Digging the Heat? Support our mission to keep Austin ~actually~ weird with the best of Austin-centric news and reflections. And don’t forget- Soul Sunday with The Jones Family Singers, Jackie Venson and Leeann Atherton is this weekend. Tickets here . Get 20% off forever YEAR 38 Whatever SXSW was in the beginning, that’s not what it is now. Here’s the best articulation we’ve seen of the shift, from one of the many reddit threads dissecting the fest. Think of modern SXSW as the television "up-fronts". It's much more about industry groups showing each other "this is who I am pushing the next twelve months" rather than the outdated fairy tale of industry insiders discovering scrappy unconnected bands. That’s an intentional pivot, and dates to the mid-1990s. When the major record labels collapsed in the 90s, the festival simply moved on to “next.” All excerpts from Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW, courtesy Arts+Labor This year, another industry is bleeding. There’s not a single tech company among the major sponsors. It’s fairly easy to pinpoint why. The language we hear from companies who are attending — some registered, some not — is largely about “intimate gatherings that are festival adjacent.” In other words, corporations are cutting their spend by curating crowds and luring badge holders to receptions and mixers in restaurants, fancy homes and bars. DO THE PARASITES THREATEN THE HOST? SXSW refers to the non-sanctioned events as “parasite parties”, and Co-Founder Roland Swenson saw them as a major threat. That’s why this year’s so fascinating. SXSW is evolving in real time, with new owners and new leadership navigating a landscape filled with parasites and more than a few angry artists. It’s easy to forget there have always been cross-currents — remember the homeless human hot spots a decade ago? Or the year a couple decades before that, when someone was so pissed they set fire to the festival offices? SXSW survives because over the next ten days what’s happening in global culture unfolds in Austin. People are curious and people still come, drawn by the powerful pull of what’s next. ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, WHO’S READY FOR SOME PANTALONES? The closer we get to the site of our conception, the more wholly ourselves we are. Not birthplace, mind you—conception. To be “full-blown shaking hands with where you were conceived,” he explains, is to be hooked into your original essence. Matthew McConaughey, as quoted in Southern Living , March 2024. Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves, Kyle Cockayne for Southern Living Southern Living reports McConaughey and wife Camila Alves tried 47 — 47 — different blends in developing the flavor profile of Pantalones, their new tequila. It’s a reposado, aged in oak barrels , with a golden hue. To mark the occasion they sat for their very first Southern Living cover. Alves discussed the decision to move back from California. The word she tends to reach for when describing the effect of Texas on her husband (and later on herself) is “gravity.” She’ll say, “The gravity is very different in Texas.” It’s lighter, gentler, freer. She noticed it easing her husband’s steps, buoying his moods, widening that grin. Southern Living, March 2024 A shout out to Arts+Labor’s Kyle Cockayne , who’s the cinematographer for the interactive piece. AUSTIN FILM’S NEW POWER COUPLE Filmmaker Magazine, 2012 Dynamos Jessica Wolfson and Paul Lovelace are going head to head in the SXSW Documentary Competition with An Army of Women and Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted . An Army of Women is directed by Norway’s Julie Lunde Lillesæter, who lived in Austin during the pandemic and was struck by all the stories of botched rape investigations in Travis County. Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted covers the amazing career of a cult music hero who’s finally getting his due at the age of 81 in a fun and surprisingly moving film. We caught up with Paul and Jessica this week. HOW THE FILMS HAPPENED WHY THEY MATTER WHY SXSW For An Army of Women, SXSW is offering a limited number of public pre-sale tickets through its website. Swamp Dogg’s not open for public pre-sale, but after badge and wristband holders are admitted, any remaining seats will go on sale 15 minutes prior to the screening.  Although it’s hard to predict, the best odds of getting a seat without credentials are likely the late screening at the Violet Crown or the early screening at the Alamo Lamar. TWO LEGENDS GONE W.C. Clark, the “Godfather of Austin Blues”, passed away March 2nd at the age of 84. During his career, the Austin native toured with Joe Tex, played in a blues quintet with Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lou Ann Barton, and was featured on Austin City Limits. This week we also lost Extreme Heat founding member Philip Ritcherson. The Austin High graduate was one of the first African-American members in the University of Texas Longhorn Band, and was a critical part of the Extreme Heat’s early success (as Steam Heat) before departing the band in 1984. (Steam Heat, 1975, L-R) Philip Ritcherson, Kenny Dale Johnson, Neil Pederson, Mike Barnes, Bruce Spelman, Ralph Fiol, Quincy Jarmon III. SOUL SUNDAY BRINGS THE HAPPY HEAT THIS WEEK When we started Happy Heat last year, and described it as a creative content play, and hired freelance writers and artists, and tried to raise money…the most-asked question was something along the lines of “Why are you running towards the dumpster fire?” The media business is broken, sure, but people still want to hear stories, want to know what’s going on around them. It’s simply a matter of how that’s going to happen. Our goal is to emphasize the ties that make us who we are as a city . During SXSW last year, we gathered a tribe and launched. Look at the smiles! Please join us this year, as we present Soul Sunday on March 10th from 3-6pm at Leeann Atherton’s barn, long the site of the legendary Hippie Church and Full Moon Barn Dance. Atherton’s historic compound is now almost completely surrounded by cookie cutter homes and transplants. She sees herself as an ambassador, putting out music with the hope new neighbors come by with a question — what did I just hear? HOW TO FIND A BARN DANCE Sunday’s schedule has Leeann kicking things off, followed by homegrown talent Jackie Venson. We’ll close with South Texas gospel sensations The Jones Family Singers. The weather’s gonna be perfect and the sound’s gonna lift you up, so please come sample a little bit of our city’s soul, the legit stuff. The stuff that makes for happy feet in the happy heat . Let’s build something together. We’d be forever grateful for your help, and an easy way to do so is by subscribing to the Happy Heat Substack. What comes in goes right back out in artist commissions and live shows. To which you’ll get to come! For the first 100 subscribers, we are offering 20% off forever, a slot on the Soul Food Sunday guest list, and a free t-shirt.  Get 20% off forever