I’m in an Austin State of Mind
It’s Saturday at 4:23 pm, and I’m writing this from Austin Texas where I’m lucky enough to be at SXSW ‘09.
Whether you call it an good aura, vibe, energy, sense or whatever, Austin has it. But here it doesn’t come from the bricks and mortar, it comes from the people themselves. Sure there is very cool adaptive reuse of historic heritage property here but its just everyone you talk to. As far as I’m concerned Austin is not a place, its a state of mind that could be transferable to Windsor.
I see back in Windsor that people are getting it, between Justin Langlois’s great work on In-Text Transit and the positive PR that Tom Lucier has brought us all in Windsor, we may just save ourselves.
As I’m writing this at 4:30 on a Saturday I’ve been to my first Film “New World Order” focusing on Alex Jones. It started with a great speech from John F. Kennedy that our councillors, Mayor and Administration should listen to again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhZk8ronces
Went to listen to some great blues afterwords - Couldn’t beleive the first song I heard was “Wang Dang Doodle” the song where the name for one of my former businesses (that I copied) came from. After that it was off to the Continental club where our Cab Driver informed us that he was the product of a CIA experiment that expanded his mind to the point he could kill people just by thinking about them. (I responded that I also had that power and slowly brought my thumb and forfinger together in front of my eyes while saying “I am squishing your head, I am squishing your head”. I don’t think he fully appreciated the humour of the situation by his stare so I fled from the cab before he started focusing his powers on me. If your ever in Austin request cab 145 for a real trip.
From there I went to two seminars today, one on Getting things done which provided several useful tips from how to better conduct meetings to how to help delegate more to staff or in the case of a non profit - to volunteers. The other one was turbo charging your blog but, it was pretty lame so I walked out.
SUNDAY
Started the morning at the Gym and sauna (finally) and made my 10am seminar on “Social Media Marketing”.
Its amazing what companies like JetBlu, Brooklyn Museum are doing with Twitter, facebook and a few others. I can totally see using what I’m learning for Scaledown, the Restaurants and The Windsor International Film Festival, The book by Dale Evans “Social Media Marketing: an hour a day”
After that it was off to lunch at Threadgils which was really cool, the place that Janice Joplin used to hang. Followed that up with a visit to the State Capital which was amazing and then to the last seminar on Video blogging given by the blog http://tv.winelibrary.com/. The man could kick Tony Robbins Butt as far as motivational speaking. I highly recommend
Tags: Austin, bohemian, cities, cool, creative, festivals, self-sufficient cities
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Maybe now council, the mayor and administration will realize that people in Windsor are not going away as they expect them to do.
We have such a talented pool of real entrepreneurs, real artists that maybe now will not be ignored. Don’t you all agree it is time they are embraced and we leave our provincialism in the dust bin?
While you’re in Austin, a tourist committee from Austin are in Montreal and this article was in the Austin newspaper:
Montreal? Mais oui!
Everything about this big island city makes sense
http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/travel/03/15/0315montreal.html
I like the jusxtiposition of you and the city of Austion. Several of us on Scaledown are on Twitter and facebook as you are Mark, although I haven’t gone mobile with Twitter yet, not until I get my new iPHone next month.
One of my favourite PBS programs and have been watching for years is; Austin City Limits, what they do for music in that city is phenmenol.
This city is nourishment for the soul.
So Mark, when you return to Windsor I’m sure you’ll go through a multi-phase mood swing of sorts.. Upon first arriving, you will hopefully feel excited and lifted by the positive momentum gained in Austin.. And then after butting heads with the backwards thinkers in this city or simply taking in how much still has to be done, how much has to change, you might feel discouraged or dissapointed. However, I encourage you to stay positive and when you feel like you’re surrounded by people in this city with backwards thinking just remember there are a bunch of us here on SD that are pushing in the same direction.
I’m projecting a little, undoubtadly. This was the sort of negative culture shock I went through when returning from Japan. However, then I found scaledown and my whole outlook shifted from apathy to activism..
Thanks for the great article! I only wish you all updated SD more often.
Have a safe trip home.
I dont know if you know the financial columnist scott burns. He writes a sunday column. In his March 8th column he was suggesting that baby boomers suffering from portfolio losses liberate some of their home equity by moving to a city like Austin where the cost of living is much less. So it looks like you arent the only one in an Austin state of Mind.
Tim, although i do get down sometimes, what keeps me motivated is remembering that it’s not about Windsor or the backward thinkers. It’s about me, what kind of person am I?
If backwards thinkers make me quit, then it is I, who is a quitter!
maybe windsor can or can’t be saved, but how I act looking that in the face defines ME!
If backwards thinkers make me change my ways then I have given them power over me
Guess what Mark…we`ve already figured out that you think it`s all about you!
Well, my blog (and my blog partners), my facebook, my twitter. What else would they be about?
Whats nice is its actually about my family, but the best way I can help them is to be the best me I can and set and example for my son.
Its a buddhist thing, 8 fold path and all that. Right View, Right Thought, Right Words, Right Action, Right Livelyhood
I’m just working on aligning what benefits me with what benefits my family and those who live in the city of Windsor
Whats it about for you?
The whole social media thing is the definition of narcisism