A Career in Cassettes

 

I’m trying to find a tape of my circa 1990 interview with Ellen Willis. Haven’t found it yet, but here’s some of what I unearthed: interviews with the entire original cast of Rent, Paul Beatty, Patti Smith, Kathleen Hanna, Mary J. Blige, Stephen Trask, Carrie Brownstein, Bjork — the list goes on and on. One cassette is labeled “Missy/Moby.” Is this my legacy?

Pop Conference Bound

The annual EMP Pop conference of people taking music way seriously comes to LA for the first time this week. I’m on a morning panel at the Thursday pre-conference, Work It:  Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Pop Professions. I’m also moderating a panel at the conference itself at UCLA, on Sunday at 4:15. Besides me, there are lots of smart, interesting people involved: Seymour Stein, Daphne Brooks, Greil Marcus, Dan Charnas, Alice Echols, Josh Kun, Oliver Wang, Randall Roberts, Ann Powers, Daphne Carr, Gayle Wald, etc. Oh, and some guys named Moby and Raphael Saadiq.