SXSW

I just got back from a spring break road trip. Went through Austin, where the South by Southwest film, music, and tech festival has been held for the past 25 years. For some reason you could tell by the skyline at night that it was the most liberal city in Texas. I was immediately attracted to it.

The power of music is spectacular. The city draws in people by the thousands. I've never seen anything like it myself, the festival consumes nearly every bar in the city. One street in particular is even blocked off from traffic entering. Even after the bars close down people are drawn to music in any corner they can find it, like night time bugs to a bright light. We were walking back to the car and you could hear the drums and symbols. There was a bus sitting on a parking lot that had some elevation over the next door McDonald's drive through. Kids were climbing up the walls and all over the bus to listen in to the guitar riffs.

Even when we got back to the car I pulled out my own acoustic to play a few tunes before we decided what the next move would be.

If there are several ways to massively influence the world, music is surely one of them.