Another year, another zillion SXSW emails to delete. Jesus, what a canard: I know a lot of people go, and I went once myself (in 2005) and had an OK time, but . . . really, what are people thinking? Hour-long lines to see third rate bands, lines all the way down the city street to see acts (in that particular case, it was Stephen Malkmus and a LCD Soundsystem/M.I.A. dual bill) that will be coming to most of the participants' towns twice, and, oooh, barbecue. The funniest/saddest part is that the whole thing is basically catch-as-catch-can, there's no sensible way to plan it out since there's so much going on and because the lines are so long; unless you're with the New York Times or something along those lines, good luck getting into much of anything worth seeing any less than an hour early. Sure I'd go again if someone were footing the bill--it's the only reason I went the first time. But really, it's just kind of sad.