South by Southwest is practically over. After tonight, a whole lot of people who contribute to Austin's culture will leave the city -- film and music professionals and all their groupies will go back to their homes in LA, New York, England, Australia, and every other place imaginable. Reluctantly, I reckon. 6th Street will be handed back to the co-eds and those who have something to do with making movies and music will wait and see if their exposure at SXSW means they'll get distribution or a record deal and if not, they'll give up on the art or shuffle along like normal until next year's opportunity arrives around March 2008.

I get to stay here, but things just won't be the same.

I've had an incredibly fun time this past week. I got to be a part of a special community, the kind of community that you can only find at something like a carefree, yet educational gathering of people with similar interests. And for free, too!

I've made new friends and and even had a few celebrity sightings too. Well, I guess my only "sighting" was Chris Kattan, who was doing an interview in the press suite at one point. Mostly I got to exchange more than a few words with people like David Wain (though I think he was very drunk at the time), Paul Rudd (if you had told my 10-year-old self that I'd be at a party, standing right next to Cher's semi-step-brother/love interest in Clueless, I would've died), Brent White (editor of Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, which comes out in June and rocks all kind of ass), almost the whole cast and production team of The Signal (a great little film that not surprisingly, was sold immediately after its premier at Sundance), and many other cool people -- too many to remember or count even.

I got to see Aqualung perform, which was a real treat, as I knew the lyrics to every song. Concerts are always better when you can at least mouth the words in-sync with the lead singer. I also caught a few other bands, who were more than okay. I drank a lot (especially at the Maggie Mae's closing party wherein "open" in "open bar," apparently means "weak"). I spent a lot of money. But if you can't do those sort of things during Spring Break, when can you? Almost all my friends went to Las Vegas and I'm sure they had a blast. At first, I was a little jealous of them, but now, I wouldn't have wanted the break to go any other way.

Now I get to review some movies! My favorites of the festival were Audience of One, Knocked Up, The Ten, The Devil Came On Horseback, A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar, The Lather Effect, and The Signal. So if you get a chance to see any of these flicks (Knocked Up and The Ten will certainly hit the theaters), then do! I was fortunate enough not to accidentally stumble into a screening of a film that was awful. Even the lamer stuff wasn't really all that lame.

Oh, and I did a few non-SXSW things too. For instance, I had my first lesbian kiss and then my second. I've only ever pecked a girl on the lips before, so it was a good experience. I was very productive as you can tell.

So, goodbye South By. I hope I can do you justice with all the film reviews I'm about to write. See you next year!