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.

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.

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!

Wednesday 7/15:

• Flew from BTV to PDX. Arrived at 1AM local time. Sat next to ACM sisters and brothers from Great Neck and The Bronx, NY on the plane.
• There was little food to be found anywhere near the hotel. Had to scavenge.

Thursday 7/16:

• First day of the ACM conference. Pleased to run into Elliot Margolies right away, whom I remembered fondly from past ACM events (check out his interviews with PEG luminaries here).
• Attended a panel on the Denver Open Media Project, which was the buzz of the conference from my perspective.
• Lunch at a lovely Vietnamese place with Spine.
• Following the conference I met up with my (ex girl) friend Deb for drinks. Spine joined us after he got out of work. (Note: most of my old friends here have become athletes — planning for marathons and triathlons and talking about running/biking half of the time.)
• Ended the day by taking in the new Harry Potter film by myself (Bear elected to stay in), which was surprisingly good.

Friday 7/17:

• ACM day two. The morning session was about building sustainability through documentary work. It was an inspiring panel and I came away with lots of notes to try and implement at VCAM.
• Got interviewed by Elliot for his afore mentioned interview series. Talked about videoblogging classes at VCAM, social media outreach and New Media Office Hours.
• Lunch with Spine, Carolyn and little Jolie at an Ethiopian place.
• In the afternoon I went to a (literal) nuts and bolts presentation on video engineering. I left early because I was losing steam and not getting much out of it.
• Bear and I attended the Hometown Video Awards, at which Bear accepted RETN’s Overall Excellence award. We were seated at the same table with Bill Nolan, author of Logan’s Run.
• After the awards, We avoided the inevitable karaoke. Bear went back to the hotel and I hooked up with Daniell from Telvue and Forrest from Manhatten Neighborhood Network. Thus began my long evening with ACM 2.0 folks — the young guard of community media — comprised of Denver Open Media whiz kids and 20 & 30-something staffers from NY, MA and OR. A hotel room at the Ace Hotel in downtown PDX (coincidentally where I’m typing this post right now) was our locale, and as Daniell said the next day, what happens at the Ace Hotel stays at the Ace Hotel (but of course, I have video).
• I made it back to my hotel at 2AM or so and learned there was a shooting nearby and that Snoop Dog was apparently staying at my hotel (these two events were unrelated as far as I know). Spent 30 minutes relaxing with some ACMers in the lobby before crawling into bed for a short nap before morning.

Saturday 7/18:

• The tension between old guard ACM and the new young turks was palpable at the morning session on open source community media centers of the future, but the moderator (Tony from Denver Open Media) was really great at threading that needle (though his co-presenters were less diplomatic). There is some understandable fear of technological change from traditional CMC folks and some reluctance to embrace a new model of organizing staff and resources — particularly a model that so fervently eschews traditional relationships with technology. It may take some time to sink in, but the DOMP folks “get it” and some older guard folks just don’t quite yet… but they’re coming around.
• The 2nd session I attended was on copyright and creative commons. The presenter was funny and smart, but the information was mostly review for me.
• The keynote luncheon was a panel and I got some good leads there on possible relationships for VCAM to foster and I really think we should have a presence at NAMAC in August.
• Hooked up with Spine in the afternoon and picked up XJ3 and prepped for our excursion to a big outdoor rock show featuring Andrew Bird and The Decemberists. It was beautiful.
• We followed the rock show by heading to a bar where a friend of Spine’s and XJ3′s was celebrating her 40th birthday. I saw a few folks I’d met on previous trips out here and had some yummy mixed drinks.
• We ended the night at a fries cart where I randomly ran into my friend Craig from Amherst Community Television. I enjoy bumping into friends in other cities. It makes me feel connected to things.

Sunday 7/19:

• Slept in, playing catch-up on lost sleep from the previous couple of days.
• Went to brunch with Spine at a great place called The Tin Shed. Best veggie gravy and biscuits ever. Went shopping in a little bohemian district of boutiques and comics shops.
• In the afternoon we met up with XJ3 and Susan at an outdoor theater-in-the-park performance of the classic Trek episode Amok Time. We had great seats and I shot some video, which I’ll post later (it’s on a HD at Spine’s). It was a crowd pleaser. We met up with my old friend Laura there and made plans to reconvene at her place in SE PDX that evening.
• Laura and Adam hosted a lovely summer evening dinner of gazpacho, berries and greens with lots of yummy beer. Deb, XJ3, Spine and some of Laura and Adam’s neighbors enjoyed the cool summer evening together in the back yard. We called it an early evening because Spine had to work the next morning.

Monday 7/20:

• Slept in again (ah… vacation) and spent the day in St. Johns where Spine’s house is. Wandered the village a bit and made lunch in Spine’s kitchen. Read the first volume of Y The Last Man (purchased the previous day).
• Drove Spine’s car into town to meet Spine and take the train downtown to a showing of Moon with XJ3. It was excellent — better than expected even.
• Post-film dinner and discussion was fun and delicious. Said goodbyes to XJ3 and entreated he and Susan to visit Vermont soon.

Tuesday 7/21:

• Today Spine is having his bathroom redone so I left the house with him in the morning and I’ve been spending the day in downtown PDX. Thinking about a matinee, depening on start times.
• Bought a copy of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (finally) and read more than half of it at Powells.
• Our evening plans remain unknown.

I’m taking the red eye home tomorrow night. It will be good to be back in Vermont, despite the despicable weather there this summer (all the more annoying in comparison to Portland’s dry, sunny, breezy summer). See you All back east!

• Attend the national Alliance for Community Media conference
• Visit with new and old friends
• See The Decemberists and Andrew Bird play an outdoor show
• See the movie Moon
• Attend a live theater-in-the-park performance of the classic Star Trek episode, Amok Time. Yes, you read that correctly.

Does that sound like a perfect week or what?

The first of these was called “Scrambled Eggs” and was about the simple joy of eating… scrambled eggs. The second one was an anthem dedicated to tangy, processed Velveeta cheese.

Audio cassette recordings of these gems existed at one point, though I’d be hard pressed to find copies now, but last night my friend Eric emailed me a link to a digital copy of a performance of “Velveeta” recorded sometime between 1994 and 1998. It brought me right back.

Click here to experience the delicious, drunken three-part harmony of this cheesy anthem.

In pursuit of this goal, a few of us have banded together and are evangelizing social media around this conference. We’ve agreed on a metatag for online posted media (“acmne09″) and the awesome folks at Found Line have built a little aggregation site (like the one they made for Vermont’s Town Meeting Day) that helps you organize all of the material coming in.

After having a miserable time trying to follow all of the SXSW tweets in March, it’s clear that this sort of page (and a diversification of relevant tags) is what that conference could have used.

Even if you’re not attending the conference this week, tune in and follow all the hot community media action! (The oening night party with a cash bar is tonight at VCAM so look for inappropriate photos tagged acmne09 on Flickr tomorrow!)