Free beer free beer / That's my favourite brand / If I didn't have to buy it / It's the best beer in the land / Warm flat funky / It don't matter to me / The greatest beer in this whole world / Is the one you buy for me

Currently have a Dopplebock and a Belgian Pale Ale in the fermentors.

I kid, I kid. I love in Portland, Oregon, and am jealous of your beers that are more than hops + alcohol.

I'd wager that we have a greater diversity of beer being brewed in Portland than just about any other city on the planet.

I will admit it's probably easier for me to find beer that makes me happy in Portland than in almost anywhere else I've been. Partially this is a indication of how little I've travelled, but it's also a testament to the variety you can find here.

Of course, I live in Michigan, and there's no shortage of good beer around here. My office is within spitting distance of the Founders taproom. :) (http://spv.yi.org/~scott/img/drpn!_mug.jpg)

SXSW has struck me as a gaggle of marketing types that think they're pushing the limits of tech.

I think that about covers it.

But, here's what I hate about SXSW:

The crowds. I generally hate any environment where one pays hundreds or thousands of dollars in order to wait in lines. This is not a failing of SXSW or the people who attend; SXSW has been a great marketing success for its founders. It's just something I don't like, so I make sure I'm not in town when some of the venues I frequent will be packed and prices hiked up for the duration.

It brings swarms of people pushing products and "personal brands" into a town where that sort of thing is not common, even at tech events. People start companies in Austin, but the culture is a different one from Silicon Valley, and I like it that way. But, I like Silicon Valley the way it is, too; it is true to its history and part of its charm. The problem is when you try to shove a square peg into the funny looking blob shape that is Austin culture. I spent three years in Silicon Valley, and I enjoyed most of it. When I first arrived and started attending nerd events, I thought, "I've found my people!" Turned out not to be so much true after a bit more reflection and exposure, and the 38th time I heard someone pitching a revolutionary new travel wiki, or the countless times when someone explained their new product in relation to some other new product I'd never heard of ("So, it's basically a clone of X, but we've added social features!" where X was some company that had existed for two months and had one developer and at least a dozen users and had been mentioned in a comment on TechCrunch by its founder). But, it's a valuable part of American culture and I love that Silicon Valley exists, so I can visit when I want to experience that culture. I love the history of computing and a lot of it happened because of and inside of the valley. Nothing wrong with Silicon Valley, but for me, I have to take it in measured doses.

So, that's the part of the valley that I don't like coming to Austin. I also mentioned LA and New York, and those cultures also infect the entire conference and not just SXSWi.

The thing about LA is that the Next Big Thing is the holy grail...and everyone playing SXSW is trying to convince you they're the Next Big Thing. There are promoters everywhere, people pushing CDs, flogging their particular showcase with flyers and parties, and a huge pile of people telling you what to like. While Austin has more live music per capita than any other place on earth, Austin doesn't normally do the Next Big Thing. Bands sometimes make cool posters, and that's about the extent of their marketing prowess. During SXSW there are hundreds of bands playing every day in Austin, sure, but on any day in Austin there are hundreds of bands playing (6th Street alone has several dozen live music venues, most open 7 days a week, and with two to four bands on the bill). SXSW just means you have to wait in line and pay hundreds of bucks to see them, and fight a trade show crowd gone wild to get a seat or a place near the stage. Which brings us to New York culture...that of exclusion and long lines and stupidly expensive drinks. You don't just get into every show at SXSW, even with the fanciest of wrist bands. You have to wait in line, or know the right people. This, again, is a testament to the success of SXSW. It is a huge event, and the crowds are tremendous. That doesn't mean I have to like it. I've been a live music fan (and a musician) since I was a kid, but I decided very early on that once the crowd reaches a certain size, the experience is remarkably less satisfying. While most of the clubs in the SXSW rotation are small enough and cool enough venues for transcendent live music experiences, the crowd, both in size and in kind, are not.

So, enjoy SXSW. If that's the sort of thing you like, then SXSW is about as much the sort of thing you'd like as anything I can think of. I do not enjoy it, so I'll park in some other city while it's happening. I'm in Flagstaff, AZ this week, and I'll probably spend a couple days at the Grand Canyon, and then maybe pause in Albuquerque, before heading to Austin for another month, or so. Austin should be getting back to normal by the time I arrive.

> I decided very early on that once the crowd reaches a certain size, the experience is remarkably less satisfying.

Completely agree. And there's a ton of great small venues even in Manhattan.

I'm sure that's true. I only knows what I sees on TV. I've never actually been to New York, but I'm hoping to visit in late summer (visiting New York in a 33' motorhome, however, is expected to be a challenge, so I might have to save the New York trip until after I downsize into a truck+travel trailer, so I can park the trailer outside the city and drive in).

LA, on the other hand, I've visited numerous times. The music scene there is downright bizarre in its crass commercialism, though great bands still come out of LA every once in a while.

Abandoning the night's most popular venues almost guarantees magic will happen.

And people generally seem to end up drinking more.

All good in my opinion.

I haven't been to SXSW but have paid attention to the writings coming out of it over the last few years and increasingly the opinions are that "it's getting mainstream" or that "the new people are ruining it".

It reminds me of when I was in High School and everyone started listening to Nirvana. The "early adopters" were pissed when that happened...

Ironically it's those very people that love finding what is new, different and very often great - the early adopters - that dislike when their discoveries hit the tipping point.

Without the early adopters the masses might never discover the greatness the world has to offer. Perhaps the reason they can't stand the critical mass is so they can discover something new. Begin the process again.

I think there is a significant difference between being annoying that your 'cool' community of people has gotten too large as opposed to people liking the same 'cool' band you do.

Just take online forums. Large, popular forums are much different than smaller, hidden ones. Though they both have their advantages, these advantages are different and both generally have very different atmospheres. I don't think it's wrong to complain when the things you enjoyed about a smaller community are lost as the community grows larger. Because, honestly, a community growing larger changes things, and definitely not always for the better.

Really? These same people?

No, some of them may have made little charity sites where not even a dime of donations has yet reached Japan - or may ever reach Japan - and that has no relevance to people being douchey at a convention.

Some people.

ETA: If I ever went to SXSW, it'd be for Music, and I'd pay for my damn beer.

Which makes me think that all you need to decide is how much you rent the glasses for and how much you charge people to get out of the toilet?

It's not that expensive if you plan well.