Saturday March 10, 2001

There were no official SXSW events until 4:00 pm when Peter Merholz interviewed Scott McCloud, so I got up late and then went over to take some pictures of the Capitol building before heading over to the Convention Center. I bumped into Ari Brown and we sat together for the Scott McCloud thing, which was pretty interesting. McCloud is exploring the ways he can use the web to take comics to a new level; not the same old "add sound and motion" stuff, but rethinking the page constraints entirely. Peter did a really good job asking questions and guiding the discussion.

Ari was leaving after the interview, but I spotted Dinah Sanders and went over and said hello. I also got a chance to introduce myself to Heather and we chatted for a few minutes. I assumed everyone would be going somewhere for dinner so I just hung around and eventually about twenty of us wandered over to 6th Street and found a Vietnamese restaurant where I had a huge chicken skewer plate which I couldn't finish. I sat near Rebecca and Jesse, Brad, and Anil.

After dinner, we 5 plus Nikolai Nolan crammed into Brad's car and headed over to the GSD&M pre-party, which sucked. Lots of ad agency folks and the food had all run out by the time we got there. From there, I hooked up with Denise, Dave and Leia again and we went to get something to eat, and then took a cab to Lane and Courtney's house party. That was a blast. Probably 100 people there, all over the front lawn and all through the house. It was here that I got to talk to Alison Headley, Meg Hourihan, Jeffrey Zeldman, Mike Wasylik, Susan Kaup, and
Julie O'Neill. I saw Jason Kottke but he seemed sort of aloof, so I didn't approach him. In fact, I didn't really see him talking to anyone, and I heard later from Meg that he left early. That's not the way I expected him to be, at all.

At one point, I made the mistake of asking what the hundreds of eggs in the kitchen were for, and Denise promptly smashed one on my head, covering me with confetti. When I tried to return the favour later in the evening, I almost split her head open! I've forgotten what they're called, but Judith brought them and they're a Mexican symbol of good luck. Evidently, there's a way to crush them in your hand before smashing someone's noggin. I'll learn.

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