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GourmandeMom Hackney Chronicles--London's Tech City: Food, Tech, Fashion, Design, All-Around Cool [but is the coolness sustainable?]

Tech City.

This is a term that refers to the fastest growing business cluster in Europe, but the term just does not convey how hip, energized, and energizing this pocket of East London really is.  Tech City is not a set geographical unit with official boundaries.  It is an area of creative energy, a cluster of startups and the burgeoning ecosystem supporting it, ordained collectively "Tech City."  Hackney is the East London borough in which this cluster of energy is situated.

This little borough blasted onto Austin's SxSW scene in 2013 with “Hackney House” – a brand to be reckoned with, more on that later.  That happening of Hackney House cemented on this end of the Atlantic Austin and Hackney’s “friendship city” agreement--a multi-faceted collaboration-type agreement between two “cities” that interact like long-lost soul mates.  Let me be clear on just how atypical this arrangement is.  Austin is a big city.  It was just named the 11^th largest city in the United States.  Hackney is not a “city” – it is an area, a city, within a city - the immense multicultural city of London.   It is a borough.  It has its own governing council, yes, but as one observer who knows Hackney stated on seeing Hackney House set up in Austin: for the little geographical vicinity of Hackney to set out across the Atlantic and stake out a claim with another city in the US is akin to South Austin’s entering the international arena as its own brand and marketing it. 

(Site of a previous Hackney House in Hackney: now re-used, again, as a food trailer venue; love the chain link fence design; the space glows red at night)

A neighborhood within Hackney is Shoreditch.  Pronounce it more like “shortage.”  I was not sure what to make of this Hackney business development/connection-making trip with other Austin business types, a trip centered around a digital economy conference, Digital Shoreditch, now in its third year but with aspirations to be a SxSW. But I went because of the potential French connection.  Maybe I can evolve the French business from and through Hackney.  Or so it was pitched to me.  Good enough for me.  I was in.  I had no idea what I was really in for.  

(Pub on Charlotte Street)

As we know, I am a longtime, deep to the core of my being, Francophile—since seventh grade, and despite being raised deep in the bowels of West Texas.  The Paris aesthetics, the French language – all of that combined was for me the apex of culinary and cultural sophistication.   London....Never gave it a whole lot of thought.  Sure, I visited a couple of times, but never got a real sense of it.  I certainly was not in love with it. 

What was it about this short 4-day trip that got this dyed-in-the-wool Francophile so gobsmacked about Shoreditch—and had her sitting in a pub with friends and a half pint of pale English ale.  And loving it!  I have thought long and hard on this through my jet lag, on what makes Hackney, and Shoreditch in particular, different--and on a palpable, visceral level.

(Signage at Mother at The Trampery; The Trampery may epitomize the convergence philosophy running amok in this area as well as the Hackney-Austin collaborative friendship city relationship)

It is, I have decided, this:  the emotional and intellectual appeal of the jarring contrast of the grit of an inner-city urban landscape alongside sophisticated yet simple, creative design. 

For example:  the above street art.  Contrast that against the chic lines of simple yet refreshing design in a newly renovated pub (Princess of Shoreditch...yes, I’m talking about you), with motley array of wood tables, scattered throughout the space comfortably, flickering votive candles everywhere, and the building set in the same landscape as a tumbling brick façade reused as canvas for street art.  

Shoreditch is very urban, but still downright cozy.  It seems almost village-like in its streets, walkways--and shockingly bright green grassy squares lined with wrought iron ornamental fences.  It has maintained a sense of neighborhood, even amidst the tech startups and the hard edges of some of the new urban designs, such as the Boxpark--the "World's First pop-up Mall"--single small retail stores, each one fit into train boxcars stacked side by side. 

The pubs, the cafes, the up and coming artisans in their experimental exhibit spaces co-exist peacefully, for now it seems, with the investor & startup CEO meetings taking place here and there all around them. 

The unhemmed edges of Hackney are still out there for sure.   That is the impression I took away from some conversations.  But clearly there are no frayed hems around such places as Albion, a high-end French-style epicerie, crazy busy at the lunch hour with families as well as business types.

(Albion...where I enjoyed purchasing several colorful tins of tea, as I started to be so sad about leaving)

(Boundary Street, making my way back across town to City University from Albion...should have taken a cab...)

Developers are moving in now with more super high-end, small-scale luxury boutique hotels and apartments, building around and within and integrating centuries-old brick structures that regulations (thankfully) prohibit demolishing.

(View from inside The Old Shoreditch Station, a coffee shop/artists' collective/exhibition space, where I so enjoyed my first Cheese Toastie)

Indeed, the residential/hotel real estate craze is so intense that it threatens to destroy what allowed “Tech City” to happen (in part) in the first place:  cheap spaces in which to create and innovate.   Part of fighting the good fight now involves gathering the resources, political and financial I imagine, to preserve the old abandoned warehouses for commercial space and not see them transformed into lofts for the affluent hipster. See this one for example.

 

(On our walk around the co-working spaces, all clustered around near the all-day seminar at the Open Data Institute by the folks at UK Trade & Investment--view of the gleaming London financial district in the background)

Just ten years ago, they tell us, this place was nothing.  And in fact, there are still some places on the periphery you would not want to visit, so they tell us.  But the boom in this once unventureable place of London is evident now even to newbies like myself.  And unlike other technology-based clusters this one seems different: it has an earnest, authentic soul. 

(Mother at the Trampery: Nordic delegation and reception in another thrilling-to-the-design-senses space) 

Towards the end of the trip, we met at Mother London to brainstorm for what is next (rather, I listened to officials and creative agency partners and consultants brainstorm): where to next for Austin and Hackney.   Here was up close for me to see and hear for myself the philosophy of Mother London, the creative agency deep in the heart of all this: namely, the philosophy and purpose for focus on imagining how to bring along all of Hackney into the economic promise of Tech City.  If we do not get more reach out into the community to focus on the under-served, and get the kids involved and excited about science and technology, what we have now is not sustainable.  If there is no widespread, genuine social impact, then Tech City, and/or Hackney’s role in it, is nothing.   It is one thing for a political entity or non-profit to be espousing this view.  It is quite another for a for-profit, high-end creative agency (Mother London) to be focused intently on this mission.  I learn this is no mistake.  The “Mother” brand is premised on a nurturing, inclusive philosophy. 

(Mother London front lobby...a creative agency housed in the historic Tea Building)

Ergo the portraits of every employee’s mother on the wall, and the business cards identifying each employee through his or her mother.  

In fact, in keeping with that philosophy, Mother London provides a hot lunch in house for all the agencies, entities, workers in their building.

(The massive concrete table at Mother London; at one end it slopes up like this, like a ramp at a skateboard park; all workers are assigned, randomly, diferent places to sit in the office every month.  No one, regardless of position or status at the company, is exempt; note the gorgeous fabric for the light fixtures)

 “Hackney House” embodies all of this.   I learn that Hackney House is not just a one-time made for Austin SxSW 2013 visit.   It is a living, breathing philosophy about repurposing, across as many strata of the creative economy as possible.   It’s about working with what you got.   One Hackney House was in an abandoned lot, in Hackney, surrounded by chain link fences.  Hackney House is always a temporary set-up, taking advantage of the abandoned to create and display in the crevices whatever theme might be appropriate for local artisans, artists, coders--whatever. Now, post that particular Hackney House, that abandoned lot space is a food trailer park, which glows bright red at night thanks to a wall of red light bulbs within the decorative chain link of the fence. 

During the days of meetings and conferencing, walking from cool design space to pub to co-working space (i.e., “Google Campus”—was prepared to, wanted to, hate it---loved it) with such design spaces being Mother at the Trampery, and Mother London in particular, a small voice in my head started to demand that I listen to it.   I never said it out loud.  But I finally had to think it:  Paris has some work to do.  No wonder London was confident in trying to lure the French startups away from Paris when French public policy turned so anti-startup, anti-innovation.  They--Hackney, Tech City, London--are ahead of France in this regard.  There.  I said it.  But competition is good.  I hope France – along with the many French entrepreneurs fighting for the economic landscape required to get an innovation economy really set up for success – gets to this place.  It is close, to be sure, but there is work to be done.  I look forward to Paris giving Tech City a serious run for its money, as all of Europe competes for who does startup ecosystems best.

I hope the Hackney coolness can last.  I am not privy to the struggles that surely exist in the politics of all this Tech City hubbub.  The more I dig and learn I see cause for concern that Hackney’s charm in the convergence of grit and design is already threatened.  The people and places that have helped make Hackney what it is may no longer be able to afford to live or work there. Regeneration activities that include welcoming high-end retailers, such as Burberry, seem at odds with the narratives out there for social justice and change through the boom brought about by Tech City's success.  

I don't envy the challenge facing Hackney's leaders of balancing out this new prosperity and Hackney's inherent authenticity with a sustainable social justice platform.

And I can't wait to get back to Hackney and Shoreditch.  (Right after I get my Paris fix.)  

(Moon over Hackney: after Vietnamese food outing, another one of our very, very late nights)

International Food Law Stuff (AOC, DO): you say sparkling wine/Prosecco/Cava I say we say champagne, sometimes, and incorrectly

It was ironic that I would receive a David Lebovitz blog post called "Champagne, Reims, and Veuve Clicquot" just hours after realizing a faux pas I made on one of my own blog posts.   I called a beverage champagne that, in fact, was not champagne at all.  I did not know this at the time, as I knew little about the lovely sparkling beverage I had been served.  But I should have known, and I could have known, were I not so caught up in the festivities, fun, and self-reflexion and getting too much sun (and wine) too early in the day. 

The lovely sparkling wine provided for the Austin Angers Music 2013 festivities was this Bouvet Rosé Excellence produced by Bouvet-Labuday, and available in the US through Kobrand Wines and Spirits.

Of course, a sparkling wine that one may unthinkingly call "champagne" is not truly "champagne," and in fact may technically not be called that at all unless it comes from a specific region in France -- "Champagne," "one of the great historic provinces of France," as this site explains.   So what, you might say.  Well, so a lot.  There are international trade laws on this topic, and the interplay of international and national and EU laws for regional food specialities is well, pretty darn fascinating.  And complicated. 

My "champagne" error touched on an issue I was (very) lightly researching, on regional laws protecting food as an intellectual property issue.  The champagne issue is thick in the middle of this controversial topic in certain circles.  Some back story is in order.

Recall a few labels you may have seen on your favorite French wine and you might recall the term "AOC."  "AOC" is the shorthand version for a French term (though other countries have similar terms, such as Denominacion de Origen) loaded with legal and cultural consequences in terms of regulating what food or wine may be called what. It is "Appellation d'Origine Controllée."   A site for Diplomatie France explains it this way:

The AOC system was initiated in 1935 to safeguard the specificity of products originating in France’s regions, or terroirs. It is administered by the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine (INAO), the national regulating body established at the time. The INAO recommends labels of origin to the French government and drafts all related regulations. It also ensures the labels are controlled and protected, both nationally and internationally, requiring producers to strictly observe the rules they have set themselves to. Beyond indicating a product’s geographic origin, the AOC designation also focuses on specific criteria such as geological, agronomical and climatic factors, as well as indisputable know-how. For example, in order to receive the label of guarantee from its region of origin, the famous Roquefort cheese must meet a series of criteria: specific manufacturing process, the use of milk from sheep raised in the region according to traditional breeding techniques and fed a certain type of forage, in addition of course to specific characteristics (cheese’s colour, appearance, etc.). Such stringent requirements guarantee the product’s quality.

We who love food and food experiences could probably all agree this is a good thing, in terms of wanting to make sure a particular camembert is in fact from Normandie to ensure that a particular flavor associated with a camembert from Normandie can be had when purchasing a cheese with that label.  The system ("AOP" in terms of such products as camembert: see here) protects me to make sure I am getting what I want and what I am willing to pay a premium for even. 

Things get more complicated for libations that have been part of our common (American) cultural reference vocabulary for like, forever.   Such is the case for the beverage known as "champagne," as we laypersons, outside the food/beverage/restaurant industries, sometimes use the term "champagne" in a generic form (wrongly) to refer to anything bubbly.  This may be because of a loophole in the international law that addressed this issue.  For example, per this article, back in 1993:

...the International Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) recognized wine appellations as valuable intellectual property rights. Under provisions that took effect in 1996, many signatory countries (including the U.S.) have agreed to protect Geographical Indications (GIs).  The Joint Declaration to Protect Wine Place & Origin was signed in 2005, and now has the support of 15 international wine regions.

But as the article notes, there is indeed a loophole, despite efforts of US wine producers and advocates to get people, and wine producers, to use the right words in the US when it comes to what is really "champagne" and what is not really "champagne":

The Center for Wine Origins has been hard at work to protect these GIs....This particular problem is a little bit different—it focuses on an interesting loophole that exists in the current agreement, an exception that protects the continued use of geographic indications that were in trademarks and in actual use before TRIPS became effective. In the bilateral trade agreement, the term ‘champagne’ grandfathers’ U.S. producers using the name prior to 2005—the aftermath is evident as we continue to see U.S. producers such as Korbel’s ‘California Champagne’ on supermarket shelves.

And if you need a more authoritative, detailed source from lawyers who really know this stuff, the American Bar Association has this comprehensive summary of that patchwork of international laws, including a piece on the major philosphical differences between the US and European legal systems in dealing with such issues.

As for me and my everyday life between baseball practice, lightly monitoring homework and my carb intake and keeping up with Federal Circuit cases, I vow to do better.  And though I am having a hard time wrapping my vocabulary around inviting friends to raise their glasses for a "sparkling wine toast" or a "Prosecco toast," I may just have to buy French champagne (redundant) for a real champagne toast.   Better yet, I can do what the wine bars do.  Notice they never have a section for "champagne."  That part of the libations menu is simply "Bubbles."  A bubbles toast it shall be.  Cheers!

When Real Life Starts Looking Like A Long-Ago Pretend Life: The 10-Hour Justine's Day (Austin Angers Music 2013) (Take 2)

(Justine's; part of the hip decor for the Austin Angers SXSW 2013 festivities on 15 mars 2013)

It seems like another lifetime long ago in San Angelo, Texas when I would spend hours pouring over glossy magazines such as Metropolitan Home, Vogue, and Elle Decor.  My parents in fact blamed my Vogue magazine habit as the reason I harbored such grand illusions as living in Paris and enjoying a refined lifestyle of high-end finishes in everything from travel and clothing and meals to interior design and backyard landscapes.  (By then, to be clear, I was already teaching myself French with Berlitz records from the Tom Green County Library.)  

And all of this was way, way before "foodie" culture took off.   I did eventually wander over into Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and then Martha Stewart as she combined all of my favorite high-end visual aesthetics: food, lifestyle, interior/exterior design.  I daydreamed about a life full of elegant dinners with happy (well-adjusted, satisfied in their careers and family lives) people, with lots of friends in stylish circumstances amidst some charming vignette or another.  E.g., a beachfront dinner with driftwood-colored benches, some votives on a long weathered wood table that someone bought at a yard sale in the Hamptons, elegant wispy thin ladies in Eileen Fisher enjoying carefree and effortless banter with young rugged men slightly and adorably unkempt in faded linen shirts half-way buttoned because they had just nonchalantly tossed on that shirt upon exiting the water from say, an ocean kayak for the short trek over from a neighboring cottage.  Yes, I thought all this was so easy to have and to hold, and that indeed it was one's birthright (i.e., mine) upon entering the adult world to enjoy such moments.

Of course, I would soon find out life was not a magazine spread. In fact, I spent the next 2 decades figuring that out, i.e., getting realistic a/k/a disillusioned and disenchanted.

But a funny thing happened on Friday, March 15, 2013.  I figured it all out.

I arrived at Justine's at 10:45am, right after the Titi Robin Trio finished their gig on a TV morning show and we carpooled them back to Justine's for the Austin Angers Music 2013 event. This would be the second of the Chef Rémi brunches.  The first one was the day before at The Bungalow--the one I already waxed on and on about.

It started out as an almost chilly morning at Justine's.  The sun then started to come out.  It started to warm up.  Justine's owner Pierre was rewarded for his call on taking away the winter tents for this occasion.  Yes, there was more of that same fine array from Chef Rémi: that duck pâté I so loved.  The cheeses.  The bread.  Ah, yes, the smoked salmon and the duck tartare.  But this brunch felt different from the one just 24 hours before.  There was relief - a large, collective if perhaps unconscious sigh of relief that all had gone well.  We were all so very relaxed.  This was the end of the complicated logistics, and it was a gorgeous day.  So of course, a brilliant, happy and prestigious sparkling wine from the region -- the Bouvet Rosé Excellence -- was in order.

François Delaunay, co-directeur of Le Chabada, organized the special toast with this very special sparkling wine as the Austin's Mayor, and France's Consul General, in from Houston, join in with the others who made this Austin-Angers connection possible.

There followed an afternoon of music, Justine's open for lunch on this out-of-the-ordinary Friday, and piles and piles of people making their way to Justine's, some of whom did not even realize Justine's is never open this early.  

I stayed for brunch.  I stayed for lunch.  I stayed for more bands.  Friend Amy came on down to catch some of them.   We pulled a bench over from the sidelines and just sat there, front and center, watching the music, wine in hand whilst everyone else around us was milling about.  

As the music time came to a close, we figured it was time to call it a day from our perfect spot, on that bench, with our organic white wine, talking to Francois about Texas, Texas food, Texas landscape, Texas monuments.  He showed us his pictures from Bandera.  We recommended they take in the Rodeo. We almost called it a day after all that.  Almost. 

But then kind and ever-polite and gracious Francois tells me we are invited to stay and dine with the Angers contingent.  I say yes.  Amy says yes.

It is cooling down again as the heat of the day goes away with the sun.  A breeze kicks up.  The group is large.  Germain helps the kitchen and our server by taking orders for the very large group spread out among many tables.

Chef Rémi finds the last of the bottles of that sparkling wine they had specially procured for this event.  

He prepares the bottle for what is to come.

And yes we were right there when he sabered off that top of the bottle. (Glad Amy was there to explain for me.)  

And it is celebratory sparkling wine all around as we are placing our orders for steak frites, moules, cheese, escargots.

Pretty soon there is so much food, talking, laughing--mostly in French.  I know it was wrong to order cheese as a meal to follow my escargots.  Francois did not frown too too much on this odd food selection. 

I look at our table -- and all the tables around us.  There are wine bottles everywhere.  Friends all around.  The jazz from the turntable inside is competing with all of us who have taken over a vast corner of the outside patio there at Justine's.  There is French all around.  There is then a brief time away for Melanie, the documentary filmmaker documenting the whole week, to interview me. Chef Rémi gives me a gift.  

Those last couple of hours with our friends from Angers, a chef, musicians, outside on a cool evening at Justine's--speaking French, were no different from those picture perfect magazine moments of charming vignettes of friends, food, wine, music I found so compelling when prettied up for a magazine.  

And so I figured out.  

The real life version is, of course, always better than the well-lighted glossy magazine picture spread.  And the real life version of those vignettes is not so unattainable, but those scenarios do require a certain amount of just doing your own thing and finding your own groove.  

And then, voila, what do you know.  Decades after sitting in your bedroom repeating over and over "la plume" to a Berlitz record, you start figuring out you just need to get to France, and you just keep going and going, and before you know it, you're sitting at Justine's, speaking French all day drinking wine and exquisite sparkling wine surrounded by French friends and Austin friends, food--not to mention a young French chef, and (French) wine and music.  So much better than a magazine.  It just took, oh, some 30 years to realize that.

 

 

 

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Austin Angers Music SxSW 2013: the Chef Rémi Food Angle

Austin Angers Music SxSW 2013: the Chef Rémi Food Angle

Angers (Austin's sister city in France) had a brainstorm for the music showcases that Angers would bring to SxSW2013, ably assisted by Angers music venue Le Chabada. Why not bring along a French chef as well, a rising star in Angers, and host (French) food events along with the music?   Brilliant.  Only problems: (1) where to cook the food at a music venue (The Bungalow) that has no kitchen; and (2) where to source in Austin items that are omnipresent in France on a daily basis but not necessarily readily available in Austin.

This led to some interesting meetings and networking on the organizers' diligence mission in February 2013, including meeting with Slow Food Austin, and its biodiversity head Valerie Broussard, a trained chef, Francophile, and  "forager" over at Trace at the W Hotel.  

At first I was unclear on the concept of my Angevins friends.  I got that the idea that the music showcases would be preceded by a "brunch" by Chef Rémi Fournier, owner of Chez Rémi, a charming restaurant, in Angers.  It would be from 10 am to 12 pm, before the music kicked in.  I imagined perhaps some pastries.  Some sausage. Maybe some eggs.  

But when I heard that some interesting pork cuts were needed, and that pork blood also was an ingredient they needed (for one of Rémi's specialties, blood sausage, which I tasted in Angers), all of which they quickly had to re-source from another local producer (Sebastien to the rescue!) a week before their arrival in Austin--when the first one fell through--I started to realize there might be more to the meal than link sausage and maybe some pain perdu to stand in for brunch-esque item French Toast.

Thursday le 14 mars arrived.  This was the long-awaited day of so much advance planning, strategizing, logistics (i.e., organizing, and cooking at the Justine's kitchen and transporting the food for a "pop up" brunch off site).  I arrived at the Bungalow on Rainey Street at 10h30, after catching some KUTX live music time down at The Four Seasons.

What I saw was not what I was expecting.  Not by a longshot.  No pancakes.  No omelette station.

It was a long table, with row after row of lovely portions of visually stunning food arranged in tiny plates and bowls arranged for mouth-watering effect.  

Mussels; smoked salmon and lentils; duck tartare; tiny Spanish sardine bites over French lentils; bright red beet purée garnished with tiny delicate slivers of what looked like watermelon radishes but what I heard was just a lovely beet.  And yes, the blood sausage.  And more and more little bites.

And there was still more beyond these little feasts for the eyes.  Two huge pâtés--one duck and one chicken liver.

And piles of lovely little tart cornichons here and there.  

And yes, some lovely cheese, and yes, that is a rich St. Marcellin right there in the center.

And sure, why not a few pains au chocolat and croissants (from Bagette et Chocolat), for good measure.

No coffee, alas.  But this did not stop me (and others, to be clear) from digging in.

As 11 a.m. approached, and the duck pâté was crying out to be tasted, I dug in. With a glass of the fresh and almost effervescent organic white wine from Touraine, which they had managed to secure from a local wine distributor, I was set.  One bite in and I was hooked.  Chef Rémi had indeed pulled off something miraculous and magical under what looked like some pretty uncertain circumstances just a week or two earlier.

Justine's also came through again, providing its cheery wait staff to serve the wine that lovely (late) morning and into the early afternoon.

It is not often that one has such a feast laid out, with pâtés of this quality just there for the taking, on a cool spring day in Austin, surrounding by French speakers from all over France there for SxSW.  So I do not regret the copious (and repeated) combinations of pâté, cheese, bread, that I indulged in--which now has me on a boot camp, 6 days a week, for my post SXSW workout/super low carb regime.

I do regret that I obviously have a long way to go before I really learn one great French way-of-life lesson: moderation. 

 

 

 

 

SXSW 2013 - Rookie/Newbie Brain Dump on the 8 Days

As I prepare for real life again on Monday after 8 days of thinking, eating, walking, drinking at this, my first SxSW, I realize I can manage only a brain dump of a summary of the overall experience.  A mashup of random meetings and interactions and myriad suggestions and tips that led to the inspiring, the bizarre, and maybe even life-changing people and panels.

Memory Lane Stream Of Consciousness Brain Dump (from notes along the way)

Baconator attempted at lunch, over and over - oh why oh why is the dual-line system for this and the panky dog and the Cap'n Crunch and cous-cous delicacy SO confusing? Tired and cranky. Give up and try again another day for that pulled pork over slaw and spicy remoulade sauce in a bacon waffle cone. Head to Hackney House our East London connection with tech community; will backdoor into Angers somehow for technology enterprises and JVs, etc. etc. Follow up to follow.  Those Hackney House folks' sccents adorable.  Cannot understand them.

Back to Interactive. New to me buzzwords: market pane - huh? Oh: "market pain." Ergo SIRI: SIRI invented to diminish multiple steps/touches to web-searching that resulted in loss of users to get to transactional state (money/purchase). So true.  I give up after couple of clicks/touches.  

3-D printing is not weird printing fad to use and then look at through 3-D glasses but radical iteration of the first Industrial Revolution: e.g. I decide I need a pair of yellow flip flips or a toy figure of my own imagination and bam the Bre Pettis Makerbot can make that. THAT is 3-D "printing."  

Elon Musk...spectacular biceps -- flash: recall is TESLA guy and PayPal guy. SpaceX kind of mind-blowing: get it takes cool calm brilliance - arrogance? - to say we should go to Mars and I will do it if NASA will not.  Vision of reusable rockets here (after all we don't throw away a plane after one use, do we).  Elon shows us first - besides cameraman.  Via Johnny Cash Ring of Fire soundtrack successful test of reusable rocket.  Grasshopper.  Yes, I was there.  Saw it. One of the first.  Thank you EE for recommending I hit this.  Lessons here of failure, faith - yes money too, but failure and risk and failure again.   See also Twenty Feet from Stardom.  Failed - frustrated - paths to greatness for amazing black women those background singers (open with the Lou Reed song Take Walk on Wild Side); stories of why there, why stay, why and how cannot move up and out and the curiosities and cruelty of fate stomping down voices so magnificent: chills up and down and up again the spine.

Entrepreneur Lounge: Off site Fogo de Chao: tech companies/associations from Nantes.  Invites for them to meet the startup scene, Eve Richter, chamber of commerce heads, city leaders, way too many freely available Caipirinhas (below) boy that bacon-wrapped chicken and the sausage was great.  

Break time another lounge the Lounge Thing for SxSW not as glamorous as thought but great for charging phones.

Austin City Limits "Lounge" (okay alcove) at Convention Center. Decide to sit in there on couch and because tired and want to sit in green and red and purple light.  And charge phone. No care who else there.  Is band Orange County, CA just drove in ready to go on Beacon Lounge.  Beacon Lounge the fav.  (Well, no, Yahoo! lounge surprisingly cool at Brazos Hall.  Checked it out for architecture and ended up staying.)  When else are red bean bag chairs, outlet for phone, great salsa and chips all there for the taking?   Earlier in day had hearty oatmeal cookie with raisins for sort of protein at that lounge.  

Catch some of the Four Seasons live KUTX program one morning. Note: this is all the SxSW music I need.  No need for platinum badge.  Yep, this is the way to go. Hear Robin Hitchcock. Feel sort of in-the-know now.

Food Crawl Saturday with foodies:  Drag self to Long Center.  In drizzly rain. Get wristband. With 100s others.  Cannot deal with Tweeting and walking in rain to follow maps on secret site.  W cocktail instead.  Listen to music.  Meet up with Food Crawlers at Kenichi.  Food gal there met my Paris food startup acquaintance Cedric day before. Learn of BakeSpace, TechMunch: decide to attend food blogger seminar next day at Whole Foods in global HQ offices. In quasi-hangover state tell Serena next to me at the seminar that it would be cruel joke for me to win basket of Argentinean wine being given away that day because I am so tired of drinking and so do not need it.  I won it.  

New foodie friends, including lawyer who does Foodie Is The New Forty.  Note foodies are very thin.  Why do I feel so fat. Will deal with later.  Try cold brewed coffee.  Chameleon Coffee.  Tried at TechMunch demo day at Whole Foods with Horchata. Realize may never live in France because unsure can live without Horchata.  Food panel with Addie Broyles and others so surprisingly substantive and thoughtful: the whys and what-fors of food porn, molecular gastronomy, over-eating/doing (ironically, was my question to the panel....).  A re-Tweet by Addie.

Chef Remi for the Angers bands' big invasion of combining the music and food cultures to bring it all here for the Austin Angers scene gets hooked up for pork blood and other pork items (or reasonable substitutes under the circumstances and they are superb substitutes).  High 5 Trace at W and Slow Food Austin.  Sebastien comes to rescue.  All under control.  

I decided one day in late late late a.m. in cavernous Austin Convention Center that with protein depletion and inadequate hydration movie popcorn and red wine in a chair sounds good.  Why. Why do this to self.  Because I feel like a kid playing hookie and it feels bad (i.e., good) to do so.  But now yes those buttery kernels are stuck on my mid-section and require weeks of ab work and paleo.

Walmart run to help Chef Remi for coolers to get the food over to Bungalow for the showcase and the brunch preceding.  Gladly.  Drop off at Justines and hang out and wait.  Photo ops.  Justine's delicately lovely in a.m. before masses invade.  I check out kitchen.  Chat with Pierre en francais. Direct electrician as Pierre had left.  Stir some things on the stove.  Chef Remi arrives.  Approves coolers.  I leave.  I get TexMex at Joe's on way back to downtown.  Get parking.  Movie No. 2:  Finding the Funk.  Great seat. Call from home.  Leave.  All works out.  Go back to downtown.  Park again.  Take Nantes, France delegation to party out in country.  Sun setting over in the hilliness of Nutty Brown Road.  Lovely.  

Next day brunch via Chef Remi spectacular success duck tartare really something duck pate chicken liver pate all so lovely.  Austin-Angers music showcase stunning in colors and sounds and diversity amidst this superb food spread.  Stick around for rest of afternoon.  Charge phone.  While racing to outlet to charge phone, again, meet Episcopalian minister. Talk Jesuits and Pope and community and music.  Promise to go to his panel. (I did not make it.)  

Meet gluten-free Chef People's Pharmacy learn about French Paleo cookbook.  Meet Austin Music Foundation peoples and jazz trumpet awesome guy Jeff Lofton and his cool wife Dean.  Great glasses she had. We talk about and talk to people about jazz venues in France.  Get free CD.

Titi Robin Trio rocks it with the virtuoso guitar of Titi and that percussion. No wonder they are the band from this trip chosen to be on Fox morning show to spotlight in prime spot.  Get French Paleo cookbook signed.  Listen to Erin Ivey,  mpish voice and guitar.  Pause needed away from this Bungalow place.  Ice cream at new fav Ice Cream Social. Madagascar Vanilla and Salted Caramel the chosen flavors.  Topped with Cardamon Toasted Coconut.  Must nap. 

Friday wake up early to get band (Titi Robin Trio) for TV spot.  Get them south of Ben White.  7 adults in the MDX and the instruments.  Funny.  Stop at gas station en route.  Drive to Fox Station on 11th.  Do coffee run for band.  Translate some timing issues.  Agent Amelie handles better.  Nerves on edge from too much coffee too little sleep too many Brazilian cocktails.  Spot done.  Cut.  Done.  Get car. Drive to Justine's for the Friday brunch with the official peoples and later the bands. 

All food now.  No worries. Lovely day.  All the important people are there already.  

(Le Chabada co-director Francois here with moi in bloated state and Consul General of France, in from Houston Frédéric Bontems).

Again the nice Cultural Attache, Sylvie, from day before event also.  Austin Mayor.  Sunny skies.  Breeze.  Tables - pain au chocolat - coffee. Olivier whipping up espressos inside as adeptly as he handles those French 75s at crush time. I ask him if French 75s can be done.  He says oui.  I say see you soon.  Victoria joins me with wine.  (That white wine - the "vin nature" - so good.)  French friends shocked (again) with me but do not care so much by now as so relieved made it to here and so happy they are having this wonderful moment.

More wine.  More duck pate and duck tartare.  More music and bands. Victoria buys French 75s for us.

(Part of the Austin-Angers PsychFest decor for the stage at Justine's...I felt about like this gal here.  Just not as thin.)

Lunch at Justine's with Victoria.  For like two hours.  Thierry is our waiter.  New guy.  Never seen him before here.  I drink water.   She leaves for next engagement. Chat with Francois, Germain. Wonder if more friends can come or I will head downtown again for movie.  Amy arrives.  Admire amazing decor the Justine's team did.  Francois tells us they did all this.  

More music and sitting on bench with Amy and Francois in the sun ... through German hard rock group.  Paris acoustic group.   Discuss ideas of "the real Texas" with Francois and Amy.  Bands over now.  Official Justine's dinner time rolling around. Day Drinking at Justine's and lunch: marvelous.  I ask Pierre if he will continue.  Non.  

Sun setting.  More friends arrive.  Francois invites us to stay for dinner with the Angers contingent.  Amy stays.  I stay.  More wine, Chef Remi gives me gifts and intel on his new restaurant.  Chef pulls off the "sabrage" maneuver on the champagne - the champagne used for the Austin-Angers toast earlier in the day.  So classy those French.  Champagne (small, moderate amounts) for us all.  

Melanie, here with the group to donate her time to make a documentary about the Austin-Angers connection, now tells me she needs to interview me before I leave to go home.  Melanie: you realize I have been here since 10H30 a.m. and starting on the organic white wine at 11 a.m.?    No worries.  It works.  I am done. Will pick up the coolers next day.

While in line for Twenty Feet from Stardom earlier in week met Fitz, lawyer from Colorado.  Learn about free CLE on Saturday.  Look at CLE program see lawyer from Paris there.  Will go.  Wake up Saturday.  Go downtown. Get parking.  Get coffee.  Go to CLE.  Copyright reform underway.  Interesting.  Massive issues of Pandora, Spotify (good thing heard those talks earlier in the week); costs of content.  Costs of negotiating.  Battlegrounds for how the digital economy for music will be managed. What is fair for artists/consumer/the company that provides the service.  

Walk to Milk and Honey.  Walk back to Convention Center.  Paris lawyer talks about alternative financing for music groups and tax issues in US and France.  Talk to Paris lawyer at break.  Exchange cards. Meet Montreal company and cool publisher guy: Montreal indie music scene huge: 200+ indie record labels.  Get free CD.  Meet Venezuelan Latin dubstep gal.  Get free CD.  (Really love this CD.)  

Last gasp: movie at Stateside Theatre all the way back up on Congress. While in line, more music, bands, peace march down Congress.  Couple next to me in line, in 60s, in their "retirement home" condo downtown, do movie part every year. Had seen 12 movies so far this year.  Prince performing across the street that night from their condo.  

Glad stayed in line for Good Ol' Freda.  Nice to be in cool dark place.   It was then nice to be done with the movie.  It was nice to walk outside, into the fray of the Saturday night of Vampire Weekend of SxSW getting ramped up.  

And it was very nice to take off le badge, walk to the car, and drive home.  And sleep.