GSD&M Honoria in Ciberspazio Ron English and more stars

The interactive part of SXSW started off with a big party at the GSD&M advertising agency offices on Saturday March 13th from 6:00 PM. In addition to the standard welcoming speeches, there was a tribute to Dewey Winburne, who passed away and was an instrumental part of starting the SXSW Film and Multimedia Conference in '94. Previewing this night was ten minutes of the world's first on-line opera "Honoria in Ciberspazio" performed by real live opera singers singing songs people wrote and submitted on-line. SXSW and Texas Interactive Media presented awards for a whole host of categories. Local stars such as Monkey Media and many other Austin businesses filled out the list of contenders. But NYC had a fair share of representation in the likes of Maura Johnston of Hicksville, NY for best personal site (maura.com) and the only entry for Best On-line Drama/Narrative Site for bittersweets.org. Brisbane, CA was well represented also with Chickclick's entries in Best Girl's/Women's site and Best On-line Community. Other New Yorkers being reviewed for Best Art Site were Vivian Selbo for "Killer @pp~it's all t@lk" and Ron English for "Ron English: Popaganda."