Thus my life as a participant in this democracy began. Tonight, I was back at Memorial Auditorium as a participant in the process once more. Standing there, holding my caucus ballots in the exact spot I’d taken Vermont’s Freeman’s Oath 23 years and eight months prior, I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy at how awesome Vermont politics are. I mean, Town Meeting, right? That process alone makes Vermont so much cooler than the other 49 states, politically. But even in Burlington, where we eschew Town Meeting for a more traditional election day, it feels really personal and meaningful in a way I imagine most other Americans have never experienced.

Case in point: today’s Democratic Mayoral Caucus.

Here’s the deal, for those of you not tuned into the nitty gritty of BTV politics:

Burlington is really a three-party town. There are the Democrats, Republicans and Progressives. The Progs are the new kids on the block but they wield real political power in Vermont and Burlington’s current embattled mayor, Bob Kiss, is a Prog. The 14-member City Council is dominated by Dems but has GOP, Prog and Independent members too.

Due to a series of debacles that I won’t get into here, the current administration is foundering. Democrats see an opportunity to reclaim City Hall. If they nominate a really good candidate, the argument goes, they can unite left-leaning Burlingtonians and win the mayor’s office in March. But the Progs haven’t said what they’re going to do. If Mayor Kiss runs for reelection or if he doesn’t and the party nominates a strong candidate, liberal and progressive Burlingtonians will be split and perennial Republican Mayoral candidate, Kurt Wright, is waiting in the wings to swoop in and take advantage such a situation (it’s worth noting that this is the first mayoral race since BTV voters decided — stupidly, IMO — to kill IRV, meaning a so-called “spoiler” candidate can take advantage of a three-way race and win without a majority of the support of the voters).

So going into today’s Democratic Mayoral Caucus there were four strong Dem candidates: Tim Ashe, Bram Kranichfeld, Jason Lorber and Miro Weinberger. The caucus works like this: you show up and register. Any registered Burlington voter can participate, regardless of party affiliation. Then you vote in the first round. Then they count all the first round ballots and announce the results, right there. As soon as a candidate gets more than 50% of the total votes cast, that candidate becomes the Democratic nominee for mayor. Simple, right? In this case, just over 1,000 votes were cast in the first round and with four candidates, nobody got more than 50%, so we went to a second round. At that point, Jason Lorber (a friend of mine and a real mensch), who was the lowest vote-getter in the first round, dropped out voluntarily, leaving three candidates competing in round two.

We still lacked a nominee after round two. Bram Kranichfeld (the candidate I supported, BTW), received the least amount of votes in round two and he dropped off the list leaving only Ashe and Weinberger to battle it out in round three.

At that point, with our man out of the running, Emily and I cast our round three votes (my ballot was for Tim Ashe, my second choice going in) and headed back to the car and home. Apparently, a whole lot of people did the same thing, assuming that getting a 50% majority with only two candidates remaining was a sure thing. Ha. Famous last words.

Once home, the #BTVmayor hashtag on Twitter lit up. 1,085 ballots were cast in the third round, meaning 543 votes were needed to win. The final count was Ashe: 540 to Weinberger: 540, with 5 ballots spoiled for one reason or another.

What I’m still not clear on is why the caucus didn’t then go to round four. The ballots had already been printed and handed out in anticipation of a fourth round. I know a lot of people (including me) left the auditorium after the voting in round three, but it was made perfectly clear up front that if anyone left and wasn’t present to vote, they were SOL. The Dem leadership decided to wait and hold a run-off caucus at some future date to decide the winner, but it’s unclear who will vote in that or who will be eligible to be on that ballot or how it will all be handled. There was a process in place and the decision was made to abandon that process following the tie. I wasn’t there and I don’t like Monday morning quarterbacking, but I’d sure like to know why they didn’t immediately proceed with round four with the voters remaining in the auditorium or those close enough to race back there before the close of voting. Then at least we’d have an answer, assuming there wasn’t a second tie.

However this all winds up, I’m certain of one thing: It was important that I was there. It was important that every single individual was there. Every vote mattered. Good on you, BTV.

Seven Days’ Andy Bromage has a good write up of the event with all the voting totals here. Haik Bedrosian offers his two cents here. Fox44 has some more quotes here. WCAX has a headline claiming the caucus ended in “disarray.” Sigh. There was a tie. That’s hardly disarray. Seriously, WCAX. The Fox channel is kicking your ass, editorially. Time to do some soul-searching?

In 1948 following a large snowfall, the mayor of Boston asked MIT to commit time and energy into developing an immediate way to get rid of the snow, “whether it be by the use of flame throwers or chemicals or otherwise….”

In 1960, the syndicated Sunday comic, Closer Than We Think, imagineered such a device as well.

Emily and I like different things for brunch. She tends to like a sweet brunch — french toast and fruit, for example — while I prefer an eggy, savory brunch. So Emily may not agree with the following list of best brunch spots.

My bias is to stick with places that do breakfast seven days a week. The once-a-week omelets just don’t cut it. Here goes:

1. Sneakers in Winooski – best breakfast in the BTV area and has been for at least 10 years
2. Penny Cluse in BTV – a solid 2nd place. A slight southwestern flair here and when the weather turns cold they offer amazing fresh squeezed tangerine juice.
3. On the Rise in Richmond – hippy vibe, so lots of good veggie fare. Delicious breads.
4. Magnolia in BTV – lots of good vegetarian options.
5. Country Pantry in Fairfax – homestyle. The waitresses call you “hon.” Hot open face roast beef for breakfast! Killer Benedict.
6. Sadie Katz in BTV – Jewish deli with excellent latkes and a great vegan mushroom barley soup. Emily digs the challah french toast. Not sure how early they stop serving breakfast on Sundays.
7. Mirabelle’s on Main St. in BTV – a bakery with a french aesthetic. Good sandwiches and their breakfast is just fine.
8. Chef’s Corner in Williston – Sort of like Mirabelle’s but in Williston.

In response to this, Rae went ahead and made a handy flowchart we can follow whenever we want to do brunch. I present it here as a public service for those who care about their Sunday eggs:

It’s worth mentioning that this blog was the runner-up in the 2010 Seven Days “Daysie” reader’s choice awards again this year. The sisters LeMay took the top prize for the second time in a row. I was shocked to have made the runner-up spot despite the utter lack of any serious blogging around these parts lately. Thanks, if you voted for Candleblog!

I’m a filmmaking fool these days, having just completed the Baruth campaign film (see it in the previous post), and now I’m deep into a short web video for an environmental start-up. Also, the Pants projects are rearing their heads and gaining some slight momentum. I hope to have something good to report on that front soon.

You must now go and vote for my SXSW panel proposal! You have to register to vote and comment, but I swear it’s really quick and easy. My thirst for hanging out with alpha nerds and rock stars must be slaked.

And if you’re not already following Emily’s Tumblr blog, you should go there now and subscribe. It’s a continuous linkdump of cute awesomeness.

And look at this crazy shit!

• Justin Bieber slowed down 800% sounds ethereal and awesome. They should have used this in Inception.
• Wil Wheaton has quit W00tstock in a fabulous way.
• This short film teaches you How to be Alone.

• Chatted with Amanda Congdon about Chuck Olsen’s relative awesomeness.
• Commiserated with the director of American: The Bill Hicks Story over SXSW’s lackluster business center. Seriously? They don’t take cash for 25 cent printing purchases?
• Said some shite to a room full of nerds.
• Got bored at a cinematography panel — I know, I didn’t think it was possible either.
• Got passed on the street by porn star Nina Hartley.
• Ate some tacos.
• Talked to an interesting artist/filmmaker/photographer who gave me a thumb drive with his animated short on it.
• Got pressured into eating some amazing freshly cured sausage and excellent beer in an art gallery.
• Schmoozed my way into a guest-list-only British rock show and spent 5 hours there, finishing up by seeing Billy. Fucking. Bragg.

Home tomorrow night.

Often at SXSW when I’m at a presentation that I have some expertise in, I feel like I know as much about the subject matter as the presenters (or if it’s a bad panel, I think I know more). But Shirky is way smarter than me and really thoughtful and articulate and inspiring. He synthesizes these facts about web culture and derives this really hopeful outlook from them. I managed to chat Shirky up after his talk and get some advice for my presentation tomorrow.

Lunch was with PSFR listener and notes-taker, Mike McCaffrey. Nice to get a chance to chat with him.

I took some time out from the day’s schedule to take some pictures around the convention hall (nothing to post yet, but I will). Then I caught the incomparable Jeffrey Tambour doing his actor’s workshop. I saw him do it two years ago and I learned more about directing actors from that hour and a half session than I did while making all of my films put together. This year was equally great.

I had to skip out of the Tambour thing to go meet Charlie from the Sheffield Doc Fest about the possibility of me going to the UK in November to talk about community media. I hope that comes together. I’d love to visit the UK (and I know Emily would love it too).

Then it was nearly time to get over to Manuel’s for our dinner reservations. Andy, Todd, Adam, Lawrence, Ian and I had an awesome dinner. Chicken mole. mmmm….

Then that crew hoofed it over to the out of the way place called Clive for drinks. We met up with a bunch of other Vermonters there and had a really great time. While we were there an entourage of limos and beautiful people showed up — obviously for a secret after-party for some film. Some investigating later and we were able to suss that Malin Ackerman (Silk Spectre in Watchmen) was in the party.

I met some Vermonters I didn’t know, including some nice folks from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Good times hangin’ with the homies.

Now I have to do some prep work for my presentation tomorrow and get some sleep. Sweet dreams, Internet.

Leaving the film, we brushed shoulders with Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly, who were being interviewed by IFC about a film called Cyrus that’s here.

Some sandwiches later and we were going to catch the midnight showing of Monsters (a desktop-f/x monster film that looks really cool), but my friend Negin Farsad texted me and said she was heading to the IFC party, so we decided to go there instead. It was crowded and loud and basically everything I hate about SXSW parties, but it was awesome to see Negin, who looks fabulous and makes even annoying places fun to be at. You can catch Negin nightly during the festival on IFC during their 10 pm news show — she’s covering the interactive conference for them.

We left the IFC party and went back to the bar at the Hilton (where I’m staying) for a drink and chatted for a while. It’s a big day tomorrow and we lose an hour tonight, which sucks. Bedtime now.

Night night.

Tim Blake Nelson and I made eye contact at JFK this morning. He was on my flight to Austin. I passed his row on my way to the lavatory and noticed he was watching a 1970s Roy Scheider movie on his laptop that may or may not have been Marathon Man.

On the Supershuttle to the hotel, the guy sitting behind me happened to be a fellow named Charlie who emailed me several days ago about bringing me to Sheffield, UK to talk about community media at a film/doc fest there in November. We had a nice chat about English steel towns and international soccer.

My hotel room has a mini bar.

Stood in line with Ian for a first look at Robert Rodriguez’ Predators reboot but just missed getting a seat. I got the chance to chat in line with Annalee Newitz from io9 and a bunch of other fine folks too, including a writer for the Hollywood Reporter who was really funny and who showed his man boobs to a packed house at the Alamo Ritz later on.

We did make it into Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and it was AWESOME.

Between these events, I hung out some Vermont peeps at three different bars and had lots of yummy beer.

I’m too tired to add links to these things. Do some Googling. Especially Tucker and Dale.

Sleep now. Another big day tomorrow.

1. I’m presenting this year, which means there’s an added level of nervousness and excitement right there. Plus I have to, you know, prepare for that.

2. A TON of Vermonters are going this year, which is awesome. I remember back in 2006 when it was just me, a couple of jerks from Union Street Media (I kid, they are my best SXSW buds) and one lone staffer from Norwich University. Now it’s a party, by jeezum crowbar! The added local social scene is awesome, but requires more social organizing.

3. Social media is actually really useful this time. Last time I went to SXSW was two years ago when I was but a Twitter noob. Now I have a Twitter list devoted to SXSWers and it’s much easier to keep tabs on folks’ comings and goings, BUT it also means that on top of all of the usual organizing and schedule-making, I have to organize my social media life. And yes, I’d like some cheese with my whine.

If you’re going to be in Austin this weekend, you can stalk me in the following ways:

• Watch this blog. I don’t know how often I’ll be blogging during the trip, but if anything REALLY awesome happens, you can bet I’ll post about it here.
• Follow me on Twitter, and consider following my SXSW10 list. It’s a group of Vermonters, awesome people, and awesome Vermonters who are at the conference with me.
• Join the Vermonters at SXSW Facebook group.
• Check out my SXSW schedule (note that these are tentative – they’re things I’m interested in attending, but I’m also going with the flow, as it were).
• Come to my talk about community media on Monday afternoon!
• And if you REALLY want to send me letters written in your own blood, shoot me an email so we can exchange cell #s.

Now I have to go pack!