Texas. The Rodeo. And the highs and lows of travel

After the whirlwind that was SXSW I lingered in Texas for a week or so, taking in Austin, Dallas and Houston. In retrospect I wish I'd ventured beyond the major cities, perhaps visiting somewhere like Marfa or Paris, but now I've left Texas behind and will perhaps return to its more rural areas another time for a different experience.

It was during this time I had my first major setback while travelling -- all part of the process, I suppose -- but it's certainly given me pause. But more of that later -- first, some of the highlights of Texas.

The Capitol

Austin was much more subdued after SXSW wrapped up and I managed to take in a few of the non-festival sights. Visiting the state Capitol building was pretty cool, seeing where Wendy Davis hangs out and does her fabulous stuff (Texas Senator Wendy Davis has a bit of a Sydney-based fanclub!) and stumbling upon a live orchestra playing film theme tunes. I also enjoyed a sneaky non-festival screening of Grand Budapest Hotel at the Violet Crown Cinema. Their bar is fabulous and beer range splendid. I sipped a chocolate and coffee brewed porter, fast becoming my favourite beer of the trip.

There's Wendy!

Where Texan Senators hang

Some awesome battle scene

They played Star Wars and Batman, oh yeah

I also spent an afternoon at the LB Johnson presidential library, where I learnt all about the man who succeeded the presidency after JFK was tragically assassinated. He was president during a tumultuous time in the USA's history, fighting for civil rights legislation while also grappling with the Vietnam War issue. Overall I found him to be a visionary man who succeeded in passing some far-reaching legislation in the 6 years of his presidency, covering Medicare, Medicaid, civil rights, the arts, urban and rural development, education, public broadcasting and the war on poverty. And of course he was from Texas. It was fun seeing his personalised cowboy boots and memorabilia from his Texas ranch on display in the museum. His wife Lady Bird Johnson also sounded lovely, a shrewd businesswoman and fearless campaigner in her own right. Correspondence between her and Jacqueline Kennedy was touching and gave a great insight into that challenging time, as well as their respective roles as first ladies.

The LBJ archives

JFK & LBJ!

LBJ pinbadges

Order of Obama's first inauguration

The seal

The speech JFK never got to make

The Oval Office

Not satisfied with one historical museum I also visited an exhibition at the University of Texas dedicated to Great Texan Women, and learnt all about some fabulous groundbreaking women through time, in this great state. And of course it was fun to hang out on campus, as it always is.

The University of Texas at Austin

Willie Nelson

Austin was also my first Airbnb experience, which I have been enjoying ever since. I will blog more about this later, but it has led to me meeting some lovely local people and hanging out in their homes (usually with their dogs!) in between sightseeing. My hosts in Austin were a lovely couple who had fixed up their home really tastefully and I felt very welcome. Their dog Huck was super friendly too. It's much nicer (and cheaper!) than staying in hotels, and there isn't really a proper hostel scene in the US like there is in Aus.

Next stop was Dallas, where it all began to unravel... My time there started ominously, with a huge delay on the Amtrak train leading to my arrival late at night instead of early afternoon. Believe me, you don't want to be standing at a bus stop with a huge backpack at 11pm in the suburbs of Dallas. (Unless you have a gun, I guess.) My hosts here lived an hour's train ride + bus ride away from the centre of town (note to self: do more research next time) so my days were bookended by rather long commutes. Thanks to the magic of the google I did discover a lovely little cafe called the Crooked Tree, where I spent a day lounging on a sofa taking advantage of their free WiFi. I also had my first healthy meal in a long time at a little wholefood cafe where a rather dishy chap played electric piano and sang Rufus Wainwright songs, while the sommellier (who looked like Ed Norton's dad) plied me with free wine all evening. I spent a sobering afternoon at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, the site of JFK's assassination, where I learnt even more about that dark time in US politics, heard some of JFK's rousing speeches and discovered a plethora of conspiracy theories surrounding his death. I marvelled at the extensive, eclectic collection at the Dallas Museum of Art. So there were positives about my time here...

Yes, this is a chair made of pandas

I just want this

I liked the light

Nudes are great, aren't they?

JFK was shot from that square window on the 6th floor

X marks the spot, and the grassy knoll

Old and new architecture

View from the sniper's window

But a couple of scary experiences knocked the wind out of my sails (getting scammed at the railway station, being harassed by lone car drivers at night, being scared while walking on the pavement-less streets) and made me a more cautious and unfortunately nervous traveller. Also I spent a great deal of time trying to sort out a disastrous situation with a house back in the UK (those who know the back story know what I mean, those who don't -- believe me, it's a mess and you don't want to know!) which ultimately led to me making an extremely difficult decision. I have had to sink the entire remainder of my travel savings into sorting out this mess. It's not of my creation but unfortunately is mine to fix, so now I find myself in the middle of the USA with not a penny/cent to my name, and no means to raise a substantial amount of money any time soon! Disaster. Initially I was terrified and for a split second felt like packing it all in -- returning to London or Sydney with my tail between my legs and picking up any kind of job. But no! I will not let someone else's irresponsible actions ruin my year. I've been planning and yearning for this for so long, I'm not going to abandon it now. I'm being philosophical about it, and luckily I have some amazing friends and family who have been sending me encouragement, moral support, and some paid writing gigs. Ah yes, necessity is the mother of invention. I'm now (a little earlier than scheduled) pursuing a writing career in earnest, and finally being paid by the word. (And if any more comes my way, it would be amazing: no joke, bring it on!)

Oh, it's been a tough few days. There have been tears. There has been despair. But I have a credit card which I'm now cringingly putting everything on and, quite frankly, sod it. Yes, I'll land in the UK in November with a humongous debt from travelling and somehow have to pay that off while scraping together my airfare home. But this year means so much to me, I'm just going to enjoy it in the moment and not worry about what comes next. I know that opportunities will come, I can feel it, and you might call it blind optimism but I just know it will all work out.

So, with a spring in my step, it was onwards to Houston. Here my host was Bobby (a lovely guy I met at SXSW), along with his folks and their three dogs. It was much better to experience a Texan city through the eyes of a local, and I enjoyed being shown all the little out-of-the-way places I never would have discovered on my own. But the highlight here was undoubtedly the Houston Rodeo. Now those of you who used to read my Australia blog will know that I visited Tumut Rodeo back in 2010, but this was a real Texan rodeo. With real Texan cowboys. And, as you may have heard, everything's bigger in Texas.

Starting with the food. A foot-long corn dog (a sausage wrapped in sweet doughy batter. Um, yeah, as crazy as it sounds) and an entire turkey leg. Not a vegetable in sight, no siree.

My first corn dog

An apparently 'small' turkey leg

Then there were trucks, livestock (pigs! chicks!), merchandise (dammnit, I've already purchased my cowboy boots!), trailers -- it was kind of like a cross between the Royal Easter Show and Harrogate Fair. Unfortunately there was no wood chopping or axe-throwing, but I did get to see the finals of the bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, barrell racing, steer wrestling and bullriding (winners here, if you're interested). Quote of the day came from Wade Sundell, the mullet-sporting champion saddle bronc rider: "If you ain't livin' life on the edge, you're takin' up too much space." Indeed, Wade, indeed.

"He's my redneck Romeo, She's my tan legged Juliet"

Some cowboy

Calf lassooin'

Mutton Bustin'

What better way to end a day at the world's largest livestock show and Rodeo than with a performance by the Zac Brown Band. I caught these guys at Bluesfest Byron Bay last year and I really love them. On a revolving stage in the middle of the Rodeo arena they were even better! And they played so many of my faves.

Texas is certainly different from the other US states I've visited. I'm now heading further into the South of the US, with my seventh state being North Carolina. It's interesting to observe people's relationship with their nationality, especially in comparison to how I observed Australia's when first arriving there. Where in Sydney I marvelled at the Easter Show crowd singing:
"We are one
But we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We share a dream
And sing with one voice
I am
You are
We are Australian"

... in Houston I witnessed firsthand the sense of American Exceptionalism I first encountered through reading de Tocqueville at the beginning of my American Literature degree. The 'City on a Hill'/Manifest Destiny style pride was very much in force at the opening of the Rodeo, where a stadium of 80,000 people rose with hands on hearts for the Star Spangled Banner (complete with Rodeo chick carrying the flag and finale fireworks, natch!). The pride in the armed forces was even stronger: the biggest cheer the Zac Brown Band received was when they brought a Navy war hero on stage with them.

It's all very spine-tinglingly impressive, but I'm struggling to reconcile this with the very real poverty and social injustice I've witnessed while travelling here. It's been fascinating to talk with people who live in the US about their views on the healthcare system, the treatment of returned servicemen, the lack of funding for homelessness and mental health problems, the huge disparity between the rich and poor. In particular with Bobby, who has degrees in Government and Political Science and comes from a surprisingly liberal family in a staunchly conservative state. Also with Neet and Brian in San Francisco, where there is a massive homeless problem, and of course with the various healthcare professionals I've encountered along the way (public and private). It's evident in bumper stickers, billboard signs, casual overheard conversations too. As I journey through North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisianna I shall talk and think about it some more, and perhaps summarise my thoughts and those of people I meet in a later post. But as with so many things, there is no black and white, only many, many shades of grey. My time in Texas has been interesting, enlightening, very different... oh and disastrously waistline-expanding! The delicious Texan barbecue, Tex-Mex and Texan portion sizes are ensuring that I leave 2 dress sizes larger than when I arrived. Talk about disaster. Carolina bushwalking, here I come!

BBQ and photobomber

SXSW

Austin so far has seemed to me an assault on the senses. Restricted to a nexus of the downtown area I find every corner bar filled with passionate, frenetic, loud music; the streets lined with merry festivalgoers and hangers-on; the corridors of the convention centre filled with the earnest chatterings of intelligent, well-meaning innovators. The delicious, enticing smell of Texan barbecue lingers in the air, beer flows freely from a million taps and there's a YouTube sensation about to be born at every crossroads. Yes folks, welcome to South by Southwest.

Smouldering Matt, together again! How I miss this guy.

Every minute is precious, every choice pivotal – there's a pervasive feeling of 'don't waste your time, man, you should be doing something BIG to change the world RIGHT NOW'! Armed with a Film and Interactive pass (you can also purchase a Music pass) I spent much of the first few days bemusedly trying to navigate the festival set-up and struggling to decide which of the impressive line-up of speakers to go and see between my movies. Oh, and the majority of my time was spent standing in one queue or another, either for tickets, for passes which could possibly gain me the ability to jump a queue later in the day, or for more terrible coffee. (SXSW could primarily be seen as an extended lesson in queuing and disappointment.) But between all the queuing I did get to attend some inspirational sessions, many of which I left burning with the aforementioned desire to change the world, change my direction in life and do good for humankind. Big stuff.

There are several different focuses for the Interactive element of the festival. At any one time there are more than 10 sessions to choose from, so the strands of programming are diverse and disparate. Many choose filmmaking or music as their topic as they relate to the other streams of SXSW. Lots are about innovation, be it social, cultural, technical or governmental. Many talks centred around the current issue of privacy, primarily online or in the digital sphere. Some were simply keynote speeches by invited guests about their careers, or some specific book or project they were plugging. Here are some of the most notable talks I went to.

The New Digital Age, Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas; Steven Levy, Sr Writer, Wired; Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google. Intriguing discussion about the power of smartphones and digital technology to affect real change in developing countries. Lots of fascinating case studies and very strongly-held opinions by these guys. For example people in Syria can use their smartphones to navigate safe routes home. But then if people are captured the first thing requested of them is their mobile phone password so that their contacts and information can be used. Also the potential for misuse of this technology, and how Google is working on ways of encrypting people's phones and data so that it cannot be misused. It felt at times a little like Google advertorial but still raised some issues I'd never thought about before.

Tilda Swinton in conversation. Absolutely inspirational. She's such an intelligent, thoughtful and inspiring person. Firstly she talked about her childhood as an army child, brought up on military bases in Germany in particular. The first time she 'went to the US' was to a US army base in Germany, where dollars were the local currency and it was as if you weren't in Germany at all. This brought back memories for me of visiting my uncle on army bases in Germany, as it felt like a pocket of England/US rather than 'abroad'. Tilda talked about how this affected her sense of home and family. Then her early career, in particular with Derek Jarman, ("the carrier of the flame for his generation, in a long line of outsider artists that goes back to William Blake",) whose films I remember being blown away by back in my days at the NFT. She also answered questions from the audience thoughtfully and eloquently. I love her theories on creativity and truth. Some good quotes:

“Cinema is putting yourself into someone else's shoes and seeing the world through their eyes. It's no more complicated and no less powerful than that.”

“The culture is ours. It is being built by us. We don't need to make deals with it or negotiate with it. You just plant your feet in your firmly in the ground and make it yours. Sure, bend your knees, there will be tough winds ahead, but don't feel you have to move, just do what you have to do. You put a flake of your skin onto the culture, and then another one and then another one until the culture is you-shaped.”

I left this talk dizzy-headed and full of a desire to forge my own creative path in life. Thank you, Tilda.

Lena Dunham keynote. This was inspirational in a very different way to Tilda's talk. Lena is the creator of Girls and a filmmaker whose style and vision I admire, so it was great to hear her talk about her career, its early pitfalls, her neuroses and insecurities, her collaborations and ultimately her success. Quotes:

“We are all looking for the authentic in each other and perfection is not a part of that.”

"All of us are freak shows and our lives are utterly weird, and that makes our stories completely universal."

Promise of a Pencil. This guy, Adam Braun, quit his high flying job in the city to build schools in developing countries. His story was fascinating. Good quotes:

“Big dreams start with small, unreasonable acts.”

“If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough.” Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, first female African president.

The Future of digital storytelling. This session with Yoni Bloch, an Israeli singer/songwriter/geek was mindblowing. He demonstrated how he created a 'choose your own adventure' music video for his band which he then extrapolated into the million different ways you could use this in storytelling, music, filmmaking, education, everything. So hard to explain but check out his work here.

Chelsea Clinton keynote. The daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton has some formidable parents and it was great to see her hold her own in this keynote talk. She manages a lot of the healthcare and other elements of the Clinton foundation and her talk was about how digital technology can help in this field, in particular in developing countries where the technology is not always cutting edge, but that innovation with older technology, such as sms, can make a massive difference. Nothing particularly controversial but still interesting and she told some funny anecdotes about her childhood, such as how she was made to debate against her father at age 6 with her mother as moderator. No wonder nothing daunts her!

Chelsea Clinton

Then of course there were the movies. Famed for being a hotbed of discovery for Indie American narrative films, SXSW has launched the careers of some magnificent storytellers, so I was excited to see who I would discover here this year. By and large I have to say that I found the film program underwhelming, and the euphoria I feel when exiting a groundbreaking, innovative, inspirational film was more scarce during this film festival than any I have attended before. Perhaps it was my poor decision-making – I had very little time to read and research the program beforehand – but talking to some of my fellow festivalgoers in queues towards the end of the festival, I feel I was not alone. That said, there were a few films I would recommend, and here they are:

The Heart Machine. A delightful story about a skype relationship which felt very 'now' and explored trust and love in a refreshing way.

Pulp. A joyful portrait of one of my favourite bands, as well as a nostalgic look at the working class North of England.

A film about life, death and supermarkets

Silicon Valley pilot and first episode. Mike Judge/HBO's new comedy about tech workers in Silicone Valley hits several nails firmly on the head. Also this was the funniest Q&A I've ever attended, clearly the actors all have an improv background.

Cesar Chavez. A dramatisation of the life of the Mexican American workers rights campaigner, whose name adorns streets in nearly every US city I've visited but whose story I did not know. What an incredible man, and the love for him and his cause in the audience was palpable. Chants of 'Si, se puede' during the warm, genuine standing ovation. (I guess there's no such thing as a new idea, Obama!)

Take me to the River. A documentary about some of the biggest music stars of the Mississippi delta. I'm currently reading Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi and will be travelling down the great river later, so this was a timely film.

Stage Fright. A comedy horror (Glee meets Scream) where a series of gruesome murders are carried out in a kids summer musicals camp. This screened at the Alamo Drafthouse, (the Ritz) which fast became my favourite festival venue, as you could order food and drinks which were then brought out during the film. But not in some swanky Gold Class kind of way, just like a diner. Great burgers and they do a mean Old Fashioned to rival that of the Midnight Special in Enmore. Seriously.

The Great Invisible, a doco about the oil spill off Louisiana.

Seeds of Time, a doco about one man's crusade to preserve all the seeds in the world in a vault in the middle of Norway.

Hellion, a beautiful film by an Austin filmmaker, telling the story of a troubled father-son relationship, with fantastic performances by the children in particular and it thankfully resisted becoming 'soap-opera'-y or twee. This film has really stayed with me actually, more than I expected.

Documentary shorts, a program of fab shorts including one on an artist whose work I saw in the Seattle Art Museum, Kehinde Wiley, which documented his process creating a solo show. Really fascinating. Read about him.

God Help the Girl, written by Stuart from Belle and Sebastian – cute modern Glasgow-set musical which I had to leave 30 mins early to catch...

The Winding Stream. Fave film of the festival, a 12-years-in-the-making documentary about the Carter and Cash families, featuring all their wonderful music and which gave me even more admiration for the supremely talented Carter family and a longing to visit their ongoing Saturday night song nights.

Of course I saw heaps more than that, but these were the best of the crop. A mention should probably go to Aussie films I saw, The Infinite Man, The Mule – great that they were selected. And Kiwi vampire mock-doco What we Do in the Shadows was also fun.

The festival was a little overshadowed by a tragic accident which happened half way through. A man driving under the influence broke through one fo the many barriers which are used in Austin to block off the streets (the festival literally takes over the streets downtown) at about half past midnight, ploughing into a crowd outside a bar called Mowhawk and killing 2 people, injuring many others. Such a sad, sad thing to happen and obviously one that the festival could do nothing to prevent. Definitely made me stop to pause about the fragility of life once again, and the importance of celebrating, through music and film, the lives of ordinary people.

The view of 6th Street, the beating heart of SxSW, from our hotel

Phew! What a jam-packed festival. And I haven't even mentioned the Trade Show, Flatstock poster expo, bands I accidentally stumbled upon, amazing Peruvian food trick grub or sneaking out of town for Texan BBQ! Oh well, I cannae write about everything. I now have a couple more days to mooch about in Austin before I head to Dallas and onwards to the rest of my travels. The first two and a half months of my trip have been quite hectic and filled with friends, family and adventures. I'm expecting the next few weeks to be a little quieter, as I'm primarily on my own until I get to Mexico City, so hopefully I will have more time for some of the contemplation and stock-taking I have been seeking from this year off. (Yeah, wish me luck with that.)

My SXSW buddies. Missing you guys already!