onfocus

Gomez was the best show I've seen so far. I was trying to figure out what made them so good...and after about a dozen margaritas, I was regaling Meg and Matt with my theories. But this morning I forget. Must. Get. Coffee.

sxsw pictures: day...umm, 8? wow, I need to go home.

Last night was teen angst night at SXSW. At least, that's what it felt like. Everywhere we went we heard distorted guitars and screaming kids. Nothing subtle. Nothing inventive. Quite depressing. We ended up hearing the Jayhawks at the end of the night. Their vocal harmonies were impressive. Roger McGuinn joined them for one song, too, which was a nice surprise. He came out with his trademark rickenbacker guitar and sang a tune. It wasn't one of my favorite psychedelic byrds songs like I was hoping -- but still great. Tonight I'm hoping to see Gomez at La Zona Rosa. solid.

sxsw photos: day 7.

The Brave Combo street jam reminded me how portable music is. And that you don't need the lights, amps, monitors, or even electricity to create something energetic and beautiful. Just voices. Maybe some instruments. Music seems to be everywhere here...even in the cracks of the sidewalks when record executives aren't looking.

I heard Brave Combo tear it up at the Iron Cactus last night. When the Iron Cactus folks shut the sound off before the band was done, they took it outside. It was an unamplified old school sidewalk street polka jam. And it was fun. Until the cops told them to stop. When will society stop trying to silence alternative polka? Roll out the barrel, baby.

It seems like we had enough t-shirts to go around after the weblog panel. There's still a box that has been misplaced by fedex floating out in the world. If you see them on the black market, you'll know where they came from. A lot of people have been asking me where they can get one. Well, we've given away all that we have right now. But I'm sure we'll print more soon. They went over very well. (Thanks, Derek, for the killer design.)

sxsw pictures: day 4.

Here's a tip: ALWAYS label *all* of your fedex packages individually -- even if they're in a group. Especially if they are T-Shirts that people want. Or they may get lost. ugh.

I just want to be the first to post that meg had a conversation with Janeane Garofalo while out on the town tonight. Austin is fun for star spotting during sxsw.

sxsw pictures: day 3.

The user-centered (not centric) design panel was interesting. I now have many ideas on ways to improve some of our processes at Pyra. And some general ideas for features. But I was generally impressed with our current process. (which is heavily influenced by The Inmates are Running the Asylum.) They talked about creative treatments/scenerios...while we use personas to generate these. Ok, enough shop talk. On to the shady grove for some serious slacking.