The Fearless Blogger

If you live in SoCal and are without Halloween plans  (and with a disposable income) look no further – I have the scoop for you (thanks to YouTheDesigner.com)!

The Skinny

Silverlake Conservatory of Music announces its fifth annual “Hullabaloo” fundraiser will be held on Halloween, Saturday, October 31. Ben Harper will perform. The event, dubbed the “Halloweenabaloo,” will take place at LA’s historic Union Station. Doors open at 6 PM for a special “Kids Hour” of music, trick-or-treating and Halloween celebration. At 7 PM, the first of the evening’s musical performances will begin, continuing throughout the evening.

Music, Halloween excitement and performances from SCM co-founders Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and “Tree,” a/k/a SCM Dean Keith Barry along with special musical guests Ben Harper, Linda Perry and others will highlight the Hullabaloo festivities including costumes, masks, observation of “El día de los muertos” traditions plus food and family fun.

The Cause (Silverlake Conservatory of Music)

Reacting to the disappearance of music education in the curriculum of many public schools, Flea and Tree (Keith Barry) founded the non-profit conservatory to provide a place where young people in their community could learn and enjoy music. The school’s website states, “The mission of the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a non-profit organization, is to facilitate basic music education. Our primary focus is on the youth of the community but all are welcome and encouraged to participate. The Conservatory offers private music lessons at a reasonable cost and grants scholarships to children in need, providing free lessons and instruments. The study of music enriches the life of the student as well as the community and society.” Nine years after opening, the school serves about 600 students (about a quarter who are on scholarship). Students enjoy access to private lessons, instruments, summer camps and group ensembles.

More details, including how to get your hand on some tickets, are posted here (by YouTheDesigner.com)
And if you act quickly, you may still have time to enter to WIN a pair of tickets to the event!*

*Disclosure: I’ve entered the contest and plan on winning it. :-) So enter at your own risk- set your expectations accordingly!

Be one of the first 10,000 Cost Plus World Market shoppers to register and qualify for a FREE MOVIE ticket courtesy of Cost Plus World Market and Fandango. You will receive your email on August 6th.

Two “catches” to getting the free ticket (which doesn’t cover Fandango fees – but hey, who’s complaining?)

1. You need to enter by July 29th (today)
2. Since the contest is intended for CPWM shoppers, the entry requires you enter the passkey which you received on your purchase receipt.  You can either purchases something of nominal value (Cost Plus sells gum) or you could try the passkey “movies” which allegedly will do the trick.

Be one of those first 10,000!  Get your free movie ticket now!
Cost Plus World Market Ticket Giveaway

hat tip: sampleaday.com

I mentioned in my last post that I’ve had a couple of things I’ve been working on that I’d share with you soon. This is the first.

Background
Ford recently posted this contest at fiestamovement.com

One of Motor Trend’s Gotta Have Cars for 2010, the Ford Fiesta will make a bold statement on the American road. This is your chance to drive the international model here before its official US debut. We’re looking for an elite crop of drivers to take the wheel: people with a strong presence on the web, an ability to craft a compelling story through video, and a hunger for adventure. As a driver, you’ll receive monthly secret assignments from Ford Mission Control that will take you to places you’ve never been, to meet people you’ve never met, and to experiences you’ll never forget. And you’ll bring your friends and followers along for the ride.

We’ll hand you the keys to your own Fiesta for a six month period, and we’ll even handle the gas and insurance for you, too.

Many will apply. Only 100 will be chosen. Show us you’ve got what it takes to join the Fiesta Movement

As part of this excellent example of using social media in a marketing campaign, interested applicants were to submit a video explaining why they should become a driver, upload it to YouTube with the tag fiestamovement and submit the link with their application. As the video shows, my cat decided to toss my hat into the ring!

My sweetie threw this together and sent it my way for a quick chuckle – thought it was too cute not to share!

Fun background on the San Diego whale
There’s been a young grey whale swimming around the San Diego Bay since March 10th, 2009 (almost a week ago).  While experts say it’s not unusual for whales to enter bays or other shallow water, they usually leave after a couple of days.  San Diego’s 30-foot visitor has created quite a buzz, even prompting a “Name That Whale” contest in the Union-Tribune.

Fun background on the “Fail Whale”
from ReadWriteWeb:

Twitter users are very familiar with the iconic image of the Fail Whale. This social object has been latched onto by Twitter fans not just as a representation of Twitter’s downtime, but also as a representation of the community’s love for the service and their hope for its triumph over their many struggles. Despite Twitter’s troubles, most of its users stayed true, watching and waiting as the team began the long process of recoding the application in order for it to scale up. As Twitter succumbed to the strain of running their under-provisioned service, the Fail Whale “over capacity” image would appear. And this image began to take on a life of its own.  (read full story of the Fail Whale at ReadWriteWeb)

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image credit: Downtown San Diego - Jen Wallace via Flickr , “Fail Whale” – Yiying Lu
hat tip: ReadWriteWeb article via @KimSherrell

This post falls under the better-late-than-never category.

MacHeist3 kicked off just over three weeks ago, but there’s still time to sign up to get in on the fun and nab yourself some free software in the process.

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Part Mac
MacHeist is website with a unique approach to reselling Mac OS shareware software.  Created by John Casasanta, Phill Ryu, and Scott Meinzer (known collectively as “The Directorate“), the site periodically offers bundles of software for a price that is substantially discounted from the combined softwares’ standard retail prices (past bundles have cost around $50 and included 10-14 products, valued around $500).

A portion of the proceeds are donated to charity.  To further encourage purchases, the bundles contain applications that will only be “unlocked” (license keys provided) once specified sales goals have been achieved.  As additional incentive, participants who referred friends to the Heist received “bonus” software not included the standard bundle.

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Part Heist
Several weeks before the latest bundle is released, the MacHeist Directorate transitions the website to reveal a series of “missions“.  Participants are rewarded for successful completion with “loot”: software and/or discounts off the upcoming bundle. read more