South by secularity

On the Sunday afternoon in the middle of South by Southwest Interactive, Andy, Jessica and I took some time out for a very pleasant Mexican lunch at Las Manitas with Sean Bonner, Tantek, Ariel and our anglo-Canadian musical masters, Matt and Hannah.

As lunch neared its end, every single mobile device at the table began to vibrate with ever greater frequency. We were missing the now-infamous interview by Sarah Lacey of Mark Zuckerburg but Twitter was giving us a blow-by-blow account of the debacle. The most astute observation was delivered from afar by Tom Morris:

What’s the difference between Facebook and the FB session at SXSW? You can leave the session…

On balance, we were all pretty glad that we were missing the train wreck.

We got the bill and started paying up. Tantek began going through each of his dollar bills with a felt-tipped pen, crossing out the word “God” from the phrase In God We Trust. I asked the obvious question. Tantek, what are you doing? His answer:

Separating church and state.

Have you published a response to this? :

Previously on this day

13 years ago I wrote Typography at South by Southwest

Type sets the tone.

13 years ago I wrote Socialising at South by Southwest

The best bit.

13 years ago I wrote Speaking at South by Southwest

Cheekiness and gravitas in equal amounts.

14 years ago I wrote Gladwell in Gatwick

I become a fanboy in an airport.

15 years ago I wrote SXSW '05 OMG! ROFLMAO 24/7

I’m back in Brighton. At least, my body is back in Brighton. I would appear to have left a good proportion of my heart in Austin, Texas.

16 years ago I wrote Design nourishment

If you’re looking for some stimuli to get the creative juices flowing, look no further than the fantastic Lightboxing organised every month by Veer.

18 years ago I wrote Invoice Past Due Letters

Here’s some proactive product placement marketing.