March 10, 2006 9:00 AM

I am traveling today, changing planes. Allison Sie talking on her seldom-used cell phone, jean jacket and sunglasses. Chris Tashima is wandering around the airport somewhere. We’re in San Francisco for 90 minutes.

Whenever I feel the wheels touch down on the runway, I think to myself, this means I’ll live to do _______. In other words, I can now expect to survive until the next time I fly. I’m not afraid to get on a plane, I do it all the time, but this is just something I can’t help thinking every time the wheels touch down.

Except this time. Because I was fast asleep and also this is a layover not a destination.

Yesterday, I saw three reels of the 2nd answer print of AMERICANese. The other three reels had bubbles on it-- I think he said water bubbles, is there such a thing? Instead of watching the whole movie, we watched reels 1, 4, and 5 twice.

Our 1st answer print also had some issues. Saw it Tuesday. There were several shots that were off. Wrong hue, too dark, too bright, that sort of thing. We called South by Southwest Film Festival. Print trafficker said we must ship the print no matter what shape it’s in. We were one of 250 films they had to deal with, and they’d already given us a deadline extension. We asked for more a day. They said no, so we shipped it.

Tomorrow night, our world premiere will have the kind of mistakes that first answer prints usually have. I’m wondering whether to mention this before the screening. They might notice the bumps less if I don’t. United Flight 1248 to Austin is now ready to board.

For those of you coming in from out of town there are some things you need to know about good eats here in Austin. First of all, Austin is all about breakfast. I mean, it's a cottage industry. The place to go for breakfast if you're downtown is Las Manitas (3rd and Congress, East side of the street, has a sign that says "Avenue Cafe"). It's a renowned Tex-Mex restaurant with excellent breakfast selections. Try the migas. Don't know what migas are? Scrambled eggs with tortilla strips, tomatoes, onions and salsa. Delicious.

If you're South on Congress, then head over to Nueva Onda, another breakfast haven with breakfast tacos and migas. It's near Oltorf and S. Congress. For evening dining on S. Congress try Gueros or El Sol y La Luna. Both are excellent Mexican food choices.

Maybe you want something other than Tex-Mex. Then try a great Italian place called The Treehouse Grill (Live Oak and S. Congress). Order the cannelloni.

For Sushi downtown try the Kyoto restaurant above The Elephant Room at 4th and Congress on the east side of the street. For a real treat, check out Fonda San Miguel -- they have exquisite interior Mexican "cuisine". (I know, I know.... enough with the Mexican food -- but we've got so much of it and it's so much better than other parts of the country that I emplore you to load up on it before you leave.)

Any other recommendations guys? Let's show our guests from out of town how well we eat here!

-Jake
Director, The Cassidy Kids

After spending a very mellow night with some local friends last night, I dived into the town itself today. Met lots of locals, put up fliers, passed out postcards, gave away buttons, and made some new friends. Throughout the day I often found myself continually surprised by how nice everyone I met was. People seemed honestly interested in both my film and myself. Nearly everyone had a nice big smile for me. It makes me think, it really does. It makes me wonder why that seems so unusual to me. Why do I live in a place where everyday courtesy and interest in your fellow human beings is not commonplace? Shouldn't everyone being nice and friendly be the norm? I love Austin. Also went to the Alamo Drafthouse on Lamar to check out the screen THE LOST will be showing on. I love it. It has a great vibe to it. And the nearly 20 beers that they have on tap sure as hell doesn't hurt my opinion of the place either. Things are going to really kick in tomorrow, but tonight I'm going to hit the bars, and probably make some more new friends. Did I mention that I love Austin?

I'm preparing to pull an all-nighter tonight working on The Cassidy Kids. We're laying down the final sound reels. My ears are totally shot, so I can't tell if something is out of sync or not. I think things are in sync but I'm constantly doubting my own judgement. Maybe we should pull three random people into the room, play the film for them, and if two or more out of the three people think that the audio is out of sync then we slip the shot one frame later or earlier. On second thought this sounds like a horrible idea -- I'm dropping it.

Sounds like a lot of filmmakers are now arriving into town. Welcome to Austin, the only blue part of the state!

-Jake Vaughan
Director, The Cassidy Kids

7 Austin filmmakers (including yours truly) are featured on the cover of the Austin Chronicle, our dope arts weekly. Check it out. I'm the one on the far right looking at all my bed-mates. I wore the robe to kind of hide my gut, but I don't know if it totally worked. I also had just gotten my hair cut the day before. It looks like I just woke up, but that works for the concept, I think. Does anyone get what the concept is? Or isn't everyone too young now to remember that 70's swinger movie?

So, yes, me & the dude right next to me are about to throw The Cassidy Kids up on the big screen on Sunday. As Jake mentioned below, we're still working on the sound. But Jake & our sound angel Tom Hammond will get it done today while I'm at my mind-numbing day-job. I unfortunately had to take this day-job just a week before SXSW because the money I got paid for TCK ran out. Yes, that miracle did happen - I got paid to make a film. Not a king's ransom, but enough for me to survive for a number of months doing nothing else but making it. Here's hoping the miracle happens again.

-Bryan Poyser
Producer/Co-Writer, "The Cassidy Kids"
www.burntorangeproductions.com
www.myspace.com/thecassidykids

On Sunday, March 12 at 7pm, The Cassidy Kids will have it's world premier. It's been a long, sometimes painful, occasionally euphoric journey but we're finally almost nearly there. We're actually finalizing our sound mix here in Austin. The film has been laid out to HiDef and we just have to finish things sound-wise. We're lucky to have Tom Hammond as our sound designer -- he is truly an artist with sound. He's mixed most of Richard Linklater's films as well as a host of other films. He has taken the film to whole new place.