Was this the best South By Southwest Festival yet? Rumor has it among many of the press covering it that it was. I know I had a blast this year. The selection of films were top-notch. But for me, there were a number of unique, very Austin-style experiences that made this such a great year.

5.) Random street performances
I don’t know who they were, but several very Austin-style (read: dressed down and relatively unwashed) musicians camped in the alcove one night next to the Paramount. They set up a synthesizer, bass (with amp), guitar — and the very beautiful lead singer kept trying to wrangle her two-year-old daughter between songs. At first they were a bit annoying, but then out of the blue the guitarist started playing the riff of the 1985 A-Ha classic “Take On Me,” one of my very favorite songs in the world. And they rocked it. I had to toss some coin their way, which resulted in a slew of ’80s cover songs that kept us grooving until the theater opened.

4.) The interviewee became the interviewers
At an after party I ran into some folks I know who do a local PBS show, Docubloggers, and they asked if they could interview me about the fest. I showed up and this was the result. But just as I was getting up, festival producer Janet Pierson showed up and I was asked to sit down with her and conduct the interview. Unprepared but itching to get a few minutes to chat with the very busy Pierson during SXSW, I accepted the challenge and did the best I could which you can see here on Facebook. But the ultimate prize? As a thank you they gave me an old-school PBS shirt with the vintage logo. Hell, yes. Score!

3.) Fantastic Fest At Midnight beer-drinking challenge
In one of Tim League’s greatest moments of insanity, he decided that the Fantastic Fest at Midnight series (which featured a number of awesome, highly anticipated genre films, a few of which I’ve written about on Film.com already) needed to open each night with a beer-drinking contest. Two teams participated in a “boat race” — a chugging relay — often with the film’s director or representative as the anchor. I can proudly say I helped kick that off, participating in the opening night’s boat race. Sadly, despite my natural Texas abilities to swallow an entire beer whole, my team was weighed down by two lightweights. We lost. But it was a hell of an opening night.

2.) The Two Bobs premiere
I first saw my buddy Tim McCanlies‘ rough cut of The Two Bobs six months ago and first read the script over a year and a half ago. But seeing the very funny finished version of his low budget, R-rated comedy on the big screen with an audience and a group of friends was a real treat. While SXSW is very much a film fest dedicated to great films from around the world, it is also a festival celebrating the best of Austin. And what’s better than a local film made with a lot of heart and very little money? I’ll tell you what: Celebrating the film with your friend afterwards with a cold beer and sizzling fajitas. That’s just how we do things down here.

1.) Drag Me To Hell … laughing
As you may have already read, I loved, loved, loved this movie. But as much as I dug the film, having Sam Raimi come out and do slapstick on stage beforehand was a rare treat all its own. First Raimi deliberately tripped into a full-on pratfall (a classic trick of his and lifelong friend Bruce Campbell‘s). He then followed that up with a bit in which he tried to find his speech, constantly pulling out hotel eviction notices and grocery lists. And as silly as it sounds, Raimi delivered it with style, giving all the necessary facial expressions and stammers to sell the bit. By the time he’d caught his tie in his glasses and stumbled around the stage half blind, most of the audience was in stitches, including me, doubled over at the Three Stooges nature of it all. It was the perfect setup for the film to follow, and probably will stand as my favorite memory of the whole, wonderful week.

Tags: drag me to hell, sam raimi, sxsw film festival