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March 17, 2022

GM Frens,

This will be a brief briefing today coming to you from South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. I was afraid that I had arrived too late for much of the action since I’d heard most of the tech and blockchain stuff happened in the first week of the festival – nope – there is still plenty going on.  I spent the morning walking around Austin in my Bald Jesus t-shirt – which was totally fun. My shorthand description was ‘Bald Jesus is the Blockchain Messiah spreading one key message ‘Don’t be a dick!’ which sums things up pretty well.

I explored the Texas State Capital area – it’s a really big capital, bigger than the US capital – seriously impressive as a palace. After this I wandered down to 6th Street which everyone had told me was where the action happens in Austin. Grabbed a cup of coffee and attempted to get my bearings in this cool town. Caught a couple of neat exhibitions- the first was a gallery show put on by Porcshe – the cars really are art.

Which reminds me – SXSW is the North American debut of the VW Buzz – the remake of the iconic VW Microbus and Vanagon – I got to sit behind the wheel and it was odd – it felt far larger than I had expected. I’ve been dreaming of getting one of these since I first saw the concept five or so years ago – but it looks like I’ll have to wait until 2025 or so to be driving one around Oahu – I hope they make them a little smaller. I was also discomfited by the long pointy nose – but maybe it’s just not safe to ride around on top of the front wheels ala the old VW buses and vanagons.

There was a free Banksy exhibition that I had very low expectations for but which actually turned out to be pretty cool. It’s such a strange thing translating street art to a gallery setting but I feel like they did a pretty excellent job at Atmosphere.

On my way to meet Dylan and Phil from PageDAO, I got drawn into a free artist and NFT event and panel which was pretty fun. The amount of free drinks and snacks being distributed in Austin is pretty astounding. Meeting up with PageDAO fam was also meeting up with PizzaDAO fam – as we started handing out and engaging with folks at The Ranch where PizzaDAO was throwing a free pizza party in conjunction with ATXdao. I was glad to be able to assist as it’s been a few years since I’ve spent late nights in a bar or club setting and it was nice to be able to reasonably retreat behind the PizzaDao tables.

Met so many people but no real chance for conversation as the music was so loud I felt like an ancient person going ‘Eh, what’s that you say?’ while holding my hand to my ear. Like Cinderella, I retreated just after the clock struck midnight – I wasn’t going crazy last night and didn’t want to ruin the rest of the week for myself by pushing my 50 year old ass like I’m 25. Tonight there’s a big event put on by Chainlink that should be another opportunity to get out in Austin.

CD Vagobond

Some NFT News: 

• The BAYC ecosystem released the APEcoin this morning. Owners of Apes, Mutants, or Doggos paired with either can claim at https://apecoin.com/claim
• The 10KTF / Gucci partnership continues to mint with the reveal coming 3/26