse when the energy finally leaves my body and I fall asleep somewhere, anywhere. This issue is slowly being ground out, pages of reviews, written, edited, designed, proofread, corrected... always there is the work of the issue.

I'm not going to go into detail on SXSW. Online, I've been accused of doing it for Masonic Lodges, rectum-painting and collecting -- vile motives indeed. But the conference events are over, they went wonderfully, and it was fantastic to have the Awards Show at the Music Hall. That's my statement.

There are too many people to thank so I won't get started because I'll leave too many out. One thing I've noticed is that Nick Barbaro, publisher of the Chronicle and executive director of SXSW, rarely gets the credit he deserves (for example, he's not named in most of the hate mail I've received and he really should be, as he is equally responsible for Masonic Lodges and silver-painted rectums). It is in Barbaro's nature to avoid any limelight and over the years he has become quite good at it. This does not absolve him of great responsibility for all that just happened and all that soon will. (I could say the same about SXSW executive director Roland Swenson but he does occasionally take the heat.)

There is also much coming up, not only serious issues facing the city such as the upcoming elections but the annual Short Story contest announcement, more stories to tell and more news to report. There is sleep and then more sleep. And there is the next issue.