Block Party Time! Last Saturday The Blanton Museum of Art threw a big party and opened up their doors—and their lawn—to the public. The Blanton was celebrating the remodeling / reopening of their upstairs galleries, plus the opening of a new temporary exhibit on the first floor.
Well, another South by Southwest has come and gone. The Big Sick was my top Film pick, followed by May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers and Bill Nye: Science Guy. Although I went to some technology sessions, my favorite Interactive sessions were all related to politics: NYT editor Dean Baquet, NJ Senator Cory Booker, and a panel discussion with Dan Rather, Katy Tur, Matthew Dowd and Brian Stelter. In recent years, Interactive has ended on Tuesday, but this year SXSW organizers decided to extend those sessions for two more days. As a result, I didn’t see as much music as usual, but I did enjoy the Avett Brothers, Lady Antebellum, and local musician Gina Chavez. And I’d like to share some other interesting experiences from SXSW 2017…
A large junk of my last day of SXSW 2017 was devoted to the Audience Award winning film, The Big Sick. Bill and I waited in line for an hour to get into the Alamo Ritz theater, and then due to “technical difficulties,” this two-hour movie started one hour late. Was The Big Sick worth four hours? Most definitely! This was my favorite movie of the festival. Look for it in theaters this summer.
SXSW Music day was going strong today. I looked around the Flatstock show and SXSW Gaming, but most of my day was spent listening to music. After dinner, Bill and I headed to Central Presbyterian to listen to several groups. Our evening ended with a tribute performance to 70’s band called Big Star. We had never heard of this Memphis group, but apparently they influenced the next generation of musicians.
On Thursday, I went to one Music session in the morning, one Interactive (Journalism) session in the afternoon, and filled the rest of the day with music. It’s always fun to watch the SXSW crowd changes from geeks to music fans…and now there are definitely more creative types around town!
Although today was the first full day of SXSW Music, I found several interesting sessions to attend at the JW Marriott Hotel. SXSW had announced some extra political sessions for today and tomorrow, but there were also sessions about space and computer science. In the evening, Bill and I saw a documentary about The Avett Brothers, followed by their concert at the ACL/Moody Theater.
This is the last day of SXSW Interactive. Wow, that went quickly! Now we will be turning our attention to Music, and fortunately the weather has improved since we’ll be outdoors more. Bill continued seeing movies today. I attended some informative Interactive discussions, mostly on topics unfamiliar to me, plus one film screening. I wandered around the Trade Show floor again…always so much to see there! We visited a Music venue in the evening and popped into the We DC show at the Moody Theater, but decided we were too tired and headed home.
I attended several interesting Interactive sessions today, looked around the Trade Show floor, ate healthy three meals (for a change), and watched a new comedy series. A fine SXSW day!
The rain stopped for the third day of SXSW, but the weather was decidedly cooler. Due to Daylight Savings Time last night, I slept in a little bit and missed getting a wristband to hear former Vice President Joe Biden. Instead, I went to two movies (compared to Bill’s four), two Interactive sessions, and explored SXSW outside of the Convention Center.
Day 2 of SXSW was a rainy one. I stayed close to the Austin Convention Center, attending Interactive sessions and visiting some close-by venues. Bill ventured further out to see several movies.