John Cade

Short and sweet this week.

MISCELLANEOUS

• The Cool Hunter - “Roaming the U.S. and the globe…so you’re in the know.” A site that keeps you up to date with the latest ‘cool’ things. Great site, cheesy name. Don’t miss the pixel couch.
• Dear God - “Hear us, one prayer at a time.” A site full of posts containing people’s conversations with God. Some people are gratuitous, some people are inquisitive…and others are just angry. Quite interesting to read.
• PostACrime.com - “Stop Crime, Get Cash.” Taken from the website…”a free service for anyone to upload photo or video content of burglary, theft, vandalism, or other criminal acts that have been caught on camera for the purpose of identification by the public.” This could keep anyone busy.

DESIGN

• Vitamin - “Nourishment to help the web grow.” A great resource for web designers and developers.
• The BookScans Database - If you’re into vintage design, you’ll probably enjoy these images of old books.

PHOTOGRAPHY

• Dave Hill Photo - Photography with a surreal feel. Very interesting.
• David Bean Photography - Great Nashville-based photographer with a very impressive client list.

This week I introduce you to American Bang (formerly Bang Bang Bang), who was labeled as ‘Nashville’s quintessential rock band‘ by The Nashville Scene. Along with Autovaughn, who I featured in my first New Music Monday post, American Bang is one of the flagship local bands in Nashville. After forming in 2005, they quickly began to sell out some of Nashville’s premier club venues. They are now signed to Warner Bros. Records and are set to release their full-length CD later this year. Their music is rootsy yet catchy, with just enough pop flavor to be labeled radio-friendly. Below you can listen to “Rock n’ Roll Queen”, the first track off of their pre-label EP, American Ride.

Disclaimer:  I’m definitely not the first person to post about this topic.  However, many of the posts you will find are aimed at web and marketing professionals.  My goal is to inform the general population about a few basic, useful things Twitter can accomplish.

I thought the social networking revolution hit an all-time low when I heard about Twitter. I don’t care what your dog ate for breakfast. So why would I bother following you and your too frequent and unimportant life updates on Twitter? What a terrible idea. However, I became increasingly intrigued after seeing people use it effectively as an outlet for self-promotion and marketing. Thus, I joined the fray and created my own Twitter profile. And the updates began.

From my limited experiences, I compiled a list of things Twitter can accomplish for anyone.

1. Keep you informed - Believe it or not, I find myself looking to Twitter for breaking news. After all, you can follow the major news networks, who automatically post to Twitter when they update their headlines.
2. Make you and your content known - I can’t tell you how many people I have discovered on Twitter that actually have something interesting or important to say. People that I would have never been interested in otherwise. They are effectively gaining an audience through the use of simple, one-line updates.  Twitter helps bloggers and site owners drive traffic to their sites, which is great for increased paged views and therefore higher advertising income.
3. Act as a lightweight RSS reader - Many of the feeds I am pulling into my desktop RSS reader actively ‘tweet’ when the site it originates from has updated content. With the integration of Twitterrific and Growl on my Mac, I can get updates without opening my reader and losing real estate on my screen (although it would be even more beneficial if Growl displayed clickable links).
4. Provide a forum for feedback - This point is two fold. By using the @username syntax, twitter users can reply to what others have said. When you’re following major corporations, this is a great way to give them feedback or let them know of any problems or concerns you may have. Believe it or not, it can quickly grab their attention; especially if your tweet puts them at risk of being exposed in some way. Secondly, it gives others an easy, quick way of responding to you and providing you with feedback on any new content you have informed them about.
5. Help you find answers - Got a question?  About anything?  There’s a good chance you’ll get a pretty hasty response from your followers.

There are a number of good bands in Nashville that I enjoy listening to, but lately I have been extremely impressed by some of the local solo artists. Most songwriters in this town sell their music to other artists. It is refreshing to see excellent songwriters performing their own music from time to time, and doing so extremely well.

This week, I present to you Brandon Young (formerly know as b. young). To cut to the chase, the most impressive thing about Young is his voice - both recorded and live. I recently saw him at small Nashville venue, and was floored, once again, but the purity of his vocals. Below you can listen to “You Can Be the Light”, my favorite track from his recently released Breakthrough EP, which is available for purchase on MySpace.

Welcome to my latest attempt at a recurring series titled “Bookmarked”.  I hope to introduce you to various cool things on the internet periodically.  Enjoy!

DESIGN 

•  ISO50- The Visual Work of Scott Hansen - Scott Hansen is by far one of my favorite designers.  The colors, shapes, and typefaces that he chooses are perfect.  Beautiful work that anyone can appreciate.
• Cameron Moll - When it comes to web design, Cameron has flawless taste.  He became widely know for his Wicked Worn Series, but it’s his knack for clean design that really inspires me.  His blog is extremely informative.
• Veerle Pieters - One of the best CSS blog designs out there.  She frequently offers great how-to posts for Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Smashing Magazine - This may be the number one online resource for designers of any kind.  Learn CSS tricks, find the best Photoshop tutorials, or even the best designed Wordpress themes.  There’s a plethora of information to sort through.  A little bit overwhelming - but it’s a good thing.

PHOTOGRAPHY

• Jeremy Cowart Photography - With only a few years of photography under his belt, it’s amazing how much he has accomplished already (just take a look at his clients).  Oh, and he’s from Nashville, to boot.  My only complaint:  no blog!

PRODUCTS

• Fresh Arrival - “one amazingly cool thing, every day.”
• Uncrate - The Buyer’s Guide For Men - hard-to-find and extremely cool and useful products.  And for women - Outblush.