This just in: Holy shit last weekend was AWESOME!

What an amazing weekend. I got to see a lot of you out and about doing your thing which was excellent, and through the weekend I hit up a few rides, missed a race, did more than my share of crashing at bike polo, swung by a couple fund raisers and parties, and dug on some excellent free BBQ. Of all the madness to go down this weekend, the highlight was definitely the Bike Hugger Mobile Social after-party/fashion show at Mellow Johnny's that went down Saturday night following all the official SXSW madness. We almost didn't get into the party due to door staff that was seemingly trained at the School of the Americas. Seriously, these guys were HARDCORE; clip-boards, VIP lists, stern attitudes and everything. Luckily after trying a few of the Bike Hugger peoples' info (which the door peeps didn't recognize), all I had to do was drop Russell's name and all 8 of us were through the door and accommodated for. It's good to know people who know people, eh?

The party seemed really chill when we got there. Lots of snazzily dressed people with badges who smelled real nice. Not our usual crowd, but it was a good time and they had free beer. I did recognize quite a few friendly faces, both in the attendees and amongst the models in the fashion show. Speaking of, the fashion show was badass! Kali and Russell (and all the designers I didn't know) showed some great outfits, and the models fucking rocked it. The highlight of the show was the cat who walked out with a tall-bike chopper made of cut up BMX and pixie bikes, then painted dayglo colors. I don't even remember what he was wearing but I don't care, that bike was out of control!

After the fashion show a couple people started dancing. Then we started dancing. I'm sorry y'all, but the following picture does NOTHING to show how excellent the party got after our crew started in on the aforementioned free beer (they had Fat Tire in a can!)...

Seriously, if you weren't there you missed out. Clothes came off, the sales floor became a dance floor, and lots of pictures got taken of people in very little clothing. It started with a few of us crashers, but before we knew it we were joined by models, party-goers, and even one of the designers. Eventually, it became a party worth going to! The above is the only shot I've seen of the fray, so if you've got more (or know of any), let me know.

In-between everything else going on at this shindig, Laura from ArtBike held a raffle for a bunch of sweet prizes and raised two hundred dollars, which was split between ArtBike and Austin's very own Yellow Bike Project. Laura, you rule in my book.

The party wound down rather abruptly, guess it had to do with the draconian SXSW "official" event rules or something. We were literally the last ones to leave, with the friendly SotA graduates yelling at sternly suggesting that a couple of our merry band kill those last beers and vacate the premises or else.

Thanks for putting all this on Byron, Mark and the rest of the Hugger crew, and thanks for putting up with us locals. We always dig it when y'all come to town. You bring cool stuff, good food, and draw a pretty chill crowd. Hope y'all didn't mind us crashing your party.