Category Archives: academia

Future of Music

It’s time again for the [tag]Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit[/tag], an event I’ve been attending for many years and one I always enjoy.

I tend not to drag my laptop to these things so maybe I’ll blog from my Blackberry, maybe I won’t. In case I don’t, you can frolic in these comments while I’m gone or amuse yourself by following this link to a cornucopia of articles about the controversy in India over the Indian Governments pronouncement that the landbridge to Sri Lanka was not constructed by [tag]Lord Ram’s Monkey Army [/tag]but is in fact a natural land formation.

But back to the conference…

I’m so proud – the [tag]Spinto Band[/tag]’s own Nick Krill, a former student, is a panelist. They grow up so fast, don’t they?

Creative DC

Wednesday I got up much too early and went downtown for the [tag]Washington DC Economic Partnership[/tag]’s event, [tag]Creative DC[/tag]: The District’s Summit on the Creative Economy. The event marked the launch of Mayor Fenty’s initiative to explore ways to strengthen the local creative economy. Saw old friends and made new ones, heard some interesting ideas, and nearly frozen half to death in the [tag]Lansburgh Theatre[/tag].

[tag]CEOs for Cities[/tag] President and CEO Carol Coletta gave the keynote, and the text of her speech is available for download here.

As engaging as the local voices were, I have to admit that what I really wanted to do was spend a lot more time listening to Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management talk about the revitilization of [tag]DUMBO[/tag] in New York and Stacey Mickelson and Heide Kurtze from [tag]Artspace[/tag] because I’m less familiar with the nuances of their work. At the same time, the voices of local organizations are vital, and I’m glad that individuals like Mary Brown of Life Pieces to Masterpieces were part of the main program and not shunted off to a hastily planned panel devoted to localism, as sometimes happens at events like this when the focus slips from ideas and becomes about names on a press release.

March of the Librarians

“Twice a year tens of thousands of librarians make a trek across the United States to a meeting of the ALA. How they know to congregate in the same spot, no one knows. They come to learn, to network, to collect free stuff…and possibly to mate.”

"I thought you were a little nasal today."

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was employed. And at my place of employment, we received an announcement each day on our voicemail. And each day that announcement was recorded by a staff member in the Telecomm Department. And each day, a colleague would call me and critique my performance and delivery of the announcement.

I was not the person who made the daily announcement nor did I work in Telecomm, information that did little to deter said colleague.

This went on for years.

They're heeere

If you’ve been down around the DC convention center and think the throngs are starting to look a bit suspicious, that’s because it’s time for the [tag]American Library Association[/tag] Annual Conference.

Can’t attend? Plenty of attendees are blogging it.

I heard someone complaining about the lack of good speakers on the program this year and sincerely hope they were kidding. The most recent schedule lists, among others: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Bill Bradley, Garrison Keillor, Ken Burns, Patricia Cornwell, David Baldacci, Judy Blume, Nancy Pearl, Anthony Romero, Marian Wright Edelman, Irshad Manji, Julie Andrews, and Armistead Maupin.

Not to mention the third annual bookcart drill team world championships! Don’t want to miss that. Unless it conflicts with happy hour…