SXSW: Day 2.5

posted at 11:27 pm
on Mar. 12, 2006

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Burning eyes from condensed sweat from my forehead mixed with various smokes.  Shoes bottoms that smell slightly of TexMex and Shiner Bock vomit.  131 digital photos to upload, label and keyword on Flickr.  A stack of business cards in my breast pocket thick enough to stop a .22. Yes, it’s Day 2.5 of SXSW Interactive!

First of all, a quick shout out to Erica, the New York-native who I saw again tonight and seems to gather polite, optimistic geeks nightly the way another kid might gather plucked daisies; and Patrick and Addie, the two most stoned and most happy people I’ve met in years, who percolated in and out of the SXSW post-awards bash.

Next, a thank you to Laura, who got me an amazing pass to see Erykah Badu where I was, literally, 6 feet from her among the other press photographers.  Being given that access, and feeling that music pound through my chest as I leaned on the speaker to take amazing closeup shots—I totally, totally wanted to change my profession to be a rock photojournalist, and that desire for a new career lasted for at least 45 minutes.

I also managed to cross paths with Henry Copeland of Blogads, who graciously offered me drink tickets at a nice shindig at the Headhunters bar.  It was excellent to see him again, even though we got zero chance to talk.

Today was also the day of crap food—Aramark caters the convention center and the butter-based pasta I had for lunch was only slightly worse than the Hilton burger I had for dinner, which was over cooked and featured a smattering of extra mushrooms that cost 8 cents each, by my calculations.  I would have enjoyed eating nickles better, if only for the sheer novelty.

Dinner was redeemed by the company: Susie and I hooked up with Lisa Williams, Betsy Divine Devine, Tish Grier, Julie Leung (briefly), Michael Moncur and companion, and Evelyn, whose last name escaped me until I Googled her.

Tomorrow, I really am going to try harder to get to every seesion, meet everybody, do everything and not get sucked into work mode like I did today in the hotel room.

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Keywords: austin  •  conference  •  dinner  •  festival  •  party  •  sxsw

Previous entry:
SXSW and Austin, in Front of Me

Next entry:
I'm Back