Good LORD that party was big. It was colossal.
That was the biggest party we Sterlings ever had. It was
so big that I suspect we had some kind of
Rheingoldian "smart mob" thing happening.
Fleets of taxis were opening at midnight and disgorging
hordes of friendly strangers.
1. They drank *everything.* They were bringing
their own booze in large quantities, and yet they drank
the cucumber-flavored gin, the mescal, the Metaxa,
entire racks of "Tito's handmade vodka" (an
Austin regional specialty) floated a keg
of Shiner bock and even, my God,
they drank the lychee brandy.
Somebody drank *all* the lychee brandy. That scares
me.
2. Large cadres of aggressive glamorous women showed up.
Those weren't SXSW Interactive geek women.
They must have been SXSW Film creatures
of some kind.
3. The cops showed up. There was no dancing or
loud music. Those were human beings *TALKING SO LOUDLY*
that they could be heard as a steady dull roar two
blocks away. We've had SXSW parties here, every
year, but we never set off the cop-ometer before.
I had to hustle all the guests inside and shut
the doors, whereupon the party immediately
became MUCH LOUDER.
When I announced that we had drunk all the
alcohol in the house, the last diehards rose in a
compact, polite body and left the house at 2:30 am.
They were a remarkably well-behaved and
appreciative group of house guests, especially
considering that there must have been,
no kidding, about 600 of them.
