EMP Pop Conference (Friday)

Will write and link re: last night's keynote panel when I have more electricity. The EMP cafe is not laptop-friendly!

This morning: Breakfast of pastry and fruit paid for by Paul Allen. Okay! But their wireless is no true wireless, as I can't ssh.

The EMP is a crazy cool building inside as well as out. Currently I'm in "Level 3" for "Engendering Technology" with Elizabeth Keenan, Sarah Dougher, and Emily Zemler; mod Marisa Meltzer. There does appear to be an accessible way to get here, but I came in as directed though the opening door of the SFM and up an angled staircase lined with metal pipes and blue and gold light segments. Here in Level 3, exposed insulation is the order of the day, but it's all painted entirely RED. What I have seen of the SFM so far is a statue of the Ninja Turtle Donatello and a cocoon from the eponymous movie.

( vague panel notes )

I was heading to another session but I find I'm headachey and, not claustrophobic exactly, but really wanting to be outside. I'll still plan to hit this afternoon's "Bent" panel (gayness and Lady Gaga, what's not to love?) after lunch, but maybe right now I'll check out the Seattle Center's Japanese Cultural Festival/whatever cherry blossoms might be unexpended.

EMP Pop Conference (Friday, part II)

Unexpended cherry blossoms: few. Children dressing up in kimono: many. Most of the kids didn't get to take the kimono with them, but they wound up with paper crowns with wind-sock-like carp motifs and their names in katakana on the front. Cuuuute!

Talked to m-pig on the phone. Read a bunch and put my foot up. Got lunch at Blue Water with Wim and his mom. Then back to the EMP!

Session: "Bent"
I missed most of Gustavus Stadler's paper about Andy Warhol "reorienting aural fidelity" but was amused to find that he had a significant relationship with a microphone and would force it on people even when they really had to pee.

Tina Majkowski showed amazing footage of Kaki King playing guitar with an unusual over-the-fret technique and electronic sample pads on the guitar body; apparently King was trained as a percussionist, but it's really impressive and cool regardless. Melissa York, sometimes of the Butchies, was referred to for her DIY drum-in-guitar-shape hardware and later similar configurations with other sound samples. I might get bored behind a drum set and want to bounce around the stage too!

I actually bothered Alexandra Apolloni after the session to say how much I liked her presentation and how happy I was someone had done it -- she talked a lot about Lady Gaga and metaphors of disability. The main message was that Gaga's disability is always temporary and chic and that this is kind of a problem for actual disabled folks. It's used deliberately as a metaphor for fame, that it hampers you but is fascinating at the same time, and, which I thought was very cool, that staring at disability is illicit and to invite it as Gaga so clearly does is pulling the viewer into a more voyeuristic vibe (me) than they would likely feel without it. Also her use of truly excessive fashion that makes normal activity difficult for her, including a sort of human gyroscope outfit that I hadn't seen before, is nicely metaphorical for fame and for more normal fashion sacrifices. Simulating vocal problems or damage using Autotune, stutter, unintelligibility. Cool stuff. The speaker is thinking of expanding it into mental illness as well, which I am wary of but would cautiously support.

Not sure what I'm going to do now. I like the EMP, but it's a lot when I'm feeling overwhelmed. Errands first, I guess. Maybe I need more origami paper. Hmm, that Laurel Canyon movie is in at the Green Lake library. Maybe I can fill my day after all. :)

(Aww, guy across from me at the library just said, "I sure hope the rest of your day's as beautiful as you" as he left. How nice.)

EMP Pop Conference (Keynote, Thursday night)

Janelle Monáe [warning, big HD video] looks like that in person! With the hair! And she is so tidily built and rounded, really lovely. There were some guys up there too.

Okay, okay, one was Nile Rodgers, who claims to be mostly good at guitar but is also an immensely important producer. He had stories on stories about different people he's worked with, Madonna and David Bowie and loads of other artists. He was funny and did good impressions, and when the moderator played Janelle Monáe's "Tightrope" video he sat next to me in the audience so he could see without killing his neck (I offered the empty seat when he knelt in the aisle), and the EMP photographer guy took a bunch of pictures of us together. Fame for me!

The third panelist was Joe Henry (whose name I keep forgetting because it's so generic). He's a singer/songwriter who has also brought together a bunch of different artists for collaborations and made some very fine music in various genres.

The best part of the keynote was that they played music and video samples, which a lot of the panels did, but -- we were in the Sky Church. I'd been in there for concerts, but concerts are immediate, usually unpolished, and unidirectional. When the moderator played a clip of Bowie's "Modern Love" I had to glance over my shoulder to where the hissing vocal track was coming from. Joe Henry's "Richard Pryor Addresses a Tearful Nation" was overpowering. It was really amazing. Being in a room of people who all really pay attention and rock out a little when the music comes on was pretty great too.

The mics went out, along with some of the wall lighting and the music samples, near the end of the panel. Pretty sad, EMP. Luckily, all the panelists were trained to project. The audience questioners less so, but this meant that many people were spared a lot of rambling on; I was not, but oh well. After maybe ten minutes the mics were restored.

The topic of the panel was nominally technology, since that's the focus of this year's conference, but really the conversation ranged all over. I especially liked the parts about how to get the people you're working with onto the same page (make them watch an assigned movie!) and how to work with people in your community. And the part where Janelle Monáe was like, "well, -I- think I'm cool" so she wants to share that with the world. Right on. :)

Overall, this conference was the best zero dollars I've spent in quite a while. Thanks, Paul Allen!

(I'm refusing to decide what I'm doing tomorrow, though plant sales and continuing free conference/EMP for the rest of the weekend are both calling to me. No plans, brain. Cope.)