This is it, guys. We've got just over 30 hours to win this thing! We're just 200 votes behind, so it's really important that you vote for LiveFeed and spread the word ASAP!

Our dear friend Julie of Sungazing Photography has put another plea for votes on Flickr. Take a look, leave a comment, select it as a favorite, and help spread the word through the Flickr community.

Another great pal of ours, Juliet, enlisted the help of some feline minions to urge votes ... and toasted rav delivery.

We've been surrounded by reminders in the news today on just how urgent LiveFeed's mission of providing aid to hungry kids in St. Louis really is. Thursday night, Fox 2 reported how Circle of Concern's food pantry has taken a huge hit due to increased demand for their services and a decrease in donations due to the recession. Not only is Circle of Concern one of the largest hunger relief pantries in the St. Louis area, it's also a partner agency of Operation Food Search. LiveFeed provides funds and food donations to Operation Food Search.

In other words, by supporting LiveFeed, you support Operation Food Search, who in turn keep pantries like Circle of Concern stocked.

Also on Thursday, President Obama proposed to Congress a plan to end childhood hunger by 2015. Swell, right? Of course! But what do we do to get through the six years between now and then? It's organizations like LiveFeed that are going to bridge the gap.

Finally, St. Louis' favorite adopted son, Sammy Hagar, is in town today for the opening of his new restaurant at Harrah's Casino. What does this have to do with hungry kids in St. Louis? Hagar's long been a champion of helping hungry kids in St. Louis. His two sold-out performances at The Pageant last fall benefited one of our favorite groups, Blessings in a Backpack. BiaB provides backpacks filled with food to keep kids nourished through the weekend, when free school lunchs and breakfasts aren't available. Not only did the two shows earn a lot of money for BiaB, but Hagar himself handed out backpacks to kids who needed them.

Which brings us to today, and the grand opening of Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill. Sammy's in town for the opening, when he could be sitting on a beach in Cabo. Do you know the difference in temperatures between St. Louis and Cabo today? It's 50 degrees warmer in Cabo and yet, he's here. Why? So he can make a buck? Nope. 100% of the profits from Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill goes directly to St. Louis charities through The Hagar Family Fund. Not just today, but every day.

If he's doing that much to help the people of St. Louis, sure you can take a few minutes out of your busy web-surfing schedule and vote for LiveFeed. Then treat yourself to a little vintage Sammy and perhaps a tequila shooter. It's almost 5:00, after all.

That's right, we're giving away more free stuff! Not only can you get a free CD when you vote for LiveFeed in Ideablob's $10,000 grant contest, but you can also get some free chow tonight. Just come out to Ursa's Cafe (on the Washington University campus) at 6:00 tonight to learn more about LiveFeed and the volunteer opportunities. The meeting's open to non-students, too.

LiveFeed has lots of volunteer opportunites this week, so come out and learn how you can help at these shows:

The Mosaic Whispers A Cappella Barely Legal show happens in Graham Chapel on the Wash U campus at 7:30. Tickets are $7, $5 for students. Free for volunteers! Get a sample of them performing a little Ben Folds sans instruments.

Friday night's your last chance to catch Headmess, the alter ego of Washington University's Dean of Students, Henry Biggs. He's performing his final show at 8:00 in the 560 Building on WU's campus. Tickets are $12 for students, $18 for WU faculty and staff, and $26 for everyone else. Don't miss this final opportunity to see the show that captured Anderson Cooper's attention.

We also need volunteers to spread LiveFeed's message at the opening of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum's concert series. St. Louis' favorite alt-country band, Theodore, opens the free series at 6:00 Friday night. The museum is located at near Skinker and Forsyth, west of Forest Park on Wash. U's campus.

And don't forget: vote! If you've already voted, thanks so much. Now, go spread the word!

Have you voted for LiveFeed to win $10,000? As of this writing, we're taking a bit of a beating. We need as many votes as we can get! Please spread the word.

Cut n' paste Amy's email.

RSVP on Facebook and send voting reminders to your friends. And while you're on Facebook, why don't you link to us on your page? We've even got an easy-peasy shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/vote-for-livefeed

Share the how-to-vote video to your pals who might be a bit internet impaired.

Or share the kids plea video with your friends who might need their hearts to swell a bit to motivate them into voting.

Check out Julie's newest LiveFeed photo on Flickr. Leave a comment, add it to your favorites, and help spread the word about LiveFeed to the Flickr community.

Add the Idea Button to your blog, emails, Facebook, MySpace, etc to make it easy for others to vote. It's in the right-hand column when you follow that link.

See? So many easy ways to encourage votes! An even better way to help? Come to one of our shows this week, bring a friend, and see what LiveFeed's doing. It makes great water cooler fodder the next day.

Tonight, there's free jazz at The Gramophone (4243 Manchester in The Grove). Come out at 9 to see The Vince Varvel Trio.

Wednesday, Simplified funk it up at The Gramophone. $5 gets you in the door at 9. If you're interested in an open mic/jam session, head to Llywelyn's Pub (17 Moody in Webster Groves) for an evening with Westward Sons.

Thursday, The Gramophone hosts the Young Friends of St. Louis Jazz, who present the Bruce Barth Quintet and the St. Louis Jazz All-Stars. They're raising funds to support the All-Star program. Jazz St. Louis has lots of ticket info on their website.

Friday, Washington University's Dean Henry Biggs performs one last time as his rap alter-ego, Headmess. The show's at at 8:00 in the 560 Building on WU's campus. Tickets are $12 for students, $18 for WU faculty and staff, and $26 for everyone else.

St. Louis' favorite alt-country band, Theodore, will play a free gig at the Kemper Art Museum. Show starts at 6.

Leslie Sanazaro Santi performs a duo show at Sqwire's, starting at 8:00.

The Gramophone hosts Fattback and The Dirty 30s at 10 PM. Cover's $5.

Not enough? Come out Saturday night! Bucket of Truck plays FUBAR at 8:00 for $8.

Cassie Morgan will be at The Wedge (442 Bates in Dutchtown) at 9:00.

Got a dollar? End this stellar week at The Gramophone with Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band. Get a sample of opening act, Throw Pillows.

And for the love of humanity, don't forget to vote!

With $10,000, LiveFeed can feed over 2,500 kids that otherwise wouldn't have enough to eat. We are on the brink of winning $10,000 but need your help!

That's right - it's time for Ideablob's February finals, and LiveFeed needs your vote to win a $10,000 grant! We also need for you to spread the word to all of your friends, family, and anyone you know who cares about eradicating childhood hunger in St. Louis. Just cut and paste the message from our director, Amy Graham and email it. Join the Facebook group and spread the word.

This is so easy to do. Voting takes a minute. If you voted in the preliminaries two weeks ago, you don't even have to register at Ideablob. A minute to vote gets you some free tunes and the knowledge that you're doing something to help hungry kids in these dire economic times. It's just that easy. So much easier than what some teens in Belleville did last week to raise hunger awareness. Nineteen kids voluntarily fasted for 30 hours while serving a fundraising chicken and dumpling dinner and prepping food baskets for Food Share.

Suddenly, taking a minute to click a few online buttons seems pretty easy, doesn't it? So do it! You've got until Saturday - that's a lot of time to tell everyone you know to vote vote vote vote!

If you are short on time, just read this one paragraph:

LiveFeed is in an online contest to win $10,000 and we need your help. Please go to: http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/4445-LiveFeed-Will-Rock-for-Food-w , register for the website and then vote for LiveFeed as the best idea on the ideablob contest. If we get enough votes this week, then we win $10,000. This is free, easy and takes one minute.

Thank you for your support
Amy

================================
If you have 2 more minutes, keep reading:
================================

We really need your help to win this contest, so we are asking your help two more ways.

1) On February 23, please email all of your friends and encourage them to vote for LiveFeed as well. We really need votes during the finals, so emailing your friends starting 2/23 is very important. 2/27 reminders are great too! Really as many reminders as you would like to send the better.

2) Consider adding a note to your facebook status and your twitter updates, invite people to vote for LiveFeed use this URL http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/4445-LiveFeed-Will-Rock-for-Food-w - it costs nothing and only takes a couple minutes to register and vote. (The more you change your status the more people notice.)

Thanks for your support of such an amazing cause.

Sincerely,
Amy Graham

This week's a short n' busy one for LiveFeed with some really unique show opportunities. We've got two biggies planned for this week. So big they defy chronological order!

Thursday night, LiveFeed, in conjunction with KDHX, finally ventures to my turf - the Metro East - for a big show at Pop's (1403 Mississippi Avenue in Sauget, Illinois). Sine Nomine headlines with openers Commichung and Colors From a Cannon. Cover's $7 ($2 surcharge for minors), and it's all being donated to LiveFeed. Doors open at 8. Here's a sneak peak at Sine Nomine's show.

Sunday night's our monthly Musician Appreciation Night at Cicero's (6691 Delmar, U. City Loop). The first 25 musicians to RSVP by emailing rsvp@livefeed.org will get two free beers. Come out, mingle with other musicians and fans, learn about LiveFeed, and enjoy sets by Vijoy Rao, Streetsrose, Geoff Koch, and Midwest Avengers. Cover's $6 with all proceeds going to LiveFeed. Doors open at 8.

There's no shortage of regular shows by bands at venues that love LiveFeed. Check them out, too, starting tonight at The Gramophone (4343 Manchester in The Grove) with Parachute Musical and Oso Closo. Cover's $5 and the show starts at 9. Check out Oso Closo live and see why Paste Magazine declared their hometown of Denton, Texas, as having the country's best music scene last year. r

Wednesday night's Blue Ribbon Open Mic at the Gramophone. Bring your own audience and your musical chops. Or you can check out the revamped Firebird (Formerly The Bluebird, 2706 Olive in Midtown). SHed SHot and Daydream Astronauts take the stage at 9. Cover's $7 ($10 for minors)

Thursday, if you're not at Pop's and prefer something a little calmer, Leslie Sanazaro Santi will be hosting STL Songwriters Night at The Gramophone with Beth Bombara, Tommy Halloran, and Andy Conrad. Doors at 8. Cover's $7.

Bring on the weekend with some country at The Gramophone with Big Smith's Ozark raucousness. Auset Music Project opens. Doors are at 8. Cover's $10.

Friday night, Leslie Sanazaro Santi plays a cover-free band show at Brandt's (6525 Delmar in the U. City Loop) from 8:00-midnight. Down the street, Denizen Groove will be at Cicero's at 9:00 with a $6 cover charge.

Meanwhile, F5 Records celebrates their 10th anniversary at The Gramophone with DJ Crucial, DJ Needles, Earthworms, Jia Davis, Nato Caliph, and Black Spade. The celebration starts at 10. Cover's $5.

Don't forget that LiveFeed's in the finals for IdeaBlob's $10,000 grant! Voting begins on Sunday, February 22nd. We'll keep you posted on the details. There's free music in it for you!

s TvpSaCo

First and foremost, thanks for all votes and word of mouth you folks gave LiveFeed in our bid to make it into Ideablob's finals for $10,000! We placed second in the first round, which was enough to get us into the finals. The next round of voting begins on February 22. Your participation is even more important in this next round, so we'll be sweetening the deal with free music. Stay tuned for details and prepare to bombard everyone you know to vote vote vote!

In the meantime, go to some shows.

Tonight's the second Tuesday of the month, which means Utter Chaos will jazz up The Gramophone (4243 Manchester in The Grove). Come celebrate the sounds of Gerry Mulligan and Bob Brookmeyer with $5 wines by the glass. Cover's free and the show starts at 9 PM.

Wednesday's Blue Ribbon Open Mic Night with Tommy Halloran at The Gramophone. Doors open at 8, so get there early to reserve your spot on the stage. What's more fun than performing after a few $1.50 PBR drafts?

Thursday night, Chicago's Lubriphonic will be funking up The Gramophone with their old school sexy funk. Check them out opening for the Derek Trucks Band at the Vic in Chicago. $5 gets you into this 10:00 show.

Feeling lucky? Come to the Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center (3301 Lemp Avenue) on Friday the 13th for Weird Body Parts' CD release party. Daydream Astronaut, The New Hedonists, and Dot Wave will also be on-hand for this smoke and alcohol-free all-ages show. Show starts at 7:30 and the cover's $5

Later that night, head to the Gramophone for more soul and funk with The Diplomats of Solid Sound Featuring The Diplomettes. I'm a huge Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings fan, and this Iowa City ensemble gives them a run for their money. Check them out. $5 gets you in the door for this 10 PM show.

Still need plans for Valentine's Day? Make a reservation now for dinner at The Melting Pot (6683 Delmar Blvd. in the U City Loop) with music provided by Leslie Sanazaro Santi.

Going for something a little less lovey-dovey? The Gramophone hosts the genre-mixing, rap-influenced, horn-infused sound of Illphonics at 10 PM. Cover's $5.

Thanks to all of our friends and the massive effort to spread the word, LiveFeed is currently in first place to win $10,000 from Ideablob! You've all done a great job of spreading the word, but don't stop now! The contest doesn't end until Saturday night. While it's great to be in the lead, we can't get comfortable. Keep spreading the word! And if you haven't voted, do it!

Remember, you're welcome to cut and paste Amy's message from earlier this week and email it to everyone on your contacts list.

You can donate your Facebook status to get votes. Mine currently reads, "Robin wonders if you've voted yet? LiveFeed could use the $10,000 to feed hungry kids! http://ideablob.com/ideas/4445-LiveFeed-Will-Rock-for-Food-w."

We also have a Facebook event reminder that you can use to spread the word to your contacts. If Facebook can persuade over five million people to complete the "25 Things" meme, surely we can use it to encourage a flood of votes for LiveFeed!

Spread the word on Twitter! Worried that the huge URL won't fit in the 150 character limit? No prob. We've already nabbed a tiny URL for the voting link. It's http://tinyurl.com/dmuag9.

Our friend Corrina made a snazzy how-to video explaining the Ideablob voting process. Thanks, Corrina!

Rachel started a Facebook group to spread the word. Join and invite your friends! Thanks, Rachel!

Julie of Sungazing Photography crafted a lovely photographic tribute to LiveFeed, which she's using to spread the word in the Flickr community. Go leave a comment on her photo, or add it to your favorites, and we'll get even more exposure.

Today, I'll be donating a post on my personal blog to drumming up votes. Which just means I'll be cross-posting this message on my blog. I encourage you to do the same. Every little bit counts!

Hopefully on Sunday, I'll be posting that LiveFeed's moved to the finals, but that won't happen without your help! Thanks so much!

Just give it a click and vote. It's just that simple.

Vote by Saturday! Spread the word!

Don't forget to vote for LiveFeed to win $10,000! Do it by Saturday!

If you happened to visit cnn.com Monday afternoon, for a brief time our country's hunger situation took the front page. There was a look at the changing face of food stamps, debunking the myths that people who receive federal food assistance are mooches looking for a handout. Does this sound like someone milking the system?

Few are more hopeful the measure will pass than Crystal Sears, a 30-year-old mother in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who said she has been on food stamps for more than three years.

Sears said she sometimes skips meals so her three children can eat. Even with federal assistance, she said, she sometimes has to make a meal for herself out of crackers or food scraps.

In Sears' situation, she's out of work to care for her children who all suffer from medical conditions. Read the article and learn how Sears is forced to choose between food for her family and health care for her children.

Food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP as it's now called, isn't enough to provide healthy meals for families.

Sears stretches her food budget by buying cheap and sometimes fatty meals. She said she doesn't like doing that but can't avoid it. With food prices high, she said, grocery shopping is stressful.

"We get like the mac and cheese, which is dehydrated cheese -- basically food that's no good for you health wise," she said. "Everything is high in sodium and trans fats ... and that's all we basically can afford. There's not enough assistance to eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight."

What's it like to live on SNAP? Follow CNN 's Sean Callebs as he blogs about funding his food for a month through food stamps.

This is why food banks are so important. With government assistance being limited for food insecure families, neighborhood food pantries stocked by food banks like Food Outreach can make the difference for families who have to choose between health care and food, or where a parent has to go hungry so her children may eat. When you attend a LiveFeed event, you have the chance to give St. Louis' food banks a boost through your donations. And you're bound to get a great show out of it, too. Here's where you can help and have some fun this week.

Tuesday, for $6, you can catch Raven Wood at the Sheldon (3648 Washington Boulevard in Grand Center). The band fires up their strings at 7:30, but get there early and catch "Jazz, Rock and Soul: 40 Years of Music in St. Louis, 1968-2008" in the Sheldon's History of Jazz Gallery.

If it's Wednesday, it's Blue Ribbon Open Mic with Tommy Halloran at The Gramophone (4243 Manchester in The Grove). $1.50 PBR drafts. Start signing up at 8. Fifteen-minute sets begin at 9. Bring your cheering section!

Friday night, prepare to rock out with, um, your LiveFeed donations out to Three Fortys. They've got a new CD coming out next week, so catch a sneak peak at their first all-original show. It's at 8:00 at Playoffs (40 Crossroads Plaza, O'Fallon, Missouri). No cover charge!

If metal's not your speed, Leslie Sanazaro Santi will bring her piano and lyric-driven tunes to Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood), also at 8:00 and without a cover.

Brace yourself for Saturday night. Mike Judy presents February Rockfest at Fubar (3108 Locust in Midtown). Starting at 5:00, come see Full Frontal, Make Me Break Me, Hot Fever, Hold Everything, Renae, and Heist. That's a lot of power-pop fun for just $8.

If that's not enough, Brandt's Cafe (6525 Delmar in The Loop) presents the dueling pianos of The Spinets (Matt Murdick and Leslie Sanazaro Santi). Take a look at their Off Broadway performance from last August. Saturday's free performance starts at 8:00.

Still got some energy? End the night at The Gramophone for some poppy soul with Fundamental Elements at 10:00. Cover's $5.

Oh, and did we mention th $10,000?

Don't forget to vote for LiveFeed to win $10,000! Do it by Saturday!

That's right! We can give LiveFeed a huge financial boost, and all it takes is a minute of your time and a vote. Here's how, directly from our Executive Director, Amy Graham.

If you are short on time, just read this one paragraph:

LiveFeed is in an online contest to win $10,000 and we need your help. Please go to: http://ideablob.com/ideas/4445-LiveFeed-Will-Rock-for-Food-w , register for the website and then vote for LiveFeed as the best idea on the ideablob contest. If we get enough votes this week, then we make it to the finals and then we need you to vote AGAIN between February 23rd and the 28th. Votes before the 23rd do not count towards the finals, so voting between 2/23 and 2/28 is critical for us to win $10,000. This is free, easy and takes one minute.

Thank you for your support
Amy

================================
If you have 2 more minutes, keep reading:
================================

We really need your help to win this contest, so we are asking your help three more ways.

1) Make sure you vote before AND after 2/23 to get us into the finals and to win the whole thing so LiveFeed can win $10,000.

2) On February 23, please email all of your friends and encourage them to vote for LiveFeed as well. We really need votes during the finals, so emailing your friends starting 2/23 is very important. 2/27 reminders are great too!

3) Consider adding a note to your facebook status and your twitter updates, invite people to vote for LiveFeed use this URL http://ideablob.com/ideas/4445-LiveFeed-Will-Rock-for-Food-w - it costs nothing and only takes a couple minutes to register and vote.

Thanks for your support of such an amazing cause.

Sincerely,
Amy Graham

After you've voted, spread the word! We'd love it if you'd donate your Facebook status or give a Twitter update. We've even written it for you. Just cut n' paste:

Vote TODAY!! Help LiveFeed win $10,000 http://tinyurl.com/d897p6

Feel free to forward Amy's message to your friends, family, and random people who've found their way into your email contacts. Mention it on your blog. Then let us know in the comments what you did to spread the word today.