Hello from Austin!

Thursday, March 9th

12:24pm

Hello from the blue town in the red state. The live music capital of the world and an entirely wi-fi town. So I have no excuse to update all the time. So keep checking in. Bitch of it is, I don't have a cable for my camera, so no pix yet, but I'll look for one first thing. It would suck if all you had were text adventures the whole weekend.

I'm in Austin for the Numberth Annual South By Southwest film festival in Austin, TX. This is my first time in Austin since a very young Schadenfreude ripped this town a new one for the 1999 Big Stinkin Improv and Sketch Festival. It's all coming back to me. First stop has got to be the Velveeta Room, where we performed back in the day.

I've never been to a big film festival like this, and for my first time at one I actually have a movie in the film festival. Well, technically I don't, but the guy I work for does, and I spent two years calling lawyers, asking them to invest in his movie, so he could make one. I'm nice like that. It hasn't been easy, and I'm no more an industry insider for my efforts, but if we do well I will reap the benefits. Needless to say the future is an unexplored road and I have no idea how excited or depressed I'll be after this weekend. Or whether I'll need to find another job as I have no urge to try and sell a company that's proven it can't sell a film. On the other hand if we sell, re-investments will pour in, and i may be rewarded for loyal service by being able to pitch Alderman. But let's not get carried away. Let's...seriously not get carried away.

Rumors abounded in the office over the last week over what distributors had what interest in the film. Focus Features, Lions Gate, and Paramount Pictures Classics amongst many others. Good company. Lions Gate just won an Oscar for Crash and I wonder if that makes them more liberal or more conservative in their buying practices. Nobody could've predicted the success of Crash, so wouldn't they take a broader approach.

Driving up 6th st. Looks waaaaay familiar. So many coffee shops, what a great place to write a screenplay.

Celebrity sighting wish list: Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater, Harry Knowles, Bob Oedenkerk, and David Cross. Bob and David are here to plug Annabeth Gurwich's documentary which they're in. I've met both, so I might be able to strike up a conversation and get them to see our hilarious film about 9 black kids falsely accused of rape and given the death sentence in Alabama in 1931. Hilarity ensues.