Blogging Product Disclosure Guidelines

So it's December 1, which means that the Federal Trade Commission's new guidance regarding endorsements, or, as I like to call it, "THE WAR AGAINST MOMMYBLOGGERS." I'm just kidding. I've never called it that before typing it just now. I'm going to give you the short of it here, then if you want more detail, feel free to read after the jump. I have never received anything of monetary value (cash or otherwise) in exchange for a post. I have received products for possible review free of charge (primarily CDs and DVDs, but also a few other products), but have never accepted those products in exchange for a guarantee of a post, nor have I ever sold those products once received. If you really want to know more, read on...

Just When I Thought I Was Out...

Not too long ago, I quietly removed my "Offsprung" link from my sidebar. The site, which was started by Neal Pollack in the heady go-go months of 2006-2007, quietly died as a site for content due to "technical difficulties." But now Offsprung lives! I'm back on it! Best of all, it's a Ning site, so the stuff actually works again! For the most part, I'll be cross-posting stuff from this site over to my page there, but I'll be sure to let you know if there's something cool going on there. And, really, folks, there's a lot of cool parenting discussion going on over there, it's not like every other parenting website. Not for everyone, perhaps, but if it is, I think you'll dig it.

I Always Preferred Micro To Macro

At some point a couple years or so ago, I decided to write the occasional "Review in Brief," reviews that were intended to be slightly less wordy than a full-on review. Well, fast-forward a couple years, and just like small cars inevitably become midsize sedans (Toyota Corolla, I'm lookin' at you), the only thing brief about my reviews in brief is, well, the time they were brief. So I'm going to try to write micro-reviews occasionally. Not those 75-word reviews they make you write for magazines (those are not much fun to write), but much shorter than the 500-word or more reviews I end up writing. Call 'em "Itty Bitty Reviews." (And, yeah, I think microeconomics rocks and macro... well, macro just puts me to sleep usually. There goes my shot at ever becoming Treasury Secretary, I think.)

Hey, NPR! Thanks Again!

I have it on good authority -- that is, NPR's website -- that they'll be airing the latest in my occasional chats with All Things Considered's Melissa Block later this afternoon (Monday). This time the subject is "Grown-Up Bands Craft Kid Songs". Better, perhaps, than "Grown-Up Bands Sing Kid Crafts," which would have resulted in songs about popsicle-stick ornaments. To those of you stumbling across this website for the first time, welcome. (To those of you, like me, on the West Coast, you might still have time to listen live.) I hope the music struck your or your kids' fancy, that I sounded charming, and I that I provided you with a respite from all the other news of the day/week/month. (Thanks, Melissa, for the chat!) If you are new, here's a brief rundown of what you can find here... -- Off to the right are links to my YouTube page, Facebook fan page, Facebook page for me, and Myspace. Sorry, I'm not Twittering, because I'm about 3 years behind the curve. -- I write occasionally in other spots, such as the fine parenting/humor website Offsprung. -- In case you like the music, but want a different website layout, there are other voices in this genre -- Bill Childs at Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child hosts an excellent radio show among other things, and Gwyneth at Gooney Bird Kids and Warren at About's Kids Music site are good places to go to. Though Amy has recently shuttered her site, the archives are still worth a stroll. -- Bill and Amy and I also run the Fids and Kamily Awards, our attempt to use the hive mind of the kids music world to find the consensus #1 album of the year. -- For those of you in Austin, Bill and Gwyneth and I will all be attending the Austin City Limits Festival and if want to hear some great kids music outside the festival, Bill and I are hosting the Family Music Meltdown 2. Join us if you can! Otherwise, if you're an artist and you want me to listen to some music, or if you're interested in having me write, talk, or perform an interpretative dance about kids music, my e-mail address is over there to the side. More details on the artists in today's piece after the jump, and there are tons of artists linked on the right, both those who "moonlight" in the kids music genre and those who do nothing but. Thanks again for stopping by.

Back To Austin

It's true, folks, we'll be heading back to Austin in late September for this year's Austin City Limits Festival, and in particular, the Austin Kiddie Limits stage. Now I can engage in my own schedule-balancing as I try to figure out how to maximize my time at the AKL stage while not missing good shows elsewhere around the festival and simultaneously making sure my daughter is having a good time and not getting too tired. That's right, Miss Mary Mack will be joining me again, and I'm hoping she'll help her dad out a little more this year, what with her new-found experience as a returning festival-goer. We'll be staying with the Official Brother, Sister-in-Law, and Nephew of Zooglobble, since the Official Mom of Zooglobble will be out of town that weekend. We'll also be flying into Austin instead of Dallas, thereby saving us 3 hours of driving each. Yay! And, no, I am not the secret replacement for Brian Eno in David Byrne's set (probably my most-anticipated non-AKL set). But wait, there's more!