PDX has free wi-fi, which is nice when your flight is delayed an hour.

photo by Josh

I joined some friends for the 2005 Pop Conference at the EMP in Seattle. For the uninitiated, it's a gathering of music journalists presenting and discussing music in a sort of academic format. We only dropped in for two sessions out of four days of events, so all observations herein should not necessarily be taken as representative of the entire conference.

Based on my previous expo/conference experience, I was expecting more workshop-like sessions, wherein experienced music writers would share their work and panels would critique and discuss articles, genres and the industry as a whole. To my surprise, the first panel we attended, "Cool Icons" (pictured above), was nearly the opposite of my preconceived ideas. Instead of workshopping and critique the panelists presented academic papers about music icons based on significant amounts of research.

Because I was caught off guard (and also because I'd slept only 8 of the last 48 hours), I didn't absorb as much of the content as I would have liked. I wish I could tell you the parallels between Courtney Love and Miles Davis as presented by Julianne Shepherd (far left in the picture) and Krin Gabbard (second from right), respectively. Unfortunately, the best I can do is express my admiration for the panelists who are orders of magnitude more knowledgeable than me about music.

The second, and final (for us), session was a roundtable discussion about music and blogs. This panel was more in line with what I expected. Despite a moderator who was anything but, the speakers had some interesting things to say about the role of music blogs and their relationship to professional music journalism. I should have taken notes because there was some legit discussion. Instead, I walked away with only a list of names to Google (assuming I can read the name cards in the photo).

I could definitely see myself attending this conference again. Next time I'll be armed with more representative expectations, a pen and some paper so I can walk away with more than a vague idea of what just happened.

These are movies of particular interest to people who work in journalism and media, but they're also just plain good movies that anyone will enjoy.

The Paper
This is a good story about a scrappy underdog newspaper getting the big scoop. But it's also about the struggles between business and journalism and the struggle to balance life at work and at home.

All The President's Men
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are two of the (if not the) most renown journalists. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman are two of the most renown actors. Not a bad combination for a movie.

Citizen Kane
Orson Welles wrote, directed and starred in the story of a ruthless but lonely newspaper mogul. The character of Kane was based on several power brokers of the era, but William Randolph Hearst was the most signficant inspiration.

Broadcast News
Albert Brooks and William Hurt are reporters working at the same D.C. station and fighting for attention of their same female producer.

Shattered Glass
Stephen Glass is one of the most infamous writers. Shattered Glass tells the story of his fabricat.ions and manipulations at The New Republic.

While in Seattle, we visited the Seattle Public Library. Rem Koolhaas's library puts Frank Gehry's EMP to shame. Enjoy this short video, and check out Flickr for photos.

I'm scheduled to depart Atlanta at about 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. out West). If you get bored, you can track my 5-hour flight.

The next 14 days are going to be a lot of fun. If I'm coming to your area (Portland, Seattle, Anchorage or Fairbanks), get in touch and we'll hang out. I have some activities scheduled -- Pop Conference, BlogFest '05, Blazers v. Lakers and a Mercury meeting, among others -- but most of my time is currently unaccounted for.

Among the many passings last week (The pope, Terri Schiavo, Johnnie Cochran) was comedian Mitch Hedberg. This week's list is in his honor.

Mitch Hedberg
"I can't tell you what hotel I'm staying at, but there are two trees involved."

Dane Cook
"I'm just a stupid clock playing stupid clock games."

Tony Woods
"He's a monkey!"

Jim Gaffigan
"People become morons when they write postcards, 'This city has big buildings. I like food. Bye.'"

...
Wow, I can't really think of anyone else who really stands out. There are the big obvious names like Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Bernie Mac, but they don't really fit into this list. I'm sure if I thought about it long enough, I could come up with someone to fill the fifth slot, but that name wouldn't really mean anything.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II made his first visit to the United States to address the United Nations. During his visit he met with some journalists covering the story. Here's some of what he had to say:

"If your reporting does not always command the attention you would desire, or if it does not always conclude with the success you would wish, do not grow discouraged. Be faithful to the truth and to its transmission, for truth endures, truth will not go away ... the service of humanity through the medium of truth is something worthy of your best years, your most dedicated efforts."