Hype

I am not at SXSW this week. So, I won't sitting here bragging, but I'd be hard pressed not to read about it, between the tweets, facebook, and the bloggers. Six-word band reviews that are surprisingly informative. Stubbs - been there, but never had the BBQ. This film looks cool...and it's now queued up on Netflix.

Chris Cornell releases a crappy album. Trent Reznor slams him. Chris Cornell retaliates incoherently. Via Tweets.
\m/ (>_<) \m/

Speaking of albums, you can either change how you design covers for a 1 inch square view or you can let the interwebs do it for you.

I feel hyped and contrary (and cheap) when it comes to the iPhone, but the ability to use it as a modem might finally sway me. This is an interesting point that gives pause for the pay-for-your-apps portion of Apple's revenue stream. Idolator vents, and makes another point.

Things I've like this week:

- The crazy pro-lifers always present abortion as having devastating emotional consequences (and women, of course, are too feeble-minded to understand this so they must be forced to see ultrasound photos before they have the procedure, so it'll all be gosh-darn clear), but putting a child up for adoption has always seemed like the more harrowing option to me. Then, and now.

- Despite not owning a record player, I'd buy this for kitsch value in a heartbeat.

- 3-D dragonfly wallpaper

- And last but not least, I was a late convert to Battlestar Galactica (thanks, Mark). Last night's series finale wasn't perfect, but it was the same character-driven sci-fi that I love to watch. The best sci-fi, like the best entertainment, isn't about the McGuffin or the monsters, it's about people and how they react to adversity.

Renewal

The nicest thing I've taken away from SXSW is a renewed excitement about listening to new music. There's always so much to check out between listening to the new, looking to the past to hear the evolution and feeding the current obsessions, that it just feels endless at times. But then I went off to a place where everyone's excited about all that music. And I guess all that listening and talking snapped me out of my doldrums. Case in point: I have next month's 40 emusic downloads already used which has never happened before. In the queue for next month: Bon Iver, Sandro Perri, some old Black Keys because they're coming through town next month, and Robert Nighthawk (courtesy of Document Records). This month's downloads got decimated in my current alt-country jag: Waco Brothers, Gillian Welch, and Eilen Jewell.

The last few weeks have been so awash in trying to roll the snowball up the hill at work, that I feel like I could write a love letter to the elevator that takes me out of that building, but the Stars already did that in this cool song but blah video.

In a random bit of synchronicity, I keep hearing about a resurgence in popularity of vinyl as a format, aka the "vinyl revival": donewaiting and idolator do the latest roundups on the topic and here's a blurb from the panel at SXSW with some exciting rumors included for those who care.

I spent last night on the roof deck of Reef trying to solve the world's problems with Andrew and Brian and Megan. Failed in that goal, but had a good time all the same.

Can I Do It Again?

In the event you're not tired of reading about SXSW yet...

Once you resign yourself to the idea that you're going to miss 99.9% of what you want to see, SXSW is a no-holds-barred great time. The whole conference has that feeling at times of a house party with everyone you've ever met. Hung out with lots of people, panels were interesting for the most part, I left with posters courtesy of Flatstock, the music was everything you want in a music festival (as long as you ponied up for a badge) and the whole shebang ran on schedule.

Bizarre sights: the blogger cage (scroll down for photo) and international speed dating.

Sadly wasn't invited to this party.

Here's the quick wrap-up on the artists (i.e. at least two songs) I caught:

Wednesday

Centro-matic

Thursday

My Morning Jacket

DevotchKa

Friday

Waco Brothers

Wiley and The Checkmates

Herman Hitson

Andrew Collberg

Deadman

Jimmie Vaughan

Headlight - misheard later that night as "headlice"

Abra Moore

N.E.R.D. Watch video

Rhapsody's Tim Quirk wandered SXSW collecting drunk-dialing stories from musicians. He managed to get installments from The Hold Steady's Franz Nicolay, The Mekons'/Waco Brothers' Jon Langford, Gang of Four's Dave Allen and more. Don't laugh, you know you've done it, too.

Even if I'd know that Bob Mould was in town on Saturday, I think I needed the silence by then. Still, would've been cool to hear Copper Blue live.

Spunky hopefuls, huh? Pun was completely intentional.

Oh, please.

Future Leads to the Past

One severely overbooked flight, four hours of waiting, a three hour flight to a place I wasn't going to (Dallas), another overbooked flight to another place I wasn't going to (San Antonio), 3 hours of driving (Dallas to Austin) that included someone nearly ramming into us on the highway...and we made it to Austin at 12:45 last night...15 hours after I left my house. Insert sigh o' relief here.

I've spent the day chatting and watching panels at SXSW to get ideas on people who can participate in FMC conferences in the future, to actually watch some panels and learn from them - something I don't get to do at our events, and to get a sense of what people are interested in learning.

This afternoon's panels included an interesting one on "Selling Music As a Service." No doubt webcasts will be available in a few days here. The concept of treating music as a service instead of as a product is hardly a new one these days. It feels like the topic du jour, much like pro- and anti-DRM debates were a few years ago. The question that inevitably comes up is "what is the future?"

If I could have the perfect world of musical discovery, what would it be? Would ownership of the music matter? There's certainly an allure to the idea of having the world's entire musical library at your fingertips from one device for you to access at any time for a fee. Portability of whatever system would be key for me. But giving up the idea of ownership would also be a shift in thinking. Our music and other collections define us in so many ways because they're indicative of who we are or were and what we deem or did deem worthy of spending money on or not tossing. What would replace that identification process? Would we have to (wow) go back to talking to each other and not making snap judgments based on that one Celine Dion or Backstreet Boys release that mars an otherwise worldly, eclectic and hip music collection?

I'm off to dinner - possibly to a benefit concert for a documentary called Body of War and My Morning Jacket later tonight and as many other bands as I can see in between now and when I collapse. By the way, NPR is webcasting and broadcasting MMJ as well as Vampire Weekend, and Yo La Tengo and R.E.M. last night.

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.