Vote for our panel at SxSW!! Do it nao, plox!

Vote for SxSW’s tastiest music panel: The Power Pie feat. @cyberpr @deborahcrooks @ryndalaurel @jodyg

So three great girls and I are hopefully putting on a panel at SxSW…

Here’s the thing, we need your vote:

There’s only few more days left for voting, and we’ve actually got a good shot at getting selected to speak at the conference.

Yes, you’ve got to sign up for the SxSW site, but it would mean the world to me.

So here’s the deal… Sign up, Vote for our panel, Leave a comment, and I’ll send you a free autographed Treasure Quest CD.

Yep – It’s that easy.

Just send me an email here letting me know the userID you posted under, who to sign the CD for, and your shipping address.

We really appreciate the votes!

Thanks for your support.

XOXO,

Jody

OMGPOP – Fiesta Movement Mission 2

We had a ton of fun visiting the offices of OMG Pop!

It’s not likely that I’ll be able to explain it better than Mashable.com, so here’s their post.

Protected: My new comic strip…

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

OMG – I can post from my iPhone!!

Is this rad or what?!

My first “hi” in a while…

Yes. I’m here…

Yes. This new blog confuses me.

No. It’s not finished.

But, I’m trying.

I will persist until I succeed.

<3

Ford on Fox

Ford Fiesta on Fox and Friends

Ford Fiesta (and a shoe on head), FTW!!

 

Ford gave 100 lucky drivers the opportunity to be the first in the US to drive a Ford Fiesta – FREE – for 6 months.

This is my entry. Please leave me a comment… I’d love to know that you stopped by…

Earl Thibert – Inspiration and Friend

Meet Earl. 

The last few days, I have been thinking quite a bit about this handsome guy…

I first met Earl when he showed up at my channel on Ustream back in late 2007 as the world’s first handicapable lifecaster.

He is also: one of the wisest individuals that I’ve ever known (virtually, or IRL), an adult with Cerebral Palsy, confined to a wheelchair, and probably the best example of someone who COULD be frustrated with his body, but instead chooses to embrace his idiosyncrasies and utilize them to inspire others – like me.

People always say to me, “Wow. Lifecasting must have been hard.”  Yeah. It was.

The Internetz can be a mean and cruel place.  It possesses something tempting to certain people: the ability to lash out against things (that have no real bearing with where the anger came from in the first place) and it’s relatively anonymous.  Put those together, and it’s an instant recipe for potential hecklers and nay-sayers.

Earl knows how difficult life (and lifecasting) can be – and he has the unique perspective of dealing with a physical challenge while doing it.  And you know what?  He has handled the whole thing with style, grace and a smile on his face.

As I deal with overcoming some of my own physical challenges, it’s become painfully obvious that I am completely invested in the concept that my body will continue to operate perfectly.

Retrospectively, I’m not sure that mindset has served me very well, as it has allowed me to:

push forward when my body tells me to sleep
say hello to a friend when my vocal chords need rest
deprive my body of nutrients because I am forgetful or temporarily out of cash
etc.

These things are all fine and dandy for some people, without repercussions.  But, I’ve never really been one of those people to get away with anything.  It’s some strange cosmic-karma that I have to deal with.

You can hear both parts (of a two part) of a podcast interview Earl gave here and here.

Earl – the coming weeks for me might be incredibly difficult.  But I wanted to let you know that you are not only an inspiration to many – right now you are ‘THE inspiration” to me.

Thank you for reminding me that I am more than my body – I am my contribution.

Thank you also for the inspiration, and the wisdom that we do not always need to seek inspiration but rather, sometimes inspiration finds us.

You are a wise fellow, indeed.

{{{hugs}}} \o/

JODY GNANT TO PARTICIPATE IN “PROMOTING MUSIC WITH PODCASTING” PANEL AT PODCAMP NYC

Independent musician and lifecaster Jody Gnant, who has been broadcasting her life 24/7 on the Internet at www.jodygnant.com since July of last year, has been confirmed as a panelist at Podcamp NYC, to be held Friday and Saturday, April 25 and 26, at Brooklyn Polytechnic University.

Podcamp NYC, billed as “an ‘unconference’ focused on educating participants on how to use, implement and share any/all new media tools including, podcasts, videocasts, blogs, Second Life, Facebook, and YouTube,” is free to attend, and a perfect match for Jody, who’s built a broad fan base on the Internet and is at the forefront of a group of indie musicians who are using social networking to further their music careers.

“The cool thing about Podcamp is that it encourages the sharing of information among individuals,” Jody says. “There is no ‘competition.’ We’re all braving Cyberspace together, and we know it.”

Jody had already planned to attend Podcamp on behalf of one her sponsors, Web site www.moguling.com, when she was asked to join the “Promoting Music with Podcasting” panel. She sees this opportunity as a way to conitnue building a bridge between music and technology. “The tech industry is a lot like the music industry,” she says. “We’re all rock stars at heart – and the Internet is the open road. It’s really quite the same thing, perhaps without all the drugs.”

Jody will join a panel that includes cyber-publicist Ariel Hyatt of Podsafe Digital Music Campaigns, Dan Herman of freeform Internet radio station Radio Crystal Blue, and Well-Rounded Radio host/producer Charles McEnerney. Jody plans to discuss, among other things, how musicians can utilize the Internet and various social media outlets to bring their music to an audience, as well as how to market and sustain themselves without the aid of a traditional record label. “Anything is possible now for an independent artist,” Jody says. “The Internet and new technologies have removed all of the boundaries that previously existed, and an artist’s success in today’s climate is directly tied to their willingness to embrace New Media.”

The “Promoting Music with Podcasting” panel is scheduled to take place on Friday, April 25, at 2 p.m.  For additional details on Podcamp NYC, visit www.podcampnyc.org.

Jody Gnant Jumps on Ice Cube’s Internet Channel and Sweeps a Casting Call Contest in 24 Hours

In a swift cyberspace coup, independent singer-songwriter, lifecaster, and “Bohemian Geek Soul” artist Jody Gnant corralled hundreds of voters and earned more than 1,500 star ratings for her photo in the last 24 hours of a casting call contest on rapper Ice Cube’s new social networking and video site, UVNTV (www.uvntv.com).

The Web site, which Ice Cube recently launched with his longtime collaborator, DJ Pooh, utilizes Microsoft’s new Silverlight technology to deliver media in real-time, and is being touted as “the world’s first real-time, online television network.” Channels include Snoop Dogg’s Snoopadelic TV and Ice Cube’s Hip-Hop 24/7 TV. UVNTV’s channels incorporate Dolby surround sound and DVD-quality resolution for live streaming video. The site also serves as a broadband social network for fans and burgeoning artists – members join for free and can post profiles, share ideas, and audition for shows.

It was the “Hollywood audition” casting call contest that first brought Jody Gnant’s attention to the site. Contestants were to submit head shots, and winners would be selected by the number of Internet votes they received. Jody clicked on a news link, saw the Web site and contest, and signed up on March 31 — the day before the Casting Call contest ended. Jody has been broadcasting her life 24/7, live on the Internet at www.jodygnant.com, since July 31, 2007. She’d built a broad fan base and social network during that time, and felt she could win the contest in a day. “I said to myself, ‘The person in the lead only has 150 votes. I can get that in one day from the visitors on the stream.’ It was the first real time we put the group we affectionately call, ‘The Legion’ to work on a specific all-or-nothing-project,” Jody says. ” But it was awesome.”

She quickly launched “Operation Cluster Vote” with her fans, campaigning for votes on her live stream at Ustream.com, on MySpace, Twitter, and any other means necessary by a quickly-assembled “virtual street team.” And it worked, garnering her enough votes to win the Casting Call contest – which had been going on for months – in one day.

It also grabbed the attention of UVNTV, who were baffled at the staggering number of votes she got so quickly, and asked her to explain her methods. “I’ve gained a ton of insight into virtual media, social networking and monetization over the last eight months of lifecasting — and I’ve been living and breathing the music business since I was a kid,” Jody says.

Once they realized how Jody had brought so many votes to UVNTV, the founders were excited. “[We're] glad that there are people who get sticky viral Internet marketing and use it to make accomplishments,” DJ Pooh says.

Jody’s excited at the prospects of working with UVNTV as well, and continuing to demonstrate her belief that “none of us are as powerful as all of us.”

“The Legion definitely won this contest. I could not have won it alone. When people ask me, ‘How is your life different because of the lifecast?’, I have a tangible example now,” Jody says. “This is an example of how all of us, together, made a difference in something.”

Visit Jody Gnant’s profile at UVNTV after registering for free, full access to the site at http://www.uvntv.com/join/jodygnant.

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