pampelmoose Dave Allen of Gang of Four’s Music and Media Blog

Day 1 was spent in the hands of the incompetent American Airlines so we start with Day 2 - Ok, yesterday you could tell which way the wind was blowing as the geeks retreated and the “beautiful people,” you know dressed upped to be dressed down, started to fill the blocks around the convention center. Although technology will drive music’s future, the next few days are going to be about partying hard as if nothing is happening to the music business and for four days nothing will. I will be documenting the excess.
Let’s be straight here, SXSW is a great convention and a great gathering of talent (the artists) and minds but it feels like it needs a firmer hand at the rudder. More on that later. Meanwhile here’s some quick video out takes from my day wandering the halls.

Judge Dredd tells us what he’s doing in Austin then goes outside for a cigarette…click image to play.

Florence and the Machine tells us about her first visit to Austin and her manager tells us why it’s important…click image to play.

Billy Bob Thornton interviews the audience and explains what he means when he says sorry to a man of Scottish decent…click image to play. [Warning - this is an m4v file which is great for the iPhone but may not work in your browser. As with all of these movies you can right click to download it if you prefer.]