IBS warm-up for SXSW, Aloha Ray Kane

Leading up to SXSW, I am pleased to report that I will be moderating the panel on Social Networks and College Radio at the Intercollegiate Broadcasting Conference this Friday 3/8 at the Penta Hotel in NYC. Let me know if you want to come. IBS is the first conference many of us attended; it predates most of the others pertaining to college radio and is concerned with the nuts and bolts of running radio stations more than it is into providing a forum for the music business. This is my first non-record company/music panel after numerous radio/record talks over the years.

(Harp magazine's blog called my SXSW panel last year "seriously geeky, but oddly compelling.") Are they still in business?

SXSW, the "Granddaddy of them all," takes off this weekend with their Film and Interactive conferences and goes full speed with music next week. "Everybody's going" doesn't quite apply to music people anymore, but other companies with different agendas have made the festival into a bombardment of the senses in the past few years.

You may not go there to introduce a product like paper towels yet, but we are getting closer to that point. Last year, I was excited (and a bit dismayed) to see Toyota's massive Yaris attack. Levi's is another major spender at SXSW, and I anticipate Monster energy drink or some other flavor will be in our faces too. Street teams? How about Major League Baseball is bringing its multimedia truck that usually parks outside the World Series and All Star Game.

I will continue to focus on my radio contacts, seeing bands and gathering content for this site, but if the quicker picker upper or the idildo need a spokesman, I'm available.

earbender received a new playlist from Radio K, KUOM Minneapolis with a lot of great info and pictures on it from live performances especially. A few they had recently were Dosh, A Place to Bury Strangers and Andrew Broder, click here to listen.

Current events and topics I'm into:

RIP Leonard Rosenman and Ray Kane

Jeff Tweedy on migraines

Arms Dealer for FARC arrested in Thailand

Behind Vermont's blowout for Obama

Rakim returns with The Archive, earbender visitors from Wyandanch!

View Robert Beck's Favorite Pictures (from Sports Illustrated)

DJ Scratchy has a great vintage reggae podcast here from wirelessfm.