An Amazing Pop-Up Store At #SXSW. Hmm...

So yesterday we happened upon a super rad pop-up store called Vulvanized Vinyl. I mean just look at it. Amazing... and it's only open for the 10 days of SXSW - a colab project between Vans (those rad skater shoe guys) and Truth (those super creative anti-tobacco guys). Now, me being me, I thought it was just an amazing record shop with the most amazing vinyls for sale. So I started piling up the vinyls tra la la... I was so happy and I wondered why no one else was taking advantage of this awesomeness. These were collectable!! I mean, stuff you can't get anymore very easily, unless you stake out an old age home or something. And then it came full circle. The penny dropped or rather it was dropped on me. One of their crew came up to me and explained that the deal was you buy a pair of rad Vans and then you get a free vinyl. (Moment of enlightenment) After the walls stopped closing in on me, I felt like a bit of a shmuck. So we laughed a lot, struck up a bit of a friendship and in the end, we were given free T-shirts, USB sticks and an invite to the Vans invite only party that night. Sadly, no vinyl :(

Improv Everywhere Gets TED. Hmm...

#SXSW's Best Speaker By A Mile. Hmm...

Today we sat before a panel of four supposed industry wizards. Their talk? Machines That Captivate. Three of the geniuses were about as inspiring as watching a dog lick its own balls... but the last speaker, a Mr Nathan Martin was precisely what we were expecting - a visionary. He started his company, DeepLocal, a few years ago in, of all places, Pittsburg. But you already know about him and his team of awesomely talented whizz kids. After all, it was DeepLocal who created Nike's ChalkBot for the Tour De France in 2010 and Nike's Write The Future World Cup Installation in Joburg's CBD. A little while ago they created a self-powering roller coaster for Prius and even the world's first digitally interactive beer pong game where the staff of Saatchi's LA had to drink tons of beer for charity, mainly 'cos they suck at beer pong. Most recently they worked with Toyota to create something truly mind-blowing - a way to control bicycle gears with one's mind. True story. Watch the vid above to see it's so important that, in Nathan Martin's own words, "we should never create a waste of time." If day one is anything to go by, #SXSW may be the best creative festival in the world.