Hop Tamale Chili Infused IPA (& rain)

They call it the Strong Beer Festival. You might think that means they serve strong beer. Other years you would be right, but this year it was primarily because you had to be strong to simply attend.

You can normally throw a dart at a calendar and hit a sunny day in Phoenix, but on February 19th, 2011, that dart would have done you wrong. It was cold, wet, rainy, gray, muddy, soggy, numbing, disgusting, and an unreasonable amount of fun.

I took it as a rare excuse to wear my trenchcoat in town without being hauled in for questioning, but even the coat, a sweater, a hat, and boots couldn’t stop me from being soaked to the skin.  Some fools who hadn’t consulted the oracle arrived in jeans and a tshirt, but my favorites were the girls in mini-skirts and stilettos. The festival was in a park, on the grass, so I’ve no idea why stilettos would have been a good idea in the best of weather, but bless ‘em as they tried to navigate the freezing mud pits in their outfits.

Jeff, Evo, Charlie, Beer (& rain)

Others were not so lucky. The mud pits claimed more than a few souls, including Charlie the Beer Guy, one of the many beer gurus I now know. The port-a-johns became a truly memorable experience as intoxicated patrons and numb hands combined with the copious mud to create mucky portals to the maw of an odiferous Hell. Through it all, local Phoenix band Captain Squeegee played on.

The whole affair was just a few quaaludes and one Jimi Hendrix shy of Woodstock. What made it so much fun was the great, stalwart local beer community.

I ran into Maureen from AZ Girls Pint Out, and local craft beer geek Rob Fullmer. People answered questions, braved the freezing rain, and bonded over the misery and tasty libations. Community is about what you share, and everyone there shared a ridiculously fun experience.

I was never much of a beer drinker growing up – I had a father who did way too much of that and it rather brutally crushed my interest in the topic. Thanks to the patience and friendship of some local hop-heads I’m already counting the days until the next festival.

I hope it rains.

Image via Wikipedia

I’m headed to South By Southwest this March, and one thing I learned last year was to be prepared for mass amounts of personal device power consumption. Not that AT&T is likely to have their towers actually serving up a usable signal when the hordes descend upon Austin, but it is conceivable I may find some wifi.  Thus I wanted to do some research on a device to take with to keep my electrons topped off.

My main use is a charger for my iPhone, but USB charging has some appeal. I was very impressed with the Tekken myPower that Steve Paine used last year. It is bulkier than the other options, but can charge a much wider range of devices. It’s also interesting to try and quickly compare these things, as some measure in terms of extra talk time, while others talk in terms of number of full recharges to a typical device.  I am sure I could dig into the tech specs around mAh to sort it out, but that’s more than the consumer-level review I wanted to make.

The chargers I looked at seemed to fall into three general categories: iPhone only, USB devices, and Full Batteries.  The USB device chargers work for a wider range of devices like Pre’s and Kindles, while the Full Batteries (like Tekkeon) charge laptops, netbooks, cameras, etc.  One sad discovery is that apparently Apple is not licensing its MagSafe technology connector for newer Macbooks, so I didn’t see any options at all for battery charging there. They should still work well for my camera, netbook, etc.

I’m not trying to build a comprehensive guide, but here is the list of device suggestions I received on Twitter. If I got anything wrong below, you can fill in any blanks, or there is a different option not listed here please let me know.

I haven’t made a decision yet, but will post again when I sort it out. And by way of disclaimer, I work at Sitewire, which does work for iGo, but I’m after the best bang for the buck so am looking at them all levelly.

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You can’t do it all – Heard that warning 100 times leading up to SXSW and it was absolutely true. Just pick what you’re going to do and commit. This is double true for the after hours events (a.k.a. parties).

(Some) Panels are Great – Choose wisely, and choose items you don’t know much about. If you’re an SEO expert in an SEO panel you’re likely to be bored. Go to learn something new, but don’t hesitate to bail if it isn’t good.

Best Part of Panels is Afterwards – Panels are more than good info, they’re a place to connect with people who share an interest. If you watch a panel later online, you miss the hallway discussion about it afterwards.

People trump Panels - However, if you have a chance to do something with a group of cool people at the same time as a panel you wanted to see, choose the people. The panel videos may not be as good as the real thing, but the connections you make with people in small groups are the best you’ll have.

Support your Hometown – Maybe this is just a personal thing, but I try to attend every panel where someone from Phoenix was speaking.

Meet your Friends, Hang with Strangers – Phoenix was awesomely represented at SXSW, and it was great running into the local crew everywhere, but I wanted to meet as many new people as I could. If you connect with someone new, hang out with them for a while, meet their friends, and work out from there.

No Fear - On a related note, don’t be shy to talk to people. Step outside your comfort zone if necessary, and just do it. I’m not a shy person so this isn’t a problem with me, but I met several people who were nervous or downright afraid to talk to someone they liked or admired online.¬† Of those who went up and said Hi, I don’t know anyone who was disappointed.

Parties are Overrated – Some were fun, some were not. Wasted a lot of time trying to chase the “best” ones. Better strategy would be to pick one or two, go with a group, and just hang out and enjoy it.

Work + Play = Ugh – I was doing some work related stuff while I was there, in addition to trying to enjoy the conference. Big mistake. One or the other would work, but doing both just got really frustrating. Decide why you’re going and don’t clutter it up.

Need More Electrons – Spent far too much time camping near outlets trying to get my device(s) powered back up. Next time will bring an external power pack that I can charge overnight and use to leech power from to keep my iPhone and other things alive.

Eat on the Run – There is great food in Austin, but I didn’t get to sample nearly enough of it. If I had a good group headed out for a meal I tried to join them, otherwise I ate something on the go. The restaurants were so packed that a meal could be a good 90 minutes (or more) out of a day that I already thought was too short.

BLACHOOOO! – I have a strong immune system and rarely get sick. I popped vitamins and tried to eat healthy. I still got just nasty sick on the way back. They call is “SXSW SARS” and it comes from so many people getting in one place and swapping their local bugs like trading cards. I collected the whole set. Prepare for this, and maybe take a day or two off work when you get back.

Wish I could have attended some of Film, and stayed for Music, but that likely would have killed me. Definitely worth the effort, and hope to be back agains next year.

Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, TX.

Southside Market and Bar-B-Q in Elgin, TX. Told to try the hot sausage.

Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que in Llano, TX. I thought this might be too long of a drive, but looking at the Yelp reviews, I gotta check this out.

If you have any first hand accounts, add them in. I’ll post updates when I get to try them out!

Updated:

Via @Jose602: Casino El Camino on Sixth Street for burgers. Tamale House for bfast tacos, Maria’s Taco Xpress for good stuff all around.

Galleria Borghese is just North of Barberini Square home of the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini. Beneath this unassuming church is perhaps the most horrific thing I have seen. It is so disturbing, I cannot believe that it is real. It looks like something from Ripley’s Believe It or Not. To instill the proper mood, read the rest of this post with Vincent Price as the narrator. Beneath the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini is the Capuchin Crypt. The Capuchin friars believed in resurrection and as such, their mummified and skeletal remains (an estimated 4,000 friars) are arranged in funereal art in the six rooms of the crypt. As I descend into the crypt, I am at the beginning of a long hallway in front of a shrine. Already, I can see the bones. The hallway closes in on me and my flesh is clammy. There is only one way to go although I look back to be ensure an escape route.¬† There is a sign warning visitors not to touch the bones. Yeah right… Because that was MY first thought. Jaw, pelvis, skull, leg, arm, vertebrae, knee and other bones that I am too freaked out to spend time identifying are stacked, nailed to the walls, hung from the ceiling, and otherwise positioned to create florets, butterflies, clocks, hourglasses, chandeliers and other shapes.¬† In the last room, is the macabre masterpiece depicting death with a scythe and his weights to judge good and evil. My friends, I am here to tell you I don’t want to be anywhere near Barberini square if resurrection day comes.

If you are looking for corresponding pictures, unfortunately the Capuchin Crypt and Galleria Borghese do not allow photography. I do regret not getting a picture of my face before and after the crypt. Jeff says that he has rarely seen me so unsettled.

Ha! Guessing I typofied Leonardo before we left given commentary from @msherr @timgiron and others. I was low on smart asses this trip! #

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