What a day; SXSW (originally a music and film festival) is now the tech Mecca for its Interactive portion. It is beyond packed to capacity, there are so many people at the convention, the energy is effusive and infectious and you can feel the electricity of people excited to see panels and watch talks — it’s so inspiring. Today I went to the convention center after lunchtime (after my tech quandaries with livestreaming) and saw friends, reconnected with people from last year, met many new friends, posed for a bunch of pictures, did a couple interviews and met so many warm, wonderful, smart, diverse, fully engaged people. This is a really awesome time — and I get to hang out with my dear sweet, sweet Jonno (le John D.). Plus I met Steve Hall — Adrants! Still kind of fangirled about that.
The panel I was on today was the esteemed Lisa Vandever’s Porn Police: Know the Rules — she’s the devoted, tireless force behind erotic film festival Cinekink NYC, which is an open film fest that tours the US and bring amazing, experimental and indie erotic/explicit films from around the world to the states. I had no idea how much effort she goes through to make it happen, not to mention her endeavors to respect the sexual (and “obscenity”) community standards of each it city she brings the fest’s latest (or “best-of”) selections to. It was not my panel and I’d say that about 1/3-1/2 the chairs were filled. The audience was truly into the subject matter (mostly 2257 and its impact on everyone from Hollywood filmmakers to couples doing their own erotic film shoots). I didn’t agree entirely with the legal expert on the panel, but we had creative and respectful discussion, and then terrific questions from the audience-participants.
As soon as there’s a podcast of the session I’ll post it here. In the meantime, here’s a podcast of the session I missed, which I really wanted to check out: Pink Ghetto Blasters: Destigmatizing Sex via Online Community Building (MP3).
In the meantime, my media today was limited, as I figured out where everything is and did the meet and greet: Justin.tv hasn’t linked my streaming camera to their service yet, so do enjoy my adventures (and occasional unintentional filming) on my Qik page (again, the URL is the RSS if you need it right away, and I hooked it up to my Twitter account if you’d prefer to get instant livestream updates that way). It’s like being with me at any given moment — and I know the film quality is low, but it’s new technology and it’s just fun with no editing or idea how things will turn out.
Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid.
I think the best highlights are finding Irina and Eddie (yo GETV!) and checking out her craziest new idea for SXSW: Techcab Confessions. (Check it out, it’s very “Night on Earth”) When she got the car, she showed me and a few friends her pimpin’ ride and then took us for a ride, literally. The, um, comments are really unscripted, like way. Insults flew for a minute toward certain tech personalities, one confession of unintended sex was made, all in good fun (I hope) and the best term flung was, “He’s not a douche, he’s a douchebaguette.”
Enjoy these two videos I shot of the experience, in sequence — Irina’s Slick Ride, and then the Techcab Confessions Virgin Ride Of Infamy.
Tomorrow (today!) I’ll be livestreaming here a lot, maybe even from my own panel Sexual Privacy Online (@ 5pm). See you there!
Violet, I can’t believe I’m just getting around to reading this. I came home from SXSW and have been sick ever since…seemingly like tons of other people who were there. I’m lovin that you were kind of fangirled at meeting me because I was seriously fanboyed about meeting you!
I’ve always been a fan and it was so nice to finally meet you. You’re a really, really nice person:-) Iy was great spending time with you, going to your panels and just talking to you. I hope we cross paths again sometime soon.
One delayed flight and some much needed sleep later, also beginning the SXSW recovery process. Many, many thanks for the kind words – though not sure “tireless” applies at the moment – and for your wonderful contributions to the Porn Police panel. So happy you were a part of it!
It was really cool to meet you and hear that you read Ars :)
I am so sorry I am not there this year. Sounds like such a good time and such good panels. I found the energy last year was so infectious. So different than net porn conference, for sure. Much more pleasant for me. Thank goodness for podcasts and I will be on the lookout for your various blogging efforts. Very cool.