Days 2-4: The Joys of a Scene

Reflections from the amazing communal experience that was ARGFest-o-Con from the POV of the search for independence during my Death by Junket: the most amazing and terrifying phase of any independent arts movement is when it is a scene but still growing. Scenes are different than industries or genres or movements (although they sometimes grow into those things if they are successful) because they can maintain a sense of intimacy and collaboration -- what you have in common with other members of the scene tends to transcend whatever differences there might be.

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Day Zero: Overture to Indie

I love a good metaphoric roadtrip story, probably more than I actually love being on roadtrips. For the next two weeks I'm on just such a journey, exploring a broad set of communities of American artistic independence. Unfortunately, there's always that pesky and boring travel part, which for me started with 11 hours of airports and travel from Orlando to San Francisco via Texas. I had a companion for the journy, though: songs from 737 of the bands playing at SXSW this year (worth the 3.1 GB download for the glimpse into where the independent music scene breathes and snarls.) The budding Kerouac in me thinks of it as an overture to the exploration -- my personal definitions of indie baked in the oven of SXSW and Midwest independent music scene of the early 1990s, and my roadtrip will eventually end back there again in a couple of weeks (or a decade and a half later, depending on how you view it.)

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