Follow Your Calling!

So you say you feel like an unappreciated music guru, the tastemaker in your circle of friends and the person who REALLY knows what's going on in the local music scene, but no one give you any credit? Or perhaps you're just the self-described music geek that likes a little bit of everything, but never gets a chance to really get out and experience it all?

Never fear: Urban Tulsa Weekly has the answer to your woes, the ticket to automatic credibility with your peers and the opportunity to melt your mind with more music than you can possibly absorb. Yes, it's that time of year again as UTW is holding its 7th Annual South By Southwest Essay contest.

What's that you say? You haven't heard about this before? Well, stand back and prepare to be left slack jawed. Then plan on grabbing a pen and notebook to begin drafting your winning entry.

For seven years now, Urban Tulsa has been a media sponsor for South By Southwest (SXSW), perhaps the biggest music showcase in the US and a true music lover's dream come true. Four days of panel discussions, interviews and conferences of every timely topic in the music industry from artist development to distribution overlap with more industry day parties than you can count from March 16-20, 2011. At night, even more music comes alive as over 1200 artists play showcases over the four nights on over 60 stages.

By all accounts, it's a sensory overload of everything music -- from the sights and sounds to the details of business and performance. If you love music above all else, you really need to experience it at least once before you pass on. In fact, once you've experienced SXSW the first time, you'll either be ready to do it again or say "I can die a happy man (or woman) now, let me go home!" Chances are, you'll be left foaming at the mouth and anxious for more.

So what's the secret and how can UTW help get you there? It's easy: we need a guest correspondent to take it all in and report back with a fresh perspective. Jaded old warhorses need not apply: We want to hear from music fans that are fresh-faced and open-minded, ready to try anything and everything and tell us all about it.

All you have to do is tell us in 500 words or less why you'd be the perfect guest correspondent for UTW at SXSW. We also want you to prove to us that you've got game and know the music scene, so include which Tulsa band you'd send to SXSW to represent our city and why. If your essay is picked, you'll win two badges for the SXSW Music conference. After all, you've got to go with a friend: you don't really think we'd expect you to enjoy this and not share it with a buddy, do you?

All we ask in return is that you soak up as much of Austin and SXSW as possible and report back afterwards with an overview of your experience -- the best, the worst and everything in between. Who knows? It might even be the beginning of a promising new career in music journalism. Stranger things have happened.

You'll want to get started now, however, because every year UTW receives an onslaught of entries and we have to sort through, reading each to find the best candidate to represent us on the streets of Austin. You must get your entry in to us on or before January 14, 2011.

If you win, you'll get the chance of a lifetime and two badges to soak up the conference, the music festival and more bands than you can possibly count. In one night, you may well find the "next big thing," the next band to disappear into obscurity and a living legend. Your fate is in your hands, so start writing now and let us know why you should be the next UTW guest correspondent as SXSW celebrates its 25th anniversary in Austin, TX this coming March.