Hey everyone! I’ll be at SXSW covering the event as the press representative for The Horn! You can follow my coverage of the event here and following along with all of The Horn’s SXSW coverage for Film, Interactive, and Music here.
I’m not exactly live-tweeting the festival, but I am tweeting about the festival and you can follow me at @emilyooo. For Interactive coverage follow @kitoconnell, and for Music follow @media_thehorn. You can also follow along with our coverage by tracking the #HornXSW hashtag on Twitter.
So far I’ve seen The Act of Killing and that review should go live soon. LUNARCY! coverage is coming soon, and today I’m hoping to see MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and LOVES HER GUN, as well as the Comedy Bang! Bang! podcast recording and standup special as well.
The imagery of professional sports permiates society today. We are inundated with video and stills of baseball, football, basketball, even soccer, everywhere we look. With things like NBA League Pass, NFL Sunday Ticket, and MLB.tv, fans get to watch any game they want anywhere they want. Fans today are proprietors of sports knowledge and imagery, storing, studying, and cultivating it all over the internet and in day-to-day conversations.
Can you imagine what life was like before television, or even before radio? How did fans interact with games like professional baseball when the only way they could consume it was to attend a live game? Even while they were there it was doubtful any fan could see and comprehend most of the pitcher’s wind-up and delivery, where the eyes of the players were focused, or the “accuracy” of any calls at the plate. We take these things for granted, with slow motion cameras and high definition imagery that hits players on the field from every angle.
Can you imagine what fans thought when, for the first time, a motion picture camera captured imagery at 200 fps, allowing the motion of a catch, a throw, and a call to be slowed down and dissected? If you guessed there was a public outcry, you’d be right.
“The Great Baseball Scandal”
This short blurb is from the October 23rd, 1920 issue of Exhibitor’s Trade Review. ETR was a short-lived film trade daily that ran from 1921–1922 and was full of technical schematics and serial film blurbs for exhibitors and camera operators. What made “The Great Baseball Scandal” so interesting at the time was the technical capabilities of the camera. 200 frames a second was unheard of back then, seeing as most pictures were filmed in 16 FPS and played back at 18-24 FPS. Looking back now, it’s highly entertaining to see how outraged fans at the time were to see how dirty the game was played. There was simply no other way for them to see those details before motion picture cameras.
The man that filmed “The Great Baseball Scandal,” Lincoln A. Borthwick (awesome name!) also directed “Headin’ Home,” the 1920 motion picture about Babe Ruth staring the Bambino himself.
In case you missed my big freak-out a few weeks ago, Edgar Wright was invited to Austin to host screenings of his films. On tap were two screenings of Scott Pilgrim (one including a “vegan” feast), a Shaun of the Dead quote-a-long, and Hot Fuzz. I managed tickets for the later, non-feast screening of Scott Pilgrim and the late showing of Hot Fuzz. And both were incredibly fun.
Friday night was my first trip out to the new Slaughter Lane Alamo Drafthouse. And my goodness, that place is beautiful! It still has that new theater smell.
The New Slaughter Lane Drafthouse
Driving out there was kind of scary because I felt like I was heading to the middle of nowhere, but it was really easy to find. Not sure how a parking lot that big can be so full, but it was. Tip: if you head to the Slaughter Lane Drafthouse, get there early to find a spot, and be prepared to walk.
Interior Sign
The interior is very clean, and is laid out a lot like a “traditional” theater. Yet rather than picking up your tickets at a separate kiosk, you go right up to the concessions to get your ticket. read more
Dear god, people. EDGAR WRIGHT IS COMING TO AUSTIN! As if it’s not enough that he brought us the gloriousness that is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. And Hot Fuzz. And Shaun of the Dead.
–research
Topics, Tropes, and Musical Idioms in Star Trek (1966–69)
analysis of George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, no. 2, “Me he perdido muchas veces por el mar”
–big stuff
SXSW this week in Austin, pra fun
ordered an Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel
relaxed a bit too much during Spring Break, am now regretting the lack of school work I did
hit 10 hours on Wii Fit; time piggy bank turned golden!
