Jean Hersholt's Dr. Christian

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In the classic MGM Dr. Kildare films the stories revolve around progress in medicine aided by cutting edge diagnostics and technology. By contrast, the plots in the RKO Dr. Christian films involve the conflicts triggered when Tradition meets Progress. The central message being that without the humanity and compassion of traditional values, progress is meaningless (if not downright harmful).
Jean Hersholt portrayed the endearing Dr. Paul Christian in six delightful movies released by RKO Radio Pictures between 1939 and 1941. Three of them were presented during the original Matinee at the Bijou series on PBS to enthusiastic response.
While medicine is important in these films, it is more of a common-sense kind of healthcare. The real focus of Dr. Christian is his unique position as a small town doctor in the lives of his patients and the ethical responsibility he feels for their well-being -- hence the need for the good doctor to branch out into politics, busting quacks, matchmaking and inspiring local residents of River’s End, Minnesota, to become better citizens.

Dr. Christian represents Tradition, naturally. In Meet Dr. Christian (1939) and Dr. Christian Meets the Women (1940) "Victorian" is used disparagingly to describe our hero. The force of Progress is different things at different times. Of course, the hubris of Progress is always undone by Dr. Christian being true to the values he believes in.
Which is not to say that in these films Dr. C does not keep up with the times. After all, he was right that the town needed a hospital facility, and he was right that the amphetamine-driven weight loss regimen was harmful. It is Dr. Christian who developed the brain operation that saved the mayor's daughter, and it is he that recognized the use of an illegally prescribed drug and performed a just-in-time blood transfusion. Dr, Christian does embrace Progress, but only when it truly serves the needs of a patient or the community -- never Progress for its own sake.
In The Courageous Dr. Christian (1940), an outbreak of spinal meningitis threatens the residents of a slum neighborhood on the outskirts of River’s End. The children especially are vulnerable. Local politicians show little interest until the escalating epidemic begins to encroach on their own Special Interests. Things look quite grim until Dr. Christian whips out his microscope and gets down to business. The venerable doctor outwits the politicos, rescues a family from the slums and fights off the amorous predatory advances of a wealthy dowager –- all in the course of 67 minutes.
The six Dr. Christian films were populated by a fine cast of lovable continuing characters, especially Maude Eburne always on hand as the housekeeper with strong opinions and an astrology fixation. The love interest is supplied by Dorothy Lovett as Nurse Judy Price with Robert Baldwin as her beau, Roy Davis. Bijou favorite funnyman Edgar Kennedy plays the local grocer in two of the films.


Small town politics and greed once again dominate the plot in Remedy for Riches (1941). A charlatan comes to River’s End with a plot to exploit the citizenry. After buying some local property he announces that he has discovered oil and begins selling stock in phony oil wells. Dr. Christian diagnoses the swindle and exposes the unscrupulous speculators to the medicine they deserve. Edgar has some good scenes in this one.
In the final two films, Melody for Three (1941) and They Meet Again (1941), Dr. Christian focuses his healing powers on the shattered emotions and broken hearts of two talented child prodigies.
First, in Melody for Three, our beloved doc prescribes reconciliation between the feuding parents of a young violin prodigy. Fay Wray and Walter Woolf King portray the couple whose young son is emotionally distressed. The sound track includes some delightful classical violin interludes.

Then the father of a 9-year old singing prodigy has  mistakenly been jailed for embezzlement in the final film in the series, They Meet Again. Child actress Anne Bennett is impressive as daughter Janie and brings down the house during the state-wide singing contest when she bursts into an aria from La Traviata. Famed comedian Imogene Coca has a zany cameo as a love-struck paramour.

In the outside world, life may be chaotic and topsy-turvey, but here in this small-Midwest community, old-fashioned values are still important and there are people you can trust. Bad Things Happen just enough for dramatic tension, but nothing really bad ever happens in River's End -- rather like MGM’s Andy Hardy films.



The Dr. Christian film series was inspired by the exploits of a real-world celebrity doctor. In The Country Doctor (1936) Hersholt played Dr. John Luke, a character based on Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe, the doctor who assisted in the delivery of the Dionne Quintuplets in 1934.
Dafoe had become a national celebrity for his role in the quintuplets' lives, and two more films followed in which Hersholt played Dr. Luke -- Reunion (1936) and Five of a Kind (1938).
Hersholt felt a great affinity for this role and wanted to continue; when Dafoe blocked the use of the character for a series of movies, Hersholt created his own country doctor character. Because he was fond of fellow Dane Hans Christian Anderson's stories (later translating the author's work into a six volume series, "The Complete Anderson," in 1949), Hersholt called his character Dr. Paul Christian and took him to the radio.

The first broadcast in November 1937 opened with a few words from Hersholt about how "the birth of five little girls in Canada" couldn't possibly have an effect on an actor playing doctor roles in Hollywood, and yet somehow it did.From the beginning the character of the doctor was clear: he was self-effacing with praise but indignant at injustice, a little conservative with his diagnoses but nevertheless at the forefront of medicine, and always kind, but also willing to use a little psychological trickery with difficult, complaining cases. In River's End Dr. Christian cared not only for the health of people, but for their spirits.
From the 1940s on, these half hour radio dramas were often based on reader suggestions and original scripts. The show's annual-script writing competition for “The Dr. Christian Award” included a top prize of up to $2,000 and was won by such rapidly-rising young writers as Rod Serling and Earl Hamner Jr. A Newsweek article reported that some 7,697 scripts were submitted during the course of the show.


From l to r: Gale Gordon, Rosemary DeCamp and Jean Hersholt.The Dr. Christian films were a natural progression of the radio drama, but the radio broadcasts received directly into millions of homes across America from 1937 to 1954 had a more personal intimacy. Dr. Christian was the kind of doctor you wanted to have (and it almost felt like you did). CBS sponsor Vaseline was acutely aware of this. Their commercials, still preserved within the original broadcasts, were straightforward and factual, portraying their hair tonics and salves as reliable cures one could trust.

Jean Hersholt, with his affable and familiar Danish accent, is primarily remembered for his acting skills in many other distinguished film rolls. He appeared in nearly 150 films, including the poignant role of Shirley Temple's embittered but beloved grandfather in the memorable film version of Heidi (1937); his masterful portrayal of Marcus in Erich von Stroheim's silent masterpiece Greed (1924); and the Porter in Grand Hotel (1932).


One of the pages from a souvenier booklet published by radio sponsor Vaseline. View the entire booklet “Jean Hersholt’s Album of Hollywood Stars” at Bob Merritt’s Old Time Radio site.
Hersholt helped create the Motion Picture Relief Fund in 1939 and went on to help establish the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, dedicated to providing medical care to fellow members of the motion picture industry when they were “down on their luck” and needed help.

In 1956, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences established an Honorary Academy Award category known as The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, given periodically to an “individual in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry.” Hersholt himself was honored by the Academy with two special Academy Awards for his philanthropic work; once in 1940 and again in 1950.

Also in 1956, Hersholt’s Dr. Christian radio and film creation came full circle when Ziv Television Productions founder Frederick Ziv contracted with Jean Hersholt and associates to develop 39 episodes of Dr. Christian for the 1956-57 TV season. The lead character was established as Dr. Christian’s nephew, Dr. Mark Christian, asportrayed by a popular actor named Macdonald Carey and scripted by Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame.

ZIV Television Productions during the 1950s was a prolific producer of content for first-run syndication, which Ziv marketed to local and regional sponsors, who then placed them on local stations outside of prime time. Ziv used this formula to create and deliver such iconic early TV series as The Cisco Kid (1949-56), Highway Patrol (1956-59), Science Fiction Theater (1955-57); and Sea Hunt (1957-61), to name a few.

The final act of Hersholt’s life played out much like a poignant and bittersweet finale to many of his Dr. Christian stories. When Frederick Ziv approached Hersholt about his pro-posed TV version of Dr. Christian, it was known that Hersholt was dying of cancer. Nonetheless, for the premiere episode, a gravely ill, 95 lb Jean Hersholt mustered the courage to be on hand in River’s End just long enough to turn the keys to his medical practice over to his TV nephew. He died shortly after filming wrapped on June 2, 1956, and only a few weeks prior to his 70th birthday. Jean Hersholt’s real-life nephew is actor Leslie Nielsen.___________________________

All six films in the Dr. Christian series are available separately or in a deluxe box set from Movies Unlimited.
The first ten Dr. Christian radio programs spanning the 1937-38 season, complete with old Vaseline commercials, are available for listening at the Internet Archive For the complete listing of all Dr. Christian programs broadcast, check out Jerry Haendiges Vintage Radio Logs.

 For Hersholt’s 25th screen anniversary, radio sponsor Vaseline published a souvenir booklet called Jean Hersholt’s Album of Hollywood Stars This tribute is a wonderful collection of facts and publicity stills you can browse online.

For his humanitarian efforts and translations of Hans Christian Andersen’s tales into English, in 1948 King Christian X of Denmark knighted Hersholt. Hersholt’s translations are still considered the most comprehensive and can be read online at Jean Hersholt: The Complete Anderson.

Great thanks to Victoria Balloon for her contributions to this article.

Rudy and Rich: The Bijou's Connection to the Golden Era

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While Matinee at the Bijou hasn’t been seen nationally for almost a quarter of a century, we at the Bijou still get comments from readers about the show’s memorable theme song.

How did a multifaceted megastar with a six-decade-long career end up crooning a tune for a low-budget show on PBS? And who was the composer who wove history and rhyme into such a memorable musical snapshot? Reality unfolded like a movie script when the original producers of the show forged a link with one of the enduring legends of Hollywood’s Golden Era.

They write that the crooning voice is hauntingly familiar—“I know he sang in the movies, but I can’t think of his name!” And they all remember snatches of the lyrics—“America was standing on breadlines/I don’t remember this next line!/but down at the Bijou people said lines/ like ‘Boop Boop Be-doop! Boop Boop Be-doop!” According to comments by our viewers and readers, the original Matinee at the Bijou theme song—sung by Rudy Vallee, composed by Rich Mendoza—is as much a part of their Bijou experience as the films we presented in the original series.

Composer Rich Mendoza has had a long affiliation with Matinee at the Bijou. He wrote and produced the theme song for the original series back in 1979, and is part of the Bijou Team today as Executive Producer.

Rich received a degree in theatre from Union College, and was a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop studying with Lehman Engel. He is a former part-time member of the faculty of The New School, and he has also taught songwriting as a volunteer at Sing Sing Correction Facility in Ossining, NY, creating the songwriting program at the prison.

Rich began his advertising life as a traffic manager/copy trainee on the American Airlines account at Doyle Dane Bernbach. He left DDB to become a copywriter and sometime radio producer for Blaine/Thompson, the once iconic Broadway theatre ad agency. Among the accounts for which he wrote print, radio and TV ads were Grease, Master Harold and The Boys, Same Time Next Year, Hair, Amadeus, Avalon-Hill Games and the Star Wars Fan Club.

From Blaine/Thompson he went to Grey Advertising as VP/Associate Music Director. During his tenure he wrote and produced musical campaigns for virtually all of Grey’s clients. Among the accounts on which he was most active were Canon Camera, Mitsubishi, Goodrich, Kool-Aid, Dannon Yogurt, Post Cereals, Slimfast, Hess, Kenner/Hasbro, Ivory and Dairy Queen. His work won awards from virtually every major advertising award show.
 

Rich recalls, “When I composed ‘At The Bijou’ for the original show, I wanted to write not about the movies as mere entertainment, but as a reflection of the national psyche. That movies of the 30s were largely gaudy, fantasy-filled escapes from our shattered economy and ominous shadows of war, is not an original notion, but writing a song that directly contrasted what was going on in the headlines with what was going on onscreen gave me the chance to have great fun with lines like ‘There was no bank panic at Tarzan’s branch.’ My premise was summed up in the couplet ‘At The Bijou bitter gall became as sweet as brandy, and humble pie turned into cotton candy.’"

Rich left Grey Worldwide in 1999 after serving 20 years as VP/Associate Music Director to open the music and audio production company Amazing Tunes, whose client list includes the Muhammad Ali Center, Absolut Vodka, John Malkovich’s Mrs. Mudd clothing line, and the Port Authority of NY/NJ. The studios have recorded several audio books for Random House and Simon and Schuster, including the Grammy nominated “War Letters”.

In addition to advertising work, Rich is very active in the field of children’s television. He’s written songs for “Schoolhouse Rock” (ABC), “PB&J Otter” (Disney Channel), “The Book of Pooh” (Disney Channel) “The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss” (Nickelodeon), and countless others.

When Rich wrote At The Bijou, he felt Rudy Vallee would be the perfect person to sing it. It seemed like a long shot to get Rudy to agree, however, as the show’s budget was long since spent, and there was very little left to offer in terms of financial inducement.


The legendary entertainer was in the final stages of a career that began in the 1920’s when he was approached about singing the theme song to the original Matinee at the Bijou. What gave Rich the idea that there might be a chance was the fact that he was (and is) good friends since college days with Bill Vallee, Rudy’s nephew. He approached Bill for Rudy’s phone number, and to see if Bill thought Rudy might be receptive.

Rudy Vallee was born in 1901 and developed a love of music very early in his childhood. While attending college at Yale, he formed a group called the Yale Collegians, and made his singing debut at the Heigh Ho Club in New York City.

He made his first two records in 1921, and a star was born. But Rudy’s career took a number of different paths over the years. In fact, a pretty solid argument could be made that his trajectory came in three distinct phases:

Rudy was enormous as a singer, radio personality and romantic figure in the 20s and early 30s. It’s hard to fathom the level of charisma or sex appeal he had in his early years.

Apparently he had the girls screaming and lining up outside the Paramount Theatre, long before the same could be said of Frank Sinatra - or later Elvis and the Beatles.


Rudy began his film career in 1929 with a short subject and the starring role in The Vagabond Lover, and would eventually shed his radio idol skin and establish himself as a great comic movie actor, with his role in the 1942 film The Palm Beach Story perhaps representing the pinnacle of this incarnation.


In the 1960s Broadway came calling. Rudy starred in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967), which at the time was the hottest ticket on Broadway. Then, in a true case of coming full circle, he appeared in the movie version of the play seven years later.


So when Rich called Bill Vallee it seemed like a long shot indeed, but Bill said the timing and the situation were perfect—Rudy had just created a one-man show that he was trying to get booked in small venues around the country, Rich was Associate Music Director of Grey Advertising and Rudy apparently was eager to get into commercials (he’d never done one), and most importantly, Rudy had just been kicked off a TV morning show for insulting the hostess and was suffering from a combination of remorse and fear that he’d never work again. So as it turns out, he was extremely receptive.

Rich still has some very distinct memories of his experiences with Rudy Vallee. Here are some of his thoughts, more than a quarter-century later:

“When I first phoned Rudy to introduce myself, he’d recently been invited OFF a mid-day talk show on WGBH/Boston. He was touring the provinces with his one-man show and the TV appearance was part of his P.R. efforts. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the first singing telegram, which had been sent to him from Boston to New York. The talk show producers outdid themselves to welcome him. Before bringing him out as a guest they had a small group of dancers and singers perform a medley of some of the songs he made famous, decked out as Western Union delivery boys and carrying megaphones.

No doubt Rudy should have been honored, but apparently he was not in a sunny mood. As soon as he was seated the hostess asked ‘So... how did you come to be identified with the megaphone?’ Rudy scowled, then snapped ‘How come EVERYONE ALWAYS asks me the same STUPID question?’ The hostess looked at the camera and ad libbed ‘We’ll be right back.’ After the commercial break, Rudy was gone.

“This may have been a lucky break for me and the rest of the Bijou gang, as Rudy was feeling quite sheepish about the whole thing and was as eager and cooperative as I could have ever hoped. A few weeks later, the tracks to At the Bijou recorded, I was ready to fly to LA to meet him and record his vocals.

In our conversations he’d mentioned that the thing he missed most about NYC was the cheesecake. When I pulled in to Silvertip, high atop Rue De Vallee (known to the hoi polloi as Pyramid Place) to introduce myself in person, I had with me a pineapple cheesecake from Balducci’s that I’d brought across the country with me. He was enormously pleased and thus began a thoroughly enjoyable relationship which lasted until his death in 1986.


“He was a world of fun, a gracious host and extremely professional in the recording studio. That’s not to say that I never got to see the legendary Rudy Vallee temper, but his explosions were hardly worth taking personally as they were as short-lived and empty of intent as they were colorful.
 
“Bob Campbell, one of the original Bijou producers, and I were invited to the Vallee manse that week for dinner. After dinner, Rudy honored us with a private performance of his one-man show, in which he reminisced about his fascinating life. This was an extraordinary production as Rudy, busy as a one-armed paperhanger, ran the slide projector, the video playback, the cassette player and the sound system, just as he did when performing the show in public.

“Bob, thinking about a future TV project, inquired whether Rudy would be interested in having his life story produced for television. HBO and Showtime were very new networks at the time and did not have a lot of experience yet in creating original content. Perhaps they’d be open to the proposal. Well, the fuse was lit. Rudy, obviously annoyed and getting more so every second, had already given much thought to such a prospect and he made it clear that his life story wouldn’t be on cable, it would be on CBS and Robert Redford would play the lead. (Rudy, to my knowledge, was never accused of having a problem with self-esteem.

In fact, his tennis court was on top of a building devoted entirely to a museum to himself. (Reportedly, after seeing it, Frank Sinatra quipped: ‘Gee, I wonder who lives here?’) Bob, trying to dig his way out, but only getting in deeper, offered that the timing might be right for such a project as nostalgia seemed to be experiencing a surge of popularity. ‘F*** nostalgia!’ explained Rudy. ‘F*** NOSTALGIA! F*** NOSTALGIA!’ he continued, further clarifying his earlier point.

“While Rudy may not have been particularly frightening when he was angry, he proved to be absolutely terrifying when in a good mood. The next night Bob and I, and Rudy and his wife Eleanor, were going to have dinner at a local Chinese restaurant before heading to the recording studio. Rudy was in high spirits and he insisted we take one of his two Connecticut police wagons to the restaurant, Rudy not only driving, but also being in charge of the lights and sirens. Somehow we survived a journey that at times made Space Mountain seem tame, but Bob remembers vividly drinking in every detail of Los Angeles as it flew by, thinking that he meant to experience life to the fullest if these were to be his last few minutes on earth.

“To say that Rudy was the most colorful character I ever met would amount to damning him with faint praise."


Once funding is in place, Rich will be writing the theme song for the sequel series of Matinee at the Bijou, a tune that will be sung by the incomparable Debbie Reynolds. We asked Rich for his thoughts on the new song:

“When I discovered that the new show would also include films of the 1950s post-WWII years, it occurred to me that movies of that era played a very different role in the national consciousness. With the world safe for democracy, God on our side, and unheard of affluence, the American Dream, whatever that might be, was within reach. But what would The American Dream look like? Whether in films with a social conscience or the fluffiest of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies, I think something serious was going on. Blueprints were being drawn, maps filled in, an ongoing dialogue was engaged in, for designing our evolving Utopia. Perhaps even an attempt to preserve the fruits of our labors before the worm could corrupt them.

“I want to write a ballad that reflects some of that transition while at the same time sounding like we might have found a song that was written in the 50s (maybe was the flip side of Tammy) ...a song which might have had one meaning then, but takes on a layer of irony 50 years later."

Producers are confident that 2011 will at long last mark the debut of the Matinee at the Bijou sequel series. Meanwhile, watch for the original PBS series to debut soon on DVD - with unedited content, upgraded film prints and bonus films. And of course, Rudy Vallee will once again be performing Rich Mendoza’s timeless theme song on the DVD soundtrack. Stay tuned for the release date!

The complete music and lyrics to At The Bijou can be seen here, and you can check out some of Rich Mendoza's other musical creations, as well as his graphic and web design work at richmendozaportfolio.

Many of Rudy Vallee's films and his non-film appearances are available for purchase at Movies Unlimited. Rudy's 1975 autobiography Let the Chips Fall can be purchased at Amazon, and Rudy's wife, Eleanor Vallee (with Jill Amadio), has written a memoir called My Vagabond Lover reflecting on her life with the remarkable Rudy.

Here you can watch the original Matinee at the Bijou opening sequence featuring Rudy Vallee  performing At the Bijou.

Sepultura: Iron Samba. l'Aeroneuf, Lille, France - May 23, 1991. (Soundboard :: Mp3 @320 kbps & FLAC)

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Sepultura: Iron Samba. (Black Carls Records :: Nancy 001)
Recorded Live at l'Aeroneuf, Lille, France - May 23, 1991.
Soundboard or EX AUD :: Silver CD :: CBR 320 kbps & FLAC.

Disc 1
01. Intro,Arise
02. Inner Self
03. Mass Hypnosis
04. Dead Embryonic Cells
05. Desperate Cry
06. Escape To The Void
07. Troops Of Doom
08. Altered State
09. Infected Voice
10. Slaves Of Pain
11. Guitar Solo
12. Under Siege
13. Orgasmatron
14. Beneath The Remains
15. Symptom Of The Universe
16. Policia

Files: 16. :: Size: 166.70 MB (mp3) / 450 MB (flac).
Total Time: 01:12:53 hour/s.

Personnel: Max Cavalera – lead vocals, rhythm guitar :: Igor Cavalera – drums :: Andreas Kisser – lead guitar, backing vocals :: Paulo Jr. – bass .

Notes: Complete Show Source: "Iron Samba" - Silver CD - Quality: 8/10.<-(Info taken from original info file).

download lossless FLAC from

FiLEFACTORY | UPLOADED.TO | DEPOSiTFiLESor download mp3 @320 kbps from

FiLEFACTORY | UPLOADED.TO | DEPOSITFiLES

Movie Review: DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX

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Has there been a successful theatrical adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book yet? Excepting the 1950 short “Gerald McBoing Boing,” most of the films adapted from Dr. Seuss’ work have failed to capture the peculiar style and vibe of the beloved children’s book author. Ron Howard’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “The Cat in the Hat” were both so bad as to offend fans of Seuss, and “Horton Hears a Who,” while looking more like the Seuss world should look, was generally uninspired. My kids wanted to turn it off after ten minutes. With great trepidation I ventured forth into a screening of “The Lorax,” in 3D no less, thinking, unless someone cares an awful lot, these movies aren’t going to get any better. They’re not.

“The Lorax,” published 40 years ago, is the story of the Once-ler, who, in his haste to make a million, chops down all the Truffula trees that provided the material he needed to make his Thneeds, which seem to be a bit of a useless item that everyone needs. The Lorax Speaks for the Trees, and so he does in this movie adaptation, although he sounds a lot like Danny DeVito.

The movie opens not with the Once-ler or Lorax, but with a young teen, Ted, smitten with Audrey. So his desire to seek out the Once-ler is not driven by any need other than to impress the girl. The second act of the film is taken up by the Once-ler’s story. He was once an idealistic young man, and made a deal with the Lorax to leave the Truffula trees alone. But once the demand for Thneeds took off, you better believe that Once-ler didn’t think Twice-ler about clear-cutting the valley for material.

Right-wing pundits have are frothing at the mouth over “The Lorax,” claiming it’s brainwashing kids with an environmental message. I saw something else this time. If the Once-ler had been more careful about production by replanting and keeping some Truffula trees alive, he could have kept his Thneed business operational, instead of going bankrupt by wiping out the trees and leaving a smog-addled, sludge-filled wasteland behind. “The Lorax” is a parable against greed, not just an admonition to never cut down a tree.

But the real bad guy in the film “The Lorax” is the mayor of Thneedville, who also owns a business selling fresh air to the population (where did they get this idea, “Spaceballs?”). The mayor is mean, nasty, and cares not a whit for Truffula trees, seeds, or even the lives of love-struck teenagers.

“The Lorax” recycles (Ha! I made an environmental pun!) elements of “The Truman Show” and “WALL-E” into a needlessly busy movie. I did like the songs, by John Powell, and the 3D rendering is not overwrought. But it’s going to take a real visionary director to truly capture on screen the wonder and slightly dark edge that Seuss brings to the page.



--Nathan Cone

SXSW 2012: Deirdre Saravia's take

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An Observation
By Deirdre Saravia

Practice makes perfect, and on my fifth visit to Austin’s South By Southwest music festival (SXSW), this was certainly the case.

The event is gigantic, with masses of people hurrying and scurrying, and all appearing to know where they’re going.

Driving into Austin from San Antonio flows smoothly until you see the Holiday Inn hotel on your left. From there on, cars inch along until finally you leave the highway. Traffic is moving, but part of the reason for that is that there’s nowhere to stop and park. So, last week I spotted a hotel parking lot, paid the fee and escaped the car. The Convention Center was right around the corner. No hunting around for a street parking slot this time around!

Registration for badge holders takes place in the Convention Center. Once again, I encountered a tsunami of people, but all was amazingly quiet and organized. Volunteers are strategically placed everywhere, and love to be questioned. They are there to make your visit is as good as it can be.

Despite long lines of registrants, we processed rapidly and were issued our rectangular press passes, complete with photo ID. These are hung around the neck and clearly identify you as a bona fide professional, musician, or someone with a lot of money. You need these badges to access many sites at SXSW, although there are many free and open to the public events going on simultaneously.

The weather in Austin can be an issue, last year was freezing and raining, and for bands hauling around masses of instruments, the weather was somewhat daunting. However, another year the temperatures soared into the triple digits and that was even worse. This year was warm and cloudy, no complaints.

If you’re unfamiliar with Austin, it is difficult to anticipate distances, and time especially if you’re on the wrong side of IH 35, so finding artists and places to interview can be tricky. Fortunately, the organizers of SXSW alleviate this conundrum, by allocating interview rooms close to the Convention Center. So this means that efficiency is the name of the game, and everyone’s happy.

The performers come to SXSW from around the globe, and for many of them, at their own personal expense.

For these modern day troubadours, it appears that ‘depending on the kindness of strangers’ for a bed is an absolute necessity. Indeed, a bed would be a luxury—many settle for floor space.

Despite the discomfort, these young--and they are mostly really young—musicians are happy, excited and open to the great adventure of SXSW.

I saw two pairs of artists from central Europe who bumped into each other in the Convention Center line. They became instant friends and were planning to spend the evening together. They were unrepresented by any agent or PR person, and I was so happy that they found each other.

For the third year in a row I interviewed Marianne Dissard, and I look forward to seeing her each year. Born in France, now living in Tucson, she writes very poignantly about some very personal subjects. Dissard is a dynamic and creative young woman who appears to be fearless. She travels around the world, often alone, and finds inspiration everywhere.

I guess the one thing that strikes me so intensely, is that these young people from enormously diverse cultures share such love of life and respect for each other. They are open to different points of view, not just open but embracing the difference between us.
The world will be just fine with our future generations as found at SXSW taking over the reins of power.

Finally a comment on the fashion scene--after all, SXSW now has a daily fashion show!
Last year, many young men were seen in pants so tight they appeared to have been sprayed on. This is not a good look for anyone, and most definitely, not for those with a few extra pounds.

This year the trend for females appeared to be non existent skirts, skirts so short accompanied by enormously high heels, the entire ensemble appeared painful to wear.





Perhaps they were part of performance group, but it just seemed to me that there were an awful lot of them.