Chair Dancing

Long time no blog. Alas, my handy open ISP network - named HannahBanana - seems to have disappeared, so I pretty much have to be at work to get online.

Lots going on with work as usual. We're putting on a one-day festival of wonkyness for musicians. Putting on events is always a marketing game, but I find the challenge of integrating more multimedia to be the stuff I look most forward to working on - some questions via video to break up the panelist talk, a live webcast perhaps, our own personal roving newswoman maybe in addition to the usual archiving. Anyone been around when Google Moderator was in use? Anything interesting you've seen or heard about in use in conference-land?

In music news, maybe you've heard that iTunes is dropping DRM and going to tiered pricing? EFF suggests that the labels held DRM over Apple's head as leverage for tiered pricing which makes sense given Steve Jobs' previous statements on DRM. I only wonder why anyone should care? It's too little too late regardless of why. Though The Lefsetz Letter manages to get excited enough to use exclamation marks like they were going out of style, he covers all my exasperated points, too.

I've been sort of keeping up on the latest movies, too, which is unusual for me. Caught Gran Torino last weekend. Clint Eastwood plays the non-PC curmudgeon that you like despite his crankiness. I'm still not sure what I thought. I was part of an audience that found the entire movie hilarious - every swear, every epithet, every slur. And they weren't laughing in that way people laugh at Chris Rock because he manages to make the truth funny. Yes, the outrageous factor WAS funny, but after a while, I wondered if it wasn't a cop-out to so easily defang this guy's anger and disappointment with life and make them into an episode of All in the Family. Then I wonder how much of my opinion is colored by the people in the theater with me? Can anyone say over-thinking?!?

Enjoying the new School of Seven Bells album Alpinisms which is a dreamy electronic pop that reminds of Peter Gabriel a bit. However, I write this while listening to Justice's live Fader 50 mix. It's over a year old, but it's 34 minutes 38 seconds that I can't make it through without at least a little chair dancing.

Museum Etiquette

I went on a first date on Saturday afternoon. We ended up at a very typical DC first date place: a museum, to be specific, the National Museum of African Art. Now, I like museums, but as a first date activity they have their downsides, namely that you're wandering around looking at art and reading descriptions and not getting to know each other. Yes, sometimes conversations spring up around the art, but unless you were both art history majors, conversations tend to go something like "Person 1: I like the hat on that sculpture. Person 2: Yeah, that's cool."

To remedy this flaw in the museum first date, I've taken to discussing where in a hypothetical house I would put the piece of art we're looking at and posing the same question to my date. Maybe my approach is flip and disrespectful to the process of appreciating the art, but at least it gets you talking to each other and getting to know each other, which is after all the point of a first date. I don't know what this says about me, but I envisioned a lot of the African sculptures I saw on Saturday in gardens and greenhouses. The woman in/of this bowl has such attitude on her; I'm not messing with her. Anyway, while the date in question seemed to find my line of thinking amusing at first, I think he ended up being annoyed. Oh well. Suffice it to say, my date didn't end in hickeys. By the by, "an ode to hickeys"?

Now here's some art I like for its own sake: latte art.

This was a fantastic exhibit last year. I have to make it there this year.

On the scheduling front, I realized a few days ago that my tickets for Justice are the same night that I'm arriving in Austin for South by Southwest. Damn. There are still tickets for the Baltimore show at Sonar so I'm not without hope that I'll find someone who wants to go and also has a car. Besides, I'm going to be in Austin, so I can't complain that much.

Though I'm a Scrabulous devotee, I got my ass handed to me earlier this week by Jean in an FMC office Scrabble game. Rematch is in the offing.

I had an insanely long week at work. I was going loopy from financial reports by Friday night. The week ended serendipitously with drinks at Marx and a late night breakfast at The Diner. It was exactly what I needed. Thanks, Rick!

Listenin' Around

I was at the Iota Cafe on Monday night and saw Federal Reserve Collective who do a casual monthly night there of alt-country/folk/pop by various DC indie musicians. Though I missed the guy I was there to see, I really enjoyed it and plan to go back next month.

As to the events of the larger world: 1) didn't watch the Superbowl because if I'd gone to my friend Robert's party, I would've been that annoying person who doesn't understand the game; 2) having only been a resident of Massachusetts and DC, my vote has never really mattered, until next week that is. That's exciting - in a geeky way.

Also very cool is that I'm going to SXSW next month...and on the decidedly less earth-shattering side, I'm going to Syracuse later this month. Both are work trips, but I'm looking forward to SXSW since I've never been to that guargantuan industry confab. While I was at the 930 Club last weekend, I got tickets to Justice next month. And Chromewaves took a stab at collecting the dates for this year's biggest North American festivals. Since I'm not much for camping in the desert or the middle of nowhere, I'm not sure which festivals I'll make it to. Lollapalooza maybe?

If you live in DC and you have some free time during the day, the National Archives is screening the landmark civil rights documentary Eyes on the Prize. I'd go, but for some unknown reason, they're showing it in one hour blocks on Tuesdays and Fridays at noon throughout February. Oh well, DVDing it, I guess. They're also showing all the documentary and short film Oscar nominees at more reasonable days/times later this month.

I didn't realize I knew so many people with blogs until I started keeping one myself. My friend, Jen, for instance nearly made me cry with this the other day since the best friend with cancer that she mentions was also my very oldest friend. Reading her post made me miss Phatiwe anew.