About the Author

Ken McCarthy is an Internet marketing expert, colleague, mentor, music lover, and longtime friend. We stumbled upon each other in the jazz discussion threads at The WELL -- The Whole Earth's 'Lectronic Link -- back in about 1994. He was living in San Francisco at the time and was involved in producing Ornette Coleman's web site.

Ken is also a pioneer in online video. He is the blogmaster for System Video Blog, which tracks the online marketing uses for video. About a month ago, Ken took the helm of IAOCblog.com to lead a discussion of the public relations uses for online video. Ken lives in New York now, but he ended his week at IAOC with a plea for awareness of the situation in New Orleans.

This week, Ken is here in New Orleans. A novice camera man, he arrived with a $99 video camera that uses no film and holds up to 30 minutes of video. He used the same camera on a previous trip to New Orleans to film a funeral second-line featuring the Hot 8 Brass Band. Check it out.

Two weeks ago, the snare drummer for the Hot 8, Dinneral Shavers, was gunned down in front of his family. Along with the murder of filmmaker Helen Hill, who I'll blog more about soon, the Shavers murder galvanized New Orleans, culminating in the March Against Crime on January 12. And it led Ken McCarthy to create yet another blog to help focus attention on New Orleans:

Food, Music & Justice
http://www.FoodMusicJustice.com