It's That Time of Year: SXSW
Yup. It's that time of year when the indie bands and films (meaning without a major label/studio and not genre) take the stages in Austin Tx for what has become the biggest yearly entertainment festival in the U.S. It certainly is the one to watch. I don't know any sources for films other than SXSW's YouTube channel which offers trailers, but there are several sources for an mp3 of participating musicians: The Unofficial Torrent (warning it's over 6.5GB).
If you would like some filtering and direct downloading:
iTunes offers a free download
NPR offers a few of their favorites
Spinner has the whopper downloads (4 of them)
AOL and Amazon usually have free SXSW related downloads too and I'm sure there are more. Enjoy!
Al Franken was an opening speaker at SXSW and he took the opportunity to encourage activism for net neutrality. He makes some valid points, including the misleading (lies) made by content owners and providers. We've also recently seen in the middle east what the internet can do for democracy.
Another comment Al Franken made was that independent bands and film makers would have a hard time getting an audience without having equal internet access and encouraged their activism. Just look at what "pay for play" did for radio.
His full speech can be easily found online (28 minutes), along with a variety of interviews and the bill he's introducing on the subject. This will be a "real" grassroot's battle, that will depend on "real" people, making a "real" stink (thank you Wisconsin!). If your reading this, then your enjoying net neutrality and need to say so. (I'll find a better clip later.)
