You know plenty about spring in Austin. You know about the parties and the swag and the total insanity. I thought I knew all that too. I totally thought I was ready. I guess you're never really ready for your first time. I should have known from the flight over. Rainn Wilson in first class and a bunch of nerds with iPads and greasy hair tapping and sliding their fingers around on the dirty touch screens. I should have known.
The reason I'm recapping four days of the Interactive festival that precedes Austin's music spectacle in one post is that really there isn't that much to say. Over the past four days I've gotten about 15 tote bags and gone to a ton of boring panels where people talk about the FUTURE as though we are all empowered to build our own social networks. I certainly can't build my own social network, so whatever. I did get this awesome light up ice cube from Fast Company, where I saw Rye Rye put on her best two-step and get a bunch of sweaty dorks to rub up against each other (common here).
The real icing on the Interactive cake, however, was Monday night, when Big Boi took over the Seahold Power plant courtesy of Pepsi Max (it's everywhere) and Foursquare (also everywhere). An ATL boy taught me how to dance and I was really feeling deprived of good, non nerd infested party, and I have to say this show fixed me right up, and I didn't even have to wait in line.
That's the other thing about this that I had heard but wasn't ready for--the lines. I actually waited in line to get into another line for the keynote on Saturday. Not joking. At all. I think the lesson here is that no matter how much you like the internet, you might not be ready to spend a week surrounded by the masters of the digital universe. Mike Taylor from The Observer certainly wasn't, bummer for him. I don't think South By South West should be abolished at all! I just think maybe fewer people should go or something.
Onwards and upwards! One totally worthwhile line to wait in is the one for The FADER FORT by FIAT, which I will be in tomorrow as well (yes, writers wait in line just like everyone else, sometimes). Stay tuned right here for more recaps and WAY more photos. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go wait in line for a supposed secret Radiohead show that may or may not be a total and complete lie. Austin, Texas: it's not for the faint of heart.
