California is very different than Texas in a lot of ways.

Things are very expensive. Drinks, food, gas, cabs, coffee... its all very pricey. Of course I spent most of my time in Anaheim which is a Disney saturated town so there is the tourist tax you are most likely paying but I found this true in all parts I visited.

The conference was a circus. Imagine Guitar Center on Meth. Very loud. 100,000 people walking around. Lots of interesting cutting edge musical instrument stuff. The booths were complex near-movie sets and most people hired practical strippers to push their gear and represent their company. Everything you could imagine was there... guitars, basses, flutes, harmonicas, drum sticks, software, headphones, accordians, amps, pianos, its a small city's worth of gear in one location.

Heres an example... this is a drum kit for solo guitarists. You use your feet to play every drum part:



I got to sit in on some music industry panels with some pretty big players giving their thoughts on the state of the music industry. One of my favorite authors on the topic was there and it was cool to see him in the flesh. I did not get the courage to talk to him.

Here is a view from the third floor of the conference center:



My clients are getting into selling actual guitars and I was surprised with their quality and price point. The event was great for them because they picked up some endorsement opportunities and found a line of amplifiers they want to start selling as well.

We went to dinner with a guitarist who just got off a tour with Bon Jovi. The guy worked with Chris Cornell and a bunch of other bands I dont listen to but interesting to talk with a guy whose guitar work is on albums that totaled over 40 million in sales. And he seemed like a nice enough guy. I just sat in silence for that dinner and listened to everyone talk guitars. He was pretty impressed by our guitars and had a lot of great stories.

Lots of dudes were at the convention in absurd outfits. Big metal hair and makeup. Leather and tattoos. It was strange to see such a big scene like that because no one in Austin looks like that. At times it was comical how retarded these people looked.

One of my goals was to walk around and look for upsell items to offer dealers. I found a set of dice with chords printed on them that you roll to form new song structures with each roll. Pretty neat. I gave my card to one guy and he mentioned the ad I created for my company that is all over the internet. Nice to have a total stranger familiar with my marketing. Only slightly nice. Cause you know... who cares?

Most of my time was spent alone so that was my only real beef. More people to hang with during the day would have been nice. My clients are cool guys and they seemed to enjoy me. I think they are sending me a guitar but that's just a guess. I worked a couple hours over the course of a few days which was much less than I planned. Mainly it was because my wifi connection at the hotel sucked ass and I had to walk a few blocks to Starbucks to get a connection. And with all the walking I was doing I pretty much said screw it when the thought came up.

The girls were cute but Austin still has them beat. So much for California Girls. I talked with 3 women with the intent of going out and got a date with 1 so not a bad ratio. She was from New York. Jewish gal, brunette, fantastic ass. Our conversations flowed very naturally and she had a pleasant spirit and smile. We took a cab to a nearby town and had drinks the last night. We made out in her hotel room and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her naked (no sex which was fine with me). I left around 4:30am against her request for me to stay and got up at 8am for my flight. Every other night I had been going to bed around 9 from complete exhaustion but my last night in town was an all-nighter. I may have a decent contact if I ever want to explore New York. Of course these kinds of things can dry up quickly if she gets a boyfriend. She says New York guys are awful so time will tell.

I had a completely engrossing conversation with a very successful older man on the plane ride back to Dallas. He started talking to me first and we ended up talking the entire 3 hour flight about business, family, success etc. The flight felt short and I appreciated most everything he had to say.

Overall a decent experience. Maybe a 6.5 on a scale of 10. The coolest part deserves a post in itself which is coming soon. This pretty much made the trip for me.

Finally, here's a little girl going to Disney (the convention center shared trams with the Disney folk.) She put her glasses on upside down which is pretty much adorable.