If you are one of my 12,000 followers on twitter you already know I broadcast a live show 8-10pm Eastern time every Saturday night for KrushRadio.com. I generally play the station’s main genre: Rock, Alternative & Metal. I’m always looking for new up and coming independent bands to showcase so if you are looking to get heard make sure you send me a tweet (@UberDragon) or leave me a comment below.

Coming up in a couple of weeks one of my favorite Festival Bands is coming to my home state of Connecticut for The Gathering of The Vibes concert. Thanks to the power of twitter and a friend of mine from there (@ZaGrrl), I’ve been in contact with the good folks behind the music of Moonalice - I’ve been listening to these guys for years and they are truly one of my favorite festival bands. The really cool thing about all of this is they have sent me some MoonAlice goodies to give to you, the KrushRadio.com listener!

Are you a Moonalice fan? I want to know why you love Moonalice so much! What is it about them that is magical for you? Perhaps you have a Moonalice moment from one of their perfomances you’d like to share! I want to hear about it! Call my KrushRadio.com Voice Mail hotline 24/7 646-462-4073 x 99073 and tell me why you are their #1 fan. I’ll pick one lucky winner with the very best Moonalice story to receive the Moon Alice CD Album with bonus DVD!

All your Moonalice favorites are on this CD: Bleeding of Love, Unspoken Words, I’m Glad You Think So, Blink of An Eye, Eileen Aroon, Kick it Open (my personal favorite), Liste to Those Eyes, I Ain’t Ever Satisfied, Dance Inside the Lightening, Dusty Streets of Cairo, This Changes Everything. I’ll ship it right to your door if you call me up and tell me why this CD/DVD combo belongs in your collection!

I also have a few of the Moonalice “Tell Me It’s Okay” full video DVDs I’ll be giving away to a handful of callers. It is very important you include your name and location in your voice mail on my hotline (646-462-4073 x 99073) and adding your favorite internet radio station (KrushRadio of course!) is a huge plus <hint>.  Make sure you tune into my broadcasts every Saturday night 8-10pm Eastern on @KrushRadio to hear more details and to find out the winners! You can listen from your iPhone with the cool app from ooTunes! If you are a regular on Twitter you can meet & Tweet other KrushRadio.com listeners by searching the hashtag #KRP which stands for Krush Radio Party. One of our regular listeners from twitter, @KimberleKelly, started the hashtag and everyone has been using it ever since!

These days tons of  musicians, celebrities and bands are trying to use social media to increase their fan base.  Most of the celebs that use Twitter use it as a 1 way device, broadcasting their tour dates or their next big public appearance. They make no effort to listen to their fans.  They don’t follow back and sending a reply or direct message (DM) is like sending your tweet into a black hole. The odds of getting a reply are next to non and that is where most of the bands & celebrities using Social Media go wrong in my opinion.

You may not know, but I also work as a social media consultant and I’m often asked to talk to companies about how they can be successful in their social media endeavors. One of the questions I’m asked over and over again is “How do you stop or control negative feedback on social media sites”. My answer… you don’t.  Instead of trying to control it, learn from it and take the opportunity to connect directly with your consumer to turn that bad experience into a positive one. I would offer this same advice to bands & musicians looking to use social media to increase their fan base. When you expose yourself on a personal level to your fans,  you never know if they will agree or disagree, the only thing that’s for sure is they are going to talk about it… and blog about it… and tweet about it… you know where I’m going with this lol
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While doing some research for a few upcoming blogs, I started coming across some really cool examples of digital art using photographs & other traditional mediums as the focal point.  It’s nice to see the combination of old & new coming together in such a fantastic and creative way.  I hope you enjoy!

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Yesterday, @chrisabad and his team unleashed the new game Spy Master into the twitterverse public eye. It’s getting some very mixed reviews; some love the game and are playing it right now while others are telling their users to stop tweeting them to join. Techcrunch is on the story too, reporting on the insane SpyMaster backlash.

I was curious when I got my first invitation to play the game so I joined, I had to at least check it out right?!
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A “twtpoll” has been circulating Twitter the last month asking tweeters, “Do You Support the Legalization of Marijuana in the United States?”, the poll is now in it’s final days. Scheduled to close voting on June 1st, this poll was set to allow unique votes only to ensure nobody used the poll to promote their own personal agenda. You may be surprised to learn, some 96% of Twitter users are in favor of legalizing the “demon weed” in one form or another.

Now before you start thinking this poll was only circulated in stoner circles, you should know hundreds of users tweeted this poll. Some of these retweeters have tens of thousands of followers such as @Zaibatsu and @BuzzEdition, so it is safe to say this is a healthy representation of the twitter collective mind on the subject. During the course of this poll, a few people commented to me this isn’t an accurate representation of twitter users because only those in favor of legalization were likely to respond to the poll. I concede the results indicate the overwhelming response came from those in support of legalization, but what does that say about those that oppose? Like any election or poll, abstinence from voting sends a message also. It says you aren’t passionate about this issue one way or another. While you can’t put a number on Twitter users in this camp, it’s obvious by the results of the poll - those that oppose legalization are losing the will to fight about it. That’s good news for patients around the country who are desperately hoping marijuana is legalized in their area, at least for medicinal use. It is also good news for states and the federal government as they increasingly look for new revenue streams to continue funding public projects and even to simply pay their staff. Those states debating the marijuana issue should find results like this encouraging, it’s no longer the political suicide it used to be.

No, twitter users are not unique in their thinking, in fact a recent CNN poll shows similar results with an even larger sampling of public participation. They pushed the question even further asking if all drugs should be legalized. It looks like the issue is here to stay, at least as long as the country battles it’s way through the current recession. CNBC is running specials; “Marijuana Inc - Inside America’s Pot Industry“, CNN has run recent specials covering the issue, even the research institute CATO is reporting the results in Portugal should not be ignored. Even more interesting is the increase in donations to long time pro-marijuana groups such as NORML who put the money to quick use by launching the first-ever nationwide pro-marijuana TV ad campaign late last April.

So where do you stand on this hot button issue? Did you vote in the twitter poll? Why or why not?

Since leaving New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina one of the things I’ve missed the most is the amount of creative people that thrive there. During my decade plus stay in New Orleans I met an eclectic mix of artists, actors, film makers, street kids, politicians, & business men. I was able to connect on such a wide range of personality types thanks to my business “Realm Of Delirium - New Orleans First Cyber Cafe”. Also playing a large role in the variety of people I met was my own performing arts, fire entertainment. I met a lot of interesting people like Enigma and the rest of the Jim Rose circus side show crew. My fire shows even introduced me to Ozzy Osbourne thanks to my performing at one of his Ozzfests.

Today I was reminded of this spirit when I saw Jason Pollock send out a tweet about his new film “The Youngest Candidate“. First I have alot of respect for independant film makers, I knew a handful of them in New Orleans, and there is alot of energy in the work. But as I took a look at what the film was about I knew I had to share. First from the website here is the film’s synopsis: Read the rest of this entry »

At the time of this writing I have 3,240 followers, so I make no claims at being an expert on Twitter. In fact, I didn’t join Twitter until early April 2009, just over a month ago. For all I know I will plateau at any second, but as my twittercounter shows, I’ve been increasing my followership by around 100 new tweeples a day.

I have spoken to a number of people about Twitter since joining, both online and off, and the question I keep getting is how in the world did I get over 3,000 followers in my first month on Twitter?  Read the rest of this entry »

“It’s a different world out there these days when it comes to law enforcement. As the nation heads into the possibly unknown depths of a severe economic recession, or depression, I fail to see the wisdom of increasing secret police tactics on our highways, but that is what is taking place.”

read the full story on digg

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It amazes me how far police will go in order to continue this perception that the war on drugs is the way to go. It infuriates me, when a citizen claims his rights and police use this as a justifiable reason to bring in drug dogs. Invoking my right to not be searched without probable cause IS NOT probable cause in itself.

In my eyes, this is further proof the “War on Drugs” has gone to far.  Interestingly, the legalization of medical marijuana seems to be making things worse. Not because more people are using pot, but because those helping to legally supply marijuana medicine to patients are being prosecuted using draconian laws.

The time has come to set aside the propaganda of old, to read the medical research, and to open up the floor on this increasingly popular debate.

What do you think? I look forward to your comments below!

If you are a regular on twitter you know URL shortener services are all the rage. Some of these services have been around long before Twitter was ever conceived, others are brand new. Most of these services have one specific purpose, to take your long ugly URL and turn it into a shortened, easy to share one. When you click on the shortened link you are magically redirected to the original page of content.

As you will see in this review, some of these services do much more than that. Some services will track the clicks via the short url it generates allowing you to get an indepth view of who is clicking those links. Still others don’t just silently redirect to the content page, they offer a tool bar to help others share the content as well. It should be noted, in most cases the features I describe below are only available by registering a free account with the URL shortening service.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at 25 or so of the top URL shrinkers and see what they offer: Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’m finally done redesigning and recreating UberDragon.net - the first draft anyway. I still have some additional WordPress modules and some other miscellaneous left to take care of, but for the most part it’s done!

I’m glad you came to poke around, I’m very interested in your feedback so please leave me a comment on your thoughts.

What’s your favorite, can’t live without WordPress plugin?