Mar 8, 2013 6:30 AM

SXSW Liveblog — Day 1

Follow Underwire’s up-to-the-minute coverage of this year’s South by Southwest interactive, film and music festival.

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9:29 PM CST posted by Angela Watercutter

# > “He is, at this moment, pissing out a kidney stone. … That’s actually the truth. Not a joke.”

— Steve Carell on why Don Scardino, the director of The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, could not join him onstage before Friday night’s SXSW screening of the film.

8:10 PM CST posted by Ariel Zambelich

# The countdown begins! Evil Dead screening = <3

7:56 PM CST posted by Ariel Zambelich

# Who says you can’t travel in style at SXSW?

6:55 PM CST posted by Ariel Zambelich

# It cleared up for a couple of hours, but those clouds on the horizon are starting to look ominous…

6:33 PM CST posted by Ariel Zambelich

# The hotel art in Austin is so very… Texan.

5:47 PM CST posted by Laura Hudson

# > “Cat owners are primarily confined to their homes. There’s no cat park. The Internet is the cat park.”

— Scott Stulen, Internet Cat Video Festival Co-Producer

5:46 PM CST posted by Ariel Zambelich

# Walking around the Austin Convention Center is basically a game of frogger – except the cars are replaced by nerds staring intently at their smartphones, dragging their feet and cursing the slow internet.

5:34 PM CST posted by Angela Watercutter

# During the Economy of the GIF panel, the team known as Mr. GIF (Mark Portillo and Jimmy Repeat, above) discussed the growing importance of the animated format to brands and advertisers looking to keep their look fresh.

The pair and their fellow panelists also discussd the influence of Tumblr on the rise of GIFs. “It’s the basis of the resurgence,” said writer Lindsey Weber. “They’re owning the SEO for GIFs on every topic.” They also discussed whether the format was a fad.

“The artform of the repeating image is always going to be there,” Repeat said.

Oh, and according to a show of hands in the audience, the pronunciation of the format’s name should not sound like a brand of peanut butter. There you have it.

OH at SXSW: “San Francisco is the only place I would move.”

4:51 PM CST posted by Ariel Zambelich

# Apparently the westward hipster migration is still goin’ strong.

4:21 PM CST posted by Laura Hudson

# Wired coverage gets a shoutout at the #catvidfest panel, where organizers Katie Hill and Scott Stulen are discussing what they learned about crowdsourcing, curation and community at their hugely successful cat video festival, currently touring the US.

4:10 PM CST # Local Austin outfit Pongrock has organized a 4-hour ping pong tournament at the Hilton hotel across the street from the convention center. 50 teams signed up. With an hour or so left to go, the odds-on favorite for the win is Simon & Pongfunkle. Follow #sxswpong to see the outcome.

3:19 PM CST posted by Angela Watercutter

# About to explore alternative revenue streams with the Daily Dot’s Fernando Alfonso III, writer Lindsey Weber, and the dudes of Mr. GIF. It should be animated.

2:55 PM CST posted by Ariel Zambelich

# Keynote speaker for SXSWi, Bre Pettis, unveils the newest gadget from MakerBot – the Digitizer!

“If you’ve seen Tron, this is kind of like what happens when Flynn gets digitized into the game grid,” he explained.

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