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BBQ sauce stains denigrated inappropriate regions of my jeans, pedicabs ate a chunk out of this week’s lunch money and lines took a toll on my soul (should have used TaskRabbit), while a surplus of Austin food trucks with pun names both further questioned and restored my sanity.

In addition to joining the mostly Asian Wives and their escort for SXSW Interactive, I stayed to indulge in the music portion. With thousands of options for panels, keynotes and bands, I stumbled upon lots of awesome and sprinkles of crap.

7 days in Austin left me with the extremes of Evil and Good, which were equally enlightening. And below is what ultimately stuck amidst the alcohol haze.

EVIL

Christopher Poole was not the most poised and eloquent speaker, but this 4chan founder is a devil savant primed for a meaty yet awkward Jesse Eisenberg role. 4chan’s rampant fury is rooted in cornerstones that Poole shared which collectively raise a sausage middle finger to what many hold as community best practices, and he is applying these same F Us to his recent effort:

F the jazz: basic images can triumph over video, flash and audio

F identities: Anonymity is authenticity in order for content to ultimately reign over its creator

F data and storage: lack of registration and archives reduce barriers to incite avid participation

The Crowdsourcing:  Innovation and/or Exploitation panel was an unexpected treat. While the obvious benign examples were celebrated, the discussion around collaboration facilitating mischief is what was memorable. Fred Benenson of Kickstarter discussed using it for more playful means, namely initiating an endless circle of crowdsourcing (crowdsourcing what should be crowdsourced what should be crowdsourced) as well his EmojiDick initiative. Meanwhile Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain rationalized how crowdsourcing can be seen as a modern day manifestation of slavery. He spun a tongue in cheek argument that gained steam as he equated Amazon Mechanical Turks to digital sweatshops and warned against the menace of collaboration applications for tasks such as monitoring borders and crimes, and railed against the extension of gamification to labor.

GOOD

Marc Ecko has done it all and is now focusing on being an instigator for causes, because he wants his “CO2 emissions to be like broccoli cake”. It all starts with being authentic, which he has a BS but obviously proven effective formula for achieving. The primary tenants are unique voice [(action-fear)/self(lessness or ishness)] and a more complex emotional proximity sum of touch and feel. Increasing this was his motivation for because “humans are emotional creatures who only act rationally”. He waxed poetic about his current areas of focus:  Artists and Instigators (“the AARP of pop culture”) and Unlimited Justice (fighting paddling in schools which is highly correlated with increased high school dropout rates in the states that still allow it).

Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMs, shared his dynamic story proving again that failure breeds success. He lost $1MM in Amazing Race 2 by 4 minutes because he didn’t ask for directions. This ultimately let him on an excursion to Argentina which inspired his “one for one” idea that proved that “giving not only feels good, it’s a great business strategy” that elicits an unbeatable competitive advantage when it comes to attracting and retaining the best employees, partners and customers.  He was the most vibrantly polished yet genuine speaker, a perfect close to the Interactive portion and a talk worth listening to in whole when .

MY MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS

Top 4 Bigger Name Performances

James Blake at Stubbs

Janelle Monae at La Zona Rosa

Emmylou Harris (through a glass window) at the tiny IFC recording studio

Bright Eyes at a pop-up show at the Austin Club

Top 4 No Name Performances (at least to me)

Mister Heavenly outside by a carousel  (members of Islands, Modest Mouse and Michael Cera)

Caitlin Moe and Mia Moretti at Austin City Limits (a DJ accompanied by a hotwire electric violinist)

Notar at Rusty Spurs (primarily because Adam Duritz joined onstage for an impromptu performance)

Lost in Trees at The Stage (Arcade Fire with more folk)

REMNANTS

Hot Mess: Why is ? How the hell did I find myself transfixed by this nonsense during my last night?

To Do: Add Café Flesh to Netflix queue (for the strong narrative and nothing else, of course). One of the few things legibly written in my notebook following the much more boring then it sounded Sex it Up panel. Dan Buczaczer mandated we each  go to at least one adult themed event.

Biggest Regret: Never say no to a hammered C+ grade actor and his arm candy who proposition you to a threesome in an elevator circa 2:17am.