Going Coastal: Coming Home

I just got back from a whirlwind few days in Halifax. Early mornings at the conference and late nights at the extra-curricular activities (which included a metal show, a living room folk gig, a pop rock show at a church benefit and a local punk show) made for a very tired me.

It was well worth the exhaustion though. The panels were excellent and the group is filled with friendly and bright scholars from all over the place. For anyone interested in the nerdy details, there are a few summary posts on the conference blog.

Now it's back to work on the dissertation, and trying to figure out how to cram in a new idea brought up by a question during my presentation. Paul Aitken asked me what it means when metadata, especially in cases where it lives outside of the product (like the CD Database), can act on music. Traditionally, the metadata for an album was fixed (in liner notes, album art etc.). In computers, that data is potentially in always in flux (users are continually adding new information, some of which it's not always correct). Paul wondered whether there's an implication for the digital music file if it's information sort of has a life of its own.

It's a good insight, and one I wanted to start thinking about this morning. Unfortunately, I got distracted by the announcement of the Polaris Long list. Not surprisingly, my dark horse pick didn't make it. But there's 40 great Canadian albums that did, one of which will get the $20,000 prize (and the rumoured "polaris effect" bump in sales that goes along with it.

I have until early July to finalize another ballot, this time only with artists from the long list. That means there's a lot more listening to do and a lot more tough decisions to make.