South By Southwest (sxsw)

Year One: Sam convinces me we need to go to sxsw in Austin, TX. I think it went something like this, "We should go to sxsw, that would rule." "Yeah, that would be awesome, let's do it."
Jenn + Eric + Nate + Sam + Me + 1,040 miles later, we were in Austin and he was right, it ruled. Fun Fact: Sam put me in a head-lock and drug me out of the Palm Door at 4am; I still contest the necessity of that action.Year Two: I've lived in Austin, TX for 1 month and 1 week and Sam, Tucker, Ryan, Jake, Travis, Hicks and Mikey come visit and play during south-by. James books them some shows, and we kick it all day and party all night. Tons of mpls peeps in town, tons of great music - pretty magical.
Fun Fact: Tucker bought Bill Murray a hot dog at Shangri La.
Year Three: I'm still not sure I've recovered from this past year. Over a year in Austin means I scored a platinum press badge, which meant I was able to go to all of the interactive events and parties, all of the film screenings and parties, and all of the music events and parties and I had press access. 10 straight days of madness. I would have skipped out on some of the early stuff, but Scott came down to kick it, and as the plans came together last minute I knew we had to get epic, and epic we got.
Fun Fact: Scott and I were in the press pit at Big Boi and it was nuts. I somehow didn't have my camera (WTF) but this picture I stole from the internet (Lorne Thompson's flickr) was probably taken by the chick I was standing right next to.
I'll say more about year three in my next blog post. This one already seems a bit long.