I attended the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) conference in Chapel Hill, NC last month and presented on the Caffe Lena Archive with my colleague, the director of the Caffe Lena History Project and producer of the box set, Jocelyn Arem. I was pleasantly surprised to run into so many people I already know who work in archives, at record labels, mastering studios, the LOC. Mastering and restoration is pretty much a solo gig, and I spend a lot of time by myself in front of my gear or under headphones. It's nice to hang with a crowd that swoons over rare 78s and metadata standards in equal measure. The highlight? Being heckled by Arhoolie Record's Chris Strachwitz because I dared to talk over a clip of Hedy West performing "Shady Grove" during our presentation. (The link goes to the mp3s on Amazon, because the CD has SOLD OUT!) What can I say? We were short on time, and I was trying to cram in a lot of information.

Strike that, the real highlight was having a tin type picture taken while an impromptu banjo jam broke out poolside.