Do the Locomotive

Thu 19 May 200501:47 AM

This guy one row behind me is on his mobile phone and he won’t shut up, but overall, I’m pretty happy to be traveling for my current business trip — this time very briefly to Washington, D.C. — by train. Amtrak, for all its faults, is a far, far better experience than hauling myself out to the airport and suffering through the perfunctory and arbitrary TSA screening processes before getting on an overcrowded airplane. Between New York and Washington, you just can’t beat the train for how easy and how pleasant it is.

That’s It

Mon 14 Mar 200508:01 PM

My brain was a little bit friend all morning in this, my last day at South by Southwest. I’m not sure I was optimally receiving all the information in today’s panels, but I count it a successfully day in that I got to have lunch with a small coterie of whip-smart people I’ve long admired, and I got to meet even more great people face-to-face for the first time. (I’m so fucking positive!)

Right now, sitting at the airport, I’m tired and I need some rest before taking on all the work waiting for me at the office tomorrow. So in spite of the fact that I’m missing out on some good panels this afternoon and tomorrow, I’m happy to be on my way home. Everyone I met at the conference was great, but I can’t wait to see my girlfriend and my dog. They’re hard to beat.

LGA to HOU to AUS

Sat 12 Mar 200505:15 AM

Ack, American Airlines! To get to Austin, they had me on a connecting flight through Houston. But on my way there from New York, the captain let us know that the connection had been canceled for reasons unknown — or never revealed. (On top of that, they tried to charge me US$3 for a “snack box”!) When we landed, passengers heading on to Austin — and there were lots of us SXSW-types — were handed taxi vouchers and instructed to hail cabs to our final destination. So after flying for four hours, I just spent another three on the road, trawling the lonely midnight highways of Texas. As it happened, my cab driver was gregarious and entertaining, and we had a nice little chat until I laid myself down and caught some sleep. I’m just into Austin now, and my first impressions are that, damn, this is a college town. It’s not as bustling as Manhattan, but there are a surprising number of young kids dressed in their best Gap gear, wandering the streets a little drunk and enjoying themselves. Not me, I’m beat.

Gate Crashers

Fri 11 Mar 200508:02 PM

On my way to South by Southwest right now, and I’m noticing some things not to do at the airport gate if you don’t want to look like a complete dork: Don’t listen to music on your iPod while conspicuously displaying your white ear buds for all to see. Don’t pull out your shiny Apple PowerBook and start working as if you were putting together a plan for a corporate merger when really all you’re doing is just writing emails to your friends or, worse, writing a weblog post. And, above all else, do not whip out your teeny tiny mobile phone and engage in a conversation with a business associate about something really important sounding — and if you do, don’t ask the other person on the line to, “call me back and leave a message on my voice mail so I remember?” Basically, try not to do anything I do or look like me — just another thirtysomething gadgeteer with an iPod, a laptop and a mobile phone. At least not until you get to Austin, when you’ll probably blend right in.

Austin Bound

Fri 11 Mar 200502:01 PM

I’m flying out to Austin in a little while for South by Southwest. I&#*

Headin’ Down South by Southwest

Sat 12 Feb 200505:06 PM

The Sheltered Tennessean

Tue 1 Feb 200512:22 AM

I’m spending the week in Nashville, TN, kicking off a project with a brand new client. This happens to mean we’re back at the Opryland Hotel, which is still pretty crazy and great. A colleague likened it to “Bio-Dome” because the hotel is an environment of its own, a self-contained ecosystem of artificial waterfalls and fauna, miniature roadways, restaurants, cafés and even an adjunct convention and business center. And it’s true, since arriving here by airport shuttle on Friday night, we haven’t breathed more than 60 seconds of truly exposed Tennessee air. We’ve eaten, bathed and worked within the confines of this little universe almost exclusively. It’s weird, but oddly reassuring. Except for the fact that I have limited Internet access — there’s a nice high-speed line in my hotel room but it restricts access to unapproved SMTP servers, so sending email is pretty difficult. It’s certainly a case of more work than play, too, which means postings here will be limited this week. Y’all c’mon back now, ya hear?

Blue Boy in a Red State

Wed 17 Nov 200404:33 PM

Guess what, I think I’m going to become a Republican! Just kidding. But right now I’m in Nashville, TN for the first time ever, and in a red state for the first time since whatever it was that happened way back on 02 Nov. No time for a full-length entry right now, but a couple of observations: everybody is really freakin’ nice here and I actually get a really good vibe from the place. Also, last night we stayed in the Opryland Hotel which is like a little bit of Las Vegas served up with some Southern hospitality. It’s a hotel that aims to be a self-enclosed reality — when we checked in, they handed us a map to our room, and we followed the trail through faux roads, past tons of fauna, across a huge courtyard, and beneath a magnificently huge glass ceiling. It has a touch of absurdity to it, but it’s easy to forget (and dismiss) from the limited square-footage living of Manhattan that this is America too.

Philadelphia First

Tue 25 May 200401:14 AM

I’m just back from a day trip to Philadelphia, the first time I’ve actually ever been to the city proper, though I’ve passed through it countless times on my way back and forth between New York and Washington, DC. I went for a business meeting, but afterwards I took a little time out and met up with an old friend from junior high school. We had a quick drink, shot some pool, and I had my first, authentic Philly cheesesteak. Though I took the late unreserved train back to Manhattan, on the way there this morning, I took the Acela for the first time. It was a pleasant experience, though I’m not sure I’d ever pay for it out of my own pocket, given that it actually felt more cramped than the less tony trains that Amtrak runs along the eastern seaboard. Anyway, the real highlight of traveling today was spending some time in the gorgeous confines of the restored 30th Street Station, an enduring testament to a time when cities, people and architects used to imagine public spaces as truly grand specimens of human achievement. I wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera at home.

How the West Is Flown

Mon 26 Jan 200410:53 PM

It’s not very often that I fly these days — at least not nearly as often as I used to — but each time I do, I’m reminded of the declining quality of consumer aviation. Halfway through last week I flew to California to see family, and the service on America West was roundly disappointing: to begin with, my ticket was no bargain, but they charged me US$100 to alter it in order to accommodate some changes in my schedule. It was a cross-country flight, but they served only soft drinks and peanuts — not even a single meal. I’m no fan of airline food, but when one spends an extra hour cooped in a plane cabin, waiting for takeoff, a five-hour trip becomes pretty hunger-inducing at somewhere around five hours and thirty minutes. One might be tempted to turn to the in-flight movie to preoccupy one’s time, but there’s something humiliating about being asked to spend an additional US$5 for the indignity of whiling away the airline’s delays. And when we were delayed in landing, the cabin crew couldn’t even apprise us of gate information for our flight connections. I can hardly think of another consumer product that, dollar for dollar, represents less in the way customer care.

About

Subtraction.com

Khoi Vinh’s Web site

Category Archives: Travel

Do the Locomotive

That’s It

LGA to HOU to AUS

Gate Crashers

Austin Bound

Headin’ Down South by Southwest

The Sheltered Tennessean

Blue Boy in a Red State

Philadelphia First

How the West Is Flown

Khoi Vinh’s Web site