Last year on this day I posted my own version of a year-in-review with my 13 favorite stories of the year. (Why 13, everyone wanted to know? Was I superstitious? Unlucky? Honestly, it just worked out that way.) This year, I couldn’t help but do it again, but with a twist: I picked my favorites, but I’m also handing out specific awards in different categories (yes, giving prizes to myself—all in all, it was a pretty boring awards ceremony). So while you’re out this weekend drunk walking or choosing a parking spot or curing a hangover with a prairie oyster, please enjoy some of the best, worst, funniest, weirdest, most popular and least popular stories I wrote in 2011. Happy new year!

Most Fun to Research
Nike’s 23-Year Journey To Make McFly’s Shoes Real, Co.Design
When I got the assignment to cover the release party for Nike’s Air MAG shoes, inspired by the ones from Back to the Future, I think I traveled all the way to the Montalban Theater in a montage set to “Power of Love.” Here’s a franchise that was so beloved to me growing up—I even did a dance to the “Back in Time” song at the neighborhood talent show one year—and I got to attend this detail-perfect themed event to celebrate the films. But talking to Nike’s Tinker Hatfield unfolded another incredible story almost as unbelievable as time travel in a De Lorean, as Nike worked on the concepts for the original film and then spent the next two decades making the shoes a reality. AND—this was the kicker—all to benefit Michael J. Fox’s foundation to battle Parkinson’s disease. Now that’s the power of love. Here are some more photos from the party.

Least Fun to Research
How My iPhone Was Stolen on the Train, Gelatobaby
Um, yeah. But on the bright side, I imagine that I saved dozens of phones from similar “apple picking” incidents this holiday season. You’re welcome.

Best Anniversary Party
My LAX series of 10 stories celebrating 10 years in LA, Gelatobaby
If I had one piece of advice to writers—or any creatives for that fact—it’s to celebrate specific milestones in your own life. When I was on my vacation this summer (ah, my sweet, sweet vacation) I came up with the idea to somehow commemorate my ten years in LA, and by the time I was back home I had started writing the pieces. It was an assignment no one would have given me, and it gave me a fantastic reason to examine the place I lived and how it affected my work. I covered everything from weather to secret staircases but my very favorite piece is on how I gave up my car.

Favorite LA Thing to Write About
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Why We’re Pro-Carmageddon, GOOD
Besides the fact that I finally learned to spell “armageddon,” I had the absolute best time writing about the apocalyptic closing of the 405 freeway as a positive event for car-bound Angelenos. After I wrote this story I was asked to appear on the WYNC show The Takeaway, and—when people did, indeed stay off the streets for the weekend—I followed up with six more “-ageddons” I’d like to see.

Best Continuing Education
The Insider’s Guide to Art in Los Angeles, Details
The best kinds of stories are when you have to actually learn a whole bunch of stuff that you’ve always wanted to know, just to write the story. When I was assigned one of my first stories for Details on Pacific Standard Time, I was thrilled to jump in and try to make sense of this sprawling art-stravaganza about to descend upon LA. In the process, I got a seriously intense Los Angeles contemporary art education, thanks to some awesome interviews with the Getty’s Andrew Perchuk. This week I was on the KUSC show “Arts Alive” talking about my story and how PST has affected LA.

Best Per-Word Rate
GOOD Design is Growing: Announcing GOOD Ideas for Cities, GOOD
Not for the article itself, of course, but because I was writing about receiving an incredible $85,000 grant from ArtPlace for the GOOD Ideas for Cities program I co-founded three years ago. I can’t wait to take the event series to five cities, including my hometown of St. Louis, in 2012.

Best Stumbled-Upon Story
A Hidden Oasis Grows on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, GOOD
A perfect example of keeping your eyes open and your camera on, even when you’re out for a walk. I discovered this community garden on Hollywood Boulevard several years ago but it was only during a late-night, post-club visit that I realized it was a story just begging to be told. More on how I found it here, including photos I’ve taken of the garden throughout the years (before I even knew what it was). Street Journalism in action!

Best Stumbling
Enduring Spirit, Gelatobaby
Yes, I ran a marathon this year. Yes, I tweeted photos at every mile. Did I mention it rained the ENTIRE TIME? Did I mention that for the most part, I didn’t train AT ALL? Well, I hope you enjoy the story as I RISKED MY LIFE FOR IT.

Most Uplifting Subjects (I Believe the Children Are Our Future Award)
Middle School Students Tell LAUSD: No More Styrofoam!, GOOD
If you are ever feeling sorry for the state of the world, go visit the sixth graders at Thomas Starr King Middle School who not only got their school to stop using styrofoam trays at lunch, they raised money to buy reusable trays for every student who wanted one. After my story, the kids were featured on the local news, made dozens of videos, and worked with 826 LA to write about their experiences. Absolutely amazing.

Most Overwhelming Response
The Top 5 Things That Bother Me About This Headline, GOOD
When I pitched this little essay to GOOD for their Data Issue, it was mostly to vent about my own frustrations when writing “for the internet” compared to writing for print. But in the hands of guest editor Starlee Kine, it became a highly personal examination of my own transformation as a writer in the age of data—someone who, I realized, is almost addicted to page views and retweets. Ironically, the story was a traffic smash, and I’m still getting weekly emails and seeing it pop upon Twitter about it over six months later. Mostly, people thanking me for being honest about how hard it is to do what writers do.

Most Underwhelming Response
How Weeds Became a Marketing High For MIT’s Bike Wheel, Co.Design
After I noticed the Copenhagen Wheel in a recurring cameo role on Weeds, I jumped on this story, interviewing both the Wheel’s design team and the Weeds showrunner. I thought the incredible, slightly racy tale of how Weeds chose to include and work with the creators of this environmentally progressive bike concept would be a sure hit for cyclists and potheads everywhere. The story didn’t do that well, which I guess illustrates that data doesn’t always win. Or that potheads are an unreliable audience.

Most Beautiful Thing I Wrote About
An Almost Life-Sized Version of L.A. Made Entirely from Cardboard, Co.Design
Gosh, maybe one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen, period.

Most Delicious Thing I Wrote About
Don’t Call it a Pop-Up: Felix Barron’s KTCHN 105, KCET Food
Best brunch in Los Angeles, with a unique experience that matches the food.

Best Service Journalism
The Best Way to See the Hollywood Sign, Gelatobaby
After a group of Beachwood Canyon residents decided they didn’t want tourists prowling their streets in search of the elusive Hollywood Sign, I wrote this story outlining several alternate routes that actually produce better views than if you’d parked in some snobby asshole’s driveway. A big part of what I hope to do with my writing is to help people navigate and understand LA better, and if I can do that at the expense of wealthy, closed-minded Angelenos, even better.

Proof that You Can Make Money Riding Buses
“Mass Transit”: A Dance Performance Inspired by Riding L.A.’s Buses, GOOD
What Happens When You Put a Coffee Table at a Bus Stop?, GOOD
Is LA’s Public Transit a Joke? This Comedian Sure Hopes So, GOOD
Take that, cars!

Most Hate Mail
Do You Double Space After Periods?, GOOD
I had no idea that taking a stand (along with many other writers) against double spacing after periods would net me the most emails I’ve ever received for a single story. The emails that I received also happened to contain the poorest grammar and spelling I’ve ever seen. And every email was dutifully double spaced, of course.

Happy new year!

I started off this week by writing about one of the most beautiful art installations I think I’ve ever seen. Ana Serrano, a Los Angeles native, has built a streetscape that’s based on some of our most vibrant neighborhoods—and she did it all with painted cardboard.

Maybe it’s the familiarity of the imagery, or the simplicity of the materials, but Ana’s work has resonated deeply with people of LA, who have posted, written, and tweeted some incredibly emotional responses to her work. Even after coming off my week long “noticing-binge” as I toured LA on two wheels (and two feet), capturing many of these same elements with my camera, I have to say Ana’s work has made me look even closer at the hidden-in-plain-sight gems of our streets.

You can read the whole story over at Fast Company. Have a great weekend exploring a colorful neighborhood near you.

It has taken me so long to recover from the madness of this year’s SXSW—and specifically, this stuffed avocado—that I had to wait an entire three weeks to write about it.

You’ve probably heard already about the overcrowding and overcommercialization of almost every aspect of SXSW this year. It’s all true. People had to stay so far away from the convention center that they had to be shipped there via FedEx. At least they were guaranteed to be there by 9am.

Luckily I kept busy at a special Fast Company stage sponsored by PepsiCo, where I got to interview people like my good friend Khoi Vinh about the future of reading online. You can see the video of our interview:

It was a lot of fun to do these one-on-one interviews where we could really dig into some deeper, more salacious issues (Gawker! HuffPo! The New York Times paywall!). I also interviewed Ric Grefé, the executive director of AIGA, who had some really interesting stories to tell about that ill-fated Gap redesign.

Honestly, though, most of my time not interviewing people was spent away from the convention center, at the off-site, unofficial happenings and mini-conferences. Like the pop-up for Etsy, where you could upcycle your swag bag, paint a shot glass, or make a musical instrument out of a circuit board. I was so impressed, I wrote a story about this convergence of high-tech/low-tech culture for Fast Company.

I also got to meet some really interesting new people, like Micki Krimmel, who founded NeighborGoods, where you can share or borrow stuff with your community. I wrote about their new launch, and since then they not only got Kickstarter funding, they also won best “bootstrapped” startup at the SXSW Accelerator competition.

The highlight of the trip had to be winning this Peeps gift bag from Foodspotting that contained not only several packs of Peeps, but their new candy called Peepsters (like Rolos with marshmallow in the middle), a t-shirt with a QR code larger than my head, and of course this stylish Peeps-on-ecstasy totebag. (THIS YEAR’S EASTER WILL BE BROUGHT TO YOU BY FOODSPOTTING. EVERYONE DOWNLOAD THE FOODSPOTTING APP! FOODSPOTTING, FOR ALL YOUR FOODSPOTTING NEEDS.)

Another highlight, although not nearly as exciting as the Peeps bag, was spotting Conan O’Brien as he walked out of the Mexican restaurant we were eating at. Although it wasn’t much of a spot, as the man is easily nine feet tall and has hair so bright it apparently emanates this red glow.

I also got to hang out with a lot of my friends who I never get to see, like the dear Maria (pictured here), who interviewed me plus seven other people about our technology likes and dislikes.

The answers are presented in a cool slideshow-like storytelling format called Projeqt. My answers included a plug for my must-have technology tool (above), a thumbs down for “innovation,” and a thumbs up for hand-written thank you notes.

Of course, a big part of SXSW is the parties but there was really only one to go to. The party sponsored by Fast Company had it all: Rye Rye and Theophilus London, a bunch of white people dancing to rap music, and light-up ice cubes. It was not just one of the best SXSW parties I’ve ever been to, not just one of the best Fast Company parties I’ve ever been to, it was maybe one of the best parties OF ALL TIME. Congrats to my hard-working co-workers for a job well done.

And congrats to the hardest-working people on the dance floor! That’s me and Jessi with our partner in sweat Lydia behind us. Note that Jessi and I are in nearly-matching outfits, which has to be the single greatest compliment ever since she is my style icon. Seriously, check out her project: One Week of Undies.

Afterwards we were so hyped up on hip hop there was nowhere else to go but an 80′s dance party.

And later that night, another highlight of the trip arrived innocuously on the corner of Red River and 9th Street. The RVIP Lounge, a mobile karaoke unit, safely transports the drunks and the divas to other alcoholic destinations. And you get to sing Ace of Base along the way. I was so impressed, I wrote about them, too.

And wouldn’t you know it: They’re from LA. I may never need to go back to Austin again.

More photos!

Each year the American Society of Magazine Editors doles out their top awards for publications at the National Magazine Awards. The winners take home giant elephantine abstract sculptures designed by Alexander Calder, and that’s why almost everyone in the mag world calls the awards “The Ellies.” Although the big award show is in May, last week they handed out the Digital Media Ellies for online efforts (to be honest, I’m a little peeved that they still separate the digital from the print, but maybe that will change soon). We were thrilled just to get a nomination for Fast Company’s new blog, Co.Design, for Best Online Department. But guess what, we won!

That’s my boss, Noah! Holding an Ellie!

But that’s not actually the most amazing part. We were up against some pretty established brands—National Geographic, Foreign Policy—who have been doing some really smart work—The Daily Beast—for, like, years now—New York Magazine. The fact that Co.Design, a blog that’s less than a year old, beat out something established like New York Magazine’s Vulture… well, let’s just say there’s nothing like a little vote of confidence from your peers to make you feel good about cranking up the old MacBook Air every day.

As part of the submission process, Fast Company made this great video above that introduces the site. Besides the video, you can see the list of stories that were submitted, including two of my personal favorites: A story I wrote about how Mad Men actors are borrowing the show’s advertising cachet by appearing in ads themselves, and our series on the new/old/confused Gap logo.

Congrats to my executive editor Noah Robischon and his incredible vision, our senior editor and design goddess Linda Tischler, our tireless editor Cliff Kuang, and my fellow contributors Suzanne LaBarre and John Pavlus. And special thanks to Scott Thomas for designing the site, which is sure to get plenty of nods in the future as well.

It’s that time of year again…time for TACOS! Breakfast tacos, lunch tacos, cricket tacos, gelatacos! But of course I don’t head to SXSW each spring just for the food. There’s some serious work to be done. Here’s where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing for the next few days in Austin. And then, TACOS!

The Future of Reading Online: a 1-on-1 with Khoi Vinh and Fast Company’s Alissa Walker
Saturday, March 12
4:30 to 5:30pm
Pepsico Plugged-In Stage, Austin Convention Center
I’ll be interviewing my good friend Khoi Vinh from Subtraction.com about the future of reading online. The former NYTimes.com design director, author of the new book Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design, and owner of a dog named Mr. President will talk about how online publications could take a cue from the rules of traditional print.

Idea(COMM)
Sunday March 13
12:00 to 2:30pm
Parkside, 301 E. 6th Street
I’ll be representing GOOD as a media sponsor at this food and action event sponsored by Food+Tech Connect, The Highlands Dinner Club, and The Noble Rot. Chefs, designers, farmers, writers, and thinkers will be coming together to talk about new ways to engage the technology community in the farm-to-table movement, while we dine on the excellent cuisine at Parkside (seriously, one of the best places in Austin). Also free, but be sure to RSVP as it’s sure to fill up (if it does you can also volunteer), and read more on the event by GOOD’s food editor Nicola Twilley.

Fast Company’s SXSW Party!
Sunday, March 13
7:00 to 10:00pm
Moonshine’s, 303 Red River Road
I’ll be co-hosting this event with an incredible roster of Fast Company editors, so stop by for a drink, some food, and live music with the folks who have filled the pages of our magazine and website. Entrance is free but you’ve got to RSVP, and I’d also recommend coming on the early side since we could reach capacity. And so we can share an intimate drink before the band starts up.

Design for Social Good: a 1-on-1 with Ric Grefé and Fast Company’s Alissa Walker
Tuesday March 15
10:30am to 11:30am
Pepsico Plugged-In Stage, Austin Convention Center
I’ll be back on the Fast Company stage with another of my good friends, Ric Grefé, the executive director of AIGA, who will be talking about their new program Design for Social Good. The initiative asks designers to donate 5% of their time to pro bono causes. We’ll talk about why this is needed now, and how they plan to track the results.

If you’re in Austin, the best way to find me is on Twitter (@gelatobaby), just send me a message and I should get back to you pretty quickly. The other best way, of course, is to look for the nearest taco.

Forget resolutions, poo-pooing the past 12 months, or drinking heavily to delete the shortcomings of the year. 2010 was actually an incredibly fun, productive time for me as a writer, and I can only hope that 2011 will bring as much energy and excitement to my work. So instead of looking ahead, I decided to examine the dozen or so stories I’ve written in the past year that I really loved, add some context and backstory, as well as some of the response I got from them. The hope is that I can learn from what made them so good, and apply that to what I choose to take on in the future. And of course, I hope you’ll enjoy looking back, too. So here they are, in order of appearance…

The Fake Freeway Sign that Became a Real Public Service
GOOD, January 2010
Just after the new year I read a story in the LA Weekly and learned that one of my favorite pieces of public art had vanished from LA’s streets. Richard Ankrom’s fake freeway sign that he installed to help drivers find a tricky downtown LA exit had been a fixture of my life in LA, as well as one of the greatest design stories I had ever heard. And the postscript to the story—that essentially Caltrans had not only left up the sign but “accepted” his suggested change when they put up a new sign—is even more unbelievable. I wrote an essay about the story behind the sign for GOOD, and was amazed by the response to my piece: It was the top story on GOOD for weeks, and was then syndicated by Jalopnik. Later in the year, we invited Richard Ankrom to participate on a panel at the Dwell conference on alternative transit in LA. It’s still my favorite LA story.

iPad Name Not the First Choice for Women. Period.
Fast Company, January 2010
For years, we talked about the mythical “Apple tablet,” so when Steve Jobs finally stepped onto the stage and announced the actual product almost a year ago we could hardly believe our ears. iPad? iPad? Everyone was completely baffled that Apple had chosen such an, um, sanitary name. I started putting together a story about the comments (like the fact “iTampon” was trending on Twitter) as well as some thoughts about Apple’s man-centric design culture, and a link to an awesomely prescient Mad TV sketch. By the end of the press conference, the post was edited and up and being Tweeted around the world. It got the most traffic of any other story on the site that month. And funnily enough, a year later, we don’t even think about the name anymore. Such is the power of Apple.

Who Pood on the Hollywood Sign?
Fast Company, February 2010
My vote for the most ill-conceived publicity campaign of the year comes courtesy of the Trust for Public Land, who decided it would be a good idea to change the Hollywood sign’s message to help raise money to purchase the peak next door. I watched, in horror, as the sign changed from SALLYWOOD to SAVE THE POOD to finally SAVE THE PEAK throughout the weekend, adding to my story the entire time. Then I wrote another story at GOOD about how this was a huge missed opportunity to engage local artists in the cause. It all ended well, I guess, since Hugh Hefner ponied up the cash to buy the land at the last minute, and supposedly, we’ll all get 138 new acres of open space. But the most fun part of the entire experience was spending the day hiking around the sign as they started to drape the letters, which ended with me climbing over a fence and ripping open my pants. That made for a fun bus ride home.

Why Can’t the World’s Best Architects Build Better Websites?
Fast Company, March 2010
I’ve grumbled about the awfulness of architect websites along with the rest of the design world, but I’d never actually done anything about it. Until this year. When the new social network for architects named Architizer launched on the West Coast, I made some kind of offhand comment at the party like “this is so easy to use, why can’t all architect’s sites look like this?” So I used that opportunity to take top architects to task for creating slow-loading, Flash-y, unusable web presences. Reaction to the piece was mostly a widespread sigh of “finally!” and I even went to a USC class to talk about the piece with architecture students to help steer them towards creating their own user-friendly websites. Maybe the next generation will finally get it.

Here’s Why the Banksy Movie is a Banksy Prank
Fast Company, April 2010
The moment I walked out of the premiere of the Banksy movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop, I started testing out theories on my fellow moviegoers that the whole movie was an elaborate art world prank. Two days later, I published my piece on Fast Company outlining my argument and immediately got bombarded with emails and comments from people on both sides of the theory, including a great exchange with Shepard Fairey. My article is cited extensively in the Wikipedia article for Mr. Brainwash, which is pretty exciting, and now that the DVD is out, I’ve been hearing from more people than ever, including someone who just today called my story “appalling” on Twitter. Who knew that people would feel so passionately about street art?

If You Lived Here, You’d Be Urban By Now
GOOD, Spring 2010
In late 2009 and early 2010, I went to the grand openings of two massive “green” developments: CityCenter in Las Vegas and the new W Hollywood in LA. Although both of them touted everything from natural materials to walkability, I had a really hard time believing that either of them were actually attracting residents with true sustainable lifestyles. This was my chance to finally speak out against all these “transit-friendly,” “urban living” developments that were basically promoting total bullshit to super-rich potential residents who couldn’t care less about bike parking. A year later, both developments are still getting slammed by critics, and still having trouble selling their residential units.

Why I Write About Design Now
GOOD, May 2010
It’s always irked me that New York’s “Design Week” is actually a few days in May timed with the presence of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair at the city’s convention center. In short, it’s a celebration of chairs, which ignores what the rest of what the design world is really about. Design needs to crawl out from the overdecorated living rooms and style sections of newspapers and establish itself as a driver for change, which is exactly what the Cooper-Hewitt’s Triennial, Why Design Now? attempted to do. I got all ranty in this piece for GOOD, which attacks a review of the show in the New York Times (they call it a “green design” show) and envisions a future of design coverage that’s not stuck in the Home section.

Redesigning Uncle Sam
Studio 360, July 2010
I was honored to appear on Studio 360 twice this year, once to introduce their Redesign Valentine’s Day challenge, and again to judge the winner of its Fourth of July Redesign challenge. The winner, Brendan Condit created a smart campaign based on JFK’s call for service, and spun it in a way that was endearing and intelligent. I love participating in these awesome little contests, but talking to the show’s host Kurt Andersen is especially fun, and a bit surreal since he’s in New York:  I get to go to this little studio in the backyard of a house just off Melrose and talk to his disembodied voice. Usually I start by mentioning how lovely the weather is in LA. I love radio.

Issue One: Comeback
Longshot, August, 2010
By far, the most incredible journalism experience of the year was working on the made-in-48-hours magazine Longshot. Spending a weekend in the real, live company of a few dozen brilliant, creative people—especially the issue’s art director, Keith Scharwath—working towards a shared, printed goal was such a treat to my virtual, digitized soul. You can read more about the nail-biting, non-sleeping weekend here. And you can still buy a copy of Issue One (which I sure hope you will) read some stories from Issue One. Look out for the next collaboration, and how you can contribute, over at the Longshot site.

Layer Tennis Commentary
Coudal, September 2010
Every Friday afternoon during the summer, my friends at Coudal pit two graphic designers against each other in a game of Layer Tennis. The designers pass a Photoshop (or Illustrator, or Flash) file between them, each getting about 20 minutes to riff on the other person’s work, for 10 full rounds. It’s difficult to explain, and even more difficult to provide real-time, play-by-play commentary, as I did for the third time this September during the match of Kate Bingaman-Burt and Frank Chimero. I include this “piece” because I absolutely love the challenge of writing live, which is essentially what I got to do, and I really enjoyed the interplay of Kate and Frank’s work with my words in this match. You can see each layer here by clicking the numbers to the right just under the banner, and my commentary on each page.

An Exclusive Interview with the New Gap Logo
Co.Design, October 2010
By the second day it had been revealed, it was obvious that everyone hated the new Gap logo. So when a Twitter account popped up claiming to be the “voice” of the new logo, I came up an idea that would set us apart from the other coverage: Why not conduct an interview with the logo itself? I reached out to the still-anonymous author, and he agreed to do his first official interview. To make the joke even more authentic, I conducted the interview pretending I was the voice of the new Co.Design logo, making it a simple conversation between two logos on the topic of the latest identity crisis. People loved this story. Ah, design humor.

The Rise of the Bus-Riding Celebrity
GOOD, October 2010
Earlier in the year, I’d read a story in the Huffington Post about Mad Men actor Vincent Kartheiser, who plays Pete on the show. It mentioned that he didn’t own a car and liked to take public transportation everywhere in LA. In October, the New York Times trailed Kartheiser on a night out in Hollywood and Echo Park, where he takes the bus and train everywhere, and says some really inspiring things about the positive aspects of taking transit. It got me thinking:  With so many supposedly eco-minded celebrities in LA, why don’t more take public transit? I wrote this column about it at GOOD and then put a call out for more stories about celebrities who take transit (like Ed Begley Jr., who I visited at his super-green home and talked to about all this). I’m actually still collecting names and anecdotes and have some plans for including this in a new project that will launch next year.

USC/Annenberg Getty Fellowship
Gelatobaby, November 2010
If you wondered where I was for much of November, I was living in downtown LA, being immersed in the introduction to my USC/Annenberg Getty Fellowship, which you can read more about here. I was chosen as one of seven arts journalists from all over the world to participate in this program, and although I still haven’t written anything comprehensive about my experience so far (I promise it’s coming soon!) I can guarantee you it was probably the most life-changing experience of my career until now. I realized through this process that I want to write locally, focusing my efforts and my energy on the people and places that make LA what it is and what it will be. Look for more here on exactly what that will entail, but until then, you can read the posts I wrote each day and the essay I wrote as part of the application process.

Here’s to an equally prolific year in 2011, and all the best to you and yours. Happy New Year!

Finally I can declare there is a happy, “Hollywood” ending to this story, but the plot up until now was as comical as The Hangover. For those of you who just joined us:  A few months ago, the Trust for Public Land announced that they were buying a 138-acre parcel of land near the Hollywood sign from developers in order to prevent it from turning into a ridge of McMansions. A massive campaign was launched to raise $12.5 million by April 15, and the first order of business was to drape the Hollywood sign—not on land affected by the sale, mind you—with mesh banners that were to read SAVE THE PEAK.

I attended the initial press conference and wrote about it over at Fast Company where I mentioned that there were a few problems with this idea. First of all, the Hollywood sign itself was never in any danger, which made the decision to cover over the sign—which is no longer altered on behalf of causes, and has only been lit on special occasions—all the more confusing. Although it did get attention, mostly when the half-covered letters read SAVE THE POOD for several hours. Someone must have been thinking about this wordplay because they obviously realized the potential for double toilet-humor (SAVE THE PEAD was up next), posting the K first, then going back in and filling in the A. Okay, I do admit the whole idea of a real-time Wheel of Fortune game was pretty entertaining. “Pat, I’d like to solve the puzzle.”

What made me the most frustrated was how clunky and unimaginative the whole thing was—and in a neighborhood that’s probably most famous for high-tech production design and special effects! As workers struggled to drape even one of the giant letters with an “S,” I slunk away from the press conference, truly embarrassed for the images that were being slung around the world of my city. I walked through Beachwood Canyon and climbed into the park, where no one I encountered even knew what was going on—they thought it was a prank. As I wrote over at GOOD last week, this would have been a fantastic opportunity to engage some of Hollywood’s creatives in a way that allowed us to see the Hollywood sign in a new light. Instead, we all got a big laugh when, for one night, we lived in SALLYWOOD.

The big story—the big victory here—is that LA just got 138 acres of open space. In a nice Hollywood twist, we can even thank Hugh Hefner for forking over the last $900,000 needed to secure the purchase. The only problem is that most of the people who read stories about “saving” the Hollywood sign in the last few weeks had no idea there is, say, a huge lake in this part of Hollywood. That there is a massive system of hiking trails that interlace into all the surrounding neighborhoods. I think a much more effective campaign would have been to lead hikes into the wilderness back there, or publish maps showing how the trail system could be extended once the land came back into the city’s possession. In fact, it’s for that reason that I’m so glad this whole thing happened because my outing to cover the sign’s change got me to re-engage with this part of Griffith Park—I got to spend the day back on those steep hillsides and secret passageways that I hadn’t explored much since I moved away from Hollywood.

In fact, it had been so long since I’d walked these trails that I had no idea the Lake Hollywood gates were closed yet again due to mudslides, and when I ambled down one of those secret passageways I became trapped inside the reservoir. I ended up navigating these century plants and climbing over this barbed-wire fence to get out, snagging my Spandex pants in the process. I ripped them so badly they stretched cartoon-style from the top of the fence to my now-bare bottom, which forced me to wrap my long sleeve shirt around my waist so I could take the bus home without being arrested for indecent exposure. But that, my friends, is a Hollywood story for another day.

Why do I always think of SXSW as some kind of Spring Break-level celebration of food and drink? Maybe it’s because I get to go to Austin, where they pass out micheladas as you get off the plane and trees pop pink confetti over the crowded streets. Or maybe because, when I come home to LA, the orange blossoms and jasmine have just started to bloom, drowning the city in this funky perfume that primes the tongue for cocktails.

The truth is, last week I may have done some of the best eating and drinking I’ve ever done in my life. I also wrote a few things that I really liked—see the connection? I do.

The week began in Chicago to see my adorable new relative Meghan and attend my friend Heather‘s bachelorette party, where her amazing future sister-in-law Erin curated an incredible deep-dish DIY pizza bar. We were able to pile our pies high with whatever we wanted and sipped (okay, gulped) wine as we waited for them to bake. I also had an incredible lunch at Coudal, where I surveyed the new Field Notes and met my elusive UnBeige co-editor Steve. And I also wrote a story about the fantastic visual art made by the fantastically talented musician Devendra Banhart.

Sunday, I made it to Austin just in time for several Mexican Martinis with old friends at the Driskill Hotel. I also had the now-famous Gelataco and wrote about the success of my favorite internet entertainment destination, Funny or Die. And then a few of us flitted away for a meal at Eastside Cafe, where our crudites came from the acres of garden surrounding the building, and egg salad was courtesy of the friendly resident chickens.

Now, the thing about SXSW, like any conference, is that you’re always scrambling to grab a bite between sessions, and often settle for mediocre meals. I swore not to do that this year, and planned ahead using Citizen Taco‘s SXSW meal guides. Me, Anya and Casey walked about a mile to the east to Las Cazuelas, which also lead us by my fantasy garden shop, several pinata stores and this guy. After this meal I watched what was possibly the most disastrous interview I’ve ever seen in my life, and wrote about it: Twitter Announces @Anywhere at SXSW. I’m lucky I didn’t lose my lunch.

The next day, me and Steve walked about the same distance in the other direction to Juanita’s Tacos, housed in a bizarre caboose-like building (although we were near the Amtrak station, so maybe not that bizarre). The tacos, served to us by Juanita, were probably some of the best tacos I’ve ever had. Steve and I shook off our raincoats, toasted our sweaty good fortune and folded over our crispy carnitas pillows with huge grins. I’ll never settle for convention center cuisine again.

I can’t say I remember all that much about this night, but these waffle fries I shared with Liz at the brand-new retro-fabulous wienery Frank’s are etched into my brain. I also happened to meet and write about some of the creators of the newspaper that was created, printed and delivered all at SXSW, and I also wrote a story on how infographics and data visualization have become so prevalent in our culture, we just might be a little too obsessed with numbers.

It doesn’t end there,  believe it or not. I got off the plane to LA, smelled that sultry jasmine-orange blossom air and needed some gelato to properly welcome me back to town. I went to Mozza with a few friends where I got my usual squash blossom burrata pizza, and for dessert managed to convince everyone that we actually needed five desserts: Meyer lemon gelato pie, caramel copetta, butterscotch budino, a gelato trio of espresso, vanilla and peanut butter, and a kid size of olive oil gelato. That’s SIX types of gelato! I went home, collapsed into a heap of drooling joy and wrote nothing.

The next night—I know!—I had a funky Sardinian red, oozy-woozy cheese and cheddar-crossed apple pie with some of the fine folks from Architizer at Lou, LA’s finest wine bar. They had just thrown a party to celebrate the West Coast launch for their new site that’s like a Facebook for architects, so I wrote a story for Fast Company about why their idea was so welcome. Because, for the most part, architect websites suck.

I closed out the work week out at my favorite neighborhood joint, Speranza, with my lovely girlfriends and some killer housemade linguine with pesto. I also did my taxes.

And on the seventh day, I rested my internal organs. I piled in the car with sisters Sarah and Rebecca and headed to the unbuilt desert suburb California City for Obscura Day, a global exploration of weird and wonderful places that I wrote about for GOOD. On the way, we stopped at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, which I highly recommend doing this weekend for anyone who lives in LA.

The hills of traffic cone-orange poppies, while not edible, certainly looked good enough to eat.

More photos of Chicago, Austin, California City, gelato and everything else.

Ahhhh, Oscar season. When we cover our most famous street in luxurious, pedestrian-friendly carpet but only let celebrities walk there.

Little gold men start appearing on the sidewalks, wearing their cute plastic skirts.

And we worship them like gods.

Yesterday I got to see the set of the Academy Awards and interview its designer, the lovely David Rockwell, for Fast Company.

There were, of course, no photos allowed inside the theater, but afterwards my media credentials did get me onto the red carpet.

Which, as you can see, is covered in plastic, twice. It’s supposed to rain this weekend.

Here are the risers where the non-famous people get to sit.

And here’s where people like me get to stand and ask famous people questions. All day. In heels.

As I was snapping this shot, a cameraman who was shooting an interview with someone else came over and asked if he could see my camera. It’s new, and its awesome, and everyone wants to see it, especially people who love cameras, so I let him.

He told me to pose, and I thought he just wanted to play with my camera, so it took me a minute to figure out what was going on. I started laughing and said thanks, but I didn’t need my photo taken. “Are you kidding?” he said. “You gotta have your picture taken on the red carpet!” So I did.

Another cameraman who was shooting nearby even got into the act. “Come on!” said my photographer, as he snapped shot after shot. “This is the Oscars!”

For the fifth(!) year in a row, I’ll be headed down to Austin for the SXSW Interactive Festival, where, for a few warm, sunny Texas days, I talk tech and eat only tacos. Since I have to make a detour to cold, wintry Chicago to see my dear friend Heather (and my dear friends at Coudal) I won’t be getting there until Sunday afternoon, so that means I have to pack twice as much tech-talking (and twice as many tacos) into a short amount of time.

But! I will be doing one panel, kind of a special one. On Monday, March 15 at 11am, I’ll be moderating a roundtable with Valerie Casey, founder of the Designers Accord, with whom I write Designers Accord case studies over at Fast Company; and Casey Caplowe, creative director at GOOD, with whom I created the GOOD Design program. This talk is part of Studio SX’s programming, which we were told is more like a fun, Charlie Rose-style talk show (and it will be filmed!). So please come by and see two of my favorite people if you’re at SXSW. Afterwards, maybe some tacos?

To get you in the mood, you can read some of last year’s coverage and browse some of the years before that. See you in Austin!

Update: By the way, the amazing J.D. Nasaw, who coordinated our Studio SX program, also runs the incredible blog Citizen Taco, which includes—yes!—a SXSW taco guide! Now that’s some delicious synergy.