If you're reading this within the Austin area and are itching to check out the horde of musicians performing at 2013 SXSW Music Festival, now is the time to drop whatever work your boss is yelling at you to get done and snatch up your wristband for this year's music extravaganza.
SXSW Wristbands are on sale now but are probably not going to stick around for too long, so time is of the essence. Wristbands will run for the price of $159 (including tax) and are right now exclusive to Austin residents.
All purchases must be made online and with a credit card that has an Austin area billing zip code. A list of acceptable zip codes is provided on the purchase site, but it does include nearby cities from Bastrop to Wimberley.
Purchasers are limited to one wristband but may also buy one more wristband for one acquaintance so long as they provide their name at the time of purchase. Consider it a good option for an early Valentine's Day gift.
This year's festival will once again offer a range of options for music lovers, with 100 stages scattered across central Austin and more than 2,000 bands and musicians performing from both near and far.
More and more bands will be continually announced on the official SXSW Music Festival website in the days leading up to the festival, which will run from Tuesday, March 12 through Sunday, March 17.
If you decide to skip this year's festival, then please understand that you'll be missing out on the return of that awesome Doritos stage.
There is no director currently working who’s quite like Steven Soderbergh. He bounces back and forth between mainstream fare and artsy stories. He’ll occasionally dip his toe into big-budget filmmaking, as with the Ocean’s series, but typically gets by on a fraction of what others spend. And he moves quickly, with an affinity for innovation that has not abated after 35 years of making feature films.
Just two months after his excellent Presence hit theaters, he’s back with the flashier — but still intimate — Black Bag. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett play husband-and-wife English spies George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean. Their bond is built on love and attraction, to be sure, but they also have a healthy mutual suspicion of each other that comes part and parcel with their line of work.
When someone within their agency is suspected of being a traitor, George is tasked with rooting out the turncoat, even if it happens to be his wife. Two other couples within the agency — Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke) and Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), and Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris) and Col. James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page) — get roped into the investigation, with everyone seeming to have something to hide.
Soderbergh, teaming up with Presence screenwriter David Koepp again, upends expectations at almost every step in the film. While there is plenty of intrigue and a few scenes featuring suspenseful spywork, the film is heavily focused on dialogue. In fact, George and Kathryn’s fancy London house is the epicenter of the story, with the two feeling each other out while preparing for the day, or hosting tense and revealing dinner parties with the other spies.
George is the main character of the film, and he is seemingly an all-knowing individual, whether it’s about the inner workings of the agency or his fellow agents’ personal lives. Soderbergh and Koepp funnel almost all of the story’s twists and turns through him, an effective tactic that works well since he is close to emotionless, rarely betraying his inner feelings.
Koepp’s crackling dialogue is what carries the day, taking the place of any gunplay while being no less powerful. There are no extraneous conversations between the various characters in the compact, 90-minute film; every interaction is laced with meaning and serves as a conduit toward the next turn of events. The relative lack of action in the film makes the rare moments when violence does rear its head especially impactful.
Fassbender and Blanchett are two of the best actors in the world right now, and they prove it in every scene. The way they banter is a masterclass in subtlety, saying a lot with an economy of words. Burke, Abela, Harris, and Page each put in strong performances, and Pierce Brosnan complements them well in a small role as the agency director.
Black Bag is an adult spy thriller, eschewing the typical pyrotechnics of the genre for a story that makes people simply talking seem riveting. It’s yet another example that Soderbergh has a talent for making compelling movies in almost every genre he chooses, an ability that’s enhanced by the film’s stellar cast and writing.
