NYC:01

Today I found out how honest Americans can be.

I had this plan to leave on the day after SXSW so I wouldn't have to rush out of Austin. Due to flights and connections, however, my first flight meant I had to leave the Hotel early in the morning so no lying in nor leisurely start to the day for me after all: I was flying out of Austin to New York, via Dallas Fort Worth Texas and had to start that journey at 7:25am.

Dallas Fort Worth is a very large airport that requires a monorail/train to get between terminals. It is all so very well signed too and I managed to get myself where I needed to go. I found myself waiting at the correct Gate, which had a local Starbucks and plenty of seats.

Texas seems very generous with their power points both in Austin and Dallas, so I plugged my laptop into the closest one and started figuring out how to get online. A guy dropped by from American Airlines and gave me a discount card for on-board wifi. The flight to Dallas also offered internet connection from on-board the aircraft, but I needed a snooze more than I need anything else. This time, I thought, the longer flight up to NYC might be nicely spent Googling, blogging and generally schlepping around online. And from on-board a flight: how very 21st Century!!

I logged onto the site and attempted to purchase a short-term account to see me good for the flight. Needless to say, it didn't work - my card wasn't accepted and it was all a bit odd and I gave up and closed my laptop remembering I had a very good book that needed reading during the flight after all.

I puttered around for a bit, had a bite to eat, then went to the bathroom - returning to the Gate just as the boarding of the aircraft began. After a little bit, my name was called over the intercom and I was asked to come to the check-in desk. This had happened a few times with my connection flights. They have a lot of stand-by customers, and my tickets and boarding passes had been confirmed ahead of time so they seem to like to check I'm actually in the terminal and still require a seat.

When I got to the counter, however, I got the fright of my life as the Policewoman standing there was holding my credit card. "Holy crap!" I said "where did you get that??" She said it was found in the bathroom, on the floor, and I was very lucky to be getting it back because she had seen some shoes she really wanted in the store down the road. Apparently someone had picked it up from the floor of the very busy restroom, and had handed it to the Policewoman. I was very grateful, and somewhat surprised - and while I think I was pretty lucky, I have been told since that generally, American's are very honest - except for the actual dishonest ones.

I arrived at La Guardia airport, New York around 5pm, and found Kiki outside waiting for me as promised. It was so lovely to see her again - both of us worried that after 10 years we wouldn't recognise each other, but there was no problem - people never really change, do they.

After dropping off my bag at her place, and meeting her two dogs Riley (big black Labrador) and Bailey (long-legged Jack Russell), we popped up the road to one of Kiki's favourite restaurants.

Home Made in Red Hook, Brooklyn offers biodynamic and organic wines by the glass, as well as off-the-beaten-trail beers on tap. The other patrons were friendly, Home Made is hosted by the charming Monica and Leisah it was the coziest, loveliest most declicious end to a day of traveling and a great beginning to my New York adventure.

Event: SXSW

I've been in America for nearly two weeks and honestly, this is the first time my head has had any space to think about what is going on. The last five days in particular have been full, interesting and full of beer.

South by South West (SXSW) is a nerd-fest of the highest order. Internet nerds, film nerds and music nerds gather here every March and try to survive a week of information overload and multiple late-night parties. I’m talking about thousands of nerds - thousands. A tweet flew by as we landed in Austin, Texas from the SXSW official channel saying they’d stuffed 12,000 interactive, 11,000 music and 8,000 film swag bags. This year was the first year that the interactive/internet stream surpassed the numbers of the music stream.

Fox and I arrived in Austin from Vegas after driving the ‘scenic route’ (I missed a turnoff and added over an hour to our trip) from San Francisco. We both agreed that, while we’re pleased we visited Las Vegas, it’s not our kind of town. I believe we did it proud though, stayed at a seedy hotel (not on purpose) and attending a cheesy show (American’s version of King Arthur’s Court) but I know I’ll not be going back again unless I really have to. I did achieve my goal of shooting a gun there, so that was great. I failed to see the Grand Canyon - but when I come back to do that, I’ll stay somewhere else - maybe add Los Alamos into the mix to make it a truly awesome trip.

The landscape of Nevada is gorgeous and I'm so pleased we got to drive through it. The purples, blues and golden ochre of the desert is just gorgeous. Cresting hills on the ribbon of highway, dipping down into massive basins of rocky desert, rising up into amazing mountains layered with millions of years of history, I found quite breathtaking. The size of the place is indescribable. I am not sure I would have believed the scale had I not had my own eyes in the front of my head.

We arrived in Austin, Texas on Tuesday evening to begin the point of the whole trip: SXSW. We had booked the Austin Hilton which was directly opposite the Austin Conference Centre’s main doors, was a great idea. No rushing about in the morning or catching shuttle buses, and my bed was never far away from where I was which, as the week wore on, proved a great bonus.

The days are filled with panels, talks, book readings, swimming through crowds and queuing. With such vast conference numbers, queuing becomes a way of life. You queue for coffee, you queue for food and queue for some of the panels and workshops.

With five 1 hour sessions per day, I decided on which I would see by who was speaking rather than what they were speaking about. I got to see and hear many people I’ve admired and followed online - Ryan Irelan, Greg Storey, Austin Kleon, Jim Coudal - I’m such a nerd-groupie. I got to speak with Mike Rohde who I’ve been following for ages on Flickr. His sketch-notes are mouthwatering and he was such a nice guy. The absolute highlight, in a week of highlights was seeing Ze Frank. He’s tall, handsome and seemingly comfortable in his own skin - though I think to be extremely creative, as Ze is, needs a large dose of self doubt and bouts of depression (or is that just me?). He held us all in the palm of his hand during his session titled Living the Creative Life. He was at his best fielding questions from the audience - showcasing his quick wit and goofy side while being completely charming.

photo by Alex Design

After each day of speakers, there were the parties. Hosted by such companies as Frog Design, The Barbarian Group, Microsoft, Adobe, RackSpace, Happy Cog and Twitter, just to name a few - these were tremendous fun and a great way to meet people while having the kind of fun only booze can buy.

As you know, I'm getting old, so I couldn’t manage five days of panels followed by five days of parties - I had to bail and opt for a decent meal and an early night on the Monday night. I also needed a nana-nap during the Sunday.

photo by Alex Design

But all and all, the stories of the SXSW parties are pretty accurate, and to do the conference (festival?) justice, the immersive technique of saying “Yes!” to everything is highly recommended.

Hijack!