10 Days in Austin Texas
From Studio to Rodeo
We landed in Austin back in March.
It wasn’t the warmest welcome; security had questions, and most of them were for Jack.
Just the two of us on this trip, a slimmed-down production team lugging a not-so-slim amount of production gear.
I made it through immigration fairly painlessly. Pushed my trolley out, assumed Jack was right behind me.
He wasn’t.
Three hours later, he emerged, having caused a mild diplomatic incident over our camera equipment.
Not the start we planned, but we made it.
We were there to film six podcast episodes and two debates in eight days. Intense, but fun.
We’d also timed the trip to overlap with SXSW (a huge media event & festival) partly for the guests in Austin, partly for the chance to invite ourselves to some parties… thank you Spotify!
One of the other event’s happening that week was the iHeart Podcast Awards. Of which I was invited to go to at very late notice with the team and Steve.
By “last-minute,” I mean five hours before. None of us had brought anything close to appropriate clothing.
Once the podcast we filmed that day wrapped, I jumped in the car and drove to the only part of Austin I knew with shops that might deliver something acceptable.
Hopelessly hoping between stores, mildly panicked, completely overheating in the 32 degree sun and eventually with some remote guidance from my old housemates via our WhatsApp chat, I landed on a black silk co-ord from Ganni.
It was absurdly expensive. I winced, paid, and left.
Then straight back to the studio, where I’d booked a hairstylist. I asked for a simple slick back bun - which for the life of me, still can’t execute.
The result was... unsatisfactory. She spun me around on the chair and revealed a kind of slicked-back bun with unpredictable spikes and swirls. Like a firework that hadn’t quite gone off properly and lots of mini cinnamon swirls. It felt like the hairdresser moment in Princess Diaries.
“I put my own spin on it, I hope ya don’t mind, looks real pretty on you” (from the texan hairstylist i will never see again.)
I laughed to myself at my dire attempt to be girly.
When we weren’t filming or working late, we actually got to see a bit of Austin.
Terry Black’s Barbecue was a standout.
We wandered around Allen’s Boots, which was fun, tried on a few pairs. Realised cowboy boots aren’t for me.
After the shoot, Jack and I stayed a few extra days to take a moment after the intense filming block.
First stop: Commodore Perry Hotel.
Elegant, calm, very ‘main character’. Banging dressing gowns, but full of weird Black Mirror-esq influencers.
Then we switched it up with a night in an airbnb tent situation out in Dripping Springs.
On our final evening, we went to the Austin Rodeo.
Watching people ride bulls, horses and even lambs was a bit mad.
Everyone was dressed up to the 9’s - boots, hats, the lot.
All in all: a strange, and very American week.
Goodbye.