Record Store Day 2009 @ Park Ave CDs

Saturday marked the 2nd annual Record Store Day across this indie spirited nation.  To celebrate, I headed to Park Ave CDs, where I was greeted by a live alligator posing for photo ops outside, lines wrapping around the store, and scores of hip kids that made me feel old.  I picked up 2 CDs for myself – The Watson Twins’ Fire Songs and M.I.A.’s Kala, and 2 CDs for my husband – Jay Z’s The Blueprint 2 and Chris Cornell’s Scream.  Also got a nifty Record Store Day 2009 tee + lots of free comps/promos from various labels and distributors.  On my way out I was freestyle-serenaded by a skinny white boy with a long wig of dreads calling himself Mon Crunch.  We all recognize that this is an obvious marketing strategy to get people back in the stores, but as more big-box retailers shy away from having anything resembling a back catalog, it’s becoming more of a celebration of independent stores that have survived in the community.  For those of us who grew up flipping through bins, it’s part nostalgia, part hopeful support for the future.  As a former record store worker bee myself, I’m all for keeping the institution alive!

Twitterpated

Full Sail hosted a Twitter workshop for instructors this week, and I was amazed at how functional the site can actually be, as the common stereotype of the site is sharing the most mundane of mundane happenings, i.e. “Just ate a bagel.”  Who knew you could actually do RESEARCH and find consumer TRENDS between tweets?  If you’re not familiar with the benefits but you’re also wondering what all the chatter is about, here’s an informative Business Week article called “Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet” plus some insight into Twitter lingo, a must for newbies.