This is my fifth SXSW trip. Using the word ‘trip’ makes a lot of sense for those of you who know what this event is like. It’s planned insanity, to push through sweaty crowds hoping for short sets of quickly organized but carefully crafted wildness. I’d like to take you on a short journey with me. I’m looking for people. For no one in particular. I keep running into old friends, all of whom are friendly but distant. Most don’t really know me, but neither do you, dear reader. So I could be whoever you want me to be, just like these folks are doing.

I’m lucky to get back stage at these shows, true. I’m hanging out with known and soon-to-be known rock stars for the Tumblr’s #SXSWCreatr project. Most of these musicians are happy to be such a fantastic group of weirdos. No one gets into this business unless they were inverted outcasts. Like me. Like you. I hope to share some of this with you and what a small sliver of the madness, the outlandishness, is like.

Stay tuned-in with me as I roll around the tacos and wifi bars and drastically shortened sets. I’d like to bring you on the ride as best I can. With a smartphone in my pocket and a couple of the right color badges, I hope to give you a sense of the essence of the thing.

[Hype Hotel with my boy Jeffrey Silverstein from Singles Club after King Tuff’s set]