Actually, this is more like Day .5 for us. Or .33. Or something like that.
See, the SXSW exhibitor hall opens on Sunday, but we need to be here to “load in” our “gear” tomorrow – in other words, we need to roll into the convention center around 11 a.m. tomorrow to watch the convention staff load in our couch and chairs. Should be a grueling half hour for us.
But not as grueling as my flight in, a 5 hour journey from Burbank to Dallas to Austin on two different (though equally cramped) American Airlines Super-80’s, the final leg of which I spent sandwiched between two huge dudes with shaved heads and and a tendency to park their meaty elbows in my ribs.
Cramped though it was, I made it in one piece, and I believe (though I have no proof) that the leg exercises that I found in the back of the American in-flight magazine helped stave off an attack of DVT. Don’t laugh – DVT is for reals. Just ask Dick Cheney, ticking cardiac time-bomb and recent DVT survivor.
Anyway, SXSW: since it hasn’t really started, I’m just going to fill this space with some of my first impressions of the Lone Star State in general, and Austin in particular.
– Texas is big.
– Texas is flat.
– People in Texas do wear cowboy hats – some of them, anyway. Of course, so did that dude in the Village People…
– Dallas has a nice airport.
– Austin has small taxis.
– Austin’s 6th Street has a lot of bars.
– 6th Street has a lot of cover bands.
– 6th Street features a ridiculously high ATM-to-drunk-frat-boy ratio.
– 6th Street is pretty fun.
– Did I mention I’ve spent some time on 6th Street?
More later… Must rest now.
