Meerkat Streams Nearly Double Despite Twitter Choke as SXSW Kicks Off

On Wednesday Tove Lo brought her hit "Habits" (Stay High) to Palladia's Cedar Door space.

Mia Moretti  (far left) and "Palo Alto" director Gia Coppola (top right) went to far east Austin for Soho House's pop up in town. The women joined Dazed (a London youth fashion mag) for a Females First dinner party on St. Patrick's Day. 

After their show on Monday night, comics from Broadway Video's digital comedy outlet "Above Average" invaded the Soho House pop up:  Invaders included Eliot Glazer, John Early, Vanessa Bayer, Sherwyn Nicholls,  Bob Saget, Kendrick Nicholls and Jay Pharoah.

Soho just opened in Istanbul, Turkey this month, making Austin's temporary hub only a very "near east" clubhouse. BMWi provided rides from downtown and Grey Goose, their frequent partner at festivals, handled the pours.

Massively talented impressionist Jay Pharoah has no problem impersonating a meat eater, or someone who likes hanging out with Bob Saget.

Milk Studios co-founder Rassi (Madzack Rassi) was on the scene.

Elliphant performed at Nylon's party marking the end of the SxStyle portion of the festival on Tuesday night.

Jimmy Kimmel played harmonica and led a cover of “I Want a New Drug” with Brad Paisley at Entertainment Weekly’s party at the Samsung Studio on Monday night. Guillermo mostly drank, but also played the cowbell.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus came over from a "Veep" dinner party, arriving just before midnight.

Constance Zimmer was on the run, with both a film ("Results") and the "Entourage" party to hit on Monday night. She filled her glass from one of the Texas-sized Ketel One magnums pouring dirnks at the two story space overlooking the convention center.

Check out Jimmy's shirt. It has the Texas capital on it. Considering how much he likes to cook, it was fitting that after the performance, he and Molly (McNearney, writer and wife) retreated to the Samsung "kitchen" area which became an impromptu VIP.

"What's Trending's" Shira Lazar had Billy Crystal and Josh Gadin to the Samsung Blogger Lounge to talk up their upcoming FX series.

Legendary's digital portfolio now includes Nerdist, Geek & Sundry, and Amy Poehler's Smart Girls. Ben Lyons led a panel with Alonso Mourning, Jason Collins, and Bo Kimble on Derek Jeter's "The Players Tribune", the new media channel giving high profile pro athletes a direct line of communication for "first person" stories, like Steve Nash's retirement letter.

SXSW's opening days are drawing stars and producers from traditional and new media alike. Here's the best of the scene..

Judd Apatow documented the moment that he and collaborator Amy Schumer debuted "Trainwreck" as a "work in progress" cut on Sunday. The comedy is not expected to hit the public until July 17.

From "SNL40" to Austin, "Trainwreck" castmates Bill Hader and Vanessa Bayer's Sundays together have not been lazy.

Meanwhile on Sunday night, Apatow's frequent collaborator Paul Feig was revealing Fox's "SPY". This group would go on to party at Fullscreen's space after the Paramount Theatre screening: Jason Statham, Jim Gianopulos, Feig, Melissa McCarthy, SXSW's Janet Pierson, Rose Byrne, and Bobby Cannavale.

From the first generation of tech winners, Mark Cuban came down from Dallas for the "Spy" party at the Fullscreen space.

Paul Feig shows the man with greenlight authority (Jim Gianopulos) that he is plugging away.

South of the river, on the second night of the Raptor house the word was out. A crowd four times bigger had to brave a second "inside" line and scarce purple wristbands to see Big Sean perform inside Arlyn Studios. 

Nick Jonas also performed at the RocNation/Live Nation mashup.

Earlier in the day, Rainn Wilson, Elijah Wood, and David Morse got together at Raptor's panel series. 

"Love & Mercy" director Bill Pohlad, John Cusack, and "All is Lost" producer Eric D'Arbaleff toasted the Brian Wilson biopic at the STK Supper Suite on Sunday night. Wilson came hungry, asking for a first plate of grub on arrival before having a second dinner with everyone else later. Blue Moon and Maestro Dobel Tequila sponsored the latest incarnation of the traveling film and cuisine series.  

Before taking off across the country, "The Simpsons'" Kwik-E-Mart truck reminded people how long the store, and the purported food inside, has been around: over 20 years.

His friend can't bear to watch him try a Squishee.

Locals fromTravis High School marched down Rainey St. to raise awareness for struggling music programs, passing StubHub's activation.

"The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman, Maker's Erin McPherson, and Kirkman's Skybound partner/"Walking Dead" executive producer David Alpert played Superfight at Maker Studios' SXSWi bash.

Before the festival turned to full on music programming, the interactive portion during the first weekend drew big names.

Liil Wayne performed at the launch of Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary's "Sound Ventures" on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, Vogue cover star (with best pal Taylor Swift) Karlie Kloss turned out one of the densest female concentrations for her panel on "How Technology Colonized Fashion Week."

It was downtown funk for Mark Ronson at Pandora's party.

Brian Grazer hit multiple parties on Saturday night, starting at Ashton and Guy's...

...and cutting through the famous Arlyn Studios where Roc Nation, LiveNation, and Raptor partnered up for intimate concerts. "Dorothy" (here) stole the show - the unfound lovechild of Angeline Jolie and Whitney Cummings with a voice like Heart's Ann Wilson.

Heavy hitters at the Raptor house led high level conversation all afternoon before evening concerts and music: Jim Pallotta, Guy Oseary, Live Nation's Michael Rapino, and Roc Nation's Jay Brown.

At Raptor, Charles Bradley reduced the crowd to children...who started sitting on the rugs inside the main Arlyn Studio like "story hour". The former James Brown impersonator was the subject of a SXSW film a few years ago.

Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling's "Lost River" was debuting at the Paramount. Before the red carpet, the producers from Bold Films  ("Nightcrawler," "Whiplash") had a casual BBQ dinner. Bold's Gary Michael Walters with BBQ enthusiasts "From Dusk Till Dawn's" Eiza Gonzalez and D.J. Cotrona.

Walters, Bold VP Alex Coffee, Mark Svenningsen, and CFO Robert Mitchell.

Fresh off a win measured in seconds, face of the UFC Ronda Rousey, Claressa Shields, and Dana White (not pictured) "hit" the convention center floor on Saturday.

Constance Zimmer and Brooklyn Decker went cocktailing after "Results" at the Samsung lounge.

Daniel Dae Kim did not get "Lost" in the VR gear. "Insurgent" made a partnership with Samsung  to "shatter reality" with trials.

For those looking for more traditional altered reality, Ketel One's two nights of massive music in a warehouse at Fair Market (just east of the 35) proved popular. Other events are packing in to the space as the week continues.

Nancy and Steve Carell talked up new TBS comedy send-up of police shows "Angie Tribeca", which stars Hayes MacArthur and Rashida Jones. They showed the first two episodes on Saturday.

Ken Hertz and manager Adam Leber buddied up at Guy Oseary and Ashton's event.

The weekend started with big names arriving on Friday.

Hey girl, you want to come see my movie? After a Cannes thumping, "Lost River" will make a U.S. debut on Saturday night. 

Nina Dobrev hides behind her tickets to "The Final Girls" on Friday night.

Adam Devine and Angela Timbur are more social.

When you "invent the information superhighway," you get to keynote at SXSWi decades later: VP Al Gore in the state he and Bill Clinton lost twice.

Nat Geo’s “Life Below Zero” show imported frozen igloos to Austin, locking consumers inside the chilly containers with a 20 minute time limit to solve puzzles to escape. Grizzly attack survivor/”Life Below Zero” star Sue Aikens (who lives 80 miles from the closest road, 500 miles from a city) was likely in culture shock from the amount of humanity in Austin.

They also made it snow in Texas. The series returns on April 9.

Comedy Central's "Big Time in Hollywood, Florida" gets the Comic-Con promotional treatment on the streets of downtown. They leaked their own series two weeks early on the Comedy Central app.

Charles Barkley has been making the sports media rounds this week, chatting with the two leading podcasters in the space - Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch (here at SXSW) and with Bill Simmons earlier in the week.

"Mad Max" and "X-Men" star Nicholas Hoult (taller in person) told me that unlike the most famous Austin car pitchman, he did not drive a Jaguar XE before they paid him to drive a Jaguar XE "because I could not afford to." Hoult stayed well in to the night at the Boffin Labs deck at the corner of 3rd and Colorado on Friday night, as the line wrapped around the block. 

These people did not get to cocktail with Nicholas Hoult. A common trend here in Austin is private guest list parties reaching capacity and people amicably waiting in lines that actually move. Weird.

Director Todd Strauss-Schulson lays one on Thomas Middleditch at "The Final Girls."

The networking began on the way there. Delta and UTA put together a "Festival Shuttle" that was tequila-and-cowboy boots studded, fun rowdy, and everyone stood up the whole flight. (This picture is from 30,000 feet.) The top 180 tech heads from L.A. flew together on what became a party plane on Friday.

Room prices and AirBnB are high in downtown Austin... leading to creative popups.

Add segways to the pedal-cabs and monorails jetting people around the capital city.

More from the scene in Austin to come...