gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"

back in alpine, texas

[Me wearing my "thug hat" at the very groovy "Marketing without Marketing" panel Dave Parmet put together for SXSW. Details here. Nice to see Tara Hunt et al in such excellent form].

I got back to Alpine, Texas late last night utterly exhausted, but woke up this morning totally feeling like a million dollars, very glad to be back.

Since I left Alpine on February 26th, my travels have taken me to San Francisco, San Jose, Miami, New York, New Jersey, Miami and Austin. Anyone who follows my Twitter feed will know it's been fun and interesting times.

But now, as they say in Scotland, it's "Back to old clothes and porridge". Got a lot of work on my plate. My original plan was to return to England after these travels, but I think I'll stay in Alpine instead for the next wee while, and finish off this one big writing project that's been taking up a lot of my brainspace these days.

Alpine has everything I need at the moment. Peace and quiet, a decent cafe and a university library where it's easy to get a lot of work done. So that's me for now. Rock on.

goodbye austin

[Me with two really good pals of mine, Jemima Kiss and John T. Unger at the impromptu Twitter meet-up, Friday afternoon.]

I writing this from an airport lounge, en route back to Alpine, Texas. Head's too full of stuff to write coherently. Will get back to Alpine, Texas and re-group. Rock on.

drawing cartoons at sxsw

[Valleywag blogged this Hughcard yesterday. Rock on.]

I'm blogging this from the Bloghouse here at SXSW Interactive.

Come on by and I'll draw you an original "Hughcard".

We're on Level 3, Room Seven. It's already filling up with people so come soon.

[Everyone's favorite CFA, Loren Feldman at 1938media videoed me last night.]

[Photo from the Bloghaus]

greetings from austin, texas

[The SXSWi 2008 schwag bag, designed by Yours Truly. Photo courtesy of Laughing Squid.]

Arrived in Austin late last night for the SXSW Interactive Conference. Blogging light for the next couple of days- so is Everybody Else, it seems. It's only jsut beginning and already it's going crazy [in a good way].

The way to keep up with it all is to follow people on Twitter. You can follow me here, you can follow the Bloghaus gang here, and there's a SXSWi central Twitter aggregator over here on Hashtags.

more notes from west texas

[The Chisos Mountains, down in Big Bend National Park. Click on image to enlarge etc.]

["Shot Tower", just over the Mexican Border, part of the Sierra Del Carmen. Photo taken from the Texas side of the Rio Grande, in Big Bend. Click on image to enlarge etc.]

It's been a lovely couple of days. I'm still in Alpine, Texas, here till Tuesday, then it's off to New York City for four nights. Here are some more travel notes, in no particular order.

1. Friday my dad and I drove down to Big Bend National Park, a 300-mile round trip. Dad is a geologist, so I got the whole skinny on the place. A stunning place. 800,000 acres. Lots of volcanic activity, it seems. Indeed. Dad tell me that, from a geology standpoint, Big Bend is one of the most interesting places in the country- far more so than say, the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley, which he describes as "geologically straightforward". The other thing is, Big Bend only gets 300,000 visitors a year, compared to 10million-plus for some of the other big parks. So you do feel totally away from it all.

2. On the way back we stopped at Terlingua Ghost Town, which was a very trippy place, just in the shadow of Big Bend. It's an old abandoned mining town that has been taken over by lots of people living in trailer homes, old school buses and tents. Some people have taken the abandoned buildings and turned them into bars, art galleries and yes, even a small hotel. But it has this very alternative, tripped-out, end of world feel to it. Any further South and the terrain starts getting pretty hostile pretty darn quickly. Hundreds of square miles with, I kid you not, prickly pear cacti every three feet. They are really nasty and painful cacti, if you ever fall off your horse, though I'm told the fruit is delicious.

3. You want to know how nasty the cacti is down here? Yesterday I bought a hat from Sprigg's Boot & Saddle, the pace where all the local cowboys buy their gear. Not only do they sell real, working, leather chaps, the owner told me he also makes custom leather breastplates, in case the cowboy falls of his horse. Heck, they even make chaps for horses.

4. I am pleased to report that Alpine, Texas has its own microbrewery. I paid a recent visit there and yep, it's good stuff. As good as anything I've ever had on the West Coast.

5. At the brewery, I started a random conversation with the guy sitting over on the next barstool. Turns out the man was none other than John Armstrong, a prominent local citizen [He's currently running for District Attorney], and the owner of the winery I mentioned in my last post. So we had a good ol' talk about the wine business. I think his stuff rocks. Texas wine. Indeed.

6. Last night Dad and I drove 40 miles North to look at the stars at the McDonald Observatory, one of the largest in the country. The highlights for me were seeing the Rings of Saturn and the Orion Nebula through a telescope, plus with the naked eye, an astronomer pointing out to us the Hubble Telescope, moving through Orion- imagine a bright dot of light, 450 miles up, moving across the sky at 25,000 miles an hour. That was actually a very fun night out. Very interesting, groovy and laid back, though at 6,500 feet up, best bring an extra layer of clothing or two.

7. Alpine really isn't an oil town. Sure, if you go to the Town & Country convenience store at six in the morning, you'll see a group of about 100 people waiting to be picked up by the oil field work gangs in their pickup trucks, but the fields are more North of here, say, another twenty miles or so. Oil is more a Northern West Texas thing, than a Southern one.

8. I was talking to an old friend of my dad's, Kay. She's from around these parts- her dad is a rancher. Kay summed it up pretty well: "Everybody loves living around here. The trouble is, it's hard to make a living." Yep. I recently read online that the average income in Alpine is $26,000 per year. I guess with my internet thing going on, I'm not too worried about it. I feel extremely fortunate.

9. La Trattoria still has the world's best breakfast burritos. Yum. And they get their coffee from Big Bend Coffee Roasters over in Marfa, Texas.

10. About 12 miles due West of Terlingua, there's an upmarket golf course and spa called Lajitas, built right along the banks of the Rio Grande. One of the holes is actually built on the Mexican side of the border; I guess the local Federales aren't too fussed about it. I've never been, but I hear a lot of stories about it.

11. Part of me wants to buy an Airstream trailer and just go live out in the desert somewhere, in between my paid gigs. Drawing, drinking Shiner Bock and looking at sunsets. I guess we all get these hippie fantasies, at one time or another. Though the desert is an unforgiving place to anything that relies on water for its survival, there's something about it that makes you feel "very far away from all the bullshit". Which partly explains why this part of the world appeals to me. Though it may not be the most glamorous, wealthiest or famous place in the world, I haven't felt the need to switch on my bullshit detector since the day I got here.

12. Though this part of the world went into economic decline after the World War Two [like every other ranching culture in North America], I can already see it coming back, I can already seeing green shoots springing up. Sick and burned out of big-city life, people are starting to move to places like here, more and more. And they're bringing what they learned in the big city and applying it to a place more suited to their individual needs. Hence the trattoria's, the microbreweries, the coffee roasters, the art galleries and yes, the internet cartoonists turning up. And the internet and the global microbrand make all this even more viable, even more exciting. Alpine, Texas is no longer in the middle of nowhere; Alpine, Texas is in the middle of EVERYWHERE, if it wants to be. Rock on.

greetings from alpine, texas

[View of Apline, Texas from my dad's porch. Twin Peaks mountain in the background. Click on image to enlarge etc.]

[UPDATE: It seems my cellphone doesn't get coverage in West Texas. Please e-mail me if you're trying to get in touch. Thanks.]

I'm writing this from Alpine, Texas, where my dad lives. Hanging here for the next week or two. Hardcore West Texas, Brewster County. Miles away from anywhere, just how I like it [Movies like "Giant", "There Will Be Blood", "Dancer, Texas" and "No Country For Old Men" were all filmed 'round here... not to mention, the famous Marfa Lights.]. Blogging light for the next while. Off to NYNY after this. Rock on.

in cumbria

[Wastwater, probably Cumbria's prettiest spot. Photo courtesy of avtost @ Flikr.]

I'm up in Cumbria [England's most unpopulated and most scenic county, the last county on the West Coast before hitting the Scottish border], taking a break from the big city.

I got back from San Francisco two days ago feeling exhausted. Not unhappy by any means, just a bit worn out. I just felt the need to decompress, so I bought a train ticket.

My initial plan is to stay here a few days, though I might stay longer. Hoping to get some reading and drawing done. Perhaps get a little fellwalking in.

I never take long vacations. Maybe I'm dong it now. We shall see.

[I'm staying at Warwick Hall, where English Cut has its offices.]

loic and me

Me and Loic LeMeur yesterday at the Seesmic offices. Photo by David Sifry.

san francisco geek dinner, tuesday 30th october

[Reminder:] The SF Geek Dinner with me and Oren Michels is tonight. Details here.

scoble interviewing me in front of facebook office yesterday, palo alto, california

http://www.kyte.tv/ch/6118-scobleizer-sponsored-by-seagate/66631-hugh-at-faceb

[Link: Robert Scoble]

san francisco geek dinner, tuesday 30th october

The SF Geek Dinner with me and Oren Michels has been confirmed.

[Go to Acteva.com here for full details and registration.]

Dinner will be held at Osha Thai Restaurant [149 2nd St., between Mission & Howard] from 7:30-9:30pm on Tuesday 10/30.
Ticket Cost covers food only. Drinks will be sold at the bar, CASH ONLY.
Buffet Style Dinner Menu Includes:

Appetizers:
Vegetarian Crispy Rolls
Duck Rolls
Thai Somosas
Dressed Prawns

Entrees:
Volcanic Beef
Beef Panang Curry
Tofu Vegetarian Combination
Spicy Prawns
Thai Spicy Pan Fried Noodles Chicken

Everybody pays $37.00 in advance [at the Acteva link] to cover the food, then it's a cash bar. Pretty standard stuff. It should be a fun evening. I'm inviting all my friends who are in town. Rock on.

[Update: Oren blogged the event as well.]

san francisco geek dinner in the works.

Writing this at Charlottesville airport, en route to San Francisco.

I had a most excellent time in Charlottesville. One highlight of the trip was getting to hang with Google's Avinash Kaushik.

Not really sure what I'm doing in SF during the next couple of days. Probably spend it banged up in my hotel room, trying to get some work done.

Note to my SF peeps: There is a geek dinner on Tuesday the 30th, that me and Oren Michels are hosting. It'll be at one of the Osha Thai restaurants, around 7.30pm. Just waiting to get final details from Oren in the next day or so.

My plane's beginning to board. See you on the other side.

off to america tomorrow

Tomorrow I'm catching a flight to Charlottesville, where on Tuesday I'll be speaking at a conference on Online Marketing at the Darden School of Business, at the University of Virginia. Details here. Hope you can make it.

Wednesday I'm in San Francisco for a week. Got a speaking gig in San Jose.

I've just started working on a new Web 2.0 startup. So it looks like I might be in Silicon Valley more often. Fingers crossed.

As per usual, my US phone number as of tomorrow [Monday p.m.] is [646] 704 4509. See ya there!

[UPDATE, Monday Morning:] At Gatwick airport [horrendously crowded and full of screaming kids, Woo-hoo] about to go board the plane.

off to berlin for the weekend

I'm about to go catch a plane to Berlin. Hanging out with David Brain and the groovy cats at Edelman. Should be a fun weekend. See you on the other side...

california, here i come

[WEST COAST UPDATE:] I'm speaking at the Business of Software conference at 2.30 on the 30th of October, at the San Jose Marriot. Other speakers include Joel Spolsky, Rick Chapman, Dan Nunan, Jennifer Aaker, Tim Lister, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Eric Sink, Guy Kawasaki [who I'm REALLY looking forward to meeting in person, finally], Bill Buxton, Alberto Savoia, and Matt Mason. There’s a 22% discount if you sign up before October 20th. Hope to see you there.

In the evening I'm hoping to get together some sort of geek dinner in San Francisco. Talking to Oren Michels about it. Loic Lemeur, who I organized my last SF geek dinner with, is sadly out of town on that day.

Other cities on my trip: NYNY, Charlotteville and Miami. Hope we can all hook up!

marketing: the cultral fault line inside microsoft?

[Good party. Impressive backdrop.]

Just got back from a massive Microsoft party at the the Musee de l'Homme.

I have to get up early tomorrow. Big day at Imagination 07. Steve Ballmer is giving the keynote.

This conference is built around the folk who think of Microsoft in terms of "media", as opposed to software. Which, as a former advertising hack, I find interesting.

A line I have used many times before, I found myself using quite a lot today: "Google is just one algorithm away from Oblivion."

I handed out A LOT of Blue Monster business cards at the event. Though not everybody there had heard of the Blue Monster, it seemed the people who did were really enthused and passionate about it.

The more I get into this conversation, the more I'm starting to think that somehow I managed stumble upon this cultural fault line inside Microsoft, about what the company actually means to people, and where "the conversation" should be heading. One Microsoftee confided in me, "Our products are fine. Our marketing is the weak link, though."

I would agree. Which is why I'm fond of saying, the future of Microsoft lies squarely in how they talk to people. That's me thinking as a marketer, a "culturalist", not as a techie.

i.e. If "markets are conversations", then yeah, how you talk to people is the DNA of marketing.

N.B. Unlike some of the stuff going on in Redmond, none of this is rocket science. Which may explain why Redmond seems to have so much trouble grasping this.

day two in paris

[Gloomy autumn day in Paris]

You always tell yourself that when you get to Paris, you'll spend the first full day there checking out the Louvre. Instead you end up holed up in your hotel room, surfing Facebook. Plus ca change...

in san francisco june 20th & august 1st-3rd

I have my first keynote speaking gig in San Francisco, August 1st-3rd, at Real Estate Connect '07.

So, what should a blogging cartoonist say to a room full of real estate folk? I have a few ideas. I don't have much experience in real estate, but experience has told me that with Web 2.0, so long as what your offering is of value, the business itself matters less, what matters more is the heart and soul of the practitioner. As I'm fond of saying, if a Savile Row tailor can do it, what's your excuse? Hey, Manhattan Loft Guy seems to be doing alright with it. Or how about Curbed, or Brooklyn's very own Brownstoner.com? What about you?

I see Microsoft is a "platinum sponsor" there. Maybe we should arrange something fun? A geek dinner or something? Guys? Drop me an e-mail if you feel inspired etc.

I'm also going to try to make it to San Francisco for June 20th. Deb Schultz has kindly asked me to speak at Supernova. I'm still working on my schedule for this one, though it looks more than likely that I'll be there. And I hear Doc Searls will be in the audience as well. Rock on.

While I'm there the plan is to swing up to Seattle for a few days to visit the groovy cats at Microsoft, of course. There's so much I want to do with them at the moment, it's making my head spin.

Since I got back to London from the States just under two weeks ago I've been feeling kind of stressed. While all this wonderful Blue Monster Hughtrain cartooning stuff is going ahead at an ever-increasing pace, I still have a little South African winery to think about. That is, after all, what mainly pays the bills. And things are pretty busy for us there, too- when I started working for Stormhoek two years ago, they were shipping 50,000 cases a year. This year we're looking at shipping around 280,000. I think we can get it up to a million cases per annum by 2010 or so, if we play our cards right.

No rest for the wicked, as they say...

san francisco and seattle

I'm flying out to San Francisco next week on Tuesday, the 1st of May. Staying there one night, then I'm off to Seattle to hang with the groovy cats at Microsoft for the remainder of the week. Flying back home to London on the 6th.

I've never been to San Francisco before, believe it or not. Or Seattle.

When I'm there I'm hoping to spend some time with Robert Scoble and some folk at Podtech, his employer. If Robert can help me get it organized I'd love to do a geek dinner that night, though I don't know how feasible that is. What sayest Maryam?

[UPDATE:] If you plan on coming, add your name to the wiki here.