Up Next: London

God forbid I sit still for more than two weeks. I've still got my Africa jet lag, but I'm already planning my time in London July 4-16.

The first week I'm traveling with a group of videographers, bloggers and authors called "The Traveling Geeks." I went on the first Traveling Geeks trip last year, which was also my first trip to Israel. Most people know I usually like to travel alone, but every once in a while experiencing another culture's tech scene with people from slightly different media disciplines can be eye-opening. Plus, they needed someone in charge of pub crawling. (Ahem, London readers, leave your suggestions in the comments...) I'll also get to present an award and do my best Michael Arrington impression at the UK TechCrunchies, or as they're actually dubbed the "Europas." I'll be blogging here and on TechCrunch, as I try not to step on Mike Butcher's capable TechCrunch Europe toes.

If you want to hang with us, get your ticket to the UK Crunchies or come to our Tweet-up. Tweet-up tickets are half-price until Friday, if you say you read about it on SarahLacy.com. (Just kidding, they're half-off for everyone until Friday.) Our full agenda is here in case you want to just STALK us the whole time.

Our statement of ethics is going up on the site soon, and I wanted to bring it up since I've been pretty harsh on Pay-Per-Post. No one on this trip is recieving any payment in exchange for coverage. We do have sponsors paying our travel costs, so we could get a diverse group of attendees without worrying about income or travel budgets. We disclose those sponsors here. Our only obligations are to go to the events we've committed to and write about whatever we find interesting.

I love London and spent a good deal of time there last year, so I padded five extra days onto the trip so I can reconnect with friends and meet new ones. I've always got a list of startups to meet, but this trip, I'm particularly interested in ferreting out some London investors who are doing deals in China, India, Africa and South America. Most of the ones I know do more Western-centric early stage tech venture capital. Would be great to mix some European investing perspective into the book, so please let me know any suggestions.

Also, in case you were about to comment about the un-American-ness of my leaving on INDEPENDENCE DAY to go see the very people we declared independence from in the first place, Mr. Lacy has already beat you to it.

Ntertaining Morning

You know how in Yosemite Sam cartoons you hear a loud crashbang and then a huge cloud of smoke and dust comes billowing out of a mine shaft or a general store? Yeah, well welcome to SLDC headquarters this morning, as a construction team is currently demolishing the chimney. I love how they decide to put a tarp down AFTER a piece of roof shoots out of the hole above the stove. Psh.

Needless to say, we've been a tad distracted. So much so that we missed the launch of Njoyed.com, the latest start-up of Tech Hugh Hefner, British Michael Arrington,and all around polar bear, Mr. Robert Loch. According to his stream, Robert has recently Njoyed Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping" ("it will be played at my funeral") and absinthe ("the devil's own drink"). Nteresting.

Although currently homeless and wandering from coffeeshop to coffeeshop, Sarah and I want to send Rob and his business partner Scott Rutherford a huge congrats on the launch. Posts will come when we can actually sit in the living room without developing a case of black lung. Until then, Njoy!

Njoying Life from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

Lost London Footage

It may not sound like a relaxing way to end a vacation to you, but believe me, the closer I come to  working through a back-log of Flipcam footage from the last month, the weight is just lifting off my shoulders. Now if I could only finish that BusinessWeek column and other secret project....ah well, that's what a long plane ride is for, right?

Among Flipcam gems I've found today are these two clips from London, featuring two of my favorite people Robert Loch and Paul Carr. In both, the guys have to hide how nice they're actually being to me, by kinda acting like jerks. But I see through it. They love me.

Lost London Footage #1: High Tea from sarah lacy on Vimeo.
Lost London Footage #2- The Launch Party from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

Me on Stage at a Strip Club. (Sadly, I'm Serious)

Here's some clips from my London book launch event, which in Robert Loch's infinite politically correct wisdom was held at the second oldest strip club in London. It sounds shadier than it was. It was actually an amazing venue and the proper business-y crowd and Fidelity Ventures sponsorship poshed it up more than my Minnie Mouse hairbow ever could have. If you've heard me speak, you've probably heard half of this before. If not, enjoy! Thanks again to Loch, Washy and Carr for an amazing event. Let's do, say, Germany next?

This is a Video Onslaught.

Signs that we're back to the daily grind in dear old San Francisco:

- Sarah is MIA because she has sequestered herself to write the last chapter for the paperback/ added on extra days down at Yahoo/ is writing something, for someone, somewhere
- Mr. Lacy has downloaded 15 different bootleg Lil' Wayne albums onto the rap ipod, which we bump in the car like the gangsters we are
- I wake up with a crumpled Sunday Times beneath the sheets and a cat wrapped around my head like a football helmet
- the blog has been overrun with videos (substantive reporting to return soon)

This past week has been so busy, our London trip seems like a dream; a haze of bubbly Brits, the longest book title ever conceived, and an out of this world, six-day pub crawl. Oh, but how quickly that dream snaps into reality when scouring over the thirty plus videos of Flip footage. I mean, did we really....? Yes, yes we did.

In this case, I really taught London's Hugh Hefner how to dance like a Memphis girl. Sarah is making me post it. Otherwise, I'd hit delete. So, enjoy or "Njoy." Whatever you prefer.

Lord of the Dance? from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

I Can Still Be in London on Your iPod

Here's my guest appearance on the Guardian's weekly tech podcast manned by my ever-brilliant doppleganger Paul Carr. Thanks so much to Charles Arthur and Scott Calloway for being gracious hosts at the Guardian's offices yesterday, thanks to Bobby for not leaving a mess in my kitchen, and thanks to Angus for getting a few pints in us first. ;)

Picture of Charles, Paul and I in the booth...

Leaving London. Sad.

Don't get me wrong: I can't wait to see Mr. Lacy and the cats. And get to sleep in my own bed. Or, say, just get to sleep more than three hours or so. But I'm sad to be leaving London. We're at the airport, sappy Elton John songs are playing and Olivia just looked at me with a pouty face and said, "I didn't feel this way leaving anywhere else we've been to!" And as much as I've loved all the stops on the UGBT this year, I have to agree.

There is just something about the Web scene in London. Robert Loch remarked that people don't support each other's entrepreneurial ventures as much as they should in London, and that may be true. But socially, it's such an amazing bunch of people who would all take bullets for each other. (Yes, even Walshy!)

So as we sip our bloody mary's at Heathrow (cause you know, it's been a whole three hours since the last pub...) Olivia and I want to bestow some awards on our favorite Londoners. We reserve the right to add to this list as we delve through flipcam footage. (Scary)

• Best Karaoke Performance EVER: Simon Procktor with his flawless "Blue Moon"-- I mean, the parts not actually on the karaoke screen. Olivia: "He can dang--diggity me anytime." Extra points for Sam-the-Eagle-like delivery.
• Best Twitter Avatar EVER: Tom Boardman.
• Most Inappropriate Comments: A tie for Walshy and Alex Hoye (Surprise!)
• Most Proper Roast: Judith Clegg. (And by that I mean, the skewering Paul Carr received at dinner...)
• Best Command to Control Out of Control Web Boys: Michelle Acton-Bond- "Drop It. Leave it."
• Only Person to Like the UK Title of the Book Award: Michael Smith
• Only Person Who Can Remember the Title: (We'll get back to you when we find a recipient...)
• Best Facebook Photo Album: Angus Banks (Stealth!)
• Best SarahLacy.tv Foreign Correspondant: Paul Carr (Video to come!)
• Most Improved Dancer: Robert Loch (Video to come!)

The Epicness of London, Part 1

I'm sitting in my hotel at 4:30 pm, sipping a latte, and munching on my third BLT this week (this one actually has bacon!) I'm pretty sure I've still got remnants of make up on from the night before. All my grand statements about how the nature of my business is to meet people and schmooze aside, this blog post might be the first "proper" work I've done all week. I'm also disturbingly sore. My throat is scratchy. My gut hurts from near-non-stop laughter (mostly at Robert Loch and Paul Carr, not with. See below.) My liver has to be groaning from over-exertion. And for some odd reason, today my triceps are sore. No idea on that one.

I know we throw around the word "epic" quite a bit, but this has been an epic trip. So epic in fact, that I'll have to detail it in a few posts. And don't worry: We've got flipcam footage. A quick taste is below.

I guess the most important thing to note is how fabulous the book launch party went on Friday. It was held at the Soho Revue Bar-- the second oldest strip club in London and had a standing room only crowd and a bar graciously sponsored by Fidelity Ventures. Mr. Loch and Mr. Carr interviewed me on stage and mostly behaved. I believe there's footage somewhere I'll try to find and post. As you can see from this post, I still haven't learned tact, and I'm quite sure I offended someone with all that "honesty." I mean, don't ask me to call out bad VCs in the Valley and not expect an answer.... Huge, huge thanks to Paul, Walshy and Robert Loch for making it happen.

Also, since this is the second Brit to express admiration for my, ahem, cojones, I feel I should point out for the record, that I am indeed a girl. Now we're off to have a "proper roast" Judith is graciously preparing. More tomorrow. (If we survive another night with this crew.)

Untitled from sarah lacy on Vimeo.

You DO Love me UK!

I was very excited to come home and have a copy of T3 magazine calling me one of the 50 most influential people in tech. Even though the magazine version says I work in "Silicone Valley" and co-host "Tech Tickler." At least it's a good picture! (Thanks, Mr. Lacy)

Also I love the write up: "One of the few women in Silicon Valley, Lacy's got more balls than most men." I can haz on mai tombstone plz?

I hope Kat is coming to my event on Friday! Thanks again, T3!

Calling LONDON

In just a little over a week, Sarah and I will be touching down in London, and the excitement is brewing here at SarahLacy.com HQ (aka the couch). If you've been reading this blog since last spring, you know that Sarah loves the Brits and the Brits (mostly) love Sarah in return. The new UK edition of her book is entitled The Stories of Facebook, Youtube, and Myspace: The People, The Hype, and the Deals behind the Giants of Web 2.0, and accordingly, we're rolling into town for its November 3rd debut.

Of course, most of you already know this- which is why tickets for her book release event "Secrets from Silicon Valley: Sarah Lacy and the Rise of Web 2.0," are almost, ahem, sold out. If you haven't bought your ticket yet, RUN DON'T WALK. The event features a Q&A session and networking opportunity sponsored by Fidelity Ventures and co-hosted by Robert "British Michael Arrington" Loch and Paul "Irish Jason Calacanis" Walsh on Friday, November 7th. C'mon, you know you want to see Sarah grilled onstage by her own British counterpart, the irascibly charming Paul Carr, and the always delightful Mr. Loch himself (provided he's avoided anything lobster-related beforehand...) You also get free drinks and a copy of the book, which Sarah will be more than happy to sign. If you're still too cheap then you can also try and win a ticket here, ok?

In addition, SarahLacy.com will be headed to the Hampstead Tech Meet-up on Wednesday evening, November 5th. But that's not all London. We have a whole six days to see what you have to offer so give us some insider info! Any awesome entrepreneurs or angels we should meet? Co-working spaces we should visit? Pubs we should imbibe in? Let us know!

Leave your suggestions in the comments section or send them to olivia@sarahlacy.com. DO IT.