Bourbon diary

From March 10 to March 19, one of the world's largest SXSW (South by Southwest) music festivals with many concerts, technological presentations, film award and political discussions takes place in Texas Austin. Over the next week, the correspondent of Colta.ru Egor Antoshchenko will introduce you to his most interesting events.

Despite the merciless rain, next to the headquarters of the festival-the conference of the Convention Center -you can observe several boys and girls almost without clothes, but with a hashtag #stripped on the bodies. This is a flash mob dedicated to the reality show that Bravo will release this summer: on the first day, participants will lose all clothes and (about horror) even smartphones, and then they will be returned to them for the most necessary thing for them a day. On the way to the Convention Center, a column of girls dressed in the same snow -white caps and red long dresses is also crossed by a flash mob, but also a flash mob, but dedicated to the premiere of the series “The story of the maid” according to the novel by Margaret Etwudus. An interesting, rich life, the city of Austin lives during the SXSW festival.

A little tireless statistics: SXSW appeared in 1987 and today has turned into a real monster, which spread the tentacle throughout Austin. About 2000 musicians from 60 countries. 85 world film award. An unimaginable number of speakers telling about technological novelties and the world of the future. An equally unimaginable number of speakers telling how to live in the era of “false news” and Trumpov’s political reality. Here are just a few characteristic names of the discussions: “Internet trolls: feed or not”, “From meme to protest: what is the next step of online activism?”, “How to fix America and stop to break the world.”

The musical part of the festival will begin only in two days, so I have time to get acquainted with the local infrastructure. Waiting for a meeting with one of the compilers of the SXSW music program Todd Packheiber, I go to the Job Center , where visitors offer vacancies and internships a variety of companies and organizations. The CIA is very interested in good students (primarily programmers) and invites them to practice in Washington, but pays only a small part of the expenses, and Washington - the city is expensive. The police department Austin takes people literally from the street - and, according to the policeman standing at the stand, who want so much that two weeks after the festival all vacancies will be closed.

CIA is very interested in good students.

A two-meter man in forty, Todd Pakheiber looks at the surrounding street vanity through the eyes of a man who is distracted from truly important matters. He is one of the nine boker working on SXSW on an ongoing basis. In recent years, he and his colleagues have been receiving 8-10 thousand applications from the musicians themselves and many more-from labels, managers and binging agencies. “Of course, we evaluate groups according to obvious parameters: do they have the prevailing audience, management, viewing and listening on the Internet,” says Pakheiber. “But it happens that we just like music - and then we give the musician a chance regardless of all of the above.” Sometimes the group does not even have a full release, but it performs at SXSW . ”

Pakheiber is very interested in the music of Pakistan, which survives in this country in fact a miracle: in schools it is not studied, clubs are closed all the time, and musicians often become targets for radical Islamists. He has already made two showcaps with Pakistani music at the festival, and this year, together with his team, he prepared the “answer” to Trump's temporary ban on the entrance of citizens from seven Muslim countries: the musicians - natives of these countries, who were lucky to get an American or Canadian passport on the Contrabanned show.

Problems with the crossing of the American border, which tourists have been faced recently, also affected musicians. So, the Soviet Soviet post -players recently performing in Russia did not let the Italian post -players in Russia: according to the group on Facebook, the musicians interrogated for four hours, put on them handcuffs, kept the night in prison, and then sent back to Italy. “It has become really more difficult to enter the country recently,” comments Pakheiber, “there are problems with citizens of those countries with which the United States has a visa -free regime. They are obliged to obtain permission to enter the ESTA electronic system and have recently become more and more often faced with refusals due to new requirements of immigration services. But it seems to me that Soviet Soviet was refused because they had other concerts appointed here. Until you earn money with concerts - as in the case of a showcase on SXSW - a tourist visa is enough. But for the tour in the States, you need to arrange a working one, otherwise you can simply be expanded at the border. ”

“I don’t know something good musicians who support Trump.”

This year, the SXSW was criticized by the Brooklyn musician Told Slant for the fact that in a contract with the musicians the festival promised to inform the US immigration services in cases where a foreign group is going to take "actions that may have an adverse effect on a showcase." The head of the festival, Roland Svevenon, was forced to apologize for sharp formulations in the contract and prove that over 30 years of existence, the festival never “knocked” on the musicians to the government. According to him, these warnings relate to those who will intentionally use dangerous pyrotechnics at concerts or simply want to kill someone. “We have been warning the musicians for a very long time that they do not do something unlawful and do not give commercial concerts without a work visa,” says Pakheiber, “so I think this is exclusively in the sharp language of the new agreement.”

Since the confrontation between the intelligentsia and the new American president has received an unusually high degree in recent months, I ask Pakheiber if the musicians will be allowed to the festival, openly sympathizing with Trump or, say, Putin. “Why not,” he says, looking absentmindedly somewhere into the void in front of us, “we have no ideological attitudes. If extremist slogans do not sound from the stage - all O'Kay. True, I don’t know something good musicians who support Trump. ”

Swer rain finds me on the way to the Twin Liquors store, which specializes in bourbon and rye of whiskey-you need to stock up on something for the evening. You have to hide in a small club, where they talk about artificial intelligence and new technologies. Jukedeck President Edward Newton-Rex puts excerpts from electronic tracks composed by computers over the past ten years-the development of composer thinking of the machine is impressive. But despite the fact that computers have already learned how to beat a person in chess and go, to write music and draw paintings, according to Newton-River, the appearance of “computer mozzart” or at least “computer bieber” should not be expected. Because we love not only music, but also the story around it - biographies, characters, incidents. And we are engaged in creativity not by anyone, but exclusively by our own.

The remaining evening takes place in the child of the Katezh 6th Street, where loud music plays from each bar. The White Horse institution is 20 minutes from the epicenter of fun - but it represents Texas, as we all know it, and some love. Solid men in stratsons and cylinders on stage play old -regime country against the backdrop of the scarlet "Lynchevsky" curtains. The couples are dancing, Bourbon alternates with the inevitable craft beer, everyone has fun. On the 6th street itself, desperate competition, you can’t get into many places because of the queues, but you can listen to the metal group playing the covers on Peter Gabriel at least at the scene itself. The end of the evening takes place in a bar, the name of which I no longer remember: I only remember that there were a lot of beer cranes, the site in front of the DJ was in puddles and dirt (and this did not interfere with those who wanted to dance), and the song “I Want It Way” of the Backstreet Boys group was the culmination of the party. Still, it is great that, despite the political upheaval and artificial intelligence that beats a person in th, some unshakable things remained on this sinful earth. The sun rises in the east. Bourbon does not lose in a degree. The song “I Want Its Way” (as well as the song “Clouds of the group“ Ivanushki International ”in Russia) and years later, forces such different people to experience such an amusing pleasure.