R.I.P. Brent Grulke, creative director of SXSW Festival

To say Brent Grulke's fingerprints are all over South by Southwest would likely be a gross understatement. While working on my book about Austin's live music scene, Indisputable, I had the opportunity to interview Brent to learn about the history of the Austin Chronicle and SXSW. Sitting in Dog & Duck Pub, Brent re-counted some great stories about the small group of creatives who started two of Austin's important businesses in the early-to-mid '80s. At the end of that interview, perhaps feeling a creative-entrepreneurial kinship, I shared with Brent an idea I had about SXSW adding a fourth segment alongside its successful Music, Film and Interactive components, which would be focused on style. While Brent was already heavy into 2010 SXSW planning (this was December 2009), I shared the initial concept of Style X with him months before I ever sat down with Brad Spies Jon Pattillo Cristina FisherNiraj Mehdiratta or many of the other people who would later be key to Style X's first year success. For a couple of months, before unloading my SXSW Style idea onto others, I went over notes for Indisputable - focusing on the interviews I'd conducted with people who'd actually started something of note, like Brent, like Austin City Limits' Terry Lickona, like Susan Antone (whose brother Clifford gave us Antone's) - and their impact in and on Austin. In the end, it was the confidence, not in success but in the collective spirit of "guys we should do something cool together" and creative zeal I heard in Brent's voice that drove me to have those initial conversations with Jon and Brad. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to make Brent and those other guys proud of having joined their ranks as someone who left their mark on Austin's creative scene. Brent certainly left an impression on me that I hope to someday leave on others. May he R.I.P.