Hey, welcome to Part 2 of my catching up before I take off for Sweden (!!). With any luck Part 3 - ski season recap! - should be up over the weekend (what, you missed Part 1? But that what's Mom's 60th bday!) Anyway, so let's finally get this SXSW recap out of the way (er, from first week in March!)

So, SXSW = South by Southwest, the interactive + film + music conference festival that's held down in Austin, TX every Spring. Alex and I went down on the Google dime in 2006 and it was amazing (esp since dodgeball was the Next Big Thing at the time). We went down again in 2007, though that was when me + Alex were brawling with Google over their neglect of dodgeball (all while Twitter was blowing up as the Next Big Thing). So 2008... I wasn't really too hot on the idea of going down. I'm kind of in-between-jobs and in-between-projects and just wasn't really that fired up for it. Then again, everyone in the world was headed to Austin... Alex, Karen, Kevin.K, Harry.H, Danny Denver and just about everyone I know from ITP whose now out in SF.

With about 2 days before the conference, Alex and Kevin start giving me for shit for not planning on coming. I did't have a plane ticket, I did't have a hotel (er, impossible to find even 2 months before the festival) and I didn't have a badge ($500!). I started IMing with Karen about maaaayyybbbee coming down - secret surprise style, which is when Karen said I could crash in their hotel for a night. And then Danny Denver turned out to have an extra place to crash. And then I started looking at plane tix and realized I had a Jet Blue voucher. And then heard that my buddy Ryan who was running a panel on Location Aware Gaming had a open spot to fill (poor Slavin had pneumonia) which would score me a freebee speaker's badge. So, early Friday afternoon - while everyone was already en route to Austin - I scrapped together my five-days-in-Austin itinerary, packed my lil' green backpack and headed to JFK. I text'ed Karen to tell her know that I managed to scam my way down and to try to keep all the ITP kids out late enough so I could make a secret surprise entrance... masterplan was to get in around 10:30p, roll into downtown Austin around 11p. Woo-hooo!



... and they I get to JFK and realize that Jet Blue has crushed my dreams yet again. My 8:45 flight delayed 2+ hours - pushing my 12am arrival time, back to around 3am.



Long story short, I told KB to keep everyone out till midnight. She knew I was super delayed and kept people out as late as possible. By the time I rolled up to the SXSW's opening night after-party (er, 3:55am) there were no more beers, no more good times, and Alex and Ron and Manlio and Danny and KB (good bless them) were all Slurry McCrunkedaLot. Still a successful late night reunion!



... just enough time for one of these...



... before making the trek over the bridge...



... to crash with Alex and Karen in their loooovveee suite. And goodnight!



Hello Saturday! The panel I fandangled myself onto ("You Are Here, Gaming and Geolocation") was one of the very first panels of the conference. Bad because the panel isn't as crowded as it would be if it was in the afternoon, good because at least you get it out of the way, leaving you stress free for the rest of the festival.

and ps: "In Between Jobs" is the best job of all jobs!

So, I've been working on this project at area/code where I've had to leave my laptop running for 3 hours at a time, check back, repeat, etc. When I took off from work on Friday night (8p), I left my machine chugging away, got some drinks + dinner and then came back three hours later (11p) to start the whole 3 hour process again.

On Saturday, I made the trek over to the office around 1pm so I could start the whole 3 hour thing again. But when I got off the elevator, I noticed right away that the door to our office was unlocked (which sketched me out since I was the last person to leave the night before). And when I got to my desk I realized my laptop was missing (!!) - power adaptor too!

So, I'm looking around the office half trying to see if anything else is missing (nothing noticeable) and half trying to figure out which of the MF'ers I work would pull such a dirty "Ha - I hid your laptop" trick on me... which is when I heard something coming from the back of the office.

And so I'm thinking, "Holy shit, the dude that broke in and stole my laptop is still here!" So I went to the back of the office and found this woman sleeping on the sofa in one of the glassed-in offices. I knocked on the door and woke her up. "Hi. Who are you? How'd you get here? And do you know what happened to my laptop?" She was speaking all crazy-talk (drunk? high?) so I called the cops (911! second time ever! and much better than last time!) and told them that it looked like someone had broke into our office and that that person was still here hanging out on our couch.

Seeing that the intruder was a crunked, passed out woman, I didn't feel so threatened, but I guess the 911 dispatcher told the cops something that sounded a little more dangerous as about 10 minutes later, 8 cops showed up guns half-drawn.

I took them over to the office where the woman was passed out and one of the cops looked at her and said "Oh no, that's Michelle." When I asked how she knew her one of the other cops tapped me on the shoulder and was like, "That's no woman, sir." Another one told me she / he's a prostitute from the "Meat District" and that they've run into her a bunch of times before.

So, fast forward through 15 minutes of the cops questioning her... and then the cops questioning me ("Does a Jesse work here? James? How about a Frank?" - ha!). It turns out someone from the building cleaning crew picked up a tranny hooker, brought her him back to our office, made the sweet sweet love all over the office couch, took off (grabbing two laptops, a flat screen monitor and Mike's digicam) and just left the tranny hooker passed out on the couch. Huh.

So, that's pretty much it. We filed some police reports and I bought a new MacBook (black 13", 2g RAM). Lost hardware kind-of sucks, but lost data really sucks. The last time I backed up my Mac was January (ugh - I know, I know) so I lost about *6 months* worth of photos (including Mike.D and Jos' wedding from last weekend - uuuuuugggghhhhh!).

The conclusion? Michelle was arrested on trespassing charges. Cops say there's no way I'll ever get the laptop back (even though it looks like they'll catch the guy thanks to swipe key records and elevator video).

Oh, and worse, the break-in was on the *one day* I left my laptop here overnight. Man! (Gives me the same "what shit luck" feeling I had when me + Cousin Michelle - not to be confused with Tranny Hooker Michelle - had our passports, etc. ripped off in Barcelona the *one day* we put those stupid money belts into our backpacks instead of wearing them. Whole story.)

Anyway, here's some pics from the scene of the crime...



Close-up of the office. Everyone's been asking me "Did you get a pic of the tranny hooker?" and sadly I did not. It felt weird! (but in retrospect I totally should have). By the way, you can see her sitting there on the couch if you look real hard.



The couch. Try your hardest not to look at the white stains on the left. (Dianne, they are JIZZ STAINS!!!)



And left behinds from the sex party. Note giant tub of vasoline.



Empty. (Want some mustard?)



And a bottle of either (a) Crown Royal, (b) urine, (c) both. I'm not sure what the answer is.



A simple courtesy to my fellow co-workers.

I'm going to try to sum up all of Holiday Party Season 2006 in one post... so let's rewind to last weekend (no, not this past weekend, but the weekend before - 12/9). After telling J that I wasn't going to get a Christmas tree this year, he + Jackie left this makeshirt Charlie Brown Tree outside my apt (which was the nicest thing ever, so thanks). Looks like it's made of a 2 inch piece of leftover stump and a busted off branch. Awesome.



I think that was Saturday night - yes, another night at Marshall Stack - where I ran into none other than my date Medway High's Ring Dance back in 1992, Maria.P! (you may remember Maria.P from such adventures as Thanks.g 05 or Caroline's txt msg banter from Thanks.g 06.)

ps: Ring Dance = where all the sophomores get their class rings! (, dur)



Since these prom photos seem to be a teendrama crowd favorite, here's #3 (of 9!) in the series. Oh, and the reinctment from 2005 here. [Flickr]



Tuesday. Me + Courtney hit up the Pokemon Holiday Party courtesy of McS's invite. You know, the last time we hit a Pokemon party it was a slamming hip hop dance party till the wee hours of the am. For the holiday season, they took a weird turn and hired some transvestite female impersonators (Streisand, Cher, Madonna) which is weird cause it's Pokemon(, right?). And they sub'ed out the hip hop dance party for an employee lip sync contest (huh?) where the winner (chosen by Pokemon CEO) was this girl who took off her top while dancing shaking around to a Shakira track (no singing involved). Huh.

Anyway, this pic = some poor guy who didn't realize the Madonna impersonator was actually a dude. Here he is trying to give him/her the hand-under-the-ass reacharound (this pic would have much uglier has I taken it 20 seconds earlier - he was seriously *all up* in this dude's grill).

To top it off, there was a raffle at the end and just as me + Courtney were walking out - holy shit! - they called our number! So we raced back to the stage to grab our loot from the tranny emcee but *some other girl* had already run up and claimed our prize! Of course, no one was checking numbers and we weren't going to protest at the Pokeon Holiday Party but come'on! Who does that! (btw, I dunno what the prize was - they were all wrapped up). Huh. We promptly left with our goodie bags (Pokemon calendar, Pokemon bathrobe, 2 Pokemon chocolate bars, Pokemon bottle of wine) and headed downtown.



Thursday = Happy Corp holiday party down at Lolita! Besides the woman with crazy eyeshadown (not to mention 14-year old son) who left DRUGS for me in the bathroom (Mom, Denny = drug free!) the night was pretty uneventful. I was also kind of hopped up on cold meds since I've had the BF (bird flu) for like 10 days straight now.

Oh the way out, Becca and I passed this fully decorated tree that was just left on the street. I like to think that Carlo's gf threw him out of the house - "...and take this fucking tree with you!" style - and so he just left it on the street for some happier couple to come by and claim it.



Friday was the opening night of 11 Spring Street. For anyone in NYC, everyone has already blogged the shit out of this (NYTimes, Gothamist #1, Gothamist #2, Wooster Collective Flickr), buuuuuttttt for everyone else: On the corner of Spring + Bowery there's this old building that's become one of the more well known landmarks for street art in NYC. Some developer (read: Rupert Murdoch's son) bought the building and is about to turn it into condos, but before they start demolition / construction, they invited all the big name artists who have covered the outside walls of the building over the years to use the space as a makeshift three-day gallery.

The building was open all weekend long (I heard the line to get in was crazy), though Xtina snuck me on the VIP list for Friday's opening (thx!)

Thursday. The Wired showroom was throwing another party courtesy of Flavorpill. We got there early (again) thinking it would be packed (free drinks + some fancy DJ) but alas, it was pretty quiet. We downed two freebee Dos Equis, grabbed our new friend Theo and headed over to Spring Lounge.



We randomly met up with Steve Ross on the street and Youngna through the miracle of dodgeball, had 800 beers at Spring Lounge, nearly got in a tussel with some salty fireman at the bar after he called Randy "Skipper", and chatted up these two random girls from Smith College. Grellan rocking his 1am hair at 9:30pm. Theo planning her escape.



Got the text from Slavin that he was hanging out at The Hotel on Rivington so we packed up and headed out.

Had to pose against the firebox on Spring + Mulberry for old time's sake. Listen, I'm like 5'9. This thing is taller than me. And Gabe hurdled it. Legend. (Read the story and watch the video. Come'on, it's Friday!)

ps: #229



The Hotel on Rivington: the fanciest hotel I've ever done been at. We whisked by the bouncers in the front, snuck our way up the elevator and into the lobby bar ("Lobby bar is for guests only, sir") and met up w/ Slavin and his entourage.

Fourtinately for us (them?) most of the high rollers had called it quits already. Passed Jeff Jarvis on the way out. One of the German VCs representing on the right. Dan.M and Mike.S from Team Socialight also saying hello.

Special thanks to the entourage for the champagne and Brooklyn Lagers. Youngna rounded up some of the suits for a photoshoot. (YP, pics? uploaded some pics)

From: Randy
Subject: Re: the cosby show
Date: December 9, 2005 12:32:06 PM EST
To: Dens, Grellan

(last night we were getting these super-cool group portrait photos taken by youngna in the rivington hotel with the rich germans and just before she takesthe picture, dennis whips his shirt off. they had no idea. it was hilarious.)

Four days of Halloween is a little much, no? See, that's the problem with these Monday holidays. I'm looking forward to taking tonight off.

(Costumes? Oh, we'll get to that.)



Start on Friday with Youngna's 23rd birthday @ Dove (happy bday, yp!). Friday = too early to be wearing costumes so I went as a Johnny Red Sweater. Actually, no one was really dressed up except for The Happy Corp kids - Doug rolled into Dove in this giant domino suit... and 4 hours later (by the time we were all at the Magician) Matt rolls in wearing, er, another giant domino costume (hence the "Die domino die!" dodgeball message for anyone left confused).

Anyway, late night + Youngna's birthday + Youngna really crunked + Youngna's super tiny frame + giant domino costume = Youngna toppled over, on the floor, wearing this stoopid suit and unable to get up turtle-on-its-back style. Hahahahahahaha.

ps: Youngna b'day party = setting dodgeball records for most people checked-in at one place.

ps2: For extra credit, check out YP's Flickr pics.



On to Saturday. Again, too early to dress up, though that didn't stop Jackie and JJ. Jackie as a unicorn (, obviously!) and Jonathan as, um, a cat. Seriously?



Jay was giving me shit for leaving the house without a costume so he gave me these sweeeeeet tribal arm band and Sigma Chi tattoos.



I went out as Johnny Grey Sweater this time and got in a sword fight with Lisa at Motor City Bar.

I certainly did not pass out in Becca's bed with Dianne.

About a year ago, I was asked to work on this project called ConQwest - a Big Urban Game featuring 120 kids running around various cities shooting semacodes with camera phones and dragging 20-foot tall inflatable game pieces through the city streets. It was good times (and we did pretty good work... ConQwest highlighted in "One" magazine + won both a Clio and a Silver Pencil from the One Show) - so special thanks to crew who travelled to five cities in five weeks: Kevin + Liz + Frank + Mattia + Naomi + Jess.

Version 2.0 - aka ConQwest 2005 - just finished up and Mike and Dan (pals from grad school) are now part of the ConQwest alumni. There's a wrap party tonight which should be a pretty good time (though probably not as good a time as what went down a year ago)...



Denver. [video, 7mb]



And two weeks later in Salt Lake City. [video, 8mb]



And for more ConQwest-related good times, make sure to check out the Mechanical Bull Tournament of Champions.

ps1: Just looked at the Clio thing for the first time and noticed I'm listed as a "Media Planner" which is awesome since that is what I was supposed to do once I graduated from college anyway (me = majored in Advertising, focus on Media / Account side of things). Ha.

ps2: ConQwest is a registered trademark of Qwest Communications International Inc.