Keep Austin Weird for me
Within seven days, I got to listen to some of the most talented people in the interactive, music and film space. From meeting the founder of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, and watching talks by Steven Levy, Kevin Smith, Anthony Boudain, Frank Abagnale and neuroscientist David Eagleman, to seeing Kasabian, Rodriguez, Jim White and Hindi Zahra perform live - and that barely scratched the surface.
Read MoreOf markets and missions
Yesterday we wandered down to El Mercado, or as white folk like to call it, the “Mexican Market”. Obviously there was a lot of tack and sombreros, but there was also the most incredible cafe & bakery called Mi Tierra. We proceeded to have breakfast tacos, tortillas, empanadas – a doughy Mexican pastry filled with fruit, usually pumpkin or apple – and delicious Mexican hot chocolate. We then hopped on a bus heading south to visit the Missions. These were settlements established by Franciscan monks in the 1700s in order to convert the local heathen tribes to...
Read MoreWe remember the Alamo
San Antonio’s big tourist attraction is The Alamo. Just before Texas was declared a country (yep – it was a country for a full decade from 1836 to 1846) a group of colonists – American, Mexican and European – fought an epic battle against the invading Mexican centralists led by Antonio López de Santa Anna. The history is fairly complicated and grey, but the battle is one of those fantastic (and silly) pieces of heroism that popular imagination adores. Around 190 Texian (that’s not a misspelling) defenders held the crumbling fort against 1,500 well equipped...
Read MoreSan Antoni-yo!
I can’t believe we’re actually here. After spending 20 hours hurtling through the air in various big metal tubes we were whisked from Austin’s airport to downtown San Antonio by Malek, a friendly Moroccan (yes, Moroccan) chauffeur. American Interstate highways are trippy enough already without two hours sleep and a leap between continents. So many Targets, so many JC Pennys. People who live along I35 must be exceedingly well equipped and shod. San Antonio proved no less strange when we arrived. Historical buildings jammed between giant hotels and chain taco joints that...
Read More5 days to Texas
The preamble trip to our 3-month journey is coming up soon. Al and I will be heading to San Antonio for 5 days before hitting the madness of SXSW in Austin – my very first time in the States. In between sleepless nights over work and guitar practice, I am dreaming of The Alamo, barbecue and the perfect pair of cowboy boots. But mainly I am so ridiculously excited that every time I watch an American movie, I try to figure out if it’s one of the places we are going to be. (Image credit for front page: Altus via...
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