EMP Pop Conference 2011

This sounds intimidating.

Hardly! It's a way to learn a lot of things all at once and be able to talk about it immediately as well. That and a lot of the presenters are entertaining as hell.

Food advice: there are tons of restaurants around UCLA, most of which are fine if not mind-blowing. Maybe someone who's spent more time in Westwood than I can get more specific. The ice cream sandwiches at Diddy Reese are genius and iirc are only $1.50. yes I just recommended ice cream sandwiches.

Father's Office in Culver City has the best burger in a town that excels at burgers. They also have an excellent beer selection. If one of your LA friends says "let's go to Umami Burger!" your requisite answer should be "fuck no let's go to Father's Office."

You need to eat Mexican food while you are here. Loteria at the Farmers market is delicious and has great vegetarian options (zucchini and corn burritos, potato tacos); there's also a Loteria on Hollywood Blvd. Montealban on Santa Monica and Brockton (just west of the 405) is a sleepy restaurant with cheesy decor but brilliant food--a variety of mole sauces and things on the menu that aren't just standard burritos and tacos. El Carmen on 3rd Street in West Hollywood has great food in a more bar-like atmosphere.

There are a ton of other places all around LA. If anyone is staying in a particular neighborhood and wants suggestions, I'm happy to offer. Sorry I don't know more specifically the best stuff right at UCLA. They have a little of everything in that neighborhood though.

Also if anyone is arriving to town early and is looking for something to do, I work at the LA County Museum of Art and can set you running around the galleries. If your so inclined. Just email me - sjtennent at gmail.

I won't be at EMP itself -- I've a good friend's wedding on Saturday -- but I'm hanging out with several of the panelists and other good friends tomorrow and Thursday. I'd love to see some of you again, or meet new faces.

scott, do you know bernardo?

Yes!

yesssss! old friend of mine, we went to college together.

He's great. I knew him for a while and then happened to see his byline on a Dusted review - neither of us had any idea that the other wrote about music. We bonded over burritos and krautrock.

Sounds like when I discovered that a longtime library coworker had cowritten and performed a song on a Six Organs of Admittance album.

Or when I got a job in NYC and found out one of my coworkers was in Spent.

Or I hung out on a message board and wondered if that really was the one guy who did the one thing.

I married an axe murderer.

cool. bernardo should be posting on ILM, but uhh, maybe he has better things to do.

Finished my paper at not quite the very last minute! But I just found out that I'm not staying at the hotel with the shuttle, argh...

Father's Office in Culver City has the best burger in a town that excels at burgers.

This place also has an excellent beer selection, iirc.

Mailout today with some general info:

--

Check-in Table
The registration and information room will be located on Friday, Feb 25th in Schoenberg Music Building, Room 1230 and on Saturday, Feb 26th and Sunday, Feb 27th in Royce Hall, Room 160.

Conference Details
Please note: space within individual conference rooms and the keynote is limited. Arrive early to ensure a seat. In addition, many of the presentations and lectures are for mature audiences and candid in nature - some material may not be suitable for all ages.

Food
Be sure to take advantage of food trucks that will be parked south of the flagpole, in front of the UCLA Humanities Building - a mere 500 ft from the entrance of Royce Hall. On Saturday we will have: Flying Pig and Canter’s and on Sunday: Border Grill and Sky Taco. The food trucks will be available for the entire lunch time during the designated days.

Attendance
If your plans have changed and you are unable to attend Pop Conference – please reply to this email and let us know.

Directions
Driving directions can be found here: http://www.ucla.edu/map/ and a UCLA campus map can be found here: http://www.ucla.edu/map/ucla-campus-map.pdf.

Parking
Parking at UCLA is $10/day.

UCLA parking map: http://www.transportation.ucla.edu/portal/maps/parkingmap/0206UCLAParkingMap.htm#

2/25/2011 Parking: Pop Conference attendees should park in Lot 2, off of Hilgard, where it crosses Westholme. Parking attendants will be there from 1 - 5 pm. Attendees should park and go northwest to Schoenberg Hall (on the corner of Hilagard and Charles Young Drive.) The UCLA Faculty Center, where the reception will be held, is across the street from Schoenberg Hall. At later times, conference attendees will need to get a parking permit at the main kiosk on Westwood Blvd (drive North from Wilshire on Westwood, and the road ends right after the parking kiosk for UCLA.) Ask there for directions to Lot 2.

2/26/2011 and 2/27/2011 Parking: For all day parking, there will be parking attendants at Lot 4 from 8 am – 11 am. This is the underground parking structure off of Sunset Blvd at Westwood Plaza. Conference attendees should turn left after the guard booth to the section with credit card parking. Once parked, attendees can exit at the back corner (NE) --farthest one away from where one entered. At the top of the stairs, outside, attendees would then be at the Fowler Museum. Up the stairs from Fowler Museum is Royce Hall. After 11 am, conference attendees must go to the main Kiosk at Westwood Blvd. (drive North from Wilshire on Westwood, and the road ends right after the parking kiosk for UCLA.) Ask there for directions to Lot 4.

There is a limited number of pay by space parking (by credit card) available in Lot 2 and Lot 4.

In addition, many of the presentations and lectures are for mature audiences and candid in nature - some material may not be suitable for all ages.

This means you, Andre Gunder. No swearing every other word now.

"some theoretical content, rated R"

Neat - this is happening on Saturday night:

Opening: Saturday, February 26, 2011, 8:00PM Cost: Free

Beacon Arts and SASSAS Present

Ad Hoc #2: David Watson & David Grubbs
A Sonic Exploration of the Beacon Arts Building
With Joe Potts, Steve Roden, William Roper, and More

Beacon Arts and the Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS) present Ad Hoc #2: David Watson & David Grubbs, a site-specific sonic exploration of the Beacon Arts Building’s fourth floor on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 8:00 pm. This free event features a unique aural experience that encourages interplay between the musicians and the listening audience. In realizing these new works, New Yorkers Watson and Grubbs will be working with several experimental sound artists and musicians from Los Angeles including Joe Potts, Steve Roden, and William Roper.

The evening consists of two works created specifically for Beacon Arts. Experimental music bagpiper Watson’s work revisits minimalism and uses processional movement as an inspiration for performance – a concept he calls "ambulant music" – and features Potts and Roper as well other well-known Los Angeles area musicians. The second piece, authored by Grubbs and designed for the trio of Watson, Grubbs, and Roden, consists of three ten-minute sections which explore the dynamic range of both the space and the instruments employed.

Ad Hoc #2: David Watson & David Grubbs is produced by SASSAS in partnership with Beacon Arts. Light refreshments will be served. Beacon Arts is located at 808 N. La Brea Ave., Inglewood, CA 90302. For additional information on Ad Hoc events please visit http://www.sassas.org/adhoc or call 323-960-5723. For additional information on Beacon Arts please visit http://www.beaconartsbuilding.com as well as http://www.facebook.com/pages/Inglewood-CA/Beacon-Arts-Building/129817703733091?v=info.

we made it to lalaland! love it here already. or maybe its just the novelty of seeing flowers growing instead of 4 feet of snow.

It is a good thing indeed!

Okay so, as I just told Facebook/Twitter people, whatever little birthday thing I'll have will be Saturday night presumably after the keynote, and won't be anything heavily planned or major -- just drinks and chat somewhere in the area! (Yeah, it'll be busy given it's UCLA but we'll figure something out.) Just ask me closer to the time.

Meantime if anyone's free, lunch tomorrow at Attari?

http://www.yelp.com/biz/attari-sandwich-shop-west-los-angeles

Thinking maybe 11:30, then an amble over to the Schoenberg for registration at 1.

Is there stuff tomorrow?

Yup, starting at 1:30.

Tomorrow's lunch might be a more prosaic stop at In-n-Out near campus but that's because the good Mr. Seward might be there too. Will let folks know.

Dammit, I was planning on going to see Drive Angry 3-D tomorrow afternoon.

I'll be around at lunch time...

Rock. Will text you when I'm up in LA itself.

Have fun for all of us desperately wishing we were there! Jealous of you that will get to hang out with Mr. Seward.

I'm so mad I have to work evenings on Friday and Saturday. I really wish I can go and see the talks during that time. :( :(

I hope Sunday's topics will be good.

They'll be great!

Anyway my notes on the Friday presentations will be updated throughout the day starting in the early afternoon.

Off to a great start! Wish you were all here!

Love the iTunes talks from last year! Have fun!

But Christ NOW would be the day when I would have a screwup where a lot of my notes get wiped. Bah. Will try again tomorrow.

Sorry. Liked your notes that survived:
Juan Carlos Kase, “Go-Go Dancer and One Hit Wonder: Toni Basil as Embodiment of Cultural Mobility in 60s Los Angeles” — Toni Basil mostly associated with “Mickey” and the accompanying video that she choreographed, banished to VH1 nostalgia specials and the like. Short-sighted! She had a different impact in the 1960s/early 70s as a dancer/choreographer in film and TV, an active visualization of the time. An exchange of sexuality, cinema and sound. TAMI Show, Shindig, Hullabaloo, various B films, dancing in the go-go style of the Sunset Strip. There’s a semantic excess in her style, goes beyond the terms. Clip from _Village of the Giants_ shown — no Tom and Crow though! — Jack Nitzche music and she shakes groove thing to Beau Bridges’ giant leers. Great blue bell bottoms. Classical training, modern dance moves, improv all at once. The film is goofy and formulaic, but still altogether stranger. Representing the social energy of the era — theorist cited on go-go dancing, an icon like the 20s flappers. “The girl is free to let themselves go, as wild as they feel.” Little scholarship here on popular dance of the time, but a change in gender roles, quick turnovers, solo dancing. “Dance, Gender and Culture” cited, males not defining the dancing,

Somebody's tweet:

Chritigau: Barry White & Abba are a simulacrum of authenticity. You can get pleasure from that. Shank calls it ironic discourse. #popcon2011

And more:

Christgau, to Shank: "What is Pitchfork doing if not assessing greatness? Badly."

Camper V B dude on another panel

Lowery: buying records just like options trading. Long positions on average last longer.

"Here comes the obligatory Adorno quote..."

Paper on Disney's tween music informs us that the main listening-tracking company ignores under-12s

Is the isolation of tween culture really the marginilization of GIRL culture? Diane Pecknold suggests

Jerry Lee Lewis's dad mortgaged his house to buy the 8-year-old a piano

"Music was their way out of the working class...but there were personal costs."

Christgau

it always comes back to foucault. always

Really wish I could have hung out the rest of the weekend! I left L.A. this morning.

Nothing but tweets. I wonder if any of these presentations are being videotaped? I guess when the weekend's over some folks will hopefully post their presentations and do more extensive discussions of what they've heard.

http://www.businessinsider.com/these-charts-explain-the-real-death-of-the-music-industry-2011-2

This is being tweeted about

Presentations are being recorded for iTunesU

scott seward killing it from what I hear

It pretty damn well ruled.

the man is worth his weight in liquorball 7 inches