A couple weeks back, Flavorpill HQ-ers and friends got a brutal wake-up call from Meetup.com founder Scott Heiferman. “Get the f*ck away from screens!” He yelled. Wha? This was semi-shocking news, coming from and directed at “new media” mavens. But over the course of his Flavorpill Salon talk at Housing Works, Heiferman explained the power of both the nefarious “invasion of the screens” (when you only involve your iPhone, think of all the human interaction you’re missing, and the relationships you fail to build) as well as a self-organizing, DIO — that’d be “do it ourselves” — spirit. Ultimately, for Heiferman it seems that while online organizing is a useful platform — after all, Meetup is an Internet company — “virtual groups are virtually worthless,” and face-to-face interactions are still the best form of communication and organization. And that’s a philosophy that jives pretty well with Flavorpill’s ethos of getting readers off the couch and into the culture of their city.

Flavorpill Chicago Managing Editor Audrey Mast thoughtfully tipped us off to this competition (OK, so she does some work for Third Coast Festival, too), and we’re passing the info on to you, our creatively enterprising readers. The org, founded by Chicago Public Radio, recently teamed up with San Francisco’s Prelinger Library to produce a contest called Radio Ephemera. The Prelinger is home to some delightfully weird old books and cultural ephemera; your challenge is to create a short audio story, inspired by two of them. Four winners will present their submission at the Third Coast Festival Conference in October — and your hotel and air fare are totally covered. Now’s your chance to prove that video never killed the radio star.

The FP staff was in rare form last night at LVHRD’s DNCHRD party/color contest at the Art Director’s Club on 29th Street. While I was in the building like Def Leppard at a bar mitzvah, Miguel’s moves slayed all the ladies, and the rest of team green just shook their glo-sticks like it was 1992. To relive the glory (OK, the purple team technically won at musical chairs — pffft, whatever!) or catch the spectacle for the first time, check out senior ed Anna B’s Flickr stream. Thanks to everyone who showed up to support Flavorpill, LVHRD, and the green team. If you’ve got choice shots from last night, drop us a link in the comments. Otherwise, nurse that hangover, and we’ll see you out again soon.

Have you purchased your green tickets yet for next Tuesday’s DNCHRD party? Dig out your old Girl Scout uniform, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, and the Jolly Green Giant tights, and polish up your repertoire. For some movement inspiration, check out LVHRD’s latest “vdo” of all six team captains storming Uniqlo and dancing, erm, hard.

On Tuesday, May 20th, LVHRD hosts its fourth DNCHRD competition, a marathon dance-off that’s more manic than the prom scene in Grease. The event features six teams of color-coordinated dancers, and everyone is invited to participate — so long as you’re monochromatically attired and properly enthused. Flavorpill’s own Leah Taylor is captain of the green team, so may we suggest emeralds, eco-chic, and Kermit-the-Frog costumes? Green is officially the new black.

Just in time to get you good and riled up for tomorrow night’s edition of One Step Beyond, Flavorpill “frnds” RCRD LBL have teamed up with Ghostly International to release an exclusive Matthew Dear track, “Don’t Go This Way.” Here, Dear’s multi-layered vocals tease and play with his signature restraint. But the incredible production doesn’t exploit any one pop element — and to great effect. Head over to RCRD LBL for your free download, and check our new Museum Series page to snag tix to Dear’s set at tomorrow’s OSB.

A few ‘pillers attended PSFK’s conference here in NYC this last week, and the day proved to be as insightful and stimulating as promised (once certain A/V bugs were exterminated). There was just one problem: during a particularly applicable panel on “Social Media,” digital trend-spotter Steve Rubel bluntly stated, “The website is dead.” As dedicated online purveyors of culture, Flavorpill is heartily site-based. How will we maintain status as a cultural destination without existing as a… destination? After all, “There is no there there.” While Rubel talked it out with Marc Schiller and Noah Brier — and almost came to blows (well, metaphorical ones, anyway) with Josh Spear — we were left to ponder the future of our own web services, of curation, of web 3.0 and beyond. Where will we fit in? What do you think — is the website, as we know it, dead?

While we were revelling in NYC’s unpredictably awesome weather last week, our buddies over at Blender bit the bullet for five days at the Sodom and Gomorrah of indie rock. How awesome was it? Our music listings in every city will no doubt reflect the belles of the SXSW ball in months to come, but, for some more immediate coverage, check out Schwayze’s shenanigans on 6th Street and Franz Nicolay of the Hold Steady’s strident facial-hair critiques. Then our man James Jung chats up Justice and Lindstrøm. Stay tuned, and start hoarding your sick days for next year…

Our online pals (don’t call them trendspotters) at PSFK are putting the finishing touches on their New York City conference, and we’re honored to have our own Sascha Lewis on one of their panels. The conference (on Thursday, March 27) is like browsing through the site incarnate: you can follow discussions across fields and foci — including creative inspiration, social marketing, and “doing good” — from industry experts like Jeff Staple, Anomaly’s Johnny Vulkan, and Andrew Hoppin of NASA. Sascha sits in on a panel that asks, Does New York Matter?, discussing our city’s fluctuating cultural cachet, and the effect that its output has on the world. Registration is open now; get inspired by top trends and creative professionals, from those at Le Bernardin and MIT to Etsy and, ahem, Flavorpill.

Can’t pony up for conference costs? Fear not — PSFK has plenty of stimulating content online, year-round, for free.

Sometimes-Flavorpill contributor James Jung is a lucky man. Not all of us can call getting drunk with bands “work.” Not everyone gets to expense (or even have) drinks with Justice or Spank Rock. While you go ahead and tell yourself that your gig still has plenty of other perks, check out the latest installment of Mr. Jung’s hard-hitting bacchanalian reportage for Blender.com, starring NYC smooth-poppers Tigercity. They’ve been on our radar for a while, but it’s great to see them so… drunk.