AFI bass player Hunter Burgan swept the vote in the music category of the 2008 Shorty Awards, an awards ceremony held last night in New York City honoring the best producers of content of 140 characters or less on Twitter.
The 2008 Shorty Awards were streamed 7:30 p.m. EST on Feb. 11 at http://shortyawards.com/ and were hosted by CNN anchor Rick Sanchez with special appearances from Shaquille O’Neal and MC Hammer.
Upon receiving his award, Hunter offered the following 140-character-or-less acceptance speech:
“Thanks 2 everyone who nominated/voted for me; my friends, fans & followers; readers of tranquilmammoth.com ; & especially all the @AFI fans.”
Adam Varga, COO of Shorty Awards creators Sawhorse Media, commented, “Hunter’s Twitter feed is filled with updates about his life and his band–it’s an open dialog with his fans and followers. Hunter is a perfect example of what The Shorty Awards highlight: people who use Twitter create engaging micro-content.”
AFI is presently in the final stages of completing its eighth studio album with producer Joe McGrath in Los Angeles, expected out later this year. AFI recently held a contest at http://begintransmission.afireinside.net that drew 850 fans to audition for the opportunity to perform on the forthcoming record. The resultant fan video submissions earned over 100,000 votes and over thousands of comments, with all tweets being displayed at http://begintransmission.afireinside.net/transmitter.