On my way home from Austin

March 20, 2006 | 12 Comments

SXSW was great this year but I’m more than ready to be home. As much as I love to travel, being away from home for 10 days and pretty much rockin’ out the whole time can wear on a person. As a wise man once said, “I need home for a rest.”

But first, the obligatory “SXSW wrap up post.” The photos can be found here.

It was great to see all my old friends. I wish we could do this more than once a year. How about an SXSWi half-yearly reunion at Austin City Limits!? If not, next year.
Thanks to everyone who made it out to South by Northwest. I tagged it with “Kick Ass” and that’s what it was because of all the great people that made it out.
The Design Eye For The List Guy panel was great fun and the feedback was wonderful. We really worked hard to have a panel that as fun, useful and engaging and it means a lot to have had so many people come out and enjoy it.
I met some GREAT people this year. Ryan and Gill Carson. You guys ROCK. Greg who’s a really nice guy. Martine of the amazing conversations. Jeremy and Robert from Raincity. Rebecca and the other great volunteers. Dan Ruben, rockstar. All the folks at Current.tv. Gina, finally. Bryan and everyone involved with the Avalonstar bowling tourney. Especially all my teammates (Faruk was a crazy man and Ryan Brill is the Michael Jordan of geek bowling). Jakob from Gaia. Chris and Josh from The Web 2.0 Show. I could go on but there were seriously so many of you.
Music rocked even harder this year. I kicked it off with Dengue Fever (take that Geoff) and kept the pedal down hard the whole way. My highlights: THE SWORD (best of show even if they did only do 5 songs), Art Brut (TOP OF THE POPS!), Sia, Karina Round, The Ark (who have seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show way too many times) and Hot Chip (AKA Dance Party USA). Most of the bands I saw were great and it’s all still a blur, but those stick out to me for some reason.
The PureVolume Party was a late night blast. Thanks to Ryan, Brett, Brad and the rest for having me and mine.
I saw Austin’s famous bats last night. That was pretty cool.
And finally…Tito’s Vodka. I love you. I hate you.

See y’all next year. Stay cool.

Filed under: Life
Keyword Tags: sxsw

Comments

1. Ryan Brill said:

Nice to finally meet you, Keith. The Avaolonstar Bowling Extravaganza was, in my opinion, the most fun thing I did while at SXSW. Can’t wait for next year!

Posted on March 20, 2006 09:55 AM | #

2. Bryan Veloso said:

It was awesome to finally meet the guy I subbed for in the blogging world, but other than that I’m really glad you got to make it to the event and at least bowl one game. Also, running into you at all the parties was fun as well. The panel was awesome, Blue Flavor’s party was awesome… I’m already starting to count down to next year’s festival!

Posted on March 20, 2006 11:10 AM | #

3. Bryan Veloso said:

Oops… friggin thing… it meant to say… I <3 you Keith.

Posted on March 20, 2006 11:11 AM | #

4. Keith said:

Ryan – Ditto.

Bryan – Awww, shucks. Was great to meet you too and thanks a ton for getting that bowling thing off the ground. It was a huge highlight for me. I do wish I coulda stayed longer…ah well, next year!

Posted on March 20, 2006 11:20 AM | #

5. Faruk Ateş said:

Crazy? Me? Never!

It was awesome finally meeting you, Keith, and thanks for being on my team (for at least the first round, *muttermutter* ;-))

Here’s to next year!

Posted on March 20, 2006 03:33 PM | #

6. Jeff L said:

Hey Keith,

Sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet you - was hoping to have had the chance to meet you and Gina but didn’t make it to the Lifehacker party. Perhaps next year! :-)

Btw, can we have the half-yearly reunion in Boston, the city that most closely rhymes with Austin? How about North by Northeast?

Posted on March 20, 2006 04:52 PM | #

7. Keith said:

JeffL – Never been and would love to go!

Posted on March 20, 2006 05:45 PM | #

8. Ryan Carson said:

Keith! It was awesome to meet you as well. You riggity rock. :)

Posted on March 21, 2006 04:28 AM | #

9. Joshua Lane said:

It was great meeting you too Keith… if only for a little bit. We’ll definitely have to chat more next year.

Posted on March 21, 2006 06:42 AM | #

10. Dan Rubin said:

Robinson. Dr. Robinson. Your bowling shirts were one of the highlights of my week, seriously… it’s nice to know I’m not the only old guy hanging around all these teenagers ;)

Posted on March 21, 2006 12:23 PM | #

11. ethan said:

I’d checked out your blogs and really enjoyed them….I’m new here and just wanna say that your posts are xcellent and brilliant.

Posted on March 25, 2006 06:17 AM | #

12. Josh Owens said:

Keith,

It was awesome to meet you and chat with you at dinner. Chris and I loved your panel, we thought both redesign panels were the best of the SXSW panels this year!

Posted on March 26, 2006 05:21 AM | #