My experience with SXSWi began distinctly and punctually yesterday in the airport. I missed my outbound flight because of traffic and was sitting blowing off 4 hours until the next jet when I overheard one stranger say to another in passing "I don't want your tall banana!"

Enjoying my peanut butter Twix for a 7 a.m. breakfast, all I could wonder was if this odd moment of candy and inappropriate commentary between strangers was an omen, an indicator of what is to be over the next four days. SXSW is the biggest party of the year for the creative community. My inbox is chockfull of invite-only RSVPs, too. Man, this is going to be good.

I'll be here, on this page, every day until March 11 making regular updates as things happen so check back often.

I sat there, taking in the moment, the only words crossing my mind were "this is going to be a total shit-show ..." and, inevitably, it will be.

Welcome to CL Charlotte's coverage of South by Southwest Interactive in Austin, TX.

Constant commentary, photos, tweets, and more during my waking hours on my twitter @dbirdy, instagram @dbirdy and on Facebook @desiree.kane!

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Friday, March 8, 2013:

Scott Provancher sighting! I knew there were other Charlotteans here, just wasn't expecting to see the President of the Arts & Science Council. This makes me feel good about Charlotte's representation within this artsy/science-y community!

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Unauthorized owl costume wearing at Hootsuite HQ, party of one!

Austin has an unofficial slogan of "Keep Austin Weird." They're succeeding at this. The only weirder place is Carson City, but that's a story for another day. What's so weird about Austin? It's like the culture has been so unabashedly quirky for so long that something being a little off is commonplace, nay, expected. Think of it like this: It's like the Common Market, except it's an entire city.
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Every time I come to Texas, I think, "Wow, they really do it big here." But then I meet the natives, and they're such mild-mannered nerds that I wind up pleasantly surprised. They do it big ... brained that is.
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OH: "When did scrappy and entrepreneurial become just ... Dickish?"

I've heard this a lot about the SXSW organizers from a whole bunch of different places. People are complaining that it's gotten too big, that it's sold out, too commercial, people don't like the panel track selections as much as they did in < insert arbitrary date here >, etc. Consequently, all of the people complaining are bleeding-edge techpreneurs, so I can see how they'd feel that this once-small conference has grown too much for their tastes. Everyone I've met (save one guy, Jay Baydala, Founder & CEO of Goodpin) has been here five-plus years in a row. One lady even picked up the cab for a friend and me because of this.
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OH at 1:13AM: "I've never worn a pair of shorts where my balls came out to say hello. Earlier I looked down and said, Is that a tomato?'" - our Motorphilia Limo driver
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2:55 AM: One of the weirdest moments ever. Ever.

I was walking with my friend Michael Cummings (one of the founders of BIL Conference, the open-source unconference with a mission not dissimilar to TED except in approach) and girl friends from the U.A.E., Ayesha and Latifah. Latifah looks exactly like famous Middle Eastern singer Myriam Fares and we were literally mobbed by a pack of young, drunk Saudi Arabian men who thought Latifah was the celebrity singer.

First, they followed us to the car, cat-calling and pawing at Latifah. "This is how celebrities must feel," I thought to myself.



We made it to the car, but they started opening the doors, the back window of the Honda Element ... the whole thing was actually rather scary, which is why I wasn't able to catch more video.



Afterward, Latifah expressed feeling "like a pair of shoes." It was crazy - she was wildly objectified and my heart goes out to her for that. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there were some cultural things happening that are broad and complicated, which I can't begin to understand, let alone articulate. It was interesting, I'll give it that.

Day 1: DONE. Whew! Tomorrow: The SXSWi Gaming expo!

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Day 2: Saturday, March 9


My favorite part of the transportation situation in Austin has got to be the pedicabs. Spotted so far on a bike with people in tow: A yeti, a lucho libre wrestler, and a Game of Thrones throne. I couldn't help but hop in one. At $10 for 1.5 miles between venues, this is great for when you don't want to hoof it everywhere and kill your feet.


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The SXSWi Gaming Expo was completely underwhelming. Every 11-year-old on the planet was there with his or her very awesome parents. I may or may not have been to more than one Star Trek convention or party with my dad growing up, so I get it. I'm not saying they shouldn't be there on a Saturday, but it did make it where I couldn't preview the Nintendo Wii U or the 3DS even though I had an appointment and personal walk-through of the preview space. Mur.
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I still don't understand cosplay. I don't hate it or anything - I just don't get it.
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Google Art, Copy, Code Lounge - Very fun! Tater-tots and trash talkin' shoes make for happy and silly nerds.


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On the street: The Monroe Road Clam Stankers



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OMG. I just met the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee at the IEEE/W3C #OpenFuture Meetup!

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This city gets way weirder after dark.

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5:40 PM: Well, I tried to go cover the Cloud Bar/Salesforce demo, but they don't have any room for press, according to the young person at the door. This conference currently seems pretty pretentious. Maybe this is the kind of thing the veterans are griping about.
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8:30 PM: The place we were at was getting rid of a whole bunch of white roses, so we picked them up and gave them out while waiting to see Reggie Watts, Sarah Silverman, and Tim & Eric. It's amazing what kind of smile people get when they have a rose shoved in front of their phone screen while they're on cruise control walking down the street.
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11:25 PM: Reggie Watts is brilliant. I wish we could figure out how to bottle up his awesome and sell it. It'd be the new hot shit, like he is. If you don't know, now you know.

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Day 3: Saturday March, 9

There's a taco place next door to where I'm staying about 2 miles from the convention, and for the last two mornings I have woken up to someone strumming and sweetly singing off in the distance. Austin has talent everywhere and being in such a naturally musical environment is soul-soothing.

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I woke up at 1 p.m. and missed the panels I wanted to see. Oops! It was totally worth staying up until the buttcrack of dawn to see Reggie Watts, though. Sarah Silverman was, of course, hilarious, too. Unfortunately, Tim & Eric weren't as funny. In fact, they weren't funny at all in person. Instead of giving us their dry, slapstick humor, the audience got badgered. They were just straight-up mean, and it just wasn't funny, which is a shame because I've loved their shows on Comedy Central for years.

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SXSWi has been about the No. 1 rule of traveling: ABC or always be charging. People litter the convention center walls and every outlet is full. The star of my show has been the myCharge Peak 6000 I'm reviewing for y'all later this month. I charge it overnight and when my phone battery goes down, I just plug it in again, enjoy not being tethered to an outlet, and keep on truckin'.

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FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. It's rampant around here!

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Oh look! It's Vancouver, B.C.'s Connected Life TV host Bradley Shende! The man is so articulate and has a buffet of knowledge, too. He taught me about nomophobia, which is the anxiety experienced when disconnected from one's phone or specifically, the Internet. Considering the epic levels of FOMO around here paired with social sapiosexuals and open bars, this place is rife with folks who are likely severely nomophobic.
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I have a sneaking suspicion silent discos are the new "Harlem Shake"s, which were the new flashmobs, which were the new black.

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Austin's street art is unparalleled.

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Day 4: Sunday, March 11

"I was a-trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself, "All right, then, I'll GO to hell." - Mark Twain

My favorite slide message of the conference, taken from RJ Owen's Let Conscience Be Your Guide: Moral Design presentation.

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Google Glass is trying to turn us all into cyborgs. Well, those of us who had the chance to get hands on a pair of the new augmented reality glasses. Google pretty much failed at getting the product front and center, which is a shame because they're really, really neat. I'm interested in seeing how it develops since sitting across from someone with a pair of the glasses on is pretty much the most socially odd and privacy invasive feeling I've ever experienced. You never know when you're being recorded so there's no sense of interpersonal trust being built, which is a fundamental of human relationships. It's a straight-up weird dynamic. Here's the promo video - you'll want to keep up with this:


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Speaking of cyborgs...


Besides all of the swag one gets at a huge conference like this, one also gets to see cool things like this: a prop from Tom Cruise's upcoming flick Oblivion. I don't even know what the hell this is, exactly, but it looks really, really cool.

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2:18AM Thinking of practicing #noFOMO next SXSWi. *hic

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4:14AM I can't remember the last time I had my face painted; it's even better alongside Bradley, Ayesha and creative technologist Christopher Luft. This is one of the best parts of conferences: the impromptu pop-up posse. Christopher said it best. Tonight we are "chasing the unicorn." And, really, on the last day before I jet off again, this statement couldn't be more true.

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It's been real, South by Southwest Interactive 2013. Now, I sleep.