With its announcement of the closing night film, Mark Webb's 500 Days of Summer, SXSW Film has found its bookends, complementing the opening night salty-bromantic-comedy-blockbuster of I Love You, Man, with a little bit of sweet indie romance. more ›

Usually by this time in January, the rumor-mongering and hype about SXSW has reached a fever pitch. PR people are playing coy, bands are surprising fans via MySpace announcements, and dayshows begin to rear their heads. But with the economy in a tailspin, the Obama inauguration, and people's minds generally on weightier things, the buzz about SX '09 is understandably sedate. It didn't hurt that SX organizers went ahead and threw out a list of over 1,000 participating acts in mid-January, stopping the profileration of unofficial lists before they really got too far along. Some notable items from the past couple of weeks: more ›