I’ve never gone to South by Southwest because it always seemed too pain-in-the-assy in various ways. My far-off impression has always been that it’s a slightly hipper and more discriminating cousin of ComicCon, which is to say slightly more tolerable than that San Diego gathering but more fanboyish that I would normally find comfortable. But now that Summit’s release date for Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson‘s The Beaver has been bumped back to May 6th, I feel that I need to attend SXSW in order to catch it on March 16th in Austin.

Yes, I’ve decided to spend at least $600 or $700 bills that I could otherwise keep in my savings account so I can (a) see The Beaver a few weeks earlier and (b) see how it plays with the under-35 Austin beer-and-taco crowd.

Yes, I can also catch up with (a) the super-special Ain’t It Cool News 15th Anniversary screening of whatever, (b) Takashi Mike‘s 13 Assassins (which I couldn’t be bothered to see in Cannes last May because I despise fetishistic Asian chopsocky, (c) Rodman Flender‘s Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, (d) Greg Mottola‘s Paul (which I’m probably going to hate), (e) Duncan Jones‘ Source Code (which is probably going to make me sigh and groan a lot), and (f) James Gunn‘s SUPER (which I’m probably going to hate). Plus it’ll probably be fun socially. And I can wear my cowboy hat again.