McNuggets. Credit: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
One week, people! In exactly seven days, South by Southwest Interactive will be upon us. ARE YOU READY, DID YOU RSVP FOR ALL OF THE — hey, where are you going, I’m not done!
OK, let’s calm down. Go to your happy place. Is your happy place SXSW? Doesn’t matter! Here are some updates in bite-sized form. You could call them McNuggets, even:
- In addition to doing a set of shows March 16-20 in Austin, late-night host Jimmy Kimmel will also be doing a SXSW Interactive panel on March 14.
- Radiolab has an Austin walking tour it's debuting on Friday, "The Year That Broke Austin" as part of the San Francisco-based app Detour. I tried it and I'll have lots to tell you about it next week. You'll want to hear about this, I promise.
- Sad news "Game of Thrones" fans: I've been told by HBO that the big Austin Music Hall exhibit from last year won't return to Interactive next week. But HBO says it has something for the fest it'll announce next week. (Probably something to do with HBO Go, debuting next month.)
- Texas video podcaster Cali Lewis from GeekBeat.tv will host a Bausch + Lomb lounge at Cesar Chavez and Red River.
- National Geographic is bring an "Escape the Cold" installation to 307 E. 2nd Street. It'll look like this:
- McDonald's is certainly causing a lot of talk before the festival, but it may not be exactly the kind of attention they want. My take in three Tweets:
- Questlove and Paul Qi on an Interactive food-related panel.
- New features in the SXSW Go app, including iBeacons, which I'll have more info about in Tuesday's Digital Savant column.
- March 17 closing party will at Stubb's will feature TV on the Radio and Ludacris.
- Second lady Jill Biden wants to hear from you before her March 17 panel.
- March 17 will also be Bitcoin day at SXSW. Bring your digital wallet!
- Vertical Cinema screenings open to all badgeholders.
- Must-follows on Twitter for the fest. (Including some on our staff, hey what we we going to do, leave them out?)
- In case you missed it, my column about TV/web convergence stuff at Interactive.
- A SXSW interactive timeline.
- More updates, mostly on the music side, from our friends at Austin360.
- On Tuesday, I'll have a sizable preview of SXSW Interactive listing the things changing (and the stuff staying the same) at the fest. Next Friday, a guide to the stuff you can do at Interactive without a badge. And we'll be doing short daily video and audio episodes of "Statesman Shots" all five days of Interactive. Why not subscribe on iTunes now?
