Doing Dallas

15 hours stuck in the middle of the very last row of a 747 is a special kind of hell alright, but we managed to make it to the other side fairly unscathed. Predictably, I only got an hour of shut eye, but just like last year, I got through a tonne of films, including The Descendants and 50/50.

Can I just call it? From now on, any movie that is to be set in Seattle is required to end with Yellow Ledbetter as the credits start to roll. So good. And The Descendants should have won best picture. Both films dealt with death in an incredibly honest way but my god, Descendants kinda blew me away..

So Dallas, what can I say about Dallas.. I'm surprised it is raining here but I'm also hearing that it has been torrential in Sydney town since we left too. The hotel we're staying downtown on Elm St, has a really cool 9th floor pool deck - check out the panoramic view: http://360.io/vcThRV

In other news, just heard that the Laneway Festival guys are hosting some bands again at SXSW. At the same party last year, I managed to discover excellent bands like Givers and Twin Shadow. This year's line up is again looking great and you should expect a bunch of them to be added to the 2013 Laneway list. Takes place at Mohawk on Wed 14 March. Bands are:

Blood Orange
Chairlift
Clock Opera
Django Django
DZ Deathrays
Husky
Kindness
Twerps
Zulu Winter
+ one other _special_ guest

More here: http://sydney.lanewayfestival.com.au/news/announcing-our-second-annual-sxsw-party/

SX tools

So I have a page on my iOS device dedicated to SXSW and NYC designed for maximum enjoyment. Apps like Highlight and Glancee sound a little creepy but hopefully they will lead to connection with some cool people while over there. Basically, it will buzz me when someone with similar interests (based on our FB profiles and our likes) is in close proximity.

Sched will be used for tracking panels mostly - tracking bands however for the second half of the festival will be crazy ambitious.

If you're reading this and you would like to connect with me in Austin, find me on the twitters (@getbiglittlekid) or check out my schedule: http://austin2012.sched.org/getbiglittlekid

Also let me know of other apps you could recommend. Thanks!

Austin bound

So here we go again.. Wildly packing my bags for Austin and SXSW.

Never-ending thoughts of Texan Bar-B-Qs, stupendously enormous conference halls, beef brisket taco food trucks and all that free booze flicker through my mind, as I frantically try to remember that last thing I was supposed remember to pack from earlier..

This time tomorrow folks, I will be somewhere over the Pacific en route to Dallas Fort Worth. I will schedule a blog post (for #b03 sakes), but really, see you Stateside.

Viral videos worth spreading

Tonight, while I should have been packing, watched a whole bunch of TED videos instead. One of the better ones was this talk by Kevin Allocca on 'Why videos go viral'. He should know his stuff too as the YouTube's Trends Manager, which allows him to "professionally watch YouTube videos".

In this entertaining and at times hilarious talk, Allocca shares his theories on why videos do get shared around so that a video of a cat watching a kitten watching Nyan Cat could be viewed millions of times. His main factors are the unexpectedness of the video (which end up being hilarious), a sense of participation (modern remix culture), and just dumb luck ('double rainbow' was uploaded months before Jimmy Kimmel tweeted it out).

Nothing ground breaking here, but worth a look if you're in the mood for a bit of a laugh.

Foursquare Footprint

People ask me all the time why I even bother checking in to places. There are several reasons why but the most compelling one is perhaps the really cool things you could do with all the rich data collected. And when guys like my good friend Mike can show me how to create videos of all the checkins in an amazingly clever way, the question soon becomes - why aren't others doing the same?

Last year, I went on an epic 9 week trip to the States and here you can see every single checkin from it. The video starts from 18 February and the last few days in Sydney before I fly out to Texas for SXSW and it ends at 24 June. The soundtrack switches every time I visit a new city.

If you want to have a go of it yourself, all the info is provided by Mike here: https://github.com/3px/Foursquare-Footprint

Vimeo link

How to be Baratunde

You might know by now that Baratunde Thurston, a tech-loving comedian is now a New York Times best-selling author with his book 'How To Be Black'. He is also the opening keynote speaker at SXSW 2012 which I'm quite excited about.

I came across this youtube of him presenting to a bunch of Googlers at Mountainview (the Black Googler network in fact) - he speaks of how the book came about, the processes in going from an amusing idea to becoming his life story. It's an hour long, but worthwhile if you want to get a good sense of who he is and what he is about.

Austin Feedbag

Created yet another Foursquare list, this time based on recommendations given for places to eat in Austin. It includes some infamous BBQ joints like Stubbs and Iron Works, as well as outta-the-way places like Hudson's On The Bend. If 'crab nachos' and 'fried chicken on waffles' are your thang, you should definitely follow this list!

• "Austin Feedbag" foursquare list