Never in all my years of reading blogerati coverage about South by Southwest have I seen actual pictures and/or video of Austin places and happenings and pseudo-landmarks. Well, Hollywood Elsewhere is here with a Canon Elph SD1400, and that shit stops tonight. But what is Austin on Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 10:27 pm? I don’t know. I’m just at some bar on Sixth Street, nursing brewskis and uploading photos on my Toshiba. It’s dark and loud and noisy and packed with hee-hee 20somethings, like a thousand other bars in cities all over America and Europe and Southeast Asia.

For a New Jersey/New York guy like myself, Texas used to be an exotic place to visit. It used to be about shitkickers and Texas accents and honky tonks and country music and pick-up trucks. The vibe on Austin’s Sixth Street isn’t “Texas” — it’s overflowing with white 21st Century hip-hop homies dancing to the same tunes and rhythms that you’ll find in bars in San Francisco’s Union Street or in some Boston Back Bay bar or on Ninth Avenue in the 40s. The entire under-35 hip social world has become homogenized and corporatized. Nothing is different or dangerous. Or so it goes on Sixth Street, at least.

I’ve never been a major worshipper of director MIchael Winner, but I’ve enjoyed and will always respect three of his early ’70s films — The Nightcomers, Death Wish and Scorpio. They’re screening this weekend at Santa Monica’s Aero. Variety‘s Steven Gaydos is handling the q & a with Winner. South by Southwest prevents my attending.

What has Will Smith done since the failure of Seven Pounds? Nothing, which is another way of saying he hid for two years and then boldly reemerged last year by committing to Bad Boys and Men in Black sequels. The man is basically George Lucas, talking a diversionary game about wanting to make non-corporate, content-driven movies while doing nothing except going for the safe “brand” money. I’m saying this because he obviously needs to do something that isn’t about growing his bank account, and one good way to do this would be to play Senator Barack Obama in Jay Roach and Danny Strong‘s Game Change.

If I hadn’t been working yesterday on my usual rundown of stimulating articles (including two reviews) and running around trying to get one of those Medeco bolt-lock keys copied (forget it) and trying to return that Sony Bluray player before leaving for Austin, I might have posted a South by Southwest preview article similar to the one by Movieline‘s Jen Yamato.

Like everyone else I agree that Jodie Foster‘s The Beaver, Duncan Jones‘ Source Code (Groundhog Day with a bomb), Greg Mottola‘s repulsive-looking Paul and Billy Bob Thornton‘s Willie Nelson doc top the list. That’s not saying much, is it?

Here’s a good one from the N.Y. Observer’s Mike Taylor, a tech guy: “Abolish South by Southwest!”

http://www.observer.com/2011/tech/abolish-south-southwest?utm_medium=partial-text&utm_campaign=daily-transom&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=DT

I have a sentimental attachment to Burbank (i.e., Bob Hope) airport, and am therefore looking at a Phoenix connection on my way to Austin and South by Southwest. Two laps = six hours, not counting drive-time to and from both airports, or roughly a seven-and-a-half to eight-hour journey. That’s almost what it takes to fly to New York. If I’d flown out of LAX I’d have a one-way flight that would’ve shaved two or three hours. Brilliant.