Biopic About Jimi Hendrix

[uwe]

French has historically been the diplomatic language and the second language of the upper class in Persian circles, Iran is a class-conscious country. That said, I was there in a telecoms matter and that industry is of course dominated by English as the IT language. Add to that how Iran's youth is Anglo-Americanized just like all youth across the world (I noticed how Iranian girls have obviously taken Amy Winehouse as their role model in looks, the beehive is a way of making a fashion statement even under a headscarf) and that there are two English speaking Iranian dailies on sale everywhere. So English is today the dominant second language followed by French (spoken by older people) and even German (many younger Iranians studied and worked in Germany).

PS: I was only in Tehran.

PPS: I like Homeland as a series, but making a connection between Sunnite Al-Qaeda and Shiite Hisbollah (somewhere in the second season) was a real research howler. Those two groups hate each other's guts even more than they have disdain for the US and unlike Al-Qaeda it is Hisbollah's declared policy not to stage attacks on the US mainland (they do attack US military installations in the Mideast though). To them, the 9/11 attackers are not martyrs, but unislamic suicide killers doomed to go to hell.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I like Homeland as a series, but making a connection between Sunnite Al-Qaeda and Shiite Hisbollah (somewhere in the second season) was a real research howler. Those two groups hate each other's guts even more than they have disdain for the US and unlike Al-Qaeda it is Hisbollah's declared policy not to stage attacks on the US mainland (they do attack US military installations in the Mideast though). To them, the 9/11 attackers are not martyrs, but unislamic suicide killers doomed to go to hell.

I like Homeland and I also know about the division between Sunnis and Shiites, which was why I asked. I've met several nice Iranians on Facebook, but I've I've also encountered an equal number of obviously fake profiles who are probably MISIRI agents where I am a member of a few F-14 Tomcat fan pages. (Iran is the only country outside the US to have ever operated the type- and the Shah and his purchase of them was instrumental in making sure the jet ever made it to production to start with.) Obviously the intelligence officers can have as many fake pages as they want and they are as laughably stereotypical as the media often portrays, but most of the legit people I've met from Iran have seemed VERY Western and as cautiously pro-American as they feel safe in expressing. I did expect that out anyone with enough education and access to have a Facebook page and it's saddening to me to see just how much more conscious of freedom they are than folks here in the US, but that's probably because they don't have as much of it.

[westen44]

Here is a review I just found from a critic who just saw the Hendrix movie at SXSW.  He points out that the movie doesn't provide us with any insight into how Hendrix evolved from being a sideman to a successful rock star.  The movie is described as somewhat trivial, tedious, and too long.  The review concludes with this (in case anyone doesn't want to read the whole thing,)-----


And that's the energy missing from "All Is By My Side," a Hendrix movie without the full Hendrix story, seminal Hendrix songs, all in a portrait of a man that doesn't really feel like Hendrix at all.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/sxsw-review-jimi-hendrix-biopic-all-is-by-my-side-starring-andre-3000-imogen-poots-hayley-atwell-20140311

[westen44]

This appears just to have happened only a few hours ago--a drunk driver being pursued by police killed two people and many others were injured.  At the risk of appearing cynical and all that, I'm wondering how many people would have to be killed at an SXSW festival for them to cancel it?  Obviously, only two people and over thirty injured isn't enough.  The show must go on. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/13/sxsw-austin-nightclub-accident/6360729/

[dadagoboi]

This appears just to have happened only a few hours ago--a drunk driver being pursued by police killed two people and many others were injured.  At the risk of appearing cynical and all that, I'm wondering how many people would have to be killed at an SXSW festival for them to cancel it?  Obviously, only two people and over thirty injured isn't enough.  The show must go on. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/13/sxsw-austin-nightclub-accident/6360729/

Would that bring them back?  Why are they different from all the other victims of drunk drivers?  Is it the number, the place, what?  Did SXSW directly cause this?  I'd love to know your reasoning why everyone should suffer because of one drunk idiot.  A moment of silence should suffice.

Let the dead bury the dead.

[Pilgrim]

I don't see any reason to cancel.  This wasn't a bombing or terrorist event; it was most likely someone drunk and stupid.  A sad thing, but no reason to cancel a major event. 

[westen44]

Would that bring them back?  Why are they different from all the other victims of drunk drivers?  Is it the number, the place, what?  Did SXSW directly cause this?  I'd love to know your reasoning why everyone should suffer because of one drunk idiot.  A moment of silence should suffice.

Let the dead bury the dead.

I asked how many people would have to die before they would cancel an event like that.  That was the question.  You are making all kinds of assumptions about how I feel about the matter when, in fact, I'm still processing the info myself.  I'm not sure what my response would be if I were there.  I've just watched a clip on CNN of what happened.  It's pretty serious business.  Whether or not I'd think it should be canceled, I just don't know for sure.  My first response was that I thought it should be.  Then I got to thinking of all the other factors involved.  It's the kind of thing I wouldn't know for sure unless I were there in person seeing exactly what was going on.  The CNN clip, though, was very grim.  People are saying they've never seen anything like this and they are probably right.  When I see something like this, it's kind of hard for me to just write it off as another tragedy.  It almost feels like I'm involved in it myself, when, of course, I'm really not.  So, if you want to know something of my reasoning, there it is. 

[Pilgrim]

Fair enough.  I don't think a meaningful answer is based on a count of dead and injured, I think that in the case of deciding whether to have a large scale event continue, the decision is more logically based on what happened, why it happened, and whether it indicates that there is a ongoing or imminent threat to others.  I don't think this incident qualifies as an event stopper on any of those counts.

So I think the question is rhetorical at best.  "How many" isn't meaningful to me as much as "why and what does it foreshadow."  I'm sure that at some point, even a single event would be enough destruction that the festival would be stopped, but that would probably be a considerably bigger number.

[Dave W]

This appears just to have happened only a few hours ago--a drunk driver being pursued by police killed two people and many others were injured.  At the risk of appearing cynical and all that, I'm wondering how many people would have to be killed at an SXSW festival for them to cancel it?  Obviously, only two people and over thirty injured isn't enough.  The show must go on. 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/13/sxsw-austin-nightclub-accident/6360729/

No matter what you see and hear on the news, this was NOT at a SXSW event. Most of the action in downtown Austin during SXSW is not a part of any official festival event. This was simply along a street with a lot of bars, a few may have been hosting an official event. The rest, if they had a band, would have been hosting other bands that come to town. Chances are no more than 10% of the crowd were official SXSW attendees.

[westen44]

No matter what you see and hear on the news, this was NOT at a SXSW event. Most of the action in downtown Austin during SXSW is not a part of any official festival event. This was simply along a street with a lot of bars, a few may have been hosting an official event. The rest, if they had a band, would have been hosting other bands that come to town. Chances are no more than 10% of the crowd were official SXSW attendees.

I've never been to Austin.  Been to a lot of other places in Texas, but not there.  So I wouldn't know details of the event or how things are in downtown Austin.  This article seems to give a pretty good description of what happened.  It may mean more to someone (besides me) who is familiar with the area.   From what I gather here, it appears the police may have fortuitously prevented more lives from being lost by clearing the area some for a fire lane before the car veered into the crowd.  That's the way it seems to me. 

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/article_cfb5de4c-aabf-11e3-8d5a-0017a43b2370.html

Eyewitness account.  I just found this while looking for something else.  In my opinion, this is the best description I've seen.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/sxsw/5937274/sxsw-fatal-crash-witnesses-john-doe-kieran-leonard

[Dave W]

I've never been to Austin.  Been to a lot of other places in Texas, but not there.  So I wouldn't know details of the event or how things are in downtown Austin.  This article seems to give a pretty good description of what happened.  It may mean more to someone (besides me) who is familiar with the area.   From what I gather here, it appears the police may have fortuitously prevented more lives from being lost by clearing the area some for a fire lane before the car veered into the crowd.  That's the way it seems to me. 

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/article_cfb5de4c-aabf-11e3-8d5a-0017a43b2370.html

Eyewitness account.  I just found this while looking for something else.  In my opinion, this is the best description I've seen.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/events/sxsw/5937274/sxsw-fatal-crash-witnesses-john-doe-kieran-leonard

You're missing my point. You wondered if SXSW should be cancelled because of what happened, I'm pointing out that the street itself is not part of SXSW, it's just a street on which some SXSW showcases are held, as well as a lot of other non-SXSW shows.

During SXSW, there are more non-invited bands in town than official invitees, there are a lot more unofficial shows than SXSW showcases, and with a Music (only) badge now costing over $600 you can bet that the vast majority of people walking Red River St. were not official SXSW attendees. They were just music fans who flock to Austin during SXSW.

[Pilgrim]

That eyewitness account paints a pretty vivid picture.  From what I've heard the guy was s drunk being chased by police, and he may have intentionally tried to hit people.  He's up on two counts of murder and a bunch of other stuff.

But as Dave indicates, this is a bad event that has nothing to to with SXSW other than it provided a group of people to be targets.

[westen44]

You're missing my point. You wondered if SXSW should be cancelled because of what happened, I'm pointing out that the street itself is not part of SXSW, it's just a street on which some SXSW showcases are held, as well as a lot of other non-SXSW shows.

During SXSW, there are more non-invited bands in town than official invitees, there are a lot more unofficial shows than SXSW showcases, and with a Music (only) badge now costing over $600 you can bet that the vast majority of people walking Red River St. were not official SXSW attendees. They were just music fans who flock to Austin during SXSW.

No, I'm not missing the point.  I understand what you're saying.  Besides the fact, that I never said I thought SXSW should be canceled anyway.  I indicated that it might be considered.  From what I've read, there have been some people there in Texas who think it should be canceled, though.  I'm not there and can't say how I'd feel about it.  Like I said before, I think this is one of those things in which I'd have to actually be there to know for sure what I think should be done.  I suspect that the people who are calling for it to be canceled are in a minority and that's understandable, too.  It seems at the moment the prevailing emotion with the public itself is a sense of outrage toward the driver of the car.  His callous disregard for innocent lives was incredible. 

[Lightyear]

The news reports here are saying that he's up on two capitol murder counts and a laundry list of others.  If he doesn't get the needle this guy will die in prison.

Dave is right.  Austin is fairly large city these days and a huge percentage what goes on during this event is not related to the official event.  Things are strewn out to many, many venues all of over town.  You couldn't pay me to be there during this thing - total grid lock in many areas. 

Have we heard from Ronn lately?  He may be able to offer up some local insight.

[westen44]

This article provides some insight into how the event has expanded beyond it's original purpose.  It deals some with the issue of all the people coming for the unofficial events and that sort of thing. 


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-sxsw-car-accident-tragedy-20140314,0,4850567.story?page=1#axzz2vtO8Z8uX


Edit:

http://news.yahoo.com/town-why-sxsw-isn-t-worth-142236104.html