SXSW Online

SXSW Online 2021: The Recap

Posted on by Paul in South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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SXSW Online 2021 is now in the books. It was a good time, despite not really being quite like SXSW in a normal year. As usual, the Panic Manual crew convened to break down the good, the bad, and the lack of breakfast tacos.

Best Act?

Paul: All the acts on Damnably’s showcase were great, but Grrrl Gang especially stood out for me. With extremely catchy melodies, this poppy indie rock band out of Indonesia really charmed me.

Ricky: The Chairs! Really good and unexpected, this Taiwanese band’s retro lounge pop really captured it for me. Great production and good tunes. I’ve been listening to them ever since their showcase.

Gary: Production value mattered a lot more this year and I did not see too many sets, so it’s not really a fair fight … but TEKE::TEKE was very fun.

Favourite Moment?

Gary: Watching a fictional Ninjababy melt away.

Paul: Norway takes the prize for most impressive showcase that really made the most of the format. This wasn’t just a performance video – it was a full on film.

Ricky: When I realized that my TV had the app and I didn’t have to cast my browser to the TV.

Biggest Disappointment?

Gary: Not being in Austin. For once I miss sore shoulders and tired feet.

Ricky: Black Country, New Road sounds like an over ambitious school project. There is something there, but playing one song for their set was a bit disappointing.

Paul: I didn’t even realize this until after the fact, but in retrospect, it was a bit of a disappointment how small the Canadian contingent was at this year’s festival compared to past years. Did the bulk of the Canadian music industry just decide it wasn’t worth the effort if they can’t head down to Austin and gorge themselves on tacos? If that’s the case, I guess I can’t totally blame them.

It’s weird to complain about this since we here at the Panic Manual have an unofficial rule (which we almost always break) of not going out of our way to see too many Canuck acts that we can usually see easily enough back home, but it was still a little disappointing. Of the ones that did show up though, the aforementioned TEKE::TEKE and No Joy both put on enjoyable shows.

SXSW was definitely a bit different this year. So, what did you think ?

Paul: As I watched the various showcases and talks throughout the week, I was reminded of the old ad campaign – “Is it live or is it Memorex?” SXSW Online definitely veered more towards the side of Memorex. While there was still a lot to like about the festival in online form, there was something lost in the way of spontaneity and obviously, not actually being in Austin takes away a bit from the whole experience. On the other hand, it was still great to discover new music and I somehow felt more free to just check out random things I might not have had I been there in person. And I did appreciate the fact that I can now revisit most of the music showcases and panels and check out stuff I didn’t see first time around – I always leave SXSW with at least a couple of acts I missed out on seeing. Still, let’s hope we can get back there next year. And have some breakfast tacos.

Gary: If remote SXSW is to persist in some form, the distribution model has to change – and not just from the organizers but from myself as attendee as well. Absent physicality also means other distractions that seriously impeded my participation in and enjoyment of showcases. I might consider taking time off next time, even IF it is still virtual. I most sincerely hope not.

Ricky: I miss SXSW terribly. SXSW Online was still good for discovering new bands, but I miss everything about it so much.

SXSW Film Review: Oxy Kingpins (Brendan FitzGerald)

Posted on by Gary in Movies, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

The-Oxy-Kingpins
Why were cameras allowed in a Nevada court where logistic companies were fighting a losing battle in their war to shield the American public from their corporate agenda during the opioid crisis of the 2000s? I don’t know; probably the same reason why drug dealers allowed the camera to capture their stories on the same subject as well.

More than half a million Americans have already succumbed to the opioid epidemic – and that’s just from the opioid itself. In a country made numb and inert by racial inequity, gun violence, and wealth disparity, this is what touched the nerves of many groups of powerful lawyers. Oxy Kingpins is a film that presents the ongoing saga of trying to right this particular wrong through the legal avenue in just one state.

There have been quite a few documentaries on this topic. Frontline’s Chasing Heroin was an early eye-opener, for example. In comparison, Kingpins, while highly polished, does not strike at your sense of disbelief by revealing much privileged information. The stories, the emotions, even the legal actions seemed an inevitable rehash with a foregone conclusion at this point in time. No matter the outcome of these trials, executives at the logistics and pharmacy companies have already walked away scot-free. What will you do about it – make a documentary? While the filmmakers shared in such anguished sentiments, there was not a clear message when the credits rolled. Perhaps that was intentional. The crispness of this production about tragic addictions and destitution does seem to stylistically mirror the attitude of the film’s namesake: suave, oleaginous, somehow unhealthily and eternally evasive.

SXSW Film Review: Ninjababy [Yngvild Sve Flikke]

Posted on by Gary in Movies, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

Since we hit peak accidental-pregnancy-drama back in 2007, I don’t think I have set eyes on another fictional account of adventitious gamete excursion. A decade of taboo breaking has also lessened the novelty and impact of these stories on the typical audience. I, for one, no longer remember what Juno or Knocked Up was precisely about. Which mean it is the perfect time for a revival. And since stoic Norwegians are the perfect embodiment of the “no-fuss”, pragmatic Scandinavian stereotype, why not marry the two and watch the ensuing hilarity?

I’d like to think Ninjababy is borne of such a light-hearted meeting of ideas. But in truth it does not matter if it’s meant to be comedic or a moral statement. Aspiring cartoonist Rakel suddenly finds herself 6 months pregnant, which, among other inconveniences, quickly becomes the most inconveniently all-consuming event, as pregnancies are wont to do. She needs to deal with it quickly, before it gets out (of hand) and destroys her future. However, as she is dealing with a living, breathing, energy-sucking human being, that’s not so easy. Personifying (because anthropomorphasization does not work on humans-to-be) it as NINJABABY due to its uncanny ability to stay undetected until well-after the abortion window, Rakel must negotiate with herself, boyfriends, sisters, as well as the snarky baby and come up with a pragmatically workable solution.

While Ninjababy is a great animated character with quick one-liners. Rakel’s attitude carries the entire film. Of course, she is not without feelings of remorse for the welfare of her child, but there are other calculations that must be balanced. Half-way through, most would think that she will eventually give in, have the baby, and live as a sedentary housewife. But that’s not how she rolls. Whether looking at people and doing computational > eval() like Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes, directing her love-interest and the one-night-stand dad-to-be about, or acting the middle-class-ist who punches up, her character only strengthens as the film develops. The most riotous moment is when Rakel sneaks into a prep class to “test” people, only to get drawn into an argument with potential adoptive parents on how their target pool, and by extension their moral benevolence, is not racially diverse enough. That scene alone makes this film a worthwhile watch. But ultimately what I like about the film is in fact its pragmatism. Sure, one may think it’s a great feminist statement to reject the cliché expectation – but being a rebel for rebellion’s sake requires confirmation, from onside or outside. And when others are evaluating your “worth” with their own formula, where does that leave you? Life will go on regardless … why not dictate it the way you want?

SXSW Film Review: The Hunt for Planet B [Nathaniel Kahn, 2021]

Posted on by Gary in Movies, South By Southwest | Leave a comment

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While it is generally accepted that the answer to all questions in the Universe is 42, it is not clear how it applies to the question of advanced civilizations out there. Can there only be 42 planets that sustain life at any one time? Are there 42 different recipes to build self-sustaining lifeforms? Perhaps there are 42 planets, organic molecules be damned, that form themselves a long-range intergalactic “civilization” on a time-scale unfathomable to our feeble instruments of thought?

The exo-planet issue has of course been resolved recently. You will recall that in February 2017, NASA announced their findings in the TRAPPIST-1 system, where not only could planets be found, but every single one is Earth-sized and at least three of them are in the habitable Goldilocks zone. Naturally, the only thing on most people’s mind was: can we ever move there? Travel posters were soon designed about these exotic paradises, where 6 “moons” pirouette across the horizon like cheap targets in some fun-fair. Never mind that these environs would probably kill even short-term visitors in fascinatingly unanticipated ways: “For several trillion dollars, experience radiantly purple sky as a 300 millisecond short-term memory just before your skull is blasted open by the steam from your own eyeballs!”

The Hunt for Planet B is a compositionally straight-forward documentary. Interviews with leading scientists and engineers working in telescope construction and exoplanet research are stitched together to introduce their origins, passions, and concerns on the question of finding a second home. It’s like surveying the consensus among cartographical wizards from the 15th century about the possibility and morality of moving to Terra Incognita, except it contains exclusive footage during the construction of the James Webb telescope. The many personal vignettes from the scientists add to the human element, and are happily not included just to bond the pieces of footage together. That job falls to the occasional radio broadcast background from the ’80s, reminding us just how close a Planet B might be: TRAPPIST-1 is just 40 light years away, still basking in “Just the Two of Us” from Bill Withers, #18 on the charts in 1981, for the first time.

It is clearly a universal curiosity to seek out or refute the possibility of another Earth out there, making the topics of this film a perennial interest. While it focuses on the search, which is the least we can do at the moment, a huge issue as we become more equipped to explore distant worlds is the philosophy with which we approach such travel: are we just looking for a way to leave our present abode like an irresponsible interstellar renter? As highlighted in the film, there are already “ethical” calls to curb exo-planetary hunts because it distracts from our current ecological plights. But we could also look forward to contrast our planet with a truly feasible alternative, in hopes to re-affirm the bond with our home world. There are even more convoluted and existential discussions to be had, of course, but here the film leaves it simply at the pragmatic question: “Would you go”? Personally, interplanetary travel is little different from intra-planetary travel, and shit gets left behind. (Literally.) I would hope that we think deep and hard about the ramifications before breaking wind on another planet only to leave an irreversible stink.