SXSW Blog: Day 1 - Kumar, Online Gamers, and the Opening Night Party
FirstShowing, Neil and Brian from FilmSchoolRejects and Kevin Kelly from io9 worked on their respective websites.
A surprise e-mail from King of Kong star Billy Mitchell made for great conversation (and later a news posting). No one could believe the extent of Billy Mitchell’s douche-ness, and we spent a good half hour researching Jonathan Brandis for no reason. Did you know that Jonathan Brandis auditioned for the role of Anakin Skywalker in George Lucas’ Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and that he went to the high school prom with Brittany Murphy. Shockingly the Brandis/Chuck Jones Karate Kid rip-off Sidekicks is getting a 3.8 on imdb?!
I kid you not). We blogged and ate food, but not at the same time.
Ain’t It Cool a call to confirm this fact, and discovered the screening didn’t actually begin until 6:00pm, which gave us 30 minutes to make it across time. Five minutes later after hailing down a cab, we’re stuck in traffic, doubting that we’ll ever make it on time.
We run into the movie theater, and Quint saved us four seats (thanks Quint!). The Alamo Drafthouse is one of the coolest movie theaters I’ve ever been to. There is a counter in front of each row of seats. Before and during the movie you can order food and beverages, and even alcohol (hey, it is a drafthouse). Me and Neil ordered a pitcher of Diet Coke for like 5 bucks and Neil somehow talked me into getting a Pulp Fiction-ish $5 Shake, which I probably shouldn’t have had, but it was awesome none-the-less. Weird vintage Grindhouse-esque drunk shorts play on the big screen as you wait. The film reel got their late and the screening didn’t start until almost an hour after schedule.
The movie was okay to good, but not great. Neil, Brian and Alex seemed to like it more than me and we argued about te film while catching a cab outside the Drafthouse. We even took our argument to twitter. Apparently it turned out to not be the cab we called for and we were kicked out of the car two minutes later. Quint from AICN drove by laughing at us, as he should have. Our cab eventually shows up and all of us decide to ditch 21 for the Second Skin premiere.
Twitter Page know that I decided to wait until the morning to make a decision on if I would post this or not. And I think it’s fun enough.
We decided to crash without posting any news updates, the night was over hours ago and everyone was tired. It’s now clear to me that SXSW is completely different from Sundance. I expect most days will probably go as follows: screening films from 2-10pm, going to a party, blogging, and then waking up at noon. Sundance was more about waking up early in the morning for a screening and sitting in dark pseudo-ovie theaters until well past midnight.
As always, please keep checking back to our Twitter feed, as we’re updating that throughout the day. Follow us!
Thanks to Brian and Neil from Film School Rejects for some of the photos (the better quality ones). You can see more photos from our adventures on their Flickr page.
Monica Keena Biography
Monica Keena was born in New Jersey on May 25th, 1979 and was raised in Brooklyn. She’s about 5′1 and has an older sister named Samantha. Her mother, Mary is a nurse and her father, Bill, is a financial sales manager. As a child, she was always drawing, painting, dancing and signing.
Monica auditioned for acceptance into LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts at the age of thirteen. Although she chose the drama department as her preference, Monica was accepted in both the dramatic and the vocal arts departments. Soon after starting her classes at LaGuardia Monica played in her first role in a short film entitled “Burning Love,”. She also went on to portray the character Bertha in a stage reading of Strinburg’s “The Father,” with Al Pacino.
She’s had small roles in the Films “The Devil’s Advocate” and “While You Were Sleeping” and starred in the films “Strike, Ripe and Snow White : A Tale of Terror”
Monica has appreared in numerous television and movie projects inclding the TBS Superstation Original Movie “First Daughter” and “Crime and Punishment in Suburbia” which appeared in the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.Also awaiting release are the independent movie “The Simian Line” with Harry Connick Jr. and Lynn Redgrave, and “A Fate Totally Worse Than Death” with Julie Benz, and Jonathan Brandis.
She’s also no stranger to television having a recurring role as Abby Morgan on “Dawson’s Creek” and a starring role on the short-lived “Undeclared” as the college co-ed Rachel. Monica also had guest roles on series such as Law and Order, Homocide: Life on the Street, and Feds.
Before taking a break for new movies and tv, Monica attended New York University as an English major. When she has a bit of extra time on her hands she likes to take writing classes and likes yoga. Monica enjoys reading. One of her favorite authors is William Faulkner. She also likes the books the Bloody Chamger by Angela Carter, and Metamorphisis by Franz Kafka. She likes hanging out with friends and says: “I don’t do anything physical. I’m lazy.”, However Monica does enjoy roller skating with friends at Roller Rinks
Some other things Monica has said to have liked are Bob Dylan, the Police, and Tori Amos (a personal Fav !) The Movie, the Wizard of Oz, especially Judy Garland, of whom she says: “Judy Garland is my favourite. I probably know all her songs and have seen all her movies.” Her favorite T.V Shows include The Simpsons and Charmed.
Monica’s most recent project is the much anticipated summer movie “Freddy vs. Jason” in which she has a starring role. Look for that coming August 2003!. Monica lives in New York while not working on film or movie roles.
Tatyana Ali Biography
Tatyana Ali was born in Long Island, New York on Janurary 24, 1979. That makes her 18 years of age right now. Her acting career began when, at the age of four, her parents brought her to a talent agent, who got her a four-year stint on Sesame Street. Ali has co-hosted two different Saturday morning programs, “Name Your Adventure” and “Brains and Brawn,” and starred in the TV movies “Mr. Foster’s Field Trip,” and “Kidz in the Wood.” Tatyana recently starred alongside her boyfriend, Jonathan Brandis in the made for TV movie: “Fall Into Darkness.” She guest starred on such series as “The Cosby Show,” “Hawk,” the daytime drama “All My Children” and the British series “Family Album.” Additionally, she starred in a television special titled “Sports Illustrated For Kids Olympic Special” and was a two-time winner in the singing competition on “Star Search.”
On Broadway Ali starred in the original cast of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Fences,” with James Earl Jones, and later with Billy Dee Williams. Off-Broadway, she appeared in “Orfeo del Campo” and the musical “Sugar Hill.” Her feature films are “Eddie Murphy Raw” and “Crocodile Dundee II.” However, she is probably best known for her role as Ashley Banks on the show: “Fresh Prince of Bel Aire.”
Tatyana enjoys gymnastics, singing, dancing and swimming. She lives in Los Angeles with her parents, (Sheriff, a retired New York City police detective, and Sonia, a nurse) and two younger sisters (Anastasia and Kimberly).
Now, to get to her love life. She has been dating “Seaquest” and “Ladybugs” star Jonathan Brandis (now 20) for a long time now.
The Ali-Brandis relationship started slowly. At a mutual friend’s Halloween party in 1993, Brandis introduced himself to Ali–but soon left for Orlando, where seaQuest was filming. They occasionally ran into each other when he was at home, and last summer he dropped by her house a few times. She was interested, but kept her distance because, she says, “he was older, probably a lot more experienced. It was uncomfortable.” Finally he told her, “I’m going to stop coming over. And you’re going to miss me.” She thought that he was crazy, but the next day, she realized that he was right. That’s when it all began. Unfortunately, he soon had to head back to Orlando. Though her show was shot in L.A., they often visited each other on weekends. Since the cancellation of both of their shows, they have been able to spend a lot more time with each other.
Now a senior at a private high school in L.A., Ali has made a demo singing tape and hopes for a pop music career. While Jonathan has no intention of going to college, Tatyana sees college coming in her near future.
Tatyana’s middle name is Marisol.