Austin was knock-down-drag-out good time! Whew… three days home and we still haven’t recovered from last week’s romp around town. We got into Austin to prep a few days before things got really busy on Thursday. That afternoon Rebecca and I spoke to a great class of animation students at UT before hooking up with Paul from Txtual Healing for our txt experiment. The first test was on the UT campus. Paul projected on the side of the CMB building inviting folks out for a little dose of free speech. Things took off quickly with participants catching the enormous projection across campus and writing in. Security pounced on us quickly though cutting it short. We were projecting on University property and on a University building which I suppose is a no-no. The whole thing got picked up by the school paper so we’ll have more to share soon. Next we wheeled ourselves back downtown for a little txt experiment on the side of the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz. The rooftop bars across the street took hold of the balloon quickly as people posted their free speech two cents for next hour or so. Overall it was a cool experiment with what people do when they can anonymously voice there opinion for all to see.
The final event of the night was the closing balloon drop. Rebecca and Bridget we’re poised in the theater balcony to launch 500 balloons on top of the audience but the netting caught hold of the theater railing sending a huge sack of balloons over the edge, inches from unsuspecting film goers heads. It was pretty funny stuff.. When the netting finally gave way six or seven people were introduced to a mighty down pour. The after party at the Jackalope was a blast and it was great to see so much of Austin’s animation community come out to congrats. A HUGE thank you to PES, Sarah, Joel and Kelly for making the trek out to Austin for this. Special thanks to Geoff Marslett for helping to coordinate things on the UT side. This first screening was a huge test and tremendous success! Pics are still rolling in so I’ll update the slide show you see here again in a few days. Next up.. Chicago!