It was difficult to tell exactly when I arrived at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart. Even more disturbing was trying to remember when I had come from. I always do that, forget when I just was. Then I get anxious about when I’m going next. Or then there’s the possibility of running into my future self, as I have a tendency to do. At any rate, the employees were kind, the store well-lit, and I felt comfortable, as if I’d visited before. Perhaps I was there tomorrow.

This gash in the time-space continuum, I soon (or long ago) learned, is the latest brilliant front to the new 826LA drop-in tutoring center. Ever since the first pirate supply store opened in SF, 826 chapters nationwide have adhered to founder Dave Eggers’ whimsical vision for creating themed retail experiences with obsessive (and sometimes disturbing) vigor. I alluded to LA’s concept in the past, in an article I wrote for Wired about the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. (that’s 826NYC), with products designed by my friend Sam Potts. Little did I know when I wrote that article that my other friend Stefan Bucher would be designing all the products for this one (but I really should have traveled back to now to learn that). Oddly enough, a few people who were at the Time Travel Mart Saturday for the launch party of Stefan’s new book 100 Days of Monsters, another chapter in his incredible Daily Monster project, didn’t know that he was behind all the products either. They just thought it was a nice bit of monster-time travel synergy. Which, if you think about it, does make a lot of sense.

After getting my copy of Monsters signed by Stefan—who was kindly drawing very nice personal notes for everyone—I perused the shelves of the extremely convincing Time Travel Mart. Of course I could have thrown down for some Robot Milk or Barbarian Repellent (I believe they only accept gold bullion as currency) but I was particularly captivated by this Ricky Martin lunchbox, a must for anyone traveling back to that one week in 2000 when it was actually cool to carry a Ricky Martin lunchbox.

Also being transported was Time Travel Mart architect R. Scott Mitchell, who was talking to Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess from the m-azing M&A. I also saw design scenesters Terry Stone and Michele Moore, Knock Knock’s Jen Bilik, and Vesna Petrovic from Picnic Design who’s curating and designing the upcoming show Everyday Design at MODAA. Vesna’s business partner Marci Boudreau wasn’t there because she was at the opening for her own show at Little Bird Gallery in Atwater, so I’d say that Picnic is having a very good month!

I can’t say the same about another guest at the party. The monster Stefan invited was a real ham and ended up jumping in photos with everyone. He was also letting people shape-shift his facial features which freaked me out a little bit until I got the hang of it. Of course I thought I was being all creative until I saw him posing with other people and having, like, six eyes and his teeth on his forehead and stuff. I think I scared him more than he scared me.

Pop-up stores have been popping up all over New York for years but perhaps because of the perceived drive-by mentality of Los Angeles, they haven’t really caught on over here. I’d argue that if you pick the neighborhood and the concept properly, it would actually enforce that sense of community everyone likes to claim doesn’t exist. Paper had their annual storefront on La Brea in November, and although it was packed uncomfortably tight—a feeling that was enforced by Barbara Bestor’s shrink-wrapped palette interiors—it did gather most of the coolest LA art and design vendors in one sweaty place for a full 24 hours. Even Lindsay Lohan was there. Don’t worry, it was a dry event.

Two big LA pop-ups will be up and running by next month: the Comme des Garçons Guerilla Store in downtown opened in February and an outpost of the Storefront for Art and Architecture will open on Sunset Boulevard on April 11. The Japanese fashion house Comme des Garçons (I highly recommend their wallets) does this kind of thing all the time in different cities, but here they set up shop in an alley off 4th and Spring, making them the only high fashion brand to have a dedicated store in downtown (and hard to find, here are some tips). It’s the first pop-up experience for the NY-based Storefront, who will feature an exhibition that looks really cool called Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed until May 17.

When I was in Austin last week I spied the gallery showing the latest installation of Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates initiative, where he takes grassy resource-guzzling front lawns and turns them into produce-providing pocket gardens. He talks about the dozens of front-lawn gardens he’s planting across the country and his upcoming book, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn on today’s show. If you’re not familiar with him or his projects, check out Fritz’s website, and come to MOCA PDC on March 29 at 3pm when he’ll be making jam with the guys from Fallen Fruit.

Also on the show: Design writer and NY Times contributor Kimberly Stevens talks about last weekend’s CA Boom, and a tribute to the inspiring Nader Khalili, who died March 5. He was an Iranian-born architect who founded the Cal-Earth Forum, dedicated to building affordable housing with baked earth.

Check out the DnA calendar this month, freshly restocked with delicious items. If you know of any design or architecture events in Los Angeles, please send them my way. You can listen to DnA on KCRW live every 3rd Tuesday at 2:30pm PST, by podcasting through iTunes, or by streaming the audio at any time by clicking the little ‘Listen’ button underneath each show’s title on KCRW’s website.

Taken as a whole, the annual South by Southwest conference held every year in Austin is the perfect creative storm. There are no three industries—interactive, film and music—better serviced by all being in the same city, getting served the same amount of alcohol, at the same time. As I commented in my last column for STEP: “It’s the continuing convergence between the festival’s parts—the businesses of digital downloads, documentaries and dotcoms now have some serious overlap—that makes for another unique level of serendipitous conversation in the Austin streets.”

Sure, there’s not much official overlap between the semi-concurring festivals, but due to the all-welcome, come-as-you-are, free-beer-in-the-back indie mentality, during my visits I’ve somehow always managed to indulge in all three. SXSW has provided me with so many random encounters with famous people, so many exhilarating historic moments, so many dear close friends…it’s changed my life, really. So I’m apprehensive about writing a single negative thing about it. (And to be clear, I’m not talking about daytime programming because let’s be honest: More connections happen per minute at the parties. It’s all about the parties.)

Once I was on the ground in Austin, I started getting the bummed-out texts from people waiting in lines. Suddenly I felt like I was too late for everything. The line at the Google party looked like it had returned over a million results (a few people were so disgruntled they went and held their own “Alta Vista” party). The hosts of the at-capacity Flickr party definitely had one too many contacts marked ‘friend.’ The Digg party was sidewalk scene of thumping techno one-in-one-out that I can’t say me or anyone else I knew Dugg. Lines, lines, everywhere lines. I can only remember waiting in one line during the last two years. And it was short.

Lines are now only part of the problem. Last year I relayed the general ire against Good for charging $20 at the door of their party. I know, $20 went to a great cause—Creative Commons—and you got a one year subscription to a great magazine (that ended up including some articles by me, so thank you, really, if you paid). But it wasn’t about shelling out the $20, it was the idea that after everyone here had paid between $275 and $1050 just to be at SXSW, some company had the nerve to exclude anyone for any reason from their party. It completely violates the easy-going, community-building spirit that defines SXSW. This year, Good listened: Their great party at the San Jose Hotel—where I saw Kimya Dawson and the Noisettes—was free. But cover charges continue to happen. When I got to the only show I was hyping here, the Money Mark-Tommy Guerrero-Pigeon John lineup promoting Beautiful Losers, I was dismayed to see that it was $10 at the door. People I knew refused to buy tickets, simply on principle. (Although I have to say those who opted out, missed out.)

But lines and pay-to-party are pocket change compared to what else I saw this year. Did you want to see Justice play the Playboy party? You better be Elijah Wood. Actually step inside the fabled “Fader Fort” featuring a tribute to Lou Reed? Are you on the list? Community-minded LA public radio station KCRW’s showcase was all-access but they co-sponsored a Vampire Weekend show with Spin that was invite-only. Why? From KCRW’s SXSW blog: “The invite-only event is packed to capacity this year because Spin always books great bands.”

Of course the best argument here is that I’m just bitter because I wasn’t invited (true). But I’m also bitter because I was never, ever once offered a free beer.

I’m not really saying SXSW has become “corporate” or “mainstream” (I’d never have known about it if it wasn’t; see this WSJ article for that discussion). But I do know that next year I’m going to have to work a little bit harder to have those sparkling, serendipitous SXSW moments. Like wrapping my fingers around a Lone Star at Brooklyn promoter Todd P’s showcase while Ninjasonik took the stage at the exclusive-as-a-parking-lot Ms. Bea’s. They closed with the song “Tight Pants“: In hindsight/I saw that your crew was trying to dress like mine/in tight pants. It required some sing-along audience participation which made it even more hilarious because everyone in the audience was wearing extremely, um, tight pants.

Like dodging local kids doing kick flips at skate shop No Comply after the well-received premiere of Beautiful Losers. Or my own personal tribute to Lou Reed: Sitting inches from him while watching his Julian Schnabel-directed concert film Berlin. Or stumbling into a steamy Emo’s by accident just as Be Your Own Pet electrified the stage like an American Apparel ad come to life, and later, as the Black Keys shook the room to its soulful, sexy core.

Or like the highlight of my week—leaving Austin behind completely and driving 25 minutes on buttery fresh-paved roads to the transcendent pit BBQ at the Salt Lick. We were seated immediately by the smiling hostess, a neighboring table passed over their leftover Modelos, and the only tight pants were the ones worn by my dining companions at the end of our meal.

At least I know where to go first next year.

I deferred to the better photographer in the group to document the week; check out his shots here.

Who is Sarah Lacy, again?: How I wish I could have seen the SXSW audience turn on BusinessWeek columnist Sarah Lacy for asking Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg lame questions. After hearing the reports, I finally caught a few bizarre clips, where she definitely sounds like a bitchy sixteen-year-old (hearing the dissent brew is priceless). But then I found this video of her defending herself, post interview. Okay, she comes off as a little whiny, but I was prepared to stick with her until she said this: “I’m one of the only women reporting on tech. I get this constantly.” And that’s when I and the other millions of women reporting on tech simultaneously turned our backs on her forever.

Kottke turns 10: The world’s oldest continually-updated blog is, well, old! Hard to believe Jason Kottke was talking about his feelings online when I was still relying on the powers of AOL. But hey, even the alpha blogger didn’t make it to SXSW this year. Now I don’t feel so bad for missing so many panels.

The kids are alright: Teens everywhere should write furtive but heartfelt emails of praise to the talented Amy Goldwasser. She not only published the first legit book of teen essays, Red: The Book, she stumps for for teens’ overall intelligence in light of that ghastly thing called the internet in this essay for Salon, “What’s the matter with kids today?” (Answer: Nothing.)

Craft or die: A controversial presentation “DIY, Websites, and Energy: The New Alternative Crafts” seems to have ignited a craft blogosphere firestorm. Andrew Wagner, the editor at American Craft surveys the dissent in light of what he presented that same day, a treatise on why craft is punk. Seriously, the whole craft subculture thing is blowing up to very non-subculture proportions; even Etsy’s marketing guy Matt Stinchcomb, who I met this week, seemed to be genuinely shocked by all the attention—he was still glowing from an appearance on Martha!

So what does it mean if you buy this book?: Speaking of DIY, I got my grubby hands on a preview copy of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are by my estranged identical cousin Rob Walker. Lots of Handmade 2.0 in there, and whaddaya know, chapter 2 is all about Beautiful Losers.

One more song: I had to go back to a place where I wasn’t defined by the amount of laminated plastic around my neck, but my dear friend Jeff Miller will continue to peel apart the sweaty, beer-humid layers of SXSW through Sunday. Stick with him over at Esquire as he’ll be navigating the scene just for you. More on that later…

In the spirit of interactivity, I give credit to the entire internet for this Flavor of the Week.

Word from the producers is: Go to the venues and buy your tickets on the day of the screening, then get in line as early as you can before the doors open. Sunday’s screening is 1:15pm at the Paramount; Thursday’s screening is 4:00pm at the Alamo Ritz. Thursday night, there’s a party at Buffalo Billiards where Money Mark will be playing some of the songs from the score.

The buzz is building; it’s been so cool to see all the stickers and postcards around Austin. And, of course, the poster. Did I mention how much I love the poster?