"There's a certain immortality to what you're doing." -- Kenny Curtis, Sirius/XM. 

The third annual KindieFest kicked off in a huge way on Friday night at Littlefield in Brooklyn.  This conference/showcase/festival is an annual event that draws musicians, artists, publicists, bloggers, podcasters, producers and other industry types from all across the country. Following Kenny's keynote, wherein he encouraged us to keep up the good work, Dana and I struck up as many conversations as we possibly could over the next couple of hours.

I started out by chatting with Kenny and introducing him to Jeremy Zmuda.  We both wanted to know what everyone wants to know, I suppose: How do we get our tunes on Sirius/XM?  (Answers forthcoming).

In line to rap with Kenny I met Paul Butler, a DJ at WFDU FM. He does a show called Imagination Parade and he's played some cuts from our first EP.  I gave him a copy of "To The Moon" and got his e-mail for follow-up. 

I briefly said hi to blogger Jeff Bogle and gave him a CD to review; he was chatting with Ashley Albert of The Jimmies.  Around that time I also met Meg Russel from Philly and Stacy Peasley from Massachusetts, birds of a feather although it's possible they'd never met before tonight.

Over by the bar I said hi to members of The Not-Its and Recess Monkey, both from Seattle.  I bought drinks for Mark Baze and his sister, and for Rudy Trubitt of the Sippy Cups, who was hanging with Lloyd MIller of the Deedle Deedle Dees. Quite a collection of characters. Rudy also introduced me to Andy Z, also from his home turf in San Francisco. 

Kindiefest founder Tor Hyams sauntered up, both hands empty. "Tor," I exclaimed, "you're having an out-of-beer experience!"  He cracked up at that, and headed off to remedy the situation with some whiskey.  Tor rules. 

In no particular order, I also got to say hi to: Erin Lee Kelly, Suzi Shelton, Groovy David, Shira (of Shira and Friends) and Alexandra Geis (of the Good Batch). Dana, meanwhile, spent time with Kathy O'Connell of WXPN in Philadelphia, members of the Royal Order of Chords and Keys, and our old pal Paul Helou. Rachel Loshak, wife of Gustafer Yellowgold creator Morgan Taylor, had a brand-new baby in a Bjorn, but didn't let that slow her down a bit. 

Event organizers Mona Kayhan and Stephanie Mayers were there, too, looking remarkably radiant considering how much work they'd done to bring this whole thing together. Hats off to both of 'em.

These are just the names I remember, mind you. 

Highlight of the night: Alexandra Geis wasn't sure what to make of the local beer named "Mother's Milk." "How is that ok?" she asked. But the beer-drinker she targeted was Lloyd Miller, a world-class wisenheimer.  He embarked on an epic discussion of his personal breast-feeding philosophy (based on personal experience, of course) that was topped only by his Bob Seeger rendition later in the evening. 

It's that kind of crowd.  Can't wait for next year!

~ Dave